Portable fishfinders?

[polaris-pete]

Just wondering seeing I am not taking my own boat to Ontario what portable fishfinder do any of you members here use when on a fly-in or rental boats?.I have been looking at both the Humminbird Pirhanna or a Cuda 300. Not sure if I want the rechargeable battery or the AA batteries. Thanks in advance!

[camp chef]

will you have electricity to recharge the rechargeable battery?

[polaris-pete]

Yes we will have electricty.

[camp chef]

There you go......I think the only advantage of the AA's if you are fishing a place where recharging is going to be an issue

[polaris-pete]

Anyone have any thoughts on these 2 units?

[JayM5209]

Polaris-pete, use the search function on this site to find threads on "portable fishfinder". It will bring up lots of info.

I seem to remember a thread last year about this time which doesn't come up. It probably had a different title so the search function doesn't grab it. If you are only going to use a portable once or twice, or very infrequently, I wouldn't recommend buying one. Cobble something together for yourself. For many years, when I always used camp boats, I took along an Eagle unit I had taken off my boat when upgrading. I had the unit, transducer, mounting bracket, and a small motorcycle battery all tucked into a small plastic tool box. After getting to camp, the mounting bracket went on top of the box with two small bolts and wing nuts and the transducer had a suction cup on the bracket. It was about as compact, quick to hook up, and effective as anyone could want.

If you have a smaller or older unit laying around, I'm sure you could come up with a way to make it very serviceable.

P.S. If you use a transducer with a suction cup to mount it to a camp boat, BE SURE you have a thin rope/heavy string from the transducer bracket to the boat.....short enough that if the 'ducer pops loose it won't get ground up in the prop!!

[Bluff]

There is a lot of choices out there - I have a portable Humminbird with a gel battery that I like to take on fly-ins. Only problem is that it weighs 10 pounds, which has to be taken into account for those for fly-ins. Just something to think about.

[joeman79]

I have an Eagle 480 and we love them. They have a gel-cel battery that lasts nearly all week on a charge if you remember to shut them off.

[Glenman12]

Used to have a Hummingbird...cant remember the model but it worked just fine...have had an Eagle Fish Easy 320 for the past 5 years or so and its work fine

[celticbass1]

I have an Eagle Fish Easy portable that was given to me about 5 years ago as a gift. Everything comes in a very handy plastic box, it works on 8-D cell batteries which sounds like a lot but if you put fresh batteries in at the start of the week I can tell you that we fish 10-12 hours every day and the batteries will last all week and then some. Probably weighs 6-8 pounds with batteries and it sits in my basement until the Canada trip every year. Lets face it all you really care about is bottom depth so a $500.00 color fishfinder isn't necessary.

Tight lines

[Catman59]

I have an old Bottomline Fishin Buddy that we have used in Canada for quite a few years. It does a great job and uses c cell batteries. They can be picked up on ebay pretty cheap. The only downfall is that you have to watch your speed with it sticking down.

[oleJoe]

I have a eagle cuda that we take in on a fly-in. It use 8 AA energizers and very seldom runs thru them. I always take spares but rarely needed and its on at least 10 hrs a day. Costs me $99 and you can get them cheaper now on sale. Your just looking for bottom contour deph unless your on a large lake.

[polaris-pete]

I have a eagle cuda that we take in on a fly-in. It use 8 AA energizers and very seldom runs thru them. I always take spares but rarely needed and its on at least 10 hrs a day. Costs me $99 and you can get them cheaper now on sale. Your just looking for bottom contour deph unless your on a large lake.

Thanks also for the reply. This is the unit I am looking at.I just want to know the bottom structures and water depth.