0:00

It is a Bassmaster Classic mega show.

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This show includes some of the most behind the scenes juice

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that we've ever revealed on this show.

0:07

This week. I'm joined by Bassmaster Classic champion

0:10

Justin Hamner. And Jake Latendresse is Bassmaster

0:13

videographer with Jake's Take This Week on.

0:27

I'm Bob Cobb from The Bass Masters.

0:29

welcome to Mercer.

0:32

Welcome and welcome all friends, family, freeloaders, fish and freaks.

0:36

You're all welcome. Here at the Awkwardly Honest Fishing podcast,

0:39

it goes one last name, which is Mercer.

0:41

Welcome into the 154th edition

0:44

of the Mercer Podcast, and I was Happy Hump Day

0:47

to All my Humpers. I am just back from the Bassmaster Classic.

0:50

That's why I sound somewhat raspy,

0:53

but we have a mega show. It is a long one.

0:55

And just come to think of it, I did not plan this, but it is so cool

0:59

that we're going to be reporting on the 54th Bassmaster Classic

1:02

and this is episode 154.

1:04

How pro is that? We planned it from the start.

1:07

No, no, we didn't. We just got lucky. But this is amazing.

1:11

So I thought about splitting this in two, but I figured this weekend is Easter.

1:16

We don't need be putting out a second episode on Friday.

1:18

Let me know what you guys think. This is a mega show.

1:21

It's 3 hours long and I appreciate all of you

1:23

for listening to it. It's two of the most revealing interviews that

1:28

we've ever had on this show. It's it really goes a lot of directions,

1:33

of course, with our Bassmaster Classic champion who predicted

1:36

he would win, said Bassmaster Classic on this very show.

1:39

And then the always popular Jake Steak.

1:42

And Jake gets really raw, really real.

1:44

And well, I tell a story that I might

1:47

get in trouble for. So I hope you enjoy this.

1:50

Let me know in the comments, though. Let me know, would you,

1:52

when we have big, long shows like this, would you rather be broken into two bits

1:57

released, one on Wednesday, one on Friday?

1:59

Are we Do you like these long mega shows?

2:02

Do you do you like a longer time for us to spend together?

2:07

Thank you all for coming out to the Bass masterclass. I've met a ton of hunters there.

2:10

We'll talk about more of that in the future.

2:13

I don't feel like I should talk much now because we got a lot of talking

2:16

with our guests. So first, let's jump into it with the one

2:19

and only Jake Latendresse with Jake's.

2:21

Take. Jake. What up?

2:24

What is up? I don't even know

2:27

you're still standing after

2:30

the week of the Classic. Wow. I'm a little zombie.

2:33

Like, I'll be honest. Like, you definitely ate it

2:37

a little better to the each day you get better. But it.

2:41

It is. It knocks the crap out of you.

2:43

Like it. It's.

2:46

But it's the classic, right? I mean, you're.

2:48

I mean, you don't feel it. I mean, I guess you feel it

2:50

like during the morning drives and stuff. There was times where I was like,

2:54

All right, but, you know, then you get to take off

2:57

and there's thousands of people in

3:00

the pouring rain and it's just adrenaline.

3:05

I think it's a lot of things like I think you're exhausted.

3:07

Like I think, you know, you're surviving on three and a half to 4 hours

3:12

sleep every night, if that.

3:14

And it's a really emotional event.

3:17

And it's also like, dude, Friday at the Classic

3:20

was probably the busiest day I've ever had. Like I literally went from take off.

3:24

I got up at 345 to head to take off

3:27

on the way to take off. I was with Ben Oliver

3:29

shooting stuff for the cast, so kind of behind the scenes

3:33

stuff, so shooting stuff the whole way there.

3:35

Got to take off.

3:38

I did that immediately, drove back,

3:43

then went to the arena,

3:45

do a sound check, went from the

3:48

I mean, nobody wants hear me whine anyways, but went right from the arena

3:52

to do bass live with Davey,

3:54

which was cool. Then went back to the arena

3:56

because the soundcheck didn't go well the first time.

3:59

Just technical stuff is getting

4:01

figured out, then went back to Bass

4:04

Live, did a thing with Travis Pastrana

4:06

and then went back, did another soundcheck. Then the doors opened at the arena

4:10

and I had like an hour or so just to kind of chill,

4:13

but then did weigh in. And then that night,

4:16

you know, it's 8:00 by the time we get out of the arena

4:18

and then you have something to eat and next thing you know,

4:21

you go to sleep for 3 hours and start all over again.

4:24

But it's and that's four days into it already.

4:26

Like you're talking about the

4:29

the days prior to that, Right?

4:31

Yeah. Yeah. Tulsa's great. Don't get me wrong.

4:34

That was that was pretty cool. Tulsa. That is a great arena.

4:37

Everybody on the lake,

4:39

like from a fishing perspective,

4:42

that was the number one most respectable

4:47

fanbase that I've ever been around.

4:50

I saw in three days, three

4:53

or four days of fishing, I saw two or three local anglers fishing.

4:57

Everybody else was they were either off the lake

5:00

or they were in the galleries following their favorite anglers.

5:03

And I thought that was huge. That was I was

5:07

highly impressed with the crowd for sure.

5:10

Yeah. And because, because a lot of anglers said that on stage.

5:12

But you know what I mean. You never know. You think they are

5:16

playing up to the crowd or whatever. But yeah, that's cool to hear.

5:19

And because they're also some of the biggest

5:21

flotillas too, like I mean those legendary Christie

5:24

for flotillas from, you know the previous years.

5:29

So it's cool to hear that I think he had day one.

5:33

I think he had like 3333 followers in his

5:38

in his gallery for the first day.

5:40

So, yeah, I mean, and and, you know,

5:43

the only thing about those things, which I guess I'm

5:46

jumping into things again

5:48

ahead of schedule, but you know, when there's a big crowd

5:51

and they're up these creeks

5:53

fishing in the mornings, they want to get out as quickly

5:57

as they can. Even in the even in the outside of the

6:01

no wake zones, they burn time

6:03

getting through the flotilla just to get out to the lake

6:07

to go to their next location. So, you know, sometimes

6:10

that's a burden, but, you know, it is what it is.

6:12

It's the classic.

6:15

It is. And there's only one. And it was a it was a great one.

6:18

I think we ended up with an incredible champion,

6:22

a totally different champion.

6:24

But he so

6:28

I just think he's a great champion. Like, I just think it's

6:31

you know, that you look at the Super six video with their,

6:35

you know, the dream and everything that that's like you literally,

6:39

you know, when Christie won and even when he won,

6:42

it's a different kind of feeling because those are two guys

6:45

with very established careers. You bet.

6:49

Justin Hamner

6:51

is, you know, like look at how his life has changed

6:54

in three days of fishing. Like he'll he'll never be the same person again.

6:59

And that's what's cool about bass. Like when people want to point

7:02

fingers at different negative things,

7:04

which is what the world does nowadays.

7:07

It's also really cool to see that there is an event

7:09

that literally you can show up to

7:13

and, you know,

7:16

be fairly unknown. You know, like I mean, two weeks ago

7:18

I had him on the podcast and he was on with

7:23

Rick Klein and Kvd,

7:25

you know, he was on for a few minutes and he was like,

7:28

Did you call me by mistake? And now two weeks later,

7:31

he's freaking raining. Bassmaster Classic champion

7:33

Kevin Van Dam is lining up to meet him

7:35

at the Knight of Champions, which is right

7:38

are not Native champions, but the champions toast. Right?

7:41

But it's so, you know, when when the cliche about

7:46

the Bassmaster Classic, the two cliches are

7:49

it's the Super Bowl of bass fishing

7:52

and someone's life is about to change forever.

7:56

And those two things, while, you know,

7:59

I don't know how many people realize

8:01

how deep those two cliches really go,

8:05

but let's talk about the first one first.

8:08

It is truly the Super Bowl is probably the super Bowl

8:11

of fishing. Right. And yeah.

8:14

And and and when you go to

8:16

I think that was like my 13th or

8:19

maybe 12th classic.

8:21

So I've missed a couple from being sick or having babies or whatever it was.

8:25

And so after you go to so many,

8:27

you really do start to realize like, this is insane.

8:31

These people are insane. This event is insane.

8:34

The the organizational skills that,

8:38

you know, bass, the Pete like Eric Lopez and his team

8:41

put together all this stuff. And how many people show up,

8:45

like you said, even at the take off,

8:47

it's like there's like 3000 people.

8:49

It's an hour and 20 minutes from Tulsa

8:52

and Grove, Oklahoma, out,

8:55

basically out in the middle of nowhere. It's a little

8:57

a little small country town.

8:59

Yeah, there's 3000 people or more.

9:02

I don't even know how many. It was just packed

9:04

and you just in the rain and you're going

9:08

and all the all the the media is on the dock

9:11

and you know, the the anglers are getting

9:14

interviewed multiple times

9:16

and it just has this very different feel.

9:19

And it really starts to set in how intense everything is.

9:23

And I don't know what it's like, you know, free event pre free tournament

9:29

because you're still like four days in front of that.

9:31

Were there, you know, the night of champions

9:34

and all the the interviews the the

9:37

the offset practices they have

9:39

where they're not just practicing for three days in a row.

9:42

It's it's sort of offset for them.

9:44

So, you know, I mean, it's just a huge event and then

9:48

someone's life is about to change

9:50

like Justin Hamner defined that.

9:54

Yeah. And like you said, it's not the same

9:56

not taking anything away from guys

9:58

that have won it in the past. Jason Christie jersey at all.

10:02

Nothing whatsoever. But man, when you take someone

10:05

like Justin Hamner and you listen to his postgame interviews

10:10

after he won it, like I'm telling you,

10:13

if you if you listen to his story about,

10:17

you know, missing the cut at the James River open

10:20

was that eight years ago?

10:23

No, no, no.

10:25

I mean, yeah, like four years ago. Okay. Four years ago. Yeah.

10:28

Because he just had his daughter. His daughter? Four. So.

10:31

Yeah, right. She was like two months old.

10:34

And he tells his story about missing the cut,

10:36

laying everything on the line. His wife and his daughter,

10:39

you know, he's he's got that on his mind.

10:42

And he is literally, dude, I'm

10:44

I get choked up talking about it and

10:46

like, literally digging

10:49

for change under the front seat of his truck

10:52

to get a hamburger so he'd have something to eat

10:55

on his way home. If that doesn't humble you,

10:59

then I don't know what does. I mean.

11:01

That's just and I'm so happy for Justin Hamner.

11:05

He's he is now truly a great champion

11:08

because of his story. And while everyone has a story

11:12

you love those blue collar

11:15

come out of nowhere, you know,

11:18

championship stories that have these emotional ties

11:22

to everyone that bass fishes, you know,

11:24

that that has those humbling moments

11:27

in life. And congratulations to hammer that.

11:30

That was frickin that was bad ass.

11:34

It was a weird one for me because,

11:36

you know, I've always been a Hammer fan

11:39

and and I've always

11:41

he's just got this quirky, cool

11:44

bit personality. Like, his press conference

11:47

was one of the best champions. Press conferences I've ever seen,

11:50

if not the best. I mean, literally every question was asked.

11:53

He had the media like either

11:56

crying or laughing like it was.

11:59

So you get so used to press conferences

12:03

being like, Well, I use this bait and this and this and this, and it,

12:08

but this was just real. And it's it's everything that

12:13

you've heard me say it a bajillion times

12:16

to two different in different meetings.

12:19

Be whoever you are, whatever that is.

12:21

And for people like Justin Hammer takes a while,

12:24

like he's not going to command the room like a matt Robertson.

12:27

Matt Robertson commands attention. But I

12:31

always said, like when this guy gets

12:34

when this guy gets some airtime,

12:36

it's it's going to be something big and obviously it a big event.

12:39

It for came so close to winning that

12:42

and I believe his parents will believe anything I tell them

12:44

now, really because I mean I spent like 15 minutes

12:48

with them talking and I'm like, no matter what happens today,

12:51

trust me, this is building towards something.

12:54

I had no idea that two weeks later, dude was going to be the Bassmaster

12:57

Classic Champion. But

13:00

that's it's I mean, it's insane.

13:03

And and but he called it that's the weird thing

13:05

like he literally on this podcast and he

13:07

and then he went on some others afterwards

13:10

serious angler I know he talked about it there

13:13

Alex Rhodes podcast I think he talked about it there

13:17

and he said the same thing. He said, I'm going to win the Bassmaster Classic and and

13:21

he can't explain why he kept saying that.

13:23

He's like, I'm not that guy. But he said, I just I felt it.

13:27

And even though he had a horrible previous,

13:30

he still felt it like,

13:33

I don't want to rehash the story because he's obviously on this show, too,

13:36

and I kind of go through our texts. But if you go through the text

13:39

that me and him had sent over the last few weeks,

13:42

it went from him being super thankful to be on this show

13:46

with Kevin Indy and Rick Klein

13:49

and have been crazy to call the wrong number.

13:52

And then like we ten

13:54

a few different texts about different things. And then I asked him about his previous

13:57

and he said it wasn't good or whatever. And then we own text for a few days

14:02

and then I sent it ends up with me saying, Holy

14:05

chocolate ice cream emoji. You're the best master class,

14:08

except he said, like, it's just unbelievable.

14:12

But it's great. Like, it's freaking awesome.

14:15

Like it's But he's 100% who he is.

14:17

Like, he is.

14:19

And it's cool to see in frustrating

14:21

in some ways because you see, like so much media

14:23

is like where this guy come from. Well, he's been there.

14:26

And that's absolutely that's the elite series.

14:29

We have a bunch of them. We have a bunch of really

14:32

amazing stories.

14:34

It's just it takes time to get them out there.

14:38

I mean, you

14:40

everything has to line up, right? You know, And it's exactly

14:43

it's kind of like what we went through after the Major League fishing flip

14:46

and all these new guys came up to base.

14:49

It was the same thing. How many firsts have we had,

14:52

you know, since then? And to me, those are the great stories

14:56

because it's not it's

14:58

not stale water anymore. Everything's fresh.

15:01

And one of the things that I picked up on, I want you to weigh in.

15:04

So I went to Saturday night and Sunday night

15:07

and one of the things I picked up on,

15:09

even into the super into the, you know, the

15:12

the stage interviews for the Super six

15:15

that you had, the young guys tell people

15:18

that make like these young guys that make it to the classic,

15:21

but then they make it to the Super six and then you take Justin Hamner,

15:25

he wins the damn thing. And what are they? What do they say?

15:28

They say, Look, if you're a kid out there

15:31

dreaming about this right now,

15:36

don't think you can't do it because I'm

15:38

living proof and proof positive and

15:42

that you can do this. And if I can do it, anyone can do it.

15:46

And I think that is so inspiring

15:48

and so powerful when they have the biggest stage in

15:52

and the fishing world

15:54

and they that's what comes to their minds.

15:57

That's very humbling and very inspiring.

15:59

And all you kids out there that are fishing

16:02

in the high school series or even the junior series,

16:05

High school series, your college series.

16:07

Hey, man, here it is.

16:09

Come get it. Because. Because it can happen to you, too,

16:13

Cooper. A lot. Yeah, but.

16:16

But at a time when everybody wants to.

16:19

But, like, if you go on any chat board, social media, I mean,

16:23

well, these rich kids is this. No, no, you need to.

16:26

It's like any other dream. It doesn't make sense.

16:30

None of it makes sense on paper. Like if you just look on paper,

16:33

it doesn't make sense. I mean, he quit a job.

16:36

He worked for Alabama University and

16:39

the University of Alabama. So Roll Tide.

16:43

And he

16:45

he

16:48

yeah, he quit that because he had to do this

16:52

like that. That's all Nick talks about all the time.

16:55

And I've said it a bunch of times like it

16:57

it almost a dream isn't enough.

16:59

It has to be a nightmare that you don't do this.

17:02

And yes, I wish the sport was different.

