Hand held depth finder?

[Devinpreston]

Hey I was wondering if anyone here uses a handheld depth finder for float tubing. I saw someone using one on Crowley this weekend and it looked like it worked well. If so what brand is good? Not looking to spend too much.
Thanks, Devin

[Gary C.]

I have a Hummingbird Smart Cast and it does pretty good for giving you the depth but I've never been very impressed with it's ability or rather inability to show structure or suspended fish.

[Devinpreston]

ok thanks for the info im really just interested in depth for midging out of my tube.

[John Harper]

A small sinker and some line marked at 10' increments?

John

[hpskiff]

Can't say how well it works but Harbor Freight has one for under $50 bucks - remember to use a 20% coupon and/or wait for a sale. http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea ... ish+finder

[BobK]

I use a smart cast from my ladder at Pyramid to find the small depth changes. It work really well for that. Cast it out and it shows the depth from 5 to 100 ft out. Not too good at indicating fish in the shallows. BobK

[briansII]

Tough to beat a Smart Cast for being small, portable, and cheap. The info it gives you will be about as basic as it gets for a modern sonar unit. Next step up in portable sonar would be Hummingbird's Fishin' Buddy. Self contained(no separate transducer), portable, and not a whole lot more money than the Smart Cast. The information is more detailed, and equals the quality of the cheaper, fixed mount units. I have used one for several years, and rarely float tube or pontoon without it. And yes, it has marked fish, and I have caught those(schooling or singles) fish.

briansII

[duckdog]

I have been using the Humming bird fishing buddy for a few years now and all I can say is where have you been all my life. A few weeks ago fishing Crowley the fish were hanging around a steep drop off, you hang in 11-12 ft of water and cast to the drop off. w/o my little buddy you are just guessing and having to check it old school style constantly. Just leads to more consistent fishing .

[Pescatore]

saw this on Walmart's website, got good reviews:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HawkEye-Porta ... gMethod=rr

[Devinpreston]

Thanks guys! Im trying to keep weight down (Im challenged in that area) so I think the handheld is what I want.