Not just for finding fish though, more to save wasting time. I use two on my boat, one pointing downward, the other on a stick!

Yesterday was a prime example of their value. The 'on a stick' version is used like a torch, probing out the dark areas. A posh version would be a side scanner!

I left my mooring and quietly motored for 100's of yards, nothing but nothing. Without a fish finder I would have been fishing where there were no fish, what a waste of time.

There was one other boat out on the Broad, Dad with his two young sons, clearly having a whale of a time. 'Caught anything', 'No!' But my stick mounted finder showed three big fish directly behind the boat!! All three were fishing the other way. The littlest fellow was as friendly as could be, he could talk for England! He could cast well too and I suggested that he cast to the reeds behind the boat, which he did, and the inevitable eventually happened.

I moved along, found two more 'big' fish, only mine went about 2 and 4 pounds respectively. And that made it for the young'un, his was just over twelve!

A very pleasent hours fishing, made just perfect by that young man's joy, all thanks to a fishfinder! They can find the fish, don't guarantee that they are feeding though, but three out of five ain't bad!!

Can't think of a better justification for buying one, saves fishing where there are no fish!

Guests - this sponsored link will vanish when you log-in. Click here to register for free.

Cheat ;-)

Blimey.

A fishfinder reference, 3 hours have passed, and nobody's slagged you off yet Must be some kind of pb.

I spoke too soon (just)

Peter,

Do they make them for barbel on very narrow rivers??

I would kill for one if they did

There is a castable one from Humminbird. Known as the smartcast range. Not bad. Not perfect and generally nowhere near as good as the boat ones but still better than nothing.

Retail between £100 and £200 depending on Reciever.

<i>Retail between £100 and £200 depending on Reciever.</i>

Blimey, imagine how much bait that would buy!

My hummingbird fishfinder found a group of fish. Made a nice cast and landed a 16lb 7oz carp !!

It also found a massive shoal of bream along a stretch of river that was barron.

Great little gizmo to have if you can afford it.

Also not just for finding fish but interesting features under the water.

Joel

In my opinion the Smartcast is a total waste of money as it only points downwards, useless in a shallow river! Yes, you probably can handhold and point the transducer, but then you could buy a higher definition 'normal' finder for rather less cash.

But any 'normal' fishfinder will do just what you want, without bloodshed.

The transducer, that what sends the 'ping' through the water, can be handheld, or fixed to the end of a stick. That way it can be pointed just like using a torch. Instead of depth it will show you just how far the fish is from the far bank. So obvious I can't think why a manufacturer hasn't marketed such a set up.

Phil, its not cheating, it helps me to go to the fish. Perhaps you use groundbait, or a bed of boilies, to persuade the fish to go to you. Is that cheating?

[ 06. October 2005, 06:59 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

Side scan technology is more than just pointing a stick at 'the dark areas' Any scanner needs a signal to be 'received' as well as 'sent' and it needs to be received after bouncing off an object..the bank...bottom...etc. If you point a 'stick' at the bottom from an angle it simply bounces into the ether not back to you. Humminbird made and sold so-called sidefinders and they were a complete waste of money. The only 'side finding' and 'forward finding' units that work are the expensive commercial units used by trawlers with ultra wide angle transducers used in deep waters and those are barely able to show any real degree of sideways function at the outer edges. There are a new breed of budget (in this case £1000 plus) sounders that claim all sorts of magic, but sadly until the laws of physics change, will not be able to produce the goods and there's been no rush to buy them.

The only way that current budget scanner technology will show a satisfactory glimpse of whats down there ...over there...rather than over here...is to use a transducer running in a unit indirectly attached to the boat or being towed.

I had limited success a few years back running a sideways looking transducer close to the bank and getting a signal off the bank, but it was confused by undergrowth, weed, changes in the bank contours and height and everything that wasn't solid ground. For the most part the birds in the trees saw more than I did.

Lastly you can't differentiate between a shoal of minnows 36 inches long, a group of skimmers 36 inches long and one pike 36 inches long. No intuition, no sixth sense, no other crystal ball or tarot card technique will make up for the fact that the pixels on the screen tell you nothing other than your signal has bounced off 'something'. Detecting the bottom contours and differentiating between mud, gravel, weeds, rock etc is what they do best. Even commercial skippers are largely unable to decide whats on the screen unless they know what to expect in advance. The cloud over the base of the wreck is cod or bass only because thats where they generally live and the cloud over the top of the wreck is pollack or bass because thats where they live. In eight to ten feet of freshwater you see a picture of the bottom that is far too small to be called side scanning..its shorter in every dimension than any dimension of the boat.
If you do catch a pike as the result of seeing an image three feet long then its more luck than judgement.

Nice story but thats all it is. Was the boy's name Jim by any chance?

I do however agree that the Smartcast is by and large money wasted. Its too unstable in the water and a 50p plummet and 20 minutes of your time will give a better result.

[ 06. October 2005, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: argyll ]