Catfishing Needs to Ban This

older fisherman are more pleased when they catch fish with what mother nature gave them brains wit and know how.

This is why I like surf fishing, no bass boats, no live scopes, it’s just you vs the fish/sea.

Poor man fish finder ,,,, I use a half gallon mason jar with about a dozen minnows in it as a fish finder .... Poke holes in the top , tie some string around the jar , put in the minnows .... Submerge the jar about 3 ft below the dock/boat .... You've created a bait ball and that naturally triggers a feeding frenzy .... Works really well for crappie , walleye and other fish eating fish !!!! Hope this helps .... Fish on and keep em wet !!!!

Justin from Kayak Catfish has at least a couple videos where he's literally jigging up catfish using Livescope. As the technology gets better and better, the calls for regulation are only gonna get louder.

I believe that ffs should be banned from tournaments. Last bass tournament I fished. Looking at everyone's rigs. It's starting to look like a money game not a sport. There were guys with basic equipment competing with guys with thousands in equipment on 100k rigs.

It’s not just the electronic equipments that created more and more fishing pressure, the YouTubers and the podcasters who promote fishing have their fair share of contributions too.

Dieter, first time responder. 68 years old. Love to catfish. Love your podcasts and your videos. I could not agree more regarding FFS. In some respects people who use FFS are not unlike those who shock up fish or use explosives to fish. If this continues, and it likely will, fishing for the big ones will become a richer man’s sport. I hate to see that. I have cat fished all of my life. As a kid all I could afford was a cheap pole/ reel, hooks, homemade sinkers and a bucket of bait. I had a blast. Having said this, I wonder if our forefathers felt the same about depth/ fish finders. Keep on preaching brother,

I'm a 60 year old livescoper here. I fished an overnight catfishing tournament a couple of weeks ago. I found fish on rock piles prefishing in the daytime. Pulled up in the dark and hit spot lock. It didn't take more than 10 mins. to figure out on anchor, that the fish moved out at night. If I didn't have livescope, I would have wasted a bunch of time on anchor. I've been catching fish on this spot for a couple of months. One thing livescope has taught me, was how much fish move around....it's crazy watching catfishing swimming around while crappie fishing on trees.

But yeah. To me when you use live scope or whatever you wanna call it you’ve basically quit fishing and to me in my opinion you’ve started to play a video game instead of fishing.

Dieter, as always, great perspective. I'm a bank fisherman, but two years ago some friends and I went icefishing with a guide who used a livescope to locate fish. Funny thing was that a front had rolled in and put the fish in a negative feeding mood. No amount of technology could make them bite! I'm 74 and fish for fun. Even years ago, when I owned a boat, I used my Hummingbird to tell me how deep I was fishing and to help keep me on structure. Still, it was up to me to use my skills as an angler to catch fish.

I really don't know I just feel like it takes all of challenge out of fishing thank you for the information

This is why I never got into the tournament scene. I fish for pleasure. I go alone, no electronic entertainment or any other distractions. When I'm not doing anything, I sit and watch nature go by. Some days the catfish win, other days I win. This is meditation for me. I use a depth finder on my kayak, but that is the extent of my scope usage.

I am in my 60's and got a LiveScope setup 2 years ago. I fish for catfish and carp. I have about $1500 in my setup by buying "last years models" from Garmin. It has been a learning curve for sure. In 2 years i have actively targeted and caught one channel cat, and that took an hour. Now, will say it is a game changer to know there are fish where you are fishing, but it also teaches you how bad you are at fishing! I do not fish tournaments. This is a hobby for me. As technology advances, there may need to be adjusted creel limits.

I remember when side scan hit the market and everyone was going crazy about how unfair it was. I think it’s just a step forward in things.

I fished a kayak bass tourney this year. While putting in there was another guy next to me. I asked which direction he wanted to go and I’d go the other. He said he was going to be “scouting” and I wouldn’t be in his way. Before the sun was up he had caught 2 in open water right off the ramp. He was using ffs. I realized right then I was wasting my time that day. I was pitching cypress trees, docks, lay downs, etc. He was peddling around in open water targeting what he saw on ffs.

FFS might just be the tool used to find the next world record Blue or Flathead catfish out there.

This is the exact reason that keeps me from the whole tournament investment. And now the crappie fishermen just encircle the schools like a flock of pelicans.

We are all ready dealing with it in my area in catfish tournaments

I fish reelfoot lake Tn a lot, the past 2 years during the crappie tournament every one fished a live scope of some type, all bunched up together, heads down not paying attention, I was spider rigging 8 poles, with just a garmin side vue clear vue and caught more fish than boats in the tournament. I should have entered 😂

My fishing partner has a forward scope and we have mostly used it to find schools of shad and target them for netting. It's a great team effort as one mans the camera and finds the fish and points them out and the other tosses the net. It is very cool to watch the net go down and trap the fish in the net in real time.