Garmin has debuted two new series of multifunction displays—GPSMap Plus (pictured) and EchoMap UHD. The Plus series brings increased engine-integration and OneHelm third-party-integration capabilities to 7- and 9-inch displays. The new series allows anglers to monitor their outboards as well as critical onboard systems on one screen. The UHD series is a new line of midsize (7- and 9-inch) keyed and touchscreen-with-keyed-assist combos that come with built-in support for Garmin’s Ultra High-Definition scanning sonar and Panoptix LiveScope. Both series are available with preloaded BlueChart g3 cartography. UHDs cost $499.99 to $1,149.99, and Plus units cost $899.99 to $2,899.99.

The post Garmin GPSMap Plus/EchoMap UHD appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

When I fish from my Hobie kayak, I’ve noticed that everything slows down. Not only is my speed diminished due to lack of outboard propulsion, but my expectations slow too.

I find more time to experiment with my electronics, and I’ve uncovered several key features in my multifunction display that have helped me better understand and learn about the marsh zones I fish.

Because of that revelation, I asked electronics-makers and pros, who use their MFDs daily, to describe some of the tricks that all inshore anglers can explore to improve situational awareness and fishing success.

Chart Art

“The cartography is exponentially better now than anything we’ve had even two years ago,” says David Dunn, Garmin director of sales and marketing. “We’re also starting to see a gain in momentum for QuickDraw Contours. Every manufacturer has some form of that. I think fishermen should use that more often.”

QuickDraw Contours software and similar sonar-charting products such as Navionics Sonar-Chart Live, C-Map Genesis and Humminbird AutoChart use your boat’s transducer to update chart contours—in 1-foot increments—on a real-time basis. So, if a storm shifts the sand near your inlet, you can turn on sonar charting and see the new patterns. Regions rarely updated on official charts can be updated any given day.

On a Garmin unit, you start recording sonar with this feature through the chart page menu, choosing Layers and QuickDraw Contours. You can turn off the overlaid contours when you choose.

Dunn also recommends using depth-range shading. If you’re nearshore and looking for even a slight break in depth, you can set the chart to display one color for depths of 5 to 6 feet, for instance, and another color for depths of 6 to 7 feet.

Companies such as Standard Mapping have developed specialty charts that work with many of today’s displays. “Standard Mapping offers a map package that is 90 percent satellite photos that they have gone through to show off the shallow areas,” says Jim McGowan, marketing manager for Raymarine/FLIR.

Satellite photos really help in areas with less-than-optimal water clarity. They can identify drop-offs and points that hold fish. Be sure to set your display to show aerial photos over land and sea rather than just land. Leave at least a little transparency in the photo layer so that you can see the depths on the chart beneath, McGowan suggests.

He also advises anglers to turn on tracks each day, which will record your boat’s path on the charts. Assign a different color to each day’s track and drop waypoints when you hook up to give you a real plan for success. Know too that every waypoint is electronically stamped with depth, time and date. When turning on tracks, set up the feature to drop an electronic bread crumb every two -seconds for better continuity.

Tom Rowland, a Florida Keys captain and TV co-host of “Saltwater Experience,” uses Florida Marine Tracks as the primary inshore charting software on his Yellowfin bay boat’s Lowrance HDS Live unit. “It comes with tracks for high water or low water, and then the aerial photos on that chip are better than anything else,” he says. “You can see every little dip in the flat, see sand holes, everything.”

Sonar Tips

Rowland also relies on his StructureScan side-imaging sonar to scout for tarpon while he’s idling at bridges and deep channels.

“You can clearly see the fork of the tail and the shape of the fish,” he says. “The other thing we’ll do is anchor in a channel for tarpon. That has been the best for me in terms of when I’m not seeing any fish rolling and thinking of leaving. Then, I see them swimming next to us on the sonar, and that makes me stick around till the bite turns on.”

In circumstances when you don’t need to see the water column on both sides of the boat, Raymarine’s McGowan suggests selecting an option on your display to show only the left side or the right side. “It makes the presentation bigger. You get more pixels in the display, so it’s better resolution,” he says. “When you’re trying to see greater distances, the targets will look bigger.”

Even in just a few feet of water, Raymarine SideVision can look out 50 to 70 feet, he adds.

When setting a range for SideVision, McGowan eyes the distance to the shoreline or structure, then sets the range so that he sees the edge of the structure. Raymarine’s new Element series of MFDs also offers HyperVision, a higher-frequency imaging sonar that offers even greater detail, though at shorter distances.

Capt. Eric Davis (vero​backcountryfishing.com), who runs a Pathfinder 2500 Hybrid out of Vero Beach, Florida, uses the LiveScope real-time sonar on his Garmin GPSMap 8612xsv to see bait schools ahead of his boat when scouting in channels, inlets, off the beach or offshore. “It’s an absolute game changer,” he says. “It mostly applies in the mid-range depths of 20 feet or more.

“I’ve literally moved up to a school of bait, looked at the screen, and said ‘Get ready, we’re going to get hit.’”

He mounted his LiveScope transducer on the transom rather than on his trolling motor because he often uses the sonar when he’s moving at up to 8 mph. He also peers under docks and at different structure, setting LiveScope to look forward on the auto setting.

Read Next: Choose the Right Electronics for Inshore Fishing

“With LiveScope, you see what’s going on now, live,” Dunn says, adding that the most helpful feature of LiveScope that he has seen is echo trails. “Even if you don’t see the fish on the screen, with echo trails on, you can see that something did just swim through.”

Regardless of the brand of electronics you use, the best rule of thumb—inshore and offshore—is: experiment.

Don’t stick with the status quo. You want more fish? Use the incredible electronic tools and information right at your fingertips.

The post Electronics Tips and Shortcuts for Inshore Anglers appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Offshore anglers commonly use oceanographic data, such as plankton concentrations and ocean altimetry, to help them find fish. Over the past 30 years, a variety of companies—such as ROFFS, Terrafin SST-View and Hilton’s Realtime Navigator—has delivered these services as well as forecasts and analyses. Early data first came by fax, and later online and via apps, such as Mazu SportFishing.

This past summer, SiriusXM announced that it now can feed eight specific data features, in addition to weather, directly to select onboard Garmin electronics displays, using a new Garmin satellite antenna—at distances up to 150 miles offshore, well out of cellular range. They call the new service Fish Mapping.

“Knowing that anglers were actively using our service for temperature breaks and weather, we felt there was so much more that we could offer,” says Geoff Leech, SiriusXM director of marine partnerships. “There are a lot of great services out there, and each has its niche. Our reports are less custom. They span the SiriusXM coverage area, so you can get a report right at the boat anytime.”

First to Market

SiriusXM has worked with all the major electronics manufacturers to deliver its weather service, but Garmin jumped at the chance to partner first on the Fish Mapping project. “We’ve been working with SiriusXM for a long time now” on weather antennas says David Dunn, Garmin director of sales and marketing. “They’ve really figured out a way to put some science behind all this data. Satellites are becoming capable of doing so much more.”

