anyone have no interest in fishing with sonar, and maybe prefer the 'old wayze?'

[fishhugger]

 

any guys here perfectly fine without sonar ---- ?   like, do any guys prefer exploring the water with  line, weights, or paper maps, or (insert other old fashioned thing here)? and i guess i'm wondering why it might be preferable to be sonar-less.

 

 i've read that with sonar, you can find fish, determine the size of a fish, see how the fish are moving, find bait fish, determine what the bottom is like, what kind of vegetation is there, get a very accurate location of exactly where you are when you spot or catch fish, determine contour of bottom,... uh... everything!!! i'm assuming a boat is attached to your sonar, and it's not the castable kind, which i've heard is less accurate.

[Mat_ski]

Yes, but I’m a river rat. I don’t really need electronics on the medium size rivers I fish, current tells me almost everything. 

[AManWearingAHat]

Its good to have a lake bottom contour map to get some idea of where fish may be holding, but count me solidly in the sonar crowd. I know "it's called fishing not catching" but I don't get a lot of time on the water with my work schedule so I want to make the best of it. I'd at least like to know I am in potentially productive waters.

[Jmilburn76]

I use it only cause I need all the help I can get but then I suck at dialing in a fish finder a well.

[jbsoonerfan]

I have Mega DI/SI and Mega 360. I am very proficient at reading the depth, water temp and time. Other than that, I don't consider myself to be any good with it. I can find structure, and sometimes catch fish there, but I am a bank beater so it doesn't really help me all that much.

[softwateronly]

I enjoy fishing a lot with a boat and no sonar, but I spend upwards of 90 percent of my time on 3 lakes totaling only 435 acres on natural bowl-ish lakes.  So between maps and time on the water I do pretty well, but I'm pretty sure I'd do better with modern tech especially mid summer off shore.  When I'm done saving/spending on my house, I'll jump into the game.  SI and mega360 is what really piques my interest.

 

scott

[gim]

I wouldn’t even launch my boat without at least basic sonar. It’s a safety factor for me. If I don’t know how deep it is, I’m not running my outboard.

 

Modern GPS and mapping contours have become an essential tool for me as well, but if I had to I could fish without it.  At least during daylight on a smaller lake I could.

[TnRiver46]

Sonar? Like cupping your hand around your ear ? 

[Skunkmaster-k]

9 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Sonar? Like cupping your hand around your ear ? 

That’s a good picture 

[TnRiver46]

2 minutes ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

That’s a good picture 

Thanks! That one was 21.5 inches and fat 

[Catt]

My fish finder is tied to the end of my line.

 

My sonar is a simple Humminbird Helix 5 CHIRP GPS G3

 

The only up grade I'm planning is a trolling motor with spot lock.

 

 

[Mobasser]

Some older members here are aware of triangulation, and have used it. It can still work, though slower. Any electronics speed up the process of fish location. But, they won't catch the fish for you.

[WRB]

I have been using sonar since the 1st flasher became available Lowrance Portable green box around 1960.

If all you do is cast to visible shore targets you can catch bass, sonar isn’t essential.

However you maybe missing the majority of catchable bass where you fish. Sonar saves time. 

Where I fish in deep steep rocky lakes with little cover finding the food source and active depth is critical, sonar does this in minutes instead of days.

My generation had to learn to study paper maps and photos and apply the above water terrain to visually “see” the underwater terrain. Sonar helps everyone today to “see” underwater terrain.

So no I am uncomfortable fishing our local lakes without sonar, even as a backseater.

 

Tom

[GreenPig]

I go both ways.?

[Basser2021]

2 hours ago, Mat_ski said:

Yes, but I’m a river rat. I don’t really need electronics on the medium size rivers I fish, current tells me almost everything. 

Same here man

[CrashVector]

I've never used sonar, and don't plan on it.

 

I find fish by exploring and casting.