17:05

I wish that they signed up for

17:07

and you got league minimum $500,000.

17:10

But it's just not it's just not a reality.

17:12

It's just how the sport is

17:14

on every level. I mean, if you if you were doing what you do

17:18

for the NFL, how much more would you be making?

17:21

If I was doing what I do for the NFL?

17:23

But it doesn't matter. That's not why any of us are doing this

17:27

like every other sport.

17:29

It's because we love. Exactly. This is where we want to be.

17:32

These are the people we want to be around. We love being outside.

17:36

This is what we grew up doing. And it's not worth

17:39

it's not worth giving that up for just money

17:42

because how happy are you going to be then? Right?

17:45

And it's just like you said, it's this yank

17:48

that pulls these people

17:50

like Justin Hamner in Did I remember standing at Palatka

17:55

like three years ago? Was it with Cooper Gallant?

17:58

He's trying to qualify. He's in first opens

18:01

and he's standing up in the crowd and I'm out there talking to him.

18:04

I think Gus, he introduced me to him or I can't remember.

18:07

Someone introduced me to him and I'm like, Just ask him.

18:11

I'm like, What's your goal? He goes, Dude, I just want to

18:13

I just want to qualify for the elite

18:16

and go fish in the Bassmaster Classic.

18:19

And and he's in his second year

18:22

and he's it.

18:24

He made the Super six and he's been there

18:27

like he's always, you know, right there.

18:32

And it to me it's amazing that

18:34

these young guys like this is what this is all about

18:38

having a new a fresh new you know, flock

18:42

or herd of young people coming into this sport to me

18:46

is a shot in the arm. And, you know, even the

18:50

you know, they have all these other events

18:52

around the Bassmaster Classic,

18:54

like the college classic, the Kayak classic.

18:57

And all these people have these dreams.

19:00

And I talked to Hayden Marbut and Tucker Smith

19:04

Sunday night after the

19:06

the classic weigh in. And they while they didn't

19:09

finish the way they wanted to, they fit

19:11

they were you know, they qualified for the college classic

19:15

and they were up there, you know, throwing spanner baits

19:18

in the dirt and bait in the bank with bait

19:21

traditional style. And I just I just listening to their stories.

19:25

I'm just sitting there going do this is this is so great.

19:29

We have so many young anglers moving up into,

19:31

you know, what hopes to be the elite world for them

19:34

and they're going to have a chance to live out their dreams.

19:37

And if you can't get on board with that

19:39

regardless of everything else, then

19:42

you know, you need to go check your pulse because these are

19:44

what dreams are made of. Man.

19:47

A coop, as you mentioned, like

19:49

and I talked about a bunch on stage, but

19:52

2016 was his first Bassmaster Classic

19:55

he ever attended. It was in Tulsa.

19:57

He sat a I got to splash well past and

20:01

and it was weird for me because I remember after way

20:03

in, I went down there and put my arm around him

20:06

and I'm like, Dude, one day you're going to be on that stage. And he was not boastfully,

20:09

but he's like, I will, you know, like, I mean that, right?

20:11

So and then his first

20:14

it's his second classic, but his first time back there,

20:17

he's in the Super six. Like it's just it's

20:21

ironically ironically

20:24

to that expanding on that story

20:27

I went into the splash zone for those people that don't know what the splash

20:30

well is, it's the floor. It's where the soundboard is.

20:33

It's where the crowd they get family members and,

20:36

you know, different people get get tickets to go down on the floor.

20:39

So it's really kind of front row seating.

20:42

And I walk down to the splash world, got in front of the soundboard,

20:45

and Coop's dad was sitting there by himself taking photos,

20:48

works his butt off. Him and his brother

20:50

worked their tails off for Coop, you know, shooting the video,

20:54

creating the content for his his promotional publicity and all that.

20:59

And I looked at his dad and I said,

21:02

you know, your son is in the Super six

21:05

and I'm thrilled to death,

21:07

but I want you and your whole family to know and understand

21:10

that these young guys can't do this without your support.

21:14

They can. And they'll they might find a way,

21:17

but man, you guys make this so much better for them.

21:21

And what you're doing for your son

21:24

is incredible. And, oh, man. And it inspires me

21:29

to be a better dad.

21:45

It's so inspiring

21:47

and it means so much to those guys.

21:50

People don't understand when they get criticized

21:53

for the things that they're doing and they're trying to do right now

21:55

to make it. You don't understand what's under them

21:59

and what's behind them and the motivation

22:02

and and all the inspiration that they've had

22:05

from watching people like Kevin van Dam and Jason

22:08

Christie and even is as recently as Lee

22:12

Live is seeing the brand in politics

22:14

and the nurses of the world, these dreams come in true.

22:17

They've been sitting there in those stands

22:19

and in their boats and in their, you know,

22:22

20 year old boats dreaming to have,

22:25

you know, a boat like them one day and fishing

22:28

with the equipment that they do. And here we are, dude, it's just

22:33

as you could see it,

22:35

it affects me because it's so powerful

22:38

and so strong and and it means so much to everybody.

22:43

Yeah. And that's that's why Hamner had his

22:46

his parents in the boat with him.

22:48

You know, he's married with a child,

22:51

obviously. I mean, that child was a star of the

22:54

I mean, there's one of those pictures Jane Durant's took

22:57

and she's throwing confetti. And I'm like, the confetti is almost like in

23:00

a heart shaped like that moment. I'm like,

23:04

it's amazing. But the true story that's happening

23:08

right now that I everybody wants to point

23:12

fingers at forward facing sonar and different things like this.

23:16

And it doesn't I don't give a damn what what side of that you're on.

23:20

But here's the truth. There is a youth initiative

23:22

that's happening. There's more youth anglers than we've ever had before.

23:26

And they're also never not on the water.

23:30

They are on the water every

23:32

single day like you look at all

23:36

these new rookies, it's like I mean, it's it's

23:39

it's pretty awesome. It's pretty incredible.

23:41

I see it out here, Dave. I see it in the ponds

23:44

around my house, in my neighborhood.

23:47

I see it on these lakes

23:49

when I go to the high school national championship,

23:52

which I typically cover every year.

23:54

There's always like three or four teams from this little bitty

23:57

podunk town called Windsor, Colorado.

24:00

There's there's like four teams that qualify from Colorado,

24:04

which is not known. It's known for Elk

24:06

and the Denver Broncos and the Rocky Mount.

24:09

Other things, too, Colorado is known for. Yeah, yeah, that too.

24:13

But we're talking high school here

24:15

and and these guys are, you know,

24:18

they're going to colleges on scholarships in Texas,

24:22

you know, and and in Alabama to to go to

24:26

to get to the real scholarships So like

24:29

yeah dude as little as ten years ago

24:32

$60,000 scholarships

24:35

I remember ten years ago, probably 1010 years ago

24:37

the first school I remember I don't even remember what school was,

24:40

but they're like, we bought bass boats.

24:42

So our guys have and it was like,

24:44

That will never be it. It is a freaking thing.

24:47

Like, it's it's incredible.

24:50

Like they at a time when everybody wants to

24:52

throw arrows at stuff, man.

24:56

There's a lot of good stuff to be celebrated and

25:00

and none of that has to do with forward facing sonar because what,

25:03

what the future of that is, is whatever. Who knows what the future of that is.

25:06

Probably tell you right now, none of those kids are going to go away

25:10

if that goes away because you think they're

25:12

just going to stop and quit and well, I can't do this now.

25:15

No friggin way.

25:17

This dream started years ago.

25:20

And part of the negative where you see,

25:23

here's the weird thing. Nobody wants to point out

25:27

you've got some

25:29

very verbal anglers that are older that

25:32

that that are against it.

25:34

But the reason these kids are as good as they are

25:37

is because of them. Like because of everything that like

25:41

you look at all of the education

25:43

that's been put out in the last like did growing up

25:45

I learned you read about it in Bassmaster magazine.

25:48

Now you can literally and you had to from that page

25:51

you had to interpret what they meant by

25:55

this new bait. The slug hole or this new technique.

25:58

You know what I mean? I'm just thinking of all the new things that came along,

26:03

the Porco and all this stupid stuff that came along

26:07

that and I'm not going to pick

26:10

Well, that I mean, that was there, but

26:13

but you know what? It came when it came,

26:16

you had to take it from the page and you're like, okay,

26:18

this is what he means or that's what they mean.

26:21

Well, now they can watch it, whether it be YouTube,

26:23

whether it be TV, whether it be whatever. There's so

26:26

much education out there about it.

26:29

So they're the reason the kids are as good as they are.

26:32

You know, and 100%.

26:35

And anyways, we really got off on a thing.

26:39

I like that part of the conversation, though, because you know,

26:42

when you talk about the Bassmaster Classic and again,

26:45

you go back to the number one cliche about it, it's, you know,

26:49

someone's it's going to change someone's life forever.

26:53

And that's what it's all about. It's about the dream

26:56

and accomplishing that goal. And you don't think,

26:59

you know, just and Hamner worked his ass off

27:02

his whole life to get to that stage.

27:04

And all the time that he put in studying,

27:08

dude, he he, he crushed it.

27:11

He had, you know, the weights were down on day three,

27:14

but day he won that tournament on day

27:16

one and two and he had to go out and obviously

27:20

close the deal on day three. But he won that tournament

27:23

the first two days and he was on the right fish.

27:26

No one else could really figure out

27:29

what he what he did consistently enough

27:32

or is as consistent as he did.

27:35

He crushed it. Dude, he hate freak and brought some

27:39

he got some nice fish. The biggest bag in the tournament

27:42

and nobody waited bigger individual bag than him

27:46

and did the one thing that always is said

27:49

and you just said and and and it's the first time

27:52

I've ever thought about it like this.

27:54

You said someone's life is going to change.

27:57

I disagree. A lot of people's lives

28:00

changed this week. You know what I mean? Like his life changed for winning.

28:04

There's other competitors that had big events and

28:09

their life changed, meaning that I know I can do this.

28:13

Countless people sitting in those seats, lives changed

28:16

because they said I have to do this. Countless people

28:19

watching around the world are like, That's

28:23

you know what I mean? Ten years ago, that was

28:26

Takumi Ito watching in Japan. You know what I mean?

28:29

Let's just say Taku and Fujita,

28:31

we think about them on stage

28:33

trying to find the right words, you know,

28:36

to describe what they're feeling at the time.

28:40

And, you know, most people

28:43

in that arena might think, well,

28:46

you know, he can't he's a Japanese, he's funny,

28:49

or he doesn't know what to say.

28:52

He's, you know, or these things.

28:54

My mom came here from Japan

28:56

and I can totally relate not from their perspective,

29:00

but at least from a child's perspective.

29:02

I saw how hard it was for my mom

29:05

to just come to this country in a just,

29:08

you know, from Japan, a completely opposing culture

29:12

and come here. And it just

29:15

and I can't even imagine what it's like for Taku Ito and Kaya

29:21

Fujita to stand on the grand stage

29:24

at the Bassmaster Classic

29:26

and just look around and go,

29:28

God, I made it. I can't even believe I'm here.

29:32

You know, I got a weird one for you.

29:35

Okay? I meant fajitas, Sister.

29:38

Hum. Very English.

29:40

Really? It was like what it was.

29:44

She goes to Harvard. Know? She said he spent all his time fishing,

29:48

so I'll bet he did.

29:52

Did you talk about his back story?

29:54

Like when he was a child and stuff? I wish we had had more time.

29:57

I literally met her. It was Sunday night.

29:59

I met her and I was getting out of my car.

30:03

We left the arena. I was dropping my car off at the hotel

30:06

and I was unpacking everything

30:08

from the green room and I was like rushing upstairs

30:11

I to get to the toast. We didn't get a lot of time to talk.

30:14

We'd probably just talk quickly. And

30:17

I really wish I had had more time to spend with her

30:20

because I think she has stories to tell.

30:23

Oh, goodness. Just to invite her on the podcast.

30:26

Oh, dude. To just to unlock that this his back story

30:30

and to understand where he came from,

30:33

because I bet you it's so similar to,

30:35

you know, every young child's dream. He's been probably fishing his whole life

30:39

and he's been head down, focused on it for however

30:43

many years he's been alive. And here he is, you know,

30:46

kicking ass in the Bassmaster Elite series.

30:49

Yeah. Incredible. Where the Bassmaster Classic is so cool.

30:53

If you haven't been all you viewers out there,

30:56

if you haven't been your

30:58

if you love bass fishing, you really do need to attend

31:02

the classic because there's nothing like it.

31:04

It is an incredible experience.

31:06

One, if I quit, if I had to quit,

31:09

if I was forced to quit filming the Elite series, I would ask

31:13

at least just come back and film

31:16

the Bassmaster Classic. Every year because it's that inspiring.

31:21

It's one of the few events. TV makes everything

31:23

look bigger, but it's one of the few events that I always say, like

31:26

TV makes the classic look big, but when you're there, it's

31:29

just so much better. Like and in Tulsa was a great host.

31:32

Like literally you couldn't go anywhere

31:34

without seeing signage, billboards,

31:38

people at the airport. You come in, there's stickers

31:40

all over the floor, you know, like of anglers.

31:42

And it was it was cool.

31:45

Yeah, it was I actually took a video of that floor sticker

31:49

as soon as I got off the plane and went towards baggage claim.

31:52

There's Gussie and Kyle Welcher on the floor,

31:54

you know, stuck in there. They're all over the airport.

31:57

The video monitors are playing. Yeah, you go down

32:00

the highway, there's billboards, there's flags, is breaking so cool

32:05

as wild wildlife blobs. It is.

32:09

All right. Well let's get into Jake's takes we we went off on a tangent there day one

32:15

Jason Christie of course of course the homeboy

32:20

high expectations I actually we've talked about this

32:24

before with local you know with with the guys that

32:27

would consider a lake their home lake or close to it.

32:32

And man I almost feel I feel bad for those guys

32:35

because they're so I feel like even with Jason,

32:39

I can't speak for him but I feel like the expectation maybe

32:43

not him feeling expectations from everyone else,

32:47

but the expectations they put on themselves

32:50

is is so high and so intense

32:54

that it creates. I think it creates a barrier

32:57

and a bubble that they have to live in,

32:59

at least for the first half, day of day one,

33:03

to get out of that funk.

33:06

Yeah, but I think that's where he lives,

33:08

though. Like, I think competitors like Christie,

33:11

I mean, dude, yeah, there's

33:14

pressure of your neighbors want you to win, blah, blah, blah.

33:18

But none of them want him to win more than Christie wants to win.

33:21

You know what I mean? Like, that's what I'm saying. Anybody who does it taken on himself,

33:26

anybody that does anything at the top level like that,

33:29

they always

33:32

find fault in a performance. You know what I mean?

33:34

Like, it's never good, isn't good enough

33:37

and great isn't great enough. Like it it's

33:41

But in most sports,

33:43

in most sports, home field

33:46

advantage is supposed to be your advantage

33:48

because the crowd's cheering you on doing the wave

33:51

and you're playing in front of your home crowd and your family's

33:55

there and all that information. I feel like it's different.

33:58

There's something different about fishing on your home lake.

34:01

And so anyhow, we, you know, we roll out heat.

34:05

I feel like, you know, he's comfortable. He doesn't feel seem nervous at all.

34:09

Not jump in his boat. It was good you

34:13

just thinking about that. You're right. But I would say this

34:16

and I haven't asked him this, but I bet you

34:19

if you said Jason Christie, what like do you want the classic to be on?

34:23

He chooses grand every time.

34:25

I mean, he did say that this is kind of a bad week

34:28

or like before the event he said, you know, because this is the week where

34:32

everything's changing and it's, you know, nothing's

34:35

but I mean, I think he chooses grand every single time.

34:38

I mean, I think he can't wait to have another one back there

34:40

and another shot at it. I can't I certainly would not debate that

34:44

with you at all. I mean, I think that's probably true.

