{"id":1950,"date":"2024-01-02T18:11:06","date_gmt":"2024-01-02T18:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=1950"},"modified":"2024-01-02T18:11:06","modified_gmt":"2024-01-02T18:11:06","slug":"the-unwinnable-battle-over-forward-facing-sonar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/?p=1950","title":{"rendered":"The Unwinnable Battle Over Forward-Facing Sonar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>There\u2019s no stopping technology. This indisputable fact is driving news media harder than ever lately given recent advances in AI, leaving many people wondering if we\u2019re destined to experience <em>The Terminator <\/em>in real life. Luckily, we\u2019re not there yet, but the likelihood of us going backward \u2014 agreeing that modern tech could be so harmful that we have to stop trying to make it better \u2014 is extremely unlikely. Never in history have we decided computers are fast enough, cell phones are smart enough, or TVs are clear enough. Nothing in our lives is immune to technological one-upmanship, and fishing is no exception.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Since the first hunter-gathers caught fish for sustenance, anglers have been trying to make themselves more efficient and successful on the water.\u00a0 And I\u2019m certain that with each advance there was a period when those without the latest-and-greatest called the hottest technology a crutch for lesser anglers that were lacking skill and intuition. Still, over time things like sonar and electric trolling motors became commonplace \u2014 routine tools used by everyone on the water. <\/p>\n<p>Until 2018, no fishing technology had advanced so far that a genuine fear emerged over its potential to alter fisheries and the entire sport for the worst, but that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s happening with forward-facing sonar. Recently, the issue has come to a head after the technology was banned in a popular bass tournament. The implications of that decision could alter the future of professional bass fishing, but the cases both for and against forward-facing sonar are anything but cut and dry.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-about-face\">About Face<\/h2>\n<p>All three major marine electronics brands \u2014 Humminbird, Lowrance, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/gear\/garmin-echomap-ultra-review\/\">Garmin<\/a> \u2014 produce a version of forward-facing sonar. Unlike traditional sonar, the transducers for this technology are mounted on the trolling motor shaft or a separate pole on the bow. Instead of just projecting a cone down below the boat, they look ahead all throughout the water column. Most impressive is their relay speed to the monitor. Whereas traditional sonar gives you a slower scrolling 2-D image, forward-facing sonar produces a real-time 3-D image of what\u2019s ahead, more akin to a live video feed. Because there\u2019s no delay in the signal, anglers can spot a fish, cast to it, and watch it react on the screen. This has earned the practice the nickname \u201cvideo game fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"CE58Cys6jWQ\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"LiveScope\u2122 Plus: The latest in LiveScope technology \u2013 Garmin\u00ae Retail Training\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CE58Cys6jWQ?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The technology also allows users to identify submerged structure very quickly, and, perhaps most controversially, to find and successfully target fish suspended in open water \u2014 a skill that many anglers have never tried to learn, and one that\u2019s taken the pros many years to master. <\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beaumontenterprise.com\/txoutdoors\/article\/forward-facing-sonar-banned-fishing-tournament-18546165.php\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Beaumont Enterprise<\/em><\/a>, Randy Despino, the organizer of the Despino\u2019s Tire Service \u201cFishing For Kids\u201d charity team tournament to be held on Toledo Bend Reservoir in March 2024, officially banned the use of forward-facing sonar to level the playing field. Per the article, Despino, who is also a tournament bass angler, posits that nowadays, if you <em>don\u2019t <\/em>have this technology, you are automatically handicapped so badly that you simply can\u2019t compete. There\u2019s compelling support to back up his theory.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In February of 2023, pro angler Tyler Rivet <a href=\"https:\/\/bassblaster.rocks\/how-tyler-rivet-got-his-first-blue-trophy-at-okeechobee\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">took first place<\/a> at a Bassmaster Elite event on Florida\u2019s Lake Okeechobee. He did this, however, by skipping out on fishing the massive, world-famous lake entirely and running up the Kissimmee River. Rivet claims that at the end of his final day of practice, he went up the river to mess around with crappies. Lo and behold, he started picking up bass on his forward-facing sonar and ended up fishing there during the tournament and winning. Here\u2019s where opinions start to fly.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Without the technology, would he have found those bass? Regardless, does Rivet\u2019s reliance on forward-facing sonar at a venue where most anglers don\u2019t seem to use it make him the smartest guy in the tournament or the outcast? The answer, if there is one, is complicated. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-lost-amp-found\">Lost &amp; Found<\/h2>\n<p>The mudslinging over forward-facing sonar might be the rowdiest in the world of professional bass angling, but it certainly spills over into other fisheries. In Australia, for example, the use of this tech to target Murray cod has drawn so much ire in some circles that it\u2019s spawned Instagram accounts like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/livescope_losers_downunder\/?next=%2Fcarolin598%2Ftagged%2F&amp;hl=hr\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Livescope Losers Downunder<\/a> that are devoted to bashing anyone \u2014 especially perceived fishing \u201cinfluencers\u201d \u2014 who uses it to catch one of these goliaths. American muskie anglers are also frequent victims on this page.