Portable / castable fish finder ( from Leisure Pursuits )

[blowin]

The type with a yellow transmitter which can be cast by rod . I believe these are exclusive to Leisure Pursuits in the uk , cost about £50.
Does anyone have experience of these ? How do get on with it ?
I recently bought one and am thoroughly disappointed . I won't put details on the open forum because I am still trying to sort out the issues with the supplier but please feel free to pm me to discuss .
All the best .

[myworldfishing]

I assume it does not work?

[Tanglerat]

If your issues are honest, truthful and factual then post away about them.

[blowin]

It has an intermittent "no signal received" fault. This at close distance and with no obstructions . I have been unable to find any particular set of conditions which cause this .
I have found water inside it on three occasions plus light condensation on a fourth .
The supplier's immediate response when I reported the first time was to the effect that I hadn't screwed the cap on tightly enough so it was my fault . I would have to buy a new part .
I am curious to know whether anyone else has experienced this problem . The bold warning in the instructions and the reminder label to "please screw down cover to prevent water" suggest to me that it is a common one.

In fairness to the supplier I haven't spoken to him in person yet . I have been unable to find a phone number for that company anywhere on their own site or wider google . FWIW they did get back to me quickly enough when I queried their postal charge via Amazon. They refunded £10 but that was only half of it . I don't know whether that was good or bad .

ATB

[myworldfishing]

Do they actually work?

[blowin]

Do they actually work?

Good question ! I can't really tell due to the catch 22 whereby its sensor needs a certain depth of water ( I think about 60 cm , it is in the instructions ) before it can return accurate data. It cannot be tested in an enclosed area eg barrel because that in itself will corrupt the readings . I don't know the depth of the streams around here but they are generally shallow . I wanted this gadget to find the deep pools for me . I didn't want to have to go wading to find the pools in which to test the feckin thing .
But to be more serious -- I had what appeared to muddled / rapidly changing images and data on "live" tests in rivers and lakes . That could of course have been due to a number of acceptable reasons such as speed of drift , depth , nature of the bed etc . I had one short but very satisfactory test in calm , clear sea about 4 m deep. The image showed every rock and corresponded with what I myself could see. It takes a bit of getting used to when compared with a transom f/finder in deeper water but that might be expected .
The main problems are that "no signal" cut short most of my tests and I no longer have much faith in what I receive from water I can't see into .
FWIW When trying the demo mode I had trouble correlating the depth shown with the bottom features displayed in the middle of the screen. . They didn't appear to be in sync . Perhaps that was just me but it didn't help with the confidence factor .
I will be happy to keep it if it can be made to work as well as it appeared to during that test on the sea . Not cheap at nearly £60 stirling but could be a great yoke to have when exploring new water .

I made a mistake on my earlier entry . The p&p charged to my card was actually £26.61 stlg . The refund was £10 .
Finally , and rather belatedly I have checked the customer feedback on Amazon . Water getting in does feature as a problem and I think it is generally accepted by the users that it is their own fault for not screwing the cap on tightly enough . See http://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-Wirele ... r_dpwidget
When I had this problem myself I gave it a lot of thought because I doubted that I would have been careless enough to cast it out if I wasn't sure it was water-tight. I have found a perfectly "normal" set of circumstances under which water can and does get in even if the user has carefully followed the instructions . Demonstrating that accounts for 3 out of the 4 times water got into mine so I have little doubt that I am correct .
Sorry to bang on . This has been a big disappointment simply because it held so much promise !
I will try to remember to give the supplier a right to reply by sending him a link to this thread ( if that is in order --- Mods ??? Cheers ) .
ATB

[myworldfishing]

The reason I asked is because Iv looked at a few myself for beach fishing, they seem to be a well used tool in the carp arena in the uk.. But like what your saying there seems to be some if, and's and buts with allot of them.

I was looking at the deeper smart fish finder, and one thing that seems to be the norm with them is if the water is not deep enough or if its choppy they dont work to well..

[blowin]

I don't think it would spot flatties haha !
Good luck