Jake Bagwell and BASS Elite Luke Palmer

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Lines of Times Premiere Hunting and Fishing outdoor lifestyle podcast. Man,
I'm Spencer Grades. I'm really excited about today because I've
got two of my really good friends that are doing
to jump on here. Jake Bagwell fishing. If you haven't
seen him on social media and you're a fan at
the outdoors, might be getting into fishing. I actually think
his content is the best for like a beginner fisherman,
a novice fisherman, somebody who wants to look at baits

(00:28):
maybe a different way or do different things. He's a
phenomena follow he's going to jump on. And then my
buddy who's a bass master Elite Luke Palmer. He's won
a couple of times on the Elite trail. He's a
hell of a fisherman. Even better dude, he's a new
husband and a new dad over the last couple of years,
which has been super cool. Not having the best year

(00:49):
that he would want to have.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Though it's it's been a stuff part just not I
don't know. It's almost like always with the most you
have a good one, have a bad so not bas
just to look that I used to be for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Do you think it's because You've had a couple of
life changes outside of fishing, and maybe that's playing into
it a little bit or now.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Now I don't think so. I mean, yeah, obviously missed
being home a lot more now than I ever had,
But it's just, you know, I'm still around the fish
to do well, and it's just like it doesn't happen,
you know, instead of catching those fish. You know, one
fish a day, one fish a tournament lost is so

(01:34):
crucial against these guys, and I lose four or five, six, seven,
eight a tournament the same fact, So.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
That's probably wearing on you. Like, I know, I'm the
type of person where if I lose a fish, I'm like,
it's probably a one pounder anyway, even though in the
back of my mind, I'm like, damn it, that could
have been a four or five. But yeah, you're probably
sensing like when they bite, you stick them and they
don't come up, You're like, damn it, that was a
good one.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, that's uh, that's happened, you know what I mean.
And it's like it's a couple of top tens. I mean,
you might have watched whenever We're at heartwell and Aaron
put the real together of me losing back to back
three and a half four pounders, and that was enough
to give me almost twenty pounds that day. And I

(02:18):
lose by a pounds and a half, so I was
looking at, you know, another three pounds, three and a
half pounds, So it was a you know, just things
like that, you know, have happened all year long and
just I don't know, it's just been a it's been
a grind.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
How do you try to change your mindset when you
see things like that happen to go to the next tournament?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
You know, I have a I've called it a shooter
mentality my whole life. Not shooter McGavin, shooter basketball. You know,
it's just you know, you can't if you miss seven
threes in a row, that doesn't mean you're not gonna
make the eighth one, right, you know, so you kind
of have to keep that set going. I've actually got

(03:04):
a terrible memory period anymore. And I don't like, I
can't tell you what we had for breakfast just now,
you know, I think so I think that's good and bad,
you know, I don't, you know, I'll joke about it
throughout the day, Say, if Aaron's with me Saint Clair.
For instance, Aaron was with me on day two and

(03:25):
it was almost getting to the point of being comical
how many fish I had lost? Did it hurt beat down? Yeah?
Because I knew that I lost twenty one twenty two
pounds a day in the tournament, and that would have
been the difference to this week being enjoyment here fishing
instead of being stressed, right, you know, because I'd have

(03:47):
been sitting inside the Classic pretty easily and been fine.
But now it's like, I've got to get my crap
together this week and not scarr up because I don't
want to miss another Classic.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
The other person that's in the studio that it's joining
me today is Jake Bagwell fishing from TikTok. He's become
a really good friend over the last couple of years
and you know, following along with him. Jake's got a
question for you, Luke.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
Yeah, Luke.

Speaker 4 (04:09):
I mean you're a mister consistency, right, So what you
fish close to one hundred tournaments now and you finishing
the money I don't know what seventy percent of the time,
so to have a season like this is obviously frustrating
for you. But you you know, it's just not something
that you're used to doing.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Now. It's it's not h you know. Even last year
was my worst season I've ever had. On the least,
I end up fifty to fifteen points, which sounds, you know,
pretty dismal, but it is for me. You know, I've
made all those class except for that point, and my
class my goal was to make a classic every single
year I fished on at least and you know, it

(04:52):
was a kick in the gut really, I mean, because
I've I feel like I worked my butt off to
try to you know, accomplish that and filled that right
off the bat, you know, six years in. It's honestly,
it's pretty hard to recover from that, you know, when
you have a goal that you just you know, I mean,
that was something I had really wanted very badly my

(05:15):
whole life, and to have that goal smashed, it's tough mentally.
It drains you to the core.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Would you rather have finished like eightieth in the points
and known you didn't have a chance, or because you
were on just the outside looking in?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
It doesn't matter, yeah, I mean it could be one
spot out or one hundred spots out. It's still the
same to me, you don't make the Classic, so that
I mean, it just it bothered me. I mean I
was pissed all off season, like it just wasn't good
as far as that aspect of fishing side, you know which,

(05:54):
I had my boy shoot three weeks later, so I
got lucky there. He didn't show up early during the season. Uh,
but you know that was a that was a big
life changing thing for sure, having him, uh and getting
to experience that. So that's that's been definitely a change
for me. And uh so I guess that was an

(06:16):
uplifting side, except that kid never slept for the last
mong month.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
That by so you you didn't have a lot of
time to think about it.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
I wanted to bang my head off the wall most
days and nights because it was literally we get thirty
minutes to two hours a day total sleep or solid
I know, solid five months because then I got to
go fishing and uh be gone for you know, well,
I think we were going three or four weeks right

(06:46):
off the bat this year, so uh, that was tougher
for sure.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
What's it like when you when you get off the road,
you get home, you got a couple, you know, maybe
a couple of weeks to hang out with the family, Like,
do you find yourself just really diving into connect and
you know, you haven't been around your son as much
as you probably want in the first year of his life.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
You know. I talked to Martin Indez and me and
him were talking one day and he said, I said, Mark,
how do you do it? You've done it for hunteen years,
fishing on professionally, gone through your kids and everything like that.
He said, well, he said, you figure out what you want.

(07:28):
He said. When you go off fishing, you're working, he said,
but when you come home, you're a dad and a husband.
And I've kind of really taken that to heart. Whenever
I'm home, you know, I got buddies and stuff that
I see and everything, but not very often because I'm
gone so much that I want to be there being

(07:49):
that husband and dad. Yeah, you know, so I'm I'm
there at the house, you know, taking care of things
with them. You know, we live about forty minutes from
my parents, so it's kind of hard to go down
there all the time and help dad on the farm
every day because that's a pretty good drive and stuff.
But you know, when I'm home i'm home. You know,

(08:11):
I don't even fish much. Honestly, I don't unless it's
unless my dad wants to go. Hell, I don't even
pick up a rotten reel when I'm home.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Now, after the first year of your son being around,
what have you learned about being a parent that you
never expected?

Speaker 2 (08:29):
You can run off absolutely no sleep. I don't know how.
Your patience is tested to the max for sure. But
you know, he's got a great mom. She does fantastic
for us and stuff and takes care of everything while
I'm gone, plus her salon and bounce houndses and everything else.

(08:54):
It's it's definitely a grinder, for sure. The worst one
will was not the last time, because I flew home
in between Saint Clair and Lacrosse here. But when I
left before Saint Clair. He's walking now and he can
say Dad. He says dad a lot more than he

(09:16):
does want. But she kind of gets but hurt of it.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
Oh my god, she must hate that he's always on
the road.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
But uh, he come out of the front like they
walked me out to my truck, around out the back
of the house and then they came out on the
front porch and I was pulling away and there he
is just waving by Dad. That was like, yes, that
was tough, you know, And I was I was telling
my dad about it, and uh, I think it's just

(09:45):
like a week or two go after it happened. And
I was like, he said, well, he said, I remember
the boy whenever he was three, four, five, six, seven eight.
We lived in town and he would go fishing and
I would take off out the back door trying to
chase him down. Yeah and stuff. He's like, yeah, I know,
a kid, it's probably gonna be just like his dad
was he was.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
A little little Has this mean your relationship with your
father a lot better because now you're going through some
of the things that he's already been through.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
You know, me and dad have always had a good relationship.
You know, we worked at the hardware store together. We
mowed grass together, we worked cows together, fish together, you know,
we did Me and him were together a lot, and
you know, it's it. We've we've just got a good
relationship period. I think he might like that boy of

(10:38):
ours more than he ever did me though sometimes he
but he's damn sure proud of him. So it's it's
really cool seeing my dad that side of him. You know,
he was he was, He's always been. He's been a
great father, no doubt, best father figure in the world
in my opinion. You know my dad, Uh, he was,

(10:59):
he was a He's definitely a little tougher on me
than he will be laking for sure. So but that's
all right. It's neat watching him and my mom and
stuff with him.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
So Matt Robertson just had his first kid. I don't
know if that took him out of you know, practice
or anything like that. But have you talked to him
and uh and kind of spoken about, like, you know,
what it's like to be a new dad and on
the road.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
Now, I haven't. I haven't got to see Matt since
we've been here, and hell, we all kind of since
everybody stays in the airbnbs anymore, nobody's all of us
piled up in a motil somewhere, you know, kind of
like it used to be. So everybody's kind of spread
out more or less now. I mean, I'm sure i'll
see because we got off day to day. I'll probably

