Combo Plotter/Sounder units...

[Briguy]

My old setup was a monocrome garmin 205 plotter. This unit was from 1997, so it's getting a little long in the tooth and has been a little moody recently. I also have a Sitex 106 color machine. Guys in Florida swear by its ability to diffirenciate hard bottom from sand, which isn't an easy task. The unit is great except you cant see it at all in the sun. My friend just got a Garmin chartplotter with a color screen for about 900 bucks and I was amazed at the new features and you can read it in direct sunlite. My new garmin 2006c cost me 1950.00 with the 50/200khz black box sounder. I bought it in unused condition on Ebay. I will need to buy a new bluechart and a transducer, so my cost will be another 200.00. The power output was twice that of my old sitex so I imagine the performance will be better. The lowrance probably has a better fishfinder but I am more familiar with the garmin keypad. I would have liked the 2010c garmin with the 10 inch screen but I couldn't stretch my budget any more. One final question, which transducer is better, a transom mount or one that shoots its signal through the hull? I don't want to drill a hole in my boat. Are the through hulls as good at picking out structure or fish? Does the signal degrade through the hull? Thanks.