0:00

Lines and times. My best friend Wes Logan back in the building, Man,

0:05

Florida, really great for you, huh. It went good. It

0:09

went good. It could have been a little bit better, but definitely blessed

0:12

to get out of there with two decent finishes and when you finished the fiftieth

0:16

had a really bad day three, But I'll still take it after the practice

0:20

I had and my history on that place. So practice was bad, it

0:26

wasn't great. I thought I could get some bytes, but I didn't know

0:29

if I could get a big bite, And then got real fortunate on the

0:32

first day and caught two real good ones and it kind of just it really

0:35

went downhill from now. But haven't we talked about this before where you could

0:39

have a really bad practice, but sometimes that means you're gonna have a really

0:42

good tournament. Most of the time that's how it happens. Hardly ever,

0:45

have I had a great practice and just went out there and it just it

0:48

kept working. So what makes a great practice then, because in my mind

0:52

it would be if you're actually catching them, that makes a great practice,

0:56

but that probably isn't the case. No, I'd see I get real worried

1:00

I've done it enough I know, like when I'm practicing, if I run

1:03

over here and do this and catch a big one and then go do something

1:06

else trying to figure something else out and catch another big one, and then randomly catch another big one, you like you stop and look at the day.

1:11

You're like, well, I had twenty five pounds, but I really

1:14

didn't figure anything out. I just happened to get a random lucky bite that

1:18

day. And if you don't really have anything to go on, I feel

1:21

like great practices are you get a couple bytes doing the same thing, happen

1:25

to see that, you get one or two big bites, and you're able to put a pattern together and then look at the weather and think, Okay,

1:30

maybe it's gonna get better, or they're gonna move, you know,

1:34

stuff like that. Just get a little bit of a hint, and then

1:36

during the tournament it really developed. That's a good practice solely for you.

1:41

Is I figured out I've really keyed in how to get a bait, the

1:45

like where they're biting, what time they're biting, in what section of the

1:49

lake. Yes, especially in Florida, because I feel like if you're getting

1:53

bites, like you may be catching pound and a half ers, but you

1:56

could very easily catch an eight the next cast like figuring that out. You

2:00

guys are given like three days of practice, right us supposed to until we

2:04

get a weather delay, and then the back the next tournament gets cut out.

2:07

Well, let's say just on a regular three day Okay, So you

2:09

go down to Harris Chain. You've got three days to practice. You've got

2:14

like six lakes on the chain. Yeah, and then you've got to figure

2:17

out a morning, a mid in, an afternoon bite. Correct. How

2:22

do you do that on a place like Harris Chain. Uh, I've been

2:24

there enough, and I've tried to sample all of them in practice and it's

2:29

never worked. So I just different times, uh a little. Would you

2:31

go to a papka in the morning because you haven't been to a papka in

2:35

the morning or No. If I was going to go just like way off

2:38

to a popka or a Griffin, I would you know, I would go spend the whole day there fish daylight to dark and then but you have to

2:45

realize if like, let's say this time of year, you find a shad

2:47

spone at Griffin at seven o'clock and I ran into this in the next tournament

2:52

at hair I mean at Saint John's, we can talk about that. But you might find a shad spone at Griffin, but it's done by eight thirty.

2:58

You can't get there. So you've got to figure out how to get a bite from nine to two because that's the only time you're going to be

3:04

able to fish there. Now, you might fish there all day daylight to

3:07

dark, and then go back there the next day if you caught some and figure out if those fish, those shat spawn fish will bite you know,

3:15

during the middle of the day some different way, you know. So I'm saying, so you just if you're going to spend a long time getting to

3:21

somewhere like at the Harrishain, you've got to be able to know you can get bites in that you know, three to four hour window. So whenever

3:28

I fished Florida, and I've really only gone as a co, I don't

3:30

think I've ever drugged my boat down there and gone as a pro. But

3:34

as a co, what I've noticed a lot of pros do is if you

3:38

have to pick up your trolling motor more than twice, you're going to lose that turn more than likely, yes, because you just have to especially there

3:45

you concentrate on an area when you find them biting. In practice, if

3:49

they were biting off of this section of pads, but then in the tournament

3:53

they didn't bite over there, but you got to bite like twenty yards away. You just kind of start expanding that area. Yeah, because you you

4:00

can't run to different lakes because it takes so long to get there, to

4:04

get there and get back to where. In our format, you know,

4:06

we have a blast off and have to be back in by a certain time.

4:10

So you really cut down your even the dead river and like the door

4:14

can now, it still is going to take up an hour and a half of your time during the day. I did watch most of the coverage that

4:20

I could because obviously our buddy Joseph West, Yeah, he's a midway marine

4:26

ranger Mercury pro, and he ended up finishing seventh in the tournament, his

4:30

first top ten. So I was like, man, all the kudos,

4:33

all the accolades to that, because you know as well as anybody you've won

4:36

one. But it's hard enough to get in the top ten. Oh did

4:40

it so hard? Like he figured a deal out and actually out he basically

4:44

out fished all of us in Harrison Eustace. I mean, so, like

4:47

I said, hats off to him. He either had a bait figured out,

4:50

or maybe he was just stubborn enough to just, you know, put

4:53

his troumotor down and fish. I think it had a lot to do with

4:55

that. But like I said, I was really proud of him. For

4:58

sure. It looked like he was having fun. I mean, honestly,

5:00

I'm sure he was catching five pounders all the time. I would have been

5:03

giggling too, he told me, because we would talk at the end of

5:08

every tournament day and He's like, Spenser, I'm just lucky enough to get

5:13

a five and a six pounder right there towards the end of the day.

