Which Fish Finder Is Easiest To Use

If you are heading out a boat for a fishing trip, then a fish finder will be an exceedingly useful piece of equipment. Rather than dropping your line in every direction, a fish finder will help you to hone in and find fish quickly and easily.

Now, while a fish finder can be a useful piece of equipment, you likely don’t want to be playing with it the whole trip. You just want to look at the screen and see exactly where the fish are. This means that your fish finder needs to be easy to use.

On this page, we are going to help you to find the absolute best fish finders on the market. Not only will these fishfinders help you to find fish, but they aren’t too complicated to use either.

What To Look For In An Easy-To-Use Fish Finder

Before we go through our picks for which fish finder is easiest to use, we figured we would start by, briefly, going over a few of the things that you will need to think about when purchasing a fish finder.

The Screen

The whole purpose of owning a fish finder is so that you are able to see the fish and features that lurk below the water. If you can’t see them easily on a screen, then it is a pretty pointless fish finder.

Therefore, the easiest to use fish finders will have a high-resolution screen, preferably on the larger side. Although, you will need to choose a screen size based upon the size of your boat. You don’t want a hefty screen on a smaller boat.

We always suggest that you try and opt for the best screen that you can afford. You can’t really go wrong here.

GPS Technology

We would always recommend a fish finder with GPS tech for those that want something easy to use.

A fish finder that uses GPS can be a great navigational aid. It will also allow you to quickly make notes of where you have managed to pick up your biggest fish bounties.

Imaging and Frequency Type

You want a fish finder that is going to be easy to use in the waters that you are traveling through. This means thinking about how the fish finder carries out its imagining.

If you purchase a fish finder that uses SideScan, this means that the sonar waves coming from the transducer scan around the sides of the boat. This makes them great for shallower waters.

DownScanners will scan downward. As you can probably imagine, this works better for deeper waters.

If you plan on fishing in a multitude of different locations, then it may be worth picking up a fish finder that can cover both at the flick of a switch.

You may also want to think about the frequencies that the fish finder is able to pump out. The higher the frequency, the better the fish finder is for shallow waters…but not so great for deeper waters. Again, if you want a fish finder that is easy to use, then you want to be able to switch between frequencies with ease. 

Ease of Installation

In the past, fish finders would have been difficult to install. You would have needed to drill holes into your boat to fit the transducer, and then you would have needed to run wires across the deck.

Now, don’t get us wrong. Some of the fish finders that use these methods of installation are fantastic. There are plenty on the market, and we will highlight some on this page. However, we also have easier to install fish finders now. Some can be cast into the water when you are on the boat (ideal for switching between boats) and some will connect up to a phone app.

Extra Features 

To be honest, if you want an easy-to-use fish finder, you don’t need that much in the way of extra features. As long as the fish finder is pointing out where the fish are, then you are golden.

The only extra feature that you may really need in a fish finder would be the ability to make marks on the fish finder maps. This way you will be able to keep a record of where you found fish in the past. This can save you a whopping amount of time if you are constantly fishing in the same waters. 

Our Picks For The Easiest To Use Fish Finders

In this section, we are going to go through what we believe are five of the best fish finders on the market when it comes to ease of use. If you are looking for something that you can just add to your boat and find fish without too much hassle, then we can assure you that you will find the perfect fish finder for you right here.

Deeper Start Smart Fish Finder

We are going to start with the Deeper Start Smart Fish Finder. Now, this fish finder isn’t exactly brimming with features. However, we reckon that it is going to be the perfect choice for a newbie fisherman.

The Deeper Start doesn’t come with a screen. Instead, it connects via Wi-Fi to your smart device (cellphone or tablet). This helps to keep the cost down. For many, using an app on their phone is a whole lot more intuitive than using a fish finder screen too.

Our favorite part about this fish finder is that you don’t actually need to install it. It is a castable fish finder. This means that when you head out on your fishing trip, just cast it into the water. 

