Marine Electronics — Perspectives from a Professional Bass Angler and an Offshore Fishing Enthusiast

There’s a wide variety of marine electronics available to anglers of all skill levels and types of fishing. Whether fishing for freshwater bass in a tournament setting or pursuing the biggest fish out on the ocean, boating electronics have never been as advanced as they are today. This is especially true for navigation, fish finding, and underwater structure.

Our PartsVu Xchange Talks Boating host sat down with Garrett Paquette, a professional angler competing within the Bassmaster Elite Series, and Neil Kempf, the Electronics Specialist at Naples Boat Mart. Garrett spends his days on lakes and rivers, focusing on honing his effectiveness as a bass angler. Neil primarily fishes offshore, and many of Naples Boat Mart’s customers are also focused on offshore fishing and offshore excursions.

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How do you approach recommending marine electronics and electronic configurations for your customers?

Neil: I first work to understand the types of boating they do. There is a broad spectrum of boat electronics, but some electronics are designed for specific uses.

I’ve also learned never to recommend a specific boat electronics brand. Instead, I let the customer tell me what they like and what they've used before. It's often easiest for the customer to get the new features and capabilities they are looking for from a technology platform they're already familiar with.

Do you typically need to talk customers through the decision-making process?

Neil: If I’m working with an experienced boater, I'll typically discuss the upgrades made to the technology since their last unit. If it's a novice boater who doesn't know as much, the primary goal is typically pointing them to technology that will be simple to use.

As a professional bass angler, what is your approach to selecting electronics for your bass boat?

Garrett: Since I compete around the country in high-stakes tournaments, trying to catch the biggest five fish I can per day, I need to give myself the best advantages I can. As a professional angler, you want to have the newest and greatest technology.

Our boats look like NASA control centers—it is getting a bit out of control. We have so many screens and devices.

I rig my boat based on what I think gives me the best chance to find the most fish as efficiently as possible.

Bass boat electronics can get pretty expensive, and we all need to stay within our budgets. I recommend having the nicest equipment and the biggest screens you can.

Having a good boat GPS and good mapping will make fishing easier and more successful. But also, electronics help you to be safer on the water. For instance, you might regret not spending the money to buy a technology that keeps you from running aground or hitting a rock pile you couldn’t see.

I think if you're boating offshore or on a lake you are not familiar with, a boat GPS is necessary to make sure you:

• Can get back to where you started
• Don't get lost
• Don’t run out of gas

What advice do you offer your friends who are not professional anglers but want to make good marine electronics decisions?

Garrett: When talking to my friends, the basic needs are sonar and boat GPS at your steering wheel. Once those basic needs are met, we'll discuss adding fishfinder technology while still allowing them to stay in their price range.

But, safety is the first thing that comes to my mind when selecting bass boat electronics.

In your role as an electronic specialist atNaples Boat Mart, have you seen any exciting navigation or fish-finding technology advancements in recent years?

Neil: The most significant advancements we've seen have probably been in sonar technology with the introduction of the CHIRP technology released by AIR MAR several years ago.

Fish Finding

CHIRP technology delivers a much clearer picture that allows anglers to target specific species much more effectively.

If we're fishing down in the Keys and targeting a sailfish or swordfish, or we're bottom fishing for queen snapper, the technology itself has cleaned up the bottom picture so well that you can identify specific species much more easily. This is great for fishing and for catching fish. The technology is also great for allowing us to better avoid species we don’t want to kill.

Navigation

From the navigation side, charting has improved 3000% over what it was even five years ago. Charting technology is just so much more accurate.

The 10Hz GPS signal now in use is so much more accurate than it ever was before. They've also brought out solid-state radars, which are cleaner pictures, much better for the average captain from a navigation standpoint. So, you're getting a lot more information at the helm.

Screens/Display

As Garrett said, the bigger the screen, the easier it's going to be to use. Most people don't realize that even if you have two screens, you might have three functions. So, the biggest screen will effectively be split in half—that will be your average screen size per function. You want to make sure that the screen's big enough to allow you to monitor it at a glance.

Does CHIRP technology and the clarity of underwater visibility help you better target fish?

