those great tools , I didn ’ t even fish with them for the first several hours . I just poked holes in the bottom of the lake with remote-controlled spikes and spot-locked in random places . After years of fighting a trolling motor pedal in the wind , I just wanted to relish the moment of holding boat position with no effort at all .
A new forward-facing sonar machine is just as exhilarating . The first time you launch the boat with the unit attached , you ’ ll likely drop the trolling motor immediately and scope out the very ramp and dock where you just launched . To see those first signals is like seeing the first images that came from the moon ; I had no idea what I was looking at , but my hair was on fire with excitement .
After a couple hours of scanning , you start to get an idea of what stumps , brush , timber and pilings look like . At some point you begin seeing sonar blobs . Blobs that suspend . Blobs that
ILLUSTRATION BY JOE MAHLER move . Blobs that swim ! Euphoria grows with every image that moves through the beam . Eventually , you cast a lure into the beam and watch it on the screen ; yes , it ’ s true , you can even see your lure on forward-facing sonar . With any luck at all , this experimentation results in a lure blob and a fish blob colliding as your first forward-facing sonar catch . At this point , the euphoric stage peaks . To watch the blobs collide and feel the bite is extraordinary .
From here , FFSS will go one of two ways , depending on your age : If you ’ re under the age of 30 , you ’ ll see this as just another app on a screen – no big deal . However , if you ’ re over 40 , euphoria turns to madness when you suddenly realize just how much of your life has been wasted casting at nothing . Unfortunately , I ’ m in this category … way in this category . After catching my first fish on forward-facing sonar , I remember thinking : Wow , it ’ s like all these years I ’ ve been communicating with Morse code on a ham radio and someone just handed me an iPhone .
disillusionment
No matter which way your path goes , both paths merge back together at the disillusionment stage . This is where two things happen simultaneously : First , there ’ s confusion .
This sets in when you realize just how prolific fish activity is in lakes and how many different types of fish swimming around aren ’ t bass . In addition , disillusionment can be fueled by rejection in the form of bass that follow lures over and over again , acting interested in them , only to ultimately reject them . No matter what you offer , they turn their nose up at it . This can get personal . It ’ s sort of like asking your high school crush to prom multiple times and the answer is always , “ No , but we can still be friends .” The rejection cuts deep ( not that I would know ).
This is the darkest point of FFSS . You can see the fish . You ’ re throwing your best $ 50 dollar lures at them . And all they do is laugh at you . For some anglers , this is the breaking point – they simply can ’ t take the torment of rejection anymore . The result can lead to a condition called Nobiteitis , a form of depression caused by seeing fish that refuse to bite . For some , the only cure for this ailment is to head to the bank where they can flip shallow bushes and visible cover without looking at a screen .
obsession
For others , Nobiteitis invokes the obsessive stage of the syndrome : becoming so consumed with forward-facing sonar that one pushes their mind and body to extreme limits , oftentimes spending days on end out on the water , intently studying uncooperative blobs on a screen while enduring the pain of confusion and rejection . Their brains are taxed to exhaustion with hundreds of geometry problems per hour : at 2 o ’ clock there ’ s a fish suspended 10 feet down , 60 feet away moving from right to left at . 5 mph . At what angle , speed and trajectory does my cast need to be to lead the fish perfectly , allowing the lure to fall naturally right to its nose .
Sometimes the screen staring becomes so intensive that the angler develops torticollis , a real medical term for “ crick in the neck .” Though it can be challenging , the obsessive stage ultimately separates those who push past the novelty of these machines and learn how to harness their true power .
attainment
The final stage of FFSS is attainment . This could simply be thought of as mastery of the machine .
Those who have reached attainment with their forward-facing sonar have learned to conquer confusion and rise above rejection . They have put the grit time in to truly understand what the unit is telling them about the fish . They take command of the beam with confidence , telling bass apart from other species and reading their moods . They know how to accurately place lures in the fish ’ s strike zone to test their appetite and disposition .
Above all , they know when to lean on the magic of the machine heavily and when to dial it back and go back to fishing the old-fashion way . While I would like to tell you I have transcended all stages of Forward-Facing Sonar Syndrome to reach attainment , I ’ m still beaming the concrete ramp at the launch where I put the boat in .
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2022 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM 19