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Deeper Smart Sonar Pro Plus

Anthony Pearson

Anthony Pearson

Senior Member
The new Pro Plus has a mapping facility due to it's GPS function. Has anyone used one of these to map a river bed and if so, how accurate have you found it to be? I've heard that they can't map anything under about 2-3 feet depth so they have limitations. Also, what are they like for showing underwater snags?

If you are against the use of this technology, I can understand to a point. However, I'm doing 150 mile round trip to the river I fish, so anything that can save me time leading around may be worth the investment. A day spent mapping stretches might be very fruitful in terms of feature-finding and obviously my future sorties wouldn't involve any spooking of the fish whilst trying to locate such features.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone about this model or the others in the range if you've used them.
 
Judging by the response, very few anglers on here are using these on rivers. I've been trawling through the various sites and came across this review:

Really nifty piece of kit, have tried it out on three different sets of ponds mainly using it as a base mapper for decorative lakes in gardens. Wi-fi connected well with tablet. Instructions basic but adequate. From my point of view a few minor issues have been noted:
1) in theory measures down to 0.5-0.6m depth, but in practice won't measure less than 0.7-0.8m
2) In the Cotswolds the GPS is variable, and would not connect at one site
3) The app noted a handful of 'fish' (including one large one) in a series of new ponds where I know there are no fish, so false positives will occur if you are actually looking for fish
4) Possibly as it measures from the very surface, the temperature reading from the device reads a few degrees above the water temperature measured by me at a few inches depth.

The variable GPS connection is something that hadn't crossed my mind and the 'ghost fish' are a little worrying for those who rely on this feature (not my cup of tea). The accuracy of the system (that is identifying the precise location you are standing) is only to within about fifteen metres, but if you are mapping from a single point, this shouldn't cause too many issues.

I'm waiting for a response from the company regarding the depth contour intervals that appear on the bathymetric maps. I suspect that these are not in one foot intervals and if that is the case, they would be pretty useless on all but the biggest of our rivers.

If I hear anything, I'll post it on here.
 
I have had a fish finder for over 5 years and it sounds like yours has the same niggles as mine. However I have turned it into positives. I don't bother with rivers 2 to 3 foot deep. I can generally see the bottom and spot gradients by sight. I don't look for fish either as on a big river, you can't really prove either way. The plus is using it for the depths and the river contours this is the money winner and from what I have seen yours will be fine. Use the data that s relevant.
 
Very useful pieces of kit. Can save hours of casting a lead around.
Used an old smartcast to map a length of the Thames below Oxford just before the start of the season. Found two drop offs to 19ft that we never new existed. Ran it over a couple of prebaited swims to give ourselves an idea of what was happening down there, quite interesting.
Few years ago used a similar device on a local pit, found a distant deep drop off and gulley in no time, again saved a lot of time splashing around with a lead. Proved to be a very good Tench swim.
Would consider getting the Pro Plus myself, If I can get one of my tight mates to cough up half!
 
Am personly against these gadgets for finding fish. I feel it takes all the fun and skill in Angling. But what you are using is for is a great idea. You may have slightly changed my mind on the use of these things.
 
Iain Tutt said:
Am personly against these gadgets for finding fish. I feel it takes all the fun and skill in Angling. But what you are using is for is a great idea. You may have slightly changed my mind on the use of these things.
Click to expand...

Nooooooooo, what next a bait boat? :)
 
Just checked my emails and got this reply:

Thank you for contacting us

Yes, those are 1-meter intervals, thus, the colors with 1-meter increments are changed. However, on the phone, you can click on the specific place on the map and you will get the exact depth of the specific coordinates.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if there is anything else we could help you with.

Now this to me makes the mapping function very limited for many rivers and lakes in the UK and France. A metre interval isn't going to show much detail. Yes you can cast click over a map and get the exact depth, but unless you do this everywhere, some of the smaller features could be missed.

Rather disappointing and consequently I'll not be rushing out for the Pro+ model.
 
On an unfamiliar section of river I spend an hour or two trotting a stick float down to establish the features, always a chance of catching a fish while I'm at it!
 
I have a friend who has used one since the start of the season on two different rivers.Net result for his efforts are his catch rate has actually dropped quite dramatically,probably because he's too busy faffing around with said gimmick......the word sucker springs to mind.
 
My results improved when I waded through several stretches on a river I fish, finding features I had no idea existed. Unfortunately you can't do it on all rivers and it takes rather a long time to complete. The idea of using a sonar was to speed things up a little and hopefully keep me dry!
 
Not used mine in anger yet but wanted to try and find some features on a relatively deep and baron stretch sometimes I fish.

The connection via wifi is superb so I like casting it far upstream and letting it drift down adjusted the sensitivity more now and switched off the fish icon display, the detail is quite something. I'm a sucker for gadgets though.

One of my blog posts on the use of the deeper
 
Anthony Pearson said:
My results improved when I waded through several stretches on a river I fish, finding features I had no idea existed. Unfortunately you can't do it on all rivers and it takes rather a long time to complete. The idea of using a sonar was to speed things up a little and hopefully keep me dry!
Click to expand...

Anthony, I see the next Catch Cult release (no 4) will include an article on using a sonar by Ian Crook. Will be worth a read.
If you are fishing smaller and shallow rivers that you can wade in, then I think you'll be wasting your time using one.
On larger rivers like the Thames, which have a lot of featureless stretches then it could be a good investment. Gives you something to do in the closed season.
Take a mate with you so he can note down your findings.
 
Have no time for bait boats at all. Throws all the skill of casting out the window. The only remote control boat i would buy would be for a kiddies boating lake.
 
A bit of a follow-up on the Deeper. I borrowed one from a mate (the original Deeper) and had a play with it. It really does throw up some surprises and it's fascinating to see how much a river bed can rise and fall. The question is, will the use of technology change the feeding habits of fish? I'm going to start a new thread for this, so join in if interested.
 
I have a Deeper Pro. Jury is out TBH. Very useful for snag finding and drop offs , channels etc. Don't take too much notice of the fish finder function.I have problems with connectability when changing phones and tablets and installing the new apps. At the moment I can't get it to connect to Iphone??
I'm also very conscious using it when other anglers about, not from a secrecy point of view but more it makes a lot of disturbance when you are casting about and properly mapping a swim, and I do try and be considerate.
I guess I'll use it a lot more close season , just for a reason to get by the river for a few hours if nothing else. However what we see close season vs what the river is like now and to the end of the season on a spate river are 2 different things.
To do it properly it helps to have a pal making notes - the app does record things but then you forget which swim is which, or I do.
I also do feel a bit of a cheat, but that's just a personal thing. To help with my conscience I do share info on nasty snags, new features with pals
I carry it with me but rarely use it and I don't see this changing as we enter the winter when my sessions are short and sweet
Has it caught me any more fish -I don't think so
It might in the future if I ever get my pike boat on the river, but seals & otters have knocked in my motivation for that project.
 
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