I let my old large screen Eagle go with a canoe I sold. I planned on getting a smaller new lighter weight lower power detector.  I purchased a humming bird that was the store demo unit.  I do not know if the problems are because as a demo unit it ran for weeks with the transducer out of the water or if the unit just does not do well.  It loses the bottom all the time and if it is run in auto sensitivity it can’t find the bottom. If the sensitivity is high enough to see the thermal it thinks it is the bottom.  It is lighter and uses less power.  So don’t buy a demo unit.
As far as batteries go the lithium are still a good choice.  There is a rechargeable that is an equal as far as weight and will run your detector as long on a full charge. Here is a link to info on something I am going to try this year.
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I am doing some testing on a Hook-4 detector.  Looks like the above battery setups will run the unit for 11 to 15 hours. It draws a little more than 2 times as much as the hummingbird. It is heavy with a lot of the weight in a 30 ft transducer cable.

Not many gray scale detectors.  My old detector was a Eagle Mark and it was a good detector. Check out the Lowrance Mark-5X  Pro.
I found this review but I don’t know when it was written. Some of the detectors may not be available now.
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Maybe you could find a gently used one or never used  grey scale on CRAIGS list?

You're in Minn right?

These areas have lists. Might be worth a look-see?

Bemidji
Brainerd
Duluth / superior
Mankato
Minneapolis / st paul
Rochester
southwest MN
st cloud

Not much many being manufactured any more but some available from resellers.  Try not to buy a store demo lest you get one like my detector.  I went to the link in previous post and then did a search for some of the detectors listed and found them on ebay/amazon/???.
Many used one but many new or never powered.

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Solotripper beat me to it and I like his better.

I took another look on E-Bay and found the Humminbird model I have the PiranhaMax 165.

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It doesn't have the GPS but it's cheaper.
I only used it one time but it was easy to use and the screen is large and view-able in bright sunlight.

I don't know enough about this to pick one brand over another.
I guess you could read reviews and ask around.
I did that before I bought it and it was like the Chevy-Ford debate. It all depended on how they worked for the user.

Hey Old Salt, I have exactly what you're looking for.  I bought a Garmin Echo 151 portable bundle last winter, which is an ideal unit for canoe country.  It has never been in the water.  Once I bought it I realized I wasn't going to use it and its been sitting for the past year.  There is one huge problem however - it is prohibitively expensive to ship to the States from Canada.  If you have any way of making a Canada side pickup (maybe you know someone coming to Copia,) this would suit your needs perfectly.
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I picked up a second-hand PMAX 170, greyscale finder last Spring. I hooked it up to 8 AAs per MPs design and it has worked like a charm. It's simple for me to operate and it locates fish and reads out the bottom depths/contours of the lake. It was on ebay and the guy who was selling it just happened to live in-state so the shipping was cheap. I could have done a lot worse for more money! ( I was originally looking for the Cuda 242  but couldn't find any for sale in my price range, i.e. "cheap")

lotalota -

Such a Vexilar unit served me well for many years!  You should do well if you list it on our The BWCA & Quetico Paddler's Gear Exchange - Classifieds forum.  FYI

Jimbo 

Iotalota
I could not figure out how much current your Helix 7 G2N draws from the manual but it looks like between 600 and 900 mA.  That is probably too much for AA batteries. Sense you will be able to recharge them every night I would suggest the Panasonic 3400 mAh cells covered in this thread. 

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You should get 3 to 5 hours out of a set.   You might consider building 2 battery holders for 4 batteries each and putting them in parallel. 

I actually prefer a protection circuit designed for the battery bank rather than having each cell protected individually.  That is slightly different chemistry for that battery and they are supposed to last longer at the cost of a little more weight.  I think that will do a fine job for you.

Jimbo wrote on Apr 19^th, 2017 at 12:56pm:


That would certainly get in the way of all the accessories I have hanging of The Dreamcicle (my kayak, it's orange).  Thanks for the offer, but I'll have to decline. 

I'm all about going slow, not fast.  I have a project to map some semi-secret lakes outside of the BWCAW, and I will be paddling about using autochart live on my Helix.  I will create the the only good maps of these lakes--as the existing ones were done with strings in the 1950's. Then I'm going to fish them smartly.

If anyone sees a bright orange kayak in a lake off the echo, paddle by and say hello.

So...this thread is about wilderness friendly fishfinders. You might think that once again, Jimbos pink sail, the unsellable sale, was another off-course diversion. How wrong you would be. Until you've seen it work with your own eyes, it seems quite unbelievable. This is not about wind power, it is about fishing. It can be a sail or a drift sock  . Most folks know that pink is an awesome color for waldos and lakers, the only two species worth your time in Quetico, or anywhere else in shield country. If bass and pike fishermen are offended, you have my sympathy.

I digress. Jimbo, that pink sail that won't sale is a fish magnet. Use it for a drift sock, but use mesh in the center hole, as the fish will be jumping into it. Even you, Jimbo, will now catch fish. 

Not to mention that it is illegal to use a sail on your canoe or kayak in the Quetico.

Tailcheif posted that his Garmin 151dv draws 100mA with the back light off and it can be seen in sunlight with the back light off.

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