Leech says SiriusXM has continually looked for ways to innovate and evolve, and its research led to Maxar Technologies, a satellite company that provides imagery for Google maps. He says Maxar’s oceanographers also work with commercial fisheries and government agencies around the world.

“When Fish Mapping first came out, I was leery about it,” says Greg Montgomery, owner of We R Marine Electronics in Forked River, New Jersey. “I recently took a boat to Florida from New Jersey. We were able to fish two of five days, and then fish once we got down there. When I came out of the first inlet, I used Fish Mapping to get an area for wahoo. We did catch a wahoo. I was kind of amazed.”

Montgomery says he knows lightning can strike more than once, so he used the service again to target mahi, “and right where they said it should be producing, it happened again.”

He used a feature called Fishing Recommendations, which shows areas Maxar has recommended for finding specific types of gamefish. SiriusXM focuses on six species right now—bluefin tuna, blue marlin, mahi, swordfish, wahoo and yellowfin tuna—with more to come soon.

Where and When

In addition to Fishing Recommendations, which is updated twice a week, the new service provides these seven features:

Weed Lines: NASA satellites show reflectivity in the water, allowing scientists to draw contours around weed lines. You can view a loop of the past three days. (Updates happen every 24 hours.) Cloud cover can obscure imagery.

Sea Surface Height Anomaly: Sea-level changes based on conditions. The service shows height information in inches, updated every 24 hours. For instance, 1.96 means a downwelling, where fish activity would diminish. The number 19.68 (inches) would indicate an upwelling, which brings nutrients up to the surface, attracting bait and gamefish.

Sea Surface Temperature Contours: Shows temperature breaks with contour lines (updated every three hours). “These contours are out of this world,” Montgomery says. “One thing I’ve loved about [SiriusXM’s SST overlay] is that I can adjust to a certain temperature break. I can go into the unit and say I only want to see a break between 66 and 67 degrees.”

Sea-Surface-Temperature Front Strength: Using numbers from 1 to 4, with 1 being weakest and 4 being strongest, Fish Mapping identifies areas with the greatest temperature changes. (Updated every 24 hours.)

30-meter Subsurface-Sea Temperatures: Knowing the water temperature 90 feet below the surface can tell you the likely location of thermoclines. (Updated every 24 hours.)

Plankton Concentration Contours: Fish Mapping shows plankton accumulations in milligrams per cubic meter. Plankton produces chlorophyll. Lines change in shading to distinguish high and low concentrations. (Updated every 24 hours.)

Plankton Front Strength: This feature shows areas of greatest change, based on a scale of 1 to 4, where you might also see a color change and water-clarity differences. (Updated every 24 hours.)

These features can overlay atop each other, and they are overlaid themselves onto standard Garmin charts. Anglers can choose to display waypoints and navaids on the Fish Mapping screens. However, for now, they won’t see their usual bottom contours or SiriusXM’s other weather features.

Read Next: Garmin and SiriusXM Introduce Fish Mapping

SiriusXM recommends splitting the screen to display a traditional chart view side by side with Fish Mapping.

“While there is concern that adding bottom contours to the Fish Mapping features screens would clutter the screen even further, Garmin is considering an option to allow users to turn this feature on and off with future software updates,” Leech says.

Learning Curve

Only owners of newer Garmin GPSMap displays and Garmin GXM 54 antennas can use Fish Mapping now. Leech says SiriusXM is working with other electronics manufacturers to incorporate the service, but he could not provide rollout dates.

Garmin and SiriusXM have extended rebates and special pricing, such as a $100 rebate on the antenna and a month’s free trial of the service—check their websites for current offers. Full retail pricing for the GXM 54 antenna is $799. Fish Mapping costs $25 to activate and $99.99 per month (full weather service included); subscriptions can be suspended during off seasons.

SiriusXM has posted explanatory videos at siriusxm.com/fishmapping. The company also offers free webinars; recorded episodes can be found at siriusxm.com/marinelibrary or on the SiriusXM Marine YouTube page.

SiriusXM also wants to hear from anglers using the service. Email fish​.mapping@siriusxm.com.

The post SiriusXM Fish Mapping Service Delivers Key Fishing Data Directly to Your Chart Plotter appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Recently, I wrote about ­specialty charts, such as the high-res bathymetric products from CMOR Mapping. I had no idea that mere months later that specialty content would become mainstream. Garmin, Navionics and C-Map have all debuted what they call, respectively, Relief Shading, SonarChart Shading and Reveal.

These charts show ­remarkable details in reefs, wrecks and other bottom structure offshore, and in a few nearshore zones. And while the regions covered remain select—mainly limited to areas of fairly dramatic relief—they can truly change a captain’s perspective, and open up previously unknown fish-holding features.

Federal Surveys
“Primarily the data [for all high-res ­bathymetry content] is taken from ­official NOAA multibeam ­sonar surveys,” says Paul Wilson, customer relations and product specialist for C-Map, which is owned by Navico, makers of Simrad and Lowrance electronics. “It’s published and free. We combine it with our own data we’ve collected and with other official surveys.”

C-Map Reveal uses shades of red, green and blue to create the look of 3D relief. Resolution varies from area to area: In some locations, it’s 1-meter resolution. “Off Miami, you can see the clusters of coral,” Wilson says. Other areas might be less clear, where there’s 10-meter resolution. Reveal is compatible with recent Lowrance and Simrad plotters.

Garmin uses the same NOAA multibeam surveys as well as its own collected data plus content from electronic chart-maker Navionics, which Garmin purchased in 2017. Until this month, Garmin’s Relief Shading, available on g3 Vision chart cards (compatible with most Garmin plotters), focused only on areas where the data could provide 1-meter resolution. As of this month, Garmin will offer Relief Shading throughout select areas of the U.S. coast, using source data that’s clear and discernible down to 1-centimeter resolution.

“What separates Garmin from its competitors is our ability to blend High Resolution Relief Shading with Fishing Layer contours generated from Navionics detail,” says David Dunn, Garmin director of sales and marketing. “This gives fishermen an advantage unmatched by competition and available at a reasonable price point ($349 to $499 per full-featured chart card). The expansion in coverage will be available through New Chart Guarantee to ­eligible existing customers, pre-loaded on new cards, and available through the Active Captain app and the Garmin Update program.”

Navionics combines the NOAA surveys with its own data as well as crowdsourced community data to provide SonarChart Shading for Platinum+ Marine chart cards. Navionics is compatible with Raymarine, Simrad, Lowrance and Humminbird units.

Big Reveal
C-Map Reveal charts cost $299 and contain full MAX-N+ vector navigation data, including satellite imagery, an Insight Genesis community layer, as well as detailed marina and port plans. East Coast regions include:

• New Orleans, Louisiana, to Brownsville, Texas;
• St. Lucie Inlet (Stuart, Florida) to New Orleans;
• Florida and the Bahamas;
• Gulf of Maine, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Long Island, New York;
• Long Island to Norfolk, Virginia (out to the canyons);
• Norfolk to Jacksonville, Florida.