If that wasn’t enough, the fish finder is able to provide a reasonably decent image quality. This means that you shouldn’t have any issues finding fish, even if you are reading the information on a tiny smartphone screen.

This is a fish finder that tends to work best in shallower water (it can scan up to 160-feet down). The six-hour battery life ensures that it can last through short to medium-length fishing expeditions. The perfect choice for a family fishing trip! 

Garmin Striker Vivid 4cv

We have always had a soft spot for Garmin. Due to their experience in the world of route finders, they know how to design fantastically simple gadgets, and their fish finders are no exception to the rule.

The screen of the Garmin Striker Vivid is 4″. However, there are larger screen options available. However, to be honest with you, you probably aren’t going to need a larger screen. We find that the bright colors and the resolution of the 4″ screen is incredibly easy to read. You really will be able to see where the fish are at a glance.

The Garmin Striker Vivid 4cv offers both down and side-scanning. This means that you should have no issues using it in both shallow and deep water. Although, we feel that it works a little bit better for shallow water fishermen.

Since this is a Garmin product, the GPS built-in to the device is absolutely fantastic. It also comes pre-loaded with a ton of maps to make your fishing trips a whole lot easier. This includes contour maps. 

Lowrance Hook Reveal 5

Lowrance Hook Reveal 5 is probably one of the easiest-to-use fish finders on the market. There are a ton of features packed into it that will make using the fish finder virtually effortless.

For starters, there is a beautiful screen that boasts a high resolution and bright colors.

The main feature is a FishReveal feature. If the Lowrance believes that it detects a fish while scanning the waters, then it will automatically light the fish up on your display. This means the days of you not being able to spot a fish on your scanner will be long gone.

Don’t like changing frequencies based upon the water conditions? Don’t worry. The Lowrance Hook Reveal 5 can help with that too. It will automatically adjust scanning options based on the conditions of the water. This means that you really need to do nothing other than fish. 

Yes. This is one of the more expensive fish finders on this list. However, it genuinely is the easiest to use. 

Lowrance Hook2 Fish Finder

The Lowrance Hook2 Fish Finder has been designed for smaller boats. While it doesn’t quite have the same number of options as the previous Lowrance fish finder, it is still dead simple to use.

The Hook2 can be connected up to your boat in a multitude of different ways. This can make the installation a breeze. Because the screen is just 4.3-inches, it will barely take up any space on your boat too.

It certainly isn’t lacking in those features that make it easy to use either. For example, the Lowrance Hook2 has an autotuning sonar. This means you just need to hop on the boat and fish. You don’t have to worry about tinkering with settings to find those fish.

We love the menus in the fish finder too. They are incredibly intuitive too. In fact, we will agree with what Lowrance says here. They claim that their controls are ‘mobile-like’. While the screen is not a touch screen, the buttons to the side of it are simple to use. 

HawkEye FishTrax

The HawkEye FishTrax has a screen size of a little over 2″, but don’t let that put you off. The screen size may be small, but it is perfectly clear. 

While it is preferable to mount this fish finder on your boat, you don’t have to. If you want to connect it to a line and float it in the water, then it is perfectly capable of that. 

The HawkEye FishTrax is perfect for deep and shallow waters. It is able to scan up to 240-feet down.

Our favorite feature is just how easy it is to spot fish. If the HawkEye FishTrax believes it has spotted a fish, then it will give you an audible warning. It will also display a fish logo on the screen with the rough positioning of the animal. This makes catching a breeze.

If you want an incredibly easy-to-use fish finder that doesn’t cost a huge sum of cash, then this is the one that you want.

Wrapping It Up

There are dozens and dozens of fish finders on the market that could have made this list. We chose these five because they genuinely are dead simple to use., Whether you are a new or experienced fisher, we reckon that each one of these fish finders will really help you to find the fish that you want…and they won’t give you a headache doing it.

Cover Image Credit: Photo by Lum3n from Pexels