BOATS
36 JANUARY 2018BY CHRIS WOODWARDThe 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
“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.RUN-AND-GUN
Capt. Terry Nugent, who
runs Riptide Charters out
of Cape Cod, Massachusetts,
says he never leaves the
dock without the tracking
turned on for his Raymarine
e165 and e97 multifunc-
tion displays aboard
his Contender 35T and
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. “Some
years, they’re in 250 feet;
some years, they’re moreSTAY ON TRACK
HOW FIVE PROS CATCH MORE FISH WITH CHART PLOTTERS
Wilds operates two
Humminbird Solix 12 multi-
function 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 capabili-
ties 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.captains liken plotters to
computers. Here’s how five of
them use their units to find
and catch more fish.ON THE JOB
“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.” CHRIS WOODWARDBOATS
Tournament captain Mark Maus
engages tracks on his Simrad NSS
evo3 multifunction display.FISH TRIALS + NEW BOATS +ELECTRONICS+ BETTER BOATING