West Coast regions include:

• Cape Flattery, Washington, to Cape Blanco, Oregon;
• Cape Blanco to Point Sur, California;
• Santa Cruz, California, to San Diego.

Within all of these zones, coverage can be intermittent. “In the Florida Keys, the coverage is inshore, along the islands, and there are some spots like the Islamorada Hump,” Wilson says. “In the Vineyard area, the sound has some spots; Block Island and the Race are pretty good. It’s primarily where the biggest relief is.”

Extra Relief
Garmin’s g3 Vision charts range in price from $349.99 to $499.99 and include integrated Garmin and Navionics vector (and downloadable NOAA ­raster) charts plus Relief Shading, Auto Guidance, satellite imagery, aerial ­photography, 3D views, and more. Regions in the United States with the new, more-detailed shading include:

• Pacific Coast (Vancouver, British Columbia, to San Diego);
• four zones along the Gulf coastal states;
• four zones along the East Coast;
• smaller subzones in the Southeast and Northeast;
• seven Alaska zones.

Other g3 Vision charts with the initial Relief Shading release cover regions of the Bahamas, Bermuda and Canada.

Navionics Platinum+ users who have an active subscription to daily updates can download SonarChart Shading through the chart installer. Shading is available on all new Platinum+ Marine cards, which cost $199 (small-area ­coverage) or $399 (large-area coverage). A one-year daily-update subscription is included with the purchase of a new card; subscriptions can be renewed at a discounted rate from the purchase price.

SonarChart Shading coverage ­regions for small-area charts include:

• Gulf of Mexico;
• Chesapeake Bay;
• Florida and northern Bahamas;
• South Carolina to northern Florida;
• California and Oregon;
• Southern California, Baja and Hawaii;
• North Carolina;
• Maine;
• Boston to New York.

For large-area charts, regions include:

• Southeast Florida/northern Bahamas;
• U.S. Northeast and canyons;
• U.S. mid-Atlantic and canyons;
• Gulf of Mexico;
• Caribbean and Bermuda;
• West Coast/Hawaii;
• Mexico/Central America;
• South Alaska;
• Northwest Alaska.

Update Options
Since all companies source NOAA for its multibeam sonar data, I asked NOAA officials what other areas they intend to survey and how often they will update their charts. “Some places are surveyed more frequently than others, but many just the once with modern tech, and there are no immediate plans for a refresh,” says Jerry Slaff, NOAA public affairs specialist.

Read Next: Alternative Charts Can Add Navigation and Contour Data

Plans include new surveys of additional reef tracts and coastal waters throughout the country. But federal budgetary issues can make planning difficult. “Every year is tentative until we get appropriations and any other influencing factors, like hurricanes or other emerging priorities that cause plans to change. So these plans are not written in stone,” he says.

The post High-Resolution Shaded-Relief Contours Improve Charts for Anglers appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Simrad has introduced what it calls the most intuitive chart plotter on the market — the Cruise. Controlled with a rotary dial and keypad, the unit provides all the vital information for navigating, using pre-loaded U.S. coastal charts; other options include upgrades from C-MAP and Navionics. The non-networking unit also comes with an included transducer and integral chirp sonar. Available in 5-, 7- and 9-inch display sizes, Cruise units start at $399.

The post Simrad Cruise MFD appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

When I first heard the term “multifunction display” a good many years ago, I easily surmised the meaning: This is an electronics display that can show me sonar and radar returns and charts. I get it. Today, the meaning of “multifunction” has undergone massive magnification. MFDs still show charts and pull in sonar and radar, but they also offer captains everything from AIS and augmented reality to systems monitoring and engine data. These mega-machines are easier than ever to learn and program, and they’re faster than a freshly hooked wahoo.

Of course, not everyone easily embraces all this technology. “It kind of goes back to the analogy that MFDs are really similar to laptop computers. Their capabilities are virtually endless, but we use only a fraction of those capabilities,” says Jeff Kauzlaric, advertising and communications manager for Furuno, which introduced its first MFD in 1999. “Some people buy a souped-up laptop and run only Microsoft Office on it. In the same way, many people buy MFDs and use them only for a chart plotter and fish finder.”

Thankfully, manufacturers build products for those who prefer the basics. But anglers who choose to invest time and energy into unveiling the full functionality of their MFDs can find amazing tools to improve their fishing.

To gain more perspective on what makes MFDs so cool, I asked eight industry-sponsored captains and pros, who spend countless hours on the water with their electronics, to share what sparks their MFD love.

Simrad
Capt. Mark Henderson, tournament captain and charter-business owner out of Cape Carteret, North Carolina, runs a Sea Vee 390Z with two NSS evo3 16s, a 12-inch evo3 in the upper station, and a GO7.

Henderson uses his smaller GO7 unit to display engine data, positioning it in the center of the helm. He creates and saves a variety of split-screen scenarios on his 16s so he can switch functions depending on how he’s fishing or where he’s running.

He particularly appreciates the ease of switching palettes and brightness, whether he’s running during twilight or full sun. “With one little button touch, you can slide the brightness to dim the screen wherever you want it,” he says. “The brightness and the glare can be dangerous when you’re running at night, so the ability to control that is very important.”

Henderson says his son has become an expert in using the phantom Loran function on Simrad MFDs. “A lot of old-school guys talk in Loran TDs. There are great numbers out there that don’t need to be lost,” he says, describing the popular pre-GPS navigation technology. “The more you learn about converting those numbers, you’ll get more accurate. That’s a feature that really and truly is not utilized a lot.”

Capt. Robert Trosset III runs dive and spearfishing charters and recreationally fishes out of Key West, Florida, using two Freeman 34s, each with two NSS evo3 16s.

For Trosset, the high-­definition returns provided by the S5100 chirp sonar module and his evo3 displays help him really pinpoint what he’s seeing. “I can differentiate snapper from amberjack [on-screen]. I can really tell now,” he says.

That definition, coupled with the bright clarity of the evo3’s IPS — or in-plane switching — screen ­technology, gives him exactly what he needs, whether he’s fishing or preparing to drop divers. IPS screens allow anglers to view their display from any angle, even through polarized sunglasses.

“IPS doesn’t get darker. It stays bright,” explains Stuart Wood, key account manager for Navico, Simrad’s parent company. “You know that annoying habit — when you’re in the cockpit, and you have to lift your sunglasses to look back at the fish finder on the dash? With IPS, you never have to do that.”

Trosset also appreciates that he can connect as many as three chirp transducers into his S5100 module; the evo3 display accommodates two. He can overlay DownScan imaging, now available with Active Imaging for super-high-detailed returns, on top of his plotter screen as well. “I like to call it ‘the interconnected boat,’” he says. “It all talks to each other.”

Garmin
Bill Platt, tournament captain and owner of Custom Marine Electronics near Galveston, Texas, runs a SeaHunter Tournament 39 with three GPSMap 7612s. He plans to switch out those for 8616s this spring.

Platt, who admits to age-related presbyopia (loss of near-focus), says a new Garmin software update for its MFDs has him most enthused: “The icons and waypoints can now be resized up or down on the screen. That’s the best thing in the world for me!”

