Looking for reviews of the Garmin Striker 4 in the BWCA, Quetico, or ? I will be attaching it to a Wenonah Champlain (kevlar) via a suction cup transducer. Specifically: How much does it weigh with the battery? Is the battery capable of being charged with a portable solar charger?

Thanks in advance for any pertinent info

I'm relatively new to the Garmin Striker 4, but I really like it thus far. I'm planning to bring mine to the BWCA in late May.

As for battery, I would highly recommend upgrading to lithium. They are much lighter than lead acid and last longer. I think you'll get several days of fishing off of one charge. I doubt you'll get a lot of juice out of a solar charger. You'd be better off with a power bank.

As for attachment, I am very excited to be renting a Wenonah canoe that has "VersiWale". It's a track in the gunwale. The difficulty here is that the track runs vertically compared to the horizontal orientation on my kayak. This is easily fixed with the YakAttack 90degree MightyMount.

I'm sure I'll have more to share by early June!

Thanks for the advice on the lithium battery.
Did you buy a power bank to take into the BWCA?
If so, which one?

I don't have a power bank picked out. I know I've collected a few over the years. I don't know if they're any good. I'm unsure if I should buy something better.

I've run a Striker 4 on a NOCQUA 10Ah lithium ion battery for about 30 hours before dropping below 11 volts. That's about as deeply as you should discharge the battery. The battery weighs about 1.5lbs so it makes for a nice lightweight kit. The NOCQUA battery comes with a cable to solder/crimp to your fish finder power cable (depending on how you want to do it) so you don't need anything besides the stock Garmin power cable with bare wires, and the NOCQUA kit. Overall it gets the job done and lasts a heck of a long time. I haven't tried charging it with a solar panel but they might have an option for it now.

As for a transducer mount, I use a RAM Mounts transducer arm. Just make sure you get it pointing as straight down into the water as possible for the best depth readings and subject definition.

I brought a a power box I built with a Dakota Lithium 10Ah 12V battery as well as a 10Ah in the electronics pod in my kayak . I ran a Lowrance Hook2, charged 6 GoPro batteries twice, 2 iPhones twice, 2 GMRS radios twice, and miscellaneous headlamps and other lights. Amp meter still showed 11.3 V after 6 days.

I have the exact same setup as jdoutdoors, except that I have the Garmin Striker 4 plus cv. I get about the same battery life, but I admit I run it well into 10v. Maybe I should take jdoutdoors’s advice and turn it off before it gets that low. I agree that for the weight it is a good system and I also use it to top off my iPhone at least once each trip. I can’t speak to whether it can be recharged by solar because I’ve never come close to running out of battery in week+ long trips. Keeping the Garmin, battery, transducer and cords stored and transported in two Flambeau pistol cases is the lightest way I’ve been able to come up with. All in, with cases, cords, etc, I believe the whole system is about 5.5 pounds.

You're renting canoe? What you using for transducer mount? Curious and looking for ideas myself.

Hawk777: "You're renting canoe? What you using for transducer mount? Curious and looking for ideas myself."

I’m not sure whom you are asking.

I am renting a Wenonah with “VersiWale”, it’s a track that runs vertically along the inside of the gunwale. I will use a YakAttack 90 degree mightymount, and a yakattack switchblade transducer arm from there. The garmin striker 4 mounts on top of the switchblade.

I have been using a Garmin Striker 4 Plus with a Dakota lithium 10aH battery the past few years and really like the setup. Plenty of life in the battery to last 6 full days of fishing. Volts were reading at about 13.4 at the beginning of the trip and still measuring at 12.9 after the last day of use. I also wired a power pack that holds 8 AA batteries for my friend who also has a Striker 4 Plus and with 8 AA Energizer lithium batteries he got about 30hrs of use before he needed to replace the batteries.

