Some anglers praise forward-facing sonar, others say high-tech fishing ruins a day at the lake :: WRAL.com
Publish Date: 2026-06-15 00:11:00
Source Domain: www.wral.com
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Ah, the serenity of fishing.
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.
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 in the first place and whether fish populations can survive the new technology.
“You’ve got people that are concerned about what’s going to happen to the sport of fishing,” said Gary Korsgaden, who has written about the sport for decades.
How fishing with sonar works
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.
“With 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,” said Dave Dunn, a sales executive at Garmin, a company that manufactures the equipment.
Dunn notes the equipment,…
