October 24, 2024 • 60 mins
In the latest episode of MAC Outdoors with Mia Anstine, listeners are invited to dive into the healthy and rewarding world of fishing with special guest Rhonda Pitts. Known for her impressive achievements in tournament fishing, including a gold medal win with the USA Bass team at the Pan American Black Bass Championship, Rhonda shares her captivating journey and insights into the sport that transformed her life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
She's an award winning writer, a hunting guide, archery and rifle instructor,
keynote speaker and all around outdoors woman who encourages
you to get outside, hunt, fish, shoot and savor all that life has to
offer. And now here's your host, Mia Anstine.
Well, hey. Hi. Hello you all. I'm so happy to be visiting with you
again today. I want to share with you a
(00:24):
friend in the industry, a colleague in the industry that
I've met at different events where I have volunteered which we
will chat about a little bit. But I'm going to be sharing with
you some fishing today which I tried
to do a fishing series over the summer which probably wasn't the
appropriate time to do that because guess where everybody was? They were fishing.
(00:46):
But if you haven't noticed, we did have quite a few fishermen anglers
on the show, more than we normally have. And so we're going
to continue that a little bit with my friend Rhonda. And
I also wanted to share with you. I was supposed to go on a
cast and blast in Idaho with Hammer down
and they have a jet boat adventure and then we were going to be fishing
(01:09):
for sturgeon in Steelhead and then we were going
to be hunting for Chukar and unfortunately
due to some family events, somebody
in the family wasn't doing well. We had to cancel the trip
and will be doing that in a future date. So I'll share more about that
in the future. But I'm mentioning that trip because in the show
(01:32):
notes I have a link to a Amazon Shop
page because I have an Amazon affiliate page and on that
it's a fishing adventure page that
there are links there to different items. And with the
Amazon Shop it's no extra charge to you if you use
a link but it does help support the show. So anything that
(01:54):
you do is always appreciated. I don't have
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soon having vormy on and
those tarn cap gear if you purchase from them, it
helps support the show. So I appreciate that because I basically do it on my
(02:16):
own dime as I will mention today, like I do lots of things on my
own dime but it's quite rewarding to help empower
others and inspire inspire them. And I hope today's episode
inspires you if it's your first time stopping by. I
appreciate you and for my longtime listeners, as always, thank you for
being here. If you would like to reach out with any
(02:37):
comments, show topic ideas or anything like that.
Media or you can email me. The email address is
contact miaanstein.com I appreciate the messages and
comments that I get. They are wonderful and I always love the
interaction. You guys are part of community that
I really do cherish. So anyways, I hope you enjoy
(03:01):
today's episode. Stay tuned. This
summer, whether at the range or in the field, WSI Sports
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(03:22):
WSI is bringing back pride in America made clothing.
Again that code is Mac O10 for 10%
off your order at wsi sports.com. I'm
Rhonda Pitts angler and I
do tournaments and I just came back from
Canada fishing the Pan American
(03:45):
Black Bass Championship World Championship and USA
won gold. Woohoo. And go Team
usa. So I've had a really, really good
year on the tournament circuit.
I fished a tournament at the end of August for the
East Texas lady anglers, came in third.
(04:06):
Then September 7th I finished one with the East Texas Lady Anglers
and one then went from there
to Canada and won gold and came
back and did the Lady Bass Anglers
Association Classic in Oklahoma and came in
second there. So
(04:28):
September and August have. Or not September and August. September
and October have been a blur.
So and okay. And I should have written down each one. How many
is that? That do you do? Like one a week?
It's one or two a month. One or two a month? Yeah.
Okay. And so all of the ones that you're doing,
(04:50):
it's lady Bass anglers or is it just co ed?
No. So the East Texas Lady Anglers is
a bass club and it's strictly women fishing.
So you know we have some guys helping us out with weigh in and dumb
boats in and you know, getting us out on the water and all that. But
the anglers are all female. Awesome.
(05:13):
The lbaa, which is the Lady Bass Anglers
association, it's a, it's a club of
strictly female anglers. And
then also I've I fish with the
WBT which is the Women's Bass Tour and
again all lady anglers. So it's very
(05:35):
exciting to get to, you know, go out and fish with folks
that are like minded and you know, you don't have to worry about who you're
getting in the boat with and you know, because, because if you go and do
some of the other tournaments that are co ed you
hope your boater is going to be okay, but you, you know, you never
know nowadays who you're going to choose or who's going to get picked for
(05:56):
you. So it, it takes a lot of the stress out of the
day and it's a lot of camaraderie and
don't, I mean they're all competitive but you know, at the end of the
day we're, we're there to have fun and support each
other and kick each other's teeth in.
(06:17):
Oh gosh. And it's nice that you can say that with a smile.
If you're not watching this podcast episode. She definitely
has a big smile on and I, I would be smiling too. Not just
because you're kicking people's teeth in, but you've really been winning
everything. I mean, it's, from what I've seen, I don't know how many tournaments are
going on, but it's like every time I turn around I see
(06:40):
you winning another tournament. And so can
you tell us a little bit maybe let's start with how did you get
started in the tournaments? What, what caused you to want to join
tournaments? So actually I was kind of pushed into that by my
husband. He, he had some
illnesses and he knows how much I like to fish and so he wasn't able
(07:02):
to get on the water. So he pushed me into going into
the tournament series. And you know, I wasn't all about, I'm not a very competitive
person by nature. So I was like, I don't know if I want to do
that, you know, but he pushed me into it and I have
really, really enjoyed it. I've been doing it about three
years now, so. But this year has been
(07:24):
a spectacular year. I will say this is, this is
my best year so far and hopefully it only gets better
from here. So. Yeah. And did you grow up fishing
or was that kind of with your husband? You started fishing too or did you
have a background beforehand? Well, yeah, I fished with, you know,
mom and dad growing up and dad was one of those, you know, we
(07:47):
went out can to cane. You know, we started
fishing when you could see and stop fishing when we couldn't see.
And I never have been a real morning person. So, you know, about mid
morning, I'm, I'm done, I'm ready to go home. And you know, my
dad would always pick on me and he'd say, I'm never bringing you back. You
know. So then
(08:10):
2016, I was on 1800 milligrams
of gabapentin a day. Oh, so, yeah,
that's a lot. And I felt totally
brain dead and, you know, I
was beginning to wonder about my sanity and, you know, if I was going to
go into senility early. And
(08:33):
so Joe and I, my husband and I were talking about, he said, let's just,
let's go fishing and get you out in the sunshine. Because we were
never outside. We, you know, all of our hobbies were
indoors. So 2016,
we started fishing and out in the
sun at least two days a week, you know, for several hours
(08:55):
at a time. And in 2016, I weaned
myself off the gabapentin and I haven't had
any since. So fishing literally has
saved my life. Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know
that part of your story, so that I find
incredible, although I know that the outdoors
(09:17):
is a way to heal yourself. And
gosh, there's so many things I want to ask you about that. Are you
thinking that it's just being able to kind of have a release
that's helped you or just overall healing? How is
what. Tell me what's behind the scenes. I believe it's
(09:37):
the vitamin D that your body absorbs in the
sunshine. You know, we were meant to be out in the sun. You know,
you hear about sunscreen and, you know, protect yourself from the sun. And while it
can be damaging, you need so much of
it because your body actually absorbs nutrients from the
sunshine. And, you know, we all have
(09:58):
a, an indoor life and, you know,
everything revolves around, you know, something inside. We all
work inside now and, you know, in offices and, you know, my
office at work never has a window, so
you don't see the sunshine except maybe, you know, 20 or 30 minutes at lunch.
And that's only while you're driving to and from. And
(10:21):
so I believe just being in the
sunshine, whether it's a cloudy day or a sunny day,
I can literally tell a difference in my body when I,
when I don't get to go fishing versus when I do.
And it's been life changing, really.
Wow. I think that it's awesome that you've found that
(10:44):
healing aspect through being outdoors, through
fishing. And so when you first, when your husband said, let's
go fishing, were you out on a bass boat and out on the lakes
or did you have a variety of, of scenery around
you? So actually he joined a duck
club. He doesn't duck hunt. I don't duck hunt,
(11:06):
but they have reservoirs on, on the duck fleece.
So he joined the duck club, just so we could go and fish the reservoir.
So we bought like a little flat bottom john boat. It
doesn't have an outboard on it. It's 14 foot long
and it has a trolling motor on it. It has no
electronics. And we just go out on those 70 acre
(11:28):
ponds and fish and have fun and we're the only ones out there.
And it's like a new lease on
life. That's awesome. And so when you were talking
about gabapentin, can you tell us what was going
on? Why you. You were on that? Did you have pain or what is
it specifically treating? So I
(11:50):
was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy.
Okay. So, you know, the tingling and the hurting
and I literally felt like I had the flu all the time.
