Originally Posted by
Philly
I’m in my 50’s as well and I have a very different opinion than yours. In my experience and observation, the same guys who were willing to put in the work and winning tournaments prior to FFS are now ADAPTING the way that successful anglers ALWAYS have and putting in the work to learn to hone and perfect their FFS game.
I have fished and won tournaments from boats that were 25 years old with no working electronics and I’ve also had “note deals” with a couple different brands where I fished from a new, fully equipped boat every year. In either case, I simply focused on the things that I could do most efficiently with the equipment that I had available and then worked as hard or harder than anyone to put something together within the capabilities of my equipment. In either case, the thought of hearing “nice boat” never even entered my mind. The guys in my group have won hundreds of thousands of $$ in cash, boats, trucks mostly at the BFL and Federation levels and not ONE of us has $1k rod/reel combos…..but EVERY single one of us buys what he can afford and then LIVES and BREATHES to be the very BEST that he can be with whatever he can afford.
I’m not a wealthy guy and I managed to put away enough $$$ from fish’n tournaments and cutting spending in other areas to be able to buy a LiveScope unit, but I understood how much I sacrificed to drop $3k on a “graph” and I damn sure committed myself to putting in the hours to become an expert with it. My truck and trailer was parked at the ramp of the power plant lake at least 2-3 days a week all Winter long in 2021 and and early 2022 and I was out there chasing Crappie, Stripers, Bass and anything else that I could find for the first few weeks, JUST to learn what I was looking at…..but it’s paid off!
I haven’t fished club tournaments in over 30 years but I’m sure that the same petty stuff happens today that made me walk away from it way back then, but the BFL’s, Federation, bigger team series, etc. are still being dominated by the SAME guys who were winning BEFORE FFS was ever a thing. They are simply folks who are willing to acknowledge the fact that we live in a rapidly changing world and in the game of tournament Bass fish’n you better be willing to cling tightly to the learning curve if you want to stay relevant.
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