Forward scanning sonar for bass fishing

[TnRiver46]

46 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

You could save people a lot of trouble by just posting the coordinates of your money spot.   People are gonna have to drive up and down the Tennessee river looking at all the barge ties trying to match the rust spots on your photo.  

Hahahah. Almost zero people fish anywhere near my house. There’s too many other good places in the area, a lot of people wouldn’t even consider fishing downtown Knoxville. It’s chickamauga or bust for everyone! Been seeing tons of yachts headed to the stadium today though, go big Orange 

[Tennessee Boy]

Is a guy that can drag a jig across a log and tell you what species of tree it's from a great fisherman in 2021 if he can't figure out how to turn on a fish finder?

 

[GaryH]

Kidda like a great mechanic that could fix you car first time every time but won’t learn how to use the new diagnostic machines. Time passing him by. He’s still a great mechanic but not on modern cars. We’ve seen it happen to a lot of different trades / skill sets. The older one gets the harder it is to adapt.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Is a guy that can drag a jig across a log and tell you what species of tree it's from a great fisherman in 2021 if he can't figure out how to turn on a fish finder?

 

Yep. Because you can still catch them like that 

1 hour ago, GaryH said:

Kidda like a great mechanic that could fix you car first time every time but won’t learn how to use the new diagnostic machines. Time passing him by. He’s still a great mechanic but not on modern cars. We’ve seen it happen to a lot of different trades / skill sets. The older one gets the harder it is to adapt.

Not exactly because the bass don’t have new diagnostic machines 

[GaryH]

19 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Yep. Because you can still catch them like that 

Not exactly because the bass don’t have new diagnostic machines 

Are ya sure..

[TnRiver46]

Absolutely! I’ve dissected a few 

[MGF]

I just fish my little river out of my flat bottom or the canoe depending on water level. Up here I don't see the ARMY of bass boats that are flying around at mach 2 down on the reservoir. 

 

I have a Lowrance Hook 5 that I bought several years ago but I never put it in the boat this year. I have a trolling motor that never heard of spot lock and I have to have oars or a push pole on hand because I get in water that's too shallow for the motor.

 

This is about as high tech as my fishing is ever going to get. If I lived someplace else and my favorite fishery was something else I might have different tastes.

[padon]

i got nothing against guys using them but for right now their not for me. just not what i want out of my fishing experience. i stare at a screen 40plus hours a week not what i wanna do when i go fishing. i dont fish tournaments so that doesnt concern me. at some point i may change my mind who knows.

[GRiver]

14 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

 

If you are going to fish like that, why not stay home and play a fishing video game?   The fun of bass fishing is in the hunt.  Catching a bass is the conclusion, not all there is to the game.  Some day bass tournaments will be held in swimming pools with robot bass.  Competitors will be sitting in front of screens thousands of miles away. You won't need rods or tackle.  You won't have to cast, retrieve or land a fish.   I wonder if they took all their electronics away, if I could still beat their butts?  ?

Yep they already have video game tournaments, with all the sports…fishing maybe next, I sure hope not. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I’ve been using 2D sonar to find deep fish , watch my lure drop on their head, and then watch them come up to eat my spoon. To me that’s video game fishing. 

[WRB]

I am not talking about spooning bass watching a sonar return, been doing that since the 6O’s with a flasher. 2D you can’t see real time fish reaction unless you look at far right side of the sonar screen, everything displayed is history.

I am talking about live image scanning sonar that instantly displays everything real time in detail in front and to the sides of your boat a long cast before you are over the bass and watch their response to you lure.

Tom

[J Francho]

If you turn the RTS (Humminbird) then you can see real time in 2D, just like a flasher. 
 

my experience has been that it's a pretty narrow slice your seeing, so you better be good at the other scanning available. The value is seeing the reactions of the fish once you find them. It isn't a silver bullet, but a an addition to the tools that are already there: GPS, 2D, SI, DI. 

[Catt]

One can still do quite well without forward imaging, of the 5 times I fished against someone with it, I won 3.

 

Now I'm gonna let the "Catt" out the bag cause 4 or 5 guys read this anonymously.

 

I was fishing shell beds, I knew from my electronics the Shad were nearby I just waited em out. I trip I waited 3 hrs without a bite & loaded the boat in the nest 45 minutes. 

 

Y'all do what y'all like ?

[Skunkmaster-k]

10 hours ago, WRB said:

I am not talking about spooning bass watching a sonar return, been doing that since the 6O’s with a flasher. 2D you can’t see real time fish reaction unless you look at far right side of the sonar screen, everything displayed is history.

I am talking about live image scanning sonar that instantly displays everything real time in detail in front and to the sides of your boat a long cast before you are over the bass and watch their response to you lure.

Tom

That sounds like another game altogether. I could chase white bass around like a lost puppy 

[Johnbt]

I want one so I can dodge the numerous stumps and sunken logs at trolling motor speeds in the unmapped ponds and lakes I fish. 

[TnRiver46]

Man I’ve almost done a few summersaults off the front deck when trolling motoring through stumpy sloughs! Put the speed on 2 is my advice haha

[Johnbt]

I hit a stump four or five years ago and bent a Maxxum 70 all the way up under my 1648 and it hit the hull hard. We also had a 12v 35# motor running on the transom and were making 4 mph when we hit. It was a pretty sudden stop, but we were seated and nothing went overboard. The Maxxum still worked, but made a ticking sound that a new armature fixed. It also cracked the bottom half of the control box, but I replaced that myself.

The best part was that the repair shop had an armature and I got the motor back the following afternoon.

[GreenPig]

My 360 Imaging nonMega greatly improved my ability to locate cover and fish it efficiently. I'll likely be installing LiveScope on my other little boat in 2022. The way some folks complain about the FF sonars, you'd think they'd be pulling wood boats with horse drawn wagons. 

[J Francho]

4 hours ago, GreenPig said:

The way some folks complain about the FF sonars, you'd think they'd be pulling wood boats with horse drawn wagons. 

 

[TnRiver46]

We had to sing that song in music class during elementary school. I can say that I will remember the words for the rest of my life unless I hit my head really hard 

[Dirtyeggroll]

about to try my hand at forward live imaging.

[Tennessee Boy]

Those must be empty boxes.  I can't believe they actually exist in the wild. 

[Darth-Baiter]

I kinda love the new technology.  As a kayak fisherman I can’t jam around a lake trying different spots to find fish.  It would be nice to peek around my area of limited travel. Having said that, I’ve had some great fishing days with a regular FF. I like the basic depth info info it provides. I catch one, I can note the depth and look for other areas that are similar. 
 

I love casting into the unknown.  The trepidation and anxiety of maybe getting bit. I don’t think I want to see it coming. 
 

maybe someday. But I’ll put a motor on my kayak before I go with updated FF. 
 

now if a buddy would get it and I can peek over his should occasionally. That would be awesome. 

[billmac]

I have mixed feelings about this. I use electronics (badly), and I've worked and teach in Tech, so I'm no luddite.  If someone gave me a FFS unit, I'd use it.  But let's face it, the end is inevitable. With each advancement, fishing becomes less challenging.  Remember the old In-Fisherman F+L+P=S formula?   Location is becoming a given.  And once the fish can't hide, all the research will go into technology that forces them to bite.  I'm afraid it won't be fishing anymore, just catching.

[TnRiver46]

Fish can still hide from forward facing sonar