The Outdoor Line Forum

I am considering upgrading the transducer on my dads kingfisher 25. We have a couple Lowrance HDS Gen2 units networked together. When we purchased these we went with the 50/200 HST-DFSBL that came with the main unit. I'm thinking of upgrading to a Airmar P66 50/200 600w. Any of you folks have any advice, different transducer or stick with what we've got? We fish the San Juan Islands and off the coast.

The Airmar P66 is an upgrade over the dual-frequency Lowrance model.
I used one for several seasons and was pleased with the picture and durability.
The state of the transom-mount transducer art is the Airmar TM 275 wide angle with CHIRP.
For downriggers fishing it's really nice to be able to see your Cannon balls to fine tune your fishing depths!!!

Thanks for the reply Nelly!
It would be nice to go state of the art with chirp but it's a ways out of my price range at the moment. Will the Lowrance HDS unit even supply a 1kW for that transducer? Probably need the sonar hub to run something like that? I don't know if I could even mount a 1kW on my transom.
I also have structure scan. I've heard some folks say they can see their downrigger balls on that? I probably just need to play with it more.
I've also emailed a guy off The Hull Truth forum, who was highly recommended for transducer help. He replied saying the HDS unit is the last he would recommend for salmon and bottom fish. And nothing would help until the high end TM258 or TM260. Just his 2 cents I guess.
I'm thinking the P66 would be an upgrade, like you said Nelly. More power should produce better imaging than the generic 250w transducer!

Hey P,
I'm sure you've seen it but here are the specs for the P66
http://www.airmartechnology.com/uploads/brochures/P66.pdf

Since it's a 600W 'ducer, when you select it in the Lowrance HDS 8's Installation Menu, the unit will step up the output power from the 50/200 HST-DFSBL's 350 Watt RMS to the P66's 600W RMS.

If you're considering a true 1KW or 1000 watt 'ducer then it's time for the Lowrance/Simrad Sonar Hub and the "Voice of God" 'ducer: The wide beam CHIRP TM270!

Thank you very much for your input Nelly!

I wish I could be 1kW, but that's out of range for now. I'll have to give the P66 a go! Thanks again.