I know most people talk more about, you know, their feet going to sleep and
their hands going to sleep, but it affected my whole body to
where I look. I did. I felt like I had the flu all the time.
(12:11):
You know, how your body just aches and hurts all the time. I didn't have
energy to do anything. Even though I pushed myself and
made myself go and do things, I didn't have the energy to do
it. Put 1800 milligrams
of gabapentin on top of it and I really didn't feel
like doing anything. Yeah, you know, I was like a zombie walking
(12:33):
around. Wow. That's. That's a lot.
And it's something that I'm specifically curious about because
I have family members who have similar
issues going on. And of course they're kind of being
science experiments right now. And so maybe I can have them listen
to this episode and tell them to get outside and go fishing or, you know,
(12:55):
go do something healthy outdoors. And so
you haven't had to take that. Do you attribute it also? Have you
made any other lifestyle changes or just specifically getting
outside? Mostly it's just being outside in the
sun and, you know, being in nature.
You know, if, if it's not, you know, fishing, it
(13:18):
could be coming out your way going to Colorado. And even though we don't hike,
you know, we do like to get outside and we'll go trout fishing in
some of your lakes and rivers up there. And
one day we may come to an elk, who knows?
But it's literally just being outside
and being connected with nature that
(13:41):
I think we have lost somewhere down the line. You
know, it. It was a gradual thing that we, that, you know, pushed us
indoors, but I really think we all need to get back outdoors
and start enjoying what the good Lord has provided for us. I
100% agree. And even for me included, it seems
like since 2020, it's
(14:03):
fortunate in a sense that we're able to do a lot of more
virtual things like we're doing right now. But also I end
up in a lot of meetings for a lot of time. And
you mentioned about, you know, not seeing the outside and stuff
like that. And I. I feel it in my body when I have
to specifically schedule breaks, like, okay, I am not going to
(14:26):
be in front of the computer for this many hours or, you know, schedule time
to be away because it's. It hurts my body
personally. But I. I think trying
to specifically get out and do some of these things is great.
And so with the lady, the bass anglers
and everything that you do, you said you've been having a
(14:47):
phenomenal year, and is it something that
you've learned as you've gone, or what do you attribute to
the successes that you've been having?
I don't really know how to answer that. I believe I've gotten more. More
comfortable. When I first started tournament fishing, I put a lot
of pressure on myself to do well. If I
(15:11):
came in and didn't. If I felt like I didn't do well, you know, I
caught one fish and didn't catch a limit, then, you know, I was really, really
hard on myself. And because I know I'm better than that. I know I
can catch fish if there are fish. And this year
I just approached it as I'm just going fishing.
And so I think taking the pressure off myself
(15:33):
and just letting. Letting myself have some fun on
the water, I think it's paid off.
And so when we go to the tournaments, if you're. I've never been in a
bass fishing tournament, actually. I'm trying to think if I've been in any fishing tournaments.
I don't think I have. I fished a lot, but never in a competition. I
don't want to get my teeth kicked in.
(16:01):
But if I. If you're headed to tournaments, what are some of
the things that. What do you do to get ready for a tournament, to
prepare yourself for that? I mean, you said you've taken some pressure off, but I'm
sure you still have some routines or preparations that you do
so well. You know, you have to. You have to prepare your tackle and your
rods and reels and, you know, plan ahead of time,
(16:24):
what types of lures you plan on fishing,
you know, which techniques you plan on using
before you ever even get there. So you look at the weather and you look
at the weather patterns and the barometer and you know, you look and see, you
know, what the lake is doing, what the water temperatures are doing,
what time of year it is, you know, because you can fish seasonal pattern
(16:47):
patterns. And so when we went to
Canada, we had the tundra loaded to the gills and I
wound up using basically one bait the entire time I was there.
So, you know, the same type of bait there the whole time,
but I had it if I needed it, so I didn't have to worry
about, oh my God, what if I need a so and so and I don't
(17:08):
have one so. And
I fish normally as a co angler because I don't have a lot
of time to go pre fishing and, you know, pick out spots and do
all the things that a boater would have to do.
So, you know, I just show up the
day before the tournament and go to the meeting and.
(17:31):
And then I just go out and go fishing and have fun. And so far
it's worked out for me this year. I hope it, I hope the.
I hope it continues. I do also, because it's so fun
to kind of root for you from afar. You don't even know, like, we're
like, yeah, she did it. And I know you had
said that you had a tournament coming up and that you maybe we could
(17:53):
talk about that when I had asked you to be on the show. And then.
So I've been keeping an eye out and I actually don't spend a lot of
time on social media, but you pop up. And every time. So you popped up
and I was like, oh, my gosh. I saw the picture
today of you with your
2025 USA Bass team champion. And
(18:15):
so that was super cool to see. It made me smile because I was like,
oh my gosh. I've got to hear more about what's going on.
So tell us about the last tournament. This was it on
the. Just yesterday. So the last
tournament was the LBAA Classic. That was last week? Last week.
(18:36):
Okay. Yeah. So we got in from Canada.
I had a couple of days off. I left the fall. We got in on
Tuesday. I left the following Tuesday for Oklahoma. And
we fished Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It was a three day
tournament and I came in second there. So I
was super pleased with second place. I was 1
(18:57):
pound, 1.1 pounds out of the lead. Wow.
All I was missing was a kicker fish for two days and
I would have had it. But, you know, that's why they call it fishing and
not catching But I was super pleased with
second place. Super cool. And
so when you are talking about the weights and stuff,
(19:19):
when you catch it, you immediately weigh it and then you throw it back. Is
that how you do or do you guys have to keep them in the live
well until you go check in? Yeah, so we do a live weigh
in. So you, you keep your fish in the lob well, and you get to
go up on stage and they put it in the basket and tell you how
much it weighs. And, you know, you go on stage and they interview
you. And so, you know, it's, it's pretty neat the way they do it.
(19:42):
We don't have the resources in the women's sports to do
the, you know, weigh it, release it kind of thing like they do in
the mlf. So we're more like the
Bassmasters, where, you know, you bring your five fish into the.
If you're a boater, you bring five fish in. If you're a CO angler, you
bring three fish in and weigh them in at the end of the day
(20:02):
and, and see how it all shakes out. And so why is
it different for the boater? Why do they have to have a couple more?
Because they get to fish the water first. Oh,
okay. They're in the front of the boat, so they get to cover the water
first, and then the CO angler has to come in behind them and catch
fish. So, you know, sometimes that's a little harder to
(20:24):
do than being up there on the front of the boat where you get to
pick all of your, you know, you get to pick all the choice
spots first. Yeah. So, and so and
when we're fishing the rivers here, we call that fishing the dirty water. So we
get the seconds. Do you call that the same in bass fishing?
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. It's been interesting to
(20:46):
me to kind of hear the differences in terminology and
stuff between different types of fishing. So that's something
that I completely understand. It's. It's. In the fly fishing world,
it's kind of like the guides are racing to be the first ones on the
river to float down because they don't want to fish the dirty water.
Exactly, exactly. And you know, in the boat, you know, you'll pull into a
(21:08):
cove and you're like, oh, there's a boat in here. Do we want to stay
or do we want to go? You know, so. And a lot of
times you just leave and go find another place that you hope someone hadn't
already been there. So, but, you know, in eight hours,
in a Day, more than likely somebody's been. A boat's been in there, you know,
at one point or another or so, but the fish may not have been there
(21:30):
when they were there, you know, so. Right. They
might still be snoozing or not hungry or something like
that. And so when you have the. The
boater brings in five fish, do they pick the top three of their
fish? No, they weigh all five fish. They weigh all
five fish. And so then you guys are kind of scored as
(21:52):
a boater and as the angler that's with them. So it's a
separate category? Yes, it's totally separate category. All of
the boaters, or pros, as they call them, they have their.
You know, they compete against each other, and then all the co anglers compete
against each other. So it's completely separate. Okay,
interesting. I'm. I'm learning so much. And so
(22:15):
you are usually the co angler, you said. Is that because you
don't. You said you kind of don't want to take the boat or you don't
have the time to go pre scout. Yeah,
time is my enemy because I have so much that I want to
do, so I have to schedule, you know,
okay, I've gotta be here, and I gotta be here, and I've only got so
(22:36):
much vacation time. And so, you
know, some of the tournaments are during the week, and, you know, some of them
are on the weekend. And so you kind of pick and choose, and
then you gotta balance everything with how much vacation time you've
got. So it's
due to the lack of vacation, because I don't have ample, you know, just
(22:59):
available time. The.
The only way really that I can do it and be successful is to go
as a co anger. Yeah, that sounds like it would be
something that's kind of a blessing to be able to do that instead of having
to be the one taking that extra day off to go
scout out and stuff like that. And when you have
(23:20):
had this great year, I'm just. There's so many questions I have because I. While
I bass fish, I'm not competing or anything like that. And for
me, I'm just kind of like, oh, this isn't working. Let me try something else.
