10 Best Fish Finders 2024 in the United States

Whether you’re an amateur or professional fisherman, a good fish finder can allow you to make the most of your time outdoors. Fish finders use sonar to map the objects and depth of a body of water, just like radar is used to map out flying objects. There are fish finders that employ traditional sonar, and display objects as “blobs” on a screen. A large blob can be a pile of brush or rocks, while small blobs can (hopefully) be individual fish. Using more There are also down scanning and side scanning fish finders, which present a colored, 3D image of what’s underneath your boat. Some fishermen employ both types of fish finders, to help them distinguish between schools of small bait fish, and the large fish like trout or bass.

But today’s fish finders have more features, such as a compass and GPS navigation. Even though today’s fish finders can have some really advanced features, it’s going to take some work to take advantage of all that they have to offer. Depending on the model that you choose, you can get a mapping of fish arches, which takes a little bit of practice to interpret properly, or a color image that essentially displays a picture of what’s going on underneath your boat. And there are fish finders suitable for ice fishing, for fishing in a kayak or boat, or if you’re fishing from the shore.

We’ve composed this buyer’s guide to help you make the right decision when selecting a fish finder. It'll help you:

• Choose the right type of fish finder,

• See useful tips about that particular type of fish finder,

• Read reviews of different fish finders, and what customers are saying,

• Select the right brand of the best fish finder, and

• Compare prices and find the best deals.

• Handheld fish finder: These can be the size of a cellular phone, which you can hold in the palm of your hand. Instead of being a constant fixture in your boat, you can take the same device along with you when going in a kayak or canoe. For example, the Garmin Striker Transducer Fishfinder comes with a portable kit. Depending on the size of the model, you have the choice of mounting it by means of a suction cup or carrying it around.

Garmin Striker 4 Fishfinder

• Mounted fish finder: These can be mounted on the front dash of your boat, and are attached either by drilling holes or by means of silicone adhesive. You can mount on the transom, inside the hull, or on the trolling motor. It will take some experimenting to know where to mount the fish finder, so the silicone adhesive method is preferable. An example of a mounted fish finder is the Lowrance HOOK2 Fish Finder.

Lowrance Hook2 Fish Finder

• Castable fish finder: These are fish finders that you attach to a fishing line and cast it out. Deeper Pro makes such a castable fish finder, that converts your mobile phone into a fish finder. Once you cast it into the water, it sends back the sonar images it produces to your Android or iOS device. It has a casting range of 330 feet and can scan to a depth of 260 feet. Even if you stand on the shore, it will map out the floor of the body of water in front of you.

Deeper Pro GPS Portable Wireless Wi-Fi Fish Finder

• Remember about a power source: Some fish finders have to be hooked up to a 12 V power supply in your boat, or a car battery. If you’ll be in a kayak or canoe, you’ll have to charge up the device beforehand or carry some sort of power supply with you.

• Water depth: Expect your device to be able to read to a much greater depth when fishing in freshwater than in saltwater. For example, The Garmin has a maximum depth of 1600 feet in freshwater, and 750 feet in saltwater.

• Other readings: As we mentioned, today’s fish finders will provide other details to help you navigate as well. The Garmin fish finder will provide the water depth where you are situated, the water temperature, your speed, the time of day, and more.

• Adjustable sensitivity: Even on the traditional sonar fish finders, which give 2D images of what’s underneath your boat, you’re still going to get a lot of details--and, depending on your model, you’ll be able to zero in the details even better. For example, the Phiradar LCD Boat Fish Finder has 100 levels of sensitivity and multi-level depth range. The Garmin fish finder is accurate to 1/10 of a foot.

• Water resistance: Since your fish finder will be out on the water, you’ll have to expect it to be water resistant. The Garmin Striker Fish Finder says that it has a water resistance rating of IPX7, which should be sufficient against sprays of water. However, people suggest placing it in a Ziploc bag, in order to protect it from rain or a spray of water.

• Fish arches and lines: When a fish swims towards the fish finder and then passes it, the distance between you and the fish decreases and then increases again. (The same thing would happen if the fish is stationary and you sail past it.) Its change in distance is recorded on the fish finder's display as an arch. This is referred to as a "fish arch". The top of the arch is a true indication of the depth of the fish. If the fish is stationary, and you have moved over it, it will produce a line on the fish finder monitor.

Display of fish arches--each parabola indicates a fish

• Differences in signal imaging: You’ll see fish finders that employ either down imaging or side imaging. Down imaging sends a signal downward, and produces an image of what is directly underneath your boat. This is effective in shallow water less than 100 feet deep. Side imaging sends sonar to the sides of the boat at an angle that you select, to detect fish on one or both sides of your boat. Lowrance fish finders (Hook2, Elite, and HDS Live) employ both side scan and down scan imaging. You’ll also see CHIRP fish finders. CHIRP stands for “Compressed High-Intensity Radar Pulse”. A CHIRP fish finder sends out a continuous sweep of different frequencies, to map the body of water more accurately. This creates crisper fish arches and is able to separate targets more accurately.

• Dual beam fish finders: There are fish finders that send out two sonar beams, such as the Deeper Pro Fish Finder. The reasoning is as follows: high-pitched (high frequency) sonar will give you a high-resolution image. But these sound waves won’t penetrate the water very deeply. On the other hand, low-frequency waves penetrate more deeply, but in less detail.  So the Deeper Pro dual-beam fish finder sends out a wide scanning beam of 90 KHz at an angle of 55 degrees. That covers a broad area. If you want to hone in on an object, the Deeper Pro lets you switch to a narrow beam of higher frequency (290 KHz and 15 degrees), for greater detail.

Deeper was founded in 2012 in Vilnius, Lithuania. They make smart sonar devices that employ wireless technology to make fishing easier. Their flagship product is a wireless castable device that takes a profile of the lake floor and locates fish for you. They have devices for shore fishing, kayak fishing, boat fishing, and ice fishing.

Garmin, founded in 1989 in Lenexa, Kansas, is a maker of GPS navigation devices and wearable technology, such as fitness trackers and smart watches. Their first GPS products were for boating and aviation. They also make backup and dash cameras, flight instruments, fishfinders, antennas and sensors, and more.

Phiradar was established in 2005, and is located in Shenzhen, China. They make portable fish finders, boat fish finders, wireless fish finders, and waterproof fish finders. They also make digital depth sounders and other electronics for boating purposes.

Lowrance was founded in 1957, and has their headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma.They make fishfinders, chartplotters, castable electronics, autopilots, radar devices, and much more.