Everyone has a favorite gadget or gizmo that enhances the boating experience. For our editor, it’s the power of today’s fish finders.

When i started out as a newspaper reporter, I wrote my stories on an Apple II computer—about the size of a real apple—complete with an eye-unfriendly black-and-green screen and a memory capacity as limited as mine. It was the day’s best technology, though, and we marveled at it. It was a far cry from the Brother word processor that got me through college. ¶ Today, it seems that there is more computing power in my smartphone than NASA had in its entire arsenal when it sent men to the moon. How far we’ve come. Similar leaps and bounds have been made in the world of marine electronics—more specifically, in fish-finding gear, a technology I’m always interested in on personal and professional levels. ¶ The best-in-class marine technology I used as a kid was a paper chart recorder. It was mesmerizing. My dad piloted his boat across open water, and little gray lines were frantically scribbled on a piece of paper scrolling across the screen. I imagined a Flintstones-like scenario with mice in the machine feverishly chiseling out those lines. Some of the gray lines sat above the seafloor, which to us meant that there were

Some of the gray lines sat above the seafloor, which to us meant that there were fish below the keel—or we hoped they were fish.

fish below the keel—or we hoped they were fish. We couldn’t tell what fish they were, but they were something. And the little gray lines were hope. ¶ Today, depending upon the fish-finder technology I’m using, I can see fish 360 degrees around the boat. I can separate bait from my targeted fish. I can see fish with air bladders versus fish without them. I can decide where to drop my line on a piece of structure or a wreck and just about pick out the fish I want to target. I can scan off to the sides of the boat to know which side to cast to, and look to where to drop the hook to set over my favorite bottom-fishing spot. I recently heard of a piece of technology coming soon that will let anglers pick their drift-target waypoint, and the machine will tell you where to start the next drift to repeat the same exact drift line every time. Isn’t that incredible? ¶ Heck, anglers can even make their own bathymetric charts, creating a level of detail enhanced further every time the vessel makes a pass over a piece of bottom. More passes, more detail, more advantage. ¶ Luck still plays a part in the angling game, but technology has rolled the odds in the fisherman’s favor. As we prepare for a new season, it’s a great time to be a fisherman. A fish? Not so much.