Yes, pinkfloyd is polling again, but don't worry, I will not go overboard again. I just wanted to know how many of you use depthfinders. Does it help you be more productive? Do you catch more fish with one than without? I kinda have a feeling I would catch more fish if I had one, especially during the summer months so I can locate underwater dropoffs, humps, and structure.

I voted yes. I use mine only when I fish on the few lakes I go to, to find structure. I fish mostly on a local river and the water is usually 4' or less. A fish finder is usless to me then.

Absolutely.

It is my eyes under the water.

Yes,I use a Hummingbird.

I see we have two shoreline pounders weighing in so far, not using them. I can't see how anyone could consistently fish deep without one. we did it for a long time before having sonar, but those were tough hunting years. I use mine first to find shad and bass activity. If for instance it appears most feeding is around 16 feet, then I check the map to locate potential areas including 16-20 feet of water. If boat traffic and shoreline fishing has been heavy I have already eliminated a lot of territory, for the bass have gone deep to escape. In the next two months I'll mostly be fishing creek bends, humps, ledges, ridges, long points, anywhere close to small flats where a sharp drop-off dives into deep water. I use the sonar to locate those slopes and verify whether baitfish activity is there. I like flats that are cut up better than big continuous flats with no dividing ditches. It takes sonar to sort those out. I prefer flats out away from shore, more like flat topped humps, with maybe only a boat-sized clump of hydrilla hanging on its highest point struggling for dear life in the middle of the lake, or if it has some stumps or submerged snags. That requires sonar. I fish the deepest side of such a place. I need sonar for that to save time fishing the wrong parts of it. I look for small ditches coming off those flats into the deepest water. Sonar sorts that out a lot faster than reading the bottom with a bait.

Jim

Yeah, its called an anchor.