Thread: fish finder for shallow lake

Hello everybody,
I know you've seen these types of threads a hundred times, but I want to ask about fish finders.

I fish the Lake Verrett area and Atchafalaya basin in Pierre Part, La.
water depth is from 2ft to 10ft at the most.
I'm looking for a fish finder.
Any recommedations are appreciated.
I put out some condos and I'm ready to try them out!!!

I have a Bottom Line Tournament HR now, bad transducer, and the only place I've found them are priced at $165.00.
Bottom Line discontinued both fish finder and transducer.

I'll need a trolling motor transducer too.
Don't want to spend more than $500.00.
Loading maps not that important but OK, I'd like to snapshot locations and mark GPS positions.

I've got Cabelas and Bass Pro in my back yard, not too sure about prices there.

Thanks,
Fishbone

Hello fishbone, I don't have an answer to your question but rather I want to issue a welcome from the bayou land. I see you join CDC just before I did. I must say that I've picked up quite a few ideas since joining. Sure is a nice bunch of worthless fishermen here. Seems like the best in the world, so if you want to become a worthless fisherman like the rest of us you're welcome to sit a stay a spell, just don't say that you haven't been warned. I'm from Houma and was planning to do some fishing in Verrett this winter. I was hoping to use some of the tactics that those LA yankees use. Now I'm not knocking them, they are some darn good fishermen, but north of I-10 they fish for crappie not sac-a-lait and do it differently from the way we do it down here. Can you imagine a boat drifting across the lake with 8 poles in the water and only one person in the boat. I been, lets say, under the weather, since right after Christman and haven't been out in the boat. Looks like thats just about over, hopefully and prayerfully. I'm also looking for a good fishfinder for shallow water. I want something with great detail. I want to mount the transducer on the trolling motor. Hummingbird has a unit with a transducer that lets you see towards the bank. I don't know if it would be useful if mounted on the TM because turning it from left to right might make the picture very confusing, but then again, with some study and trial and error it might just provide me with what I want. Now I'm not talking about the side imaging units, I can't quite swing the price for one of those. When I get my tax refund I will probably buy one. So let's sit back and see just what these fine folks can come up with for us. As soon as I'm well perhaps we can hook up with a trip to Verrett and you can show me around. I only fished there once about 30 years ago and don't remember much about it. It won't be long when those sac-a-lait will be running to the banks to spawn. I usually get serious with fishing after the 1st of Feburary. By then all the deer and duck hunters will be out of the marsh making it a safer place to fish. I mostly fish off of the intracoastal canal out of Houma or Bayou Black Marina. Nuf said hopefully we can meet up one day.
From the bayou,
PawPaw "gene"

i fish a few shallow water lakes from 2'-10' and just use a paddle or pushpole to find the depth.john

From 2-10 ft a "fishfinder" will have a VERY narrow cone. When the sonar goes from the transducer it starts out as a cone shaped signal a few inches in diameter the deeper the signal travels the larger this cone gets and thus the more coverage and detail is seen on the bottom. If I wanted something for 2-10ft deep I would use a quality flasher type depthfinder. Will give you true realtime depth mesurements and with a little practice you will be able to see structure and cover with it. Just my 2-cents. Curly.

What I Look For Is The Cone Angle Of The Unit The Larger The Angle The Wider The Coverage Of The Bottom A 20 Degree Cone The Bottom Area Is About 1/3 Water Depth Where As A 90 Degree Cone Covers 2 Times The Water Depth Example 20= 3'+- A 90 Degree = 20' At 10' Of Water Depth You Do LOOSE Detail With The Larger Angle But Most Units With Wide Angles Can Be Turned Back To 20 Degrees
I Have A Humminbird 737 With Gps Mounted To My Trolling Motor It Works Well I Just Look At The Pointer On The T/m To Check Orientation Of The Transducer. I Like The Unit Garman Is Also A Good Unit