Fish finders are they any good ?

BarryH

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good piece of kit. they display more info than you think. a good book on the subject is published by fernhurst. called the fishfinder book.......funnily enough!
 

ShipsWoofy

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Fish finders are excellent for seeing depth trends, i.e. you can see channels and drop offs. Easy to follow a contour if you are that way inclined.

Not many fish left to find, but yes they work they pick up dolphins too.

I don't know how effective they are on a planing boat, but you would not be fishing at 25 kts would you?
 

gjgm

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dont know why manufacturers fit a depth sounder. A FF is far better. I think for depth, then £100 black and white does great job. Seems the colour ones have better functions for indicating different water temps etc, which may/may not help you catch Nessie. Not much advantage if its just the sea bed that interests you. You can also recognise the type of seabed (sand/rock etc) but might be a better philosophy to try to avoit hitting it whatever its made of!! Theres plenty of posts about fitting the transducer, but in short, test fit it first/you can fit it inside the hull/you need undisturbed water- so away from props,steps in hull etc. Mine is fine up to 30 knts, but gets a bit unstable at 40knts. Mind you, at 40, I d be hoping the seabed is a long way beneath me!
 

LittleShip

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Fitted one late last year.
On starting it up it immediatley found fish under the boat, I was quite surprised as I was in the marina at the time. So I sat for about 15-20 mins watching these fish swim in and out from under the boat,…………………….. only to find that it was in training mode.
Ok I know it I'm the Dummy

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Tom
 

SimonA

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I have been looking at getting a cheap FF for use as a depth finder. They all seem to come with a transom mounted sender, how do you mount one of these?
 

BarryH

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You don't need to mount it on the transom. Transom mount, or "skimmers", work just as well thru the hull. Fit them in a tubes glassed inside the hull filled with castor oil or even vegetable oil of some sort of light thin oil! There are othe methods that are a bit more permanent. I'm not a fan of those methods for various reasons.
 

kindredspirit

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Do they work? Yes.
Is it worth the money? Yes.

Why?

They show depth in a more complete picture.
They show contour trends.
They show the type of bottom.
They show fish (and Lough Ness monster type thingies.)
 

BarryH

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[ QUOTE ]
(and Lough Ness monster type thingies.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats a little white lie fibby thing......isn't it.
 
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