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/C1ivTp9yDIH\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\"background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;margin: 1px;max-width:540px;min-width:326px;padding:0;width:99.375%;width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px);width:calc(100% - 2px)\"\/>\n<p>Why the rage? Because muskies and Murray cod are historically considered two species that must be earned through merit and time put in, much of which is spent patterning and locating them. But with forward facing sonar, the argument is that you cut out the need for much of the hard work that makes victory so much sweeter. With forward-facing sonar, you can roll up to any bank, hole, or piece of structure and know instantly if there\u2019s a cod or muskie home, and even get a pretty good idea of its size. Muskies are the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/fishing\/muskies-fish-10000-casts\/\">fish of 10,000 casts<\/a>\u201d because you often need to make that many before your lure even ends up in front of one, but that\u2019s not the case if you have forward-facing sonar.<\/p>\n<p>If, perchance, you happen to now be in the camp that believes forward-facing technology diminishes the achievement of catching a massive muskie or Murray cod, hold the phone. Remember that a fish on a screen is not the same as a fish in the boat. Just because you can locate fish quickly does not mean you have the skills to catch the fish you found. This is the hill that most pro forward-facing anglers will die on, and they\u2019re not wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Getting back to Tyler Rivet and his win on Okeechobee, it couldn\u2019t have been achieved if he didn\u2019t have the skills to determine what to tie on to fool those bass popping up on his screen.\u00a0Read through enough negative comments on social media and you\u2019ll quickly get the sense that many people \u2014 often those who do not have or cannot afford this $20- to $30,000 technology \u2014 act as though simply having it on your boat instantly transforms you into an unstoppable, can\u2019t-miss angler. That\u2019s simply not true.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-shop-talk\">Shop Talk<\/h2>\n<p>In the fishing world, the term \u201cPhotoshopped\u201d is thrown around all the time. It\u2019s become part of our common vernacular, and any time we want to pooh-pooh someone\u2019s big fish or claim that the lure hanging out of its mouth didn\u2019t catch it, we drop \u201cPhotoshopped\u201d in the comments. The reality? Photoshop is one of the most complex graphics programs ever made. I studied it from senior year of high school through college and while I might be better at using it than a lot of folks, I\u2019m far from a pro. There are people who earn thousands of dollars making composite images so good that it would be nearly impossible for you or me to catch that they\u2019re fakes. But the guy who just posted a striper on Facebook and claimed it was 50 pounds likely isn\u2019t one of them, especially if the photo doesn\u2019t look off in any way. The same logic applies to forward-facing sonar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Any angler who has it or has been on a boat equipped with it will tell you it\u2019s not exactly intuitive. It takes time and practice to master. With that in mind, Randy Despino didn\u2019t ban it from his tournament because he considers it cheating. He banned it because he recognizes that those who have it and know how to use it well typically have a financial advantage. Is it fair to have to compete with an angler who could afford this expensive technology when you couldn\u2019t? Is it fair to compete against an angler who got it free from a sponsor when you don\u2019t have that same opportunity? On the reverse side, is it fair that a bass pro who embraced forward-facing sonar early and has spent years really dialing it in cannot use their knowledge? <\/p>\n<p>To try to keep everyone happy, Despino is allowing the use of the technology during practice days, but not tournament days. This could become the short-term model that pervades the tournament world, as another issue facing the sport is that the use of forward-facing sonar in B.A.S.S. and Major League Fishing circuits is hooking fewer viewers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-survey-says\">Survey Says<\/h2>\n<p>Gerald Swindle is one of the biggest names in professional bass fishing, and he has legions of fans. In August of 2023, he posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GeraldSwindle.GMAN\/videos\/284569440970575\/?extid=NS-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&amp;mibextid=qC1gEa\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a video on his Facebook page<\/a> laying out the results of an informal survey he conducted on social media. He asked his followers to let him know if they enjoyed watching pro anglers using forward-facing sonar in tournaments. (Keep in mind that he was not<em> <\/em>asking if they <em>liked<\/em> or <em>disliked<\/em> the technology, but simply if their attention was held when they kicked back on the couch to watch a tournament where most or all of the highlighted anglers were using forward-facing sonar.) A whopping 72 percent of Swindle\u2019s fans said no, they did not enjoy watching pro anglers using forward-facing sonar.<\/p>\n<p>Having screened footage of the practice in action, I can understand this response. Professional bass fishing is a sport that relies on eyeballs tuning in and fans showing up at events to maintain profitability. It\u2019s no different than any pro football or baseball league. But as forward-facing sonar becomes more and more prevalent among top tier pro anglers, what fans end up watching on TV is a guy on a boat watching TV. Those devoted to the technology often end up glued to that screen all day. The argument is that this robs viewers of the action of changing lures to pattern fish and searching with casts until you hit pay dirt. The element of surprise you get when a frog is skipped under a dock and exploded on after the last five docks produced nothing isn\u2019t there when you know the target is present and the bite is coming. From a pro\u2019s perspective, of course, it\u2019s hard to pass on this advantage when you have sponsors to keep happy and a family to feed by fishing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t9oUTdI7LL4&amp;t=1s\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">In response to Swindle\u2019s video<\/a>, bass pro Randy Blaukat took it a step further and suggested that not only does forward-facing technology need to be banned in tournament angling to keep the fans engaged, but it\u2019s also doing nothing to help the next wave of anglers. \u201cIt takes away the mystery and magic of fishing,\u201d Blaukat says. \u201cWhich once you do that, once you take away the unknown from fishing, you lose everything that fishing\u2019s about.