Bass fishing love their real-time imagers, inshore fish love their side-scanners, and these days more and more onshore fish are adapting 360-fishfinders. With thousands of feet of range, the Furuno CSH8LMK2 360 Omni, which is the height of all-around seeing abroad pelagics, has become increasingly popular on large ships looking for tunas and billfish. But it’s also limited to large ships. Really large boats, because it requires the installation of a transmitter that is basketball-sized and retracts into a hole inside the boat. Finally there’s cost to acquire, since equipment and installation is likely to move north of the$ 100, 000 level. If your ship is not a yacht with 50 or more legs, forget about it.
Wait a minute – certainly so quick. You may not be able to teleport through an everyman’s center system, but now you can begin a 360-degree scouting expedition. The first and most popular uses a rulebook that bass players use. Saltwater machines with trolling motors today have access to real-time and 360-degree imaging, giving you views up to 350 feet. You can also rig real-time imaging via a separate dedicated transducer deployed on a pole mount ( like Humminbird’s Mega 360 Universal ). Does it pay off for an offshore fishing? This turn the question around: the next time you go to a equipment, do you find it helpful to know exactly where the bass are hovering around? Would it be helpful to know that all the mahi are 200 feet away on the other side when you approach a marijuana grain? We thought thus.
Another option is” searchlight” sonar, which sends out rotational pings at 360 degrees. These do n’t have quite the range ( about half ) nor speed of an Omni ( it can take up to 15 seconds to paint the all-around view ) but they’re still pretty darn impressive, cost a fraction of the Omni, are offered by several different manufacturers, and require half as much space.
But, do you “need” 360-degree fish-finding features abroad? Of course no; for as long as we’ve been fishing, the majority of us have. But, does it help you catch more bass? People who you speak with that’s used it did suggest “yes” without fear. Bring your own conclusion … and then get ready to draw down that lender account.
