Logan S

There are 3 tidal fisheries on this schedule.

I think it's a bigger impact than it initially appears. Allows the tech without letting it get out of hand. Forces anglers to make choices on their setups instead of just adding anything and everything. There will be setup strategies based on the schedule and such, it'll take it from a free for all to something that requires actual planning and thought. 1 FFS transducer on the TM is how the majority of us regular anglers operate, so being able to see the true FFS gurus optimize that setup will be a cool learning opportunity...And an opportunity for content for the league/pros.

I don't think it even needs to be angler 'following' a fish....You could have two anglers sharing water that are a comfortable distance apart normal fishing wise, but still be able to beam the same fish if its within their FFS radius. IE if we're 'sharing water' and I'm 150 feet away, that's a pretty comfortable distance, but our FFS ranges will overlap. If I see you casting in a particular direction, I can beam over there and potentially see the fish you're targeting and try to cast to it also. I think in the real world it's kind of an edge case, but I bet we see something like that play out eventually. I don't think that type of stuff could really be addressed, except the unwritten rule maybe widens the radius of your 'zone' so that FFS ranges don't overlap - which is pretty far apart.

Yes, that's correct.

It would be kind of surprising, but I could see FFS being banned in BFL's. In the BFL's co-anglers exist for 2 reasons, #1 for money and #2 for preventing cheating. BFL's don't allow open boats (#2), so if there aren't enough Co's they make any non-linked boaters double up in boater-boater draws. Most boaters don't want to do this, so if it's known the co field is light, anyone not linked already just won't sign up....Which means even less $$$. I've been reading/hearing BFL Co #'s are down in most divisions and a big reason is FFS. Being a co was hard enough already, but the prospect of sitting out in the middle of the lake all day without ever getting a meaningful cast makes it worse so many anglers just aren't bothering anymore (one even in this thread) Less co's means less money, but the ripple effect of also decreasing boater participation compounds it. BFL income is probably pretty important to MLF as a whole since it is by far the largest angler (customer) base for them. If they have good data showing FFS is a major reason for declining numbers, banning it would be logical.

The pearl-clutching about the Johnston's is funny to me...Gee beat Chris in the tournament. Dude went toe to toe with one of the kings of the SLR, on the king's own spot no less, and beat him....Why the crying? Corey never even went there, he was out in the deep blue sea and won by a pound and a half.... Both Chris and Gee had a TON on the line, one a tournament win and the other an AOY title. They had their words and it should have been the end of it, let the fish on the scales do the talking. Leaving to try to convince another angler to interfere with Chris was worse than anything Chris did....Thankfully the other angler was smart enough to not get involved.

Can't use a $10 step stool to get a better view of a bedding fish that is at most 50' away...Which is already limited by time of year, water depth, water clarity, and wind/weather conditions. But $30k+ worth of screens and transducers that let you see any fish larger than a minnow in any depth, any water clarity, at anytime of the year, in any conditions, in any direction out to 100+' away is A-OK.

Textured heat shrink is also an option, easily removable if you don't like it. It's very grippy and doesn't ruin the aesthetics of the rod too much either (assuming you go with black 🙂). Like this...

The only way to get Daiwa AGS guides is secondhand somehow. Daiwa won't even send them out for warranty on their rods, they make you send the entire rod to them to get a guide put on. NFC recently released their own version of carbon framed guides, supposedly 20% lighter than titanium framed guides of similar size. Even when on sale they are still pretty darn expensive though.

I've been severely slacking on my own thread . I've probably built 20 rods at least since the last time I posted, but just been so busy lately. I'll try to catch up a little. Here is my literal latest build, an XRay SJ 732.

Megabass XX Perfect Pitch...And it would do both of those things well. That rod is one of a kind.

Might consider hopping on a boat as a Co-Angler? We've got Black Hill and Potomac coming up before the summer tournament break... Pretty easy going group and fun tournament experience. www.fishonbassanglers.com

Point Blank. I've owned many high end factory rods and built many "high end" rods myself now. If the application calls for a sensitive, fast or extra fast action...You won't beat a PB.

