MLF’s new forward-facing sonar restrictions will alter the complexion of the Bass Pro Tour in several ways
Mitchell Forde – Bass Pro Tour
Drew Gill, Jesse Wiggins and Alton Jones Jr. will have to adapt to the new forward-facing sonar regulations on the Bass Pro Tour in 2025.
More than perhaps any other top-level circuit, the Bass Pro Tour has always placed a premium on tournament strategy. Anglers not only have to find fish and figure out the best ways to get them to bite, they have to toe the line between catching enough weight to advance while also saving some juice for the Knockout and/or Championship Rounds.
Starting in 2025, there will be a whole new element of strategy for pros to deal with: When and how to use forward-facing sonar (and, in some cases, how to adapt to life without it).
Last month, Major League Fishing announced a series of technology regulations, including a rule that Bass Pro Tour anglers will only be able to utilize forward-facing sonar for one of three periods each competition day. The fact that pros will now spend two-thirds of their season without access to the technology that has largely dominated the past few years is sure to result in some significant shakeups.
Drew Gill, Alton Jones Jr. and Jesse Wiggins — three of the top strategists on tour, each with at least one BPT win to his credit — offered their input on how they expect the new regulations to change the complexion of the 2025 season.
Need for speed
All three anglers echoed a common refrain: The biggest difference when anglers aren’t using forward-facing sonar all day will be the need to cover more water. It might not quite be a complete return to the power fishing era ushered in by Kevin VanDam, when making the most casts and covering the most water often represented the winning formula; but expect to see more anglers burning down the banks with moving baits than in recent seasons.
“I’ll have to probably cover a lot more water than I’m used to fishing,” Jones said. “Now, it’ll be a lot more about locking into an area that has a good fish population and is semi-patternable.”
Gill’s rapid rise through the ranks has been built on using forward-facing sonar to make his bite percentage as high as possible by making accurate presentations and reading how bass react to certain baits. When he doesn’t have eyes underwater, it’ll be less about getting as many fish to bite as he can and more about maximizing the number of bass he can put a bait in front of.
“You’re going to have to find ways to dial up your efficiency, meaning moving baits and speed fishing, making a lot of moves,” Gill explained. “Making a lot of switches is going to be really important, not getting locked into picking something apart.
“Instead of being a scalpel, you’re going to have to be a chainsaw. It’s going to be a lot more bushwhacking.”
Wiggins thinks the non-forward-facing periods will look a lot like the tournament bass fishing of five years ago, with anglers either winding around the bank or using other electronics (and maybe even some throwback triangulation) to fish offshore.
“More guys are going to be fishing the bank,” he said. “And it’ll go back to being the old-school offshore fishing. You won’t be able to be as effective, but a lot of times, that’s the best place to be, even without forward-facing.”
Double the game plans
It might not be accurate to say that anglers can no longer spend their practice looking for one pattern or area that they can ride throughout an entire tournament. If they do, though, it won’t be a suspended-fish, forward-facing-based bite.
One of the best anglers in the world with forward-facing sonar, Drew Gill is developing a strategy for spending two-thirds of tournament competition without it during the 2025 Bass Pro Tour season. Photo by Phoenix Moore
“If you’re going to just worry about one (pattern), it better not be ‘Scope,” Jones said.
Jones, Gill and Wiggins each anticipate having to hone a two-pronged approach during practice for most of the events on the 2025 schedule — one they can utilize during their forward-facing period each day, and one for the other two stanzas. How much those strategies differ — and how much time they decide to invest in practicing for each — will likely depend on the fishery.
Each pro noted that there are several events on the 2025 slate where it doesn’t look like anglers will be able to rack up massive weights during their forward-facing sonar periods. Bedding bass could be a major player at Stage Two on the Harris Chain, Stage Three on Lake Murray, REDCREST on Lake Guntersville and Stage Four on Chickamauga and Nickajack. Plus, the ample shallow cover in both the Potomac River (Stage Six) and Saginaw Bay (Stage Seven) could make shallow power fishing dominant at both events.
