Bottomline Fishin' Buddy 1101, any good ?

[kyron4]

Looking at Bottomline's Fishin' Buddy 1101 fish finder for my jon boat. This is the clamp on unit with the trans. on the end of the shaft. Easily removable is the part I like for my boat. Any opinions ? Good or bad ? Worth $100. I fish water from 4' to 25' , but mostly 6' to 15'. -Thanks

[Blue Duck]

Id like to know too. I have a canoe Id like to put one on. My main concern is the 9 degree transducer. Seems like it might be too tight to give much of a picture in the depth of water you mention.

[Jig'r]

My ole Preacher has 1 and it did very well,he loved to fish bridge pilings and would stick it in the water and it showed the fish,dept. etc...not bad for the money. hope this helps... Russ!

[dixieangler]

Some folks don't like them and have said they had problems with them but I have one that has given good service. Great when I use it on my fishing buddy's (no pun intented:D) motorized canoe. The plastic clamp is its weak point and I have had to repair it using some aluminum braces. Water force torque or overtightening can break the plastic (remove the unit from the clamp holster when the boat is in motoring motion, other than slow paddling). I also use it on my ODC 816 in a sonar unit strap holster. I have it for the purpose of locating underwater structure, depth, and water temperature more than locating fish but it does that too (deeper water locating with the small 9 degree cone, about 6 foot or deeper seems to be best for me). Schooling fish are easy to read and it has a fish alarm. It does not locate fish in shallows (no side scan) but I don't need a sonar unit to tell me fish are in the shallows. It was worth the $100 to me :D. Depends on your needs . Best of luck.

[unknown 5]

I like my Fishing Buddy II but my main unit is a Hummingbird Matrix 37. The Buddy II would be a good unit for your use, especially for $100. My unit has a side finder feature and I would highly reccomend you getting that feature on yours. You can find a school of crappie a long ways off to the side with it.

[Ohio Angler]

I Have a Fishing Buddy 2201 with the side finder feature that I bought last year for my canoe.Since then I have sold the canoe and bought a Tracker All Fish.I maybe used the Fishing buddy 7 or 8 times and I thought it worked great.It is in like new condition and has a carrying case.I also respectfully disagree with the previous post concerning the clamp on bracket being flimsy.The one with my unit is actually pretty darn sturdy and has a knob you can loosen allowing you to pivot the telescoping transducer up out of the water.Or you can simply lift it out of the bracket when moving at fast speeds.If anyone is interested I would sell mine for $100 plus shipping.PM me!