Hey guys i fish small lakes with the deepest part only runing about 15 to 20 feet, most the time im fishing in less than 10 feet of water. What kind of depth finder setup do i need for fishing these shalow depths also consider i dont make much money working after school.

im in the same boat you are in, ive been saving for a while and im currently looking at getting the lowrance hds-5x

ROFL     ONLY  600 dollars

i have bought cheaper fish finders and they are just junk from my experience, so i figured ima stop wasting my money and get something nice.

if i had the money i would do the same lol

Taylor, it would probably be easier to help you if you gave us an idea on the amount of money you would like to spend.

I just bought a Humminbird 768 from cabelas, has 640x320 resolution and is GPS. It is on sale for $299 from $500.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0075168020954a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCHFEAT_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntk=Product_liberal&QueryText=humminbird+768&sort=all&Go.y=0&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/search/search-box.jsp.form23&Go.x=0

If you dont need GPS i would go with a humminbird 570, it has 640x320 resolution

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0075705021109a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=570&Ntk=Products&sort=all&Go.y=0&N=0&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/search/search-box.jsp.form1&Go.x=0

-matt-

You might want to do some research before you spend that much on a lowrance. I do not have one, but I have noticed everyone complaining about water issues. I fished a BFL last weekend and my boater had 2 of the HSD8 units. He has swapped them out twice and he said he had to wait about 6 weeks to get the replacements.  He wishes he never would have bought them.

u know i was wondering about how u get the advantages of side imaging but i wonder if you could mount 3 transducers   in a triangle shape, i know it wouldnt look the same but would it tell you the same?  for shallow water is what i was thinking for it about it for

Taylor, no transducer that has a cone shaped beam will produce any image close to what the Side Imaging or Structure Scan can produce. Also the software to process the images is specific to that technolgy.

You can get a transducer for Humminbird units that have 2 90 degree horizonal (left and right) beams and 2 vertical beams (20 degree and 60 degree). It is called the Quadbeam. It is available in the transom mount and trolling motor mount styles.

edited: there is another transducer called the Wide Side that has three elements (one for left views, one for right views and1 for down views) for some of the Humminbird units.