June 21, 2021 • 31 mins
Spencer Graves sits down with Jim "Jimbo" Mathley, the premiere spotted bass guide, on Lake Lanier. The two discuss the differences in being a tournament angler and a weekend warrior. We dive into Jimbo's past, different styles and what to think when planning to fish.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Spencer Graves. This is Lines and Times, a iHeartRadio
podcast for fishermen, hunters, and outdoorsmen, people that enjoy wildlife
not only on land but also under the water. Joining
me this morning is Jimbo Mathley. He is the host
of Jimbo onlinear dot Com. He is the premier spotted
bass guide on Lake Lanier. Let's get to know Jimbo
(00:25):
and find out a little more about what will make
you a better fisherman in general, if you're a tournament
fisherman or just a regular bass fisherman. How those two
are vastly different yet share similar characteristics. But to do that,
we have to get to know the man who is Jimbo.
When did you become a fisherman?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I started fishing when I was young. My dad take me,
would take me crappiefishing. When I or crappy as we
say it, he would take me crappy fishing. I'm going
to say I was seven, eight nine somewhere.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And that's when you were living in Indiana.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I grew up in Indiana, this small town, Penilton, Indiana.
We go fishing at Geist Reservoir, which is still there.
It's really built up now. It's amazing. It's got you know, homes.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Is it a lake or is it just a place
to supply water to a major city or town nearby.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I think it's more of a water supply, but it
definitely has a lot of recreational boating and used to
have a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I think it still has some.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
How big is it? Is it around the sizle in
the air is a lot smaller?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Much smaller, much smaller.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it's I don't know, eight thousand acres maybe, you know,
compared to thirty eight for l near that's just a.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Gas, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So your dad would take you out, Yeah, you'd spend
your time doing some crappie fishing. And then from there,
how did you get into bass?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I went to school at Purdue. It really kind
of stopped fishing when I got into high school. Way
cooler things to be doing in high school fishing, Way
cooler things to be doing in college and fishing. But
when I got out of college, I moved to Virginia
to take a job your home state, right yep, with
a hotel company out there. And I was living in Lorton, Virginia,
(02:01):
which is you know, kind of south of DC, maybe
thirty five miles and my next door neighbor within an
apartment complex.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
My next door neighbor was an.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Avid fisherman from Kentucky, so he had a bass fishing background.
He's like, you know, Wally, he'd called me Wally, you know,
and I don't know why, Wally.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
We should go try to fish.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
There's a reservoir down here, it's called the Aquan Reservoir.
We should go try to fish. It'd be fun, you know.
I'm like, I'm not early a bass fish.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I don't know. He's like, come on, man, we'll go
rent a john boat. So we did.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
We went down to this little parts called Fountainead Regional Park,
rented a john boat, put in the batteries, put in
a troll and motor, and went, you know, trolling on
this you know, little reservoir in northern Virginia.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The first couple of trips weren't all that successful, but
I enjoyed the experience and it reminded me of spending
time with my dad, right, So that's the thing that really,
you know, I was gravitating towards. I enjoyed that time
on the water. And then we had a trip I
don't know, three or four trips in where I caught
a big bass, or at least for me, it was
a big bass. It was maybe three pounds or something,
(03:07):
but to me it was, you know, a ten pounder,
and it was.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I was just cooked. I mean, that was it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
It was like that feeling like I threw a rapella,
a little you know, floating menow repella up by.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
A lay down log, right, and I'll never forget this.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I threw it up there first of all, to me,
make a cast that accurately at that time, just stupid.
But I got it up there right beside the log,
and I let it sit and you know, let the
ripples clear away like they always say. And I gave
a little twitch and I watched that bass come out
and roll underneath it and grab that rapp and.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So it was a top water hit and that just
got you so excited.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And you know, even today, you know, I've got a
song that plays before my weekly video reports, and it's
still top water. Catch Them on Top is his fave,
you know, something like that in the lyrics, and it's true, man,
It's that's what juices me the most, is that top
water strike, seeing that interaction with the fish. But ever
since then, really that's that's where the bass fishing journey
(04:09):
started is with Matt, my buddy from you know, years
and years ago that lived across across the hall from
me in the apartment complex my wife and I lived
in and Lorden, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It's where all started.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And so do you still get that excited when you
see a fish blow up on top of.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It absolutely full tilt. I mean, it just drives me.
It's it's my passion. I mean to see that that interaction,
the energy that flows from that and moreover, now the
excitement that my clients see.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Sure when that.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Happens, they're so dialed into that. It's like when they
see that, well, first of all, they don't understand that
it's possible. With spot of bass is completely different, especially
in this lake because we've got the blue backs. Blue
back hearing are you know, more of a plagic baitfish specie,
So they move around a lot, and so do the spots.
So the spots are very aggressive. Spot of bass are
very athletic, and often they'll wolf pack together and they'll
(05:02):
chase after your top water baits with you know, extreme passion,
and they'll come up together chasing these baits and like
they're fighting over your bait.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So trying to catch two on one lure is actually
a real possibility with spots way more than largemouth I think.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So, yeah, we just had it happen last week. We
had two on a vixen. We threw out a vixen
walking bait client of mine, and he hooked two. He's like,
this is a really good fish. And I'd seen one
of the fish that had hit it and it didn't
look all that big. I'm like, huh, maybe one, you know,
another one got it. Well, another one got it, but
they both had it right. I was thinking, maybe, you know,
because a lot of times the bigger fish will knock
the smaller fish out of the way if you're lucky
(05:39):
right when you're out there throwing the top water over
those brush piles. But yeah, so he hooked two in one,
and that's, you know, a fairly common occurrence, because again,
the spotted bass are so aggressive, they're so competitive.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
A buddy of mine set it best. This is the
best thing I've ever heard about how to catch spot
a back. He's like, The very best way to catch
a spotted bass on your lure is to have two
of them interested in it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I mean, that's it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
That is the app just because of the competition.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean it's like they are such competitive creatures
by nature.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So let's get back to Virginia. You had your buddy
who got you intrigued in bass fishing. You caught that
three pounder off that laid down, and immediately you were like, Okay,
this is fun. I'd like to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Then did you get into guiding?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
No, Actually that was early on in my hotel career.