You know, that's kind of how I work it. Or like, oh, today I feel
like this color is good for me. Or
how have you learned over the years what is working and
(23:41):
what's not? Is it a science?
Some of it's science. Some of its luck, some of it's trial and error, you
know, it's just kind of depends on the day and how finicky the fish
are. I know at the Pan
Am I threw one color the first day and
that's all they would hit. And then the second day they wouldn't hit that color
(24:03):
and I had to change colors. And so, you know,
it's just, it just depends on the fish in the day and, you know, whether
the sun's out or whether it's not out and if it's raining or not raining
and you know, all of those fun things. So.
Yeah. And do you, how many hours are you out there? I mean, how much
time do you have? Because to me I'm thinking if it's a tournament, it's like,
(24:25):
okay, they weren't biting at this. Do you see the fish come and like not
want to take it? And so you switch up or how, how are you doing
this in a limited amount of time? Yeah. So, you know, normally
we go out at safe light. So at daylight and then
weigh in is usually 3, 3 30. Depending on
the size of the club or the
(24:47):
tournament, depending on how many anglers, how many boats there are, there
may be one flight where, you know, like, everybody comes back in at the second
at the same time, or there could be two flights where, you
know, the first set of anglers go out and then there's a second set of
anglers go out. So the first set of anglers would come back at 3 and
the second set of anglers would come back at 3:30.
(25:08):
So, you know, and so you have pretty much an eight
hour day to go out and, and do what you're going to do.
And does that get exhausting for you or is it just fun the whole time
time flies? It depends on how well they're
biting. If you're catching a lot, you know,
time really does fly. If you're catching really, really big ones,
(25:30):
time really, really does fly. But yeah,
I mean, you know, especially if you're fishing. The
LBAA Classic was a three day tournament. So yeah, by the third day,
everybody was exhausted. You know, just walking around, you
know, I'm so tired, you know,
so. But you just have to pace yourself and
(25:52):
just know that, you know, hey, it's fixing to be over and we'll go rest
and we'll do this again tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. And with
a group of ladies. How many ladies are generally
registered in a tournament? Is there kind of an average?
It depends on the club. We had 21 boats at
the LBAA Classic, so that was
(26:15):
42 anglers total. I know at
the LBAA normal tournaments, they have
between, you know, 15 to 20
boats. So it's about the same.
And some of the smaller clubs, you know,
may have 10 or less. So, you know, it just kind of
(26:37):
depends on, you know, which club you're fishing and what
area you're fishing, what lake you're on. If
it's a bucket list, like, then, you know, more people are going to show up.
So it just
varies. Yeah. And is it kind of the
same group of ladies all the time or does it vary just depending on
(26:59):
the region and people's schedules? It
mostly varies depending on the club, the, the circuit that
you're fishing. So like the lbaa, you know, they have regulars
that fish theirs. The WBT have regulars that fish theirs. And the East
Texas lady Anglers, they have regulars that fish there. And some of them fish
all three. So, you know, like I
(27:21):
said, it just depends because, you know, the WBP and
WBT and the East Texas ladies,
they fish more regional, closer to home, where
the LBAA is going to go to Florida and North Carolina
and, you know, they're going to go further away and not everybody can
make those long trips. Oh, that makes sense. And
(27:42):
so you were saying that you're a co angler. Are you
considered a professional angler or just the person with the boat is the
professional? The LBAA is a.
They're all professional leagues. So all three of
them are professional leagues. So even though you are co angler,
you are considered a pro. Okay. Because that's.
(28:05):
I, I don't know if you can see on the screen I have you as
lady angler. Because I was like, I don't know if I write professional lady
angler. Like, I wasn't sure what the title. So I was like, I don't want
to put something incorrectly
because, I mean, I could make up my own wonderful title for you,
but. Hey, guys, are
(28:27):
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We've talked a little bit about your tournaments, or I should say probably quite a
bit about your tournaments. But I also mentioned that I met you
at the she Never Quit event and are you going to be
doing that again this coming year? So I'm really Glad you
(29:12):
asked that. So, yes, I will be at. She never quit next year at G2
Ranch. And I was just recently
elected as a board member for woma. Oh my gosh.
Congratulations. Yeah, I'm really
excited about that. I'm gonna try and help, you know, get some
more fishing events and you know, be on
(29:34):
the angling side more than the shooting side. I'll let you guys handle
that. Even though I like to go and participate. That's yalls
expertise. So hopefully we can get more,
you know, fishing events. And I know G2 Ranch has got several,
several lakes on it. And I think that's going to be part of the
curriculum next year. Very good. Well, I'm glad.
(29:56):
I am glad I asked. And now yet now I've got
a whole bunch of other questions that are going to go through my head. I
always have these like influx of questions and I try to keep
on one path because sometimes I just see a squirrel and head off the other
direction. But I know last year you were
teaching at the event. What's your goal
(30:16):
when you're. When you're teaching at those kinds of things?
Mostly it's just to bring new blood into the
sport, you know, to show folks that, you know, ladies,
kids, adults, men, whoever,
you know, that it's not really as hard as you think it is.
And you can do this too. Even though you think you
(30:39):
can't do it and it looks really complicated. It's not that bad.
And you know, you can get out there and throw a rod and you can
throw a bait and you know, you can catch a fish.
Awesome. Did they catch some fish last year? I. I'm usually
teaching archery while you guys are fishing. So I'm always kind of bummed that I
don't get to see what the fishing is doing. But did you guys catch
(31:02):
some fish? So actually we just did a casting class
in the card. So, you know, it was basically just a
beginners. You know, here's how you hold a rod, here's how you open
the bail. You know, this is the motion you use to cast.
And because most of the ladies that were there last
year that, that came out had never held a rod in their
(31:24):
hand. It's super basic and you
know, I had casting weights on and they're still one of my casting
weights in the. One of the trees out there.
Bless her heart. I don't remember who it was, but she cast it. As soon
as she let go, a big huge gust of wind came up because, you
know, it's always windy in Texas. And it straight into the
(31:47):
tree. And she was like, oh, my God. I'm
like, don't worry, it's not that big deal. I have more,
you know, so we just went over there and cut it off and. And tied
another one on, you know, and went back to. Went back to casting. So. But,
yeah, it's super fun to see, you know, everybody's eyes light up when they actually
make it, what they call a decent cast, their first time, and,
(32:09):
oh, I can do this, you know, So I
know last year at the. The Pan American was in
Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is not far from where I live.
So I, I went over and they did a
kids derby on the catfish pond right there at the
marina. And so, you know, we got to teach the kids to, you
(32:31):
know, we would cast and then we would teach them to cast.
And a lot of them, it was their first time to ever catch a fish,
and they were catching catfish out of the catfish pond. And, you know,
just to see their. The looks on their faces, you know, when they would catch
that first fish and they would get so excited, you take it
off the hook and you try to hand it to them, you say, okay, now
you have to touch it. No, I'm not touching it.
(32:55):
And hopefully they outgrow that eventually. Right?
Do you do a lot of teaching? And you. I knew about. She never quit,
but now you're mentioning the youth thing. Do you do a lot of
stuff like that? Like, do you volunteer or do you do it for work
also? I would. No, it's not my
work. It would be better if it were my work. But,
(33:17):
you know, when I get an opportunity to go out and help, you know, especially
help kids or ladies or, you know, anybody who's trying to get into
fishing, you know, I'm always for that because that's how we're
going to make the sport grow. Yeah, you can't. We can't just enjoy
it for ourselves. You gotta pass it on to the next generation. And
I, too, do a lot of that, and I, too, do it for
(33:39):
volunteering as well. But the smiles are the payment, I
think. And I think down the road, too, as you mentioned, just
passing it on and having other people understand,
like, what you do and stuff like that is really great. When
you were teaching at she never quit, did you give them a
background about yourself and what you do?
(34:01):
Yeah, a little bit. I did, you know,
just kind of hit the highlights and. And, you know, just so they knew
that I, I really did know what I was talking about a little bit anyway.
So. And so go
ahead. Really? So, yeah.
And so this year, when you go to teach, tell
(34:23):
me if you can practice right now, like, introduce
yourself to the class.
