My sentiments exactly. Why fish blind? The first step for me is always finding fish with the sounder then the fishing part begins. That being said, I see plenty of guys who just fish blind hoping for the best. Not surprisingly they often end up anchoring up beside me or somebody else with a sounder who has found fish.I hate fishing barren water. I know it's barren because my Stryker 4 depth sounder tells me so.
It is a tool that has helped me be much more successful in stillwater.
I move around until I spot fish on my sounder. I then know the depth to fish and that I'm showing my gear to the fish.
It's easier to know if my fly is the right one if I know I'm putting it in front of fish.
Without the depthfinder I don't know if there are no fish where I'm fishing or fish are present and rejecting my offerings.
I fish with more confidence using a depthsounder.
This image shows a good sized trout at 12 or 13 feet and another at 22 feet that are under my pontoon boat with others within the cone of my transducer.
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This one has glare on the screen but shows 3 decent trout that I just paddled over the the top of and others in the periphery of my cone angle.
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For me I can't imagine fishing without it.
I can stumble into a few once in a while without one but am much more consistent with one and waste less time hoping to get lucky.