Sport Fishing USA — January 2018

SPORTFISHINGMAG.COM 37

focused in about 120. Over the
course of a week or two [with tracks
on], you can see that maybe they’re
focusing between 120 and 150  feet. It
becomes apparent.”
Because he targets migrating
fish, he does a master reset on his
Raymarines at the end of each fishing
year. Other captains, particularly those
who tournament-fish or bottomfish for
species such as snapper and grouper,
religiously catalog their points and
tracks on SD cards by region. Or, like
Wilds, they organize them on their
MFDs by location, depth, federal/state
water areas or other factors.

LONG-TERM TRACKS

“I’ve got tracks for 10 years,” says
tournament captain Mark Maus, who
runs his Yellowfin 36 — equipped
with two Simrad NSS evo3s and a
Simrad GO9 — out of Sarasota, Florida.
“I  download everything to cards, and
then I isolate my stuff to two areas.”
Maus uses tracks to troll for a
variety of species and to help him
navigate back to unfamiliar locations.
He also employs Simrad’s TrackBack
feature on his sonar to enter waypoints
when he sees something new.
Simrads display seven full screens
of TrackBack history for anglers to
scroll through. Touch the sonar screen
or the main input key, and a waypoint
automatically drops onto the plotter.
When targeting white marlin, Maus
says, tracks also come in handy. “White
marlin run in wolf packs. If we hang a
white, and it takes 20 minutes for us to
get it to the boat, I can go back, based
on the track, and hang another one.
There’s no reason to drop a waypoint to
save for later because they’re moving.”
If he’s pre-fishing an area for sails,
he might mark 20 or 30 waypoints
where he found bait. The next day,
though the bait will have moved, Maus
says he’ll run-and-gun the points
because “something will have held bait
in those locations.”

COLOR CHANGES

Capt. Greg Shute fishes much of the
Chesapeake Bay out of his 27-foot
Judge. He uses his Furuno TZtouch2

TREASURE HUNTING

Tournament captain Bill Platt keeps

his data on SD cards based on region.

“I can see where I catch fish year after

year. The plotter is a computer now,

not just a navigation chart.”

Platt fishes a SeaHunter 39 with

triple Yamaha F350s; his boat is

equipped with the Yamaha Helm

Master system and with three Garmin

7612 MFDs. “A big mistake people make

is they pull up at a waypoint and look

and see no fish there,” he says. “I  start

looking around. A lot of times the fish

move. If I mark them again, I see which

way the current is running and drift

past the fish. Then I use a track to come

back around and fish them.”

He uses his Helm Master’s Set Point

function to stay on the fish and keep the

stern to the current. If the fish move, he

drifts again and watches his track.

“I find so much stuff looking around

my different waypoints,” he adds. “If I

run a charter, I go to a spot and I look all

around. It’s like finding treasure.”

and 1870 units when he’s drift-fishing

for stripers. “Usually, I’ll have a point

or something I’m trying to drift over.

I set up and drift the first time and can

follow a parallel line to the track to

make sure I hit the spot again,” he says.

Shute employs several Furuno-

specific technologies on his plotter,

including a two-finger touch, which

automatically drops a waypoint, and

a color-changing tool that varies the

track’s color with either temperature

fluctuations or bottom-type changes.

“I can zigzag over areas while

looking for fish and note where the

bottom composition changes,” he says.

“I will then use where I see the color

changes in conjunction with marks

I had on the fish finder.”

Shute also changes the actual color

of a given day’s track so that he can

tell the different trips he has made. By

looking at the tracks and waypoints

he has used, he can tell where he has

fished and where he has caught fish.

Normally he deletes the data every two

weeks or so.

JANUARY 2018 / VOL 33 — ISSUE 1

FURUNO

On Furuno plotter screens, anglers can make

their boat’s track change colors based on water

temperature or bottom composition.

RAYMARINE

Capt. Terry Nugent leaves tracks on while he’s

fi shing so he can drop waypoints where he sees

bait or hooks up to create a hot-spot map.

HUMMINBIRD

Capt. Phillip Wilds uses tracks or traces contour

lines to fi sh back through with his Minn Kota

trolling motor, which is connected to his plotter.

SIMRAD

Watching your boat’s tracks as you fi sh a piece

of structure can help you better line up for the

perfect drift or improve your trolling path.