Review on Garmin Striker Plus 4: 4-inch Screen with Dual-Beam Transducer & Protective Cover (010-01870-00) by Robert Smith

I got a Striker Plus for hard saltwater fishing in the Caribbean on a 28ft outboard fiberglass canoe because I knew I was going to buy one for it Version with chip and upgrade to a more powerful Xducer would have to be in deep water. Very comfortable, just play in simulator mode for a couple of hours and adjust the settings. I didn't like how everything seemed geared towards freshwater kayak bass fishermen, even the simulation didn't extend 50 feet or so. The Xducer easily attaches to a double fiberglass butcher board on the transom. The pit sits about half an inch ABOVE the bottom of the boat to avoid the device being pulled away from debris in harbor and fish trap lines at sea. Image clarity is ideal up to 8 knots and then degrades. The depth and bottom readings get stuck at about 12 knots, so I have to slow down when plumbing. Reads the ground at 120 feet with no problems. For a deeper one I have to play with the gain a lot and change the settings. Staying in CHIRP mode and narrowing the cone angle is better than messing around with the frequency. After a few minutes he sometimes manages to draw a fuzzy ground with ditches and hills up to about 480 feet high. Poor picture and very slow feedback deeper down, regardless of gain or frequency. I can't say for sure if the depth readings were accurate compared to the amount of line I was fishing with. Was attuned to dinner table sized fish which he handled quite well, especially in mid water. Small fish on the bottom were difficult to spot. However, larger fish have been seen hiding between the crevices. The GPS catches very quickly and seems very accurate, but the navigation is very slow to respond to turns, causing me to zigzag a lot unless I've secured with external links. Targeting a nearby waypoint can be a problem. I don't really like the way the tips are presented, a big pointer like on a portable GPS would be much better. But he did his job. Good product. The three things I left out are the navigation manual, the fish alarm is so quiet I can barely hear it with the engine running, and the power and converter wires look very flimsy and the spark plugs look corroded. Plus highly recommended. Was back on the water with the attacker, using coordinates from Google Maps. Accuracy within 50 feet. Very happy with the GPS navigation, now that I understand you need to be moving for the guide to work. Now I make my own routes! However, as expected, it's time to update the converter. I could read out to 280 feet at the 200Hz chirp, but at the 77 chirp the tone lasted so long it was annoying. At times I got stable depth readings down to 1050 feet after sitting still for 10 minutes, but there was no bottom image at all. Deeper than 400 feet or so was a waste of time, I would be drifting faster than it seems. Upgrade to 600W GT-15. This seems to be the only upgrade available for deep sea fighters. Otherwise I would not have left the dock without my attacker.