Great Lakes Tournament Ace Demos High-tech System for Finding Big Water Smallmouths
OutdoorHub 08.20.13
Call Joe Balog an underwater explorer, a treasure hunter of bronzebacks. Think Jacques Cousteau, Great Lakes style. To date, the Michigan angler has brought to surface hundreds of thousands of dollars in bass bounty—tournament winnings from lakes St. Clair and Erie, extracted from virtual underwater goldmines.
Balog doesn’t scuba dive these old shipwrecks. He doesn’t need to. Rather, underwater surveillance occurs inside his bass boat. Armed with an arsenal of electronics, Balog uses Side Imaging sonar, GPS and an underwater camera to unlock a treasure chest of priceless hotspots.
While we can’t all be hunting fish during this week’s Plano’s Champion Chase BASS Elite Series event on Lake St. Clair, everyone can hop aboard Balog’s boat and learn a valuable lesson in underwater bass behavior.
