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[swimmingwiththefishes]

Hi good people.
I'm struggling to find the 'right' fishfinder for the ocean. Looking for something that can accurately locate fish and structure in the ocean.

There is a lot of choice and some at low price that seem like they could do the job, but the market is huge with tons of options and lot's of talk of maximum depths from 600 to 6000ft. I'm going to be fishing for bottom fish and salmon rarely needing anything deeper than 300 but then I know that in the ocean the finders can't read very deep. In other words what's going to get the job done and tell me more than depth?

[skaha]

--I have a himminbird 757c
--It has a setting for salt or freshwater. I think the only difference is for salt it uses the "smaller narrower cone" for deeper water.
--I resently used it on lk Chelan which reportably has very deep center channel. Locals all set their finders on salt or it just gives false reading for max depth.

[ShaunO]

I bought a Humminbird 175 a few years back for use in both the salt chuck and freshwater.  I have had good luck with accurate depth readings up to 250'.  I can say this as I was using a chartplotter at the same time looking at the bottom contours for a specific structure and it matched exactly what the the fishfinder reported.  I'd say thats pretty accurate.  Honestly though, I didn't really buy it for "fish finding", I use it more for navigation so I know what I'm on top of (since I already know there are fish there).  When the Pinks and Sockeye are running, it is definitely showing the large schools (between 35' and 90'), but anything beyond that is a best guess.

[Fish or cut bait.]

The word fishfinder is a misnomer.
Depth sounder is a more accurate description of the device,  when used in deeper water.
Learn to read the bottom and find the fish.

Sounders will find schools of fish but often blooms and concentrations of bait, whether it be plancton or herring will lead you to a spot but not guarantee any fish action.

Fish finders/sounders are a tool not a solution.

[skaha]

--for sure depth and on mine navigation aid.
--I mainly fish lakes but for kokanee so often deep. Before getting a "fish finder" I often caught bottom with my downriggers. I now only occasionally catch bottom.
--I found that one can become to dependant on these devices and forget to actually fish.
--Map offset can be an issue when trying to follow contours. I have found areas off by more than 50 ft... not an issue if I have fished the area before but can cause a few hang ups on unfamiliar areas. I don't usually bother trying to dial in my GPS with offset. I just live with it and adjust... once I have a track set.

[Sr SQ]

Best one Ive used to date is my Furuno 585/Airmar270W combo but the new Garmin Chirp units look promising.

[Ian Forbes]

Some pretty good advice so far. I agree with what others have said here. I also have a Humminbird 757c and find it adequate. I haven't purchased the charts for it because I'm only interested in the depth and structure. I already have paper charts and before I go anywhere I refer to them so I get a general idea of the bottom. I use Google earth to give me co-ordinates beforehand so I know where I am. And, then I draw my own maps on paper so I can make personal notes. It only has to be rough.

As others have already said, a big school of salmon or bait will hide the bottom. I've NEVER trusted a sounder to actually FIND fish. On some sounders, where I can actually see everything on the bottom, the sounder is bleeping away saying that there are fish below... when I can plainly see there isn't any.