I remember a time when I used to arrive to fish a Tuesday evening jackpot tournament on Lake Oliver on the Chattahoochee River, and it was like a weekly party.
Anglers came from different backgrounds, different lines of work, different socioeconomic situations — and while we didn’t all necessarily like one another, there was always an air of respect.
We were all fishermen.
Whether we were running a 17-foot aluminum rig like mine or a 21-foot fiberglass boat like the pros, we all had the same objective, and it provided some wonderful common ground.
Today, that ground sits over a fault line that seems ready to erupt. The respect we once felt we owed to other anglers has already been smashed to bits.
Before examining why we don’t seem to respect one another anymore, I guess we have to quickly recap how we got where we are.
First, there was the split in 2019, when a bunch of talented pros decided they wanted to go in another direction from B.A.S.S. I deleted all of those anglers from my social media — not because I felt any ill will toward them, but because all of their followers seemed to feel obligated to choose a side.
Crazy as it sounds, it reminded me a bit of the East Coast/West Coast rap wars from the 1990s that never made a single bit of sense to me, as if you couldn’t own CDs from both the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac and enjoy them as you pleased.
If you remember right, those rap bickering matches ended with people being killed — and while fishing doesn’t lend itself to overt violence, the split laid the foundation for the venom that’s being spewed online today.
Then came everyone’s favorite buzz term — forward-facing sonar.
The new tech that arrived in the mid-2010s was never a problem until it suddenly was. Rapid improvements that allowed anglers not only to look at bass as they swam, but to pick the biggest ones out of the school, started making some anglers nervous at the turn of this latest decade. Then when a group of young anglers came along who’ve literally never lived in a world without vast tech at their fingertips, things reached the boiling point we’re at now.
I also blame part of it on today’s political climate.
Somewhere along the way, we decided we can’t just have an opinion and stand behind it. We now have to attack people with dissenting opinions to feel like we’ve really been true to our own.
So often, that way of thinking is influenced by social media.
Unfortunately, the best advice I can give is to just stop.
I like forward-facing sonar — and if the bickersons on social media don’t like the fact that I like it, they basically have two choices: Get over it or … I’ll be right here on the edge of my seat waiting to see which one they choose. Won’t change my mind either way.
I like FFS, but I had lunch the other day with a veteran Bassmaster Elite Series pro who despises it.
Imagine that. It didn’t end in a food fight, or a screaming, cussing argument or a fistfight. The only negative was a slight daytime hangover after one too many margaritas.
That angler and I respect one another because we’re both informed — and unfortunately, so many aren’t.
I get into a lot of discussions about FFS, and I’ve heard a lot of people make a lot of sense on both sides of the issue. I’ve also heard people who hate it with absolutely no idea why they hate it.
If your opinion of forward-facing sonar is based on what you’ve seen the pros do with it, you’re thinking about things from the wrong angle. That’s like saying pros shouldn’t be allowed to skip docks because it’s too easy. Go try anything you see them do, and then tell me it’s easy.
If your opinion on the technology is based solely on social media, you’re weak — and not just weak, but weak-minded. The worst kind of weak.
Wherever you stand on the issue, do yourself a favor. Do the sport a favor.
Get on the phone right now and call someone whose opinion differs from yours. Have a civil conversation and try to remember why you started loving the sport to begin with.
We used to respect one another — and I think we can make that happen again.