New Stuff paying off

[No Excuses]

The last thing I would want to do is offend anyone, so please don't take it that way. Not my intention at all. But, it seems forward facing sonar is ruining my little derby. The same guys wins week in week out. He's single, prob near 40, lives with his folks and works for his dad. All is does is fish. He has Livescope figured out and is very good at it. But, folks have stopped coming. Last Thursday I had 5 boats. Have not had over 9 all year. Normally it would be 15-18. I'm at a loss over what to do. Thinking of having 2 divisions next year. Ok, rant aside. well, not quite. The little area that has been so hot for me this year. He watched me catch a 6.5 and a 23" 5lber there 2 weeks ago, and last week he camped out there. I was a little salty lol. Most of our lake is one community hole after another. I decided it's time to find new stuff. Went back in time to 2012 on GE when the lake was drawn down. Looked for trees that had fallen and were laying on the bottom. I added 30 waypoints to my graph Saturday and went sidescanning. About half of them panned out to look like decent habitat. I was headed to one and ran across a huge old growth cypress stump just under the water. It scared the mess out of me! Looked like a big toothy lake monster coming up out of the depths! It was in about 15' of water. So I backed off and pitched a worm around it and caught one almost 5lbs.... Hmmmm.... Veddy Intedesting.... I replicated it several times over thru Sat and Sun. Wound up finding some new tops to fish as well. Some of these stumps are 4-6 foot across the top and would completely dry dock you if you happened to idle up on one. I only fished one of my normal spots all weekend. I caught several 3+, 2-4+, a 6-7 and an 8-12. BIL caught a 5-11. Pretty exciting to uncover some new stuff and make it pay off!

[Smallie_Stalker]

If you are running the derby? If so is it just you or is it part of a club or something?

If it's just you could you make a rule of no boats with forward facing sonar allowed?

Sorry for all the questions. Unfortunately I don't get to read as many posts as I'd like to so I apologize if I've missed this information in some of your past posts.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

[Donald Garner]

Mark, congrats on the catching there buddy     Tks for sharing the trip and those pictures with us also. 

Don't know what to say or recommend reference FFS / Live Scope issue being used during your events. I think from what I've read those pieces of electronics are here to stay.  I haven't been out on the water lately but I see a lot of boats around here now with those items on them.  Our (2) local Marine Dealerships both run their own Tournament Circuits here in Central Texas.

I think it's the future of fishing.  I have a friend at church that is a Big Crappie Fisherman.  We were talking about this and those pieces of equipment are a big hit the guys that fish the Crappie Tournament Trails here in Texas.

I don't fish tournaments anymore so I'm not looking to upgrade my electronics anytime soon with either of those items.

Tks again for sharing your outings with us.  I always look forward to reading them and checking out your videos. 

[No Excuses]

If I was a crappie fisherman fishing to fill the freezer, I'd have one. Bass fishing, for me, is me against the fish. If I have to see the fish on the screen to be able to dangle a lure in front of his nose to catch one, I'm sorry but I'll go back to playing golf. That is probably an unpopular opinion but it's mine. The derby is just a anyone welcome fruitjar tournament. No series, no points just show up pay $30 and fish. If I ban FFS, I become the bad guy. I tournament fish because it's about the last thing I can be competitive at anymore. It just kind of sucks to see something that used to be so fun, circling the drain.

[FD]

I'm fishing a club next year where forward facing is prohibited.  I have Live but will not be able to use it.  No biggie for me.