Sonars takin the fun out the hunt?

[Susky River Rat]

11 hours ago, thediscochef said:

those who are griping about FFS the loudest either can't afford it or can't figure out how to use what they can afford

False. I agree it’s another tool. I agree it’s evolution of electronics. It has been taking lakes here that have been hard to crack and make them a joke. A lot of them are man made ditches with little to no structure or cover in them. 
 

I am not some old guy hating on it. I can more then afford it. I have no fear in figuring it out. It just does not fall into place in the way I want to fish. 
 

as long as it’s legal go for it. Everyone has opinions. I’d use live bait before I’d use FFS.

[LrgmouthShad]

7 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I actually have a form of big fish superstition.  I tend to believe that the really big fish get conditioned to the clicking that the transducer makes and I turn it off when I'm going to an area where I know I might catch a big one and I turn my trolling motor off.  ?????

Some do this. Some don’t. I will do it sometimes. There’s kind of a couple schools of thought on it. One is turn the electronics off immediately when ready to start presenting. Another is to just park the boat and let the transducer noise become a natural part of the environment instead of something that comes and goes. Kind of like how we can forget about a certain noise, like a fan running, if it is going on long enough. 
 

My advice to others is do whatever you are confident/comfortable in. 

[Pat Brown]

1 minute ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Some do this. Some don’t. I will do it sometimes. There’s kind of a couple schools of thought on it. One is turn the electronics off immediately when ready to start presenting. Another is to just park the boat and let the transducer noise become a natural part of the environment instead of something that comes and goes. Kind of like how we can forget about a certain noise, like a fan running, if it is going on long enough. 
 

My advice to others is do whatever you are confident/comfortable in. 

 

I think it depends on the conditions for me.

 

Bait fish busting everywhere and it's windy and there's clouds in the sky. I'll probably leave everything on and just roll through an area. Not really caring too much if I make noise, but if it's slick calm and has been hot for days and there's no wind, I'm turning everything off and working my way in slow and methodical and quiet.

 

I agree it's all about reading the moment.

 

My largest bass was caught after noisily unsnagging my son's bait from an overhanging tree, complete with banging the boat into shoreline wood cover and talking loudly, trolling motor noise and having the graph on.  She seemed unphased by our very unstealthy presence? 

[Reel]

Would you go out hunting, in a spot where you saw deer before, put on a blindfold and begin to take pot shots around you when you hear noise ???  

This is fishing without electronics.

[Darth-Baiter]

I LOVE LIVESCOPE!!  
 

I don’t have it. Hell, my current FF was $300, and it’s currently suspect.  
 

I love being next to a boat fully rigged and out catching them.   There is a personal joy, out fishing the geared up boats.  Doesn’t always happen….At this point I hope I get a new $750 FF for the holidays. Lord knows I’ve dropped about hints!!  I think side scan will be my game changer. 

[FishTax]

27 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I LOVE LIVESCOPE!!  
 

I don’t have it. Hell, my current FF was $300, and it’s currently suspect.  
 

I love being next to a boat fully rigged and out catching them.   There is a personal joy, out fishing the geared up boats.  Doesn’t always happen….At this point I hope I get a new $750 FF for the holidays. Lord knows I’ve dropped about hints!!  I think side scan will be my game changer. 

I'm with you, really want side scan for Christmas. I think it'd be a game changer over my ancient depth finder. I think I'd like ffs, don't care if others use it, not ready to make that investment yet though. I've got lots of work I need to put in on my presentations and techniques that sonar won't help, just need more time on water. 

[LrgmouthShad]

49 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I LOVE LIVESCOPE!!  
 

I don’t have it. Hell, my current FF was $300, and it’s currently suspect.  
 

I love being next to a boat fully rigged and out catching them.   There is a personal joy, out fishing the geared up boats.  Doesn’t always happen….At this point I hope I get a new $750 FF for the holidays. Lord knows I’ve dropped about hints!!  I think side scan will be my game changer. 

 

18 minutes ago, FishTax said:

I'm with you, really want side scan for Christmas. I think it'd be a game changer over my ancient depth finder. I think I'd like ffs, don't care if others use it, not ready to make that investment yet though. I've got lots of work I need to put in on my presentations and techniques that sonar won't help, just need more time on water. 

Side scan and mapping are the two most helpful things that a sonar unit can give you, IMO. 
 

Y’all need to learn how to scan a piece of structure using side scan, and then be able to mark a piece of cover or a school of bass or whatever that you see on side scan… without leaving the side scan view. Just see something, mark it where you see it, then keep moving. Your waypoint will be off to the side where the POI is. If you learn to do this, your structure fishing game will improve exponentially 

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I've always caught big fish on main lake structure that everyone hammers.  It's definitely more about timing and presentation than having electronics.

