Castable Depth/Fish Finders?

I'm looking into getting a castable depth finder and was wondering if anyone here had any experience with them. The only thing I'm really going to be using it for is to map the different bodies of water that I fish, and unfortunately it looks like I'm going to have to shell out 200 smackers for the Deeper sonar. Are there any cheaper alternatives? I've heard of the iBobber, the FishHunter, and a few others. Just how do they stack up, mapping-wise?

Vexilar Sonarphone T-pod has a longer range since it uses WiFi instead of Bluetooth like the others.

They are sonar units not GPS/mapping.

The Deeper Pro+ has GPS and mapping software, plus it uses wifi.
https://deepersonar.com/us/deeper-smart-sonar-pro-plus/

Humminbird made one years back.


http://smartcast-rf30.com/

Be careful when casting. Using braid might break the unit if while in flight it is suddenly stop. Years ago I had a smartcast. Of course they were cheapo plastic. But I didn't want to lose the unit so I thought braid would be best. Well, on my first cast (a long one) I could tell I was over casting the spot so I stop the reel with my thumb. It snapped the unit in half in mid-air.

Technology . sidescan is better?

Using a castable sonar of any type is the most inefficient means of mapping any part of a lake. Think about it for a minute. The number of hours and casts that would be required to generate a map that is better than a Lakemaster or Navionics map would be staggering. I spend a lot of time mapping from my kayak using proper sonar and AutoChart Pro, so trust me, I understand inefficient use of time.

My suggestion is to save up, do some research on which sonars will record the sonar data and buy the unit when you are able. There are some excellent resources on this forum that can help you make those choices. WayneP comes to mind with Humminbird products.

Feel free to pm me if you have questions.

I'd agree, actually. It would take quite a while to map a lake, or even a section of one. I'd be using mine for mapping ponds and perhaps sections of rivers. I don't mind shelling out a few bucks here and there to buy a map of a lake. Thanks for the tips!

I was considering braid at first, but after watching quite a few videos about it I've decided to go with 12ish lb mono.

The Vexilar units will actually work with the Navionics app to allow you to run a mapping/sonar split screen on your tablet or phone,as well as let you update the map with the sonar charts program.