So let's see here. I'm Rhonda Pitts,
and I do tournament fishing. I was
on the USA Bass team in
2024, and we went to Canada and won the
(34:45):
gold medal for USA at the Black
Best World Championship. So we're going to be doing a
little casting today. I'm going to give you some tech tips and techniques and get
you where you can throw the rod and the bait and make it land
where you. Want it to perfect. You've been practicing
already, and I only wanted to put you on the
(35:07):
spot for that because you seem like you're very modest, which actually a lot of
volunteers at Sheena Rakute are very modest about what they've
accomplished in their lives. And I've always been
taught, like, to not brag about yourself, but there are times where I
feel like you should. You should. And I don't call it bragging,
but let people know your accomplishments because you've worked hard for those
(35:29):
accomplishments. And I. I think you should be very proud about them because I'm proud
for you. Well, thank you. I'm. I'm pretty proud for them
myself. And like you said, if they don't know who you are, they don't know
who you are. And the only way they're going to find out is if
you tell them. So. It's kind of old, you know? If you don't know,
you don't know what you don't know. Very true. And I think
(35:51):
sometimes with the small little circles we have in social media, people
assume that you know who they are. And
I really feel bad sometimes because, as I said, I don't spend a lot
of time searching around on social media. I might open it
and scroll a couple scrolls and I'm out, you know?
And I have some ladies that I admire them, I
(36:13):
know who they are, but they don't ever show up in whatever Facebook
or Instagram or whoever wants to put in my face. So I don't see them.
And one of them I hadn't seen in probably eight or nine years. And
I saw last year at a conference, and I
felt really bad because I didn't recognize them, which I'm. I'm
older, too, you know, like, whatever. And I'm not saying that they looked old or
(36:35):
anything, but I just. It didn't dawn on me who it was till they had
walked away. And I felt like I was very rude. But I think
sometimes. And even people who follow us on social media, we feel
like we're friends. And then you see them in person, and I'm like, who are
you? Like, I don't know. So. So don't feel bad
if you see Mia and you have to introduce yourself, because I really do try
(36:57):
to remember. But sometimes it's. It's a lot.
And, you know, the USA Bass team
is in Italy right now fishing the world tournament.
And Joey Fuentes is a Bassmaster
elite pro, and he's from Arkansas,
(37:17):
and he always wears a cowboy hat when he's fishing.
And they took team photos and had
everybody had to wear the USA Bass ball cap.
And so I'm looking at the photo and I'm like, I know who that is.
I know who that is. And I'm like, who is that on the end of
there? And so I really had to. And it was Joey, but
(37:39):
he didn't have his cowboy hat on, so it was
harder to recognize him. So when you're used to seeing. When you see
folks on social media and their pictures and they've got, like, their jersey on and
their ball cap on and, you know, all of the things,
and then you meet them in real life and they have street clothes
on, well, you don't look the same as you do when you're on the water
(38:02):
or in the woods or, you know, at the gun range or. Or wherever
it is that, you know, you're used to seeing folks on social media.
So, yeah, it's like, you know, you dress
up pretty good. Very true. Well,
now you've given me another excuse for when I don't recognize
people. You look different without your camouflage
(38:24):
on or your winter coat. I actually did. I did have that with one of
the more, um. I mean, in the outdoor hunting industry.
One of the more a listers several years ago walked past me
and the gentleman, he was very slender, and from his
shows, I guess, because he always had a winter coat on, I thought he was
much larger person. And my daughter was so embarrassed because
(38:47):
I didn't recognize him. And I was like, oh, my God. And so
humiliated. Well, you know, and the camera
does add weight to you also. So, you know, when you do meet some
folks, it's like, okay, that's not really what I was
expecting, but cool. Dang it.
Well, just for the listeners, I'm not trying to make excuses.
(39:08):
I just sometimes have it happen, and it is quite embarrassing.
Start talking. That's when I recognize them, because
I have a thing with voices. And so,
you know, I can recognize someone's voice from another room and,
and know who's talking. So you know, once, once.
(39:29):
Once the vocal cords start up, then you know, I can
generally key and key in on who it is, especially if I've met him
before. If it's someone who's just social media
friend, then yeah, it may happen or it may
not, so. Right. Yeah. And I'm with you on that one. I've always
been one that I can recognize voices and. Or like you're on
(39:51):
the phone and you hear somebody and it's like, I know this is what they
look like. You see them in person. They don't. But then I still remember who
they were because of their voice. So that's very cool. And this
year at she Never Quit last year, did you have tournaments you
went to or you came from work and I know you didn't get to spend
the whole entire time there, but do you think you'll get to spend the whole
(40:13):
time at she Never Quit this coming year? Yeah, I think it
was more. It was one of those deals. Like I
said, time is my enemy. And I had so many things on the books
last year pre planned and so, you know, I,
I only had so much time available and so. But
this year I knew well in advance. So I'm planning to be there
(40:36):
for the entire time and I'm really looking forward to it
also. So the G2 ranch looks super amazing and
I, you know, I can't wait to get out there. Yeah, and I am
excited to see that too. There's been some other events that have been there for
other organizations that I work with. And I'm like, they must be doing
something right because they're attracting people. So this is good. And I
(40:58):
am excited about the additional fishing and that's something that I,
I look forward to seeing. Hopefully I can see someday like
what you all are doing during fishing. I don't know. One year we had
archery during the gun range part at one of the
events and I was able to go and see some of the afternoon
activities. So who knows what your schedule will be this year. But
(41:20):
I'm always just there for whatever anyone wants me to help with. So
nothing else. You and I may sneak out after dinner and go get that afternoon,
that late, late evening bite too. There you go. That would be good.
That'd be a nice. A nice what? A little break and go
decompress in between. Because even though it's fun to teach
and the ladies are just phenomenal women, sometimes it's nice
(41:43):
to just have a little quiet time and go and relax and
get a little getaway. Yeah, yeah. So, you
know that, that right there at dusk, you
know, they fish tend to show out a little bit, so.
We may have to hit that definitely.
And with Women's Outdoor Media Association, I'm looking
(42:05):
at my Founders Award over here on the wall. That's what I keep looking
at. Being a board member,
do you have a lot of responsibilities? Are you just helping coordinate
and organize? What kind of stuff are you doing with them?
Well, it's all very new because like I said, I was just elected like last
week. Oh, very new then.
(42:27):
And so I do know that, you know,
I'm going to help them with the fishing side of it and, you know, bring
that more to the forefront because, you know, predominantly it's been more
the shooting sports that they focused. So
now we're, you know, they're trying to branch out and hopefully I can
help them with that and give them some contacts and
(42:50):
go to ICAST with them and introduce them just
to certain folks and, you know, just
anything we can get the ladies doing where they're outside is a good thing.
Yeah. And I was going to ask you about ICAST if, what I was going
to ask is if you went with them this summer, but if you just got
elected. I don't know. Did you go this, this past summer to icast?
(43:12):
I did. I didn't have time to go this summer because I had to spend
two weeks in Canada. And then
right after Canada, I learned that I qualified for the
Classic in Oklahoma. So I was
home for just a few days and had to leave for that. So, no, I
did not have time to do iCast this year. So I hope I get to
(43:34):
do it next year. Maybe I'll win again and get
to go to the Pan Am. So
that's always fun to do. It sounds like it's a
blast. And it sounds like also, I mean, you said that there's
the different groups, the wbt, the
ETLA and stuff. Imagine you make
(43:56):
friends along the way since you're seeing some of the same people over and over
again and, and stuff like that. When you go and you travel
to these things, are you having to, like, what are some of your
expenses? Are you having hotels? Do you bring a camper? What, what kind
of, how does you, how do you make it work? So I
am not a camper girl. I, I'm, I,
(44:19):
I don't, I don't do the camper and I don't do camping so I'm
a hotel motel girl. So
yeah, so I'll, I usually go and rent a room
and you know, stay throughout the
tournament. And you know, fortunately a lot of the places
where the tournaments are held, they, the marina has like a motel
(44:41):
there and generally a fishing motel is
not the same price as a Holiday Inn. So that
helps out a lot. So. But yeah, yeah, you know, if
it's, you have to be there the night before to go to the meeting and
you know, do the boat draws and all of that and then, you know, you
fish the next day. If it's a one day event, then that's great. Then
(45:02):
I've only got to stay one night. Generally I can, you know, come
home the Saturday and.
But you know, the, like I said, the LBAA
generally have two day tournaments and the Classic was a three day tournament.
So I was there from Tuesday to Saturday.
And that seems like that could be a long time. I don't know. I've done
(45:24):
some vacations that are longer in hotels. But it's
something that I'm guessing the rewards of the fishing
tournament itself, like just the experience of being out there and living a healthy
life and stuff has got to be great. But do you also have the
expense of like an entry free, an entry fee and then are
you winning money if you win the tournament?
(45:46):
So yeah, there are entry fees that you have to pay and
normally at least the top three spots are
paid, you get a check. So
I covered my expenses that I, that I spent when
I won second place in Oklahoma. So
that, that always makes it nice. Yeah, so that's, that does make
(46:09):
it nice. I think it's super nice. Of course, I mean, I
imagine that's part of why people still do it
and have fun doing tournaments is because you want to try to be in the
top three and kind of make your money back
anyways is my guess. Is that kind of correct?
That. And you know, a lot of the ladies just do
(46:31):
it just for the camaraderie.