(11:43):
see him in the way in mine or soon tomorrow
and talk to him about it. Maybe, But I know,
I can't imagine how tough that was, like boom three
days later.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
Yeah, and not to mention he had a really good tournament.
I mean really he needed a tournament like that, because man,
he's been he's been struggling the last couple of seasons.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah, yeah, in massive damn good. I mean he's he
can do it all. He's a good fishman and stuff.
So yeah, maybe he'll show out again this week and
get back up in the where he needs to be
stick around because I like him. Man, he's good old boy.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
There's uh, there's two different worlds that are kind of
clashing on this uh this podcast. You know, Jake is dad.
How many kids do you have, Jake, I've.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
Got one stepdaughter, so my son Carter's twelve and and
uh my stepdaughter's eleven. So yeah, full house for sure.
Not not as many as some people, but we stay busy.
He's into fishing. He's getting really big into it now,
so are my nephews. So we're constantly I mean last

(12:48):
week we're going over guys, y'all are waist in five
packs of swim baits? Okay, you got to rig them
up this way. I've got them super glue I've got
them everything they need. I mean it's one it's one
fish first, one bait, and then I've got to buy
a new pack, you know. So, but I wouldn't have
it any other way. Uh, It's it's so much fun
teaching him everything I know and just seeing the excitement
on his face when he catches one.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
So you're looking forward to that, Luke, when you get
to get Lake and out and actually really see him
start to take into fishing, you know, I am.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
But I think my dad's more pumped up about it, Yeah,
because he has said several times you said, well, Lake,
and I can't wait till you get old enough I
can take you feeding cows with me or taking fishing
and stuff like that. Because like I said, I'm not
I'm not home much, you know not, I mean just
not home and my parents, you know, going and seeing them.

(13:40):
I mean my mom, Shoot, she still works half a
day at school and stuff. So I think she's actually
getting Lake in today. So Chris, she's got twenty five
colors and haircuts to do today. So to make it
a lot easier on her, Mom's going to come get
him and watch him for watching that this afternoon. But

(14:01):
I am. You know, I hope that he enjoys fishing
instead of makes it a job, if that makes sense.
You know, everything I've ever done my whole life, I
make it a job. Whether if it was if I
weed eating bowing yards like I used to, I was
going to see how fast I could get it done,

(14:22):
you know, like how good I could weed eat the yard,
or how nice I could make it. It was always a job,
And whenever I started fishing tournaments, it came to a job,
you know, being compared. I think that's just being the
competitive side. I the same way in basketball, baseball. You know,
I made it a job to be the best I
could at whatever I was doing. So I hope he

(14:43):
takes that aspect as far as the work ethic side
of it, but I hope he makes it to where
it's not a job and he enjoys it thoroughly.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
What was your edging style?

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Well, my weed eater head actually spun to the left
because I usedouldn't. I was so had to walk backwards everywhere.
So my legs were actually built really well. It wasn't
very big, but they were solid. You know, I could
just about. I didn't never, I never did edge I
always angle cut everything, and but boy I could, uh,

(15:16):
I could sling and bring I was there was There
was a lot of days that it was. It was dumb.
How much I could we eat?

Speaker 1 (15:23):
I find myself just getting completely lost and watching lawn
mowing videos on social media. I don't know what it
is is it's satisfying to watch videos like that.

Speaker 4 (15:35):
It's funny landscape over here. So yeah, I'm I'm right
there with dealers, so do you.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
But do you guys find satisfaction watching videos like that?
Or Luke, what's the most satisfying videos you can watch
on social media?

Speaker 2 (15:49):
Ah?

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Well, a right, if you don't have to answer.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
That side now, there was just I don't know. I
do like there's something about watching being on the edge
of a sidewalk or a house and you getting it
off and it being smooth. That uh, that's pretty that's
good stuff. Like I enjoyed that.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I don't know the other the other ones that I
watched like it And you probably get this too. Is
that guy Nate, the hoof guy who's trimming cow hooves
because they get stones in him or whatever? Like, I
don't know why the videos of random stuff, Yeah, watching
people cut stuff to me is just so satisfying. And
I don't know why that.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Is or what about the guy sitting in the tubes
and they're like taking a wapperplopper going into figure eight
and that was nineteen catfish. Yes, completely destroyed it and
stuck the rock down.

Speaker 1 (16:40):
Yes. So the guy said to me the other day,
he goes, man, you gotta see that guy who can
skip that little underneath those bushes so fast. I go, yeah,
you know what I don't see in those videos that
guy catching any fish.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
It's always the skip. The skip is what gets the attention.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yeah, it's like the skip is beautiful, but then there's
never a bite. And I'm always pissed because I'll watch
fifteen seconds of a video just to watch a guy
skip me a couple of bushes and then nothing happens.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
There's it? Is it a Japanese guy that like back
yes and just yes, and it's like like a mile
it's a six foot rod.

Speaker 1 (17:17):
He like flips it under there like a conductor and
an orchestra, and then he'll work it out fast, skip
it again, work it out at but no fish ever bites.
And when people are like, oh, that guy could cover
water sure he could burn down a bank at forty
miles an hour, but there's nothing happening, Like you don't
even see a blow up after the fact, watching a
frog blow up in slow motion. Chef's kids like easy.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
They always talk about speed. But I seen Korea fishing
and h we were Saint John's and we were like
in the same pond time deal. And I have never
seen somebody go down to banks like he was going
and the precision that he was I think he was

(18:08):
throwing spinner bab but it I thought it was KVD
throwing the square bill.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
What makes it so much different then?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I don't know. I've never I've never seen a guy right.
You know, you can watch someone fishing and you're like, okay,
like he's he's awesome, like he's making cast like Jason Christie,
like watching him on TV. They look pretty normal until
you get side by side him because I've filmed with

(18:40):
Jason and watching him throw a spinner bay or flipping
Christie Critter is dumb, Like how efficient and how fast
and it's it's nuts how smooth he's doing, you know,
I mean, it's it's crazy. It's like watching Michael Jordan
shoot the free throw. I mean, it is just dialed

(19:02):
every single time, and it's it's pretty awesome watching it happen.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
So it's it's wild to hear a pro who's really
good in his own right talk about another couple pros
who are awesome in their own right. It's wild to
actually hear that, because I don't think you'd hear many
professional athletes go dude, this guy is unreal.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
I've you know, those one of those deals. I've watched
these guys, which Koy is actually younger than me, but
like I've watched these guys growing up. You know, I
looked up to Edwin and Jason and you know KVD,
all the guys that we used to always watch on
TV growing up. So it's kind of cool to be
fishing against them. But it's not cool because they're so
damn good. But uh, you know, but it's it's it's

(19:46):
neat to get to be I know, I'll never be
at those guys level as far as how good they are, stop,
but just being up there and you know, competing with
them's fun, you know, like I said, to an extent,
because they're good being well, they're not good, they're great.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Being that you're from Oklahoma, do you pat yourself on
the back a little more, have a little silent kind
of fist bump when you beat other guys from Oklahoma?

Speaker 2 (20:15):
No, not really. I mean I've always looked at fishing
like this. It's like, I don't ever get pissed off
at someone else when they beat me at fishing, because
I'm not fishing against him or whatever. You know, I'm
fishing against the fish. It was It's my own fault
that I didn't figure out how to catch them when
they did, right, you know, that's that's well. Now, did

(20:37):
they maybe have more time to do it? Possibly? But
I've never even whenever I was fishing local tournaments and
stuff a lot, I never did get pissed off at
people for like, damn, how are they beaten every week?
You know? So that never did. That's never really bothered me.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
I like the fact that you brought up local tournaments
because this was some drama that popped up in Alabama
the other day. But we had a we had a
tournament on the Alabama River for the BFLS and Keith
Pochet made his way into the tournament. He led Day one,
led Day two, wins the tournament, and there are a
lot of local guys and a lot of you know,
regular Joe's who were in these tournaments, and they get

(21:18):
pissed when they see another angler who's a pro getting
into a tournament. Jake, how do you feel about pros
fishing local tournaments outside of their tournament trail.

Speaker 4 (21:29):
It's a tough one because, I mean, you know, they're
usually gone most of the time, so they're they're not
up to speed it right to exactly what the fish
are doing at that time, which the local guys should
be if they're on the water. It's a really it's
a really tough topic. I mean, you it's hard to

(21:50):
say whether you should let them fish or not or
I don't know, man, that's a that's a really tough one.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
I brought up a good point though, is you guys,
when you're home in Oklahoma, you haven't been on that
body of water, probably the lake that you grew up
on in well over a year.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
I don't fish it much. So, like I said, I've
actually got to fish a few more this year than
I have in the past because they kind of fell
on the right days. But there's certain trails I can't
fish in Oklahoma. After you pay fifteen hundred dollars for
entre feet, you know whatever, they don't let you fish.
But there's some trails that are like, hey, you fished

(22:27):
with us whenever you were eleven twelve years old and
got your ass kicked and didn't say nothing. You just
kicked your head down and fished. And now they want
to group because you know, they didn't grip whenever you
were They were taking your money when you were a kid,
but they want to grip now that you know you're
taking the money. Right, So it's kind of like I said,

(22:48):
it's a double edged sword. I mean, but I actually
guys have a better shot of beating me now than
they did back ten or twelve years ago because I
had my fish pet named you know well, because I fished,
you know, you follow a tex Homa all that stuff
all the time. So there was there were several years

(23:08):
there that our lowest finish might have been seventh or right.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
I said to a couple of guys that were ticked
off about you know, postchet fishing and all that kind
of stuff, I said, if you're going to be mad
at Pochet, the person that you really need to be
mad at are when guides on that lake fish because
those guys are out there, I mean they're getting paid
every single day, they know exactly where to go, they've
got all the relationships, they can get any piece of
information that they want, like they're more dangerous than anybody else.

