The 55-Inch Screen Limit: How to Rig a Compliant 2026 Boat

The equipment limits Bassmaster introduced for the 2025 season — one live sonar transducer per boat, and a maximum of 55 combined inches of screen space — carried forward unchanged into 2026's hybrid FFS schedule. They apply at every event where forward-facing sonar is legal this season, and getting the planning right before you install anything saves real cost and hassle compared to discovering a compliance problem at the boat ramp.

What the rule actually says

Two separate limits apply together: first, no more than one live sonar (forward-facing) transducer may be run per boat, regardless of how many displays you're using to view its output. Second, the combined diagonal screen size of applicable displays may not exceed 55 inches total. These limits were introduced for the 2025 season specifically in response to concerns that unlimited FFS hardware — multiple transducers, banks of dedicated screens — was giving some anglers an equipment advantage disconnected from skill, and they remain in place for every FFS-permitted event in 2026's hybrid schedule.

Why these specific limits were chosen

The one-transducer and 55-inch figures aren't arbitrary — they reflect an attempt to set a ceiling generous enough to accommodate a genuinely functional, competitive FFS setup while still constraining the more extreme multi-transducer, bank-of-screens configurations some anglers had adopted before the limits existed. A single transducer with a reasonably sized display or two comfortably fits within 55 inches for most practical setups, meaning the rule's primary effect is preventing the most equipment-heavy configurations rather than meaningfully constraining a standard, well-planned single or dual-display setup. Understanding this helps frame the limit correctly: for most anglers planning a sensible setup rather than trying to maximize total screen real estate, 55 inches is a comfortable working budget rather than a tight constraint requiring difficult tradeoffs.

How this interacts with your non-FFS displays

It's worth being clear that traditional sonar, chartplotting, and other non-FFS-related displays generally exist outside this specific limit's primary target, though — as noted above — exact scope for combined multi-function displays showing both FFS and traditional data on one screen is a detail worth confirming rather than assuming. Anglers running a dedicated, FFS-only display separate from their traditional sonar and mapping displays have a cleaner compliance picture than anglers relying entirely on multi-function displays blending everything into fewer physical screens, simply because the boundary between "counts toward the limit" and "doesn't count" is more clearly drawn when the display's primary function is unambiguous.

Planning your screen allocation before you buy anything

The 55-inch limit covers your total screen space for applicable displays, not just your FFS display specifically — which means every display decision on your boat interacts with this budget. A common approach splits the 55 inches across two displays: a larger primary unit for FFS and general sonar/mapping, plus a smaller secondary unit for supplementary views. Another approach runs a single large display close to the full 55-inch allowance, using split-screen software to view multiple sonar modes simultaneously on the one screen rather than physically separate displays.

Two-display example allocation

A 32-inch primary display paired with a 23-inch secondary display totals 55 inches combined — using the full allowance across two screens, giving flexibility to dedicate one display primarily to FFS and the other to traditional sonar or mapping.

Single-display example allocation

A single 50-inch display leaves 5 inches of headroom under the limit, letting an angler run one large, high-resolution screen with split-screen views rather than managing multiple physical units — a simpler physical installation at the cost of losing the ability to glance at two fully separate, simultaneously visible screens.

The one-transducer rule and what it means for combo setups

Because only one live sonar transducer is permitted, anglers running a combo system that includes both forward-facing and traditional imaging need to confirm exactly which transducer components count toward this limit. A single transducer housing that includes both FFS and traditional imaging elements is generally treated differently from physically separate FFS and traditional transducers — but exact interpretation is a detail worth confirming directly with tournament officials for your specific hardware configuration rather than assuming based on general product descriptions.

Practical steps to confirm compliance before an event

1. Measure your actual installed displays, not just their advertised size, and add the diagonal measurements together.
2. Confirm which displays count — dedicated sonar-only screens versus multi-function displays showing sonar alongside other data may be treated differently, and this is worth confirming rather than assuming.
3. Verify your transducer configuration against the one-transducer rule, particularly for combo units bundling multiple sonar types.
4. Check current rules before every season, not just once — these limits have already changed once (introduced for 2025, carried into 2026's different overall FFS framework) and could be revised again in future seasons.