5:15

I'm like, damn, dude, eleven pounds that you're going to the scales with. I talked to him in the bagline, I think after day three,

5:21

and he was like, caught my five pounder this afternoon again. I

5:25

was like, hey, Bud, are you just making the right moves at the right time. I mean it was almost like everywhere he went between you

5:31

guys would weigh in at like three or four o'clock, he'd have to be

5:34

in around those times between two and four. He would catch one, he

5:38

would catch one, yeah, and it was I mean, and he had

5:42

you know, luckily Bass was obviously checking out his action and they were putting

5:46

them up, and man, I started I just started falling in love with

5:50

some of the hook sets that I was seeing because man, he was sweeping

5:54

them. Oh yeah, you know. I think at one point he put

5:56

up on social media that he had to bust out the old broom because he

5:59

was sleeping cooking them so good. But then I was watching fascination on Instagram

6:04

and they put up my buddy, the little Ball of eight West logan.

6:09

Damn, dude, I've never seen you set the hook and damn near come

6:12

out of your shoes as much as you were doing in Florida. Yeah.

6:15

Yeah, the way I was fishing, dude, I had to hit them hard. And you know, I had my swimjig rod and sixty pound sunline

6:20

braid and on my swim jig. Dude, I was just when I would

6:24

hook them, I would do everything I could to get them out, because,

6:26

I mean, then fishing onto Saint John's are strong like the I don't

6:30

know if something's wrong with the hair is chained, but dude, you'd hook one of them and it would kind of fight for a second then kind of

6:33

give up. Those fish on that river are as main a fish I've ever

6:36

fished for. So I noticed your arc rod you would set the hook.

6:41

I mean you were putting your back against the wall and that rod just handled

6:45

all the load. But I don't think people really know this. How tall

6:48

are you? How much do you weigh? Five eight five eight one fifty

6:53

five? So when you're setting the hook, what size? What size rod

6:57

are you using? Primarily on sen giant, I used a seven six and

7:01

a seven five all week, so a longer rod. So for you to

7:05

set that, cause it's different. I'm six fives right, so for me

7:08

that's a pretty average ride. For you, that's a little bit longer.

7:11

Yes. Do you have to put that much pressure and power into your body

7:15

to really set the hook? I feel like I probably overdo it on some

7:18

of the pound and a half two pounders. Say, but here's the thing

7:21

like one you sent over like a rainbow. Yes. Yes. The thing

7:26

about it is when they when they would bite up in those lily pads or

7:29

in those bushes, you couldn't see if because the water was so black, and the fish are black. You getting know if it was a two pounds

7:33

or a ten pounder. So I was jerking as hard as I could every

7:35

time. But the way the way my swim jigs design, it's not a

7:40

very like big diameter hook, so it's not gonna tear a lot you Basically,

7:43

I was basically just wanting to drive that hook into those you know,

7:46

fish's mouth as hard as I could, because when they got wadded up in

7:48

those lily pads, they it was either gonna rip out or I could go

7:51

get them without the hook coming. Are those the new ones that you have

7:54

with ARC? Yeah, it is. They're pretty slick. Yeah. I

7:57

saw them in Mark's Outdoors in Birmingham, Alabam, And when I walked by,

8:01

I was like, damn, these are pretty good looking. They handled.

8:03

They've handled every test I put them up against. I've caught multiple six

8:07

to seven pounders on them and not flexed any hook with it not being everybody's

8:11

always has called me, they're like, man, the hook's a little small,

8:15

Like yeah, but the way we built it, the coating that's on

8:18

it, as sharp as it is, it's going to penetrate a lot easier

8:20

and you're not going to have them to flex it to get it through their

8:22

Wow hoo do you have on it? It's one that we built actually in

8:26

arc so it's our hook that we put in it. Really yeah, custom design. That's what took the longest on the whole jig was getting that hook

8:31

exactly like we wanted it. So when you are picking out a swim jig,

8:37

or you're looking at a couple of prototype baits and things like that,

8:41

what do you like out of a swim jig? Because you're known as like

8:43

a swimjig guy, I'm no expert. I feel that one's perfect like the

8:48

one that it's probably as close as I've ever seen. Between the head design,

8:52

the weed guard stiffness, the weed guard angle, the angle of the

8:56

hook. I don't like from the hook standpoint. I don't used to throw

9:00

a dirty jigs, nojack, and I want a lot of money on it,

9:03

but it just seemed a little bit over bearing, like too much if

9:05

you were fishing around two pounders to three pounders, which is normally a good

9:11

tournament fish like so I would just lose some fish with that, just because

9:15

the diameter the hook was so big. It was so it wouldn't hold a

9:18

trailer grate, so they couldn't get their mouth around it enough for you to

9:22

have room to set the hook. No, it was more of like when

9:24

you did set the hook, it was taking so much force to get the

9:28

thickness of that hook to go to penetrate. It was tearing like their face

9:33

a bigger hole then right where they could come off. Like a lot of times you'd get one in the boat and it would have a you know,

