Have next gen anglers lost the ability to fish by instinct?

[creekchub]

Since this next GEN of anglers seem to have their heads buried down on their electronics have they just simply missed all the things other anglers, like myself, learned through time without having live scope? I guess what I'm getting at is just building natural fishing instincts .... without using electronics to develop these skills? I was at a ramp last summer and there were two young 20-year-old guys in a bass boat with a couple Forward facing graphs and all the electronics were out. They pulled the boat back onto the trailer a few minutes after they couldn't get the graphs to work..... they decided it wasn't worth it to fish the day, without the aid of these Forward facing electronics. Myself being in my young 50s ,me and my partner absolutely started breaking out laughing to think that these guys couldn't go out there and fish without the aid of electronics ..... I think this next GEN of anglers is really missing out and truly never going to develop the love of fishing that us older anglers have .....And yes, I do have a 12 inch garmin Forward facing sonar unit....

[MadYakker]

Since this next GEN of anglers seem to have their heads buried down on their electronics have they just simply missed all the things other anglers, like myself, learned through time without having live scope? I guess what I'm getting at is just building natural fishing instincts .... without using electronics to develop these skills? I was at a ramp last summer and there were two young 20-year-old guys in a bass boat with a couple Forward facing graphs and all the electronics were out. They pulled the boat back onto the trailer a few minutes after they couldn't get the graphs to work..... they decided it wasn't worth it to fish the day, without the aid of these Forward facing electronics. Myself being in my young 50s ,me and my partner absolutely started breaking out laughing to think that these guys couldn't go out there and fish without the aid of electronics ..... I think this next GEN of anglers is really missing out and truly never going to develop the love of fishing that us older anglers have .....And yes, I do have a 12 inch garmin Forward facing sonar unit....

I've heard of tournament anglers heading in early due to their FFS transducer being knocked off and becoming inoperable. They apparently "have a lot of QUIT in them" as Ron White's father said of him.

[bayouXpress]

I don't believe so. Instincts are built be being on the water. They just build their instincts in a different way using that tech. Which makes them pretty damn lethal using it. And in my opinion the reason the average age of the pros is drastically dropping.

[berudd]

FWIW, no body has fishing "instincts". Instinct is an innate reaction to stimuli. Bass fishing is a learned skill. You just learned how to apply a different set of skills.

[bassnpro1]

I would say since they have been observing bass behavior in real time, that their instincts regarding how and what bass do probably destroys your instincts.

[townsend266]

I wouldn’t think so, from what I hear people that are good with FFS everything they’ve ever learn about bass wasn’t what they thought after having FFS. So their “instincts” might have been wrong anyway.

[Phrog Phil]

I hate this phrase but “It is what it is”. One of the fastest way up the ranks is being an ok Fisherman but a computer/graph whiz
whether people like it or not it . I taught both my children the “right” way to fish and neither do anymore but I’m positive if they did they would all over the FFS/FFG method. Also don’t think all the young fishermen who rely on FFS can be lumped together as quitters and not having passion for the sport. I know people will come on talking about how they kick ass consistently with out it but even a tiny unbassy (my word)state like mine has become FFS laden. Had a state team member tell me that’s what they are all using to separate themselves from the rest of the field.

[Mark Perry]

I don't think so.

[Spot-a-saurus]

I would say since they have been observing bass behavior in real time, that their instincts regarding how and what bass do probably destroys your instincts.

If they can do the same things with the unit off, I would say you are correct. I have no doubt after using FFS for 2 years it would help me catch fish with out it, were it taken away from me. Especially in regards to when they key on offshore ambush points.

To be fair a lot of the fish we target on FFS aren’t relating to anything other than pelagic bait. Not sure if there is a way to “predict” and target those fish without FFS. Because they are relating to a living creature that literally goes where the phytoplankton floats, I’m not sure that an “instinct” to where a free roaming bait fish will go is actually possible. I have it and love it, but there is no doubt that pelagic bait chasers are almost impossible to target effectively without it unless the pelagic bait are visible on the surface

[SAL321]

I'm 52 and my son is in his early 20's. We've come a long way in our ability. If we lost the graphs or FFS while we are out there we still have enough knowledge to go find them and 100's of general areas we could work through without electronics and still catch fish.

I thinks what gets lost in these discussions is your ability to catch the fish we are seeing using today's technologies. We've seen it too many times to count, several fish schooled up and your pitch/cast/drop on them and still no bite. I think the perception is it doesn't take any skill or ability to catch a fish on FFS. That couldn't be farther from the truth if you don't know ay better for a number of reasons

[Mark Perry]

I would say since they have been observing bass behavior in real time, that their instincts regarding how and what bass do probably destroys your instincts.

Yiu make a good point.

[northstar]

I don't know, lots of kids love video games, fishing is turning into a video game for a lot of people.
To me, the challenge of fishing is what's exciting about it, figuring out the puzzle.
If the puzzle keeps getting easier and fishing is not as challenging will fishing still be as appealing?

[juice780]

I watched a video with Gerald swindle and one with hank cherry. They were talking about this and they said a lot of these young anglers don’t have basic skills that most everyone grew up learning. All a lot of them care about is looking at a screen.

[Phrog Phil]

I think it was Clunn who said in one of my VHS tapes “catching fish is the easy part,finding them is the hard part” I think that’s the quote.

[troutspinner]

Hard to say. I guess it just depends on the type of person they are and why they installed FFS. If they're installing it to help with the learning curve, they'll develop intuition. If they're just going to the lake trying to find a school and then pluck away at em, nope.

[btlsranger]

I won’t ice fish without my flasher anymore. I know it’s not apples to apples but fishing like that is tough.

[Bobby Gray]

I think it was Clunn who said in one of my VHS tapes “catching fish is the easy part,finding them is the hard part” I think that’s the quote.

LOL.. this is kind of funny. With FFS - finding fish is the easy part, catching them is the hard part.

[n2ratfishin]

We grew up looking at the bank, pouring over paper maps, and spending days a week on the water. Being in the Air Force at Charleston AFB I had the luxury of flying little puddle jumpers over Santee Cooper at 500' with a polaroid and a map. I used a golf range finder on the water to try and find the drops and or stump fields in the middle of the lake away from the crowds and thought I was pooping in high cotton when I could afford a used HB Super 30. I guess I bass fished about 15 years before I even picked up a hand held GPS that would show a crumb trail and no map. We used a paper map until I got GPS and a map chip in 2004.

Fishing has come a LONG way since then. No doubt the next generation will look back and talk about how they started as new tech comes out and is adopted. That does not make one gen smarter or better than another generation anymore than the guys of my generation that could buy paper stylus graphs in the 80's while the rest of us used a Super 30 or a string marked in feet to measure depth. Our power pole was a coffee can filled with cement that we dropped over the side. Rich dudes had an anchor reign.

Unless you make a living on the water my advice is just enjoy your day and not worrying about "who has the best stuff".

[photocycle]

It depends... I've gotten off the water before due to electronic issues (before FFS was invented). New lake? No map GPS? Hazardous lake (hard to navigate)? No depth reading? etc...

Spend the rest of the day beating the bank? What if I was prefishing for a tourney?

I don't think it's a simple, "Welps, FFS isn't working, I don't know how to beat the banks or fish visible grass/wood/rock cover. Time to go home!"

[Phrog Phil]

But theoretically if you said “Phil,there’s a bass on the right side of that stump over there” I should be able to figure out how to catch it because I’ve caught dozens of stump fish without knowing they are there ahead of time. Maybe I’m over simplifying it.