Gravel area with big rock bookends. Our last tournament of the season was on Little Cormorant. The "Top 6" teams from the season based off of 5 events qualified for this event. Lyal and I spent our time prefishing by doing a lot of scanning and game planning and not actually fishing. We had a plan for both shallow and deep fish and used the first 15 minutes of the day to determine what we were going to do. Our first stop was to see if a top water bite was going. We were hoping to get a couple quick 4 pound fish in the boat in short order then go deep and spend the day picking off fish. We didn't catch a keeper in the first 15 minutes and knew right then we were pulling the plug. We had 52 waypoints to hit out deep. Each waypoint was the spot on the spot and an easy indicator of where to pull in and drop the Fortrex with the 360 hanging off the front. No wasted time, no wasted casts, no wasted anything. After 5 quick stops we were using the trolling motor on high to move from one waypoint 50yds to the next. A white streak appeared 40' to the 2 o'clock position and we both fired a drop shot right at the spot. My cast hit the bottom and a few shakes later a 3.94 was in the livewell. We ran to the next spot and doubled up on our first 2 casts. For the next 90 minutes it was pure insanity. Doubles, singles, doubles - there wasn't a time we didn't catch a fish on one of our casts. All of a sudden we had 8 fish for 34lbs in the boat and had our work cut out in trying to cull 4lb fish. After the bite slowed we jumped a bunch of other waypoints waiting for the magic spot to reload. We caught fish on almost every waypoint we hit but they were under 3lbs and no help. On our first stop back at the magic spot Lyal shook his drop shot and stuck a giant. After a perfect fight on the spinning combo a 5+ was netted. We gained a full pound on the cull. The bite slowed again and we let it rest. Right at the end we went back and gave it one more try. Again Lyal set the hook and battled another 5+ to the boat where I netted it. Another 1lb upgrade and we were sitting close to 37lbs. At the weigh-in there was a 32lb bag weighed which is a huge sack in Minnesota. Then a really big bag that went over 34lbs was weighed. We were hoping our scale was right and when our big bag was weighed it hit 36.96lbs. A crazy bag of fish.
So how, what and why? How - We used our electronics to first find the key areas. I'm not talking about scanning for an hour and calling it good. I'm talking many many hours. I have records of scans from 8 years ago and every year since. Plus I put in over 6 hours on the main motor in one day just rechecking and looking for new stuff. This wasn't a 30,000 acre reservoir but a small 1,000 acre lake. The key areas of lake were scanned on 200' passes, 100' on each side of the boat, over the entire lake. Not missing an inch of bottom on our scans. After that was done we uploaded that data to our Reefmaster program on the computer. Now is where the fun begins. You can zoom way in on the scans and make a mosaic where you can see the WHOLE bottom of the lake at once. I can follow the weedlines, the sand spots, the gravel, the rocks and put paths and waypoints on every spot. Once this is done we put the waypoints and paths back in our Humminbird units and we are ready for the attack. Why - this saves a TON of time. With the 360, we pull up to the waypoint on the "spot on the spot" and know we are in position to see it on our screen and make pinpoint casts to the area. No wasted casts - NONE. No casts at just a waypoint with no 360 wondering if the fish are there, wondering if the cast is in the right area, wondering why you're not feeling rocks. Another key which is critical is it allows you to fish in front of the boat, keeping the boat off the sweet spot and not scaring the fish away. We see the structure on our screens, which could be sand, rocks, gravel, etc and make every cast count. Efficiency is unbelievable, every cast you know where you lure is. If the fish are all showing up on the left side of the spot and you don't have a 360, you could be wasting many casts trying to fan cast your waypoint and by the time you get to the "right" side it's the "wrong side" cause the fish moved and you had no idea. When we found the magic spot this day, it was a small 30' by 30' gravel patch with a few big rocks on the side. EVERY SINGLE fish came from that 30' by 30' area. Every time we pitched our drop shots in front of the boat they were on the right spot, and were rewarded with a big fish.
If you have good electronics, put in the time to really learn them and use them. If you are on the fence and not sure they worth it, believe me when I say if you are willing to learn them and use them, they are worth their weight in gold.
So how, what and why? How - We used our electronics to first find the key areas. I'm not talking about scanning for an hour and calling it good. I'm talking many many hours. I have records of scans from 8 years ago and every year since. Plus I put in over 6 hours on the main motor in one day just rechecking and looking for new stuff. This wasn't a 30,000 acre reservoir but a small 1,000 acre lake. The key areas of lake were scanned on 200' passes, 100' on each side of the boat, over the entire lake. Not missing an inch of bottom on our scans. After that was done we uploaded that data to our Reefmaster program on the computer. Now is where the fun begins. You can zoom way in on the scans and make a mosaic where you can see the WHOLE bottom of the lake at once. I can follow the weedlines, the sand spots, the gravel, the rocks and put paths and waypoints on every spot. Once this is done we put the waypoints and paths back in our Humminbird units and we are ready for the attack. Why - this saves a TON of time. With the 360, we pull up to the waypoint on the "spot on the spot" and know we are in position to see it on our screen and make pinpoint casts to the area. No wasted casts - NONE. No casts at just a waypoint with no 360 wondering if the fish are there, wondering if the cast is in the right area, wondering why you're not feeling rocks. Another key which is critical is it allows you to fish in front of the boat, keeping the boat off the sweet spot and not scaring the fish away. We see the structure on our screens, which could be sand, rocks, gravel, etc and make every cast count. Efficiency is unbelievable, every cast you know where you lure is. If the fish are all showing up on the left side of the spot and you don't have a 360, you could be wasting many casts trying to fan cast your waypoint and by the time you get to the "right" side it's the "wrong side" cause the fish moved and you had no idea. When we found the magic spot this day, it was a small 30' by 30' gravel patch with a few big rocks on the side. EVERY SINGLE fish came from that 30' by 30' area. Every time we pitched our drop shots in front of the boat they were on the right spot, and were rewarded with a big fish.
If you have good electronics, put in the time to really learn them and use them. If you are on the fence and not sure they worth it, believe me when I say if you are willing to learn them and use them, they are worth their weight in gold.