Fraser Volpe, the recognized leader in marine gyroscopic stabilized binoculars (or gyros as they are regularly called by local anglers), has long been a sponsor of the California Billfish Series marlin tournaments. This year, a set of Fraser Volpe Stedi-Eye Mariner stabilized binoculars will be one of the four mega raffle drawings for the Crow’s Nest Avalon Billfish Classic Marlin Tournament.

All anglers entered in this event will have an entry in to this drawing, and the other three mega raffle drawings as well.
With a retail value of around $5,000, the Fraser Volpe Stedi-Eye Mariners are one of the most sought after prizes in the series. They offer the highest scan rate and greatest field of view of any gyro available, and reduce up to 98% of image motion. They are able to operate continuously for up to 12 hours on 2 “AA” batteries, and have optional adapter to allow for power to be provided form a standard cigarette lighter outlet. They are buoyant, easy to operate, and a set or more can be found aboard most every serious tournament boat in the tournaments. The reason is clear; the 14 X magnification allow teams to scan a field that is 74 meters wide at 1,000 meters range. In other words, these gyros allow teams to cover an incredible amount of water, searching for fish and other signs of life.

How important are gyroscopic stabilized binoculars to top offshore captains? At a recent offshore fishing seminar Steve Lassley and Pete Groesbeck of Team Bad Company were asked if they had to choose between turning off all of their electronics or putting away their gyros, what would they do? Steve and Pete were stumped. The honest answer is that their gyros are at least as important to them as their GPS, chart plotter, side scanning sonar, fathometer, and all the other high tech gadgets on the bridge.

It depends on the day, but generally speaking catching fish in Southern California is completely dependent on seeing them first, and gyros increase your odds exponentially. When asked what percentage of fish they caught were first spotted in the gyros, Lassley and Groesbeck estimated about 80-90%. Those that didn’t get spotted were either located on the side scanning sonar (very small percentage for local stripers), or were jig bites.

Why are they so important? A simple geometry lesson will make it crystal clear. Take a sheet of paper, and randomly make three dots on that sheet with a marking pen. Now suppose the piece of paper represents a “chart” of the water you are fishing, with a scale of 1 inch = 1 mile. Make believe each dot represents a marlin on the surface. Now close your eyes and draw 3 straight lines anywhere across the “chart” (see figure 1).

These lines represent your boats path trolling through the area. Odds are these lines do not touch any of the dots, but they do come within an inch from at least one of them.
Now think about how far away your crew is able to spot a marlin consistently. For most crews, with bare eyes a sleeper or tailer more that 150 yards away will likely go unnoticed. With a good set of 7 X 50 binoculars, you can be generous to your crew and triple that. Let’s assume your crew is using binoculars and scanning all around the boat. That means that at any given time you are covering a circle with a diameter of 900 yards, or .51 miles (about ½ inch on our chart). That means that if you took an item like a dime that is about ½ inches across, and passed it down each line, any fish covered by the dime would be found by your crew. Any fish not covered would be missed.
Now consider a crew following the exact same path using gyros. This crew has the ability to spot fish a mile or more from the boat. This boat will cover a circle with a diameter of 2 miles, 4 times more water than the boat using regular binoculars, and 12 times more water than a boat looking with bare eyes. If you took an item with a 2 inch diameter, like a salt shaker or roll of tape, and passed that down the same 3 lines, it is clear how much more water is covered, including all 3 fish in our example for the crew using gyros, while the crew using binoculars covered the exact same water and missed them all.

Now just having a set or two of gyros on your boat will not guarantee you will find fish. You still need to be diligent about using them, and using them properly. That means having your boat set up so that the crew using gyros have the ability to scan without obstruction form stanchions, antennae, or bridge enclosures.

The spotting stations need to be set up so the crew can rest their arms while they hold the gyros to their eyes for hours on end. Once a fish is spotted, the spotter needs to be able to communicate with the helmsman and other crew members to steer the boat close enough to the fish that other crew men can spot the fish with their eyes before the gyro man can take his eyes off. This is easier said than done, even for top crews.

Besides spotting fish, the gyros can be used to spot bait, birds, kelps, current rips, and other signs of life or lack thereof. They can also be used to keep an eye on other boats to see if they are finding fish. For safety purposes, they can aid in spotting boats or crews in distress, or navigational hazards such as partially submerged objects. They also come in handy when checking out the wildlife at local beaches while on anchor or on the mooring in Avalon.