Thoughts on first fish finder?

I'm in the market for my first fish finder and I'm leaning towards the Garmin Striker 4 or 4 PLUS. I don't think I will get to use it too often, so I want to spend under $200, and the Garmin has a lot of features at a great price. Does anyone have any experience with this ff?

I am really curious if anyone can speak to the usefulness of the quickdraw countour mapping of the 4 PLUS. To my knowledge that is the only upgrade of the new model, and I am wondering if it's worth the $40 extra. I plan on mostly rockfishing, and sometimes crabbing and spearfishing. I was thinking the mapping could be useful for finding dive spots or stretches of sand that I passed over while paddling, from the comfort of my home.

I have an old OK 14' Scupper, if that matters. Also, if someone is selling a fish finder, shoot me an offer!

Get the one with the biggest screen you can afford.  I would say for $200, get a Navionics app instead.  You only need a fish finder if you are looking for bait ball or after a specific species.  Otherwise, you will be looking for contour and/or reefs.  But a fish finder is very useful and convenient to see depth, speed, and way points.   Overall, IMHO, you're looking for biggest screen you can afford, GPS, maps, and side scan on top of the regular features.  Note that this is related to saltwater only imho.

Get the one with the biggest screen you can afford.  I would say for $200, get a Navionics app instead.  You only need a fish finder if you are looking for bait ball or after a specific species.  Otherwise, you will be looking for contour and/or reefs.  But a fish finder is very useful and convenient to see depth, speed, and way points.   Overall, IMHO, you're looking for biggest screen you can afford, maps, and side scan on top of the regular features.  Note that this is related to saltwater only imho.

What's the reasoning for the large screen? Easier to see? What about not getting in the way of fishing? Yeah I think mostly I want it for depth, structure, and waypoints. Which is why I thought the contour mapping could be useful off the water.

I have the 7" Lowrance and it doesn't get in the way at all on my revo 13.

The best feature I upgraded to with my new fish finder was GPS. It is a life saver while crabbing.

I have a 7" screen on my Lowrance.  Much easier for me to see detail, and I can split or triple the screen view, to watch different screens at the same time.

IMHO.....fishfinders LIE!!! Yes they find fish, but getting them to bite is a different story

Any thoughts on the portable ones. Stuff [self]battery powered, balls that wifi to your phone. More simple low-key ways to map the bottom without needing to rig a motorcycle battery under a hatch and poke holes in the hull?

a striker 4 and hook2 4x are just about $100 new. lowrance has this bobber thingy you could leash and "troll" with the kayak. seems simpler and cheaper. what am I missing?

I think GPS is must!

Any thoughts on the portable ones. Stuff [self]battery powered, balls that wifi to your phone. More simple low-key ways to map the bottom without needing to rig a motorcycle battery under a hatch and poke holes in the hull?

a striker 4 and hook2 4x are just about $100 new. lowrance has this bobber thingy you could leash and "troll" with the kayak. seems simpler and cheaper. what am I missing?

I've been seen those portable ones but never seems to caught-on on kayakfishing...
I think cellphones ares still pain to use while fishing on the water? Hard to use the touch screens on wet fishy hands. The phone might become waterproof but won't float if you drop in the water.  Also when you're using the apps, gps, bad signals & etc. might kills your battery quick. It can not be on the direct sunlight for a long time too which is on the kayak is...

Any thoughts on the portable ones. Stuff [self]battery powered, balls that wifi to your phone. More simple low-key ways to map the bottom without needing to rig a motorcycle battery under a hatch and poke holes in the hull?

a striker 4 and hook2 4x are just about $100 new. lowrance has this bobber thingy you could leash and "troll" with the kayak. seems simpler and cheaper. what am I missing?

I had the I Bobber and it was total piece of junk haha. i never even got it to work. For the same price you can get a garmin Striker on sale.

Also worth noting that size is your preference. Some people like big screen, but i prefer my small 4" striker to my 7" Garmin Echomap because the extra screen doesnt really help me.. i get all the same data on the small one (minus charts, but i know where I kayak and have a breadcrumb trail, so i still know exactly where i am), and the screen size doesnt increase my ability to see fish vs baitball or sand vs rock bottom, just the resolution of the specific things- your transducer determines what you pick up on the display (like plugging a N64 into a 4K tv).  the 7" is perfect on my boat, but i really am much happier with my 4" on the yak than the 7".  It also doesnt get in the way because i fly fish sometimes and when salmon fishing, it always seem like theres too much going on

I have the Striker Plus 4.  Reasonable screen (4") with GPS.  I bought an extra transducer as I move the console from one kayak to another and I didn't want to fiddle with the mounts.  All combined under $200. 

TBH, the contours are important to me, and the fish signatures, well I think it's just a random image generator to make me think that there are fish there.  I catch fish regardless if I see them on the screen. 

The GPS is great as there are bits of structure that have repeatedly been productive for me for big lings.  I go to those spots over and over. 

And ask yourself, do you want to kayak and fish, or watch a screen all day. 

I have a Stryker 4 plus that I may be willing to sell. Set up on a yak attack quick release mount and a berley pro visor. Possibly a noqua 10ah battery as well. Super efficient setup and I liked the feature of being able to create your own contour mapping. Used 1 year before I upgraded to lowrance with mapping. Pm for price and pics

I have yet to pick up and hardwire a high end fish finder (althought I am pretty much waiting for a new kayak to put all that on).

For me the navionics app is the most useful for depth, contour, tracking distance, saving a location every time I take a photo of a fish etc. It does not have the function if the area is fishy or not, but that is easy when going for rockfish/ling cod. Love this app

I also have a little $40.00 AAA powered lucky fish finder.
It does a decent job telling structure, depth of fish, and if there are fish or not (little fish icon appear).
What it does not do is show large marks vs small but seems to work fine.
Having both seems to have been working so far for those species.
To top that, its not 100% waterproof, so i dont expect it to last me more than 15 more trips. (water seems to get into the screen area, but I let it dry out and rinse it after every trip and its been working just fine). Does a good job reading depth.

so it works, not fantastic, but better than nothing.


https://www.amazon.com/LUCKY-Handheld-Portable-Fishfinder-Transducer/dp/B06XF17CWV/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?
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I had the I Bobber and it was total piece of junk haha.

Yup the striker and 4" Lowranxe hook 2 also around there. Just wanted something to tell depth and structure, maybe flash bait, without needing to electrify the kayak. But you're right. Slightly wet fingers already don't work with a capacitive screen.

GPS though, I've had cell coverage even out to mile buoy. It's about as far as I'm willing to paddle anyways but I'm sure I'm missing a lot of fish in between!

I don't mind the work or the $200. I really like minimalism and simplicity, but only if it's funtional 😅

I had the I Bobber and it was total piece of junk haha.

Yup the striker and 4" Lowranxe hook 2 also around there. Just wanted something to tell depth and structure, maybe flash bait, without needing to electrify the kayak. But you're right. Slightly wet fingers already don't work with a capacitive screen.

GPS though, I've had cell coverage even out to mile buoy. It's about as far as I'm willing to paddle anyways but I'm sure I'm missing a lot of fish in between!

I don't mind the work or the $200. I really like minimalism and simplicity, but only if it's funtional 😅

Totally. the FF unit is nice because you can still have GPS past cell range