[Bankbeater]

After I become familiar with a lake I find I don't need it, or if I do have it on, I don't look at it very much.  On a new lake I have never fished I will use it for temp, depth, and bottom contour. 

[crypt]

all I have is an old Lowrance flasher........so yeah I don't mind fishing without the latest technology......

[Captain Phil]

I built my first "fish flasher" from a Heathkit.  In Florida, we have never used a lot of electronics as most of our bass fishing is done shallow.  As electronics has gotten better, I find myself using it more than I used to.  Personally, I am not a fan of 360 degree "see the fish bite your lure" electronics, but I can see how it would be an advantage in tournament fishing.  Do you really want to turn bass fishing into a video game?  Why not just stay home and fish on your TV?  I prefer to use my experience to catch fish.  Am I missing some fish?  Probably so.  Does it bother me that someone else finds them with a computer?  Not really.

 

 

[CrashVector]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

I built my first "fish flasher" from a Heathkit.  In Florida, we have never used a lot of electronics as most of our bass fishing is done shallow.  As electronics has gotten better, I find myself using it more than I used to.  Personally, I am not a fan of 360 degree "see the fish bite your lure" electronics, but I can see how it would be an advantage in tournament fishing.  Do you really want to turn bass fishing into a video game?  Why not just stay home and fish on your TV?  I prefer to use my experience to catch fish.  Am I missing some fish?  Probably so.  Does it bother me that someone else finds them with a computer?  Not really.

 

 

 

The only time it bugs me, and even then minimally so, is when livescope is used by lots of people on small and highly pressured lakes.

 

You get 7-10 boats every day pulling limits from a small lake and it'll eventually negatively impact the fishery.

[Craig P]

1 hour ago, CrashVector said:

 

The only time it bugs me, and even then minimally so, is when livescope is used by lots of people on small and highly pressured lakes.

 

You get 7-10 boats every day pulling limits from a small lake and it'll eventually negatively impact the fishery.

Electronics are just another tool. If I had to give up my electronics, I might as well throw my rods away too and force myself to carve a point on a stick with a blade I made from a stone when I get to the lake. 

[gim]

For those of you that stated you don’t need electronics, would do you throttle down and cruise around without knowing how deep it is? That sounds like a great way to ground your boat or ruin a lower unit.

 

The OP asked if we were fine without sonar. Not if we were fine without the latest electronics technology. Full disclosure I do not have livescope or 360 sonar but the idea of motoring around on plane without knowing how deep it is without at least basic sonar seems like a suicide mission.

[TnRiver46]

36 minutes ago, gimruis said:

For those of you that stated you don’t need electronics, would do you throttle down and cruise around without knowing how deep it is? That sounds like a great way to ground your boat or ruin a lower unit.

 

The OP asked if we were fine without sonar. Not if we were fine without the latest electronics technology. Full disclosure I do not have livescope or 360 sonar but the idea of motoring around on plane without knowing how deep it is without at least basic sonar seems like a suicide mission.

That’s what buoys are for! Red on right returning! (people sailed the world before electricity). My ancestors took a boat down the Holston river in the late 1700s, which is how I ended up here . My aunt gave a fascinating presentation on it recently at a convention, we were here before TN was a state. There’s an island on maps still marked as Cobb landing named after my ancestor that boated here 

 

 

[Scott F]

In the spring, many of my most productive spots are mid-lake submerged islands and rock bars that aren’t easy to find without my GPS mapping and sonar. Using those tools, I can pull up directly on the spot on the spot and follow the edge of the rock hump even on days when the waves and weather don’t let me see into the water. Could I do it without the electronics? Yes, I did it that way for years,  but it took so much longer and wasn’t nearly as productive.

[TnRiver46]

54 minutes ago, Craig P said:

Electronics are just another tool. If I had to give up my electronics, I might as well throw my rods away too and force myself to carve a point on a stick with a blade I made from a stone when I get to the lake. 

I do a lot better without sonar than I do without rods. Although I have caught many a catfish with milk jugs and Powerade bottles