BUZZBAIT
UNFAIR ADVANTAGE
RICHIE BEKOLAY'S SIDE-SCAN TRANSDUCER STICKS BELOW HIS BOAT FOR THE BEST
Why fish can’t hide from side-scan sonar
“There they are,” Dave Narr yelled and pointed 20 yards off his bow. “Where?” I looked into the silty-green water expecting to see a big school of
40-pound red drum. Nothing. Jeff was already making a cast. As soon as his lure hit the water, big reds exploded in every direction. You see, I was looking for fish with my eyes while Jeff was using side-scan
sonar. All the preparation, travel, paddling, searching, sweating, cursing and suffering would have been for nothing, if it hadn’t been for Jeff ’s side-scan unit. I ordered one the next day. Before making the big leap, I called Bill Carson a product manager at Hum-
minbird and asked him to explain the difference between regular sonar and side-view. “Traditional sonar uses a round ceramic disk in the transducer to shoot a
beam of sound beneath the boat,” he explained. The beam bounces off any- thing hard and returns an image of structure and fish. “Side-scan sonar uses a long, thin transducer that shoots a beam up to 150 feet to each side of the boat,” he continued, “You can see fish and structure, even paddle strokes.” Carson told me of new, smaller side-view units that draw less electricity; a
big concern for kayak anglers with limited power capacity. Carson suggested I speak to Johnson Outdoors pro, Richie Bekolay, who uses a side-view unit to target offshore and inshore species out of Navarre Beach, Florida. Bekolay told me his first time using a side-scan unit he was fishing for big
VIEW OF FISH AND STRUCTURE. PHOTOS: RICHIE BEKOLAY
red drum. “I marked the fish 50 feet to the right, made a cast and hooked up immediately,” he bragged. Bekolay uses the unit to track down everything from largemouth to king mackerel. “I can see creek beds, depressions, humps, rocks and fish.” When he spots something interesting, Bekolay can mark it on his GPS display. This comes in handy when he’s trolling offshore. “I will troll while using Side Imaging to locate structure that would be per-
fect for bottom fish such as snapper and grouper.” In freshwater, Bekolay uses the unit to find fish in heavy cover. “I can actually see bass holding under docks,” he says. Bekolay suggests taking a new unit for a test drive in clear water with vis-
ible structure. “It takes some practice to identify structure and fish,” he says. “The more I study the details, the more I can recognize what I’m marking on the machine.” Another tip: Bekolay suggests mounting the transducer so it can be raised
and lowered. “The transducer needs to hang below the hull,” he explains. He can get a full day out of a 12-volt, 7-amp rechargeable battery. "Battery life depends on how many tasks the unit is processing," Bekolay says. Fifty years ago, the U.S. military developed side-scan sonar to detect en-
emy submarines and submerged mines; now kayak anglers can use the same technology to detect fish and structure. “Side-scan saves time and energy,” Bekolay says, “when every paddle stroke counts.” RIC BURNLEY
(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT)
HUMMINBIRD’S HELIX 5 SI: FIVE-INCH SCREEN, SIDE IMAGE, DOWN IMAGE AND GPS WITH UNIMAP BASEMAP. $499.99 |
WWW.HUMMINBIRD.COM
GARMIN ECHOMAP 73SV: SEVEN-INCH SCREEN, DOWNVU AND SIDEVU SONAR, GPS AND TRANSOM AND TROLLING MOTOR TRANSDUCERS INCLUDED. $999.99 |
WWW.GARMIN.COM
LOWRANCE HDS 5M GEN 2: STRUCTURESCAN HD SONAR, GPS, WIRELESS VIEWING ON SMARTPHONE OR TABLET. $499.99 |
WWW.LOWRANCE.COM
18 … KAYAK ANGLER
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