Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Fish finder, useful or distracting?


Until this year, I had never used a Fishfinder. Not that I never wanted one, just never got one. I decided to get an inexpensive one just to see if it would be something I would or could use. Can never have too many tools I suppose.

I bought the Hummingbird 143, installed it and took it out. It took me awhile to figure out the settings and all that, but soon I was seeing fish after fish on the screen. This is awesome I thought! I could see structure, cover, water temp and I knew right where the fish were. However, I found myself spending too much time starring at the screen waiting for an unexpecting fish to swim by. It didn't matter if I was paddling to a spot I knew held fish, if I seen one on the screen, I stopped and casted out.

To date I have not caught one single fish, that I'm aware of, that I have seen on my Fishfinder. Every time I seen a fish or a school of fish swimming near, I have came up empty handed. As the season went on I finally realized that this tool will not, by itself, put more fish in the boat. While I still use it every trip, I now focus on finding the structure or cover where the fish should be. I watch the water temp and depth, but try to ignore every little blip that swims by.

An old fisherman I knew told me once, "You can't catch fish with dry line." Oh how true that is. While gadgets and gizmos are cool, they can also be very distracting. After 20 some years of fishing I finally know the secret to catch more fish.  Keep your line wet. That's it, it's that simple. You can't catch fish on the couch, or at the store buying every fishing lure you can find. You also can't catch fish if you spend your time on the water messing with gadgets the whole time. Well there it is, the biggest secret in fishing revealed. Now get out there and see if I'm wrong.

D.S

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