HUMMINBIRD RF 35

Why wouldn't this work for a Kayak?  Seems like it would cover most water depths that I would encounter, shows water temp, depth, and da fishy's.
Figure it could be strapped to the center of the paddle, and attach the finder itself to the anchor trolly an tow, or off the back of the yak and tow.

http://www.bestfishfinder.com/fish-finder-humminbird-rf-35.html


 

I looked into getting this a while back.  Didn't really find anyone that had used it on kayaks, read a couple reviews about it working great initially and then intermittently then on after..

Let us know if you decide to go with it, or find out anything else.  I'm in the market for a FF...

I think that fish finder is best suited for the bankie you wants information about depth within casting distance.  The transducer is actually meant to be cast out and the depth information is sent to the watch like unit.

It would work, but the screen has such poor resolution that all you'd really get was a general sense of depth.  With a more traditional fish finder you'll get a lot more resolution and more detail about the bottom structure, fish locations, bait, etc..

As for the price, there are plenty of regular fish finders in the sub-$100 market that would work much better.

Brian

What B said.

Z

You know, I think that if you ran it on a 4ft leader behind a flasher with a 4/0 trebble, you could cover two bases at once. 

I didn't find much of anyone on the net using the RF35, so I left this one to the next guy to be the guinea pig. 

Cabela's had the Eagle Cuda 250 for $199.99 with flat rate $4.95, so I took advantage of that and also picked up some ATV stuff to ride on that same shipping cost.   

Looks like some pretty solid reviews on the Eagle Cuda 250 off of Cabela's website.. Hmm starting to lean this way myself!

I pretty much just answered this on another thread but I've had both and would recommend the Humminbird. Overall more features and beautiful display. Nothing wrong w/ the Eagle but  w/ the Humminbird more for your money IMO.

Z

Which Humminbird you talkin bout, Zee?  Certainly not the RF35...

In order to get the Sonar + GPS combo in a Humminbird model you'll need to go with the 161 ($280), 363 ($300), or 580 ($350).  Both the 161 and the 363 have screens slightly better than the Cuda 250 ($200), but the 580 (which I believe Z owns) has a nice large screen and is indeed a very nice unit.

Brian

I didn't find much of anyone on the net using the RF35, so I left this one to the next guy to be the guinea pig. 

Cabela's had the Eagle Cuda 250 for $199.99 with flat rate $4.95, so I took advantage of that and also picked up some ATV stuff to ride on that same shipping cost.   

Many here have this model with GPS. I just bought one last week...yet to install 

Jay

Jay,

Installation really isn't that hard and should take about 30 minutes.  I think it's a matter of getting over the uneasy feeling about cutting that first hole in your kayak.

Brian

Not a problem to cut, just no time yet. I'll be ordering a Scotty adapter to mount the unit to and probably running the cable under the front hatch (no cut needed). I saw this on someone's yak and they said it didn't leak at all. I alson have a few small parts to pick up like watertight power plugs, new rechargable batteries and a higher capacity charger. I've elected to run 12 AA in series to give me a solid days worth of power before needing to recharge (14.4v on 2500 mAh rechargables).

Jay

Not a problem to cut, just no time yet. I'll be ordering a Scotty adapter to mount the unit to and probably running the cable under the front hatch (no cut needed). I saw this on someone's yak and they said it didn't leak at all. I alson have a few small parts to pick up like watertight power plugs, new rechargable batteries and a higher capacity charger. I've elected to run 12 AA in series to give me a solid days worth of power before needing to recharge.

Jay

I run the cables under the front hatch.  No problems for general use.  Of course during surf transits, it all comes off and in the hatch it goes.

-Allen

As noted else where, I'm a fan of the 250 s/map gps/ff. I have not found any other unit that has the tide function under $500. But before that, there have been a long line of cheap experiments (it ain't easy or cheap being cheap!) and one of those was the Hummingbird Smartcast ff's.

 I don't and would not use the Smartcast as my primary depth/fish finder. But I think we may be paying short shrift to this little FF. A quick search of the electronic oracle found that Carp aficionado's love them and have slightly modified them to actually be useful.

http://www.fishingmagic.com/news/article.asp?UAN=2856&v=1&sp=

I've had the watch and I currently own the base model and NONE have worked very well for me. Although I have been able to reliably note changes in depth (which is the main reason I use a depth finder), the range from the transducer to the receiver is waay too short and VERY line of sight. The maximum depth is a bit to small too as my first one did'nt do well over 60' deep.

The Carp fishers added better antennae to GREATLY extend the range.
I have not modded mine yet, but I can see it being very useful for a quick look around a marsh pond or a cut to check the depth or look for oyster bars.
Of course the slightly lower tech but dead reliable method is to come back at low tide. Kinda restricted to shallow water app's though.