Bryant Smith credits his success on the Bassmaster Elite Series tour to his extensive experience using live sonar on many diverse Western waters. (Photo courtesy of Bassmaster)
March 12, 2025
By David A. Brown
When Colby Pearson lifted the inaugural Bass Angler Tournament Trail Angler of the Year trophy on Sept. 22, 2023, his accomplishment reflected the Oregon pro’s views toward the game-changing technology dubbed “live” or “forward-facing” sonar (FFS). AOY titles represent consistency, and that requires a well-rounded repertoire, one in which forward-facing sonar holds a top-tier position.
From Garmin’s pioneering LiveScope to Lowrance Active Target and Humminbird MEGA Live , technological advancements have revolutionized angling recon. Summarily, this electronic looking glass provides critical decision-making detail by delivering real-time images of bass, baitfish and lures.
In winning the fledgling trail’s first two events—at Martinez Lake in Arizona and Lake Almanor in California—Pearson says FFS played a significant role in his success. Attributing his Almanor win and his fifth-place finish at the Columbia River to his LiveScope, Pearson says he’s found himself engaged by this developing technology since its inception about 7 years ago.
“I think it’s exciting. I’ve bass fished for 25 years now, and any new advent in technology or strategy is something that’s super engaging for me,” Pearson says. “We’re learning so much about bass behavior and how they react to our baits’ colors, profiles and actions. I think we’re hitting the nail on the head as far as how to effectively target these fish with modern technology.”
Advertisement
Tool for the Task Bottom line: You still have to “fish” for the bass, but FFS and the tackle designed to go with it simply facilitates the task. Give a seasoned contractor cutting-edge tools, and the house goes up quicker. Give those same tools to someone who’s never sawed a 2x4 and, well ... you know.
“I’m using every tool available, but I have multiple decades of fishing knowledge,” Pearson says. “Live sonar that’s not accompanied by a skilled angler will not put fish in the box.
“I use forward-facing sonar as an educational tool to make me more aware of fish behavior and location. Once you find where they are, there’s still a ton of intuitive strategy in terms of knowing what to do next and how to trigger that fish into biting.”
Advertisement
California pro Bryant Smith holds a similar view. Having fished the Bassmaster Elite Series for two years, he’s found his diverse Western background has served him well at various fisheries on the tour featuring everything from weedy shallows, like those found in the California Delta, to deep offshore bites similar to Shasta Lake. Smith calls New York’s St. Lawrence River smallmouth wonderland one of his favorite Elite Series fisheries for FFS, but he also found the technology requisite at Alabama’s Smith Lake.
“Without forward-facing sonar, I never would have been able to make a cast,” says Smith, who caught his fish at Smith with the FFS go-to, the Damiki rig. “The fish were suspended offshore, so there wasn’t a point to throw at. You were just throwing at the fish.”
Tailor-Made Tackle Given the game-changing potential FFS offers, there’s no questioning the impact this revolutionary technology has had on tackle development. Recent years have seen a slew of technique-specific items debuted at the International Consortium of Allied Sporting Trades (ICAST) show, and the 2024 event was no exception. “The industry is doing what it always does,” says Smith. “It adjusts to the newest fishing tactics. You’re seeing more finesse stuff.”
Indeed, ICAST’s notable newbies included several petite baitfish impersonators for the “jighead minnow” technique, along with the hardware on which they’re fished. Examples include the Missile Baits Spunk Shad 3.0 , the Bass Mooch Kud-B and the Yamamoto Scope Shad , with its plump body and split tail.
Yamamoto’s Scope Shad Strike King’s new Homing Minnow comprises a paddle-tail swimbait pre-rigged on a 1/4-ounce head. For the DIY types, Do-It Molds has introduced a new hover jig mold for the ultra-finessey “hover strolling” technique.
Strike King’s Homing Minnow In the hardbait category, jerkbaits have been an FFS mainstay, and Shimano has introduced the Zumverno 115 SP MR , with a nose-down posture that yields enhanced live-sonar returns. Yo-Zuri brought out the 3DR-X Flat Heavy Minnow , a fast-sinking, countdown-style bait with a wobbling descent.
One of the more versatile presentations often used with FFS is the “riser” style bait (termed for the trailblazing Jackall Riser), a small baitfish profile with an upturned lip that you can work at the surface or twitch below. Berkley brought out the Krej (“jerk” spelled backward), while Strike King introduced its Evader .
Berkley’s Krej jerkbait Complementing technique-tooled baits, ICAST also saw rod makers bring new FFS-optimized rods to market. Halo leaned on reigning Bassmaster Classic champion Justin Hamner to help design the Halo BB Series Jerkbait rod , based on the features that helped Hamner win the sport’s biggest crown. Cashion created a series of four Icon FFS rods, while the St. Croix PHYSYX Minnow Shaker Rod is tooled to provide optimal control for the jighead minnow technique.
