At the time of writing this article, I have been using the Deeper Smart Fishfinder Chirp + for over two years. In total, I have made about 80 fishing trips with it from a boat. This is enough to draw conclusions about its usefulness and give my opinion. My experience is primarily related to active fishing from a small inflatable boat for pike and other predatory fish on artificial lures. I have used the sonar several times when fishing from the shore, but I have not found any advantages in this approach, and I broke one rod and could tear it off several times.
Why I chose Deeper smart fishfinder chirp+
It is necessary to clearly understand the purpose for which we buy any fishfinder. Obviously, to make it easier to find fish. This is what happens when we sail in deep water and use expensive equipment like StructureScan 3D Sonars and LiveScopes. We’re looking for fish, often even catching specific fish, seeing how they react. When we move to shallow, grassy bodies of water, the fish are often so dense in their hiding places that it is impossible to see them with any equipment.
In such cases, an important part of finding fish is understanding the depths of the lake or river, temperature differences and the presence or absence of cover for predators. Thus, we are not looking for fish, but rather for indirect markers. And to see the big picture helps us bathymetric map of the depth of the reservoir, which we build online. This is exactly the kind of functionality that the Deeper Smart Fishfinder Chirp+ echo sounder has. This function is called Create Bathymetric Maps. Moreover, you can work with the data obtained a posteriori on a large desktop screen after fishing. At the moment I do not know fishfinders of other brands in this price segment, which have similar functionality.
As for fish detection, I do not use this function to find specific fish, but to assess the situation in general.
Here are a couple of examples.
A lake. The bottom is uniform and has the shape of a plate. Zones with silhouettes of fish on the screen alternate with completely deserted without reference to anything. Just look for these areas and check them out more carefully.
Submerged bottom trees at depths of more than 3 meters (10 ft). And there are a lot of such places. We check with baits those where we see big fish in addition to hiding places.
Autumn, a large river with bays and quarries. Predatory fish can be anywhere. We look for big shoals of fish. We catch predators near them.
When stationary fishing non-predatory fish with the help of fishfinder check whether the feed has worked, whether the fish has approached. If yes, and there are no bites, it is worth experimenting with nozzles. If there is no fish, then do not change the bait, wait or refeed.
To whom I recommend Deeper smart fishfinder chirp+
First of all, this fishfinder is suitable for those who have a kayak or a small inflatable boat, where installation of more complex sonars is not technically feasible, sometimes even impossible.
In the second place fishfinder is suitable for those who, in addition to boat fishing, plans to use it when fishing from shore for non-predatory fish. To check if the fish has not approached the place of baiting. As one universal sonar is a good solution.
In the third is a good fisfinder and for a larger boat for those fishermen who can not or do not want to spend a lot of money on fish-finding equipment. In its price segment it is the best solution. Especially since you can use your existing phone or tablet as a monitor. It is necessary to buy a set of additional accessories, but it is very small. You can do without some of them.
Pros
Price. In this price segment it is difficult to find models with such a set of functionality.
Versatility. Can be used in underwater fishing, ice fishing.
The best solution for small boats and kayaks. For small boats and small lakes and rivers more expensive equipment will not bring additional opportunities. And Deeper smart fishfinder chirp + is easy and fast to attach, get out of the water if necessary. Does not require large capital investments at the start.
Cons
Data. It’s a sonar that has two scales: time horizontally and depth vertically. So the fish are arcs, everything is in the form of arcs. It is not intuitive, you have to get used to it. The device gives you data that you have to be able to interpret. This is not an underwater camera. It should be understood that if there is a desire to specifically track fish at great depths, to see how it bites, it is necessary to buy much more expensive StructureScan 3D Sonars and LiveScopes.
Data uploading. In order to upload data from your phone or tablet to your desktop, you need to upload it to cloud storage. And to use the cloud storage, you have to give consent for the storage owner to have anonymous access to the depth data you measured. From that data, they make generic depth maps that can be accessed on a paid subscription basis. I buy a subscription to these maps, they are very useful for exploring a reservoir I haven’t been on yet, or for fishing from shore. On the other hand, I don’t like being forced to share my data.
Conclusion
This is an inexpensive relative to its niche products fishfinder, which will suit both beginners and experienced anglers. Thanks to the built-in function Create Bathymetric Maps on shallow rivers and lakes with depths up to 2 meters is not inferior to its big brothers expensive StructureScan 3D Sonars and LiveScopes. For small boats it is a completely optimal solution.
Alternative
The alternative to the Deeper smart fishfinder chirp + will be three models from the same manufacturer Deeper:
- Deeper Smart Sonar CHIRP+ 2 – a newer version of the sonar considered in the review. The battery lasts longer, greater accuracy, but the difference is not fundamental. In fact, on fishing they will be almost identical.
- Deeper Smart Sonar PRO+ 2 – a younger model. The difference when fishing at depths up to 3 meters will not be strongly felt. All the same, the practical sense of using fishfinder of this type is from building depth maps, finding underwater trees and swarms of fish, but not trying to find and catch specific fish. I do not advise you to take Deeper Smart Sonar PRO+ model into the boat. It has a short battery life and no fast charging. This will cause that the sonar will have to be recharged several times a day and wait until it recharges. For example, I only charge the Deeper Smart Sonar CHIRP+ once a day during my big lunch break. This is enough time.
