I've spent hours watching YouTube channels like Fish The Moment to get better at using my electronics, but I still struggle to consistently find fish using them.

Has anyone hired an electronics guide and did it improve your ability to use your electronics?

If you’re not familiar and confidant enough to set them up, then yes.
Spending lots of $ on equipment and not fully utilizing it is just dumb.

Yes! Most certainly. I am what some would call Old School but I will never stop learning. I hired Jack York on Fork in Jan of this year to show me specifically how to use Garmin FFS. Jack is a master at his craft at 23 yrs of age and an all around great guy. The only time he picked up a rod that day was to hand it to me. I was amazed at how well he could read the fish's behavior and even tell you within a few ounces how big the fish was before it bit.

I fished with a great guide last year that had FFS on his boat but he was not proficient enough to teach others.

Confidence comes with success and success comes with practice. Pay the money and hire someone that is really good at what they do. You will not regret it.

This coming year I'll be upgrading my electronics and adding FFS. I will hire a specialist to help me dial them in. Reasoning...I do way better when someone walks me through it hands on then watching a video.

I personally think you can sit down with YouTube and watch every video you can find. Note the similarities, and compare them on your unit. It's really helpful to go out at night, and just graph and tinker with settings for DI/SI/FFS on known areas to compare results. Clarity of water makes a big difference, and depth your using it in can make a big change in detail. Spending hours behind the unit can help tremendously. For FFS, the differences in brands can be a challenge. I personally like having a pole so I can fine tune my transducer on the fly. I tried it once on the TM and that was a no-go for me personally. Some do not want something else to deploy when they stop at a spot to fish, but for me I like to have the ability to look any direction when spot locked. I would say spend 100 hrs behind a unit after you have researched the web. And lastly, read the manual twice and then go out and use it. After a few trips, re-read the manual. There are allot of things that will help you that are easily overlooked.

I believe so. Years back, I attempted to schedule with James Biggs on Fork and Athens - unfortunately, our schedules always seem to conflict. My goals were to learn how to properly setup and interpret my HDS (state-of-the-art) back then and the big flutter spoon bite. With my electronics, I basically used them like glorified flashers - not truly understanding their capabilities and applications. My Flutter Spoon experience and success was embarrassingly futile…

Save the $1,500 and watch YouTube. Or just go experiment with it yourself. If these guys can learn it, so can you. It isn't as hard as they make it sound. 2 hours on the water tinkering with it and you'll be fine.

I haven't personally hired an electronics guide but I know a lot of people that have. They all said it was a good value. Do you know if your electronics are dialed in or not? One way to find out is to either run over structure you know what it is or by something like a laydown. Dial in your electronics while looking at the structure you know.

Below is a review from someone that thought an electronics trip was worth it. This is copied and pasted from Pake at the Lake's facebook page.

I just wanted to share a testimony of a recent client. I am humbled and honored that he took the time to write this, and I am so happy that I was able to share what I know about using forward facing sonar to make his big bass dreams come true! Thank you Britt, and I’m looking forward to future trips!

“I had the pleasure of fishing with Pake South for an entire day. The day started off looking kinda rough, it was cold with 20+mph winds. When I arrived at the ramp Pake had the boat ready to go. The boat was very clean and organized, life jackets resting neatly on the back of each seat, plenty of snacks and water for us both. I’ve fished with several guides in the past and enjoyed each one, but fishing with Pake was by far my favorite experience out of all of them! The week before we went out he asked me what I was wanting to do for the day, mainly catch fish, or work more with learning how to scope. I wasn’t really interested in just catching a bunch normal bass. I was more interested in his processes. What and how he does it. I would’ve been happy just watching him and learning all day but what Pake taught me there’s more to it. You have to do it to really understand. I have a scope on my boat so my goal for this trip was more educational than catching fish. I wanted to learn how to use my scope to hunt big bass and Pake was eager to teach me. Starting off the day I wanted to watched Pake fish, trying to take notes and learn as much as possible. I crouched down beside him on the front deck so I could get the best view of his scope graph, I watched the directions he was pointing his transducer, watching his retrieval, trying not to get in his way while he fished. The whole time as he was fishing he was explaining to me what he was doing.
I watched Pake scope a big bass and cast to it, as he did this, he talked me through what exactly he was doing and then he hooked a big one. I was amazed, we had just gotten started and he already hauls in a 10.69lb bass. He caught it exactly the way he explained, it was textbook. I was so impressed by his knowledge, like he knew how it would happen before it happened! Pake then hands me his fishing pole and says “ now it’s your turn”. Lol. He wasn’t kidding, it was my turn to catch a big bass! The pressure was on lol. Each time Pake scoped a fish he would tell me exactly where and how far to cast my line. He talked me through the whole retrieval, if I needed to speed it up or slow, slow it down, I did exactly what he said. All I had to do was listen to him coach me. We had only been out for 2hrs when Pake finds me a big bass on the scope and tells me to cast. Pake instructed me on exactly what to do, speed it up, slowdown, keep it there, speed up, little faster, little faster then boom I hooked my PB at 9.56lbs! I was in shock, I couldn’t believe it! Pake coached me from cast to catch and it happened exactly the way he said it would! By lunchtime he scoped and coached me catching another 8.09lb bass! What I thought was just going be a just learning day with no fish. Pake coached me to two of my personal best. By 1pm we had 4 fish at 30lbs, I was so amazed at Pakes talent and overwhelmed by the entire experience! As the day went on I really felt like I was understanding Pakes process. Pake gave me so many fine details to help me. I learned so much from Pake in 8 hours. It was exactly what I wanted! We only cast at bigger fish that looked over 5lbs on the scope, I don’t think I made 150 cast all day! We didn’t have to drive around too much either, which was nice, Pake knew exactly what areas he wanted to fish before we even started, he even advised me on how to locate good spots in other lakes. Pakes boat was extremely nice, we didn’t even notice the 20+mph winds and choppy water. The whole day went as smooth as the boat ride, I highly recommend Pake to anyone wanting to bass fish! Pake is extremely talented and super nice guy with a big future in Bass fishing! Can’t wait to see all his success! Im looking forward to going out with Pake many times in the future. Thank you Pake!! Your amazing!”
- Britt Loyd

Some people will never "get it" when it comes to electronics, just as some will never cash a check or many checks in tournaments.

If you struggle with the basics of electronics after many years of using them, I would say save your money fir something else...