BISMARCK, N.D. \u2013 Ah, the serenity of fishing.<\/p>\n
Just an angler, a fishing pole and maybe thousands of dollars worth of sonar equipment offering an exact image of what that walleye or bass is doing in the watery depths below.<\/p>\n
It’s called forward-facing sonar, and the hot-selling products are not only helping anglers increase their catch, they are raising questions about why people go fishing<\/a> in the first place and whether fish populations<\/a> can survive the new technology.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve got people that are concerned about what\u2019s going to happen to the sport of fishing,\u201d said Gary Korsgaden, who has written about the sport for decades.<\/p>\n How fishing with sonar works<\/p>\n Fish-finding sonar is typically mounted on the bow or back of a boat, sending out sound frequencies that are converted into a picture on a screen based on the time it takes the pings to hit the bottom and return. Earlier products would show where fish were located, but advancements now enable anglers to see images of fish in real time.<\/p>\n \u201cWith forward-facing sonar, you can attach it to a trolling motor and you can look around the water under you and you could find exactly, pinpoint where that fish exactly is at any given time,\u201d said Dave Dunn, a sales executive at Garmin, a company that manufactures the equipment.<\/p>\n Dunn notes the equipment, which costs about $2,500 for a full setup, enables anglers to even see their lures and cast directly to fish. It does have a learning curve.<\/p>\n For Minnesota angler Terry Rehm, the new technology is invaluable. Rehm said he doesn\u2019t get a lot of lake time due to his work and kids\u2019 schedules and forward-facing sonar ensures he makes good use of his time plying the waters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just nice to be able to hone in on them a little quicker and find them quicker and catch more fish when I\u2019m out here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Growing use of the technology<\/p>\n Tens of millions of people fish recreationally each year, making it one of the nation’s top activities.<\/p>\n But people fish for different reasons<\/a> and those who care most about the tranquility and beauty of being on a lake can find it puzzling that other anglers eagerly hunch over their screens, watching as fish swim by below.<\/p>\n Still, the use of the technology is growing dramatically, with surveys in Minnesota finding about 30% of anglers now use forward-facing sonar. Surveys of anglers on several Minnesota lakes found the user rate as high as 63% on one lake last fall, Walleye Alliance spokesperson Nate Blasing said.<\/p>\n Much of the debate around forward-facing sonar plays out on social media, but also podcasts, online fishing forums, trade shows and tournaments.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s much like politics now. It tends to get personal. You can agree to disagree,\u201d Blasing said.<\/p>\n Criticisms and reactions go back and forth on social media, said Korsgaden, the fishing writer. He said tournament anglers have banned him from their Facebook pages for even raising the topic.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the unfortunate reality is fishing has gotten to be more about, shall we say, success or numbers or quantity, that type of thing, instead of the actual enjoyment of the engagement and making decisions on your own,\u201d Korsgaden said.<\/p>\n Sonar may make little difference<\/p>\n Even as anglers say the equipment helps ensure they will actually catch fish, some studies indicate it hasn’t led to overfishing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wisconsin researchers conducted a controlled experiment last year with two teams of anglers fishing for smallmouth bass, one with forward-facing sonar, the other without. Halfway through the summer, the teams switched.<\/p>\n The team without the technology had higher catch rates, though the team using it caught slightly longer fish, said Greg Sass, fisheries research team leader with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Applied Science. The sonar users searched more for fish before even fishing, while the other team spent more time actively fishing.<\/p>\n