Deeper Fishfinder

[BigMinnow]

Do any of you have the Deeper Fishfinder? I’m a kayak/shore angler and I’ve fished all my life just by intuition and experience but I think the Deeper might be an awesome addition to my gear. What are your guises experiences with it? I like the fact that it makes topo maps of the lakes and stuff. Is there a better Fishfinder for the price? I need something I can use both in a kayak and onshore 

[Crestliner2008]

Interesting! Just went through their website and it certainly has possibilities. Don't think they've been around long enough to quantify the quality. It appears that it's like a bobber type transducer. Not sure what you'd actually see if used in a heavy chop?

[georgeyew]

I tried deeper sonar and i really liked it. It was able to give me clear readings of the depth, bottom, and water temps. I like that it is compact and did not take up a lot of room. I am not sure how accurate the fish finding feature is, but i use it mostly for the 3 items listed above.  I think that it would definitely be a good addition for a kayak fisherman.

[MIbassyaker]

I have one too and have been able to use it to good effect from both shore and from the kayak, for finding depth and underwater features, weedlines, dropoffs, humps, channels, etc. in small, ummapped places like gravel pits, bayous, backwaters, small lakes and stuff.  I'm not sure how useful it is for identifying fish though, and when casting, the bluetooth connection can be unreliable at times. It works well dangled off the edge of the kayak and can be used for mapping. The mapping relies on your phone's GPS, so only works if the phone moves along with the deeper (as in a craft), and doesn't really work if you're just casting it (when casting you'll get the depth return, but not a map). You can store maps locally or upload to cloud and view online in a browser.  As a substitute for regular sonar on a watercraft it's definitely limited, but better than nothing for sure. However, not sure how it stacks up against other castable options though -- there are a few different ones now, and I think the others are a little cheaper. 

[Brad in Texas]

Note, too, that Lowrance bought out a company making these sorts of fish finders. It looks like it has a few additional features, strengths that Deeper doesn't currently offer. Lowrance is a big name so this could end up being a signal, pardon the pun, that there will be a push to optimize these units. For water temp, depth, contour mapping, structure/cover, why not? I plan to get one soon for my canoe/kayaks. One unit for several vessels, that and no issues mounting transducers, etc. 

 

Brad

Edited March 18, 2018 by Brad in Texas
correction

[RPreeb]

My real problem with this is that reading anything on my phone in sunlight is a pain.  Units like the Garmin Striker state that they are optimized for reading in sunlight.  I know that my Garmin golf GPS needs no backlight to read it clearly in daylight - completely different from most backlit electronic displays.

[Fishing_FF]

14 hours ago, Brad in Texas said:

Note, too, that Lowrance bought out a company making these sorts of fish finders. It looks like it has a few additional features, strengths that Deeper doesn't currently offer. Lowrance is a big name so this could end up being a signal, pardon the pun, that there will be a push to optimize these units. For water temp, depth, contour mapping, structure/cover, why not? I plan to get one soon for my canoe/kayaks. One unit for several vessels, that and no issues mounting transducers, etc. 

 

Brad

 

FishHunter is the product market by Lowrance. You would think with Lowrance at the helm of a fish finder, it would be a great product. However, it has been rendered useless since the app no longer works. A friend gave me one after he got frustrated with not being able to get the device to connect to his phone. I tried without success. I contacted Lowrance and Navico (parent company of Lowrance and who original made the FishHunter), but never got any response to multiple calls and emails. Amazon and the iTunes App Store are full of reviews similar stories of non-working apps and no customer service responses. I probably should have started there. I gave the FishHunter back to my friend, and when I asked what he did with it, he said it works well as a paperweight. 

[Brad in Texas]

This is "good to know" information about the Lowrance product in this category of fishfinder.

 

It'd swing me back in the direction of buying a Deeper. And, I am really loathe to conduct business with any company that won't respond to customer contacts regarding operational issues. None get much bigger than problems that render a piece of equipment useless.

