Little bitty depth finders for a pontoon

[perch]

I have a little pontoon boat that Im having a lot of fun with but seem to have a recurring problem. To wit : I cant see the darn bottom of the ponds that Ive been frequenting (another curse of warm water fishing) so have no idea how deep , stucture , fish or any of the other good things that go along with not getting skunked . Lately Ive been toying with the idea of one of those tiny depth/fish locators that you stick "D"cell batteris in . Like the ones that Cabellas has on sale now.
Any thought about this . I do not have a motor on this pontoon and there isnt much room . Thoughts and opinions and first hand accounts are what Im looking for .
Thanks,
Perch

[ducksterman]

How about a link to the one you are referencing?

[CoachBob]

The item in question is a Humminbird SmartCast.
I have one and it works, sort of. It will give an image of the water column. The problem is that the width of the cone of area being examined is very small. It may take MANY casts to get a feel for a particular area and even then you have to remember what the previous casts looked like.
My feeling is that it's better than nothing. I found one piece of underwater structure with it that has produced fish. Wouldn't have found it otherwise.

Note: reel it in VERY slowly.

[ol' blue]

I have an older model of the Norcross Hawkeye. It gives you OK results and you can get a recertified one for around $60. It is a hand held unit that has a transducer suspended under a float. It packs up small and is easy to use around docks and off of canoes and tubes. The new model lets you mount to the hull and troll with it and still remove it when you need to. I believe it has a 45 degree cone.

http://www.hawkeyeelectronics.com/pr.../overview.htm#

[bbrothe1]

Unless it's very deep, how about a rope with markings every 5/10 feet? Low tech and inexpensive!!!

[ffb]

Going along the lines of the rope idea...a trick that a lot of chironomid fishers use to determine the depth is attach the forceps to the fly and drop it in the water till it hits bottom.

[ducksterman]

How about a link to the one you are referencing?

Not sure why you won't answer this perch???????? I've got one that I've used on a pontoon...float tube and NFO Nav II....but I don't know if it's the one you are asking about????????/

[Buddy Sanders]

Any depthfinder you buy that will easily mount to a pontoon (stay away from the 'castable' ones, they aren't going to help you) will do all you need it to do.

You want to know the depth. Any sonar unit will tell you that.

If you want to know the temperature, you can buy inexpensive units that will tell you this also.

Those are by far the two most improtant pieces of information that a stillwater fly fisherman can have, and I'd rather fish without a reel than without my sonar unit.

If you know the depth, you can find channel edges, breaklines, and other 'edges' that hold fish. If you know the temperature, you can find the best available water temperature for your intended quarry. You can find and identify places where water temperatures change (springs, current edges, etc.) that also hold fish. Once you learn to use your unit to the limits of it's potential (taking it off 'auto' and setting hte sensitivity properly, learning to recognize what a hard or soft bottm 'looks like' on your screen, etc.), you will be able to identify differing bottom types, substrates, and cover types.

At most fly fishing depths, seeing a 'fish' will be mostly a matter of luck due to cone angles. Even a $2,000 full color unit won't tell you much about fish or structure in under 20 feet of water.

Side 'finders' are almost useless. Due to the processing needed to allow them to show anything, they are notoriously inaccurate and 'false' fish and structure images are common. I'd not pay for that feature and wouldn't use it on a unit that had it.

Good Luck!

Buddy

[NewTyer 1]

How about something like this? I have seen here on FAOL that alot of people use them and it gets decent reviews.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Boati...3Bcat104588280

[FishnDave]

I use a Lowrance X67C on my kayak. It uses a reasonably-sized battery, about the size of a brick. It will go all day and then some. It is color, and excellent at showing fish, structure, depth, and surface temp (although my transducer is mounted inside the hull of my kayak, so I don't rely on the temperature readings too much). It was reasonably priced. I see Lowrance has replaced this unit with a newer model, but it is basically the same. It also has the "flasher mode", which is good for vertical fishing once you've anchored up. If your fly/lure is under you in the the cone of the transducer, you can watch it go up and down in real time (or close to it), and watch fish come up and hit it.
I recommend it. There are other reasonable options available as well.