Insight Genesis Challenge!

This should appeal to the current users of Lowrance mapping products as well as those who are about to move over to Lowrance. If you’ve not heard about Insight Genesis, it’s a web based software program that permits most Lowrance users to upload sonar logs in order to create highly accurate charts. I’ve been using it myself lately and it’s surprising just how quickly you can accumulate data. Though it’s actually become rather more exciting due to Lowrance introducing the Insight Genesis Challenge. Its basically a competition with prizes for those users who upload the most mapping data each month.

There’s the opportunity to win prizes each month which are awarded per region. 1ST Prize is an HDS7 Gen 3  with 2nd prize being a Helly Hansen Jacket. I actually have both of these an I can assure you that they are superb prizes!.

 

So what are you waiting for?!, get uploading your data logs at the end of each trip. You need to register in order to enter, use your existing Insight Genesis login if you’re already registered.

Llangorse Lake – difficult fishing

Plans had been hatched for myself and Matt Boast to meet up and fish Llangorse Lake in southern Wales along with a couple of other fishing enthusiasts. They would be fishing from a Skeeter boat with plans to shoot some video of the weekends fishing. Myself and Matt were on kayaks, me on my new Hobie Outback and Matt on a PA12 that had previously seen action in the Hobie Fishing Worlds in the Netherlands last year.

I’d looked at the forecast earlier in the week and well, lets just say that it was grim. Brisk winds, rain and low temperatures were forecast, not exactly the sort of weather that gets you excited about getting afloat. However, as the week progressed the outlook brightened somewhat, with the Saturday at least looking quite fishable.

The plan was to camp out on Saturday night, however, I really didn’t fancy sorting out a tent in what was likely to be rainy weather. Plus I’ve recently moved house and I’m still having difficulty in finding everything!. So the decision was made to sleep in the back of the car… I’ve done worse.

It was going to be a good opportunity to check the recent rigging of my new 2015 Hobie Outback. It’s still not finished as there’s RAM rod holders and a rectangular hatch upgrade to carry out, but it was good enough to get me out there fishing. I’ve also fitted a Lowrance HDS7 Gen 3 to the Outback and this trip was going to provide the chance to give the new setup a good shakedown whilst checking out some of the capabilities offered by the new electronics unit. I say some, as I’m still awaiting the Structure Scan transducer.

I’ve fished Llangorse lake before at this time of year and I was expecting the fishing to be difficult and the weather somewhat unpredictable. Anyway, I was on the road for 0500, rendezvousing with Matt for breakfast at McDonalds, not too far from the Lake. We weren’t in any rush and hit the water at around 1000.

 

As much as the priority was to fish, I was also looking to record my sonar log which would be uploaded later to the Insight Genesis website. This would permit the existing map of Llangorse Lake to be updated with my own sonar log data, thus improving the map that’s available for many Navionics users to utilise. It was also extremely handy as most freshwater venues, Llangorse included, are not featured on my Navionics Gold card. So to stop me fishing blind, I downloaded the Insight Genesis chart for the area and loaded it into my HDS7 on a micro SD card. The image below shows the chart that was available for the Lake. It wasn’t fully logged, but more than sufficient to give me some great direction.

Selecting that chart was easier than expected, a single tap on the screen (yup, touch screen!) provided me with chart options. Tapping that gave me the option of Navionics or Lowrance. It had defaulted to Navionics and the 7” display was blank, though a tap onto the ‘Lowrance’ option resulted in the Insight Genesis map filling the screen… brilliant!.

The plan was to troll the drop offs and shallower areas of the Lake, heading to the deeper areas if required. I’ve enjoyed some success at Llangorse previously using dead baits, however, lures were the chosen fishing method for the weekend.

The scenery here is stunning and a little sunshine allied with some low cloud over the hills produced a lovely backdrop. The sides of the Lake are bordered by reed beds in most areas, the whole place does scream fish. However, the fishing was proving to be difficult!

I’d previously fitted Scotty rod holders and extenders to the GearTrac on my old Outback and I carried that design over to the new model. It’s the first time that I’ve used them for any real length of time, they were in non-stop action over the whole weekend. I like to hold a rod when trolling, though when the action is slow (and the temperature freezing!) it’s nice to be able to place them in a convenient rod holder that’s nicely angled for trolling.

There was very little fish activity with me only managing three hits throughout the day, one of which resulted in a brief hook-up for a few seconds. Matt on the other hand shouted over and I could see him holding the landing net in the water so I knew he had a fish. It was a nice fish as well, lovely condition and beautifully marked.

