Best Kayak Fish Finders for a Better Fishing Experience

#1 - Garmin Striker 4 Built-in GPS Fish Finder

Via Amazon.com

Garmin, one of the top manufacturers of all sorts of gadgets from sports to fishing, has this fish finder that is considered one of the most preferred models in the industry.

This compact, yet powerful, gadget features a CHIRP dual frequency transducer with 77 and 200 kHz that’s guaranteed for a good use in both freshwater and saltwater. It can read up to a depth of 1,600 feet in freshwater and 750 feet in saltwater.

In using it, the display screen size, which is 3.5 inches, showed me a clear and crisp reading of data—and, although it can serve both as a GPS tracker and a fish finder, the screen was not big enough to for me to see both of these features.

With this fish finder, I was able to detect brush piles, stumps, and other objects with its waypoint map; and through the CHIP sonar functionality from its transducer, it gave me a continuous sweep of frequencies which shared a wide array of information.

Though it can be accurate for both deep and shallow water, it was greatly ideal for ice fishing or vertical jigging because of its built-in flasher. Take note that it is not waterproof, however, because it still had the possibility of being affected by a lot of elements and almost broke this one.

This fish finder would not exactly be ideal for beginners, but it will be a breeze to set up and install once you understand the instructions from the manual.

It can work for the long run, not only because of the performance it gives, but because of the ability did save a lot of battery power when I was using it. 

 Specs:

#2 - ​​​​​​Venterior VT-FF001 Portable Fish Finder, Fishfinder with Wired Sonar Sensor Transducer and LCD Display

Via Amazon.com

This VT-FF001 by Venterior is one of the lesser known yet on par with the top models in the market. This fish finder has just as good a quality in build and construction as with other models, but it also gives the performance in the most basic sense as it did for me.

The beauty I found out about this gadget is that it showed different features which I was actually able to use.

Its transducer is a simple one with a single frequency that has a beam angle of 45 degrees, and it also comes with a removable transducer float and through this, I was able to keep the transducer afloat beside my kayak while it gathered data.

Using this transducer let me use it up to 328 feet in depth—though I did notice that it did not work accurately while I was moving.

It was good for mostly shallow freshwater environments such as lakes and rivers; when I saw the readings, however, it did not really tell me whether what I was looking at was a large fish or a small one.

Calibrating and setting up was easy for this fish finder unlike, of course, other models with more complicated displays. But more similar to other fish finders, it is not waterproof so I needed to be careful especially when moving in the water.

This fish finder features a setting for varying sensitivity, but what made me like it is its battery saving mode and backlight mode which saved up a large amount of energy especially when I was using it for a whole day’s fishing—it was able to last up to 7 hours when I used it from late morning up to dawn.

It also has a fish alarm feature which beeped every time it detected fish underneath me, though it did not really detect the bait or tackle I used. More than all these, I recommend this fish finder to beginners who are looking to try using this kind of gadget for fishing.

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#3 - ​​​​​​Humminbird 410210-1 HELIX 5 CHIRP GPS G2 Fish finder

Via Amazon.com

One of the more technologically advanced fish finders, Humminbird’s Helix 5 has much of the specifications that you might find ideal in using.

When I first got it, I looked sleek and compact in design and it had a 5 inch display which was large enough to let me read the data well—because of the size of its display screen, it was so easy to switch from the GPS feature to the fish finder and to even see both data on the screen along with the digital readings.

What worked on the inside is what actually enticed me since its transducer also has a CHIRP dual frequency which is either 83 kHz or 200 kHz.

The beams these frequencies gave are 20 degrees and 60 degrees, which allowed for a wider range of information which I saw on the bright and clear color screen.

The GPS feature is another interesting thing on this fish finder since, because of this, I was able to plot the chart assisted by the built-in Anima cartography—this also gave me the option to mark locations and save waypoints on the gadget, though I did have to purchase a micro SD card separately which cost me a bit more than I would have liked.

Other than this, it gave me fairly accurate readings and this is only if I am not moving too much—one thing I did not like about this is that it cannot get the depth accurately above 6 knots.

This was only a problem if I was on a bigger body of water than a lake It also has an alarm that sounded off every time it detects fish underneath you, but it was not loud enough compared to other brands.

But compared to others, this actually gave me the least problems; though I would not recommend this to be used if you are a first timer since its installation can be tricky for a beginner.

Specs:

#4 - ​​​​​​​​​​​​Lowrance 000-11448-001 Elite-3X Fishfinder with 83/200 Transducer

Via Amazon.com

Elite-3X by Lowrance is one of their latest versions of fish finders available in the market, and it has improved much of their features—some of which are present in this model.

In purchasing this gadget, I saw that it had a 3.5-inch screen which displayed data at a 320 x 240 resolution, high enough to give me a clear and crisp reading.

The screen is actually bright, but take note that you might not be able to see as clearly if you are wearing Polaroid glasses since this is what I experienced.

Other than this, I found it to be a simple, modern, yet compact fish finder to be used which can also work for you if you are a beginner.

The dual frequency on this is 83 kHz and 200 kHz which was mostly be ideal for use in freshwater and shallow saltwater; using this allowed me to reach up to 60 feet in depth. This was especially ideal when I used it with my kayak.

I was able to track depths at 40 mph because of this but not so much accurately past that—though what I did not like about this is that it lost signal below 20 feet when moving. I was able to remedy this, however, when restarting the unit.

I had to keep still for it to gather the data from the transducer, the beam on this gadget can either be 60 degrees or 20 degrees depending on the frequency you use.

The good thing about this is that I was able to use this battery up to whole day and did not turn it off after using it which lasted for up to 15 to 20 hours—this is so even when the screen was bright.

So, I think this would be the ideal fish finder to use if you are a beginner and learning how to use it before moving on to more advanced ones.

Specs:

#5 - ​​​​​​​​​​​​Garmin 010-01806-00 Garmin STRIKER 4cv with transducer

Via Amazon.com

This Striker 4cv by Garmin is much like the original Striker 4 it presented above, and this goes all the way up there beside the topnotch models of fish finders available in the market.

When I looked at its specs, I found that its transducer has CHIRP 77 kHz and 200 kHz which is great in reaching depths up to 1,750 feet in freshwater and 830 feet in saltwater.

Although this gave me a great reading when it comes to different environments, I was able to use it at its optimal performance using my kayak—this makes it good for use in other smaller vessels as well.

Despite its compact size for these kinds of vessels, it can possibly still be too big for other types of kayaks—it might be too big to make a little hole to place the transducer like what I did.

Its screen is 3.5 inches in size and showed me the data at a 480 x 320 pixels which had enough resolution to be used even in the brightest time of day.

It can be bright, but its screen size is still too small and data can be difficult to read; this became a dilemma which forced me to have it near me at all times.

This does not diminish the performance it has since it also features a GPS which greatly helped me especially when I was fishing in unfamiliar territory or waters—the route tracking function here helped me mark hot spots, slipways, and the dock I needed to go to after fishing.

The transducer allowed me to mount it on the hull of the small john boat I was using, but it might be difficult to use for larger boats since the wire would not be long enough.

It does have all the tricks of a Striker 4, but the great thing about this gadget is the CHIRP ClearVü dual frequency feature from the transducer which provides 455 kHz and 800 kHz—this actually allowed me to see objects I had never seen before and I passed over different objects were no longer red blobs and bumps on my screen, like the tree in our lake—it became a silhouette of an actual recognizable object.

This even let me see the bait that I used bobbing near the bottom at 80 feet. This is a game changer feature that allowed me to have a more accurate fishing experience.

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