The side scan is the best feature! :thumb:

These units are great for identifying depth and contours.

 

I have one but havn't had a chance to use it yet. Glad to see Richards comments. As I have heard others have some pretty discouraging things to say about them.

 

I have been using the same one for over 10 years now with nary a problem. I don't use it as a fishfinder though and keep the alarm in the off position. For determining depth, dropoffs and temps it has been flawless. I have packed it in to many a lake with my float tube and it has been handled pretty roughly over the years. For the pontoon boat I use a far more sophisticated model with a wider cone angle which is more suitable for fish finding. Ive

 

They work just fine: reliable and pretty much bulletproof. Get a 'holder' [cabelas/outdoor emporium] and can be used on a float tube, pontoon or Watermaster. 120' range works, but better at 60'; lots of air bubbles coming up in lakes and they pick them up[besides, I can't cast a 100' even in my dreams!]. If you get 'repeat' pings, you can be sure it's some kind of fish. I think some people have problems with them because they don't read the manual or expect them to be some super sophisticated device for the $100-200 they spent on it! I've had a 1200 for 6 years[got it for bass fishing] and no problems so far; 3 C batteries will last a season.

 

I think some people have problems with them because they don't read the manual .

I have read my manual multiple times and it says to play around with it to figure it out. Seriously! So don't give me the read the manual garbage.

I use mine on lakes I don't know well to judge the depths and the drop offs. For chironomids, I use the attach hemostats to find out the depth stuff.

As for the side finder thing, I have always wondered where in the water column the fish is when it tells me it's 15 feet away. Is it on the surface or 10 feet below? Who knows, and the manual won't tell you.

I'm glad I bought it and have been overall happy with it's use. I don't like it on my pontoon as much as my hard sided boat because I have not found a good way to attach it. I have a holder that goes around the tube, but as I oar, the unit starts twisting slightly, and I find that somewhat annoying. But again, you get what you pay for and I think it's worth the money.

Wayne

 

I use one often while in my float tube (got a holster for it from Cabela's). I find the side finder rather annoying, but I don't pay much attention to it since I usually turn off the fish alarm. I only use it for water depth and temperature, much like Ive. I don't use it to find fish - the few times I did, I ended up being distracted by the gadget and not really paying much attention to what I was really doing.

 

I have owned four of them over the years. Two of them were great and two were pieces of crap. I currently use my oldest one which I would guess is about 13-14 years old. It still works, but has vertical lines through about 1/3 of the screen. My second one was a gift from a friend about eight years ago. It worked great for about 5-6 years but finally quit working, probably from bouncing around in its protective case on too many 4-wheel drive trips into out of the way lakes in B.C.
I bought a 4400 model 2 years ago and it quit functioning properly on tie second time I used it. I returned it to the factory, and it still malfunctioned when they sent it back. I sent it back and they sent me a new 4400. It malfunctioned in the same way shortly after I got it.
Last year, I bought a simpler model, the 2202. It will not give an accurate depth beyond 12-13 feet no matter how the controls are adjusted. It is worthless to me.

I talked to the guy at White Elephant who is the depthfinder guru. He admitted that the Bottomline units have had real quality problems the last few years. The older units were more reliable. He also said that Hummingbird has completely reworked the units and the new ones (110,120, 130, etc) have just hit the stores. I am going to wait until a few of you guys buy the new units and report that they work well before replacing my 14 year old unit that is getting hard to read because ofthe gradually increasing number of vertical lines in the screen. I love using it on my Super Fat Cat.

 

I talked to the guy at White Elephant who is the depthfinder guru. He admitted that the Bottomline units have had real quality problems the last few years. The older units were more reliable. He also said that Hummingbird has completely reworked the units and the new ones (110,120, 130, etc) have just hit the stores. I am going to wait until a few of you guys buy the new units and report that they work well before replacing my 14 year old unit that is getting hard to read because ofthe gradually increasing number of vertical lines in the screen. I love using it on my Super Fat Cat.

