Sometimes, instinct is just not enough. Your innate intuition and gut feeling for where the fish are suddenly fails you. The fish are just not biting. All is not lost. This is where technology steps in to rescue the day. An avid fisherman can purchase electronic fish finding gear to help locate hungry fish.

This equipment is part of what is called marine electronic products. These products contribute to the modernization of the fishing world. They include antennas, VHS handhelds and radios, electronic charts and compasses, mobile phones, satellite TV, beacon receivers, and direction finders.

Fish finding equipment is outfitted with sonar, single or multibeam echo sounders, catch monitor instrumentation, single or dual frequency transducers, and sometimes a GPS with either external or internal antenna and with or without a chartplotter. The mounting brackets come in gimbal, flush in-dash, swivel, or quick disconnect mounts. You could choose between an LCD and a color display screen. Transducer and GPS receiver extensions are also available.

The equipment is installed on your boat with the transducer in the hull. There are transducers designed for trolling, for kayak fishing, and some are even designed to be portable and battery operated.

Today’s fish finding equipment basically uses sonar technology. The components of sonar, in turn, are the transmitter, receiver, the transducer, and the display. Sonar is a word abbreviated from three words: Sound, navigation, and ranging. The technology for this was developed in World War II not for tracking fish, but submarines, but the principles are the same.