I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to get a day on the water with our Humminbird rep John Noel this past week to learn about their 360 Imaging sonar. My initial impression of the 360 (before I got on the water with one) was it is pricey and too large for most people to even consider. A $2000+ transducer that is almost the size of a 6’ Talon was just too much for me to get over. My opinion completely changed after seeing it in use and how practical a tool it truly is and it WILL help you catch more fish.
Humminbird and Minn Kota have done an awesome job at designing their new Talon/360 brackets. John’s boat had a dual 8’ Talonsetup and on the starboard side the 360 adapter bracket was mounted there. With all this mounted to the transom there is no question it is busy looking. However, with all the benefits of this technology that outweighs the downside in my mind.
John had the Lakemaster Chart loaded in his998c SI unit and we navigated to our first fishing spot a mile or so offshore. Once we arrived we deployed the 360 through the menu in the 998 and began to see exactly how the rock piles on the shoal laid out. The boat was equipped with a Minn Kota Terrova with iPilot Link which makes navigating while fishing extremely easy. Through the remote control we had full access to the list of waypoints in the 1198c SI mounted on the bow. At a low trolling speed we used the iPilot Link to take us from waypoint to waypoint (which were rock piles on the shoal).
I caught a couple of small fish dragging a tube behind the boat and one that I marked on the sonar. John was fishing for bigger bites with a jigging spoon but didn’t have any luck. My eyes were opened to the effectiveness of the 360 when I noticed something off to the side of the boat as we were slowly moving to our next waypoint. I picked up a drop shot with a Jackall Cross Tail tied on and cast in the direction of a rock pile we didn’t have a waypoint on. After my weight hit the bottom I felt rocks and after dragging it a few feet I got a solid hit. The fish ended up being a 3 1/2 pounder that I never would have caught without the 360revealing that structure in perfect detail to me. I was able to repeat that a few more times throughout the day.
On the 360 there are range rings that show you the distance away from the center (the boats location) so it’s easy to gauge how far you need to cast to reach a target. When you purchase the 360, Humminbird includes a GPS antenna that has a built in compass heading sensor. This is what lines up your 360 imaging with the direction of your boat. When something shows up on the screen to your left it’s actually to the left of the boat so you know right where to cast.
One other thing I noticed about the 360 is that when the boat was stationary the image was much more defined. This is because the transducer rotates which creates the movement you need for high detail images. Just like with side imaging your boat needs movement for the best detail.
If you ever get a chance to see a 360 in action it won’t take long before you too are convinced of the value of having this on your boat. All it took for me was one fish.
-Lawren
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