HOW
TO USE C-MAP ELECTRONIC CHARTS TO CATCH MORE FISH – TIPS FROM
THE PROS
With today's cutting-edge GPS/Chart Plotters and detailed
electronic cartography, you can easily chart a course to the most
productive fishing areas in any selected region. These advanced electronic
tools help you navigate to specific hot-spots, mark them, and plot
strategic drifts. Here's how some experienced fishing pros use their
advanced chart plotters and CMAP electronic chart cards significantly
increase their fishing success:
Finding
and Fishing Key West Patch Reefs
By
Capt. Robert “RT” Trossett
Boat: 36 Yellowfin center console
The sandy sea bottom around Key West, Florida is
scattered with small coral outcroppings – known as “patch
reefs” -- that are natural fish magnets. A variety of fun-to-catch
fish like various snappers, groupers, barracuda, African Pompano,
cero mackerel and even king mackerel can be found in and around these
reefs, making them a reliable destination for private boat anglers.
“I love the patch reefs, because of the variety
of fish and the fact there’s usually always something biting,”
said Robert “RT” Trosset, a world-famous guide with about
150 current and pending I.G.F.A. world records to his credit. RT offers
this trip of tips for anglers on using C-MAP electronic charts:
Set up with Pinpoint Accuracy: Proper
boat positioning is key to fishing all reefs, wrecks and structure.
Anchor too far away – your chum won’t reach the reef and
have the desired effect. Too close — you’ll overshoot
the reef, or get broken off by bigger fish. With a highly accurate
GPS and C-MAP charts, you can always be set up no matter what the
wind or current is doing.
Check Your Perimeter: Look for predatory
gamefish like barracuda, jacks or mackerel to be attracted to the
activity your chum as created. They will frequently stay around the
outside edges of the reef, so try trolling around the outskirts if
you want to target them.
Record Your Success: A GPS/chart
plotter C-MAP electronic charts lets you store data like an electronic
fishing log, with dates, times and what you caught. You’ll quickly
figure out patterns as to which areas produce best during certain
conditions.
Catch Kings Like a Pro
By
Capt. Bob Clement
Boat: Fountain 34 CC
Bob heads
up the eight-boat professional Southern Kingfish Association (SKA)
401K Fishing Team. He hits more than 12 tournaments a year up and
down the Gulf of Mexico -- including the prestigious SKA National
Championships – honing his talents for finding and catching
this fast predatory gamefish.
Together
with his wife and team partner Capt. Julie Clement, Bob offers these
tips on how using your chart plotter and C-MAP electronic charts can
help novices and experienced weekend warriors catch more king mackerel
on every trip.
Plan With Your Plotter: Our whole team sits down the evening before
to plan the next day using our chart plotters. We pinpoint the locations
we want to fish, enter the numbers, and when morning comes, we just
put the pointer on the first spot and hit go. With a lot of water
to cover and a set weigh-in time, you have to make the best use of
every minute.
Troll
More Effectively: My C-MAP charts show me the bottom structure
I’m looking for – roll downs, ledges, and drop-offs --
so I can pick out the contours I want to fish. You want to troll right
on a contour line where the fish are going to be. By using your chart
plotter, you won’t waste time veering off course or duplicating
unproductive trolling patterns.
Mark
Every Strike: As soon as we get a strike, we hit “event”
on our plotter. Then we go right back to that area. Kings usually
run in pairs or small schools and are attracted to an area by bait.
By immediately hitting the same water you can usually pick of another
one. By returning immediately to the same zone, you narrow down your
search and spend more time fishing where the fish are.
Northeast
Striper Tips
Capt.
Jennifer Clarke
Boat Contender 31 CC
This
Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts resident is not your typical
lady angler – or for that matter, your typical striped bass
pro. Her idea of a great time is “being in my boat, running
in bad water, hunting big stripers by myself.” Among this seasoned
pro’s numerous tournament wins and angling achievements was
topping a field of prestigious professional anglers as the American
Striper Association’s 2001 Angler of the Year.
Because she likes to hunt stripers all by herself in challenging weather
and water conditions, Clarke relies heavily on her Simrad CA-42 combo
unit and detailed C-MAP electronic charts. She offers these tips that
striper anglers of all kinds can use to fish more effectively.
Pinpoint
Critical Structure: In areas without a lot of bottom structure,
it’s important to find what structure there is and fish tight
to it. For example, the Chesapeake Bay doesn’t have much structure,
which makes finding and following the underwater river channel critical
to success. Your chart plotter and C-MAP charts will help you find
these areas and fish right along the edge.
Work
the Rips: Everybody knows to find striped bass along the
“rips” created by strong tidal flow. Your chart plotter
and C-MAP electronic charts can help you fish these areas far more
effectively. Stripers won’t be evenly distributed across these
areas; they’ll be stacked up in key ambush areas. Whether you’re
drifting or trolling, mark every strike or hookup on your plotter
and you’ll soon have a graphic pattern, of where the fish are.
Then narrow down your hunt to these fishy areas.
Find
the Sandy Shoals. If I see a sandy, finger like shoal on
my C-MAP charts in 15 to 40 feet of water, I’ll often troll
the area with wire line. Stripers might stack up on top of the shoal
or along the edges of the drop off, and by using my fishfinder and
electronic charts together I’m able to target the fish zone
exactly. You don’t want to have to change the depth of your
troll, and you definitely don’t want to drag your lures or umbrella
rigs on the bottom.
Catching
Wallhanger Walleye
Perry Good
Boat: 2025 Lund
Angler
Perry Good works hard to stay on the top of his game – and his
game is catching big walleyes. That’s why he is consistently
a top finisher on both the PWT and RCL Professional Walleye tours,
and is among the nation’s top all-time money winners. Life on
the road is hard, the fish are tough and the competition is even tougher.
Good counts on his Raymarine chart plotter and C-MAP’s detailed
bottom contour charts of the nation’s most popular lakes and
inland waters to give him the edge. He offers this advice to help
you catch more fish, too.
Focus
on River Channels. In many reservoirs, walleye will often
be located along old river channels. The detail of C-MAP’s Super
Lakes electronic charts will help find these channels and position
your boat over them. By referencing your depthsounder you can search
for where the walleye are holding and present your baits or lures
in the best way.
Repeat Suspenders. In big waters like the Great Lakes, walleye can
be suspended anywhere there’s food. You won’t always find
them near structure, so you need to stay on the fish once you find
them. My Raymarine and C-MAP charts help me follow the schools of
fish by saving the location of each strike. When I troll through the
same area again, it’s not unusual to pick up another fish or
two in the same spot.
Practice Makes Perfect: In tournaments, you practice fish before the
event and save all he data about where you fished and where you caught
fish. When the money’s on the line, you’ve got a good
idea of the patterns and the C-MAP charts put it right in front of
you. Recreational anglers can do the same thing by building a database
of trips to their home waters and marking where fish were holding
and where they were caught. Whether you’re a pro or an amateur,
it’s all about learning from what you’ve done before. |
