Knowledge: gadgets vs effort

[rokhead]

At 70, I want to return to more serious fishing. I started with Spoonplugging in late 80's on Old Hickory Lake near Nashville, TN. Studied the Green Book, got some spoonplugs, No-Bo, wire, couple of Buck's trolling rods and markers. I had a leaky 14' deep V beater with a 25 Johnson and a flasher... just right for learning.

My best success with interpretation was marking a sunken lock and dam. The top of the lock wall flashed at 20 feet, the channel bottom flashed at 40 and a steady group of flashes "somewhere in between" suggested either a stuck tree or a school of something. I dropped in a live shiner, measured out the appropriate number of feet and BANG! I was in a school of big catfish.

Life, family and career happened and I was not able to continue adding to my infantile fishing knowledge. I've been thinking of getting another tiller boat and returning to basics. I've been re-reading the Green Book again and thinking of places on the lake which I already know something about.

My fledgling knowledge of 35 years ago has been astronomically leap-frogged by electronics. I understand the pro's and con's of the modern gadgets (but I still like a flasher). My goal is to go out on Old Hickory on weekdays, prowl around, try to gain more knowledge, catch fish and just enjoy being out there.

I recently looked at a nice G3 17' mod-V. It had all the gadgets: side-scan, down-imaging, Live Scope... and a tilt steering wheel.
PASS: no steering wheel for me and a mod-V bass boat has too little freeboard and instability for my liking on this busy choppy reservoir.

Next, I found a Crestliner 18' deep-V with a 90HP tiller. Seems like an awful lot of "big water" boat and motor for Spoonplugging. But the temptation is to get the big stable and comfortable deep V, add some gadgets, look around in the video game screen, try to find some spots... but that sounds like shortcuts. Maybe at my age, it doesn't matter.

It's similar with modern cars: a guy might scan engine codes, but without deep experience and knowledge, he's basically lost. A BMW tech told me that they now have to call BMW North America to anaylyze the diagnostic results.

I want to get back to Spoonplugging, but with the lure of electronic syren songs promising quick and "easy success", what's the point of making all the effort? The answer may be something like: use the gadgets if you like; learn from them, but don't mistake having gadgets for acquiring deep knowledge. Hey, a flasher or a paper plotter used to promise the same thing, LOL.

With effort and knowledge, maybe some day I'll be able to find a contact point on days when the video gamers can't. Until then, at least I can be on the water and learning.

Interested to hear anyone's reaction to this.

[Team9nine]

Life is short - just go do “your own thing,” whatever that is. In the end, we all have to be at the right place, at the right time, fishing in the right manner if we are to be successful. The fishes activity level and movements play a big role in that. The new tools can be very useful, but how much they really help depends to some degree whether you prefer to troll and/or cast, and success is rarely “quick and easy” regardless of the tools you decide to use. There are learning curves with all of them. Get a safe, comfortable boat for the waters you fish, equip it with the tools that will benefit you most for the way you fish, then go out and catch a few and post some reports back to the forum to share your success with us all…but keep the green book handy for when things don’t go as planned

[Geezer]

I like team nine's answer.
I fish for fun, not for strict following of a doctrine. I know a lot of people who catch a lot of fish out of a boat with a steering wheel. Some of us just don,t like trolling, yes it can be very productive but I prefer casting and listening to nature, not an engine.

I hope you have fun and catch some fish whatever boat you get. oh, and those schools of cats often want to eat a blade bait or a jigging rapala

[John Bales]

A persons desire is the only thing that matters. You cannot make someone do something they just don't want to do. However, anything can be accomplished if enough effort is put forth. Buck Perry's guidelines are good things to have, and it really does take many years of good effort to get to the point of consistent success. All of the electronics that have come along was supposed to make everything a little easier. It does if a person spends enough time on the water to understand how they can be used as an aid . Success requires you learn to troll and cast and use the tools to allow depth and speed control. As a young spoonplugger, for 40 years of trying to make a living and raise a family, we managed 60 days on the water between ice out and ice up. Now that I have made it to retirement, its more like 160 - 170 days. This is pretty normal for all the guys I know that are putting in a good effort and catches to go with it. For me, it is about the catch. The catch is the only way to measure success. Enjoying your time with mother nature is fantastic but I go fishing to catch fish first. The best thing about Buck Perry's teachings is that anyone can find success with good effort. I'll go back to that word desire. That's got to be there. Wish you the best. I fished some of those places you mentioned on Old Hickory. Dont forget the deep hump out in the middle of the river. Big stripers and sauger. Wish you the best. John

[rokhead]

>I fished some of those places you mentioned on Old Hickory. Dont forget the deep hump out in the middle of the river. Big stripers and sauger. Wish you the best. John

John, I recall having read your account of fishing that deep hump up by the Gallatin steam plant. I've looked at that spot several times with the online Navionics map. Once I get my next fishing boat I will be heading up that way and beyond.

I have an idea that you are from Indiana. I'm from Fort Wayne but been in TN 40 years. My brother owns a house on Irish Lake and wants to learn to fish. He recently bought a nimble little 13 foot whaler so I've been preaching the gospel to him.

Thank you again for all your informative posts and encouragement on this forum.

John Slick
Hendersonville, TN
jmslick@gmail.com

[John Bales]

I grew up in New Haven. In 87, my neighborhood started falling apart and I told my wife that we need to get out of here and go north to a lake. We did just that and it was the best decision we ever made. Almost bought a house on Irish. Caught lots of big bass from Irish. John