Let me give you a classic example of the importance of sonar settings. If you are fishing shallow weed cover with a weed line at a depth of eight feet, you have completely different sonar settings than when you are casting the basin fishing for open water muskie in a depth of 40 feet, trying to locate suspended baitfish and muskie. Surface clutter, your power or gain on your sonar, and even ping speed will impact signal strength. You need to simply experiment with these various settings and see how they impact the readings.

For the last 20-plus years I have been using Lowrance electronics. By turning your sonar to the simulator and manual modes, you’ll be able to see how the various function keys impact your sonar picture. I can’t begin to tell you how many times a year I adjust a sonar unit for a fellow muskie angler.

The most common concern is a lack of bottom signal or too much clutter on the screen. It’s usually simply a matter of adjusting the power and surface clutter to find the best resolution, but there are other features that can refine the picture.

My Lowrance HDS units also have specific settings such as shallow water or deep water settings that will significantly improve your depth picture, and from here can still be tweaked based upon the current conditions.

Besides reading cover and baitfish, reading hard to soft bottom is very important, not just for determining rocks versus weeds, but for hard- to soft-bottomed transitions when fishing in fall. One simple way to better read these areas is changing the color palette on your sonar, while also adjusting the grayline feature. The gray line isn’t gray, but it will help you highlight a particular color that signals hard bottom. With today’s color units, there are many color schemes to select and it is personal preference, but there are just some color schemes that are easier to read and interpret, so adjust them until you find the one that best suits your needs.

Today’s GPS mapping technology with map chips such as those made by Navionics have truly changed all fishing, not just muskie fishing. I would go so far to say this has been the single greatest development in fishing over the last 10 years. Today you can navigate almost any water without the fear of not knowing where you are located, and by using waypoints and your map chip you can safely navigate from point A to point B, even in the dark.

Further locating any off-shore humps or bars is easy. You can even go back to the exact spot on a structural element such as a point or turn where you may have raised or caught a previous muskie.

I use waypoints or icons to mark all of the muskie I catch and at times muskie that follow. It’s amazing how my electronics consistently take me back to where the muskie live.

While on the subject of waypoints and icons, it’s very important to get them organized. During the winter months, take the time to change symbols or numbers into a logical format. I actually have specific markings for my summer spots versus my winter spots. I use waypoints and icons to help my boat control both summer and winter, and to mark specific spots with fish. Amazingly, year-after-year those same fish icons produce muskie, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a weed bed or open water.

One problem you may have is that you have run low on icons or waypoints. Now is the time to save all of your data on one chip, then start eliminating data and save the remaining data as U.S. versus Canada data or Wisconsin versus Minnesota data. Make sure you originally save all your data as a Master file, as you will need to always start from the master to develop smaller files for specific waters. Whenever I go to a new water, I delete all of my data and save the data from that new water onto a chip. This way you can maximize your unit’s capacity.

For some, use of your electronics, or taking the time to really learn your electronics takes a back seat to lure tuning or simply working on equipment. However, taking the time to thoroughly understand your electronics will guarantee you’ll catch more muskie next year. Even if you don’t need to change any settings on your sonar, turn your unit on with the map cartridge from your favorite lake and slowly and carefully examine various portions of the lake. You’ll be surprised that the map on your sonar is often more detailed than your paper map. I’ll even go so far as to predict that you’ll probably find a new hot spot to check out next year. Just remember that when you catch a muskie on that new spot, use your electronics to save a waypoint, because you’ll probably catch another one from the spot!