Yes, I've also heard that Hummingbird complete re-did the designs of the original Bottomline units, and it was a Hummingbird was was planning to get. Probably the 130 unit since the transducer can be telescoped down to 4 feet instead of the fixed 2ft of the 110 or 120 models. The only difference I can tell in the 140 unit is the color LCD screen. But you know the saying, the more complex something is, the more likely it is to break, and the harder and more costly to fix. I like to keep it simple if I can.

 

So tell me, do you guys actually improve your fly fishing dragging this crap around?.....

 

I started to accumulate so much fishing crap (no fish finders yet) I bought a tiny day pack and now I only use what I can fit in there :thumb:

Steven

 

Absolutely! They are invaluable for chironomid fishing, assessing the type of bottom, fishing along dropoffs, etc. I don't use it to find a specific fish to cast to, but they do give you a feel for whether there are any fish in the general area

 

I agree. I will probably get the 130, if a few of you buy them and like them. I'm going to wait a few months to make sure the bugs have been worked out of them. The new units just hit the market a month ago.

 

I bought one last fall and started using it this spring. (FishingBuddy 1200)
I like it, side finder is great, depth worked great and it helped put us into fish faster.
I experimented with casting inline with the side finder and had fish show up almost every time shortly after my fly landed on the water. Some were biters, some were not.
One draw back is that it has twicked out a couple times. Told me the depth was not what I knew it was and told me there were fish under me when I knew there were not. Both times I could see I had gone over a submerged tree or a weed bed.
I would turn the thing off for a while then back on and it worked fine.
We used it to find walleye at Rufus Woods around the rocks and drop offs.
Hit'em every time. Some were caught some were not.

 

I use the Fishin' Buddy all the time, and like the others I have found it very useful for determining the depth and water temperature. If you're trolling, it really helps you stay on the bottom contour that you want. It is not very good for spotting fish straight down due to the narrow transducer cone angle. The SideFinder View is very useful because it can give me an idea if there are fish in a certain area and whether I should spend time trying to catch the fish in that area. If the area is devoid of fish, I won't spend much time there and move on. When exploring a new lake, the Fishin' Buddy is a time saver in learning the bottom contours.

However, I have had a lot of problems with the Fishin' Buddy and have returned it 5 times. My friend has two units and he also has returned them several times. The main problems have been moisture problem with water or condensation getting up into the electronics. You'd think they would have made the electronics waterproof considering where the unit is used. I have found that after every use it helps if I open the battery compartment/handle to allow the inside electronics to dry out. The keypad controls also aren't of good quality.

I'd think that the Hummingbird acquisition of BottomLine will be an improvement in the quality control department, so I'm looking forward to upgrading in the near future. I especially like the color screen on the high-end model. I'd recommend you buy the Hummingbird model, not the old BottomLine models.

Rex

 

The "stealth body trout" I fish for will reject your radar!

 

To Wayne Kohan: For some reason you took offense to my reply to "u2ill".... Your response: Originally Posted by sportsman
I think some people have problems with them because they don't read the manual .

I have read my manual multiple times and it says to play around with it to figure it out. Seriously! So don't give me the "read the manual garbage". ????? Seeing how we have never met, nor do I remember you posting about Fishing Buddies, my response would be somewhere between an "apology" and you've confused me with someone that gives a S... what you think! I'll just chalk it up to your having a bad day. Starman 77: I have a friend who has had the same problem with condesation, but he always left the batteries in it and would lay it "flat' in his truck. I always remove the batteries after using it and transport/store it vertically.

 

I have used a Fishing Buddy since 1994, and my original unit is still going strong. Condensation was sometimes an issue, so I simply gather some of those little silicate packets that you get with some electronics or even in shoe boxes, and toss them inside the unit. I have been very careful when transporting the Fishing Buddy, and always put a protective cover over the top of the unit.:ray1:

I strongly believe that the Fishing Buddy is a very valuable piece of equipment. I find the depth, bottom texture, and the temperature functions more important than the fish finding function.