9:37

a gash and like two inches on the side of its face where you did

9:39

catch it. But you know, I've caught some that landed at the troll

9:43

motor that I jerked out of the grass and it sits there in phlospher A

9:46

second comes off and it might be a three pounder where you just ripped a gape and hole in it. See. But part of me feels like with

9:52

as many tournaments that are going on now and as many fish are getting caught,

9:56

there's a lot of retreads, a lot of fish that have been beat

9:58

up and where I mean, I've caught fish where they're missing half of a

10:03

job. I've caught fish where they've got huge gashes. I caught a fish

10:07

I think I said you a picture. It was a crank bait fish, and literally the crank bait went through its mouths and it was being held on

10:15

by the gash in its mouth and the bill underneath. Me as a novice

10:20

fisherman, you know, not nearly as much experience as somebody like you or

10:24

Joseph or something like that, I wouldn't think that I was doing any of

10:28

that. I would think that that's just kind of the way the fish is.

10:31

Do you feel the hooked slip and knowing that you made a gash in

10:35

that mouth? Or doesn't just feel it? Does it? Is it a

10:37

look? Or is it just the fact that they come off in the boat

10:41

normally, like you'll see them come off in the boat, or they'll come

10:43

off before they get in the boat, and or like if you do catch

10:46

and get him in the boat, look at your jig would just fall out

10:48

because there's nothing holding it because the hole so big. Yeah, that's that's

10:50

the biggest thing that's always bothered me about, you know, hooks on swim

10:54

jigs, and and the way we built mine is it's it's a kind of

11:00

a compact deal, like a compact jig, but it's not. So we

11:03

put a four alt gap on a No, we put a five aft gap

11:07

on a four alt shank. And basically what that means is the shank is from the head of the hook the jig correct, but you still have the

11:13

big bite. It's just not sticking way out there allowing it to get hung

11:18

up more. I like that. I feel like that gives the hook less

11:22

resistance coming through any vegetation, but having that five ID allows them to have

11:28

something sturdier to get into the actual roof of the correct especially depending on what

11:33

trailer you like to use. If you like to use a little bit thicker trailer, like the body of it where it goes onto the hook shank,

11:39

you're going to have more of a gap in that fishes, you know,

11:41

the top of his mouth you do, like a Z craw or something like

11:45

that. A little smaller, yeah, yeah, you'll even be better. The more gap you can have from your trailer to the hook point, you're

11:50

better off for your hookup ratios. Well, listen, I thought hair's chained,

11:54

you know, day one. I looked at bass track early and I

11:58

was like, damn, my boys are due. We come out hot.

12:01

The first morning. I was like, oh boy. I remember I went

12:03

into the studio to do the Spencer Grave Show with Meghan and I sat down.

12:07

I was like Weless and Joseph for six and seventh right now and the boys are dominated and she goes there. She goes, oh good, like

12:13

do you think that's gonna last? And I go, I feel like those

12:16

guys know where to find fish. And then I know you're a buddy of mine, but it felt like you ran out of fish. No, I

12:22

did it just the I had some like Day three at Saint John's and day

12:26

two at Harris Chain was just a disaster. I don't know. I lost

12:30

my first two bites Day two at Harris Chain were four pounders. They come

12:33

off, and I wasn't getting very many good bites anyway. And then day

12:37

three at Harris I just didn't get any bites. I think my area kind

12:41

of got beat up. A couple of the guys that I was fishing around

12:43

didn't catch them either. Well to me through day three, first two hours

12:46

at Harriman, yeah, day like, I started bites, I got one,

12:50

I had one good, you know, four four and a half.

12:54

It just didn't get the spinner bait good. I didn't feel like it did. I think it may have actually ate the blades because I was able to,

13:00

like, you know, hit it and it kind of rolled on its side and it just come on. Uh. Yes, yes, that's why.

13:07

I mean, there's no way it didn't. Cause a lot of times

13:09

they'll come up. I had a bunch of them actually eat the blades,

13:11

but they were smaller ones. I mean that one just happened to be, you know, a good sized fish. But and then I just I kept

13:16

running around, kept thinking they were going to start biting, and they never

13:18

did. Looking back on it, Hindsight's twenty twenty, I wish I would

13:22

have ran the griffin. I had a little area over there. I thought

13:24

I could catch ten or eleven pounds, which would have saved some points.

13:28

But you know, it is what it is on that you could play Monday

13:33

morning quarterback. Yeah, beauty of having this podcast. Yeah, And man,

13:37

to be honest with you, it's my fault because I didn't even it. Never once I got committed to Harris and Ustace, it never crossed my

13:43

mind again, which is how I want because I don't want nothing in the

13:46

back of my mind. But after I got back home and everything, calm back down. I was sitting there. I was like, man, I

13:50

probably should have ran over there, but you know, it is what it is. Well, tell Riley your wife that she did a kick ass job

13:56

on social media. She's killing it, ain't she. It's it looks good too. And I love that she did a video the other day where she

