Can anyone provide the manufacturer and model number of a fish finder that they have found to work well in shallow water? I don't mind paying the price for the ideal unit.

Dudley,

I've had one of these Humminbird 120 Portable Fish Finders for three or four seasons.

I frequently fish in very shallow waters (less than 5 feet) and it works great. It has an auto-depth mode. I believe the lowest full depth reading is 5 feet. Frequently mine will move to the 15 foot full depth reading.

One of the really nice features, besides being the ultimate in portability, is that it has a side scanning feature that will operate in conjunction with the normal vertical fish finding feature. The transducer can be aimed with a handle under the display holder. As you point it, it will tell you how far away a fish or a school of fish is located.

It will mount on virtually any platform. I use mine in my paddle boat, kayak, canoe and jon boat.

The only complaints I have with it is that it will indicated that you have turned it off, when in fact it stays on. I've learned to disconnect the battery connector when I'm done using it.

The second complaint is that I left mine in an outdoor shed winter before last. The LCD screen has rupture marks that I'm guessing happened when it got extremely cold. However, the blemishes are not real contrasty and they don't affect the rest of the operation.

Because of the way the transducer mounts, it is not suitable for high speed use -- or even medium speed use. My Minn Kota electric motor with 45 lbs., of thrust must be run in speed 1 or 2 of the five available speeds if I am to keep the transducer in the water. Those the the typical speeds I troll at, so it isn't a problem for me. However, it just takes a second to put the entire unit out of the holder and lay it on the floor of the boat or canoe.

How shallow? I've used my Humminbird Helix 5 gps/di in very shallow water (less than 4')

The thing to remember is your cone area gets pretty small in the shallow water - and your returns take up much more of the view able screen area.

Are you looking to see structure with down imaging or side imaging or just mark fish with a standard 2d sonar?

There are some now that have advanced(like 3-d) screen views that use multiple transducers. I have not used one however.

Matzilla, depth would be that typically found in a pond, say from zero to twenty feet My interest lies in just getting an idea of what's below the surface.

Eric, my inquiry is rooted in an attempt to avoid a week of researching and deciphering all of the features on all of the units on the market. I did attempt that and decided that taking advantage of the Forum's collective experience would be a far less daunting approach. I bought a 3D Humminbird about fifteen years ago and thought that the technology had surely advanced.

Catmandoo, I'm on my way to the site you posted.

Thanks so very much for your responses, Gentlemen.

I have a portable one similar to Ken's and it works ok and as he pointed out. There are much better units at a higher price with lots of whistles and bells that are much more like a computer.

See this link

http://www.fishfindersource.com/how-to-choose-a-fish-finder/

Humminbird Helix series work really well. The larger ones can actually map your pond/lake with enough time on the water. It's called AutoChart Live...pretty awesome.

http://www.humminbird.com/category/technology/autochart-live/

I will probably buy a new fish finder next fall when we again over-winter at our beach home.

During the cool/cold seasons, I spend a lot of my time fishing the backwaters along the Intracoastal Waterway for sea trout, red drum, Spanish mackerel, black drum, blue fish, striper bass, puffers, whiting, and a variety of other tasty fish, including putting out crab traps when the temperatures are right.

We aren't the Everglades or the Louisiana bayous, but where I fish, there are lots of great fishing places where I can easily get lost if I don't carefully pay attention. Everything looks the same.

I've got a simple GPS unit that helps -- but it only shows straight lines to waypoints, and has a limited number of waypoints. I go out with a VHF Coast Guard hand-held radio, and a cell phone. Having an Amateur Radio License, I carry a VHF/UHF amateur radio hand held transceiver which allows me to work through "repeaters" up to 40 miles away.

However, my next portable fish finder for use with my remaining canoe and my jon boat for use in this area, will probably be a Garmin fish finder that includes a GPS feature that includes a path showing how I got to where I might be at that time.

My saltwater fishing is seldom deeper than in 20 feet of water at high tide. I've read lots of reviews, and I've looked at them in places like Cabelas and BassPro. I'd sure like hear from anybody who has one of these newer GPS/Fish Finders.

Well, Catmandoo, you'll certainly have the forum membership concerned about the possibility of your getting lost or breaking down until you assure the members that you have taken every precaution in order to survive misfortune.

Many thanks for the help, Gentlemen.

The good thing about being a "senior citizen" is that if something serious should happen to me while I'm out fishing or hunting in the wilderness -- I will have perished as a very happy and fortunate person.

What a way to go!

any of the newer fish finders with gps and mapping (Humminbird LakeMaster, Navionics, Garmin, etc.) is going to be leaps and bounds better than the old track > waypoint GPS.

To be honest, I keep my gps maps pulled up when on the Mississippi river, which has excellent coverage with LakeMaster maps, but I don't pilot the boat by them often. I will occasionally track down drop offs with the maps, however. The real advantage is dropping waypoints for brush piles or other forms of cover on the map and return to those spots in the winter while ice fishing haha

The color sonar is much better than the old greyscale outputs of days gone by. You can accurately judge bottom hardness and get a better idea of fish size. They're amazingly powerful tools when ice fishing.

Here is an example of the lakemaster mapping

blue dots are brush piles

curly leaf pond weed on down imaging


sunken trees on the left, baitballs on the right - down imaging


ice fishing my pond

Wow, crazy how far we have come from a stick of dynamite and a match. The technology we use to look for some dumb old fish is astounding!

My uncles just used half-sticks. They referred to them as duPont Spinners.

I've convinced myself to buy a new vexilar for ice fishing both of the last two years. Haven't bought one either year. The winter weather is just too fickle anymore for me to justify spending 600 bucks for something I may not get to use. Never had good ice at all last year.

Every once and a while my sis and I send each other something we think the other needs. Example..she told me something was trying to dig under her house at night. I sent her a game cam. The cam revealed it was skunks. Anyway....she just sent me a fish finder called an I Bobber. I haven't tried it but the claim is you cast this gizmo and it reports back to your smart phone. Anybody have any experience with this?

https://reelsonar.com/