The concept is simple: locate objects underwater or in the dark by sending out a sound signal and listening for the echoed return. Bats, shrews and dolphins use it. Humans finally caught on about 100 years ago. From the first 2000-pound transducer to the latest forward-facing sonar, the evolution of the fish finder allows anglers a view of underwater fish and structure that would make a dolphin jealous.

45 Million Years Ago: Whales develop echolocation. By sending out clicks and receiving the echo through their jaw bone, animals can see in the dark, underwater and underground.

1490: Leonardo da Vinci invents active sonar by using a long underwater tube to listen for approaching ships.

1913: One month after the Titanic sinks, English meteorologist Lewis Fry Richardson, patents the first Sound Navigation and Ranging device. 

1959: Lowrance introduces the FISH-LO-K-TOR portable sonar, also known as the “Little Green Box.” Over the next 25 years, the analogue flasher sells more than 1 million units.

1971: Tom Mann modifies a do-it-yourself electronics kit to reduce interference and creates the first Humminbird depth sounder.

1984: The first fish finder with an LCD screen and integrated microprocessor replaces paper graphs.

1985: Scientists use a Lowrance’s X-16 paper graph to search for the Loch Ness monster. Operation Deepscan failed to produce any evidence of the monster.

2003: Humminbird’s SmartCast wireless fish finder provides bank anglers with a remote fish finder. Tie the transducer to the fishing line, cast it out and use a smartphone app to watch a live view of the fish and structure.

2009: DownScan sonar transmits multiple sonar signals to create a life-like image of fish and structure. The technology leads to 360 and forward-facing sonar.

2011: CHIRP sonar transmits a range of frequencies in one pulse to increase the power of the transducer signal and improve image detail.

2018: Garmin’s Panoptix LiveScope provides live images of fish and structure in front of the boat. The technology wins Best of Show at ICAST. 

2019: Humminbird Introduced MEGA 360 Imaging followed in 2021 with MEGA Live Imaging, providing a live view of fish and structure in every direction. The technology quickly spreads through the industry providing anglers the most powerful tool to find fish.

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Just how big a fish finder do you need? It’s a question just about every boat-owning angler will ask themselves when they buy a new boat, and again when they upgrade their electronics. It’s really, really easy to boil down this question to a one-line answer: the biggest your boat’s helm can accommodate. Period. If you have the room, multiple fish finders are even better.

Cost Equation

Simple, right? OK, now let’s pick apart that assertion a bit. Obviously, the downside to getting a bigger fish finder is additional cost. But ask yourself: What percentage of your boat’s cost would an upsize unit amount to? A pretty good guess is 2 to 4 percent. Next question: Would you want to save 2 to 4 percent on your boat’s cost if you knew it meant you’d catch significantly fewer fish for the lifetime of the rig? Because that’s exactly what’s likely to happen.

Big-Screen Effect

What you have to remember is that you’re trying to represent a vast area of water on a comparatively minute screen. If you’re fishing in 50 feet of water and trying to compress the snapshot of that swath of H₂O onto a 5-inch screen, 30-inch fish will be little more than tiny dots. Trying to spot baitfish will be like trying to spot fairy dust. Oh, and you say you’d like to see the chart plotter at the same time too? That screen just shrank again.

HD Analogy

Do you remember when you upgraded your TV to a jumbo high-definition version, put on the Nature Channel, and discovered that you could suddenly see the hairs on an ant’s leg? The difference is just as stark—and just as illuminating—with a grand-size fish-finder screen.

Easier Navigation

In case we haven’t convinced you yet, note that navigating is a lot easier with a larger screen that allows you to zoom out and still see details such as contour lines and depths. You’ll be more accurate when plotting without having to zoom in and out to find markers and channels. 

How Big Is Big?

Just how big is big enough? Different folks have different opinions, but for most serious anglers anything under 9 inches is usable only for the most basic applications. Upping the ante to 12 inches or larger will make a massive difference. The bottom line is: Bigger is always better. So, stop asking how big a fish finder you need. Instead, measure that helm station and find out just how big a fish finder you can ­possibly put on there.

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Furuno has encapsulated commercial-level features in its new color stand-alone radar. The 1815 package includes an 8.4-inch display and a 19-inch 4 kW radome antenna. It offers Fast Target Tracking, which allows captains to manually or automatically track up to 10 targets, and the unit can display up to 100 AIS targets when interfaced with an AIS receiver. True Trails mode shows moving objects as a gradation trail, making it possible to gauge the direction of targets at a glance. Automatic gain reduction offers optimal clutter rejection. The 1815 costs $2,495.

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Garmin EchoMAP 50, 70s Fish Finder/Plotters

Garmin’s new echoMAP 50s and 70s fish finder/plotters can refresh position and heading up to 10 times per second with the integration of a 10 Hz GPS/GLONASS receiver. The 50s combines a 5-inch VGA display with an echo HD-ID finder. The 70s comes with a 7-inch WVGA touch-screen display with pinch-to-zoom. Both Wi-Fi-enabled units also allow sonar recording and come with a dual-beam 77/200 kHz transducer. The 50s costs $499.99, and the 70s costs $1,049.99. Call 800‑800‑1020 or visit garmin​.com.

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SPF0813_NPR_1

Furuno’s new dual-frequency plotter/fish finders — GP1670F (5.7-inch display) and GP1870F (7-inch wide-format screen) — feature the company’s new Bottom Discrimination, Accu-Fish and Post-Processing Gain technologies. The first offers a graphic display of the seafloor characteristics with a probability curve in mixed-bottom areas; the second estimates the size of fish below the boat; and the latter adjusts gain throughout the entire screen for better historical review. The plotter shows short- and long-range views in a split-screen presentation. The units come with C-Map 4-D cartography, and cost $1,195 and $1,495. Call 360-834-9300 or visit furunousa.com.

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Navionics Fish Layer

Navionics customers who use the company’s data chips or its mobile app have seen the rapid results from user-generated navigation content. Navionics says it has 30,000 “editors” ­— boaters from around the world — who have made as many as 200,000 changes to coastal and inland charts in a year’s time. Ninety-five percent of those alterations, such as new buoy placements, hazards, fishing spots and more, will not be available on official charts, says Shaun Ruge, Navionics’ product manager.

Yesterday, Ruge announced at the ICAST trade show in Orlando that Navionics has added sonar to that “freshest data” program. Here’s the basic description of how that happens:

• Boater records sonar track
• Boater uploads sonar recording to Navionics via the Navionics application
• Navionics integrates the recording to improve bathymetry, adjusting for keel-level offset and tides
• Navionics publishes an updated chart via Freshest Data within 24 hours

Ruge showed us a map of an inshore saltwater location he fished off Nantucket (above). He explained that during three consecutive weekends, the shoals moved, which consequently meant the fish moved. The final weekend he fished he uploaded his sonar track information and created an updated chart. What looked like one long shoal on the original NOAA chart was actually two separate sandbars.

Note that nowhere on the pictured chart does it show where exactly Ruge fished or whether he caught anything. So the updated information, which becomes available to all users, does not give away all the details of your best location. What it does is show you the constantly changing conditions you need to know to better fish a region, especially an inshore region.

The new chart data becomes part of the Fish Layer on your plotter or mobile device that you can turn on or off. Fish Layer updating for Platinum Plus users is available now (a year of free data uploads comes with purchase; in subsequent years, the price is 50 percent of new-purchase cost); app users will see it this fall (updates are currently free after app purchase).

For more information on Freshest Data, visit the Navionics web site.

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