I am considering a depth and temperature gauge setup for my next canoe trip. My fellow trippers and I are generally against the use of electronics as (especially in my case) a trip to the wilderness is a rare chance to unplug. I am also concerned that marking fish on the fish finder would somehow take away from the thrill of finding the fish using your fishing rod. You won't find a colorful display of the bottom mounted on my canoe. Probably never.

So, that said, we will be there in late May, and I would like to do some dedicated walleye fishing. I have a decent idea of where I should be trying to find them at that time of year, but haven't logged many hours trying.

Also, I am planning to pick up a Vexilar depth thermometer to find the right temps at depth, as finding the warm water was essential at ice out last year.

Would you spend $300 bucks to get the depth/temp gauge, battery setup with that purpose in mind? Also, I thought this redneck transducer mount was an awesome way to keep it simple.

TheGreatIndoors: "I am considering a depth and temperature gauge setup for my next canoe trip. My fellow trippers and I are generally against the use of electronics as (especially in my case) a trip to the wilderness is a rare chance to unplug. I am also concerned that marking fish on the fish finder would somehow take away from the thrill of finding the fish using your fishing rod. You won't find a colorful display of the bottom mounted on my canoe. Probably never.

So, that said, we will be there in late May, and I would like to do some dedicated walleye fishing. I have a decent idea of where I should be trying to find them at that time of year, but haven't logged many hours trying.

Also, I am planning to pick up a Vexilar depth thermometer to find the right temps at depth, as finding the warm water was essential at ice out last year.

Would you spend $300 bucks to get the depth/temp gauge, battery setup with that purpose in mind? Also, I thought this redneck transducer mount was an awesome way to keep it simple."

If you're against technology in the BWCA, I would not waste your money on something like this either. Rather, I would focus your fishing time in the spring to moving water, shorelines that have gradual break line, and shorelines that get good sun for most of the day. Those areas will warm up quicker and most likely will draw in forage fish. Find the bait fish, the walleye will be within range.

You might consider this Vexilar hand held sonar. I have one, and it's helpful for spot checking the depth. It doesn't give you temperature, but it's a lot less complicated than anything else out there. About the size of a flashlight, you just hold the end in the water and push the slide switch to get a depth reading. No messing with transducers and wires.
Vexilar sonar

My bow partner has a vex flashlight sonar. I coupled it with a weighted thermometer (if needed or curious) on some brick twine with knots every 5 feet and it works for us. Alot less hassle than a transducer cord/display. It works well for us. We don't even gps mid-lake humps etc. We triangulate and use the the flashlight to pinpoint and drop any spots we want to revisit. Much less to carry or mount. Just a little slower maybe.

Most people I know that have fish finders use them primarily for finding depths not fish (myself included). But I respect your desire to limit electronics. You could just use a map and shoreline to guesstimate depth, like we all did years ago (us older Guys anyway), but why not just download the navionics app to your phone? I haven’t been to Quetico/BW since I’ve had the app but a quick check showed a bunch of lakes on there. It’s a bit more expensive since Navionics was bought by Garmin but still at steal at 30.00 and it’s amazingly accurate for the most part (compared to my finder while in use). You can download the maps in the area you want to fish and you don’t need cell service....

If you still wanted to buy a depth gauge of sorts personally I think 300 is too high when you can get a cheap finder that works perfectly fine for 100.00 and it will show depth and surface temps...just ignore the fish symbols...

Just a thought.

Moonman

The $300 figure is for a battery pack ($125, Wilderness Systems), gauge, and transducer/thermometer ($175, Lowrance). I agree, it's a lot.

The handheld Vexilar sonar systems are similarly expensive ($150), although there are others that are more like $70. I haven't read through all the reviews carefully. Reducing the wires does seem like a good idea, though.

Why don't you just take a regular thermometer? The warmest water will be on the surface anyway that time of year. Personally I wouldn't bother with just a thermometer. As has been stated you could probably predict where the warmer water is located.

How about the $9 Vexilar Deptherm? Measures depth and temp, no batteries required.

I agree w moonman .
Simple unit as battery pack. Look at temp and depth and turn it off.

Like you said, find 'em with your brain and rod.

I bought a HawkEye FishTrax 1C last just to try it out, Was going into and area I wasn't familiar with and want to try something compact and easy since I use my canoe a lot fish small lake outside the BWCA. Size of a cell phone runs on AAA's, worked really good, just need to find a more efficient way to handle the transducer. https://hawkeyeelectronics.com/collections/fishtrax-series/products/fishtrax-1c-fish-finder

Unless you have a high end sonar unit, you aren't (or at least shouldn't be) relying on it to mark fish for you. Most people who are proficient in reading sonar returns will tell you the first thing to do is turn off the fish ID/fish locator feature (that thing is junk anyways) and learn to interpret the arches...

with that said, I see no difference technologically speaking from a basic sonar compared to a temp/depth gauge. I actually think the temp/depth gauge gives you more info than a cheap sonar/depth finder does. so if your main motive is to unplug from technology while you're up there, leave both at home. If you want to know depth the old fashioned way, use your anchor rope.