Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge - View Single Post

ProfessorLongArms · 06-19-2020, 02:48 PM

So I wanted a transducer for two different kayaks, so I bought a refurbished Striker 4 plus with a dual beam transducer... That one's on my dive kayak. The CV came with a GT20 if I'm not mistaken. Only difference is that I can't use downscan on my dive kayak (never deeper than 60 feet of water anyway) and I never use downscan.

There's a whole rabbit hole about older vs newer garmin transducers....
Long story short is that Navico makes Downscan tech, and they license it out to other companies. Garmin opted not to pay for theirs, and Lowrance sued.... They now can't technically package the downscan with a single beam, but have another technology that's a composite of two angled beams that's inferior. Lowrance even went so far as to put out a promotional video talking about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klwhx0SndJQ

I guess I could see it being useful if you're bass fishing or something, but ocean kayak fishing, I don't really get much out of downscan at all.

06-19-2020, 02:48 PM	#7
ProfessorLongArms Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 400	So I wanted a transducer for two different kayaks, so I bought a refurbished Striker 4 plus with a dual beam transducer... That one's on my dive kayak. The CV came with a GT20 if I'm not mistaken. Only difference is that I can't use downscan on my dive kayak (never deeper than 60 feet of water anyway) and I never use downscan. There's a whole rabbit hole about older vs newer garmin transducers.... Long story short is that Navico makes Downscan tech, and they license it out to other companies. Garmin opted not to pay for theirs, and Lowrance sued.... They now can't technically package the downscan with a single beam, but have another technology that's a composite of two angled beams that's inferior. Lowrance even went so far as to put out a promotional video talking about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klwhx0SndJQ I guess I could see it being useful if you're bass fishing or something, but ocean kayak fishing, I don't really get much out of downscan at all.