Because Platt installs electronics on clients’ boats, he also appreciates the ActiveCaptain integration. Garmin introduced ActiveCaptain, a free all-in-one mobile app, in 2017 to give anglers access to the company’s cartography, automatic delivery of the latest available software, off-vessel planning capabilities, connected services and more. Thanks to the app, Platt can instruct clients how to update their MFD software using a smartphone and an AC account.

This avid tournament captain also saves his sounder settings by species or fishing style. When he heads out to bottomfish, for instance, he can launch his snapper sonar settings. If he targets swordfish in deep water, he can recall those settings instantly.

The 8616s will give him control over his Shadow-Caster undergunwale and underwater lighting. Garmin’s new BlueChart g3/Vision chart cards can show him high-definition contour lines and shaded-relief depth contours, which offer a clearer, more-defined picture of bottom structure.

“Everything you want to do, you can now do it from your Garmin,” he says. “It’s gotten so easy and cool. What’s it going to be like in 10 years?”

Capt. Ryan Farner, a professional private captain out of St. Petersburg, Florida, runs a Yellowfin 26 of his own with three Garmin 8600-series units, but he pilots numerous boats for clients, and all those vessels are equipped with updated Garmins.

Farner says, “The fact that I can tie everything in,” ranks highest on his list of MFD loves. Garmin 8600s can show a six-way split screen. “If I have five windows open, I can toggle back and forth. If I touch one box, I can expand it and then go back. I never lose my place.”

When he’s running a boat to escape a big storm, for instance, he might open radar in one window and AIS with a weather overlay in another. “When you’re running fast in a 40-foot center-console through inclement weather, you’ve got to pay attention to what you’re doing and change things on the fly,” he adds. “Garmin makes [the user interface] smart.”

When using chirp sonar, he rarely has to tweak settings. “The auto high and auto medium settings are really, really good. I like the auto settings on the radar side too. I don’t have to sit there spending time tweaking my machine so I can find birds. It really gives you a boost of confidence.”

On a larger Viking sport-fisher he runs, Farner says he routes satellite TV through the Garmins on the bridge.

Raymarine
Dave Phillips runs industry trips for brand promotion through his business Teton Offshore Fishing out of Garibaldi, Oregon. He also fishes tuna commercially during summer. He runs a 28-foot Grady-White with two Axiom Pro 12s.

Phillips’ MFDs employ three transducers for RealVision 3D and low-high-wide chirp sonar. “I can run multiple channels of both 3D and low-band or high-band chirp at the same time. That’s probably No. 1 with me,” he says. “In the Pacific Northwest, we have plankton-rich waters that come off the shelf. I don’t know what kind of picture I’m going to get, so I run all three channels at once.”

Because he often fishes 30 to 40 miles offshore, he sometimes runs home in the dark. On those evenings, he runs his FLIR M232 thermal camera with ClearCruise (augmented reality) on one display. On the second, he launches his plotter with overlaid radar and splits that screen to check the tide. “I’ve got to make sure I’m not crossing the bar too early or late,” Phillips says, noting Oregon’s dramatic inlet tide changes. “Five years ago, I would have looked at the phone for a tide chart.”

Phillips says he has also noticed a dramatic increase in processing speed during the past five years, combined with the ability to churn more data. In the end, “it’s all about safety. Because we’ve integrated all this data, we can be safer on the water.”

Ron Mitchell, tournament captain, runs a SeaHunter Tournament 39 with two gS165 glass displays and a gS95.

“I’ve been with Raymarine since it was Raytheon,” Mitchell remembers. “For me, it’s the ease of use that’s No. 1, and the second thing is target definition.”

Raymarine says it has put extra effort into its LightHouse software interface. “When we went from LightHouse 2 to 3, we went to great efforts to learn what features people were using most and brought those to the top,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine marketing director. “We also wanted to prevent users from having to go deep into a multitier menu to find settings. Most things are only one touch away; the rest are only two touches.”

Raymarine’s Live View menus allow captains to still see the live application during adjustments. “As you make menu selections, they happen right there on the preview window,” McGowan adds. “You never have to exit the menu to see the results of your selections.”

Mitchell says he uses his smaller gS unit mainly to monitor engine data, unless he’s running at night, when he’ll use it to see his plotter, with FLIR thermal imaging on another screen and radar on the third.

While his displays can split their picture into four windows each, he often uses his two 16-inch units for one massive window each for charting and sonar.

Furuno
Michael Padgett, owner of Best Marine Products in Miami, builds sea chests and high-speed pickups for livewells. He runs a Sea Vee 34Z with two NavNet TZtouch2 15s.

What tops his list of best MFD features? Edge-swipe capability. Place your finger at the left or right side or at the top or bottom of the display screen, and pull across, down or up to reveal various menus.

“Edge swiping enables you to get into so many functions easier and more intuitively than many other machines,” Padgett says. “Now it’s like using a big iPad.”

Padgett also likes the fact that he can open as many as three windows on each display screen, depending upon how he’s fishing. “A lot of times, I’m drifting out front and live-baiting. Usually, I have a map up to see where I’m at, see where the drift is going, and track the speed of the drift,” he says. “On the other screen, most likely I’m showing my bottom machine with 3D [DFF3D] and chirp simultaneously. That gives me a real-time rendering of what’s going on with the relationship of the boat and the bottom. It looks like a computer simulation.”

When he’s trolling, he brings up the chart and overlays Sirius XM weather to look at sea-surface temperature breaks. He’ll also bring up chirp sonar and radar so he can keep an eye out for bait and birds.

Matt Rowland, tournament captain from Ilwaco, Washington, runs a Sea Vee 390 with two NavNet 3D 12s but is upgrading to TZtouch2 15s.

Rowland looks forward to his new TZtouch2 systems for several reasons. First, he says, is ease of use. “There’s no learning curve because it’s so easy. It’s just the way everything processes,” he says.

He’ll also be glad to see engine functions through the MFD rather than having to scroll through pages on a smaller gauge. He plans to add a C-Zone digital-switching system for monitoring all his boat’s pumps, lights and alarms through his MFDs.

Read Next: Top Electronics Technology for Your Midsize to Large Center Console

With the free NavCenter Weather option on TZt2, he can create a hot spot using his cellphone, and bring up current wind speed and direction, which he can compare with Sirius XM weather.

And finally, he’ll be installing Furuno’s DFF3D 3D multibeam sonar module. “I think that’s going to be a game-changer for us,” he says. “Being able to see side to side and front to back will be pretty huge for us. With a lot of our fishing now, we troll to find the fish, then shut down the boat and switch to live bait or vertical jigging.”

New Era
While all of these pros run large offshore-fishing vessels, the technology doesn’t stop at the tide line. Smaller units for bay boats provide just as much processing speed and capability, although they usually don’t need to network as many peripherals.

If you haven’t upgraded your ­electronics in the past decade, perhaps it’s time to experience some new ­technology, even if you’re a one-screen wonder. Maybe you’ll feel some of that MFD love too.

