FS Digest

I am looking into purchasing a depth finder for my kayak, but would prefer not to mount a battery if I can avoid it, and would prefer one that doesn't have to connect to my phone. Does anyone have experience with these types of products. I have been looking at the hawkeye fishtrax and LUCKY products.

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by Jmacwf6

FS Digest

They are iffy at best. Owned a Hawkeye and it was pretty useless, only good for depth readings, and even that was spotty. A lightweight LiPo battery can be put into a small box and the fish finder head can attach to it with as few bolts.

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by DoctorCAD

FS Digest

Thanks

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by Jmacwf6

FS Digest

I was seriously considering one of the lucky ones or a deeper for a while. I kept researching and the overall consensus on the lucky products is they werent any good. And that applies to anything thay even remotely resembles them since they seem to be all the same manufacturer. The deeper products are solid, but attaching to your phone bothered me as well. I dont want to have to worry about bringing a backup battery for my phone either just to charge it after the deeper killed the battery.

I have a kayak as well, and I was looking for something easy. I ended up getting the garmin 4 portable kit. The portable kit is solid. It comes with a carry case type thing that has a small 12 volt battery in the case and a mount for the unit in there and all the cords wrap up nicely. It comes with a suction cup mount for the transducer, but I grabbed a scotty transducee mount and just mounted that on there. Most of it just pops off when not in use.

I hesitated a long time on it, because of the price. But it is a solid kit and a solid unit. Its 200$ and both products are linked below. I dont regret it one bit. I didnt want to buy something for 50$ that didnt work how I wanted it to. I wanted a unit that would give me an accurate reading on depth (the lake I normally fish has very sharp drops and is around 60 feet deep) an accurate temperature wasnt important, but was a good bonus with this unit.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017NI1IJI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_.rvkFbDNQWW9A

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0174X6UNQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_BtvkFbG6GX94Q

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by DarkRyok

FS Digest

Thanks for taking the time to write that out. Sounds very similar to my thought process and was hoping someone would be able to confirm what I found in my research.

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by Jmacwf6

Harris T. Fudpucker Loc: Lafayette, Louisiana

Most of the kayaks around here use the garmin striker 4. They can't take much to run them, most use a small battery, very small. Come to think about it, the size is the one for the defibulators in the hospital, the portable ones.

GillsDeep916 Loc: Elk Grove, CA

I purchased one of those "deeper" products and returned it. It was useless to me. I know they make Deeper for Kayaks, not sure of those are any good. Apparently I didn't bring much to the conversation LOL.

Tight Lines 🎣

forrest r Loc: NE ohio

I use a deeper fish finder for bank, pond & kayak fishing and have had excellent results so far.

I understand you asked about a depth finder, the deeper fish finders tell the depth also. I'll be using mine again in a couple hours looking at 2 slips and 1 inlet off of a river. Mainly looking for panfish right now but I also want to find drop offs, deep spots and ledges. Using the depth finding function of the deeper fish finder will find these things for me. I can use this info later for perch, steelhead & crappie.

West22james Loc: Appling, GA

A super 60 Hummingbird flasher works great! However, some folks want a graph type!