Garmin has become the title sponsor of Jason Christie, a Bassmaster Elite Series angler who has long fished with its gear. The company announced the deal on January 4, 2018. It also added four anglers to its marine pro team for the 2018 season.
Christie brings a strong record. He is a three-time Elite Series champion and has won two Bassmaster Opens and 10 FLW events. He has 56 top-10 finishes, and BassFan ranked him the second-best bass angler in the world.
David Dunn, Garmin’s director of marine sales, said the sponsorship shows how serious the company is about freshwater fishing. He added that Christie fits the company’s values well. Christie, for his part, credited Garmin’s Panoptix sonar with a big role in his recent results, including his win on St. Clair the year before. He said he looked forward to working even more closely with the company.
Fans will see the change right away, because the Garmin logo is going on Christie’s new jersey, boat and truck. It will show up at weigh-ins and public events all year. His season starts at Lake Martin on February 8–11. Then, on March 16–18, he fishes his sixth Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell.
The four new team members are Randy Haynes of FLW and Brian Snowden, Carl Svebek and Jesse Tacoronte of B.A.S.S. With them, the team counts nearly 70 anglers. They will use detailed lake maps, GPSMAP 7600xsv chartplotters with screens from 7 to 16 inches and the Panoptix PS22-TR sonar. Garmin says it was the first to bring Panoptix imaging to the water, which lets anglers see around the boat in real time.
Garmin calls itself the world’s leading maker of marine electronics, based on 2016 sales. The NMEA named it Manufacturer of the Year for the third year running. Its marine line covers chartplotters, touchscreen displays, sonar, radar, autopilots, mapping and sailing instruments. The company also has units for automotive, aviation, fitness and outdoor products.
