"Follow the Contour", Who Uses It?

[Walleyedude]

It seems like any time sonar or trolling motors come up these days, people are really passionate about the ability to "Follow a Contour".

I'm a dinosaur I guess, I've experimented with it, but I really didn't like it. It doesn't suit my style of fishing. I want to be in control at all times, and that rarely means following a single depth for any length of time. On top of that, the quality of the mapping contours we have available to follow is often pretty sketchy. To my mind, follow the contour is a bit of a marketing gimmick.

That being said, I see a ton of positive feedback on forums for this feature, to the point where people base very expensive buying decisions on it, and it makes me wonder if maybe I'm the one that's out of touch and either I'm not using it properly or I need to adjust my fishing technique to take advantage of it.

How are you guys using it? What specific techniques? What kind of structures? What size of a structure? How's the mapping quality of the contours you're following? Does it really work as advertised for you? How much do you have to "override" it to stay on course or avoid other fishermen?

Very curious to see the responses...

[deschambault]

I use it all the time on my favourite walleye lakes after I have mapped them in detail using autochart live. Its a lot of fun on a warm summer day to set out bottom bouncers and spinners and let the boat drive.

[SamSteele]

Originally Posted by deschambault

I use it all the time on my favourite walleye lakes after I have mapped them in detail using autochart live. Its a lot of fun on a warm summer day to set out bottom bouncers and spinners and let the boat drive.

I use it the exact same way. Build the contour map with Autochart Live, select the depth co your I want to follow and which direction, tell my Terrova how fast I want to go, and I focus on fishing. It has really changed how I fish.

Here's a picture of the system in action. I call it handsfree fishing.




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[thundergrey]

Some sonars have the ability to map the lakes yourself. So if you know a hotspot from the past you can really nail it down and drive around for 20 mins to get a true real life bottom map. My Garmin has this and the preloaded maps are garbage. Gives you an idea but didn't even show the underwater island I had fished on for some time just because I had caught fish there before.


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[Walleyedude]

Originally Posted by deschambault

I use it all the time on my favourite walleye lakes after I have mapped them in detail using autochart live. Its a lot of fun on a warm summer day to set out bottom bouncers and spinners and let the boat drive.

I can definitely see bottom bouncing being the best application for it.

Are you fishing longer continuous breaks? Flats? Steep/complex structure?

Are you just looking to relax on a nice day or are you seriously fishing? How well do you think it works compared to if you were running the boat yourself?

[SamSteele]

Originally Posted by Walleyedude

I can definitely see bottom bouncing being the best application for it.



Are you fishing longer continuous breaks? Flats? Steep/complex structure?



Are you just looking to relax on a nice day or are you seriously fishing? How well do you think it works compared to if you were running the boat yourself?

I can't comment for deschambault, but I use it to run long break lines. I would think flats would benefit more from Autopilot which uses a compass heading. If there are no real depth contours (like on flats) the follow the contour feature might get a bit lost.

When I use it I am fishing more seriously than when I run the boat manually. Reason being, I can devote all my attention to setting lines, watching for bites, tweaking lures, baiting up, etc. When I am manually running the boat I'm either relying on someone else to do that or struggling to balance driving with the myriad of other needs for effective fishing.

SS


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[RavYak]

It would only be useful with one of the newer self made 1 ft detail contour maps. Even then I see it of limited use as many of the spots I fish I do not necessarily follow the contour but rather weed line etc that may vary a few feet. More accurate to just set up a track line/way points to follow imo.

There is the odd lake/situation I could see it working and helpful especially say for trout were I am targeting a certain depth more so then structure.

[Walleyedude]

Originally Posted by SamSteele

I can't comment for deschambault, but I use it to run long break lines. I would think flats would benefit more from Autopilot which uses a compass heading. If there are no real depth contours (like on flats) the follow the contour feature might get a bit lost.

When I use it I am fishing more seriously than when I run the boat manually. Reason being, I can devote all my attention to setting lines, watching for bites, tweaking lures, baiting up, etc. When I am manually running the boat I'm either relying on someone else to do that or struggling to balance driving with the myriad of other needs for effective fishing.

SS


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I guess you do need a contour to follow lol, so yeah, flats are probably not the best situation.

I can see your point on watching lines and setting things up. I'm moving slower and I've generally got the rod in my hand when bottom bouncing, but I find that especially true when pulling cranks in areas with lots of structure and/or weeds, it's a two man job to do it effectively.

Where I can see it really shining is if you have a boat full of less experienced fishermen and you're basically the "guide" for the day. Freeing yourself up from having to drive and being able to focus on them and fishing effectively would be huge in that situation. It would just take me a while to learn to trust it lol.

[RavYak]

Just like follow a track or heading you also have to be careful so if your guiding etc gotta make sure you are paying attention where you are going. EZM has tried to run me over with his I-pilot before lol.

[SamSteele]

Originally Posted by RavYak

It would only be useful with one of the newer self made 1 ft detail contour maps. Even then I see it of limited use as many of the spots I fish I do not necessarily follow the contour but rather weed line etc that may vary a few feet. More accurate to just set up a track line/way points to follow imo.

There is the odd lake/situation I could see it working and helpful especially say for trout were I am targeting a certain depth more so then structure.

Humminbird just released The Helix Gen 2 that is supposed to identify weedlines and bottom hardness as well, and you can follow either of those instead of the depth contour if you would rather. There is an update for my Helix Gen 1 that is supposed to allow you to see the weedlines and bottom hardness now, but I'm not sure if you can follow those on the Gen 1. You may need the Gen 2.

Either way, you can use the "follow the contour" feature to now follow depth, vegetation, or bottom hardness.

SS

[RavYak]

Originally Posted by SamSteele

Humminbird just released The Helix Gen 2 that is supposed to identify weedlines and bottom hardness as well, and you can follow either of those instead of the depth contour if you would rather. There is an update for my Helix Gen 1 that is supposed to allow you to see the weedlines and bottom hardness now, but I'm not sure if you can follow those on the Gen 1. You may need the Gen 2.

Either way, you can use the "follow the contour" feature to now follow depth, vegetation, or bottom hardness.

SS

I knew about the mapping, didn't know about follow the weedlines etc but kind of makes sense it would/will become available.

Honestly still of little use to me but that is because I use a kayak. I can follow anything I want hands free for fishing easily in my Hobie.

If I had a fancy boat then I would say the technology with the charting is starting to make this more and more powerful every year.

Soon fishing is going to be just like shooting a fish in a barrel lol.