In my area there are a number of public lakes and ponds. So my preferred method of fishing is from a canoe. I have slowly outfitted my canoe for fishing.

In an effort to speed up the learning curve of figuring out what the bottom looks like in all these lakes/ponds, I was thinking about adding a portable depth finder to my canoe. Are any of you canoe fishers using depthfinders? Is anyone else using these Fishin' Buddy type sonars? Do you find them helpful?

The last thing I want to do is add more weight and junk to my canoe when I go fishing but it seems like something, if used correctly, that could really help me find the breaklines. I'm sure I could do soundings with my anchors but that could take years on a 650 Ac. lake.