Humminbird ONIX Finds Fish Faster: Crappie Case Study
OutdoorHub 04.21.14
Humminbird Field Marketing Manager Bill Carson is an honest-to-goodness fishhead. Left to his druthers, he’d spend every waking minute aboard his center console boat teaching fellow anglers how to find and catch more fish with electronics.
As the former Tournament Director of the now-defunct Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series, Carson knows a thing or two about finding and catching fish, especially brawny pelagics, although he’s just at home fishing crappies on freshwater lakes, rivers and reservoirs, especially in the spring and fall.
“There’s still that kid in me that absolutely delights in catching crappies,” says Bill Carson. “Plus, when it comes to table fare, they’re awfully hard to beat.”
Truth is, since the recent launch of the Humminbird ONIX at the 2013 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show, Carson has been using the powerful new technology to find and catch pretty much everything that swims: from largemouth and spotted bass to stripers and walleyes to crappies and redfish.
“Second only to bass, panfish are America’s fish. So a big part of Humminbird’s job should be to show anglers how our technologies can help them find more panfish faster. And ONIX is the cat’s pajamas. It gives anglers an unprecedented level of customization, so a bass fisherman can set it up for the way he fishes, a walleye guy, redfish angler, crappie fisherman and so on.”
Just this past week, Carson took a break to fish crappies on Georgia’s famed Lake Lanier. Running two ONIX10ci HD SI units, one at his console, the other on the bow, Carson says the new units are amazingly fast, powerful, customizable and easy to use. “ONIX eliminated a ton of guesswork and put me on crappies fast.”
Like a lot of waters in the country right now, Carson found crappies pushing up shallower from wintering areas to pre-stage near shallower spawning habitat on Georgia’s Lake Lanier.
“These pre-staging areas can mean areas close to structure, like wood or docks. On Lanier manmade structure is key. For example, I can idle by a boat that’s backed into the water off a dock and and the outdrives will actually hold fish. It’s not unusual to find crappies hanging around the crud on a lower unit hanging in the water.”
Carson’s typical M.O. is idling parallel to docks with Side Imaging, looking for fish in and around the floating platforms, pilings and underwater cover. His favors the larger, shaded platforms of community docks which often hold massive schools of crappies.
“Side Imaging allows you to quickly identify which docks have fish on them and which don’t. It’s a great filter. No wasted time on areas with no fish.”
Yet, as was the case on Carson’s recent outing, a cold front moved in, pushing crappies away from docks and out over adjacent, deeper water.
“There just weren’t the numbers of fish under the docks that there should have been. So, I looked to the other side of the boat away from the docks with Side Imaging. Once I found them with ONIX I was able to highlight a specific depth contour and keep idling that depth contour until I found the biggest schools.”