You know, it's
women in sports, especially when you're not a
teenager or 20 years old,
there's not a lot of places to go and have just
as strictly a women in sports event.
(46:53):
So, you know, and, and so that makes it nice. You, you know,
it's a bunch of friends getting together and you know, hooping and
hollering and carrying on and ragging on each other
and so. But yeah, it's a lot of fun and I think
a lot of them do it just strictly just because, you know, it's It's a
way to get out and be with other women. Yeah. And at
(47:16):
social and interaction. I've talked about it for a few years
now about how important that is, because it seems like
especially some of the younger generations, and you talked about doing stuff with the
youngsters. They aren't getting that social
interaction as much. I mean, hopefully they're having, you
know, students at school that they can make friends with and stuff. But it seems
(47:37):
like a lot of them are on their devices and doing that.
So different things that we do with women, it's like
the, the reward of seeing someone else be
successful sometimes to me is the best thing. And like, I'm
thinking of that because I have some mentored women's hunts that are coming
up and most of the time I'm not a hunter.
(48:00):
I'm just there helping and making sure they're safe or, you know, helping
them with their gear, giving them tips and suggestions. And
then to see them be successful is so rewarding to me.
So you had mentioned, and I still keep laughing about, you know,
kicking teeth in. And I know you don't mean that literally, but, you know, it's
like you said, the banter back and forth is, it's gotta be fun.
(48:22):
And just you talked about the
outdoors and vitamin D. But also that interaction, I'm sure
has helped with the health as well. Oh, yeah. So, you
know, it's totally a social event. You know, like I said, the
competition is there, but at the same time,
if you've got certain ones you can go to and go,
(48:44):
okay, I used all of these. Do you have any of them? And they'll
say, oh yeah, I got some over here. You know, and they'll, they share with
each other and they take care of each other. If somebody has boat problems
or issues, you know, nobody thinks anything about,
I gotta go and get so and so because their boats broke down
and so, you know, they take care of each other on the water. But
(49:06):
like I said, you know, they, they do, they do have the
competitive side to them, but at the same time, they want to make sure that
everybody comes in just like they went out and everybody's safe
while they're out there doing it. Yeah, that's outstanding. It's
such a great thing that you guys are doing. And so you talked about, you
know, maybe you're out of whichever bait or whatever you
(49:27):
have, what kind of gear besides, you know, your
rod and your, your baits and stuff like that. What kind of gear
would a girl, a woman need to go just bass
Fishing for the day. So for the day, if
you're not on a boat, you know, basically your rod, your reel, and your baits,
you know, you can stand on the bank, you can go fishing. If you're in
(49:49):
a boat, you need your PFD personal flotation device.
Anytime the outboard motor is cranked up, you need to have
your PFD on. And so because
things happen so fast on the water that if you do get
thrown, you want to make sure that you're going to float.
And it doesn't matter how good of a swimmer you are, when you hit that
(50:11):
water at 60 miles an hour, it's like hitting the concrete.
So, you know, I will always
preach, you know, where your pfd.
Yeah. And basically, not much gear required. You've
got your tackle and then rod, reel, bait, and
pfd. That's it. You know. You know, if
(50:34):
it's raining, you may want some rain gear, and if
it's really cold, you may want to bundle up. But, yeah, I mean, that's the
great thing about fishing is you can go to Walmart, you can buy a rod
and reel combo, and then you can go around the corner and you can buy
a package of hooks and a spool of
lawn and a bag of, you know,
(50:55):
plastic worms, and you can go fishing and catch fish,
you know, so you don't have to spend a lot of money on
it to go out and enjoy it.
I wish I had that mindset. I don't have that mindset. I spent a year
buying gear and baits, and, you know,
(51:15):
when you get. Competitive, you're gonna spend more money. Well, you
know, July of 24, we
won Icast, which qualified us for the Pan Am this year. So
as soon as I got home, I started, and I knew we were going to
be fishing for smallmouth, and we don't have smallmouth in Arkansas,
so I knew that's what we were going to be doing. So I started buying
(51:37):
baits last July. Okay. That way I
didn't have to do it all at one time. But every month, you know, I
would. I would buy this and then I would buy that, and then something new
would come out. Oh, I bet that's really going to catch them, you know, and
so, yeah, I spent a year buying gear, and then, like I said,
I threw one type of bait the whole three days I
was there. And so. But that's how it works
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vorme.com miaanstein. And so
we've talked about bass. You've large mouth, smallmouth. Do
(52:45):
you fish for anything else or is that pretty much it? You said sometimes
you may come to Colorado for trout. Like what other fish do you go
after? So the Frying Pan river is one of my favorite
places to go and fish. I love to go there to
Basalt and, and fish there at the Rudy Dam.
And it is just so much fun. Now I do cheat and
(53:07):
I use, I don't, I don't use flies. I'm not a fly
fisherman. I do carry my spinning rod and
I'll use a rooster tail or a panther martin or something and. But
yeah, I love to come out there and go trout fishing.
Even if Joe and I make a trip out there for just a couple of
days, we're going to have a rod in the, in the, in the vehicle with
(53:28):
us and by at least one time go fishing while we're there.
They are fun and they are so pretty
and it's just, and it's just great to just stand there on the
side of the mountain with the river running in front of you and you know,
all of God's glory around you. Absolutely.
We were, we were actually on the Frying Pan one year
(53:51):
and we were catching fish. We caught quite a few fish that day. And we
get back in the truck and he looks at me and he goes, my hands
are cold. And I said, me too. We're just, you know, basically in T shirts,
you know, light jacket maybe. And we turn the vehicle
on and the temperature comes up and it was like 30 degrees
or something. It was like, it doesn't feel that cold. You didn't have the
(54:13):
humidity.
You know, you're dying because your bones hurt. But you know, it was, it was,
the sun was shining that day and it was just
beautiful. I caught about a 4 pound pound brown that day too. So. Yeah.
Oh yeah. That'll make you warm up. Yeah. Yeah. So my blood
pressure was kind of up that day.
(54:37):
How fun. And do you ever keep any of the fish or is it all
catch and release? Everything you do? Mostly we do catch
and Release a couple of times. Maybe in the
fall when it first starts cooling off and the water
temperatures start cooling off, we'll go
fishing for food. And when we do that, we,
(54:58):
we like to keep this. If it's bass, we like to keep, you know, 16
inches or under because we don't like the big fish. And
the more of those you can get out of your waters, especially if it's a
lake, the better off it is for the fishery anyway. So, you
know, we keep a, if we catch a boomer
copy, you know, we may catch, we may keep those, but
(55:20):
generally we just catch and release because, you know, we do have a freezer
full and we don't believe in taking more out than what we're putting
in. And so, you know, I want it to be there for the next
generation. Absolutely. And so if you had one tip
to give to somebody who wants to go fishing or if they are
already an angler, what kind of, what's one tip or advice
(55:42):
you would give them? Just keep at it and have fun at
it. You know, once you
catch that first fish, if you haven't already,
you'll be hooked. Hopefully,
hopefully not literally hooked. But sometimes that happens too.
(56:03):
But yeah, it's. And it's so much fun. You know, you got that. You
know, anglers have the same. The tug is my drug.
And so tug of that fish on the end of your line, that's your drug
and that's your adrenaline rush. And, you know, once you get him in the
boat and, or on the bank and you can
look at him and take your picture with him and put him back in there
(56:26):
and watch him go back in the water just as, just as healthy
as he come out of the water. To me, there's just something about that
that's just amazing.
Only sport that you can
capture, catch whatever you want to call it, your prey
and put them back in the same condition that they came to you in.
(56:50):
So, you know, if you're deer hunting or turkey hunting or squirrel hunting, you know,
in order to gain the animal, you know,
you have to put it down. But in fishing, you can still put it back
and it's alive. Right. And I was going to say trapping is one
also, but that's different. Episode I'll link to trapping in the show notes.
If anybody wants to learn more about trapping or if you have questions about
(57:13):
trapping, shoot me a message on social media and I'll
answer questions for you about that. But that also depends on your
state and your state's laws. So. But yes, you're Absolutely
right. And fish handling is something that we teach a lot. We do a lot
of fly fishing clinics, and I, I fish with whatever, but
we teach a lot about fish handling, especially with trout, because a
(57:34):
lot of people who have fished for some of the more hardy
fish don't understand how delicate a trout is. So that's
something that I've been trying to get one of my friends on
to talk about trout as well. But maybe in a future episode,
we'll get him on here and talk about different fish.
(57:55):
They are their own species, and like you said, they're delicate. You have to be
very gentle with them. You can't have them out of the water very long, long.
