Recently, I’ve been using a portable fish finder to help my bass fishing. I received a FishHunter 3D portable fish finder for fathers day, and it has literally changed my world when shore fishing, or on a kayak. Here’s some valuable tricks, and how to use a portable fish finder to improve your bass “Kraken!”
Recently, there has been several portable fish finders put out on the market to help shore and kayak fisherman. It’s cool to see technology progressing to a level where a shore angler, or kayak angler can be every bit as successful as someone from a tricked out bass boat. After doing some research on them, and a few not so subtle hints too my wife, she picked up a FishHunter 3D
for me on father’s day. Overall, I’ve been really impressed with it, but every technological gadget has it’s quirks. Here’s some solid tips on how to use a 3d fish hunter portable finder to help you catch more bass.
The FishHunter 3D came with a lot of these essential items which are a must if you want to use a portable fish finder. Here is a list of each of those items which make a big difference for using a portable fish finder effectively.
A Waterproof Wrist Attachable Phone Case
is a definite must to read your signal, and this style case will prevent you from losing or breaking your phone around the water. The FishHunter 3D comes with a Sealable Waterproof Case for your smart phone with straps to attach to your wrist, and a lanyard to place around your neck. The fish finder streams the signal to your smart phone, so these type of phone case makes things visible to read what’s going on on your phone.
You definitely don’t want to lose this thing out in the water. My FishHunter 3D came with a solid clip and some nylin rope. It’s nice to be able to have different ways to attach to your portable fish finder to use it for different applications.
The downside to these portable fish finder’s is the floating transducer is heavy. This makes it really hard to cast your portable finder with any distance or accuracy. You need a beefed up stiff as you can go Baitcasting Rod
and bait-casting reel spooled up with 65 lbs or more braided line
if you want to bomb it out there.
Having a smart phone like an iPhone or android is a given for what you need to work one of these portable units. My phone could use some help. It has some serious cracks in the screen right now. Plus, it would be nicer to have a little bigger screen on your phone to see the sonar. This is probably the best argument you will ever have for upgrading your phone.
The conversation would probably go something like this. Spouse or whoever says, “You spent $600 on a new phone!”
Your response, “Heck yes I did, I needed a bigger screen to view my portable fish finder.”
The FishHunter 3D starts up as soon as you drop it in the water. All you have to do is connect to the wifi signal on your phone and you are in business. Open up the app in your phone and select the your unit, and you are ready to rock. Make sure you’ve got your phone securely strapped to your arm, so you can view the screen as your fish finder reads what is below it.
Casting the FishHunter 3D can be difficult if you don’t have a strong enough rod, but once you get the portable fish finder out in the water it is a huge help. Let the transducer sit in the water for about 10 – 15 seconds then select on your phone which sonar mode you would like to view. The fish hunter 3D has 4 options. Directional Casting, Ice Fishing, 3D Contour, or Bottom Mapping. All of these settings have their place.
Directional casting will show you the depth under each transducer, and you can touch one of the transducers to give you a bottom sonar read out. The 3D contour will you show you the contour of the bottom of where you are fishing. The Ice fishing is a flasher style setting with a bottom sonar reading. Plus, the Bottom Mapping will give you a 3D saved image of any section or area you pull your portable fish finder through. The setting I use the most is the 3D contour. It helps me get a good idea of the slopes and angles of the areas around me to know where the bass might be hiding.
Their are two main advantages I’ve found with using a Portable Fish Finder which has helped me catch more bass. The first is knowing the water depth. When I first pulled the FishHunter 3D out I thought I was fishing a really deep section of the pond, only to find out it was 4 feet deep. Knowing the depth can really help you determine what baits to use to hit the critical areas. The second is seeing the contour changes. With the different transducers being able to identify the depth variations you can find those drop offs, pockets, or channels bass like to hold on. I found a solid drop off from 5 – 13 feet, and was able to target that area to catch bass from a kayak. Where I caught this guy.
There were only a couple problems I’ve had with the FishHunter 3D. The first is the water temperature gauge doesn’t read accurately. The one I have struggled to give me a pulse on what the water temperature was. The second problem is sometimes the read out’s don’t work properly after you cast the wireless transducer out. To fix the problem though, I’ll just go back to the main screen and re-select the viewing option I want, and it seems to correct itself. Every gadget has it’s quirks.
Despite these few issues using a Portable Fish Finder has been a game changer for me. It’s so cool to see what is actually going on in those small ponds, and lakes while from the shore or in a kayak. If you’ve been debating on getting one, I recommend you do. Using a portable fish finder will give you a distinct advantage over those elusive bass from the bank or yak. Here’s the link to the 3d fish hunter website to take a look at all the features of this portable finder I’m using: http://www.fishhunter.com/directional3d/
Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog for more tips to help get you “Kraken” Bass! If anyone else has been using a portable fish finder leave a comment below. It would be cool to hear about how you’ve found it’s helped your bass fishing.
As Always,
Stay Stoked!
The links above and below in this post are affiliate links were you can pick up baits, rod’s, reels, line, and anything else to “Krak” bass when using a portable fish finder for bass fishing. Krakenbass receives a small percentage of the sales through these links. These links are to baits and gear I personally trust and know work. I put these links to make them helpful for you, and not for the small amount I make for the sale of the products. I hope these products can help you “krak” some bass! Thank you for your support.
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4 Responses
Awesome!
Great article brotha!
I’m wondering how the fish finder would works through weeds.? I know around where I live (New England), we get a lot of lilies floating and crowding the top foot or so, while the rest of the way down is clear.
Good question! I wouldn’t know. I’ve yet to find a lake around me with lilly pads. I’d love to test it out though. Thanks!
No problem, best of luck!