 

Maybe in short order, Lowrance will straighten things out and start advancing the technology for these toss-able fishfinders!

 

Thanks!   Brad

[Fishing_FF]

12 hours ago, Brad in Texas said:

This is "good to know" information about the Lowrance product in this category of fishfinder.

 

It'd swing me back in the direction of buying a Deeper. And, I am really loathe to conduct business with any company that won't respond to customer contacts regarding operational issues. None get much bigger than problems that render a piece of equipment useless.

 

Maybe in short order, Lowrance will straighten things out and start advancing the technology for these toss-able fishfinders!

 

Thanks!   Brad

 

Yes, I wanted to like the FishHunter. It has 5 tri-frequency that allows the app to show a combination downscan and sidescan type image. Like a traditional downscan, it will show the fish and their depth under the transducer, but it also shows fish left and right of the transducer with their depth and distance from the transducer. I was told if I could get the FishHunter to work, I could keep it, so had plenty of incentive. My friend said he would buy another one. I would just have to setup his up. 

 

I believe he now has a Deeper Pro+. I'll call him to see if I can borrow it this weekend if he isn't using it. Got a boat rental this weekend at Turkey Lake, so I could test it out there. 

[Brad in Texas]

So sad to know we, the consumers, are often actually field beta testers for newer products that come out about "half-baked." In the one or two videos making comparisons of the FishHunter and the Deeper, the reviews seem to give a modest technical/functional nod to the former. I actually care a bit less about seeing fish on a screen than all of the other things, contours, cover, structure, temps, etc. Just as an aside, at one point in the Classic coverage, one of the announcers mentioned that Kevin VanDam used his electronic gear solely for these purposes, not to actually spot fish. Of course, he might have had a different comment about it but they were implying that if he could find the right set-up, a particular environment for bass, the bass would be there.  Brad

[NYWayfarer]

There are a ton of youtube reviews on the Deeper. Most of them are positive anything negative is usually people that want the Deeper to be something other than what it is, a portable sonar unit that works with your phone. Or complaints about the ridiculously high priced accessories, like the bendable arm attachment for canoes and kayaks.

 

I would get the Wifi version rather than the Bluetooth one.

 

After doing my research I went with the Vexilar T-pod instead. Wifi and the images on the app resemble actual sonar unit readings. These units are great for Kayak and bank fishermen.

[BigMinnow]

Thanks to this thread, I’m seriously considering the Deeper Pro +. I think it’ll do everything I need it too. I already use topographical maps to identify key areas to find fish depending on water temps and other things so using my Deeper in my kayak would be solely to identify any underwater structure that topo maps can’t give me. On my days where I don’t have a lot of time, my Deeper would be used from the bank to actually check for fish so I don’t end up wasting time. All the reviews I’ve seen are pretty much pro Deeper other than the cost, but sometimes you really do pay for what you get 

[Roughwater]

10 hours ago, BigMinnow said:

Thanks to this thread, I’m seriously considering the Deeper Pro +. I think it’ll do everything I need it too. I already use topographical maps to identify key areas to find fish depending on water temps and other things so using my Deeper in my kayak would be solely to identify any underwater structure that topo maps can’t give me. On my days where I don’t have a lot of time, my Deeper would be used from the bank to actually check for fish so I don’t end up wasting time. All the reviews I’ve seen are pretty much pro Deeper other than the cost, but sometimes you really do pay for what you get 

Blake,

 

