Page 92 - South Mississippi Living - Ocotber, 2022

SPORTS & OUTDOORS
LUNKER
LOCATING
story and photos by
John N. Felsher
Sound Advice for Anglers Looking for the Biggest Fish
Years ago, my dad would search for a particular tree when we went fishing. He positioned the boat in a line between that distant tree and another landmark in the opposite direction. Without a trolling motor or sonar unit on our boat, we sometimes had to use the outboard to make slight adjustments until we hit the right spot to drop anchor.
Depth finders grew out of the sonar technology used for anti-submarine warfare during World War II. Since the early “flasher” units that came out after the war, technology made huge leaps. Modern electronics can do so much more than simply determine the water depth. Also called “fish finders” for decades, modern high-tech sonar units really live up to that moniker now.
Many high-tech units display incredibly detailed information about what lurks below. Today, anglers can even “see” fish. Based upon their movements and shape, catfish look like catfish and crappie look like crappie complete with moving fins and tails swishing back and forth, images generated entirely by soundwaves. It almost looks like a video.
Just like in the old days, but with
tremendously better detail, a transducer shoots sound pulses through the water. When those waves hit a solid object, they “echo” back to the receiving device. The unit then processes the data and displays an image on a screen.
With the transducer mounted on
the trolling motor, the beam goes in whichever direction the motor points. Anglers who know how to interpret the
92 | October 2022
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