furuno vs garmin fish finder - The Hull Truth

seahuntjoe · 02-13-2007, 10:32 AM

After first season with Garmin 188c combo GPS sounder I have concluded that stand alone fish finder is essential. There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm on this site among serious fishermen for Furuno, specifically the FCV 620 fish finder. Can someone tell me what benefit I get with a Furuno FCV620 over say a Garmin 340c fish finder.

Glenn · 02-13-2007, 11:19 AM

I don't know exactly what benefit you will get one vs. the other. I just bought a 620 Furuno with a "shoot thru" ducer. Used it on Saturday fishing for Stripers and it was very, very nice. I was able to mark bait, individual fish and tell the difference between smaller and larger fish no problem. I am very happy with it so far.

Furuno is known to be the standard for FF's...I did buy a Garmin Chartplotter as I like the layout and the screen design best. I'm sure the Garmin FF's are good as well. Only negative I have ever heard is that the temp sensors do not seem to work too well (heard this from multiple Garmin FF owners).

warthog5 · 02-13-2007, 12:10 PM

Well to start you get knob controls on the Furuno. Menu's to jump thru on the Garmin.

I run my Furuno 582 in manual mode only. I can teach anyone to operate it in 2min of instruction. That's not going to happen with jumping thru menu's.

The 620 w/ Airmar B-60 is a real nice combination.