34:47

Or Lake Hartwell. And now, you know, it's easy to see why

34:52

Grand Lake and Lake Hart will have similarities

34:56

because the fish set up on patterns,

34:59

the same pattern all over the lake. If you can unlock that

35:02

and figure that out, then you can run with it. Right.

35:05

And it it's they're very similar lakes.

35:07

And you can see why Jason has always done so well

35:11

at Lake Hartwell in South Carolina

35:13

because they're so similar. But so he pulls up,

35:18

we take off,

35:20

shoot some interviews, get through the crowd, take off,

35:23

and he pulls up to his first spot.

35:26

And to my surprise, and I think maybe

35:28

a little bit to his surprise, no one was there and it was a shallow

35:33

backwater creek, the mouth of a creek.

35:37

And when we pulled up the first one,

35:40

not the first thing, but one of the first things he said to me

35:42

while he started casting was you like,

35:45

you have no idea how much, how much time

35:49

and memories I have. Like I've won a tournament

35:52

back here before and and it brings back all these memories

35:56

from my childhood, fishing with my dad and all these things.

36:00

And that's really when things start setting in for me.

36:05

As far as being in the boat with Jason on Grand Lake was,

36:08

wow, they like what's going through his head right now because,

36:12

you know, he's it's part of his head

36:15

is reliving his past right now. Yeah and and man these fish start

36:20

blowing up their schooling out in the middle of this

36:23

this back bay at the mouth of this creek.

36:27

And he starts throwing a spook and I'm like, Do this is sweet.

36:30

Like I'm get to top water.

36:32

It's my favorite thing in the world. A film like it is for every, you know,

36:37

fishing camera guy.

36:39

And so he starts catching him. He goes, Dude, you have no idea.

36:42

These are like, these were these were big fish during practice.

36:46

And I know they're there.

36:49

And he starts catching, you know, keepers,

36:51

but they're two pounders. And I think he caught a mean mouth.

36:55

He caught a spot. He caught some small, large mouth.

37:00

And it started I think it started to weigh on him

37:03

a little bit because he was expecting,

37:06

if not to catch big fish on every cast

37:10

or every catch. At least he was going to go through

37:13

some of these smaller fish and start catch the bigger ones

37:16

because he knew they were there. And and

37:19

so he spent in this this is really concept,

37:22

a concept coming from Jason

37:24

after the day was almost over,

37:27

we were just talking in the boat and he kind of explain this to me.

37:30

He goes, Yeah, man, I spent you know, I ended up

37:32

spending 2 hours in there

37:34

waiting on the big fish to show up.

37:36

And now I feel like I wasted my time

37:39

because. They weren't there that the

37:41

the group of fish that were there flipped on him.

37:44

So, you know, he started chasing

37:48

patterns or location that he felt like worked in the past.

37:53

And he caught a lot of fish, but he never had that big bite.

37:57

And I think towards the end of the day,

37:59

he started honing in on the lay downs

38:03

that were offshore, not not too far offshore.

38:07

They were in shallow water and the water was clear

38:09

where he started on that top water bite.

38:12

And he started chase in murkier water

38:15

because he felt like it was just too clean for him,

38:17

especially doing what Jason Christie

38:20

is so famous for flipping and throwing

38:23

spinner baits into, you know, tree tops and lay downs.

38:28

And so, yeah, that's kind of how the first day

38:30

and I think he weighed like 13, 13, ten or something like that.

38:35

Yeah. So you know, he didn't

38:39

the fish were we actually thought

38:41

he had like £11 when he came in. So while it wasn't that 18 to £20 bag

38:47

that he wanted, you know, he finished a little bit better.

38:51

He didn't, he didn't lose himself on day one

38:55

I should say. Yeah. Yeah.

38:57

Any, any ended up coming back on day two

39:01

you know, found himself just in the top ten or just outside

39:04

the top ten had his best day of the tournament.

39:07

£18 on day two.

39:09

Yeah. 18 and change. So you know I'm just listening to

39:13

you talk and I'm like, you know, we've gone on and on

39:16

about these young guys so much. I don't

39:18

don't take what we said about the young guys being like

39:21

Jason Christie going to haunt them for years and years.

39:24

I mean, he is he is as lethal

39:27

a competitor as I've ever seen now and is happy and is content

39:30

a competitor like, you know what I mean? You just see him off the water even.

39:36

I mean, it's easy to to have a good tournament

39:38

and and be happy. But this was a bad tournament for him.

39:42

And when I saw him on Sunday night, you know, we were

39:45

it was all jokes and laugh and, you know,

39:48

he's in a great place in his life. So totally, 100% agree with you.

39:53

We've known him for a long time

39:55

and he was intense. And after he won the

39:57

classic at heart, well, like we said, his life changed forever.

40:02

And there's there's that that

40:05

that gorilla that was on his back isn't there anymore.

40:09

And he knows how he understands how to,

40:12

you know, to let this

40:14

let the sun come up on Monday morning like he always.

40:18

And is that what he says? Cool. He says he goes like he never say no.

40:22

Oh, he'll say, you know,

40:24

I really want to win this tournament. Whatever he says,

40:27

this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to put my my head down.

40:30

I'm going to do it like I want to do it, do it my way.

40:33

But if I if it doesn't happen, the sun still going

40:36

to come up on Monday morning. And I guess we're going to

40:38

we're going to go fishing again, you know?

40:41

Yeah, yeah. I've heard him say, I love Jason.

40:43

He's a great guy. He's awesome. He's awesome.

40:46

I was really excited to see his charge on day two.

40:49

And I'll be that classic is better

40:51

when he's in contention, especially in that part of the world.

40:54

And so and let me say this too, real quick.

40:58

As we talked about Cooper Gallant

41:01

family support and all these young guys

41:03

with their support, Shana, Jason's wife, brings that support.

41:08

She's running a camera in the morning,

41:11

shoot interviews, creating content for him.

41:14

You know, the it's there's she

41:18

she produces and these wives that are there

41:20

for these anglers produce that same kind of support

41:24

that these anglers need to get through

41:27

the details behind the scenes

41:30

that they get distracted with or can't do

41:33

they have the harder job the family and and the wives

41:37

have the hardest job because they're

41:39

they got to keep the wheels on.

41:41

I mean, when Jason's fishing,

41:44

he's focused on his next bite. Shannon has to go through that.

41:48

One cool thing about Shanna and Shelby

41:50

Gustafson, who are best friends,

41:53

they had these did you see their jackets?

41:56

They had had like these jean jackets with

42:00

Christy and Gustafson on the back

42:02

that they wore around. It was super cool. Super cool.

42:04

I didn't know that. I love Taylor Swift.

42:06

Brittany Mahomes, huh?

42:10

It was very nice. They are very supportive.

42:12

And they are. Yeah, they are definitely important

42:15

to their success.

42:17

Very cool. So day two,

42:19

you end up with another old friend,

42:22

Leigh Livesey.

42:25

Can't miss the opportunity to hang with

42:29

Lee and ride shotgun with him at the Classic.

42:32

Obviously would have loved to stay with Jason for three days.

42:36

That's the goal. When I jump in a boat is to stay

42:38

in that same boat as long as I can, and because that means the

42:41

anglers doing really well. And and

42:46

there's something that happened with Lee

42:50

started on day two that ended

42:52

dramatically on day three that no one knows about literally.

42:56

Well, maybe a few people paid attention, but most people don't know

42:59

this even happened. So he so we're data we take off

43:05

we go out to his first spot which is at the mouth of what's the creek

43:09

that we're that the take off is in

43:12

is that there it's not a horse creek.

43:16

No

43:19

I'm afraid go ahead whatever move there or creek.

43:22

That is where it I'm trying to think of where we took off from.

43:25

I'm like I said it 7000 times on a microphone.

43:30

Doesn't matter if I know the city.

43:32

Yeah, So? So we're at the mouth.

43:35

Okay, so where the creek meets the main lake

43:39

and Lilly pulls up on this shallow point

43:43

and it actually reminds me of Lake Fork.

43:46

So he pulls up on this, on this shallow point.

43:49

And there's, there's he loves, he loves

43:52

fish and secondary points.

43:55

And so he starts fishing the secondary points first

43:59

and he starts talking about how, you know, he caught

44:03

he caught some four and four and at four and a half,

44:06

four plus pound bass, deer practice there.

44:10

And obviously it's an important spot for him

44:12

because that's where he started. And again, he caught fish,

44:17

but they weren't the right fish, like the fish flipped on it.

44:21

Okay. Moving ahead, which I have to do here

44:26

on day three

44:28

when he's actually got a an outside shot.

44:32

He's in. He was in seventh place.

44:35

Yeah. Place I think he's eight

44:37

and a half pounds behind Justin Hamner,

44:40

the leader. But from first place, from

44:44

second place to 20,

44:46

fifth place was super tired.

44:49

It was like £29, 25th place,

44:52

and like £33 second place, right?

44:55

Or something like that. Yeah. And Hamner had the big gap,

44:58

but outside of him it was very tight,

45:00

super tight. Anyone could have come in second.

45:03

Truly, if Hamner would have bombed

45:06

day three, anyone could have won that tournament in the top 25.

45:10

And so, Lee, we're about to take off.

45:13

And he goes, Man, I don't know if I need to stop on that,

45:16

on that on that math point

45:18

or if I just need to go down to those cliffs where we were

45:21

because he and Brandon Card were really sort of

45:26

they were fish in the same spots

45:29

on those cliff bands way down down lake.

45:32

So and with the weather forecast, Lee was like, man,

45:35

I don't know if I need to go down there now or if I need to wait

45:38

So he he we blast off

45:41

and I think he made the decision as we were coming out

45:44

of the mouth of that creek to go down lake

45:47

because he wanted to get there early

45:51

just in case the wind

45:53

and weather forecast was correct.

45:56

And it got so bad

45:58

mid-morning that we couldn't make it down there anyway.

46:01

So he went ahead, blast down there.

46:03

He starts fish in these cliff bands and,

46:06

you know, he catches his limit. And then towards

46:08

the end of the day, on day three, he says, Man, I'm going back.

46:12

We're going to go back to where I started on day two.

46:15

So we go back up here and at this point, our bass track

46:18

he's in, he's still in seventh. Now he's in eighth place.

46:21

He actually dropped a spot

46:24

and he had £13 in his bag

46:28

coming back to take off

46:30

for the end of the tournament. And he pulls up on that same spot

46:34

that he started on. He goes, I know they're here.

46:37

I mean, he's like I talked to Cantu.

46:39

Cantu caught a four and a half pounder here in practice,

46:42

like, I know these fish are here. So he pulls up and starts

46:45

fish in a secondary point first and gets down

46:48

to like really the third.

46:51

There's a there's a boat, an old boat

46:53

ramp that comes into the water.

46:55

And he likes to fish those blowouts

46:57

at the end of those boat ramps. So he makes the same case

47:01

where he caught like a three pounder before

47:04

and catches a four.

47:06

I think it was a four and a half pound bass

47:09

and it moved him from eighth to fifth.

47:12

No, he was in 11th. We went back and looked at the math

47:15

and on the at the final weigh in, this was like ET

47:19

this was that he had to check in at 315

47:21

at 2:54 p.m.,

47:24

literally had 5 to 6 minutes to fish.

47:27

He makes a cache and catches a four and a half pounder.

47:30

It takes him from 11th place

47:32

to fifth place, which is where he finished.

47:35

And that that one fish literally made him $10,000

47:38

because that was the payout difference between 11 and fifth place.

47:42

So wow, you know, there are grand winners of the classic.

47:46

There's all kinds of small winners

47:48

that compete to the end to the very end of the tournament,

47:52

because you never know when you catch a fish

47:54

that can make you 10,000

47:56

more dollars for your family like that one did. That was pretty cool.

48:00

Very cool. Clutch, clutch.

48:02

He's clutch when it comes to big events, too.

48:04

I mean, he look at his classic record.

48:07

Mm hmm. I mean, I don't think he's ever finished out of the top

48:09

15 in the Bassmaster Classic, which is incredible.

48:12

Like we talked about that. Yeah, He. Yeah.

48:16

Does he think of things different? No, no, no.

48:18

I'm asking you questions just to see that. Do you think he.

48:22

He thinks of does he

48:25

fish the classic any different,

48:27

I would assume. Yes, they all do. Yeah, I think they all do.

48:30

They all have a different intensity because that is the goal.

48:34

While people say, you know, Angler,

48:36

the year they watch trophy is the most coveted

48:40

do they're there for the classic they're there to win the classic

48:43

That's the childhood dream.

48:45

And while the ALA trophy

48:47

speaks of consistency throughout the year,

48:50

I think, you know,

48:52

they start thinking about that. They they think about that

48:55

at the beginning of the year and they think about that

48:58

after the classic is over, which is typically the third tournament.

49:03

But really their goal is is the classic.

49:07

So yeah, I think they do think differently,

49:09

like they play to win and they take chance

49:11

bigger chances because they're all getting paid.

49:14

And naturally, I think that's who Lee Livesey is like.

49:17

You know what I mean? I think the Little League will ever see

49:20

that has to feature throughout the year,

49:23

which is different than he is because points are so important.

49:26

And I think for a long time I didn't even realize

49:29

how much pressure those points put on those guys.

49:32

But but they just, you know, they try to take risks,

49:35

but there are calculated risks where at the classic

49:39

I mean, Lee's a homerun hitter. That's just clearly who he is.

49:42

That's what he always like. If he had his way, if that wasn't four points,

49:46

I think he'd fish every single tournament like that.

49:48

But I think he does to an extent.

49:50

I mean, he like the Sabine River two

49:54

two years ago or three years ago,

49:57

it was I think it was what Jason won the Sabine River event.

50:02

Lee We went up to the. Trent We went across Galveston Bay, yeah,

50:06

up the Trinity River. We were 110 miles from the take off.

50:12

And he told me the night before,

50:15

he said, Get ready to go for a ride,

50:18

you know, wrap everything up because we're going to

50:20

we're going to go for a ride. And he does things like that quite often

50:25

because he plays to win like he does.

50:28

Yeah, he thinks about, you know, salvaging points

50:31

and not dropping in his standings or whatever.

50:33

But the day if he makes it today for he's

50:36

going to, he's going to go for it. There's no doubt that's how he thinks.

50:40

That's how he plays the game. Well, he had a good

50:44

finish, but it just didn't

50:47

he he didn't seal the deal. And I know that's where he wants to be.

50:50

And I have no doubt that he'll battle it out in class

50:53

for years and years to come. 100%.

50:58

What else? You got anything else,

51:01

man? I don't know. It's a lot.

51:04

That was a lot, actually.

51:06

We talked about most Oh, we were going to talk about Oh,

51:13

sorry about the tears and emotions

51:15

I just did. Is it Dad? You know, I get

51:17

I get caught up in that stuff and I look at

51:20

I look at the support

51:22

that families bring to their their children, their sons

51:26

and all that stuff. And, you know, it just inspires me.

51:30

So it touches when I see that

51:32

because I know those those parents are doing that

51:36

for their children. It means a lot. So I got emotional.

51:40

Yeah, I hear you unapologetically.

51:43

No, no, it's a it's an emotional time.

51:48

Highs and lows this week. There was a lot of cool stuff

51:50

at the classic. It was a lot of good things,

51:53

a lot of bad things.

51:56

I don't even know if I should go here or should I go there

51:58

to tell the story at the start list?

52:01

Yeah, I heard something.

52:03

But what Everybody heard about it,

52:05

I mean, it. It definitely. Hey, here's the deal.

52:07

I never come to the last few years. I have not shown up on Monday

52:11

because Monday night at the best, Mr. Classic.

52:15

It's a night where

52:17

anglers

52:20

let a little steam off. I mean, they briefest

52:22

they briefest party or party. Yeah.

52:24

And they don't have to do anything

52:26

literally the next day. I'm sorry, but my voice don't do

52:30

anything the next day until 2:00.