I spent twenty years as a sales and marketing executive
in the hotel business, so that was in the early nineties,
ninety two to ninety three somewhere in there, and definitely
no guiding. It was just a recreational pursuit.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So did you start fishing more because you caught that
fish or did you kind of regress and not fish
as much?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
No? I did. I fished a bunch.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I mean it was like my wife literally, and she'll
tell you to this day, we almost got divorced.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
We've been married thirty years now.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
But I became a fishing or she became a fishing
widow because I was gone every possible moment. I mean,
if I could sneak in two hours after work, I'd
get home, go to the like every weekend, daylight to dark.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I mean, I'm in my twenties.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
We hadn't been married but you know a couple of
years at the time, and I'm like, I'm going, what's that?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
No kids yet?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
No, no kids.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
We didn't have kids till seven years in. So yeah,
that was ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Was our first job.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So you bought a boat, bought a.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Boat, got a john boat, decked it out, like built
it up. You know, there's there's a side on Facebook
decked out john boats.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's like you take a john boat and turn it
into a mini bass boat and it just.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It was awesome. It was perfect. I mean, it's just
like a miniature bassboat.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
A power engine.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You know. The lake is so funny.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
The lake had a nine point nine horsepower limit, but
everybody sought to cheat that, right, and there was always
ways of doing that, and often we would get the
Tatsu motors would have a nine point nine decal or
sticker on them, right, But a quick change on the
throttle body and you're up at fifteen, right. I mean
(08:10):
it's just literally one piece of the nine point nine
is in. The fifteens were built the same way, with
the exception of a you know, call it a restrictor
plate for lack of a better.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Sure, I mean, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
It was just a governor, yeah, exactly. It was just
a governor on the thing and boom. So that was
that was the story.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And we'd get the fifteen horsepower out there, and a
lot of guys to try to get the eighteens in
the twenties, and you know, the DNR up there was
all over that they knew people were cheating the system,
but they could ever prove it right. Most of the
time they couldn't prove it. But so fifteen horsepower engine.
We'd fish tournaments and this is a big deal. Was
like thirty five, you know, forty boat club tournaments up there,
and so we got into you know, I got into
(08:50):
tournament fishing, not just bass fishing.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So I brought in.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
The competitive side of it as well, and I think
that's what drove me further because I'm very competitive by nature.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So what's the difference because you brought up I got
into tournament fishing over just bass fishing. Sure, it is
the same thing. And I'm sure a lot of guys
go into a tournament thinking, you know what, if I
can go out here and just fish, I'm still having
a good day.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Absolutely, And and it is the difference. It is fun
to just fish, there's no question. But it's like fishing
in a limited amount of time, like given you know
a stretch of time that you've got to go get
your heaviest five fish. So now it's like you can
do what you love, but now you're doing it for
more than just the enjoyment.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's like a purpose.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It it's like putting guardrails around the whole process. Right, So, look,
you've got to play in this box, and you have
got to do it better than the other you know,
thirty people that you're competing against that day. So then
it takes it to a whole other level. And because
I am that kind of type, a driver, competitive sort
(09:56):
of guy, that just drove me to get better, and
it drove me to learn more. It drove me to
seek information, to practice more, to go out and understand
the different behaviors and patterns and do the research and study.
And at the time the nineties that you know, we
didn't have information runner fingertips, so you know, you're talking
(10:17):
about reading bass Master Magazine, going to there were some
fishing seminars and things back then that the pros would hold.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
A differently, so you had to wait on information.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, it wasn't like today, nothing like today. It's amazing
what we have today.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Comparatively, it is really interesting that the level of information
that you can get now is so far advanced compared
to the nineties. Because a little background on me, I
didn't grow up fishing. I lived on a lake that
was a bass master lake. Yeah, and it's one of
the best in the southeast. It's Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, it's an awesome lake.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
And I lived there and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, Man,
maybe I should fish. But my dad wasn't a fisherman,
so you weren't going to see me jump onto a
boat and go fishing with my dad. However, when I
moved to Georgia and Lake Lanier was now twenty minutes away,
my buddy Tyler said, you need to come fishing. So ironically,
I met him in Virginia because we grew up on
(11:12):
the same lake but didn't know each other. And I
was up there for a fourth of July and same
exact thing. He gave me a ripola jerk bait. That's hilarious,
and he loves striper fishing. Now I'm way more of
a spot of bass and largemouthed kind of guy, but
I don't mind an occasional striper fish. And we were
fishing this little cove and you knew it was a
(11:33):
striper cove because all the guide boats were out there.
Everybody with their pontoons was circling, yeah, drop shots and
trolling like everybody was doing that. We saw activity up
on the rip rap in about two foot of water,
forcing baitfish into the rip rap and they would start
at one end of the rip rap and go all
the way down and back and forth. And they made
(11:55):
this pass two or three times. So I took that
rippola jerkbait it out. Talk about accuracy with a cast,
sat right at the bottom of the rip rap beautiful,
and within seconds, I mean it had to be a
millisecond maybe I got nailed, and I saw my line
go from that rip rap straight back down to eighty
foot of water, and that's when I was like, there's
(12:17):
got to be a fish on here. And I start
reeling in and it's the biggest to the two date,
It's the biggest fish I ever caught, a forty three
inch thirty eight pounds driver.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And I remember I looked at my buddy Tyler, and
I said, when we get back to Georgia, we're going
to bass pro shops and we're buying equipment.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, and a boat.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
So I knew that I was all in. But the
beautiful part was that was two years ago.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
So now in that time, I've had the access to
the internet, bass Master magazine, people like you, different fishermen
in the community, where I've started to kind of piece
all this together. But nothing will out do time on
the water.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
No, there's no replacement for water time. It is. It
is truly the quintessential ingredient to success.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
So if we're talking about the difference between tournament fishing
and just bass fishing, yeah, time on the water in both.
How do you break that down?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
In terms of what more like, I mean, you've got
you've got to really study and pursue the patterns and
understand the options and really to do you know, to
be a successful tournament angler, you've got to know how
these fish move in different situations, different conditions, and particularly
like on a place like Lanear where it's so uh
(13:37):
you know, like I say, the fish are soapologic, because
the bait fish are so polgic. They change so much,
and only experience can lead you to that gut instinct
of the night next right call to get to the
right spot and throw the right lure in the right
place to get that bite. You need to win the
tournament or do well or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And you have to know every individual body of water
you do well. You're in the schedule, You've got five
lakes that you're going to fish. You need to know
all of them equally, if not more than any other
body of water you've ever been on.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Absolutely to do well, to expect to do well. Now
you can always get lucky. You can always know enough
to get you to a suspect place that makes sense.
Maybe you just found it on a map and you know,
you know from a seasonality perspective that hey, they ought
to be here this time of the year, and you
could show up there and do well in a tournament
without any preparation. However, that's you know, it's kind of
(14:28):
like winning the lottery. It's not going to happen that often.
Somebody's always going to win it, right, but you know
it's not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
On So when you were in these John Bo tournaments
back in Virginia, you knew that body of water better
than any body of water that you were around.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yes, absolutely, that was.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I was more of an expert on that than any
other place I fished. Was I the best fisherman on
that body of water? Probably not No, but I was
one of the better ones, but probably.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Not the best.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So how did she handle those conversations? As it got
more realistic?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
She came to me and she'd been up all night,
said she'd been crying in praying all night. And she
handed me a note card and on that note card
she said, you know, this just came to me. I
opened the Bible and this was this verse was there
and and it was or On the note card she
wrote h Psalms thirty seven to five, and paraphrase it
basically says, commit your way to the Lord and he
(15:18):
will deliver this to you.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And she handed me that note card, which I.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Still have, and I've still got it like right by
my mirror in my bathroom. Uh and uh, she said,
go be a fishing guide. I support you one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
What would happen if you ever lost that card?
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I would probably probably have to get it tattooed
on my arm, which I'm considering doing anyway, are you really?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, I've actually got like a cross tattooed over here,
and I've got a treble hook on my left arm.
