Bass Fishing Nov - Dec 2017 | Page 45

screen, created a horizontal view on a map,” Huff says. “It’s taking the exact same signal that you’ve always seen on a sonar display to a map view.” The system “picks up” vegetation information as well, though it only maps vegetation when at least 20 percent of the water column is comprised of grass. Short carpets of grass won’t register. Social Mapping The foundation of the C-Map Genesis system is “social mapping,” which is the company’s term for crowd-sourced map data. How it works is an angler records sonar data while on the water using any Lowrance HDS Gen2 or newer unit, including the Elite Ti series, uploads that information to a cloud-based system, and then the information is compiled with other users’ data to create more detailed maps. Through C-Map Genesis, any angler can create a free account and have access to the complete Social Map data- base. Just sign up for the Genesis Social membership, slip an SD or Micro-SD card (depending on which type your sonar unit accepts) into a computer, and download the maps. Pop the card in the depth finder to pull up the maps. Creating a new map is simple, too, by punching a three- button sequence. The Lowrance will record the data, which can then be uploaded to the Social Map site. The system con- verts the information to a map for the user to download back onto the card and use, but it becomes available to other users as well. Private, Premium Mapping Options If you’re not willing to share your mapping info with other anglers (and who could blame you?), C-Map Genesis offers an alternative in its Genesis Edge program, which costs $99 per year or $14.99 per month. Genesis Edge allows users to download the same crowd- sourced maps and contribute new information if they desire. But Genesis Edge subscribers can also choose to keep their custom-made maps private. The other big advantages are the bottom hardness and vegetation maps, which aren’t available with the free membership. They show anglers important transition areas, edges and structures for position- ing the boat just right for casts. Huff, an avid angler himself, has tapped into both bottom hardness and vegetation mapping with good success on lakes spanning from Florida to Minnesota. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM HOW TO MAP: START RECORDING 1. Insert an sD or micro-sD card into the depth finder head unit, and bring up the chart. 2. select “chart options.” 3. select “advanced.” 4. select “Record sonar.” 5. a red flashing dot indicates that the unit is recording. “I’m so spoiled now because I can hardly launch the boat without it,” he says. “Every time you make a cast, you know you’re actually throwing to something that might have a fish on it. “Let’s say you’re in Florida, and you’re going along a whole bunch of yards and yards and yards of weed edges, and there’s one little area that’s a shell bed,” says Huff. “Sometimes it might just be the size of a boat, and then it’s surrounded by muck or sand or something like that. Those little spots will stick out on your bottom hardness map.” Instead of casting toward a waypoint on a shell bed, the map shows the outline of the shell bed, so the angler can position the boat via GPS for a pitch or cast to any part of the structure. It works the same way in mucky, mud-bot- tom lakes – with hard-bottom rock veins and the like stand- ing out. In deeper grass lakes, rather than having to hover over the edge of a deep grass bed to make accurate presenta- tions, now you can graph the grass edge first and have a per- fect picture of the points, cuts and other features. It’s also helpful for patterning fish. For example, bass might be situated on hard-bottom points in a particular depth range, or on shell beds along the edge of a grass bed, or on points on the outside edge of a weedline. With the map, those types of spots are obvious. And in spring or fall, the maps help highlight transition pathways in reservoirs, where bass might leave spawning areas and follow a series of points, channels, rocky banks or grass beds into deeper water. The combination of contours, hardness and vegetation on the map paints a complete pic- ture if the entire area has been scanned. “For small lakes I would use the Genesis map the entire time if it’s a complete map,” adds Huff. “If I go to Mille Lacs [or any large lake], and the entire lake doesn’t have Genesis data, but a lot of the best spots do, I’d switch to a more complete map for navigation, basically any time I have my big motor running, but when I stand up to go on my trolling motor I’d switch to my Genesis map.” Color Gradation C-Map Genesis “shows” its users important information using colors and shades. For instance, the darker the shade of blue, the deeper the water. Grass, logically, shows up as green. And bottom hardness ranges from dark orange for the hardest bottom to lighter orange, tan and pale yellow for the softest bottom. Users can also highlight specific depth ranges on their Lowrance units, which is handy for avoiding dangerous shal- low obstructions or quickly dialing in on a specific zone throughout a fishery. The depth shading is also handy for locating shallow areas with deep access nearby, which is a common productive scenario at certain times of year. 43