Marine Electronics Forum - Deep water sonar

I live on Guam and fish our lovely deep waters. My Raymarine is adequate to about 500 feet or so, but to see onaga and structure at 900 feet, I need something much better. I really don't require any other bells and whistles. Can anyone recommend their favorites for power, resolution, and reliability? I'm very grateful.....Woggly

Furuno 585 paired with B260 standalone FF.

I'd recommend looking at the Chirp units. Garmin has the GSD 26 if you want an integrated unit and Furuno is "supposed" to introduce their standalone unit later this year.

I'm waiting to see what Furuno brings to the table before buying Chirp. I'm not particularly happy with the GSD 24 (non chirp). Its not a bad unit just not a good deepwater unit, which is where I'm fishing in the Bahamas.

Thanks, fellas. The Faruno is 500 or 1,000 watts. Does a unit with 4 or 5 thousand watts not translate into better deep water penetration?

A Furuno FCV585 or the newer FCV587 with a B260 or Tm 260 transducer will have no problem with structure or bottom details at your fishing depth...and in fact will do very nicely.

You can increase you spending and get a CHIRP which will greatly expand your capabilities...but being you mentioned you don't need the bells and whistles.. and getting service for a CHIRP system in your location will be a bit more difficult.

I recommend the Furuno for your area.
A proven system at your depths.

Why not just add a more powerfull unit to the Raymarine. What Raymarine unit do you have?

I now have a Raymarine DS600X with an Airmar P58 transducer (both came with the boat when I bought it used two years ago, 22' Hawaiian SeaCat). I can find the bottom sometimes out to 1300 feet or so, but only when the ocean is flat, and I can't see fish reliably beyond 300 feet or so.
Bshoe, when you say a "more powerful unit" you mean a stronger transducer?
Thanks again all for the help.

I now have a Raymarine DS600X with an Airmar P58 transducer (both came with the boat when I bought it used two years ago, 22' Hawaiian SeaCat). I can find the bottom sometimes out to 1300 feet or so, but only when the ocean is flat, and I can't see fish reliably beyond 300 feet or so.
Bshoe, when you say a "more powerful unit" you mean a stronger transducer?
Thanks again all for the help.

Your current unit fires 500 watts and the P58 is a single element transducer...not a deep water unit but good for shallow to mid waters.

A sonar like the Furuno FCV585 or FCV587 fires 1 kw and if matched with an 8 element Tm260 (50 times more sensitive than the P58) you will have excellent results at your depths.

Semper, thank you very much for helping an old Army guy. So that means there is not much that I can do with my existing Raymarine to improve my deep water performance? My wife is going to grumble, maybe more than grumble, when I tell her I need to drop another $2K for the Faruno.

Semper, thank you very much for helping an old Army guy. So that means there is not much that I can do with my existing Raymarine to improve my deep water performance? My wife is going to grumble, maybe more than grumble, when I tell her I need to drop another $2K for the Faruno.

Be patient...with the new FCV587 units coming there may be some great deals on the FCV585.

Okay. Good advice. Thanks again.

We have the new 587s here down under. They look a great unit, i played around with one at the Sydney Boat Show on the weekend. I had a 585 previously, and think the 587 in terms of screen size and resolution looks superior. However the biggest positive change is the real time gain that is common with the 295 and 1150 and was not available with the 585. Just for this change i would buy the 587 versus 585