Author Topic: Looking for a portable fish finder for a boat any suggestions  (Read 1570 times)

Offline Missileman

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Need to buy a portable fish finder for a rental boat to take the grand sons out fishing. They never really had a great interest until the lockdown. I have vex’s but none setup for a boat. Any suggestions? Preferably under 2-300.

Offline MTJ

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The Garmin Striker 4 portable kit would work very well. The kit comes with a bag with a case, a 12v battery and the unit with the transducer. The transducer has a suction cup so it is very easy to attach and remove. I use it both for ice fishing and on my aluminum boat. It works well for ice fishing if you remove the suction cup but the transducer needs to be pointing straight down. It is a good unit that is $200, but can often be found for $180. There are many YouTube videos and articles about it, I would highly recommend it for the price.

Offline esox_xtm

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Have you considered an open water kit (transducer and portable mount) for your Vex for around $70 +/-?

https://store.vexilar.com/vexilar-open-water-universal-transducer-kit.html
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Online hardwater diehard

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I have the Garmin 43cv ..nice unit does mapping and mine has the LakeVu installed ..you can map your lake and then get that map onto your smartphone via active captain..just double check the transducer..many different combos offer different transducers. I got mine for $200 around this time last year . Good luck.


https://www.ganderoutdoors.com/garmin-echomap-plus-43cv-chartplotter-fishfinder-with-gt20-transducer-357197.html?cgid=fishing

https://www.ganderoutdoors.com/garmin-striker-plus-4cv-gps-fishfinder-with-quickdraw-contours-mapping-software-310145.html?cgid=fishing

https://www.ganderoutdoors.com/garmin-striker-4-chirp-gps-fishfinder-portable-bundle-310144.html?cgid=fishing
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Offline Missileman

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Thanks for the input guys. I have a boat setup for my vexs but with the grand kids in the boat it’s hard to keep an eye on it. It’s a reservoir and I fish the creek channels and their very narrow. Easy to miss on the flasher. I looked at the striker 4 at bass pro and for the money it seemed like the way to go. Although the lake mapping would be nice. Thanks again

Online hardwater diehard

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Sent you some PM's
Give a man a fish he eats for a day .Teach a man to ice fish he has an obsession for a lifetime

Offline papadarv

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I have a Lowrence Fish Hunter Pro, bought 3 years ago, I no longer use. Ideal for what your looking for. I used it primarily for ice fishing an an occasional summer BWCA trip. On overnight trips. It has a built in battery I charge with a $25 battery pack. Runs on WiFi 100ft+ range to a smart phone or tablet. (Use battery pack un overnight trips also). Attach a line, toss it out to the fishing area and get direct reading where your fishing. PM me if your interested in it.

]https://www.lowrance.com/lowrance/type/castables/



Offline Missileman

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Finally ended up going with the striker 4. Looked at a couple other brands but for 179.00$ and the float for ice fishing and being totally portable was the way to go. The guy at bass pro said the hummingbird bird they had for 250$ didn’t have near the same features. Also will be a good unit for the grandchildren to use ice fishing this winter.

Online hardwater diehard

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Good Luck with your new purchase . Tons of YouTube videos out there to help you figure out all the functions.
Give a man a fish he eats for a day .Teach a man to ice fish he has an obsession for a lifetime

Offline Missileman

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I watched a few already. Lot of them out there. Going to try it out next Wednesday. It’s mine and my grandsons birthday. He loves to fish but still at that age where he gets frustrated when he doesn’t catch anything. My wife takes them a lot and they catch some but he hasn’t caught anything this year. Due to my job I work about 60 hours a week during the summer so I don’t get many chances to go with them. My birthday is on my only day off for about 3 weeks so I told him I guarantee he’ll catch fish. I’ve fished it for 30 years and right now is about the perfect time. Walleye should have moved into their summer patterns and the panfish should be staging to spawn

Online hardwater diehard

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Re: Looking for a portable fish finder for a boat any suggestions
« Reply #10 on: Jun 09, 2020, 06:23 PM »
Very cool . Take your grandson/angling sportsman out and enjoy The future of our sport relies on us older folks teaching the young.
Give a man a fish he eats for a day .Teach a man to ice fish he has an obsession for a lifetime

 



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