14:01

gave herself a little pat on the ball. Oh yeah, and were like,

14:05

well, who's holding the camera? Absolutely yeah, I mean she's making

14:07

it look professional and well we don't even have a camera, like, she's

14:11

just doing it with her phone, so she's she's doing really well. Okay,

14:13

when you're in the way in line, because you you have a you've

14:16

got a signature move, like I could ultimately see this packaged on a couple

14:22

of year swim jigs. You're the only guy I know that is consistently photographed

14:28

and videoed crouching next to the bait tank. Yeah, like using the bait

14:33

tank to hold yourself up? Is that you're Do you realize that's becoming your

14:37

signature move? No? The only reason I'm doing this because I'm about to

14:41

fall over because my shoulders, my shoulder, I'm just like, I gotta sit there I and sat down hardly all day. But yeah, I've uh,

14:48

these last two were really bad. I'd get in and I could hardly

14:50

pick my arm up. But you know it. But yeah, I have

14:52

noticed that all the videos at the tank, I'm either I got my knee

14:56

on the tank and I'm leaned over or I'm squat squatted down. I'm like, you got your a little look. Yeah, yeah, a lot of

15:01

times I'm upset that I did can catch them. But do the guys say

15:05

anything to you in the line after Riley's done shooting a video, because I

15:07

mean she's up close and personal. Not much, No, not a whole

15:11

lot of people talk to me in the back line. They don't they don't

15:13

really know that they've they've become a little bit timid around me at the back

15:18

line. Why is that? Well, some days could be good. Some

15:20

days when it's bad, it's bad. Well, I don't have the nickname

15:22

for the little bull hates. Yeah, I was. I was watching bass

15:28

track and you know, obviously Joseph was catching a couple fives and sixes and

15:33

felt like he had pretty good fish to maybe get the big fish in the

15:35

tournament all that kind of stuff. But Jacob Rosnik begging rolling in, and

15:41

I mean, I'm hearing every angler up there saying, oh, there's a

15:46

big fish back there, you guys, get ready, and I'm hoping it

15:48

was going to be Jojo just walking out there like, hey, man, got ourselves, Like I thought that was gonna be it. And when Jacob

15:54

came out and he showed that ten pounder, I was absolutely floored. But

16:00

you have to take everybody through the backside of what happens behind Dave Mercer in

16:06

the way in line. If you catch a nine or ten pounder, you

16:08

know you have the big fish of the tournament. Yeah, did Jacob just

16:11

walk up there and goes, guys, I got one, whether he had

16:15

three fish, four fish, five fish, one fish somehow before he ever

16:18

got in line, everybody when I walked up, everybody was already talking about

16:22

it. So I don't know if he had told one person. He had to have been on bass track then somebody. He may have told somebody when

16:27

he pulled up, because when I walked up there, like, man,

16:30

Jacob's got a big one, I was like, well, how big is it? And they're like I nine eleven, ten twelve. I was like,

16:36

good God, and then when he walked up, everybody was like, you know, they let me see it, let me see it. And

16:40

he picked it up. It's like, gosh, almighty, it was like as long tall as it was long. It was a big one. Y'all

16:45

become kids at that point, right, Like you see a big fish like

16:48

that, and it kind of brings you back to like everybody wants to see

16:52

it, especially one that big, Like I mean everybody, you know a

16:55

lot of people have some sixes and five down there in Florida, but you catch an eight to ten pounder, like everybody wants. It's a big one.

17:00

It's a big one for anybody. I mean we're professionals. We don't

17:03

catch ten pounders all the time. But like Hamner, you know, catching

17:06

the fish that he caught it for, Yeah, it's like I loved his

17:10

line. He's like, I've never caught a ten pounder and I still think

17:15

that's great. When you are in the bagline and Jacob comes in, he's

17:21

got a big old fish. What's the feeling that hits you if you hear

17:26

that somebody's got an absolute giant do you immediately start grilling, like, well,

17:30

how many fish does he have? Or you know, do you think

17:33

do you guys look at bass track once you're in the way in line?

17:36

Definitely? Yeah. I mean a lot of us grab our phone as soon as we check in just to kind of see, how you know, I

17:41

actually don't that much. Why not? I feel like that's a set list

17:45

before going. I don't know. It bothers me, like if I'm real

17:48

close to the cut or something, because bass track's not ever accurate, like

17:52

to a t like a lot of people won't have marshals or they won't put

17:56

it in right. I'm I put money into the ounce like every time.

17:59

But hang on, isn't there a thing in bass where after every tournament the

18:03

angler that was closest to their actual total weight gets like a checker. I

18:08

wanted it a Saint John's. I want a thousand dollars. Yeah, just

18:14

this last week. Really, I just got the check in the mail. Yes, so you get a thousand bucks if being just to your weight?

18:18

Do you feel Because I've ridden in the boat with a couple pros and I

18:23

would name drop the one, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't want anybody to

18:26

know he'd catch a fish. I mean, it was a good one.

18:30

Damn good one. And I knew how I mean, you know what,

18:34

and he was funny as hell. He look over and he goes putting two

18:37

pounds. Let's let him make him sweat a little bit. I don't.

18:40

And personally I was like, okay, I understand that side of it.

18:45

But as somebody who's a fan of fishing, there's a lot of people that

18:48

are on bass track. They want to know what. I've never understood that

18:52

because here's the deal. Let's say they're not doing it for the fans.

