Fishfinder use?

Tis the season. The boat has been winterized, it is cold, i don't ice fish and I can only watch so many "top water strikes" videos on youtube. Ok, so I am not really bored with the top water strikes videos.

I have been re-evaluating the approach I used last season. All of the fishing I did was on a river. I have a fish finder on the boat, but never even turned it on. I have a nicer model from a previous boat and was thinking about mounting it. There is a Quad scan transducer available that enables side scanning. The question is: how do you guys use your fish finder? Are you using it to actually mark fish or searching for water depth, temp, and structure? Are you using it more in still water environments or in rivers as well? When I first started using a fish finder years ago, it was a portable Humminbird wide that I used in my canoe. It worked well, but I found myself watching the monitor more that watching my surroundings. Many times, the side scan would not show fish in spots that I knew held fish. Though I fished them anyways, it did skew my thinking.

If the consensus is yes, I will have some more questions concerning where to mount, separate battery than trolling motor...etc.

Thanks,

Charlie

humminbird makes a battery op fishfinder works well

It depends on the water your fishing a lot of time a sidefinder won't work well on a river becuse of the shallow water. I mostly use my fishfinder for depth, bottom stucture and temps on lakes and ponds. I don't rely on it for many river just the shallow alarm
It all depends on the fishfinder itself how stong a beam you got and and how you set it up. Best advice show as little clutter on screen as you can for best results.
Hummingbird or Garmin both are excellent choices.
Jack

Thanks for the responses. My original fish finder was a Humminbird Wide portable that is battery operated and was used on my canoe. I had a center console that I got rid of a few years ago on which I installed a Humminbird 717. I took that off the boat before I donated the boat. Last spring, I purchased a used aluminum utility that came with a Humminbird Piranha installed. I just never used it. Now that the off season second guessing is is full swing, I am thinking about mounting the 717. One of the thoughts is that I can keep better track of locations with the GPS component...nope never used that part either and will have to get a receiver for it.

Do I really need it? I don't think so, but it may come in handy or add another facet to the fun.

Thanks,

Charlie

I use my electronics all the time. I run lowrance on my boat with the sidescan. The sidescan only really works well at 3-5mph. I usually drive the boat around marking structure on the GPS or bait balls. Sometimes I wont drop a line in the water until I see some sort of bait. I fish a couple rivers and I always use my electronics, finding outside weed edges and other types of cover is important especially if the water is stained.

That humminbird 717 is a great fishfinder, very very accurate. If you have the tool you should use it. It can't hurt. On new bodies of water use the GPS to find irregular contours or humps. mark those spots with a waypoint so you can always go back to them in the future. Goodluck!

hey...thanks for the response. you gave great instances of where it would be helpful to get the whole picture of a body of water. i wanted to keep the boat simple and care free and was questioning where to draw the line. it looks like i have some fun installations come spring time.

happy holidays everyone.

charlie

Let me know if you need any help with the install. I have wired many boats

thanks! i should be all set but i really appreciate the offer. i will definitely keep you in mind if i hit a snag.

charlie