But that that verse Psalms thirty seven to five, I'm
thinking about it getting tattooed on my yeah, left arm.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So it's wild how moments like that in someone's life
really do come to fruition. Yeah, when you just hear
a couple of powerful words and and all of a
sudden you're like, I'm going to take that step because
I'm sure at the time, even after doing fifty or
sixty paid guided trips, I'm sure at the time you
felt like I just need that little push.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, I just need that.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
You know, you're always searching for that tipping point, the
thing that really makes you believe, And you know with
anything that you start anything that you're very passionate about
you want to do. You've got to dive in full force.
There's no kind of stick in your toe and hey,
is this going to work? And kind I do that
with me? It's like, you know, if you've got a
(16:34):
backup plan, you're not committed. I had no backup plan
that this was it feaster famine. I'm going to be
a fishing guide. It's either going to kill me or
I'm gonna make it. That's really the attitude that I had,
and this is this is what I'm doing, and I was.
I can't explain how that passion grew and how that
commitment grew. But that's a whole nother level of commitment.
(16:56):
It's like I'm going to do this or you know,
we're going to be living in a box somewhere on
you know, beside a river. Uh. And that's how serious
it was. And man, when you've got that kind of drive,
you can achieve anything. I mean, that's anything that you
want to do, you can do.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
When you think about your days in Virginia where you
just got into bass fishing, Yeah, did you spend the
time fishing with your dad for crappy and all that
stuff as a kid but when you get into bass fishing,
it's a whole different animal.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Absolutely, How did you learn how to pick baits? How
did you learn how to pick the right equipment?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
You know, I think it's an evolution on a number
of different levels. You know.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
You you look at what you read and you you know,
gather information on well, you know, this bate's been working,
this is the bait. You know, these are the baits
that are hottest on tour right now.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So you see that and you automatically want to go
try that. It's like, Okay, I'm seeing that it's working
in other places.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Uh, let's go try this, and let's go try that.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
A lot of it is networking, right, you know, ramp
talk like, hey, you know what'd you catch him on
the day?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, we did this and we did that. Oh that's
a but I know.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So, do you feel that most people are honest when
they're given ram talk?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
No?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Never, no, no, no, you know, I think that there's absolutely
a few that are.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
And you know that's been my point of difference. That's
the thing that I've always thought in my guiding career
and and everything that I do is to have integrity
and to always tell the truth about when somebody asked me, hey,
what are you doing. I've just always been the guy
that tells everybody what I did, right, And there's always
this you know, amazing secrecy. It's like a soap opera
of how do we, you know, twist the story not
(18:35):
to tell the real story.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And it's weird though. I mean, fishermen are so and
I'm sure hunters too. I don't.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I don't hunt like you guys do, but I'm sure
you know they're the same way. It's like, oh, I'm
not going to give away my you know, trade seeker
to trade bait.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
It's a little different in hunting because in hunting, everybody
is pretty much geared with the same thing. You got
a tree stand, you got a rifle, you got a bow,
and you're waiting on the animal to come to you.
Now you've done the preparation where you have a trail
camera and you can start to pattern this deer's movement,
so you can kind of understand that normally, given the
moon or given the sun, that they're usually in this
(19:09):
area around this time, and that's really what sets you
apart from other hunters. Yeah, but when it comes to fishing.
You could go out on a lake just like Lanear, Yeah,
and one guy's catching them on brush piles on top water.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But then you go to talk to another guy and
he's like, well, I was drop shotting and I was
catching fish on that where you can talk to the
one guy is like, caught the biggest fish of my
life with a shaky head with a junebug trickworm.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
The great thing about bass fishing is there's more than
one approach that will work, and tournament fishing forces you
to hone and figure out, Okay, of the five different
things that I can be doing to catch fish right now,
what's the best one to catch the most weight today.
That's the difference between bass fishing and tournament fishing. Is
bass fishing you can choose any one of the five
(19:55):
and be happy maybe, or you choose the one that
has the technique that you like to do the most
the way you like to catch them. Tournament fishing is,
like I say, it's like place in a bet, which
one of those five, if I stick with it all day,
is going to lead me to the heaviest five fish
versus all my other competitors.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So you don't really know because as somebody who just
started out fishing a couple of years ago, like I
jumped in, like you said, now I'm doing tournaments and
I like just fun fishing and all that. For me,
it's always been the elimination of this is the bait
that's working the best, and it's working in this situation.
So now I have to find those situations and replicate
(20:32):
them all throughout the lake. Yeah, one is pretty right.
If one's producing, then I'll stay there. If that shuts
up or locks down, then I have to go mimic
that exact situation somewhere else. I have to find the
wind blowing on it. I have to find, you know,
a brush pile. I have to find something that has
a steep drop off on a point on one side,
shallow on the other. So in tournament fishing, you are
(20:55):
eliminating possibilities, even though when you're out just fun fishing,
you can catch you amunt a shaky head off a point.
But as soon as you start ramp talk, then all
of a sudden you're learning that other guys were catching
more and maybe better quality bass doing.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
This exactly, and and that's you know, that's another great
point of you know, I think the thing that drives success,
probably more than lower choice, probably more than location choice,
is confidence. It's it's confidence in whatever you're doing, that
that is the thing to be doing. And ram talk
a lot of times goes toward, you know, breaking up
(21:34):
your confidence. Really, I mean it's it'll shatter your confidence sometimes,
like you may have the confidence to be throwing a
swim bait or whatever the case is, uh, and you know,
you hear a report that in a worm or a drop.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Shot or whatever's working better.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And and then your confidence starts to wane. You don't
have that same level of confidence in your approach that
you had previously. So therefore what happens you don't spend
as much time I'm doing it because the you know,
fomo comes in the fear of missing out. Maybe I'm
missing out on another something. I better go try that.
And it's when those thoughts start running through your head
(22:10):
and all that, you know, all the quiet leaves you
and all the noise comes in. That's when you start
to falter and not fish as well. And your results
will show that and all of a sudden, done if
you're fishing with confidence, even if you're fishing the wrong
bait quote unquote, you're going to do better than most
because that is the true essence of performance, is confidence
(22:33):
and focus. You can choose and have a favorite lure.
In doing that, you're succumbing to the fact that you
are not going to have a great day every day
you go out. You're not going to catch fish consistently
every time you go out. That's not going to happen.
If you commit to a favorite lure and that's your lure,
and that's what you do. If you can be happy
(22:53):
knowing that going in and again, it all depends on
your goals. What do you want to achieve out of
the time you're spending on the water.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah, you can have a.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Favorite bait, absolutely, but if you want to catch fish consistently,
you have got to be open to the circumstances of
the day, be able to read the water, read the
water conditions, the weather conditions, you know recent patterns, factor
in your recent experience on the water, and that's where
that watertime, there's no replacement for water time.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Factor all that in.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And then make a decision based on that information of
a starting point of a place you want to begin,
and then from there remain flexible and be open to
changing depending on the situation and depending on the feedback
you get from the fish using that lure, or hey,
am I getting bit? Am I not getting bit? And
(23:40):
if I am getting bit? Where am I getting bit
with it? What situation or condition you know am I
in or what location type am I in getting those strikes?
