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HAVEN'T USED THEM , BUT HAVE SEEN THEM ON E-BAY PRETTY CHEAP .
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I picked one up and it works to a certain extent. In moving water, forget it. The water could be 7 feet deep and it'll say you're in 20 feet of water and it locates fish at 65 feet of water all at the same time.
For still water, it seems reliable. Tried it on a calm day and a windy day. Seemed to work fine. I just wish it transmitted farther. Kept losing the signal on long casts.
Didn't know they had a watch model.
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thanks for your reply. I am going to try both model types. If you want to purchase the wrist type cabelas.com is the cheapest place but it is on backorder for a week at the moment. however, it is only $98.94 including shipping. cheaper than you can buy any of that model on eBay and that does include one "A" sensor with it. the big display though is still cheaper on eBay so far that I have found. Cabelas sells it for $169.99 excluding shipping. I have checked about 15 different sites that sell it and so far $169.00 is the cheapest. so at the moment unless someone else knows of a site where it sells cheaper eBay is the place to buy the regular display RF10 model. if you want to buy the "B" sensor so you can have both "A" and "B" sensors Overtons.com has the "B" sensor in stock for $19.99 excluding shipping.
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I got mine at Gander Mountain (since they're less than a mile from my place). I paid $169.99 plus tax for the RF10 and the "A" sensor. No need to pay s/h charges when you can walk to the store. Hehe.
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no place close to me carries them. our big shopping spot here is super walmart. only it is not so super. so i buy a lot of stuff off the net. hopefully it will work fairly well. one thing for sure is that probably in another month after i spend money they will come out with a bigger and better one. kind of like computers. buy one this month and next month it is out of date lol i am just mainly going to use it on lake and pond and off a bridge. maybe it will be okay. if not it will have at least satisfied my curiosity. lol
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Like I mentioned before... for a lake or pond it works great as long as you don't cast it out too far. From a bridge, that distance thing becomes even bigger of a hassle. Your best bet would be to keep it as close to the edge of the bridge as possible, and not have any obstructions between the transducer and the reader.
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Did I mention that the graphics on the RF10 suck? LOL. It's horrible! If you fish with the "fish locator" turned on, you get this cheap looking fish drawing. I'm sure they'll start offering better screens in the near future. They might even add a thermometer to it sometime soon. What would be nice would be a stronger transmitter... or possibly even an in-between or jumper type of thing so you can get the readings from farther away.
Sorry, no saltwater tests done on my end. Have yet to find a salty lake here in Minnesota.
Best of luck to you in your trials and tribulations with it!
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I had already figured the graphics on it would not be real great. I remember some of the first fishfinders they came out with and those graphics were lousy too. I did read that in the future they are supposed to be integrating the tranducer from the smarcast system so that it will work with one of their Matrix finders. When they do that it should greatly improve the whole system. I think it will get better with time and testing but for now it beats trying to toss a fifty foot cable out into the lake. Those work well but it is really a pain to carry all of that and then get set up. Just more trouble than it is worth. So for now I will be content with what I can get. lol Guess if you are in Minnesota you probably do have a tough time finding saltwater. However, you have two fish that I would love to have. Pike and Walleye. I live in the Northwest Panhandle of Florida so we do not get those great fish here. Forgot to mention trout too. None of those here either. I fly into Minnesota every once in a while. Just do not get to stay. Just there long enough to change planes. I see those thousands of lakes from the air though and think of fishing everytime I am coming in. LOL Anyways, hope you have a good weekend. I'll let you know what I think of their system once I have tried it out.
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LOL. I'm thinking of trying out the watch version. If I like that more, I'll sell off my RF10. The watch would be much handier anyway and it'll always be at a higher level than the RF10 will. Not much into making something for it to be propped up on.
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That is exactly why I had ordered the wrist model at the same time I ordered the RF10 model. Thought I could move around a little easier with it. I only see 2 drawbacks to it. One of course, would be the screen size and the other is the fact that the range drops from 100 ft. to 75 ft. on the signal from the sensor back to the unit. However, I just have to have new toys. So.... after I play around a little more with the RF10 then I am going to order the watch. Cabela's is the cheapest place to buy it from though. Only $89.00 not including shipping. Perhaps by the time I get ready to order it the backorder problem will be solved. If you do get the wrist model make sure you let me know how it works.
On Cabela's website if you order it from there it does not specifically state it comes with the sensor. However, I called them to check on that and the price does include an "A" sensor with it. You know though this unit is sooo easy to operate it really would make a great gift for an older kid to get them familiar with fishfinders and even make their fishing trip more interesting. The RF10 display might be a little pricey for some folks to give a kid but the wrist model really would be a great little gift at a price that is not too bad.
Well, have a good one and let me know how that wrist model works when you get it. I might even be interested in buying the RF10 from you if you decide to get rid of it after trying out the wrist model.
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vantages. Please only respond if you have actually used this system so I can decide if I definitely want to purchase them. Thank you for your replies.
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