I am prepared to spend $300 to 500 on two fishfinders for the boat i am buying. Will be fishing local tournaments out of it. What can I get by with? What are my minimal needs? what brands and models should i look at? Dont need GPS or anything, just something to help me locate fish, bait, and bottom contour and structure.

Thanks.

If you're on a budget you probably need to look for something that will do what you want it to do. Try not to pay for features that you will not use. I would make a list of what's important than go from there.

My number one priority is wattage. Than screen size and resolution.

You don't need dual freq.

All that being said lowrance has worked well for me.

You might look at their X-52.

Try www.brokenlegdave.com

He has great prices and superfast shipping.

Hopes this helps

Hammer

I just found this one on cabelas sorry but I dont know any thing about this unit its and X87 reg. price around $300

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0024687015613a&type=product&cmCat=search&returnString=No=40&Ntt=lowrance&noImage=0&Ntk=Products&QueryText=lowrance&Ntx=matchall&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=4887&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.22&returnPage=search-results1.jsp

you cant beat the price of $149.99

Thanks for the tip, NGB.......Looks like i am going to buy two of them.....