Capt. Ken Blackman
C-Student, 66 Viking. About four years on omni in the Gulf, the East Coast, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
- It isn't set-and-forget. He adjusts gain and TX cycle as conditions change.
- When sharks made trolling impossible, the crew ran the boat searching the screen for fish instead.
- When a mark disappears, circle and search in different directions. In the 2021 Mississippi Gulf Coast Billfish Classic, that turned one lost mark into two blue marlin and then a bigger fish; the team's 629.7 lb blue was the tournament's second largest.
- Roles matter: one crew member gets in front of the fish and drops the bait while the captain watches the screen.
Capt. Rich Barrett
Shark Byte, 73 Bayliss. Credits omni with about 80% of the boat's catches.
- He read the manual three times and still goes back to it.
- Time at the screen is how you learn what fish and marine mammals each look like.
- A gyro stabilizer helps: a steadier boat gives cleaner returns.
- At 10 to 12° of tilt on a boat rolling 10 to 12°, waves produce heavy clutter from underneath.
Capt. Steve Lassley
Bad Company. Hunting blue marlin with sonar since 1988; estimates about 70% of his catch comes from it.
- Reading the screen is the easy part. The hard part is getting the crew to stop watching behind the boat.
- Look away for three or four seconds and you can miss a target that shows for only a few pulses.
- With two on the bridge, one watches the sonar while the other scans the surface for signs.
- In green water or a heavy thermocline, adjust AGC and echo average.
- In calm water for striped marlin, sailfish and white marlin, use as little tilt as possible to work the surface.
Capt. Jon Meade
Showtime!, 62 Spencer. Considers omni essential off Charleston for blue marlin and off Ocean City for white marlin.
- In South Florida's 100 to 140 ft green water with rip edges and rough weather, clutter can make omni hard to use. He switched it off during the 2022 Gold Cup.
Capt. Brandon Walton
War Party, 64 Viking. Added omni to his previous boat in a refit; says a competitive billfish boat is hard to run without one in clean, calm water.
- Don't chase every mark. Use omni to find your species' school, its edges and its direction.
- Pair it with a traditional sounder: omni for area and direction, the sounder for species and size.
Paraphrased from captain interviews published by InTheBite, February 2024. Percentages are the captains' own estimates.
