I am a techno-geek. Yes it's true. You know what they say about men and toys, well it's true. I have to be the first to get the latest gadgets and toys. I've actually gotten a bit better in my old age, and having college kids helps curtail my urge to run out and get the newest whiz toy that is usually over-priced for the next 3 months anyway.

But when I started to see the new wireless fish finders from HumminBird this year, naturally that ooooh gotta have that feeling started creeping up on me.

Being an avid shoreline fisherman, there have been plenty of times when I missed having my fishfinder handy to check structure and survey the depths of my favorite local lake. So naturally when I saw the new wireless finders I was very interrested, but I managed to maintain my cool and did not buy.

Then it happened. A couple months later I open up a new issue of Bassmaster and there it was; the coolest - be the envy of all your friends - gadget since Dick Tracy. The new RF-30 by HumminBird!

Holy-cow. Now this is really something. I said to myself, but it must cost a fortune. A wristwatch fish finder. What a great way to put technology to work. I quickly fired up the PC and surfed on over to the Humminbird site to see if I could get more info. They had info, but no pricing, and the product was not due for release till late spring 2003. Bummer.

Well a couple months went by and now T.V. commercials were showing off the smartcast system and I started checking it out again. Expecting to see a huge pricetag, I nearly fell off my chair to see that Wal-mart on-line had it listed for about $90! What? Must be a mistake. So I checked a few more places and sure enough, sub-$100 toy!

But not a toy by any means. So I still had to wait and it was the week before father's day. I decided to order one for my dad in FL and ship it to him as this year's gift. What a surprise that will be. Of course, while I was there, I might as well have one shipped to me as well, I mean someone would have to talk dad through the basics of using it right?

So Father's day comes and dad is thrilled with his RF-30. He is reading the manual and trying to figure out how to set it up. Mine arrives a couple days later and I open it up, install the battery in the display unit, press a few familiar buttons and I am off to the lake. Manual? Who reads manuals?

The RF-30 comes with a transducer shaped like a float that can easily be used as a bobber. Greenish for high visibility, you simply attach it to your line and cast it out. It is a sealed unit and humminbird claims it has a battery life of about 400 "in-use" hours. The unit also turns on and off automatically when it gets wet. Pretty handy.

The display of course is a watch-style unit that is very stylish and fits comfortably on the wrist. The battery is a standard 2450 CR type watch battery. It comes with a spare, and you can pick them up at any local store for a few bucks. Easy to find and replace. Nice feature.

Pressing the main button on the face of the display fires it up, and after it goes through a quick self test you are in business. The unit surprisingly has all the available settings of the Humminbird 300TX mounted on my bass rig. Very impressive, and a big reason not to need the manual. Of course, I read it later on when I needed some reading material.

The units' default settings are fine for most fishing, and you probably will only ever need to adjust the sensitivity up or down depending on your conditions, otherwise just use it out of the box. The display resolution is surprisingly good as well. Now granted, you are NOT getting a lot of info here, but it is accurate, and gives you a good idea of depth and contours and does show fish with an ID system. Good enough for a bank banger like me.

Display resolution is actually 48V x 32H pixels and the transducer has a range of 75 feet radius and can measure depths to 100 feet. Again, this is remarkable for the price/functionality/convienience.

How did it work?

O.K. so let's get to the nitty gritty. I decided that I would never use it as a bobber with my lure dangling below. I am not a bobber fisherman. So I tied it onto an older rod/reel combo with 20lb spiderwire. I figured if it ever drifted into a brushpile or stand-ups, I want to be able to yank it free.

Replacement units are just $20 and are available in 2 channels "A" and "B" so that you can have multiple read-outs, or 2 people in close proximity can use them together. Another great idea.

So I cast out the unit and it touched down with a decent splash. I looked at the display and it was starting to draw the bottom in near perfect detail. Sweet! I did notice that movement of my arm and wrist would however cause the unit to re-draw and need to re-establish a connection with the transmitter.

This is normal though as wireless technology IS pretty much line of sight operation, so as you move the watch between your own body parts and other objects, you may see the unit re-connect. This is normal and doesn't really cause a problem since I found it easier to just survey an area before actually fishing it.

I went home feeling good that I made a wise investment that would come in handy when spending a couple hours fishing from the shores of some nearby lakes that do not allow boats.

I did need to really check it out though, so I took the boat out one morning and brought the RF-30 along for the ride. Once out on the lake I fired up my on-boat finder and dropped the RF-30 transducer off the back of the boat and compared the displays.

The displays were VERY similar. Almost exact except of course for size. The depth was dead on. I did notice, however a few times that my on-boat unit would show a few blips or specs of debris in the water, but the RF-30 would display it as a fish. This was eliminated a bit with the sensitivity. All in all, very impresssive results.

So the bottom line is that the RF-30 is a fabulous solution that is relatively inexpensive and can give the shoreline fisherman a big edge, and help out finding those deep holes and pockets of structure from the bank.

Pick one up today and wow your friends!

Happy hunting!

Don Panek