Lowrance FishHunter castable transducer finds fish on your smartphone

Lowrance has launched the FishHunter Pro and Lowrance FishHunter 3D duo of wireless castable transducers that hook up with your smartphone or tablet to give underwater sonar viewing of fish and the seabed from a shore-based or remote location.

Designed to bring the benefits of fishfinding sonar to landbased anglers, as well as those aboard a small boat or watercraft without battery power and fish-finding equipment, FishHunter is affordable with retail prices around $175-$200.

Sending real-time sonar data via WiFi connection between the transducer and Android and iOS phones and tablets, the FishHunter operates without the need for a cellular or internet connection.

You simply cast the FishHunter transducer into the water and then view sonar returns on your smartphone or tablet to decide where to fish.

These kinds of remote sonar devices have been around for some time, but they’ve been gimmicky bits of low-grade technology in the past. The FishHunter should bring a bit of authenticity to the remote sounder market via the Lowrance brand and backing.

TRIPLE FREQUENCY
FishHunter Pro features a tri-frequency transducer (381 kHz, 475 kHz and 675 kHz) offering four ways to view sonar data including Fish (fish symbols), Raw (fish arches), Bathymetric and Ice Fishing Flasher views, Lowrance explains.

Using its Bathymetric view, anglers can also troll FishHunter Pro behind a boat to create bathymetric maps of an entire lake or favourite fishing spot.

Incorporating five tri-frequency transducers, FishHunter 3D offers five functional views including 3D Fishing, Directional Casting View that pinpoints fish depth and location relative to the transducer and, for the U.S., an Ice Fishing Flasher (we’ll just let our imagination run wild with this one).

An impressive part of this new remote castable sonar kit is that FishHunter 3D can also be trolled behind a boat to create bathymetric or structure maps of fishing areas.

Leif Ottosson, CEO of Navico, the parent company of Lowrance, said  he was excited to expanding the company’s offerings into this new fishfinding category and bring sonar technology to the large community of landbased and budget boating anglers.

"With FishHunter 3D, three-dimensional sonar capabilities are now available to the kayak, wharf, and bank fisherman."

FLOATING TRANSDUCER
FishHunter’s unique buoy-shaped design makes it difficult to submerge and increases the reliability of its WiFi connection.

The antenna protruding from the top of the FishHunter housing also ensures constant WiFi connectivity for the highest image quality and signal range. By communicating through a WiFi connection, smartphones paired with FishHunter are still able to receive texts and calls.

FishHunter Pro provides a 150-foot depth and 160-foot WiFi range (45-50m), and FishHunter 3D offers a 160-foot depth and a 200-foot WiFi range (50-60m).

FishHunter’s rechargeable battery is said to last for 10 hours of active use and 500 hours on standby. Both Pro and 3D models feature LED illumination, which is said to make them easy to locate in any lighting condition.

FishHunter smartphone and tablet apps can be downloaded through the Apple iTunes store for iOS devices and Google Play Store for Android devices.

The FishHunter app includes social features allowing anglers to log catches, waypoints, follow friends and even live stream catches from around the world.

Lowrance FishHunter Pro is expected to be available later in 2017 for AUD$218.90 and FishHunter 3D for AUD$173.90.

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