Bassmaster Just Flipped 9 Coins on Live TV: Here Are the 4 Elite Series Events That Just Banned Forward-Facing Sonar for 2026
On Thursday morning, September 4, 2026, B.A.S.S. did something no other major fishing league has ever done on live TV: it flipped nine coins on the air, and by the time the last one landed, four of the nine 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series regular-season venues had officially gone "no-scope." No forward-facing sonar. Not in competition, not in practice, not at all.
It is, by a wide margin, the biggest rules story bass fishing has produced this year — and it lands right in the middle of the sport's short offseason, before the 2027 qualifying stakes are set.
If you missed the reveal, or you've seen conflicting versions of the list floating around social media, here's the clean version of what happened, which venues fell on which side of the coin, and how it stacks up against MLF's very different approach for 2026.
The Rule, In One Paragraph
For the 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series, forward-facing live sonar (FFS) will be legal at only five of the nine regular-season events. The other four will ban FFS entirely — including during official practice. The Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic on the Tennessee River in March remains "all-tech," because the field qualified under 2025 rules. Existing 2025 hardware limits carry over: one FFS transducer per boat and a 55-inch total screen-size cap. (Bassmaster)
Which venues got which designation was not up to a committee. B.A.S.S. paired the schedule into four two-event blocks by geography, then coin-flipped each pair on live TV. The season-ending St. Lawrence River, the only unpaired event, got its own solo flip — meaning up to five events could have gone non-FFS. (Bassmaster)
Four did.
The Full 2026 Elite Series Coin-Flip Results
Here is the complete verdict from the September 4 reveal, in schedule order:
| # | Dates | Venue | Host | FFS in 2026? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feb 5–8 | Lake Guntersville | Scottsboro, AL | BANNED |
| 2 | Feb 12–15 | Lake Martin | Alexander City, AL | Allowed |
| 3 | Mar 26–29 | Tenn-Tom Waterway | Columbus, MS | BANNED |
| 4 | Apr 16–19 | Arkansas River | Muskogee, OK | Allowed |
| 5 | May 7–10 | Lake Murray | Columbia, SC | Allowed |
| 6 | May 14–17 | Santee Cooper Lakes | Clarendon County, SC | BANNED |
| 7 | Jun 11–14 | Pasquotank River / Albemarle Sound | Elizabeth City, NC | Allowed |
| 8 | Aug 13–16 | Lake Champlain | Plattsburgh, NY | BANNED |
| 9 | Aug 27–30 | St. Lawrence River | Clayton, NY | Allowed |
Read that Champlain line one more time. The most notorious smallmouth-and-scope fishery on the schedule — the lake where forward-facing sonar effectively rewrote how anglers fish suspended smallies — will be fished blind in 2026. If you follow the sport, that is the single most consequential line in the table.
The other head-turners:
- Guntersville, the season opener and one of the most famous grass-and-ledge lakes in bass fishing, is non-FFS. That fundamentally changes how February gets fished — expect a swimbait, ChatterBait, lipless and vibrating-jig show, plus old-school offshore work with side-imaging and 2D.
- Santee Cooper, a shallow, stained-water complex that plays into flippers and shallow-cranking pros anyway, went non-FFS — arguably the most "so-what" of the four bans.
- Tenn-Tom in late March removes a scope crutch on a fishery that has historically rewarded gizzard-shad chasers and bank-beaters.
- St. Lawrence kept FFS, meaning the season finale — where scoping smallmouth is basically the sport now — is still an all-tech shootout.
Why B.A.S.S. Did It This Way
The last three seasons of the Elite Series have been dominated by one question in the comments section of every livestream: is this fishing, or is it video game bass? B.A.S.S. CEO Chase Anderson said the coin-flip format was designed "to create transparency in choosing venues, parity in fishing styles, and highlight varied skills." (Bassmaster)
The politics are less diplomatic. B.A.S.S. was under pressure from two loud constituencies at once:
- Older veterans and traditionalists who argue FFS has flattened the sport, turned suspended offshore smallmouth into a target-rich playground, and made experience less valuable.
- Sponsors and broadcast partners who want the Elite Series to look skill-based on TV — because a screen-staring shootout is not what casual viewers tune in for.
The random draw solves an old problem: nobody can accuse B.A.S.S. of protecting favorite pros by handpicking which venues are FFS and which are not. A coin doesn't have a favorite.
How This Compares to MLF's 2026 FFS Rules
MLF took a very different tack — no bans, but hard usage limits, enforced by hardware. On the Bass Pro Tour and across MLF circuits in 2026:
- Up to two forward-facing or 360 transducers on a boat, in any combination.
- Anglers pick one of the day's three competition periods to use FFS, and must declare in advance. Once a period starts, they cannot add FFS mid-period.
- Co-anglers may bring a portable FFS transducer, but only during the boater's declared 3-hour window; if the boater skips FFS entirely, co-anglers get the final three hours.
- No auto-sweep aftermarket rigs that spin side-imaging transducers to fake forward imaging.
- Enforcement is real: electronic lock boxes that track unlock time, plus live-streaming security cameras in every pro's boat. (Major League Fishing)
Two philosophies, side by side: B.A.S.S. bans the tool at some venues; MLF meters the clock everywhere. Neither approach is obviously "right," but 2026 will effectively become a controlled experiment between them.
