July 23, 2025 • 20 mins
Both Bassmaster and Major League Fishing have released their schedules for the Bass Pro Tour and the Elites for 2026. Some are well known fisheries while a few are newer additions.
Your local DNR might be doing and handling more than you're aware of so know who to complain to with a solution.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
A lot of things we want to get to today
onlines and times. Thank you, by the way for clicking
like and subscribe and listening on the iHeartRadio podcast network.
You guys have been phenomenal. You've reached out to me
and mister Spencer Graves on social and you've shared your
thoughts about past episodes, and I love that you guys
do that. In fact, I'm going to bring up one.
It's the episode that we did with Brock Mosley. The
(00:27):
main reason is because we're breaking down the new schedules
that are out for the bass Master Elites and also
major league fishing with the bass Pro Tour. We're also
going to get into your local DNR, the one that's
in your state. You may not know that a lot
of dn rs are responsible for more than just hunting
and fishing and the amount of wildlife and permitting. There's
(00:49):
actually some other things that happen that mean more money
to your local state, and we'll break that down too.
But first let's jump into it. Let's talk about the
bass Master Elite schedule for twenty twenty. And there's a
lot of people who are crying online. Oh, it's the
same old lakes. I could do this and blah blah blah. Yes,
(01:10):
some of the lakes are the same, but you got
to remember these places pay for bass Master to come there.
Places pay for MLF to come there. But they're also
going at different times, and as you know, anybody who
fishes different times of the year change up how that
fishery fish is and it can make it a little
more exciting. So let's start out with the bass Master Elites.
(01:31):
February fifth through the eighth, they're going to be on
Lake Gunnersville. Lake Gunnersville always performs eleven months out of
the year. Usually April is the one month that a
lot of people don't like to fish on Lake Gunnersville.
February twelveth through the fifteenth are going to be on
Lake Martin. That's going to be a sackfest of some
smaller fish, although you have the best in the best,
so they are going to go out, they're going to
(01:51):
target and they're going to find bigger fish. But if
you're a recreational person you want to fish Lake Martin,
just know fish bite there a lot. They had a
major bait kill several years ago and it's never really
rebounded from that. So the fish well the population is
big and healthy. They just bite a lot because they
(02:12):
don't have a lot of opportunities to eat in the
fish state, kind of small. March thirteenth through the fifteenth,
they're gonna be on the Tennessee River in Knoxville. Remember
that Knoxville for the bass Master Classic, because when we
talk about major league fishing, that will come into play
the conversation and we'll dive into all that, like why
they choose the locations that they choose. Last time it
(02:34):
was on the Tennessee River, it was won by Jeff Gushtason.
I was a marshall in that tournament. First day, I
rode with Scott Martin, second day I rode with Greg Hackney.
What I realized in that is most guys knew who
was gonna win the bass Master Classic before it happened.
I'm not saying it's rigged. It's just you have a
certain sense and a feeling when you go back to
(02:56):
the boat ramp of hearing who's doing really well and
who's really on them. March twenty sixth through the twenty ninth,
they're going to be on the Tennessee Tom Bigbe Waterway
from Columbus Mississippi. This is a big change for bass Master.
They've been to the Tom Big b before, but it's
been like the Opens and the elites I think have
been there before, but it's been years, so that'll be interesting. Plus,
(03:19):
that's a spawning type of year, which is which is
going to be a really interesting play because it's a
river system. You're gonna see guys beating the bank, going shallow,
trying to smack big fish. It's not going to be
a ford facing sonar tournament, but that one's going to
be fun to watch. April sixteenth through the nineteenth, they'll
(03:39):
be on the Arkansas River from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Every time
I think about Muscoge, I think about Merle Haggard. May
seventh through the tenth they're going to South Carolina and
they'll be in South Carolina for two events, Lake Murray first,
then the fourteenth through the seventeenth they'll be on Santee Cooper.
That one really good. I put a lot of money
on Luke Palmer to do well because he always seems
(03:59):
to do well on Santee Cooper. June eleventh through the fourteenth,
they'll be on the Pasca Tank. They went to the
Pasca Tank last year. This is where I wanted to
bring up Rock Mosley from a prior episode that we did.
He didn't make it to the final day and he
was working with some of his sponsors and he was
talking to some people that fish there regularly and they
(04:20):
were like, you guys, haven't even scratched his surface to
see the size of fish that we have in this
body of water. Remember last year Kyle Welcher won it
and he blew the field away. I think he had
a thirty pound or thirty five pound win. It was.
