furuno fvc620 for freshwater - The Hull Truth

ctoolman · 10-27-2009, 06:31 PM

ok lowrance rules the fresh water scene but after losing 2 lowrance units in 6 months i am done with them..

looking at the furuno,read all the good things about them in saltwater,anyone use it in fresh water,no more than 200ft deep....lots of 10-30 ft useage...this will be for striper fishing...

abbor · 10-27-2009, 06:49 PM

FCV-620 has excellent performance both in shallow and deep waters. I have both FCV-620 with B60 and HDS-5 with a 200kHz transom mount at my boat. Before buying the HDS 6 months ago I had a LMS-525 with the same ducer.

Except for the transducer cone angle the Furuno is as good or better than Lowrance in shallow waters. B60 and P66 has 12 degrees cone angle for 200kHz compared to 20 degrees ++ for the Lowrance 200kHz ducer. I write ++ because the Lowrance ducer has so wide side angles that the effective coverage is about 60 degrees at short distances when the gain is cranked up. You will miss the wide coverage if going FCV-620, except from this the performance is astonishing at shallow waters. From 30' and deeper the coverage of B60/P66 is fine.

I don't have any shallow water pictures of my FCV-620 but the zoomed area of the picture below is downto 100' (30m)

CMEBoston · 10-27-2009, 06:51 PM

I use my 582L/P66 on my 12FT squareback canoe trout fishing. marks the same in fresh as it does inshore saltwater. I have found alot of structure and holes/ bottom composition in my favorite ponds.

ctoolman · 10-27-2009, 07:14 PM

thanks..

pastaman1234 · 10-27-2009, 07:44 PM

Sorry for the derail but you might want to try one of these. They are a notch below furuno and the new Lowrance boardband sounders but the price is a notch lower as well and in the waters that you are fishing you wont be sacrificing that much. 20 degree at 200 khz to boot which is a wider cone angle as arbor pointed out. Humminbird is a great company with great customer service. Furuno is one of the best but for me being predominately a shallow water fisherman i would pick a unit with a wider 20 degree cone. Good luck eithe way.

Lake George NY 10/12/09.....freshwater.....smallmouth bass

NY Harbor 2008......saltwater........stripers/blues

nodoubt · 10-27-2009, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ctoolman

ok lowrance rules the fresh water scene but after losing 2 lowrance units in 6 months i am done with them..

looking at the furuno,read all the good things about them in saltwater,anyone use it in fresh water,no more than 200ft deep....lots of 10-30 ft useage...this will be for striper fishing...

have been using the 600l and now the 620 for 10 yrs now striper fishing fresh water...i dont think theres a better machine out there imho...does real well in shallow water, esp if you run it in 50/200 mode.....

The Hat Island Pirate · 10-27-2009, 10:59 PM

You can buy a wide angle transducer from Airmar for the Furuno FVC620. Call Jim at BOE Marine http://www.boemarine.com/ or Zach at GEMECO http://www.gemeco.com/Page%20Templates/Contact_Info.htm and get a reccomendation. Keep in mind you can also use a transducer rated at 1000 watts even though the unit only pushes 600 watts.
THIP

ctoolman · 11-02-2009, 04:22 PM

Thanks everyone,got it installed on friday fished sunday and today with it,WOW,definately a step up from the lowrance i had..

Very nice unit...

dmeswi · 11-02-2009, 06:23 PM

I just installed a Furuno 620 on my boat last winter and it works just great. It has a setting for salt water and a setting for fresh water to compensate for the density of each.

While I fish in salt water on the salt water setting, I am sure fishing in fresh water on the fresh water setting will provide great performance.

Dennis