I have been using a Garmin Striker 4 Plus with a Dakota lithium 10aH battery the past few years and really like the setup. Plenty of life in the battery to last 6 full days of fishing. Volts were reading at about 13.4 at the beginning of the trip and still measuring at 12.9 after the last day of use. I also wired a power pack that holds 8 AA batteries for my friend who also has a Striker 4 Plus and with 8 AA Energizer lithium batteries he got about 30hrs of use before he needed to replace the batteries. No need to pack along a charger for this setup unless wanting to charge the lithium battery on a much longer trip.

I use the Striker 4 with two of these 10 AA batter holders. The Striker 4 operates from 10-15volts so ten AA's get you right at the 15volt marks for max battery longevity. I have both of these holders inserted into a cheap small drybox and they will run the fish finder for 5 days easy. I use the Scotty mount to flip the transducer over the side of the canoe.
**LOL edit, just looked at the photo and I have the Piranhamax4, not the Striker

Sorry for the double post!

Anyone interested in batteries suitable for a fish detector should check out the for sail thread on this site.

I've had the striker 4, and now have the plus cv. Went with the nocqua battery too. Id recommend this system and have not seen a better one, as measured by weight, performance, and to some degree price. The only additional feature you might want is gps or side mapping tech, but there are probably weight and battery life tradeoffs to those, cost aside.

Only other feature not discussed yet, the striker 4 is also a worthy ice fishing setup, particularly if you get the ice transducer for another handy. Not as good as a high end ice fishing specific finder, but I really have liked the versatility. Writing this from castle danger upon exit from a winter bdubs trip....yep the same striker 4 cv worked yesterday too.

I know you posted this about a month ago but I thought I would weigh in on this.
I can speak directly to using the Garmin striker 4 and battery type, life and using solar panels to charge. Just as some of the other posters had commented I switched out the lead battery for the noqua battery which supplies as they indicated approximately 30 hours of run time on one charge. I take two charging systems with me one is the solar panel set up which is the goal zero nomad 50 and then I also take The goal zero yeti 200x portable power station. You wouldn't need the portable power station to charge the battery however I have a number of things that I need to charge. If you wanted to see my setup with an explanation of it you can check out my YouTube channel which is Portage mule. If you go to the September 21 part 1 trip video I'd love for you to watch the whole thing but if you go to 16 minutes and 55 seconds in you will see the entire setup and battery and cable management. If you are new to the Garmin striker 4. There is a guy on YouTube who does a really good job breaking down how to operate it how to set it up and how to read it. Anyway if you want any other information on components or parts that I used to construct mine I'd be happy to walk you through it. I love having the garment up there and find it extremely useful. Happy paddling!
Rob

Striker 4's can come as a base model or an ice fishing package.

Here's the question - are the transducers different between the base model and the ice fishing package. Looking on Garmin's website, there are multiple transducer options. Looking at the specs, the tranducers appear to be same, but model numbers are not given. Anyone able to sort this out for me.

Also, Striker 4's require less power than Striker 4 Vivid CV and Striker Plus CV.

What do you gain, practically speaking in the BWCA with a CV? Better clarity, bigger screen, topographic maps? Anything else?

I've been happy with my Stiker 4 but can not compare it to other models. I used Magic Paddler's plan to rewire mine to run off 8 lithium AA batteries, which usually last me about a week the way I fish. Its been bout 2-3 years since I looked into it, but I seem to recall the ice fishing transducer was a different shape, more like a tube, well suited for stationary water whereas my standard one looks more like the hull of a Lund fishing boat. Not sure if that is still current or not.

drsean: "Looking for reviews of the Garmin Striker 4 in the BWCA, Quetico, or ? I will be attaching it to a Wenonah Champlain (kevlar) via a suction cup transducer. Specifically: How much does it weigh with the battery? Is the battery capable of being charged with a portable solar charger?

Thanks in advance for any pertinent info"

Before you go all the way to Boundary Waters, check that your suction cup will stick to the side of a Kevlar canoe. Mine won't.