Even in the 21st century, fly fishing and technology have a loose relationship. These days deep sea fishing and high energy bass angling rely upon the latest and greatest in electronics. These devices can do amazing things, and they carry staggering costs. Their use has become so seamlessly integrated into those styles of angling.

Fly fishing feels so far from that – so analog. The only digital intrusion comes from the ubiquitous camera/cell phone. Even that is optional. It is nice to have, but not necessary.

Do you know what else can be placed squarely in the “not necessary” category? The Game Boy Pocket Sonar.

Yes: Game Boy. Yes: Pocket Sonar. Yes: A fish finder that you threw out into a pond and plugged into your portable Nintendo; which you would be wearing around your neck in a waterproof pouch.

Watch the full review here:

In the future, I  do plan to touch on fishing video games in general. There haven’t been enough fly fishing offerings to warrant an entire article. Whether it was a console, a computer, or a cell phone,  fishing games have lured people in with the empty promise  of virtual time on the e-water.

This little device is fascinating, though. Admittedly, wearing it is ridiculous. But the “fish encyclopedia” is a quaint relic from a time before Wikipedia was at your fingertips. Offering a tiny fish finder, that apparently works to one degree or another, for  a relatively small price tag is very clever. Especially in Japan, a market that is very keen on both fishing and technology, the Pocket Sonar made sense.

So why share an old, obscure, and foreign novelty? Not because I think you should prowl eBay looking for one. Not even because I think you should be inspired by this little device and come up with the next great fishing invention.  I’m sharing it because it is a novelty. There are a lot of videos that I am not going to watch on YouTube. There are a lot of videos about people fishing and promoting fishing stuff out there. Most of them aren’t bringing a whole lot of original content to the table.

But this one – this one was worth six minutes. Sometimes, if you  have six minutes on your hands, novelty and obscurity is reason enough.