 

You've got the feel for bass, Pat. No doubt.

 

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I actually have a form of big fish superstition.  I tend to believe that the really big fish get conditioned to the clicking that the transducer makes and I turn it off when I'm going to an area where I know I might catch a big one and I turn my trolling motor off.

 

Smart.

 

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Stealth is more important than electronics.

 

My brother! I think of myself as a crane: Still. Waiting. Watching.

 

I was paddling over some pads yesterday and my head was swiveling, as it always is, looking for an opening, an opportunity. I'll even plot my lure's course between pads before I even cast it and I'll do that while I'm still paddling. 

 

1 hour ago, Reel said:

Would you go out hunting, in a spot where you saw deer before, put on a blindfold and begin to take pot shots around you when you hear noise ???  

This is fishing without electronics.

 

I don't use electronics and I'm not casting willy-nilly. Oh, sure, sometimes I blast a cast into the middle of nothing, but even that is with forethought, for there might be a wolf pack yonder. 

[WRB]

12 years later fresh water bass anglers can afford 360 degree scanning sonar and live scope to watch real time the dot react to your lure.....game changer!

Tom

[Catt]

Ain't got FFS, don't plan on getting it anytime soon, still catch plenty. 

 

Biggest electronic advancements for me were GPS & Spot Lock.

[Tennessee Boy]

My units have an off button.  If they ever take the fun out of the hunt I’ll turn them off….Hasn’t happened yet.

[gim]

I’m not going to comment on FFS or livescope. That dead horse doesn’t need to be beaten back to life again.

 

Every boat I’ve fished out of since I started fishing at least had color sonar that also showed water temp. A few years later, my parents bought a modern tiller walleye boat with more advanced electronics that also had GPS mapping. I fished a lot at night on bigger water and GPS was essential.

 

Basic sonar is a safety net for me. I am not throttling down and jumping up on plane without knowing it’s deep enough to safely do so. I don’t need to ruin a prop or lower unit.

 

I don’t stare at my graphs endlessly while I’m fishing. Do I look at them regularly? Sure do. I’ve accumulated 20+ years of waypoints in various electronics that I transfer each time I upgrade to a new unit. This historical information is very valuable to me.

[padon]

there is no way i could fish our deep clear lakes and be consistently sucessful without sidescan and down imaging. dont have ffs. debating between it and 360. mostly just want to be able to make sure im hitting the sweet spot on structure every time. Right now i line up om a waypoint on my gps and cast at it. It works but id like o be more precise.

[TnRiver46]

I have sidescan but have never found anything successful with it. Took some cool screenshots of bridge pillars tho! 

[MIbassyaker]

On 9/11/2023 at 7:06 AM, TnRiver46 said:

I have sidescan but have never found anything successful with it. Took some cool screenshots of bridge pillars tho! 

 

Biggest advantage of sidescan I have found is the ability to see how far away I am from a deep weedline, as well as breaks and irregularities in the edge. 

[gim]

15 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Biggest advantage of sidescan I have found is the ability to see how far away I am from a deep weedline, as well as breaks and irregularities in the edge. 

Same.  Although I think you could also find it on standard 2D sonar if you tried.  The problem with that method is that you have to almost run over top of it, whereas with side scan you don't.

 

I use my side scan to locate large boulders too.  Sometimes on a calm, sunny day I can actually see the boulders if the water is clear enough.

[flyfisher]

nope a total non issue to me.  I'd rather not waste time fishing areas that didn't hold fish than fishing poor areas and then hoping to land one for that level of excitement.  Cool part is everyone can do whatever they want and fish however they want and as long as they are not trashing the environment and legal, I am cool with it.

 

[Bankc]

I use sonar more for scanning the bottom than looking for fish.  Fish can hide pretty easily on sonar, whether they're deep in cover or hanging out on the bottom.  And, especially in my lakes, seeing fish doesn't mean seeing largemouth bass.  There are lots of other species in my lakes that are around the same size as LMB.  

 

But for finding cover, transition zones, bottom composition, thermoclines, and water temperature, sonar comes in pretty convenient.  Add to that GPS maps and the ability to mark spots and it comes in pretty handy.  But it's still far from a sure thing.  On a lake that I'm really familiar with, I may not even turn it on, because I already know everything of use that it's gonna tell me.  

[TnRiver46]

All the guys in the bass open with live sonar sucked it up on TN river so it’s just business as usual round here 

[Will Ketchum]

There is meat hunting and then there's the thrill of the chase. Some will use a recurve bow for hunting deer. It's all in the category in which you fall.