The deeper Pro+ sounds like a great product for what you want to use it for.  Wish I had some experience with the castable finders but I don't.  I just wanted to mention and you are probably aware that certain times of the year, like right now, fish are often in deep water not always related to structure.  I have in the last few days been exploring a small lake in North Carolina.  I have a Garmin 74SV Chirp on my Kayak.  I can see the fish really well with it as long as I'm moving anyway.  Most of the fish right now are in the deeper parts of the lake and there is virtually no scructure there.  I'm talking about water 13 to about 30 feet deep.  This lake actually has very little structure.  There are a few man made structures but that's it for the most part.  I did find a shallower lagoon with good amounts of fish but I also found that a lot of the lake had few to no fish in it right now.  I did however see a few fish where the man made structure is but many more were in deep water with no structure at all.  Guess what I'm trying to say is knowing where the structure is, is a great start but if you can actully see fish too then you have the best of both worlds. I don't think it would require a real pricy finder to see fish and structure and still be fairly portable.  However I do have to say if fishing from the bank being able to cast you transducer would be a real plus.  I guess this time of year with that device you could find the deepest spots you can cast to and try them out even if you can't see the fish?

 

Good luck,

Terry

 

Go bucks! PS, I'm originally from Ohio near Newark. 

[BigMinnow]

1 hour ago, Roughwater said:

However I do have to say if fishing from the bank being able to cast you transducer would be a real plus.  I guess this time of year with that device you could find the deepest spots you can cast to and try them out even if you can't see the fish?

 

Good luck,

Terry

 

Go bucks! PS, I'm originally from Ohio near Newark. 

O-H! Lol, yeah man I’m from the Mentor area but I’m down at OSU for school and I’m not used to having all these reservoirs within an hour’s drive. When I’m not kayak fishing I’m usually fishing small local ponds. These ponds usually aren’t mapped and right now I know all the fish are holding as deep as possible (winter just won’t end). So being able to cast the Deeper Pro + and see if I’m actually fishing the deepest area of these ponds would probably really help my hookup ratio. Maybe one day I’ll have the money to put a separate, actual Fishfinder in my kayak but for now I need something I can use for both bank and kayak fishing. 

 

Thanks for for the helpful reply!

[Roughwater]

15 minutes ago, BigMinnow said:

O-H! Lol, yeah man I’m from the Mentor area but I’m down at OSU for school and I’m not used to having all these reservoirs within an hour’s drive. When I’m not kayak fishing I’m usually fishing small local ponds. These ponds usually aren’t mapped and right now I know all the fish are holding as deep as possible (winter just won’t end). So being able to cast the Deeper Pro + and see if I’m actually fishing the deepest area of these ponds would probably really help my hookup ratio. Maybe one day I’ll have the money to put a separate, actual Fishfinder in my kayak but for now I need something I can use for both bank and kayak fishing. 

 

Thanks for for the helpful reply!

No problem and wish you the Best of luck!  What ever you end up getting I hope you let us all know and also how it works out?  

 

I-O

 

Terry

[Koz]

I have an iBobber and while it works OK I find it very limited. All of our lagoons are only 6-10 feet deep at most so the scan cone is very narrow. Plus, it doesn't do what I need it to do.

 

We bank fish from hundreds of lagoons in our area. What I'm looking for is a device I can cast out and use to map the bottom from various locations, save that data, then more importantly stitch those topographic maps together so at a glance I can look at a topographic overview of the entire lagoon.

 

It looks like the Deeper Pro + can store individual scans but I can't tell if it will stitch the locations together in a larger map or if you can export the scans and create your own larger map. It would be great if it could do the same thing with structure. There have been a lot of man made structures placed in these lagoons to provide cover for bass.

 

I'm going to contact them and ask for more information.

[Riazuli]

On 3/18/2018 at 11:57 AM, MIbassyaker said:

I have one too and have been able to use it to good effect from both shore and from the kayak, for finding depth and underwater features, weedlines, dropoffs, humps, channels, etc. in small, ummapped places like gravel pits, bayous, backwaters, small lakes and stuff.  I'm not sure how useful it is for identifying fish though, and when casting, the bluetooth connection can be unreliable at times. It works well dangled off the edge of the kayak and can be used for mapping. The mapping relies on your phone's GPS, so only works if the phone moves along with the deeper (as in a craft), and doesn't really work if you're just casting it (when casting you'll get the depth return, but not a map). You can store maps locally or upload to cloud and view online in a browser.  As a substitute for regular sonar on a watercraft it's definitely limited, but better than nothing for sure. However, not sure how it stacks up against other castable options though -- there are a few different ones now, and I think the others are a little cheaper. 