(23:34):
And there's guys here in Alabama who have made a
half million dollars in the course of a year on
tournament winnings just from beating up on local lakes.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Me personally, I wouldn't mind it. We don't have any
pros on the tent time, like they live near the
tent time really, but I don't mind it because I'd
like to see where I stacked up against some I mean,
you know, fishing there's so many variables. It's unlike any
other sport. There's so many variables. So just because you know,
just because Greg Hackney shows up the's ten time one day,
I mean he's an he would be amazing on the

(24:06):
tent time because that fits his style right, shallow water
frog fishing, flipping a jig. But you know he's never
been there before. I've been there a million times, so
I would like to see can I beat Greg Hackney
on my home pund you know, So to me, it
doesn't bother me so much. And when there's more those
determined that eye fish is not a lot of money involved.
So once you get a lot of money involved, I
can see where people you know, could have a problem

(24:28):
with it.

Speaker 3 (24:28):
But me personally, it doesn't.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
It doesn't bother me, I think because they, like you said,
they haven't been there, so they don't they don't really
know what's going on.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
I don't know. If I saw Lou Palmer's name pop
up on a wildcat, I think I'd be like, well,
I'm fighting for second place.

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Well yeah, yeah, you're probably sitting pretty good in there
right now. Everything changes, I mean, like you said, there's
so many variables. I mean, hell, I could go to
see you fall and fish a jackpot there with twenty
boats in it, and heck I might lose five fish.
Well those you know. Instead of me having fifteen towns,

(25:05):
now I got eleven, you know, and those guys took
my money, you know. I mean, it can happen like
it's you know, you might be off, you know, regardless
of basketball, golf, whatever.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
You can have bad days, do guys if they beat
you in a tournament and I'm not talking about bass.
I'm talking about like, you know, your your local pond tournaments.
Do they come up and try to rub it in
your face a little bit?

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Not too much.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
I got healthy.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Yeah, Like I've been around like all the tournament trails.
Meet my dad fish together, like we were known. Everybody
thought it was the husband and wife team that was
winning because my dad's name's Tammy, and everybody realized the
father and son, so like, legit, we won a tournament.
Now I don't know if we won. Anyway, we got something, yeah,

(25:55):
and Dad went to get it, get the prize or
whatever it was, and he had to show them his
idea because they were like, no, Tammy's a girl, and
he was like, no, that's my name. People at his
ID and stuff. But uh, you know, I'm I've actually
a lot of people have you know, fished against them
all these years. Were really are really cool. Like I
showed back up to the tournaments and they're like, hey, man,

(26:17):
how's it going, you know, And if I'm not there
and my dad's fishing them with one of my other buddies,
they're always asking about me and stuff. And when I won,
saying see, they were like hell they all had it
on their phones. Like my dad fished a tournament that
day and they were all at the weigh in and
all of them had their phones out and were watching it.
So you know, I've got a good relationship with them all.

(26:39):
I mean because regardless if I did really well or
did terrible in the tournament, I still stuck around and talked.

Speaker 1 (26:47):
To everybody as you should. I mean, you know, for
I think some guys forget this when they're at the
bass elite level or even the BPT level. But when
anybody meets you, guys, it's no different than when you
met Jason Christie for the very first time, the guy
that you look up to. And as professionals, you guys

(27:08):
have a little bit of I don't want to say
it's a responsibility, but it kind of is a responsibility
where you have to carry on kind of that allure
of we are the best fishermen in the world and
we have people who look up to us, from kids
all the way to people that are Jake's age and
my age. I mean, we still look at the bas

(27:29):
elites and we're like, damn that dude, And just like
you look at Koya, you're like Damn look out that
dude throws a spinner bait. You can find yourself just
like staring and go Jesus Christ, that guy's good. So
at some point, like it's cool that you talk to
people because that's part of the job.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Oh yeah, you know. And that's one thing I really
enjoy meeting people. You know, I was in the hardware business,
you know, I talk to people every single day, and
that was my job. People come in just to be yes,
you know, so getting to meet kids and stuff. Whenever
I was driving Saint Clair, I pulled into a Wally's.
I think that's what it is. I mean, it was

(28:08):
just some random gas station. Pulled in and come out
there and this guy was a boy. He's h on
my boat and he said, do you fish Elite? Serious?
I said yeah. He said, well my daughters just started
fishing and stuff, and and the hell they come over
and I took a picture with him and talked to
him there for ten minutes, you know, And I think
they went out the next day and his daughter fished
Determent and she wonted. That was one of her first

(28:30):
ones to fish. So it was they send me picture
and stuff. So it was really cool to, you know,
to who knows you. That might've been somebody that you
know needed to pick me up or just someone to
talk to. And you know that was that and I
just happened to be there, So it was that's the
that's the part that I actually probably looked forward to
more than the fishing anymore, is that side of it.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah. I mean you obviously got that young girl to win.
You gave her the juice, you gave her like some
some extra bait, and you were just like, this is
what's going to win it for you. Yeah, we've seen
we've seen kind of in a explosion in fishing, and Jake,
I know you've seen this in the influencing side. But
these different baits that are coming out, like these Japanese baits,
and they're all look kind of crazy and all that.

(29:11):
What were the baits when you were younger that you
guys would put together and rig a completely different way,
maybe the not normal way, but they still caught fish
and it was kind of your secret for a while.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Oh man, that's a fun one.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
What was yours? Jake?

Speaker 4 (29:27):
So we back home, we fished a ton of like redshad,
green plate culprit worms. We fished a bunch of flukes
and you know a shar church pepper lizard, zoom lizard
and my favorite way, So people would always throw everything
on a Texas shrik. You know, everybody, all my buddies,
they're also everything on texta shrik. I threw everything weightless
like I would throw I would throw a lizard weightless,

(29:51):
and I mean, I know it's no secret, it's not
a secret. And then I would like if we were
fishing clean water, I would always nozok my fluke because
I just had I just had more fun.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
Though, way, I never lost my buddies. You're losing them now.

Speaker 4 (30:02):
I wasn't losing because I was no soaking flick, which
is something that obviously.

Speaker 1 (30:05):
They do now that's how we do it on Lanier, right,
Like if you fish, it's nose hooking up.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
Back then, I had never seen anybody do that, right, Like,
why are you looking at it like that? Well, man,
you've lost your last two fish. I've caught my last seven,
so you know, so how about you no soak yours?

Speaker 1 (30:22):
You know, Luke, did you get did you get pretty
crafty when you were younger or maybe even now where
you come up with something that's just a little different spencer.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
You've seen my boat, you see, and it's about all
I threw. I don't I've never been a I don't
want to say tweaker because that sounds terrible, but like
as far as messing with baits and stuff like that,
I've never been that guy.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
You know.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
That's that's the way I look at it. Like we
we had Brock Mosley on the podcast and we were
talking to him and he was in a tournament. He
was like, man, I'm getting shorts struck on all these
swim jig fish. So he put a trailer hook on
there and he started sticking him and he's like, a
trailer hooked is something you would never think about doing
on a swim jig. But there's a lot of guys
that are like, well, that's maybe how you should do

(31:10):
it every once in a while.

Speaker 3 (31:10):
I mean, you do it on a buzz bait and
a spinner bait.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
So why not, right, I mean, I think you get
hung up a lot more.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
But I mean, which a lot of times you're getting
short strips of swim jig, you're probably more of a
round docks and stuff like that, not so much straight
bad stuff. But now I've never really I guess my
thing is is I messed with weight sizes more than
I do anything else. You know, when I was at Sante,

(31:39):
I was catching him on a quarter. Well, I had
a quarter five sixteenes and three eighths rigged up, and
it took me a bit to figure it out. Like
it was the difference of what weight they wanted that
day and how fast they would eat it. Like you
could throw a five sixteenth in there three times on

(32:00):
the bed and they would just kind of nudget. You
throw that quarter in there and it was like boom instantly.
So that's really the only thing that I messed with,
you know, and color a little bit, but yeah, yeah,
it was a fault rate, and I think the main
was a color situation too, if you gotta when you
find the right color. But you know, we figured that

(32:22):
out with with forward face and stuff, like you can
tell when they want a color when they don't, and
UH learned that. And then once once the fall rate
got figured out on it, it was like night and day.
Like I've never seen something. It was like difference throwing
a spinner bait and a jig. That's how much difference
it was as far as in fishery. So, uh, that's

(32:45):
one thing which you know, flip and shallow cover. That's
what I've done my whole life. And if you watch
on forward face and you throw a quarter out there,
how fast it falls and you throw it. You know,
we used to think you've got to throw a half
ounce to get a reaction track. Well, hell, a half
ounce and two foot of water is like a kiss
missile going to the bottom. Yeah, you know, and even

(33:07):
a quarter though you flip a quarter up there, a
quarterfall is pretty damn fast too, you know. So it's
just a that's the that's the game I've really and
I didn't notice it much until Santee Cooper the year
I came in fourth. It wasn't even the year. I
want is a year coming forth when I learned that.
And it had taken me up to that point, because

(33:28):
up to that point I knew two sides, half and half.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
You know, I throw a half ounce a jig, or
I throw a half ounce jig, because that's that's just
what I did. You know, I didn't think about fall, right,
I said, I want that thing that dropped in front
of their face. So I can make another flip is
all I was doing. And uh, learning to throw a
little bit lighter weight or you know, a little bit
heavier weight. Figuring that out has changed my flipping game
a lot. It's not that we get to flip much

(33:56):
anymore because we don't go any places to bushes and
then we go to ten Killer. Ten bushes, My dumb
masses out open, they're coming.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
So when you go back and you see a tournament
like ten Killer, when you know you're you're a flipping
type of guy that would be in your your strong suit,
and you see how the guys were catching them, do
you kick yourself?

