The deeper brand of fish finders has a long and trusted history among anglers, novices, and professionals alike with their cutting-edge fish finders. The brand caters to the best in market features paired along with their devices.

The Deep Start Smart Fish Finder is an entry-level fish finder model offered in the Deeper series, their most affordable one yet, and is targeted towards the niche of entry-level anglers and shore fishing enthusiasts. 

Quick Overview

A fish finder is essentially a device that connects remotely to your mobile device and displays (either on the mobile phone screen or via an application for that particular product) sonic images of deep-sea creatures dwelling nearby. This gives you a visual depiction of the exact location of the fish.

The Deeper Start Smart Fish Finder is one of the latest fish finders that’s made its way onto every angler’s, professional, or otherwise, radar. The entry-level fish finder holds the capacity to locate fish within a 165 ft frequency and connects to your mobile device via the Deeper application.

But don’t be fooled by the entry-level tag, its lightweight, or its shockingly cheap price tag; it can hold its ground well against the competition and even the more upscale models offered in the series. The product is listed on Amazon, ( Link ) or can be purchased from Deepers (link ) website direct and some of its salient features are as follows:

Connection Type	WiFi
Casting Range	165 ft
Scanning depth	165 ft
Weight	65 grams
Operating Temperature	32F to 104F
Resolution	2 in

The device is solidly built yet is lightweight enough to not be a chore on your pocket to carry around. The integrated battery charges through the micro USB port on the body, for which the USB cable comes included in the package. Some features on the Deep Start Smart Fish Finder that has so far been exclusive to more expensive trackers include:

• An interactive display that shows icons and the depth for each fish, making it easier to pick up information at a glance.
• The real time water depth and label information, which is a godsend for any casual angler; more seasoned anglers might intuitively deduce where to find the fish but having this data handy can substantially up the odds of even a first-timer.

Trackers offered by Deeper have always been easy to use, and Start Smart is no exception to the norm, unlike the difficult to use, text-based interfaces of another brand that pride their inaccessibility by calling themselves enthusiast brands. This model is more straightforward than other models offered in the Deeper family, primarily due to its target demographic of close-range fishing.

How to Set Up Your Fish Finder

Setting up the device is as simple as it gets; charge it, connect it, and then use it.

Make sure the device is fully charged for an optimal experience. A full charge takes about two and a half hours, and the use of a USB port makes charging a breeze as you can use any charger you have laying around to charge the device.

A full charge can last up to six hours of continuous usage, which is excellent for the price point as you generally don’t need to use the device continuously when fishing out on the open waters. The tracker can be attached to the line using a barrel swivel, which is another plus point for the device as the lack of any propriety connectors makes it easier to manage.

The tracker detects when it’s placed in water and automatically turns itself on. Once it does, you can connect it with your phone, and you are on your way to fishing glory!

Pros in more detail

WiFi Connectivity

The Deep Start Smart Fish Finder works by connecting to your phone through WiFi; you don’t need the internet for the app to work, but WiFi allows the tracker to have a wider reach and a faster, more reliable connection to the alternatives like Bluetooth. The device acts as its own hotspot, allowing you to synchronize your data anytime, anywhere.

Once connected, simply cast the tracker within its prescribed range of 165 ft, and you’ll start to see the data stream to your device as soon as it hits the water. You can have fun reeling the device in and looking at all the data being updated in real-time as it moves over the water. The device also comes with a night fishing function, so your fishing trips don’t have to end with daylight.

The Deeper Mobile Phone Application

The companion app, which is available for download, is designed remarkably well; this app offers a sleek and modern design and includes displays for current and forecasted weather, allowing you to plan your trip without any rainy days.

Another neat thing about the app is the ability to document your catch and manage a log. Finally, the app allows you to mark the hotspots’ location, so your next trip involves less search for more catch.

The app also displays the lakebed outline, vegetation, and depth data that are picked up by the tracker and save all the scans with date and timestamps, which can be discovered in the history section. One last cool thing about the app is the ability to set up alarms for fish so that you can relax till any fish swarms by.

Easy to Use

The Deeper mobile phone application has amassed nearly 200 million downloads at this point. Its popularity among users is mostly in part over just how simple it is to use the application.

All you have to do is turn on the device, connect it with your phone via the device’s WiFi signal and place your phone conveniently enough to view dwellers underwater as you cast your line. 

The application is regularly updated every month, making the experience as up to date as it possibly can be. Anglers have commented on passing the fish finder onto beginners and novices as well to allow them to get into the beauty of fishing in the easiest yet most efficient way possible. 

Not to mention the long battery life of up to 5 hours on 2.5 hours charges.

Cons in more detail

Not everything is fine and dandy, though; some common issues are plaguing the device, which leaves a slightly sour taste at the end of the experience. For starters, the device seems to have a less than accurate readout for the bottom depth and reads it shallower than it is.

While it might not be a noticeable error for more experienced users, the device is being targeted towards entry-level and beginner demographics who might run into some problems.

The good news is that these inaccuracies are sporadic, and don’t ruin the overall experience by much, though not having them altogether would still be a better thing.

Another noticeable problem with the device is of a lag in data transmission. The range of the device is also handicapped sometimes, and while they perform relatively consistent for the better part, the issues are compounded by the irregular reluctance of the device to connect to a smartphone; it can take as much as five minutes to connect sometimes, rendering the tracker inoperable in the meantime. 

The Deeper Team seems to place great value to make the customer experience the best in the section. However, there have been a few complaints about the resolution of glitches in the companion app, especially for iOS.

As it is impossible to use the tracker without a functioning app, it remains one of the most essential features of the device and requires additional support to be focused on this area. Overall, however, the consensus seems to be that they do try to keep customers informed and happy and maintain the right customer service presence. 

You should also check out our reviews of the Deeper Pro+ and the Deeper Chirp fish finder. These offer more advanced features but obviously cost a little more.

In Conclusion

We hope that you enjoyed this extensive review of the Deeper Start Smart Fish Finder and found it helpful.

Many of you reading this are definitely fishing enthusiasts and will go to extreme lengths and do admittedly crazy stuff just to catch more fish, and while many tools and techniques are a complete waste of time and can be discounted as gimmicks, there are always a few that make the whole experience even more fun.

We believe that it is evident from this enhanced analysis that The Deeper Start Smart Fish Finder falls is a decent and often reliable piece of technology that is marred by few, occasional hiccups. And while they certainly don’t deter one from the device’s impressiveness, they definitely do make it worth a thought before the buy.