18:55

They're doing it to mess with you guys. I guess, but like, I don't, I don't look at I don't. I didn't realize that many

19:00

guys looked at bastraight to begin with. And we're not saying and we're not

19:03

supposed to in the tournament. No, But that's how guys get the nickname

19:08

or the persona being a Sandbager. I mean, we know you and I

19:12

know some personally. Oh yeah, they roll up and they're like, I

19:17

got fifteen pounds to scale and you're like, damn dude, yeah you can't

19:21

count that. Well yeah, and they do get a little bit of a bad rap with the fans. I will say that because they just get tired

19:26

of looking at it. What happens like with other anglers, like if you

19:30

know what guys in known sandbag does, does that kind of get discounted in

19:33

your mind where you're just like I don't even want I don't even I don't

19:36

really pay any attention to what they got. Like that's why I don't like

19:38

basstrack looking at it before I go away, because like I've already figured out

19:42

wherever I'm at on bass track normally drop down if I've got exactly what I

19:48

put in there, Normally you take about ten places off and that's where you're

19:51

gonna be. Really, it's it's pretty like it's really close about every time.

19:53

So you've got and you got to take into count. Like if people

19:56

don't have a marshal, they don't want to take the time out of fishing

20:00

day to put them in. No, you just got to bite. You want to get right back to the hole, right, I do mine,

20:04

Like if I'm by myself, when I go to move, I'll put in

20:07

if I've called anything as I'm running somewhere, because y'all have the app Yes,

20:11

well, I remember as a marshall, I had to download the app.

20:14

So you just have the app up on your phone. You go back,

20:17

you throw your Mustang Survival jacket on, you immediately hit open the app.

20:21

It's real sick. We open the app, it's says sad fish the

20:23

way you know. Submitting it's it's literally takes ten seconds, which is which

20:27

is great because obviously you're giving a detailed account of how big that fish is.

20:33

It stinks because then the information gets input in maybe twenty minutes later.

20:37

Yeah, so you don't really know, Like everybody's on pins and needles.

20:41

I just appreciate the guys are doing. Yeah, And I don't want to

20:44

see I don't want to see professional tournaments get to the point where like MLF

20:48

is now where you weigh the fish and then it takes amount, Yeah,

20:52

because you lose the suspense. Yeah, I like the idea. I mean,

20:55

I'm also a big fan. On Day four, final day of the

20:57

tournament, track and get new Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You

21:02

fish for another couple hours. Nobody knows. Nobody know. They used to

21:04

do that at the Classic a while, but I don't know when they stopped

21:07

doing it. But that that builds a lot because you don't know what happened.

21:11

And I mean we're running bass live the whole tournament days now. Like

21:15

like when I caught that fish, the four pound you were talking about all

21:18

day, I caught it with like ten minutes left, Like normally they cut

21:21

it off at like one and you'd never know what happened for the next two hours. But I mean, people want to people want to see the live

21:26

stuff, but the bass track deal. The one thing I'd like to say

21:30

is when you put that if you're catching them really good on bass track,

21:33

and like early in the morning, like that first de hairschain when I did,

21:36

I didn't have a big bag, but I jumped up real fast. Well, dude, there's I bet I had thirty companies and people share that

21:42

on their socials, Like that morning. Sure, when I got back in,

21:45

I could sit and I'm like, so you're getting all that exposure even

21:48

though you hadn't done great. You jumped up real fast, so your name's

21:51

out there, like, hey, let's keep up with West the rest of the tournament. But that's also a side of the entertainment is entertainment percent Yeah,

21:59

I want to see somebody set the hook like a fucking monster. That's

22:03

what I just want to see you jack, right. Yeah. But when

22:07

I when I watched some tournaments, and like, I also realize that there's

22:11

some baits that you kind of have to finesc you that nice sweep, And

22:14

that's why I appreciated Jojo on some of his he was sweeping. He literally

22:18

this dude. His personality came out like crazy at Harris Jones because he looked

22:25

back at his camera and he go, it's fixing to get right across his

22:30

body. And I know his personality, but I love the fact that I

22:33

started to see that I know your personality. So when I watch clips of

22:37

you and I see you set the hook, it's true. I'm like he's

22:41

mad at the world right now. I'm I'm pretty I'm pretty intense when I'm

22:44

out there. And that's the thing, Like I had a live camera that second day, and man, I'm not gonna talk a lot, like I'm

22:48

not that guy now. I mean, if everything goes great and we got

22:52

a good big lead or something, I thought, But I know I'm out

22:55

there to fish, Like I'm out there to do my job and you're there

22:57

watching, and yes, I will like explain what I'm doing but that cutting

23:02

up and not like Joseph, but like when them guys catch one and they're

23:06

at all giggly and running around that that ain't my deal. Like we're there

23:08

to fish. We're there to put fish in the boat. Like I'm gonna

23:11

show you how I fish. You've got a camera, You're able to see

23:15

exactly how I've caught my fish. Like that's what we're there for. There

23:18

was an interesting thing that took place. I don't know if it was Harris

23:22

Chain or if it was Saint John's. Trey mc kenny got a penalty mm

23:26

hmm. He ran through a no wgg zone that wasn't in no wag zone

23:29

any other time. Saint John's bass made it in a no egg zone for

23:33

the tournament. A lot of people don't realize that that you guys have state

23:37

laws, yes, laws on the actual body of water, but then you

23:42

also have bass rules that you have to fall. So before every tournament,

23:48

do you guys have a zoom meeting? Is there a sit down meeting?

