Hummingbird 728 or fishin buddy 140c???

Looking to take advantage of the SA 25% off discount for online purchases. The 728 shipped is around $250 and the Fishin Buddy $140c is only $25 less.

Seems like the 728 although not color may be a better unit than the 140c, but you have to make the mount and power it where the FB140c is plug and play.

I did a little reading here and it seems like guys have setup a mount using pvc for the transducer and sea doo batteries for power. I don't mind doing a custom setup if it's not too much hassle.

I've never used a finder ever so I have no idea on what makes one better than the other so any feedback would be great.

I also read that you can send in the 283khz transducer that comes with the 728 for a 455khz "Quad" transducer which would add a bit of range. Not sure if that's needed on a tube or not. but it seems like you can't do that with the FB140c.

I have the 728 with the quadbeam. A truly awesome tool to have when you try to meter the panfish spawning ground. I can identify the fish species so easily with the 728 compared to the FB120. Haven't play with the FB140 model. Kona has the FB120 model. He can see the fishes and somewhat of the structures and bottom layers. I was there with him, and I could tell him when the fishes were coming, which side, where they were going, how big, what species, and more. I had a blast. Wish I have the Lowrance HDS10 model to compile structures metered. But, 120ft left-right direction, with a 30ft diameter detection at 30ft up is more than enough to hunt for my preys.

Yea I fished with Kona and he was able to mark fish along with drop off's and stuff like that. In one spot I caught 2 small halibut after he told me to "cast straight ahead". I'm looking into getting a fish finder myself, particularly the 140 as well.

I just picked up the 140c but haven't used it yet, hope to try it out soon then I'll let you guys know about it.

^Please do...it looks sick and I want it now! But I'm kinda broke so this time I'll actually do research on it before I just go out and buy it like I normally do lol.

No worries, you got it. I lucked out and got it on eBay for a sick price.

The only problem is the SA sale ends on the 31rst so I have to decide pretty soon.

TheAsianGuy would you say you can meter better with the 728 over the 140c? Would be nice to have color, but I like it when you say.

120ft left-right direction, with a 30ft diameter detection at 30ft up is more than enough to hunt for my preys.

Hey guys,
both good units for the money. As much as I like the plug and play feature of the Fishin Buddy, I didn't like that it was an integral unit which limited where I could put it on my tube, as well as the down tube would get in the way sometimes. A friend if mine actually mounted his remote ducer inside his tube between the inner bladder and the outer shell. This allowed him to mount the ducer in the ideal place on his tube (on the bottom directly behind him) and put the display unit any where he chose, on his tube. Granted he had to fabricate the ducer to resemble a small hockey puck so as not to affect the bladder or the outer shell. I believe you can now buy as an accessory this "puck style" ducer for thru hull mounting. Perhaps you could mount a ducer on the outside of your tube with a little ingenuity. Glue it? Strap it? Another mad scientist I know actually had his ducer glued to a piece of mesh fabric and sewn to the seat of his tube so the signal was shot directly out from under his butt. Brilliant!! Both of these ideas worked well.

my thoughts, bodfish

hmmm ,... new products in the making?

Thanks for the tips. I wasn't sure so I called hummingbird directly and they where not much help. They did say the 728 will probably meter the bottom and fish better, but they couldn't offer any advice on how to mount the transducer on a tube at all. I did read on another forum that someone with the 728 rigged it up so transducer was mounted in the back of his tube to avoid his fin/feet from messing with the signal. Since I have a prowler I have a big truck so I'm thinking about setting it up that way and just putting 2 of those sea doo batteries in the back storage area.

hey you guys
how big are these seadoo batts?

bodfish

about 7"x10x4 i dunno just throwing it out there but they are about 15 lbs i belive not to bad but awkward if you got alot of stuff with you and a long hike to the water definatly managable though

Yeah the batteries are heavy, and will add a bit of weight, but the only location I fished so far that had a long walk was Perris and I didn't mind the walk because I really need to loose a few pounds anyway.

I have several old UPS batteries and was thinking about using those. I have a connector that allows me to link 2 of these together, but may only need 1.

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why dont you guys use the whole 8 AA battery set up. they say it last up to 8hrs. IMO, this is the way to go. carry OZs and not LBS ?

At auto zone i say they had battery that was like 3"x6"x4" or so and it felt like it weight around 5lbs. it was 12v battery but they wanted like $50-$70 for it.

Damn that's a pretty big battery. Even on my FC4 I don't know where I'd put it.

Yea I agree pretty big battery, although I don't like to take to much when I tube 2 rods, fishin buddy ff, small box of plastics & lead heads, sunflower seeds and a monster drink.

