A meme on social media shows a fisherman with his head hinged opened and his brain on the floor. The caption reads “I don’t need you anymore, I have Forward Facing Sonar (FFS).”

    Every time something new comes out many fishermen condemn it as something that gives the fisherman an unfair advantage. Of course they mean it gives “other” fisherman an unfair advantage.  It’s fine when they learn to use it.

    Forward facing sonar is amazing. It will show you everything within its range under the water, much like having a video camera under the water. It is directional, sending out a “wedge” of sonar blips covering about one foot wide for every three feet of distance, so at 30 feet the wedge is about 10 feet wide.

It takes a little time and effort to learn what the sonar returns look like on the screen.  The screen looks much like an ultrasound screen at the doctors office.  Fish look like little dots moving around but you can see the limbs of a tree or brush pile and even individual fish in a school of crappie.

A muskie tournament trail has banned FFS in their tournaments and some other tournament trails like BASS are actually discussing what to do. It does give an angler that studies and learns how to use it an advantage, but it does not make the fish bite.  I have had one for three years and it has helped me catch some fish, but many more times I have wasted too much time watching fish follow my bait and not hit it.

I can only hope every fisherman I compete with that has FFS quits using their brain.