The hottest selling Christmas gifts this year in the fishing scene are sonar units and sonar/GPS combos.

If you find one under your tree and need help with the install or set-up come see me. I can initialize the unit, set up your overlay data and fine tune the unit which makes it much more user friendly.

When I get through, all you need to do is turn it on.

The only other soft key you will have to use is the page options which are very simple.

Sonar and GPS have come a long way since the first box-style flasher in the late 1960s. My Dad had one of those first depth sounders.

I was raised using sonar, so if you need a cram course on the basics just ask. If you really want a course in sonar we can go to the water.

I can set most of the mid- to upper-end units up so you can see your lure on the screen, see the fish take the lure and streak off the screen. That is so neat. It’s like a real life fishing video game.

Sonar units are a must when water temperatures drop below 55 degrees.

The colder water pushes the shad and bream to the ledges where they will suspend or hold near the bottom. The only way you can find the deep baitfish is with sonar.

I use sonar and GPS to locate off-shore cover such as ledges and man-made brush piles sunk in deep water. Unlike the cypress trees and boat docks which are visible to all and really take a pounding, the cover laying on the structure and break-lines in deep water is not visible from the surface and receives very little pressure.

I’ll be on Lake Bruin this weekend directing and fishing the final bass tournament of 2011.

The Eddie’s Marine Open should produce some nice heavy weight limits.

I will let you know the results in next week’s column, or you can see the results by visiting the Eddie’s Marine page and my personal page.

Predicted winning weights in the local bass tournaments have increased big time since the water temperatures fell below 57 degrees.

This past weekend we fished the Saline/Larto Complex. The water temperature was approximately 50 degrees. That’s cold for the season.

At the scales a total of six bass weighing over 5 pounds were weighed. Long story short, it took a five-bass tournament limit weighing 18 pounds to take third place. Normally 18 pounds would walk off with any tournament during the warmer months.

Doug Schexnayder took third place with the 18 pounds of bass which included two over 5 pounds. I had a great day but fell short of the win.

I weighed in 19.43 pounds and took second place, and I won the big bass money with a nice 5.73 bass.

Stephen Mitchel of Jena smacked a good five-bass limit weighing 22.93 pounds to take first place.

The top three guys had some really nice fish.

The weights fell way off from there with 13 pounds taking fourth place. It was a matter of having a couple five-pound fish to get in the money.

I’m very excited about this year’s cold water fishing. It kicked off real good and can only get better.

This is my favorite time of year to fish. Big bass, sac-a-lait and hybrid stripers are so much easier to locate and catch during the colder months.

The colder it gets the more we catch.

Happy Holidays to all.