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Need to pick your brain for a moment... Been dreaming about my back country trip this summer and thinking about taking the pontoon or float tube to fish some lakes that are deep in the back country... So due to the nature of back packing where weight and size are critical.. And knowing the lake is known to have mackinaw... I've been wondering if it is possible to have a light weight sonar that would actually work... My thoughts are, if you can graph a mac on the bottom and get over top, I'm thinking you can probably jig them into a strike... So my question for you is, I have seen the sonar's that work on your iphones, and I wonder if any of those units are real sonars that would work, or are they just gimmicks? If they are legit units, which ones are best and which are the most affordable? From my perspective, it's not going to be used outside of back pack trips because I use my Hummin Bird for my regular toon, boat, ice fishing trips, but it's too heavy and eats too much juice to take back country. So I think it would be great if those phone units really work, to have one of them.... But I don't want to pay as much as I would for a boat mounted unit since I already own the phone and all you need is a transducer, it seems like it shouldn't be too expensive.... What have you seen and how do they work??? Any actual hands on experience with these units??? Thanks J
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I tried Sportsmans Warehouse version of the iPhone fishfinder. Fish hunter. I used it ice fishing. It really drained the phone battery but that was the bluetooth version. They have WiFi ones that might be less power hungry. If there was a speck of water on the antenna it would disconnect from the phone. Again, bluetooth, not WiFi. I decided to take it back and get a small Lowrance for about the same price. That was for fishing through the ice though. Will you be bank fishing or on a float tube of some sort?
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iBobber, maybe the Deeper fish finder...A deeper with the kit for a boat is about $400
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When I had a 'toon, I had a wallet-size unit that ran on AA batteries. It worked just fine. I think it was from a company called See to Sea and sold from Harbor Freight for about $50.
My good luck with it may have been the exception because about half of them don't work at all, according to online reviews. But it might be worth a shot.
Take a peek here:
http://blog.harborfreight.com/fish_finder_6182013/5039/
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I have the Deeper and it works great with my Iphone or tablet. I have used it ice fishing, in rivers and in lakes. I would highly recommend it.
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I have been looking at this one:
[url "http://www.amazon.com/Signstek-Portable-FishFinder-Outdoor-Fishing/dp/B00C95IUSI?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_sfl_title_2&smid=A3H7GPL9U124TQ#Ask"]
http://www.amazon.com/Signstek-Portable-...U124TQ#Ask[/url]
Haven't tried it, but the reviews are positive.
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I have this one and it works all day no problem as long as you carry a charger for your phone.
http://www.sonarphone.mobi/navionics
I like this thing so far, it is really cool you can make your own chart of the bottom of the lake LIVE. just zig-zag across the lake and you build the map.
I have made 5 or 6 now and it is awesome to have gps fish finder combo in the back country to put you right back on the x the next day.
I have the SP300 SonarPhone T-BOX Portable System. A portable system with a carry case to hold the battery & suction cup mount for your boat.
FNF[cool]
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Will be fishing from a tube or toon if I can get it there... Appreciate the info on the fish hunter that is one I had considered... Think I'm leaning towards the sonar phone T-pod now... Thanks J
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Ya know that price range is too high for me for what I want to use it for... Guess I'm crazy I'd like full functions at a discount price and so I know something will have to give... J
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Thanks Rocky, that will be a good one to look at, price is closer to what I wanted to spend if it works... Thanks for the tip... J
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Tell me more about the Deeper, does it work in 100' deep lakes or I seen one review that sounded like it was only good to 35' or so? Not that I'll be fishing much deeper than that, but just curious... Also tell me if you can see bait fish, jigs or just big fish... Does this work off a 12V power supply or some kind of batteries? How is the battery life? Sorry for all the Questions just a lot to consider when so far from civilization and power supplies... Thanks for the response... J
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Thanks for that tip, I hadn't even seen that one out there... I'll have to dig deeper and learn more about it... Thank you... J
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Okay now for some serious questions since you have what my research has led me to... From what I had looked at I think vex/navonics pedigree on these products got my attention since they know what fishermen want in a finder and the T-box has that really cool mapping feature that I've almost been wanting to upgrade my Hummin bird to get.... So I see that a major plus and would go that direction in a hurry except for one draw back that is puzzling me... The T-box is a 12V system and I don't know how to get a 12V into the back country let alone recharge it for a second or third day... Weight is so critical and even those small 12V's still weigh a couple pounds and are bulky... Any idea how to get around that issue? They do have the T-pod that avoids the 12V issue and I think I can recharge it will the same solar battery back up I have for my phone... but it doesn't have the graphing feature... This is the dilemma I'm facing... Get a new feature and the back country sonar, but face the extra weight requirement or get a lighter item with sonar, but only have a unit that will be useful on backcountry trips... Price isn't too bad, but I sure wish the T-pod had the same features as the T-box... Thanks for the help and anything else you can add about it's usefulness would sure be appreciated... Thanks J
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You live in Cashless Valley don't ya?
