One of the ways that crappie pro Kent Driscoll has stayed on top of tournament leader boards has been by mastering the use of the newest sonar technology, and he relies on it as much as anything in his boat.
“My Humminbird 1197 is a unit that uses the side-imaging and down-imaging technology to give you a 180-degree view of what’s under your boat,” said Driscoll, who is from Atlanta. “This unit is revolutionizing crappie fishing. It has built-in GPS mapping, and you can put it in split- screen mode and see where you are at on the map of the left side of the screen and then see what structure is below you using down-imaging on the right side of the screen. You can even split the screen three ways and use the side-imaging function to get an even better view of what’s around you. This stuff has nearly picture-image clarity, too.”
Unlike traditional sonar, which may use arches or even cartoonish fish icons to show what’s under the boat, Driscoll said the side-imaging and down-imaging sonar require an adjustment in thinking about sonar.
“Crappie holding in structure will look like suspended grains of rice,” he said, “but I’m not just looking for crappie. I’d really like to see bait, too, like a school of shad. They will show up as a white cloud suspended around whatever structure your fishing. When you can find these four things in one location – bait, cover, crappie, and a ledge – then it’s just a matter of connecting the dots to catch fish.”
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