52:34

I think that's 1:00. That's when the Angler meeting starts.

52:37

So

52:39

who's a bunch of anglers that did did go out that evening

52:42

and I literally I didn't get in to like 10:00 that night.

52:45

So I'm like, I'm good. I'm not going to go anywhere.

52:47

I'm just going to go to my room. Well, as I'm checking in

52:52

up the escalator comes a group of anglers.

52:56

And I said, Oh yeah, I'll meet you,

52:59

drop my stuff off and I'll meet you guys in the bar

53:01

for drinks, maybe even change.

53:04

I'm wearing track pants, a t shirt, I'm traveling and

53:09

which is I'm like, I'm just going to wear track pants.

53:11

Teacher won't end up going anywhere.

53:13

Well, we were in the bar and

53:17

we're excited about the classic

53:20

and the next thing you know this, and

53:24

I'm going to remove all the Angler's name because I didn't ask their permission

53:27

to tell this story. So we're just going to pretend

53:29

that's irrelevant. It's irrelevant. You guys can guess.

53:36

Most people are going to get pretty close to.

53:38

Yeah, it's not hard. Guess it's not a hard guess.

53:41

So we end up saying,

53:43

Oh, we're going to go out. It's a particular anglers bachelor party,

53:47

we're going to go out for it. We all sorts of plans,

53:49

but we end up at a casino again.

53:51

I'm going to remove the name of the casino because they don't need

53:54

to be any part of this. I apologize to that particular casino.

53:58

If they're tuning.

54:00

So we I mean, dude, it's Monday night in Tulsa.

54:03

Everything's closed. It's pretty. The casino was empty.

54:06

There was literally four tables, three or four tables,

54:09

and it was all people connected to the classic,

54:11

whether it be anglers, most of the anglers.

54:14

But it was, you know, some industry folks, some folks

54:17

that worked with bass, different people

54:19

as a bar owner, I can attest, Monday night's

54:22

are the slowest night in the bar business. So anyway, go ahead.

54:25

Well, this was

54:27

so we're all hanging out and I've been there for like an hour or so.

54:34

I mean, I've had a few drinks, everything's good. And dude, I'm not.

54:38

I'm far from a trust me, I would admit it.

54:40

And I have been in my life,

54:43

but this is far from a mess. But I'm definitely jovial.

54:46

I'm definitely celebratory.

54:48

Dave You bet. And all the anglers are.

54:51

I mean, this is you. All right, So anyway, well, most of the.

54:54

Yeah, I try to be.

54:56

So I just hung out. I don't like gambling.

54:59

I'm not a gambler. Don't like it same.

55:04

I just never like do do I go to Vegas?

55:06

Me and my wife love going to Vegas and we literally

55:10

I'll spend 100 bucks in the slot machine

55:12

because we had to waste some time. You know what I mean?

55:14

Like waiting for our reservation or whatever.

55:18

I'm not that guy who loves gambling. But anyway, as I sit down

55:20

at this blackjack table

55:22

and there's another angler that I know very well.

55:29

Hey, that's.

55:31

I was going to give another hint, but I won't. And then there was a rookie angler

55:35

beside him. Nice guy.

55:38

Anyway, I mean, there was other people at the table.

55:42

So anyways, I go and get $400 out of the machine.

55:47

Right. So going to gamble. I'm going to gamble.

55:49

I've obviously drank enough that I've decided to go get $4.

55:51

I'm going to gamble. Everyone's doing all the cool kids are doing.

55:54

We're going to sit down, we're going to gamble. So I sit down and I'm

55:57

in the dealer with super nice and everything.

55:59

We're all like, It's a very celebratory mood.

56:01

Like it's very jokey, very happy,

56:06

and I lose the first hand

56:09

and I say a particular swear word

56:11

that begins with an F, and I'm like,

56:13

dropping F-bomb. Yeah. I mean, it happens.

56:17

You hate losing money. Yeah, it is.

56:20

But it wasn't like bombs too angry.

56:23

Like, I was just like Bud.

56:25

So Right? So the pit pass comes over.

56:30

Seemed like a very nice lady, and she said, You can't say fudge in here.

56:34

And I said, Oh, what?

56:36

And then she went on to say, You can't say,

56:40

you can say and listed like every swearword on earth,

56:44

but you cannot you cannot say, but.

56:48

And I looked at her and paused for a second.

56:51

I was like, you got to be fudge and kill.

56:53

Kidding me.

56:56

She was not she's not me at all.

57:00

I wouldn't expect anything less to come out of your mouth, Dave.

57:03

I mean, it it was very jovial.

57:05

I'm trying to like you. There was no aggression.

57:07

Everybody was happy. I mean, if I'm the pit boss,

57:10

I'm like, Hey, here's an idiot

57:12

that just came here with a stack of chips

57:14

now, and he's going to lose them all. So, like, it's a casino, like, right?

57:19

You can't say it's like she said all those swear words,

57:24

some of them people say, are more offensive,

57:27

but you can't say fudge. And then she actually kept saying fudge.

57:31

Then I couldn't say it, which also frustrated me.

57:33

But I'm like, You've got to be fudge and kidding me.

57:36

And then the guy beside me is like,

57:38

That's a fudge in joke. And I'm like, I didn't get it.

57:42

So me and him go back and forth, and I swear to you at the time 100%

57:47

think that she's joke Like, I think she's she thinks we're hilarious.

57:50

Right? Right. I was wrong.

57:52

She did not think we were Larry's and the next thing I know,

57:55

these three security guards come up

57:57

and they're like, Oh, my good, you got to leave.

58:00

And I'm like, Come on, Really? I said, We're leaving.

58:03

Like, we're the only people in here.

58:06

And ironically, and I will include his name in this story

58:09

because he did nothing wrong. Matt Robertson's one table over

58:13

and you know, he's dropping a lot of fudge bombs over

58:16

And like I mean, he can't I mean, the only time he doesn't drop

58:18

him is on the stage, literally. So I'm amazed by this.

58:24

But I'm like, well, what about all my chips? And they're like, Well,

58:26

you can go to the cage and redeem. I mean,

58:30

they did me the best favor because I would have totally lost all that.

58:33

So I'd go to the cage and feel like a winner because

58:37

I won $90. Me

58:40

and I didn't even never go to the cage

58:42

because I never win. So

58:45

we're walking out and

58:48

I mean, it was shocking and be walking past tables

58:51

and I'm like, We're out. And they're like,

58:53

Come on, you're fudge and kidding me.

58:55

And I'm like, Yeah, that's why we're out. You might as well get in line with us.

58:59

You must have done something more. I'm like, No, we just said Fudge and

59:06

I mean, like they're not rabbits are walking behind us.

59:10

Sure. And telling us we have to leave.

59:12

You're compliant?

59:15

Yeah, I'd say compliant, pseudo compliant,

59:20

very chirpy. We were I mean, if I've got. Really.

59:23

What's your throwing out. You're throwing out right.

59:25

I mean you can't

59:28

I mean you're gambling. I think about the irony.

59:32

I really in retrospect have thought back.

59:34

I think it was kind of a test

59:36

maybe like she felt like, okay, I'm going to tell him

59:38

not to say this word. And if they say that word, they've probably

59:41

had too much to drink to be here,

59:43

which that's the only way this makes sense to me.

59:46

Either that or she just didn't like me,

59:49

which, hey, that might be the case.

59:51

So the three of us, me, the angler

59:54

I know very well besides me and the rookie was a nice guy.

59:58

Three of us are being walked up by three different dudes, and

1:00:04

the other two dudes end up going out the front door,

1:00:07

and I'm about to go out the front door and

1:00:11

I don't know why I do things, but I did it.

1:00:14

So I'm like, Wait, I need hand sanitizer.

1:00:18

So it's in there. So I put my hand under there

1:00:21

and I start rubbing it and I'm staring at those three

1:00:25

the whole time. The whole time just staring right on their head.

1:00:28

Another little bit of hand center and rubbing it.

1:00:30

And I'm staring at them. Rubbing it on your teeth. No, no, no.

1:00:33

Just on the hands. So I hit it like four times.

1:00:36

I mean, it had way too much, was dripping off my hands everywhere,

1:00:38

but I'm just rubbing it and staring at them because

1:00:42

at that stated time it felt like the right thing for me to do.

1:00:45

I guess it probably wasn't. And then one guy says

1:00:49

a lot of hand sanitizer, and I said, Well, I need it.

1:00:52

It's filthy up in here.

1:00:55

Oh man. They walk us through the experience,

1:01:00

they walk us out the door. And I'm like, All right,

1:01:04

we're good. They're like, No,

1:01:06

we're walking you off property.

1:01:08

And what?

1:01:11

They're like, You need to leave the entire property.

1:01:15

And the irony of the whole story was, wow.

1:01:17

So we walk, we get walked the whole way across.

1:01:19

And by this point, it's just I mean, it's ridiculous, right?

1:01:22

Like, yeah, I mean, we're dropping fudge bombs left, right and center.

1:01:26

It is a fudge and mess and.

1:01:29

Wow. But again, nothing physical,

1:01:31

Nothing at all. Like I woke up the next morning

1:01:33

feeling bad for kind of chirping them because, I mean, they didn't throw me out.

1:01:36

The carpet passed through me out there just to do it.

1:01:38

They're just doing their job and I felt bad.

1:01:42

I do. So if any prevalence that I do feel bad

1:01:45

for all the Terps, but it happens.

1:01:48

So we get to the edge of the casino

1:01:52

where we have to leave

1:01:54

and he says, You're good. So we cross the over

1:01:57

this curb and I'm like, Right here, we're good, but not over there.

1:02:00

We're not good. Yeah. Ironically,

1:02:03

where we can see you doing this too.

1:02:05

Ironically, where we were good was a Waffle House, so.

1:02:09

Oh, we turned out to be wonderful. Really? I spent three tonight.

1:02:12

No, I didn't spend it all. I'm like, I'll have a fudge waffle, please.

1:02:17

I was fudging eggs.

1:02:19

Ironically, our waitress at the Waffle House,

1:02:21

we told you the story and her response was,

1:02:24

You got to be kidding me.

1:02:26

Wow. And then it became a thing

1:02:29

where she was like, What are you fudging? Want All right? Yeah.

1:02:33

I help you on fudge in home fries.

1:02:35

With that, it became a whole thing. But anyways, yeah.

1:02:40

So everybody found out the next day,

1:02:42

like the next day was kind of angler media day,

1:02:44

and every angler was like, Oh, no, I heard you like what happened?

1:02:48

And when I told the story to people, I felt like I was lying.

1:02:50

Like, like there had to be more to it. I wasn't just saying fudge,

1:02:54

But yeah, that did happen. And then we

1:02:56

we ended up stuck at the Waffle House

1:02:58

with no way to get home because it's hard to get an Uber from the Waffle House.

1:03:02

So we ended up paying

1:03:05

some random person, the Waffle House, 100 bucks

1:03:07

to bring us back to the hotel. Yeah, Randall, Just a guy.

1:03:11

And his wife drove us back in their truck

1:03:15

and the here's. Here's the funny part. So the next morning, I wake up

1:03:19

and I honestly did feel bad.

1:03:21

Like, I'm like, wow, you know, was such a nice night.

1:03:25

Why did you know? Why did you have to say fuck?

1:03:27

I didn't regret any of that. It was stupid. Why we get thrown out.

1:03:29

But why did you have to chirp? The dude's telling us to leave, and.

1:03:34

And then I, of feverishly thought, Oh,

1:03:37

where's the Knight of Champions? Because at one time we went there

1:03:42

and the Night of Champions may or may not have been

1:03:44

at that particular casino. And I started looking through all

1:03:47

I'm like, I'm not going to go tonight champions.

1:03:50

I'm supposed to emcee it, but thank God

1:03:52

it was at Cain's Ballroom, where

1:03:55

I was very welcome. So,

1:03:58

I mean, what they actually did, they actually banned you from the casino?

1:04:01

Oh, I don't know. I don't know.

1:04:03

I don't know. I'm sure they didn't. I mean, come on.

1:04:06

For like, they have a list, a board.

1:04:08

These guys said fudge.

1:04:10

I guarantee you they have video cameras in there

1:04:12

running constantly. Oh, guys, please. Every casino does.

1:04:16

I do hope it doesn't bring that. It's kind of why I'm

1:04:21

telling the story right here, because

1:04:24

at least they're letting the cat out of the bag. Yeah, Yeah.

1:04:27

Something happens. I mean, not

1:04:29

that there's nothing that would happen. You just see an idiot

1:04:32

putting on a lot of hand sanitizer. That's all it is.

1:04:35

But yeah, so yet again,

1:04:37

I'm going to go back to showing up at the classic on Tuesday

1:04:39

because Monday night is dangerous and

1:04:43

I'm going to try to show up on Monday night here.

1:04:50

Oh, oh.

1:04:53

Well I like I like it

1:04:55

when those guys are out on the town and,

1:04:58

you know, in the civil in their civilian

1:05:01

clothes.

1:05:05

It's always a good time.

1:05:07

Yeah. Yeah. Cheekily when you're around.

1:05:10

Well, no, I mean, I did it in track pants and a t shirt too.

1:05:13

Like That's what makes it so much more the

1:05:19

the people who drove us home were big cheese fans, though.

1:05:21

I like that. There were a lot of T fans.

1:05:23

Yes, there were a lot. I saw Chiefs flags flying off

1:05:27

poles around the lake. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:05:29

Well, yeah, it's right there, sir.

1:05:33

And hey, Christie Christie's way and song was incredible.

1:05:36

I don't know. He weighed in to the Chiefs

1:05:38

Tomahawk chop, so he did. That was cool.

1:05:41

I love it. I love it. But

1:05:44

so hopefully I didn't get in too much trouble from telling that story.

1:05:47

And this is proved 100%

1:05:50

how me and Jake are. I mean, he tells a very moving thing,

1:05:52

gets all emotional talks about being a dad.

1:05:55

And I end it by talking about getting thrown out of a casino.

1:06:00

We ask you one last question. One last question.

1:06:02

How how did the I mean, you

1:06:05

are you are the you're the emcee.

1:06:09

Like you're in that spotlight on the stage for the

1:06:13

the Bassmaster Classic. How'd it go for you?

1:06:20

Not good on Monday. Hello. But no, I think it went good.

1:06:24

I thought it was a good classic. I thought it was great crowds.

1:06:27

I mean, I thought there was some.

1:06:29

Have you seen the the the mike failure video yet?

1:06:33

I just posted it. No, I haven't seen that. Oh, you need to go see it. It's.

1:06:37

Oh, dude. So I go out on Championship Sunday,

1:06:42

the biggest day of the tournament

1:06:45

and I go out on stage and do my ridiculousness

1:06:47

where I'm spit and water in the air trying to get the crowds

1:06:50

cheer and whatever. And then I go to talk to

1:06:53

the microphone and

1:06:55

there's nothing. There's no there's nothing.

1:06:58

There is nothing like it is dead.

1:07:00

And I'm like, Wait. It's like I'm thinking, well,

1:07:02

somebody's going to pot it up here. So I give it a second.

1:07:05

Well, no, there's nothing. So I run backstage and I'm like,

1:07:09

Mike's not working now at the Elite series,

1:07:12

I turn the mic on and off. I control the mic.

1:07:14

To be clear, any big event like that,

1:07:17

you can't do that because every time you turn it on or off,

1:07:20

you hear through the speakers.

1:07:22

Oh, right. So I've always been told,

1:07:25

do not ever touch the on and off of the mic no matter what.

1:07:29

And so I went back and I'm like,

1:07:32

Mike's not on and people are running

1:07:34

all over like backstage. We should have a camera there

1:07:37

because people are run, Mike's on, Mike's on

1:07:39

and they're panicked. And

1:07:42

I'm like, What do I do? And thank God for the Bassmaster fans

1:07:46

because you hear people in the crowd yelling some cool stuff and everything.

