Portable fish finders soecifically for lakes

[Big Lew]

Years ago I had a portable Hummingbird fish finder which I never really found useful in specifically identifying fish
amongst vegetation such as lily pads. It was a very basic unit that showed fish as an arc and displayed rudimentary
bottom contours. I lent it to my daughter and son in law and it got broken (and never replaced)
Apparently the technology has come a long way since then and there now are units that work through your iPhone or
a tablet, show pictures by size, real shape, and even species. They also display all manner of other information.
For those of you that use a portable fish finder for fishing lakes, what has been your experience, do you use the new
age Wi-Fi units, blue tooth units, or the old style units with their own screen? What would you recommend? I am considering
the FishHunter 3D Portable, but there are others as well. They say the Wi-Fi units suck more battery life but are much
faster than the blue tooth technology.

[scoutlt1]

They can tell you the species now too??? Bluetooth?? Wi-Fi???

Holy hell...

I have my old Humminbird that gives me the depth of the water and not much more. I still think even that is pretty cool!

No idea how I manage to catch fish....

[one-shot-wonder]

Wife bought me a Hummingbird fishin buddy max and it does the job for what I am looking for. Just wanted a depth finder to locate lake structure/bottom profile. Does it fine, either I don't have it set up properly or hardly marks fish. Compared to my dads older generation fishin buddy with the side sonar. His finder marks way more fish than mine under the boat as well as out to the side. Battery life is OK...

[Big Lew]

Wife bought me a Hummingbird fishin buddy max and it does the job for what I am looking for. Just wanted a depth finder to locate lake structure/bottom profile. Does it fine, either I don't have it set up properly or hardly marks fish. Compared to my dads older generation fishin buddy with the side sonar. His finder marks way more fish than mine under the boat as well as out to the side. Battery life is OK...

Sounds like the performance I had with my old Hummingbird.

[wifigary]

I've got a Vexilar sonarpod, which is one of the wifi ones you speak of. Can't last a days worth of fishing unless you can limit out in 2 hours or less. phone needs to ideally be in airplane mode to get max battery life, drains your IPhone (I used an IPad with mine) quickly as well. Got it for 99$ at Cabelas and although it's accurate with depth to 100ft, beyond that it's sketchy. On the upside, its great for ice fishing.

Bought it 3 years ago, can honestly say it hasn't been recharged in a year..

[lovemywinchester]

Hey Big Lew. Fish finders/graphs have come a looong way with technology. I use a portable case that holds the 12 v rechargeable battery, graph and transducer. You can get a full day and a half out of the battery depending on what features you use on the graph. The carrying case can be modified to hold whatever model graph you want as you upgrade models.

I personally use a Lowrance hook 4 model. It has a sonar, flasher mode, GPS and a navionics chips with lake depth maps from coast to coast. It's very handy for ice fishing as you can plot way points so you can return the the same spots.The portable units come with a suction cup mount for the boat but you can upgrade to a magnetic transducer holder which is way better(see pic). You can get an ice fishing transducer for the winter which you just drop down the hole. I almost can't fish without my graph now.

I think you can pick up a new portable unit for under $300 that will blow away the model you had back in the day.




[youtube]7X00fCJfc7M[/youtube]

[Rogerm]

Anyone use the deeper sonar finder which is compatible with iPhone?

[twanger]

Have been running the Garmin Striker 4 past couple years, Still haven't figured out all the options, lol...

[Big Lew]

Have been running the Garmin Striker 4 past couple years, Still haven't figured out all the options, lol...

Apparently that unit has some very good reviews...is it completely waterproof should the case and it fall into the water?

[elknut]

Don't piss out of the back of the boat and it won't fall into the water...LOL....Dennis