Garmin Striker 4 with Portable Kit

Garmin Striker 4 portable kit The Garmin Striker 4 portable kit is an excellent fishfinder with great features. It is very user friendly and easy to use. It even has GPS.

I bought this item because I wanted a fish finder that I could use in the summer and ice fishing in the winter. All my friends use Vexilar flashers in the winter. I was concerned that the vexilars would create interference for the Garmin or vice versa. I ordered my Garmin after reading the reviews but the description did not indicate if it came with a battery or not and I was going on a fishing trip, so I bought a battery at my local store so I would be ready. I was surprised to find that it came with a battery, so now I own a spare. Last weekend I went fishing with my friends at Lake of the Woods, Mn. and fished in heated ice fishing shacks. There were two people in each shack. I used my Garmin on the flasher mode with the transducer that came with the kit and it worked perfectly. There was minimal interference from the devices used even though we were only about 4 feet apart. We were in heated shacks, so I don't know how the cold would affect this Garmin. I did not need to buy a special transducer. I was able to see the fish and my jig near the bottom of the lake in 22 ft of water. We fished for three days and caught an average of 100 to 120 fish per shack each day. I could not be happier with my Garmin. It worked just as well as the Vexilars that cost over $400 and the Garmin is more versatile. I did not have to change the battery at all using it for 10 hours each day for 3 days. I can't wait to try this out this summer fishing from my small boat.

Even on a small screen this fish finder delivers the goods! Great contrast great sensitivity to reading fish movements. The whole set up is user friendly just make sure you buy the Ice transducer because it doesn’t have one.

I have a Vexilar FL-8 and I bought this so I could keep one at the cabin and one at home. This has become my favorite fish finder. I thought I'd use the flasher on this like my other one, but I really like the traditional sonar much better. It allows a little bit of history to be read so you can watch your jig patterns and see what brings the fish up from the bottom. I had no problem seeing the screen in direct sunlight like others have said. The transducer isn't your normal ice fishing kind but it works just fine. It picked up my 1/16oz jig on the screen no problem. The cord can get a little stiff if fishing in like 15 degrees or less making it a little harder to wrap up at the end of the day. The ice fishing specific transducer for this is about 2/3 the cost of this whole unit ($100-120). there is also no arm to hold the transduser away from the edge of the ice hole. I bought a Marcum replacement arm and attatched that and used a Vexilar little stopper bean to keep it at the right depth. It comes with a battery which was nice. The power cables going to the unit aren't the same connector as the charger for it so you have to take the wires off at the battery terminal to charge it rather than just unplug a quick disconnect and plug in the charger. The carry handle for this doesn't stick out of the soft case and its more like a carry pocket. The material between the handle and your hand can be a bit slippery if holding it with gloves.

I do not have a boat of my own, depend on friends or rentals to get on the water. I also do a little ice fishing and wanted a portable fishfinder. This Garmin is phenominal-a fishfinder and GPS in a small, easy to transport package. It is about the same size as my cell phone. Picture is clear and easy to read, despite the smallish screen size. Assembly instructions were sparse, but understandable enough to get the job done. The cables wrap up nicely inside the cover and there are many pockets in it to store fishing supplies. Operating the unit requires some practice as there are many options available. The operating buttons are straight foreward, but the menus are not always intuitive. All in all, this unit fits the bill for my needs. Only regreat is that I did not spend a few more dollars to get the 4Plus model as it has more features a a slightly larger screen.

Did all that was advertised. Easy to unpack and put together. First outing on Kanawha River in WV spent most of my time getting the boat to run properly but Garmin did well. Took to remote Canadian lake and worked flawlessly. Battery lasted well ad only recharges once during the week while fishing hard every day. Good graphics but there were times when I could see the bottom and it showed suspended fish that I could not see. When it showed schools of fish suspended or on or near the bottom was usually able to get bites/hits. Happy with the portability. Used scrubber pad to clean off boat for suction cup fastener which held in place well.

Exceeded expectations. I've only used this rig for ice fishing so far. ( I purchased the GT8HW ice transducer to go with it) and it performs a lot better than I expected it would. I'm able to adjust my cone angle, frequency, gain, and there's a ton of display settings that you can customize. I did get a little bit of interference with other flashers, but you can navigate around this with the different settings. This doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the more expensive fish finders do, but I was able to see my tiny jig in 30 feet of water clear as day. Also shows fish, depth, and gps coords very clearly. To me, thats all you need, and I love it. The only downfall of this finder is the smaller screen size, although the screen is exceptionally bright and very clear. Comes with the case, a mount for the case, a battery, a battery charger, a stick-on hull transducer mount, a suction cup transducer mount, and an angled transducer.

Was looking for something portable to take to fly-in fishing in Ontario. Took it up last week. Lasted the whole week on one battery charge. Nothing fancy with this unit and the screen isn't big, but it did what I wanted. Accurate and sensitive soundings, could pick up my jig bouncing off bottom if right under the sounding unit, same with watching walleye released and returning to bottom. The GPS functionality was good. Was easy to set waypoints and return to them. Split screen viewing allowed to see relative proximity to waypoints as well as depth, but screen was a bit small for split screen viewing. Overall this met my need for a portable unit to take on an occasional fly-in trip, happy with the purchase.