St. Croix’s PHYSYX Minnow Shaker Rod FFS innovation has even extended to fishing line, with Sunline introducing a sinking brain called Almight that helps get lighter baits down in the water column.
Apropos Application As Pearson notes, the term “scoping” (a colloquial contraction of LiveScoping), often suffers inaccurate pigeon holing. It can be a singular thing, but there’s more to the story.
“Sometimes, anglers use it to target a specific fish. But situationally, I’m using my LiveScope units close to 100 percent of the time I’m on the water,” Pearson says. “It isn’t necessarily seeking and targeting fish, but gathering that information. A lot of the fish I catch, I see them spook off a piece of structure or cover with my LiveScope. So, I’m not ‘scoping’ that fish by common nomenclature, but I’m saying, ‘There were some fish using this area as a residence, or they’re feeding here. Can I come back in an hour and have a more stealthy approach?’”
In the broader view, Pearson summarizes FFS as an information gathering tool. Think: financial analysts reporting critical data to the shot callers.
“I use my FFS more comprehensively than most in my region because I’m using it to find structure, cover, thermoclines, baitfish, juvenile bass, large bass…,” Pearson says. “I’m really using it to study the entire ecosystem and then make informed decisions based on what I’m gathering.”
Experienced on a broad spectrum of western bass waters, Pearson’s quick to note that the role FFS plays changes by scenario. For instance, when he’s flipping/punching heavy cover, this technology won’t help him spot fish. It will, however, show him baitfish darting in and out of cover—a frequent indicator of promising grass mats.
Furthermore, experienced anglers often talk of fish growing wise to FFS. Pearson says he’s seen scenarios where running his beam across bass in the water column made the fish move when they normally would not.
“Also, if you’re not dialed in on the right species, you’ll be chasing ghosts,” he says. “Channel catfish and carp are extremely easy to mistake for a bass, and if someone gets out on a flat and they’re chasing those around, they’re not even on the right species.”
Smith agrees and notes that forward-facing sonar is not simply an electronic cast net. “You gotta do it and see how it works,” he says. “It is not ‘see a fish, catch a fish.’ There’s a lot of skill. You can’t just point and click. There are days when I throw at 100 fish on FFS and only 5 or 6 of them bite.”
In the Spotlight So, what defines an FFS bait? Honestly, it’s mostly your willingness to throw it. However, manufacturers have invested a lot of R&D effort into developing baits with a bolder sonar image.
Booyah’s Flash Point Jerkbait For example, Booyah’s Flash Point Jerkbait was designed with a blade across the forehead to increase sonar return, while creating subtle flashes on the retrieve. Elsewhere, the new Bill Lewis Depth Strike , a lipless sinking twitch bait, has a hard shimmy to throw off maximum flash, but a deadly backward fall that triggers followers.
Bill Lewis Depth Strike For the jighead minnow technique, Pearson prefers a tungsten jig because it shows up better on sonar. To this point, VMC debuted the Redline Series Tungsten Swimbait Jig made with a custom PTFE-coated vanadium steel needle-point 1X hook. Taking a different course, Lindy’s new B-Max Jigs use a bismuth blend for a harder-than-lead head that offers greater sensitivity and strong sonar readings.
VMC Redline Series Tungsten Swimbait Jig As for baits, perfecting the realistic minnow profile seems to be a major objective, and we’re seeing a lot of attention focused on creating baits with a subtle wiggle. The 2 3/4-inch Great Lakes Finesse Hover Minnow sports a small fork tail and a concave belly for a rocking, spiraling, darting action. Meanwhile, the Zoom Shimmer Shad features a slim baitfish design, ribbed skeleton rear section and a forked tail made to quiver regardless of speed.
Great Lakes Finesse Hover Minnow One of the most impressive introductions billed as an FFS-specific bait is the Z-Man Graph ShadZ . The bait’s appearance is notable enough, but the head design addresses one of the critical details essential to what has become the most common FFS technique: the jighead minnow—aka “moping,” or Damiki—rigging.
While casting this simple rig definitely has its place, a vertical presentation often tempts those difficult suspenders. This ruse requires perfectly horizontal bait posture, so the leader knot must remain exactly centered on the line tie.
Z-Man Graph ShadZ Z-Man addressed this with the Graph ShadZ by placing the line tie on the molded jig head’s underside. Passing the leader through the top of the head and then tying it underneath holds the bait at that ideal posture.
For clarity, neither FFS nor the baits and tackle the technology has spawned will catch fish. You’ve still got to do the rod work yourself. But while tasks don’t change, tooling does. Savvy anglers learn to employ the new stuff without forgetting the fundamentals.
“You’ve seen it progress very quickly as everything is working together to make forward-facing sonar the most effective [innovation] we’ve ever had,” Smith says. “It’s like an arms race; we’re all trying to find the best tools to help us catch more fish.”
This article was featured in the February 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