23:52

And is that where you guys go over the rules. Yeah, we have a MISSLEASA. Our tournament director will send out a link in our text message

23:59

that is I don't think it's zoom, but I don't know. It's a it's a video deal and you get on there and watch the record it.

24:03

You just watch it. Yeah, she'll she'll record it send us to it.

24:07

Normally she sends it the day for the tournament, from between three and

24:10

six o'clock, like you know when it's coming. You just kind of it comes right after you get your boat number, so like you can't miss it

24:17

and you are required to why it's just like going to a meeting, like

24:21

the sit down meet We obviously we don't have those no more. And I

24:23

mean they explain it to a t very well, and she said straight up

24:27

one the CSX Buffalo Bridge is no wake for safety reasons. I went back

24:33

and listened to it again after he said that it wasn't posted no wake.

24:37

So do you treat that like a high school thing where it's like you want

24:41

to go, you want to scroll the way to the back, and just said, accept, I don't even supposedly he admitted that he never even opened

24:48

it. Oh really yeah, well he did get the penalty you got was

24:52

an hour and a half where everybody blasted off. He blasted off, then

24:55

he had to sit at the dock for an hour, and that's right. I don't know what penalty would have been the right decision. I feel like

25:04

an hour and a half is actually a pretty good penalty because that bite in

25:07

the morning, if you're missing an hour and a half of that, And

25:10

it proved to be costly for him because that was a very bad day as

25:15

far as being on the water. I think he ended up getting a limit

25:17

that day. But if he had that hour and a half back, and

25:21

the fact that he's a rookie so he's trying to get into this world, I don't think he'll ever miss another one of those videos again. No,

25:26

I would advise him to not. And the next thing is like there was

25:33

a big discussion I saw in some comments about him getting snitched on or rated

25:38

out or see. What people don't understand is in our rules, if we

25:45

us as an angler, see somebody break a rule and we don't say something,

25:48

and then they get caught and they know that we saw it, we're

25:52

both guilty. We're not guilty as the other. Yeah, you're an accessory

25:55

exactly because you witnessed cret in fractions. If I saw him run through there

25:59

and I was just like just Trey well, and then somebody finds out,

26:03

well West will fish and not blow that bridge. And I saw Trey run thought as Wes said anything, West ain't said nothing. Well, then Wes

26:07

gets a phone call, Hey, why didn't you? Why do you call

26:11

us? And I love the fact. I mean, there are a lot of guys in bass that are really good at self monitoring, self governing.

26:18

You know, I've watched a lot of videos Pallinik the year that you won

26:21

way Lake or sorry not l Neeli Henry the year you won Neely Henry Palinick

26:26

called Lisa and says, I got a really weird thing that happened. H

26:30

I want to explain it to you. Let me know what you think.

26:34

And he had to take time out of catching fishing on me. He was

26:37

catching fish almost every other cast, but the fact that he called in swindle

26:41

the same exact thing. He was in a tournament. He did something with

26:45

a fish. I don't know if he was caught on the outside or whatever

26:48

the infraction was, but he didn't have anybody in the boat. And I

26:52

remember he put out a video where he's like, look, there's other guys that won't do this. I am going to make this phone call because ethics

26:59

is a big thing. If we lose ethics and fishing, we are not

27:03

going to have tournaments because now you know, going down the list of tournament

27:07

trails, you're at the top of the top of the Bass Master Elites.

27:10

He got the Bass Pro Tour with MLF, but then MLF has a lot

27:14

of different steps all the way down to you know, Weekend Warriors and bfls.

27:18

There's a lot of talk right now that co anglers are just not signing

27:22

up anymore because they don't want to get caught behind a weekend Warrior who thinks

27:26

they know livescope really well as big as some of the pros do. They

27:30

don't want to sit out there for eight hours. I can understand that I

27:33

fished in the back of the boat. I totally understand that. But the

27:36

problem that I see is if you start making all these lower tier tournaments become

27:41

solo boaters, you're going to see the amount of infractions of cheating go up.

27:47

And how do you monitor that when you've got two hundred and fifty boats

27:51

on a Saturday camp right Yeah, and like and like slick posting on TikTok

27:56

Slick Johnson said the other that he said fishermen, there's some bass fishermen,

27:59

then they are gonna cheat as long as a doll runs barefooted. Yep.

28:02

And he's one hundred percent right. We don't need it in professional fishing or

28:07

any kind of fishing tournament fishing. But it's it's obviously, you know,

28:11

getting more relevant the cheating and the felling polygraphs and all that, and it's

28:15

just there's there's no need for it. And I don't know, maybe people

28:18

need to be made examples of like they did back in the day where I'm

28:22

not gonna say what they did, but they made it a point that you

28:25

don't need to come back around here cheating. Shoot, let's talk about the Walleye tournament guys. Yeah, that that story, when viral as viral can

28:33

be, that was even bigger than the fishing community. Yeah, you know,

28:36

I had people calling me in They're like, yeah, it was all over the news and everything. They're like, y'all do this do you stuff

28:41

filats and pass And I'm like, that's walleye guys, Like they do something

28:45

completely Do you guys put weights and fishing? I'm like, I don't even

28:48

have time. No, well, what I'm whatever even think to do that,

28:51

Like, it's just see, those guys have been doing it for several times. I mean we're talking, we're talking over multiple seasons, multiple tournaments,

