Using Electronics to Find Fish Around Structure

Underwater objects—pure or man-made, massive or small—create wealthy saltwater habitats that act like magnets for marine life. Anglers consult with such habitat as “construction.” It’s a becoming moniker, as construction gives a basis for saltwater meals chains, internet hosting all the pieces from shrimp, crabs and baitfish to structure-­loving apex predatory fish. 

But, not one hundred pc of any construction space—be it a jetty, wreck or deep canyon ledge—holds fish. Boating anglers usually must pattern completely different sectors to pinpoint the very best fishing zones. These are inclined to shift from everyday and even hour to hour, relying on components akin to tide, present, wind and extra.

At the moment’s marine electronics play pivotal roles in homing in on all types of construction. And as you’ll learn, it isn’t simply sonar techniques that consultants faucet for this, but in addition superior chart-plotting and trolling- motor capabilities to search out and keep on concentrations of fish. To be taught extra, we talked with David Dunn, senior director of gross sales for Garmin Marine, and targeted on three frequent sorts of saltwater construction stretching from inshore areas to far offshore.

Jetties and Bridges

Two of the best sorts of construction for inshore anglers are jetties and bridge abutments. These appeal to a variety of gamefish. Relying on the area, species vary from redfish, snook and tarpon to striped bass and calico bass.

Dunn factors out that fishing these construction areas tends to be extra horizontal than vertical fishing, so that you want sonar techniques that shoot horizontally. “I’d begin with the Garmin SideVu scanning sonar,” Dunn says. SideVu’s excessive frequency affords high-resolution imagery of fish and construction to the perimeters of the boat. 

“SideVu’s true-to-life image helps you get acquainted with the construction as you cruise alongside it, and it enables you to discover areas of the best fish concentrations,” he explains. “SideVu also can aid you isolate which bridge abutments are holding essentially the most fish.” 

Garmin isn’t the one electronics model providing a high-frequency side-scanning sonar system. Others embrace Humminbird’s Facet Imaging, SideScan from Lowrance and Simrad, and Raymarine’s SideVision. 

For the following step, Dunn switches to dwell sonar, particularly, Garmin’s LVS34 LiveScope Plus, which might simply see fish as much as 80 ft from the boat. “I orient the LVS34 transducer within the Ahead mode on my Garmin Power Kraken trolling ­motor to search for particular person fish in ­actual time,” Dunn reveals. “This lets me goal particular person fish on the jetty or abutment and develop into extra environment friendly as an angler.”

Different dwell (aka forward-facing) sonar techniques available on the market embrace Mega Reside Imaging from Humminbird and ActiveTarget from Lowrance and Simrad. 

Learn Subsequent: 5 Gamefish That Are Robust to Battle Round Construction

Wrecks and Reefs

Excessive-resolution shaded-relief cartography—not sonar—serves as the primary software in Dunn’s quest to pinpoint fish concentrations on offshore wrecks, reefs and rock piles. He makes use of the relief-shading mode of the Garmin Navionics Imaginative and prescient+ charts in his Garmin chart plotter not simply to review the construction, but in addition to search for adjoining anomalies which may maintain fish. Different manufacturers that provide high-resolution shaded-relief charts embrace C-Map, CMOR Mapping and Humminbird CoastMaster. 

“Generally, I discover extra fish on slightly rock or hard-bottom spot subsequent to a wreck or a reef than on the primary construction,” Dunn says. “The wonderful element within the reduction shading provides me a good suggestion of all of the areas the place I wish to search for snapper, grouper and different species.”

In Dunn’s case, the primary “look” takes place with Garmin’s ClearVu down-scanning sonar. He scouts the construction and adjoining spots with ClearVu to determine which areas are holding essentially the most fish. As soon as he has a lay of the land, Dunn switches to dwell sonar within the type of his LiveScope XR with the transducer oriented within the Down mode on the Kraken trolling motor. The ability of the LiveScope XR lets him goal particular person fish on wrecks and reefs at depths exceeding 300 ft whereas utilizing the Kraken trolling motor in Anchor mode to carry the boat over the fish. 

Utilizing the dwell sonar ­additionally helps Dunn keep away from sure fish akin to goliath grouper, a protected species in Florida waters. Staying away from this species additionally helps stop the goliath from inhaling a hooked fish.

Deep-Dropping 

Deep-dropping for species akin to tilefish, queen snapper and, on the West Coast, rockfish and lingcod takes place in depths from 600 to 1,500 ft or extra, which will also be prime territory for daytime swordfish deep-drops. Once more, Dunn begins with high-resolution shaded-­reduction charts to slender down the place he needs to look alongside the huge deep-ocean ground. Within the higher Gulf of Mexico, for instance, oil pipeline crossings in deep water can show productive for species akin to snowy and yellowedge grouper. On the West Coast, massive rockfish and lingcod are inclined to dwell on the ledges of seamounts and canyons. 

His subsequent step is establishing a search with one among Garmin’s strongest sonar techniques—the GSD 28—with a minimal 2 kW ­transducer. This conventional up-and-down sonar system will even function with a 3 kW transducer. The GSD 28 encompasses a built-in AHRS (perspective and heading reference system) that electronically stabilizes the sonar picture to compensate for boat movement in tough seas to higher show the underside and fish. What’s extra, the GSD 28’s unique Fast Return sonar characteristic is engineered to show echo returns six occasions sooner than different high-power sonar techniques, thus eliminating the frustration of ready on super-slow returns, an annoyance that has been likened to watching paint dry. 

At the moment, boating anglers have a much bigger digital arsenal than ever in terms of homing in on construction. Select your weapon.