So, I pull into an area I've located with map study, I've never fished this cove before and the contours looks good for the season. There's a boat going in and he's scanning around with FFS. So, we stay out and fish around a dock on the main lake. He zips through, doesn't cast, change speed or anything, he gets back out on the main lake and starts casting and catching fish.
Truthfully, this effected me more than I would have expected it to. It's the first time I've fully understood the "traditional fishing" argument so fundamentally. I'm not writing this as a "right or wrong", just something to consider.
I came there (a long boat ride) to fish that spot. I can still fish it, but if empirical evidence suggests that there are no sizable bass to catch, why fish it?
I could see this as time saved and eliminating water quickly, with zero effort.
Unfortunately, the way I saw it was, I had hopes and anticipation of catching fish there. I had looked forward to trying. Maybe deep down, "the unknown" was part of the excitement, like opening packs of baseball cards, or finding the prize in a Cracker Jack box.
I guess the question is, do we go fishing for the journey or the destination? It seems like a lot more focus is on catching fish at all cost. What do you guys think?
I think we are looking at this all wrong. Guys using FFS to me is the same idea as the guy who fishes a spot with ,let's say,a buzz bait, doesn't get a hit and them comes back with a worm. Before he started he looked at the spot and thought, " I think this looks good. Let's give it a try."The guy with FFS, is simply doing what the buzz bait guy is doing. He is thinking,"This spot looks good. Let's see if there are any fish here". He is saving time, which by it's self is neither good nor bad. He finds fish with electronics, I find fish by casting a bait. If I don't know how to properly fish a swim jig to get the fish in the area to bite, I won't catch them. The FFS guy is the same.
To each his own, I say. Pick the way you are happy with and get out there and stretch your line. Don't worry about what the other guy is doing.
I respect your opinion, but in my specific example, if empirical evidence says that there are literally "no bass worth catching", that's different than fishing behind a guy that ran a buzzbait down a few prime areas and left. I'll fish behind guys all day, no one catches all the fish, but if dude is scanning around and doesn't see any fish to even cast at, I feel like my odds are way lower than just fishing used water.
My point is, there were no fish there, whether I knew it not. Personally, I think I learned more by knowing that fish weren't where I thought they were given the conditions, but I had less fun and it killed the excitement.
After fishing for decades, most people underestimate what percentage of successful fishing is "just being around fish". I know FFS does not catch the fish, but if you visually confirm you are around fish, you're exponentially more likely to get bites. All us old guys have spent hours and hours tying on different lures to catch fish that were never there. You don't have to do that anymore. I'm just not sure if that's good or bad for what makes fishing special.