Tonight I come to you, sipping one of my favorite bourbons, and telling a tale of a changing of the guard. As some of you know, Erik and I are big into pro bass fishing. And if you know anything at all about pro bass fishing recently, you will know there are two topics that have been talked about quite a bit recently: forward facing sonar (FFS) and the youth movement. Lots of times, these are talked about in conjunction. I want to focus on the youth movement specifically tonight. I myself am far from professional fishing, but being 24 years of age, I feel like I can give good perspective on the youth movement.
Growing up, our grandpa taught Erik and I how to fish for bluegill and bass at our home lakes out near Fulton, Missouri. Here we learned how to tie our own knots and bait our own hooks. As much as I owe my love for fishing to my grandpa, there was only so much he could teach me. He grew up in the the Great Depression, and fishing was a way him and his family could get food. He then joined the Merchant Marines in WWII. All his life, he never had a smart phone and no access to the internet. He did everything by mail and landline.
Many years later Erik and I come along. I can remember the day we all got IPhones after I dropped my slide phone in Kentucky Lake while fishing. If anyone finds it, I would like it back. Getting a smart phone was a game changer as far as fishing went. Suddenly, we had access to all the fishing content I could ever want. I didn't have to wait for Bassmaster Magazine to come in the mail every month. Youtube was on the come up, and people like Jon B and Alex Peric were just starting to make YouTube videos. What a nostalgic time! I was able to learn so much about bass fishing simply by watching other people fish. I wouldn't be nearly the angler I am today if it were not for the internet.
Swinging back around to tonight's topic, there's a lot lot of hate going on in the professional bass fishing world right now because the younger anglers are dominating the a lot of the pro tours. Trey McKinney is nineteen years old, and he's leading AOY and Rookie of the year in the Bassmaster Elite Series. This changing of the guard has one main reason: the internet. Many of these younger anglers, just like me, grew up learning how to fish from their phones or computers. You have a question about throwing a dropshot? Look it up on YouTube. All these young anglers had such an advantage growing up because they had so much more access to information. Most of the older anglers didn't have that as part of their upbringing. Throw FFS into the mix and the younger anglers who are more tech savvy, come away with an advantage.
This also sends a message to the older anglers: get with the times or move out of the way. Many of the industry veterans are having to completely switch up how they fish if they want to stay competitive. Many of them refuse to change and are falling behind. These are the times we live in. You can either complain or comply.
If you have any thoughts on this topic we'd love to hear from you. As always you can find us on Instagram, Vero, Twitter, TikTok, and Facebook. With that, we will see you next week with another blog post!
- Paul Hoffman