Maggie's Farm

That's an interesting question. Back when, the analog flasher/sonar some thought that was "cheating" as you could find and locate schools of fish faster. The advent of the analog paper graph fish finders had a similar reaction from purists - it was cheatin' if you could see the fish on paper. Then came Tom Mann and the Humminbird rotating diode digital displays which were blocky, but you could see structure. These quickly evolved into LCD or CRT displays and eventually the TFT-LCD which allowed for VGA level displays and near video like quality imagery. Every step of the way, purists considered it "cheatin".

I understand how it could be seen as "cheatin'", but the simple truth is it's not. The fact that you can see fish and structure in high definition does not mean that (1) you are going to catch them or (2) they are willingly going to take what you are offering on any given day. What they are is a tool like any other tool. And what used to be guess work is still guess work - the fish ain't gonna magically jump into the boat.

Bluefish are a blast - especially when you get a good sized one in the 5/6 lb range.

They are touchy fish though - you'd think a predator like that would be a little tougher, but they bleed like crazy and can really mess up a boat.

Have a friend of mine who has a recipe for jalapeño poppers made with bluefish. I'm not much for jalapeño anything, but these are pretty good. I'll rustle up the recipe and post it.

LOL!! Well, I'm retired and did before the Internet and wireless connectivity became common - like in 1994 when 2400 baud modems were king and local dial up was state-of-the-art.

Tell the truth, I'm so glad it wasn't available because that would have been something I would have done.

And think about this - $60K for a bass boat with a decent motor, another $45K for a truck to tow it, $2,500 in various types of fishing gear, another $2,000 for basic electronics (finder/gps), $500 for all weather gear, $1,500 a season for gas/oil (at $46/gal for my Evinrude ETEC - then again I use less than a gallon per 250 gallons of gas) - in a season it works out to about $250 a fish - maybe more if you aren't the best fisherman.

So yeah, I can see why somebody would want to work nowadays after catching a few - that's quite a nut to make just for "fun". :>)

See - I'm not the only one. :>)

I have to admit though, the side scan feature is quite interesting.

ROTFL!! There you go - we can start a whole new genre of fishing called "targeted structure" - Al Linder eat your heart out. :>)

Dynamite is a rather broad approach to fishing - you use a 1/4 stick and you have all kinds of problems - undersize fish, too many fish, etc.

Much safer to cheat...er...