Nobody can deny that technology is moving at breakneck speed. And just when you think you are at the top of your game on the water, you find out you’re not. Everywhere you turn there’s some new advancement in angling electronics, and these can make us better, more efficient catfishermen.

I’ve guided for years and have traveled the Midwest as a seminar speaker on catfish. Every year I go out on the road, it seems the talk is that Humminbird has one-upped itself from the year before. A few years back I was touting how great side-imaging technology was for learning structure. Before 2007, you’d fish a hole for an entire season just to figure out exactly how a hole was laid out in a river or how the fish used that hole for food and shelter. I was telling seminar attendees about how you could shoot a hole a couple times with your side-imaging feature on a unit and know everything about structure, contours and the composition of a lake or river.

Well, three winters ago the story was the introduction of the Helix 5. The fact that you could then have a side-imaging unit at a more reasonable made it possible for many to utilize the newer technology. But the last two years, AutoChart Live has taken center stage. This to me has been the biggest game changer for catfish anglers in smaller waters.

AutoChart Live is an addition to all Humminbird units, from Helix 7 G2N to the new Solix. This program allows you to make your own contour maps of any water you want. You just cruise around key areas and the unit automatically saves the depth data to your unit or a Zero Lines card for future use.

That’s a lot of technological advancement in just a few short years. Admittedly, most of it was probably designed for bass and walleye anglers. However, it has also been making it into the world of catfishing.

Just like with computers and smartphones, as soon as you update your fishing electronics to get with the times, you may be behind already—thank goodness for software updates in between the introduction of newer electronic units.

What makes all these advancements such a big deal to catfishing is you can now learn newer water in a shorter period of time and split-screen a unit and just drive. You can also make and record a detailed map while at the same time watching the side imaging, looking for structure and fish.

Advanced electronics play such a huge part in efficient catfishing that I’ll be detailing their use in future articles. In the meantime, it’s time to hop on that bandwagon and start putting technology to use. You will be amazed how many more fish they’ll help you put in your boat. And when you return to that hole, you’ll now have a map all ready to follow so you can simply look for that area you marked and find the fish there any given day.

Finally, even with all the advancements in technology, you still have to understand and know a fish’s patterns. Even with the convenience at your fingertips, if you don’t understand them and what makes them do what they do, and eat what they eat and the best times to catch them, you’re going to be inconsistent. You still have to make them bite, but it is sure is a lot easier to find them now.