There’s no doubt that forward-facing sonar has completely changed the landscape of bass fishing forever. And we knew that here on Fork this week, it was going to play a big role. But something I didn’t anticipate, is that forward-facing sonar for many anglers fishing offshore could be rendered obsolete by another recent advancement in technology paired with an age-old adversary of bass anglers- spot lock and wind.
We saw extremely heavy wind on Fork this morning, likely 15-20 MPH sustained with gusts beyond that. So anglers looking to fish offshore had little choice but to position their boats upwind from their fishing holes and then cast backward to fish, some even opting to fish from the back deck while their trolling motors held them in place.
With most forward-facing sonar transducers mounted to the trolling motor shaft and pointed in the same direction as the trolling motor, this had the transducer pointed in the exact opposite direction of where the fish were, making it useless.
With the invention and effectiveness of forward-facing sonar came the question, ‘What could they possibly come up with next?’
Well, I’m gonna go ahead and call it. I believe the next addition to the already ridiculous amount of technology on these bass boats won’t be new tech, but instead a new location for it. It won’t be long before you see one of these guys mount a forward-facing sonar transducer on some sort of shaft on the back deck of the boat so that their trolling motors can hold them in place, while they pan around looking for fish to cast to.
This will likely only be necessary or useful on ledge fishing tournaments 2 or 3 times a year for these pros. But with $100k up for grabs each time, someone will try it. And if they do good doing it, the arms race will soar to new heights once again.
