No electronics and why.

[Swamp Girl]

If you don't fish with electronics, why not? For example, you might be a shore fisher or it might be a matter of cost.

 

I don't use electronics because it's more for me to carry. I car top my canoe and fish ponds without ramps, so the approaches to the water I fish are often uneven and it's typically dark. Plus, I'm already carrying a minimum of four rods, a big net, camera, pliers, bump board, headlamp, pliers, hook cutter, tacklebox, etc. and I'll be 67 this summer. I also have depth maps for most of the water I fish. Lastly, I fish ponds small enough that I can find fish pretty quickly without electronics and once I catch fish at one spot, I can waypoint it in my mind and return to it again and again.

[gim]

There is a small, shallow river that I float in a jon boat during midummser for smallmouth.  It is a very basic aluminum jon boat that I also use for waterfowl hunting.  It has no electronics.  We have to carry it down to a canoe launch and then back to the truck at the finish point, so weight is a factor at least for a little bit.

 

Electronics really would not be helpful for me in this river.  Many areas are just inches deep.  Some years its too shallow and I can't fish this river.  2021 being the most recent because of drought.  I can see all the structure with my eyes, other than a few deeper holes.  We just float with the current from point A to point B and steer with paddles to avoid obstacles along the way.

 

I will admit that in some cases where marine electronics may not be practical or necessary, I have a hand held GPS that I can use.  I have generally fished the same section of this river for about 20 years so I know what everything looks like now, but initially a hand held GPS was very helpful in marking certain locations (such as deeper holes).

 

When I am in my bass boat, electronics play a vital role not only in determining location, water temp, etc, but its also a basic safety thing for me.  Throttling down with an outboard without knowing its deep enough is an accident waiting to happen.

 

 

[Captain Phil]

My Ranger bass boat has two combo GPS/Sonar units that I don't use.  It may be hard for some to believe, but I still catch plenty of bass.  For years the only depth finder I had was a wooden pole.  If I want to spend my day staring into a computer screen, I'll stay home and play Nintendo.  I'm not against using electronics.  I just don't need it myself.

[TnRiver46]

I never use them while casting or in canoe, kayak, or Jon boat. I use them at console in my larger boat 

 

I like to drive around and watch the screen and say “there’s some fish over there I’ll never catch”

[Swamp Girl]

48 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

My Ranger bass boat has two combo GPS/Sonar units that I don't use.  It may be hard for some to believe, but I still catch plenty of bass.  For years the only depth finder I had was a wooden pole.  If I want to spend my day staring into a computer screen, I'll stay home and play Nintendo.  I'm not against using electronics.  I just don't need it myself.

 

^This.^ I too figure that every second spent looking a screen is a second I'm not fishing. 

[casts_by_fly]

There are times on a couple of the lakes here where I just turn it off.  I know them well enough that I know exactly what depth i'm sitting in at any given spot.  I know how I want to fish it.  Often its casting to visible cover near the shoreline.  Sometimes its in the dark and I don't want the light.  In all those cases there is no need for it so I just don't use it.

 

Now that I've added live imaging I will go back through those places in the same conditions and times but with live imaging to see what I'm missing.  

[Deleted account]

I only fish without a FF when I have to. To me it's not usually about finding fish, it's about having the depth, and seeing structure, or deeper weed lines and the such, and temp. but in new water, or if I haven't been out in a while, then yeah, I may use it to find fish.

[SC53]

20 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

My Ranger bass boat has two combo GPS/Sonar units that I don't use.  It may be hard for some to believe, but I still catch plenty of bass.  For years the only depth finder I had was a wooden pole.  If I want to spend my day staring into a computer screen, I'll stay home and play Nintendo.  I'm not against using electronics.  I just don't need it myself.

There was an old Florida joke that your rod was called a “ Florida depth finder”.

If you couldn’t touch bottom with you rod, you needed to go shallower. 

[Captain Phil]

5 hours ago, SC53 said:

There was an old Florida joke that your rod was called a “ Florida depth finder”.

If you couldn’t touch bottom with you rod, you needed to go shallower. 

 

True.  Other than a man made rock pit or canal, I don't believe I have ever caught a Florida bass in water over 6 feet deep.

[Catt]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:59 AM, ol'crickety said:

 

^This.^ I too figure that every second spent looking a screen is a second I'm not fishing. 

 

Every second spent in unproductive water is time spent practicing casting. Just kidding! 

 

On 3/23/2023 at 10:35 AM, TnRiver46 said:

I like to drive around and watch the screen and say “there’s some fish over there I’ll never catch”

 

There's a chip in the depth finder that shows these little fish images going round & round.

[casts_by_fly]

47 minutes ago, Catt said:

There's a chip in the depth finder that shows these little fish images going round & round.

 

There would be a good prank for a tournament angler with a camera crew in the boat.  Put the unit on display/practice mode that comes from the manufacturer and let it roll!

[Dogface]

I have been fishing the Susquehanna for a long time. About 25 or 30 years ago I purchased a 14' jon to leave at the mountain house to use on the river and numerous other lakes and ponds. I never had a depth finder on the Jon. About 6 years ago I got a deal on a Hummingbird and I put it on the boat. 

