anybody used one of these portable fish finders while boat fishing.
if so what they like.

terry

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"It is only the inexperienced and thoughtless who find pleasure in killing fish for the mere sake of killing them. No sportsman does this." - W.C. Prime, 1888

Hi Bigtel

I use a small portable fish finder called a Freecast FC60 Wireless Fish Finder. The sensor is a tiny yellow submarine and there is a phone sized hand held reciever.
It's not as good as one of the larger units but it's helpful with depth, type of bottom, water temperature,and fish movements given at the right depth.I tend to use it in the winter when fish are hard to find. It stops me fishing in water with no fish. Aids like this are not permitted in competitions.The unit costs about £49.00.

BK

I use them all the time, I have them on all my boats, and have been using them for 30 years.

I'm not sure I know what you mean when you ask what are they like, but this may answer your question:

I firmly believe that the term "fisfinder" is a laughable misnomer. I have never had any faith that the lower-end portable consumer models actually show fish with any reliability. And even if they did, the idea that one could drive a boat around the lake and actually "spot" fish, then cast to them is even more laughable.

And before some propeller-head comes on and says it's possible, blah, blah, blah, saw it on my mates fishfinder, blah, blah, yes I know it's "possible". But in real-life shallow water fishing that most fly anglers partake in, it's highly unlikely. In water that's only 20 feet deep, the sonar cone of most portable units is only a few feet wide at the bottom. So even hitting a fish with the sonar cone is unlikely, not to mention the fact that the fish would have to be pretty stupid to let some twonk drive over them with an outboard.

Not that I don't see a few numbnuts every year trying to do just that. The concept is so stupid that we even coined a phrase to describe it. We call it being on the magical mystery tour.

Their best use is to locate the structure that holds fish. Case in point, my father and I were just fishing a river on Saturday that is very remote, rarely fished, and certainly no maps exist to show depths. With the depth finder we were able to finally pinpoint where some of the holes are that would hopefully hold walleye.

This is impossible by sight alone because the water is peat stained, so you just cannot tell anything about the depth without the depth finder. It could be 3 feet or 13. Most of this river averages a few feet in depth, but finding the deeper runs and breaks will be very useful.

Personally, I own Eagle and Lowrance. Humminbird are also good, my father has a couple of these on his boat. I think the Eagle Cuda series is about the best value for money out there and it comes in a "portable" version that has a suction cup transducer and a soft case with battery in the event you don't have a boat with a 12 V electrical system.

Hope that helps.

Grouse

I have the Eagle (nee Lowrance as same company) 300 Portable and use it off my Kayak and dads boat when mainly sea fishing, but it is a handy depth finder for the Scottish lochs where you can go from a few feet to a hundred feet over a few tens of yards. Works off 8 aa batteries (prefers alkaline) for about 12-16 hours fishing no problem.

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Just My Tuppenceworth!!

I have a Garmin one and it helped me catch pike on a big(ish) lake. How ?? Well, it certainly spots the bait fish, and the pike are never that far away. It has also identified some large fish which I managed to catch almost immediately after seeing them on the screen. Many people will cry coincidence, but I'm convinced it wasn't.....you dont get a "beep" from the fish alarm for ages, then a big one shows up and ten seconds later you're into a double figure fish...it's just too big a coincidence, and it has happened a few times. Of course you see stuff you never catch, and it may well be a sunken buoy, suspended debris or whatever, not fish at all, but I have faith in them....they help. As for the transducer beam only covering a few feet at twenty feet or so ......it all depends on the transducer.....Garmin sell ones with wider "viewing cones" so to speak for that very reason. Just realise that it has limitations, but depth and structure and bottom type are pretty reliable.....not everything that shows as a fish is a fish obviously...but I repeat, they educate you one way or another and that helps to catch more fish Loads of people think differently, but that is my take on fish finders.....and like most things, you get what you pay for.

I had £500s worth of Garmin on my boat a few years back while out after bass and mackerel. i saw lots of spots and dashes, but damned if i saw any fish. to be fair i didnt really know what i was looking for so used it as a depth sounder and topography tool, untill my bell end brother left it on the boat and someone decided it'd look good on theirs....

thanks for input guys

terry

__________________
"It is only the inexperienced and thoughtless who find pleasure in killing fish for the mere sake of killing them. No sportsman does this." - W.C. Prime, 1888