08-21-2003, 03:22 PM
[cool]Welcome back, Bro. How was the trip?
If you go back through the posts on this forum, you will find several threads that touch on the subject of sonars on tubes. My personal feeling is that I would feel severely handicapped without my underwater eyes.
I just got a PM from Road, there in Utah, who has become an ardent tuber and a great believer in using sonar over the last year. He reinforced what I have been trying to get across to a lot of tubers, and that is the sonar is of greater value in keeping you in high percentage water...right depth and bottom structure...than in finding fish.
Yes, it is great to see your screen full of pixelated fishies, but with most of us, we can tell lots of stories of catching fish even when we saw nothing on the screen. The sonar cone is very small in shallow water, and fish do not always pass directly beneath us...even if they are within easy catching distance of a vertically presented bait or lure.
The flip side of that is true too. Sometimes we get frustrated when we see fish blips but cannot catch them. That is humiliating.
The Fishing Buddy? All I have to offer is that it is better than not having anything. However, for the money, and for float tubes, a hundred dollar system from Eagle or Lowrance will give you all the info you can use. And, with the "skimmer" transducer, you can mount the transducer to a short shaft of 1/2" PVC and carry it with you on a small boat or ice fishing sled. The shaft is easily snapped in and out of broom handle clips you can mount anywhere...on the side of the boat, an ice fishing bucket or whatever.
Go to Sportsmans, or some other place that has the Eagle Cude 168. They will usually have one hooked up to a battery and there is a "demo mode" you can turn on and get a good idea of how the menu works and what to expect.
Once you have sonar, and work with it enough to get a good feel for what it is seeing down there...and how that is displayed...you will become a much better fisherman. At least you will put yourself in better position to catch the fish, even if they have lockjaw on occasion.
If you get down here this fall, I will take you out in a tricked out tube and let you see firsthand how they work. If you can't wait, there are quite a few of the Salt Lake area guys that are installing them now and having good results. Jed Burton just rigged up a Cuda 128 and took it on it's first tubing trip down to Gunlock near St. George. EmuScud also has that model (only about $60) but he has not had it in any waters other than Utah Lake, so he has not had the opportunity to really put it through its paces in deeper water.
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If you go back through the posts on this forum, you will find several threads that touch on the subject of sonars on tubes. My personal feeling is that I would feel severely handicapped without my underwater eyes.
I just got a PM from Road, there in Utah, who has become an ardent tuber and a great believer in using sonar over the last year. He reinforced what I have been trying to get across to a lot of tubers, and that is the sonar is of greater value in keeping you in high percentage water...right depth and bottom structure...than in finding fish.
Yes, it is great to see your screen full of pixelated fishies, but with most of us, we can tell lots of stories of catching fish even when we saw nothing on the screen. The sonar cone is very small in shallow water, and fish do not always pass directly beneath us...even if they are within easy catching distance of a vertically presented bait or lure.
The flip side of that is true too. Sometimes we get frustrated when we see fish blips but cannot catch them. That is humiliating.
The Fishing Buddy? All I have to offer is that it is better than not having anything. However, for the money, and for float tubes, a hundred dollar system from Eagle or Lowrance will give you all the info you can use. And, with the "skimmer" transducer, you can mount the transducer to a short shaft of 1/2" PVC and carry it with you on a small boat or ice fishing sled. The shaft is easily snapped in and out of broom handle clips you can mount anywhere...on the side of the boat, an ice fishing bucket or whatever.
Go to Sportsmans, or some other place that has the Eagle Cude 168. They will usually have one hooked up to a battery and there is a "demo mode" you can turn on and get a good idea of how the menu works and what to expect.
Once you have sonar, and work with it enough to get a good feel for what it is seeing down there...and how that is displayed...you will become a much better fisherman. At least you will put yourself in better position to catch the fish, even if they have lockjaw on occasion.
If you get down here this fall, I will take you out in a tricked out tube and let you see firsthand how they work. If you can't wait, there are quite a few of the Salt Lake area guys that are installing them now and having good results. Jed Burton just rigged up a Cuda 128 and took it on it's first tubing trip down to Gunlock near St. George. EmuScud also has that model (only about $60) but he has not had it in any waters other than Utah Lake, so he has not had the opportunity to really put it through its paces in deeper water.
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