28:56

multiple boats, won a lot of one hundred thousand dollars. I mean

29:00

in the grand scheme, it is stealing. Yeah, that's exactly what it

29:06

is. Yeah, because you guys, the objective is different. But you

29:11

guys are playing high stakes poker. Yeah, you take five thousand dollars,

29:15

you say, bass, here's my money. They go, you qualified to

29:18

be here, You're in the tournament. I'm playing for that hunter you're in. Yeah, it's up to you. As soon as guys start cheating and

29:23

starting stealing from that pot, that kiddie you are stealing from a casino,

29:30

and as soon as it gets caught out. And I mean, I love

29:33

the fact that you know, in Alabama, there's a kid I won't say

29:36

his name, but there's a kid in Alabama who has failed two polygraphs and

29:41

has become you know, the black eye of even local tournaments. I was

29:45

talking about Tuesday night ers, church tournaments. Just most people would say silly

29:51

tournaments like sixty bucks, but I'm telling you, if I find out you

29:55

cheating a tournament where I paid sixty bucks, I'm not mad about the money.

29:59

I'm mad the fact that you feel that you can get away with check.

30:03

That's exactly right. Small, Yes, that's a great way to say

30:06

it, because here, Yes, I mean there's some guys around the area

30:11

that I fished that Neili, Henry Logan Martin that I mean they failed multiple

30:15

polygraphs, like and yeah, you might get one. I mean there was

30:18

one is this where it was a couple of years ago. It was just

30:21

an evening tournament deal, a little championship, and they didn't tell him they were behind a polygraph. Well, he won, and he took the polygraph

30:26

and failed it, and he lost his mind, you know, acted a

30:30

full and went and paid for another lit detector to do it again to prove

30:36

he was innocent and failed that one too, So dude, like how I

30:41

and man, there was times where there's guys that show up to these little

30:45

evenen tournaments and you know, four hour tournaments. If they show up and

30:48

they let them fish, we'll get our money back and go home. Oh

30:51

yeah, yeah, it's happened two or three times, and it really just proves a point. Like that's why I do love social media for this,

30:56

because you know, there's a guy that's pretty active on social media and he's

31:00

just a weekend warrior, really solid guy around the area, and he is

31:03

not letting anybody forget that somebody failed apology es. And what I like about

31:08

it is, if that guy showed up to a tournament, I already know

31:11

what he looks like. I already know what his name is. He's got

31:14

enough of a black cloud that circulates and follows him, whether he wants to

31:18

say he's not guilty or whatever. Yeah, I mean, if you show

31:22

up to a tournament, I see you. I'm not fishing no, And

31:25

I'm going to tell everybody else this dude's failed multiple PolyGram. Yeah, he's

31:29

going to win today. Like just I don't care what you catch today.

31:32

He's going to be the last one to weigh in. He'll beat you by a little bit and he'll have a big fish every single time. It's like

31:37

riting on the wall and like it happens that it just blows my mind that

31:41

it just continues to be okay. And I hope more tournament directors look at

31:45

that and they go we can't allow that. No, we just we can't

31:48

do that. Okay, let's switch gears to Saint John real quick, because

31:52

I definitely want to talk about the difference in Harris Chain being a bunch of

31:59

late that are all connected by canals and something like Saint John's, which is

32:05

a title fisher. Mm hmm, completely different. I mean, what's what's

32:08

the thought process when you go into something like Saint John's where you know you're

32:12

gonna deal with water coming in and water going out. Yeah, Luckily we've

32:15

I think for a lot of us, we had been there. You know,

32:17

we've been there multiple times, not that time, at this time of

32:21

year, but you kind of had somewhere you could start, like to try

32:25

and figure out something in two days because man too, and it's really truthfully,

32:29

you say two days, you're not going to fish all day on Wednesday,

32:32

like you're gonna be dead by the time. You know, you're not

32:34

gonna fish till dark. So you really get about two and a half or

32:37

a day and a half, you just kind of I mean what I did.

32:39

I just covered as much water as I could, I fished as fast

32:43

as I could. If I'd get a bite, I would just you know,

32:45

kind of figure out what was going on in that area. How I

32:47

got the bike and I'd move, you know, eight or ten miles down

32:51

the river and see if I could duplicate it or find another little area you could get a bite. And I just basically I don't do this a lot,

32:57

but I waypointed every bite I got, whether it was a twelve venture

33:00

or a four pounder, and I and I basically sampled all those places during

33:05

the tournament. So I think a lot of us kind of figured out what

33:07

bait to use or what area that you wanted to be in, and then

33:10

just broke it down during the tournament setting the hook on those twelve inchures or

33:15

yeah, absolutely, okay, So in in practice you're setting the hook because

33:20

you want to see what sized fish you got. Yeah, and that's that's

33:23

right. And a lot of times and one thing you got to watch in

33:25

Florida and on Saint John's River, there's a lot of mudfish, a lot

33:29

of bow fenn, grin or whatever you want to call them. So you had to check because the first bite I got was to the first two bites

33:35

were both grin, and I was like, I'm gonna jerk till one of

33:37

them's a bath and then basically just I think with the tide, with that

33:42

water moving up and down, hardly ever are you gonna pitch on this stump

33:45

right here or this log and a two pounder you shake off a two pounder.