My unit has a transducer with a narrow (9 degree view angle). In side view you see approximately 10 feet down at 60 feet out, 20 feet down at 120 feet out. So if you are sitting in water with a depth of 20 feet and you mark a fish out to the side at 60 feet, that fish is somewhere between the surface and 10 feet down. Also note that the side view is worthless in shallow water let say 5 feet or less.:thumb:

 

I used to think it was cheating by using a fish finder but its a much better way to determine depth versus using hemostats to drop the fly down each time I moved locations. After using my fishing buddy a few times now, I don't know what I did without it. Its an invaluable piece of equipment if you're going to chironomid fish. I bought my basic buddy from GI Joes for $130.

 

I travel for work, and have found it great on new water. One trip arround the lake and I have lots of information about the shore and surface from observation and the bottom from watching the sonar. Mine does well on showing bottom types, as you can see hard flat bottom or weeds. I have also picked up fish hanging at depth. It is great for chron fishing too.

The side finder seems to pick up all kinds of stuff, but sometimes fish too, as I have watched rising fish appear on it from time to time. I do not put much faith in the side finder readings in general though.

The moisture is a bit of a problem, but I take the batteries out and leave the handle off now and that helps. I also carry an extra handle with me in my truck, as the little plastic threads broke on my first handle and then it would not work.

D

 

fish finders are useful for the following:

Depth
Bottom Type
Finding submerged structure
Locating suspended bait balls

for targeting individual fish they are pretty useless, but if you can interpert the stuff listed above they can help you catch more fish

 

I used a FB for years (and still have it) but last year I got a larger unit (Humminbird 343C). The issue I had with the FB is that it the depths I typically fish the cone angle was so narrow that I really didn't think I was doing anything more than marking depth.

After I got the Humminbird I am now convinced that was the case. The abilty to find dropoffs is WAY better now. The FB is great for portabilty and ease of use but the transudcer cone on the older ones is really to narrow. The new version made by Humminbird has got to be better. For you technical types (ok I am an engineer) do the math. The originall Bottom Line FB has a transducer cone angle of I believe on the order of 9degrees. My 343C has a dual cone with the outer cone being a 60 degree.

Not a knock on the FB but once you look at the difference it is amazing how much more you can really see with a wider cone.

Now whether or not that really "helps" us flyflingers is open to debate.:rofl:

 

The FB is great for portabilty and ease of use but the transudcer cone on the older ones is really to narrow. The new version made by Humminbird has got to be better. For you technical types (ok I am an engineer) do the math. The originall Bottom Line FB has a transducer cone angle of I believe on the order of 9degrees. My 343C has a dual cone with the outer cone being a 60 degree.

Not a knock on the FB but once you look at the difference it is amazing how much more you can really see with a wider cone.

I sure do agree that the old Bottomline Fishin' Buddies had too narrow of a cone looking straight down. My Bottomline Fishin' Buddy would very rarely spot a fish looking straight down. The new Humminbird Fishin Buddies don't have that 60 degree cone that your 343C has, as the specs for the 110, 120, 130 and 140c models all specifiy a 34 degree cone, which is still much better than the old Fishin' Buddies.

I'm thinking about buying the Humminbird Fishin Buddy 140c model, but I noticed that the 6 AA batteries only last 16 hours versus 30 hours for the B&W models (and that's without the backlighting). So it does appear that the color screen uses up about twice as much power. One of the reviewers on the Cabela's web site said he only got 11 hours from one of the B&W models while using no backlighting.

Another thing that I noticed while looking over the online user's manual for the 140c is that there are two external wires that connect the back of the screen to the battery case. If you hike around in the sagebrush as I often do, you have to be careful that those wires don't get caught on something.

I stopped by Cabela's the other day to try to take a look at the 140c, but there apparently is a delay with Humminbird delivering the units to the stores. That store in Lacey has 5 on order.

