Portable Fish Finder

[Tyn]

I've just mail ordered an ECHOFISH 300 hand held Fish Finder for use in the canoe. It looks quite smart with it's floating sensor, but I've probably just wasted £70! Does anyone have experience of them? I'll report back in due course to let you know what it's like.

[Speciman]

A fixed unit with the transducer mounted in the hull will be better than one with a floating sensor - at £70 you can buy up an Eagle and maybe a low end Humminbird unit which are popular with yak fisherman. The ones with the floating sensor are ok if you want to check the current depth but harder to use to get a constant depth reading as you paddle (plus you have drag).

[scootb73]

Got a hummingbird 200dx off my dad free when I bought a boat off him,haven't yet tried it out on the yaks or canoe,to be honest I hadn't even thought about using it on either,just the boat.

Will maybe give it a try next week if this damned wind eases off a bit.

[Tyn]

Well, the Echofish 300 arrived on Friday, but haven't had a chance yet to try it. However, as well as the float for the sensor, it also has a mounting bracket. I have managed to fabricate an alluminium bracket that clips over the gunwall of the canoe and holds the sensor in place enabling it to work 'on the move'. Can't wait for the weekend and hopes of some decent weather!

[scootb73]

Yeah,some decent weather would be a nice change,Im getting sick of seals,seaweed,midges,and blank days from shore fishing now.
I'm dying for a nice calm day without these strong gusty winds so I can get out on the canoe,or yak myself.

Tried out the hummingbird 200dx fish finder I got off my dad tonight(had to get batteries),its bl00dy nice!!
Has a decent sized screen,packs away into a nice self contained case,the transducer has a suction cup for sticking to yak/canoe/boat hulls.
The screen gives sea bed depth,fish depth,water temp,and boat speed he says he bought it second hand on ebay for £60 delivered,well worth it and will be abusing it on loch fyne on saturday!!

[Tyn]

Well, I can finally report on the fishfinder, or should I call it the 'fish tell you there are none abouter'!

Having rigged up a aluminium strip to clip the sender bracket on the side of the canoe, I found that it still couldn't cope with movement through the water, so resorted to the float for the sensor which, on the drift is fine. (Anyone with ideas to secure the mounting bracket for the sensor without having to damage/drill the canoe would be welcome)!

On the drift, as a means of 'seeing' fish it's not up to much (I think I saw 3 in 3 sessions) - there were however fish about as I caught plenty!

As a means of knowing the depth of water and to a certain extent the bottom it's great though and I now know where all the underwater features are at the spots i normally fish, improving my catch rate.

[Shropfisher]

Well, I can finally report on the fishfinder, or should I call it the 'fish tell you there are none abouter'!

Having rigged up a aluminium strip to clip the sender bracket on the side of the canoe, I found that it still couldn't cope with movement through the water, so resorted to the float for the sensor which, on the drift is fine. (Anyone with ideas to secure the mounting bracket for the sensor without having to damage/drill the canoe would be welcome)!

On the drift, as a means of 'seeing' fish it's not up to much (I think I saw 3 in 3 sessions) - there were however fish about as I caught plenty!

As a means of knowing the depth of water and to a certain extent the bottom it's great though and I now know where all the underwater features are at the spots i normally fish, improving my catch rate.


Your mistake is thinking of it as a Fish Finder, yes it will show up fish underneath, but the signal going out from the sensor is a 9 Deg angle beam, so you are looking at a very small patch of ground. If you do the sums, in 30ft of water .... think of it as data, telling you the depth, ground your going over etc, look for features, rocks gullies etc that hold fish.