I’m finally changing out my old garmin 188C for a garmin 2610 chirp unit. Will a 600W chirp thru hull transducer find bottom in 2000 feet for sword fishing or do I need a 1KW one? There seems to be a difference of opinion out there. Thoughts? Recommendations? Thanks.
26’ Glacier Bay
Mistress
I did an upgrade last winter to the Garmin 7610s. I told them I needed to be able to read the bottom at 2000ft so they paired with an Airman B175L thru hull transducer which is 1KW. I heard all the stories of spotting spotting different kinds of fish in schools at 1000ft, etc. Its not even close to that but does read bottom at 2000ft although not with a great deal of detail. Great detail at the depths we bottom fish (90-200ft). There are models that are both high and low frequency that may give better detail at shollower depths but I dont know if that would compromise your ability to see deeper. We also got the side scan since it is not very expensive. It is kind of a neat toy but not very useful to me for fishing and I have removed it from most of my screen combinations. As with most things like this, performance is never quite as spectacular as advertised in the showroom. Interface is fantastic.
Hydra-Sport 3300VX
18 Key West
Phin is kinda busy right now changing diapers, but shoot him a PM. It might take him a day or two to respond, but I’d hold off and hear his thoughts/opinions. He’s pretty sharp on that kinda stuff.
You’re not gonna get 2000’ with 600w, I don’t think.
Hey guys thanks for the ■■■■■■■■. Fortunate, the guy at west marine where I got the system had recommended the B175 transducer at the outset. My electronics guy felt that a smaller one (600 W) would be easier to install on my Glacier Bay given the hull configuration. One chart I found shows 600W transducers good to 800-1200 feet and 1KW good to 3000 feet so I’m happy to see that the B175 will at least read depth to 2000’ even if it can’t tell the difference between a swordfish and a shark at that depth! I also went for the side view since it seemed cool and an inexpensive add on. It will at least be fun to play with.
Schoolsout I am tending to agree with you about reading bottom at 2000’ with 600W and am leaning strongly towards the 1KW unit but I will reach out to Phin, Got2Go, before I pull the trigger.
Either way, my 9 year old 188C has found me numerous limits of bottom critters and I can’t wait to upgrade!
Thanks again for your input:smiley:
26’ Glacier Bay
Mistress
what unit are you going to be using ? simrad nss evo what sounder moduel are you planning on running bsm2-bms3?
if you going to specifics id get whatever transducer you want in a narrow band to keep the cone as tight as possible so its reading at the 2000ft mark better if you look at the high and wides I think you will fall very short in performance… I also don’t think any transducer on any (stock)firmware will do what you want…rumor has it the update pre 3.6 simrad was the best one for transducer where it changed with the 3.6 and 3.8 update
you went for sideview have you look at the new structure scan 3d it latterly just released to the public in thelast few weeks and is a step above even as a 2d(lss2) replacement transducer…
this was pulled from a post about chirp performance at depths…
You’ll get bottom at 2000’, but not so much fish. The 16 and 25 element LF transducers are required for seeing thing that deep.
Go on THT and read up on chirp. It doesn’t use power like the non chirp transducer. I have a hds 12 with same transducer. Only had out to 500 feet. I really couldn’t tell a difference between the chirp and single frequency when i do splot screen. I need to play with it more.
Hey gents thanks for the latest input. I am going to run with the B175 which should work great for 90% of my use and I’m fine with it just finding bottom (and not fish so much) at greater depth. Can’t wait to get out and play with it!
26’ Glacier Bay
Mistress
A 600W non-chirp will read bottom in 1400ft. Done it with a B60 hooked to an HDS gen1 as well as a Simrad NSS with their built-in sonar.
You don’t need 2000ft for swords here, and I couldn’t tell you for sure if a 600W chirp ducer will show bottom, but I would say that it should due to the fact that my experience tells me that a tilted element or thru hull 600W chirp is equal to or greater than a 1kW non-chirp in performance as far as power into the water and processing, which is what max depth really is all about.
All that being said, with the CHIRP ducer like the B175, your selection of H or L is key. I would not, I repeat, would not, ever, under any circumstances, purchase only a B175L for my boat if I intended to ever fish it shallower than 400ft. The reason is the beam width and difficulty in pinpointing fish and anchoring in 50-180ft where I am fishing the majority of the time. The B175H is going to show the bottom in 1400ft. It won’t show fish like the L will, no. But in 50-250ft, the H is night and day different in terms of info shown to you and how confident you can be in it. You’ll be looking at 15ft of bottom vs 25ft in 120ft of water, roughly. That’s a big difference, and it gets even bigger in 200ft.
The issue with having to select the H or L in the B175 CHIRP is the reason I went with an M265LH in my current boat even though I love the tilted element non-chirp ducers.
What I’d suggest you do if you want to really see fish on the bottom in 1200-2000ft but still be able to know what’s going on in 150-200ft is to get the B175L as well as a B60. Run them both at the same time that way and have higher definition with tighter beam for down to 250ft and also have the super deep power of the low frequency CHIRP. If you really aren’t going to fish more than 1200-1300ft where you need to see fish on the bottom, then get the B175H. Garmin’s processor units are much better now than they were just a few years ago. You’ll be surprised what you’ll be able to do with a B175H even though old school dudes
Hey Phin, thanks for the input. 2000’ was probably a bit of an overstatement but since my old unit lost bottom around 400’ I just wanted to make sure I would have enough range on the new unit. Realistically, if I go deep dropping 2x a year that is optimistic so as you suggest I will get more use out of the 175H where I normally bottom fish. Looks like this weekend might be the time to try it out! Thanks again.
26’ Glacier Bay
Mistress
If you go with a B175M that will give you best of both worlds. Good for when you are in shallower waters, but when you do go deep it will perform well also. You stick with L if you are always gonna be out deep.
awesome