Flying blind

Fishing without modern day electronics provides a reality check - imagine if you were in a boat where there was no sounder to tell you if the fish were around, no GPS to pinpoint the spot.

I clearly remember a day about nine months ago when my sounder cooked itself. I had just launched the boat and switched on the sounder, it momentarily lit up and then suddenly went blank. I remember turning off the engine and spending the next 45 minutes pulling the boat apart in an attempt to isolate the cause of the problem. I traced through the wiring, changed fuses, rerouted other wiring to the sounder which I knew had power and tried in vain to fix what was apparently a lost cause. After putting everything back together and conceding defeat I clearly remember my confidence sharply plummeted.

When my sounder stopped working I quickly realised the level of dependence I had for that little screen and the below-the-surface secrets it revealed.

I must glance at my sounder every few seconds; on the day in question I had to revert back to basics  and try and think like a fish. It was tough but fortunately my fishing apprenticeship - as a child of generation X - meant that I still learnt to fish the old school way by reading the tides, studying locations and following the migratory patterns of the local species. I managed a few but felt depressed for most of the day, cursing that little screen that had failed me.

Are we becoming too reliant on technology? That's a tough question to answer. I'm a huge fan of modern day electronics and an avid user of whatever gives me the edge on the water. My 4.3m tinny has both standalone sounder and GPS units, technology that I couldn't do without. There are days now however where I'll switch off the electronics and fly solo - just me and the fish. These are days when I'm out on my own and not under any pressure to catch a fish for a photo or a story. Bringing the fishing game back to basics in the absence of electronics changes your perspective and forces you to think differently.

Are we better fisherman with the advent of technology? We're definitely more informed but I wonder if this information is processed in the same fashion that the fishermen of yesteryear processed information via visual cues and observations whilst on the water - fishing with instinct rather than electronics.

So when was the last time you tried to fish for a few hours without your sounder?
Switch off your sounder and see if your instincts carry you through to success. It's quite an eye opener and more challenging than you might think!