It was really impressive. August thirteenth through the sixteenth and
August twenty seventh through the thirtieth, they're going to be
in New York, first Champlain and then the Saint Lawrence River.
(04:42):
Those are pretty common for the time of year that
bass Master likes to go. New York always seems to
be on the list. But those two lakes are two
of the top ten in best fishing lakes in America,
So why wouldn't they go there. I like what bass
Master did. They kind of shook some things up, but
you have to remember these places pay for bass Master
(05:05):
to show up, So while they don't have this Sabine River,
which was bringing out a lot of twelve to fourteen
inch fish and not a lot of weight. You know,
one and a half, three and a half might have
been the biggest. They're not going back there this year
to Orange. Bass Master loves the Sabine River though, and
they love the community of Orange because Orange really comes through.
They bring out a lot of fans. There's concerts. It's
(05:27):
kind of an electric place to be if you're crossing
the stage holding up fish. You love to have that
arena kind of feel where you have a lot of fans,
and Orange always seems to stand out. But you sacrifice
because you're going to a place that doesn't have massive fish.
And bass Master wants to showcase big fish and big
fish fisheries. So let's get over to major league fishing.
(05:48):
Because this one is incomplete. Redcrest has not been announced yet,
it's determined. They know exactly where they're gonna go. I'm
going to theorize on a couple ideas that I might
have have, but I'll be very interested to see what happens.
So they kick off on Lake Gunnersville, just like bass Master,
except they're gonna do it a month earlier. They'll do
it in January. February nineteenth through twenty second. They'll be
(06:11):
on Lake Hartwell. That is a pre spawn deal, so
you're gonna have some guys that go shallow. You're gonna
have other guys that go out to the brush piles
and hit them on forward facing sonar. But Lake Hartwell
always seems to shine. Stage three, Lake Whitney, and Lake
Waco March fifth through the eighth. Ohivy and Lake Brownwood
are gonna be later in March. This one's cool. Ohivy
(06:34):
is a big fish big fish fishery hasn't really been
touched on the professional scale as of recently. It gets
fished a lot by locals and it's a destination spot
for a lot of people. I think it's really cool
that Major League Fishing is going there. And then they're
gonna have Red Crest, but again not announced. We're gonna
break down where we think that's gonna be and we'll
do that after we get through the rest of the schedule.
(06:56):
Beaver Lake will happen April thirty through May third, Heavy Hitters.
May sixteenth through the twenty first is going to be
on Orange Lake in Florida, Staged six Grand Lake June
eighteenth through the twenty first, and Lake Erie August sixth
through the ninth from Sandusky, Ohio. So let's talk about
Redcrest hasn't been announced. It's been determined, but they have
(07:18):
not released where they're going to be. So many people
are kicking around ideas. I want you guys to understand
that when these professional organizations like bass Master, like Major
League Fishing, when they decide to pick a spot where
they're going to have their tournaments and really the Classic
in Red Crest, they have to pick a lake that
(07:40):
is in a close proximity to a major city or
at least a larger city that has an arena or
a big civic center or a convention center so they
can hold their expo. Remember, the fishing tournament is the tournament,
that's what gets people interested. But what they are really
looking for the organizations is they want want people to
(08:00):
go to the expo to see their sponsors, to spend money,
to walk around, to make it more of an actual show.
So the reason why they've held it on Lake Gunnersville
before is they have Huntsville forty minutes away. They have
Birmingham an hour and fifteen minutes away, but both of
(08:20):
those have bigger spaces, you know. I talk to some
people at bass Master. They don't really do a lot
of Lake Gunnersville Classics in Huntsville because the one convention
center that they have there they don't feel like is
big enough for their show. And bass Master arguably gets
more people out to their shows than Redcrest does. I
think that's a history thing because the Classic has been
(08:43):
around way longer than Major League Fishing. But I think
both of them do a great job in putting on
a show. So if I had to break down where
I possibly think these events could go for Redcrest, Lake
Lanier pops up on my mind because so many people
have been talking about Lake Laneer. But Lake Lanier and
the towns that surround that body of water notoriously do
(09:06):
not want to pay professional organizations for them to have
any sort of tournaments there. I don't know if it's
a feeling of we know what we got and we
got a good and we don't really care if you
bring people here. It could be that it could be
that they don't want to deal with the increased traffic.
