Lowrance Elite FS vs Furuno GP1971F for Offshore

[Blade]

I am seeking any advice from any Raiders who have experience with either of the above units.

I am looking to upgrade my current HDS Gen 1 to something more modern with more power (enough to power a 1kw ducer when I am able to afford one)

80% of my fishing is done around the Jibbon Bommie, Stanwell, the Peak and 12 mile reef. As such the depths range from 15m to 150m. With the occasional trip to the FADs and deeper.

Target species are: Snapper, Kingfish, Mulloway. 

The planned sounder transducer pairing is as follows.

Lowrance- 3in1 transducer and I will use my current HST DFSBL deep water 50/200 600watt for anything deep than 50m

Furuno- Airmar P66

When I can afford it I will look to go with either an Airmar TM260 or TM275LHW 1kw ducer on either unit.

A further question is can I network my current HDS Gen 1 with either of the above units to share waypoints between the units.

Thanks in advance

 

[JonD]

I don't think the Lowrance is a 1kw head unit, so you won't get the most out of a 1kw transducer. I had Lowrance products for around 20yrs but moved over to Garmin about 12 months ago after recievng poor service from what the company calls customer service. If you have any issues with Lowrance products be aware they don't repair them here, so you will be up for a new one with lowrance's so called discount scheme. I found Lowrance to be ok inside the shelf but pretty awful in deep water even trying 1kw transducers. Once the Lowrance looses bottom from either a rocking boat missing the returning signals or just getting to deep, all of my units would fail to find bottom again untill I got back well inside the shelf. 

Furuno will hold up fine in deep water but does lack resolution in the screens. The more down res the more detail you will have for finding fish.  My Garmin is 1920 x 1200  Lowrance elite 9 is 800 x 480, Furuno  is  800 x 480.

The airmar 260 isn't chirp, so you won't benefit from either of your options chirp technology. I had a tm 260 with a Lowrance hds 12 and found it to be worse with my Lowrance than the cheap Lowrance one that came with the unit. The 200khz of the 260 is a very narrow beam angle which will miss on the return signal in choppy seas if you have a rocking boat. The narrow beam also misses fish unless they are directly under the boat.

If the 275 is anything like the 175 I'm currently using, which it should be as it's the same but with both deep and shallow capabilities. I love my 175hw but haven't tested to see how deep I can use it. If I'm out chassing tuna etc I will simply set max depth to 80m, something Lowrance used to have a hissy fit if I tried to do.

For shallow water inside the shelf also look at the airmar 165 if you only go with a head unit that puts out 600w of power.

I also use a Garmin gt51 for sidescanning. This will reach out 225m either side of my boat just inside the shelf and be able to pick up structure. I also use it while searching for baitfish in much deeper water but set the sidescan to 80m each side on the low 260khz frequency. I don't believe Lowrance do a sidescan with such low frequency yet, hence why they don't reach out as far to the sides. 

 

[JonD]

A bit cramped but very functional to see and drive, also easy to adjust while underway as my right hand can hold the console while my thumb controls the functions.