More Fish Finder Questions

Wetswinger

Wetswinger

Beneath the surface of the mud, there’s more mud.
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Is a fish finder very usable in say, 10 to 12ft. deep water? My understanding is the signal cone is rather small at these depths. These depths are commonly fished on my local lakes. Do the less expensive units have side view features.? I’ve never used a finder and people at the ramp tell me I should. I’m trying to justify buying one during this shopping season.
 
It depends. Being local, I think I know which 12 foot deep lake you're talking about. I have a Garmin Stryker 4 and find it's not very useful on that lake because of the small size of the cone. If you mark a fish, it's probably right under the transducer. On the deep lake just northeast, I find it very useful, especially for seeing how deep in the water column the fish are suspended.

My Stryker has two settings for the cone size. I almost always use the one the gives me the largest cone. Newer and more expensive finders may have better options for shallow water.

PM me if you have questions.
 
My experience is that down sonar is mostly worthless for seeing fish in shallows, but becomes relevant around 20’ depth. Side view is great for shallow structure, but hard to discern fish in the 2D plane.

You might benefit from a livescope-type scan
 
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BriGuy said:
It depends. Being local, I think I know which 12 foot deep lake you're talking about. I have a Garmin Stryker 4 and find it's not very useful on that lake because of the small size of the cone. If you mark a fish, it's probably right under the transducer. On the deep lake just northeast, I find it very useful, especially for seeing how deep in the water column the fish are suspended.

My Stryker has two settings for the cone size. I almost always use the one the gives me the largest cone. Newer and more expensive finders may have better options for shallow water.

PM me if you have questions.
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The not so deep lake down at the state park is the same.! Seems I’m always in less than 15ft of water..
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Wetswinger said:
The not so deep lake down at the state park is the same.!
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I've never used it there. Good to know.

As @SurfnFish said, they are very good for mapping depth and bottom contours. I use mine more for that than marking fish. Having said that, the 12 foot lake has the most boring and barren bottom contours and cover I've ever seen. Other than spotting an occasional weed clump, it's almost useless on that lake. On the plus side, I rarely snag and lose flies there.
 
BriGuy said:
On the plus side, I rarely snag and lose flies there.
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This is one of the most useful features if trolling a fly.
Along with that finding various structure like ledges/drops and underwater islands can be helpful in locating fishy habitat.

To the OP, Wetswinger, I think your question on cone angle is spot on and should be key in what you might ultimately decide to purchase for the depths you plan on fishing.
 
I decided to "upgrade" to a Garmin Striker 4 based on so many positive threads on this forum. So, I sold my Humminbird Fishin' Buddy (120 and 140C) that had a very useful side scan function. I really miss that function which, sometimes, made a difference in locating fish. The Striker 4 has two frequencies (77 kHz and 200 kHz) which I'm still learning how to use and identify fish. The Striker 4 unit is no doubt an upgrade from the older Fishin' Buddy units but they lack side scan function.

I started splitting the screen view to show both 77 kHz and 200 kHz. The 77 kHz frequency has a wider cone angle than the 200 kHz. I seem to see fish better at the lower frequency in the lakes I usually fish..... still learning. I really liked the Striker 4's bottom detail (but then I like the Fishin' Buddy too).

Good luck, Dan!
 
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@Wetswinger I know the lake you are talking about and my Garmin Striker 4 has definitely been helpful for me there. Even at 10-12' I pick up fish...especially once I've been anchored for a bit. You can't always depend on it to find fish if they are in shallow, but it's just one more piece of information for decision making. When I'm looking for a spot to anchor up I will break ties in favor of the spot with the most fish on the finder.
Buzzy said:
I started splitting the screen view to show both 77 kHz and 200 kHz. The 77 kHz frequency has a wider cone angle than the 200 kHz. I seem to see fish better at the lower frequency in the lakes I usually fish..... still learning. I really like the Striker 4's bottom detail (but then I like the Fishin' Buddy too).
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I second this. I went to the split screen a few years ago and never went back.
 
Good input guys. I'll have to try the split screen on my Striker 4.
I use mine mostly for depth, contours (dropoffs, etc) and temp. Although, like @DryFly82 says, I pick up fish all the time anchored in 12' of water.
I've had it on dummy mode the last couple seasons. You know, where it shows an actual fish icon. 😁 It's fooled me a few times though. Mostly when there's junk in the water at say 6 or 7' deep. Dummy mode will sometimes show that junk as fish. I've come to understand that now. I'll probably take the fish icon off for 2026 and actually try to learn something.
 
Well I’ve finally pried open the purse and bought a Striker 4 portable kit. Now I’ll just need to learn how to operate it. It definitely has more functions than I’ll ever need. It goes against my mantra of “simplify”, but if it gives me some pleasure, so be it..
 
Wetswinger said:
Well I’ve finally pried open the purse and bought a Striker 4 portable kit. Now I’ll just need to learn how to operate it. It definitely has more functions than I’ll ever need. It goes against my mantra of “simplify”, but if it gives me some pleasure, so be it..
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There are a lot of tutorial videos available for the Garmin Striker 4.
I found this guys operational videos to be pretty good. Think he has 4 or 5 videos devoted to the Striker 4.
 
I tried my trial run on Ward Lake which has depths up to 70’ and mainly plunges right off the shore to 20’. Quite an eye opener. I didn’t fish much, just rowed around looking to spot some fish. I’ve fished there for years and found the sounder verified my experience there. There was a big school of fish, probably Kokonee, write down in the deepest part of the lake. In the areas I usually catch fish is where I scoped the most using the sonar. One area was really active, so I took out the old leech, counted down to where they were scoped at and caught one. In a 40’area, there was a lot of fish right below the boat so I tried jigging a long line for them with no luck. The A-scope actually picked up my balanced leech at 30’.
So it has been a positive experience so far and look forward to using it in the future. Thank you for all the thoughtful replies..
 
Never thought of fishing Ward. Mostly a drive by on the way to more fun Munn.
Did not know Ward was almost double size of Munn measuring ~ 66 ac.
WDFW claims Kokanee up to 15". Probably standard 9 to 10 inchers but 15 if you jump up and down on them.
Just might need to check Ward out one of these days.

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