Rex

 

I bought a Bottomline FB 2202 last June amd never had a chance to use it until last week at Dry Falls. Got out in the Pram, set the unit up, got out the instructions and away we go.....WRONG!! it is stuck in the simulator mode and won't come out.! Called Humminbird, who now owns Bottomline. They told me to send it back for repair. It is now in UPS hands. Be interesting to see if it works when I get it back. To say the least right now I'm not to impressed.

 

I just purchased the new 130 from hummingbird, got a chance to play with it at cady lake yesterday. Interface is very easy, and I had no trouble just jumping in and figuring it out on the fly. I would agree that it is much better as a temperature sensor and depth gauge than as a fish finder. When side scan showed a fish it was definitely there, but both fish I caught didn't show up on the side scan even though it was pointing right at my fly. As for the longevity and condensation issues I think we'll have to wait and see. I have to say even at a lake I've fished many times it was interesting to see the bottom contours (much deeper than I thought in some places, much shallower in others). For Chironomid fishing I'm sure it will be invaluable.

 

Has anyone tried the BottomLine Fishin'Buddy 1101 model? I noticed there is a pretty good sale out there on that particular one - but based on some of the comments above - I'm curious if its one of the "troubled" ones.

 

Does Anyone know which model this is? Perhaps even have some directions for me? Picked it up at a garage sale for 10 bucks. Turns on and everything, i just dont know how to set it from sidefind etc.... Thanks in advance..

 

Press power button to turn on the unit. (Use power button to shift between side view, bottom view, or both views at the same time) The first screen is both views (you will not see the bottom if it is out of the water). The second screen is side view (use arrow keys to adjust range) here you can adjust from 40 to120 out in side view. Third screen is bottom view. Hope this helps.

 

Hi All
I’m new to this posting business, so hope I don’t $crew-up??
I am thinking of buying a Fish Finder. But I can’t decide on which model or make to go for?? I kind of like the idea of the NEW Hummingbird 130 (240 Ft down 200kHz + 120Ft Out 455kHz side sonar) . Could anybody please answer the following..If the units runs on 6 AA batteries (I assume that’s 9 Volts) can you adopt the unit to run off an 8 Amp 12 Volt battery ??? I fish mostly Fly (Wet & Dry) from a 19’-0” Lake Boat but occasionally “Trawl” (pull lure behind the boat) at approx 5 MPH.. I like the idea of the Side Sonar as I think it may be better for spotting Trout in shallow water down to 10- 15 Ft.. The down sonar even with a 20 Deg 200kHz sensor will only see a few fish under the boat Buy would be good for reading the bottom ( I may be wrong. any comments ??)
Now I am also looking at the new Eagle Cuba 250s / Map Portable which come from Cabela’s ($ 249.99) I know you can trawl with this unit and it comes with a battery 12V 8-Amp Supplied. Have any of you lot tried this Fish Finder and would it be any good for finding trout in Shallow Water (2 – 15 Ft) ??.
Another Question .. Can you trawl or travel (20 MPH) and scan the bottom with the (new) Fishing Buddy or does the unit malfunction or jump out of the bracket??
Please could somebody help answer my Questions and help me decide on what would be best..
Kind Regards to All..:thumb::beer2:

 

I own the Hummingbird 130 and so far the unit has functioned with no problems.

The issue I have with it is the battery life sucks. 8-10 hours on six AAA batteries is not one of it's better selling features.

I have used mine while fishing chironomids vertically in deep water. It marks suspended and bottom hugging fish well enough to know when you should be dancin', when you should change patterns and when you should move on. It also eliminates a lot of time searching around for productive deep water spots.

One observation I made while using this on the bow of my pram was when I dropped the front anchor in 40-50 feet, a lot of the fish on the screen disappeared and seemingly would not swim near my green rope. I experimented several times raising and lowering to see if it increased the fish traffic below and it absolutely did increase the traffic when raised. With the anchor down the fish would return over time but I never felt it was in the same numbers. I now drop only the back anchor when fishing vertically if wind permits.