Summer fishing can be difficult and I have in no way mastered it. The older I get, the less I like the bugs at night and staying up late. I would rather get up at 4:00 and be on the water at daybreak than stay up past midnight. The fish are there, but scattered. Glad Charles has a bimini top on his boat or we couuld not have stayed out there after lunch.

Some have asked in the past why I use 2D and especially, why is the fish symbol turned on. Sitting in the back of the boat, both of us need a quick glace at the Onix to see what is under (or not under) the boat. As much as possible, we use the "Follow the Contour" feature with the I-Pilot. It enables the boat to run itself and stay at a consistent depth. I use the DI and SI features to make sure we are on fish, but the 2D is great for a quick glance.

Here's a shot of Charles and Pop with four of the best fish.

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1. With all the waypoints, think we might have found a few fish!!

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2. The darker side is the deeper side. Shots like this help us determine what depth we should be fishing. We did go deeper and did have some success.

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3. Thought I would share this with you guys. All of us started out with simple boats doing the best we can. I've been fortunate to be able to fish on Charles's boat with a lot of technology. In this shot, you see the heavy gray line in front of the boat. This is the "Follow the Contour" turned on and it looks like set at 12 feet. You are seeing what I see on the boat and maybe this may help some of you in your decision making. To the right are false echos from the shoreline, so look left.

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4. This happened to us last year and again this summer. We have gone up on flats and see lots of fish. We spent some time up on one of the flats today and most of these fish are either perch or I think gizzard shad. They are not anything we want to put in the cooler.

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5. You can see the fish in these shots. Probably the most important thing Charles and I have learned is to find the depth of the day. There is a preferred depth thoughout the year. This shot allows you to see fish in several different areas, especially up the trough to the right with a log and other stuff in it.

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