Preparing the Fish finder to work effectively in winter

Like every other season, winter arrives every year, and it's unavoidable. As winter arrives, fishermen have to go through certain challenges. For winter they need to prepare themselves differently. As the summer heat is gone & the colder days arrive certain fish species tend to get more active before winter hits and makes the water freeze. For this very reason, Autumn is the best time to go fishing as most fishes are active during this time of the year. Also, you need to prepare your fishing equipment for the colder days. Apart from getting your boat prepared you also need to make your equipment ready and take out the sledge, Duratracs or Snowdog.

A fish finder is quite an expensive device and it's up to the user how he maintains it. No fisherman will want to damage such an expensive product. During the winter, the chilly temperature can cause damage to delicate screens and hardware. Therefore even if one has a low-budget device, it needs to be protected from the chilly weather. Every device is pricey and it should be protected through the right measures.

Through this article, we will share a few methods to protect your fish finder during the winter season. Though most fish finders come with a manual guide, often people lose the track of it. This article will be helpful for them.

Water Resistance

Note that most of the branded fish finders you get in the market are water resistant. The JPS & IPX protection for these fish finders might vary from each other.

While there are some fish finders that can survive a few splashes, some can even work in a submerged position for long hours. During the designing process, manufacturers take certain things into consideration like fog, drizzles, storms etc. The main issue is that such conditions often last a few hours or a few minutes. In other months, your electronic items are not exposed to harsh conditions for a long time, but in the winter the situation is different. While going fishing you will have to park the boat on a trailer & then leave your equipment exposed for a long time. Naturally, a loose cover will not protect the boat from harsh weather outside. Rainy or moist days are more challenging as moisture can harm your electronics badly.

Often fishermen come across an experience once in their life, when the fish finder takes longer time than usual to detect and process information due to harsh weather conditions. This can also happen during the fishing season and out of nowhere your device might stop working. Also if there is lower temperature and moisture in the air this can happen too.

Once or twice, the device can withstand such conditions, but if this happens on a regular basis, your device will get damaged. This is the very reason, why you should store your device safely and keeps it prepared for every weather condition out there.

What are the steps to follow to keep your device protected? 

It is not common that everyone owning a boat or kayak leaves them exposed in the winter season. Some conscious people even pay for a separate garage to keep their devices and equipment safe. This is one of the best ways to protect your device from harsh weather conditions. While some people know how to maintain devices in winter, some are ignorant about it. Here are some tips to protect your fish finder from harsh weather:

• Always keep your fish finder in off mode when you are not using it in the winter season. In fact, it's best if you keep everything that is removable like the batteries in the storage when you are not using it. You can also keep the trolling motors separately in the storage. Portable devices which come with protective cases should be taken off first & put in indoors or storage.
• People who are too lazy or don't have the time to remove individual items can have another solution. In that case, you can bring the protectors of these individual items and store them safely.
• Before putting them into protectors, you need to make sure that these items are free from any moisture. Clean the moisture or dirt if any with a clean soft cotton cloth and try to cover them with thermal insulation.
• Another thing to consider is protecting them from direct heat or sunlight. Snap-on covers are best for such protection.
• In case you have electronics which are not removable, you can consider installing a good dehumidifier. Through this technique, condensation can be controlled. It also prevents corrosion within. There is another alternative for a dehumidifier which is silica gels. You can get them in various sizes and these can be put into little spaces. The plus point is, that they are inexpensive.
• Well, moisture is unavoidable, but you can defiantly reduce the amount of moisture from your device. To do so, every time you turn on a device, make sure they are warmed up first and not directly used. If your device has moisture and you start using them that way then it will lead to condensation & your device won't work properly. Also, make sure that the batteries in it are fully charged and inspect every other thing in the device before switching it on.
  

Conclusion

While choosing good fishing equipment is quite a hard task, paying the money for such an expensive item is even harder. So even though you are not a professional fisherman, such expensive devices mean a lot to you. Any damage will not be bearable. These are a lifetime investment, making catching fish much easier for fishing enthusiasts.

While initially, it may look like it's a lot of work protecting your device for the winter days, in reality, you will be impressed with the results. Few small prevention methods can keep you worry-free in harsh weather conditions as well. You won't feel the frustration or worry about using faulty equipment during the pick months. To know more about the best fish finders, feel free to check our list.