The post What Pros Love About Their Multifunction Displays appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

FLIR Systems has introduced an industry first with Raymarine’s ClearCruise AR, which stands for augmented reality. This new navigation technology delivers enhanced on-water awareness to the company’s Axiom multi­function displays. The system overlays navigational information onto stabilized video from a CAM210 HD marine camera. Nav markers, AIS traffic, objects and waypoints appear in text blocks over the moving video. The camera costs $699.99 and is generally mounted facing forward on a hardtop or T-top, though additional cameras can be added; the AR200 stabilization module costs $499.99.

The post FLIR ClearCruise AR appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Although I’ve been an ­electronics writer for 10 years, I have no magic power to predict the perfect helm setup for a new boat. The process of dialing in a new electronics package involves a lot questions about the boat, about fishing style and about budget.

But when a friend recently asked me to suggest options for his new 25-foot bay boat, and then he noted he’d be adding a second station, I hesitated. What exactly did I know about adding electronics to a supplemental helm — whether for a bay boat or small center-console?

Would he need a second fully outfitted multifunction display up top? Or could he opt instead for a less-­expensive plotter connected by Ethernet to the helm unit? Would a black-box sonar module be a more cost-effective solution? What about a repeater/controller app and an iPad with a waterproof case? Is there a wireless solution?

I reached out to several of my industry sources and discovered that my friend’s situation has become a lot more common, and that wireless connectivity is truly on its way.

Making Connections
“The trend to bigger bay boats has been accompanied by a trend to second stations,” says Charlie Johnson, marketing director for Maverick Boat Company, makers of Pathfinder bay boats. “Not only are the bigger bay boats better able to support and balance the added weight up high, in addition, they’re being used in more beach-style fishing situations, where the added elevation of a second station gives you a real advantage in seeing schools of fish swimming on or near the surface.”

Pathfinder Boats began installing second-station units at its factory four years ago; prior to that, the towers were all aftermarket add-ons. Among 25- and 26-foot models, 40 percent leave the factory with an elevated helm.

My friend had ordered a compact crow’s-nest-style tower, designed so the helmsman stands on top of the center console. He would have room for a 9-inch display, and was leaning toward Garmins.

If it were my boat, I’d use a single big screen at the helm and a smaller screen at the second station,” says David Dunn, director of sales and marketing for Garmin. “The helm unit shares waypoints, sonar … anything you could see on the lower display you could see on the upper. They’re both MFDs. Both are masters.”

Both units don’t have to come with sonar. The helm unit can be a sonar/plotter combination unit attached to an appropriate transducer. The upper unit could be a less-expensive nonsonar chart plotter; it will display the sonar from the helm unit.

The primary caveat is that upstairs/downstairs units must be networkable. Lower-cost MFDs such as Garmin’s Striker, Raymarine’s Dragonfly, Simrad’s GO and Lowrance’s Elite-Ti units do not fully network with other displays; they’re meant as stand-alone machines.

With complementary units, a second station can be functional as long as there’s a single Ethernet network connection between machines and a power cord routed to the power source. Most everything the helm unit can display, the networked unit can also show. Some systems, however, require a supplemental NMEA 2000 connection to display functions such as autopilot and engine data.

Alternative Views
Another option to consider could be a separate black-box sonar module that mounts below the console and feeds sonar information to a ­multifunction display. If you happen to have a sonar module and helm MFD already, adding a second nonsonar MFD to an upper station makes sense. If you don’t own a module, you need to price the components. The module route generally costs more. But consider these two roughly equivalent Raymarine setups: 1)an Axiom Pro 9 at the helm and an Axiom 7 (without sonar) up top: $3,198; 2) an Axiom 9 (without sonar) at the helm, an Axiom 7 (without sonar) up top, and an RVX1000 module: $2,797.

Raymarine and other manufacturers also offer apps that can pull electronics-display information from an MFD to a tablet, where you can see and control all functions. If you already own a tablet and a waterproof case, this could be a cost-effective solution — whether temporary or long-term.

“The downside is the typical tablet-on-a-boat problems: poor sunlight-viewing, glare, nonwaterproof, prone to breakage,” says Raymarine marketing director Jim McGowan.

However, if you purchase a RAM mount for the tablet so you can adjust the screen angle, you might find it workable.

In the case of Furuno and Lowrance/Simrad (both brands are owned by the same parent company: Navico), most of the same rules apply. However, Furuno does not make fully ­networkable displays in a 7-inch size. The company’s TZtouch2 MFDs come in 12- and 15-inch sizes.

“There are no low-cost options,” says Eric Kunz, Furuno senior product manager. “But the good news is that there are no usability limitations.”

Kunz did, however, grant that the TZT tablet app could provide a viable second-station option, “but I don’t see it being very common.”

Wireless is Here
Lowrance HDS and Simrad NSS displays can fully network and share data over more than one MFD. Simrad product line director Steve Thomas says that an NMEA 2000 network is also required to carry autopilot and SonicHub data as well as instrument information among two or more Navico-brand units.

However, the company has generated some interesting second-station ­solutions. Capt. Robert Trosset III, son of longtime Key West charter guide R.T., wanted steering in his second station without having to run hydraulic lines to the tower, Thomas says. With NMEA 2000 and Ethernet, along with an autopilot system, Trosset steers his boat through his Simrad MFD, using its knobs and on-screen buttons.

Read Next: Rig Your Bay Boat for Bluewater Fishing

Lowrance also just debuted ­wireless communication through its new Elite Ti2 units. This opens a whole new category of compatibility. With one Elite Ti2 at the helm and a second one in the tower, the two units wirelessly share information. The second-station unit would need only a power source.

Wireless represents the wave of the future. In a few short years, the debate over which units to use — either at two separate stations or side by side at the helm — will be moot. For now, my friend decided on a Garmin 7612xsv and a Garmin 942, and I have gained some valuable insight.

The post Second-Station Electronics for Smaller Center Consoles appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

The aptly named fish finder ranks at the top of every angler’s list of necessary electronics. But where does the chart plotter fit in that high-tech hierarchy?

In the past, plotters helped anglers efficiently find the fishing grounds, and little else. But these days, using tracks, routes, waypoints, overlays, trolling-motor connectivity and sonar-logging features, plotter charts become more like treasure maps, leading anglers to optimal fish and bait concentrations.

Pro fishermen and charter captains liken plotters to computers. Here’s how five of them use their units to find and catch more fish.

Plotter and Trolling Motor Connection

“I think of my boat as my office and my plotter as my office computer, and everything I need is on there,” says Capt. Phillip Wilds, who runs Anchored Charters Guide Service out of Panama City, Florida. “I need the bottom machine to see the fish, but as far as making things efficient, it’s the chart plotter.”

Wilds operates two Humminbird Solix 12 multifunction displays aboard his Barker 26 Open, which is equipped with a Minn Kota iPilot Riptide Ulterra trolling motor. He runs his trolling motor from his Solix, marrying the capabilities of both to maximize his inshore fishing trips.

