Portable Fish Finders anyone?

[MichaelAngelo]

I happily stumbled across this portable fish finder system at my local Walmart today:

http://www.amazon.com/Humminbird-Piranha...B001GFDPR8



With Walmart's solid return policy, I thought I'd give it a spin this weekend (... and the next maybe? ) on my trip to Algonquin Park's massive, deep lakes. Canoe mounting should be interesting....

Of course, it's going to be my first time using a fish finder. I'm scrambling about the net searching for tutorials .

[OldTimer]

Fish finders are a great tool to get information to make you more effective.

I use them to get an idea what level the fish are at, and then to keep us on that depth, or weed/break line. And as a safety tool (shallow warnings) they can not be beat.

One word of advice - don't be "lured" and fall into the trap of chasing markings.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[MuskieBait]

That's exactly the one I have...wish we have at least use it so I can give you a tutorial....too busy looking for muskie last weekend

[MichaelAngelo]

(07-19-2012 06:20 AM)OldTimer Wrote:  One word of advice - don't be "lured" and fall into the trap of chasing markings.

Cheers,

OldTimer

I could see myself falling for that one .

I'm going to be looking for Lake Trout...

Maybe fish around schools of baitfish? Maybe fish when I see suspended markings? Fish steep dropoffs? Not too sure what approach I should take.

[OldTimer]

(07-19-2012 04:52 PM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  I'm going to be looking for Lake Trout...

If its a really deep cold Algonquin lake - I'd start by looking about the 80 foot deep level this time of year, then try deeper. If shallower start at the max depth and zig zag across breaks.

Lake trout will be hugging tight to the bottom (as always). They rarely suspend after the ice out and the establishment of a thermocline.

You'll want to drag or bounce your lure there (on, or near, bottom).

Cheers,

OldTimer

[MichaelAngelo]

Unfortunately, we failed to catch any lakers on our trip. We were limited to 3-4 hours total fishing time in an evening and a morning. We tried during the day, but the breeze was too strong to maintain a speed that would allow our lures to stay on the bottom. I was rocking a whitegrub/nightcrawler combo on a dropshot rig and my friend was using a plastic swimbait, also dropshotting.

The park warden came by to enforce the fire ban. We asked him where we could find lakers, and he pointed us to a 100-120 feet deep channel that ran through the bay we were staying on. Drifting through the channel, the fishfinder detected "fish" right on the bottom, at 90 feet, and at 40 feet. I left the fish alarm on because I didn't feel confident enough to look for arches on my own.

Things I can improve on for next time would be to use heavier lead sinkers, braided or fluoro line with no stretch, spend more hours at first light at dusk, and learn to better interpret our fishfinder.

[MuskieBait]

(07-23-2012 03:43 PM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  Unfortunately, we failed to catch any lakers on our trip. We were limited to 3-4 hours total fishing time in an evening and a morning. We tried during the day, but the breeze was too strong to maintain a speed that would allow our lures to stay on the bottom. I was rocking a whitegrub/nightcrawler combo on a dropshot rig and my friend was using a plastic swimbait, also dropshotting.

The park warden came by to enforce the fire ban. We asked him where we could find lakers, and he pointed us to a 100-120 feet deep channel that ran through the bay we were staying on. Drifting through the channel, the fishfinder detected "fish" right on the bottom, at 90 feet, and at 40 feet. I left the fish alarm on because I didn't feel confident enough to look for arches on my own.

Things I can improve on for next time would be to use heavier lead sinkers, braided or fluoro line with no stretch, spend more hours at first light at dusk, and learn to better interpret our fishfinder.

BassPro sells some bank sinkers from 1-6oz in size...those should be plenty heavy

When is your next trip for lakers? Maybe you and I can take the canoe to Binbrook to chase some white crappies...and I can show you how to use the fishfinder (my unit is the same). We'll definitely need to use the fishfinder to look for schooling crappies in the main basin. We can do this after my trip.

[MichaelAngelo]

(07-23-2012 04:07 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  When is your next trip for lakers? Maybe you and I can take the canoe to Binbrook to chase some white crappies...and I can show you how to use the fishfinder (my unit is the same). We'll definitely need to use the fishfinder to look for schooling crappies in the main basin. We can do this after my trip.

Nothing planned for lakers at the moment, but I will be on Drag Lake in Haliburton this coming weekend. The fishfinder's coming with me. The plan is to find underwater weedbeds and get into walleye... that's the plan .

The lake seems a little big to be chasing lakers in a canoe (the lake is huge LOL). If we can use a motorboat, maybe we'll chase lakers... but not sure right now.

Other than that, I'm hoping to organize a few more canoe trips this year.

I like the white crappie plan, sounds good!

Algonquin report coming soon...

[MikeH]

(07-23-2012 04:36 PM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  

(07-23-2012 04:07 PM)MuskieBait Wrote:  When is your next trip for lakers? Maybe you and I can take the canoe to Binbrook to chase some white crappies...and I can show you how to use the fishfinder (my unit is the same). We'll definitely need to use the fishfinder to look for schooling crappies in the main basin. We can do this after my trip.

Nothing planned for lakers at the moment, but I will be on Drag Lake in Haliburton this coming weekend. The fishfinder's coming with me. The plan is to find underwater weedbeds and get into walleye... that's the plan .

The lake seems a little big to be chasing lakers in a canoe (the lake is huge LOL). If we can use a motorboat, maybe we'll chase lakers... but not sure right now.

Other than that, I'm hoping to organize a few more canoe trips this year.

I like the white crappie plan, sounds good!

Algonquin report coming soon...

You should start a second site called Ontario Canoe Fishing....

[MichaelAngelo]

(07-23-2012 05:08 PM)MikeH Wrote:  You should start a second site called Ontario Canoe Fishing....

LOL Mike, I knew you were going to that before I even opened the thread up