Josh Jone’s Strategy?

When you consider all the talented anglers with forward facing sonars, JJ seems to out perform everyone.

Does anyone believe they know why that is?

He’s had live sonar since 2015…he perfected it crappie fishing and realized he could do the same for big bass. He’s not casting a tournament sized fish, he’s casting at giants only. He’s perfected targeting big fish off shore when most fishermen pound the banks.

From the article in other thread he claims to fish 200-300 days a year.

Both above are correct

I was fishing on Ivie Sunday and he came in the cove I was fishing. He dropped the tm (in the middle of the cove) and begin searching. Like he’s said, he doesn’t focus on points, creel channels, contour lines, etc. He just drops and goes. I watched him, and that’s true. He roamed for about 45 minutes, just a few casts, and pulled up and moved on. Nothing on that stop. Hog hunting. He’s got something that is working. Not my style, but it is obviously paying off.

He's willing to put the time in simply trolling around and looking for the right fish. Listen to Todd and Ken's videos and Todd mentions tracking a fish or maybe a few that just roam flats without any rhyme or reason except they hang to the best looking stumps. Not saying that's what the fish they are finding are doing the same thing but it could be close to the same thing

He told me that he chased a DD for about 45 minutes trying to position for a throw. He doesn't make many casts in a day. That's commitment.....most of us don't fish like that.

It’s definitely a different way to fish, I tried it on Monday, just trolled around looking for a big fish. And trolled and trolled and trolled. Found a school of white bass and proceeded to catch the hell out of them. I’m sure the first time hunting big fish is the hardest, probably gets easier once you have some confidence. Hardest part is probably knowing that you’re actually looking at a big fish.

Here's the approximant process.

First you have to have the determination to actually drive around for hours on end looking for a big fish. You feel like an idiot the whole time, because who in their right mind trolls around the middle of a lake looking for bass?
Then you have to have the determinate to not chase and cast at every shiny object you see (small fish). Most of which aren't even bass anyway, but you don't know that.
Then when you do find a big bass (assuming it's not a carp) you have to have to be able to stop the boat before you run over the fish. Then you have to be able to position yourself for a cast. Not too far, not too close.
Oh by the way, while you've been trying to do that the fish has moved, so you've had to use your trolling motor to follow it to keep it on live scope, the same trolling motor you need to be pointed the other direction to position your boat where it needs to be.
Then you have you to have the right lure on. (Not hard)
Then you need to make the right cast leading the fish so when the lure gets to where it needs to be, both the fish and the lure are on the scope so you can see what's happening.
Then you need to know the secret sauce on how to present that lure just exactly right to get that fish to actually bite. (The really hard part)

It's a cake walk from there.

It's a skill that absolutely can be learned by most anglers, but I doubt most will mess with it much because the whole thing is a giant PITA to be honest.

I bet Wheeler and some others could do the same but they are in a different game.

I see potential for improvement with his technique—two trolling motors with spot lock capability.

One dedicated to hold boat position
The other trolling motor is dedicated to tracking the big bass with ff sonar.

Don't need another trolling motor there are already several companies making motorized mounts that hook to your trolling motor or the gunnel.

Figured it had already been done with a motorized foot pedal controlled mount.

Maybe some auto target guidance on the ff sonar. Mark a cursor on your moving target and the ff sonar will track it automatically for you.

To each his own! He is probably the best hunting individual giants. In my opinion it's more like hunting than fishing. He is a great crappie fisherman and a master with his FF sonar so when he finds one he knows how to position his boat and cast and read the fish. He is just using that swim jig like an oversized crappie jig. The results speak for themselves just not what I care to do when I go fishing. I have never liked any kind of fishing that is slow! A little A.D.D. when on the water

Bet that would cost !!!!
Be nice though.

Well now I'm excited to see a boat with 2 16" graphs at the dash, 3 16" graphs at the bow and now 2 trolling motors and 8 lithium batteries to power all the upgrades. We need bigger boats. I'm gonna talk to the wife.....

Like a radar lock on you find in a jet fighter. Once it locks onto a target it will track it for as long as feasible.

Imagine the TM just following around a single target.

It's 100 percent like sight fishing for giants. I've went 8 hours or more with only a couple flips. 2 sets of batteries and on high all day staring into the water. It's not for everyone and just like Josh, have to be willing to ignore 100's of fish under 8lbs even though a particular fish may be catchable....

Why does one quarterback out perform all the rest? Some people just are great at what they have chosen to do.

I am surprised that josh doesn’t enjoy sight fishing as well. He had said multiple times he has never sight fished and does not care too. The reason I have enjoyed live scope so much is because I enjoy sight fishing so much. I don’t mind the hunt or the time spent doing it, like sight fishing live scope is something that not everything will enjoy or spend the time learning enough to master it.

I think we've got the general gist of it.
Imagining what it would be like to do what he does, I imagine if I hired him to show me the way I would be looking over his shoulder for the first 30-60 minutes.
The next 60 minutes I would be looking around to see if there was any good fishing areas around and the following 6 hours wished we would go to one of the good fishing areas instead of trolling around chasing giants.


Just me but I'm not interested in fishing like he does.

What he is doing is what a lot of Striper fisherman have been doing for yrs. Striper fisherman have been fishing offshore structure for decades but using old technology. I know a guide on Buch that like JJ can almost tell you to the pound what fish you are gonna catch. LMB and Striper/hybrids in deep water aren’t much different. But they are on livescope. According to my friend he can narrow it down to hybrids and LMB which make sense they are kinda built the same

He has been using it the longest out of everyone so his results are not surprising

I can’t wait until the next gen models have VR goggles! Lol, its going to look like a bunch of Ray Charles out there driving around the lake with a pole in their hands! Smiling at the sun...

If he’s really putting in that amount of hours catching that many DDs then I can’t see it lasting long. A person has to get burned out/bored of it quick. Fishing is more about the road then it is about the destination, too many getting away from that these days.

It’s interesting to see what forward facing sonar is doing . There is several people that is as good as Jones is .
John Soukup and Jonny that does fish the moment are both as good as Jones .

This!

There’s a lot of guys that have caught Sharelunkers on Ivie the last 2 years on it. Jones has caught the most, but he’s also spending 3 months of the year there doing it every day. Everyone else is not.

So to say he’s doing something no one else is doing is a little far fetched. He just basically has more time to do it than most people have.

Slow down. I just learned the zoom feature in my active target today. Now I can see fish. Lol

imagine when that fish swims through a dock!