Mark Daniels Jr Forward Facing Sonar

I have a FFS and the very first time I went out it was December on Toledo bend. 200 yards from the boat ramp we start adjusting it getting it dialed I. Sitting in 30 feet of water with zero structure we see a mark 4 feet down. Caught a 4 lb bass. Proceeded to absolutely wreck the 3-5 lb bass that day. Had a 25 lb sack. Never done that before. Obviously that was a very good day and we don’t do that every single
Time but those fish would have never been caught without the FFS. The deep sanctuaries are no longer

Ffs is such a crutch it’s ridiculous! This electronic should not be allowed to be used in tournaments of any kind!!

I also can’t see how bodies of water will be able to sustain a population of fish with the added pressure from this junk!

I wonder if states can govern this on public lakes kinda like Arizona (think that’s the state) did with cell cams on public land elk hunting.

I think many state managers are going to take a hard look at limits and FFS in the next couple of years. May become a situation where those with FFS have lower bag limits than those who are using it but more likely simply a severe reduction across the board. I also think many tournaments are going to have to take a deep look and possibly weigh in fish as they are caught (CRR) and released immediately. The mortality of tournament fish is higher than advertised. Now that the known population of fish which were unknown except to biologists are being hauled all over the lake and weighed in and released that rate is going to increase substantially.

Its bad for bass but most recreational bass fisherman practice catch and release for the most part anyway. Those fish also die at a higher rate than most people think but it is the best way to maintain any fish It is really bad for fish that most people keep.

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I wonder if FFS is harming crappie populations? That's why I bought it and it is a no brainer for that.

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I don't know about crappie populations but anecdotally on my home lake there were about 20 guides about 35 years ago and they almost exclusively did live bait striper trips. There are close to 125 crappie guides today using FFS and taking 2-6 limits of crappie out of the lake nearly every day, often twice a day in the summer when daylight allows morning and afternoon trips. SC has imposed a size limit and dropped the bag limit to 20 per person and GA has dropped it to 30 per person from 50 per person 35 years ago. There were WAY more individuals buying fishing licenses 35 years ago in both states relative to the population....FFS is certainly impacting crappie populations. Bream also....its a simple process to find deep bedding bream that were NEVER targeted in the past....

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I wonder if FFS is harming crappie populations? That's why I bought it and it is a no brainer for that.

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That's the only reason I want it (and will have it soon) as well. Find those brush piles in 25ft of water and catch me a good 10-12 and move on.

That's pretty interesting.

I agree with MDJ regarding tournament fishing. I won't watch them staring at a screen in open water.

I think it all goes back to fair chase. No you can’t make them bite which is the mouth breather FFS argument but you are seeing everything in real time and that’s not fair chase
Cell cams also. You can not convince me that is fair chase

I don’t think it has any place at the major league level. He’s exactly right that it’s a huge cheat mode for those angles who can’t read the water,conditions,bait choice,gut instincts…….. I really feel a bit for the youngsters coming in to the sport. It will be outlawed and they’ve never got the chance to really learn the variables to catch fish under all conditions. I recently put it on my boat , I’m hoping to be more efficient in finding activity in areas then settle in and fish the way I always do knowing I’m around fish.