Do you catch more fish with a fish finder?

Mark- If you ask JED and he says he doesnt think fish finders matter he is blowing smoke up your ass. Ask him for numbers for halibut spots or see what he does when he goes fishing with Jim walleye fishing or me Laker fishing... lol.  If he has had enough whiskey he might tell you he reads the water 

Even though often included with sonar now, a fish finder is not the same as a GPS.

I love this topic!

I fished for years with no FF as well. As someone else mentioned above, I feel it got me more in tune with the other cues available to judge where to fish. On big water like Pacific City I've found you can quite accurately triangulate your position based on the rock, Cape Kiwanda, Cape Lookout, and structure on shore. Of course when the fog roles in you're on your own again.

I started using a small, handheld GPS unit (Garmin eTrex) early on in my kayak fishing, because I already had it and was familiar with it. The best thing this did for me was to help my trolling speed and also to help me hone my ability to locate the same spot repeatedly based on landmarks. That said, it was occasionally nice to mark a spot I wanted to return to on big water or retrace my path. It's also really fun seeing how far you paddled/pedaled in a day.

Finally I put a FF on my kayak. It has built in GPS as most of them do now, but I often still take my handheld GPS with me just because I like it better. The FF has definitely been useful to know the depth, find contours, and occasionally to locate schools of fish. I've found it helps flatten the learning curve for me on a new body of water.

So, overall for me it's been a benefit, but I'm really glad that I didn't start with it, and I don't catch any more fish now than I did before. No offense to anyone but I feel like a lot of folks are completely lost on where to fish without one. Nothing wrong with that, but for me there is a lot of value in feeling like I can tackle a new piece of water based on what I can see and feel.

Mark- If you ask JED and he says he doesnt think fish finders matter he is blowing smoke up your ass. Ask him for numbers for halibut spots or see what he does when he goes fishing with Jim walleye fishing or me Laker fishing... lol.  If he has had enough whiskey he might tell you he reads the water 

I do have lots of stuff blowing out my ass for sure. I absolutely think ff help in most fisheries and don't discourage people from using them. I didn't have one to start because I couldn't afford one and now I'm too laze to install, maintain, and service one. Fishing is like a box of chocolates for me. Not that chocolates would last long on my kayak As for laker and walleye fishing. Yup, you need to see the fish to target them efficiently. I didn't chase those fish too much this year for that very fact. Most of my fish were caught on solo trips so I didn't  have to follow people with ff around. I did get a halibut this year but that was just luck, no numbers were involved

Do I catch more fish with a fish finder?? Yes and no, knowing the proper depth has allowed me to keep my bait closer to the bottom which in turn has kept me on the fish, could I use my dropper weight to find bottom? Sure could, but that can also lead to tangles if you're not careful. Being able to see a ridge or a hump on the sonar and adjust the bait has certainly helped over the years, this of course would be for Salmon fishing. When it comes to bass fishing I absolutely have caught fish simply because I have been able to find underwater structure that is too deep for me to see, does it mean that I rely on it most of the time? No, and I've caught plenty of fish without the sonar turned on, but it is definitely helpful. Same goes with ocean/bottom fishing, I have been able to find ridges and humps in the reef that allow me to get my bait where fish may be hiding, does it work better than simply bouncing a jig off the bottom? Maybe, but it depends on your style of fishing. I also like to fish for Kokanee and they can be notoriously difficult to find without a decent sonar, since they're schooling fish that tend to live in deeper lakes it's helpful to know whether or not that school is in 50, 75, or 100 feet of water.

On the note of GPS that Capn' brought up, I would almost say that I've caught more fish because of the GPS on my fish finder than the sonar on the same device, why you may ask? Because when I do find that structure or given "hot spot" if you will I can mark that exact location and come back to it trip after trip, this isn't as big of a deal when fishing lakes as it is for rivers or the ocean because you can use shoreline points of reference, with bigger bodies of water that becomes a bit harder. I have caught multiple ling cod off of the same marked spot over the span of several trips and years, is it coincidence? Maybe, but fishy spots tend to hold fish more often than not, and marking fishy spots at least gives me something to go off of when hitting that fishing spot. There's a certain underwater rock pile only about 10'x10' wide in about 20' of water on the Willamette near Newberg that I have caught probably close to 300 fish off of over the years simply because I can easily find it time after time, would dropping a lure down to the bottom lead me to it given enough time to search? Sure, but I'd rather be catching more so than fishing. I'll add that knowing your exact speed when trolling can help present your bait in the best manner possible, a GPS is probably the simplest way to do that.

If you ask Jed, the 2020 Angler of the Year winner (who, by the way also posted the highest score in the history of the event), he'd say no.  He's never used one and has no apparent interest in using one.

Jed got no distractions
Can't hear no buzzers and bells
Don't see no lights a-flashin'
Slays by sense of smell
Always gets a limit
Never seen him cull
That deft, chum, kind, squid
Sure plays a mean fish call

Apologies to The Who, and congratulations to Jed for the new AOTY all time top score.

If you ask Jed, the 2020 Angler of the Year winner (who, by the way also posted the highest score in the history of the event), he'd say no.  He's never used one and has no apparent interest in using one.

Jed got no distractions
Can't hear no buzzers and bells
Don't see no lights a-flashin'
Slays by sense of smell
Always gets a limit
Never seen him cull
That deft, chum, kind, squid
Sure plays a mean fish call

Apologies to The Who, and congratulations to Jed for the new AOTY all time top score.

hahaha thanks Snopro, I'm sure Roger Daltrey just threw up in his mouth a little.

Depth, speed and waypoints lift my success rate while fish marks lift my spirits. The flash:bang rate on learning a fishery is much faster with a FF IMO. A good example is the tide dependent and technical buoy 10 fishery. Windows are tight and waypoints help me zero in on reliably productive spots to maximize time on target. As important if not more is logging conditions around successes and failures while its still fresh - FF provides some of that info.

I don't have a FF, and being new to kayak fishing, I would just as soon not have one for a while.  For one thing, I've just spent a lot of money on the yak and all the safety gear.  For another, it's just that much more stuff to carry, install, maintain, and learn.  BUT, I'm doing most of my fishing in a Puget Sound marine area where the regs say: "Fishing for bottomfish prohibited in waters deeper than 120'."  It gets deep fast around here, and I don't know how to be legal without adding a FF.  This is one of those regulations that just about had me give up fishing all-together.  In spite of my best attempts, I'm sure that I spend most of my fishing time doing something illegal.

fish finders cost less than fishing rods nowdays... get one... literally nobody gives a shit if you catch a fish with or without one. we just like giving jed a hard time.