Speaker 2 (34:24):
Oh? Yeah, I went and the first day I went
up there and I caught a limit flipping in no time.
And uh, but I was like, man, if I can,
if it'll happen out deep, it's going to go down.
Like I know they're out there, And uh, I fished
ten Killer a few times prior to that, and the
water had got up in the bushes and they yanked
it out. So that's what I was banking on happening

(34:47):
during the tournament. So I didn't spend but like half
a day flipping because I knew it was going to change. Well,
I didn't know it was going to rang six inches
and the lake was going to come back up, and
I was just too hard headed the golfer and do
that because everybody and their dog was flipping. So you
just had to go. You just had a golfer and
put your head down and flip. Because I can name

(35:09):
a billion times that I have went down two stretches
of bushes that you follow, and I have flipped them
all day long behind myself. So what's the difference going
behind someone that right? You know? And I just didn't
play the head game as much and was trying to
trying to do too much, you know, instead of just hey,
this is my strength, this is what I'm going to do,

(35:30):
you know, just go do it.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
You would assume though, if the water is coming up
like another two feet and you got all those bushes
that that flipping by what had become stronger?

Speaker 2 (35:40):
Now I did it did, and I just could see
it was it fell. It was like eight seven or
so feet high, and they dropped it to like four
feet and it was still coming down. Well then it
rained again and it come back up, and uh so
it was just those fish were getting set there because
they were coming to the edges, you know, as they're

(36:00):
pulling the water so much, and then the water kind
of they could stabilize it, you know, and it was
coming up a little bit, so then fish they didn't
have to leave, they could stay there. And they'd been
in the bushes pretty much all year long, because Oklahoma
seemed like it had been flooded since February.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
So you, being a Mississippi guy, Jake is flipping kind
of year deal.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
Oh yeah, I mean that's how we grew up fishing.
And things have changed now with us having base rings
and Pickwick really Pickwick mostly close by. I mean, you know,
flat gravel bars and stuff like that play huge now
that you're able to see them. But and you know,
we grew up fishing ledges too, But for the most part,
we're a fishing shallow. We were we were flipping bushes

(36:44):
and I remember that my first trip to New Johnsonville,
kentuckulate flipping bushes. That was it for me. I was like,
I'm never doing anything again. I'm just kidding. I'm laying
the flipping six on the deck and that's all I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
Would you guys say that that's the best bite in fishing,
then it's called flipping bike because it is pretty it
is pretty sweet.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
I like them all. I like them all, man, I'll
take you out of them.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
I know everybody says.

Speaker 1 (37:06):
I know everybody says they'll take any of them. But
watching a frog bite, even even a half ounce jig,
and when you feel them bite that on the bottom,
I don't know how it is when they bite a jig.
They just seem to bite those things harder and you
set the hook. It's that power. As soon as you know,
it's in the top of their mouth.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah, that's it. That's a dick.

Speaker 4 (37:28):
That's how I've been catching the lately is on a jig.
And in the past two months it's just man, I've
literally got four jigs on my deck and anytime I
can put four jigs on the on the front deck
and and.

Speaker 3 (37:40):
I'm gay, let's go right.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
And see. I'm not a I'm not a super topwater guy,
like it's neat and stuff. But my favorite bite is
ripping a hard knocker out of the grass and it
getting absolutely choked in February when it's colder in hell,
and then you make seven more casts in there and
catch them just whenever they hit it and it's like

(38:05):
knocks slacking and they got that thing down their throat.
That's my favorite. Like I love setting the hook, You're wrong,
that's probably number two, But catching them on a trap
that's probably my favorite.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
So is it just the feeling that you just snatched
this thing out of grass and it comes to a
complete dead stop.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yes, y, yes, that's and you know you're just about
to train wreck the hell out of it because when
he smashed them out of the grass, there's normally more
than one sitting there, and you know you're freeze to
death and you've just been winding all day long, and
then all of a sudden you finally find that ground.
My buddy found a group last year. Me and my
buddy found a group last year, the biggest grass school

(38:44):
I've ever found in my life. We caught like forty
five fish in between three and eight pounds in less
than four foot of walk on one cast, one cast,
and he caught them there for three weeks like that
and won every damn tournament there was. But literally just
sat there and on the same bait every week, and

(39:07):
it was like they were like, hey, we're done. Never
have caught another fish in there.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
So when you won Santie Cooper a couple of years ago,
did you have an incredible practice where you found some
really good fish and you went into the tournament thinking
this is going to be great for me.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Well, I actually did not catch them like I caught
him in the tournament practice. I was wining in a
chatter bait, dirk bait, and a hard knocker on ill
grass edges. I wasn't getting but like five to seven
bites a day, but they were from four to nine pounds.
When i'd get bit they were biggins. And I flipped

(39:44):
a little bit and I caught a few fish. I
caught one around seven and some other three and a
half four pounders. But it was getting colder, like it
was cold and it started kind of coming back. But
I went into the area that I caught the thirty
three pounds year before and pulled out a chatter bait
and I fired it out there and I hung one,

(40:06):
and Aaron was with me because he goes with me
on day three of practice just to get content. And
I hooked it and I was like, ain't no waste
of bass? And it come up and it was almost
pale white and it was like a nine. It weighed
for it at nine. I hooked it and I said,
these boys better watch out kind of joking, you know,
just talking crap. I didn't realize that this massive wave
was coming of spawners. And that first day in the tournament,

(40:31):
I literally fished well. I pulled up on a stretch,
didn't catch anything, and I abandoned my chatter bait bike.
I went to a bank that I had literally caught
one three pounder on a bus bait. I picked up
a buzz bait proceeeded to lose over twenty five pounds
a bass down that streetch So I'm already contemplating life.

(40:51):
You know. Everybody had me picked to do really well there.
And I went back to where I started. Pulled on
that ill grass, nothing down through that went all the
way down the bank and I caught uh two one
about three, another one about two and a half at
one thirty, and there was two of them on that
tree when I caught it, and I was like, oh, really,

(41:11):
this is how y'all want to play today, huh? And
I pulled over. I ran to another deal where I
had a big bite in practice. I pulled up there
and I'd catch a seven, a four, and a couple
other fish off of one tree, and there's another bigan
on the tree. She would never buy at end up
catching like twenty one pounds.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
In your practice where you were finding your big fish,
that wasn't your first stop of the tournament.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Well, yeah it was, but none of those they I
didn't start there, No, I didn't where I caught my
big one. I didn't start there. I was like, I'll
show back up here this afternoon, let everybody kind of
get settled, and then I'll roll up over there. But
that was the only fish I caught. It was that big.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
But you never have a lee. You didn't have a
worry of like if I don't go there, then somebody
else has already found that, because I hear that in
local tournaments all the time. Will if you're not on
your spot, somebody else has already found them fish?

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Yeah, well, I mean where I was starting at, I
was seeing multiple fish on those spots. So I said,
I can pull in there and catch me a few,
and then I'll go in there and you know, wind around.
Because in practice, like I said, it was, it was
brutal tough, but you weren't getting a lot of bytes,
and I wasn't seeing a lot of guys at all

(42:23):
in practice. Now, the first day it was three ring
circus where I caught that nine. Because you know, everybody
does their homework, you know, and from year to year
on these places, so they get shelled out pretty quick.
And it was just like that year that I come
in forth up there. I had one three and a

(42:43):
half tight byte down byte there practice and then I
on there on day one, late of the tournament or
no other day two that afternoon I pulled in there
and catch twenty five pounds twenty five or twenty six,
and then I catched thirty three and then twenty out
of the same area. So I mean it was but
it's just it's kind of one of the timing deals

(43:06):
because I mean he gets pounded. I mean it's it's
a very prevalent area, but it's just when you hit
it just rides. Things can get wild. Hurry.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
We're all rooting for Luke for the tail end of
the season. You're just on the outside looking in for
the classics, so we're hoping that lacrosse is going to
be a good event for you. But Luke, thanks for
jumping on.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
We appreciate it, all right, buddy, appreciate it all right, buddy.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
We'll talk to you later. Luke, Man, it's so awesome.
It's so awesome to have Luke being able to jump
on here and kind of share some of the things.
But you know, Jake, I wanted to obviously catch up
with you a little bit too, and and talk about
your life and what's going on over the last couple
of years. You started out on TikTok because a friend
of yours or a family member was just like, hey,

(43:52):
you should make a video.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:53):
I think I had a conversation with my niece one
night and she we were just talking, hanging out, and
she's she kind of showed me to post something on there.
I posted it, we went to the beach, like a
couple of days later.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
I didn't think anything about it.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
I checked it and it had like one hundred and
forty thousand views, and I never I've always hated here
in my own voice, I've always hated being on camera, pictures.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Videos, whatever.

