Garmin 010-01550-00 Striker 4 with Transducer, 3.5" GPS Fishfinder with Chirp

This is a great finder for the money. For ice fishing I started w the supplied transducer and made a mount with pvc pipe. It was difficult to get set right, so I bought the ice fishing transducer which helped a lot. It would accurately mark fish and the jigs, my 5 yr old loved it and became pretty good at using it. This summer I used my pvc mount and attached it, to my raft frame again it worked very well for the money. Great budget buy. Also I took an old ammo can and made it into a carrying case for the battery and transdeucer, then mounted the screen on top of that, great little compact unit. When I get home I just hook it up to the trickle charger never had a problem w battery.

My second one, probably the easiest one to operate, gives you the info you need. Reliable.

Lots and lots of features on this 'budget' unit. First the GPS. There is no map showing shoreline etc, just a blank expanse where you can add waypoints, islands etc. Course and speed can be displayed, as well as laying 'breadcrumb' tracks that you can follow for your return trip. If you elect to follow your track back, course and deviation from course indicators are available, and well as distance and eta. The transducer for the fish finder is a dual frequency/beam for narrow or wide underwater searches, and can be displayed separately or at the same time. You can also display the GPS and underwater information on a split screen. There are literally dozens and dozens of menu options to customize the display. As others have mentioned the print instructions included are sparce at best. The online user guide is better but still not all that great. If you want to get an idea of the capabilities of this unit and/or learn how to really use it, the '1cast 1 fish' series on YouTube is highly recommended! I believe that this Garmin Striker 4 unit is one heck of a value for its low price.

Update: upgraded from 3 stars to 4 stars. Would be 5 stars, but I have to keep one star off for having had to go through an exchange. My original unit from Amazon was defective and had power issues. After a couple of weeks of emails with Garmin and attempts to troubleshoot--including them sending me a new power cable--Garmin did an RMA exchange and sent me a new unit. I took it out today, no power issues whatsoever, and it worked flawlessly. It's nice to know that Garmin does stand behind its product. See below for the actual review. --- --- --- --- Lots of features in such an affordable package. I can't imaging boating without it--and I don't even fish. The GPS is useful and very flexible. I use the GPS track feature to map the perimeter of the lakes, which is super nice to have since these cheap fishfinders don't have charts. I do a lot of birding photography, and this is perfect for mapping my favorite birds. The sonar also gives me a good idea of where birds might hunt for fish, so I mark dense fishing areas on the GPS, too. For a while, my boat's speedometer was clogged, so it's nice to have reliable GPS speed on this unit, too. Other than being useful for discovering potential hunting hotspots used by birds, I use the sonar to keep my boat out of trouble in shallow waters. It is so nice to be able to see what's under the boat and to tell how deep the water is. I probably wouldn't be as concerned if I had an aluminum bottom boat, but I have a fiberglass hull--those are not meant to take a pounding, so I steer clear of shallows by setting depth alarms. If I had to do it all over again on the same budget--power issues notwithstanding--I would definitely buy this. Now that I have had a taste, I do wish I sprang a little more cash for a Plus CV unit for the contour mapping feature and for the clear vu radar, which looks pretty nice. And, my dream unit is one of those echomap units because they come with charts and have all the features of the striker series, but I'm just doing lake boating, so I don't really *neeeeeed* charts other than for the satisfaction of knowing I could have them. Anyway, I fully recommend this product for anyone with a powerboat, and I am sure I would be just as useful for people who do kayaking, too.

Very simple to use. Has GPS at half the price of competitors.

Got this for my kayak and it seems to work well!

Absolutely love this little fish finder. I'm using it in a small ten foot bass boat. Usually in relatively shallow water, But some of the reservoirs are pretty deep. The dual transponder actually becomes very useful. Surprisingly good and surprisingly good image for such a small screen. This is my first fish finder , and it's been quite easy to learn. Lots of helpful information online. I really like that.It is so portable. I Don't leave it in my building at night. The unit. Is waterproof, At least vary splash proof. I am absolutely delighted with this purchase

Garmin seems to make good products I've used a few and like them.