This was another great find at ICAST and has a multiplicity of uses for the fisherman and boater. Best of all, it was invented right here in Washington and will be on shelves hopefully in time for the holiday season.
Basically the iBobber is a castable Bluetooth sounder and fishfinder that will sync with your smart phones and tablets. All you do is attach the sonar transducer which is roughly the same size and shape of a traditional fishing bobber to your fishing rig and cast it out from the boat, shore or pier. Upon contact with the water, the bobber activates and emits sonar readings to a depth of about 150ft/45m.The custom circuitry within the bobber receives the sonar and other data, filters it and then transmits that data to a paired smart device using Bluetooth v4.0 bluetooth low energy (BLE) up to 100ft/30m away.
Whether on the iOS or Android platform, the graphics of the iBobber user interface/dashboards are stunning. The app is designed to be user friendly, and chances are the instruction manual won’t be referenced much. With the iBobber boaters and anglers can find fish, map the sea floor, GPS tag a hot fishing spot, get the weather, phase of the moon, measure water temperature and salinity, log their catches, and then share it all with their friends and family. Plus for those boat-mounted transducers, the iBobber frees them from seeing only what’s under the boat.
Just imaging boating up in the Queen Charlottes and wondering if you can slip into one of those narrow, secluded inlets? Wonder no more, just power in as close as you dare and pitch the iBobber into the passage, or let it drift in with the current and get an instant readout of depth.
The iBobber only weighs 1.9oz/55gm, will last about seven hours and is USB rechargeable. Pretty cool and if you’re wondering what to get us for Christmas, you just found it.
For more information just got to www.reelsonar.com.
