Tennessee Boy

It depends on how much I’m worried about spooking the fish. That’s a judgement call based on depth and how quiet the water is. If there are jet skis run everywhere I’m not to worried. I would say I typically troll the last 50 yards or so.

I’m looking forward to watching this play out even if it is a little hokey. If it works out maybe MLB should consider allowing aluminum bats in the 2nd and 5th innings. 😆

It definitely looks like a more diverse schedule. They said that Toledo Bend and Fork were their most watched tournaments this year so I was wondering if they would be willing to skip Texas in the winter. They did. I’m not very familiar with some of the lakes. Looks like a good schedule to me.

The question I have is what makes a fish an FFS fish? I’ve got a spot that I’ve been catching fish on by making the same cast with the same lures for 30+ years. I don’t need FFS to catch fish there. Now when I fish there I can see the fish before I cast and watch them hit the lure. Does that make it a fish caught with FFS? FFS just makes it more interesting, it doesn’t change the way I fish that spot one bit. At Toledo Bend the scopers out fished the old timers by catching fish that would be extremely hard to catch without FFS. It was more complicated with 90% of the fish caught in other tournaments. If an angler uses GPS to get close to a brush pile and then uses FFS to make a pinpoint cast, how important is FFS in that process?

Amen. I don’t find it that interesting to watch them catch fish. I would be willing to pay a good bit to watch them actually fish. By that I mean see what they see on the screen, know where they are on the lake, see what baits they are using so that I can see how they are making the decisions they make. That would be fantastic.

This article goes into detail on the reasons why the committee made the decisions they made. It’s a good read. It shoots down a lot of this misinformation thats been floating around. They address the common concerns and what the data they collected actually shows. Concerning the number of fish caught with FFS. Next, we surveyed the Top 10 finishers of every Elite Series event. We asked these anglers the percentage of time they utilized their live units and how many of the fish they weighed in were caught while using live tech. This survey, alongside watching these anglers compete on Bassmaster LIVE, gave us a solid understanding of how live sonar was impacting the leaderboard. What’s interesting, if you listened to the chatter on social media and a couple of knuckleheads out there who have been using this debate as clickbait for personal benefit, you’d think every fish coming across the Elite Series stage was caught using live sonar. This is not even close to true. For three events, Harris Chain, St. Johns River and Wheeler Lake, less than 15% of the fish caught by the Top 10 anglers were landed using live sonar (that’s less than one fish per day). Murray finished at 42%. Champlain ended about 50-50. Concerning fans not wanting to watch anglers watching screens. At the start of the 2024 season, many Elite Series pros were saying the use of live sonar was making the coverage of our sport unwatchable. So, we kept a keen eye on the numbers this season. If the fans hated it, our recommendation would be simple. However, that was not the case. In fact, the opposite was true, which shocked me. The top two viewership events of the year, by a long shot, were Toledo Bend and Lake Fork, which were dominated by live sonar techniques. The production of the coverage, including showing the screens during live sonar catches, actually enhanced the viewership experience. https://www.bassmaster.com/2025-electronics-rules/news/digging-deep-into-live-sonar-changes-for-2025/

I think they are referring to electric trolling motors. I don’t think they are refering to any electric motor. That would mean no live well pumps or bilge pumps.

I like the common sense restrictions. It will help calm folks. It makes sense to prohibit new devices until they are evaluated. This will also open up a new revenue stream for B.A.S.S. 😆 The most important thing in the announcement is the thing that will have the most impact and is the true solution to the problem. A more diverse schedule. We’ll see if they follow through on this or if they follow the money. It just means that they will schedule fewer scoping fest like Toledo Bend was this year. Many people that have never used FFS will still think every tournament is won with FFS. If an angler looks down to see if his shoe is tied and catches a fish they think he caught that fish scoping.

There’s something to be said for having a one on one conversation with someone in the same language. That said AI powered translators are very powerful right now and will only get better. You can also use ChatGPT to learn a language.

I use DuckDuckGo.com for search because of their privacy policy. I mostly use chatGPT when I want to learn something which is the goal of 90% of my searches.

Thanks for all you’ve done RW. Is Irene retiring to? 😆

They have a free option with adds but they don’t have that many sponsors so they don’t have that many adds. The great thing is they show the FFS screen and will continue for two more tournaments. 🙂

It’s about priorities. I fish whenever I can. I eat if I have any money left over.

There are worse things that can happen than loosing an expensive lure. You don’t want to be on your death bed thinking about the fish you lost because you didn’t re tie a knot you knew could be better.

I would re-tie it. However, you could test it on a scale if you have one. I would wet the knot and put a little over 1/3 of the #test of the line. So if you have 15 lbs leader, put about 5 pounds of weight on it with a scale. If it passes the test, set you drag with the same scale to around 4 pounds and you should be good to go.

Personally, I wouldn't fish it. My opinion is a backward FG knot is not an FG knot because it doesn't utilize the braid digging into the leader. Every knot breaks in a different way. That's what determines the break strength. Your knot might have a reasonably good break strength or it might not. Why chance it?

I enjoyed watching the video. Gained a lot of respect for Brad Fuller. I hope they are successful.

Yeah that’s what scares people the most.

They are still allowing 360. That’s very interesting.

“We” are not in a season. “We” all live in different locations and fish different waters. You need to determine what season it is for the fish you are chasing. It varies by body of water and even by location within a body of water. Every body of water I fish has a different personality in every seasonal transition. I try to resist the urge to simplify it with rules based on someone else’s theories. The characteristics of the lake, the prey species, the other species competing for resources, the weather patterns in a given year, my fishing strengths, are all things that come into play in determining my success. There is one thing everyone around here can agree on. It’s football time in Tennessee.

It’s gonna take me forever to find this place on google maps. 🥴

Enough of this talk about ticks… did you catch any fish?

I don't have any experience with them so I can't help you there. There is a process I go through before I consider any fishing brand. I check there website for several things but the main three are as follows. Do they give an address on their website: Bates - FAIL Do they have a phone number on their website: Bates - PASS Do they say where their products are manufactured: Bates - Made in China - FAIL

I cannot read the mind of a fish. I’ve haven’t seen any evidence that they a capable of pondering the nature of anything. They more likely respond to things in their environment based on instinct and past experiences. There is very strong scientific evidence that bass learn to avoid lures. There is very strong scientific evidence that some bass are harder to catch than others. Are bass line shy? I think a more realistic question to ask is are some bass line shy. I don’t think we can say with certainty that no bass are line shy. My thinking is it’s not a big problem if it ever is a problem. Very few fishing lures look remotely natural. Hooks are usually more visible than line and we don’t worry about hooks. Still I try to reduce the visibility of my line when I can but I’m not obsessed with it.

Some thoughts on the subject. It’s important to remember that bass see differently than we do. Bass do not see the color blue very well so the line may look grey to them. When considering if bass can see fishing line, I think line diameter maybe the most important factor. Humans have extremely good visual acuity (the ability to see fine details). Fish do not.