And does it make sense based.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
On my goal? Right? This is the funnel you got
to run it through.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Does it make sense based on my goal to stay
with this bait or to move to something else? Something
else in an adjacent genre, call it of lures. Right,
So maybe we're throwing a swim bait and it's working,
But maybe we throw a bigger swim bat and get
fewer bites but bigger fish because I'm in a tournament
and I need bigger fish. Or maybe I moved from
a medium sized swim bait to a smaller bite smaller
(24:15):
sized swim bait because I'm getting some swipes from fish.
They're really not eating it. Most of the time. I
catch a few, but if I go to a smaller one,
I can catch a whole lot more fish, and I
can have a forty fish day.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
So then you're just trying to weed out the possibility.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
You know, when I tournament fished and as I look back,
my victories or the high finishes that I had all
were driven by.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
A catch of six to eight fish a day. That's
all I caught, That's all we caught.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Ur is your focus go get quality over quantity?
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yes, so we were at those times. There's typically team tournaments.
We were dialed into a specific pattern that we knew
held the opportunity of catching bigger fish. We knew we
weren't going to get many bites. So it demanded an
extreme focus and certainly that positive energy. I mean sometimes
we went, you know, four or five hours into the
tournament and maybe only had one fish or two fish.
(25:06):
But it's having that confidence to keep going. And again
that it's like the you know, the motivation, the willpower,
whatever you want to call it to not bail to
not you know, move away from what you know will
work if you stay with it, and it's and not
I'll boiled down to confidence.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Right, I've got confidence in that bait.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
At that time, I forget Are you a hummingbird guy?
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yes? Now I am.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
I was Laurence for a long time, and now I've
got actually two hummingbird units and a garment. So I've
got the pan optics feature on the garment, which is
truly game change.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Do you think you'll switch over to Megaalive or will
you stay with Garmen.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I'll look at it when it comes out.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I'm never the first guy to jump on the technology,
you know, bandwagon with anything with phones, I mean anything
through that. I've always I'm kind of a wait and
see guy. I want to see what, see what happens, get,
you know, a chance to absorb. But I think my
brain needs to see it a certain number of times
before I can really make a good decision on hey,
yes this is something I want. And the same with garment.
(26:03):
I had to be around the garment a few times
in other people's boats before I finally decided, yeah, this
is something I need and I could use to effectively
bolster my guide service.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Right, I could do better with clients and see things.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Have you seen change?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh my gosh? Yea one hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Is it a game changer? Just for bass fishing and
tournament fishing.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Whatever kind of fishing you're doing, you're going to have
an advantage being able to look ahead real time and
see the structure and the fish and how they're relating
to that structure in advance of your cast. It's amazing.
I mean, there's a tremendous advantage to having that view
(26:42):
and that.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Quality and your client's fish is catches has gone.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Up, oh one hundred percent, and we were catching fish
that we never would have caught before because I'm making
cast to areas that I never would have made before,
simply because of that panoptics feature, because I can scan
three sixty around me and go, oh wow, even though
the rush pile I wanted to fish over was up
here in front of us, cast to the left forty
feet because there's five fish hanging out in a little group,
(27:08):
you know, ten foot down.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Has that changed your thought process on how fish pattern
on linear where you would assume they'd be in brush piles,
but now they're even further away.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
It's definitely taught me a lot more. Yes, I've learned
a lot, and I continue to learn, and I always
learn on Lanear.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Because it does change daily.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
It is literally one of the most difficult lakes to
fish that I've ever fished, and I get that comment
from almost everybody that comes there. It is truly one
of the toughest lakes to fish in the country. And
again it's all driven because the blueback hearing. It's this
strong population there, and it's their nature, which is a
very pelagic nature. They move all the time, and because
(27:48):
they move all the time, the fish follow them. You know,
the fish that you're after most of the time, it's
three to five pounders move around after them. And because
that happens, it's unpredictable, right, It's the most un predictable
lake that I've ever fished. It can change dramatically overnight
because the bait moves and so therefore will the fish.
And really, at the end of the day, I think
(28:09):
I'm very thankful for that because it's job security for me.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Because people always struggle on the ear. They don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It's such a you know, a different fishery compared to
what most fisheries are here in the Southeast. You know,
if you look at it, you fall a seminole. Completely
different fisheries. I mean, there's there's barely anything in common
between Lanier and those fisheries.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But that's actually one of the most beautiful things about
the Southeast is you can find ocony and Sinclair, they're
very similar. Yeah, you fall a fish is a lot
like Lake Gunnersville, Yes, and a lot of the Tennessee
River lakes yea, even though it's off the Chattahoochee.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
The gizzard chad that you'll find that you fall, uh,
and you'll find a Gunnersville. You won't find gizzard chad
in Lake Lanier.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
No, there are actually gizzards in there.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
How does that play when you know that there's a
bait fish. Is it just the baitfish that's the most dominant.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, it's the baitfish that's the most prolific and the
one that your target species is pursuing.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
So it's under some spots primarily like going after blue
back herring and threadfin shad over a gizzard chad.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Well, yeah, because I think it's more balanced. The gizzers
do grow pretty quickly and they become a good striper
bait because they get so big and a striper can
still eat them. But a spotted bass, you know those
things that you mentioned, the thread fins, the blue backs,
even crayfish, they're all in the realm of potential, you know,
attack targets for a spotted bass. But the spot of
bass that we seek on these trips. You know that
(29:39):
again that two and a half to maybe five pound
class are fish that focus on the blueback herring because
the blue back represent the best protein source available.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
In the lake.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
They the blue back hair and grow bigger than the
threadfinch chad by, you know, a significant amount, maybe up
to three times or four times the size of a
thread fin, but still in a slender profile. Unlike the
bigger shad, the gizzard shad that you mentioned. They get
kind of wide, almost like a brim does, and just
(30:11):
not as easily you know, digestible of a meal, I
guess you'd say, or easily you know, pursued type of meal.
The blue backs have a very similar shape to the
thread fins and they can eat them more easily. Now
they're very fast. The blueback heiring are extremely agile, extremely quick,
(30:33):
and really pack well together. So it's a challenge for
these spotted bass to get them. But they've evolved and
they understand that if they work in groups and wolf packs,
they're going to have much more success together targeting one
baitfish out of a group. If they can separate it
from a group, they're going to have way more success as.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
They're also dealing with a much bigger lake too. Oh
like when you look at you fallow like land. Mass
is one thing, but depth is a real big.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Part of it.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's an excellent point. Yes, there's so many options in
so many places that the blueback can viably be And
obviously what's going to drive the location of the blue
back is the same thing really that's going to drive
the location of the bass, but at a different level.
The blueback are going to be one where they can
have oxygen, that's primary focus for any specie of fish, bait, fish, whatever. Second,
(31:22):
where they can have food, right, so oxygen content so
they can breathe, food, so they can sustain. Where can
I breathe and then where can I eat? So that's
going to change dramatically again based on conditions in the
water and weather conditions, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
So it's going to make a big impact.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Make sure you follow and like lines and times. A
new Outdoorsman podcast on iHeartRadio.
