How important is your fish finder to you? Is it a necessity? Or is it a luxury you could live without? I have a lowrance elite 4x DSI that I hardly use, mainly because I'm not great at reading it or using it. I would love to learn to use it, because so many great fisherman liver by their electronics. What do you guys think about your electronics?

The more I've learned about how to use mine and the better I've become at understanding what I'm seeing and what to look for, the more important it is, plus I enjoy site seeing what's under the surface. I don't leave home without it.

If I had something more than just a 2D sonar it'd probably become more important to me.

I don't know how to read it very well at all, but I can't stop looking at it. Learning....so very slowly...learning. Is that a fish? What in the world could that be? Is that algae, grass or bait? What are those dang angled straight lines....bubbles or rising fish? And my list of questions to myself goes on and on and on. It would be nice to have someone who knows how to read it sitting right next to me explaining it all. Oh well, time on the water, right?

If in very shallow water with heavy vegetation its useless to me. Works good for depth when I'm on the lake especially in water thats not clear. As far as Identifying fish I'm still learning, too.

I like them...currently i dont use any. Mariner sails is getting the helix soon and i will be getting one. People can and do catch fish without them, its just more work.

Its a tool i cant go without, tells me temp and depth, in my opinion a fish finder is more than spotting fish. Its a tool that tells me whats around me and i use those clues to find the fish. When i'm fishing i look for things like rocks, tree stumps, drop-offs, bottom texture, under water grass and those are things i cant see out with out a graph. Many times I've parked over a tree fishing for crappie in the river and jigged it with no visible fish on the graph but behold there is fish hiding in the tree which i wouldn't of seen with out the graph.

To become a better fisherman you have to fish away from the bank. Without a fish finder you are blind out there. Just a simple 2D sonar can show you structure, drop offs, and fish. One of the most important tools I use.

It's most important to me when I'm doing something less familiar. When I'm on my "home" lake - a 100 acre reservoir - I don't take it with me consistently. On the other hand, on that same reservoir, I take it out in the fall when I'm chasing bass and I take it out in the winter when I'm typically fishing deeper and looking for slight temperature changes in the water.

On the other hand, I travel a lot in the summer, and the FF has been huge for helping me out in learning unfamiliar lakes quicker. With the maps, GPS, and such, I have a caught a lot of fish on these "new to me" lakes that I don't think I would've without it (at least not in the day I had at the lake)... it can make up for some TOW-related factors in improving the learning curve of a lake.

I grew up fishing without a FF, and I still enjoy reading water in art of angling, but it's also true that my FF has really helped me catch some fish too.

I've always used the sonar as a depth finder #1 and that tells me just about all I need to know. If I know the depth and can see where the dropoffs are and see some structure on those dropoffs that is my main concern. Then I look for baitfish or any fish signals around that structure.
That's the way I read a sonar, not so much looking for specific fish signals, but I look for structure and then look for fish.
If I don't see any fish signals I'll still fish the structure or dropoff just to see what takes my bait.
I buy the lower end unit because I use it primarily for depth, and I don't need all those bells and whistles when I can stop and check a spot out without having to waste time trying to figure out what all those colors and bleeps mean.

I love my lowrance. I often find holes back up on creeks and rivers that have eroded due to changing water conditions that most people pass over. You can't beat the feeling of graphing fish or structure then catching them. I am considering buying a card for my lowrance but man those things are a bit expensive. Any input on the cards would be helpful. Is there really that much benefit in them?

It's up there next to my kayak as far as importance.

Don't need one. I typically stay close to the bank and watch the shoreline. I think a map showing depth is your best friend. Like the navionics app. A ff is definitely a great tool in unfamiliar waters to though. It can only help

What finder do you use?

elite4x hdi


nothing super fancy the DI has great image quality for a 200$ unit.