Garmin Striker Cast

[gramps50]

I’m looking at the Garmin Striker Cast but can’t decide between the GPS model or the standard model, $50 difference in price. I bank fish small uncharted lakes & ponds & was thinking I could use it to get an idea on the contour in an area. I will either cast it with a dedicated heavy rod with probably #100 braid on the spool. Also thinking about towing it with an RC boat. Does anyone have one & is the GPS worth the extra $50?

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/665274/

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I got the non GPS version for my boy for Christmas it works great. I cant imagine what I would need the GPS for, I mean were fishing off the bank. 

[MrGiggles]

Kinda my thoughts on the GPS as well. You really only use that in open water where there are no other navigational beacons, so to speak. 

[gramps50]

When going through my old fishing stuff from 10 years ago I came across the Vexilar SonicPhone T-pod but unfortunately I couldn’t find the charging cord. To my surprise it’s still being produced. Vexilar sells replacement charging cables so I ordered one. Looking at the Garmin app & Vexilar  app in the demo mode look very similar. I did stick it in a bucket of water & the lights came on & it worked so I ordered a new charging cables. Can’t wait to toss it in a lake & checkout the bottom contours.

[jdmidwest]

GPS is useful because the unit usually comes with a base map showing contours.  New ones create a contour map and record actual reading to make a map.

GPS units show drop offs and depth and allow you to search a map to find spots to fish.

[gramps50]

I purchased the Striker Cast GPS version because I thought it would be good to map the local ponds I normally fish. That way when I went back at a later date I could pull-up the map & check depths etc. Took it to a small local pond that doesn’t get much use to try the mapping. I tossed the little bobber sonar dealie out & reeled it back until the map showed I had covered most of the pond. As I was doing the casting & reeling the wife was reading the depth changes off the phone. Her depths from the Striker Cast app were from 8.5’ to 2’ when finished the contours showed 4’ to 2’ this was done at the 455 kHz frequency which is the narrower beam, the wider beam is 210 kHz which would be better for mapping contours especially is shallower waters. My quess is 15’ is probably the max for the ponds I fish & want to map.

[Dutch]

Even with the 210 khz you will only be seeing a few inches of the bottom in water that shallow.  With a standard 200 khz transducer you will only see about 1/3 of the depth, for example if the water is 15’ deep your cone will be approximately 5’ wide.  If you want to get specific here is the geometric formula:

 

C=2xDepthxTangent(khz #/2)

[gramps50]

That explains why I got a better contour chart with the Deeper Pro+ 2 which I scanned at 240 kHz & used 455 kHZ when using the Garmin. I’ll go back & scan it again using 210 kHz using the Garmin. Thank Dutch for the explanation.