Category Archives for Reviews

In this article you will discover what the 7 best portable fish finders that are on the market today.

Having a fish finder that you can carry with you is essential in finding the best places to fish. Fish finders come in many shapes, sizes and prices. Finding the right one for the right price can be a daunting task.

Here I have taken the pain out of searching for the best fish finder by providing you with a review of the 7 best of them. I love fish finders especially portable ones because when I use them I usually come home with a boat load of fish and a ton of great memories.

So sit back relax and let's find you a portable fish finder for the right price!

7 Best Portable Fish Finders of 2019

#1 Garmin Striker 4 with GPS

Deeper Pro +Smart Sonar

The Deeper Smart Sonar Pro is built for onshore anglers. It’s a castable fishfinder with a castable range of 330 feet. No other castable fish finder can cast as far. The GPS allows the Deeper Pro the map right from the shore. Cast this fish finder to where you are planning on fishing and reel it in. You get detailed bathymetric maps from shore. To my knowledge, this is the only castable fish finder that can create maps like this.

Not only can you cast the Deeper Pro out to 330 feet you also get a wide scanning area of 55 degrees that the sonar beam can cover. If you want a detailed scan just switch to that and it will limit the coverage to 15 degrees.

And Talk about the depth this fish finder scans to 260 feet which is 100 feet deeper than any other comparable fish finders on the market today. That is deep, especially when scanning from shore.

You will appreciate the dual-beam transducer that the Pro has installed in it. It has a target separation of 1” and scans 15 times per second. This provides for very accurate readings and with the use of WiFi instead of Bluetooth, you get those readings lighting fast in real-time.

You get to mark fish and see fish archways. Also, add fish tags and depth tags. You can see the vegetation and fish with the split-screen scanning. View the bottom contour with ease of clarity.

Choose from 3 color pallets which helps you view the display better whatever the weather is outside. You will know the depth and water temperature as soon as the Deeper Pro+ hits the water.

This is an all-around best castable portable fish finder that money can buy! The Deeper Pro+ Sonar fish finder is available on Amazon and free shipping is available with a Prime account.

ReelSonar iBobber Bluetooth Smart Fish Finder

The iBobber by ReelSonar is a handy little castable fish finder to have. As a matter of fact, it is the smallest fish finder you will find anywhere. The iBobber is wireless with Bluetooth capabilities that will sync up to your iPhone or Android smartphone from 100 feet away.

You can choose between raw sonar and fish tagging views. Fish will get tagged in your screen in two different colors depending on the length of the fish. Fish that are under 15” get an orange tag and fish over 15” get a green tag. This helps you determine which fish are worth going after before you even start fishing.

The sonar reads to a depth of 135 feet which is a long way down there and if you are fishing off the shore that should be plenty.

There is a trip log with the type of fishing, conditions, lure, number and species of fish that you caught, water temperature, location, time and date. This is great if you are an angler who likes to take notes of your trip.

You can tag your fishing spots with built-in GPS and interactive mapping. The iBobber is compatible with Google watch and iWatch. There is also social media share capability on the app thats provided free.

The battery is rechargeable and lasts up to 10 hours which is perfect for a whole day of fishing. The first time charging the battery takes 6 hours and after it’s been used once it takes about 2 hours to charge.

A little fish finder like this is perfect anglers who fish from the shore or for boaters who can’t get your onboard sonar to certain areas. Just cast the iBobber out to those limited areas and you are in business.

The iBobber is available on Amazon and you get free shipping with a Prime account.

Lowrance Hook2 5x

Next up in our list is the Lowrance Hook2 5x. This fish finder is touted as the world’s easiest fish finder. Lowrance has a wide selection of fish finders and the Hook2 is one of the best. If you want to find fish and not have to tinker with complicated settings then the Lowrance Hook2 is for you

With the easy to use autotuning sonar you just turn on the fish finder and see where the fish are. You are good to go. The Hook2 5x is a perfect size easily portable take it anywhere you go fishing.

The 5x stands for the screen size that is 5” diagonal. The Hook2 also comes in 4”, 7”, 9” and 12” models all depending on how big of a screen you would like.

The Sonar covers a wide area because of the wide-angle CHIRP sonar cone that is installed on the Hook2.  

