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Ed Loughran, a 53-year-old Bassmaster Elite Series pro, admits he’s not a technology guy.
“I can drive a boat, and I can drive a truck,” he said. “But if the motor breaks, I’m out of luck.”
That’s why he surprised even himself by jumping on the front edge of bass fishing technology. Loughran recently figured out how to link the augmented reality glasses to his Garmin LiveScope, which essentially captures forward-facing sonar data overlaid on the lens of his glasses. This means Loughran doesn’t have to look down at a screen while using LiveScope.
To put this development in context, it is necessary to understand the landscape in which professional bass fishing finds itself. Advanced electronics have always been controversial, ever since Darrell Lowrance introduced the “Little Green Box” (aka, “Fish Lo-K-Tor”). However, few have changed the sport as much as front sonar has in less than a decade. Tech-savvy anglers can find fish in front of their boat, pick out the biggest ones, and throw to them themselves.
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Critics compared the tactic to deer spotlighting. Advocates hail it as the next evolution in the sport. Loughran is somewhere in the middle, but he recognizes that if he’s going to compete at the highest level of the sport these days, he’ll need to embrace technology. Accordingly, he has the best Garmin units available on his Bass Cat Boat and has spent considerable time understanding their capabilities. Unfortunately, while he is energetic and fit for his age, all the time spent staring at the screen is taking its toll on Loughran’s neck.
“I just wanted something where I could see the screen and not have to have a sore neck all day,” he said. “After three tournaments in the north last year, my neck hurt. Also, my eyes are not as good as they used to be. Even with 12-inch screens, I can’t see what’s on them as well as my competitors.
Connecting Augmented Reality Glasses to LiveScope
Over the offseason, he set out to find a way to incorporate screens into his eyewear. He had a friend who had been the Chief Information Officer and Chief Technology Officer of several publicly traded companies who told him it couldn’t be done. That motivated Loughran even more.
“I’m as surprised as anyone that it took some 53-year-old guy who orders crap from Amazon to come up with this,” said Loughran, who is also a practicing lawyer. “[At first] I didn’t even appreciate the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality.”
In layman’s terms, the former immerses a viewer completely in a scenario, without looking at what is happening around them. The latter are what Loughran refers to as “Terminator-looking things” — glasses that provide a clear window of the external environment but also project additional data into the lenses.
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Loughran put together a series of wires with a set of glasses bought on Amazon and shipped from a Chinese factory, where he was willing to describe them (he didn’t want to give away the secrets to competitors ). He gets into the augmented reality rig to ride his boat. It was sunny, and he had a hard time getting used to the glasses, but he gave the Frankenstein contraption another chance when he went outside soon after to dial his electronics. This time, it was a cloudy day.
“They were easier to use,” he recalls. “I used them for three or four hours, but after five or ten minutes, I knew it was right. It’s on. My eyes and my head work with them. It’s like the equivalent of a 300-inch screen, like sitting in a movie theater.”
Refining the Tech
The glasses that Loughran bought sight-unseen sat on his face and didn’t block much light. That creates drawbacks, but it also allows him to lower his eyes to look directly at the trolling motor with an unobstructed view.
Unfortunately, the unit’s off-brand cable HDMI cord ended up burning itself out. Through some research, Loughran determined that Garmin made a cable that served as the basis for a replacement, albeit requiring multiple adapters to produce both data and power.
“Right now, you’re tethered to your unit by 15 feet of heavy-duty cable, but I recognize that this is just the Alpha test version,” he said. “There’s no reason in the world that someone couldn’t make a cleaner version with a better pair of wraparound lenses.”
Read Next: Garmin LiveScope Review
Oddly enough, Loughran didn’t use the mirror during the season-opening Elite Series tournament at Toledo Bend Reservoir, even though most of the top finishers relied mostly on their front-facing sonar. That is not because of any ethical concerns or rules, but rather because he is still clinging to an earlier paradigm.
“I’m not just fishing the bank to justify them,” he said. “And with the ones I’ve built, they’re not perfect when you just go down to the bank.”
He will use the augmented-reality glasses when the appropriate opportunity arises, but not without mixed feelings.
“I don’t know if it brings us to a good place, but it will,” he said.
Loughran finished 92nd with a total weight of 23 pounds, 1 ounce. Kyoya Fujita won the tournament with a total weight of 100 pounds, 13 ounces — all caught while scoping.