“Depending on where we’re at, I’m probably going to spend 25% of my practice preparing for those ‘Scope periods, and the other 75% is going to be more traditional-style fishing,” Jones said.
Not only does Gill believe it will be necessary to find two distinct, productive patterns, but finding them in close proximity will be key, especially at events where catch counts are high.
“It’ll be important to have a secondary strategy that’s geographically close to your primary strategy because you won’t want to waste a bunch of run time,” he said. “If you’re wanting to fish up lake without it, you’re probably going to have to find something to fish up lake with it, or vice versa.”
Using ‘Scope to prepare for no ‘Scope?
The need to develop multiple plans of attack prior to each event will put extra pressure on pros to maximize their two-and-a-half-day official practice periods. One way they can do so will be by using forward-facing sonar, which is permitted during the entirety of practice. But that’s a tricky proposition.
All three anglers said it’s possible (and likely necessary) to use live sonar to identify a bite that they can take advantage of without the technology, but it’ll be important to recognize what is replicable without eyes under the water.
“Using (forward-facing sonar) during practice is still going to be a major, major part of my game plan,” said Jones, who was one of the earliest pros to embrace Garmin LiveScope. “Now, you have to be careful about how you use it. You don’t want to just go out and chase suspended fish that are constantly moving and isolated. But it’s such a big tool for understanding how the lake lays out, where they’re positioning, what type of cover they’re positioning on.”
Gill agreed, saying he can use forward-facing sonar to see how fish are relating to cover, how aggressive they are and gauge their size during practice so that he’s as efficient as possible when he returns during competition, even if he can no longer see them.
“The big thing is going to be using it to essentially read how fish are relating to things,” he explained. “Meaning, are they on the bottom? Are they relating to and suspending inside a piece of cover? Are they above the piece of cover? And understanding how far they’re willing to move for the bait.”
Wiggins and Jones also noted that forward-facing sonar can be a great tool for finding fish-holding cover from a distance during practice. Even without live sonar, they can mark those targets and return on derby day.
“When you see them on a rockpile, obviously you can make a waypoint, and you can pull back up there and make that cast,” Wiggins said. “Now, you won’t be able to see if they’re still there as easy, but it’s still going to make you a little bit more effective on new lakes where you don’t have a lot of waypoints. You’re going to be able to see stuff under the water and put a waypoint on it and then go back through without it.”
Picking the right period
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of the new rules will be when pros choose to use forward-facing sonar each day. Is it better to get off to a fast start in Period 1 and try to use what you learned from forward-facing to keep it rolling? Or is it more advantageous to know how much ground you need to make up with forward-facing at your disposal in Period 3?
CAP An early adopter and excellent angler with forward-facing sonar, Alton Jones Jr. is looking forward to sprinkling in some “traditional” techniques next season. Photo by Phoenix Moore
It’s a complex decision that the three pros said will likely vary by event. For instance, if there’s a certain time of day when fish are grouped up best offshore, it makes sense to maximize the forward-facing sonar period then. Or, if there’s a time when the non-forward-facing bite should be strongest, it might be wise to take advantage and save the technology for later.
“Let’s say we go to a lake with a shad spawn,” Wiggins said. “Obviously you don’t really need it with a shad spawn, because they’re on the bank most of the time. So, you’re not going to want to use it in the first period. If there’s some kind of a morning bite on the bank, you’re not going to want to waste it if you’re not looking at it. I think the guys that are going to do good are the ones who are going to find the bite without it, and then they’ll still have it in their back pocket later in the day as long as they’re catching enough to stay with the crowd without it.”
Not only will MLFNOW! viewers know which anglers have used their forward-facing period each day thanks to SCORETRACKER®, anglers will be able to get that information from their boat officials. Jones said he “absolutely” plans to use that to inform his decision-making.
“I want to know almost every fish coming across the SCORETRACKER®,” he said. “If someone is running up the SCORETRACKER®, yeah, I want to know, are they in their ‘Scope period, or are they not? Or, if this guy struggled, and he had his ‘Scope period early, and he’s a really good ‘Scoper, that should probably tell me that bite is not really developing quite yet.”
