Console electronics are used for navigation, reading water, and trolling. With a sonar rigged at the back, back trolling is so much safer, because you can see what is directly below you and rely on your bow unit for boat control and finding fish when casting or rigging from the front of the boat.

Your layout may differ depending on what species you’re going to target. Console units are used for navigation and reading water, but fishing from the bow is actually quite convenient.

You don’t have to buy several sonars to be able to do something like that. All you need is a bow unit capable of split-screen sonar and mapping. It doesn’t matter what type of fish you like to chase: bass, northern, panfish, or walleye there’s a sonar made just for you.

You can also use a wide-beam fishfinder to cover both the fish finding and bottom mapping simultaneously. Also, that eliminates the common issue of a multi-sonar setup: frequency interference.