Trolling with Garmin Striker 4 Ice Fishing Bundle

The Garmin Striker 4 Ice Fishing kit is a fantastic ice fishing rig, and I’ve run it with my primary ice fishing rig for a few seasons now, but I was wondering how it would work as a trolling fish finder. Now, before I go too much further, I am fully aware that they make specialized transducers, and you can swap out the transducer and keep using the striker 4, but that doesn’t help when you want to go out to the lake that day, or if you’re fishing on a budget, its good to know the capabilities of your gear. I have been pushing gear and experimenting just about all my life. Since the Garmin Striker 4 is probably the most popular ice fishing fish finder on the market, I decided to put it to the test in my boat.

Trolling with the Transducer Off the Side of the Boat

The transducer for the ice fishing bundle has a long cable, and then has a stopper and a foam floaty used to space the transducer below the ice when ice fishing. I first tried to tie off the cable to the side of the boat, then have the foam floaty and stopper set so the transducer was about 12 inches below that in the water. I immediately started marking fish. Fishing at kokanee speeds, I was able to mark fish clearly and simply, and I was able to also mark most of my gear in the water as well, which was a pleasant surprise.

This will work well fishing at kokanee speeds. With the transducer in the water, at speeds over 1.5 mph it did not work nearly as well. The transducer was bouncing a little too much, and would be at too much of an angle in the water. The readings were inconsistent and were having problems. At kokanee speed though, it worked surprisingly well. With the transducer tied to that cleat and down low enough in the water that it would be below the bottom of the boat and below the motor, I could see clearly and accurately.

Transducer Through the Bottom of the Boat

In doing my research before I started my own tests, I came across a video of a kayak fisherman who used this fish finder for his setup. He had attached the transducer to the bottom of his kayak with plumbers putty. My ice fishing bundle is the one I use for, well, ice fishing. I didn’t want to do anything permanent like that, so I just wanted to see what would happen if I just set it on the bottom of my boat.

I tried it through the hull of my aluminum fishing boat, and it worked, but the picture wasn’t as clear. Then I tried it again later, and there was a little bit of water in the bottom of the boat, and the picture quality improved greatly. Thinking back to the video I had seen with the transducer attached to a kayak with the plumbers putty, I imagine that the water would help the sound waves transfer more smoothly, with water filling in any of the gaps. I’ve also toyed with the idea of using silly putty.

Using the Garmin Striker 4 Ice Fishing Bundle Trolling with a Kayak

I also ran a test with my fishing kayak, with the the transducer set on the bottom of the kayak, directly on the surface that made contact with the water. I was able to mark fish through the bottom of the kayak as well. After a couple of waves though, the transducer fell over in the bottom of the kayak. It made more sense why the guy on the video had used the plumbers putty even more, but I still didn’t want a permanent fixture.

What I got to work for me was shortening the transducer cable that went into the bottom of the boat, so there wasn’t enough cable for it to fall over. I wedged the cable into place with the bungeed lid of the storage hatch pinching the cable in place. I had no further issues.

The Battery on the Garmin Striker 4 Ice Fishing Bundle for Trolling

When the weather was warmer, I found that the battery lasted significantly longer for trolling. The battery that comes with the kit works plenty long for a day of ice fishing, but the battery lasted several days of trolling in summer weather. It’s commonly known that batteries last longer in warmer weather, but I was surprised by just how much longer it lasted.

Conclusion

There are transducers and fish finders that are better suited for trolling, but to be perfectly honest, most people don’t have the know how for using their fish finder to get the full benefit from all the bells and whistles that come built into them. They usually find the one setting they know how to read and stick with that. The Garmin Striker 4, even with the ice fishing transducer, has all the capabilities that about 95% of the fishing community use anyways. I was impressed with how well the bundle worked.

Garmin Striker 4 with Portable Kit

The Garmin Striker 4 ice fishing kit comes with a nice carrying case, a battery, a charger, and a transducer. The kit also has a plastic molded base and a mount so the fish finder sits up. You can also adjust the angle of the fish finder, so that if its sitting on the ground level ice, or up on the seat of the boat, you can position it so you can see. I love this kit for ice fishing, and can confirm, with no modification, you can use this kit for trolling as well.