Despite the strong tidal surge at Berryhead, it was soon clear that we were only drifting very slowly, too slowly for my liking, but we were still passing over ground that was very broken up and patchy. Anthony, fishing at the back, had one eye on the echosounder so we were dependant on his warnings for our chosen tactics to work. In theory we had decided that we would try and fish our baits hard on the bottom for as long as possible. Then, whenever we came to reefs, we would reel up a few turns, drop back and repeat the procedure in the hope that we would encounter pollack. These were unlikely to be large - we were very close to the shore after all - but good sport on the very light rods we were using. Watching carefully, Anthony's voice signaled the changes - flat, flat, flat - reef, ten turns up, ten turns down - flat, flat, reef, drop to deeper water, very deep, shallowing...

And it worked. Despite very sudden changes in the terrain we were able to avoid most of the snags that would have otherwise cost us our tackle. In the event we only lost one set between the three of us. Of course, there is not much sense in having a fishfinder if you cannot use it to find fish so Anthony set the Fish ID on to track what was going on beneath the boat. Pretty soon we had fish signatures all over the place but, at depths ranging from six to forty feet feet, these were likely to be mackerel. We dropped down, just to be sure, and yes, sure enough there were mackerel. Over the course of the afternoon we had several mackerel, pollack and a solitary gurnard. We managed, despite the rough terrain, to lose only one set of tackle and this was due, without doubt, to the Eagle Cuda 128. Without it we would have lost a lot more tackle. When we turned round to go home, having been out on a forecast which promised lightening winds, we had no problems until we neared Berryhead. There we ran into conditions which were horrendous, slamming into waves that repeatedly flooded the boat. The Cuda was soaked time and time again but, despite this, functioned without any problems whatsoever. Even when the engine started to stutter it carried on working flawlessly.

Key Features: Compact case design with an adjustable tilt, quick-release mounting system Easy to connect/disconnect with uniplug cable connector Internal back-up memory for key sonar settings Completely sealed and waterproof, even for use in harsh saltwater environments Powered by 8 AA batteries Full one-year warranty Portable, high-performance skimmer transducer with suction-cup mounting bracket included. 4" (10.2 cm) diagonal screen display with high-definition 128 vertical pixel resolution Backlit screen 4-level grayscale Depth capability to 600 feet (183 m) High-performance, low-profile 200 kHz SkimmerŪ transducer with built-in temp delivers a wide fish detection area of up to 60° with high sensitivity settings - Operates at boat speeds up to 70 mph (61 kts)