But how on earth did we catch fish in the past?

By Patrick Campeau

Fishing is Canada’s number one consumer activity. In this country, there are more anglers than hockey players and golfers combined.

Fishing has been around since the dawn of time. At one time, it was an obligation. You would head out to the lake or river with a single goal in mind: to catch enough specimens to feed your family and to stock up on provisions to be able to survive during eventual tougher times.

Over the years, fishing has evolved from a sustenance-oriented obligation to a relaxing outdoor pursuit. Nowadays, fishing is a way to relax, unwind and have fun.

Experience

Our grandfathers fished by instinct. Their experience and knowledge enabled them to tease the various species by groping. Since we didn’t really have any tools for locating and searching the marine world, we did the best we could. We used our noses, we tried to read the surface of the water, then we observed the weather conditions and other natural phenomena.

These keen observers realized that winds, lunar phases, cold fronts, barometric fluctuations, etc., all had positive and negative influences in certain respects on the various species. Without any sophisticated apparatus, the best analysts could predict, for example, that fishing is good when the wind is from the west, as it is three days before or after the full and new moons when the pressure is stable and so on.

A revolution

The first sonar for the fishing world was Lowrance’s “Little Green Box” which appeared on the market in 1959. It was a light-beam device. A few years later in 1965, the same company developed a transducer that operated at high speeds.

Then came Humminbird’s Super Sixty waterproof models back in 1975. Then we had to wait for another decade before we saw a major breakthrough in LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) technology. Later we experienced  interesting developments such as 3D technology.

Imagine, we could now locate fish under our hull. It was an extraordinary assistance for enthusiasts.

Valuable help

The yellow and blue bathymetric charts from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Hydrographic Service have been available for some time now. They provide a wealth of invaluable information such as the presence of tributaries, reefs, marinas, navigational buoys and so on. However, the details most appreciated by amateurs are undoubtedly those that lead to the discovery of structures of all kinds that allow fish to hide to hunt or not to be hunted. Thanks to these paper documents which over the years have become digital files, we no longer fished blindly. We knew more or less where the potentially productive spots were.

What was incredibly notable was the integration of navigational aids, assisted by Loran-C in 1988 and then followed by the famous GPS in 2002. The latter literally revolutionized the market. Instead of calculating the positions of various locations with a protractor on a map, all you have to do is look at the screen to find out the exact location of any reefs or structures in the form of longitudes and latitudes.

In danger of extinction

Age inevitably brings with it a certain amount of experience. The older we get, the more knowledge we accumulate at many levels which in many cases makes our work easier and gives us an advantage over young people who are just waiting to learn.

Since 1967, the professional Bassmaster circuit in the U.S. has been dominated largely by gray-headed or at least mature, men. This was normal and these were the people with the most knowledge, the most experience, the most places visited and the most competitions accumulated. Although they fished by instinct, they all targeted pretty much the same kinds of fishy spots.

Then, at the turn of the century, we saw a tangent. The winners were getting younger and younger. There was nothing to understand. For example, pro Rick Clunn had tried his luck quite possibly 10 times, if not 20 times more often at Lake of the Ozarks than new recruits. He has a track record, he knows the spots, he’s seen several other competitors catch fish, etc. But now he’s struggling to keep up with the competition. However, he’s now struggling to keep up the pace, no longer able to rank himself. The leading pack is now mainly made up of youngsters. Amazing, isn’t it?

Nowadays, the majority of enthusiasts use forward-facing sonar and GPS equipped with bathymetric charts. No one really has an advantage in this respect apart from the rookies who explore sites that have been virtually unexploited until now.

Technological boom

In 2015, Garmin launched Panoptix Scanning technology. Users could easily see what was hiding beneath and in front of them. Then in 2018, eureka! The award-winning LiveScope system was launched and followed by the even more powerful LiveScope Plus which displays clearer images with better target separation. In fact, it’s the ultimate. This Garmin reader allows enthusiasts to scan in the form of an ultrasound, the sites below it, but 100 times better as well as the locations ahead of its position up to 61 meters away. With a beam width of 20 x 135 degrees, a transmission power of 500 watts and frequencies from 530 to 1,100 kHz, the lucky owner of such a machine can expect an accuracy of 14 inches at 100 feet. Just imagine with the LiveScope XR LVS62, it’s possible to explore the depths with an extended range of up to 152 meters in freshwater.

What this means is that with a transducer like Garmin’s LiveScope Plus LVS34 connected to an EchoMap or GPSMAP device and installed on the shaft of the electric motor, the angler can literally see ahead of him whether there are fish or not. It’s simple: if you can’t see anything, it’s because there isn’t anything there! So now it’s easy to explore the shallows and fish not by instinct, but almost magically. The user is officially one step ahead when using such products.

Well supported

In those days, the transducer was installed on a pole that had to be turned manually. We used Power-Pole electromechanical shallow-water anchors or the electric motor anchoring system. We would get a reading of the analyzed location and we instantly knew whether there would be any action or not.

Fishermen would then install them on the shaft of their electric motor. In many cases, unfortunately, the transducer’s power cable was cut or broken as a result of false maneuvers or extreme pivoting.

Nowadays, some high-efficiency brushless motor such as the Garmin Force allow the trouble-free installation of a transducer like the LiveScope Plus for example. The anchor lock feature provides the most precise boat positioning technology with new multi-band GPS, plus reverse prop spin and calm-water cable unwrap help reduce motor activity. You can even make speed and steering adjustments wirelessly from anywhere on the boat with the included foot pedal or included remote with gesture control. So you can scan all axes slowly and smoothly to find the best specimens.

The difference between then and now is simple… You scan different areas and when you see fish, all you have to do is target them and get them to react. It’s a far cry from the days when you had to make hundreds and hundreds of blind casts to achieve your goal.

Good fishing.

Patrick Campeau is a professional fisherman and a three-time provincial champion, inducted into the Canadian Pantheon of Fishing. Find out more about Patrick Campeau at www.pcampeau.com or  www.facebook.com/lapassiondepatrickcampeau