“One of the greatest things is to have the plotter plot a track and then fish back through it,” he says. “It’s going to take you on your exact trail back through the fish, and you don’t have to do anything except fish. “If you want to work an edge or a ledge, you can set it to work a contour line and stick to a certain depth.”

When fishing offshore, Wilds uses tracks and the Minn Kota’s SpotLock to see the boat’s relationship to the structure he’s fishing and to stay on that structure. “Up here in the Panhandle, there are a lot of spots I fish that aren’t much bigger than a coffee table,” he says.

Use Tracks to Pattern Fish

Capt. Terry Nugent, who runs Riptide Charters out of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, says he never leaves the dock without the tracking turned on for the Raymarine Axiom Pro 12 display aboard his HydraSports 22 LTS. Nugent targets stripers, chasing them under the birds in run-and-gun fashion. “Tracks allow me to see the direction the fish are trending at any time. Whenever we find bait or a bunch of birds on the water, or if we’re trolling and get a knockdown, I drop a waypoint. You’d be stunned by how that builds a picture for you.”

Nugent deletes his tracks at the end of June, once the striper bite fades. During fall, he tracks tuna on his offshore boat. “Some years, they’re in 250 feet; some years, they’re more focused in about 120. Over the course of a week or two [with tracks on], you can see that maybe they’re focusing between 120 and 150 feet. It becomes apparent.”

Because he targets migrating fish, he does a master reset on his Raymarine at the end of each fishing year. Other captains, particularly those who tournament-fish or bottomfish for species such as snapper and grouper, religiously catalog their points and tracks on SD cards by region. Or, like Wilds, they organize them on their MFDs by location, depth, federal/state water areas or other factors.

Keep and Catalog Plotter Tracks for Future Use

“I’ve got tracks for 10 years,” says ­tournament captain Mark Maus, who runs his Yellowfin 36 — equipped with Simrad NSS evo3s and NSO evo3s — out of Sarasota, Florida. “I download everything to cards, and then I isolate my stuff to two areas.”

Maus uses tracks to troll for a variety of species and to help him navigate back to unfamiliar locations. He also employs Simrad’s TrackBack feature on his sonar to enter waypoints when he sees something new. Simrads display seven full screens of TrackBack history for anglers to scroll through. Touch the sonar screen or the main input key, and a waypoint ­automatically drops onto the plotter.

When targeting white marlin, Maus says, tracks also come in handy. “White marlin run in wolf packs. If we hang a white, and it takes 20 minutes for us to get it to the boat, I can go back, based on the track, and hang another one. There’s no reason to drop a waypoint to save for later because they’re moving.”

If he’s pre-fishing an area for sails, he might mark 20 or 30 waypoints where he found bait. The next day, though the bait will have moved, Maus says he’ll run-and-gun the points because “something will have held bait in those locations.”

Changing Track Colors Based on Temperature

Capt. Greg Shute fishes much of the Chesapeake Bay out of his 27-foot Judge. He uses his Furuno TZtouch2 and 1870 units when he’s drift-fishing for stripers. “Usually, I’ll have a point or something I’m trying to drift over. I set up and drift the first time and can follow a parallel line to the track to make sure I hit the spot again,” he says.

Shute employs several Furuno-specific technologies on his plotter, including a two-finger touch, which automatically drops a waypoint, and a color-changing tool that varies the track’s color with either temperature fluctuations or bottom-type changes.

“I can zigzag over areas while looking for fish and note where the bottom composition changes,” he says. “I will then use where I see the color changes in conjunction with marks I had on the fish finder.”

Shute also changes the actual color of a given day’s track so that he can tell the different trips he has made. By looking at the tracks and waypoints he has used, he can tell where he has fished and where he has caught fish. Normally he deletes the data every two weeks or so.

Hunt and Scout with Waypoints

Garmin 7400 and 7600 Series 16-inch MFDs

Tournament captain Bill Platt keeps his data on SD cards based on region. “I can see where I catch fish year after year. The plotter is a computer now, not just a navigation chart.”

Platt fishes a SeaHunter 39 with triple Yamaha 425 XTOs; his boat is equipped with the Yamaha Helm Master system and with three Garmin 7612 MFDs. “A big mistake people make is they pull up at a waypoint and look and see no fish there,” he says. “I start looking around. A lot of times the fish move. If I mark them again, I see which way the current is running and drift past the fish. Then I use a track to come back around and fish them.”

He uses his Helm Master’s Set Point function to stay on the fish and keep the stern to the current. If the fish move, he drifts again and watches his track.

“I find so much stuff looking around my different waypoints,” he adds. “If I run a charter, I go to a spot and I look all around. It’s like finding treasure.”

The post How 5 Pros Catch More Fish with Chart Plotters appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.

Marine electronics come with some amazing bells and whistles, but the sheer number of fantastic features can amplify angler angst when choosing what to buy. The choices include:

• Sonar: chirp, side-/down-imaging, 360/3-D/all-seeing
• Radar: bird mode, overlay, echo trails, Doppler tracking
• Chart plotter: live charting, tracking, autopilot/trolling motor integration, weather overlay
• VHF: position polling, DSC calling, AIS
• Autopilot: trolling patterns, networking
• Displays: multitouch, combo keypad/touch, in-plane switching

So how do offshore and inshore anglers decide the most important features for their needs and find out which units provide those combinations? To help with that decision-making, we asked 10 pro captains (tournament and charter) who work with five major electronics manufacturers to tell us what functions they use most for fishing.

By working with these ­companies, these captains can test the most up-to-date equipment in real-world conditions. Their answers — and the units they currently use — are given here (listed alphabetically by manufacturer and last name).

Furuno

Capt. George Mitchell, Yamaha/Furuno Tournament Pro — Jupiter, Florida

Boat/Engine: Yellowfin 36, triple Yamaha F300s (with Helm Master)

Electronics: Two 15-inch TZtouch2, DRS4D-NXT solid-state Doppler radar, DFF1-UHD TruEcho CHIRP fish finder, B265LH CHIRP transducer, NavPilot 711C/OB autopilot with Helm Master interface, FA30 AIS receiver, BBWX3 Sirius satellite weather, FI-70 ­instrument/data repeater, GP330B external GPS antenna, MCU002 remote for TZT2

“Springtime finds me fishing both the east coast of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. In Florida, I’m in close to the reef, in search of my top three: sails, dolphin and cobia. Here’s where water temperature matters a lot, not just for target species but also baitfish. My TZT2s’ ability to depict water temp on my track is powerful. My first drift gives me real data to work with. Now I can use my autopilot to guide my vessel over red [warm] zones.

When it comes to the Northeast coast, say the New England area, I really rely on current cartography. I need the latest update on shifting sandbars and marker buoys. Furuno makes it super easy to update your system, but ActiveCaptain is also a great tool that I use on my MFDs. ActiveCaptain gives me crowdsourced information that enhances charts with real-time ­information submitted by other users. I can get info like obstructions, anchorages and marina information with gas prices.