Lake Lanier sees visitors over eight nine million a year
(09:28):
because of how close they are to Atlanta. But that's
also why it's a desirable place for Major League Fishing
or bass Master to hold Redcrest Or hold the Classic
is because of how close it is to Atlanta. And
imagine the eyes of people just driving around Atlanta and
being able to see professional fishing. We look at the
amount of billboards, radio, TV, the advertising that they can do,
(09:52):
the amount of people that they can reach to showcase
professional fishing is here and we are in your area.
That's a big draw for these major organizations to be
able to throw an event. Not to mention, you have
massive venues where you could hold this. You have Mercedes Benz,
(10:14):
which I don't think they would go that big. You
have State Farm Arena that's a little more likely. But
you also have a town that's relatively close to the lake,
closer than Atlanta, Gwinnette, where they actually have an arena
and it's large enough to do it. They don't really
have much of a civic center. It's more of just
the arena, So putting an expo there may be a
(10:35):
little difficult, but there's a lot of options. The other
one I thought about is because they held heavy hitters
in twenty twenty five, there is Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.
Now I'm a little biased because I grew up on
Smith Mountain Lake, so I know the type of fish
hut are there. After heavy hitters was there, you realize
that not only does Smith Mountain Lake have really good
(10:55):
smallmouth down by the dam and in some of those
cold water areas because it is it's a deep water
reservoir in the mountains, but it also has f one
stream largemouth that the introduce to the lake several years ago.
And now you're starting to see ten eleven twelve pounders
getting caught out of Smith Mountain Lake. When I was
living there, it was a big striper lake. That's what
(11:18):
everybody liked to go for. But bass fishing is really
starting to pick up, and you're starting to see more
bass boats out on Smith Mountain Lake more than you
are center Consoles. Believe me, the striper fishing still really
good there. They have Roanoak that's not too far away.
They have Lynchburg too. Lynchburg I don't think that they
would go to mainly because Roanoak is the bigger of
(11:39):
the two cities. These aren't major cities, but for that
area of Virginia. They're definitely bigger, and they're both within
an hour. In Roanoak, you've got the Bergland Center, which
is basically their civic center. They can hold convention center
style stuff. It's big enough to have their venue. Again,
we were talking about how Major league fishing doesn't always
have the big draw that bass Master has, like with
(12:02):
the Classic in Red Crest. So it's big enough for
Red Crest. I don't know if bass Master would want
to go there because it's certainly not big enough for
the crowd that they bring up. The main reason why
I'm a little leery on them holding something in Roanoak
is because there's not a lot of hotels. There's not
a lot of places for them to stay, and you
(12:23):
always have to think about lodging, not only for the fans,
but also for your staff, for your anglers, for their families.
You kind of have to factor all that in. Now.
I could see them doing something in Kentucky, but it
would have to be a little closer to Louisville, so
(12:43):
again you've got some distance. It's rare, rare that you
find a large enough waterway with big enough fish close
to a major or a major metropolitan area for you
to be able to hold these events. So when you
jump online you see all these people talking about, well,
bring it here and bring it here, you have to
think about what's around for them to be able to
(13:06):
hold an event like that. That's why like Gunnersville gets
chosen a lot because you have well bass masters based
out of Birmingham. A lot of the top brass that
works for Major League Fishing they live off of Lake Gunnersville,
but you have Huntsville and Birmingham that are relatively close.
I would love for you guys to flood my inbox.
Tell me where you possibly think Red Crest is going
(13:27):
to be held this year. Certainly, don't be the guy
that after they announced it all of a sudden you
hit me up. I told you it was going to
be this place. But those are a couple ideas that
I have. So yes, I'm very excited about the upcoming
seasons for Major League Fishing and bass Master because while
they are going to some similar lakes, I like the
variety that I'm starting to see, and I like that
(13:47):
they're changing the time of year that they're going to
be at these lakes. Let's get into the DNR thing.
I've had a lot of people recently reach out to
me after they saw the video and the press release
and the news reports and the radio reports on restock Alabama.
It's a great initiative that Lee Holmes and his team
(14:08):
with Silicaga Marine have put forward. But they want to
restock as many native largemouth bass and the Cusa River
as they can. Because it was about a year ago
we heard that the local dn R in Alabama was
trying to institute a slot limit on several lakes on
the Cousa River. We were happy that that got shot
(14:30):
down because it just didn't make a lot of sense.
It was too large of a slot limit. You know,
if you do a slot limit fourteen to sixteen inches, fine,
But you'll hear a lot of biologists who will share
with you that size of fish is not based purely
on genetics. Just because you have good genetics in a fish,
they still need the number one thing, which is bait.