I'm Spencer Graves. This is Lines and Times, a iHeartRadio
podcast for fishermen, hunters, and outdoorsmen, people that enjoy wildlife
not only on land but also under the water. Joining
me this morning is Jimbo Mathley. He is the host
of Jimbo onlinear dot Com. He is the premier spotted
bass guide on Lake Lanier. Let's get to know Jimbo
(00:25):
and find out a little more about what will make
you a better fisherman in general, if you're a tournament
fisherman or just a regular bass fisherman. How those two
are vastly different yet share similar characteristics. But to do that,
we have to get to know the man who is Jimbo.
When did you become a fisherman?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I started fishing when I was young. My dad take me,
would take me crappiefishing. When I or crappy as we
say it, he would take me crappy fishing. I'm going
to say I was seven, eight nine somewhere.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
And that's when you were living in Indiana.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I grew up in Indiana, this small town, Penilton, Indiana.
We go fishing at Geist Reservoir, which is still there.
It's really built up now. It's amazing. It's got you know, homes.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Is it a lake or is it just a place
to supply water to a major city or town nearby.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I think it's more of a water supply, but it
definitely has a lot of recreational boating and used to
have a lot of fishing.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I think it still has some.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
How big is it? Is it around the sizle in
the air is a lot smaller?
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Much smaller, much smaller.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah, it's I don't know, eight thousand acres maybe, you know,
compared to thirty eight for l near that's just a.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Gas, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
So your dad would take you out, Yeah, you'd spend
your time doing some crappie fishing. And then from there,
how did you get into bass?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So I went to school at Purdue. It really kind
of stopped fishing when I got into high school. Way
cooler things to be doing in high school fishing, Way
cooler things to be doing in college and fishing. But
when I got out of college, I moved to Virginia
to take a job your home state, right yep, with
a hotel company out there. And I was living in Lorton, Virginia,
(02:01):
which is you know, kind of south of DC, maybe
thirty five miles and my next door neighbor within an
apartment complex.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
My next door neighbor was an.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Avid fisherman from Kentucky, so he had a bass fishing background.
He's like, you know, Wally, he'd called me Wally, you know,
and I don't know why, Wally.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
We should go try to fish.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
There's a reservoir down here, it's called the Aquan Reservoir.
We should go try to fish. It'd be fun, you know.
I'm like, I'm not early a bass fish.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I don't know. He's like, come on, man, we'll go
rent a john boat. So we did.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
We went down to this little parts called Fountainead Regional Park,
rented a john boat, put in the batteries, put in
a troll and motor, and went, you know, trolling on
this you know, little reservoir in northern Virginia.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
And it was.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
The first couple of trips weren't all that successful, but
I enjoyed the experience and it reminded me of spending
time with my dad, right, So that's the thing that really,
you know, I was gravitating towards. I enjoyed that time
on the water. And then we had a trip I
don't know, three or four trips in where I caught
a big bass, or at least for me, it was
a big bass. It was maybe three pounds or something,
(03:07):
but to me it was, you know, a ten pounder,
and it was.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
I was just cooked. I mean, that was it.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
It was like that feeling like I threw a rapella,
a little you know, floating menow repella up by.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
A lay down log, right, and I'll never forget this.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I threw it up there first of all, to me,
make a cast that accurately at that time, just stupid.
But I got it up there right beside the log,
and I let it sit and you know, let the
ripples clear away like they always say. And I gave
a little twitch and I watched that bass come out
and roll underneath it and grab that rapp and.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
So it was a top water hit and that just
got you so excited.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And you know, even today, you know, I've got a
song that plays before my weekly video reports, and it's
still top water. Catch Them on Top is his fave,
you know, something like that in the lyrics, and it's true, man,
It's that's what juices me the most, is that top
water strike, seeing that interaction with the fish. But ever
since then, really that's that's where the bass fishing journey
(04:09):
started is with Matt, my buddy from you know, years
and years ago that lived across across the hall from
me in the apartment complex my wife and I lived
in and Lorden, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
It's where all started.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And so do you still get that excited when you
see a fish blow up on top of.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
It absolutely full tilt. I mean, it just drives me.
It's it's my passion. I mean to see that that interaction,
the energy that flows from that and moreover, now the
excitement that my clients see.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Sure when that.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Happens, they're so dialed into that. It's like when they
see that, well, first of all, they don't understand that
it's possible. With spot of bass is completely different, especially
in this lake because we've got the blue backs. Blue
back hearing are you know, more of a plagic baitfish specie,
So they move around a lot, and so do the spots.
So the spots are very aggressive. Spot of bass are
very athletic, and often they'll wolf pack together and they'll
(05:02):
chase after your top water baits with you know, extreme passion,
and they'll come up together chasing these baits and like
they're fighting over your bait.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
So trying to catch two on one lure is actually
a real possibility with spots way more than largemouth I think.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So, yeah, we just had it happen last week. We
had two on a vixen. We threw out a vixen
walking bait client of mine, and he hooked two. He's like,
this is a really good fish. And I'd seen one
of the fish that had hit it and it didn't
look all that big. I'm like, huh, maybe one, you know,
another one got it. Well, another one got it, but
they both had it right. I was thinking, maybe, you know,
because a lot of times the bigger fish will knock
the smaller fish out of the way if you're lucky
(05:39):
right when you're out there throwing the top water over
those brush piles. But yeah, so he hooked two in one,
and that's, you know, a fairly common occurrence, because again,
the spotted bass are so aggressive, they're so competitive.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
A buddy of mine set it best. This is the
best thing I've ever heard about how to catch spot
a back. He's like, The very best way to catch
a spotted bass on your lure is to have two
of them interested in it.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
I mean, that's it.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
That is the app just because of the competition.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Yeah, I mean it's like they are such competitive creatures
by nature.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So let's get back to Virginia. You had your buddy
who got you intrigued in bass fishing. You caught that
three pounder off that laid down, and immediately you were like, Okay,
this is fun. I'd like to do this.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Then did you get into guiding?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
No, Actually that was early on in my hotel career.
I spent twenty years as a sales and marketing executive
in the hotel business, so that was in the early nineties,
ninety two to ninety three somewhere in there, and definitely
no guiding. It was just a recreational pursuit.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
So did you start fishing more because you caught that
fish or did you kind of regress and not fish
as much?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
No? I did. I fished a bunch.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
I mean it was like my wife literally, and she'll
tell you to this day, we almost got divorced.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
We've been married thirty years now.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
But I became a fishing or she became a fishing
widow because I was gone every possible moment. I mean,
if I could sneak in two hours after work, I'd
get home, go to the like every weekend, daylight to dark.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I mean, I'm in my twenties.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
We hadn't been married but you know a couple of
years at the time, and I'm like, I'm going, what's that?