Well from what I read that 8 AA battery setup doesn't do well with the quad transducer and only last a couple of hours if that so everyone got bigger batteries. I have about 20 of those type of batteries to choose from in various sizes so I may just go with a smaller one since that one is pretty big and yeah pretty heavy.

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this is what i would go with. only 4lbs

i was going to go with that same battery to but it is not sealed and i dont want acid exsposed to my tube the power wheel battery at walmart is sealed about 40 buck

Hey guys
I am presently experimenting with the
Power Sonic model PS1212
3 3/4"long x 1 5/8" wide x 1 3/4" tall
12v, 1.4amp hr
rechargeable
sealed
It weights just over a pound. My meter is an ancient old Lowrance X-47 Black and white.
because this little meter draws so little,
110 Ma (lights off)
250 Ma (lights on)
I have been getting great run time and performance.
These batteries are for remote emergency applications (lights, alarms, signals etc., etc.,) and are available at Batteries Plus for about 20 bucks. Charger is a bit more. They have quite a few different models, sizes and power outputs. You can also get a similar battery from either Cabelas or BPS in their Marine catalogs. I have been using these dinky batteries for years this is the smallest one yet. So far so good. check it!

bodfish

we are this conversation earier this year and hear is what was said on battery used in fish finders hope this helps
please read to the end

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on page 2 tom asked about ( 8 pak AA battery set ups would work?)tom left it on over 24 hour period and it lasteda day and more so he just turned it off dose not take much to run a fish finder

LGHT wrote:TheAsianGuy would you say you can meter better with the 728 over the 140c? Would be nice to have color, but I like it when you say.

120ft left-right direction, with a 30ft diameter detection at 30ft up is more than enough to hunt for my preys.

Yep..you can meter a lot better with the 728. Of course, you can spend another $75 and get the 778 model I went cheap since it was on sale for $180. Didn't want to spend any more than that.

LGHT wrote:Thanks for the tips. I wasn't sure so I called hummingbird directly and they where not much help. They did say the 728 will probably meter the bottom and fish better, but they couldn't offer any advice on how to mount the transducer on a tube at all. I did read on another forum that someone with the 728 rigged it up so transducer was mounted in the back of his tube to avoid his fin/feet from messing with the signal. Since I have a prowler I have a big truck so I'm thinking about setting it up that way and just putting 2 of those sea doo batteries in the back storage area.

Sorry for so much quoting and reply

Now, I've mounted my 728 on my Caddis earlier. Pretty simple. For one thing, do not mount the transducer directly under your butt. That's for sure. Use a cross PVC pipe, 1/2" is good. 3/4" is better. 1" is best. The bottom cross PVC will center your transducer and give you the best info, especially when you're using the quadbeam, rather than the dual beam. The dual beam, it doesn't matter where you mount it. The detection is straight down, rather than left-center-right like the quadbeam. If you're not planning to get the quadbeam transducer, since you already have a rack mount on either side of the float, why not create an L from the rod rack down into the water, so you can mount the transducer near your hip, and far to the front of the float as possible away from the fins. This way, it's out of the way, the detection won't pick up the fins and mistaken them as fishes.

By the way, go by this rule of thumb for the FB120 to 140 model:

Starting from the FB bottom transducer part, from there, the first 4 feet, you only get a diameter detection of of 6". So, it doesn't really matter if your fins are only 2 ft away from it. From there, for every foot down, you get 1/2ft of diameter detection. By the time you get down to 10ft, you get 7ft of diameter detection. By the time you reach 30ft, you get a nice 23ft of detection. Not a full solid 1-to-1 ratio for the dual beams on the FB mode.

The rule of thumb for the 728 is:

From the bottom of the transducer in dual beam, you get 1ft diameter detection down to 3ft. A 9ft diameter down to 10ft. However, by the time you reach 15ft, you get a full 1-to-1 ratio metering diameter.

If you're using the quadbeam, all bets are off. At 1ft, you get a full 2-to-1 ratio from the transducer all the way down to 20ft. At 40ft, you get a whopping 3-to-1 ratio and up to 4-to-1 ratio down to 120ft. Beyond 120ft, the quadbeam can't seem to be as effective.

So, yeah..728 is a monster in the lower class. The Lowrance lower class model can't even match this level of metering. I love Lowrance, but, there's nothing at the 728 class that I can compare to.

Ok i'll go ahead and get the 728 with the quad beam. That was probably the only useful help I got from hummingbird tech support and hopefully my handy man can get it setup on my tube for me..

The 728 is a better unit but the 140c is convenient I have the 140c I just dop it in and fish. The 728 has to be modified to fit on a tube you will need a battery pack that can be purchased at radio shack and a way to conaect the transducer and the unit to the tube A PVC (L) bracket will work nicely.