You can't hold them very tight. You know,
you want to make sure their slime coat stays on when you, when you do
hook them. And, you know, like I said, keep them in the
water as much as you can. You know, even. Even while you're taking pictures, you
(58:18):
know, pick them up, put them right back down in the water, and then pick
them up and put them right back down in the water because, you know, they
are fragile, but they're beautiful. They are beautiful. And
you talked about your big brown trout that it's,
it's so nice to fight a big fish like that, but they also get very
tired. So that's. Like I said, we can talk trout on a different episode.
(58:39):
But I just was super impressed about your season,
and I wanted to kind of share the excitement of your season with
the listeners, as well as some fishing and now a little bit
about the Women's Outdoor Media association, too.
Yeah, it's. It's been an amazing year, and, you know,
I'm just hoping I can keep up the momentum and keep it going
(59:01):
into 25, so. All right, well, we'll
be rooting for you. Will you let us know for the listeners, will you let
them know where they can follow your adventures and where they can
cheer you on, too? So I'm on Facebook and
Instagram. Rhonda Pitts fishing on Facebook and
Instagram. And also there's just Rhonda Pittsburgh, last
(59:24):
name is P, as in Paul I T S,
if you're not looking at the screen. So,
yeah, come follow me and share my
adventures. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining me on
this show and for sharing some inspiration with the listeners. I really appreciate
it. Well, I appreciate you having me, Mia. It's been great. It
(59:46):
was great meeting you last year, and I'm looking forward to April,
and we're going to get to hang out and do it again.
Hey, this is Lloyd Bailey, the Armed Lutheran host of the Armed Lutheran
Radio Podcast, reminding you that the podcast you're
listening to is a proud member of the Self Defense Radio Network.
Check out all the great content@selfdefenseradio.net.
She's an award winning writer, a hunting guide, archery and rifle instructor,
keynote speaker and all around outdoors woman who encourages
you to get outside, hunt, fish, shoot and savor all that life has to
offer. And now here's your host, Mia Anstine.
Well, hey. Hi. Hello you all. I'm so happy to be visiting with you
again today. I want to share with you a
(00:24):
friend in the industry, a colleague in the industry that
I've met at different events where I have volunteered which we
will chat about a little bit. But I'm going to be sharing with
you some fishing today which I tried
to do a fishing series over the summer which probably wasn't the
appropriate time to do that because guess where everybody was? They were fishing.
(00:46):
But if you haven't noticed, we did have quite a few fishermen anglers
on the show, more than we normally have. And so we're going
to continue that a little bit with my friend Rhonda. And
I also wanted to share with you. I was supposed to go on a
cast and blast in Idaho with Hammer down
and they have a jet boat adventure and then we were going to be fishing
(01:09):
for sturgeon in Steelhead and then we were going
to be hunting for Chukar and unfortunately
due to some family events, somebody
in the family wasn't doing well. We had to cancel the trip
and will be doing that in a future date. So I'll share more about that
in the future. But I'm mentioning that trip because in the show
(01:32):
notes I have a link to a Amazon Shop
page because I have an Amazon affiliate page and on that
it's a fishing adventure page that
there are links there to different items. And with the
Amazon Shop it's no extra charge to you if you use
a link but it does help support the show. So anything that
(01:54):
you do is always appreciated. I don't have
paid advertisements on here, I just have affiliate links and the
affiliates that I have WSI Sports and I'm going to be
soon having vormy on and
those tarn cap gear if you purchase from them, it
helps support the show. So I appreciate that because I basically do it on my
(02:16):
own dime as I will mention today, like I do lots of things on my
own dime but it's quite rewarding to help empower
others and inspire inspire them. And I hope today's episode
inspires you if it's your first time stopping by. I
appreciate you and for my longtime listeners, as always, thank you for
being here. If you would like to reach out with any
(02:37):
comments, show topic ideas or anything like that.
Media or you can email me. The email address is
contact miaanstein.com I appreciate the messages and
comments that I get. They are wonderful and I always love the
interaction. You guys are part of community that
I really do cherish. So anyways, I hope you enjoy
(03:01):
today's episode. Stay tuned. This
summer, whether at the range or in the field, WSI Sports
Hypertech bamboo tanks, tees and leggings will have you
covered. Visit wsisports.com to support the show
and use the affiliate code MAC010 for 10%
off your purchase. All products are proudly made in the usa.
(03:22):
WSI is bringing back pride in America made clothing.
Again that code is Mac O10 for 10%
off your order at wsi sports.com. I'm
Rhonda Pitts angler and I
do tournaments and I just came back from
Canada fishing the Pan American
(03:45):
Black Bass Championship World Championship and USA
won gold. Woohoo. And go Team
usa. So I've had a really, really good
year on the tournament circuit.
I fished a tournament at the end of August for the
East Texas lady anglers, came in third.
(04:06):
Then September 7th I finished one with the East Texas Lady Anglers
and one then went from there
to Canada and won gold and came
back and did the Lady Bass Anglers
Association Classic in Oklahoma and came in
second there. So
(04:28):
September and August have. Or not September and August. September
and October have been a blur.
So and okay. And I should have written down each one. How many
is that? That do you do? Like one a week?
It's one or two a month. One or two a month? Yeah.
Okay. And so all of the ones that you're doing,
(04:50):
it's lady Bass anglers or is it just co ed?
No. So the East Texas Lady Anglers is
a bass club and it's strictly women fishing.
So you know we have some guys helping us out with weigh in and dumb
boats in and you know, getting us out on the water and all that. But
the anglers are all female. Awesome.
(05:13):
The lbaa, which is the Lady Bass Anglers
association, it's a, it's a club of
strictly female anglers. And
then also I've I fish with the
WBT which is the Women's Bass Tour and
again all lady anglers. So it's very
(05:35):
exciting to get to, you know, go out and fish with folks
that are like minded and you know, you don't have to worry about who you're
getting in the boat with and you know, because, because if you go and do
some of the other tournaments that are co ed you
hope your boater is going to be okay, but you, you know, you never
know nowadays who you're going to choose or who's going to get picked for
(05:56):
you. So it, it takes a lot of the stress out of the
day and it's a lot of camaraderie and
don't, I mean they're all competitive but you know, at the end of the
day we're, we're there to have fun and support each
other and kick each other's teeth in.
(06:17):
Oh gosh. And it's nice that you can say that with a smile.
If you're not watching this podcast episode. She definitely
has a big smile on and I, I would be smiling too. Not just
because you're kicking people's teeth in, but you've really been winning
everything. I mean, it's, from what I've seen, I don't know how many tournaments are
going on, but it's like every time I turn around I see
(06:40):
you winning another tournament. And so can
you tell us a little bit maybe let's start with how did you get
started in the tournaments? What, what caused you to want to join
tournaments? So actually I was kind of pushed into that by my
husband. He, he had some
illnesses and he knows how much I like to fish and so he wasn't able
(07:02):
to get on the water. So he pushed me into going into
the tournament series. And you know, I wasn't all about, I'm not a very competitive
person by nature. So I was like, I don't know if I want to do
that, you know, but he pushed me into it and I have
really, really enjoyed it. I've been doing it about three
years now, so. But this year has been
(07:24):
a spectacular year. I will say this is, this is
my best year so far and hopefully it only gets better
from here. So. Yeah. And did you grow up fishing
or was that kind of with your husband? You started fishing too or did you
have a background beforehand? Well, yeah, I fished with, you know,
mom and dad growing up and dad was one of those, you know, we
(07:47):
went out can to cane. You know, we started
fishing when you could see and stop fishing when we couldn't see.
And I never have been a real morning person. So, you know, about mid
morning, I'm, I'm done, I'm ready to go home. And you know, my
dad would always pick on me and he'd say, I'm never bringing you back. You
know. So then
(08:10):
2016, I was on 1800 milligrams
of gabapentin a day. Oh, so, yeah,
that's a lot. And I felt totally
brain dead and, you know, I
was beginning to wonder about my sanity and, you know, if I was going to
go into senility early. And
(08:33):
so Joe and I, my husband and I were talking about, he said, let's just,
let's go fishing and get you out in the sunshine. Because we were
never outside. We, you know, all of our hobbies were
indoors. So 2016,
we started fishing and out in the
sun at least two days a week, you know, for several hours
(08:55):
at a time. And in 2016, I weaned
myself off the gabapentin and I haven't had
any since. So fishing literally has
saved my life. Wow, that's amazing. I didn't know
that part of your story, so that I find
incredible, although I know that the outdoors
(09:17):
is a way to heal yourself. And
gosh, there's so many things I want to ask you about that. Are you
thinking that it's just being able to kind of have a release
that's helped you or just overall healing? How is
what. Tell me what's behind the scenes. I believe it's
(09:37):
the vitamin D that your body absorbs in the
sunshine. You know, we were meant to be out in the sun. You know,
you hear about sunscreen and, you know, protect yourself from the sun. And while it
can be damaging, you need so much of
it because your body actually absorbs nutrients from the
sunshine. And, you know, we all have
(09:58):
a, an indoor life and, you know,
everything revolves around, you know, something inside. We all
work inside now and, you know, in offices and, you know, my
office at work never has a window, so
you don't see the sunshine except maybe, you know, 20 or 30 minutes at lunch.