Speaker 1 (07:22):
No kids yet?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
No, no kids.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
We didn't have kids till seven years in. So yeah,
that was ninety seven.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Was our first job.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
So you bought a boat, bought a.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Boat, got a john boat, decked it out, like built
it up. You know, there's there's a side on Facebook
decked out john boats.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Same thing.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
It's like you take a john boat and turn it
into a mini bass boat and it just.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It was awesome. It was perfect. I mean, it's just
like a miniature bassboat.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
A power engine.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You know. The lake is so funny.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
The lake had a nine point nine horsepower limit, but
everybody sought to cheat that, right, and there was always
ways of doing that, and often we would get the
Tatsu motors would have a nine point nine decal or
sticker on them, right, But a quick change on the
throttle body and you're up at fifteen, right. I mean
(08:10):
it's just literally one piece of the nine point nine
is in. The fifteens were built the same way, with
the exception of a you know, call it a restrictor
plate for lack of a better.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Sure, I mean, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
It was just a governor, yeah, exactly. It was just
a governor on the thing and boom. So that was
that was the story.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And we'd get the fifteen horsepower out there, and a
lot of guys to try to get the eighteens in
the twenties, and you know, the DNR up there was
all over that they knew people were cheating the system,
but they could ever prove it right. Most of the
time they couldn't prove it. But so fifteen horsepower engine.
We'd fish tournaments and this is a big deal. Was
like thirty five, you know, forty boat club tournaments up there,
and so we got into you know, I got into
(08:50):
tournament fishing, not just bass fishing.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
So I brought in.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
The competitive side of it as well, and I think
that's what drove me further because I'm very competitive by nature.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
So what's the difference because you brought up I got
into tournament fishing over just bass fishing. Sure, it is
the same thing. And I'm sure a lot of guys
go into a tournament thinking, you know what, if I
can go out here and just fish, I'm still having
a good day.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Absolutely, And and it is the difference. It is fun
to just fish, there's no question. But it's like fishing
in a limited amount of time, like given you know
a stretch of time that you've got to go get
your heaviest five fish. So now it's like you can
do what you love, but now you're doing it for
more than just the enjoyment.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It's like a purpose.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
It it's like putting guardrails around the whole process. Right, So, look,
you've got to play in this box, and you have
got to do it better than the other you know,
thirty people that you're competing against that day. So then
it takes it to a whole other level. And because
I am that kind of type, a driver, competitive sort
(09:56):
of guy, that just drove me to get better, and
it drove me to learn more. It drove me to
seek information, to practice more, to go out and understand
the different behaviors and patterns and do the research and study.
And at the time the nineties that you know, we
didn't have information runner fingertips, so you know, you're talking
(10:17):
about reading bass Master Magazine, going to there were some
fishing seminars and things back then that the pros would hold.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
A differently, so you had to wait on information.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Yeah, it wasn't like today, nothing like today. It's amazing
what we have today.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Comparatively, it is really interesting that the level of information
that you can get now is so far advanced compared
to the nineties. Because a little background on me, I
didn't grow up fishing. I lived on a lake that
was a bass master lake. Yeah, and it's one of
the best in the southeast. It's Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, it's an awesome lake.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
And I lived there and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, Man,
maybe I should fish. But my dad wasn't a fisherman,
so you weren't going to see me jump onto a
boat and go fishing with my dad. However, when I
moved to Georgia and Lake Lanier was now twenty minutes away,
my buddy Tyler said, you need to come fishing. So ironically,
I met him in Virginia because we grew up on
(11:12):
the same lake but didn't know each other. And I
was up there for a fourth of July and same
exact thing. He gave me a ripola jerk bait. That's hilarious,
and he loves striper fishing. Now I'm way more of
a spot of bass and largemouthed kind of guy, but
I don't mind an occasional striper fish. And we were
fishing this little cove and you knew it was a
(11:33):
striper cove because all the guide boats were out there.
Everybody with their pontoons was circling, yeah, drop shots and
trolling like everybody was doing that. We saw activity up
on the rip rap in about two foot of water,
forcing baitfish into the rip rap and they would start
at one end of the rip rap and go all
the way down and back and forth. And they made
(11:55):
this pass two or three times. So I took that
rippola jerkbait it out. Talk about accuracy with a cast,
sat right at the bottom of the rip rap beautiful,
and within seconds, I mean it had to be a
millisecond maybe I got nailed, and I saw my line
go from that rip rap straight back down to eighty
foot of water, and that's when I was like, there's
(12:17):
got to be a fish on here. And I start
reeling in and it's the biggest to the two date,
It's the biggest fish I ever caught, a forty three
inch thirty eight pounds driver.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And I remember I looked at my buddy Tyler, and
I said, when we get back to Georgia, we're going
to bass pro shops and we're buying equipment.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Yeah, and a boat.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
So I knew that I was all in. But the
beautiful part was that was two years ago.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
So now in that time, I've had the access to
the internet, bass Master magazine, people like you, different fishermen
in the community, where I've started to kind of piece
all this together. But nothing will out do time on
the water.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
No, there's no replacement for water time. It is. It
is truly the quintessential ingredient to success.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
So if we're talking about the difference between tournament fishing
and just bass fishing, yeah, time on the water in both.
How do you break that down?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (13:16):
In terms of what more like, I mean, you've got
you've got to really study and pursue the patterns and
understand the options and really to do you know, to
be a successful tournament angler, you've got to know how
these fish move in different situations, different conditions, and particularly
like on a place like Lanear where it's so uh
(13:37):
you know, like I say, the fish are soapologic, because
the bait fish are so polgic. They change so much,
and only experience can lead you to that gut instinct
of the night next right call to get to the
right spot and throw the right lure in the right
place to get that bite. You need to win the
tournament or do well or whatever.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
And you have to know every individual body of water
you do well. You're in the schedule, You've got five
lakes that you're going to fish. You need to know
all of them equally, if not more than any other
body of water you've ever been on.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Absolutely to do well, to expect to do well. Now
you can always get lucky. You can always know enough
to get you to a suspect place that makes sense.
Maybe you just found it on a map and you know,
you know from a seasonality perspective that hey, they ought
to be here this time of the year, and you
could show up there and do well in a tournament
without any preparation. However, that's you know, it's kind of
(14:28):
like winning the lottery. It's not going to happen that often.
Somebody's always going to win it, right, but you know
it's not going to happen.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
On So when you were in these John Bo tournaments
back in Virginia, you knew that body of water better
than any body of water that you were around.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yes, absolutely, that was.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
I was more of an expert on that than any
other place I fished. Was I the best fisherman on
that body of water? Probably not No, but I was
one of the better ones, but probably.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Not the best.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
So how did she handle those conversations? As it got
more realistic?
Speaker 2 (14:57):
She came to me and she'd been up all night,
said she'd been crying in praying all night. And she
handed me a note card and on that note card
she said, you know, this just came to me. I
opened the Bible and this was this verse was there
and and it was or On the note card she
wrote h Psalms thirty seven to five, and paraphrase it
basically says, commit your way to the Lord and he
(15:18):
will deliver this to you.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
And she handed me that note card, which I.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Still have, and I've still got it like right by
my mirror in my bathroom. Uh and uh, she said,
go be a fishing guide. I support you one hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
What would happen if you ever lost that card?
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Yeah, I would probably probably have to get it tattooed
on my arm, which I'm considering doing anyway, are you really?
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, I've actually got like a cross tattooed over here,
and I've got a treble hook on my left arm.
