Author: Greg Holmes
Tired of aimlessly trolling around your favorite fishing spot looking for pay dirt? A portable fish finder can save you hours of time and make every fishing trip successful. Whether you’re a sport fisherman or you make your living on the waters, a fish finder can help you improve your catch every time. In this article, we’ll tell you how electronic fish finders work and how to make this most of this helpful piece of marine technology.
Portable fish finders are a wonderful piece of equipment that can actually help you locate fish when utilized properly. Before the invention of this piece of technology, fishers used a depth finder that only showed the deepness beneath the vessel. There was no clear-cut screen indicating the presence of schools of fish. Thus, depth finders weren’t useful to commercial fishermen. Next there were the sounders with printed graphs rolls that were highly precise if used properly. However, the true innovation was the arrival of the LCD (liquid crystal display) sounder that indicated both fish and bottom contours. Today there exists all kinds of these LCD fish finders.
Choosing the appropriate portable fish finder can be complicated as the market pricing is incredibly competitive and products are being updated all the time. High end styles can cost more than the average dinghy, but simple devices can be completely affordable and cost as little as $300 from a discount fish finder retailer.
The technology has come a long way since electronic fish finders first appeared on the market. Recent devices are slimmer, lighter and more menu-driven than their predecessors. The units have both color or black and white screens and the screens are available in a variety of dimensions. The bigger display screens are more appropriate to bigger fishing vessels where they can be stored out of the sun and weather. These are ideal for commercial fishing trawlers.
The key to the effectiveness of a fish finding sonar is its transducer housing. This is essentially the working part that scans the area beneath boat and transmits the information back to the screen where you can see it. By bouncing a sonar signal, you’ll be able to see fish, weeds and underwater structures. How quickly this echo signal process takes depends on the portable fish finder wattage, the transducer and the depth of the water. The higher the wattage, the more powerful and quicker the signal is processed from the transducer.
Proper installation and maintenance are key to keeping your portable fish finder in working order. It should be in a convenient place that is out of direct sunlight and rain. A fish locator will be waterproof but prolonged exposure to sun and water will shrink and decay the neoprene casing. You should also make sure that the monitor is well placed. The pixels that make up the image can appear blurry if the angle isn’t correct. If you don’t have good vision, then you might want to spend a little more on a screen with a higher resolution. By doing your homework and making good choices when shopping, you’ll definitely notice a marked volume in your catches.
About the author: If you want to increase your odds of catching fish, you should consider investing in a fish finder. But how do you know if the Furuno FCV 295 10.4″ fish finder is better than the Garmin 140, for example? You need to read some fish finder reviews to help you decide on the right model for your needs.
