ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Matt Allen and Tim Little are well-known big-bass experts who own Tactical Bassin , a website and social media channels dedicated to educating the public about bass fishing .

implifying today ’ s electronics might seem like a bit of an oxymoron , especially when you consider the tech packed into what ’ s bolted on bass boats these days . As anglers , we ’ re always looking for the next new thing to help us catch more fish . Maybe it ’ s a new rod and reel combo , a new bait or the latest and greatest in fish finder technology . Recent advancements in sonar technology have a lot of anglers wanting to add more and more electronics options to their boats , but honestly , what good is all this technology if you don ’ t know how to use it properly ?

Firstly – and this is important – don ’ t go broke buying your electronics . If you ’ re in

the market for a new fish finder , buy only the nicest electronics you can afford . Most marine electronics companies these days make it easy to link multiple units and to network them so you can add another unit later if you so choose .

For years , we ran with two fish finders on our boats – one at the console and one at the bow . Recently , we ’ ve added a second unit at the console for a very specific purpose : mapping . Traveling tens of thousands of miles per year around the country to fish , we rely on our electronics a lot , not just to find fish or key locations to fish but to safely navigate waterways we aren ’ t familiar with . As such , we wanted a

screen specifically for mapping so we could safely navigate each fishery .

For the second unit at the console , we typically run a split-screen with side imaging , down imaging , and 2D sonar . The unit at the bow is networked to the two units at the console so they can communicate and share waypoints and information off the other transducers . Usually , the unit at the bow is set up on a split screen and split between mapping ( used for 2D sonar ) and down imaging .

Now that you have a picture of how our boats are set up and why that works for us , let ’ s talk about a few tips that will help you out on the water .