Tournaments Update Forward Facing Sonar Policies

There has been a lot of buzz in the bass fishing industry about the use of forward facing sonar (FFS) in bass tournaments. With this technology, an angler can see what is underwater in real time, whereas in the past they were seeing an image that was delayed by a few seconds.  With FFS, anglers can actually watch a fish swim to their bait and be ready to set the hook.  The technology has driven bait design and other products we see at our tackle shops, and some worried that the technology was taking the “sport” out of the sport of fishing, among other concerns.

Since many tackle manufacturers work closely with their pro staff when it comes to bait design, what’s hot in the pro bass fishing world usually finds its way to our local tackle shops. So how will these new rules in the upper echelons of the top pro bassers in the sport affect the rest of fishing consumers?

We talked to John Crews about it since he is both a top tier Bassmaster Elite Series angler, as well as the founder and president of Missile Baits, and asked him to break down how this news affects the average angler. 

“There are a couple of different kinds of bass anglers,” said Crews. “On the one hand, you’ve got hardcore anglers who follow tournament fishing closely.  Then on the other end of the spectrum, you have your novice anglers who just want to go fishing whenever they can, and they don’t really pay attention to the pro tournament circuits. Lastly, there’s another group that’s kind of somewhere in between.”

“Recently, there’s been a shift in the hardcore anglers to using more products that are designed around and used with forward facing sonar such as spinning rods, lighter line, jighead minnows and drop shots. This has affected the selection that consumers see in the stores. With Bassmaster limiting forward facing sonar, and the National Professional Fishing League (NPFL) banning it, I think going forward there will be a good mix of anglers both using it and not using it at the top tournament levels. And the group that’s in between the hardcore and the novice anglers will start picking up bits and pieces from the hardcore group.”

The result is an effect on tackle inventory and product selection available at retail.

As a bait manufacturer, Crews has a good grip on how the inventory has changed in reaction to FFS.

“The more traditional, popular flipping bait sales are probably down 20-30%, but drop shot baits might be up 10%,” he said. “And fluke style baits are super popular right now!”

That might explain why, as consumers, we see less availability in these products.

While the NPFL has banned FFS, Bassmaster announced they would limit the use of the technology to one transducer and 55” total screen inches in competitor’s boats.

“They gave us some parameters, just like, you know, you have a 250 horsepower limit and that’s it,“ said Crews. “Some guys were spending as much as $40,000 to $50,000 on electronics alone!”

These new rulings will hopefully make the tournaments more evenly competitive for a wider number of anglers, and hopefully those conditions will help manufacturers continue to innovate and bring out a wide variety of new products designed to catch fish using many different techniques. 

That’s good for all of us.