By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Scott Canterbury had the worst season of his long tour-level career in 2024, and he can point to several reasons for it. There were groups of fish he'd discovered during practice periods that disappeared once competition got under way, gambles that didn't pay off, weather changes that blew up solid game plans and failures to fully commit to using forward-facing sonar in events where that was "the deal."

The 2019 Bassmaster Angler of the Year is confident that this year will go down as an aberration on his career ledger, though. A lot of things – particularly the schedule – will be different next year and he thinks he can return to his former level of consistency.

"This year was kind of a weird phenomenon type of thing," he said. "I had some of the best practices I've had in the last 10 or 12 years, but it was one of those deals where you couldn't force it to happen if it didn't work out. I also gambled a little more trying to win, thinking I was on something special, and it didn't pay off.

"I've seen it happen – I'd seen good fishermen in a slump before – and everybody says you just have to fish your way out of it. I guess I'd been super-blessed because I'd never had to experience anything this bad. There was just something every tournament."

The 48-year-old from Alabama finished no higher than 43rd in any of the nine regular-season derbies en route to a placement of 86th on the final points list. He had two showings of 90th or worse and three others in the mid 70s. He also had a miserable Classic, placing 55th out of 56 competitors.

Some BassFans who've seen previously successful veterans like him struggle are quick to lump them all into a pile of "dinosaurs" who the game and its latest technology have passed by. He insists that's not the case for him and a lot of others – they're completely capable of using FFS to their advantage (even if it's something they'd prefer not to do). However, they have a hard time making the necessary commitment when it's the only ticket to a good finish, which means they must ignore all the other building blocks that form the foundation of their careers.

"It's not that tough for an older guy to learn," he said. "What is tough is getting enough confidence in it to set aside everything else that you know about fishing. It just dominated the whole Elite Series season this year. I'm not blaming anybody or anything – it's just the way it worked out."

B.A.S.S., Major League Fishing and the NPFL all have made changes to their rules regarding the use of FFS for top-level tournaments in 2025. B.A.S.S.' alterations are the least restrictive, basically just limiting the number of transducers and total screen inches with no constraints on how much the tech can be used.

Canterbury says the B.A.S.S. rule changes will have zero impact – anglers who are committed to using FFS and are skilled in the application will continue with business as usual. What he believes will make a difference is the schedule, which includes some venues where it should be less of an advantage and calendar changes for other events that should make then amenable to power-fishing techniques.

"I like the schedule a lot," he said. "I think there's several tournaments that could be won without FFS and some that will be more about fishing than not. Any type of river tournament allows you to get back to your roots a little more.

"I like having the St. Johns early like that (February) and I like the Sabine – you're not going to set any weight records there, but it's a good place to have a tournament, and I say that even though I didn't do good there last time (he was 66th in 2023). You can get a lot of bites and it's just a matter of catching the better fish. Lake Fork will probably be dominated by FFS again, but it's later in the year (just prior to the Sabine) and they might not be set up as high in the water column in the trees and they might not be as easy to catch on jerkbaits.

"I'm just ready to get the season started," he concluded. "I'm looking forward to putting this one behind me and having a good year."