Northwest Fishing Reports

I've found myself thinking about fish finders lately. My question here is, does and electronic fish finder drain a battery so bad that you can't use your trolling battery or should you get a separate battery? I've never used one before and was wondering.

I had a 14' boat that I ran my fishfinder and electric motor off the same battery. It was a 27 series battery and the battery was usually good for six hours of fishing. I always knew when the battery was dying because the fishfinder would shut off before the trolling motor would stop working.

If you buy a decent battery you should have no problem. If you don't wanna run the risk, there are a handful of fishfinders that run on like 8 AA batteries. I just picked on up last Friday and used it over the weekend. I love it. I know its made by Eagle but I'll pull out the box later and post a picture of the actual fishfinder for you Lotech...

They draw very little. I have a small 12v that I use and I can run the fish finder all day for about a week before having to charge it.

My recommendation is if the electric trolling motor is your only means of power you would be much safer using one of the "aa" battery style. Heck you can even get some rechargable batteries to save on the costs.
SAFETY FIRST WHEN BOATING.
needabiggerboat,

Lotech Joe wrote:I've found myself thinking about fish finders lately. My question here is, does and electronic fish finder drain a battery so bad that you can't use your trolling battery or should you get a separate battery?

The only way that would happen is if you are running a high powered sonar off your trolling motor battery. I ran an electric trolling motor and fish finder off a deep cycle battery in my old 14' Hewes for years and never ran the battery down to where it wouldn't still run the sonar or motor. Of course, I had gas power to get me back to the launch if necessary.

In my new Hewes, I have my sonar (4KW dual frequency) and my GPS wired into the boat's electrical system and my bow mount trolling motor has it's own, isolated, battery. I carry a portable battery box "just in case" since I have run the main battery down low enough where it wouldn't even turn the 90hp motor over. It was a dumb mistake on my part, running sonar, GPS, & electronic remote control for the kicker and not running the big motor long enough to charge the battery. I learned a lesson that day and we enjoyed a long, leisurely cruise back to the launch with the kicker for power.

If you're concerned, Cabela's sells a small 8 amp-hour 12v rechargeable battery ($29.99 with charger) that you can run your sonar with and life will be good. o:)

This all sounds good. Thanks you all for the input. Now I'm going to have to sell some stuff off so I can get that sonar. Anyone have one for trade?

Lotech-
Here is the information on the Cabela's battery.

I have had mine for about 6 years and it is still holding strong.

In the past I had a 13 footer with a trolling motor and depth finder and had no problems now I have a 19 ft Four Winns with a depth finder, lights, bildge pump, radio, trolling motor, etc. and still have never had any problems

I just bought a sweet Eagle Portable one for like $139.99 at Joes...It works fantastic and it doesn't break the bank, and it's perfect for anyone with a little boat that needs a portable fish finder.

All of a sudden, my battery drain worries are over. One of the guys I work with needed to get rid of a marine deep cycle battery. It was taking up space in his garage so he gave it to me. I checked to see if it still had a charge and it did. So, it's on my battery charger as we speak. With this kind of power I should be able to troll around Waitts Lake from sunup to sundown.
I'm still looking for a trade fish finder though.

Just cause it holds a charge doesn't mean its good. If its over 2 years old, I'd be wary of it, and I hope he kept the battery charged because deep cycles need to be atleast 90% charged when stored or they can go bad...

The battery has been plugged into the charger for 2 hours now. It's still taking a charge. Things are looking good.

Sam is a smart man. An old deep cycle battery can go bad just from sitting around to long.
At least be prepaired your first time out with it.
needabiggerboat,