Post by yihunt on Jul 28, 2009 12:07:51 GMT -4
Pro anglers hooked on high-tech fishing
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
GPS finders such as this allow fishermen to identify where they are in the river as well as help them to locate fish.On an improbably perfect summer Monday morning, Vic Vatalaro is puttering along on the Monongehala River in his Ranger Z-21 Comanche peering at an oblong blob on his Lowrance HDS-5 GPS fish-finder.
"That's a fish, a good sized one," the 40-year old boat salesman says, pointing at the little screen perched near the bow of his boat. "It's right below us -- just floating behind that rock you can see on that screen."
So much for Huck Finn, cane poles, wooden boats, night crawlers and other romantic accoutrements of fishing days gone by. This week, 77 top pro anglers gather in Pittsburgh for the Forrest Wood Cup, bristling with electronic gadgetry designed, the sport's boosters say, to make the sport more efficient and therefore more accessible to more people.
"When I started fishing my first professional tournament on the Mississippi River, I'd drive around with a map on my lap, up and down the river. This is way better," said Mr. Vatalaro, a professional fisherman and a Kent, Ohio-based Ranger boat dealer, who is not competing in this tournament.
"There are still some veterans who live and die by the stream maps," added Jeff McCoy, a spokesman for the Forrest Wood Cup. But with 77 competitors angling for the same catch for a limited time, "that does make it a game of strategy."
And contrary to rumor, anglers aren't using Twitter to telegraph good fishing locations.
"Cell phones aren't allowed," Mr. McCoy said, "and why would they do it? It would give the game away."
Everything about the highly competitive world of tournament fishing, however, seems to be going high-def, high-tech, high-concept. There are the aforementioned depth finders, retailing for as much as $3,000, now available in split screen models that simultaneously map where the angler is on the river, where you've been, and what's going on below your boat.
And while today's top-of-the-line bass boats, costing anywhere from $15,000 to $60,000, may look like they'd be more at home in a NASCAR race, they're actually very stable fishing boats -- if not the ones your grandpappy used -- with foot-controlled trolling motors that easily navigate shallow water and are so quiet they don't disturb the fish.
Safety measures have evolved, too. Outboard engines are fitted with "hotfoots" -- a spring-loaded gas foot pedal that lets the driver adjust the boat's speed to safely handle different wave conditions while keeping both hands on the steering wheel. If the driver has to leave the helm of the boat for any reason, a spring-loaded foot pedal allows the motor to return to idle. "Kill switches" are attached to the fisherman so if the angler is thrown overboard, the motor is automatically cut off. The newest life jackets have automatic devices that inflate upon immersion in the water.
The high-tech bells and whistles don't stop with the boat. There are lightweight graphite rods designed to accommodate anglers who sometimes cast 1,000 times in one day. There's even biodegradable bait -- artificial worms made of a special material that "breathes" in water and then disperses a scent designed to attract fish.
Of course, you could always skip all the gear and just dynamite the water if you wanted to catch a fish that badly, but that's not the point.
"All this equipment makes it easier for you to find an area that fits your needs, but you still have to put it down, pick up your rod and start fishing," said Scott Suggs, who took home $1 million when he won the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup on the Arkansas lake where he grew up fishing.
Still, while an angler has to figure out what kind of bait the fish want or what kind of technique to use, "I won it using my electronics," said Mr. Suggs, noting that he was fishing in such deep water on that particular manmade lake, a former forest, "the fish were suspended in submerged timber 30, 40 feet down and you couldn't even see them, but my fish-finder pretty much drew me a picture on the screen. These days the GPS units will even tell you where a brush pile is and help you catch a fish out of it."
Back when Mr. Suggs started tournament fishing, it was all about memory -- marking one tree and then another, and counting the ones between them, for example. And that meant those who were fishing on their home turf were at a decided advantage.
"Spots meant everything. Today, though, there are no secrets out there, so even when other anglers come to your home turf, the field is evened out."
And that, he added, "is awesome."
"This does not hurt the sport -- it helps it. What this does is bring more money to the economy. Weekend anglers are improving their fishing when they buy these units, so they go out and buy more boats, more tackle, all these things. We went so long, the bass fishers, the walleye guys, the crappie fishermen, everybody, we were all using the exact same equipment and nothing changed. Now, though, with GPS and this other stuff, it's opened up a whole new can of worms."
Water-based biodegradable scent-trailing worms, that is.
Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/09209/986819-358.stm#ixzz0MZRTkeHl
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
By Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
GPS finders such as this allow fishermen to identify where they are in the river as well as help them to locate fish.On an improbably perfect summer Monday morning, Vic Vatalaro is puttering along on the Monongehala River in his Ranger Z-21 Comanche peering at an oblong blob on his Lowrance HDS-5 GPS fish-finder.
"That's a fish, a good sized one," the 40-year old boat salesman says, pointing at the little screen perched near the bow of his boat. "It's right below us -- just floating behind that rock you can see on that screen."
So much for Huck Finn, cane poles, wooden boats, night crawlers and other romantic accoutrements of fishing days gone by. This week, 77 top pro anglers gather in Pittsburgh for the Forrest Wood Cup, bristling with electronic gadgetry designed, the sport's boosters say, to make the sport more efficient and therefore more accessible to more people.
"When I started fishing my first professional tournament on the Mississippi River, I'd drive around with a map on my lap, up and down the river. This is way better," said Mr. Vatalaro, a professional fisherman and a Kent, Ohio-based Ranger boat dealer, who is not competing in this tournament.
"There are still some veterans who live and die by the stream maps," added Jeff McCoy, a spokesman for the Forrest Wood Cup. But with 77 competitors angling for the same catch for a limited time, "that does make it a game of strategy."
And contrary to rumor, anglers aren't using Twitter to telegraph good fishing locations.
"Cell phones aren't allowed," Mr. McCoy said, "and why would they do it? It would give the game away."
Everything about the highly competitive world of tournament fishing, however, seems to be going high-def, high-tech, high-concept. There are the aforementioned depth finders, retailing for as much as $3,000, now available in split screen models that simultaneously map where the angler is on the river, where you've been, and what's going on below your boat.
And while today's top-of-the-line bass boats, costing anywhere from $15,000 to $60,000, may look like they'd be more at home in a NASCAR race, they're actually very stable fishing boats -- if not the ones your grandpappy used -- with foot-controlled trolling motors that easily navigate shallow water and are so quiet they don't disturb the fish.
Safety measures have evolved, too. Outboard engines are fitted with "hotfoots" -- a spring-loaded gas foot pedal that lets the driver adjust the boat's speed to safely handle different wave conditions while keeping both hands on the steering wheel. If the driver has to leave the helm of the boat for any reason, a spring-loaded foot pedal allows the motor to return to idle. "Kill switches" are attached to the fisherman so if the angler is thrown overboard, the motor is automatically cut off. The newest life jackets have automatic devices that inflate upon immersion in the water.
The high-tech bells and whistles don't stop with the boat. There are lightweight graphite rods designed to accommodate anglers who sometimes cast 1,000 times in one day. There's even biodegradable bait -- artificial worms made of a special material that "breathes" in water and then disperses a scent designed to attract fish.
Of course, you could always skip all the gear and just dynamite the water if you wanted to catch a fish that badly, but that's not the point.
"All this equipment makes it easier for you to find an area that fits your needs, but you still have to put it down, pick up your rod and start fishing," said Scott Suggs, who took home $1 million when he won the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup on the Arkansas lake where he grew up fishing.
Still, while an angler has to figure out what kind of bait the fish want or what kind of technique to use, "I won it using my electronics," said Mr. Suggs, noting that he was fishing in such deep water on that particular manmade lake, a former forest, "the fish were suspended in submerged timber 30, 40 feet down and you couldn't even see them, but my fish-finder pretty much drew me a picture on the screen. These days the GPS units will even tell you where a brush pile is and help you catch a fish out of it."
Back when Mr. Suggs started tournament fishing, it was all about memory -- marking one tree and then another, and counting the ones between them, for example. And that meant those who were fishing on their home turf were at a decided advantage.
"Spots meant everything. Today, though, there are no secrets out there, so even when other anglers come to your home turf, the field is evened out."
And that, he added, "is awesome."
"This does not hurt the sport -- it helps it. What this does is bring more money to the economy. Weekend anglers are improving their fishing when they buy these units, so they go out and buy more boats, more tackle, all these things. We went so long, the bass fishers, the walleye guys, the crappie fishermen, everybody, we were all using the exact same equipment and nothing changed. Now, though, with GPS and this other stuff, it's opened up a whole new can of worms."
Water-based biodegradable scent-trailing worms, that is.
Read more: www.post-gazette.com/pg/09209/986819-358.stm#ixzz0MZRTkeHl