Why does Kyle Welcher (Humminbird PRO) use Garmin FFS?

B.A.S.S pro Kyle Welcher, who set an all time weight record last week winning on the Pasquotank River / Albemarle Sound.

Why would someone who is sponsored by Humminbird be using Garmin for FFS ??

Looks like he uses Humminbird for everything except FFS. What does that say about ML2 ?

https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...8&d=1744840360
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...9&d=1744840401
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...1&d=1744840447
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...0&d=1744840409

It probably says that ML2 just came out and he didn’t want to fix something that wasn’t broken, or change his entire boat setup. Confidence matters. BASS tournament season started in February, ML2 was released in January.

Ask that question a year from now with sufficient time to rewire boats and compare setups in non-pressure situations and if he’s still doing it there might be a there there.

Also: did you make an account just to post that? That’s a bit weird.

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Originally Posted by ffsHumm

B.A.S.S pro Kyle Welcher, who set an all time weight record last week winning on the Pasquotank River / Albemarle Sound.

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FWIW, Welcher posted 118.75 lbs over 4 days on Pasquotank (29.69lbs/day average). On the same weekend, John Pearl won the 2025 WON Clear Lake Open with 102.81lbs in three days (34.27lbs/day average). Not that it really matters (and hey: not only is J Pearl awesome, he also runs LVS34), but it's unclear why you're emphasizing Welcher's record. It's a great accomplishment, but doesn't really add weight to the argument.

(Sorry everybody, feeling a bit salty :))

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Originally Posted by Drakestar

Also: did you make an account just to post that? That’s a bit weird.

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Username ffsHumm, new today, 1st post, definitely a new pot stirrer or a Welcher hater.

I would hope that most pro's anymore don't have exclusivity for which electronics they use, I bet a few guys got really burned with Humminbird while the competition had a big edge performance.

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Originally Posted by ffsHumm

B.A.S.S pro Kyle Welcher, who set an all time weight record last week winning on the Pasquotank River / Albemarle Sound.

Why would someone who is sponsored by Humminbird be using Garmin for FFS ??

Looks like he uses Humminbird for everything except FFS. What does that say about ML2 ?

https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...8&d=1744840360
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...9&d=1744840401
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...1&d=1744840447
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...0&d=1744840409

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If he loses his h bird deal they won't be knocking at your door. Pretty sophisticated first post, most people here can't even figure out how to post pictures.

It's because Humminbird made a massive mistake brining this kind of new technology to market at the absolute worst time of year. I did a long post on this back I January, Humminbird released their newest technology about a month late for any kind of serious tournament angler to rig up with Humminbird 2025 gear. ALL NATIONIONAL tour rigs regardless of what trail they will be fished on need to be fully rigged by January 1st every year. Most tour pros sell their old boat in September and rig the new boat in December. The boats change model year the end of June every year all sonar should be released by a hard deadline of June also, no reason to bring anything new to marine mid model year. The sonar should match the boat, there should not be two consumers that both have the same 2025 boat, and one has a combination of solix and mega 1 and the next one has xplore and mega 2.

Man, you guys are a tough crowd.
I thought it was a good question.
Should he have started with "how many people tuck their shirts in?"

I'm impressed on a few levels.

Who cares? I don't give 1 rip about what electronics he uses.

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Originally Posted by Aj14

Man, you guys are a tough crowd.
I thought it was a good question.
Should he have started with "how many people tuck their shirts in?"

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It's a legit question. There must be a clause in the deal to allow using a competitors equipment. It would be interesting to know how that works.

Regardless ML2 has done very well in the elites this year including wins

ML2 is no comparison to ML1 and I see no reason why you can’t find fish with it and track your lure. I have used mine crappie fishing with a small hair jig and can see my bait. Can see a Keitech swim bait on a 1/8 once head you can see splash down and track all the way to the boat. The new color palettes are awesome but I use Doppler the most. I fished Hartwell a couple weeks back and could see bass off shore in cane piles and drop down and catch them.

Where did you find he was sponsored in 2025 By HB. I can’t find his name on any list. He had a great tourney, good for him, but the OP of this thread must have some motive for this besides the inference that this guy likes Garmin better than ML2. Bob

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Originally Posted by GEEBASS2000

It's because Humminbird made a massive mistake brining this kind of new technology to market at the absolute worst time of year. I did a long post on this back I January, Humminbird released their newest technology about a month late for any kind of serious tournament angler to rig up with Humminbird 2025 gear. ALL NATIONIONAL tour rigs regardless of what trail they will be fished on need to be fully rigged by January 1st every year. Most tour pros sell their old boat in September and rig the new boat in December. The boats change model year the end of June every year all sonar should be released by a hard deadline of June also, no reason to bring anything new to marine mid model year. The sonar should match the boat, there should not be two consumers that both have the same 2025 boat, and one has a combination of solix and mega 1 and the next one has xplore and mega 2.

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IF you can not rig or install your own graph's are you really a pro fisherman? It takes more time to untape and re tape your cables on the tm than do the actual install.

