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Winter 2026
Photo: BASS
F
orward-facing sonar has been a hot button issue
in professional bass fishing for half a decade,
perhaps the most divisive topic and technology in a generation. Now, under pressure from some anglers and
fans, BASS has made a substantial change.
For the 2026 Eilte Series season, BASS will limit the use of FFS to five tournaments, determined by a series of coin flips. This comes on the heels of last year’s updated rule which limited the number of transducers and total screen inches an angler could use. As expected – by both critics and proponents – last year’s change made little or no difference in results.
WILL THIS TIME BE DIFFERENT?
We don’t really have an analogous situation in Bassmaster history. The closest I can think of is when the Elites eliminated co-anglers from their field in 2008. I believe it was an appropriate and timely decision, as a top level professional sport shouldn’t have “amateurs on the playing field” impacting the outcome of individual events or individuals’ careers. That said, I think that the cries of the pros who said that “my backseater caught a six-pounder I needed” or “my co-angler rushed me into fishing a brush pile faster than necessary” overstated their case.
Over time, the impact of co-anglers balanced out. No one suddenly went from the bottom to AOY when the rule change occurred, and no one who’d benefitted from their
amateurs’ experimentation or lure choices suddenly went down the crapper.
I suppose a bigger change has occurred as a result of information sharing and no-info rules.
Behind FFS, the current iteration of the Elite Series no- info rule is likely the most divisive topic in the sport today.
This past season was particularly brutal and contentious, as numerous anglers failed polygraph tests and saw daily, or complete tournament weights wiped out. Currently, the gathering of non-public information becomes prohibited once the schedule is announced.
That’s a change from the past, when there was only effectively a month’s “off limits.” Some anglers took advantage of that, gaining waypoints and other information (legally, at the time) from locals, or even through sponsor networks. A few standout seasons in Elite Series history which were atypical for the angler in question resulted from such efforts.
So which will FFS be more like? I believe it’ll be a mixture. There are a few younger anglers who excelled in the Opens and through the early part of their Elite Series careers on the strength of superior abilities with FFS, but I believe they’re just a small subset of the talented young guns.
The defining feature of these kids (and some slightly older anglers who’ve also made bank and gathered hardware with FFS) is that they do nothing but fish. The
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