Smartcast Fishfinder?

[Yuck_Worms]

It's toy buying time and I wondered if anyone who has used one of these would recommend them or not. I have a fish finder on the boat already (eagle 168 that came with the boat.) It seems like a good idea for checking out where you fear to go with the boat, and for not scaring off the fish, but is the resolution of the screen decent enough. Do you have to have a dedicated rod for it, or do you actually have it on as the same time as your bait/lure? On a scale of 1 - 10, how useful is it? Thanks!

[saskie]

I have a similar set up with a transducer on the end of a length of cord that you can toss about 20'. It's reasonably good for showing depth, but that's it. Once I got my "real" portable back from my brother I never used it again.

[Pints]

Here is the link to the samrtcast units. They can be mounted on your rod or you can get a wrist model, as well as a base model.

http://www.humminbird.com/products.asp?ID=387

They look interesting. LeBaron's catalog shows one of the base models, the PiranhaMax 30 portable with Smartcast Technology for $260.94

[Yuck_Worms]

Thanks. They do look interesting. At the very least they might be fun to explore with when the fish aren't biting. I did check out the site, but it's not like the company will ever say, "This puppy will be relegated to the bottom of your tackle box before you can say boo."

[Walker]

I have one of the wrist type models and the resolution is o.k. but nowhere near the big boys. If you want to know if fish are around ,how deep,and size it does the job.