The introduction of pulse compression technology into Simrad Halo radars has proved to be a lethal addition to any serious game fishing boat. Its ability to identify very small targets such as birds makes it extremely easy to zone in on the areas you should be fishing. We discovered the real advantages of this feature on a recent trip up to Port Stephens:

We locked in our GPS for an area known as “The Carpark”, some 22nm from Port Stephens heads. The Autopilot was engaged as the boat effortlessly steered us to our destination without as much as a flinch. This gave us the chance to fine-tune our radar and begin the search for birds. Any seasoned game fisher will tell you, birds are the first sign that activity is happening below.

About 3nm from the spot, the radar lit up with singular marks about 2nm away. Now, this is most certainly too far to identify with the naked eye, so without the Halo radar picking this up, we definitely would have missed them. We disengaged the autopilot and took control of the boat as we steered it towards the marks on the radar.

Within about 5 minutes, the birds came in to view and we knew something was going on. We put the lures out and passed over the area. The sounder lit up with bait. It did not take long for us to catch some and deploy live baits. We continued to walk baits around the birds and bait schools in anticipation of a bite.

Within minutes, a hard marking came across the screen indicating predators were below. We stopped the boat and let the livey swim down unknowingly to meet his destiny. The Marlin took the bait and within about 15 minutes the fish was tagged! All this within one hour of finding the birds on the radar.

All this started solely and only because of the Simrad Halo Radars ability to mark birds. Without it, we would have simply kept going and missed this fish.

It really is a must have for any serious game fisher.

Contributed by the Band of Brothers Fishing Team.