Mercury pro is embracing the challenge posed by BPT’s forward-facing sonar restrictions in 2025
Jacob Wheeler • Angler Columns
Mercury pro-Jacob Wheeler has already been strategizing the best way to handle the Bass Pro Tour’s new forward-facing sonar rules. Photo by Garrick Dixon
One of my favorite aspects of tournament bass fishing is the strategy involved, the thought process of making your next move. The chess game of finding the most or biggest fish drives me, and it’s part of my thinking every time I prepare for a tournament or start practice. Even once the tournament has begun, I’m always plotting where to go or what to throw next.
Since I started competing on the Bass Pro Tour, trying to think a step ahead of the competition has been a major focus for me, especially with SCORETRACKER® and knowing how much weight every other angler has at all times. It makes the format intriguing as you try to manage fish and stay ahead of the curve.
As you’ve probably already heard, next season we’ll have even more to consider with the limitation of forward-facing sonar to just one period per day. I’m all for it. It adds one more wrinkle to our events, and I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.
Picking the right period
As soon as this new rule was announced, I was already thinking about how it would all work. There’s no doubt that technology has made us insanely efficient — you are simply putting your bait in front of more fish. The challenge now will be maximizing that efficiency when we can’t always “see” the fish in real time.
Of course, as we’ve seen the past couple years, just because someone is using forward-facing sonar doesn’t mean they’re reeling in bass non-stop. We’ll need to come up with a plan to be the most efficient during our time when using it, too. The biggest thing will be figuring out when to use your period with forward-facing sonar (or if you even use it during the day). You don’t want to waste time panning, looking for fish, or just using it because you feel like you have to, so picking the right time and place will be critical. If it’s a windy or cloudy day and the fish are biting, you have to take advantage of that, so maybe you don’t even turn it on that day. Assessing all of that will be part of my practice strategy prior to each event.
A three-time Fishing Clash AOY on the Bass Pro Tour, Jacob Wheeler has found plenty of success using forward-facing sonar in recent years, but he can catch them old-school as well. Photo by Tyler Brinks
It will also be challenging not to overthink things. Say I’m on a pattern cranking down rocky banks and catching fish. Unless I’m way behind, I won’t stop and completely switch patterns and locations because I still have my forward-facing sonar period left. It will always be in the back of your head, but the most significant thing will be to let each day determine what you should be doing. This part will take some time, and it’ll be fascinating to see how each angler approaches it.
A welcome change of pace
Every angler on the Bass Pro Tour now has to find a happy medium that blends utilizing our electronics with the conventional bass fishing we’ve done for years. This is the thing that excites me most; two-thirds of the day will be spent going back to how I’ve fished my whole life. Whether it’s throwing a buzzbait or cranking, there will likely be many more patterns in play this season.
On some fisheries, the pace of fish catches could be slower than we’re used to. But in others, it may be the same as it would’ve been if we could use forward-facing sonar all day. What stage the fish are in when we visit will be a big factor, but on the whole, I’m guessing we’ll see a lot more traditional pattern-fishing in 2025.
I’m looking forward to getting back to that and fishing what I can visually see in front of me. If you look at guys like Andy Morgan who’ve fished their whole careers that way and had massive success, it’s probably not going to change how they’re preparing for the year. That’s what he does. But for most of us, it’s going to impact our approach. It’s one more thing to think about in a game with so many variables, and I can’t wait for the challenge.
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