Watching TV

I have never understood the obsession many new (and old) guys have with getting the fanciest electronics installed in their paddleskis. I’ve even heard guys say- 'My finder isn’t working, I’m not even going to go in the morning” To put it bluntly- you’re being a bit doff.

I have never used a finder, although that might be inextricably linked to the amount of time I spend on the water and my severe lack of maintenance skills. Let’s put it this way- Fancy gadgets and a regularly inundated fishing platform do not make happy bedfellows. Add to this a somewhat less than thrifty mindset towards good meals and fishing trips and that new device always just seemed out of reach.

This might seem counterintuitive- but I think this aversion might have actually helped my fishing, in ways that might not seem obvious. Ah, dear reader. I can see your confused look. Wat kak praat hy? Let me explain and give a balanced view to both sides of the fence and maybe you’ll see what I’m getting at.

Blind senses

It’s often said that blind people, driven by necessity, develop heightened senses to help them navigate the world around them. I think a similar concept applies to the use of fish finders (or lack thereof). It’s all too easy to get sucked into ‘watching tv’ and worrying more about the little screen in front of you than the conditions around you. The list of things a finder will NOT show you is endless. That fishy little current ruffle where an upwelling is pushing up over a ledge? A bite is going to come there, but you just paddled past it because you didn’t see a showing. That tuna busting on the blueish colour line 500m out? You just missed it because your eyes were between your legs. That little rippy colour break where the snoek are feeding? You just paddled straight past it because you didn’t see a reef.
When you aren’t constantly looking at every little electronic ping, I’ve found you’ll actually get far more tuned into the ebb and flow of the water and you actually start to ‘feel’ out where the fish are around you. Yes, it takes a lot of experience to learn these small signs, but you will never start down the road of figuring them all out if you just rely on your electronics. Remember- a Fish Finder doesn’t actually ‘find’ fish, you do.

Lost in the dark

Finders fail. Electronics on a paddleski will fail. I can guarantee you this with 100% certainty. I was out next to a well known angler the other day and when his unit failed. He was utterly lost. He didn’t know the vague landmarks, couldn’t place the bait shoals and was just way out of the strike zone. Basically, his finder was a crutch, and when it invariably got taken away he couldn’t walk. Remember- this was a ‘quality’ angler, but in the crunch he was exposed. In this case, electronics separate the men from the boys. A great example of this is my brother. Many people will be stunned to hear, but Robbie often out fishes a rabid pack of anglers and uses no finder and no GPS (landmarks only). It really shows the quality of an angler and their skillset when they understand enough to fish like this.

Don’t even get me started on GPS/Finder combo units! (If you don’t at least carry a spare handheld GPS, you’re just asking for trouble.) If you are heavily reliant on your finder, the session when it breaks is going to be the most frustrating of your life. Just pray it isn’t the day when the fish are going bossies.

Reading the wrong lines

Basically, what you see on your finder is stunningly useless unless you know what you are seeing. There is a reef in 18m off Westbrook that I dive regularly. On this reef, you might get the occasional couta or snoek. It really is nothing special. What is there, is a resident shoal of large, inedible angelfish and batfish. If you see this on the finder, it looks like a stunning explosion of fish.

Without fail, I’ll see guys paddle over the showing, their eyes lit up as they paddle in circles. “Can’t believe I didn’t get a pull bru” is the inevitable thing you’ll hear when they hit the beach, without a fish in the hatch 9 times out of 10.

If you dive, this section doesn’t apply for you- I find the divers know EXACTLY what they are seeing, from experience. It’s worthwhile actually spending some time free diving if you actually want to improve your fishing.

Now I’m going to say something that might seem weird after the spiel I just gave.

You should absolutely get a finder if it suits you!

That one pocket of livebait, that temperature break, that area of fishy activity, that depth line that’s working- these are all things that a finder can show you that could mean the difference between a blank and a session of a lifetime. They undoubtedly help your fishing in the long run. But all I can say is- take into account the lessons you can learn without one before making it the focus of your fishing. Don’t let it become the be all and end all. Use it as an added bonus to actually observing and learning the signs you see around you, not the core of your efforts. Find out from better anglers what you are actually looking at and find out if you are using it in the wrong way. Admittedly, this is a whole other article for a different day, but start mulling these ideas over in your head.

Maybe then you won’t just be ‘watching tv’ the next time you’re on the water.