Portable Fish Finder?

I'm a complete newbie to ff's, but really want to get one.  A friend is offering me a Hummingbird 200dx brand new, but its in a portable case that holds two lantern batteries.  It also has a transducer with a suction cup thingy.  I initialy thought I wanted to hard mount my ff and told him I didn't want it.  But I started thinking it might be nice to put the whole thing away if there was a chance of getting worked in the surf on my way in.  How do you guys deal with your fish finder if you roll in the surf?  Can you put it away or something?

Lots of people use the portables. The suction cup thing works fairly well, the only problems I have heard is that kelp/grass can get tangled in it. Then you just pop it off, detangle and pop it back on. If it is free/cheap I would jump on it.

Lots of people use the portables. The suction cup thing works fairly well, the only problems I have heard is that kelp/grass can get tangled in it. Then you just pop it off, detangle and pop it back on. If it is free/cheap I would jump on it.

Thanks Bill.  I guess I didn't do my homework before posting.  it looks like the hard mounted ffs can be easily disengaged from the mounts if you think things might get tricky.  Also, this guy wants 100 bucks for the thing, which seems like too much to me.  Think I'll just buy a piranha 20.

    I use the portable Eagle (about $120).  It takes 8 AA batteries.  I always disconnect the battery wire (just pull the plug) when off the water to prevent charge trickle and the batteries last a long time (many days of fishing).  (I used to have the Piranha, but I found it much inferior to my current FF. In my opinion,  I wouldn't waste the money on the Hummer.) I quit trying to locate fish   with my FF's as I couldn't tell where the fish were headed (to troll over them) or whether I was really seeing fish (most of the time I was marking debris!!!). 
    The real value for me (and I wouldn't be without it) is:
 1.) locating structure, especially drop-offs
 2.) determining the depth I'm fishing (easier to target fish and also when trolling you'll save terminal tackle loss from snags when you suddenly get into shallow water). This is a very important guide to how deep my lures are.  For example, with 100' of 4 lb. test and 7 cm Rapala I might notice that I hit bottom at 15'.  That would be my yardstick for wherever I'm trolling.  I can change my paddling or amount of line out or add a small keel weight to the line for more depth or vice versa..  If I'm not getting anything and others tell me they're catching at another level, i can adjust because I have a pretty good idea where my lure is.  When there is a lot of debris on the water, it's easy to reach over the side and pull it off the wire and suction cup.. 
 3. when in the ocean or bay, knowing when the bottom suddenly gets shallow will tell me to be especially cautious about sleeper waves.  The sudden decrease in water depth will "sqeeze" the energy of waves into a narrow vertical zone and greatly increase wave heights.  This is especially true when larger ships go by and their wake seems harmless (and sometimes the ships are long gone and this energy suddenly appears). When around heavy large boat traffic I tend to criss-cross back and forth across the wave break zone (rather than paddle parallel to it) to avoid the ultimate surprise. I've used this technique successfully in San Pablo and SF Bay, Half Moon Bay. west coast of Vancouver Is. and Carquinez Strait.
    I've seen other kayakers using in-hull mounted FF's and the more expensive units (>$400) I understand work well for marking fish and even identifying species.  For me, I don't mind not knowing the fish are below me.  For me, it's more sporting.  For others they're enjoying their set-up and that's great.  It's all fun and that's what it's all about!
TL

I've been using the portable Piranha 4 (8 AA batteries).  the suction cup works OK, does catch some debris occasionally, but it's easy to reach over and clear it.

On the negative side, the plasstic used by humminbird gets brittle and the cases crack.  Humminbird will replace for <free-29$> depending on your story, and who you talk to at the customer service.

I like the portables becasue I can move them from yak to yak.  I think in terms of elctronic bang for your buck, you're better off with a non-portable and mount the transducer inside the boat.  Like you say, you can pull the unit off the mount and stow it if you need to.  With the transducer mounted inside, your boat can be clean as you need it for launches and recoveries.

