portable fish finder

[Bait O' Eggs]

Has anybody used one of these hand held fish finders? Might be handy for a small raft, or float tube or anywhere you dont have a boat battery available to hook up a full sized fish finder.

hand held fish finder

[Fish Hawk Adventures]

Bait,
The ones that I have used were very little good for anything other than the bottom depth. I am not sure if the newer ones have gotten much better. What you have to look for is the watts of power and with recharagable batteries you may not have a very high powered finder that will root out the fish for you because of the life of the batteries. Hope it helps
Joe

[Small Fry]

A budy at work was telling me about his new fish finder. I know it' made by bottom line. $159.00 he mounted it on his float tube fishing at Benson lake sadin it work real well.

[will_e_fish]

BOE - I dont know about hand held FF's but the portable one I have is a fishing buddy it seems ok on lakes. I am usually too busy helping kids bait up, untangle, or catching fish to play with it much. Fits on the float tube, canoe, and row boat. It is the size of a metal detector and wieghs less than you would think. Oh yeah needs D batteries I usually forget.

[Troller]

I have a humminbird portable works great it is a 400tx. a little big for a float tube I would think. The transducer and speedometer suction cup to the back of the transom and work good . but you have to remember to take them off before speeding away or they will be flapin in the water behind you. My fishin buddy has one I dont remember the name of it. His attaches like a electric trolling motor to the transom with a clamp unlike mine that you can sit anywhere in the boat as long as cables are long enough. the nice thing about the portable one I have is that it can be made to a permanent one if you purchase the correct base for it.

[Mr. Fisherman]

Roy,

I used a Bottom Line Fishing Buddy II on my float tube, boat and while ice fishing. It worked great but you have to remember to retract the transducer before you motor off .

I know for a fact that it worked well. It has a side finder feature and a bottom feature. This allowed me to find the fish when I was ice fishing. I drilled a hole, lowered the fish finder and looked 360 degrees to find the fish, paced off the distance to the fish and drilled holes where the fish were. It worked great.

I had no problems with mine and the batteries lasted a lot longer that I anticipated. Mine lasted all season fishing 2 to 4 times a week. Boy, those were the days :smile: .

I'd let you try mine out but I sold it along with my cat-a-craft, boat and trailer when I went to college. I would not hesitate to buy another one.

Anyway, I hope this helps. They were priced below $200 last I remember. Goos luck,

Ray

[Smily]

Hi BOE,

Another vote for the fishing buddy ll 1200 model. Used it on rivers in the slower holes as faster turbulent water throws it off. I put it in the housing it comes with while fishing and it tell me all the fish I ain't gonna catch. :whazzup: When going down the river I pick it up out of the housing and rest it on the bottom of the drift boat. Not to shine it on the rocks in the rapids.
I got mine off Ebay for $115.00 with shipping and was in like BSN condition. It came with the Original box but no manual. As if you need one with those. But I wrote to Bottom line and they sent me one free of charge.

Where do you guys use it for Ice fishing?

:smile: Smily :smile:

[CATCH AND EAT]

BOE, do you think a fish finder will actually help? :shocked: :grin: Just kidding.

[will_e_fish]

If Game Boy made a hand held FF unit the kids wouldn't leave it alone. Some of you parents out there that allow video games know what I mean.