Hey all.

I'm new here so I hope I don't get in trouble for posting this in the crappie forum, but it really is about crappie fishing.

I'm looking at getting one of these:

Humminbird 140c

My plan is to attach it to the front of my pontoon boat. I think it would work really well for me to get an idea if the crappie are in a particular spot, and how deep they are. I pull the front on my pontoon boat up over trees that have fallen into a creek I fish, and I fish em out of the tree.

Seems like this unit would be good for that kind of deal, and it removable for times when I don't want it on the boat.

Anyone have any experience with them? The pole telescopes to 40". Is that long enough to get into the water on a pontoon? Seems like it would be.

Thanks for any help you can give.

-Brett

Save your money. Fish finders don't work that way. Ypu will be able to see the tree bur probably not recognize the fish or not.

I may have been unclear. I'm not expecting the fish finder to do anything that fish finders don't do. I was just curious if anyone has used this fish finder and liked the way it works.

And specifically if it had been used on a pontoon boat. Was curious if the telescoping transducer is long enough on a pontoon boat.

I use a Humminbird Buddy 120 on a boat at Eufaula Lake. I�ve been happy with it for reading depth and finding underwater structure. I have seen blips on the screen at different depths that could be fish and also have followed a 1/8 oz jig dropping to 15 feet. The width of the cone can be determined by dividing the depth by 6, according to the manual. I�m not sure it would be a good unit for finding fish because of the narrow cone and low screen resolution, but it is a good portable unit for reading the bottom and finding submerged trees and brush. I doubt the pole on the transducer is long enough for a pontoon boat.

First of all, welcome aboard!

It appears to be long enough at 40 inches, unless you are in some really rough water.

I'm curious as to why you would prefer this model over a standard depth/fish finder with a transducer that could be mounted to the bottom of your trolling motor?

Sonars are useful for locating structure where fish might be located. If you are tying up to a fallen tree, you already know where the structure is. It's just a matter of fishing the structure you can see. I would not rely on that model to tell me if there were fish under you or not. Simply dropping a jig or minnow around that structure will tell you if the fish are there.

By the way, what lake do you fish on?

You make a good point about me already knowing where the structure is. I am tying up to downed trees and fishing them.

My problem is that right now I don't have a trolling motor on my boat. I can't afford a trolling motor and a sonar unit. I felt that the sonar would do me more good for finding fish than the trolling motor would.

So my plan was to get the electronics now, and maybe get a trolling motor down the road sometime. I thought about buying a standard sonar unit and using an aluminum bracket to hold the transducer. Then, I came across this Humminbird deal and thought it might be just the ticket.

At this point I'm not sure what to do.

P.S. - I primarily fish Lake Palo Pinto. Mostly in the creek.

Considering the price, you pay extra for a portable unit (Humminbird Buddy 140). It sounds like your transducer can be mounted permanent, so go with a standard unit. Look at the screen resolution and watts of standard units vs the 140. You will get more bang for your buck with a standard unit plus you can mount the screen in a more convenient place.

KevinK_FTW
I have a standard depth/fish finder with a transducer and it does not seem to work for me. Any ideas what might be wrong?

Yes Sir. You must place your boat in the water before the sonar will return the desired signal. A trailored pontoon boat will only find the brush pile it is parked over.

As for the original post, I understand your delimma. I too would choose the electronics over a trolling motor if you had to choose between the two. My opinion would be to get a standard unit with a mountable transducer. This will be something you can mount to your trolling motor when you have the funds to get one in the future.

i may have a solution for ya, i bought a HB 345C portable, it has a suction cup mount for the transducer and you can buy a kit to make it a permanent one later if you want to mount it to a trolling motor. may work out really good for ya.

I bet you could come up with a way to attach a vertical piece of PVC to the boat with a 90 degree at the bottom and another shorter piece of PVC to which you could attach a standard transducer. That allows you to buy any number of standard depth/fish finders instead of a specialty one like the 140C. That gives you many more choices in terms of brand, screen size, etc, instead of being limited to a niche product.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going with everyone's advice and getting a standard depth/fish finder.

I found this handy bracket at Cabela's. Seems like a good option to mount the transducer until I can get that trolling motor.

Transducer Bracket

Now to find a good depth/fish finder!

I hear things in this thread about testing a fish finder while still on the trailer. Recall that fish finders work on SONAR(sound navigation and ranging).

Your fish finding system is calibrated for the fact that "In fresh water, sound travels at about 1497 m/s at 25 �C."

Otherwise, the speed in air is going to be different, much lower. It is going to be 300ish m/s in air.

So trying to test out a fish finder on a trailer is going to result in weird results!

Edit: m/s means meters per second