When we get over to the Gulf, that’s where stuff like the AIS and radar come into play, especially because I can display it all on one unit. Now picture this, I’m headed out South Pass in search of yellowfin tuna; I’ve heard they are on the shrimp boats in the East Delta. I have my port screen set up on full-page plotter, with my radar overlay on. I can reach out about 8 to 10 miles with my NXT radome and see a shrimp boat. But is it really a shrimp boat? Simple. When you overlay the radar, you’re able to determine if the target is a boat, buoy or small rig. An AIS receiver tells you if it’s commercial, its length and other valuable data. I like to get a target’s true speed; anything under 2 to 3 knots is usually a shrimp boat.”

Capt. Greg Shute, iFishMD.com — Annapolis, Maryland

Boat/Engine: Judge Yachts 27 Chesapeake, Honda BF225

Electronics: 12-inch TZtouch2, GP1870F (second GPS/fish finder), 525STID-PWD transducer (Airmar P66), DRS4D UHD digital radar, GP330B external GPS antenna, PG700 heading sensor

“The TZT2 sounder offers the ability to view dual frequencies at once, allowing me to gather vital information at one glance. The narrow-cone, high-frequency signal is excellent for finding fish tight to the bottom, with the aid of the white-line feature, and for picking up other vital information, such as halocline or thermoclines.

The wide cone of the low-frequency signal is excellent for deciphering game from bait on suspended fish and covering a wider area under the boat. Older analog sounders generally had too much screen noise in the shallower waters to be all that useful for inshore or nearshore fishing. The Furuno digital signal processing really allows me to take full advantage of the 45-degree cone at 50 kHz of my Airmar P66 transducer.

The TZT2 screen is lightning-fast when you’re panning charts. Waypoints or event points, such as marking where we hooked up on fish in order to track the movement of schools, are very simple to plot. I also love the depth-shading feature that helps me when I’m trolling or looking for fish on a particular depth line.

The Furuno UHD radar does not miss navigation hazards. I can quickly pan in and out or even view two different ranges at once. This is important as I have to worry about fast-moving commercial ship traffic coming in and out of the [Chesapeake] Bay. The use of true echo trails helps in seeing the direction toward which other vessels are moving.

I should mention that while it is something I do not currently have, I’m very hopeful to add a Furuno 711C autopilot with sabiki mode. I drift live bait around structure like the bay bridge or wrecks on the bottom, and to just have to operate the throttle and clutch without having to worry about steering would be a huge help.”

Garmin

Capt. Ryan Farner, Garmin Tournament Pro — St. Petersburg, Florida

Boats/Engines: Skeeter SX240, Yamaha F300; Yellowfin 42 CE, triple Yamaha F350s

Electronics (Skeeter): GPSMAP 7612xsv MFD, GT51 transducer

Electronics (Yellowfin): Two GPSMAP 8624s, one GPSMAP 7612xsv, Reactor autopilot with SmartPump, Fantom 6 radar, GT51 transducer, GSD 26 chirp sonar module, GXM 52 Sirius/XM receiver

“On the GPSMAP 7612xsv, I love the chirp ClearVü and chirp SideVü scanning sonar when looking for new wrecks in Tampa Bay. It’s key to finding the pods of tarpon during the summer season. I also love how easy it is to toggle between screens while using the combo ­function — running multiple screens changes the game when you’re searching for that spot to fish.

We also spend a ton of time offshore along the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, so having good sea-surface-temperature information along with the incredible chirp function, we’re able to find where the temp breaks are, which is where the fish will be.

Sea-surface-temperature overlay, along with weather, is very important to us since we have to travel over 100 miles out into the Gulf, where the shelf drops off. The bird-mode function on the radar has been a huge help. It takes the hard work of adjusting the machine to find the small tuna birds down to no time at all.

The low chirp setting, along with having the ability to pause and save a spot of bait, has paid off big time for us when fishing 800 to 8,000 feet. Being able to interface all of our Garmin Virb XE cameras on our units is also very important since we capture all of our billfish releases.”

Capt. Steven Lamp, Dream Catcher Charters — Key West, Florida

Boats/Engines: Yellowfin 24 Carbon Elite, Mercury 400R; Yellowfin 36, triple Mercury Verado 350s

Electronics: GPSMAP 7612xsv and GPSMAP 7616xsv MFDs, GSD 26 chirp sonar module, GXM 53 Sirius/XM receiver, GMR 624 xHD2 radar (4-foot open array), GHS 10 wired handset, VHF 200 with AIS, GHP 20 autopilot

“The GPSMAP 7612’s screen resolution makes it very sunlight-readable, and it has amazing clarity. It’s also super fast on correction. I am amazed at how well these units follow me at any speed. [Built-in] SideVü is very easy to work with for tarpon fishing. I fish in many little channels that are about 9 feet deep. I can look way over into the channel with extreme clarity to see the tarpon without having to run them over with my boat. This keeps the fish settled and makes them an easy target for my anglers.

The GSD 26 is the most you can get out of a bottom machine. It’s an add-on black box that is not needed when using the 76xx series chart plotters unless you want more power. Who doesn’t want more power?

I use the GSD 26 on my Yellowfin 36 to reach the depths with a variable frequency to get much better target definition. With the killer screen resolution of the 7616, I can really zero in on fish in deep water. I always recommend this as a great choice for anglers wanting to fish in water deeper than 150 feet; it’s a must-have for swordfishing, where we’re looking for great targeting in 700 to 2,000 feet of water.”

Humminbird

Capt. Mike Holliday, Fish Tales Guide Service — Stuart, Florida

Boat/Engine: Pathfinder 2300 HPS, Yamaha 250 SHO

Electronics: Solix 12 SI, Minn Kota Riptide Ulterra i-Pilot Link

“Side-imaging is the biggest advantage to come along in years. If I’m fishing for tripletail around channel markers, I can drive a circle around the marker while scanning the side-imaging for fish. The same goes for sitting on a wreck. I can anchor up and watch the side-imaging for fish that are swimming by and then cast right to them. If I’m catching bait and the school goes down, I can just spin the boat while watching the side-imaging and see exactly where the school is.

I also really like mapping features on my electronics, particularly since I fish the same areas regularly and use the Autochart Live feature to create a current map of those areas. I can then mark the productive spots and use the i-Pilot Link to connect to my trolling motor and follow depth contours or position the boat in the exact spot to make the perfect cast every time.

Aerial views on my maps also play a big role in my fishing. I can look for submerged sandbars and spoil banks that hold fish like trout and pompano, then move the cursor there and program the exact location so I can run to it any time.

Another big deal for me is the ability to have multiple screens displayed, and to customize those screens. I’ll have a screen showing my downward chirp, Mega side-imaging, Autochart map and Mega down-imaging all at the same time, but with the swipe of my fingers I can get to one screen quickly and get a better view of something I might spot. I know where I am and what’s below me and to either side, as well as the temperature and depth at all times.

Downward chirp I use most when catching bait or fishing wrecks or reefs to define which species I’m looking at. I can tell you if a Spanish mackerel in the school under my boat is 1 pound or 6 pounds just by the way they are defined on the image. I can tell you if I’m marking minnows or juvenile sardines instead of the larger ones I want for bait.”

