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The croakers and rockfish
weren’t biting, but I sure could see them lazing around the perhaps
too-warm shallows of Chesapeake Bay. Heck, when I jigged my bait near
the transducer, I could actually see it in action on the i3’s conventional
but super-sharp 2-D fishfinder screen. And back at the dock I could drag
that screen with a fingertip to any moment during the day, even split-screen
it with the related contour view (shown), chart, or photo map, and finger
tap waypoints on spots worth another try. What’s unique about this
fishfinder is that time and depth stamped fish icons collect in the 3-D
view, thus making a graphic connection between specific bottom structure
and piscatorial behavior. As whizbang and useful as that is—for instance,
we found fish using certain ridges to lurk out of the tidal current, then
found similarly aligned, and fishy, ridges elsewhere on the contour map—it’s
also noteworthy how much detail this fishfinder can squeeze out of a relatively
modest 350-Watt RMS single-frequency transducer (which is 170kHz so that
another finder can be run simultaneously). Also impressive were all the
advanced controls, like bottom grabbing STC, neatly integrated into the
i3’s instinctive interface. And, while the $1,200 3-D fishfinder
module will work fine with existing i3s (and sister Sea Ray Navigators),
I got to try it on a new “Type 3” model, which is pleasingly
faster, brighter, and more stylish and will soon come in a 15-inch version
as well as the 12-inch original.
Maptech (
(888) 839-5551. www.maptech.com.
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