Okay … “hunting” Striper is infuriating enough as it is, but I realized today that my electronics are severely lacking …
Lets say I had between $400 - $650 to “spend” on new electronics for the boat … what would be the “gotta haves” and the “wanna haves” and the “that’s nice, but I don’t really need thats” …
Brands and models and thought would be GREATLY appreciated …
oh yeah, don’t laugh … we currently have a Hummingbird Matrix 10 … yeah … a 10 … When we bought the boat we lived in Florida and exclusively fished Inshore … we didn’t need to know where the fish were … we already knew that … we only needed to know how deep we were so we didn’t hit stuff while on plane … Inshore in Florida is just bangin’ docks, pier, and points with Plastics, Live Shrimp, and Pin/Pig fish … you’re in 2’ - 4’ of water … we already had a bigger boat so we opted out of the trolling motor and I used a push pole to get us through the skinny and on to the next fishing area …
Flash forward and now we’re here in SC … in 20’ - 180’ of water … I can tell ya how deep it is just fine, but a 20 degree beam right under the back of the boat with cartoon character fish signals, just plain sucks!!! and don’t even get me started on using a push pole in the lake …
Anyway … that’s my $.02 and my question … any responses (jests or puns or laughter) would be greatly appreciated …
Your matrix should work just fine. However, you need to run the unit on manual settings and not use the fish ID cartoon characters as you put it. Anything not connected to the bottom will show as a fish symbol. You want to be looking at arches and streaks. By following them from right to left, you’ll learn how to tell what the fish are doing and see your down lines if the sensitivity is set high enough. The thickness of the arches and streaks will go a long way toward letting you know what size fish you’re dealing with… With the budget you mention, some of the Lowrance Elites would be a good bet. Try a combo unit with a Navionics chip.
I used an eagle cuda 198 for a long time. It really taught me alot to be honest. I had fish symbols at first and didnt know any better. After getting rid of them, a whole new world opened up for me…haha… all depth finders work, some are just easier to read than others.
I upgraded to an hds7 from the cuda. You talk about a jump ha. But the knowledge I gained from the cuda is still what I rely on…
I am a lowrance guy so With your price range I would look at the elite7. After using other peoples 5" screens I would never recommend anything smaller than a 7. Buy the biggest screen u can afford.
I would say keep your current depthfinder and get the best trolling motor you can afford. The stripers will be shallower(schooling) in the fall and then up the rivers this winter followed by schooling in the spring. Just my opinion, but a good trolling motor is worth its weight in GOLD!!! I can catch stripers atleast 8 months out of the year with an old cheap depthfinder but the odds go way down without a good trolling motor. I can usually catch a few feeding on the white perch with my trusted Berry’s spoons, but usually not more than 3 or 4 and that’s in the cooler months. Check your PM I sent. Also, ask Fogman, what better fish than white perch for kids to have fun catching. He’s one of the best perch jerkers around!!!
I fished with a Humminbird Matrix for a couple of years with decent results until I pinged out the ducer by forgetting to turn off the unit before trailering. Nothing wrong with that sonar.
Rick, like Fogman said, the first thing you want to do is turn off the Fish ID. It’s absolutely useless. Also, since it has a small screen, learn to set the upper and lower limit to use the full screen to zoom in where you want to look, Most of the time you will have a pretty good idea from recent reports. If it doesn’t have a way to set an upper and lower limit, it should at least have a zoom feature.
Say right now you go out there looking for suspended fish in the river channel at 100’+. Leaving the FF set on auto depth range would make in very hard to decipher anything. You would probably expect to see fish in the 60’-80’ range. If you can set an upper and lower limit you want to set it to look say from 50-90’. If you only have a zoom feature, you want to turn off the auto depth and set it to 100’. Then use the zoom x2 and you will have a full screen showing from 50’-100’ only no matter how deep of water you are in and the digital readout will still show the actual depth of the water.
I never had a Hummingbird, but let me know if you want to go out one evening and we’ll figure it out.
Just another 2 cents worth. Been reluctant to go manual mode on my HB587 because I feared I wouldn’t be skilled enough to interpret it and miss finding fish. Decided to bite the bullet and learn. Wish I had come to that conclusion a long time ago. The manual is not difficult, shows so much, and I think the cartoon fish I used to see were just there to entertain me. So at least I really know what I’m over now, and what they’re doing. Maybe next time will be better since today was training and never really found them, much to the Capt’s dismay. Just one 24 incher today fishing east of Frey Key in 65 feet. Now if I can just figure out how to keep the bait alive. Had one of our worst ever casualty days. Maybe it was because the bait was a little bigger than normal.
I still say for the time being forget the high dollar depthfinder and get the best trolling motor that you can afford. It will help you stay on the really deep summer fish.
The stripers will be schooling in a few more months and a good trolling motor will sometimes keep you in them without spooking them. There’s nothing more aggravating to me than someone running all over the fish with a big motor and spooking them!! Several times I have limited out from one school using an old 24v foot controlled Johnson trolling motor and staying a long cast away. I’ve also had folks run in with their big motors and spook the fish into going down. Sometimes they will come back up, but most of the time their done. That’s when the old cracker trick comes in handy!!!
Also when winter comes, on calm days, you can catch them up the rivers using a good trolling motor or use it to hold on them when they are hitting spoons. Just my 2 cents worth.
Yep … I’m starting to agree with ya Spoonmaster … a trolling motor would have been more useful this weekend … guess I’m going to have to get both … LOLOL
I went fishing with Fogman this morning. See my post about his spot locking on the fish, etc. In 80’ of water it kept us right on the fish. According to him the bite was slow, so if we couldn’t stay on them we might not have caught what we did. We could see them come inspect the baits several times and just swim away. Then sometimes they would come up or down and inhale a herring. I learned a lot today, but know I couldn’t go out tomorrow and duplicate what we did today. Fogman located the fish, kept us on them with spot lock and tried to educate me on how to fish live herring. I tried to learn all I could from him… He’s good!!!
