By Steve KatzIt seems that most everyone either has a scanning sonar or is getting a new scanning sonar. The upsurge in installations, along with a variety of brands and models, requires captains and ping jockeys to develop their technical skill and fishing methods to operate a scanning sonar for optimum results.
If you missed the Palm Beach International Boat Show or didn’t make it by the Furuno tent then check out the video below to see what was on display and to learn a little more about the Furuno products. Braden Shoemaker, Furuno SE Regional Manager, breaks down the different NavNet TZtouch systems and what they can offer on your next boating trip.
Photo courtesy Humminbird
RACINE, Wis., Nov. 16, 2020—Humminbird announced the next level in fish finder technology with the launch of the new APEX™ series. Combining Humminbird’s best-in-class sonar technologies and full networking capabilities on a full-HD display, APEX delivers the clearest and most-detailed display of sonar and chart technologies and represents the pinnacle of marine electronics innovation.
Humminbird has been a dominant leader in marine electronics for decades by putting the most powerful and intuitive tools in the hands of anglers to help them find and catch more fish. APEX is the most advanced offering to date and offers more custom rigging options and large screen displays than ever before.
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By Captain Scott “Fraz” Murie
In the last few years, fishing in the northern Gulf of Mexico has evolved into a high-tech business. The tournament fishing has changed dramatically. Back in the day, most tournaments had boundary lines and perimeters that you had to stay within.
For instance, you could not fish west of this point or east of that point or south of some other point.
Tournament boundaries were meant to keep the competition even, but that’s old school thinking. Today with the technology, speed, fuel and bait available to captains, you can fish anywhere you want.
To compete in today’s Gulf tournaments, you really need the right tools. Speed is one tool that gives you great advantage over the old “slow boat to China.” Also, lots of fuel. It’s not unusual to see boats loaded with 1500 gallons of fuel bladders in their cockpits and strapped to their bows. If you have the fuel, it enables you to venture off 300 miles in one direction to fish oil platforms and oil rigs that have seen little fishing pressure. The days of trolling the lumps, spurs and canyons, hoping and poking along during a tournament, are pretty much gone unless you’re the one on the “slow boat to China.”
Then there is the coveted sonar, like the Furuno CSH8. These tools provide extreme advantage – allowing you to track fish 360-degrees around the boat. You can pick up one of these units for a hundred plus grand!
Another must-have tool are tuna tubes. Not just two or four, but 12 or 20 – so you always have live bait ready and waiting. The more tubes you have, the less time you have to spend catching bait, and therefore more time marlin fishing.
All of these advancements do not come without their downside. I’ve seen a lot of boats fall out of the tournament circuit and have also heard a lot of negative feedback about tournament fishing. Some owners and crews feel they can’t compete with the speed, distance and advanced technology. Being “outgunned” makes it feel that much more risky for them to drop 20, 30 or 50 grand in the Calcutta. These crews feel they are starting the tournament at a disadvantage – and they’re probably right.
While some have withdrawn, I have also seen more new boats with the right tools getting into the tournament circuit. So, the boats that have quit tournament fishing hasn’t hurt the overall tournament participation – just changed the names on the transoms.
What does it all boil down to? If you can’t fish with the big boys, stay at the dock!
That’s my two minute warning. Fraz
The Omni Sonar from Furuno has done nothing short of revolutionized sportfishing. Each year, Omni-equipped boats cash millions of dollars in checks from the biggest tournaments in the world. In this exclusive video Dock Talk, Furuno USA’s Matt Wood provides a complete and thorough breakdown of the capabilities of the Omni Sonar system, including tips on getting dialed in and what the installation looks like and all that the system can do. Don’t miss this…
New sonar technology wins top honors at industry’s most prestigious trade show
OLATHE, Kan./July 16, 2018/Business Wire – Garmin International, Inc., a unit of Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ:GRMN), today announced it earned the coveted “Best of Show” award for its new Panoptix LiveScope™ at the world’s largest sportfishing trade show, the International Convention of Allied Sportfishing Trades (ICAST), presented by the American Sportfishing Association (ASA) and held last week in Orlando, Fla. Prior to being selected as the Best of Show, Panoptix LiveScope was first voted by media and buyers in attendance as the “Best Electronics” in the ICAST New Product Showcase where 974 products were entered by 331 companies, all vying for the ICAST 2018 Best of Show award.
“To not only win the ICAST Best Electronics award, but the Best of Show award, too – it’s an honor we’re incredibly proud of,” said Dan Bartel, Garmin vice president of global consumer sales. “Panoptix LiveScope delivers the best of both scanning and live sonar technologies and there’s nothing out there even close to it. These awards solidify our commitment to giving anglers and mariners the most innovative technology on the water, and they further strengthen our desire to be the top marine electronics brand in the world.”
Panoptix LiveScope is a live scanning sonar that gives anglers higher resolution and easier-to-interpret images of structure, bait and fish swimming below and around the boat than ever before. Garmin’s revolutionary Panoptix™ all-seeing sonar technology was the first to deliver live sonar images in real-time – forwards, backwards, sideways and below the boat – even while stationary. Now, thanks to the active scanning capabilities of Panoptix LiveScope, anglers can see images and movement so clear and precise that it’s even possible to distinguish between species of fish. See Panoptix LiveScope in action here.
“Panoptix changed the electronics game a couple of years ago,” said Jason Christie, Bassmaster Elite Series and Garmin pro. “Now, LiveScope is even taking it to the next level. The cool thing about it is the simplicity of it. What you see is what is there. The only picture that could be better is if you dive into the water with goggles, and I’m not sure that’s really even better.”
Another Bassmaster Elite Series and Garmin pro, Fred Roumbanis, agrees. “Never before have you been able to tell what species of fish you are looking at like this,” he said. “You can see the movement, you can see the profile. I was snapping a jig on the bottom and I saw a walleye and I could see the fins of the walleye! There’s no way I could have seen that before.”
Like other Garmin Panoptix transducers, LiveScope features two modes in one transducer –LiveScope Down and LiveScope Forward – and can be installed on a trolling motor or the transom (recommended only for LiveScope Forward). Depending on the angler’s fishing preferences and techniques, LiveScope can easily be adjusted to change views. Simply point the LiveScope transducer down to see directly below the boat, or forward to see around the boat. Either view provides incredibly sharp, real-time scanning sonar images up to 200 feet down or away from the boat, even when the boat is stationary.
The Panoptix LiveScope scanning sonar system includes a compact GLS 10 sonar black box with an LVS32 transducer and a simple plug-and-play Garmin Marine Network connector for easy installation and integration with a compatible Garmin chartplotter. A trolling motor barrel and shaft mounting kit and a transom mounting kit are also included. Panoptix LiveScope is compatible with Garmin’s ECHOMAP™ Plus 7Xcv/7Xsv/9Xsv chartplotter/sonar combo series, as well as the GPSMAP® 8400/8600 multifunction displays, GPSMAP 7400/7600, GPSMAP 10X2/12X2, GPSMAP 12X2xsv Touch and GPSMAP 7X2/9X2 series chartplotters.
Available now, the Panoptix LiveScope system has a suggested retail price of $1,499.99.
For more information, videos and images, visit www.garmin.com/panoptix.
