Lake Erie 10 lb Smallmouth

[roadwarrior]

Lake Erie Angler Catches 10-Pound Smallmouth Bass | Field & Stream (fieldandstream.com)

[Susky River Rat]

That is one heck of a fish! I know others will disagree with me but, my personal  opinion is there is an asterisk by it because of the live scope. Just as it would be for me if it was live bait. Great catch they used the technology available to them well. 

[KSanford33]

6 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

That is one heck of a fish! I know others will disagree with me but, my personal  opinion is there is an asterisk by it because of the live scope. Just as it would be for me if it was live bait. Great catch they used the technology available to them well. 

I used to feel the same way, even going so far as to call it 'video game fishing'. But unfortunately, this technology isn't going anywhere. I still don't really care for it, especially since it's way out of my price range. It'd be the fastest way for me to become single again. 

 

 My reason is saying this isn't to try to convince you to like it. But Lake Erie is a huge body of water and you still have to find the fish and also make him bite.

 

 I can't even begin to imagine how hard a 10lb smallie must fight! ?

[Susky River Rat]

19 minutes ago, KSanford33 said:

I used to feel the same way, even going so far as to call it 'video game fishing'. But unfortunately, this technology isn't going anywhere. I still don't really care for it, especially since it's way out of my price range. It'd be the fastest way for me to become single again. 

 

 My reason is saying this isn't to try to convince you to like it. But Lake Erie is a huge body of water and you still have to find the fish and also make him bite.

 

 I can't even begin to imagine how hard a 10lb smallie must fight! ?

I know it’s a tool and I know it’s only going to be more widely used. I don’t like it but, I can’t change that it’s here. That’s why we all have our own opinions. I saw how effective it can be for musky. How it made a joke out of some tough waters around here. It’s also at easier to make a fish eat when you can watch real-time how it is reacting 
 

10lb would be nuts 

[king fisher]

7 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

That is one heck of a fish! I know others will disagree with me but, my personal  opinion is there is an asterisk by it because of the live scope. Just as it would be for me if it was live bait. Great catch they used the technology available to them well. 

      I would bet there are some anglers, that have figured out how to combine live bait with Live Scope, and are doing everything possible to keep their success a secret.  Most States would have a difficult time making the next greatest electronics illegal, if for no other reason than economics and lobbying by the electronics companies.  Those same fish and game departments, would have no problem making live bait illegal.  It is already illegal in many places, and who is going to lobby against a ban on bait?  Your local bait shop?  There has to be some big fish caught this way, that will never be posted on the internet.

      I personally don't care how someone catches their fish.  The best management tools, usually are length of seasons, bag limits, and educating anglers on proper catch and release practices,  I'm not saying that mile long gill nets should be allowed as a legal means to catch bass, but I have fished lakes in Mexico where they are, and the sportfishing isn't bad.  I doubt modern electronics would make a big difference on the population of bass in those lakes, but it might make a big difference in an angers success rate.

     If I could afford a boat, I would find a way to afford Live Scope.  My biggest problem would be finding the time away from work to learn how to use it effectively.  I already have way to much fishing gear, that I have not taken the time to become proficient with.  Buying new equipment is easy, spending my valuable time on the water fishing with something new, is getting close to being called work.  It's not the equipment it's the angler.  I'm sure there are many people that spent thousands of dollars on Live Scope that couldn't catch a bass in an aquarium with dynamite.  I am sure that even if I won the lotto, and let the Bait Monkey go wild with every penny, the chances of me ever catching a 10 pound small mouth bass are far less than me winning the lotto in the first place.

      That is a giant bass, and the angler should be proud of catching it regardless of how he caught it as long as he did it in a legal manner. In my opinion, anyone that tries to diminish the accomplishment, because of his use of the latest electronics, is simply jealous, ignorant or both.

I congratulate the lucky angler on the catch of a lifetime.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

FFS is nothing but the latest generation of sonar available to anglers.   

 

In 10 years the technology might warrant a fairness conversation, but FFS is relatively archaic when you track the evolution of Bass fishing sonar.   

 

It's at the Flasher stage of traditional sonar, in 10 years the data and computer-generated recognition and display of such data will be much closer to a "video game".     Video game graphics are a really good analogy for this tech progression.  8bits to 16bit to 32 to 64 to 128 etc.   

 

If you really want to think about something as cheating in this regard, bed fishing where you literally watch the fish with your eyes respond to your baits which has been a part of the sport since the beginning is more in line with an unfair advantage imho.  

 

Dottie was caught like this.

