Fish finders do you need one?

My fish finder is one of the most important tools I bring with me.
Once it's set up, you really don't have to mess with it at all while you're on the water. It doesn't have to be a video game-like distraction unless you want it to be.

I just keep mine on "split screen" mode so I can see a chart one one side and the sonar returns on the other. Occasionally I'll put it in full screen chart or full screen sonar, but that's pretty much the extent of the buttons I push while I'm on the water.

You WILL catch more fish if you have sonar and learn how to use it. Period.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It used to be that with all the kelp in Trinidad, one didn't need a fish finder to locate structure.  Since kelp needs a hard surface to attach itself (ie, rocks), all you had to do to find rocky structure was to keep your eyes peeled for kelp floating on the surface.  That worked out great for me for a while, back when I was on a college budget and couldn't stomach the cost of a fish finder.  Caught plenty of rockfish and lings just fishing around kelp strands and wash rocks near Flatiron.

But that's not really the case now.  There's been very little kelp growth along the Humboldt coast these past few years.  Tons of pinnacles around and outside of Trinidad that I used to ID by spotting the kelp growing off them can now only be found using a fish finder.

If the kelp comes back to what it used to be, then you won't need a FF in Trinidad to do well on bottomfish.  But if next year's kelp growth is similar to this year's, then a FF will be a HUGE help in finding those pinnacles.  With a FF, you won't be wasting time fishing over a sandy bottom hoping you'll drift across structure.

No...you can't get by.    You need one for sure.    Even The Natives  used them 10,000's of years ago, but they wear made of cheaper electronical parts and sucked bad for them.  Some years they even almost   Starved to death because of the fish finder  malfunctioned often   

What brand of FF did the natives use? Whatever it was, sounds like it sucked.

No...you can't get by.    You need one for sure.    Even The Natives  used them 10,000's of years ago, but they wear made of cheaper electronical parts and sucked bad for them.  Some years they even almost   Starved to death because of the fish finder  malfunctioned often   

What brand of FF did the natives use? Whatever it was, sounds like it sucked.

Hundreds of years ago when only the natives fished the coast there was as far as I know no shortage of fish and no fish finders.  Then white settlers with muskets and fish finders showed up and now some of the oceans fisheries are very depleted. I believe this proves the effectiveness of a fishfinder.

I caught lots of fish before I got one but I like to be as efficient as possible when fishing so I would rather not wander around hoping I'm in a good spot if I can avoid it. Not necessary to have one but then neither is a rod and reel. We just had an awesome handline tourney. But a lot of nibbles probably would have been hookups if we all had our poles