Splurge for Color

For you more experienced anglers, what I’m about to say is going to come out of the “well, duh” category of fishing. But to those of us that haven’t had the privilege, you don’t know what you’re missing til you’ve got it. So here goes…

Ken has been fishing his lake up on the Gunflint Trail for over 50 years. Back when he first started, there was no such thing as a fish finder. He got to know the lake by running into rocks, fishing different areas, and watching for structure. By the time I started fishing with him, he knew the lake like driving around in his neighborhood.

About 5-7 years ago, my wife (his daughter) found an old black and white fish finder (not even grayscale) at a garage sale for $50. We were going to split the cost of it, but Ken decided to buy it outright. We’ve been using it ever since learning a little more about the lake than he already knew. But the fish were little pixel blips.

This year, he finally decided to invest in a “real” fish finder. He did his research online, with consumer reports, and in talking to fellow anglers. He finally settled on a grayscale Humminbird model, but he made the mistake of taking his wife with him to make the purchase. While there, his wife convinced him to spend the extra $150 to get the color version. It turned out that it wasn’t a mistake to have her along, but a godsend.

We spent the first day of our July 4th trip to his cabin installing the Humminbird 586C on his pontoon. When we finally got the boat on the water, we were thrilled. You wouldn’t believe the smiles on our faces when we saw our first fish on the screen. It looked like a graphic fish with the exact depth it was found. No more guessing whether the blip was really a fish, or just a floating twig. We were like kids in a candy store.

The fish finders these days are amazing. They show depth, water temp, and most importantly, what depth fish are swimming at. The color adds an extra dimension that a grayscale would not have. You are able to get a much better sense of the floor of the body of water you are looking at. In addition, it shows bigger fish in different colors. I can imagine trying to determine on a grayscale model whether a fish was kinda gray, or darker gray. Color is definitely worth the extra money.

We drove around to some of our favorite fishing spots and did some reconnaissance for later that night. The new fish finder was installed on Ken’s pontoon, so it didn’t help us when we went out with his fishing boat that night. We’re thinking another transducer for the fishing boat might be in order.

We did, however, drive around the lake over the next few days and found fish in a few unexpected spots. We could have driven around for hours if not days, so we’re looking forward to exploring the lake more when we go up for a week in late July.

What kind of fish finder do you own? Is it color or grayscale? What do you like/not like about it? Please leave a comment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.