(14:52):
And if you don't have a high population of bait,
if you don't have a high population of structure and
ambush points in places for these bas to hide, and
more importantly, structure and things for the baitfish to hide
in you're not going to see big bass grown for
the amount of people that say, oh, well, we should
(15:12):
treat it like Texas. Texas's waterways are completely different than
what you see in Alabama. From a depth perspective, to
a structure and cover perspective, to a water clarity, to
a heat or temperature in the water, all that is
vastly different when you go to all these different lakes,
and there's a lot of things that Alabama can do better.
(15:34):
You know, some of these waterways are controlled by power companies,
and the power companies are for profit, so they want
to make sure that they're not having big issues. And
what do we see on a lot of waterways, floaters,
debris damage, you see all that stuff happen, and they
would be very happy in getting rid of a lot
of things in the water that could cause damage to
(15:56):
the dams or the turbines or whatever they're dealing with.
So I'm happy that restock Alabama has popped back. I'm
happy that they loaded up Logan Martin, just one of
the lakes on the Coosa River, with over thirty thousand fingerlings,
and these things were big. I mean, they are definitely
going to succeed some of them, yes, will get taken
(16:17):
out by other fish, but usually that size of a fingerling,
you know, the three to four incher is going to
have more of a success rate than you just putting
in a little fry and hoping that they maintain. So
kudos to Restock Alabama, and kudos to a lot of
the pros that were involved. Yeah, Jordan Lee, will Davis
and several others who got involved in that effort. I've
(16:40):
had some conversations with people from the DNR, and really
one of the things that people don't know about Alabama's
DNR is when you're the director of the Department of
Natural Resources, you're not just overseeing the deer, turkey, fish
in duck populations. They're not just overseeing the permits of
(17:02):
being able to get your hunting license or your fishing license.
You're not just seeing the quotas and how many deer
can you effectively manage and how many turkeys are you
allowed to bag a year. That's not their only job.
While that is a big part of it, the big
money maker for Alabama's DNR is overseeing the mineral, oil,
(17:26):
slate land, anything that has a possibility of generating revenue
underground that is a natural resource is what they're in
charge of. I had a conversation with a buddy of
mine who had a family member that was the director
and the commissioner of the DNR years ago, and we
were having a conversation that was like, look, the reason
(17:48):
why my family member was selected is because he ran
a business before he got involved in the public sector
where they handled oil, mineral slate, and anything that makes
money underground. And there's a lot of leasing that goes
into this, and there's a lot of money that comes
from this. I mean, we hear about Texas with the
amount of oil that they have there and how big
(18:09):
the oil products are in Texas. Somebody has to manage that,
and somebody does it from a federal level, and somebody
does it at the state level, and most of the
time that falls under the Department of Natural Resources. Other
states are different. You have some states that are Florida
fish and wildlife. You have some places that separate the
two because of how big they really are. But in Alabama,
(18:33):
the commissioner of the DNR oversees all that. So you
have to really start kind of looking down the line
at maybe don't go to the commissioner, even though he
may have the final say on things. Usually the commissioner
will put somebody in place to oversee different sections of
the DNR, and those are the people that you have
(18:53):
to talk to. You got to get to them to
be able to say, hey, you know, what's the possibility
of doing this. I've just seen too many people recently
that complain, complain, complain, but they go about it the
wrong way. Your complaints can be very, very valid, but
if you're talking to the wrong person or if it's
getting heard by the wrong people, it's falling on deaf ears.
(19:17):
So look into your local DNR and really know. If
you are going to attack a problem and you're coming
at it with a solution, share that solution with the
person that you can actually get to that can potentially
make a difference. It's all I want to say about
the DNR because I just feel like it's lost on
(19:39):
a lot of people. So I hope you guys go out,
have a great time, hunt fish, do it all. This
is a great time to make sure you're checking your
trail cameras seeing how many bucks you have in Velvet
Right now, I feel like a lot of bucks are
in buddy Buck. So they're walking around in groups of
four or five six. Give us about a month and
a half, and those guys are going to hate each
(20:00):
other and then even worse after that, we're going to
get into the rout which is great for us, terrible
for Bucks because they really do hate each other and
they late to battle for territory as much as they can.
But I hope you guys have a great season. I'm
looking forward to the next couple episodes because we are
going to transition from not only fishing, but we're also
going to get into more of the hunting aspect, and
(20:22):
I think that's really going to be exciting because this
could be a potentially massive year for hunting all across
the United States and North America. Don't follow me on
Instagram and mister Spencer Graves, click like and subscribe on
the iHeart Radio podcast network, and make sure you continue
to fall lines in times
A lot of things we want to get to today
onlines and times. Thank you, by the way for clicking
like and subscribe and listening on the iHeartRadio podcast network.