Speaker 4 (44:17):
But here we are two years later, man, and it's
a it's a you know, I'm fully entrenched in my career,
but this is a it's a it's almost like a
full time gig outside of a full time gig. But
I'm just a guy from Mississippi that loves to fish
and if I can share that with someone, I've I've
had a lot of people message me and so they
caught their PB off of you know, a video of mine,

(44:38):
or their son caught his PB.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
Man.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
There's no better feeling than that. So I never saw
this coming, didn't know this was part of the plan.
But here we are rowing.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
It's it's I'm having a good time with it.

Speaker 4 (44:48):
So I never saw myself sitting here, but you know,
this is this is great.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Do you find yourself like when you get home from
a long day of work, do you feel the pressure
of like, I've got to get a video up or
do you just kind of do a when you want
to do it.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
Yeah, so in the beginning it was more strategic, right,
you know, so my expectations weren't so high. There weren't
as many people watching, there weren't as many followers. But now, yeah,
the pressure's there, I've got to make something happen. But
as you go and get better with it, you kind
of just go with the flow. And sometimes I may
put something together in my truck before I pull out

(45:21):
of work. You know what I mean, something that I've
been thinking about that day, or something that's just you
know that everybody's talking about.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
At the time. You know, you want to be you
want to be relatable.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
I think that's why I have a decent following us
because I'm just I'm just a normal dude. Man, I'm
just a normal dude that likes to fish. And especially
since twenty twenty, there's so many people that want to
fish and they're learning, they want to learn, they want
to get better, and if I can help people enjoy fishing, dude, you.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Know, YouTube can only go so far too. I know
a lot of people, you know, kind of flock to
YouTube to go see some different things. But man, a
fifteen to twenty second video talking about like this, how
I like the rig, or I like to upsize my
line or downsize my line, or kind of what Luke
was talking about when he was talking about rad to
fall and varying up his weights. You can hear that
like that. You don't need a ten minute video explaining

(46:11):
all that.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Right, you can. You don't have to read a Bassmaster
magazine anymore. You can you can in take so much
information in twenty minutes of scrolling, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
And I'll tell you what though. Those bass Master magazine.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Oh I love them. I'm a lifetime member, you know.
I love it.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
But it's and that's what taught me, you know, that's
what taught me. I would read something, I'd go out
to the creek in front of my house, which was
literally like a ditch on my driveway, and I would
sit there and mess with the bait. And then when
my parents would drop me off to go fishing, my
mom or my dad, I would use that bait that
day and until I gained confidence with it. And I

(46:46):
did that with one hundred different baits. And then, you know,
I'm twelve years old and I'm confident with a lot
of things. So I've been doing it a long time.
And I've been obsessed with fishing since i was five,
So it's not hard for me to get on a
camera on my phone and talk fishing.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
He got into fishing, so I went.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
With my dad. I went with my dad. He was
more of a bluegill fisherman.

Speaker 4 (47:07):
So my dad was born on May thirteenth, so Friday
the thirteenth was his birthday Fall Friday, it's thirteenth. Sometimes
he caught it playing hooky. Man, we'd play hooky from
school and he'd always pulled me out of school on
his birthday and we'd go blue gill fishing.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Good time to fish for blue gill.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
Right, So they're on the bed May thirteenth, you know,
and he puts me, uh, gives me a little bobber
and a cricket a little split shot on it, and
we're behind the VFW, you know, like out in the
middle of nowhere, and big blue gill off the bed
eats eats the cricket, you know. I'm reeling in the
blue gill and like a six pounder eats him head first.

(47:47):
So and that fish somehow wasn't even hooked. It was
the scales on the back of the blue gill stuck
in his mouth, suck in his mouth. So from then
right right, So from then on, it was over, man,
it was. It was completely a game over. Now I've
got fifty rodnreels, some more tackle, and I ever know

(48:07):
what to do with. I didn't get a boat until
way later on in life, so the tournament thing didn't
really work out for me. Now that I've been a
seen that. I've seen a lot of that. I don't
know that I want, you know, would rather do that?

Speaker 1 (48:21):
Now, what made you realize that you didn't want to
tournament fish or live the lifestyle to say? Somebody like
Luke does? Right?

Speaker 4 (48:27):
So all right, here's my thinking, and my my buddy
Brian has the same thinking, and me and him talk
about it all the time. So you I feel like
you may have a better chance of taking what's Sententtry
feet you forty five for a five grand Let's just say,
I think your chances. Don't even look at the spread
for the first Alabama game. I'm in Alabama, so let's
talk about them. Don't even look at the spread. I

(48:49):
think your chances are better at going to put it
on Blacker red at a casino or put it on
the spread on the Alabama game than they are to
There were so much much better gambling than they are
to win a tournament.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
So are you saying the reason why you didn't want
a tournament fish is you feel like financially it's not
the wisest decision.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
I love fishing so much that if it would have
worked out for me, I would have given it my
best shot, but financially now that I have, of course,
I'm looking from a completely different perspective because I have
kids and stuff now. But back then I would have
done anything, slept in the back of my truck, tried
to make it work. But now looking at it from
my perspective now, man, I don't think I can handle it.

(49:33):
It's just it's such a grind, especially this time of
the year. They're out there from sun upsun down, putting
in twelve hour days and it's practice right for practice. Man,
It's just such a grind. And it's not all year,
but it kind of is because they have obligations outside
of it.

Speaker 1 (49:48):
But there's a lot of guys that are on tour
that think similarly to that. I mean, you hear it
all the time. When somebody is a young gun coming
up and fishing, everybody starts looking at them and they're
just smashing them. The Trey McKinney's of the world, the
Tucker Smiths, the Logan Parks, the Paul Marx, like, all
these guys came out.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
There's so many.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Yeah, all these guys come out. They're young, they're not married,
they don't have children, and all the old regime kind
of looks at them like, what are they doing. They're
obviously getting some, but what guys forget is your level
of stress on the water and off the water matters
with how well you can catch fish. Because you either

(50:30):
have a family at home that you got to, you know,
take the phone calls and and be there for their
sports events and live through FaceTime and all that kind
of stuff. But you also have to remember that while
you're doing that, these guys can still be on the
water and they can go fish wherever they want, and
they've got nothing but fishing on their mind, right.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
Right, yeah, they So they have spent so much time
in their boat. They've literally spent more time in their
boat than they've spent in their bed or anyway else,
you know what I mean. So there's no replacement for
time on the water. All these guys are elite casters, right,
All these guys are, you know, elite fishermen.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
That's why it was so shocking to me to hear
Luke say like, man, did you throwing a spinner bait?
And then watch it like technically how good he is
at doing that? You have another pro going, Dude, this
guy is good. I love it. Because it veers credit
to somebody who's doing a really good job at something,
and Luke is that kind of guy.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
But they're all good, just like every other regular joe
like you and I. If I went out watched Luke fish,
I'd be like, dude, these guys are in a different world, right.

Speaker 4 (51:39):
Right, Yes, that's the thing they're all good at. They're
all good at fishing. I mean, they all can make
the cast, they all, you know. But I think the
one thing that makes them different they they all have
their strengths as well. I mean, Koa's that's what shocked
me about what he said about Kyoya. We know Kyoya
is an FFS guy, right, so to hear him talk
about him being a fisher at throwing a spinner bait

(51:59):
down the bank, obviously you know he's he's good at everything.
But the thing is, they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
But the main thing, in my opinion, that makes one
guy that at the end of the day is decision
making when to leave, when to stay, where to go,
what to do. And for me, that's the part that's

(52:20):
the hardest.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Hey, you were talking about betting, you got no one
to hold them, No one to fold them and no
one to walk away. And that is a crucial part.
I mean, I was in a tournament on the Alabama River,
which we talked about a little earlier, and man, I
get my first bite until after.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Nine thirty, right, And what are you thinking at that point?

Speaker 1 (52:37):
Yeah, Well, you know, for me in a tournament scale
I sat there and I thought to myself, just go
cover water, like, hit a cut through. If they're there, great,
If they're not, look for some brush or some laydowns
that are just offshore. Try to find something with access
to deep water. But eliminate everything that you see. So
if they weren't, if the cutthroughs and they weren't at

(52:58):
the laydowns, go do something vastly different. There's nothing worse
than watching somebody who's in a tournament who repeatedly does
the same thing over and over and over. That's not
catching them fish Like, you have to kind of get
out of your comfort zone. So I ended up going
over to a bridge piling and I just took a
jig and I threw it down. Why. I remember thinking

(53:18):
to myself, Hackney had told me once that if you
see current move something, but let it fall naturally with
the current, So don't use too heavy of a weight
to get all the way down. Don't use too light
of a weight where it's not hitting. Really find that
good weight. Well, it was a half ounce. I toss
it out there. I just start feeling it hit every
little rock and then all of a sudden it lower.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Count beer cans coming through this, yes, yes, And I think.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
When you're swimming a jig, not through grass, but like
you're just letting it kind of come through the water.
Counting rocks is the greatest thing you can do. One two, three, four, five.
You're gonna feel that fish bite and it focuses you
so much on those rocks that you know the difference
in that bite. And then you just set the hook.