1:07:49

So I come out and kind of

1:07:52

I'm a mime just waving to people.

1:07:56

And here's one.

1:07:58

This was one of the most memorable moments for me.

1:08:01

I have no idea where this came from.

1:08:03

Thank God it came. Thank God it happened

1:08:06

because at the end of it, I was like, That was one of the coolest

1:08:09

things ever happened in my life. This is the equivalent of a

1:08:12

tournament Angler not having anything to go to

1:08:15

and pulled up to a random dock and

1:08:18

his line gets under the boat and around a cable and around the thing,

1:08:23

but he catches an eight pounder. It's literally how I felt

1:08:26

when this all went on. So, sure, there's

1:08:29

panic, but you got to calm. Yeah, I mean, I've learned a long time

1:08:31

ago, like,

1:08:33

chill, like you can't fake like, being panicked only makes it panic.

1:08:37

So I'm out there just kind of waving to people,

1:08:40

and you know,

1:08:42

point that the crowd and making them do you know what I mean?

1:08:45

They're kind of cheering and which was cool and everything.

1:08:47

But still I have no microphone. It's my job to speak to these people.

1:08:50

So I go backstage again and there are still people

1:08:53

running all over. None of them are the guy

1:08:55

that is in charge of the bikes. I don't know where he

1:08:58

is hiding somewhere. So I'm like, finally, I'm just like,

1:09:02

I look at the mic and I'm like, Just

1:09:04

I turn it on. It was not

1:09:07

on, I guess, but oh, I find out that it's

1:09:11

so, so like anybody that tests a mic, I go

1:09:14

hit it twice. And as soon as I do

1:09:16

that, the crowd responds because, I mean,

1:09:19

they see this guy awkwardly flailing up there.

1:09:23

So I do it twice just to test it had no plan whatsoever.

1:09:27

And I make work, so I'm good. And then I, I hit it again

1:09:32

and the crowd responded and they started going to bully

1:09:37

you would give up was like that. And I

1:09:39

and then I, then I kind of transitioned it to

1:09:42

We Will Rock You. Oh, yeah.

1:09:45

And the crowd's clapping along with that. I'm like, What is just happened?

1:09:48

This is they're all now

1:09:50

they're all part of this. And I pulled some stuff out of my ass.

1:09:55

I don't. But I'm like, Did you hear that sound?

1:09:58

That is the heartbeat of bass fishing.

1:10:00

And I'm like, Wow, dude, It was.

1:10:04

And again, if I had a thought of that, why,

1:10:07

I said, that would be one thing. But it just happened how it happened, how

1:10:12

I didn't even think, what am I going to say?

1:10:14

It just happened like, I literally hit the mic twice

1:10:17

and I heard the crowd respond to it and I'm like,

1:10:19

I hit it again and I hit it again. It became a heartbeat.

1:10:22

And then as they were there, clapping to the heartbeat,

1:10:24

then I start kind of transition and we will rock you,

1:10:27

I swear to you forever. That's going to be a thing

1:10:30

Like I was doing that, like not fake the broken mic, but

1:10:34

it was one of the coolest messy moments I've ever had

1:10:37

because it was a train wreck

1:10:40

and it and it turned around and it became

1:10:43

something. So, yeah, that was that was like,

1:10:47

that's really cool. I've missed the opening,

1:10:50

you know, to the weigh ins because we were

1:10:52

just we're always running behind

1:10:55

and I wish I had seen that. That's really cool.

1:10:58

And it was dumb. I don't know.

1:11:00

I still don't know. Like, I think my parents

1:11:03

who are up above somebody somewhere

1:11:05

planted that in me like, I don't know where it came from, dude.

1:11:08

Like, I really like it. I wish I was like, Yeah,

1:11:11

you know what I was thinking? I'll hit this Mike.

1:11:13

It'll sound a heartbeat, and then I'll tell him it's the heartbeat of bass.

1:11:17

Nothing. Nothing. Like I literally do, too.

1:11:20

I just want to do just like you would anytime you fix a mike.

1:11:23

That noise right there. But it's obviously amplified in it

1:11:26

in the environment we were in right

1:11:28

when I hit it twice, I'm like they responded. I was. That's like, I mean, I'm a weirdo.

1:11:33

That gets off on Freddie Mercury stuff right there. Like it?

1:11:35

Live it easy now, man. I mean, Freddie Mercury,

1:11:40

Thank you. But no, but it was just so cool

1:11:44

that it transitioned into something. It became something.

1:11:48

It it actually like afterwards was like,

1:11:50

thank God my mike didn't work. I mean, that would have just been

1:11:53

another boring open. And it, it,

1:11:56

it was just something very cool. So, so yeah,

1:11:59

I think it was think it was a cool event I,

1:12:03

I love the classic I literally it's

1:12:05

it's exhausting it you leave it like a zombie.

1:12:08

I'm allergic the smoke that we use so my face is all puffy and red

1:12:12

still like from the dried ice.

1:12:15

It's horrible for my voice, but

1:12:17

I leave there always thinking the same thing.

1:12:21

Damn, we got to wait another year to do this again.

1:12:23

Now I know, dude, but if we did it every other week, yeah,

1:12:27

it wouldn't be what it is. That's the great.

1:12:30

I'd never be in any

1:12:33

mess. Did you? One last thing I know. We got to go.

1:12:37

Did you see the,

1:12:39

like, the original bass master

1:12:42

Classic Boat? Yes. Or take off on day one?

1:12:45

I was that dude. It was awesome. It was awesome.

1:12:49

It was that 19. What year was that?

1:12:52

The original classic was 1972.

1:12:57

Yeah, that's what I thought. So if you go to YouTube and pull that up

1:13:02

and you see that racecar and, and forest

1:13:06

wood had all those boats all lined up, everyone had the same rig.

1:13:11

These red Rangers. Yeah.

1:13:14

That boat, one of the original bass master classic

1:13:18

that Ray Scott forced with provided for the anglers.

1:13:21

Somebody has one and they pulled it up too

1:13:25

close to the ramp in the docks

1:13:27

so everyone could see. And I thought that was super cool man

1:13:31

I'm a loser. It was 71.

1:13:33

71. Okay, there you go. Yeah. 71.

1:13:37

But yeah that, that was

1:13:40

that was a picture of that boat right there. I haven't.

1:13:43

I haven't. There's a weird story though. Like, I don't know that they were Rangers.

1:13:46

I think that they were. Yeah. Because there were,

1:13:49

there was a fight, there were supposed to be Rangers, but there was a fire

1:13:51

at their plant or something and they weren't Rangers that year.

1:13:55

I don't know. But there it is.

1:13:57

There it is. Yeah. Is it a ranger?

1:14:01

Zoom in on it. Rebel Bassmaster Classic.

1:14:07

It says Rebel. Yes, yes, there's that rebel lure.

1:14:12

But I think it was I think they used it.

1:14:14

I don't know. I mean, ask Ken Duck.

1:14:16

He knows these kind of things, but it was it was cool to see.

1:14:20

That was a lot of history, a lot of cool things that,

1:14:24

you know, panels, stuff. I mean, obviously, the Bass

1:14:27

Pro being a sponsor of it, everybody looks at Bass Pro

1:14:29

like they're this big corporate giant. And they are

1:14:32

and they look at Johnny Morris like he's a billionaire and he is sure

1:14:37

put him and tell you what he is is one of the greatest conservationists

1:14:40

of our lifetime. And he's also one of the greatest supporters

1:14:43

of the history of the sport. He is huge.

1:14:46

And I think you felt that at this year's

1:14:49

classic like you felt, I mean, for multiple reasons.

1:14:52

I mean, Bass did the series, the cast

1:14:55

the first season that they're going to do another season

1:14:57

next year, it's awesome.

1:14:59

It's amazing. It's so awesome.

1:15:02

And I love it. I'll I'll watch, I watch it.

1:15:05

I've watched episodes more than once.

1:15:09

It's so good. Yes, so good.

1:15:11

And there was a lot of homage

1:15:14

paid to that, whether it was for the cast,

1:15:16

whether it was because Johnny Morse was involved.

1:15:18

I think it was a combination of all of that. But I loved all of that.

1:15:22

We we had a really cool tribute for. Rick Klein

1:15:25

at the opening, which Klein kind of ruined us

1:15:30

all here. I didn't say that, Rick. He did. Well, he admitted it.

1:15:33

He admitted it, and we ruined it ourselves.

1:15:38

Here's what happened. So I've known about this.

1:15:41

I've been kind of planning this with Melissa.

1:15:46

And I mean, Rick confessed 50 years.

1:15:48

He's two tournaments away from his 500th tournament.

1:15:51

So we needed to have

1:15:53

we wanted to have one to honor him

1:15:56

and bring him in the arena before

1:15:58

Saturday's weigh it. And his whole family was lined up front.

1:16:02

Bob Cobb, Johnny Morris, Bill Dance,

1:16:05

you know, the who's who of fishing was lined up in front of the stage

1:16:09

to honor Rick Klein.

1:16:11

So

1:16:13

I'm backstage getting ready to do this. But right before we did this,

1:16:16

they did a thing for the cast where Rick was.

1:16:19

I think they told Rick that's why they wanted him there.

1:16:21

You know, he doesn't even know we're doing this honoring him thing.

1:16:27

So he's back there to do the casting and it's who comes out on stage.

1:16:32

Ronnie hosted that part and who came out on stage was Bob Cobb.

1:16:38

Bill Dance. Bill Dance. Johnny Morris, Johnny Morris, Rick Klein.

1:16:44

Van Dam was carved out there.

1:16:47

Not at that part. No, no. He came out of the boat

1:16:49

earlier and stuff. So they're up there for the cast

1:16:54

talking about it. And I'm backstage

1:16:56

to do this top secret Rick Klein thing.

1:16:58

And all of a sudden they hear Glenn's voice on the microphone

1:17:01

and I'm like, Wait, what? And I'm like, What?

1:17:04

And he's given gold like, he is, you know,

1:17:07

you know, when Rick preaches,

1:17:10

it is so good. And, you know, he's given gold.

1:17:14

The gold that I had envisioned him

1:17:16

giving during our presentation,

1:17:19

which is about 3 minutes.

1:17:21

And I find out. So Klein goes up there and he said he asked for the mic

1:17:24

because he wanted to talk, which he never does.

1:17:27

You know what I mean? Never, ever does. But I guess he wanted

1:17:29

to get some stuff out there unbeknownst to him.

1:17:32

We're going to honor him in about 2 minutes time.

1:17:35

So that all leaves the stage and I'm backstage

1:17:37

listening to all this gold and I love hearing it, but I'm also like,

1:17:40

You're ruining everything. Oh, my gosh.

1:17:44

So what are we going to talk about? I'm like, Why did we scheduled this

1:17:47

right before this? Because it's not going to.

1:17:50

And he's like, We didn't. Rick wanted to make it,

1:17:52

but Rick wants the mike. He gets the mic. So so when we did the honoring Rick thing

1:17:57

and it was really cool, everyone in the crowd stood up

1:17:59

and you know, he got a standing ovation.

1:18:02

His family's crying and everything.

1:18:04

But I mean, he called it right from the beginning. He's like,

1:18:06

I just said everything I should have said.

1:18:10

And then to make matters worse,

1:18:13

they're in my ear telling me to I mean, it's a live event.

1:18:16

It never goes smooth. You hardly ever know

1:18:19

that things that go wrong. But there is some things you can't avoid.

1:18:22

Spontaneity. The cover of his of this of marches,

1:18:27

that Metaphor magazine has Rick Klein's face,

1:18:29

but it's made up with 850 pictures

1:18:32

throughout his career. Credible did who laid that out it Manti?

1:18:36

I think it was a team effort. I'm going to give you what it was.

1:18:39

Yes, incredible. Maybe Mandy, maybe.

1:18:42

I mean, maybe James Hong, maybe Mandy. I know Craig

1:18:44

Layne was involved in the in the writing of the story.

1:18:47

That sentence is incredible. I think it was a group effort

1:18:49

by many people and sure,

1:18:51

850 pictures from his career. So they're like telling me in my ear

1:18:55

because the plan is I'm going to talk about Rick,

1:18:58

I'm going to reveal this cover to everybody,

1:19:01

and then Rick's going to say a few words. Will So they're like,

1:19:04

okay, talk about the magazine in my hair. So I'm like,

1:19:06

this new cover 850 pictures and everything,

1:19:09

and here it is. And here it is.

1:19:18

Oh, and they're like, they're like,

1:19:21

we're having troubles up. Talk about them more.

1:19:24

And and I did.

1:19:26

And then finally

1:19:28

we just said, Well, you know what? The best way to see it is?

1:19:31

How Rick Klein sighed for the first time Get it your mailbox

1:19:34

the it issue whenever Rick

1:19:36

Klein walks off the stage and wouldn't

1:19:38

you know it the picture book

1:19:41

all of a sudden is up on the screen. And I'm like, Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:19:45

So a lot of those things happen, but that's what love is.

1:19:49

Yeah, yeah. That's why you job like it's honestly

1:19:53

the fun. Like you get through some of those things

1:19:55

like the crew that I get to work with Michael

1:19:58

Middleton, Mike, Mike Breedlove

1:20:00

like they're just awesome you know so many people

1:20:04

it it's everybody. It goes back to how we started this dude.

1:20:08

Like, it's not just the not just the fans.

1:20:11

That feeling you feel in the morning of the first day of the classic

1:20:15

like walking into trailer park gym trailer,

1:20:18

like when I saw all you guys get, you know, and I walk in there

1:20:21

every single morning of every single athlete

1:20:23

and we say good morning and whatever.

1:20:26

But you could see everybody's just like,

1:20:29

It's here. It's classic day.

1:20:31

Yeah, it's like a war. It's almost like a war room.

1:20:34

And those people, you know, from the

1:20:36

from the very first day and if you watch the cast,

1:20:39

you know what I'm going to say here? And this will maybe in the show, we keep going on.

1:20:44

But, you know, when Ray Scott hired

1:20:46

Bob Cobb and Hill and Severe

1:20:48

to really start marketing this concept to,

1:20:51

you know, called base that he had these visions of

1:20:55

this is where we are now. And those people work hard

1:21:00

based on that vision. And every classic is so great.

1:21:04

It's hard to top the last one,

1:21:07

but they seem to come through every single time.

1:21:10

And the talent from don't and don't,

1:21:13

you know. No, I mean from you

1:21:15

all the way down through the people like JP that edits the you know the

1:21:21

the everybody all that stuff Eric Lopez

1:21:24

and his team. Yeah. They put all this together.

1:21:27

The drone flight that Ben Oliver does,

1:21:30

the features, the all the camera

1:21:32

guys on the water that kick the bus

1:21:35

their ass out there and and and

1:21:38

you know, nasty world class

1:21:41

weather to get to bring this to

1:21:43

you guys live. It's it's an amazing entourage

1:21:48

of people on scene, on set

1:21:52

in the studio, on the stage, on the boat,

1:21:55

putting this all together and kudos to the photographers.

1:22:00

Well, deal photography, you know, Wes Miller

1:22:03

all over and everybody everybody is an incredible talent

1:22:08

and everyone is dedicated to making sure that they do their part,

1:22:11

do their job. And kudos to everyone.

1:22:15

Congratulations. Yeah, it was Bassmaster Classic.

1:22:20

It was a good one. It always is.

1:22:27

That's it. We're done. We're done by everybody.

1:22:30

See you.

1:22:33

Always a great conversation with Jake Latendresse.

1:22:35

And we felt, I mean, before we recorded that, we're like,

1:22:38

let's just make this 45 minutes.

1:22:40

So this episode isn't too long. Well, I wasn't cutting any of that off.

1:22:45

Some of it maybe I should have cut off,

1:22:48

but we didn't.

1:22:51

And this next episode, well, it's still the same episode,

1:22:54

but hang with us here.

