I would definately catch more bass with ffs. There are brush piles that I dont know the exact location , I could find them with ffs.

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Every story I wrote about one of their people, I requested an F-22 on a weekend loan. They always laughed. 

I would have asked for an SR-71 - still my favorite plane ever.

I like to watch MLF and in the present format the pros are only allowed to use FFS for one period because it is too effective. Usually the pros catch more in their FFS period than the other two periods combined. Now this is not true of every pro at every event but by and large it is mostly true.

 

I would love to play around with FFS some day just to see what its like. I think it would be pretty fascinating. That said, I doubt I will ever add it to my kayak though because it would require a larger battery, more wiring, and to have a transducer hanging over the side adding asymmetric drag. I see youtube videos of guys with it on kayaks and they use it well but to me (at least for now) it seems like it would over-complicate my day.

I don’t have any of those items on my bass boat.

 

Fishing was dynamite this season until about mid August, then it went in the tank. Nothing on my boat changed.

 

I blame the weather/conditions.

Thirty five years ago I had a 19' Ranger with a 200 hp Merc, a Merc Thruster 42 lbs thrust trolling motor, a Lowrance X15 and flashers front and rear. I currently have a Tracker Grizzly 1648 with a 40 hp tiller. It also has a trolling motor with Spot Lock, but no FFS.

 

If I look back on the outings I have been on since I got the fancy new trolling motor and ask myself if having spot-lock on those days put more fish in the boat on those days, I would say overall, YES, absolutely. In every circumstance? or situation? No, but the majority of them I am convinced that I would not have had as much success.

 

I would add that having spot-lock capability would have made those days much easier and more enjoyable even if I hadn't put more fish in the boat and it's hard to put a price on that. Fortunately for me, Humminbird (Xplore9) and Minn Kota (Ultrex Quest) did that for me, and it was about $5.5K

 

A bass boat with FFS and Spot Lock is a tool. A skilled angler will learn or know how to get the best from those tools. I have fished on a friends boat with FFS, and didn't particularly enjoy the FFS experience specifically (even though I always have a great time fishing with my friend). I think I might enjoy using FFS in certain situations, but at this point I don't find myself wishing I had it enough to throw down for it. I don't even know if I want that giant wadunga of a transducer/cables strapped to my Ultrex Quest if it was free. Then again, maybe if I had it, I would be on here fiercely defending it.

 

The bag of chips? That would nourish me even more than the tears of my detractors.

2 hours ago, Bazoo said:

If I had a bass boat, I'd would catch a bunch more, as I'd be able to access spots I can't access, since I'm bank bound currently.

 

While I agree that access to bigger fish can be a real plus when fishing from a boat.

However, the transition from being bank-bound to putting the puzzle pieces together on the vastness of big water can be both a blessing & a curse.

As indicated by many threads & posts on the subject, the learning curve, although a ton of fun,

it can be a bit daunting. 

This is particularly true during the initial year or two.

A-Jay

In theory, spot lock is great - but not so much on a kayak.  Even a big kayak is fairly light and is susceptible to the slightest changes in wind and current. Maybe it's just the Minn Kota on my AP120, but on breezy days when I engage spot lock that motor is working overtime and constantly pivoting. That has to impact my stealthiness. It also makes it hard to pick apart docks and along teh bank. But it's a big help fishing offshore even on windy days.

 

I also have FFS, but I find it to be a mixed bag. I use it in deeper water around brush piles and submerged trees in reservoirs. But I find myself using it maybe 50% of the time. It sits on the rail when I'm on the move or fishing shallow water.

 

I keep telling myself I need to get out there and really learn it, but I get antsy and would rather fish than put in the work. So in my case it can be helpful and be a hindrance.

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

I would have asked for an SR-71 - still my favorite plane ever.

 

Sitting on the runway, she leaked like a colander, fuel dripping from every wing seam. Here come the crew. Wait, those are astronauts! They're not going to light that leaky thing, are they? But once airborne, it heats up in a hurry and all the joints tighten and it's still the fastest jet ever. Nobody does and did it better than Skunk Works. 

1 minute ago, Swamp Girl said:

fuel dripping from every wing seam

Not to mention that the fuel used takes a chemical reaction to start...ground crew in the old days would put out their cigarettes by tossing them in one of the pans they set under the Blackbird to catch dripping fuel.

2 hours ago, Kirtley Howe said:

We have a large Lockheed Martin plant here in Owego NY. My brother owns a precision machine shop, and doe some one-off work for them, Maybe I can get him to put in a good word for you (G).

 

Ha! Please do!

4 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Nobody does and did it better than Skunk Works.

Ya - Kelly Johnson and his crew were the best there was

1 minute ago, MN Fisher said:

Not to mention that the fuel used takes a chemical reaction to start...ground crew in the old days would put out their cigarettes by tossing them in one of the pans they set under the Blackbird to catch dripping fuel.

 

I did not know that. Thanks!

 

Just now, MN Fisher said:

Ya - Kelly Johnson and his crew were the best there was

 

Remember when Chuck Yeager flew into space with an F-104? 

