fish/depth finder or not?

[devfoo]

How useful is a fish/depth finder when fishing for walleye? I'm heading out early June to the French River in Ontario as I have the past couple of years. Usually fish for pike during the day and troll a bit at night (unsuccessfully) for walleye. I'd like to spend some more time fishing for walleye this year.

[Lals]

A fish finder will help you tremendously to catch walleye. In the summer they are typically deeper and on structure -- sunken islands, extended points, deep weedlines and Fish/Depth finder will help you find those spots.

[eyehead]

Around here I don't think i'd fish walleye without one. Gotta find structure to catch those eye's and that's about impossible without a graph. The lakes in Canada i've fished on the other hand(Eden,Lac suele,rat river)you could pretty much stick your finger in the water and catch walleyes So a graph was'nt needed. Hope that helps and good luck on your trip

[Team Otter]

I wouldn't go without electronics.

Aren't we spoiled?

[BobT]

Before I had sonar I fished without sonar and did okay but I was limited to shoreline structure. When it comes to locating midlake structure it's a dump-shoot.

Bob

[Deitz Dittrich]

In my opinion. fish/depthfinder is the most important piece of Equip on the boat.

[Rost]

Like Deitz said, it is the most important piece of the boat. Not only for marking fish, depth, temp etc, it is also a safety tool. I couldn't imagine cruising along in unformiliar water not knowing how deep of water I am in.

But if you insist on going without a finder, use techniques like bottom bouncing. This way you'll have a guestimate idea of where the bottom is and you'll know your in the strike zone.

[devfoo]

Yep ... bought one this past weekend. Hopefully no more guessing. Can't wait to give it a try!

[Mike Walerak]

Great! You won't be dissapointed. Did you choose a flasher or a graph? Either way you will be increasing your odds for the walleyes.

mw

[Team Otter]

Good luck!

[Surface Tension]

Before having a sounder I'd look for mid lake structure by dropping anchor. Wasn't uncommon to do this a hundred times in a day. The sounder is just a wee-bit easier and faster to find structure.

Walleyes will belly on the bottom so don't be surprised if your not marking eyes in places you know them to be.

What your sounder will do is show you bottom composition and contours.

Its often the subtle changes in bottom content that hold eyes. Could be a small weed clump or a small area with rocks in the middle of mud bottom. Mark those spots and work'em over before moving on.

[devfoo]

It can do both flasher and graph ... Lowrance X67C.

Thanks for the tips. I've never used one before so its going to be quite the learning curve. I've been doing tons of reading about how to interpret the data ... soft vs hard ground, bait fish, thermocline, etc. I'm looking forward to more fishing and less guessing.