EVERY fisho is looking for that smoking gun or the silver bullet to help them catch more fish or lead them to an untapped gold mine.
Truth be told, fishing it isn’t easy. Well at the upper echelon of the spectrum anyway; it cost money and even more time to streamline the quality fish catching process.
One thing that does carry a hefty price tag is marine electronics and the associated bits and pieces, though I’d bet most gun fishers could not do without it.
I’ll raise my hand. In some scenarios I have become heavily reliant on my marine electronics, sounders and especially my GPS and way pointing.
I’ve always yearned for better mapping like what US fishos have, looking long and hard for many years for survey swath mapping of the seafloor and bathymetric charts in my favoured locations, but nothing was available.
That was until early 2020 when C-Map launched its C-Map Reveal. I got a sneak peak of some mapping around Long Reef at Sydney and was blown away. This is what I always dreamed of having.
Unfortunately, the mapping was pretty limited at the time and the euphoria of finally seeing a high-resolution bathymetric image of the sea floor showing, edges, pinnacles, gutters, and ledges waned when realising my area literally had nothing.
That was until now. The mapping is continually updated as new data becomes available and can be viewed online at https://www.c-map.com/chartexplorer/ and after checking it recently, I noted much more had been added.
I promptly ordered a card and received it days later. Wasting no time I got in the boat and loaded it up to my GPS. And wow! It was very cool to see the inshore reefs like this, even more so where some of my sneaky snapper marks correlated to on this mapping.
First time on the water an after-work mission on some shallow snapper, my usual drift and marks were drawing a blank. The new charting I could see a sharp edge to the reef which I was unaware of and had never fished. So I gave it a drift.
Second cast in I landed my first snapper! Ten minutes later I had gone from zero to three fish thanks to this charting. Okay, so you’re thinking one spot and one session does not mean this is worth investing in.
The clincher in this review was the recent Covid-19 lockdown which included the Illawarra and thus my recreation was limited to my LGA. This included one ocean ramp I rarely if ever chase snapper from, so much so you can count my GPS marks on one hand.
Sunday afternoon of the first day of lockdown was the real test. I fished of this mapping alone with no known knowledge of fishing in the area. Well the results speak for themselves, first rubbly bit of reef on the chart produced a 74cm snapper followed by nine others!
C-Map Reveal is a game changer. Sure the mapping is limited in some areas and mainly covers shallow areas and over the shelf with the high resolution charts, but it has opened my eyes to what else is out there and not just for catching dinner; bait collecting is made easier, too.
The map has all the usual features including traditional navigation data, high resolution bathymetric coastal data, satellite imagery data, genesis layer data and more. They can purchased in a few variants and locations ranging in price from $299 – $399 and are available through most marine chandlery stores.
More info at www.c-map.com
