Fishing buddy Side finders

[Chris Krikorian]

Hi,
Has anybody got one of these. What do you tink of it. Also does the side finder tell you exactly how deep and how far away from you the fish is?

[Airwave(OH)]

Chris I don't have one of these but since no body else has answered yet I will tell you I have a couple buddys who have them and they are always saying how great they are. These guys wouldn't say it unless they were impressed.

[mlc]

Hi Chris. Yep, I have one. I use it on my float tubes. They do mark fish and, most importantly, show me what the bottom looks like. I recommend them.

Take care,
mlc

[WAeyes]

I bought one of these specifically for float tubing a couple years ago and would not recommend it. Yes it does mark and show distance on the sidefinder, but you never know if it is a fish, a log, a dock, or the shoreline. I have tried adjusting the sensitivity every way possible and it continues to get echos and marks fish that aren't there. Anything under 15 ft. of water I get constant false markings from the side finder and bottom finder mode. It does however work OK once you get in deeper water, say 20ft or more. But sometimes it will just start marking hundreds of fish and I shut off the machine and then turn it back on and all of a sudden there is nothing. I think this thing is very unreliable. In one sentence, it has never helped me catch fish!

[Chris Krikorian]

The whole idea of sidefinders is great but it looks like Bottomline did a half ##### job making them. I'm new to fishfinders so I have simple question. What is the difference between fish shown on say and Eagle fishfinder that actually shows a shape of a fish on the screen and arc's shown on say the sidefinders? Does the bigger the arc mean the bigger the fish. I'm having trouble deciding to either get a eagle i.d 128 fish finder or a fishin' buddy. So if I attach it to my float tube and I'm fishing a very rocky lake with no weeds at about 15 feet and it shows a few arc's in the sidefinder screen to I just cast in the direction the side finder is facing? Does it say how far from my tube the fish will be? Also is the screen to the left of the sidefinder (directly under the boat) and the bigger part of the screen to the right the sidefinder?

[Doug Burns]

Chris,

First off, the sidefinder screen displays the area of water that the sidefinder transducer is directed towards. The sidefinder screen will only display in arches. Along with the arch you will get a digital readout as to the distance the fish is away from the transducer. The programing within all Bottom Line sidefinders has been set to display only arches that the unit has deemed are fish, based on the returned signal strength. Logs,dock pilings, boulders, etc.generally return a stronger signal and therefore are not displayed. Some false marks will however appear. Remember, we don't catch every fish our depthfinder shows us and the same is true with sidefinders.

The downlooking sonar on a Fishin' Buddy however will display in either arches or fish pictures which ever you chose.This is the case with most depthfinders.The screen on the Fishin' Buddy is divided into two parts one for the downlooking sonar and one for the sidefinder.

(To WAeyes) It sound like your Buddy may be defective. I would send it in to Bottom Line with a list of the problems you have described and they will test it. You shouldn't get that many inconsistent readings.

Tight lines,

Doug Burns

[WAeyes]

I think you are right. I should have sent it in a long time ago.

[WAeyes]

On mine the side finder is on the left part of the screen and only shows arches in one size. It will tell you exactly how many feet away it is, but not how deep it is. The bottom finder screen is the larger main screen and it will show fish shapes in 3 different sizes.