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Originally Posted by bobcoy

Where did you find he was sponsored in 2025 By HB. I can’t find his name on any list. He had a great tourney, good for him, but the OP of this thread must have some motive for this besides the inference that this guy likes Garmin better than ML2. Bob

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If you go to bassmaster.com elite section and click on his name it will tell you his sponsors

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Originally Posted by Sleepy111

Username ffsHumm, new today, 1st post, definitely a new pot stirrer or a Welcher hater.

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:yesnod: :doh:

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Originally Posted by Phoenix Jim

If you go to bassmaster.com elite section and click on his name it will tell you his sponsors

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Thanks Jim. Not a place I frequent ,but it sure lists HB. I think confidence in a technology is a big deal. Not the rigging time. He obviously did the right thing for this event! Bob

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Originally Posted by ffsHumm

B.A.S.S pro Kyle Welcher, who set an all time weight record last week winning on the Pasquotank River / Albemarle Sound.

Why would someone who is sponsored by Humminbird be using Garmin for FFS ??

Looks like he uses Humminbird for everything except FFS. What does that say about ML2 ?

https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...8&d=1744840360
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...9&d=1744840401
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...1&d=1744840447
https://www.bbcboards.net/attachment...0&d=1744840409

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Did garmin or h bird, call you yet for sponsorship?

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Originally Posted by Sleepy111

Username ffsHumm, new today, 1st post, definitely a new pot stirrer or a Welcher hater.

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And still a one post wonder. Almost certainly a troll.

Trolling trolling trolling----Keep them trolls a rollin -- rawhide...

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Originally Posted by ThomasD

And still a one post wonder. Almost certainly a troll.

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maybe Steve can delete it?

It is interestying that ffsHumm has chosen this for his first post. Hopefully he (or she) will revisit this post and answer some of the questions posed. If not, then I think that answers the trolling question.

You're preaching to the wrong crowd. Humminbird faithfuls are diehard like it’s an NFL team.

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Originally Posted by ThomasD

And still a one post wonder. Almost certainly a troll.

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It's probably the guy who protested Scott.:laugh:

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Originally Posted by tajchauvin

You're preaching to the wrong crowd. Humminbird faithfuls are diehard like it’s an NFL team.

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And the other two brands aren’t the same?

Somehow the brand names all seem to have fan boys. Like ford vs chevy. I guess it is just how we behave when we have a dog in the fight. Some more militant than others ,but it is somehow a bone for contention. All have similar fandoms. Just the way it is. Have some fun with it without coming to blows. :wink:

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Originally Posted by Capw

And the other two brands aren’t the same?

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Not for me. I had lowrance and switched to humminbird. Never regretted that move plus lowrance can’t touch HB customer service

Mornin Jim, I think he was referring to the fans of all 3 companys being Loyal. I too had issues with Lowrance policys.

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Originally Posted by bobcoy

Mornin Jim, I think he was referring to the fans of all 3 companys being Loyal. I too had issues with Lowrance policys.

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:thumb up2:

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Originally Posted by bobcoy

Somehow the brand names all seem to have fan boys. Like ford vs chevy. I guess it is just how we behave when we have a dog in the fight. Some more militant than others ,but it is somehow a bone for contention. All have similar fandoms. Just the way it is. Have some fun with it without coming to blows. :wink:

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I've never understood fanboys. Being loyal to a corporation that only sees us as sales numbers is dopey.

The other day at the ramp, I encountered a bass boat that had Humminbird, Lowrance, and Garmin. I believe that the Humminbird was for interface with the Ultrex and Mega 360, Garmin was for the LVS34 FFS, and Lowrance might have been maps at the console.

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Originally Posted by jjue1979

The other day at the ramp, I encountered a bass boat that had Humminbird, Lowrance, and Garmin. I believe that the Humminbird was for interface with the Ultrex and Mega 360, Garmin was for the LVS34 FFS, and Lowrance might have been maps at the console.

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This is pretty much what I have, Same deal HB for 360, Garmin for FFS, and Lowrance for SS3D, 2D, Mapping, Waypoint Management. I will likely add another HB for the console replacing one of my Lowrance units. I had an "all Lowrance" setup originally, so no 360 of course (well I had the dumb Ghost 360, but that doesn't count), so a Ghost TM, AT, 4 HDS Pros, SS3D and it was nice that everything played nice with each other and shared data easily. But I wanted 360, so broke up the band so to speak to add the HB, and once the band-aid came off it was easier to dump AT and get LVS-34 as well. So HB and Garmin up front, dual HDS Pro's at the console. Now, I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the simplicity of the all lowrance (or all of any brand) setup, but to me the benefits of having 360 and a better FFS outwieigh some of the annoyances. Which is mostly waypoint management, really. Which I could easily correct by adding a Lowrance back to the bow, but I found I just don't care for triple units on my narrow bow skeeter, so I do without and manually move waypoints from Lowrance to the HB so I can have them on 360 and VX Mapping.