Its the same mentality I picked up living cashless valley I guess. Unless you own a business or exploit starving college students then you wont make much here.
As an example; There's no way I would pay ~$250 ea for a good downrigger, let alone 1k for 4 of them, so I built me some. Fish finders are a different story though. There's no way I could even begin to build one of those so I have to bite the bullet and buy them.
Ok, I'm off my rant.
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No way to get around the 12V battery issue. It is required but used right it could last you the three days on one charge. I use a fish finder to mainly look for fish, once I find them I then pay less attention to the finder unless I am jigging, then it is really nice to put the jig in front of the fish.
You can use the Navionics app separate from the finder so the tpod will still work for you. It says it only works for 4hrsb though constant use.
With that being said I would find the fish switch over to the navionics App mark the spot and really circle around the area and get you some good marks. turn off the fishfinder and use the map to move from spot to spot.
If you decide to bare the weight of 12V battery and you update your maps, I did purchase Navionics+ 4.99 a year, and advanced map options One time purchase. What this does for you is when you map a lake it syncs and you can see it on the web app at home.
https://webapp.navionics.com/?lang=en#@6...ewFn%60fjT
If you have further questions let me know.
fnf[cool]
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Also look into 3 cell LiPo batteries. Each cell makes about 3.7v fully charged and they are light but powerful. KSL might have some people selling the batteries and chargers for their RC cars and stuff. Ebay has crap loads of them too. Hobbyking has new that are pretty cheap. You'll be looking for 3C or 3S. That will power a fish finder for a long time and be light weight too.
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Yup guilty from the great cash less valley... Also have the farming and engineering curse of being a penny pincher and red necker as charged... Plus I spent too much ($700 ish) on my last finder and less than two years later I'm looking for an upgrade so my wife might have my head if I spend too much on new toys to replace it already... But these T-pods or boxes have me nervous... Later J
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[#0000FF]Given your "frugality" and agrarian (redneck) status I have these three alternative suggestions.
[inline "FISH FINDER 2.jpg"]
[inline "FISH FINDER.jpg"]
[inline "REDNECK FISH FINDER.jpg"]
[/#0000FF]
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Recreation Outlet in Ogden has factory reconditioned Goal Zero solar panels for under $40 (less than half of new). They have a USB as well as a 12v output. We just bought one and it works a treat.
You could get a battery holder for rechargeable AA batteries and run the FF unit off of those and recharge the batts with the solar panel either after fishing or in real time if you have the "deck" room.
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I guess I need to ask the vex/navionics folks about the pod interface, because their info says the T-box is compatible with Navonics but the T-pod doesn't list that feature... I expect that means that it doesn't pass the data to the other mapping ap, but I'm not sure... If it did, that would be the awesome option to go with and I'd order one today... But I think I'm still going to have to compare battery weight against future usage of the finder... I have run the simulator of the t-pod finder and it looks like a fairly good fish finder, is that what you have found? It doesn't have a ton of features, but still looks like it does what I need it to do to find fish... I also need to figure out which Navionics map to get, I got the free ap, but it doesn't have a very good depth map of local lakes... Which one did you get and is it compatible with the Hummin bird finders? if so I heard you can down load your stuff on the computer to a card and transfer it to your finder? If that is true this should make my other finder much better for locating fish habitat... Can you let me know a little more about the mapping features? Thanks J
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