But that that verse Psalms thirty seven to five, I'm
thinking about it getting tattooed on my yeah, left arm.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
So it's wild how moments like that in someone's life
really do come to fruition. Yeah, when you just hear
a couple of powerful words and and all of a
sudden you're like, I'm going to take that step because
I'm sure at the time, even after doing fifty or
sixty paid guided trips, I'm sure at the time you
felt like I just need that little push.
Speaker 3 (16:12):
Yeah, I just need that.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
You know, you're always searching for that tipping point, the
thing that really makes you believe, And you know with
anything that you start anything that you're very passionate about
you want to do. You've got to dive in full force.
There's no kind of stick in your toe and hey,
is this going to work? And kind I do that
with me? It's like, you know, if you've got a
(16:34):
backup plan, you're not committed. I had no backup plan
that this was it feaster famine. I'm going to be
a fishing guide. It's either going to kill me or
I'm gonna make it. That's really the attitude that I had,
and this is this is what I'm doing, and I was.
I can't explain how that passion grew and how that
commitment grew. But that's a whole nother level of commitment.
(16:56):
It's like I'm going to do this or you know,
we're going to be living in a box somewhere on
you know, beside a river. Uh. And that's how serious
it was. And man, when you've got that kind of drive,
you can achieve anything. I mean, that's anything that you
want to do, you can do.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
When you think about your days in Virginia where you
just got into bass fishing, Yeah, did you spend the
time fishing with your dad for crappy and all that
stuff as a kid but when you get into bass fishing,
it's a whole different animal.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Absolutely, How did you learn how to pick baits? How
did you learn how to pick the right equipment?
Speaker 3 (17:25):
You know, I think it's an evolution on a number
of different levels. You know.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
You you look at what you read and you you know,
gather information on well, you know, this bate's been working,
this is the bait. You know, these are the baits
that are hottest on tour right now.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So you see that and you automatically want to go
try that. It's like, Okay, I'm seeing that it's working
in other places.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Uh, let's go try this, and let's go try that.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
A lot of it is networking, right, you know, ramp
talk like, hey, you know what'd you catch him on
the day?
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well, we did this and we did that. Oh that's
a but I know.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
So, do you feel that most people are honest when
they're given ram talk?
Speaker 3 (18:04):
No?
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Never, no, no, no, you know, I think that there's absolutely
a few that are.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
And you know that's been my point of difference. That's
the thing that I've always thought in my guiding career
and and everything that I do is to have integrity
and to always tell the truth about when somebody asked me, hey,
what are you doing. I've just always been the guy
that tells everybody what I did, right, And there's always
this you know, amazing secrecy. It's like a soap opera
of how do we, you know, twist the story not
(18:35):
to tell the real story.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
And it's weird though. I mean, fishermen are so and
I'm sure hunters too. I don't.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
I don't hunt like you guys do, but I'm sure
you know they're the same way. It's like, oh, I'm
not going to give away my you know, trade seeker
to trade bait.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
It's a little different in hunting because in hunting, everybody
is pretty much geared with the same thing. You got
a tree stand, you got a rifle, you got a bow,
and you're waiting on the animal to come to you.
Now you've done the preparation where you have a trail
camera and you can start to pattern this deer's movement,
so you can kind of understand that normally, given the
moon or given the sun, that they're usually in this
(19:09):
area around this time, and that's really what sets you
apart from other hunters. Yeah, but when it comes to fishing.
You could go out on a lake just like Lanear, Yeah,
and one guy's catching them on brush piles on top water.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
But then you go to talk to another guy and
he's like, well, I was drop shotting and I was
catching fish on that where you can talk to the
one guy is like, caught the biggest fish of my
life with a shaky head with a junebug trickworm.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
The great thing about bass fishing is there's more than
one approach that will work, and tournament fishing forces you
to hone and figure out, Okay, of the five different
things that I can be doing to catch fish right now,
what's the best one to catch the most weight today.
That's the difference between bass fishing and tournament fishing. Is
bass fishing you can choose any one of the five
(19:55):
and be happy maybe, or you choose the one that
has the technique that you like to do the most
the way you like to catch them. Tournament fishing is,
like I say, it's like place in a bet, which
one of those five, if I stick with it all day,
is going to lead me to the heaviest five fish
versus all my other competitors.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
So you don't really know because as somebody who just
started out fishing a couple of years ago, like I
jumped in, like you said, now I'm doing tournaments and
I like just fun fishing and all that. For me,
it's always been the elimination of this is the bait
that's working the best, and it's working in this situation.
So now I have to find those situations and replicate
(20:32):
them all throughout the lake. Yeah, one is pretty right.
If one's producing, then I'll stay there. If that shuts
up or locks down, then I have to go mimic
that exact situation somewhere else. I have to find the
wind blowing on it. I have to find, you know,
a brush pile. I have to find something that has
a steep drop off on a point on one side,
shallow on the other. So in tournament fishing, you are
(20:55):
eliminating possibilities, even though when you're out just fun fishing,
you can catch you amunt a shaky head off a point.
But as soon as you start ramp talk, then all
of a sudden you're learning that other guys were catching
more and maybe better quality bass doing.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
This exactly, and and that's you know, that's another great
point of you know, I think the thing that drives success,
probably more than lower choice, probably more than location choice,
is confidence. It's it's confidence in whatever you're doing, that
that is the thing to be doing. And ram talk
a lot of times goes toward, you know, breaking up
(21:34):
your confidence. Really, I mean it's it'll shatter your confidence sometimes,
like you may have the confidence to be throwing a
swim bait or whatever the case is, uh, and you know,
you hear a report that in a worm or a drop.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Shot or whatever's working better.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And and then your confidence starts to wane. You don't
have that same level of confidence in your approach that
you had previously. So therefore what happens you don't spend
as much time I'm doing it because the you know,
fomo comes in the fear of missing out. Maybe I'm
missing out on another something. I better go try that.
And it's when those thoughts start running through your head
(22:10):
and all that, you know, all the quiet leaves you
and all the noise comes in. That's when you start
to falter and not fish as well. And your results
will show that and all of a sudden, done if
you're fishing with confidence, even if you're fishing the wrong
bait quote unquote, you're going to do better than most
because that is the true essence of performance, is confidence
(22:33):
and focus. You can choose and have a favorite lure.
In doing that, you're succumbing to the fact that you
are not going to have a great day every day
you go out. You're not going to catch fish consistently
every time you go out. That's not going to happen.
If you commit to a favorite lure and that's your lure,
and that's what you do. If you can be happy
(22:53):
knowing that going in and again, it all depends on
your goals. What do you want to achieve out of
the time you're spending on the water.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Yeah, you can have a.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Favorite bait, absolutely, but if you want to catch fish consistently,
you have got to be open to the circumstances of
the day, be able to read the water, read the
water conditions, the weather conditions, you know recent patterns, factor
in your recent experience on the water, and that's where
that watertime, there's no replacement for water time.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Factor all that in.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And then make a decision based on that information of
a starting point of a place you want to begin,
and then from there remain flexible and be open to
changing depending on the situation and depending on the feedback
you get from the fish using that lure, or hey,
am I getting bit? Am I not getting bit? And
(23:40):
if I am getting bit? Where am I getting bit
with it? What situation or condition you know am I
in or what location type am I in getting those strikes?
