Scott Niska, Marketing Director for ProNav Marine, is a passionate outdoorsman. He enjoys spending time in the woods and on the water in Michigan’s beautiful Upper Peninsula and strives to share his love of the outdoors with his children. When he is free from commitments with running his marketing agency, you can find Scott hunting, fishing, and camping. Some of the fish species Scott likes to chase most are bass, salmon, and crappie, finding crappie fishing especially fun to do with his children.
Scott likes to fish for crappies using a sensitive 5’ ultralight with 4lb mono. He typically uses 1/8 oz and 1/16 oz jigs with curly tail grubs and finds that casting out and jigging back in is a great method for bringing in the crappie. One of the best parts of crappie fishing is that it’s the perfect type of fishing for bringing the kids along. Scott says that he “prefers evening fishing in the summer as it is warm, it stays light so late, and the kids get to watch the sun set over the water.” When fishing with his kids, slip bobbers with jigs and grubs or minnows are his favorite way to go.
The ProNav Angler™ has become a useful tool for Scott while fishing for crappie. The Angler provides him with a rope-less anchor, which means no getting stuck in logs, rocks, tree roots, etc., and of course, no catching the anchor line! This makes fishing a lot more fun for him and the kids. “With the Angler, I can easily adjust my anchor point to fine tune my spot, and I can effortlessly motor through trees, stumps, pilings, and more.”
In addition to crappie fishing, Scott also spends time fishing for smallmouth bass, which can often be found near underwater structures. For this he uses a 6’ 6” medium action rod with a spinning reel. “My favorite way to fish them is to slow it down with a wacky rig. It requires patience and that your boat can stay dialed in to a spot or follow a break or weedline while you stay focused on fishing.”
To locate underwater structures or humps, Scott uses his fish finder, Navionics app, or a combination of the two. The Angler makes fishing these deep structures easy—“find a structure, hit anchor, and fish.” This is perfect for vertical jigging in deep waters, where even the slightest shift in wind could cause your boat to move off course. With this spot-on anchoring, you can keep your focus on the kids in the boat and help them learn how to fish, rather than concentrating your attention on keeping the boat on course.
The ProNav mobile application, available on iTunes and the Google Play store, allows you to create your own routes for trolling based off previously saved points. Scott finds this feature particularly useful, saying “this go-to-anchor point feature lets me prep while ProNav takes me to my spot, which is especially helpful when fishing with kids so you can get them ready before you get to the spot!” This feature will bring you to any anchor point from any distance away, and it will hold the boat on that exact location when you arrive.
For Scott, the ProNav Angler has become an invaluable tool. “ProNav helps me put more fish in the boat; it was developed for anglers like myself to bring pro-level tools to the average fisherman.” Click here to learn more about the features of the Angler and how they can help you!