(54:02):
And as soon as I did that, it was a
two and a half pound spot. And I got in
the boat and all I had to do was catch
one fish for the time.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
Immediately felt better.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Immediately I felt to myself, even though it's one fish
and it's not patternable, there's enough information that I've learned
off of that. So what I do I put them
in the live well, same exact cast right, one, two, three,
four or five, boom, set the hook. It's another two
pear onto something. So now I'm like, okay, they're here.
So I sat there for a while, but then I

(54:30):
went forty five minutes without a bite. Yes, and then
that starts creeping into your mind. Do I leave, do
I stay, or do I go do something completely different? Well,
I decided to go check out another bridge and I
got some bites. They were small, they weren't, you know,
tournament size bass, so I had to throw them back.
But then I went back to that bridge towards the

(54:52):
tail end of the day just to see if I
could upgrade or even catch a few more. And that
bridge had already been worked out by a couple pe Well,
I saw a couple of people jump on it by
the time I drove by. So I look at it
with tournament fishing, where if I give three hundred bucks,
all I'm saying to the tournament trail is I'm betting
on myself that for three hundred bucks I can either

(55:14):
make that money back, make more money, or at least
do well.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Yeah, I love it, I think, and and it's it's fun.
I do enjoy the competitive side of it. I still do,
not as much as I used to, but I think
the thing for me. Now, back then, I could have
done it. Now when I'm out there, I'm thinking, if
this was to keep the lights on, how would I
feel when I don't have a bite about eleven? You know,

(55:40):
how would that like? You know, there's your stress level.
I have nothing but respect for him. I've been following
then since I was a kid man. So I'm I'm
a bass master. I'm just a fish, a tournament fishing nut.
You know, I'm I'm a nerd about it, but I
just and I followed them for so long and I
will continue to follow them, but I don't know that

(56:02):
I can do their job. I'm just being honest. So
I have nothing but respect for him. I love fishing
so much, but I don't know if I could do
it against those guys to keep the lights on.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Well, with bass master, you're going up against one hundred
and four of the best fishermen in the planet. And
I mean, I know MLF is really good and they've
got some hammers. I mean, nobody can argue with Jacob
Wheeler and the success he's to do it. Man, nobody
can go against DC Dustin Connell and what he's been
able to do. And you look at all these guys
that do these tournament fisheries. What I realized about tournament

(56:32):
fishing is the best of the best go up against
smaller numbers. We're seeing that happen. MLF is dropping. I
think to fifty bass pro guys, bass master will probably
start doing the same thing. They'll probably shut it down.
It's smarter for the organization because they can promote fifty
guys better than they can promote a hundred. There's not
enough time in the day, right, so it gives them

(56:55):
a better opportunity. Well, they're only going up against fifty guys.
There's only going up against one hundred and four. You
get into some of these local tournaments, especially a couple
of years ago, it was two h hundred and fifty boats. Yeah,
and just like Luke was saying, you know, when he
goes out to a tournament, somebody beats him that day,
he just goes somebody beat me that day. You know.

(57:17):
That's That's when I looked at these tournaments and I went, Damn,
all it takes is somebody had that two hundred and
fifty that just have a better day than me, and
I fall all the way down the ranks.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
There's something about But it doesn't you know. At the
same time, it doesn't matter for the ones that I
fish right, the tournaments that I fish now just a
blast sauce worth it, man, that watching the sun come up,
blast office. It's not I still want to catch him.
I'm so competitive. I want to catch him. I want
to do well. But if I don't, and I beat
myself up so bad a couple of years ago over

(57:51):
just some small tournaments and so now they've they've went
better than the last year just because I've kind of
led a little bit of that. I'm getting to that
age where I'm letting a little bit of that competitive
tests to go.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
But where does that Where does that feeling come from? Where?

Speaker 3 (58:05):
For you?

Speaker 1 (58:06):
Just being a part of the blast off makes it
worth it? Man, I there had to have been a switch.

Speaker 3 (58:12):
Yeah, I don't know. I don't know when it happened
for me really.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
I mean, if you say it was a couple of
years ago, is it when you started to really pop
on social media? And then you were like, dang, there
are really important things people are interested in. What I'm
sharing about a hobby.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Yeah, and the.

Speaker 4 (58:31):
Kind of set these guys are juggling so most of them,
almost all of them. If they you either have to
catch the piss out of them or and you have
to catch them either way, but you either have to
catch the piss out of them or be very good
on social media. You've got some guys that aren't catching
them as well right now, but are awesome with socials
and so they make a living that way.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
But really you have to do both. So they've got,
you know, think about two jobs.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
And once I saw that I can work full time
and do social media, I didn't quite make it in
the tournament world, but I can. I can do okay
doing these other things. And it wasn't first option. I
can't beat them, so I'll just talk about them, you know.
And I really enjoy that. I really enjoy that, And
I think that's when the competitive side started to slack

(59:17):
up a little bit.

Speaker 1 (59:18):
So you just saw an opening to be in the
industry and around the hobby and.

Speaker 4 (59:23):
The sport that you love. That's all I wanted, but
it's just in a different world. I wanted to be
a part of what I love. I mean, this is
every day, all day, man, I'm up till one o'clock
in the morning thinking about where I'm going this weekend,
you know what I'm gonna you know.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
So I still do that like a little kid. So
just to be able to be.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
In the industry and involved in it and to be
here to talk about it or talk about it on
my phone or whatever. If somebody listened to me talk
about fishing, I'm gonna talk. So yeah, I love just
being involved in it. And I think that's probably where
the whole tournament side kind of started to fade a
little bit for me. But I'm still I want them
to be competitive because I want to watch them.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
As as a kid. You started out watching Bill Dance
just like anybody did. Yes, you've met Bill Dance twice.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
I have.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:07):
So when he you know, he's hit the signature series
lakes that he's he's doing with all the all the
stuff in Tennessee, which is awesome, using his name and
and and everything his platform too to help the state,
which is was is awesome. I I went to a
tournament at Pickwick Elite Series one that Leicester won right
off of Cogar Island.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
I went to that one. What a Burger was a sponsor.
Bill was there. I seen him over there and we
went and talked.

Speaker 4 (01:00:32):
I talked to him a couple of times that at Basspro,
just running to him, but never really gotten to, you know, have.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
A conversation with him. So that's on the bucket list
for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
If you could asked Bill Dance one question, what would
it be?

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
Where are your keys to those lakes?

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
That?

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
And can I borrow them?

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
I'm just kidding, Uh, but seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
You know you were talking about tournament fishermen and how
you couldn't live that lifestyle. Isn't it an amazing that
Bill Dance never won a classic.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Lows my mind. Man loves my mind.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Because he's arguably the biggest name that's ever come upon
fishing tournament household. Yeah, I mean, I know KVD and
everybody talks about he's the greatest of all time. Sure,
but time really does matter. And as far as building
a body of work and being one of the biggest
names in a business, Bill Dance is that of fishing people.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
Bill has been out of that scene for the tournaments
years and years and years, and still all of these
guys that are in high school that I talked with
at fish High School, everyone who has ever picked up
a fish and bowl, no he's a build ass, and
that's that's hard to do, man.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
But he realized at such a young time in his
life how important content was. Now. Nobody ever thought that
content was going to be content when he was just
putting together a TV show. But the fact that they
have all those files and all those audios that he
can then bring those back and put them back on
social media, it's kind of like a resurgence for him.

(01:01:59):
It is.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
Yeah, it's all coming back full circle, man. I mean, well,
here we are this many years later. You know, he
started filming what in like this late seventies, and some
of those old clips are coming back around and and
they're still still ring true. And yeah, so legacy, man,
it's a legacy.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
You can see the legend.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
You can see Bill Dance go out and throw a
spinner bait and he's talking about he likes a three
eights over a half ounce and he wants a skirt
to be moving like this, and sometimes you gotta burn
it and sometimes you get all those things still ring
true for throwing that type of technique.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
They do, man, they do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
That was another thing I wanted to touch on is
the there's been this quote unquote bast handbook written over
the years. I think my suggestion to a lot of
people would be okay, so some of them still ring toe,
Like you're saying, throw top water in the morning, in
the evening, that one, that one always rings true. A
jerk bait in the winter is great. I mean, there's

(01:02:54):
a lot of when it's windy, you throw a spinner bay.
Some of those things work. But a lot lot of people,
like you know, they try to follow that book. Okay,
it's cloudy, man, Sometimes if you just fish outside of
that hand we have this handbook that we think that
we have to go by. And sometimes the more quirky
stuff you do, the more bites you get.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:03:16):
Well that's why when we were talking about the tournament
scene with Luke and I was talking about Frankensteining baits.
You know, Buddy Gross had shared with me a couple
of years ago that he made a bait and he
used it on Chickamauga a lot and he won a
lot of money. And guys would drive by him and

(01:03:39):
they'd see him cast and I think all of us
do this in a boat. We're like, what are they throwing? Yeah,
And all of a sudden you see it and you're like,
I think throwing a white swim jag. He was throwing
this bait that guys were just stumped. They couldn't figure
out what it was. And it's because he would go
home and he would build it. It's kind of like
a chatterbait type deal, and he would go home and
build these baits to make them you know, well maybe

(01:04:01):
they'll bite something like this. And he kept it under
wraps for years and then he lets somebody know about it,
and I think that person ended up selling it to
a company.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Let the cat out of the back.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
Yeah, oh man, Yeah, I was. I was thinking Luke
might give us some some juice there. I wouldn't too
sure though, but he seems like more of a He's
good and.

