Bass Fishing Forum - Westernbass.com

Just wanted to post regarding the ABA Clear Lake circut this last weekend. My partner and myself have been fishing circuits for quit a while now and I 'm not going to kid anyone it was a little hard to get "motivated" about the new tourney year with all this FFS going on. We've tried the scoping thing and its really tough on the neck, back and back seater not to mention its hard to learn unless you can get 4-5 days on the water every week and learn it. Yes were old school...not agaisnt the new tech at all. All the dock talk and social meda posts by all the "hammers" you know its scoping or hoping against the scopers...its just the reality of it. We went out and just said lets just go fishing and rely on insticts and do what we do best. We know the lake as good as anyone.....Guys were scoping all around us all day. We stuck to it and never had the scope on for more then 15 minutes (had to give it a try:) Nope not going to do it we said....
We trusted that we did know what we were doing and ended up with 30.7# grinding it out. Knowing where the fish "should" be, and what they "should" be doing. What a fun day of fishing...
Will it happen like this every time against the scopers..probably not, but it sure did fill the "motivation tank" for a while......there's still hope for "just trusting your instincts" and catching fish and being able to compete!

Not against the tech or scopin' - just another way to peel an onion - that being said nice to read this post and congrats on a 30 bag!

Great work. Nice to hear about a bag like that without using FFS.

You don't need FFS to catch 30.0lbs or establish a level of consistent big bags.
FFS didn't change the basic fishing fundamentals regarding patterns, techniques, boat position, and adjustments.

-Ed

Ed + 2 couldn't agree more with your post.

Good for you guys, before FFS existed large fish were caught along with big bags, glad to see your post and hear the strong results you put up.

Fished a us open as a co a couple years ago
Sat on my *** for three days watching a wanna be pro staring down at the screen with absolutely no results
Never again!!!!

Bassin777 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 4:13 pm Fished a us open as a co a couple years ago
Sat on my *** for three days watching a wanna be pro staring down at the screen with absolutely no results
Never again!!!!

And for that reason the sport is dead for me. There were probably other pro's caching them on FFS but it's cheating when you can see the fish and follow them. I'm done with this so called sport.

Bassin777 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 22, 2026 4:13 pm Fished a us open as a co a couple years ago
Sat on my *** for three days watching a wanna be pro staring down at the screen with absolutely no results
Never again!!!!

Read your post and laugh my *** OFF!!!
Typical, folks looking for a quick fix will never...............learn.

Ed

jiggin4bass wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 10:00 pm Ed + 2 couldn't agree more with your post.

Thanks Jigs,

I have Live Scope and I use it to see if there are any active fish in an area. I've tried the "Following Thing" and watch them eat, and I can see my bait fall, but I loose it as it gets closer. But, it really does help me so there's that. However, I'm not gonna spend my day all hunched over for sure !!