By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Jacob Wheeler is one of the foremost practitioners of forward-facing sonar in professional bass fishing and he used the technology extensively on his way to winning three of the past four MLF Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) titles.

For the 2025 campaign, which gets under way at Lake Conroe in Texas at the end of this month, BPT pros will be limited to using FFS for only one 2 1/2-hour period out of the three that make up a competition day. Does that regulation perturb the No. 1 angler in the BassFan World Rankings?

Not in the slightest.

"I think it's going to be awesome to change it up," Wheeler said. "Collectively, more guys are fishing offshore than ever before (due to FFS) and those fish are getting more pressure than they ever have. You used to be able to reel a swimbait over a brushpile and get fish to come up 4 or 5 feet to eat it, and now you have to get it just inches above them to get them to react.

"I think it's going to slow down the ScoreTracker at some tournaments because it's not going to be easy to be as efficient out there as we have been. Guys will turn to other things like fishing visual cover and swimming a jig. More of the shallow-water stuff will come back into play. I'm looking forward to it, for sure, and it should be a lot of fun."

The 34-year-old Wheeler is well-versed in the history of the sport that he's been obsessed with since he was a small child, and he's quick to point out that electronics have played a big role in it since well before he was born. He's just as expedient to acknowledge, however, that technology has never dominated like it does presently and the recent competition scenario wasn't ideal for the sport from the perspective of fan interest.

"I've had so many people reach out to me who are excited to see both (conventional and high-tech tactics)," he said. "It's something the sport needs. Personally, I love having 20 rods on my deck and junk-fishing whatever's in front of me.

"It's a really cool move. There will still be big numbers of fish caught (using FFS) and new techniques will keep coming out of it, but it's not going to be the only thing going on."

Which anglers are likely to benefit the most from this change? As examples, Wheeler pointed to a couple of veterans with the same first name who've built their careers around catching fish from depths that wouldn't reach their necks if they were standing on the bottom.

"I think it's really going to help the true shallow-water guys like Andy Morgan and Andy Montgomery," he said. "If the pace of the ScoreTracker slows down, they're not going to feel like they have to conform to what other guys are doing and they can completely focus on what they do, like flipping and pitching and power-fishing in shallow water. They can fish exclusively to their own skill set and style.

"There have been tournaments where anglers I never thought I'd see fishing offshore were out there trying to commit to it when bass were on the bank everywhere. I don't want to name names, but I was like, 'hey guys, it's not easy out here.' Those guys will know when there's enough fish on the bank to make a Top-20 or a Top-15 and they won't feel like they have to be out there."

From a fan's standpoint, he said viewers who watch live tournament coverage hoping to learn from the pros have suffered from the proliferation of FFS. Prior to the limitations, there was really no solution to that.

"It's really difficult to totally focus on your graph and at the same time communicate to the fans what's happening," he said. "If you miss a dot that's suspended 100 feet down because you're talking to the camera, that might cost you a tournament. You have to be so locked in.

"For the fans, this'll be a happy medium. You're still going to have anglers whose strength is electronics, but it's not just going to be the whole sport. FFS has helped me become more efficient, for sure, but this will allow more old-school and conventional stuff to be a part of it.

"It's something that the sport needs."