That is a great video with many good points.
I grew up in the era, like Jimmy Jones, where we learned to fish first. Back in the day I remember when the ole Green Box flasher came out. OMG the controversy that thing caused back in the day. Not to mention it was priced out of reach for many people. Eventually I was able to get a used one to put on the ole John Boat with the suction cup that came with it.
Back then we only fished a handful of lakes. Now I could see the water depth. But what I found was I was still fishing the areas that I fished before but now I could tell how deep it was. That was the only difference. Thinking back how did that help? I didn’t change how or where I was fishing because we had to learn to fish those areas for years without knowing the depth.
This did change how we fished through the ice. Growing up we fished deep water drops that were found by lining this tree up to that power pole. We set our bobbers to three arm lengths. But now with this magic box we could see suspended fish that before we could not see. We found the fish were higher or lower in the water. That was a game changer and did put more fish on the ice.
Over the years I began fishing more lakes where the “depth finder” became a useful tool. Because of my having to previously use the knowledge of fishing first we never used this magic box in open water for finding fish but for finding structure on a lake we did not know. We still had to use that knowledge and rely on what we knew fish would bite on.
Technology has changed fishing in many degrees. I’m guilty of using many of them. But that knowledge of how to actually fish still needs to be used. Do I need to see every fish come up and hit my bait? No.
I’m on the fence with a forward facing unit. For me personally I believe that I would use it on the few times I hit Lake Superior and would not use it for my local lakes that I fish walleye or crappie on. So I can’t really justify it. For the local lakes I still rely on that school of hard knocks knowledge and learning to fish.
Do I believe they should not be used in tournaments? I do believe that. I feel that there are a lot of people who would like to fish tournaments but because they can hardly afford a simple boat they cannot afford the technology and therefore in a lot of ways it becomes a technology vs fishing tournament. But that is just my personal opinion.
Then where do you draw the line in “enough” technology? We now have mapping, sonar, trolling motors,,, Just go fish and have fun!!!