World Record Chasers | The Story of “Dottie” the 25 pound Largemouth Bass – Bass Fishing Facts

[GaryH]

It’s a great fish caught legally. Once we start down the road of he used this or that, where does it stop. Power poles, spot lock,  mega live, FFS, artificial scent, live bait, trolling. If the processed used is legal that’s all that should matter. No different than who has the advantage the guy with a bass boat or a kayak or canoe or John boat. They all have there advantages in certain situations. 

 

11 hours ago, roadwarrior said:

Lake Erie Angler Catches 10-Pound Smallmouth Bass | Field & Stream (fieldandstream.com)

Thanks for sharing RW

[KSanford33]

5 hours ago, Darnold335 said:

I know it’s a tool and I know it’s only going to be more widely used. I don’t like it but, I can’t change that it’s here. That’s why we all have our own opinions. I saw how effective it can be for musky. How it made a joke out of some tough waters around here. It’s also at easier to make a fish eat when you can watch real-time how it is reacting 
 

10lb would be nuts 

That bums me out, the effect it’s had on muskies. They used to be known as the fish of 1,000 casts (as I’m sure you know), but now with that technology it’s not the same. 
 

I have to laugh when people refer to forward facing sonar as FFS. FFS means something very different to me. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 hours ago, GaryH said:

It’s a great fish caught legally. Once we start down the road of he used this or that, where does it stop. Power poles, spot lock,  mega live, FFS, artificial scent, live bait, trolling. If the processed used is legal that’s all that should matter. No different than who has the advantage the guy with a bass boat or a kayak or canoe or John boat. They all have there advantages in certain situations. 

 

Thanks for sharing RW

Amen, and to that point, Spot Lock would be vastly more advantageous to me than FFS with my current boating setup......it's impossible to overstate the importance of boat positioning especially if you are bottom contact fishing.     

 

Until I get a new boat setup, I'm really limited to when and where I can effectively fish any slow moving bottom contact bait.    I could care less about seeing them react to my baits, I've got good down and side scan, I just can't keep the darn boat where I need it before it pulls or creates slack on my slow-moving bait with any real amount of wind.   

 

All these things make a HUGE difference, none of them are unfair as last time I checked the fish are still winning bigly.      

 

Combine Spot Lock and FFS is peak advantage in Bass fishing imho.   I hope to have both someday, I'd be a hypocrite if I called it out now.   

 

 

[Bird]

Hmmm, I let this young kid Hunt my property and he has All the latest technology.

He has cameras set up in various locations with live feed.

It gives statistics where the big boys like to be and when they like to move.

 

He's killed the biggest bucks on my property each and every year I've let him hunt.

Technology makes a difference whether it's an animal or a fish.

 

Yes, I still let him hunt ?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

1 minute ago, Bird said:

Hmmm, I let this young kid Hunt my property and he has All the latest technology.

He has cameras set up in various locations with live feed.

It gives statistics where the big boys like to be and when they like to move.

 

He's killed the biggest bucks on my property each and every year I've let him hunt.

Technology makes a difference whether it's an animal or a fish.

 

Yes, I still let him hunt ?

The Game Cameras fit right along with this conversation but are arguably way more controversial and now in certain places not only banned, but illegal to use.   

 

They made them illegal to use for hunting in Arizona recently IIrc, and perhaps other states have as well.    Cellular trail cams have affected Deer hunting way more than FFS has Bass fishing.    This would be like having a series of underwater cameras placed at your honeyholes that send you cell pics when the fish trigger them.....I want that so badly now that I typed it lol.

 

[Susky River Rat]

6 hours ago, KSanford33 said:

That bums me out, the effect it’s had on muskies. They used to be known as the fish of 1,000 casts (as I’m sure you know), but now with that technology it’s not the same. 
 

I have to laugh when people refer to forward facing sonar as FFS. FFS means something very different to me. 

I watched a dude musky fish a lake that was extremely hard . Most people never even got a fish out of there and he was getting 2-3 50” fish a day via live scope.

 

@AlabamaSpothunter watching a fish react to your presentation is  the most important part. You can pattern what color retrieve and lure style seeing how they react. Spot lock and power poles have been around a long time. It was just the manual form of two called an anchor. Now they also do have live scope with target lock.
 

Again I know it’s legal. I didn’t say ban it. Go ahead and use it. It does not mean my stance on it changes. I could go put two on my boat right now. Money isn’t the issue for me it’s the principal of it for me.

[VolFan]

Just because you have a fast car doesn’t make you a good driver. There’s much more that goes into catching fish than knowing fish are there. It’s definitely moved the tech forward but the tech is always moving forward.

[Jar11591]

I just find it thrilling to know that a smallmouth that large was confirmed. Like Dottie, the 25 pound largemouth. The most exciting thing to me is that a 25 pound largemouth was confirmed to exist. The fact that she was snagged and didn’t qualify for an angling record was irrelevant to the fact that we had confirmation that a 25 pound largemouth existed.