33:50

That two pound is not gonna be there tomorrow. He could be gone

33:52

in two hours or an hour, but there may be another one that swam

33:57

up. So you just kind of figured out, hey, I can get

33:59

a bite on this hide on the down current side of the log. Where

34:01

if you find another one, you know, you kind of put it together.

34:05

How much information do you find out like when the water's coming up,

34:08

when the water goes out, because a lot of people think it's just rise

34:12

and fall, it's it's in and out. Yeah, but if you're fishing

34:15

an area and you've got lily pads, are we talking about a three inch

34:20

difference when the water is low? No? We were well at Saint John's. We were where I was fishing was like a foot and a half real

34:25

foot, you know, sixteen inches at twelve to sixteen inches? And were

34:29

you getting better bites when water was up? Uh? It was more of

34:34

it just needed to be moving one way or the other. Because with a

34:37

tide situation, I'm not a tied expert by no means, but you have

34:40

like a forty five minute to hour two times different during the day that's just

34:45

dead. It's not moving. It's either a dead low or a dead high. It was not good at all like that. You could fish over the

34:51

best stretch on the river and not get a bite. So your goal in

34:53

the morning, knowing if it's dead low, dead high, you're like,

34:57

I gotta fish my best stuff at this time, at this time, and

35:00

then when it's a dead zone, yes, maybe I'll go over to some

35:05

more traditional things that usually catches them. And basically so the tide trying to

35:08

manufacture a bike. The the times of the tide during the two days of

35:13

practice were a lot better for me for what I feel like I was doing,

35:16

and it had I got one last day of it on day two or

35:21

day one when I had the big bag and I started running out of the

35:25

coming off of a high tide coming to the low. That makes sense.

35:30

So when we were when we started off practice, the low tide was at

35:34

like I don't know, six thirty in the morning. So as we started

35:38

practice, you had an incoming tide for like four hours, so you had

35:42

constant current. The water's coming up, they're wanting to feed. Well.

35:45

Then around lunch it would be a you know, a dead high and then at one o'clock it would turn and be coming back out, so you most

35:51

of your day the water was moving well. As the tournament progressed, the

35:54

low tide ended up being around eight thirty or nine, so you would have

35:59

a dead at nine and a dead around three. Is that based on the

36:01

moon cycle? I have no idea. I just know there's a lot of

36:07

charts out there and you can put in for this section. The weird thing

36:10

is an app that that I haven't found a app I just look on the

36:14

internet. I know a lot of the I think Garman has a deal it built in their graph because like some of the guys from Virginia, John Cruz

36:22

Schmidt, those guys they fished a lot of title fishing. James, Yeah,

36:25

you start going up more into that Chesapeake coastal side. You know,

36:30

Parisnik's the same way. Even Ike and Ellis has fished a lot of title

36:34

places, so they kind of get a leg up in places. Absolutely,

36:37

it's it's a weird deal. I'm not a fan of tide because you could

36:42

fish. They don't have that on the cop Yeah you could, you could

36:45

fish. You can fish through a great area and it be the wrong time

36:47

and you never know it right like so, and that was another thing,

36:51

like with just getting one or two bites on a stretching practice. Well you

36:55

may say, well I caught a pound and a half or here with the

36:59

tide do and then well what if I check it when it's like this, I might catch three or four. And that happened to me on day two.

37:06

I went down a stretch. I'd caught one twelve inch er and then I ended up catching like three two pounders. That I mean, it helped

37:09

me at the time, but like they just move so much. But the

37:13

weird thing about the tide there is I don't know if it's the wind blowing

37:17

or what, but sometimes when it's scheduled to do one thing, it's not.

37:22

It's completely wrong and then it just jumbles everything up. How did the

37:27

bass react on low to high tide? A little more lethargic on low and

37:34

a little more active on high. More they get very lethargic if it's not

37:37

moving like you can, and you can watch it stop in a matter of

37:43

minutes, and everything will just stop and then all of a sudden in forty

37:46

five minutes, and you can watch your clock here, it'll come back the

37:49

other way. And when it starts coming back that other way, you better

37:52

get to where you think you can catch them. I mean I would just

37:54

fish my way, just bouncing around on stuff, and when i'd see the

37:58

tide move, dude, I'd run twenty or fifteen miles the other way so

38:01

I could get to where I thought I wanted to be with that tide.

38:05

Not necessarily running the tide, but knew what area of the river I wanted

38:07

to be in when it was at a certain you certainly don't want to get

38:09

too far away from where you were getting activity. No, definitely not.

38:13

I mean, I know some guys were Rodman, and they were like, I'm gonna stay here. Yeah, well you don't have to see you have

38:19

no that's the only deal with Robin. You have no tide. Like once

38:22

you you know, figure them out over there. But and I started practicing,

38:24

I had a lot of guys figured them out over there. No,

38:27

well they don't. For some reason, they will not live on the bank

38:30

over there, Like I don't know if it's so clear, but it's it's just a big timber pond basically what looks like. I've caught them over there

38:36

one time when they were spawning on the bank, but other than that, it's it's they get out there in that timber on them bait balls and you

38:43

know, start schooling and stuff and they just you know, life scope really

38:45

dominates in that pond. This has been lines in Times and Spencer Graves that's

38:50

vas Elite West logan, the little ball of Hate