The guys on the Skeeter had managed a jack pike, it was tough fishing. I did see some good sized fish returns hard on the bottom from time to time, most likely Pike, though I had no success in provoking any further strikes. However, the quiet fishing permitted me to start experiment more with my new HDS7 Gen 3 combo unit. I’d set into in split screen mode, three screens to display mapping, broadband sonar and down view. I do love the structure detail offered by down view, though I like to have the broadband next to it to highlight fish returns. Down view (down imaging) isn’t great for showing fish returns, though the shallow the water the more prominent those returns can become.

On previous FF/GPS units if I’ve wanted to get a picture of something on the screen I have to grab my camera quickly before it disappears off the display, something that was alleviated somewhat with the TrackBack feature on the Elite 7 HDI. Though screens are reflective and I always get my reflection showing on the screen, not good. The HDS has a feature where you can press two buttons together and it stores a screen shot which can be removed from the unit via the micro SD card. For me, this is a lovely feature to have. Here’s an example below.

There appears to be a pretty good fish return on the broadband sonar (set to High Chirp) with a corresponding return on the down view. I’d guess that it’s a Pike sitting close to a piece of structure.

I tried the multiple modes that are available with the standard 75/200Khz transducer, though I’ll look at these in more detail in a later article one I have the structure scan up and running.

The new Vantage seat that features on the 2015 Hobie kayak range is very comfortable and a real step forward in seat technology. Again, I’ll look to review the new Outback in great detail very soon, though I’d like to clock up a few more trips before I do so.

That pretty much wrapped up the Saturday so I watched the guys rig their tents in the dark, sleeping in the car had seemed to be the logical choice. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying some lovely food and a couple of drinks the the local pub before retiring for the evening. Ok, so it was a little compact in the back of the car, sleeping next to all my gear, though with the seat down I was able to lie flat. With a roll mat to keep me off the floor I slipped into my military artic sleeping bag. I’d taken the liberty to slip into my Weezel Extreme under suit first… yup, the night was a warm one!. That said, I woke to the car rocking from side to side, Matt was up early and keen to get afloat!. I could barely make him out through the window, though I soon realised why, all the windows were frozen solid on the inside!. I’d left the windows open slightly to keep condensation to a minimum… FAIL

The Skeeter boat behind had a nice layer of ice all over, deep joy!

So with the windows scraped clean of ice on both sides it was time for breakfast followed by some fishing.

Sunday was a lot colder and it was keenly felt  once afloat. The wind and rain picked up as the morning progressed and conditions become rather miserable. I continued to troll, going with the wind was pleasant enough, the hood of my PS220 drysuit keeping the elements at bay. However, there came a time when I was forced to turn around and had to take the brunt of the weather face on.

I could happily drift downwind at around 2mph, steering with the rudder,, trolling few a few hundred meters with zero effort, though it was a different story going into the wind!. I tried several lures, weighting them carefully to ensure that I was fishing very close to the bottom. Though the pike proved elusive for me. The chaps on the skeeter managed a couple of small jacks, the fishing and conditions were rather difficult!

That said it was a very enjoyable weekend with a great social. Meeting new anglers is always good, as was spending some time afloat with my Hobie Team mate Matt Boast. It also proved a successful opportunity to shakedown my new 2015 Outback, testing out my recent rigging whilst getting to grips with the HDS7.

Over the next week or so I hope to complete the rigging of the new Outback and to start familiarising myself with Lowrance’s Structure Scan. Though there’ll be no time to take a break as I’ve just heard that my 2015 Hobie Adventure Island has reached the Netherlands and will be with me very shortly. More rigging and lots of sea trials will be needed!

Esthwaite Grand Slam – 30/31st May 2015

Fancy a weekend away fishing one of the most scenic freshwater venues in the United Kingdom?, why not go and participate in the Esthwaite Grand Slam on the 30/31st May.

The event has attracted sponsorship from Lowrance with several great prizes up for grabs. All competitors will receive a detailed chart of Esthwaite Water, a Lowrance buff and a fish measure to help them get underway.

It provides the opportunity to fish for two days chasing Pike, Perch and Trout and when you’re not fishing you can chill out on the FREE lakeside campsite. Seriously, it doesn’t get much better. The general format for the competition will include catching three predatory species from the lake, Trout, Perch and Pike which must be photographed and measured. The winner of the grand slam will be the longest combined length of all the target species. Fishery rules of fly, spin and worm will apply.

This will be a superb opportunity for kayak anglers to fish this prolific venue and meet other like minded kayak anglers from around the country.

