by John Neporadny Jr.
Hydrowave installation should be a position where it is easy for you to use the unit. This one provides control without having to leave the fishing seat.
I have written some articles on how sounds affect fish in a negative or positive manner so it makes sense to me that a device capable of producing the right sounds would be an effective fish attractor. After all, anglers have been adding rattles, clickers, beads and other noisemakers to their lures or rigs for years to increase their catch rates.
Years ago I was introduced to fishing with a sound device when I received a Biosonix unit to test. The late Richard Lindsey set up my unit with a couple of shad sounds that would appeal to either active or passive crappie. I had mixed results with the unit on some crappie trips to Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks. It seemed like the unit helped the most in dirty-water situations but didn’t seem to make much difference whenever I fished in clearer water.
After Biosonix went out of business, Dallas businessman and competitive bass angler Gene Eisenmann decided to create his own sound device in 2010. So he introduced the idea to Robert Palmer, an engineer with an extensive background in electronic product and development, and together they designed the HydroWave.
Eisenmann noted the HydroWave is based on the same concept as the Biosonix, but he believes his invention is a new and improved version of the discontinued device. “They don’t even compare,” he says. “The sound technology that we use and the frequencies that we use to transmit the sounds and the quality of our unit are superior.”
The HydroWave features six pre-programmed sounds (feeding frenzy, schooling, passive finesse, fleeing bait, bait frenzy and bait panic) to select for various fishing situations. The sounds can be played continuously or with 30-second pauses.
Texas crappie pro Jeff Schwieterman relies on the HydroWave to catch more crappie when money is on the line. “Crappie fishing is getting so competitive now that you need that little edge,” he says. “The HydroWave gives you an edge for several reasons. For one it helps disguise the boat noises by throwing out the bait sounds. A second one is if you are on a brush pile and the bite slows down, by turning on the HydroWave it gets those finicky fish to take another look at your baits and hopefully you get that extra bite or two.”
“The one caveat is that the HydroWave is not the golden fish caller that everybody thinks. It is something a little bit different to use when the fishing becomes stale.”
Schwieterman recalls a tournament on Lake Livingston where the HydroWave produced more fish from a spot that he and his partner had already passed through three times. He recalls catching a “bunch of fish” on the first pass and a few less fish the second pass, but when they didn’t pick up any fish on the third trip they decided to turn on the HydroWave. “That fourth pass we went through and picked up another four or five fish and then we picked up one or two on our fifth pass,” he says.
The Texas pro notes aggressive crappie will bite regardless of whether they HydroWave is on or off, but he believes the HydroWave does get the attention of finicky crappie by signaling that an easy meal is coming their way. When spider rigging, Schwieterman uses the HydroWave to mimic an approaching bait ball. “As you are creeping forward the fish are getting closer and closer to that sound and as they hear that, they are going to start looking around,” he says.
The HydroWave also shines when Schwieterman is vertical fishing brush piles or structure fishing. He recalls a tournament on Cedar Creek when he was vertical fishing a sunken barge and caught about 10 fish but then the bite slowed down and eventually stopped. “I turned that HydroWave on and we picked up two or three more fish there,” he says.
Controlling the volume is also essential to the operation of the HydroWave. Eisenmann suggests setting the volume too loud could be a detriment. “Sound travels through water very quickly and it goes very far,” he says. “So it can go farther than you need it to go.”
Eisenmann advises setting the volume level based on the proximity of bait activity. “If you are seeing the bait flicker beyond your cast you need to turn the volume down because there is no sense in activating an area that you can’t cast to,” he says.
Schwieterman and Eisenmann have noticed the HydroWave has produced good results in clear and dirty water. Eisenmann believes the unit can be used with more aggressive sounds in dirty water since a crappie will use sound as its primary detection source. However he notes you should select a more subtle sound, such as the passive finesse setting, when using the HydroWave in clear water.
The Freshwater Series electronic sound device is sold as the HydroWave System Package, which includes the control unit, underwater speaker and mounting supplies. The HydroWave comes with two mounting options: (1) a typical bracket mount for placing the control unit anywhere on the deck or console; (2) a 3m Velcro mount that can position the unit flush to any surface.
Schwieterman mounts his underwater speaker next to his sonar transducer on the bottom of the trolling motor’s power unit and despite its proximity to the transducer, the speaker doesn’t create any interference on his sonar unit, Schwieterman claims.
The Texas angler installs the HydroWave control unit on the bow in front of his Humminbird depth finder. “It is mounted there for two reasons,” he says. “It is close to a power supply and I have easy access to the unit when I want to use it. I don’t have to move elsewhere in the boat to turn it on, which maximizes my fishing time since I do not leave the sounds on constantly.”
The HydroWave can be powered with a 12-volt battery so you can plug the unit into an accessory power source on your boat. Schwieterman notes the installation process of the HydroWave was the same for both his aluminum and fiberglass boats.
For more information on the HydroWave, visit www.hydrowave.com.
