Get the most out
of your electronics
Serious salt water
anglers are always seeking an edge when it comes
to catching fish, and modern marine electronics
have certainly made it easier for us to at least
find them.
There are countless
features offered by modern radars, fish finders,
GPS and electronic chart systems. So much so,
I'm astounded by how much navigation and
fish-finding technology can be incorporated into
today's small- and mid-size boats. Reaching
far-away destinations has never been so precise or
safe, and it's certainly not as easy for game fish
to sneak under the radar, so to speak.
Despite the full
capabilities of my electronics package on my
28-foot center console, I rely immensely on four
basic features when I head to sea. I've learned to
really fine-tune and read these features, and I'm
able to consistently locate fish and even save
fuel in the process. Listed below are the four
items I can't fish without, plus a look at how I
dial them in to find action aboard the MARC VI.
Radar
Radar is first and foremost a major safety
addition, and I've relied on mine numerous times
while running at night and to navigate safely
around and through bad summer thunderstorms.
However, even on
those bright, bluebird days, if I'm offshore
trolling, my radar is on and helping me look for
birds. Once a luxury on big sport-fishing boats,
powerful radars and fairly large open-array
antennas are now common on small- and mid-size
boats. I have a 4 kW unit with a 5-foot open-array
antenna (1.7-degree horizontal beam width and
25-degree vertical beam width). Keep in mind that
open-array antennas — compared to closed, dome
systems — are more conducive to bird spotting.
Plotters
I love it when a South Florida dolphin angler
tells me how he trolled south nearly all day,
covered a ton of ground and didn't do well. Off
South Florida, for instance, many anglers troll in
a southerly fashion to keep the northbound Gulf
Stream from sweeping them far above their home
inlet, creating a long run home. However, if a
boat trolls around 5 or 6 knots directly or nearly
directly into the Gulf Stream, which flows between
2 and 5 knots on average, they're not covering a
lot of ground, like they suspected — just water!
This is somewhat similar to the Loop Current in
the Gulf and the mid-Atlantic and Northeast
eddies.
When I'm on the
troll, I activate my plotter and its track
feature, which shows the boat's precise position
on a bottom chart and its path. This way, I know
just how much ground I'm actually covering and my
exact whereabouts when working along a contour
line, major structure, hump, depression or ledge.
In addition, when a significant
surface-temperature break is noted or we get a
strike or catch a quality fish, I'll mark that
spot and spend time working the vicinity.
As for covering
both ground and water in a strong current, such as
the Gulf Stream, I often troll a broad, zigzag,
shallow-to-deep pattern rather than moving
directly into or with the current.
Also, when bottom
fishing, we can quickly determine if there's a
current by zooming in on the plotter and watching
for movement. If there's no current, it saves us
the chore of dropping the anchor.
Zoom
Feature
When bottom fishing in particular, I'll split the
screen on my fish finder: One side shows the full
depth range, the other just the last 20 feet of
the water column.
This zoom feature
expands the view of the bottom, providing a clear,
concise image of the structure as well as any bait
or game-fish concentrations. If the bottom appears
devoid of life despite how good the structure
might appear, I'll move either deeper or shallower
along that reef or to another reef. Over wrecks,
we'll have a sharp view of the structure as well
as the sections holding bait and game fish.
The full-view side
of the screen will uncover any bait or pelagics in
the mid to upper water column, equally important
when trolling or drifting along the reefs and over
deep, offshore structure. Furthermore, you can
detect the thermocline, an important consideration
when drifting baits for swordfish, sharks and even
tuna.
Electronic
Charts
Offshore anglers are a structure-oriented bunch.
We're always searching for "suspended"
structure, which includes weed lines, floating
debris, rips, significant water-surface
temperature breaks and prominent bottom structure,
such as deep depth contours, dramatic drop-offs,
seamounts and wrecks.
While
"suspended" structure requires our eyes
to identify, there are premium versions of
electronic charts which explicitly show in great
detail the bottom make-up of a specific area or
region. This includes highly detailed contour
lines as well as major structure and even some
wrecks.
These charts take the guesswork out of locating
potentially productive zones to fish and are
extremely helpful when visiting destinations where
you don't have a lot of local knowledge.
If I'm heading out
to troll offshore, for example, I'll study the
chart to see where specific deep-fathom curves run
closest together. I'll then place the cursor on
that spot, cruise to the area and begin trolling.
These tight contour lines reveal a quickly
descending bottom as opposed to a gradual bottom
decline (shown by contour lines that are farther
apart from each other). Should a strong current
wash over these zones, upwellings and
concentrations of bait could yield good fishing.
In time, you will
actually have a "circuit" of bottom
structure that you can systematically target based
on tide, current and conditions.
And when you're at
these spots, don't forget to activate your
plotter's track feature, study that fish finder
and keep an eye on the radar for birds. Locating
fish certainly doesn't get any easier!
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