I need to buy a fish finder, I want to really start understanding them. 

I have around 500 to buy one. Keep in mind itll be going into a 14ft jon boat so I cant buy really expensive or big units. Maybe a 7 or 9 inch max.

What is the best bang for my buck? I may pay up to 600.

 

This subject has come up several times recently on here. If you do a little searching you’ll find some good info. 
 

Educate yourself on what the features are and how they work. Go to a store and play around with the display models. 

Garmin Echomap plus 93sv, they are getting clearances out for around 600. Gives you side imageing,  touch screen,  pre-loaded maps, great value for your price range

I would start and if like me and the two guys above, stop with Garmin.  I use the Echomap Plus units now... You can go live scope in the future.  hard to beat the package of all you get.  If you do not need mapping, get the striker.  It has GPS for waypoints and tracking, but no maps.

 

Go to the store and play with display units.  Garmin, for me is very intuitive and user friendly.  

I bought a Raymarine Dragonfly 7. It came with Navionics, sonar, downview, temperature. It works very well for me. I fish Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie, St. Clair River and Charleston Lake and the downview is always clear.

Fishermen, especially bass fishermen are always updating their electronics so there are good used units available for much less than new.  I just bought a 9" Humminbird 998 for my boat for 1/4 the price of new.

On 1/12/2020 at 3:44 PM, Alex from GA said:

Fishermen, especially bass fishermen are always updating their electronics so there are good used units available for much less than new.  I just bought a 9" Humminbird 998 for my boat for 1/4 the price of new.

Thats what im looking for, a good used unit. Right now I have about $350 to spend on it but every week I throw $25 into the savings for the fishfinder. Im gonna be on the lookout for one