You guys have been phenomenal. You've reached out to me
and mister Spencer Graves on social and you've shared your
thoughts about past episodes, and I love that you guys
do that. In fact, I'm going to bring up one.
It's the episode that we did with Brock Mosley. The
(00:27):
main reason is because we're breaking down the new schedules
that are out for the bass Master Elites and also
major league fishing with the bass Pro Tour. We're also
going to get into your local DNR, the one that's
in your state. You may not know that a lot
of dn rs are responsible for more than just hunting
and fishing and the amount of wildlife and permitting. There's
(00:49):
actually some other things that happen that mean more money
to your local state, and we'll break that down too.
But first let's jump into it. Let's talk about the
bass Master Elite schedule for twenty twenty. And there's a
lot of people who are crying online. Oh, it's the
same old lakes. I could do this and blah blah blah. Yes,
(01:10):
some of the lakes are the same, but you got
to remember these places pay for bass Master to come there.
Places pay for MLF to come there. But they're also
going at different times, and as you know, anybody who
fishes different times of the year change up how that
fishery fish is and it can make it a little
more exciting. So let's start out with the bass Master Elites.
(01:31):
February fifth through the eighth, they're going to be on
Lake Gunnersville. Lake Gunnersville always performs eleven months out of
the year. Usually April is the one month that a
lot of people don't like to fish on Lake Gunnersville.
February twelveth through the fifteenth are going to be on
Lake Martin. That's going to be a sackfest of some
smaller fish, although you have the best in the best,
so they are going to go out, they're going to
(01:51):
target and they're going to find bigger fish. But if
you're a recreational person you want to fish Lake Martin,
just know fish bite there a lot. They had a
major bait kill several years ago and it's never really
rebounded from that. So the fish well the population is
big and healthy. They just bite a lot because they
(02:12):
don't have a lot of opportunities to eat in the
fish state, kind of small. March thirteenth through the fifteenth,
they're gonna be on the Tennessee River in Knoxville. Remember
that Knoxville for the bass Master Classic, because when we
talk about major league fishing, that will come into play
the conversation and we'll dive into all that, like why
they choose the locations that they choose. Last time it
(02:34):
was on the Tennessee River, it was won by Jeff Gushtason.
I was a marshall in that tournament. First day, I
rode with Scott Martin, second day I rode with Greg Hackney.
What I realized in that is most guys knew who
was gonna win the bass Master Classic before it happened.
I'm not saying it's rigged. It's just you have a
certain sense and a feeling when you go back to
(02:56):
the boat ramp of hearing who's doing really well and
who's really on them. March twenty sixth through the twenty ninth,
they're going to be on the Tennessee Tom Bigbe Waterway
from Columbus Mississippi. This is a big change for bass Master.
They've been to the Tom Big b before, but it's
been like the Opens and the elites I think have
been there before, but it's been years, so that'll be interesting. Plus,
(03:19):
that's a spawning type of year, which is which is
going to be a really interesting play because it's a
river system. You're gonna see guys beating the bank, going shallow,
trying to smack big fish. It's not going to be
a ford facing sonar tournament, but that one's going to
be fun to watch. April sixteenth through the nineteenth, they'll
(03:39):
be on the Arkansas River from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Every time
I think about Muscoge, I think about Merle Haggard. May
seventh through the tenth they're going to South Carolina and
they'll be in South Carolina for two events, Lake Murray first,
then the fourteenth through the seventeenth they'll be on Santee Cooper.
That one really good. I put a lot of money
on Luke Palmer to do well because he always seems
(03:59):
to do well on Santee Cooper. June eleventh through the fourteenth,
they'll be on the Pasca Tank. They went to the
Pasca Tank last year. This is where I wanted to
bring up Rock Mosley from a prior episode that we did.
He didn't make it to the final day and he
was working with some of his sponsors and he was
talking to some people that fish there regularly and they
(04:20):
were like, you guys, haven't even scratched his surface to
see the size of fish that we have in this
body of water. Remember last year Kyle Welcher won it
and he blew the field away. I think he had
a thirty pound or thirty five pound win. It was.
It was really impressive. August thirteenth through the sixteenth and
August twenty seventh through the thirtieth, they're going to be
in New York, first Champlain and then the Saint Lawrence River.