On Old Blue (SCPTW), I used a Scotty conversion kit for the mounting braket on a Fisheasy Eagle 2.  This way I could just have a scotty flush mount that the FF could mount into.  Very clean when neccessary.

Allen

Allen,
The problem I had with my Piranha which I now recall was with the wire running to the transducer.  The wire was broken or was shorting out within the fully enclosed plastic casing and frequently would send weird signals to the screen.  It was frustrating and very annoying to be on the water in a "sweet" area and have the FF go wacky.  I talked to a Hummingbird rep at one of the fishing shows last winter (at SF or San Mateo) and although my FF was not very old, he wanted nothing to do with it. 
I, too, like the portability. I use it on two kayaks that I fish from.
Tom of Walnut Ck.

That doesn't sound like very good customer service..... I have two cases to send in to humminbird, I need to call them and see if they'll do me better than $29 for a rebuilt case.

That transducer cable problem must have driven you crazy.  I've always been more concerned over the power connection.  After having one decay totally, I've been religious about spraying them with electronic contact cleaner after every go-out.  I clean those contacts before rinsing my reels.  Forget once, and it's all downhill.

One other advantage of the portable over the hard mount with the transducer inside the boat, is that with the suction cup transducer, I get accurate water temperature, which is a benefit in the long run . 

Thanks gents for the great info. I've got three boats, but not a lot of spending money, so now I'm thinking I will get the portable.  My main problem with it, though, is that the box itself seems so huge.  I'm having a hard time imagining where and how to mount the thing on my boat so it can't escape when I'm out there, but it can be put away when things get hectic.  Anybody have any ideas about permanent / temporary mounts?  I also bought a rhyno bar cheap.  Maybe I can mount it on that.

Dave:

The battery box doesn't have to be anywhere near that big.  Come on over to the house and we can make something WAY smaller for you.

My floating in water mount gets pretty accurate water temps, +- 3 degrees which is good enough for me.

Definitely check out the type of mounting for your non-portable ff. Some dismount easily, some have to be unscrewed (wing-screw).I have a Matrix 10, very easy dismount, but won't get knocked off inadvertently.So far so good with it's reliability; one season and a LOT of water splashed on it.

I had nothing but bad experiences with the Piranha Portable FF. IMO, if you do get one, keep the receipt and ask about the return policy before you buy it. I was lucky enough to buy 'em at REI (when they used to sell them - on-line) I returned and exchanged 2 units and both SUCKED big time. These things were really not made for kayak fishing so you really need to take care of it. But despite of my tender loving care, they still SUCKED. Gotta keep and eye on the connections - it's a very high maintenance fish finder. It's cheap but not worth the head ache at the end.

just my 2 cents...

Well, I'm kinda a newbie to this site, but all the stuff  I've read here from Mooch leads me to believe that if he says Hummers suck (did I just make a joke?), then they suck.  Which then begs the question:  If you've got about a hundred or so bucks, what's a good ff for the $?  Especially if you're notorious for gear neglect.

I'm sure this subject has been asked and answered here a bunch......as well as the hummer jokes.

Please note that Mooch doesn't say Humminbird sucks... just the Pirhana portable.   I know that I am very happy with my Matrix 35 and others are happy with their "hummers", too.

As another (positive!) data point, I returned my head unit, without puck, to Humminbird last year because of odd readings (alternately showed depth of 4 and 400 feet).  They updated the firmware, cleaned the unit, and shipped it back with a shiny new puck and battery cables.  Turns out the issue was with my HULL MOUNTING (goop bubbled during a hot day), and not the unit at all.  Thus, I got a free puck and cable for the cost of one-way shipping to Humminbird!  Anyway, I'm happy with their customer service:  good support and no snotty questions or prevarication.

Pescadore... you might look at the Eagle Fisheasy 240 for a great value.  I've been very happy with mine and it has features that you really can't find in anything else in the price range.  They are just a dad over $100 now... and they also have a portable version if that's what you're after.

http://kayakfishingstuff.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=KFS&Product_Code=Fisheasy2&Category_Code=NS

Erik