Story by Hunter Sales | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
This week, I will be taking a break from my usual topics focused on youth fishing to talk about my future plans and shed some light on what went into the decision. After the NPFL made a decision to ban live sonar for 2025, I have fielded the question “What are you going to do in 2025?” hundreds of times.
It’s a fair question considering that in 2024, I weighed in approximately 75% of my bass utilizing the technology and have invested countless hours learning the nuances of the technology and applicable techniques. I was quick to answer that I had loved my time with NPFL and without this ban, would have no doubt on where I would be competing in the imminent future. My sponsors enjoyed great coverage, and I enjoyed the culture of the league and payouts.
I had to do some serious soul searching on what my goals are and what direction I believed the industry was heading. At the end of the day, I decided that I will be fishing the NPFL again in 2025. The coverage, payouts, schedule, and culture was something that I could not resist despite the ban of live sonar.
As we’ve discussed in this column numerous times, the financial side of professional fishing can be daunting. It is no secret that without sponsorship support it is nearly impossible for anglers to make the math work out in their favor. We are walking promoters of products in multiple industries and the impressions we make are valuable.
The National Professional Fishing League’s live coverage, on the water photos, and web page columns served me extremely well in 2024. I was able to provide my sponsors with quarterly reports that included high quality content and use this same content to grow my social media presence. The small field size of the NPFL made it much easier to earn media opportunities and attention, something that was lacking when I found myself fishing events with much larger field sizes. This was perhaps one of the biggest factors in my decision for 2025.
We’ll lump the payouts and schedule into this paragraph together as they were interdependent in my decision. The schedule sets up well when you consider the lack of live sonar usage. Live sonar shines when the fish are set-up away from the shore and in open water scenarios. We don’t have any real pre-spawn events on the schedule as the season-opener on Santee Cooper should feature a wave of fish that are already near the spawn. We continue the season on fisheries where structure fishing can play a dominant role, something that I grew up doing before LiveScope became a necessity.
I would be amiss to not mention the excitement that I have for a home-lake event on Douglas Lake in Jefferson County, Tennessee. This should be an excellent event, and the opportunity to fish for $100,000 on one of my favorite lakes in the country was a major draw. Furthermore, the plans for 2025 are to pay all the way to 45th place out of 130 boats. This means nearly 35% of the field will be making a profit at each event, something that is unmatched at any other level of the sport currently.
Finally, the culture of the league is something that could be easily missed by fans of the sport, but plays a major part in my decision. In times where bass fishing’s integrity has came to question in many instances, I believe the NPFL has done a great job enforcing their rules. Furthermore, the entire staff (Brad, Michelle, Big Al, Paul Benson, Shaun Mulhall, and Ken Duke come to mind first) have always been supportive of my personal goals and willing to help when an issue arose.
This sport can certainly be lonely when you spend so much time on the road and knowing that you’ve got a supportive tournament staff to keep you on the water and provide media opportunities is invaluable to an angler. I’m not sure what the decision to ban live sonar will do in the long run, but I am confident in this league’s ability to navigate whatever comes our way.
I’ll conclude by saying that I’m extremely excited to have this decision in the rearview so that I can begin preparing for 2025. In addition to the typical sponsorship talks and boat rigging, this off-season will consist of a lot of time spent fishing without live sonar. It may take my attention span a while to adjust to the lack of constant stimulation, but honestly, I’m excited to be able to home in on the instincts that I learned while growing up. I’m also excited to fight the perception that all of the young anglers are “just scopers”!
Maybe we’ll catch some on the bank in 2025!
Hunter Sales – Angler Profile
