Lowrance Fish Finders and Depth Sounders

Lowrance Fish Finders and Depth Sounders

Angling has come a very long way from the days when the only clues to finding fish were flocking seabirds or other natural indicators. Today, Lowrance fish finders and depth sounders can give an angler a precise indication of where the fish are and how to catch them. While they work on sound rather than light, fish finders and depth sounders are like another set of eyes that actually work under the water.

While both fish finders and depth sounders are basically active sonar systems, there are a few differences between the two. All a depth sounder has to do is bounce a sound pulse off the bottom and tell you the distance. It's a simple task, made more so by the difference between the water and the bottom. Fish finding is more difficult; fish are mostly water, so you need more sensitivity to detect echoes from the fish amidst those from the bottom.

Models like the Lowrance Elite 5 fish finder and depth sounder include GPS antennas and full navigation functionality as well as fish finding capability. By combining fish finding with navigation in a single touch-screen instrument, you can fish with greater confidence than ever before. Being able to know where you are, where the fish are, and where the bottom is all at the same time is a massive advantage.

While the head unit gets most of the beauty shots, it's the transducer that does a lot of the work. This is the sonar head that both produces and detects the sound. The simplest designs feature over the transom models, that you simply mount over the rear of your boat. They are quick and easy to install and take minimal effort, but are less effective at high speed and on larger boats. In-hull transducers eliminate the propeller aeration problems of transom mounts but suffer in sensitivity. Through-hull transducers require more work to install, but provide higher performance.

Choosing your fish finder or depth sounder depends on your boat and what you want to do with it. Dip your toes in the water with a basic transom-mounted unit, or move up to a dedicated through-hull transducer on a larger boat.