And does it make sense based.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
On my goal? Right? This is the funnel you got
to run it through.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
Does it make sense based on my goal to stay
with this bait or to move to something else? Something
else in an adjacent genre, call it of lures. Right,
So maybe we're throwing a swim bait and it's working,
But maybe we throw a bigger swim bat and get
fewer bites but bigger fish because I'm in a tournament
and I need bigger fish. Or maybe I moved from
a medium sized swim bait to a smaller bite smaller
(24:15):
sized swim bait because I'm getting some swipes from fish.
They're really not eating it. Most of the time. I
catch a few, but if I go to a smaller one,
I can catch a whole lot more fish, and I
can have a forty fish day.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
So then you're just trying to weed out the possibility.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
You know, when I tournament fished and as I look back,
my victories or the high finishes that I had all
were driven by.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
A catch of six to eight fish a day. That's
all I caught, That's all we caught.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Ur is your focus go get quality over quantity?
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Correct?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yes, so we were at those times. There's typically team tournaments.
We were dialed into a specific pattern that we knew
held the opportunity of catching bigger fish. We knew we
weren't going to get many bites. So it demanded an
extreme focus and certainly that positive energy. I mean sometimes
we went, you know, four or five hours into the
tournament and maybe only had one fish or two fish.
(25:06):
But it's having that confidence to keep going. And again
that it's like the you know, the motivation, the willpower,
whatever you want to call it to not bail to
not you know, move away from what you know will
work if you stay with it, and it's and not
I'll boiled down to confidence.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
Right, I've got confidence in that bait.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
At that time, I forget Are you a hummingbird guy?
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Yes? Now I am.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
I was Laurence for a long time, and now I've
got actually two hummingbird units and a garment. So I've
got the pan optics feature on the garment, which is
truly game change.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Do you think you'll switch over to Megaalive or will
you stay with Garmen.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I'll look at it when it comes out.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I'm never the first guy to jump on the technology,
you know, bandwagon with anything with phones, I mean anything
through that. I've always I'm kind of a wait and
see guy. I want to see what, see what happens, get,
you know, a chance to absorb. But I think my
brain needs to see it a certain number of times
before I can really make a good decision on hey,
yes this is something I want. And the same with garment.
(26:03):
I had to be around the garment a few times
in other people's boats before I finally decided, yeah, this
is something I need and I could use to effectively
bolster my guide service.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Right, I could do better with clients and see things.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Have you seen change?
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh my gosh? Yea one hundred percent?
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Is it a game changer? Just for bass fishing and
tournament fishing.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
Whatever kind of fishing you're doing, you're going to have
an advantage being able to look ahead real time and
see the structure and the fish and how they're relating
to that structure in advance of your cast. It's amazing.
I mean, there's a tremendous advantage to having that view
(26:42):
and that.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Quality and your client's fish is catches has gone.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Up, oh one hundred percent, and we were catching fish
that we never would have caught before because I'm making
cast to areas that I never would have made before,
simply because of that panoptics feature, because I can scan
three sixty around me and go, oh wow, even though
the rush pile I wanted to fish over was up
here in front of us, cast to the left forty
feet because there's five fish hanging out in a little group,
(27:08):
you know, ten foot down.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Has that changed your thought process on how fish pattern
on linear where you would assume they'd be in brush piles,
but now they're even further away.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
It's definitely taught me a lot more. Yes, I've learned
a lot, and I continue to learn, and I always
learn on Lanear.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Because it does change daily.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
It is literally one of the most difficult lakes to
fish that I've ever fished, and I get that comment
from almost everybody that comes there. It is truly one
of the toughest lakes to fish in the country. And
again it's all driven because the blueback hearing. It's this
strong population there, and it's their nature, which is a
very pelagic nature. They move all the time, and because
(27:48):
they move all the time, the fish follow them. You know,
the fish that you're after most of the time, it's
three to five pounders move around after them. And because
that happens, it's unpredictable, right, It's the most un predictable
lake that I've ever fished. It can change dramatically overnight
because the bait moves and so therefore will the fish.
And really, at the end of the day, I think
(28:09):
I'm very thankful for that because it's job security for me.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Because people always struggle on the ear. They don't understand it.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
It's such a you know, a different fishery compared to
what most fisheries are here in the Southeast. You know,
if you look at it, you fall a seminole. Completely
different fisheries. I mean, there's there's barely anything in common
between Lanier and those fisheries.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
But that's actually one of the most beautiful things about
the Southeast is you can find ocony and Sinclair, they're
very similar. Yeah, you fall a fish is a lot
like Lake Gunnersville, Yes, and a lot of the Tennessee
River lakes yea, even though it's off the Chattahoochee.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
The gizzard chad that you'll find that you fall, uh,
and you'll find a Gunnersville. You won't find gizzard chad
in Lake Lanier.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
No, there are actually gizzards in there.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
How does that play when you know that there's a
bait fish. Is it just the baitfish that's the most dominant.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
Yeah, it's the baitfish that's the most prolific and the
one that your target species is pursuing.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
So it's under some spots primarily like going after blue
back herring and threadfin shad over a gizzard chad.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Well, yeah, because I think it's more balanced. The gizzers
do grow pretty quickly and they become a good striper
bait because they get so big and a striper can
still eat them. But a spotted bass, you know those
things that you mentioned, the thread fins, the blue backs,
even crayfish, they're all in the realm of potential, you know,
attack targets for a spotted bass. But the spot of
bass that we seek on these trips. You know that
(29:39):
again that two and a half to maybe five pound
class are fish that focus on the blueback herring because
the blue back represent the best protein source available.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
In the lake.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
They the blue back hair and grow bigger than the
threadfinch chad by, you know, a significant amount, maybe up
to three times or four times the size of a
thread fin, but still in a slender profile. Unlike the
bigger shad, the gizzard shad that you mentioned. They get
kind of wide, almost like a brim does, and just
(30:11):
not as easily you know, digestible of a meal, I
guess you'd say, or easily you know, pursued type of meal.
The blue backs have a very similar shape to the
thread fins and they can eat them more easily. Now
they're very fast. The blueback heiring are extremely agile, extremely quick,
(30:33):
and really pack well together. So it's a challenge for
these spotted bass to get them. But they've evolved and
they understand that if they work in groups and wolf packs,
they're going to have much more success together targeting one
baitfish out of a group. If they can separate it
from a group, they're going to have way more success as.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
They're also dealing with a much bigger lake too. Oh
like when you look at you fallow like land. Mass
is one thing, but depth is a real big.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Part of it.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
That's an excellent point. Yes, there's so many options in
so many places that the blueback can viably be And
obviously what's going to drive the location of the blue
back is the same thing really that's going to drive
the location of the bass, but at a different level.
The blueback are going to be one where they can
have oxygen, that's primary focus for any specie of fish, bait, fish, whatever. Second,
(31:22):
where they can have food, right, so oxygen content so
they can breathe, food, so they can sustain. Where can
I breathe and then where can I eat? So that's
going to change dramatically again based on conditions in the
water and weather conditions, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
So it's going to make a big impact.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
Make sure you follow and like lines and times. A
new Outdoorsman podcast on iHeartRadio.
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