(Editor's note: Harold Sharp was the first tournament director Ray Scott hired. Sharp left BASS long ago, but as all readers of BassFan FeedBack know, he still cares passionately about the sport. Below is a recent Feedback item he submitted about the newest BassFan Poll. To participate in the poll, click here to visit the homepage, then scroll down the right-hand side of the page.)

Do cell phones and GPS units help anglers? Are the old anglers or new anglers better?

Both are very hard questions to answer, and there's really no way to prove anything unless you match the old guys against the new guys. But then each would fish his own style and not prove anything.

Bass anglers are always trying to improve their skills, just like tackle manufactures are always trying to improve their products. So you can't consider outlawing cell phones and GPS without doing the same to any product that helps you catch bass.

The old guys were always trying new stuff. Stan Sloan came to the first tournament with a trolling motor on the front of the boat, and now it's standard. As long as there's no rule against it and everyone can do it, you should never blame any angler for using new stuff to improve his skill.

Also, you should never write a rule to curtail an angler's skill at catching bass.

The largest difference between the old guys and new guys is the method of tournament fishing, and it's changed because the tournament rules have changed. The first tournaments had 15-bass limits, then later 10-bass limits, and now five-bass limits. This happened as states changed their daily creel limits, and it changed the way anglers fish tournaments.

During the 15-bass era, most anglers were fishing as hard as they could during the tournament hours. Many lakes had lots of bass and you needed a big sack to make a check, so the skill to locate and land bass paid off for the anglers who had these skills. As the daily limits dropped from 15 to five, the style of fishing also changed.

When Dee Thomas inserted flipping into tournament fishing, the anglers began to run instead of fish. Why spend time fishing everything you see when you can only weigh in five bass? Learn to flip and hit as many boat docks as you can during tournament hours, burn gas instead of crankin' and windin'. Why waste time looking for more than five good bites when that's all you can weigh in?

The old guys with the skills fished hard, but they soon learned that other anglers were just as good. So they had to find new stuff to stay ahead, and they found it. But the new guys were also coming on strong with new stuff like flipping, dropshots, finesse, wackys, jigs, buzzbaits, and more.

It was hard for the old guys to lay down stuff they knew how to handle and try to learn new stuff that worked. The new guys were catching all they could weigh with their new stuff, and saw no need to try anything out of style.

The other thing that had happened was that everywhere you looked, 100-angler events were now 250-angler events. And the other end of the lake was minutes away with a 250-hp motor, and you didn't need to stay close with your 10-gallon tank.

So like everything and everybody, bass tournaments have changed. It's not 1967, or 1977, or 1987 anymore. In fact it's 2007 – 40 years later and we have cell phones and GPS.

One thing that hasn't changed much, though, is the bass. With all the new skills, cells phones, GPS units, 250-hp rigs with fancy wraps, wild rags and hair-dos, there's still many hotshot anglers who walk across the weigh-in stage with empty sacks.

If we ever figure out the almighty bass, it'll all be over soon after.