(04:42):
Those are pretty common for the time of year that
bass Master likes to go. New York always seems to
be on the list. But those two lakes are two
of the top ten in best fishing lakes in America,
So why wouldn't they go there. I like what bass
Master did. They kind of shook some things up, but
you have to remember these places pay for bass Master
(05:05):
to show up, So while they don't have this Sabine River,
which was bringing out a lot of twelve to fourteen
inch fish and not a lot of weight. You know,
one and a half, three and a half might have
been the biggest. They're not going back there this year
to Orange. Bass Master loves the Sabine River though, and
they love the community of Orange because Orange really comes through.
They bring out a lot of fans. There's concerts. It's
(05:27):
kind of an electric place to be if you're crossing
the stage holding up fish. You love to have that
arena kind of feel where you have a lot of fans,
and Orange always seems to stand out. But you sacrifice
because you're going to a place that doesn't have massive fish.
And bass Master wants to showcase big fish and big
fish fisheries. So let's get over to major league fishing.
(05:48):
Because this one is incomplete. Redcrest has not been announced yet,
it's determined. They know exactly where they're gonna go. I'm
going to theorize on a couple ideas that I might
have have, but I'll be very interested to see what happens.
So they kick off on Lake Gunnersville, just like bass Master,
except they're gonna do it a month earlier. They'll do
it in January. February nineteenth through twenty second. They'll be
(06:11):
on Lake Hartwell. That is a pre spawn deal, so
you're gonna have some guys that go shallow. You're gonna
have other guys that go out to the brush piles
and hit them on forward facing sonar. But Lake Hartwell
always seems to shine. Stage three, Lake Whitney, and Lake
Waco March fifth through the eighth. Ohivy and Lake Brownwood
are gonna be later in March. This one's cool. Ohivy
(06:34):
is a big fish big fish fishery hasn't really been
touched on the professional scale as of recently. It gets
fished a lot by locals and it's a destination spot
for a lot of people. I think it's really cool
that Major League Fishing is going there. And then they're
gonna have Red Crest, but again not announced. We're gonna
break down where we think that's gonna be and we'll
do that after we get through the rest of the schedule.
(06:56):
Beaver Lake will happen April thirty through May third, Heavy Hitters.
May sixteenth through the twenty first is going to be
on Orange Lake in Florida, Staged six Grand Lake June
eighteenth through the twenty first, and Lake Erie August sixth
through the ninth from Sandusky, Ohio. So let's talk about
Redcrest hasn't been announced. It's been determined, but they have
(07:18):
not released where they're going to be. So many people
are kicking around ideas. I want you guys to understand
that when these professional organizations like bass Master, like Major
League Fishing, when they decide to pick a spot where
they're going to have their tournaments and really the Classic
in Red Crest, they have to pick a lake that
(07:40):
is in a close proximity to a major city or
at least a larger city that has an arena or
a big civic center or a convention center so they
can hold their expo. Remember, the fishing tournament is the tournament,
that's what gets people interested. But what they are really
looking for the organizations is they want want people to
(08:00):
go to the expo to see their sponsors, to spend money,
to walk around, to make it more of an actual show.
So the reason why they've held it on Lake Gunnersville
before is they have Huntsville forty minutes away. They have
Birmingham an hour and fifteen minutes away, but both of
(08:20):
those have bigger spaces, you know. I talk to some
people at bass Master. They don't really do a lot
of Lake Gunnersville Classics in Huntsville because the one convention
center that they have there they don't feel like is
big enough for their show. And bass Master arguably gets
more people out to their shows than Redcrest does. I
think that's a history thing because the Classic has been
(08:43):
around way longer than Major League Fishing. But I think
both of them do a great job in putting on
a show. So if I had to break down where
I possibly think these events could go for Redcrest, Lake
Lanier pops up on my mind because so many people
have been talking about Lake Laneer. But Lake Lanier and
the towns that surround that body of water notoriously do
(09:06):
not want to pay professional organizations for them to have
any sort of tournaments there. I don't know if it's
a feeling of we know what we got and we
got a good and we don't really care if you
bring people here. It could be that it could be
that they don't want to deal with the increased traffic.
Lake Lanier sees visitors over eight nine million a year
(09:28):
because of how close they are to Atlanta. But that's
also why it's a desirable place for Major League Fishing
or bass Master to hold Redcrest Or hold the Classic
is because of how close it is to Atlanta. And
imagine the eyes of people just driving around Atlanta and
being able to see professional fishing. We look at the
amount of billboards, radio, TV, the advertising that they can do,
(09:52):
the amount of people that they can reach to showcase
professional fishing is here and we are in your area.
