No Electronics?

Do you feel confident enough to locate & catch bass, have a good time without the use of transducer emitted info? Read the points, interpret tne creek channels with timber, etc.? Have we lost the ability "to fish" without the technology? I can, just takes longer, & makes my arms hurt more.

Why would you want to when you don’t have to?

Just to prove it to yourself. That's all. I treasure what Ive been taught & learned. Dependency on crutches will eventually lead to loss of skills. Do you trust yourself & skill to turn it off?

You are getting close to the system in your thanking. Big Fish all relate to the points, Creek Channel Bends, Timber, Rock Piles, Brush Piles, Gouges, Protrusions, last brush lines, ledges and shoreline cover.
- Do your work on the maps before you ever get on the water.
- Locate those creek channels that you speak of; then read the timber when you go to the best ones on the lake. Don't just hope to run into one by accident; make it happen.
- Study and study some more at home on the computer.
- Look at Nav. Apps. and Google Earth Pro. to help you decide where you are going to fish.
- Have all your waypoints dropped before you ever get on the lake.
- Contours are the key.
- Use your Depth finder to follow the 20 ft. contour line not to look for fish.
- Staying in 20 ft. will keep you in the safe zone to keep from spooking the fish that are feeding on the slopes, protrusions, gouges and irregular features. It allows the man up front to cast to the Irregular Features sitting in shallower water with search baits.
- When I am fishing the back of the boat it allows me to drag the 20 ft water for fish that are staging to feed or living in the last cover on the points.
- Split Screen with Down Scan is helpful if you have a large screen. You can take a look at the Irregular Features that you just caught that Big fish off of as you follow the 20 ft. contour.

This sounds like a lot of Technology; but it all starts with a paper map and becoming as familiar with the lake as you can become before going fishing. When I get there I use these lost skills to read the shoreline, points, how the trees line a creek channel and inside bend points. I certainly want to know where all those good things are before I get on the water then go take a look and up my percentages of catching bigger fish.

I almost never if put mine on the boat.

Don’t use your electronics just turn on the Hydrowave. And let the catching begin

I agree, Mr. Harper it 's all about the highways.Contours are the first thing Im looking for, structure second.. Of course 5/6/7 #rs blowing up on top will get me going too!

I’ve got some of the best electronics currently made. HDS Carbons, Active Imaging (front and rear), Ultrex, Biades, even an H2 Hydrowave. I very rarely catch fish based solely on them. I’m still a “sniff the dirt” kinda guy. So, that said, I would feel completely comfortable fishing without them, if I had to. It is nice to have, though.

Some of my salt water fishing is wade fishing. We feel what we need to under our feet and walk thru an area reading the water with our eyes. Adjust with whatever we carried with us.

Do that enough and you know when where and why.... no batteries required.

This. The Feeling. The Experience. The rod bent, drag peeling, the satisfaction of knowledge put to use without those crutches.

In other words bank beating. Because you effectively aren’t fishing deep without electronics.

No, not at all. What I'm talking about is tne reading the features of the lake by hills, points, creeks, treelines, roadbeds and such. Reading a contour map, trianglulating, finding those places that hold fish whether 1' or 30' and putting fish in the boat without the aid of electronics.

Been there, done that and I could write a paper over it. C O N F I D E N C E beats electronics hands down. Now, if going to a new body of water, I can catch fish w/o it, but it would be nice to find the way around the lake. When I get to where I am going, I turn my electronics off (several papers have been written over the negative impact of electronics). Does it help? I still catch fish, so I guess it helps. Dunno. I have not done the study that Ralph Manns did, fishing a hour with it on and 1 hour with it off on a cordoned off cove like he did, but I trust his words on it. Give it a try and keep accurate records for it and see if your catch rate increases. HOpe this helps. Tight lines, keepl safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

After having a boat most of my adult life, I sold my Skeeter and bought a couple Hobie kayaks for me and my son about two years ago. I now fish with very basic electronics and limited gear. I love the simplicity of it all.

Catching a 8lb bass out of a 21' boat is awesome (my personal best) . Catching a 6lb bass out of a kayak (my personal best out of a kayak) was even better!

There are times that I miss the Skeeter and I might get another one some day... but at the moment I'm really enjoying the more simple approach.

Nah. That’s what graphs are for. Like this phone, I don’t leave home without it. Don’t have to, nor need to. No Rand McNallys here.

I have limited time on the water and use my electronics to limit wasting that time. Can I find fish without electronics? Yeah but I find reading the land keeps you fishing the obvious stuff everyone fishes.

I fished for years without a graph at all. I used navionics app on my phone with the GPS. Caught some really big bags doing it too. A DD22 was my depth/structure finder.

I know what you mean Mike, I have both boat and kayak; you feel more in touch with the kayak and the satisfaction level is increased. That being said the boat gets you to more places. Great to have both

I fish all the time without taking the covers off my graphs, especially on a lake I know well and have a milk run.

Not bank beating at all. I like to fish docks and marinas, standing timber, bridge pilings. All kinds of stuff you can fish without a graph and never cast at the bank

I am 70 years old and came up bassin the way he wants to fish ,my 1st depth finder was a weight and string .I was the 1st in my town to get a real depth finder {the old portable } I can also say that I never want to go backward .The game is more challgening today than ever .it now takes mussel between your ears to win and a lot of time on the water proving what you have found

wait til you get a big fish in a 2 man boat I did a 13 /10 and it was a battle I want forget

As someone else has stated I could easily do it on my home lakes. Often times I have them on and rarely look at them as I'm running through a milk run. On new water it would be much more difficult...I'm sure I'd be craving them.

What little time I am able to get on the water I am still trying to get better with the electronics. I fished lots of years without electronics.

I fish many east Texas lakes, including fork, without turning on my electronics....40 years of being on the water there and studying maps got me that ability. I can show you that constant electronic use is teaching the fish! I fish my spots the way I want to fish them and always do well.

I get it. I see what you guys are talking about now.

Buck Perry had a system called Spoonplugging.

@#$&^% all that. I'm utilizing every advantage I can get. Kudos to those who wing it but technology exist for a reason.

Right on bro. I'm thinking 'bout getting me one of those underwater cameras. Go big or go home.

All the time, both little boat and big boat..

Y'all could laugh, but it's funny how much I actually use the machine on my little 8' bass raider for small ponds. Put a Garmin Striker 4cv Plus on it.. It has the quickdraw mapping that allows me to build my own maps for ponds in the area that no one else has.. lol

Before I got it, yeah typical pond fishing.. bust the bank with a crank bait or something.. But now that I have it, it's unbelievable how much structure I find in some ponds that I had no idea were there, and to actually catch good quality fish on those spots.. And since I have an legit contour map of the pond, I can see the drop offs, guts, etc... One of the ponds I'd been fishing for a few years, average 1-2lbs.. Scanned the bottom when I got the bottom machine, found an old sunken boat with some trees piled around it on the down scan.. through out a buoy marker, backed off it and threw a football jig. Hung a 6 pound bass off of it.. That was immediately money well spent.

I haven't had a working front graph on my boat in almost 2 years.... Use the one at the helm more for the GPS and mapping than I do actually locating fish. On a new body of water I could get by without sonar, but man not having that map chip with contour lines and going back to the old fashioned way of triangulating would suck big time!

easy, try fishing a norcal lake with no map or graph...

In the summer I will search more with electronics to cool off .