 

There is one stretch of the Susquehanna I fish regularly. I knew the approximate depths and that the river usually changes some after each storm.  There is an area where I catch some musky.  I knew the musky held in the area but not why. It was not until I used the depth finder did I realized that a huge pool in the area that I "assumed" was 5 or 6 feet deep was actually 10 to 12 feet deep and it did not change with the storms over the period of the last 6 years. The places I catch the musky are adjacent to the deep pool. 

 

The depth finder changed everything I thought I knew about that section of the river. 

[Bird]

I have sonar but not married to it.

Prefer it in the console for depth, water temps and time of day.

When I'm on the bow, I'm fishing and not squinting over a screen.

[Bankc]

As far as I'm concerned, my kayak is an accessory for my fish finder, not the other way around.  

 

Though there are many days when the bass will be pushing up shallow where my fish finder becomes more of a chart/GPS/speedometer/thermometer/clock combo unit than a sonar unit.  If I'm fishing water less than around 6 feet deep, I don't need it and will often shut the sonar part off for the irrational fear of scaring off the fish.  But I'm pretty much worthless in 10+ feet of water without a sonar of some kind.  Give me a flasher at least!  

[Catt]

49 minutes ago, Bankc said:

my fish finder becomes more of a chart/GPS/speedometer/thermometer/clock combo unit than a sonar unit

 

I fish shallow water marshes (2-3'), I don't need a depth finder. 

 

This time of the year the grass is down making boat trails impossible to see, GPS is nice.

[BayouSlide]

I use electronics to find fish activity and to keep from getting lost...if I'm in the boat, rest assured they are on. Like Catt said, "Every second spent in unproductive water is time spent practicing casting" and I don't need more casting practice. ??

[Catt]

40 minutes ago, BayouSlide said:

I don't need more casting practice.

 

Couple weeks ago when I got home the wife asked how I did, I said skunked. She replied you got to practice casting, I said I need practice setting hook!

[GRiver]

I have a little, under  $100.00 Hummingbird, I use it mostly for depth finder, water temp. It doesn’t work well for a fish finder kinda thing. I would like to get gps with mapping, just because I like that kinda thing. 
If I’m out big bass hunting vs just fishing, I turn all electronics off and use my push pole to get around in the grass or pads, no trolling motor. 
I’ve got friends that have all the electronics one can have, they are cool, but I can’t justify the cost and the addiction to the screen people get.

People would pre-fish for tournaments by my house, now they troller-motor by watching the screen and marking spots, don’t even have poles in their hands.

[Alex from GA]

No electronics in my kayak because I'm fishing stuff I have to drag over between the holes.  In the boat I always have at least one locator on and looking at it.  

[WIGuide]

There aren't many times I'll venture out without any form of electronics. My old boat had them ram mounted and I'd always remove them for travel due to having to always re-adjust the mounts if I left them on (thank you horrible WI roads). There have been a few times I fished without them in recent years and it was late in the year, when the amount of daylight after work was severely limited. In a few of those cases I left them off, knowing I was going to be fishing a fairly shallow river where pretty much every target is visual and I would have rather spent the few extra minutes on the water rather than messing with them. The only other time was when I somehow managed to forget them at home for a weekend trip up north. Still found fish, but not as quickly as I would have with them. 

[Deleted account]

On 3/24/2023 at 7:24 AM, SC53 said:

There was an old Florida joke...

 

The one we heard near Ocala (In a pizzeria) was "I read good, not the big words dough"...

[Susky River Rat]

For the river it’s mainly for safety and water temp. I do use it to find some pockets but, I don’t use it to actively target fish. I am generally watching the river and the current to fish.

I need to know if I have enough depth of water to get up on plane.  I need about 1.5ft for about a 15 yard stretch to get up on plane.  I prefer to start off in about 2ft. Coming off plane isn’t as big of an issue but, I still need to watch out.  
 

[PABASS]

My electronics are on the low end, I would love to use them more but I fish smaller lakes and the river so not very useful in those bodies of water.  I would say I use them maybe 10% of the time I am out on the water, manly to make sure I am not too shallow or to find grass..  With that said I want FF sonar and would hope to use it daily, but really I just want to fish, well catch lol..

[KYKBassing]

I have a side scanning Helix on my kayak, but it's primarily just used to determine depth so I know where I can anchor with the power pole.  I'm familiar with the waters enough that I don't really need GPS or mark waypoints.

 

It's more effective using it as an ice fishing flasher and I take it with walleye fishing on outpost trips.  Using it to find walleye structure has made our fishing trips 100% more efficient, both in finding structure and going to back to spots via GPS/waypoints.

[Jar11591]

On 3/24/2023 at 1:40 PM, casts_by_fly said:

Put the unit on display/practice mode that comes from the manufacturer and let it roll!

Funny story from when I bought my first fish finder about 10 years ago. It was about the third time out with it, and I wasn’t marking much of anything. I was messing with the menu and settings just trying to familiarize myself with it then went back to fishing. When I glanced back over at it, the screen was lit up like I’ve never seen before. Told my buddy to drop something down immediately, we just found the motherload. After about 10 minutes of fishing and excitement and wondering why we weren’t catching any of these fish we were marking, my buddy goes “why is it flashing ‘Display Mode’?”. I just buried my face in my hands and pulled anchor.