That's a big draw for these major organizations to be
able to throw an event. Not to mention, you have
massive venues where you could hold this. You have Mercedes Benz,
(10:14):
which I don't think they would go that big. You
have State Farm Arena that's a little more likely. But
you also have a town that's relatively close to the lake,
closer than Atlanta, Gwinnette, where they actually have an arena
and it's large enough to do it. They don't really
have much of a civic center. It's more of just
the arena, So putting an expo there may be a
(10:35):
little difficult, but there's a lot of options. The other
one I thought about is because they held heavy hitters
in twenty twenty five, there is Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.
Now I'm a little biased because I grew up on
Smith Mountain Lake, so I know the type of fish
hut are there. After heavy hitters was there, you realize
that not only does Smith Mountain Lake have really good
(10:55):
smallmouth down by the dam and in some of those
cold water areas because it is it's a deep water
reservoir in the mountains, but it also has f one
stream largemouth that the introduce to the lake several years ago.
And now you're starting to see ten eleven twelve pounders
getting caught out of Smith Mountain Lake. When I was
living there, it was a big striper lake. That's what
(11:18):
everybody liked to go for. But bass fishing is really
starting to pick up, and you're starting to see more
bass boats out on Smith Mountain Lake more than you
are center Consoles. Believe me, the striper fishing still really
good there. They have Roanoak that's not too far away.
They have Lynchburg too. Lynchburg I don't think that they
would go to mainly because Roanoak is the bigger of
(11:39):
the two cities. These aren't major cities, but for that
area of Virginia. They're definitely bigger, and they're both within
an hour. In Roanoak, you've got the Bergland Center, which
is basically their civic center. They can hold convention center
style stuff. It's big enough to have their venue. Again,
we were talking about how Major league fishing doesn't always
have the big draw that bass Master has, like with
(12:02):
the Classic in Red Crest. So it's big enough for
Red Crest. I don't know if bass Master would want
to go there because it's certainly not big enough for
the crowd that they bring up. The main reason why
I'm a little leery on them holding something in Roanoak
is because there's not a lot of hotels. There's not
a lot of places for them to stay, and you
(12:23):
always have to think about lodging, not only for the fans,
but also for your staff, for your anglers, for their families.
You kind of have to factor all that in. Now.
I could see them doing something in Kentucky, but it
would have to be a little closer to Louisville, so
(12:43):
again you've got some distance. It's rare, rare that you
find a large enough waterway with big enough fish close
to a major or a major metropolitan area for you
to be able to hold these events. So when you
jump online you see all these people talking about, well,
bring it here and bring it here, you have to
think about what's around for them to be able to
(13:06):
hold an event like that. That's why like Gunnersville gets
chosen a lot because you have well bass masters based
out of Birmingham. A lot of the top brass that
works for Major League Fishing they live off of Lake Gunnersville,
but you have Huntsville and Birmingham that are relatively close.
I would love for you guys to flood my inbox.
Tell me where you possibly think Red Crest is going
(13:27):
to be held this year. Certainly, don't be the guy
that after they announced it all of a sudden you
hit me up. I told you it was going to
be this place. But those are a couple ideas that
I have. So yes, I'm very excited about the upcoming
seasons for Major League Fishing and bass Master because while
they are going to some similar lakes, I like the
variety that I'm starting to see, and I like that
(13:47):
they're changing the time of year that they're going to
be at these lakes. Let's get into the DNR thing.
I've had a lot of people recently reach out to
me after they saw the video and the press release
and the news reports and the radio reports on restock Alabama.
It's a great initiative that Lee Holmes and his team
(14:08):
with Silicaga Marine have put forward. But they want to
restock as many native largemouth bass and the Cusa River
as they can. Because it was about a year ago
we heard that the local dn R in Alabama was
trying to institute a slot limit on several lakes on
the Cousa River. We were happy that that got shot
(14:30):
down because it just didn't make a lot of sense.
It was too large of a slot limit. You know,
if you do a slot limit fourteen to sixteen inches, fine,
But you'll hear a lot of biologists who will share
with you that size of fish is not based purely
on genetics. Just because you have good genetics in a fish,
they still need the number one thing, which is bait.
