Electronics

[Oldfart9999]

I'm beginning to agree with Dale, electronics are, at this point making too much of a difference in tournament fishing. Watching which way a fish is swimming and how they're chasing a bait is a bit much. Plus they are priced so high the average guy can't really afford them. When you need at least 2 units at the bow and at the console is pushing the price way out of the local guys ability. I wonder how many of these guys would be able to fish with the old flashers. Rant over.
Rodney 

[Donald Garner]

Our sport is and has always been an interesting one with all the new items that get coming out.   

I'm waiting to see which company comes out with FFS that can be viewed from the drivers console without deploying the trolling motor   

[J.W.]

I'm beginning to agree with Dale, electronics are, at this point making too much of a difference in tournament fishing. Watching which way a fish is swimming and how they're chasing a bait is a bit much. Plus they are priced so high the average guy can't really afford them. When you need at least 2 units at the bow and at the console is pushing the price way out of the local guys ability. I wonder how many of these guys would be able to fish with the old flashers. Rant over.
Rodney 

It's a double-edged sword. The electronics are teaching us some things about bass behavior we didn't realize before, and I think learning is always good, but I get where you're coming from 100%. I think at some point some restrictions will have to be made on what is legal, at least for tournaments. The tournament directors/league directors are really in control of the direction of the future of fishing electronics. We've come a long way since the old Fish Lo-K-Tor  ! Maybe too far. It'll keep growing and advancing until a boundary is placed, though.
And I do think those guys that were competitive back when I was a kid would still be hammers today, but I wonder if they'd be as consistent if they were not using electronics and having to fish against guys using FFS. On the flipside, I think with some of the younger guys, if you took all their electronics away, they wouldn't be able to keep up with those older cats. But there is a generation or two in the middle, that grew up without all the electronics and were at the top of their game without it, but then learned the electronics too, and have the best of both worlds. Those guys might be the best bass anglers we'll ever see.

[Larry Francis]

I expect it won't be long before you see (on the local stage anyway) No Forward sonar tournaments pop up for the Poors division.

[Ice Cold Peanuts]

Randy Blaukat is trying to have front facing sonar deemed illegal for tournaments. I agree with him that viewers would rather watch someone flipping bushes as opposed to watching someone staring at the front facing sonar and only casting when they see a fish.
Also believe front facing sonar in the hands of meat eaters could be detrimental to fish populations on smaller lakes.
Having said that, my wife has heard my desire for FFS enough times that I don't dare bring it up anymore. I justify it in my mind because I don't kill anything I catch.
I can't imagine chasing spotted bass without it.
Conundrum.

[D.W. Verts]

Dale

[D.W. Verts]

Dale

[Wizard]

Some of us learned to fish before the "LGB" was invented. Younger anglers would struggle to beat older anglers, who used nature to read the water, in a no electronics derby. In the Dark Ages of tournament fishing, the time you spent "on the water", had a direct effect on your ability to place in the money. Knowledge was everything before electronics. Every pro could cast, pitch, and flip.  Dedication to learning where, when and how to catch bass was the price paid to be a good fisherman. 
I have watched MLF derbies where young pros used electronics, including FF, yet did not catch keepers. They were looking at a bank that KNOWLEDGE would have told them was a poor choice for the season. An old angler would have driven past the bank, knowing it was a poor choice for the current season.

Wizard

[apenland01]

Dale

LOL, I have this on my Ranger and it still worked last time I used it!  Once you know how to read it, it's damn accurate and you can see the fish blip in between the depth line....

[Mike the fox]

As cool as I think the new technology is and I did buy a ffs unit with my new boat, I would like to see a tournament with only basic electronics ( no msi, mdi, or ffs) and a 150 hp restriction.


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