1:22:57

Justin Hamner I mean, what happened with him

1:22:59

this past weekend is insane.

1:23:01

He predicted it here, and

1:23:05

this is probably one of the funniest, most bizarre, coolest episodes ever.

1:23:11

And it involves the 54th Bassmaster Classic Champion.

1:23:15

And as part of Episode 154,

1:23:18

Justin Hamner.

1:23:20

Oh, how things have changed.

1:23:23

I mean, you have new stuff behind you now. Well, uh,

1:23:33

I mean, I still love your wife's artwork.

1:23:35

It's still beautiful. I can't change.

1:23:38

I know that, right? She can't give it up.

1:23:41

No, no, it's nice, but there's that thing beside it that

1:23:47

helped her get there.

1:23:49

Because I was on your show.

1:23:55

All right, give me that, and I'll just steal that bite

1:23:57

and everything else except to say I won the Bassmaster Classic

1:24:00

because I was on the Mercer podcast. The only reason

1:24:05

I won the best Mystery classic because I was on the Mercer podcast,

1:24:10

really is the gift that keeps on giving. Dude, throughout this whole week.

1:24:14

I mean, me and you. I honestly,

1:24:17

I feel like one of the cool things about my job is

1:24:22

I get to watch you guys kind of

1:24:24

achieve these goals. But, but the really

1:24:26

cool thing about my job is like, I

1:24:29

mean, you had several, like whether it be the night,

1:24:32

you know, the night of the toast or even when you were going around

1:24:35

the arena and stuff where we were both just look at each other

1:24:37

and point at each other and be like, What the hell, You predicted this on?

1:24:42

Like, you you willed it to be.

1:24:45

You said you were going to win the Bassmaster Classic and

1:24:50

you did.

1:24:53

Why didn't you just do that sooner? Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that.

1:24:58

I don't know why that would have been fine, but

1:25:02

just the way all this played out, did we get in trouble, like,

1:25:06

make too much eye contact?

1:25:09

No, I did get. And at one point

1:25:11

when we were doing the Super six intros, which

1:25:14

which I did live, and I'm pissed at you for that

1:25:17

because Matt paying right is to you for that too.

1:25:20

You told me you were going to be on this podcast first

1:25:22

and you did a podcast with Pangaea. That's okay. Me and PENNER Bros.

1:25:26

I'm fine with that. But then when PENNER said

1:25:28

about the Super six intro, you're like, Oh, we recorded that all the night before.

1:25:31

And I'm like, Do you know how hard it is to live?

1:25:35

Announced people. And I'm like this like, just told people

1:25:38

we didn't, we recorded the the hallway section,

1:25:41

but anyways, let's get past that. Wait, the whole

1:25:43

I thought the whole way in was recorded

1:25:46

today before every the hologram scripted.

1:25:50

It's like the NFL. It was scripted obviously

1:25:54

except the show and call her out.

1:25:57

Who knew? But the one time

1:25:59

that I did getting a little bit of trouble,

1:26:01

I didn't really get in trouble. But obviously I have an IFB in my ear.

1:26:05

They can talk to me. And generally

1:26:07

they're just telling me, speed it up, slow it down, whatever,

1:26:10

because I got to know what's going on the back.

1:26:12

Well, so I'm supposed to be like face to face to you guys

1:26:16

screwing your stats and

1:26:18

you're the last guy that gets introduced to. Then all of a sudden me and you are like,

1:26:22

You're at the top of the stairs, and I'm waiting for them to say,

1:26:25

okay, introduce him. And we just start hugging and we're standing there

1:26:28

hugging and it's like, I mean, neither of us said, Let's hug.

1:26:32

We just were hugging in my producers in my ear.

1:26:35

MERCER Get him to get in position.

1:26:37

I did, too.

1:26:42

I could tell, yeah.

1:26:45

Honestly, what was going through my brain right

1:26:47

then, babe.

1:26:50

I mean, you know, more than anybody

1:26:52

know how much we put into this. And

1:26:56

I knew what I had.

1:26:58

I knew what Adam had. Like I had to hug somebody,

1:27:03

and you were just there. And then you looked at me like,

1:27:06

I'm pretty sure you went.

1:27:09

Maybe just gave me a little weak.

1:27:11

There was no way I wasn't hugging something.

1:27:14

I'm huggable. You were so huggable.

1:27:17

My wife says I'm very huggable. I mean.

1:27:21

Oh, that's a different story.

1:27:24

Yeah, but what do you mean, that's a different story?

1:27:27

Nothing. Nothing. Yeah.

1:27:30

Congrats. Well, I have a beautiful wife.

1:27:35

Okay. You said this to me earlier today. What the hell did you expect?

1:27:39

I'm a beautiful man. Just don't just move on

1:27:43

me one day. Don't make this awkward.

1:27:49

So let's turn back time here

1:27:55

so we can actually. Because, honestly,

1:27:57

before we started recording, I thought I should write some notes

1:28:00

or something of some direction, but I'm just like, I honestly don't know

1:28:03

what's going through mind because to me,

1:28:05

I mean, the Bass Spencer classic is a mind melt in itself,

1:28:10

but like to have watched your

1:28:15

your forward progression in two weeks. It's freaky and ridiculous.

1:28:19

And then I watched your I told you this

1:28:21

but your honestly your Champions

1:28:24

press conference was one of the best champions

1:28:27

press Congress have ever seen. I mean, you were real.

1:28:30

It was emotional. It was hilarious.

1:28:32

It was.

1:28:35

But I'll go back. Okay. Here's here's where we can start.

1:28:37

If I go back to our texts, which I mean, they go a lot of places.

1:28:44

But if I go back, the me and you talked

1:28:47

after the show or whatever, and we were talking about

1:28:49

I'm going to make you show regularly did come on more often

1:28:52

and you were like, I really appreciate that. And I said,

1:28:55

Well, go take that, take that confidence and win the classic.

1:28:59

And then I texted you and asked you,

1:29:04

how is three favorite of all?

1:29:07

Oh, no, I'm not going to read them all. I said, How is proof?

1:29:09

As you said, Oh, it was bad.

1:29:12

The fish are very spread out. And then my next text to you

1:29:16

was Holy

1:29:18

chocolate ice cream emoji. You are the bass masterclass.

1:29:22

Me

1:29:27

Why practice was so bad Day

1:29:30

Like everybody thinks I was lying about that.

1:29:32

I thought everybody before

1:29:35

my practice was terrible.

1:29:37

Like and they're like, You think you're going to do good?

1:29:39

I'm still going to win. But my practice was terrible.

1:29:45

It was just, I don't know. I've had that weird feeling, like,

1:29:50

really ever

1:29:52

at the beginning of the year, I don't know.

1:29:54

It just felt like it was going to be a special year, but

1:29:57

especially after for to the momentum

1:30:00

that was just rolling into confidence

1:30:03

that I guess it just verbally,

1:30:07

verbal, verbally, you can make up words.

1:30:09

You're the champ for for probably

1:30:12

definitely sit out with me on your podcast and then everywhere else

1:30:18

this one another podcast and said the same thing

1:30:22

I mean like podcast.

1:30:24

I was like, yeah, I'm going to win the classic

1:30:26

who just said that?

1:30:29

I promise I'm not like a cocky, arrogant guy, know that's never been me.

1:30:36

After previously saying that

1:30:40

after previous, what did you think? Oh boy,

1:30:43

I'm not I'm not going to win the best classic.

1:30:46

Or did you still feel like somehow you were going to win?

1:30:50

Yeah, I still felt like I was going to win.

1:30:52

I had no idea how because I.

1:30:54

I got to four pounders out of those

1:30:58

three and a half days of practice,

1:31:00

and they were so random.

1:31:02

I mean, it was just like random

1:31:05

and, you know, we get those three days of practice.

1:31:08

Yeah. All in a row, you know, from daylight to dark.

1:31:11

Well, I had like, my best area was Honey Creek.

1:31:14

I was like, You know, me and Patrick talk about it,

1:31:17

and then Honey Creek entire honey

1:31:20

entire tournament is going to be in. Honey went there Wednesday,

1:31:24

our final day of practice. And I got to keep all day

1:31:28

on that final day of practice.

1:31:31

So I guess I'm not going to. Honey

1:31:34

and say

1:31:36

I just went

1:31:42

at that creek, that I won it out.

1:31:45

Well, you know, they won. I have a £23.

1:31:48

I like creek.

1:31:50

I called it two and a half pounder and I had one follow my heart

1:31:54

beat that I was like, That looks like a bigger one.

1:31:58

That was it. Wow.

1:32:01

I remember I had that one looked like a bigger one.

1:32:04

Maybe there's more big ones in there.

1:32:09

I know. I'm really dumb.

1:32:12

No, no, clearly very smart.

1:32:15

Well, in that press conference,

1:32:17

I didn't think that was being filmed.

1:32:21

You were. You were surrounded by a wall of cameras.

1:32:24

What did you think they were doing?

1:32:27

I don't know. A lot of things

1:32:30

and emotions had just happened

1:32:32

at the time. My name on a wall of makes it a little way.

1:32:37

I didn't know what was happening.

1:32:43

For those who don't know is what we call a decompression room.

1:32:47

It's where the classic champ goes, and the Beal Case Center has a

1:32:51

actually did a video of it the aired on Fox on the Fox broadcast.

1:32:56

I'm sure Basil posted at some point

1:32:58

but it's a really cool greenroom you

1:33:01

it looks like a little orderly that door

1:33:04

and then you open it and then there's code you put in

1:33:07

and you go in and it's the players lounge.

1:33:10

It's awesome and nice. Little Wayne was there last week.

1:33:14

Earlier in the week, I went in there and a little bit of Lil

1:33:17

Wayne was still sprinkled all over stuff.

1:33:21

The little bags of little Wayne

1:33:23

there were back. It was just like, you know, you don't eat chips sometimes

1:33:29

and there's a couple of crumbs on your shirt

1:33:32

or on the table. He wasn't eating chips.

1:33:35

Let's just say that.

1:33:38

That's why he came out of there licking your fingers.

1:33:43

Had So they cleaned it all up.

1:33:46

Ed, I knew you were going in, but I do.

1:33:49

Whoever won was going in there. But

1:33:52

Chuck's going in there.

1:33:55

Well, you told me you were. I mean, and you also told me. Don't lie.

1:33:58

So

1:34:02

it happened. There you go.

1:34:07

Sorry. Out there. You're completely off.

1:34:09

No, you. You didn't. You didn't. I think that that I'm.

1:34:13

I think it's just nuts. I think what happened is nuts.

1:34:17

Did you ever and I asked you this every morning

1:34:21

to take off and stuff and like you were seem so calm.

1:34:26

Did you, like, was there ever a moment

1:34:28

where you were like, Oh.

1:34:31

Hmm. When 130 on the final day.

1:34:36

Final day I lost four big ones.

1:34:41

Like there were good ones in a row.

1:34:45

Like, I don't know, the whole day. I just had that relaxed

1:34:48

feeling like it's going to happen.

1:34:50

I don't know where or how or what, but it's going to happen.

1:34:54

And then a finally get like first two.

1:34:57

And I was like, Well, they're in here.

1:34:59

I figured out how to get them,

1:35:01

and then I lost the next and I was like, Well, that one kind of sucks.

1:35:05

And then I lost the last one. I was like,

1:35:08

What's happening? And then the bike just completely stopped.

1:35:12

Like I could not do anything to even get them

1:35:15

to like, to even follow my body anymore.

1:35:18

It was just done. I was like, Oh,

1:35:21

I might have missed an opportunity because that front

1:35:24

that was coming through, they were biting in the morning

1:35:27

and all that world that came through

1:35:29

and everything just stopped.

1:35:32

Luckily it did for everybody else too. Apparently I was like,

1:35:36

somebody crushed them this morning.

1:35:38

And that's when that last hour and a half was

1:35:42

I was chaos.

1:35:45

Does it shock you that you never mind

1:35:47

winning it? And I think kind of shocks me

1:35:50

that we didn't see I mean, you're 22

1:35:53

was the biggest bag of the tournament, right. On day one, we never saw.

1:35:56

And on that Sunday, the way the weather set up, I felt like

1:36:01

this could almost be worst case scenario for a guy with a big lead

1:36:05

because somebody's going to blast them

1:36:08

and nobody, nobody did.

1:36:12

I don't I still don't

1:36:14

think I think it. You say best fishermen are liars.

1:36:18

You're right. Everything I've ever heard

1:36:21

about grand Lake. And it makes me look so dumb

1:36:24

because every day I was like, Oh, we got a little wind.

1:36:27

Today is going to be a little rainy

1:36:29

today. We're really going to catch them in a

1:36:32

you know, we went from £22 on day one

1:36:34

when it was like super slick, you know,

1:36:37

was supposed to be terrible conditions

1:36:40

because going the next day was like, oh, it was little wind

1:36:43

that was a lot tougher. It's £20.

1:36:45

Then the day that was supposed to be just phenomenal.

1:36:48

It sucked.

1:36:53

There's there's so many weird things that happened that week to that.

1:36:57

I mean, other people's bad luck turned into your good luck like the Drew Cook story

1:37:01

about being 5 minutes late.

1:37:04

So we got literally on day one sure way to in 18

1:37:06

one that became 13 one

1:37:08

And he was in your same area but but then

1:37:12

well you tell me what he did. Well, your cook's an awesome dude.

1:37:16

He didn't come back.

1:37:18

He's like, I screwed that up for myself

1:37:20

and I'm not screwing it up for you.

1:37:24

Didn't even show up.

1:37:27

That's the kind of news that we fish with.

1:37:29

Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

1:37:33

If he doesn't come back 5 minutes late. I mean, he doesn't

1:37:37

give you the area you guys end up paddling to.

1:37:39

Do you think you end up winning the Bassmaster Classic?

1:37:43

Yeah, because I didn't get crap in there on day two.

1:37:45

Oh.

1:37:50

Oh, well, but thanks to you,

1:37:53

I mean, that creek, it had like three

1:37:57

main arms and I was like in the

1:37:59

first arm on the right and he was in the middle arm

1:38:03

and I mean I didn't even go in there on day one or nothing.

1:38:06

I just been going in that one arm in the right.

1:38:09

So I don't know.

1:38:12

You don't want to go in there and try to catch

1:38:15

my fish and then I get mad with all

1:38:19

that's what it is. That happen a lot with you?

1:38:22

Yeah, man. You're going fight all the.

1:38:26

I've never had a run in with anybody on the water.

1:38:29

None of our guys know. You said that in the last

1:38:32

show we did together. Here's something funny

1:38:36

in the way to take off on that first day.

1:38:39

So Bart found out that I had a couple of hours where I'm

1:38:42

not on a microphone, and they decided for me

1:38:44

to do this thing for the cast where Ben

1:38:47

Oliver came and met me at my hotel room

1:38:50

and I was actually shooting video on the way to takeoff.

1:38:52

He was, you know, documenting go into the class.

1:38:54

Super cool, dude. I really like Ben,

1:38:57

but when we're on our way there,

1:38:59

that main street, you leave the hotel,

1:39:03

there's like, these three pesky lights that sometimes you get

1:39:05

stuck behind in the morning. Andrew Cooke

1:39:07

blew through three red lights

1:39:10

right beside me. We got it on camera.

1:39:12

I was going to. I was literally planning. I said, Benny, send

1:39:15

that footage the truck,

1:39:17

because when he weighs in, I might be like, So how'd your day start?

1:39:21

And to be clear, I mean, there was no

1:39:23

this is like 4:00 in the morning. There's nobody out in the streets yet.

1:39:27

He did kind of slow down and did that.

1:39:29

We've all done it at times. But I had

1:39:33

planned when he wasted it, like not mandatory.

1:39:37

Well, yeah, sure.

1:39:40

I keep talking.

1:39:43

He so I plan when he weighs

1:39:45

in, I'll be like, well, let's have a look at how your day started.

