Hand held sonars

Hi all…Geat site. Long time lurker, first time poster. Just curious if anyone has used on of those hand held sonars and how well they work. And which brand you would recomend. Thanks.

Hey Jason glad your at the site, very good info here!

Welcome Jason. Great to have you with us. Please feel free to share and post all you want.
Thanks, Bill

Just picked up a lowarance i finder this fall for trolling on mille lacs. Was very happy with it so far. It has the capabilities for a mapping chip if I want to expand on it.

Couple of things it also does is eat batterys like crazy. Fishing at night with the back light on I can get about three to 4 hours out of 2 AA batteries. Need to pick up a cord to run it off of the main battery in the boat.

Second thing I have noticed is they dont seem to want to read the satilites to well while in a vehicle. It works plenty good anough to use while driving around but will cut out every now and again.

All and all I am happy to have picked one up. My main uses for it are going to be for night trolling on mille lacs and ice fishing in the winter. Its worked great for trolling and it should work great for ice fishing.

Check out the garmin 12 that TBO has for sale in the want adds. Looks like he is selling all the extras with it also. I used it on a few mille trips this fall and it kept us on the fish.

Welcome to IDA Jason!!!

Sorry guys…meant something like a hand held depth finder. Like Strikemaster, Marcum, or Vexillar for reading water depth through the ice, boat, etc…

hi, good question ! I came on to ask the same thing. My post was promted by the Mills Fleet Farm ad this A.M. Hope we get some good advice. I am especially wondering about how they work through differant kinds of ice-milky, cloudy, etc. even if I wait till an ice-fishing show it would be nice to have some “expert” advice.