If you are like me and do a lot of fishing on docks, on shore, and in personal watercraft, you know that finding fish on your own can be a big task, especially on big water. This is where the best portable fish finder could really pay for itself almost immediately.
Does this sound familiar? You show up to the water and there are literally millions of possible places fish can be, and you have no idea where to start. You have a good idea what they are biting on but this does you absolutely not good if you are not presenting the lure, fly, or bait near your intended target.
You see boats going by with people slaying fish. They always seem to know where the fish are no matter what and they always come back with a bucket full of the prime catch of the day. While you sit there on the shore working on your sun tan.
Other than the boat what are they doing different? How are they able to do so much better when you are doing everything they are? Or are you?
If it seems like they have the superhuman ability to see underwater, it is because they do. They are employing the latest technology in fish finders while you are still fishing like its 1864.
So, you head online and want to pick out the best portable depth finder that suits your needs and budget. There are literally hundreds of options.
It’s easy to get confused, but we can help.
Here are a few that should help you get on the fish better and help you keep up with the times and other anglers.
The Venterior Portable Fish Finder, the Lucky FFW-718 Wireless Portable Sonar Fish Finder and the Garmin Striker 4 with Portable Kit offer great portability and options that won’t kill your checking account.
The Venterior Portable Fish Finder
The Venterior Portable Fish Finder is a budget fish finder that acts like one that costs significantly more. For the angler on budget, this little wonder might be a great option.
With it, you’ll be able to see the depth of the water you’re in as well as fish locations, aquatic plants, sand and even rocks on the bottom. The depth can range between 3 feet and 328 feet.
It comes with a round transducer with a 25 foot cable, as well as a removable transducer float. It can be used for fishing just about anywhere, including dock and ice fishing. There are a few different feature settings, including 5 different sensitivity levels, a battery saving mode, a backlight mode as well as a fish alarm and unit of measure. You’ll also be able to troll with this device as long as it stays under 5mph.
The Venterior Portable Fish finder gives you a wide range of depths that it can operate in giving you a lot more places you can go and oh the places you will go with this baby!
You can go from fishing on a float tube, kayak, canoe, on the shore, in a Water Master by Big Sky inflatables, or even on the ice. It is a great portable, affordable, and usable fish finder.
It does of course come with its draw backs, for instance you cannot use it to find and track bait fish, and if you are in shallow or deep water and the display reads “—” it will shut down on its own. Which is great for saving the battery but no so great if you forget to turn it back on.
The Lucky FFW-718 Wireless Portable Sonar Fish Finder
The Lucky FFW-718 Wireless Portable Sonar Fish Finder is another great portable and affordable option that also boasts some really nifty features including a large adjustable dot matrix that will be high-contrast as well as a wireless frequency of 433 MHz. The sonar frequency is around 125kHz and the wireless sensor will be able to cover a 90 degree beam angle.
The Lucky FFW-718 Wireless Portable Sonar Fish Finder truly lives up to its name. It will make you appear to be a lot more lucky than you really are, because you will always seem to know where to cast and catch fish.
The added bonus of this guy is it is wireless. Deploy the transducer and the data is sent wirelessly to your unit. So, wearing this one around your neck is not as precarious as other models. The screen is great and remains easy to see on both cloudy or sunny days. For a price that is hard to beat and tons of functionality to boot this portable unit is great.
Easily transition from whatever fishing platform you enjoy. Being wireless of course means the transducer requires a battery to send signal to the unit, and it eats batteries pretty quickly. Another drawback is when you cast the float the battery can become dislodged. When it works, it works great; it’s perfect for its price and its mission.
The Garmin Striker 4
The Garmin Striker 4 represents the cream of the crop. It houses a wide array of features and benefits and comes from a trusted name in fish finders.
Among those amazing benefits are a keyed interface with buttons dedicated to performing certain tasks. It’s also available in three different sizes so that you can get exactly what you need to be able to see the fish clearly. There will also be a waypoint map feature that will allow you to see, mark and navigate to specific locations such as stumps and docks.
One special feature on this device is that it will send out a chirp sonar which does a continuous sweep of frequencies. This can provide a wider information range, allowing it to create fish arches that appear more crisp as well as offer better target separation.
It also has a built-in flasher, which will allow you to view the information on the device in a classic flasher format. This is going to be very helpful for things like ice fishing.
The Garmin Striker 4 with its portable kit offers the angler a lot more options than the previous two but it comes at a higher cost. You do get what you pay for and this is a top of the line purchase.
It does what the others can do and more, including the ability to mark and navigate to locations. Catch a huge trout and remember where that was to come back another time and see if he has any friends with ease. The fish arches are amazing, no squinting and guessing “is that a fish” and the built-in flasher makes ice fishing a breeze.
If you are willing to spend a little bit more to get a lot more out of a fish finder, than the Garmin Striker 4 is perfect for you.
Conclusion
There are a lot of options out there and finding the ones that are right for you and your budget is essential.
You want to catch fish and you need to know where they are in order to do that.
The Venterior Portable Fish Finder, the Lucky FFW-718 Wireless Portable Sonar Fish Finder and the Garmin Striker 4 with Portable Kit offer great options in portability and use. With something for everyone’s budget you can get out there and on fish easier by going with any of those options.
Happy hunting and stay safe out there!