While effective sonar-based fish finders have existed for more than 30 years, recent technological advancements have meant that capabilities once reserved for naval warfare applications are now available to everyday fishermen. Commercially available live-updating sonar as well as units with high-resolution side and forward views have been available for well over a decade. But these game-changing technologies were previously only available in top-end packages that cost thousands of dollars and were, therefore, out of reach of the average sport fisherman.
With its EchoMap line of products, Garmin is now putting these advanced fish-finding capabilities in the hands of ordinary fishermen. The EchoMap Plus 73sv is a multifunction fish finder, chart plotter and navigation tool that is specifically designed for freshwater lake fishing throughout the United States and Canada. With detailed maps of more than 17,000 inland lakes and a large Quickdraw community that adds ultra-detailed lake maps every day, the Echomap Plus 73sv is the most advanced multipurpose fish-finding tool that has ever been available for under $1,000.
Revolutionary CHIRP sonar gives you near-photographic definition
Traditional two-frequency sonar worked for finding fish. But it didn’t provide much in the way of clarity or the ability to distinguish between baitfish and gamefish. The water column that older sonar surveyed tended to be narrow, and detailed views of a lake’s structures, bottom and surrounding contours were all but nonexistent.
Garmin’s next-generation CHIRP sonar, which stands for Compressed High-Intensity Radiated Pulse, uses a combination of sophisticated computer algorithms and a continuous-sweep broadband scanning transducer to create the most detailed commercially available sonar images on the water.
CHIRP is effectively a military-grade technology that has been made available to the public. And the difference is mind-blowing. CHIRP-based SideVu and ClearVu systems provide photograph-like images of both side and forward views. So accurate are the images produced by this ultra-high-resolution sonar system that it is often possible not only to tell the difference between baitfish and gamefish at a glance, but expert fisherman are frequently able to identify the specific fish species at depths of up to 200 feet.
With Garmin’s SideVu system, anglers get a fast-updating image of both the water co