Field and Stream Meet Drones and Sonar --- Tech aids hunting, fishing; critics say it strips out skill, upends tradition

“It's not quite like shooting fish in a barrel, but for some anglers and hunters, new technology that makes their targets easier to find, track, catch or kill is a troubling step in that direction.

 

Randy Blaukat, a professional bass fisherman since 1986, says a popular technology known as forward-facing sonar, or FFS, is giving even the most inexperienced anglers the ability to spot bass, crappie and other game fish in ways that were impossible before. Equipment mounted below the waterline of a boat emits a fan-shaped beam of sound waves ahead of the craft. Everything in the beam, up to 200 feet below the surface, is converted to an image on a large, high-resolution screen on the boat.

 

Enthusiasts say the technology is helping to attract younger anglers to the sport and to level the playing field in fishing competitions. And they argue that fishing skills are still required "since it puts you on the fish but it doesn't make them bite," says Richard Brooke, a retired Houma, La., pediatrician whose boat is equipped with a Garmin LiveScope setup. "That means you have to use the right lure and you still need technique. It's not a slam dunk. Two out of three fish you pitch to ignore the lure."

 

But Blaukat says FFS is "taking the intuition and skill and the mystery and magic out of the sport." He and others have lobbied with mixed success to have it banned from fishing tournaments.

 

In hunting, drones are being deployed to scout prey such as deer, elk and bear, giving hunters the ability to find game with ease and at distances unimaginable before. Trail cameras equipped with cellphone or internet transmission now allow hunters to see prized game in real time and swoop in for the kill. And some apps analyze data from trail cameras to recognize patterns in the movements of prey and recommend specific spots and times to hunt.

 

Meanwhile, night-vision rifle scopes paired with cutting-edge thermal-imaging binoculars open the night woods to hunting in ways that were impossible just a few years ago. And rifle scopes fitted with digital range-finder technology can tempt hunters to take shots at big animals like elk at 1,000 yards -- a distance that erases an animal's natural wariness.

 

Purists worry that deploying these hunting technologies erodes the notion of fair chase -- the idea that hunters should give free-ranging game a reasonable chance of escape. "We're about ethical hunting," says Tony Schoonen, chief executive of the Boone and Crockett Club, founded by Theodore Roosevelt in 1887 and a leading voice in the fair-chase movement. "And that argues for self-restraint by the hunter when it comes to technology."

 

As the official keeper of North American big-game records, Boone and Crockett won't recognize a trophy animal for the Boone and Crockett record books if it judges that it was taken with the help of technology that gave the hunter an undue advantage. The Missoula, Mont., organization has nine categories of disqualification, including the use of drones and trail cameras with transmission abilities. It requires those submitting trophy kills to sign an affidavit swearing they have abided by club technology and other restrictions.

 

If the public perceives that technology is too effective and hunters aren't "showing respect for the animal, that's not socially acceptable" and will create a backlash, Schoonen says.

 

Regulators already are taking note. At least seven states ban the use of drones for hunting and a handful restrict the use of transmitting trail cameras during hunting season. In Mississippi, fish and game regulators have reduced the daily limit for crappie, a tasty, popular panfish, from 15 to 10 on four of the state's prime reservoirs, citing the burgeoning use of FFS and the pressure it was putting on crappie populations.

 

But the process of limiting the use of technology can be laborious. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has formed a Hunting and Advanced Technology Working Group that has proposed bans on drones, transmitting trail cameras and night-vision and thermal-imaging devices for the state hunting season. But these proposed regulations face another round of hearings this year before the Idaho legislature will even consider them.

 

In Wisconsin, a citizen's petition in 2024 to ban forward-facing sonar throughout the state was included on a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources survey.

 

The result was essentially a draw, with 51% of the 13,000-plus respondents saying they favored the ban; 35 counties were in favor and 34 opposed, with one undecided. As a result, the state has yet to act.

 

In competitive fishing, some outfits are acting on their own. The Midwest Musky Fishing Classic in Phelps, Wis., banned FFS from its annual tournament last October on the grounds that the prized game fish, which can top 60 pounds, show up like stationary torpedoes on sonar, making them too easy a target.

 

The controversy is strongest in professional bass and crappie fishing tournaments in which anglers vie for payouts of up to $100,00 for a first-place finish. Tournament sponsors say the technology is attracting a younger, tech-savvy demographic to the sport, while Blaukat says anglers staring at sonar screens instead of honing their fishing skills "disrespects the sport."

 

He also cites economics. The most sophisticated of popular FFS models made by Garmin, Lowrance and Humminbird, among others, can sell for more than $6,000. With add-ons such as multiple transducers, which can broaden the sonar's scope all the way up to 360 degrees, and super-large screens that can make the underwater view even clearer, it's not uncommon for some anglers these days "to have $50,000 worth of electronics on their boats," Blaukat says. "Not everyone can afford that."

 

Some organizations have enacted a total ban on the technology at competitions, like Outlaw Outdoors, which last year sponsored 19 bass-fishing tournaments near Jasper, Texas, and the National Professional Fishing League, which this year will hold six tournaments in a variety of states.

 

Others have sought compromise, like the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society, sponsor of the popular Bassmaster fishing tournaments, and Major League Fishing, the world's largest tournament-fishing organization. The bass society limits sonar users to one transducer, while viewing screens can't have a diameter of more than 55 inches. Major League Fishing limits anglers in its Bass Pro Tour to using FFS on only one day of its three-day competitions.

 

Clint Wade, the Outlaw Outdoors founder, says he acted because he began to see that a new breed of angler armed with FFS had come to completely dominate his tournaments -- discouraging and driving away the scores of traditional anglers who had always been Outlaw's most numerous paid entrants.

 

Under Outlaw tournament rules, anglers typically get eight hours on the water to bring in five bass. Whoever has the highest total weight wins.

 

Before FFS, a typical winning weight would be 24 to 25 pounds, says Wade. "In the past couple of years, it usually took 35-plus pounds to win," he says. In fact, the sonar users had come to so routinely capture the top spots that "true grassroots fishermen started to feel like, even on their best day, they didn't have a chance to place in the top five."” [1]

 

1. USA 250: Field and Stream Meet Drones and Sonar --- Tech aids hunting, fishing; critics say it strips out skill, upends tradition. Wells, Ken.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 14 May 2026: A10.