Depth Finder - shallow lakes / no fishing

[gonelong]

I own a pontoon boat on a very shallow lake. The lake is at the deepest 15' in places, and is 2' in several channels, but mostly 4-8 ft in depth. For the most part I am pretty familiar with the lake and haven't been to worried about it. This year the lake is down 18" or so and I am more than just a little nervous in any of the channels around the lake.

My only concern is to find a depth finder that is accurate in these depths, and has an alarm that I can set for shallow water (say 3' or less). I am mostly only worried about the depth at idle speed (in no-wake channels around the lake).

If this unit also would have a fish finder on it, no problem. if its an in-dash model, again, no problem.

I have searched the forum and mostly I see people tallking about much deeper water than I will be navigating. Any firsthand experience with a suggested model would be great.

If I have missed a thread about this subject, please pass along the link and I'll happily check it out.

GL

 

[MrBigStuff]

Re: Depth Finder - shallow lakes / no fishing

Every depth/fish finder I have owned can do what you want. I'd be looking for the widest transducer cone angle I could find if you're limited to those depths. You don't need power as much as area coverage...

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Depth Finder - shallow lakes / no fishing

The thing to remember about a depth finder is that it tells you the depth where the transducer is mounted -- which is also the area where the engine is mounted. So by the time the depth finder/locator has processed the soundings you may already have hit bottom. This is obviously compounded if you are traveling at faster speeds. A fish finder, even and inexpensive one, also shows you a picture of the bottom contour and is of at least equal value of the depth capability in that it can show you a slow or sharp rise or drop off in bottom contour. You can therefore follow a river or creek channel very closely -- even a narrow one. Eagle, Lowrance, Bottom Line, Garmin and Raymarine all have basic locators. Nearly all of them have alarms (shallow and depth). Look right here on iBoats.

 

[Kymasabe]

Re: Depth Finder - shallow lakes / no fishing

Silvertip has some good advice but may I ad another name to the pile of fishfinders. I've been very happy with my Humminbird fishfinder, depth has been accurate. Mine is a 10-12 year old Wide Optic, no longer made, but I think Humminbird proabably makes something similar. Decent and affordable.

 

[gonelong]

Re: Depth Finder - shallow lakes / no fishing

Thanks guys, will follow up on your advice.

GL