i'm thinking of buying a portable fish finder to use when i don't bring my boat and use the PWF boats at the lakes.  having fished with a fish finder all my life, i feel lost without that screen.

my first decision is to get either a small one (garmin striker 4 as an example) with a small battery and adapter for the trolling motor mount, or to get one of the floating buoy type (made my Deeper or Lowrance) that you use your phone or tablet as a screen.  The buoy type is a little cheaper, but i'm concerned that they are not "good" enough to see brush and fish.

anybody have any experience or comments about this?  in particular, have you used one of the buoy types, and what did you think about the detail they provide?

i

James,

Here is my two cents.

I have a Lowrance Hook 4x that offers traditional sonar and down scan imaging. It is nice, but I would recommend looking at the new line of very affordable “new” Lowrance Hook2 models with a horizontal screen display. I would also recommend considering Fishfinder Mounts for a very portable solution.

Good luck.

Bob

This topic came up here in 2017:  https://privatewaterfishing.com/forums/view/best-portable-fish-finder

thanks, i went back and read the comments.  after doing a bunch of research, i decided to go with a small garmin unit with 2d sonar and down imaging (i really like down imaging).  it comes with a trolling motor mount and a transom mount.  i've already discovered that the trolling motor mount will not work on my fishing partner Darryl's trolling motor due to it's length (it's about 6" long due to the down imaging).  so, i attached the transom mount to a piece of 2x4, and drilled a bunch of holes in the 2x4.  This way, i can either use a C-clamp and clamp it to the transom on a jon boat, or zip tie it to the railings on some of the pontoon boats.  i think i made it pretty much universal so that i can mount the transducer to pretty much any type of boat.  guess i'll find out; if not, i'll come up with something else.  

Thanks for the feedback; can't wait to try it out.

Purchased the garmin striker 4 portable unit for use when I dont take mu boat. Used it last week and its great for our lakes

James,

I am happy with my Garmin which has GPS, chirp sonar, and down imaging.  It does have a long transducer but take a look at the RayMarine loooong transducers for comparison.  I have it semi-permanantly mounted in my kayak but I like your solution to be able to utilize it when I use a club boat.  How is your mount working?

John

so far, it's great.  i use my boat most of the time, but i used it at Waco Creek a couple of weeks ago.  With certain trolling motors, including the one at Waco Creek, i just mount it to the trolling motor using the mount that was included.  I used a couple of zip ties to hold the cable to the shaft, and i was in business.  At MK Ranch, I mounted it to the 2x4 and zip tied it to the railing on the side of the pontoon boat (my buddy's trolling motor will not allow the trolling motor mount).  I worked great like that, and we even caught some fish when we passed over some that showed up on the Garmin.  We stopped the boat and turned around and cast behind the boat; caught 3 just by seeing them on the Garmin.  very good unit and very clear.  between the trolling motor mount and my 2x4, it should work for any of the boats.

Do these fish finders need a dedicated battery or can I run it with the trolling motor from one battery? If it needs its own battery, what do you guys recommend? Thanks!

i use a little 12v battery that's about the size of 2 cans of coke.  should work for several days just running the fish finder.  you could certainly connect it to a 12v trolling motor setup, but if the battery is in the back of the boat, then you would need a long power cable to run back there.  also, if the trolling motor is a 24v setup, then i think you would have an issue.

that's why i bought the little battery just to run the fish finder.  no matter what, i know i have the proper setup.  i got mine at bass pro; weighs about 4-5 pounds.

Originally Posted by James Stewart

i use a little 12v battery that's about the size of 2 cans of coke.  should work for several days just running the fish finder.  you could certainly connect it to a 12v trolling motor setup, but if the battery is in the back of the boat, then you would need a long power cable to run back there.  also, if the trolling motor is a 24v setup, then i think you would have an issue.

 

that's why i bought the little battery just to run the fish finder.  no matter what, i know i have the proper setup.  i got mine at bass pro; weighs about 4-5 pounds.

Great. Thanks, James. I'm ready to make the leap and buy a small fish finder. I appreciate all the info here. Thanks, all!

On sale at Bass Pro until June 17th. I’m in!