The Fan Reaction Is Loud and Split
The response online has been anything but subtle. On one side, comments like "Thank god. Ban it on the smallmouth tourneys." On the other, veteran anglers and content creators worrying about a generational split — one commenter framed it as "the next generation of fishermen will pivot to another series." Ben Milliken went hard against the rule with a YouTube segment titled "B.A.S.S. just BANNED Livescope and will PAY for It!!" (Outdoor Life)
Most pros stayed publicly neutral in the first 24 hours. Expect that to change quickly as practice for 2026 gets closer and the roster of who's advantaged versus who's exposed becomes clearer.
What This Actually Changes on the Water
Take the 2025 Elite results at Champlain and mentally rerun them without scope. The scoping smallmouth game is out. What comes back?
- Drop-shotting classic humps and rock piles — 2D and side-imaging only.
- Ned rigs and tubes on bottom targets — you find the fish with side-imaging, then you fish them, not spy on them.
- Wave-current smallmouth, wind-blown banks, and largemouth in the northern grass — patterns older Elite pros grew up on.
- Practice becomes the entire tournament, again. In the FFS era, top pros often spend practice mapping cover and locating schools; in a non-FFS event, practice is the reveal. You cannot re-scout schools of suspended fish on Day 1 the way you can with a scope.
At Guntersville in February, expect a very different Day 1 leaderboard than 2025. FFS at Guntersville has been used less for the fishery's headline patterns anyway (bladed jigs, swimbaits, jerkbaits in cold water). The non-FFS designation there is a smaller practical change than at Champlain, but a bigger symbolic one — B.A.S.S. is willing to start the season with the technology off.
What's Next: The September Bass Tournament Calendar
The Elite Series and Bass Pro Tour have both wrapped their 2026 regular seasons. But bass tournament fishing does not go dark in September — several major events set the qualifying picture for 2027:
- MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Championship — September 18–20, Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, Florida. Forty anglers, up to $135,000 to the winner, top finishers earn Bass Pro Tour advancement. Florida-in-September is essentially an unknown quantity for a big national field. (Major League Fishing)
- NPFL Stop 6 — September 17–19, Lake George, New York. National Professional Fishing League regular-season final. (Best On Tour)
- Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers (EQ) — September 23–25, Norfork Lake, Arkansas. The EQ trail is the primary path onto the 2027 Elite Series, so every point matters here.
If you're a bass-fishing content-follower who takes a September nap between Elite seasons — don't. The Kissimmee championship in particular is a rare Florida-in-September big-field event, and the EQ standings tighten fast this time of year.
What to Watch Between Now and February
The 2026 Elite Series opens Feb 5–8 at Guntersville. Between now and then, three things are worth tracking:
- Practice-only bans matter more than they sound. At the four non-FFS events, anglers cannot use scope even in official practice — which historically has been a heavy scouting phase. Expect pros to spend far more offseason time on Google Earth, historical tournament footage, and old-school pre-fishing outside official practice windows.
- Boat setups will bifurcate. Some pros will rig two boats — one FFS-heavy, one FFS-stripped. Others will run one boat and just leave the transducer off at non-FFS events. Rigging habits (screen count, mount location, wiring) will change accordingly.
- The 2027 rule question is already open. B.A.S.S. has not committed to the 4-of-9 ratio for 2027. If the 2026 season produces good TV and good angler feedback, expect the ban list to hold or grow. If ratings tank at non-FFS events, expect the pendulum to swing back.
The one thing nobody in bass fishing can say anymore is "the technology question will figure itself out." On September 4, a coin figured it out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which four 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series events banned forward-facing sonar? Lake Guntersville (Feb 5–8), Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (Mar 26–29), Santee Cooper Lakes (May 14–17), and Lake Champlain (Aug 13–16). At these four events, FFS is banned in both competition and official practice.
Is forward-facing sonar allowed at the 2026 Bassmaster Classic? Yes. The 2026 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic on the Tennessee River (March 13–15, Knoxville) will remain "all-tech" and allow FFS, because the Classic field qualified under 2025 rules.
How did B.A.S.S. decide which events allow FFS? B.A.S.S. paired the 9-event schedule into four geographic two-event pairs, then flipped a coin for each pair on a live show September 4, 2026 — one event in each pair got FFS, one didn't. The St. Lawrence River, the only unpaired event, received its own solo coin flip and kept FFS.
Does MLF have the same forward-facing sonar rules as B.A.S.S. for 2026? No. MLF did not ban FFS at any Bass Pro Tour event. Instead, MLF limits anglers to two FFS-or-360 transducers per boat, requires each angler to declare which one of the day's three competition periods they'll use FFS in, and enforces the rule with electronic lock boxes and onboard cameras.
When does the 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series season start? The season opens February 5–8, 2026 at Lake Guntersville in Scottsboro, Alabama — one of the four non-FFS venues. The season closes at the St. Lawrence River in Clayton, New York, August 27–30.
What major bass tournaments are being fished in September 2026? Three high-stakes events: the MLF Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Championship on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes (Sept 18–20), NPFL Stop 6 at Lake George, New York (Sept 17–19), and the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers on Norfork Lake, Arkansas (Sept 23–25).
Sources: B.A.S.S. announces coin-flip results, B.A.S.S. Live Sonar rule change announcement, 2026 Elite Series schedule, MLF 2026 FFS rules, Outdoor Life reaction coverage, MLF Pro Circuit Championship at Kissimmee.