Detailed mapping is available from Lowrance through their Insight Genesis mapping and can be downloaded for free from the Insight page. Just sign up for free and go to the Social Mapping area and locate the relevant map. You should find something very close to the map below. It’s not fully complete, though it get added to by Insight Genesis users and will grow in size and detail over time.

Also, those competitors who have a suitable Lowrance electronics unit can be issued with a pre-loaded mapping card for the duration of the competition.

See you there!

Improved Insight Genesis from Lowrance

I’ve previously published snippets of Insight Genesis mapping both on here and Facebook over the past year, however, Insight Genesis has recently seen some major improvements.

For those who don’t know, Insight Genesis gives you control over the waters you travel. It permits the user to create custom maps from their own sonar data. These can then be overlaid on the community-sourced Insight Genesis Social Map, or kept for private use only. Sonar data can be recorded on the majority of the Lowrance units directly onto a memory card. This can be removed after a trip and uploaded to the Insight Genesis website where cloud-based software does all the work, automatically processing the sonar data you upload to create your custom maps.

Importantly for most anglers, you can maintain your privacy. You can choose to keep your sonar data private for your own maps, or improve the Social Map by contributing community data anonymously (your trails, waypoints and other personal data are never shared). This is important, no one likes to give away their hard earned knowledge of fish holding locations!

So what’s it actually look like?, just how effective is it?. Well I generally rely on Navionics Gold for my navigation of the sea and freshwater waterways,.. though the latter is almost none existant!. For example, I’ve fished Llangorse lake in south Wales and Navionics has zero coverage for this venue. A locally produced map is available online, though it’s pretty basic to say the least!

The lake is fairly well covered by shared uploads to the Insight Genesis website and has resulted in the mapping below being available on the Insight Genesis Social Map. Although Llangorse is currently only about 70% mapped, the detail is clearly much improved and this can be improved yet further, dependent on the viewing settings dictated by the user.

Social mapping is NOW OPEN TO ALL USERS & can be downloaded for personal use on the water!. Just download the file, load it up onto the appropriate memory card and fit it to your Lowrance unit (where compatible). If you are fishing an area regularly this software really comes into its own. You can continue to upload data and your available map will grow in size as a result, with detail also improving as a result. You can even upload data when your afloat via a smart phone and download the mapping for immediate use!

Data can be displayed in both metric and imperial formats, with contour definition as high as 1 foot.

So how does it compare to say the Navionics mapping that I use?. Well I’ve looked online at the Navionics webapp and pulled off some mapping to compare to the equivalent Insight Genesis mapping of the same location. Below is a section of mapping taken from the Solent between Hurst Point and Round Tower Point.

Below is the same mapping (not fully covered yet) as a result of uploading and processing sonar data through the Insight Genesis software. This data was gathered off a single trip and it can be clearly seen that the data is far more detailed than the equivalent Navionics mapping. Imagine making a few trips in the same vicinity and putting together the collated data?, the result would be a set of very useable and highly detailed charts that can be viewed via your chart plotter/combination unit or smartphone.

Though it doesn’t finish there. Each sonar log you upload will be automatically tagged with weather, temperature and barometric-pressure readings taken while you were on the water. This data can help you chart and analyse trends that contribute to successful excursions.

Don't be worried about losing your custom mapping that you’ve gathered as a result of many hours of logging data. The Insight Genesis cloud uses several remote servers to warehouse and protect your custom Insight Genesis maps, which can be downloaded at any time, from anywhere you have an Internet connection. The cloud automatically backs up all your data, protecting against lost or damaged SD cards.. it happens!

Contour data can be customised to suit the user and they can be overlaid on bottom-hardness and vegetation-location maps created with sonar signals. It’s simple to use, record, upload and use!.

Insight Genesis mapping was used by all the competitors at the2014 Hobie World Fishing Championships that took place in the Netherland last year. The detail was astounding and enabled all competitors not only to compete on equal terms, but to have a fantastic overview of what features were beneath them.

The chart below shows the area highlighted above by the red circle, though zoomed in to show the actual detail produced.

If the areas you tend to fish have little or no mapping available, or perhaps you just wish to improve what’s commercially already out there, take a look at Insight Genesis, it might be just what you’re after.

I’m hoping to log sonar data on my Lowrance combo unit most trips this year, not only to add to the Social Maps, but to demonstrate the detailed mapping that can easily be produced by any kayak angler (or any waterborne angler for that matter!) with a suitable Lowrance unit. Watch this space!

Hobie World Championships 2014 (part 2)

With the navigation day completed the next event was Practice Day. Here we had a few hours in which to fish the water and try as many techniques and lures out as required. Again, I certainly found the sheer size of this venue so daunting, just where does one start fishing?!.

