Quiet day 4

[VA Bass]

yep and kicked everyones butt.. 3 day record.. i worded my comment wrong.. people are still always saying if your not in 7ft plus water its not effective.. some say it does help for seeing stumps/grass but not seeing fish.. While it looked hard as all get out. Yes it helped his weight tremendously

this is what I am saying. FFS certainly allowed him to do what he otherwise could have never done nor anyone else. So to me it's more than a "tool" .. it is a game changer like the commercial said. Stop saying "they all have it" I am not talking about fair competition between anglers, I am talking about an angler and the fish. Love it or hate it, FFS does allow for fish to be caught that otherwise would not be based soley on the technology. There is no debate in this. You can decide wether or not it's going to far in fair chase. In my eyes, any record that is broken with ffs should have an astrik beside it. In the 2011 classic kvd would have set a higher record with FFS if available. I am not here to argue whether or not it's ethical, I am just stating that it is a major advantage and has changed the game, will it hurt our fisheries? I do not know, but I am paying attention.

[basshammerwannabe]

this is what I am saying. FFS certainly allowed him to do what he otherwise could have never done nor anyone else. So to me it's more than a "tool" .. it is a game changer like the commercial said. Stop saying "they all have it" I am not talking about fair competition between anglers, I am talking about an angler and the fish. Love it or hate it, FFS does allow for fish to be caught that otherwise would not be based soley on the technology. There is no debate in this. You can decide wether or not it's going to far in fair chase. In my eyes, any record that is broken with ffs should have an astrik beside it. In the 2011 classic kvd would have set a higher record with FFS if available. I am not here to argue whether or not it's ethical, I am just stating that it is a major advantage and has changed the game, will it hurt our fisheries? I do not know, but I am paying attention.

for sure a game changer without a doubt... one of the big things ive noticed is the amount of limits that are now weighed in during all the tournament circuits from BFL up during these horrible condition cold months... Even on some of these great lakes limits are still hard to come by when its jan/feb waters below 50 degress..

Now i dont think its hurting anything but i guess we will see.. not that you said this but bedding bass have always been caught during tournaments.. Say what you want but a couple of his 7lbers almost looked spawned out and wouldnt surprise me if that 10+ was pre spawn

[VA Bass]

for sure a game changer without a doubt... one of the big things ive noticed is the amount of limits that are now weighed in during all the tournament circuits from BFL up during these horrible condition cold months... Even on some of these great lakes limits are still hard to come by when its jan/feb waters below 50 degress..

Now i dont think its hurting anything but i guess we will see.. not that you said this but bedding bass have always been caught during tournaments.. Say what you want but a couple of his 7lbers almost looked spawned out

for sure, and I have always wondered about catching them off beds and how that affects them.

[hawgsalot]

this is what I am saying. FFS certainly allowed him to do what he otherwise could have never done nor anyone else. So to me it's more than a "tool" .. it is a game changer like the commercial said. Stop saying "they all have it" I am not talking about fair competition between anglers, I am talking about an angler and the fish. Love it or hate it, FFS does allow for fish to be caught that otherwise would not be based soley on the technology. There is no debate in this. You can decide wether or not it's going to far in fair chase. In my eyes, any record that is broken with ffs should have an astrik beside it. In the 2011 classic kvd would have set a higher record with FFS if available. I am not here to argue whether or not it's ethical, I am just stating that it is a major advantage and has changed the game, will it hurt our fisheries? I do not know, but I am paying attention.

I'm not disagreeing with you but you could also say the same thing about boats, down imaging graphs, and trolling motors technology that KVD vs the greats before him.

[jbassman87]

quiet day 4 turned into another cry about FFS..

They just can't seem to help themselves. Just like another group of people.

If you fish during the spring, you will catch spawning fish, whether you can see them or not. Those fish Welcher caught could have been caught without using FFS. If a person fished those trees, the fish would have bit.

[DylanSam]

That man they call Slick says more changes are coming in 2026.

[Ski Tar]

All these suggestions that fishing for spawning bass and FFS are going to kill a fishery is simply nonsense. The average female bass spawns around 7 times in her life and lays on average 12,000 eggs per spawn. That is a total of 84,000 eggs in her life time. ONLY 8 (her and the 7 males) of those 84,000 eggs have to survive to adulthood for the bass population to remain the same long term. If only 1% of the bass fry, in a spawn, survive the first year that means that a bass will replace herself and her male partners 840 times each year. The reality is that there is no amount of bed fishing, FFS fishing, traditional fishing or meat fishing that is going to even begin to put a dent in the bass population. In Japan, they have actively been trying to eradicate largemouth bass for years and have discovered that absolutely nothing can do away with an established bass population. If your lake is going through a downturn, it is easy to blame fishing pressure or tournament mortality but the truth is that if a bass population declines at all, it is in all likelihood a water quality issue. Fishermen simply can not, through any form of rod and reel fishing method, have any significant impact on fish populations, to suggest otherwise is simply giving us WAY more credit than is reality.

[dean c]

Interesting conversation Mercer had with Jocumensen on his pod cast. The whole thing is good. They get into the FFS thing at 1:40. Mercer speaking for himself and not for BASS seems to imply changes could be coming.

[marshman]

That man they call Slick says more changes are coming in 2026.

they said that for ‘25….