I am getting a 3 Waters Big Fish 120 for Christmas/Birthday. I cannot wait, I am sort of sick of wading.
I will mostly be flats fishing, but occasionally will want to fish bridges, edges of drop offs and deeper water. I also want a finder to help locate baitfish in deeper water.
From what I see online it looks like there are 4 good choices.
Garmin Striker 4 Lowrance Hook 4x
Hummingbird PirahnaMax 197c
Raymarine Dragonfly 4 Pro
Wondering if anyone has any of these units and what your opinions are. Also any suggestions for necessities or nice to haves while kayak fishing would be appreciated. I am also looking at a anchor pin, an anchor and one of these bait buckets
http://baitshark.com/
Replies
Dittos on the "things to take list" and "leashes". Stuff will fall out, put a leash or float on everything you can.
Thanks for the leash info I'll have to search that out.
Looks like I'll be talking a good look at the dragon flys
It's their customer service that turned me off. My experience has been that they HAVE no customer service.
I use the Garmin Striker 4. It does everything I need, although I do wish there was a way to upload my tracks/routes and waypoints to my computer. That said, it works and it's cheap (relatively). The marsh I fish isn't that deep, so the fish "finder" aspect of a finder isn't as useful as it seems. Sure, there are parts of the marsh that are 8'-12' and I have found fish in those parts, but it doesn't work for the 3' sections that dominate the marsh. The GPS functionality is absolutely beneficial though. I've gotten so deep in parts of the marsh and have had to use it to navigate back out of the marsh. Also, marking waypoints where I've found fish, structure, etc. is also extremely useful.
As far as other suggestions, keep it simple. I started off getting an anchor and ditched it for a stakeout pole (see my earlier comment on marsh depth)....when I started I also had lots of "things" I needed to carry separately and later attach to my yak. I brought lots of tackle too. I've ditched the excess and I now have a simple rig that I don't have to assemble when I get out to the marsh.
My goal is to maximize my fishing time out on the water. I talk about my efficiency journey and show my setup on my YT channel if you're interested (e.g.https://youtu.be/42A8-aEJY7w ).
As for a depth finder I want the downscan along with some navigation compatible with Navionics so I can upload and view spots on my phone and PC. Real time mapping is cool, but not really interested since I am in a kayak. Who knows, by the time I am in the market there will probably be more options.
I have had no issues with Garmin. Works well.
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