Fishing with a smartphone: ReelSonar helps you catch fish

Check out www.reelsonar.com for this.

Are you sure this isn't some sort of dating website gimmick?


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We ran an email blast earlier this week at KayakFishingMagazine featuring ReelSonar.  They are a Seattle based company with an interesting concept.  We'll see if it gets off the ground; they seeking Indiegogo funding.

-Allen

Not to rain on their parde but Humminbird has had thier Smart Cast system on the market for a number of years. It does the same thing, and it networkable with most of the rest of their products.

Still, there is the opportunity to get invloved in funding at the ground floor level......

Not to rain on their parde but Humminbird has had thier Smart Cast system on the market for a number of years. It does the same thing, and it networkable with most of the rest of their products.

Still, there is the opportunity to get invloved in funding at the ground floor level......

Humminbird doesnt talk to your smartphone or tablet.

-Allen

There are anglers using the Smart Cast for fall bobber fishing on the Oregeon Coast tidewater rivers.  Pull into a hole, send the "drone" out and see if and where in the water column any big fall chinook are holding. Adjust bobber stop accordingly proceed to slay fish.  I've seen it work with my own eyes many times.  That said, the tablet/smart phone idea is a neat concept and will be a huge seller with the cubicle crowd but I don't see it as a selling point in the egg goo, fish slime, crap weather environments I've seen the Smart Cast concept put to use.

That's a cool concept!  They don't specifically say it but I'm betting that the results are collected from each device and will be available to paying members so they can ID when and where fish hold.  It would give the user the ability to improve their odds when planning a trip somewhere.  Kinda takes the work out of fishing new water.

What really got my attention though was the tiny footprint of the digital transducer/bluetooth. 

-Spot- 

There are anglers using the Smart Cast for fall bobber fishing on the Oregeon Coast tidewater rivers.  Pull into a hole, send the "drone" out and see if and where in the water column any big fall chinook are holding. Adjust bobber stop accordingly proceed to slay fish.  I've seen it work with my own eyes many times.  That said, the tablet/smart phone idea is a neat concept and will be a huge seller with the cubicle crowd but I don't see it as a selling point in the egg goo, fish slime, crap weather environments I've seen the Smart Cast concept put to use.

Eggzackly the point i was trying to make. We carry enough stuff with us already that can go overboard. No, thanks ,but I'll leave the tablet in the kitchen and the phone in the truck. I do wish them well though.

You gotta think outside the box on this one.

Why is it I have to pay $500 for a color FF with GPS and a 5" display that uses very old display technology (low res, not touch screen, bulky) and limited/non-existant processing power?  If I had a good way to waterproof a 7" tablet and connect it to a wireless transducer, that would be cool.  Not to mention I can pay $200 for said tablet, maybe another $100 for a waterproof case/mount, and another $100 for the 'ducer.  I now have a much, much smarter "brain" on my kayak at a lower cost.  Of course the devil is in the details.  I'm anxious to see the app.  It has to at least provide a FF interface that is as good, and hopefully better, that what is currently accepted on traditional FF units.

-Allen

I originally missed where you are going with this.  Not to be used like the smart cast product but to replace the traditional transducer/powerhead combo used on kayaks with a transducer/smart device?  I could see merit as long as you have the watts for the transducer etc. that makes it comparable to whats out there now as far as depth capacity, detail, battery life, color etc etc..

I originally missed where you are going with this.  Not to be used like the smart cast product but to replace the traditional transducer/powerhead combo used on kayaks with a transducer/smart device?  I could see merit as long as you have the watts for the transducer etc. that makes it comparable to whats out there now as far as depth capacity, detail, battery life, color etc etc..

That's one shortcoming on this first device ... limited depth range (130' I think).

No worries on the power for the ducer.  You can get 500W FF units that draw <200 mA.  Upgrade those to higher re color display, GPS, etc and those units draw >650 mA.  The majority of power isn't going to the ducer.  You can get 7" tablets with 10 hour display.  Shoot, those tablets have integrated batteries.  No need to carry a 7Ah brick around.

-Allen

You gotta think outside the box on this one.

Why is it I have to pay $500 for a color FF with GPS and a 5" display that uses very old display technology (low res, not touch screen, bulky) and limited/non-existant processing power?  If I had a good way to waterproof a 7" tablet and connect it to a wireless transducer, that would be cool.  Not to mention I can pay $200 for said tablet, maybe another $100 for a waterproof case/mount, and another $100 for the 'ducer.  I now have a much, much smarter "brain" on my kayak at a lower cost.  Of course the devil is in the details.  I'm anxious to see the app.  It has to at least provide a FF interface that is as good, and hopefully better, that what is currently accepted on traditional FF units.

-Allen

I should have done that as my senior project. 

I love the electronics angle.  It has the potenial to make every function of the fishfinder modular thru either hardware of software.  Tranducer, GPS, display size, chart-plotting, tides, weather, automated logging of every variable during every bite of your trip. 

But, the social media/data collection angle scares me.  I'm not big on having every keystroke and location logged on my smartphone.  The thought of having every fishmark at my favorite hole/reef/tailout fills me with dread. 
Would I search out other people's secret spots?  Hell yeah!  Do I want to share all of my hard won intel?  Hell no!

I know, I'm being selfish but these are real considerations when using smarphone apps.

-Spot-

That is a really cool idea but I wouldn't use it if I couldn't disable tagging where I am.

I was doing a little research and came across a similar product that launched last summer ... http://buydeeper.com/

-Allen