New castable sonar devices like the Garmin Striker Cast GPS are giving bass anglers an exciting new tool to use when fishing from shore or a boat. This type of sonar removes the need to permanently mount a transducer on your watercraft and allows you to cast a floating sonar sensor from shore.
Most castable sonars are designed with the angler in mind. They connect to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, and the included app displays the sonar data in an easy-to-understand format.
While this new technology shows a lot of promise, there are some key pros and cons to consider before investing in a castable sonar setup for your next bass fishing adventure.
Advantages:
- Portability - Castable sonar gives you the flexibility to quickly scout new fishing spots without installing permanent mounts or transducers. You can use it from the shore, a kayak, canoe, or small boat without modifications.
- Cost - Castable sonar units are very affordable compared to permanently mounted fish finders and transducers. The Garmin Striker Cast retails for under $200.
- Ease of Use - The castable sonar lets you read the underwater terrain and find promising spots like drop-offs, submerged vegetation, or structure where bass may be hiding. This allows for better shore and boat fishing.
- Personalized Contour Maps - Many GPS-enabled, castable sonar units can scan to depths over 100 feet, giving you the ability to not only find fish in fairly deep water but also create more detailed contour maps of the spots you fish. This allows the savvy angler to idenitfy the nuances in subsurface cover (rock piles, stumps, weed edges) and structure (breaklines/drop offs) and help understand the ways fish relate to them.
- Predator Identification - The Garmin Striker Cast offers Garmin's ClearVu technology which provides higher resolution target separation allowing you to distinguish bass from other gamefish species or cover objects.
Disadvantages:
- Limited Sensor Range - While castable sonar can scan to depths over 100 feet, its wireless sonar signal is limited to about 200 feet from the handheld device. So you have to stay relatively close to where you cast it.
- Battery Life -Castable sonar devices have limited battery life span ranging from 4 to 10 hours depending on the model and settings used. You'll need to recharge after each trip.
- Slower Scanning - Scan rates are typically slower than permanently mounted transducers, meaning your scans update less frequently.
- Can Spook Fish - The splashing of the castable sensor floating on the surface may spook more wary fish in very clear and shallow water.
Overall, castable sonar opens up a lot of new opportunities for bass anglers to quickly locate fishable structure, vegetation, baitfish, and bass without extensive equipment installations. However, the limitations in range, battery life, and scan speed need to be considered. With realistic expectations, this new technology can take your shoreline or small watercraft bass fishing to the next level.
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