Get your bladed jig orders in now
One of the most common objections to forward-facing sonar was that it made some tournaments monotonous, with every angler in contention staring at a screen while shaking a spinning rod. Gill, Jones and Wiggins all believe the new regulations will result in more techniques seeing tournament action — to an extent.
Wiggins sounded the most bullish on the power fishing tools of yesteryear — bladed jigs, shallow crankbaits, jerkbaits and the like — making a resurgence. Jones also said he expects to see more pros winding ChatterBaits and spinnerbaits as well as flipping shallow cover, and he’s excited about that. However, he doesn’t think the jighead minnow is going away, even during non-forward-facing periods.
“People think it might be the death of the minnow, and that’s not going to be the case at all,” he posited. “You’re still going to see some guys using it. It’s going to get much more difficult to use. You’re going to have to be really in tune with how fast the bait sinks and how deep you’re wanting to fish it and where you think the fish are sitting. But I’m still going to be shaking a minnow over brushpiles in certain events even when I’m not in my forward-facing sonar period.”
Likewise, Gill thinks finesse techniques will still play a larger role than they did five to 10 years ago, as fish have gotten more educated since then.
“We’re not fishing for the fish of 2010 or 2004, we’re fishing against the fish of 2024 without (‘Scope),” he said. “And so, you’re going to see a lot of finesse fishing still.”
That said, Gill does think a few casting-rod techniques will get more play in his arsenal this season: jerkbaits, topwaters, line-through swimbaits and bladed jigs. All three anglers expect the latter offering to be especially popular in Top 10 Bait galleries in 2025.
“The ChatterBait is the GOAT of all power fishing techniques,” Gill said. “It’s the most dominant power technique we’ve ever seen, and it will be very prevalent, especially when you talk about the fact that we’re going to the Harris Chain, we’re going to the Potomac, and we’re going to Saginaw Bay. Those are three tournaments where it will be dumb dominant.”
The winning formula
Jones admitted he doesn’t know yet exactly how to build the perfect strategy for a new-look BPT event. There’s going to be a lot of trial and error early next season. Still, each angler offered a few predictions about the 2025 campaign.
Pros predict shallow power techniques, particularly bladed jigs, will be more popular on the Bass Pro Tour in 2025. Photo by Phoenix Moore
One of Jones’ is that flipping will make a major resurgence. He has one angler in mind who will benefit: Andy Morgan.
“I kind of circle Andy Morgan next year as a guy to really, really watch,” Jones said. “His shallow-water knowledge and experience is as good, if not better, than anybody in professional fishing right now, and I think you’re going to have some guys like that really benefit from the change.”
Gill, on the other hand, believes forward-facing sonar expertise will still play a significant role in determining which anglers routinely show up in Championship Rounds, predicting 60 to 65% of the weight caught all season will come from forward-facing sonar periods. That said, he recognizes that to win an event, an angler must be able to keep up the pace without live sonar.
“I did the math — every single Knockout Round that I made this year, I could have made on five hours in the Qualifying Round, two and a half hours a day,” Gill said. “And I could have made all but one Championship Round on just two and a half hours. But the difference is going to be in the Championship Round. The people that win the tournament are going to be the people with the best secondary strategy.”
Gill extended his prognosticating to the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race as well (in which he finished runner-up to Jacob Wheeler as a rookie in 2024). He thinks the average finish needed to win the $150,000 prize will dip a bit, meaning it will be less important to contend for the win at every event than to avoid a disastrous finish. For him, that means finding a way to finish in the middle of the pack even on days he doesn’t fare as well during his forward-facing sonar period.
“For Angler of the Year, the big thing is going to be curtailing the bomb,” he said. “This is just a statistical fact. Back when we didn’t have (forward-facing sonar), bombs were much more common, and the average finish of the Angler of the Year winner was much lower. It was much more likely for you to have a bomb than to not have a bomb.
“You’re going to have to curtail the bomb, meaning know how to survive. If you can be consistent and avoid a bomb, that’s going to be one of the most important factors.”
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