Last year I was introduced to Insight Genesis. Until that point I thought purchasing a $150-200 chip each time i visited a different region was the only answer to the question "Just what am I looking at?". Far too often I show up at a lake having done homework to find that what I thought was a hump is in fact a hole. Now this isn't necessarily a consistent problem but it happens often enough that it taught me I didn't have all of the tools I needed to get the job done.
Below is a screenshot of one of my uploads form my Bassmaster Central Open practice at Lake Amistad last February. On the left you see contours and on the right traditional sonar log form my Lowrance HDS 9. Now I was able to find what looked like slow tapering point on my Navionics chip. It also showed a fairly accurate target depth of where I had been regularly locating fish.
If you look closely at the sonar you'll notice 2 echos clearly sitting just on top of the hump. I shut down, turned around and fired a Livingston Dive Master 20 and caught a 6 ponder. It couldn't have been anymore textbook. However It was the only one I caught after changing up and trying multiple presentations and angles. That ended up being the theme of the entire event. You could find one or two fish and you needed to make a move. In some cases you could come back to a spot and you may pick up another fish but there were no guarantees. If you didn't mark fish you best move on.
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Now if I would have just looked at what the sonar and my Navionics chip showed, I would have missed the boat totally on just exactly what was drawing these fish to this particular spot. When I went back to the room that evening and uploaded my data I noticed the darker shading on the hump on the opposite side of the point from the main river channel noted in dark blue above. Its a little hard but that darker shading is right on the edge of where the fish were located on this hump. This is where the light switch went off!
For the remainder of practice I was able to use Insight Genesis to record data and generate a more accurate maps. These maps helped me to pinpoint small groups of fish holding near steep break-lines of humps and points near secondary creeks and drains, just opposite of the main channel. This ultimately led to an 18th place finish in the event just one lost keeper on day one kept me from making the top 12 cut. There is no doubt in my mind that without Insight Genesis I would not have been able to locate these sweet spots.
Now I know what your thinking. "This is going to take too much time." or "It has to be expensive.". Well its honestly not. An annual subscription is only $99 and a 2GB SD card is about $10. You can use pretty much any Lowrance unit to log sonar and create your maps. The upload tool makes it really simple to load your files without even having to log in to the website and depending on your internet connection it doesn't take too terribly long to upload.
If you get a chance stop by and check it out at https://insightstore.navico.com/insightgenesis. I genuinely feel like this is truly the future of mapping. If nothing else, it is without a doubt a must have tool to help you unlock the mystery of what ACTUALLY lies beneath!
- Mike Pharr - "The Fishin' Fireman"
