Lidl fishfinder

[jenku]

Now I probably just threw money away, but I bought one of those cheap Lidl fishfinders, imagining I would be able to mount it some way on my boat so it would give me the depth and show me the rocks (I'm not that much into fish).
Anybody used one of those? They are supposed to be hanging a bit down in the water under a little yellow buoy (may need a diver's flag!). But the manual says they also can work through a hull if it is no thicker than 3mm. Now, I don't have a Bavaria, so I guess my hull is thicker. Anyway I'll try it all out tomorrow, but any idea as of how to mount it and where are of course welcome.

 

[Lizzie_B]

I've seen that type of thing mounted exernally from a pole bracketed onto the transom. The owners all seemed happy with the performance - though can't vouch for the performance of the lidl model. What price is it?

 

[jenku]

Yes, I was thinking of mounting it on the transom ladder in some way if I can't get it to work through the hull. Of course further forward would be better, but that may be impossible.

I got it for 449SEK which is about £33 according to Google.

 

[MonniotC]

Hi Jens,

I once cut a hole in the bottom of my Alacrity to fit a speed log, and the hull was about 10mm thick - way more than 3mm anyway, so I think you'll have to mount it off the transom, but to clear the rudder, the bracket will have to turn back under the hull. I gave up on the idea of fitting a transom-mounted fish-finder transducer to the Alacrity and bought a regular depth sounder, fitted in-hull.

Chris Monniot
Ex-owner of Mistral II - AY609

 

[orizaba]

i bought a eagle ext fish finder,tried the sensor inside the hull in a plastic bag of water all was ok thenfibreglassed in tube etc to hold it,my hull at that point must be 15mm at least,so it may be worth trying it in bag in different places see what happens.i have it mounted nearer the stern of the boat due to lenght of supplied cable,it seems accurate,told me i was running out of water coming out of the sea barrage lock into the wrac channel in cardiff (and sure enough we ran aground,)on a rising tide so all was ok,mind you its a bit of a ba...tard round there at the best of times.

 

[NastyMariaBird]

Mine works in a puddle of water in my bilges.

 

[2Tizwoz]

They're only £19.99 up here.

 

[jenku]

Difference goes to the polar bear fund (25% VAT). /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Alfie168]

The Lidl device is excellent for locating the fish fingers in the frozen food section I have found.

Tim

 

[2Tizwoz]

The puddle of water in your bilges has fish in it? /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Better fit a bilge pump.

 

[explores]

Talking of mounting things, my dad had two pet monkeys and when they died he took them to a taxidemist to be stuffed. The chap said "do you want them mounted" my dad said "no just holding hands".

 

[jenku]

Now I' back from my test sail with the Lidl fishfinder.

First thing I tried was to put it in the water from the boat at the pontoon. It worked! Knowing that, I tried it from inside the hull, with and without water filled plastic bag (as manual demands). That did not work, the thing did not say a word.

Plan B was to fit it on a stick and lash it to the transom ladder. I found a nice old paddle handle from my long gone inflatable dinghy, screwed off the paddle blade and had the perfect stick. I duct-taped the transducer to it, and lashed the whole thing to the ladder. Result looked like this.

Then I cast off my lines and motored into the canal. The thing worked nicely at first but then stopped. That worried me because it also could mean that the canal is too shallow. It is not supposed to give a reading under 1 meter or so.
However, I soon discovered that the pole had moved to the side and the transducer now beamed at the rudder. So I added a second lashing to keep it steady. And thus it stayed for the next 2 hours.

Performance:
The thing worked flawless under engine. Speed up to 4,1 knots. (Didn't try faster with the engine). It showed the depth. And it showed small symbols of fish in different places.
What it did not show contrary to my expectation was rocks on the bottom. According to the manual it is supposed to do so, my conclusion being that there weren't any rocks. That could very well have been so as I did not venture to any known rocky places.

Here it is showing fish and a depth of 15.5 meters.

Next I killed the engine and put up sail. There was not much wind, but I pottered around in different speeds and different places, comparing the depth readings to the charts. I showed about the same. Very pleasing.
Then there were powerboats and wash. And wash the fishy thing did not like. The readings became sporadic when the boat bobbed around a lot.

Then the wind increased and I sailed along in 4.2 knots. That worked fine, unless the boat heeled too much. Then the readings became sporadic again.

According to the manual the device is not supposed to read anything if it is deeper than 24m. However, that it did several times. As it is not supposed to be deeper than 25m where I sailed I don't know where the real maximum is.

Conclusion: it worked actually better than I thought. It is certainly usable to find a good space in an anchorage, especially under engine. I do, however, not expect it to be of any great use on open water, but then again, I won't need it so much there.

PS: The units can be changed to feet.