\u201d Furthermore, Blaukat suggests that the electronics companies back off with forward-facing sonar, but that\u2019s very unlikely to happen.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"t9oUTdI7LL4\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gerald Swindle Confirms\u2026Fans Are Sick Of Watching Livescope\/FFS Tournaments\u2026\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t9oUTdI7LL4?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019m just old enough to remember when GPS became available to recreational boaters. My family had an ancient 27-foot Penn Yan at the Jersey Shore, and it had a Loran-C unit on the bridge. A well-to-do friend with a boat in the same marina got a GPS unit first, and I remember my dad being mesmerized by it. At the time, it seemed so out of reach for us and our boat. Now we have a GPS in our pocket 24\/7. From this perspective, forward-facing sonar is so controversial because it\u2019s incredibly powerful but not yet attainable for the average \u201cweekend warrior.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In time, though, I think that\u2019s likely to change. A case in point: Just five years ago, it was rare to see a saltwater boat where I live that had a Spot-Lock trolling motor \u2014 another pricey accessory that garners its own share of hate for making pounding offshore bottom structure effortless. Now I see them mounted on everything from brand new skiffs to 90s-era beater center consoles. Technology gets less expensive the longer it\u2019s around, and it\u2019s reasonable to assume that in the relatively near future, you won\u2019t be able to buy a new bass boat that <em>doesn\u2019t<\/em> have forward-facing sonar. In time, those new boats reenter the market as used boats and eventually this technology becomes standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Until it\u2019s ubiquitous, though, what do you do? The only immediate options seem to be either banning forward-facing sonar in tournaments entirely, or insisting that every boat fishing the event has it whether the angler onboard chooses to use it or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-generation-gaps\">Generation Gaps<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019m not a tournament angler, but as a devout recreational angler here\u2019s my take. I believe that to win at fishing and grow confident in your abilities, you must lose often. There is far more to learn from tough days on the water than from the ones where it seems you can do no wrong and fish are just jumping into the boat. We cannot catch a fish if our bait or lure doesn\u2019t wind up in front of its face, so, by my reckoning, the harder skill to master \u2014 or maybe the most important skill \u2014 is putting yourself where the fish are consistently. To do this we make mental notes and connect dots over time. We return to the same areas under a variety of conditions. Sometimes your favorite rock pile produces, other times it doesn\u2019t, but win or lose, this is how you learn to pattern fish. That\u2019s true whether it\u2019s by foot on a trout stream where no electronics are involved or on a bass boat running across your local reservoir. My fear is that as this technology gets even faster and smarter, the next generation may be good \u2014 possibly too good \u2014 at hooking them, but they will lack the fishing purview that I and many of you share.<\/p>\n<p>If people are so upset about forward-facing sonar today, imagine how much they\u2019ll hate the next iterations of it \u2014 or who knows, maybe lures that detect fish and swim autonomously into their mouths \u2014 25 years from now. The future risk if this sonar becomes standard is that it nudges the sport closer to \u201ccatching\u201d than fishing, which is on trend. Younger generations \u2014 my own kids included \u2014 are not accustomed to delayed gratification, not with how everything is \u201con demand\u201d these days.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yes, you need skills to catch what\u2019s on that screen, but if we get to a point where the majority of anglers are casting to fish every single time they\u2019re on the water regardless of conditions or season (even when the fish won\u2019t feed), then you\u2019re robbing those fish of respite and increasing pressure on them. Mounting pressure, by the way, is something anglers at large have been complaining about since long before forward-facing sonar hit the scene. Fisheries managers and state agencies will have to adapt their regulations to ensure that gamefish fisheries are healthy and sustainable into the future.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But I\u2019m not going to lose a wink of sleep over forward-facing sonar. Because technology doesn\u2019t stop if consumers are buying, and there\u2019s nothing any of us can do about that. My feeling that the more work and time you put into your fishing, the more rewarding each victory is, won\u2019t hold water with a lot of younger anglers \u2014 nor will it mean much to a pro angler who needs to win to pay the mortgage \u2014 which I completely understand. At the end of the day, forward-facing sonar is just another new tool in the angling arsenal, and it\u2019s up to each individual angler to decide if it would or would not enhance their fishing experience. The only thing that really matters is what you personally take away from your time on the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outdoorlife.com\/opinion\/unwinnable-battle-over-forward-facing-sonar\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There\u2019s no stopping technology. This indisputable fact is driving news media harder than ever lately given recent advances in AI, leaving many people wondering if we\u2019re destined to experience The Terminator in real life. Luckily, we\u2019re not there yet, but the likelihood of us going backward \u2014 agreeing that modern tech could be so harmful [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1950","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gun-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americangunpeople.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}