I know, right? ... .. . 🤣

I'm aware. He's been fishing the pro level for at least 7 or 8 years now, with almost half a million in earnings over at FLW/MLF before coming to BASS. Who you got next? 🤣

... 🙄...So, exactly what I said. 43rd of 47 🙄 (Not meant as a slight to him, he's obviously a top tier angler, just pointing out the trolling) I don't get it... I hope the trial does well, but lets be real, they only drew 47 anglers...Of which, less than half are 'big' names and most of them probably hit it as a fun pitstop on the way to FL for the next Elite event. This tournament isn't going to prove anything one way or the other.

Which ones? The biggest names associated with FFS are not in this tournament. I've seen this same thing posted various places as a way to stick it in the eye of anyone not praising the glory of FFS... It's a poor troll attempt. The biggest names in this field of only 47 were at the top before FFS, including the leader, so it shouldn't be a surprise to see them doing well. In the top 10 there is maybe 1 guy who is newer to the scene and known for FFS talent, but he's also a Lanier local so that also shouldn't be a surprise. There's also quite a few unknown names so who knows of any of them are "scopers" or not? It doesn't even matter anyway, it's a cool idea for a tournament trail for a bunch of other reasons besides the FFS drama. I hope it succeeds and the coverage improves.

Not sure what your water temps are, but in colder water (like maybe anything under 50) they float pretty fast. Tail up is how they are supposed to sit, not sure the exact angle but 45 degrees is what I'd call it, could be more I guess. I guess I'd have to see it to know for sure, but it sounds normal to me.

Yes, obviously bass tournament. I heard about the musky thing...No offense to their trail/anglers, but any BFL or similar local tournament trail is probably bigger than the musky thing and there are literally hundreds of them across the country. It's also not apples to apples, it'd be like trying to apply the same rules to deer hunting as you do to duck hunting.

I doubt there will be actual regulation on sonar equipment from DNR's.... However.... Most states require tournament organizations to get some type of permit, even for small club events. We have to do this in MD for our 20ish boat tournaments. MD DNR also places several stipulations on the tournament permit related to fish care that we have to comply with. This method allows them to enforce these things on a large percentage of anglers without actually making a law or regulation about it. Given my experience with MD DNR, it will not surprise me if they eventually put a no-FFS clause into tournament permits, which will be a giant cluster-F.

This thing is not as polarized and so many make it out to be. Tons of anglers that want to see some type of regulation on FFS actually have FFS themselves (like me and most of the guys I fish with).... So a significant percentage of the anglers that would otherwise fish such a trail probably have FFS on their boats. It's too much of a hassle to remove the FFS transducers for some tournaments and put it back on for others....So they just won't participate. Tournament trails won't survive without participation. I've never seen a tournament trail with some type of restriction in place like this survive. Previously, this type of thing used to be done with length/HP limits...Trails would pop up or split off from others for 150HP and under boats for example. They don't last long and if they split off from an existing trail they often drag the original trail down with it. As big as we think bass fishing is, tournament bass fishing really isn't all that big....If you split the angler base, you probably won't survive long. Ideally there would be some type of universally agreed on rule in place around this stuff, similar to how 250HP seems to be generally agreed upon max HP across most tours. That way anglers could set their boats up and fish multiple trails without worrying about different rulings.

Every year my club does an informal tournament on Black Hill before the season starts....We did it in the cold, windy, rain on Saturday... Fishing wasn't too bad, we managed a small limit, only 1 decent 3lber. We all got hammered by the winners who lapped the field with a very impressive 21 lb limit 😮

I think he's right. Honestly/Personally, I don't think it should be allowed at all. Realistically, I think it probably should be allowed but with some restrictions in place on both the FFS setup specifically and the total electronics package on tournament boats. There's so many other limitations already in place that no one bats an eye at, it would be strange if FFS wasn't limited. There's a bunch of reasons behind my stance, based on my own experience with FFS on my boat. But if I had to pick a one-sentence answer...It waters down the bass fishing experience too much.

Trout, walleye, pike/musky, striped bass - Not as universally available. Catfish and carp are large and widely available, but the fishing style is not as active or diverse. Panfish are widely available, but are smaller and in general not as much of a challenge. Bass are widely available, get large enough to be exciting, aren't too easy or too hard to catch, and have very diverse methods of fishing for them.

Vision 110's sit nose-down when paused pretty noticeably....Like a 45 degree angle downward. They are slow floaters not suspenders (out of the box).