12 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Remember when Chuck Yeager flew into space with an F-104? 

Ya, and the engineers kept muttering, "It shouldn't be able to do that." And Chuck told them, "Well, it can...I proved it."

 

There's a reason Yeager is still considered the best test pilot ever.

Kate you need a manual paddler/spot lock, a hire hand!
Tom

Just now, WRB-2.0 said:

Kate you need a manual paddler/spot lock, a hire hand!
Tom

 

I do, Tom! I'd be fishing bogs every week if I had some young, male muscle. 

I have all of the above and they all help me catch more fish so long as I actually do my part of the equation right.

^ You mean you have to still put lures in the water with all that?

 

10 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

I do, Tom! I'd be fishing bogs every week if I had some young, male muscle. 

Any Indian local youth that needs a job paddling?
Tom

^ I'd offer the adoptive grandson, but it's still halfway across the country.

My young friend, "the Kid," will soon be big enough to lug a boat and he has a fisherman's fire in his belly. Fingers crossed he doesn't discover girls for another summer or three!

^ Better lock him up...it's the only way to be sure.

The best comparison I can think of is bowhunting vs rifle hunting. They are just different approaches/styles/etc. You lose a lot on one and gain on the other. Being in a canoe or a kayak I feel much more a part of the ecosystem, moving stealthy, noticing the micro. But also limited in how much water I can effectively fish, and how fast I can figure out if I'm in the right place at all. 

Everyone wants to think FFS is like hog hunting from a helicopter... every now and then it kinda is. But mostly it's like seeing a lot of targets at 800 meters when you are carrying a brush gun. 

 

Power pole/raptor - so far, they are nice for dropping the boat at the bank with the nose on land. Other than that? Meh. But our weed edges run out to 10-12 ft so maybe on other waters it'd be more useful. They sure are loud to me. 

Spot lock - most impact by far of all the choices. Usually if I'm on a fish there will be more nearby (within a cast length) and not changing angle, drifting, etc etc when I get a bite is great. Mashing the button to get a drink is great. It's just great all around. I wish I had waited just a tiny bit or gotten the Kraken - the new Garmins have a reverse on them which settles down the spot lock and the noise a lot. 

FFS part 1 - it's a live mega 360. can figure out bait presence, weed edge, TSOT (That Stump Over There) very quickly, and on the move, without driving over it. I use this heavily; it is always on. Every now and then you notice a fish that you would have seen on 360 too, but it might not have been obvious it was worth throwing at. 

FFS part 2 - actually scoping a specific fish or a school. I do this some, I try to balance and not get stuck on the screen, but it is kinda fun, except when you can't get them to bite, then it's easy to spin out. Learning curve is very steep on this but I learn more than just how to scope fish. Behavior, how they want to eat (up or down), aggressiveness, fish in places they shouldn't be, how deep the biting fish really are (this is a big deal - last weekend 80% of the fish that wanted to eat were 10-14' deep and that was true everywhere not just those fish). Very common to learn things like "Today they want it ripped; today they are eating down, oh look they are face down on the bottom but will come up to eat."

 

50% of the time I get a bigger 'big fish' from the ffs. 50% of the time I wasted time messing with it and should have hit two more points. 

 

One other thing that's really kinda fun about FFS is followers, when they move to eat - you know that vibe you get when a fish starts to shark wake on your topwater? Feels the same. 

 

 

10 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

My young friend, "the Kid," will soon be big enough to lug a boat and he has a fisherman's fire in his belly. Fingers crossed he doesn't discover girls for another summer or three!

Pay him a Jackson when he discovered girls.

Tom

2 minutes ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Pay him a Jackson when he discovered girls.

Heck - now-days I think it'd take a Grant

12 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

If I had a bass boat, FFS, SpotLock, and a bag chips, do I think I'd catch more?

 

No. Here's why:

 

Sure, I'd hook more bass bass if I were able to stand and use my leg muscles to set the hook and a heavy bass boat would mean the bass couldn't turn my canoe and pull me into cover and I could launch on windy days with SpotLock pinning me in place. Plus, I'd be able to locate off-shore bass, which would be hugely helpful.

 

HOWEVER, I'd have to launch at big lakes with ramps and there'd be other bass boats with FFS and SpotLock and I wouldn't be able to fish my less fished ponds and bogs. Also, standing on the casting deck would scare bass as I've seen bass bolt when my little lures fly overhead. And I would be way noisier than I currently am, with two props churning the water and FFS sending sound in every direction. 

 

So, they wouldn't work for me.*

 

How about you? Do you think you'd catch more bass if you had the full toolbox?

 

 

 

*However, I would like a bag of chips.

X2 and for the reasons stated. If I was gifted with one I'd sell it and bank the loot. I enjoy the small quiet waters where I fish. Not only are they productive but they are QUIET as well. I might not catch the largest or the most, but the experience of quietude is very important, perhaps even more important than catching fish.

 

So, to answer the posed question, no, I wouldn't catch any more fish than I do now.