HEAT DESTORYED MY SMARTCAST FISHFINDER   by nlcatfish

You have permission to publish this article in its entirety either; electronically or in print, free of charge. As long as by-lines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication; or notification of your use of my article would be greatly appreciated! Thank You.

I got a Smartcast fishfinder this April for checking out small lakes form the bank. I planned to use to locate where the fish were, and area of dead water. I was very pleased with what information this little device showed me. I just kept the rod mounted unit on my light weight rod.

I normally put the rod in the garage after a fishing trip for bluegills. The past couple weeks I have been trying to locate and catch some Skipjacks on the Ohio River. Since I was checking about every morning , I left that rod with the unit in the trunk of my car.

The Other morning I took the rod with me on a catfishing trip to help scout out the waters all around my boat for fish. I cast the transducer out and let it settle, then hit the rod mount unit, NOTHING showed up on the screen! I push every button on the unit, still no display. I figured the battery ran down, reeled in the transducer and removed it from the line. Rig up the rod so I was able to catch the Skipjacks that came near the boat.

When I got back home I checked out the battery in the rod mount unit, it was good per my voltmeter. I swapped out the battery with the spare in the packet, still no display.

I got out the maintenance folder for the rod mount unit. It stated the unit should be removed from the rod when in use. Then kept in a cool dark place, avoid sunlight and HEAT . So I fried the computer chips in the unit so it is destroyed.

I am posting this message to anyone that has or intends to get a Humming Bird SMARTCAST fishfinder. To protect your investment, REMOVE THE ROD MOUNT UNIT FROM YOUR ROD WHEN NOT IN USE. KEEP THAT UNIT IN A DARK GOOL PLACE WHEN NOT IN USE. This unit are a great tool for anyone that has to fish from the bank. It does show you where the fish are, as well as depth of the water, and structure of the bottom. Hopefully this posting will prevent you from having to replace a unit like I will be doing now. Tight lines to all.

nlcatfish@fuse.net webmaster for Cincinnati Catfishing www.cincinnaticatfishing.com SHOP WITHOUT DROPPING www.cincinnaticatfishing.com/Shop1.html LINKS 4 FISHING INFORMATION AND SUPPLIES www.cincinnaticatfishing.com/links4fishing.html

About the Author

Have been catfishing around the Downtown Cincinnati area of the Ohio River for over 40 years. Gone catfishing at Lockport Manitoba 5 times over the past 10 years. It is the greastest place to catch lots of huge CHANNEL catsfish in North America!! For the past 6 years have passed catfishing information for the Cincinnati part of the ohio river on my web site "CINCINNATI CATFISHING".