I know a guy that didn’t have a boat. His wife wouldn’t let him spend the money on one. So he fished the Bassmaster Opens trying to win one. He didn’t. But he won enough to buy a cheap boat. Then he fished every little tourney he could until he could afford to upgrade to a better, bigger boat. Then he won some more and bought an Ultrex, some power poles, some newer graphs, and better gear. He won some more recently and bought all new rods and reels and Active Target. Finally.

If you want the gear....fish to win and buy it. Ain’t nobody holding you back but your own excuses.

Exactly everyone can learn it if they want too. It’s like the damn a-rig everyone thought it was magic then people realized that you have to still know what your doing to use it.

It will be a cold day in hell when Texas decides to have “bass” season like the northern states.

Good thing about it like some people have mentioned “if you don’t like it don’t use it”

Great post Steez.

Not having certain equipment isn’t a reason not to tournament fish.

I agree it won't be banned, fishing is more of a business than it is a pass time. but I do not agree that everyone has the opportunity to buy that stuff. Some of those graphs cost more than my boat and everything in it.. And, I didn't say I don't fish against those guys... I do.. and I lose .lol... BUT.. I do it for the social aspect of it.. the experience. And the tourneys I fish might be 50 for entry... small working man stuff... And I did not know they let you fish them bass master opens from shore... lo. Kidding I get it..

Still though, watching a 70k boat pull up to the tourney with screens I would watch football on is a little gut wrenching lol..

I think this is an important point too. There will be varying levels of skill in interpreting this stuff and using it, just like there is with sonar and side imaging. I think it's going to take more time on the water and practice than most think to get good at it.

Take it as a challenge. I do. My screens are 7”. Both of them.
I won a tourney yesterday and I had, honestly, the least expensive boat out of all 50 guys. None of them asked me how my boat caught the fish. Most of the guys had 20-21 ft boats with at least 3 12” screens and 250’s on the back. I don’t even notice them anymore. I don’t feel at a disadvantage, unless it’s blowing 20+ on a big, open lake. Then it’s tough. If you get over the intimidation hurdle from looking at their boats and gear, it’s easier to focus on the fishing.

Don’t let it get in your head. Set goals and go.


Edit.

When I put that $2800 Ultrex on my Nitro 640....it cost more than I paid for the boat. And guys laughed. And I won. And now that same Ultrex is on a 19ft Skeeter that they bought me. Unknowingly.

I suppose you still use a flasher ???

If the population goes up enough and the angling pressure goes up enough to match that and negatively affect the quality of fishing enough a northern type season would happen, TPWD already close seasons on the coast, but I don't think either will happen.

Imo, if this is how you feel - you've lost before you ever put the boat in the water.

If it’s as easy as putting livescope or active target on the front of your boat and you’re suddenly at this massive advantage over the field, then make it rain with the credit card if you can’t afford it and you should get paid back pretty quickly. Truth is, it’s not. It’s still a technology you have to learn and be efficient with and the guys that take the time to learn it and be proficient with it will consistently perform better on the water than those that don’t. I didn’t watch all of it, but it looked like Gussy won 100k this week using traditional 2D for the most part.

I’m not saying it’s easy... however, in 10 years when everyone knows how to use it, or the boats come equipped with live scan at 30 mph mounted at the transom with heat seeking radars.... where do we draw the line as anglers? Essentially, these are underwater cameras but better.

We’ll just keep adapting and overcoming. 15 years ago you could sink 20 brush piles and have a pretty good chance at keeping the majority a secret. Then sidescan came along and the thought of a secret brush pile is almost unheard of. It’s just part of fishing and always will be. I personally think the stuff is awesome. I’ve never met a fisherman that isn’t always chasing that new PB and all this is is a tool to help people achieve that. The skills and knowledge people are talking about becoming irrelevant aren’t going to be irrelevant at all. I can’t go drop my trolling motor in the middle of the lake and use livescope and compete with someone that has knowledge of the lake, put their time in and patterned that same lake. We just saw the perfect storm and all the stars align and watched a few dudes do something on Ivie that we will probably never see again and a lot of guys are jumping on the anti livescope bandwagon because of it. There were a lot of guys that just got their [censored] kicked on the Tennessee river that are running livescope. It’s just another tool in the toolbox

I have nothing against video fishing but I believe there should be a rule made on foul hooked (snagged) fish since this can be classified as sight fishing.

.... and yet... the Arig IS banned