1:39:48

And we'd look up at the screen. But then when I realized

1:39:50

he the £5 penalty, I was like, Yeah, well, I'm not going to make jokes about him

1:39:53

under lights right now.

1:39:55

He did so well. I got a delayed ticket.

1:40:01

Oh, only the.

1:40:04

How's your life changed in the last

1:40:06

few days,

1:40:09

but

1:40:11

not my

1:40:15

It's been. I really

1:40:19

wish I could answer all these texts and phone calls.

1:40:22

I promise. I'm trying people,

1:40:25

but thank you. Like

1:40:28

the most sincere thank you I can

1:40:30

ever do. I had

1:40:34

386 text messages

1:40:37

when I woke up Monday morning

1:40:42

to

1:40:44

thank you.

1:40:48

I want to talk to you about one story and you're probably going

1:40:50

to get sick of talking about it, but you're not yet

1:40:53

because because you haven't done all those other podcasts yet.

1:40:56

But good Lord, you're going to get tired talking about it.

1:41:00

But I thought it was unique.

1:41:03

Danno asked you a question

1:41:05

during the press conference about

1:41:08

darker times, you know, times when you were

1:41:11

trying to commit to the Elite series

1:41:13

and you told a story about searching.

1:41:15

Well, tell me the story.

1:41:20

It'd be easier. Probably can't even get through it.

1:41:24

Hi, Jeremy.

1:41:27

Thank. What is everybody like watching me cry?

1:41:34

Yeah, that was that was rough

1:41:37

to memo.

1:41:41

If we just had our first baby

1:41:44

at the beginning of that year

1:41:48

and

1:41:50

but had to wait for me

1:41:52

to leave my job at the university

1:41:55

because it had interns it would cover or having a baby.

1:42:01

So literally, like, the next week is

1:42:04

when I quit my job with the university

1:42:06

that paid good, had all the good benefits

1:42:10

for me to go chase, pass them.

1:42:16

But she was supportive

1:42:19

to all.

1:42:23

Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that was just the beginning

1:42:30

of I, you know, when I was home I was

1:42:34

pouring concrete during the day

1:42:38

to get off, pouring concrete at three or 4:00

1:42:40

and then go to try to start my own lawn care business.

1:42:45

And all that money was, I mean, obviously

1:42:49

just the pay for us to live and

1:42:52

everything was going into the opens that. But yeah

1:42:56

I was making a cut with every making a check

1:42:59

at every tournament and then the James River

1:43:02

I was like,

1:43:05

I don't know, I lost like

1:43:07

seven fish on that second day and ended up

1:43:12

not making the cut. But I barely missed it and

1:43:17

I didn't have money to get home with.

1:43:19

Like I fill my truck up

1:43:22

and that was the only thing I can get home,

1:43:25

you know, off of that.

1:43:27

But I didn't have any money for food or anything, you know,

1:43:30

I was literally digging under the seats in my truck, kind of on

1:43:34

like a dollar or something for fucking cheeseburger.

1:43:39

Yeah.

1:43:42

No more.

1:43:51

Is that why anglers cry on stage?

1:43:54

Not because of what they've accomplished, but what they've overcome,

1:43:59

what they've been through and what they put their families or.

1:44:04

I mean, I can only speak for myself.

1:44:07

Yeah,

1:44:11

well, the good news is

1:44:14

it turns out worry about that more, right?

1:44:18

You can buy some freakin cheeseburgers

1:44:20

on a cheeseburger, only being steak now.

1:44:22

So it's.

1:44:26

Oh, Oh, okay, Let's bring it back up.

1:44:28

Let's bring it back up. I didn't mean to get you down.

1:44:30

I don't know if.

1:44:33

Okay, let's laugh. Here's something I want to do.

1:44:35

Is something funny? Yeah. Okay.

1:44:38

What? Remember last podcast

1:44:40

we did a couple of weeks ago, before you were the bass

1:44:43

master, classic champion. And then we were talking

1:44:45

about your friendship with Patrick

1:44:48

and how he tells you how those elite series

1:44:50

trophies are so heavy. Have you told him how heavy

1:44:53

the classic trophy is yet? I might have rubbed it in a little bit.

1:44:59

Your column right now is your phone nearby?

1:45:02

Yes, it's nearby. Okay, let's call it.

1:45:05

Let's put him on speakerphone

1:45:07

because it be awesome if he doesn't answer. The best one is a classic champions.

1:45:12

Just tell them how heavy they are.

1:45:15

It's.

1:45:24

Yeah. Hey, I got somebody one started.

1:45:29

Well, he probably can't hear me. Where you can hear me?

1:45:31

We're live on the Mercer podcast. Patrick,

1:45:36

did you live on the Mercer podcast right now?

1:45:38

Yes, right now.

1:45:42

Only three waiting this year. So three wait in the booth.

1:45:47

I got your delivery.

1:45:50

I don't know what's happening,

1:45:53

but what are you going to do if I do, sir?

1:45:57

Oh, we were going to. Doug. They weren't going to be good for you.

1:46:01

Okay, well, people call a friend.

1:46:04

Well, we even got Patrick's the

1:46:08

phone rang and the questions, all the answers

1:46:11

always be going be

1:46:15

they you know, we talked about on the last podcast

1:46:19

how you were telling me about how heavy those elite series trophies were.

1:46:26

Remember the last time I was at your house? You're like, Dude, they're heavy.

1:46:31

Did you you asked about that. You were like, Is it broken?

1:46:34

I was like, They're pretty dang heavy.

1:46:37

I could tell they were heavy when you tried to finally think that's a screw up.

1:46:40

And I don't know if you could hear me scream because you put it out

1:46:43

and I said, Oh, that thing. Oh,

1:46:48

you got that thing. I think you better throw it over

1:46:50

your head. Oh, my gosh.

1:46:53

I threw it over my head. But that was pretty cool.

1:46:58

You need walk around with it for a while.

1:47:00

I'm actually doing the whole podcast with it above my head.

1:47:05

It's big.

1:47:11

Oh,

1:47:13

all right. Well, we wanted to know how much heavier

1:47:17

it was in the late series.

1:47:20

I'm going to say I'm going to go with the guest to say seven top ten of your like it's.

1:47:26

Yeah, it's the deal, y'all got to talk about happy

1:47:29

just because I think the you to grab I think you just pulling it up

1:47:32

like you made £3.

1:47:34

Yeah. Last

1:47:37

yet

1:47:40

you got it right okay

1:47:44

guys. Hey hey Before they leave,

1:47:46

ask them how heavy those matching cowboy hats

1:47:49

they wore tonight the champions were.

1:47:51

They looked like

1:47:54

straight out of the movie. Really? Think we should be

1:47:56

some straight shooters? Okay, well, knock them down. You.

1:48:03

Thank you for your answer. Me accurate.

1:48:05

I don't know why Dave wanted me to try to end

1:48:08

our relationship of being with each other.

1:48:12

I just thought it was no fun.

1:48:15

I hope so.

1:48:18

Hey. Hey, look.

1:48:21

He says he's winning the rest of them.

1:48:23

Hibbert says nobody else is winning another classic trophy.

1:48:26

Now that he's experienced how much fun it is, he wants them all

1:48:30

to. I don't blame them.

1:48:32

I mean, now he's got his name on the banner up there.

1:48:35

Thank you, gentlemen.

1:48:38

I didn't even think about the banner. Oh, yeah.

1:48:41

And he got some.

1:48:44

I think next year at the classic, you wear the banner as a cape.

1:48:51

Okay, Patrick, you're going to do that.

1:48:56

You're going to

1:48:58

do it. Well, I'll be like you on that.

1:49:02

I'm going to be busy holding the trophy again all season.

1:49:07

You just walk around with nothing over your head.

1:49:10

You need to get us like one of those posters, like a banner.

1:49:13

But I got all those ultraboost

1:49:15

with the trophy straight up, so they like a ten foot poster.

1:49:20

Okay, that'll be on your truck. Next time, I'll see where

1:49:24

I put the DeKalb Metro. I will put your face on it.

1:49:28

I love you.

1:49:31

I love you. All good. Y'all have fun, Ducky.

1:49:33

Too big for me? Nope. Always.

1:49:38

Thank you, Patrick.

1:49:43

Just to hang up on him. You're the frequent classic champion.

1:49:45

He's still talking. It was going to be awkward.

1:49:49

Everybody trying to tell each other better.

1:49:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does his. Speaking of saying goodbye,

1:49:56

let's see. Lots of people behind the scenes of how you got to

1:50:00

if it's toast. So all night he's there. Talk about.

1:50:05

Well, no.

1:50:08

Why did you bring that up? This is just going to be a podcast of

1:50:12

two idiots laughing at each other. It's like the Beavis

1:50:14

and Butthead of podcasts,

1:50:16

but we've became too much of friends, and now we can't do anything

1:50:19

professional or hugging

1:50:22

while you're trying to call me out. Yeah, Yeah.

1:50:26

There's a bad relationship.

1:50:28

So there's people all around him.

1:50:30

Champions toast and we'll talk about some of those people

1:50:32

here in a minute. But he had to leave.

1:50:34

It was time to go. He wanted to get out of there.

1:50:37

And he's like, How do I get out of here? Do I just do an Irish goodnight?

1:50:40

And I escorted you out

1:50:43

and said we were going to do an interview and you had to go.

1:50:45

And people were like, And I'm like, He's got to do this interview right now.

1:50:49

And then you disappeared in the elevator and that's how you left the toast.

1:50:55

Thank you. I needed that.

1:50:57

Yeah, you did it.

1:51:01

Now what? That experience of the champions toast.

1:51:03

I mean, all of it is just insane. But. But what stands out for you?

1:51:09

Just the amount of people I.

1:51:12

I don't know. I've never been in one before.

1:51:14

But you've never gone to one. Like when you fixed your last classic,

1:51:17

you didn't go. No,

1:51:20

I didn't know I was invited.

1:51:23

I thought it was like, close to a certain group of people.

1:51:28

I think that was cool

1:51:30

to go see Christie,

1:51:33

but I was like, Maybe one day I'll get invited.

1:51:38

No, actually, I will say it used to be super invite only

1:51:45

very limited. But that is one thing that

1:51:48

Chase has changed. As owner of bars,

1:51:50

he's like, We need to turn this into everybody's

1:51:53

welcome. There's a deejay there now, and it truly was.

1:51:57

I mean, it was jammed with I told you earlier today,

1:51:59

when we're talking, I'm like, it's like a surprise party,

1:52:02

but all your heroes show up at your surprise party.

1:52:05

Like normally you surprise parties, just your pothead friends.

1:52:07

But now you're surrounded by the who's

1:52:09

who of bass fishing. Literally

1:52:12

all these guys that I've looked up to forever.

1:52:15

But the line of people

1:52:18

just I mean, they literally just sat in line.

1:52:21

I don't know how long I was up there. It was a long time.

1:52:25

Yeah. Getting to meet each and everyone

1:52:28

just because they want to take a picture with me.

1:52:31

So that trophy, that was special,

1:52:33

but then this one dude came in and cut,

1:52:37

cut the line, and

1:52:39

he would do what do is

1:52:45

Evan, Gabe, or whatever.

1:52:48

He goes by.

1:52:51

So when he walks up and Rob before

1:52:54

I was like, I was like trying to just

1:52:56

shove food in my mouth

1:52:58

as quickly as possible and Robbie comes up,

1:53:02

he's like, Hey, I got somebody wants to meet you.

1:53:05

Now look down. And there's like, Oh,

1:53:09

you know, wow.

1:53:11

So I jumped up and I just screamed out to anybody

1:53:15

that could hear me. Everybody take my picture

1:53:22

there. So go. Right. Thank you.

1:53:28

I'm keeping that one. What?

1:53:32

Mm. That's my moment. I will tell any other stories,

1:53:35

but what Kevin told me.

1:53:38

And then after that,

1:53:40

what Davey, how it came up and told me

1:53:43

it's not like it was something crazy or some crazy story,

1:53:46

but that I'm hoping that that was one of the most special

1:53:51

s Fine. I'll ask them.

1:53:55

That's fine. That's fine.

1:54:00

Right?

1:54:03

You not

1:54:05

that it's such a freaking legend.

1:54:07

It's got to me.

1:54:11

Cool. That's cool. It's cool.

1:54:14

Have you sat and looked at

1:54:17

the names on the trophy? Yeah.

1:54:21

I don't want it to sound weird or anything, but I was laying on my bed

1:54:26

just because I was tired. But yes,

1:54:29

I was sitting there looking at it and just literally

1:54:32

reading all the names and that was so awesome.

1:54:38

There's some hammers on there. Yeah,

1:54:42

there's one Hamner though,

1:54:46

but actually that was one of the clan that.

1:54:49

No, no, it's some stuff to work.

1:54:54

I don't know. I don't know. It's like the microphone

1:54:57

during the class. I don't know where that came from either.

1:54:59

That just worked. I mean, literally, like

1:55:03

you probably haven't even seen that clip yet, but when the mic didn't work,

1:55:05

I mean, that is ridiculous for you. Like,

1:55:08

holy crap, I'm in front of an arena full of people

1:55:11

and a microphone doesn't work. And I was miming

1:55:14

and I do want to see that.

1:55:17

Then I so when it

1:55:20

when it got fixed backstage,

1:55:22

I hit it twice, like just to check it like to do.

1:55:26

And then for whatever reason I heard the crowd react.

1:55:28

I'm like, doomed to go. Then I turned it into I'm like,

1:55:31

Oh my God, this is working. Like, it's literally

1:55:35

it's in my line of work. It's like

1:55:37

when you catch that last minute face,

1:55:40

you had no business catching what you actually did.

1:55:43

Tell me about that. That was pretty cool.

1:55:48

Yeah. And it ended up that

1:55:51

I guess it wouldn't matter either way.

1:55:54

So but still every

1:55:58

so they, you know, my camera did he come?

1:56:01

He told me that I want you to pick up

1:56:04

Robbie at the bridge on the way to check in, you know.

1:56:08

Cool. I'll save a couple extra minutes

1:56:11

just to make sure I have time for that.

1:56:14

And don't be late for check in.

1:56:16

Don't pull. Drew could lose the classic.

1:56:20

I'm sorry, Drew. I love you.

1:56:22

That was. That was rude.

1:56:24

Very. So, yeah.

1:56:26

Pick up Robbie. And then I was headed back in.

1:56:29

Robbie is like. So you got, like, a special spot that you've hit,

1:56:32

like, all week or something. You know, you can catch a fish.

1:56:36

He knew

1:56:39

a fish there the first day of practice for about 15 minutes.

1:56:42

And I'm like this great. And didn't fish it again since then.

1:56:48

And I just literally stopped on some little random stretch and

1:56:53

I was like, you know, you only got like 5 minutes left

1:56:56

and I'd like just thrown behind the boat dock or whatever

1:57:01

with the chatter bait and fish on that.

1:57:03

I'll wait. Haven't even thrown it. And then like

1:57:06

keep your trailer motor on had start pulling away in one

1:57:09

take throw it out of my hand.

1:57:11

I mean the nuts.

1:57:15

I mean it wasn't like it was a giant but ended up being like

1:57:19

three and a half pounder. It was one of my biggest fears

1:57:21

that day and gave me like a pound. Cole And

1:57:26

yeah, that was the gave me and it

1:57:31

let me survive that hour and a half drop

1:57:34

back to total. I can tell you that.

1:57:38

Yeah, I heard

1:57:41

from all accounts I heard, I heard you literally cut the fish

1:57:44

and you were holding it like a loaf of bread

1:57:47

because you grabbed the other one to cut.

1:57:50

You put your life jacket on, hit that up,

1:57:52

and you were grabbed. The one, the coal

1:57:55

fired that out, and you were still drive and holding it like a loaf of bread.

1:57:59

Is this true? No.

1:58:02

I grabbed the the big one immediately.

