$350 depth finder

[jdmidwest]

Its amazing what even a simple luxury can do to improve fishing.  I set out with a friend last weekend on a strange lake in his fishing pontoon.  I offered my boat, rigged for fishing, but he assured me that his would meet the task.

Hopped on board.  His simple Humminbird transducer was laying on top of one pontoon, mount broken sometime this summer.  His Minn Kota trolling motor would only go left, drive motor would not actuate to run right, and had to mash the switch to even get power.  First part of day went miserable.  Back to dock fishless.

Fixed trolling motor pedal where I had both directions and the switch to where it fired with less pressure.  Downloaded Navionics App to IPhone so we could have some idea of depth and dropoffs.  Fishing improved.  If his rudamentary fishfinder had been active to show bottom and structure, it may have been better.

I have fished for 40 years blind.  I have found fish by just blind luck and marked those spots to internal memory.  And I have returned to the same spots and caught more fish.

But, I will now use electronics to improve my scouting and fishing when I get the chance.  And I seem to catch more with my new stragedy.