The deeper pro plus has built in GPS for mapping from the shore, so it doesn't rely on your phone's GPS.  

 

Also, regarding choppy waves, the new mount they made helps to address movement.  

 

It works well and has a lot of great reviews out there for it.  Personally, I find it an amazing tool for shore fishing but went with a traditional fish finder for my kayak, as that has a lot more features (side and down imaging along with chirp, vs the deeper which just has chirp).  

[MIbassyaker]

2 hours ago, Riazuli said:

The deeper pro plus has built in GPS for mapping from the shore, so it doesn't rely on your phone's GPS.  

 

Also, regarding choppy waves, the new mount they made helps to address movement.  

 

It works well and has a lot of great reviews out there for it.  Personally, I find it an amazing tool for shore fishing but went with a traditional fish finder for my kayak, as that has a lot more features (side and down imaging along with chirp, vs the deeper which just has chirp).  

This is good to know -- indeed, I have the original, not the pro.

[Fishing_FF]

On 3/19/2018 at 8:27 PM, Fishing_FF said:

I believe he now has a Deeper Pro+. I'll call him to see if I can borrow it this weekend if he isn't using it. Got a boat rental this weekend at Turkey Lake, so I could test it out there. 

Well, it took about forever to get a hold of the Deeper Pro+ but I see why my friend didn't want to give it up. The thing is sweet. 

 

I took it to Turkey Lake today. There is a section at the south end of the lake where an dock use to be until Hurricane Irma came through. I've seen the pilings, even fished them. I threw the Deeper out that way. I was surprised to find the pilings are in 14 feet of water, and it even showed fish suspended at 6 foot. I knew it was a little deeper there as it takes forever for a weightless stickbait to sink, but would have never guessed it was that deep 15 ft from the shore. I decided to test to see if I could get one of the 3 fish it showed in the area. I tied on a LC Flash Pointer and went to work. Sure enough, as the jerkbait passed by the piling, I got a hit. It was a near 6 pounder.

 

I did find a big downside, the Deeper is quite heavy. It gave my St. Croix Mojo Inshore heavy rod a run for it's money. 

[Beetlebz]

I've been running a deeper pro+ since the winter. During the winter I would cast it, once the ice was gone and I could get out on the yak I use the flexible arm clamp (which I got on Amazon for way below what deeper sells them for). For finding fish I'm not sure I trust it a ton. Is it a school of fish? A clump of weeds? If I'm sitting still and not paddling, it's anyone's guess. Where it excels is in depth, contour, bottom composition and water temperature. 

 

As for the maps. The pro+ has the gps which is nice. As you paddle around in boat mode it splits the screen  (adjustable) into sonar and map. As long as you don't delete the history logs, the next time you go it continually compiles bottom contour data onto the map. You can't see this if you use the map function, but it appears in the map screen in boat mode. Maybe a future software update could patch that, it would be a nice addition. 

 

For battery life I get about a good 4-5 hours I'd say of constant use. More often than not I use it to figure out water temp and find a spot to start, then once I'm on a pattern I take it out of the water to shut it off and save the battery. The bigger issue was phone battery life. As said phone screens or hard to read in direct sunlight so having the brightness jacked all the way up really sucks the life out of the battery. I stopped on Amazon and grabbed a portable battery and it's enough to about double the battery life of my phone to just about that of the deeper. The only real change I plan to make the season is to get a small clear Pelican case to hold my phone and battery pack they keep them up out of the water should disaster strike. 

 

All in all I'm pretty happy with the money I spent. Hope that helps!