Is the Digital Era of Bassin’ Bad?

Nah. Or at least I sure hope not because that’s what we’re doing over here in our NJ cubes…coding digital tools for fish-heads. But seems like newspaper writer Bryan Brasher disagrees.

Here’s what he wrote in a recent opinion column on ledger-enquirer.com. Following are the highlights:

> There’s a nasty new plague sweeping the sport of bass fishing – and if you own a cell phone, you’re at least partly to blame for it. I refer to it as the “cast-and-call” plague, and I’m afraid there is no cure.

> Bass fishing used to be a wonderfully secretive sport. It was secretive to the point that people would stop casting on their favorite fishing holes as boats passed by to keep other anglers from seeing something private and spreading the word.

> Friends who loved one another like brothers would lie to one another like dogs when it came to fishing just to keep the location of good spots secret.

> It was a fun game, in a lie-to-your-closest-friend-in-the-world kind of way. But it’s all over now, thanks to the grand invention of the cellular telephone.

> These days when a bass fishermen gets hold of a big largemouth with one hand, he’s often using the other hand to dial one of his buddies before the fish is even in the net. After the calls are made and everyone has been patted on the back, Buddy No. 1 holds up the fish for Buddy No. 2 to snap a cell-phone pic that immediately goes viral. Then when they’re done, both anglers mark the location of the catch on their GPS units….

> I could give you a dozen more glaring examples of the harm cell phones have done to a once-simple and private sport. But for the issues of time and space, I’ll highlight just one more: On tournament day, Angler No. 1 is on a big school of fish on the northern end of Lake Eufaula, and by 9:30 a.m., he has a big five-bass limit in his live well. He jumps on the phone with his friend, Angler No. 2 [and] says, “Come on up” — and the sanctity of competitive tournament fishing takes an ultrasonic hit.

> Those of us without a good cell phone buddy also take a financial hit. I’m not saying they’re doing anything illegal by sharing information over their phones. But the wonderful days of “every man for himself” are long gone.

> The true art of searching for fish before a tournament may soon be gone, too. As more good fishing spots are located by people with good depth finders and cell phones, more calls will be made and more spots will be permanently marked with GPS units. Thanks to those blipping, blinking digital-mapping units, there will come a day when the bottom of Lake Eufaula and West Point Lake are mapped just as well as downtown Columbus.

> The cell phone…unfortunately [has] turned the fishermen’s grapevine into a overgrown kudzu patch. Nothing’s sacred anymore….

My amazing comments (lol):

> I get where Bryan’s coming from, but hey, why fight reality? I wish I didn’t spend most of my life staring at a dang computer screen, but that’s the way it is….

> Lying about fishing spots: Don’t we all still do this or am I the only dog still around?

> People GPS fishing spots because they can. Some spots will remain good because of where they are, some will get fished out, none will remain a secret. So: GPSing fishing spots will…make pattern fishing more important once again, which will make FishingGold.com that much more valuable to anglers, which is a shameless plug…but true!

> The bottoms of lakes are already well-mapped, and it’s helping folks catch more fish. (See above re: patterns.)

I think Bryan’s a good writer making a good point, but….