Speaker 1 (01:04:21):
He's right, like when he said that I saw his boat.
He stayed with me before a Logan Martin event and
we were talking about rate to fall on, flipping and
all that kind of stuff, and he was like, man,
I love a five sixtees. Like, if there's going to
be a weight, you throw it at five sixtees. He
opened up the cabin of his boat to take a
look at some of it, and literally it's chatterbait, spinner bait,

(01:04:43):
flipping wackies, boom boom boom. Every it's laid out just
like you and I would lay our boats out. He
doesn't have any boxes as like secret songs man or whatever. Yeah,
he just he fishes straight up. But that's because, you know,
if you have a lot of sponsors. I'm sure that's
part of it. But the other part is sometimes you
just don't need to mess around getting outside your comfort zone,

(01:05:05):
outside the box a little bit. I think all those.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Guys do that, right, they have to.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
If they'll bite this, they're probably gonna bite this, even
though it's unconventional.

Speaker 4 (01:05:14):
Well, I think that in the last couple of years,
you know why, they've all had to get out of
their comfort zone a little bit. Well some of them,
you know, some of them were are were already proficient
at it. But you talk about ford facing Yeah, but
I don't want to go down the rest.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Take take the ford facing side and just look at
not only do you have to deal with a new
technology that's outside your comfort zone, you got guys throwing
baits that nobody's ever seen. I mean, everybody knows if
you take a creature and you put it on the
back of a jig. It's supposed to look like a
crawlfish on the bottom of the water, right, Right, Guys
that are throwing these spiny baits and these ones that

(01:05:47):
have tentacles and all that kind of stuff, they're literally
trying to figure out why would a fish bite that
in this body of water. Well, if you talk to
some guides on different bodies of water, they'll tell you, like,
there are some different baits that these fish feed on
that nobody knows about and wouldn't even think about. Fishermen
seem because they spin them up in their live wells. Right,

(01:06:09):
So then they start to like, well maybe if I
mimic this. I mean, I love some of the Japanese
stuff that's coming out, but we're two three years behind
what Japanese baits are doing anyway or more.

Speaker 4 (01:06:20):
And it drives the industry. Man as much as people
are like, oh, yeah, you can have your dice and
your minna. I'm gonna go throw a frog, you know.
And I get that, I'd like to throw a frog
as much as the next guy. But these new baits
and this new stuff, it's driving the industry. It could
be driving it in you know a different direction for now,
and I understand there are some bait makers out there

(01:06:41):
that have had to expand their lineup of baits to
accommodate the way that things are going now.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
But you know, things change, and I don't know, man,
I it's drive in the industry for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Connell said this before when we were talking about four facing,
because you know he's done so well in the red
crests that are in Alabama's three for three. I asked
him point blank, do you think fish are starting to
understand ford facing sonar and not understand where it's like
a book and they're reading up on this, but they
know when people are targeting them offshore. Yeah, when years

(01:07:17):
ago guys wouldn't even come close to going fifteen twenty
foot offshore. But he's like, yeah, no, they're they're changing.
They're not doing so it's probably forcing some of those
fish back towards the bank. But that's no different than
any tournament than anybody's ever been in. If you go
to Florida and you're fishing shallow, and the difference between

(01:07:38):
three feet and three and a half feet three and
a half feet is deep. So if you start fishing deeper, water.
Because it's all relative. You start to notice all the
fish are a little farther off than I expected him
to be. You got to constantly find him. Ford facing
just gives you a camera so you can at least
see what's happening.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
It's a tool, man, it's a tool.

Speaker 4 (01:07:55):
I remember growing up and having you know how it is,
you get a you get just a little backlash, like, wait,
you know, midways down your school. So you just beam
a cast out in the middle of the lake. You'll
be fishing the bank. Yeah, you being a cast out
in the middle of the lake to reel it back in,
and you get a bite, and you're.

Speaker 3 (01:08:11):
Like, what in the world was that fish doing out there?

Speaker 1 (01:08:13):
Man?

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
And now we're all fishing out there, right, So it's
a Some days I turn, I leave it off and
I just go I just go fishing. And then I
get about halfway through the day and I'll be like that,
just let me take a peek, you know, let me
look and see what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
See, I don't even mind. Like, if I'm fishing a
long stretch, I'll have my forward facing sonar on just
to see maybe they're a little further off the edge. Yeah, yeah,
and if I notice that thing, great, if I'm getting bit,
I'm not even worried about it. If I'm getting bit,
that's turned off, and I've got the sonar to all
my other units turned off because I do for some
crazy reason, I believe that they hear that knock out

(01:08:50):
of the water because I dive a lot, and I
know when i'm it's like my gear on. You can
hear vibration.

Speaker 3 (01:08:55):
If you can hear it outside of the water, you can
hear it.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
On one hundred percent. So I magnified even more so.

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
I always as soon as I leave driver's seed, I
turn If I'm not side scanning or down scanning, I'm
turning it off. And then I've got some I mean,
I'll have a got com right beside me throwing the
same thing, and he's got his pinging he's catching them.
I don't know one hundred percent, but for me, it's
a confidence thing. If it's on, I've just got a
little less confident, so I cut it off.

Speaker 1 (01:09:20):
I've seen guys what made me realize that I needed
to turn it off As I watch guys in kayaks
and they didn't have any electronics. They just had a
pole and they had their there and they're just going
and literally, I think it's because it's just like hunting big,
big deer. If you can get in there quiet, they
have no idea.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
You're there, and here we are making all this record.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
We're running two fifties. We got big heavy boats. We're
going full plane and then letting it off and then
throwing a trollo motor down. We make a lot of
commotion before we get in and that is an undervalued
thing when it comes to fishing. Stopping way short of
where you need to be and trying to get in
there as quiet as you can. We'll catch you more fish.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
Oh yeah, seventy seventy feet is like I try to
catch him at seventy if I can, if I'm looking
at them, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
And but yeah, I.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
Try to stop way way way before I get in there,
at least, or at least cast my way in, you know.
But yeah, they're I think they're probably getting conditioned to
it a little bit. But I can see it myself.
Sometimes you point the beam at them and they'll run, yeah,
scatter yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
But then sometimes like.

Speaker 1 (01:10:25):
You turn on a light and the roaches take off
back under the fridge.

Speaker 4 (01:10:28):
Yeah, but sometimes they it's almost like they come to it.
So I don't know, honestly, it's a it's an interesting thing.

Speaker 2 (01:10:34):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
I'm I'm super pumped for this tournament that we've got
coming up, that Luke's getting ready to fish.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
I think it's gonna be awesome to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
Man, let's switch gears real quick, because you know you,
I brought this term up to you earlier and you're like, man,
and I can't really get on board with that term.
But influencer, to me, it's just part of the game.
You know, not everybody. I still look like Kim Kardashian
in order to be an influencer. But you do influence
a lot of people with fishing. From your trip through
social media. What's the one thing that has made you

(01:11:02):
appreciate it more than anything else?

Speaker 4 (01:11:06):
So I have met so many people, you know, I
think this is what separates me from the next guy.
I don't have as many followers as some people, but
since day one, I have attempted for a long time,
I didn't miss a single comment, a DM nothing, So

(01:11:26):
every day a lot a certain amount of time that
I could be, you know, doing something with my fiance
or with my kid, that a lot a certain amount
of time to respond to every comment and through doing
that and I can't now it's gotten a little bit
out of hand, but I used to for a long time.
I didn't miss a single comment through that. I've met

(01:11:47):
so many people and I could sit here and name
a lot of them that I've gotten to know personally
that are amazing people. Man and their kid or them
or they themselves. They may have caught their pbe off
of off of just a video that I made that
I enjoyed making that video.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
So for you, it's the connections.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Connections, man, it's the connections.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
It's a whole different community.

Speaker 4 (01:12:10):
Yeah, I mean just like you know, meeting you and everything,
coming coming to meet you with hopefully get to go
fishing soon. But I just uh, it's just things like this, dude,
this is what makes it worth it. There's a financial
side to social media. I never even thought about the
money getting into it, and so that that doesn't really
that's all just a bonus. If there's something some financial

(01:12:33):
that comes from it, it's just a bonus for me.
It's the connections. The people who are who message me
and say, hey, man, I've been doing what you said
the other day, and I'm having the time of my life.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
Have you had any of the guys that you look
up to or even current you know pros reach out
to you? And what was that like when you actually
got those messages? Yeah? So I fanily did you a
little bit? Man?

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
Still even at this age, man, even at.

Speaker 1 (01:12:59):
This age, So well, who was it? What was the conversation?

Speaker 3 (01:13:02):
Let's see, Gerald, Gerald followed me.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
That's pretty sweet.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
Yeah, that was cool. There's been a lot of them.
So I was at Red Crest when DC one several
years ago here and.

Speaker 3 (01:13:14):
I walked up to.

