They are finally shipping the wireless echo sounder units and a friend, Jerry Brown, has just gotten one of the first. Thought some detail might be of interest. This is copied from an open US carp email list.

A quick recap for any who missed the first round of posting. $150 US for an echo sounder that uses a wireless sonar head with an attachment point for line. Designed to be cast out with rod/reel and transmits to the unit on shore. I had asked about a "grayline" feature that allows you to determine the general makeup of the bottom. With the feature, you can tell if the bottom is hard or soft and basically how deep the layers are.

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From: Jerry Brown

Newt it has a setting that will give you the bottom hardness in a double echo mode. This is not the default setting. I intend to use it Sunday while ice fishing and will give it a thorough check out but the instructions say it has alot of features. But it's one of those items that you have to press this button seven times and that on 3 time type deals. I tend to use my fishing electronics in one mode. That way I always can interpret the image instead of figuring the mode or setting. It appears to be a standard unit with the fish on the screen and bottom details pixilated. jmb


From Newt:
Thanx Jerry. That'll do for grayline for me. Good to have as a feature.

I'll be really interested in the "real world" transmission distances too.

I have two good units on my boat and fish mostly from the boat but this thing sounds ideal for checking out areas I'd rather not run the boat into without good reason. Couple of places I regularly fish need all 4 anchors out to stay in place and it is a serious pain in the hindparts to move around enough to check the nearby features.

If you can, turning off the fish symbols is a good idea though. Very misleading. For one, often not fish but turtles or trash. For another, they show a small fish who stays under the sounder as lots larger than a big fish just moving thru. All of which you probably already knew but some reading here won't.

Newt in NC

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Newt,I'd be interested in reading a bit about Ice Fishing. It's not something we get a lot of in Kent. We get floodwater, brown water and dried up river/no water fishing. But Ice, no.

I know thousands fish through the ice in the US. How about your friend Jerry doing a bit about it for us to read?

Dunk - just posted this to a carping email list (where I got the original material) and will put any replies on the forum.
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If anybody(s) feels up to it, I had a request from a UK angler on AnglersNet for a short piece about ice fishing from one of you northern folk. I had posted a bit from Jerry Brown about the wireless fish finder and in it he mentioned ice fishing.

The climate in most of the UK is such that they do get some freezing weather but not much and haven't any real idea about fishing thru the ice like you guys in the frozen northland.

Nothing fancy needed but a quick "here is how I do it" thing would be appreciated. Post it to http://anglersnet.co.uk/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi in the Coarse section or put it here (and I'd be interested too) and I'll post it. Maybe even better as a thread here with multiple folks from Hard Water country offering information

Newt

And another live report on the wireless gadgets. this one from Chas Scott, Ft Worth, TX carper

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Fished 2 hours this morning, still below freezing without any activity at all. Called BassPro to see if they had the SmartCast units in stock. Yes they did so I rolled up my stuff and headed to Grapevine.

Made it back to my fishing area about 4PM to try the unit. Rigged a neck strap and cast the transmitter over my fishing area where I had been skunked twice this week. It was totally devoid of fish life. Not a single fish signal. In fact, the area was a flat sloping plain to 14 feet deep. No features of any kind and totally barren. Apparently, in the past, my chum was the only attraction.

Moved and checked another area where I thought the water was deeper. Not only deeper, 32 feet jumping off to 41 but loaded with layers of big fish symbols all on the bottom. There was a 50 foot stretch literally full of fish.

Have no idea what they are but, they are FISH. Will try again tomorrow.

Now, a little more data on the unit:

1. Range is pretty much what they claim, 100 feet. Humminbird is trying to market the transmitter as a fishing float. Thus it's small size and light weight. Would hope that they would come out with a longer range version, with the transducer suspended just below the transmitter to quell the wave action.

2. The stand the viewer screen is mounted on must have been used for some other model. It doesn't even have a dedicated space to store the transmitter.

3. In use, it works just as good as most of the low end locators.

Would I buy another if this one disappeared? In a flash-- I will no longer fish blind, not knowing what I am fishing over. I will not fish barren areas again. If an improved model comes out, I will have it.

One day, I think we carpers will not leave home without one.

[ 24. January 2003, 05:45 AM: Message edited by: Newt ]