I'm a 100% shore fisherman and have never used electronics to find fish, I've always relied on just walking up and down the shore looking for points/structure/fish.  I often see reports from the same bodies of water I fish of people killing it, but realize a lot of people use electronics to help find the fish.

 

If fair chase hunting would be the hunter using a topo map to try and find his animals, would the fair chase fishing equivelant be a fisherman using only topo maps to try and find the fish, instead of having electonics?  If you could make an analogy to hunting it would be like a hunter having a topo map, as well as a gps that has markers where the deer are in the vicinity.

 

What I'm wondering is how would the pros, or even yourself, do if all you had was water topo maps but no electronics to find structure/fish?  When watching the Elites on ESPN, do they often settle in spots where their electronics picked up a ton of fish in the water and they just throw various presentations until they found what the fish were looking for?

I'd do as good as I do now since I don't use electronics. Lol

I'd do as good as I do now since I don't use electronics. Lol

 

Let me rewrite that, I'd do as bad as I do now.

Most of my fishing it very shallow so it probably wouldn't be effected too much except during the winter months when water temp makes a huge difference and I fish offshore a little more.

Most of my fishing it very shallow so it probably wouldn't be effected too much except during the winter months when water temp makes a huge difference and I fish offshore a little more.

I agree. I think itndepends on the lake, season, and where the fish are. If they are up shallower it really isnt an issue. Its when the fish are deeper is when the imaging shines. Finding which ledge, hump, timber, or other deeper structure they are on is much easier with imaging when you learn how to read it well.

^^ very funny!

 

I can honestly say that RIGHT NOW if I had to give up my 899, I would do just as good, if not BETTER than I do now with the unit..

 

I just came into the SI world this spring, and before had only BASIC finders to use strictly for depth and water temperature only..

 

I say RIGHT NOW I would be better if I gave it up simply because I spend a lot of time looking at the graph and trying to pick things out, where I think if I just concentrated on fishing and fished like I used to without the 899, I could be more productive...

 

Again RIGHT NOW because I do find a lot of "stuff" in the water that I have never seen before I had Side Imaging... give me a year or two more and my answer will change simply for the fact that I will know how to utilize my electronics better..

 

 

if that makes sense

 

+1

 

I'm in the same boat...  new SI (Garmin echoMAP 93SV) after years of basic fish finders.  If I'd spend more time fishing and less time gawking at the Garmin, I'd probably catch lots more fish!

 

Tight lines,

Bob

+1

 

I'm in the same boat...  new SI (Garmin echoMAP 93SV) after years of basic fish finders.  If I'd spend more time fishing and less time gawking at the Garmin, I'd probably catch lots more fish!

 

Tight lines,

Bob

I'm still blown away by some of the stuff I see on my 93SV, even on lakes I've fished for years. It makes it tough to pay attention to fishing sometimes. 

I use the sonar to find structure, not fish. Then I interpret the contours to figure out where the fish would go/be.

I am just getting into using my electronics like I should and i can say that while I am looking at my screen a lot, I am also not wasting time casting where there aren't any fish.  Sure I will pick apart a piece of cover like a blowdown even if i can't see anything on my fish finder but if i am cruising along, i am looking for fish and then marking them off and coming back to fish them later on.

If the pros went without you'd see old timers like Clunn winning again by pattern fishing.

My catfishing would be a lot poorer without a depth finder .

Like I do now lmao

I'd be really interested to see how pros would do without it, would change the game for sure.

FLW pro, John Cox fished this year without a transducer (I'm assuming he still used GPS) and finished 2nd in the AOY points.

FLW pro, John Cox fished this year without a transducer (I'm assuming he still used GPS) and finished 2nd in the AOY points.

So he just went by GPS ? Thats interesting .

If an angler plans to fish off shore just using topo maps it's extremely hard. Before I got my sonar charts for my boat I did just that used only topo maps. Trying to find a solid offshore spot on the map was easy.... But getting my boat on that spot on the water was a different story!! It was almost impossible to know if you were on the hump or whatever Forsure!!

If an angler plans to fish off shore just using topo maps it's extremely hard. Before I got my sonar charts for my boat I did just that used only topo maps. Trying to find a solid offshore spot on the map was easy.... But getting my boat on that spot on the water was a different story!! It was almost impossible to know if you were on the hump or whatever Forsure!!

I know this is a couple days late but where did you get your topo maps? I can't find any for local lakes.

I know this is a couple days late but where did you get your topo maps? I can't find any for local lakes.

Check city hall - usually there's a department that keeps topo maps of basically the entire county, which would include all bodies of water, though not sure if they can make copies to send your way, that depends on where you are and the resources available (some will, some won't).

Will do, appreciate it.

Man, I'd be lost without my electronics.  I do a lot of deep weedline and main lake structures so without my "eyes" I'd be screwed.