I wonder,,,,

[Sam]

19 hours ago, Rahlow said:

Good post Sam, exactly what I hoped to see,,, 

Another mind warp for me is the price of the high end boats, never in my life did I think I would live to see a $100k Bass boat, but I believe I will soon!

Rahlow, would you believe my wife and I paid $35,000 for our first house in 1974????

 

And I almost croaked on that amount.  

[Rahlow]

28 minutes ago, Sam said:

Rahlow, would you believe my wife and I paid $35,000 for our first house in 1974????

 

And I almost croaked on that amount.  

Heck yea I believe it, in 1979 I paid $25,000 for 3 bedrooms 1-1/2 bath, my first house. Power bill was flat $25/month, but we had no central A/C then either....lol

[RAMBLER]

Thirty years ago, I had a 10' john boat with a trolling motor and a black and white, 4" depth/fish finder.  I was trolling and saw a fish on the screen.  At the right distance from that spot I caught a fish.  I'm sure it was the fish I saw.  That was the last and only fish I've seen on the screen and then caught.  I know there are a lot more reasons to have the depth/fish finder.  That one I had fastened to a board and c-clamped it to the boat.  I used it more ice fishing than any other way.  I had a battery that I carried in the boat or on a sled for ice fishing.  I was ice fishing one time and watching the screen and saw a school of fish pass through.  There were several of us in the same area and I made a comment that I had seen the school go through.  One fool asked me which direction they were going.  I had the screen positioned, just be chance so it was facing east, the fish went from from my right to left, on the screen, so I simply told him they were going south.  He dug a new whole and tried to catch up to them.

 

[HookRz]

I'm only being partly facetious when I say its the video game generation. With GPS, side imaging and 3D sonar, spot lock and such Summertime Smallmouth fishing on lake Erie more resembles a video game than....well, fishing. Toss your dropshot down in the sonar cone and watch on your screen as the fish come up and eat. I'm sure being an electronics wiz loads the boat elsewhere. Look at who wins the summer tournaments.

Say what you want about the old "bank beaters" but that's where the ability to handle your tackle well, being physically skilled, seperates the men from the boys

[A-Jay]

I'd venture to guess that if we were to switch the 'good sticks' of yesteryear, with the successful anglers of today, each would still be ahead of the pack; regardless of the equipment or the decade.

All things being equal, bassheads either 'have it'- or they don't.

And 'it' may be (but certainly is not limited to) love of the sport, patience,  commitment, dedication, determination, willingness to put time on the water and that innate, instinctual & built into their DNA, ability to locate & catch Bass.   

None of that is available in any retail outlets I know of.

A-Jay

[buzzbaiter83]

I think the new fishfinders & GPS units have allowed people to catch more fish consistently but I’m not sure if it’s what opened the sport up so wide. I think Marketing is the biggest reason why bass fishing has grown over the past 10-20 years. Johnny Morris with BPS and Tracker Boats has probably brought more people to bass fishing than anything else. Add in YouTube Channels, social media, fisheries management, major chain stores, & access with new types of watercraft and its the perfect storm to blow up the sport. 

[Deleted account]

We are prisoners of our eras, as is everyone ever born or to be born. We use the tools and technology available to us. It doesn't make the old timers better or the young guys wiz kids. I'm sure when the bass anglers of the future with the chip in their brain goof on the old timers for needing external electronics, the then old guys will come up with "in my day" stories.

[OCdockskipper]

I have to believe that a Jordan Lee, Brandon Palaniuk or Jacob Wheeler would have been successful tournament pro's had they been born in the 1940's instead of the 1980's & 90's.  They have skill sets that utilize but don't depend on the latest technology.

 

The first flasher I got back in the 70's was very helpful because I fished a highland type reservoir (Canyon Lake, Ca).  I never used it to find fish, but I was able to figure out where the main & creek channels were and how shallow or deep different points were as they descended into the lake.

 

Personally, a foot controlled electric motor is more valuable to me than a depthfinder, boat positioning & control is so critical especially in shallower lakes.  We kind of take them for granted until you try fishing from a craft without one, it is chaotic.

 

At Texas Fest on Lake Travis, I noticed two things in relation to this topic.  First, guys spent a lot of time on fish they found via depth finders, even if those fish weren't biting or were not the right size.  More than once a pro would comment about the number of fish they were seeing on their screens and spend a lot of time there without much results.  I would think this would throw you off, kind of like what happens when you are sight fishing & the ones you see aren't biting.  You spend more time in an area you would have normally moved on from.  Second, spot-lock on trolling motors is basically deep-water power poles, especially in windy conditions.  The pros would turn their boat into the wind, hit spot lock and then go to the back of the boat & cast with the wind to the location they wanted to.  It was pretty effective. 

[bigbassin']

I can't speak for the rest of the country, but in Florida I don't think electronics are a huge deal in keeping people involved with bass fishing.  Most of our lakes are too shallow for a depth finder to be of much use, and the offshore fishing I have done, along with the majority of what I've seen on the internet will be along grass flats in 5-8 foot of water.  There are lakes here that get deeper of course, but the option to fish structure in 30 foot of water just doesn't exist here the way it does in other places.

[WRB]

I fished Railroad Canyon lake as it was called before it became a private lake. 

No lake map and only my flasher was able to determine the depth to focus my efforts at and where. This was before Threadfin Shad were common in SoCal lakes and the bass prey was shoreline cover and rock pile oriented looking for crawdads. Flasher clearly indicated fish in the water column if you looked closely and found a few bright marks on a point near the dam that turned out to be big bass.

Today the far right 1/4" strip of your sonar screen is a flasher showing real time targets under the transducer, the display is history. Do you watch the real time data or the display?

Tom

[Armtx77]

I only have a kayak and a canoe.Outside of a depth finder, I dont use any electronics. Unless we are counting the google machine to check the weather conditions

 

[LadiMopar]

42 minutes ago, Rahlow said:

Holymoly 

 

Wow, you can say that again! The two big RAM trucks in my yard cost about the same combined, but I figure I'll get more use from the trucks.

[geo g]

I think the things that have changed fishing the most in the last 30 years, are the fishing shows, internet videos, information available, tournaments, and a means of making a living doing the things we love the most.  It has has a huge influence on the general population, and provided interest in the sport.  Without all the modern electronics, these new fisherman would learn to adjust quickly, and do just fine competing with the older guys.

[Sam]

6 hours ago, Rahlow said:

Heck yea I believe it, in 1979 I paid $25,000 for 3 bedrooms 1-1/2 bath, my first house. Power bill was flat $25/month, but we had no central A/C then either....lol

Yep, the good ole days.