RAYMARINE: Perpetual Clarity

Perpetual Clarity

Captain Sam Sutton relies on Element for the clearest pictures of his underwater office

Captain Sam Sutton was born and raised in Ormond Beach, at the heart of Florida’s east coast. His father began taking him fishing when he was very young, and as Sutton grew, so did his passion for angling. Today, Sutton makes his living guiding anglers on the storied waters of the Florida Keys.

“I love what I do; I love fishing,” the Raymarine Pro Ambassador says. “I love taking people out and I love the camaraderie between a guide and a client.”

In addition to his Mercury-powered Hell’s Bay skiff, Captain Sam relies on Raymarine electronics to add value to his clients’ days on the water. “I’m running the new Element,” he says, referring to Raymarine’s newest line of Sonar/GPS displays, featuring super-fast QuadCore processing and 1.2 MHz HyperVisionTM sonar.

End the Guessing Game

The lifelike clarity that Element’s super-high-frequency HyperVision sonar produces—especially in the SideVision mode—is one of Sutton’s favorite features. “The new HyperVision has been really nice. On days when you are baitfishing where the wind can be blowing 15 or 20, you know the fish are in these deep channels. You are just trying to home in exactly where they’re at. It (HyperVision) ends the guessing game,” he says. “In some of these channels that might be 20-feet deep, if they are hanging below the silt line, and if you are drifting your bait through at say eight feet where they would normally be at, you might be covering up your bait and they can’t even see it,” Sutton explains. “When you can see these big schools of tarpon down at the bottom, you can adjust. So it helps out in many ways.”

Sutton’s home water is dynamic. “Being able to run offshore to the reefs and then be in the Backcountry chasing tarpon and permit in the afternoon… you can’t do it anywhere else but the Keys,” says Sutton, who loves many of his clients almost as much as he loves the fish he pursues. “Clients become almost like family. The experience is better every year that they come down,” he says. “You get to talk about family and friends. You get to grow with them as an angler.”

For Sutton, every day on the water is as cherished as it is unique. “The weather and the sun can plague your fishing day,” he says, “but being out on the water… there is nothing I’d rather do. I wouldn’t want to sit in an office.”