(14:52):
And if you don't have a high population of bait,
if you don't have a high population of structure and
ambush points in places for these bas to hide, and
more importantly, structure and things for the baitfish to hide
in you're not going to see big bass grown for
the amount of people that say, oh, well, we should
(15:12):
treat it like Texas. Texas's waterways are completely different than
what you see in Alabama. From a depth perspective, to
a structure and cover perspective, to a water clarity, to
a heat or temperature in the water, all that is
vastly different when you go to all these different lakes,
and there's a lot of things that Alabama can do better.
(15:34):
You know, some of these waterways are controlled by power companies,
and the power companies are for profit, so they want
to make sure that they're not having big issues. And
what do we see on a lot of waterways, floaters,
debris damage, you see all that stuff happen, and they
would be very happy in getting rid of a lot
of things in the water that could cause damage to
(15:56):
the dams or the turbines or whatever they're dealing with.
So I'm happy that restock Alabama has popped back. I'm
happy that they loaded up Logan Martin, just one of
the lakes on the Coosa River, with over thirty thousand fingerlings,
and these things were big. I mean, they are definitely
going to succeed some of them, yes, will get taken
(16:17):
out by other fish, but usually that size of a fingerling,
you know, the three to four incher is going to
have more of a success rate than you just putting
in a little fry and hoping that they maintain. So
kudos to Restock Alabama, and kudos to a lot of
the pros that were involved. Yeah, Jordan Lee, will Davis
and several others who got involved in that effort. I've
(16:40):
had some conversations with people from the DNR, and really
one of the things that people don't know about Alabama's
DNR is when you're the director of the Department of
Natural Resources, you're not just overseeing the deer, turkey, fish
in duck populations. They're not just overseeing the permits of
(17:02):
being able to get your hunting license or your fishing license.
You're not just seeing the quotas and how many deer
can you effectively manage and how many turkeys are you
allowed to bag a year. That's not their only job.
While that is a big part of it, the big
money maker for Alabama's DNR is overseeing the mineral, oil,
(17:26):
slate land, anything that has a possibility of generating revenue
underground that is a natural resource is what they're in
charge of. I had a conversation with a buddy of
mine who had a family member that was the director
and the commissioner of the DNR years ago, and we
were having a conversation that was like, look, the reason
(17:48):
why my family member was selected is because he ran
a business before he got involved in the public sector
where they handled oil, mineral slate, and anything that makes
money underground. And there's a lot of leasing that goes
into this, and there's a lot of money that comes
from this. I mean, we hear about Texas with the
amount of oil that they have there and how big
(18:09):
the oil products are in Texas. Somebody has to manage that,
and somebody does it from a federal level, and somebody
does it at the state level, and most of the
time that falls under the Department of Natural Resources. Other
states are different. You have some states that are Florida
fish and wildlife. You have some places that separate the
two because of how big they really are. But in Alabama,
(18:33):
the commissioner of the DNR oversees all that. So you
have to really start kind of looking down the line
at maybe don't go to the commissioner, even though he
may have the final say on things. Usually the commissioner
will put somebody in place to oversee different sections of
the DNR, and those are the people that you have
(18:53):
to talk to. You got to get to them to
be able to say, hey, you know, what's the possibility
of doing this. I've just seen too many people recently
that complain, complain, complain, but they go about it the
wrong way. Your complaints can be very, very valid, but
if you're talking to the wrong person or if it's
getting heard by the wrong people, it's falling on deaf ears.
(19:17):
So look into your local DNR and really know. If
you are going to attack a problem and you're coming
at it with a solution, share that solution with the
person that you can actually get to that can potentially
make a difference. It's all I want to say about
the DNR because I just feel like it's lost on
(19:39):
a lot of people. So I hope you guys go out,
have a great time, hunt fish, do it all. This
is a great time to make sure you're checking your
trail cameras seeing how many bucks you have in Velvet
Right now, I feel like a lot of bucks are
in buddy Buck. So they're walking around in groups of
four or five six. Give us about a month and
a half, and those guys are going to hate each
(20:00):
other and then even worse after that, we're going to
get into the rout which is great for us, terrible
for Bucks because they really do hate each other and
they late to battle for territory as much as they can.
But I hope you guys have a great season. I'm
looking forward to the next couple episodes because we are
going to transition from not only fishing, but we're also
going to get into more of the hunting aspect, and
(20:22):
I think that's really going to be exciting because this
could be a potentially massive year for hunting all across
the United States and North America. Don't follow me on
Instagram and mister Spencer Graves, click like and subscribe on
the iHeart Radio podcast network, and make sure you continue
to fall lines in times
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