Fishing from the Living Room

Nothing can substitute being on the water, but if you are like me having time to be on a body of water can be a challenge. Winter is that time of year when fishermen, especially tournament fishermen, are forced to sacrifice too much time on the lake, such as the time that could and should be spent with family. Those days away from the family we never get back, but time not preparing for a tournament can hurt you. If you and I could pre-fish from our living rooms, I could be in two places and satisfy everyone. How can we make our time count towards fishing success while not forgetting our family?

The fact is, every time you go fishing your skills increase, you find something new or you at least happen upon something like that 12-foot brush pile you did not know was there. With today’s advanced electronics you can find potential spots if you just take the time and do the research. Let’s talk about taking more time in the research area to increase our fishing success by utilizing today’s technology. Navionics has introduced new software that allows you to find those potential spots by being in two places at once - the living room and the lake. Navionics’ new software product, the Nav-Planner, will allow you to do some quality pre-fishing from your home on your PC or laptop. If you own a Lowrance or Hummingbird GPS unit then you should have a Navionics Chip, and if you have the Navionics Chip, you MUST invest in the new Nav-Planner software. The software sales for $125 and can save you that much gas money if used correctly.

This software gives you the capability to bring your Navionics Chip inside and plug it into your home PC, giving you the capability to look at all the Navionics details about a lake on your computer screen. You will find humps and underwater points that you did not know existed. Then, you can take these areas and place the coordinates into your GPS system. When you do get to the lake, take a harder look at what you found at home. Not only time, but with the gas prices today anything that will help me save quality pre-fishing time is a must and a gas saver.

When I plug in my Navionics Chip at the house and bring up my Nav-Planner software a couple of advantages exist in finding potential hot spots. First of all I am looking at a bigger screen and I am more relaxed at home. I am not bothered by wind, sun and the pressure of time. I can really look and find that hump, deep water next to the bank, that channel bend, that road bed or an underwater point. Then, when I arrive at the lake, I have specific spots to check out. Take some time and allow productivity to be your friend. Fishing is fun for sure, but catching is a lot better!

I frequent Lake Athens in East Texas. It is a small, fun lake, but recently I looked at the lake via the Nav-Planner software and found an underwater point that I never knew was there, so I placed a weigh-point on my Lowrance 27C. On my next trip I went right to the point and first cast resulted in a 4-pounder! I told my partner “I like that Nav-Planner!” On June 22nd of last year I fished a small club tournament on Lake Waco for the first time. I had been told about a couple of shallow water spots that produced fish on tournament day, but they were only small fish. The night before the tournament and never being on the lake I found a hump using the Navionics software. In less than 30 minutes on this location I caught two fish which I weighed including my biggest fish for the day.

Needless to say I am SOLD and you should be too. Take advantage of today’s electronics and don’t let time keep you from having your best year fishing! You can check out all of Navionics products at www.navionics.com. A good GPS, Navionics chips and the Nav-Planner are a MUST in my books.

By Rob Jasper
Ranger Boats & Evinrude Pro-Staff
www.JASPERFISHING.com