Speaker 4 (01:13:16):
The Bass Pro Shops booth with the little poster. I'm
still I'm still a fan. I'm still a fan. Just
because I've got some followers on the internet doesn't mean
I'm not a fan. I'm still a fan. I'm one
of my poster signed. Man, I'm building a shop. I
want to know it soon. And Casey Ashley and Brand
Bradley Roy was standing there, and you know, there, Bradley goes,

(01:13:37):
I feel like I should get your autograph because I
see you every time I open up TikTok and I
was like, I was like, dude, what you know? And
you know, I'm like, I never expected that. Gerald, Uh, Jerald,
There's been There's been a lot of them, man, there's
been a lot of them. Austin Snell. I really enjoy
his music. He reached out recently. I followed me recently

(01:13:59):
and he's getting into fishing. Just just a lot of
I can't think of all of them, but yet usually
it's a I do I do fanboy a little bit
when I see, uh, it's the ones that stand down, Yeah,
you know for sure, And you know, I'm so, I'm
such a nerd.

Speaker 3 (01:14:13):
I know the whole roster.

Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
Man, I'm you know, I'm rooting from uh one, O
five to to first place?

Speaker 3 (01:14:20):
Say oh, why so I got respect for all those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
It's uh, it's wild when you finally get to kind
of be involved with something that you've made such a
big part of your life and then you get brought
into it and you're like, damn, that's kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
It is it is.

Speaker 4 (01:14:37):
I met Dustin on the dock the day that he
was on late when he was about the final day.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
He was super emotional.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
I walked by Dustin and I'm a big DC fan,
walk by Duston and he goes out in Junior and
Tyler's real fishing.

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
Talk to Tyler pretty good.

Speaker 1 (01:14:56):
Bet he's a he's another influencer.

Speaker 3 (01:14:59):
Yeah, he's awesome, man.

Speaker 4 (01:15:00):
But that day Tyler was there filming out John Junior, right,
that was the year he followed him.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
Tyler's awesome guy.

Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
He's the same guy that you see and in person,
he's the same guy you see on the internet. And
but I walked past Duston He's he's wiping his eyes,
you know, super emotional time. He's at home, he's trying
to win in front of his family. And he stops
and he looks at me and he goes, man, I
appreciate you being here. I appreciate you being here. And

(01:15:27):
we just kind of dapped each other up and I said,
go get them DC. You know's cool. It's just a
little moments like that, man. And uh because these uh,
you know these guys. Kevin is the Tom Brady for me,
right because I'm into I mean, I love football, but
I'm into fishing is my thing, man. So you know,
having a conversation with Kevin is like talking to Tom.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
I've seen Kevin van Dam twice and never asked for
a pressure.

Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
Were you fanboy?

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Not a fanboy, but I think it would be more
or less like every time I saw him, he was
in the middle of the conversation. I don't want to, like,
I don't want to stand there and just kind of wait,
you know, like a puppy waiting in the window. But
I just in my mind, part of me feels like
if I say I've seen this person or I've run

(01:16:18):
into this person, for me, conversations matter over pictures or
autographs or anything like that ten times more. But if
you have an opportunity to get one, like you're putting
together a shop, like you were saying, and you want
to picture a Casey Ashley sign because he won a
Smith Mountain Lake event or he won on Heartwell or whatever,
like that's a cool memory. But having a conversation then

(01:16:40):
being like, oh, I remember I was talking to Casey
about YadA, YadA, YadA. Like I've been fortunate enough as
a marshal for bass Master to be in the boat
with Scott Martin, Greg Hackney and Mike Eikinelly and I
basically got to pick who I wanted to go in
a boat with, and immediately I wanted to go in
a boat with Cannelly I wanted to be in a

(01:17:01):
boat with Hackney.

Speaker 2 (01:17:02):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
I appreciate what Scott Martin does socially, so I was like, man,
that'd be cool to just witness and then you see
those guys in their natural habits at for me, I'll
take the memories of all of that. And you know,
we snap a picture at the tail end or whatever,
but I'll take the memories of all that over anything else.

Speaker 4 (01:17:20):
One funny story you mentioned Nike, So seventeen weither are
like sixteen whither're like uh takiher Moory won it out
on the flats on a swim bait and a spook
barges would come by, he'd have to move out of
the way. Anyways, sixteen wheel they're like first time being

(01:17:41):
in a boat with pro.

Speaker 3 (01:17:43):
I was in the boat with Fletcher shryock, I think.

Speaker 4 (01:17:49):
And to get to the dock to go get my
stuff and get back on the boat that was so crammed.
I had to walk across. There was three boats. I said,
come on, come on, pull up right here.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
Man.

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
You got it, you got it. So I'm only troiler motor.
I pull up next to Ike Ikes telling me to
pull in. So I pull in to get to the dock.
I had to step across Ike's boat and all those
rode Kevin. No wait, it gets better. Kevin's boat that
I went from. They were next to each other, next
to each other. I had to go from Ike's boat
to Kevin's boat into the dock. Dude, my heart was

(01:18:25):
beating out of my chest. And I'm like you, I
don't usually ask for a picture because, like you said,
it's just a I'd rather have a conversation with him,
you know, but I do. There was a moment, uh
this pat at the Classic. You know, I won't mention
the bait, but if you watched Okachobe, you know the
bait that Brandon Palanet won the Big m and I

(01:18:49):
had one. And I had that bait and I took
it with me just in case I saw Brandon, because
how cool was that for me to have the bait
that he won this super iconic tournament. I mean, it
was an awesome tournament to have his to have his
and I had his little the hat, the cut ice
cream hat that he has. You know, they always get
I caring from Mexic Cut, So little things like that
I'll get autograph.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
But other than that, I try to let him be,
you know man.

Speaker 1 (01:19:12):
But see, that's the type of memorabilia that's cool because
it's kind of a one off, right, And I'm sure
just like any other autograph hound situation, nobody wants to
sign something and see it put up on the eBay,
you know, like all these guys if they're signing a
hat like that, like you're keeping that so personal because
that's something that you know, you have, it's a story

(01:19:35):
that goes with it. You were sharing how you were
walking across Ike's deck to get over to the dock.

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
So nervous man.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
When when we were on lay Lake for the bas
Elites and I had to marshal with Ike, you know,
they have us meet him before they put in the water.
And he comes pulling up and he's, you know, he's excited,
he's ready to get in the water. And I said, hey,
you want me to back you in? And he goes,
you ever driven a boat? And I said yeah, and
he goes, I'd rather you be in the boat than

(01:20:03):
in the truck. And I said, not a problem. So
I get in the boat and he immediately says to me,
he goes, oh, I don't use a hot foot so
he's old school. He still uses the handle on the
side for the throttle.

Speaker 4 (01:20:15):
My first boat had that, so I would have been
at home with that. But uh, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
I don't know if would you rather have had the
truck or you were like whatever man everywhere. It was
fine for me, But it was so funny because me
being an Kenelli fan and just loving what he brought
to the sport and what he continues to bring the
sport entertainment. Yeah, I like I love that. I love
when somebody becomes a personality. Gerald is the same way, right,
Gerald doesn't have to win a tournament. Gerald to me

(01:20:45):
is one of the greatest ambassadors and one of the
greatest fishermen to ever live, because he made people who
didn't know about fishing look at fishing. They may not
be tournament fishermen themselves, but they like him and his
personality enough to what he has to say and share
what he wants, and he's always open to sharing about fishing,
which I like. He branded himself, right, So I like

(01:21:07):
personalities like that. And when I told me there wasn't
a hot foot, I was like, that's so fucking Ikeonelly,
you know, like everybody else has a hot foot, and
he's got a cat without a hot foot. It's like, yeah,
I don't do that. So at one point we were
we were having to get to the next spot that
he wanted to go to. And you know, we've got
these great blue herons that live on all the Cousta

(01:21:28):
River lakes and really water all throughout the country. And
he's screaming down lay Lake and he's got that bass
cat going seventy seven miles an hour or whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:21:39):
No hot foot.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
And no hotfoot. He's just up on it. He's staring
at his grass and he's looking well, all of a sudden,
out of my left eye, I see a great blue
heron and that thing's flying straight across. And when I
noticed that that great blue heron is chest level with me,
I'm like, ooh, this could be really bad. So I'm
waiting for him to recognize. I don't want to say anything.

(01:22:00):
He's in his deal, right, Like I don't want to
take him out of his moment. Right he's just up
on the throttle, just giving that thing out. That blue
heron is getting closer and closer and closer, And in
my mind, I'm looking at the heron looking at it,
Ike looking at the heron looking at it Ike, And
I'm like, it's either going to hit the troller motor
and bounce off, so I might be okay, or it
misses the troller motor completely and pierces me right through

(01:22:20):
the chest and I'm dead long, k man. Yeah, So
I'm like a crazy way to go out. This thing
gets so close that I just jump out of the way.
I go towards the center console of the boat. I
can Alwa's like, what the hell, dude. I's like, you
almost hit that bird. This heron bails off like this
and he's like, how close was I? I said, you'll
see it on your go, bro. We pull up to

(01:22:42):
the next spot. I got to stand on the back one.
He's fishing that bird shit from one side of his
boat to the other. So at the end of it,
what do I get a text message from Mike Canelly
and the actual video of that how And I'm like, man,
that's a great story. I'll never be able to live
another storyline better Thananny autograph, Jake Bagwell fishing find out

(01:23:07):
on TikTok every social platform. He's a great follow even better, dude,
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