Whether you plan on getting FFS or hate the day you ever heard of it, this post on the MLF site is worth reading twice. Lotsa little gems in there – scribbler Mike Pehanich interviewed 6 pros about how they use it and what they've learned from it. Great stuff. Some things that stood out to me:
Kevin VanDam
> Carefully weighted Strike King 5XD and 6XD crankbaits deliver a tantalizing slow rise when paused and enable him to keep his bait in the strike zone of bass positioned at 15-20'. “I can stop it, twitch it, fish it almost like a jerkbait.
> “It’s taught me that a lot of things that I thought were true about bass are false. I used to think bass pretty much always relate to cover or structure, but they randomly move around more in open water than I ever believed.
> “One of my faults has been my lack of patience. I always want to cover water. But forward-facing sonar has taught me to settle down."
Jacob Wheeler
> On one outing, Wheeler noted that fish would either eat his dropshot on the fall or follow it to the bottom when he used a 1/2-oz dropper weight. With an 1/8-oz weight, 90% would eat it on the fall.
> “If you use it as your only tool, it can negatively impact your fishing."
Michael Neal
> “Forward-facing sonar has opened up avenues to bass we knew existed but didn’t know how to catch because they don’t relate to anything but bait. You see how centered these fish are on bait. Bait is their life.”
Brent Ehrler
> If he’s working 20' of water, he’ll set it for 30-35'. A deeper fixed range setting yields more detail and is particularly helpful in shallow-water applications.
> “Lots of nomadic fish are simply moving with schools of bait. It’s also shown me how many fish don’t want to bite. When conditions aren’t right, they simply won’t bite.
> “I usually throw two different styles of lure: a fast bait and a slow bait. If they don’t hit one of those, they’re usually very hard to get to bite.”
Spencer Shuffield
> "I’ve gotten to where I can read the fish’s body language on the graph. I see it perk up, see that it’s ready to eat, see it all come together.”
Scott Dobson
> “You have to know the angle at which you’re picking up that fish.... If you’re seeing the side of its body...it is a kind of blob on the screen. If the fish is in line with you, parallel with you, it’ll look like a hash mark.”
> His Lowrance ActiveTarget...has a separate amplifier box [the "black box"] to power the transducer. “Having lithium power going direct to the power box is critical. You want a constant 13 volts or more going all day. A standard lead battery or an AGM battery will lose voltage during the course of the day and degrade your image.”
Can't wait to read/hear/watch more stuff like this because it's comin' – meanin' more bass understandin'! Here's the link to that post again.
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