And that's only while you're driving to and from. And
(10:21):
so I believe just being in the
sunshine, whether it's a cloudy day or a sunny day,
I can literally tell a difference in my body when I,
when I don't get to go fishing versus when I do.
And it's been life changing, really.
Wow. I think that it's awesome that you've found that
(10:44):
healing aspect through being outdoors, through
fishing. And so when you first, when your husband said, let's
go fishing, were you out on a bass boat and out on the lakes
or did you have a variety of, of scenery around
you? So actually he joined a duck
club. He doesn't duck hunt. I don't duck hunt,
(11:06):
but they have reservoirs on, on the duck fleece.
So he joined the duck club, just so we could go and fish the reservoir.
So we bought like a little flat bottom john boat. It
doesn't have an outboard on it. It's 14 foot long
and it has a trolling motor on it. It has no
electronics. And we just go out on those 70 acre
(11:28):
ponds and fish and have fun and we're the only ones out there.
And it's like a new lease on
life. That's awesome. And so when you were talking
about gabapentin, can you tell us what was going
on? Why you. You were on that? Did you have pain or what is
it specifically treating? So I
(11:50):
was diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy.
Okay. So, you know, the tingling and the hurting
and I literally felt like I had the flu all the time.
I know most people talk more about, you know, their feet going to sleep and
their hands going to sleep, but it affected my whole body to
where I look. I did. I felt like I had the flu all the time.
(12:11):
You know, how your body just aches and hurts all the time. I didn't have
energy to do anything. Even though I pushed myself and
made myself go and do things, I didn't have the energy to do
it. Put 1800 milligrams
of gabapentin on top of it and I really didn't feel
like doing anything. Yeah, you know, I was like a zombie walking
(12:33):
around. Wow. That's. That's a lot.
And it's something that I'm specifically curious about because
I have family members who have similar
issues going on. And of course they're kind of being
science experiments right now. And so maybe I can have them listen
to this episode and tell them to get outside and go fishing or, you know,
(12:55):
go do something healthy outdoors. And so
you haven't had to take that. Do you attribute it also? Have you
made any other lifestyle changes or just specifically getting
outside? Mostly it's just being outside in the
sun and, you know, being in nature.
You know, if, if it's not, you know, fishing, it
(13:18):
could be coming out your way going to Colorado. And even though we don't hike,
you know, we do like to get outside and we'll go trout fishing in
some of your lakes and rivers up there. And
one day we may come to an elk, who knows?
But it's literally just being outside
and being connected with nature that
(13:41):
I think we have lost somewhere down the line. You
know, it. It was a gradual thing that we, that, you know, pushed us
indoors, but I really think we all need to get back outdoors
and start enjoying what the good Lord has provided for us. I
100% agree. And even for me included, it seems
like since 2020, it's
(14:03):
fortunate in a sense that we're able to do a lot of more
virtual things like we're doing right now. But also I end
up in a lot of meetings for a lot of time. And
you mentioned about, you know, not seeing the outside and stuff
like that. And I. I feel it in my body when I have
to specifically schedule breaks, like, okay, I am not going to
(14:26):
be in front of the computer for this many hours or, you know, schedule time
to be away because it's. It hurts my body
personally. But I. I think trying
to specifically get out and do some of these things is great.
And so with the lady, the bass anglers
and everything that you do, you said you've been having a
(14:47):
phenomenal year, and is it something that
you've learned as you've gone, or what do you attribute to
the successes that you've been having?
I don't really know how to answer that. I believe I've gotten more. More
comfortable. When I first started tournament fishing, I put a lot
of pressure on myself to do well. If I
(15:11):
came in and didn't. If I felt like I didn't do well, you know, I
caught one fish and didn't catch a limit, then, you know, I was really, really
hard on myself. And because I know I'm better than that. I know I
can catch fish if there are fish. And this year
I just approached it as I'm just going fishing.
And so I think taking the pressure off myself
(15:33):
and just letting. Letting myself have some fun on
the water, I think it's paid off.
And so when we go to the tournaments, if you're. I've never been in a
bass fishing tournament, actually. I'm trying to think if I've been in any fishing tournaments.
I don't think I have. I fished a lot, but never in a competition. I
don't want to get my teeth kicked in.
(16:01):
But if I. If you're headed to tournaments, what are some of
the things that. What do you do to get ready for a tournament, to
prepare yourself for that? I mean, you said you've taken some pressure off, but I'm
sure you still have some routines or preparations that you do
so well. You know, you have to. You have to prepare your tackle and your
rods and reels and, you know, plan ahead of time,
(16:24):
what types of lures you plan on fishing,
you know, which techniques you plan on using
before you ever even get there. So you look at the weather and you look
at the weather patterns and the barometer and you know, you look and see, you
know, what the lake is doing, what the water temperatures are doing,
what time of year it is, you know, because you can fish seasonal pattern
(16:47):
patterns. And so when we went to
Canada, we had the tundra loaded to the gills and I
wound up using basically one bait the entire time I was there.
So, you know, the same type of bait there the whole time,
but I had it if I needed it, so I didn't have to worry
about, oh my God, what if I need a so and so and I don't
(17:08):
have one so. And
I fish normally as a co angler because I don't have a lot
of time to go pre fishing and, you know, pick out spots and do
all the things that a boater would have to do.
So, you know, I just show up the
day before the tournament and go to the meeting and.
(17:31):
And then I just go out and go fishing and have fun. And so far
it's worked out for me this year. I hope it, I hope the.
I hope it continues. I do also, because it's so fun
to kind of root for you from afar. You don't even know, like, we're
like, yeah, she did it. And I know you had
said that you had a tournament coming up and that you maybe we could
(17:53):
talk about that when I had asked you to be on the show. And then.
So I've been keeping an eye out and I actually don't spend a lot of
time on social media, but you pop up. And every time. So you popped up
and I was like, oh, my gosh. I saw the picture
today of you with your
2025 USA Bass team champion. And
(18:15):
so that was super cool to see. It made me smile because I was like,
oh my gosh. I've got to hear more about what's going on.
So tell us about the last tournament. This was it on
the. Just yesterday. So the last
tournament was the LBAA Classic. That was last week? Last week.
(18:36):
Okay. Yeah. So we got in from Canada.
I had a couple of days off. I left the fall. We got in on
Tuesday. I left the following Tuesday for Oklahoma. And
we fished Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It was a three day
tournament and I came in second there. So I
was super pleased with second place. I was 1
(18:57):
pound, 1.1 pounds out of the lead. Wow.
All I was missing was a kicker fish for two days and
I would have had it. But, you know, that's why they call it fishing and
not catching But I was super pleased with
second place. Super cool. And
so when you are talking about the weights and stuff,
(19:19):
when you catch it, you immediately weigh it and then you throw it back. Is
that how you do or do you guys have to keep them in the live
well until you go check in? Yeah, so we do a live weigh
in. So you, you keep your fish in the lob well, and you get to
go up on stage and they put it in the basket and tell you how
much it weighs. And, you know, you go on stage and they interview
you. And so, you know, it's, it's pretty neat the way they do it.
(19:42):
We don't have the resources in the women's sports to do
the, you know, weigh it, release it kind of thing like they do in
the mlf. So we're more like the
Bassmasters, where, you know, you bring your five fish into the.
If you're a boater, you bring five fish in. If you're a CO angler, you
bring three fish in and weigh them in at the end of the day
(20:02):
and, and see how it all shakes out. And so why is
it different for the boater? Why do they have to have a couple more?
Because they get to fish the water first. Oh,
okay. They're in the front of the boat, so they get to cover the water
first, and then the CO angler has to come in behind them and catch
fish. So, you know, sometimes that's a little harder to
(20:24):
do than being up there on the front of the boat where you get to
pick all of your, you know, you get to pick all the choice
spots first. Yeah. So, and so and
when we're fishing the rivers here, we call that fishing the dirty water. So we
get the seconds. Do you call that the same in bass fishing?
Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. It's been interesting to
(20:46):
me to kind of hear the differences in terminology and
stuff between different types of fishing. So that's something
that I completely understand. It's. It's. In the fly fishing world,
it's kind of like the guides are racing to be the first ones on the
river to float down because they don't want to fish the dirty water.
