Forward facing sonar is one of those topics that instantly splits bass fishing in half right now.
After watching the video Mark Daniels Jr. posted talking about it potentially being banned, I found myself thinking through both sides of the argument. And honestly, I get where both sides are coming from.
On one side, I understand the frustration. Forward facing sonar has changed the game in a way that feels different from anything we’ve seen before. It takes a lot of the “searching” out of fishing and replaces it with real time information that older generations of anglers never had access to. There’s an argument that it makes fishing less about intuition and water reading and more about electronics interpretation and target identification.
And I don’t think that argument is crazy.
But on the other side, this is what fishing has always done. It evolves.
There was a time when flipping jigs into heavy cover was considered an unfair advantage. There was a time when braided line, GPS, spot lock trolling motors, and even sonar itself changed how people fished and created the same kind of pushback we’re seeing now.
Forward facing sonar is just the latest version of that evolution. It didn’t create the idea of catching fish, it just changed the efficiency of finding and targeting them.
And the reality is, once a technology becomes widely adopted and proven in competition, it becomes extremely hard to walk it back. At the highest levels of tournament fishing, guys are not just going to “not use it” if it’s available. That’s not how competition works.
Personally, I side with the idea that it’s here to stay.
Not because I think it’s perfect, and not because I think every aspect of it is great for the sport, but because that’s just how fishing progresses. The anglers who adapt tend to stay competitive, and the ones who don’t usually get left behind.
I don’t think the answer is banning it. I think the answer is learning how to compete with it, understand it, and evolve your own approach to fishing as it becomes more common.
At the end of the day, fishing has always been a mix of skill, timing, and tools. The tools just keep changing.
Forward facing sonar is no different.
If anything, it just raises the bar for how much you actually understand about fish behavior and structure.
And like it or not, that’s where the sport is headed.