Here’s a great set of questions we hear a lot:
Do fish finders come with transducers?
How to fish finders and transducers work?
Really, it depends on which fish finder you’re looking at buying. There are a lot of ways to choose a fishfinder. It also depends on what you’re using it for: kayaking, fishing for bass, using it in shallow water, etc.
Many, if not most fishfinders on the market, usually come with a transducer. Especially if you have a higher budget, a fishfinder plus transducer is likely in your spending range.
What’s a transducer anyways, and when would I need to buy my own?
The transducer is basically the sonar part of the fishfinder device. It sends a signal into the water where your fishing, and then senses any echo to be able to tell you where different fish and surfaces are.
Clearly, this is a very important part of the device. The higher-quality the transducer, the better they will be able to understand the signals it’s receiving from the signals it puts out. In this case, bigger is better. You want to get a fishfinder with the best transducers possible.
Which fishfinders come with transducers?
Pretty much every fishfinder that we review on fishnmarinecenter.com will already come with the transducer. Most of the time, the only time you’ll want to buy a separate transducer is if you need to upgrade it.
You also need to know which transducer type will work for your situation. For example, transom mount transducers are best at slow speed’s but don’t always work well when you’re moving. On the other hand, through – holes offer better performance at different speeds says they won’t experience as much turbulence. They require more boat modifications to install, though.
If you’re going to use a different transducer then the one that came with your new fish finding unit, just make sure to check that it will be compatible both with your fishfinder, and with your boat. In most cases your fishfinder will already come with the transducer, but there may be situations where you need a different one. This is really the only situation where you would purchase a different transducer then the one that came with your fishfinder as it’s very rare to find one that is sold without it.