1:58:06

She went in the box, but I grabbed the one that,

1:58:10

you know, to cold. I'm like, I think it's this one.

1:58:12

But I had to they were like two pounders.

1:58:15

Like mom was like two or three and one was like two five,

1:58:18

something like that. And that

1:58:20

I don't remember which number was which.

1:58:23

So I had the one I thought was smaller

1:58:25

or I'm trying to like turn on the scale

1:58:28

now, give them a lifejacket on. I drank the boat and I'm like trying to turn on the scale

1:58:31

and everything like that. Which one is it?

1:58:34

And I like, yeah, that's it is. I'm like taking off.

1:58:36

I'm releasing the fish.

1:58:39

Yeah. It was not

1:58:43

the was while

1:58:46

Josh I just want to see like the bloopers from that day.

1:58:50

Oh you will. You'll see all of it eventually of it will surface.

1:58:54

I think the games that games came

1:58:57

like when I went back in there on day three of like, circling around the boat.

1:59:01

Let's catch people up on the goose. Tell me it started on day two, right?

1:59:06

Yes. Did you ever see.

1:59:09

I have not seen the footage of the goose yet.

1:59:12

I mean, classic's busy is

1:59:15

so I'm fishing down, you know,

1:59:17

like a stretch of boat dogs. And I've been to the bay down side of it,

1:59:21

and they're working it. And, you know,

1:59:24

literally in my peripheral. Yeah, I see the goose on the dock

1:59:29

or whatever. I was actually on a pontoon boat.

1:59:32

I mean, I went out on the boat dock and do my thing as a fish

1:59:36

and then the real and end well, like halfway through the fight,

1:59:40

the goose. I hear something hissing,

1:59:43

but it didn't register.

1:59:45

The case jumps off the dock. It lands like right at my trailer motor,

1:59:49

and it just starts honking at me. And I'm like, Shut up.

1:59:53

You can really fish it.

1:59:56

And I'm fighting. The fish in

1:59:59

the gills is like coming at me and hissing.

2:00:02

And so it just gives it mad.

2:00:04

And then I realize, Oh, there's a goose,

2:00:06

another goose on the

2:00:09

whatever. Pontoon boat sitting on top of eggs

2:00:13

excuse is pissed off.

2:00:16

So I'm like trying to troll away and then I land the fish.

2:00:19

I mean, it wasn't big or anything. I'm like, trying to get away from it,

2:00:22

and it keeps following me and trying to jump up,

2:00:24

have me and everything. So I start, you know, I turn back to it

2:00:29

and sort of bone up in it, and I'm

2:00:33

trying to be a bigger goose

2:00:36

and yelling at it. And so then it's aggression didn't work.

2:00:42

So then I offered a peace offering.

2:00:45

I tried to feed the fish to it. I don't think geese.

2:00:49

He eats fish,

2:00:52

but I tried. I offered it,

2:00:56

so I threw the fish to it. It didn't help.

2:00:59

It still chased me all around

2:01:01

the hope pocket. After that,

2:01:03

it wouldn't go back to the pontoon boat.

2:01:06

It just left. His wife. Terrible. Father was mad at you?

2:01:10

Yeah. He kept chasing me like I left.

2:01:13

I wasn't, like, trying to harass. I kept going down the bank,

2:01:16

just trying to fish. Then it was like, go.

2:01:19

It went in one of the the lay down that I got some out of it

2:01:23

like goes was like right in the middle it and starts

2:01:25

like flopping around still all pissed off at me.

2:01:29

Just wanted to go away

2:01:32

Could get it. Yeah. Then on three I show up

2:01:37

like literally it was waiting on me.

2:01:40

I hope they get that on camera.

2:01:42

There was a boat dock like at the mouth of the creek.

2:01:46

It was sitting on top of it,

2:01:49

like the very top, like the roof of the dock.

2:01:52

And it was just sitting there. All of a sudden I hear honking.

2:01:55

I'm like, waiting on you.

2:01:58

It wasn't even the same dock anymore.

2:02:00

It was like, I think only at the mouth of it.

2:02:04

Our quarrel is not through.

2:02:08

Hey, hey. That is.

2:02:11

That's why I just get home

2:02:13

and go hunting

2:02:19

them. Goose.

2:02:22

Oh, well, hey, it worked out.

2:02:26

I mean, you're the classic champion. That goose is still pissed,

2:02:29

and you're not. It's not pissing more.

2:02:32

It's

2:02:35

one of the most bizarre thing.

2:02:37

You're not. You're. You're getting kill the goose, like.

2:02:41

Oh, like that guy.

2:02:44

It would be awesome if you had it mounted.

2:02:46

Like, next time we do a podcast, I want the goose

2:02:49

on the other side of you. The classic trophy,

2:02:51

your wife's beautiful art and the goose just

2:02:55

it's just like way to

2:02:58

keep circle.

2:03:02

Oh, somehow I want to get you a goose

2:03:06

for Christmas. But the green get

2:03:11

Oh, Oh,

2:03:13

I'm so following that up.

2:03:17

Yeah, I don't know, but.

2:03:19

Oh, this is the most ridiculous podcast

2:03:23

I've ever done. I mean, it's just.

2:03:25

Yeah,

2:03:29

One of the things you said the press conference that shocked me too.

2:03:32

Oh, we're going back to crying now. No, no, this isn't crying.

2:03:35

Okay? They asked you why you were so certain

2:03:40

you would. Would you win the classic?

2:03:44

I mean, Lu Stout and I thank you for that.

2:03:46

Louis Stout, Senior, best master writer and friend of the show

2:03:49

that always listens in. So. Hey, Louis.

2:03:51

Trying to convince him to come on the show. He's got some great stories.

2:03:54

But Louis said that you actually mentioned this podcast in your interview

2:03:57

saying how you said you were going to win it there.

2:03:59

So I appreciate that. But, you know,

2:04:03

the most bizarre thing you said is when somebody said,

2:04:06

why were you so certain you were going to win the Bassmaster Classic?

2:04:09

You just like

2:04:11

I've watched like

2:04:13

no experience and Grant, you just watched other people do good.

2:04:16

And Brandon figured, I can do that.

2:04:22

He said,

2:04:24

I don't know why I say the things that I say,

2:04:27

but I mean, that's the truth. And honestly,

2:04:31

it was 2013 when Cliff faced one here

2:04:36

at that time in my fishing career.

2:04:39

Tony Jig on rock walls.

2:04:41

That was my jam.

2:04:44

That was it. And then take the bait deals.

2:04:48

So the next time when you know,

2:04:50

add one more thing but like, Hey, Jerry,

2:04:54

he did good. I guess that was the same Cliff Bass one,

2:04:57

but yeah. Hank Same year. Yep.

2:05:00

So it was like Christy

2:05:03

Christie was leading with the spinner, right?

2:05:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, yeah, but then Edwin won

2:05:10

with the jig to lay downs, so,

2:05:14

yeah, it just seemed like

2:05:18

these guys just acted like back home

2:05:20

because everyone won that tournament

2:05:23

and, you know, the giant final day

2:05:26

completely changed up what he doing

2:05:28

because these days just change so much day to day.

2:05:31

And like Tuscaloosa, probably the worst, like in America,

2:05:36

it sucks like £10.

2:05:39

People going call you out for cheating

2:05:41

type of suck.

2:05:45

But every day, like, you know,

2:05:47

that's what I grew up fishing is

2:05:49

every day was different. I mean, you could go crush amount of buzz

2:05:52

by one day and the next not get a bye.

2:05:54

No conditions have changed or anything,

2:05:57

but that's what you just have to go with the flow

2:06:00

and figure out that day what to do.

2:06:03

So that was the biggest thing coming in. This was like,

2:06:06

Dude, I'm not getting like down to anything

2:06:09

because from everything I've seen,

2:06:12

nothing works two days in a row on this.

2:06:15

Like and then you just when won it.

2:06:20

Yeah, first day was in a super deep creek

2:06:23

with bluff walls and lay downs and deep dogs.

2:06:27

And the next day was in 3 to 5 foot of water.

2:06:30

Fish in breath, piles on flat.

2:06:36

Well, it worked. It worked. And

2:06:39

the good news is you're in the next classic.

2:06:41

Hey, how you feel about Ray Roberts going to go in there two or

2:06:47

It's too early.

2:06:49

It's way too early. Okay, we'll stop.

2:06:52

We'll stop, and then we'll figure that out closer

2:06:54

after I watched some kids YouTube about fishing

2:06:58

that, Oh, yeah, I can do that totally

2:07:05

cool. What what was

2:07:11

what was that moment like when you finally got by yourself

2:07:15

with the trophy? Like, you know, decompress from room,

2:07:18

You're still your family. And I mean, I love.

2:07:21

I saw some footage from our decompression room. Our decompression room

2:07:23

is no longer a decompression room

2:07:25

because it's like your family's in there. But a select few cameras,

2:07:29

you know, it's like a smaller party.

2:07:32

It's less media.

2:07:35

It used to be literally just

2:07:37

nobody went in there. But you're direct family

2:07:40

and you just have a moment to hug and

2:07:43

cry and whatever. And then you.

2:07:45

But yeah, no, I saw some footage from it.

2:07:48

It was it was kind of like, you can hug your family real quick

2:07:51

and let's do some quick interviews before you do more interviews.

2:07:56

That's exactly what it was. But whatever.

2:07:59

It was good. Yeah, but no,

2:08:04

it was that night because

2:08:08

I was by myself in the hotel room, like,

2:08:11

right before going to bed. And that's when I literally was just

2:08:15

I had the trophy right there. And I was just reading the names and

2:08:20

I mean, I don't know if it really sunk in or

2:08:24

not, but yeah,

2:08:27

that was a really special

2:08:29

I'll never forget that sight.

2:08:32

The yeah, it was just

2:08:35

it hit me.

2:08:37

I cried a lot.

2:08:40

Yeah. We, we talked last time about you

2:08:45

pretending to hoist the trophy

2:08:48

and forget about her. Yeah,

2:08:51

I literally forgot about right down till I was thinking about you, your room.

2:08:54

And I'm like, Wait a second. Last time,

2:08:57

I mean, if I was better at my job or went back and watched the last show we did,

2:08:59

I mean, it was only two weeks ago, but it feels like a lot longer than that.

2:09:02

Doesn't really does. I remember the last year

2:09:06

when we did that podcast, but we talked about it,

2:09:09

joked about you visualizing hoist in the trophy and

2:09:13

and sometimes in your underwear, sometimes not even that.

2:09:17

How did the real life

2:09:19

hoisting the trophy compare to

2:09:24

what you had envisioned?

2:09:27

So much fun. I thought it was

2:09:30

I honestly that's when I thought I would be like,

2:09:33

it's like, Oh my gosh, just don't just cry

2:09:36

the entire time. Like, try to try to

2:09:39

look excited before you just burst into tears.

2:09:43

And I don't know why, but

2:09:45

to win those white locked

2:09:48

in, it was just freakin Give me that trophy.

2:09:52

I want to scream at the world.

2:09:56

Gosh, it was cool.

2:09:58

Yeah, I was awesome.

2:10:00

Are you happy with everything you did up there?

2:10:03

Any regrets? Yeah. I don't even remember.

2:10:06

No, nothing. But I knew I had that trophy.

2:10:12

It was cool. Yeah.

2:10:16

You're not the only one. I mean, Christie did do something dumb.

2:10:18

No, no, You were great. You were great.

2:10:20

I just wondered if you what your thoughts.

2:10:27

No, I wasn't. Did none of my questions

2:10:29

or ever searching for something. You know that I'm not

2:10:31

smart enough to be like. Well, it was that time.

2:10:34

Tell me about it. Yeah.

2:10:36

How do you feel about that

2:10:38

grade nine of talking to some people in grade nine?

2:10:41

They said science class.

2:10:43

No, I didn't talk to anyone,

2:10:45

But I mean, did. You're not the only one. The weird thing about that moment

2:10:49

is Christie Jason freaking

2:10:51

Christie, who is so put together.

2:10:55

I mean, I always say he's our Clint Eastwood.

2:10:57

Like, he's that he's freaking Dirty Harry Young, Dirty Harry.

2:11:02

He didn't remember the confetti like the next morning.

2:11:05

Janna, his wife, was like

2:11:07

about how much confetti there was. And he's like, What confetti?

2:11:11

He didn't even remember, like, is up there.

2:11:13

It's so and you're just

2:11:17

I do remember one thing, actually.

2:11:20

It's not that I regret it, but

2:11:25

something on stage knocked the crap out of me.

2:11:30

If anybody paid attention to

2:11:32

when I walked out there and, you know, had the x

2:11:36

to stand on

2:11:38

like something jolted up my left

2:11:41

leg, it shocked the crap out of me.

2:11:45

I don't know what it was like when all the pyro or

2:11:49

something went off. I don't know what you mean.

2:11:51

Like physically shocked, too. Like electricity shocks

2:11:54

you or like, just like,

2:11:56

because I remember. No.

2:11:58

Tuesday I stepped on something on the stage

2:12:01

and went up my foot went on it.

2:12:03

It like it shocked me.

2:12:05

It's electricity shock.

2:12:10

So if you look back at that,

2:12:12

probably a slo mo or something, you'll see my leg

2:12:15

like jump back or something.

2:12:17

I don't know.

2:12:23

You better look into that and see what it would be like.

2:12:26

Yeah, stand on this X right here.

2:12:28

That is where we want you to.

2:12:32

Wow. I, I think it could have just been CO2

2:12:35

like shooting up your leg. Like that stuff is

2:12:38

maybe we try to electrocute you just a little bit.

2:12:41

A bit something gut my leg. I don't know.

2:12:43

It was a stupid goose shot up.

2:12:47

Okay, so when that was happening,

2:12:49

what were you thinking? Oh, I'm about to die.

2:12:53

Oh, no. I was like, Oh, yeah,

2:12:58

I haven't thought about it until just

2:13:00

now, but I'm.

2:13:04

You never thought about that when you were practicing hoisting it.

2:13:07

There would be that moment when I'm listening to, you know, 17 girls

2:13:14

did So did you see or did they

2:13:18

do that thing on Fox where I did stupid

2:13:21

hoisting the trophy at the beginning of the year?

2:13:26

What do you mean? Yeah, I'm sure they showed that I didn't.

2:13:28

I don't know. I'm sure they showed it. But yeah,

2:13:31

I mean, that alone, like, you realize

2:13:33

you've screwed it up now, though, but just simply talking about it

2:13:36

whenever they and. What he's talking about is you remember the last podcast

2:13:39

he talked about. So when you saw

2:13:42

the beginning of the series season, they get, you know,

2:13:44

these green screen images and that's when you see anglers

2:13:47

setting the hook and stuff. And what our eventual classic champion

2:13:51

decided to do was hoist a trophy. That was his move.

2:13:53

You can do whatever you want. I mean, you can dance,

2:13:56

you can do whatever you want. You you realize now

2:13:59

that we've talked about it, like next year,

2:14:01

all we're going to have is guys doing this because

2:14:05

we can't work like that.

2:14:07

That's your mood. There is no.

2:14:09

Yeah, well,

2:14:12

it worked. It worked.

2:14:14

You hoisted the trophy

2:14:17

just like, you know,

2:14:19

everybody come to you like I can. I need to be on your show

2:14:22

so I can say I'm going to win the next one.

2:14:24

You can't like, you can't call it out like this

2:14:27

going to happen organically.

2:14:29

I never would even thought I would have told anybody I couldn't

2:14:32

win the Take Home classic, much less podcast.

2:14:36

So yeah, it was a

2:14:39

that was a funny moment that night. So Saturday night after weigh in

2:14:44

our Super six and we norm and we had gotten

2:14:46

out of the habit of doing this, but we said, hey, let's have a quick

2:14:49

Super six meeting. We're going to shoot this thing. The thing where I walk

2:14:52

behind the six anglers in the hallway

2:14:54

and guess what? I'm back with tape with no before I know,