Garett: CHIRP is more related to a 2D sonar. I do use that when I'm running on plane, but typically when looking for fish, I'm using down imaging, which is even more precise than CHIRP. Down imaging can’t read as deep, and it can't read at high speeds at all, but typically when I'm looking for fish, I'm only going three or four miles an hour.

I use down imaging the same way you used to when you would mark something on the graph. From how the dots look and the size of the dots, I can tell:

• the species of the fish
• the size of the fish
• if they're active and they're ready to feed

So, I do use down imaging a lot when I'm looking for fish. Like I said, I’ll use 2D sonar mostly when I'm running on plane. The sonar might help me spot a little group of weeds fish might like or keep an eye on the bottom to ensure I'm running at a safe depth.

Given your needs as a professional angler, what are some of the upgrades you’ve made beyond just basic configuration and installation?

Garrett: My boat is rigged with:

Console Setup

• One 15-inch unit on the console, which is a pretty big unit for the freshwater market
• I run all Humminbirds, and most of the time, I'm running side imaging which shows me a view on each side of the boat as far as I want it. Usually, I set it at around 90 feet to see 90 feet in each direction.
• Down imaging, which provides visibility straight down
• And then I have my Humminbird Lakemaster mapping.

Front of Boat/Trolling Setup

The front of my boat is pretty interesting; I have three units:

• I have one that is mapping in 2D, straight sonar down off of my trolling motor. If I see anything straight under the boat, I could drop my bait down and try to catch it. And it shows me the depth at all times.
• I have another one, which is called 360 Imaging. It comes off my troll motor and shows what's on the bottom in front of me. It's a big sweeping circle that shows me everything within 80 feet of the boat. So, if I see a brush pile off to the left, I can cast to it.
• New this year, I’ve been using a forward sonar called Humminbird Mega Live. That's a direct beam that comes off the trolling motor, and as I turn the trolling motor, I can sweep around and see fish.

These advanced electronics provide incredible learning tools. I can see in real-time what is going on and immediately see the impact of switching baits and so forth.

Wiring

Specific electronics wiring is just not getting more attention, but it has been vital to me for a long time.

I made my wiring harnesses back in the day because you need to have good, clean power from your battery to the electronics. This isn’t necessary anymore as you can now easily buy effective harnesses on the market. Having the proper wiring harness is essential to avoid overheating the wire and potentially starting a fire, to get the best performance out of your electronics, and to avoid draining your battery.

What are your thoughts in terms of the importance of wiring?

Neil: He’s absolutely correct that wiring is fundamental—it's the key to keeping all your boat electronics and running and performing effectively.

Most people don't realize that most modern boat electronics have a safe operation margin at about 11.6 volts and 11.4 volts. When devices are out of this range, they're going to shut down to protect themselves.

You're under constant, tremendous pressure to upgrade your electronics. Would you agree that electronic skills have become almost synonymous with fishing skills?

Garrett: I don't want to say it's becoming like a video game because it looks like that when you see a bunch of guys using all these electronics. But natural instincts acquired through years of fishing are still critical. An angler can put a hundred thousand dollars worth of bass boat electronics on his boat, but if you're not around fish, it's not going to matter.

If you look at tournament results from last year, compare them to 2010, then compare those results to 2000, the weights are going through the roof. Everyone's saying many fisheries are getting so good - and they might be improving given all of the enhanced conservation efforts. But, these advanced electronics are allowing us to find and catch fish we didn't know existed 20 years ago.

You definitely have to take your game to the next level. A tournament win 20 years ago would probably be 80^th place today, given the increased weights.

You have to continue pushing and looking for the newest thing to target the biggest fish in that lake that wasn't biting. Using these highly sophisticated electronics, we can find big fish we couldn’t see before and experiment with different baits and methods to get them to bite.

What do you like about Humminbird technology?

Garett: It’s mostly just personal preference because other brands offer great technologies as well.

I like touchscreen units when I'm driving at high speed because I think it's easier and safer to scroll around while in motion.

Also, I'm just really familiar with the technology—how they structure their menus and settings, for instance.

I also like their LakeMaster mapping technology—they've mapped lakes, shown the contours, etc. Having access to that knowledge is important to me, especially when fishing a new lake in a tournament.