Sorry for the long post here, I have ben thinking the last few days while drilling lots of holes and “Fishing”.
Panoptix/ Livescope along with the Humminbird 360 are all the rage these days.
I have fished with a couple friends that have Panoptix and they are pretty cool to play with for a while.
My initial reaction was obviously to be like the cool/wealthy/$ponsored kids and grab one up.
There are obviously downsides to these units as well.
They seem heavy and awkward to me, fishing with the down imaging transducer in mid winter you are pulling out a 4 foot rod along with your transducer every fish. I thought it got old quick.
When I first looked at specs people were saying they were around 10lbs which doesn’t sound bad until you realize a traditional flasher is like 2lbs or less.
Both people I know that have them still carry a flasher as well.
They save drilling for sure. They definitely assist with finding fish quicker. Locating fish faster obviously makes it more likely one will find active fish during the day.
I have defended the premise that fancy equipment can not replace fishing experience and I still believe that not everyone who buys these units will learn how to use them to their full potential.
I am at the higher end of the Millennial group. I hear all the time how the older cadre can’t stand these young entitled people and what they are doing to our society.
I feel torn at times, catching fish is fun…so is the challenge of finding fish the “old fashioned way”.
I learned to fish from my dad and grandpa. When I was coming up, we used jiggle sticks and hand over hand. When I advanced I was rocking high quality HT stuff from Walmart with two guides on a 24″ rod.
My Pops and Gramps didn’t use flashers and they fished the same spots they always had and we always caught plenty of fish. They had outdoor skills like only old guys have. They didn’t have you tube, forums or TV to teach them. Their dads and grandpas passed down knowledge.
I will admit that at times they were not always setting a great example about being a steward of the land, they weren’t practicing selective harvest and we ate a lot of fish.
Many firearms deer hunters switched to bow hunting because shooting deer with guns was too easy and needed to be more of a challenge.
Now the crowd with fishing seems to have switched gears to fishing is too hard let’s keep making it easier. Fishing has become boring if it doesn’t involve catching.
This is all hypocrisy since I use custom rods, an electric auger, a GPS and flasher, I have sonar,GPS and side imaging on my boat.
At times I am torn. I have obviously advanced with the sport.
When I take my kids fishing we don’t use electronics and we bobber fish stunted panfish.
I love the outdoors and I hope they come to love it too.
I sometimes wonder what kind of example we are setting for youngsters.
They watch TV and that sets the expectation. All the emphasis is on catching and less and less on the process and learning that should come along with fishing.
For years we have have heard about recruiting new anglers and outdoors folks.
I’m not sure that our natural resources can support the pressure if we continue in the direction we are headed.
On the most recent episode of IDO, James said that with the Humminbird 360 the fish can run but they can’t hide.
Think about that statement for a second.
I hope we don’t find ourselves in a place a decade down the road with a dried up resource telling our kids how good it used to be.
