B.A.S.S. officials announced last week rules to continue the use of forward-facing and live sonar during the 2024 Elite Series season . . . BUT the organization is creating a committee to continuously monitor the use of live sonar, listen to angler feedback and gauge the technology’s impact on competition, fan experience and bass populations.
While that may mean not much—just a nod to the noted anglers who recently came out expressing concern that the new technology will impact fish populations—it might also result in improved tournament experiences as well as fishery management. These tournament organizations have the ear of many state fishery agencies and B.A.S.S. has long worked in cooperation with them.
However B.A.S.S. and Major League Fishing (MLF) both rely on the marine electronics industry for financial support, so they have to be careful where they head with this in terms of their bottom line.
To further complicate the issue, supporting a technology that a lot of their paying members don’t like/don’t want/can’t afford might become an issue, as well.
The idea that forward scan/live scope might be an issue has been somewhat of a hot topic this spring—enough so that Wired2Fish popped an April 1 headline “12 States to Ban Use of Livescope on State Fisheries” and some readers fell for it.
That was on April 1, note. . .
We can’t help but be reminded of past so-called quantum leaps in fish catching tech that were mostly advertising hype—the Helicopter Lure and others that were supposedly “Banned in 10 States!” because they were too effective.
There are a few lures that actually are banned in some states, too. The “Alabama Rig” AKA the umbrella rig, with up to six lures on an umbrella-like wire frame, is illegal in Minnesota and some other states and is also banned in B.A.S.S. competition. But the damned thing is so onerous to throw and so prone to snagging that most anglers don’t use it anyway unless they are fishing in unrestricted tournaments for cash.
But forward scan and live sonar truly are quantum leaps—commercial fishing technology brought to the front of thousands of bass, walleye and crappie boats nationwide, as well as to coastal fisheries. They allow finding and catching countless open water fish that anglers never knew about before—perhaps the reserve populations of many lakes that continued to feed the quality of fishing along the shorelines and around offshore structure where most anglers fish.
What happens if we now have a lot of anglers with the tools to harvest these fish fishing the top level tournaments, while most of the rest of us do not have the technology?
B.A.S.S. wisely is looking to find out.
As part of the monitoring, the committee will review data gathered internally to evaluate live sonar’s impact throughout the coming Elite season. A review of onboard technology being used by each Elite Series angler will be conducted by tournament staff and the committee at the beginning of the 2024 season. Subsequent surveys of the Top 10 following each Elite event will also cover the time spent using live sonar and the positioning of transducers.
That data will be reported to the committee alongside information such as catch rates and tournament weights to paint a more accurate picture of the technology’s significance to competitive bass fishing.
B.A.S.S. has emphasized that the organization is committed to listening to anglers, fans and industry insiders while monitoring and evaluating the use of these tools and studying how they impact both competition and fan experience.
For more information on how the committee and B.A.S.S. will evaluate forward-facing technology during the 2024 Elite Series season, visit Bassmaster.com.
And meantime, if you hope to win any big money tournaments in the near future, better go ahead and take the plunge on one of the Garmin/Humminbird/Lowrance live scan sonars.
By Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com