Did SI change where you fish?

[cruiseforever]

Just wondering with all of the advances in depth finders. Has it changed you from a shallow water to a deep water fisherperson?

[bassinboy3]

I still have my shallow to mid depth fishing style, but the new electronics have made it easier and more efficient to go deep if I have to that's for sure.

[delmuts]

It didn't change the depths I fish, but certainly helped me locate things that I would have just driven by without knowing they were even there! Things such as trees, rocks, weeds, or any other objects to the side. It does have/cause a problem some times. You may find yourself just driving around to see what all is in the water!

[bassfshin24]

This was my first year having SI and I definitely spent a lot more time out deep this year. I think before this year the deepest bass I caught was in 12ft maybe and this year I caught a couple out of 20ft+. I still definitely have a lot to learn about SI but I can tell you I sure enjoyed fishing deep this past summer.

[bassinboy3]

Yeah a guy almost needs to spend a whole day on his electronics playing with them and driving around to get used to what and how they read. If you don't know what your looking it they aren't worth having.

[bemidjibasser]

It didn't change the depths I fish, rather allowed me to fish them more effectively.

[RK]

This was my first season with SI. I was already very much a deep water guy to begin with, so it didn't change much in that regard.

What it did do though was help me find new spots more quickly, and help me understand better why some spots I already fished were as good as they are.

Being able to see weedlines and little points and dips in the weedline is cool and all, but having been a weedline guy for so long I was pretty good and snooping those out to begin with. In cases like that SI doesn't tell me all that much more than a crankbait or jig does (a crankbait is the original 'side imaging' as far as I'm concerned) and in some cases it tells me less (weed type, weed condition, etc). Do have to say though that being able to drop a waypoint on them from a distance is pretty slick. So maybe it's more fair to say SI doesn't do it better, but it does do it faster in some cases.

Where it is remarkable is finding bottom transitions and hard bottom areas. I found a lot of rock piles, and in one case a gravel seam in the middle of a sparse coontail flat that was just dynamite this season. I kind of knew there was some hard bottom there to begin with but with SI I was able to map its boundaries in about 3 passes at idle. It shortened the learning curve on how to best approach it from several trips' worth of poking around to a few minutes.

I have not used SI for open water smallies yet - just never got around to it last season - but I definitely will next summer. Excited to try it...

[Todd S.]

I wouldn't say it changed the way I fish, yet. Only got to use it for a limited time on a new to me rig I got in August, but I think it will in the future. Bassinboy3 is spot on, need to take time to learn usage and understanding, I think I only scratched the surface of understanding what I'm seeing. I "liked" lowrance on another social media site and I'm amazed at all the screen shots they post with descriptions of what you are looking at, it's freakishly cool! If soft water allows I intend on spending a couple days in April just driving around on the water just to learn more and see if I can learn something new about a couple of lakes that I "think" I know everything about.

[thatoneguy]

Quote:

Where it is remarkable is finding bottom transitions and hard bottom areas.

Yep. This has been an incredible time-saver for me, and is useful not only for bass fishing but also on those rare occasions I get bored enough to chase walleyes.

[Deitz Dittrich]

As many have said, it really didn't change how I fished, but made finding new spots easier, and made my deep time more efficient.