New Hummingbird forward-facing sonar units allow 360-degree viewing. In this example on the right, each ring is 20 feet apart, and the range setting is for a total look of 80 feet away all around the boat. The tree structure is noted, and the individual blips are crappie. Photo courtesy of Forrest Fisher

From trolling crankbaits for walleye and probing rocky structure for smallmouth bass to searching for spring crappie anglers along our Chautauqua County shorelines, kitchen table debates argue whether high-tech sonar helps — or just proves when fish are there and refuse to bite.

Why mention this? It’s Friday the 13th. Why not?! Did your phone battery mysteriously drop to 2% right before lunch? Did you spill coffee on your shirt on the way out the door this morning? Did a black cat slip across the road just as you pulled into the parking lot? Statistically, today isn’t any more unlucky than any other day. But anglers can be a lot like baseball players and airline pilots. They can be a superstitious bunch. When the fish don’t bite, we start looking for reasons — the moon phase, the wind direction, the barometer, or sometimes … the calendar itself.

Along the Lake Erie shoreline and inland lakes in Chautauqua County and elsewhere in Western New York, however, anglers have at least one reason to wait. The walleye season will close on Sunday, March 15, and remain closed for several more weeks through May 1, giving fishermen time to tune up gear, sort tackle boxes, and think about the coming season. And perhaps think about how fishing itself is changing.

In recent years, forward-facing sonar has entered the conversation in a big way. The newest sonar units from several manufacturers allow anglers to watch fish moving beneath the boat in real time. Suspended walleye, bass or crappie show up as small marks drifting through open water. Cast a jig tipped with a soft plastic or live minnow toward them, and anglers can sometimes see exactly how those fish react. Sometimes they race toward the lure. Sometimes they drift away like ghosts.

That’s where the debate begins. Some anglers love the technology, saying it opens a fascinating window into learning about fish behavior. Others say it risks turning a day on the water into something closer to a video game played with a fishing rod in hand. Then ask the question, is this real fishing?

When the Lake Erie walleye season opens again later this spring, many anglers will return to familiar tactics. Boats will spread out across the lake, trolling crankbaits or worm harnesses along shallow water breaklines and rocky humps where the early season walleye will be ready for their spawning ritual. Planer boards will stretch lines away from the boat, bottom bouncers will carry crawler harnesses just above bottom. Flicker-style minnows, deep-diving crankbaits, and brightly colored harness blades will all get their turn.

The slightly deeper rocky reefs and boulder-strewn shoals will once again draw daytime bass anglers looking for Lake Erie’s hard-fighting smallmouth bass. Tubes bounced along the rocks mimic crayfish scurrying for cover. Drop-shot rigs suspend finesse worms just above the bottom. Jerkbaits flash through the clear water along the edges of structures where bronzebacks patrol for their next meal.

And increasingly, some anglers will be watching their sonar screens as closely as their fishing lines. Forward-facing sonar may show a smallmouth rise from a rock pile to inspect a lure. It might reveal a walleye sliding beneath a trolling crankbait without striking. In other words, it sometimes will show anglers exactly what they don’t want to see. But perhaps that’s part of fishing’s long-lasting mystery. Technology can help find fish ever since the Lowrance neon-light units, yet it can’t make them hungry.

So, as the closed season ticks down, starting on Sunday, and the bigger boats wait patiently at marinas and driveways across Chautauqua County, anglers who will soon return to Lake Erie with rods, tackle, and perhaps a little optimism. They might switch to chasing Crappies at Chautauqua Lake from shore. More on that this weekend.

And maybe — just maybe — they’ll find good luck when the regular walleye season finally opens on May 1. Remember, every day can be a new opportunity to innovate with or without the new gear or any superstition. Saint Patty’s Day green-colored micro tube jigs with a fluoro-green bobber could work for crappies in Chautauqua Lake canals at Asheville next Tuesday. It could seem like magic. Good luck.

Gotta love the outdoors.

CALENDAR

March 14: Spring Meat Raffle, Ellington Rod/Gun, 1045 Hagerdon Hill Road, Gerry, members only, Info: 716-287-3987.

March 15: Celoron Rod & Gun Club, St. Patrick’s Day Shoot, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 210 E. Livingston Ave., Celoron; info: Jerry Martin, 814-688-9209

March 21: Erie County Federation of Sportsman’s Clubs, Annual Banquet, Kloc’s Grove, 1245 Seneca Creek Road, West Seneca. $45 includes dinner, social hour. Info: Diane Steel, 716-998-5137.

March 21: Hanover Fish & Game Club, Shots for Gold — sporting clays, 780 Overhiser Road, Forestville. 716-525-5160.

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Submit calendar items to forrestfisher35@yahoo.com at least 10 days in advance.