Boat Electronics

[loo10]

I have a Garmin Depthfinder that is starting to act up

so I thought I'd shop for a different one.

Those of you who fish Taney by boat....any recommendations?

What are you using and why?

I have never seen fish beneath my boat on Taney...although I know they're there.

Thanks in advance.

[Phil Lilley]

To be honest Rich, I don't use them. If I fished the lower lake at all, I would. I use one when I get up to Table Rock.

[Trav]

Well,

I am still using a Humminbird LCR 400 that I bought in 1991. It dont tell temp, but here on Lower Taney You only need to watch your depth while trying to pin point holes and berms. If I set the sensitivity real high I can see certain cover but only the big cover.

How is your Garmin acting up? You may not even have to buy a new one if you can just live with a quirk or too.

Like Phil says, above Roark you dont really need one. I myself would never fish for trout below Bull without being able to find certain holes. But I never use one when Bass fishing this lake. On Table Rock though, Bass Fishing is pretty tough without a graph.

[loo10]

I think my connection is starting to go bad as it just shuts off.

Then I jiggle the unit & wiggle the cord and turn it back on.

All I've ever used it for was keeping track of my depth...especially at night.

The color ones intrigue me but it's alot of money just to see the bottom in red vs. black.

Was curious if anyone uses one and really knows how to make it work for them on Taneycomo.

I'd love to get with a depthfinder guru sometime that could REALLY teach me

the advantages of using one.

IE: Could I see a 20 lb brown pass under my boat??

[Trav]

The closest thing to a guru here on OAF I believe would be Cpt Don.

[D.T.]

Loo10, I rented a bass boat at Lilleys last week and it had a locator on it. I know nothing at all about those things I did turn it on just to watch it. I was surprised at the different depths from Lilleys down to the landing. The water down river of the bridges was shallow I thought, maybe 8' in some areas. Another thing I noticed was size of fish on the graph and the number of fish. I would go over areas and see lots on the screen and then none for a long time. It was a garmin locator. I wish I new more about them and if it would help with my catch rate. If the locator was right there was long stretches that I drifted over with no fish.

Dave

[Trav]

On Taney

Shoot me if I am wrong, If you see fish on the graph on Taney it is most likley a white sucker. I ignore the fish locator on my monitor. I use it only to find depth breaks and the big cover.

It is not hard to use a graph of any tech. You just have to know its level of sensitivity. I personally crank up the sensitvity and read between the lines.

[MOBass]

I recently put a Eagle Fishmark 320 on the boat and have been very happy with it. It retains your settings which will save some time having to "reprogram" it after each trip. It is a b/w unit and the screen is clear and has good contrast. It has a temp sensor built in the transducer which is nice. I haven't got serious about deep fishing but after playing around with a grub and shakey head to see if the unit could pick it up I feel pretty good about being able to see a drop shot if I needed to. It has plenty of definition and power for showing stuff on the bottom and picking up suspended fish. No it isn't one of the big color units that you could watch a football game on but I am happy with it.