High tech electronics take offshore bass fishing to video game level
Story and Photography by Matt Williams

I’ve never been a big fan of video games. In my mind, punching buttons and chasing dancing figures around on a computer or television screen all in the name of running up a meaningless score has always seemed like a big waste of time.
Then along came Lowrance StructureScan, a high definition sonar imaging system that can help you learn things about a lake that you never knew and ultimately find and catch fish away from the bank like never before. I installed the system on my boat about a 1 1/2 years ago and I’ve been playing “Chase the Dots” ever since.
Well, not quite that long.
Like most new users, I cut my electronics teeth with basic 2D/GPS units and was somewhat intimidated by the thought of learning something totally different. So much that I was reluctant to get serious about learning the game for quite a while, even with pair of new state-of-the-art monitors staring me in the face all day long.
For months I kept running the same ol’ water and fishing the same shallow spots I’d been hitting for years. My pro fishing buddies and others already familiar with technology kept telling me what I was missing by not getting off the bank and broadening my horizons.
Todd Driscoll was among them. Driscoll was a Lowrance tech at the time who has since made the switch Garmin, another manufacturer of premium marine electronics.
“Once you get your mind wrapped around this stuff it will change your fishing forever,” Driscoll said. “It will ruin you.”

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