Castable fishing locators

[Randy Price]

Have any of you used the Garmin Striker Cast or Deeper Start fish Finder?  Lately I've been doing a lot of bank fishing and was wondering if one of these would be helpful or just another gimic.

[J Francho]

I'm not sure how helpful they be for shore fishing, but they work great for a kayak. 

[Randy Price]

@J Francho, any model you would recommend?

[J Francho]

I don't remember the exact model, but it was from Deeper.  It was bluetooth paired with an iPhone, and the TD was on a gooseneck attached to the bow of the kayak.  Full color display, and I'm 99% certain it had GPS/maps.

[Randy Price]

@J Francho, ok thanks for the information!

[slonezp]

I'd be worried the line would snap

[Randy Price]

28 minutes ago, slonezp said:

I'd be worried the line would snap

@slonezp, I planned on putting it on a pike rod with 80# PP.

[Junger]

I have a Deeper Pro+, and it has been handy for a few places I like to bank fish that do not allow boats. It works well, except minimum depth for a reading has to be about 2’, usually not a big deal since I’m looking for structure changes anyways. It’s worth the $200 or so if you’re bank fishing a lot. I throw it on a small 6’6” catfish spinning rod with 65lb braid using a lob motion and have had no issues, sometimes I outcast the wifi range.

[BassinCNY]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

I don't remember the exact model, but it was from Deeper.  It was bluetooth paired with an iPhone, and the TD was on a gooseneck attached to the bow of the kayak.  Full color display, and I'm 99% certain it had GPS/maps.

That's my set up. It does have GPS/maps. It works OK. Mine's getting older though and the battery charge doesn't last as long as it used to.

[Deleted account]

6 hours ago, Randy Price said:

just another gimic.

 

[Bankc]

I did some research on these a year ago.  Ultimately, I decided against it.  But the one that got my attention was the Vexilar SP100.  The reasons are, it was cheaper than the Deeper, by a good margin, and it had wi-fi connection versus Bluetooth.  Bluetooth doesn't have a long range, and from what I was reading, a lot of the Bluetooth enabled fish finders would get disconnected if you casted it very far, making them not good for much other than fishing live bait from a dock.  The Deeper has wi-fi too, and if the price difference doesn't bother you, that would probably be the way to go, as they're a bigger company and they are a bit heavier invested into the technology.  So I'd assume they have better support.

 

Though I'll be honest, none were without their faults.  I read a lot of complaints about all of them.  So I ultimately passed, which was an easy decision to make, because that's when the kayak bug bit me.

[Randy Price]

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I'm still on the fence about the purchase at this point.