The single transducer is easy to set-up. You can place it on a trolling motor, on the transom of your boat or you can even put it through the scupper hole on your kayak. Quick and easy no problems. The transducer is Split-shot that gives you DownScan and CHIRP sonar. So you get a view straight down from your boat and on the sides. This allows a view of the whole area you are fishing.

With the SplitShot transducer you can scan depths up to 500 feet with CHIRP and 300 feet with DownScan. This is excellent coverage you don't find in all portable fish finders.

Navionics and CMaps software comes installed in the Hook2. This is a great software to use when you are new to some waters. The US mapping system shows you 4,000 lakes with 1-foot contours. The Navionics software has inland and coastal mapping of the US and Canada.

The screen display is of high resolution and is called SolarMAX which is handy when you need to see the fine details. The Hook2 5x also comes with a 12v battery and charger and two storage boxes to keep the fish finder safe when not in use. 

Have peace of mind with the one-year warranty that you get with Lowrance products.

You can pick up the Lowrance Hook2 5x on Amazon and get free shipping with a Prime account. You can check on the price at Amazon by clicking the button below.

Hawkeye Fishtrax 1C

The Hawkeye Fishtrax 1C is an excellent portable fish finder. The Fishtrax is great for fishing onshore, from a boat or kayak and on the ice. There is no complicated hardware very easy to set up. It’s a very versatile fish finder.

You get a transducer that is floatable, mountable and trollable. Mount it right to your boat and your good to go. If you are a kayak angler the transducer works great just plop it in the water and troll away.

The sonar has two frequencies 83 kHz for deep water and 200 kHz for shallow water. This lets you get readings in water only 1.5 ft deep and as deep as 240 ft.

There are three modes that come standard on the Hawkeye Fishtrax.

1. The Fish Finder Mode finds the fish, shows you what’s beneath the water like the contour of the bottom and how deep the water is. It’s always advantageous to know what kind of water you are casting your bait into.

2. When you click on the data mode you get an enlarged view of the information for easy viewing. You get readings on the depth, battery voltage, and temperature. The data is displayed big enough so you can read it several feet away.

3. The third mode is the ice mode which is a digital flasher that’s useful for ice fishing. You get sonar echos that are sent out in real-time.

The Fishtrax is powered by four triple-A batteries that can last for up to 30 hours. The housing is waterproof so no need to worry if you drop it in the water and we all know that will inevitably happen.

You can even wear it around your neck with the handy neck strap that comes with it. Just toss the transducer in the water and your good to go. It also includes a carrying case to keep it protected when it’s not in use.

You get a 2 year warranty so if anything happens to your Fishtrax fish finder you can have it replaced. What else could you ask for?

View the owners manual here.

Check out the Hawkeye Fishtrax on Amazon.

Humminbird Piranahmax 4.3 DI

If you are looking for crystal clear images of what’s beneath your boat then you will want to swing for the Humminbird Piranahmax. What a cool little fish finder any angler would be proud to own.

First off Humminbird is a brand you can trust and has been around for over 40 years which is a great accomplishment for any business and this shows to the effectiveness of their products. They do make “top of the line” fish finders and Piranahmax is no different.

With the Piranahmax you get a 4.3” diagonal screen and a 272H X 470V pixel matrix that makes the images so clear.

The sonar can go down to a depth of 320 feet with coverage of 28” and 16 degrees at 10 dB. This gives you plenty of sonar power to play with. With the dual-beam sonar you will be able to choose from a wide or narrow sonar beam. If you choose the narrow beam you get finer details and the wider beam will give you the coverage you need when looking for the contour and structures of the bottom below.

You get Down Imaging, depth and fish alarms, Fish ID+ and zoom all in an easy to use interface.

The transducer is built-in and can be mounted on the transom of inside the hull. The Gimball mount dimensions are 3.91” x 7.34” x 3.62”.

Mounting the Piranahmax to your boat is easy with the tilt and swivel mounting system that comes with the Piranahmax. This allows you to view the screen from anywhere on your boat.

You can find the Humminbird Piranahmax on Amazon. Click the button below to check out the price.

Lowrance Elite - 9 Ti2