Raymarine Dragonfly-4 Pro Sonar/GPS with US C-Map Essentials
You awake up in the morning and start getting organized for your day of fishing. You check online for the weather and the fishing report. You gas up the boat and fill up the cooler with food, drink and ice. The last thing you want to do is spend the day driving around the water with lines in and no fish on the hook. You need to have the ability to see what is going on below the waterline.
The Raymarine Dragonfly 4 helps you stay where the fish are and keeps you busy doing what you do best. Having a robust platform of options giving you a lot to work with. Also keeping the design easy and super user-friendly makes this a great option for everyone. It has an easy setup which gives you the added bonus of not having to be an electrical engineer to mount to unit.
The phone app that works in conjunction with the fish finder is really fun and easy to use as well. Giving you the ability to see what your fish finder sees and you are able to stop, rewind and even share what your day was like. Half of fishing is being able to brag about fishing.
Raymarine Dragonfly 4 Features
This device is going to be optically bonded to be able to provide sharper color, wider viewing angles, coastal maps, US lakes and rivers. It also comes with a transom mount Chirp transducer that also provides a temperature sensor. The MicroSD memory card reader will allow you to save sonar screenshots easily and the dual-channel sonar will be able to provide a wide-spectrum Chirp DownVision sonar to provide images on par with an actual photo.
You’ll also have a second Chirp sonar channel that will allow you to target fish and a 4.3 inch all weather, high-definition LED backlit display. You’ll be able to stream live data to your smartphone or tablet with Raymarine’s Wi-Fish mobile app as an added bonus.
Advantages
Having a powerful and easy to install fish finder is really great, both are qualities found within the Dragonfly 4. It mounts very easily to kayaks and boats alike as well as other personal watercraft. The power on the unit is amazing and can send back crystal-clear images of the floor below, without requiring you to spend lots of precious time installing, which means more time spent fishing!
The 4.3 inch screen delivers good quality images that are easy to read and understand. Being able to tell where structures are below the surface is essential and the Dragonfly 4 shows it in stunning detail. Being able to tell individual parts of underwater cover like a series of fallen trees helps you determine areas that might be great feeding grounds for fish or even bedding for mating during spawn. The all-weather screen also does not fog up and can be seen clearly in nearly all weather. The back light is nice for low light and nighttime fishing.
The Wi-Fish app that works with the Dragon 4 sonar is pretty great to play with as well. Having the ability to sit back where the rods and reels are but having your fish finder mounted forward makes it harder to see the 4.3 inch screen. However, with the app you can see real time images from your fish finder. Having the ability to stop, rewind and replay helps you win those arguments where you try and tell someone you just saw the largest monster fish of your life, especially when you can share the image with them. Instant credibility and bragging rights.
The on board SD card means you can save images as well to them, so you can share them and save them so you can document honey holes that you found as well as showcase potential local inhabitants. This is a useful tool when wanting to return to those target rich areas to bring back a cooler full of fish and a phone full of memories.
Disadvantages
Some of the major drawbacks of the Dragonfly 4 rest within the company. The unit itself has its issues but should you run into major problems, sometimes getting in touch with the company can be tough. So, if you have no problems then you won’t have to worry about that, but should some arise it is very difficult to get them to help you out.
The maps are not that great either, it comes with a lot of maps but none of them are that highly detailed. It boasts the ability to be used as on board navigation but steer clear of that. There are much better products with much better maps that you should trust your path-finding to. The lack of support with the maps is a major bummer as well, making it not really worth it if you are looking for a GPS.
The screen can be hard to see, it is small and that is going to happen. Because the screen is hard to see you are going to want to use the phone or tablet app in order to use it properly. This means having to worry about another electronic device on a boat, and even still most phones and tablets are hard to see in the sun without some sort of assistance. It will find fish, but sometimes they won’t be very easy to see.
The rubber on the buttons feels a bit thin and that begs the question of “Oh boy, how long is this going to last” and given their reputation with poor technical support it is something to take note of. They work just fine, but it could be a problem down the road.
Final Verdict
TheRaymarine Dragonfly-4 Proeven with its small screen and bad company reputation is still a good fish finder. There are other options around the same price range that to not offer some of the qualities that the Dragonfly 4 offers.
With its drawbacks such as the small screen and the really unimpressive GPS there are other options that have less bells and whistles that may last you longer and work a little better than the Dragonfly. Still for its price it is not bad, and it will put you on fish. Just be aware!