Well my game plan was to keep it simple. I’d taken a fairly small selection of lures out on the water with me, some shads, spinner baits, blades and a handful of small crank baits. I had three rods rigged ready to fish (minus lures), these were a light, medium and heavy spinner. Some of my lures were pushing towards 100g in weight, others as light as 10g, hence the variety of rods. A collapsible landing net was provided as well as a large measuring board to ensure that even the largest of Pike could be effectively measured.

The competition would allow anglers to fish for three species of fish, Pike, Zander and Perch with permitted lengths of 45cm, 42cm and 25cm respectively. One fish per species per day was the maximum sized bag (3 fish total max) with total length used to put together the leader board. Methods were cast-and-retrieve only,  with trolling, live baits and dead baits not permitted Only artificial lures and flies were to be used during competition.  Drift fishing was allowed, though anglers could only drift up to 50 meters between casts.

All qualifying fish had to be photographed using the supplied measuring board with the anglers ‘token’ being visible. It was the photographing of the fish (should I catch one!) that worried me most, failure to photograph it correctly would result in that submission being disqualified, something that did unfortunately happen to some competitors over the three day competition.

The weather forecast was extremely poor, with strong winds expected allied with frequent rains showers. It was one of those rare occasions when the weatherman got it right, or perhaps even unstated it somewhat!

The Pro Angler 12 kayaks were all outfitted with a Lowrance Elite 4 HDI fish finder/GPS. I currently have the Elite 7 HDI rigged onto my Outback so I was pretty confident in being able to get straight into using this unit as the menu configuration is almost identical. At first I found the smaller screen a bit of a step backwards, but it’s surprising how quickly you adjust. The screen is considerably taller than my previous elite 4 DSI, though it’s needed on this combination unit that can display up to a triple split screen.

 

The units were loaded Insight Genesis mapping information gathered from boats used prior to the Championships. This proved invaluable as Navionics online provided no useful information for this venue. It’s  highly detailed providing the user with a very accurate underwater picture of the venue. If that wasn’t good enough, the individual kayaks recorded sonar information each day and the Lowrance representative updated the map sets daily so the available information was continually improving!

So did I have a game plan?. I planned to fish noticeable drop offs as well as areas with patchy weed in the hope of primarily finding Pike with a good chance of a Perch. The Zander were going to be difficult and were likely to be found in the deeper water. As they were expected to be very difficult to catch I placed them bottom of my wish list, placing Pike at the top followed by Perch.

I worked my way around a few of the suggested marks with Ian Harris and tried this and that, with little success. I eventually found a piece of water that was holding some Perch, though despite being small, at least I had started to catch some fish. I caught around ten small Perch during the session, though all were under the require qualifying size of 25cm, hopefully I’d find some bigger fish when the competition was finally underway.

I eventually hooked into something far better, perhaps a big Perch or a small Pike, though I’ll never know as it threw the hook after a good tussle lasting but a few seconds.

The weather conditions had began to deteriorate and the ever increasing wind had began to produce white caps across the lake. I decided to head back in and took the shortest route directly across the lake, taking me over the deeper water. Yes, it was choppy and rather uncomfortable, but it was perfectly doable and I was making decent progress. Looking over to my right the sky darkened and thunder and lightning made an appearance and was heading all too quickly in my direction!. Before I knew it a squall came down the centre of the lake and I was getting pounded by large breaking swells. I pretty much lost control of the Pro Angler at one stage, though I managed to get it turned into the waves and swell where I intended to ride out the weather. Unfortunately I heard some shouting over the sound of the wind and rain and I soon found myself heading over in the direction of a capsized kayak. To say it was an exciting few minutes going across the swell is an understatement, though thankfully the angler and his kayak were safely recovered, no harm apart from some dented pride no doubt.

I was just happy to have made it out of the weather, finally taking a more sheltered route back to the start line via the more sheltered ‘canals’ that went around part of the lake… interesting times!

I think it’s safe to say that the fishing during the pre-fish day had been rather difficult, though there were some decent fish caught as can be seen below.

So with pre-fish out of the way the three day Championship was ready to commence. So who was the favourite to win?, well that honour was bestowed upon my friend, and current Hobie European Champion, Daniel van der Post. He certainly catches one specimen fish after another and is an extremely experienced local angler, though I’m not so sure that I’d like to have that pressure placed on me… though I can’t see that happening anytime soon!

With a whole evening to ourselves, what do you do?…. socialise of course!!

Part 3 will see me fishing the 3 day Championship itself.