 

How this smallmouth was caught, and the technology used, is to me irrelevant to the fact that we saw a confirmed 10pound smallmouth, the first one in years and years, as far as I can remember. 
 

Like @VolFan said, just because you have the technology, doesn’t mean to know how to use it. I’m sure there are plenty of guys that strike out using FFS. FFS is just another tool used to help put fish in the boat. Even if it moves the needle more than other tools, it’s still a small part in a big picture with a million different variables. 

[A-Jay]

Pretty sure there was a post about this fish a while back.

Either way, it's interesting how the topic quickly switched from the rather magnificent Smallmouth

to FFS.

While it's fantastic that a smallmouth this big has been caught & now confirmed as 'possible',

it is IMO, a major anomaly.  Like a 20 lb LMB would be.

So few of us fish waters that probably don't have either, that a catch like this is rarely in play. 

Not detracting from the angler or his great catch but it's seems like a powerball win to me.

There's always quite a few tickets sold,

but only one winner, and it usually takes a while to get one at that.

As for the role FFS plays, I do not have a unit, but it seems like

that in the right conditions, on the right lake, in the hands of an experienced & savvy user,

FFS can help a basshead catch more & even bigger bass.  #joshjones

But I might be able to make that assertion in reference to all the tackle in my boat. 

Finally, I am betting there are quite a few MORE FFS units out there

than there are 10 lb brown bass.

YMMV

A-Jay

 

 

[PaulVE64]

I bet all those kids in the Googan Squad have ffs.

[Dwight Hottle]

6 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Pretty sure there was a post about this fish a while back.

Either way, it's interesting how the topic quickly switched from the rather magnificent Smallmouth

to FFS.

While it's fantastic that a smallmouth this big has been caught & now confirmed as 'possible',

it is IMO, a major anomaly.  Like a 20 lb LMB would be.

So few of us fish waters that probably don't have either, that a catch like this is rarely in play. 

Not detracting from the angler or his great catch but it's seems like a powerball win to me.

There's always quite a few tickets sold,

but only one winner, and it usually takes a while to get one at that.

As for the role FFS plays, I do not have a unit, but it seems like

that in the right conditions, on the right lake, in the hands of an experienced & savvy user,

FFS can help a basshead catch more & even bigger bass.  #joshjones

But I might be able to make that assertion in reference to all the tackle in my boat. 

Finally, I am betting there are quite a few MORE FFS units out there

than there are 10 lb brown bass.

YMMV

A-Jay

 

 

 

Yep it's right here started by @TnRiver46

 

[TnRiver46]

7 hours ago, PaulVE64 said:

I bet all those kids in the Googan Squad have ffs.

Hahah! At least 3 of them do, don’t know bout flair 

[jhoffman]

We're approaching critical mass on outdoor technology. There's nothing sacred anymore. We have gis mapping showing us oak trees within property boundaries. Forward facing, side imaging, invisible line, cell cameras, heated clothes, 500fps crossguns.

 

It's a matter of how far you wanna take it. You can't control the other guy, worrying about him is foolish. Worry about better things like coaching your community kids to be better people.

 

That's a big ole bobcat, I thought my 6 was big.

[J Francho]

I have no more FFS to give about FFS.  Nice fish, cool story.

[Bankbeater]

That is quite a smallie.  Erie has really turned around from when it was so polluted back in the day.

[softwateronly]

Just now, Bankbeater said:

That is quite a smallie.  Erie has really turned around from when it was so polluted back in the day.

 

It's also a story about invasive species, because without the gobies 30 years ago (not to mention the zebra/quagga mussels) this fish, and the dozens I believe are swimming around the Great Lakes, doesn't exist.

 

scott

[cvaicunas69]

On 12/19/2022 at 10:02 AM, PaulVE64 said:

I bet all those kids in the Googan Squad have ffs.

Yea I occasionally check out Jon B's material, and can confirm he does indeed have FFS. That said I can not even blame them, even if the majority of their content is not a staple for me personally. I can only imagine the stress involved in taking your 'hobby' and then attaching your financial well being to it. Throw in the reality that, in an effort to create things fresh and exciting, new waters are constantly fished. Then it makes perfect sense to me for them to use FFS. Does that impact their standings as fishermen? Personally I am not qualified to judge anyone's proficiency in this sport. In contrast, for years I have followed NDyakanglers channel, love what he puts out. However you can often tell he is just doing it for fun, not stress, no need to travel the globe. But it is also fairly clear he often fishes familiar waters. No judgement here, we all have our honey holes, but he clearly has far less of a reason to utilize FFS.

[Glenn]

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