Zoom in on Your Sounder When Bottom Fishing

When it comes to bottom fishing in deep water, Covington and fellow Southern Way captain Bart Haddad believe the most important piece of equipment is a sonar unit. They use Simrad BSM-3 broadband CHIRP technology and intimately know the functions of the sounder. “One of the most important features of most units for fishing bottom structure is the zoom function, to identify smaller nooks and crannies on broad regions of good structure,” says Haddad. “For example, a wreck with a 40-foot-high span of relief may only hold structure-associated species such as grouper in smaller, broken-up pockets of 3 to 5 feet of relief.”