OK - I'm going to put this to the test this weekend. I'm headed out to Lake Keowee, a lake that I fished only once before as a back seater in an MLF tournament.

 

I'm running AI queries to target both spotted bass (the predominant bass species on the lake) as well as largemouth bass. I'll run them a few times and see if anything in the response changes as I get closer to the date and weather firms up. My guess is that it spews the same data all week, even if the forecast changes.

 

My hypothesis is that it's simply gathering fishing reports and not using any intelligence factors to account for changes to weather, wind, changing water clarity, etc.

 

I'm also going to compare what it says to data provided by the Deep Dive app.

 

A lot of where I fish will probably be predicated on proximity to boat ramps. I don't mind long runs, but I'm heading up there with my girlfriend to her lake house and she doesn't fish. I don't want to test her patience too much!

This sums up AI and fishing for me 

Lets not stray too far from the basic idea that for most, if not all of us, fishing is supposed to be fun.

At least that's why I do it. That being said, whatever you use in pursuit of the wiley aquatic prey ( so long as it's legal) is your choice. I personally don't agree with all the tech out there, but each to his own. I grew up before computers and all that comes with it. ( The missus and I still don't own, or use a smart phone) but with out a computer you wouldn't be reading this.

1 hour ago, jbmaine said:

Lets not stray too far from the basic idea that for most, if not all of us, fishing is supposed to be fun.

At least that's why I do it. That being said, whatever you use in pursuit of the wiley aquatic prey ( so long as it's legal) is your choice. I personally don't agree with all the tech out there, but each to his own. I grew up before computers and all that comes with it. ( The missus and I still don't own, or use a smart phone) but with out a computer you wouldn't be reading this.

As I stated earlier, I find that on my local lakes things like FFS can be distracting. However, I do tournament fish, oftentimes on lakes I have never fished before. Other times, I have limited hours on the lake or I have little or no practice time on the lake.

 

I spend a decent amount of time studying depth maps and looking at Google Earth. This will simply be another tool that I can utilize on those lakes.

 

At this point, I would guess that close to 50% of BPT and Elite anglers have also tried it.

2 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

This sums up AI and fishing for me 

Wait - aren’t you the guy that logs your fish count on an abacus? 🤣

I actually do own an abacus but it’s mostly marble and would sink rapidly so I don’t take it on the water 😂 

 

true story tho, really do have an abacus 

Abacus=A becaus(e) I can't count that high on my fingers.

36 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I actually do own an abacus but it’s mostly marble and would sink rapidly so I don’t take it on the water 😂 

 

true story tho, really do have an abacus 

Yet another reason why I love the Bass Resource community!

On 8/20/2025 at 6:22 AM, Swamp Girl said:

Like F3, I'm a relative primitive.

 

Despite considering myself an aspiring autodidactic mid-level polymath, I don't see myself consulting AI for fishing advice on a lake I've fished for forty years.

4 hours ago, Big Hands said:

autodidactic mid-level polymath

 

I had to Google ^this.^ I know one of your brothers, a guy who seems to hold deep knowledge about nearly everything. 

Hopefully John can fix all this. 

I just asked for GPS coordinates near Crown Point (where I was last week) and the first spot was the bay that we caught all our fish in, as well as spots we tried but didn't have much luck in.

 

I also did the same for Lake Dunmore, where I will be next week and it did an alright job. It mentioned to use the dropshot during the day, but probably should have added the tube and missed at least the most productive 5 spots on the lake. It is a less fished lake, so that makes sense it would have less data.

One thing to be aware of is that "AI" isn't one thing, much like "jerkbait" isn't really one thing. 

 

Free AI is cool, but it's kinda like the plussino jerkbait. Yeah it's a jerkbait and it might work sometimes. Paid AI is much different, and spans a range from LC 110 to a Vision 110, and each of them work in a little different way, and some are very much better than others. 

 

These systems are a lot further along than most realize. I don't know where this ends but it is going to be an interesting ride.

----------------

Anyway I had a 30 minute audio conversation with Grok on the way home Saturday, trying to troubleshoot some fish I saw that I couldn't get to bite. It was a useful conversation. Not perfect, but kinda like jamming on an issue with another angler. No fish deeper than 10-12 feet would eat, even when they were on shad. It was even asking me about behavior of the shad that were deeper vs shallower, thermocline, etc.

 

I don't know if I would like using it before going to the lake, at least for waypoints and such. But much like I use BassForecast, getting some thoughts on where to start (AND WHY) could be helpful.

10 hours ago, txchaser said:

One thing to be aware of is that "AI" isn't one thing, much like "jerkbait" isn't really one thing. 

 

Free AI is cool, but it's kinda like the plussino jerkbait.

Well said.  There's also a big problem with using AI for fishing advice.  The world of bass fishing is about 20% science and the rest is a combination of pseudoscience, superstition and ideology.  None of the AI systems have spent time on the water so they must learn everything from what people have written.  Look at almost any thread on this forum and you'll see that we humans can't agree on anything when it comes to fishing.  All of these opinions go into the training of the AIs.  What comes out can be helpful but shouldn't be completely trusted.  The great thing about AI is you can discuss things with it.  If you don't agree with something it says you can debate with it.   For example,  I ask ChatGPT what is the best type of fishing line.  It listed the characteristics of each type of line and what they are good for.  It said that mono floats.  I've read that on this forum many times.  My next question was "What is the specific gravity of mono line?"  It responded 1.10-1.15 and immediately realized that mono doesn't float so it corrected itself and explain how surface tension can cause mono to stay on top of the water.  So it repeated what it had learned about mono on the Internet but when challenged it looked a little deeper into the science.

17 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

The world of bass fishing is about 20% science and the rest is a combination of pseudoscience, superstition and ideology.  

And 67% of fishing stats are made up. 🤣

1 minute ago, Glenn said:

And 67% of fishing stats are made up. 🤣

It's closer to 67.2% 😆

27 minutes ago, Glenn said:

And 67% of fishing stats are made up. 🤣

 

I don't know if that's true everywhere and with everyone. There's a guy with a mustache that I've learned to trust when it comes to fishing.

 

Hint: It's not Sam Elliott and it's not Wilford Brimley. I trust the former when it comes to the Dude and the latter when it comes to oatmeal. 

On 8/26/2025 at 4:18 AM, Swamp Girl said:

 

I had to Google ^this.^ I know one of your brothers, a guy who seems to hold deep knowledge about nearly everything. 

 

Someday maybe, but I wouldn't say I'm there by any stretch, hence the qualifiers "aspiring" and "mid-level"