Just know the species, seasonal patterns and follow some old school rules.

Story and photography by Brian Hughes

I can still remember my first real brand new bass boat. It was the early 90s and I was getting my guide business going. Prior to that boat I’d had canoes, jon boats and even a little fiberglass “Puddle Jumper.” All of those got me on the water, but none were ideal for taking other people fishing. Being young and broke, I had to be careful when it came to spending money, but I had to have a bigger, better boat if I was going to guide. (On a side note, I am proud to report that after these many, many years of hard work my position is much different, I’ve managed to now be old!)

The point is that the new boat I bought had the very latest in fish finding graph technology. That would be the Lowrance X70A, a six inch black and white screened graph at the bow, and the Lowrance Bluewater Pro 1240A Flasher unit in the dash console. I learned how to make the most of this technology of the day and can honestly say it helped me catch fish at times.

Running full bore across the lake, the flasher would give me depth readouts in real time, while if I slowed down a little, it would even show schooling fish as I ran. The X70A would highlight structure like creek channels, high spots, bridges, culverts and more. I could pull into an area like a large creek arm, scan the bottom with the flasher as I idled through, then fine tune anything I saw on the flasher with the X70A.

I knew seasonal patterns.  I knew the characteristics of both bass and the baitfish plus knew the habits of fish on particular lakes I fished on a regular basis. I used that technology to augment the knowledge I had acquired over the years. Knowledge that was acquired by many hours on the water.

Additionally, I devoured all of the publications I could get my hands on, reading everything there was to read about bass fishing. New techniques, new tackle, anything that might give me an edge over the bass I was pursuing.

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