I agree^. And also the term “instinct” is being misused in the original question of this thread. Instinct is something inborn or innate. What successful bass anglers primarily use is knowledge built on experience, which allows them to read conditions and make appropriate decisions. All of that applies whether you’re using FFS, side imaging, or any type of electronics at all.Originally Posted by bayouXpress
Same was said when GPS and mapping came out. It was "taking skill away from finding bass". Sure, we used to spend hours looking over paper maps to find humps, ditches, etc. Now they don't have paper maps because everyone has electronics that show them every hump, point, ditch and one can even it color code to make it easier to find said structure. No more map study, hours of idling, or skill required to find structure.
It's call advancement. It happens in every aspect of life.
Gps & side imaging were the devil for bass fishing too. Now everybody wants both.
Maybe it will grow to the point where you can put on goggles that show actual real time video, you enter the coordinates and a device chooses the bait, arms itself, makes the cast, reels in and nets the fish, weighs it, culls if necessary, all from your cockpit seat using a joystick. That way if you really get good, you can have one hand on the joystick and the other on a beer....
And while this all seems silly, us older folks would have laughed in your face if we were told when growing up, we could communicate in real time, with someone on the other side of the planet while walking down the street pressing a few buttons with something in our hand.
Gps & side imaging were the devil for bass fishing too. Now everybody wants both.
Take away spot lock trolling motors and an extra graph for mapping and watch some of these guys complaining about FFS change their tune...
He made that comment many years ago. Things have done a 180 since then. A novice angler can buy livescope and watch a few You Tube videos and locate fish on their first trip out. With a short period of time they learn to know the difference in the species on the screen. Now that the easy part is finding them the hard part is catching them. We live in a different world than when Clunn made that statement.
As long as I have mapping at the console and 2d at the front I can make it work. I have a lot of "tools" to make things easier, more complicated, and more frustrating all in one very expensive package but being oldschool it's not the end of the world if it were to stop working.
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8" Bob's Action Jack
Garmin Echomap 12, 10, 9, and LVS34 networked with Netgear Switch
Ultrex
Trick Steps and Ramp N Clamp
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Treat others like you want to be treated when on the water EVEN WHEN IN A TOURNAMENT! No fish is worth having a confrontation because you cut someone off or came in on top of someone.
FFS and all the new tech greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to locate fish. It’s good. But there is and always will be fish that are hard to get to and cast to. Knowing when to look and where in these locations is dictated by bass behavior. Instinct is knowing when to look at these locations. Skill set is what bait, what size line, best rod/reel and how to use it. Skillset learned like anything else practice and experience.
To be competitive professionally soon you will have to be proficient with tech and gear. The young guys that grew up with tech for tit to suck on take to it like a duck to water. This is what we are seeing on the circuit trails. It is pretty apparent. The days of building brush piles or chainsawing into a remote back water where your self doesn’t work are fading away it seems. And that is ok with me I’ll see less people when I fish and if I do it most likely be some young punk kid
These “young kids” staring at screens all day would out fish the vast majority of us if you took their FFS away and not ours. Your egos are just too big to admit it
'06 Xpress X19 TS | 150 Yamaha VMAX
Is sight fishing sporting? FFS is just an electronic version of that, just now you can see deeper and into less clear water. Guys in the Keys fly fishing for bones or tarpon will probably never use FFS... why?
Competitive fishing is just getting dumbed down and more efficient. Like Feider said in his Bilge interview tackle boxes are going to get a lot smaller.
It doesn’t matter if they are losing their “instincts” or not, if it’s allowed, they’ll mop the floor with you. Most of them are running multiple transducers now, so they have backups if their main one goes down.
How do fisherman lose something they never had. If someone claims to have bass fishing instinct they have no idea what they are talking about. Instinct by definition is an inheritable trait. the best fisherman I know are critical thinkers and the adapt even through the use of technology. like it or not.
Bad spellers of the world untie!
Drew Gill's interview on BTL really opened my eyes to FFS. In a nut shell, he said the old school days of being the best guesser are over. My interpretation of this is that the old way of relying on past knowledge and instincts are more of a guess based on past experiences. FFS allows you to locate fish at that moment. When you apply FFS to a systematic approach during practice you'll do better than those relying on instincts and guessing. You kinda saw that yesterday on Day 1 of the Elites on Toledo Bend. Hackney and Christie gambled on the shallow bite. They used their instincts and past experiences when they guessed the females would move up shallow overnight. It didn't happen and they struggled. The days of "it's just fishing" are done.
Losing “instinct” started when the “green box” box came out, checking depths by arm or rod lengths, dragging lures or a bell weight to find weed edges, was slow and tedious.
This is the first time I have seen someone put this in print.In a nut shell, he said the old school days of being the best guesser are over. My interpretation of this is that the old way of relying on past knowledge and instincts are more of a guess based on past experiences.
You are not alone in your thoughts on the skill and instinct claims.
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It's astonishing how the ffs vs instinct debate is so prevalent in bass fishing right now. We are all entitled to voice our own opinion but I look at it like this... I'm not an Elite Series or BPT angler, I'm a club / local weekend derb guy. So what gives me the right to take shots at the top tier anglers like "all the young guys wouldn't be there if it wasn't for technology"? Each and every one of those guys have worked their ass off for years, sacrificed more than we know, and have spent the time on the water to get to where they are and would fish circles around 95% of us with or without FFS. As far as local/weekend derbs or seeing guys at a ramp I honestly couldn't give a fu#k if they are "old school" or "new school". What someone else does or doesn't have on their boat has absolutely zero effect on me, my experience on the water that day, and how well I'm catching them or not. Sorry about the rant... I just think too many people are way too focused on what everyone else is doing or not doing, has or doesn't have.
no
When the eyes are glued to the FFS then maybe a little bit.
Did you ask Siri?
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