Capt. Phillip Wilds, Anchored Charters Guide Service — Panama City, Florida

Boat/Engine: Barker 26 Open, Mercury Verado 350

Electronics: Two Solix 12 SIs, Helix 10 SI, Minn Kota Riptide Ulterra i-Pilot Link, CHIRP Radar

On my Barker, I have room for two of the new 12-inch Humminbird Solix units (which can be networked with radar) flush-mounted in the console. This is groundbreaking for inshore fishermen. In the past, radar would only be considered for larger offshore boats.

On the Barker, I’m going to really appreciate the radar on my new Solix when fishing offshore, for spotting birds and tracking weather. But I will also get a lot of use inshore for navigating on foggy mornings while bay fishing. The use of radar now brings a new level of safety for smaller bay boats for this reason.

Side-imaging and down-imaging are a must for inshore and offshore anglers. The ability to target specific species of fish and see them as they relate to structures and the habitat around them is an absolute must.

I have had great success in the past with Humminbird’s side-imaging and down-imaging on Onix units, so it’s very exciting for me to see such great improvements in technology like Mega Imaging come to the new units.

The features I use most frequently are the chart plotter, i-Pilot Link and down-image. These are all features that I don’t want to leave the dock without.

Raymarine

Capt. Jamie Hough, Flat Spot Charters — Charleston, South Carolina

Boat/Engine: Sterling 220XS, Yamaha 250 SHO

Electronics: a98 MFD with chirp DownVision, CP200 chirp SideVision

The side-imaging comes in handy when looking for redfish under docks and around jetties and other rock structures. The down-imaging is priceless when it comes to finding large schools of large trout, especially when the water temps start dropping in November and December. Without my sonar, there’s no way I could hammer 2- to 6-pound trout all winter long.

When I’m tournament fishing all over the Gulf Coast for redfish, the mapping feature is key. I couldn’t fish competitively without it. With the a98 and a Standard Mapping chip (high-resolution photo charts for backcountry fishing), I have access to the best maps available. The processor in my unit allows these extremely detailed maps to load quickly and smoothly. At 65 mph, I don’t have time to wait on my GPS to catch up when zooming in and out, and with the a98, I don’t have to.

Pair the awesome mapping and sounder features with the ability to read my engine output and control my stereo, and these units are unbeatable.

Capt. Terry Nugent, Riptide Charters — Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Boat/Engine: Contender 35T, twin Mercury 350 Verados

Electronics: e165 and e95 MFDs, CP570 chirp sonar, 12 kW 4-foot Super HD Color open-array radar, Evolution autopilot

What I’m targeting and how we plan to fish for the target determine which features are most important on any given day.

Since we primarily target surface-feeding fish, my 12 kW Raymarine Super HD Color radar is usually my primary focus. It allows me to find active birds over fish at extreme distances. I can use the radar to determine distance to the birds and density of the flock — so I can compare multiple flocks and see which one has the most action underneath.

Once we find the birds and fish, I typically focus on my Raymarine color chart plotter with Navionics Platinum+ charts. With the plotter’s track function activated and by dropping waypoints at each feeding location, I can quickly put together a pattern of how the fish are moving and anticipate their future movement.

On days when we are offshore trolling and bird life is not abundant, I rely primarily on my chart plotter for the reasons listed above, and also on my Raymarine CP570 chirp sonar. The chirp sonar, combined with the R599 transducer, allows me to see bait and fish below the boat, even at relatively high trolling speeds. When I see something interesting or get a strike, I’ll drop waypoints to build a pattern.

Simrad

Adam LaRosa, Team Canyon Runner — Point Pleasant, New Jersey

Boat/Engine: 60 Ritchie Howell Custom Carolina, twin Cat C18As

Electronics: Two 19-inch NSO evo2s, 12-inch NSS evo2, 10 kW HD Digital open-array radar, WM-3 weather, BSM-3 chirp sounder module, AP24 autopilot

Without question, one of Team Canyon Runner’s most valuable tools is the implementation of Sirius sea-surface-temperature overlays on our plotters. With the WM-3 module paired to our evo2s, we can scale temperature. For example, we can manipulate the SST data with a range from, say, 68 to 85 degrees. That allows the chart to recalibrate the new 68-degree water temp as blue in color and the 82-degree water temp as red. Seeing a hard, defining break is irreplaceable. It has steered our boats to the fish countless times.

Another excellent feature is sonar TrackBack. TrackBack allows my captains a virtual hard drive of recorded sonar logs in the MFD memory, and at any given time, they can scroll back and pinpoint a bait pod or a recent fish mark that has passed on the screen and get detailed intel on how far back and at what heading to steer to return.

Lastly, the advancements in chirp technology are proving themselves greatly on the fishing grounds. We own two charter boats with captains that put over 3,200 hours a year on the water. We’re literally seeing baitballs and marking individual fish as a common occurrence now. In the past, with traditional 50/200 technology, there was more of a blending and nowhere near the clarity and separation of targets.

Capt. Andrew Pereira, Stoked on Fishing (TV) — Huntington Beach, California

Boats/Engines: 75 Johnson Yacht Fisher, Caterpillar (2,800 hp total); Everglades 355 T, triple Suzuki 300s; Wellcraft 195 CC, 150 Suzuki

Electronics: Two 12-inch NSS evo2s, three 16-inch NSS evo2s, Halo 4 radar, StructureScan transducer, B150M xdcr chirp transducer, RS 35 VHF Radio with AIS, weather module, WiFi-1 module, AC42 autopilot, IS35 (instrument/wind)

On a large boat, our biggest expense is fuel. We try to keep the fuel cost as low as possible by traveling at a slower speed. Most people might think because we go slower, we have less time to fish. But this is not true.

Our advantage is ­information from our electronics. During our fishing, we wait for the pelagics, such as tuna, dorado, yellowtail and marlin, to show up. These fish range between 10 to 100 miles offshore, so making the right decision to head to a fishing area is key.

The first thing I do is check my chart plotter with the weather overlay showing me sea-surface temperatures. On the NSS evo2s, I find the right surface temps for the fish I’m targeting. It also gives me the wind speed and swell heights.

The next feature that’s very important is the VHF radio with AIS. I can see where the commercial fishing boats are located. These boats are out every day, and they’re able to follow the fish as they move to different areas.

Once we start fishing, I set my Halo radar on bird mode. In addition to birds, I can locate large schools of porpoises, which are often accompanied by tuna, on the water. Once I’m in the right zone, I use my chirp transducer to locate schools of fish below the surface.

Once we get a jig strike or locate a school, I mark it on my chart so I can go back to that area as the boat drifts off. This can also be done by following the track on the plotter.

Another great feature to have is the wind-instrument display. When I stop on a kelp paddy, I’m able to approach it from the right direction so the wind does not blow the boat over the paddy.

The post 10 Top Pros Share Their Marine Electronics Secrets appeared first on Sport Fishing Mag.