re: Need help with boat electronics.

have had variety of plotter/sounder units and used to work in marine retail. Garmin is far and away more user friendly and for your type of set up I'd go with what was mentioned above here, a 541S or or get a larger screen if you want but it'll do what you want as far as GPS and fish/depth finder.

I now run a Lowrance HDS 7 Gen 2 on my bay boat but 99% of that reason was for the Standard Mapping E-Cards to be used in the marsh. If not for that, I'd still have a Garmin. For using on a lake like Toledo Bend, just check out the various software packages that come with the units and get one preloaded or with a chip to pop in. Should be able to get all set up for under $750 or so, including transducer.