Exactly, exactly. And you know, in the boat, you know, you'll pull into a
(21:08):
cove and you're like, oh, there's a boat in here. Do we want to stay
or do we want to go? You know, so. And a lot of
times you just leave and go find another place that you hope someone hadn't
already been there. So, but, you know, in eight hours,
in a Day, more than likely somebody's been. A boat's been in there, you know,
at one point or another or so, but the fish may not have been there
(21:30):
when they were there, you know, so. Right. They
might still be snoozing or not hungry or something like
that. And so when you have the. The
boater brings in five fish, do they pick the top three of their
fish? No, they weigh all five fish. They weigh all
five fish. And so then you guys are kind of scored as
(21:52):
a boater and as the angler that's with them. So it's a
separate category? Yes, it's totally separate category. All of
the boaters, or pros, as they call them, they have their.
You know, they compete against each other, and then all the co anglers compete
against each other. So it's completely separate. Okay,
interesting. I'm. I'm learning so much. And so
(22:15):
you are usually the co angler, you said. Is that because you
don't. You said you kind of don't want to take the boat or you don't
have the time to go pre scout. Yeah,
time is my enemy because I have so much that I want to
do, so I have to schedule, you know,
okay, I've gotta be here, and I gotta be here, and I've only got so
(22:36):
much vacation time. And so, you
know, some of the tournaments are during the week, and, you know, some of them
are on the weekend. And so you kind of pick and choose, and
then you gotta balance everything with how much vacation time you've
got. So it's
due to the lack of vacation, because I don't have ample, you know, just
(22:59):
available time. The.
The only way really that I can do it and be successful is to go
as a co anger. Yeah, that sounds like it would be
something that's kind of a blessing to be able to do that instead of having
to be the one taking that extra day off to go
scout out and stuff like that. And when you have
(23:20):
had this great year, I'm just. There's so many questions I have because I. While
I bass fish, I'm not competing or anything like that. And for
me, I'm just kind of like, oh, this isn't working. Let me try something else.
You know, that's kind of how I work it. Or like, oh, today I feel
like this color is good for me. Or
how have you learned over the years what is working and
(23:41):
what's not? Is it a science?
Some of it's science. Some of its luck, some of it's trial and error, you
know, it's just kind of depends on the day and how finicky the fish
are. I know at the Pan
Am I threw one color the first day and
that's all they would hit. And then the second day they wouldn't hit that color
(24:03):
and I had to change colors. And so, you know,
it's just, it just depends on the fish in the day and, you know, whether
the sun's out or whether it's not out and if it's raining or not raining
and you know, all of those fun things. So.
Yeah. And do you, how many hours are you out there? I mean, how much
time do you have? Because to me I'm thinking if it's a tournament, it's like,
(24:25):
okay, they weren't biting at this. Do you see the fish come and like not
want to take it? And so you switch up or how, how are you doing
this in a limited amount of time? Yeah. So, you know, normally
we go out at safe light. So at daylight and then
weigh in is usually 3, 3 30. Depending on
the size of the club or the
(24:47):
tournament, depending on how many anglers, how many boats there are, there
may be one flight where, you know, like, everybody comes back in at the second
at the same time, or there could be two flights where, you
know, the first set of anglers go out and then there's a second set of
anglers go out. So the first set of anglers would come back at 3 and
the second set of anglers would come back at 3:30.
(25:08):
So, you know, and so you have pretty much an eight
hour day to go out and, and do what you're going to do.
And does that get exhausting for you or is it just fun the whole time
time flies? It depends on how well they're
biting. If you're catching a lot, you know,
time really does fly. If you're catching really, really big ones,
(25:30):
time really, really does fly. But yeah,
I mean, you know, especially if you're fishing. The
LBAA Classic was a three day tournament. So yeah, by the third day,
everybody was exhausted. You know, just walking around, you
know, I'm so tired, you know,
so. But you just have to pace yourself and
(25:52):
just know that, you know, hey, it's fixing to be over and we'll go rest
and we'll do this again tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. And with
a group of ladies. How many ladies are generally
registered in a tournament? Is there kind of an average?
It depends on the club. We had 21 boats at
the LBAA Classic, so that was
(26:15):
42 anglers total. I know at
the LBAA normal tournaments, they have
between, you know, 15 to 20
boats. So it's about the same.
And some of the smaller clubs, you know,
may have 10 or less. So, you know, it just kind of
(26:37):
depends on, you know, which club you're fishing and what
area you're fishing, what lake you're on. If
it's a bucket list, like, then, you know, more people are going to show up.
So it just
varies. Yeah. And is it kind of the
same group of ladies all the time or does it vary just depending on
(26:59):
the region and people's schedules? It
mostly varies depending on the club, the, the circuit that
you're fishing. So like the lbaa, you know, they have regulars
that fish theirs. The WBT have regulars that fish theirs. And the East
Texas lady Anglers, they have regulars that fish there. And some of them fish
all three. So, you know, like I
(27:21):
said, it just depends because, you know, the WBP and
WBT and the East Texas ladies,
they fish more regional, closer to home, where
the LBAA is going to go to Florida and North Carolina
and, you know, they're going to go further away and not everybody can
make those long trips. Oh, that makes sense. And
(27:42):
so you were saying that you're a co angler. Are you
considered a professional angler or just the person with the boat is the
professional? The LBAA is a.
They're all professional leagues. So all three of
them are professional leagues. So even though you are co angler,
you are considered a pro. Okay. Because that's.
(28:05):
I, I don't know if you can see on the screen I have you as
lady angler. Because I was like, I don't know if I write professional lady
angler. Like, I wasn't sure what the title. So I was like, I don't want
to put something incorrectly
because, I mean, I could make up my own wonderful title for you,
but. Hey, guys, are
(28:27):
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(28:49):
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We've talked a little bit about your tournaments, or I should say probably quite a
bit about your tournaments. But I also mentioned that I met you
at the she Never Quit event and are you going to be
doing that again this coming year? So I'm really Glad you
(29:12):
asked that. So, yes, I will be at. She never quit next year at G2
Ranch. And I was just recently
elected as a board member for woma. Oh my gosh.
Congratulations. Yeah, I'm really
excited about that. I'm gonna try and help, you know, get some
more fishing events and you know, be on
(29:34):
the angling side more than the shooting side. I'll let you guys handle
that. Even though I like to go and participate. That's yalls
expertise. So hopefully we can get more,
you know, fishing events. And I know G2 Ranch has got several,
several lakes on it. And I think that's going to be part of the
curriculum next year. Very good. Well, I'm glad.
(29:56):
I am glad I asked. And now yet now I've got
a whole bunch of other questions that are going to go through my head. I
always have these like influx of questions and I try to keep
on one path because sometimes I just see a squirrel and head off the other
direction. But I know last year you were
teaching at the event. What's your goal
(30:16):
when you're. When you're teaching at those kinds of things?
Mostly it's just to bring new blood into the
sport, you know, to show folks that, you know, ladies,
kids, adults, men, whoever,
you know, that it's not really as hard as you think it is.
And you can do this too. Even though you think you
(30:39):
can't do it and it looks really complicated. It's not that bad.
And you know, you can get out there and throw a rod and you can
throw a bait and you know, you can catch a fish.
Awesome. Did they catch some fish last year? I. I'm usually
teaching archery while you guys are fishing. So I'm always kind of bummed that I
don't get to see what the fishing is doing. But did you guys catch
(31:02):
some fish? So actually we just did a casting class
in the card. So, you know, it was basically just a
beginners. You know, here's how you hold a rod, here's how you open
the bail. You know, this is the motion you use to cast.
And because most of the ladies that were there last
year that, that came out had never held a rod in their
(31:24):
hand. It's super basic and you
know, I had casting weights on and they're still one of my casting
weights in the. One of the trees out there.
Bless her heart. I don't remember who it was, but she cast it. As soon
as she let go, a big huge gust of wind came up because, you
know, it's always windy in Texas. And it straight into the
(31:47):
tree. And she was like, oh, my God. I'm
like, don't worry, it's not that big deal. I have more,
you know, so we just went over there and cut it off and. And tied
another one on, you know, and went back to. Went back to casting. So. But,
yeah, it's super fun to see, you know, everybody's eyes light up when they actually
make it, what they call a decent cast, their first time, and,
(32:09):
oh, I can do this, you know, So I
know last year at the. The Pan American was in
Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is not far from where I live.
So I, I went over and they did a
kids derby on the catfish pond right there at the
marina. And so, you know, we got to teach the kids to, you
(32:31):
know, we would cast and then we would teach them to cast.
And a lot of them, it was their first time to ever catch a fish,
and they were catching catfish out of the catfish pond. And, you know,
just to see their. The looks on their faces, you know, when they would catch
that first fish and they would get so excited, you take it
off the hook and you try to hand it to them, you say, okay, now
you have to touch it. No, I'm not touching it.
(32:55):
And hopefully they outgrow that eventually. Right?
Do you do a lot of teaching? And you. I knew about. She never quit,
but now you're mentioning the youth thing. Do you do a lot of
stuff like that? Like, do you volunteer or do you do it for work
also? I would. No, it's not my
work. It would be better if it were my work. But,
(33:17):
you know, when I get an opportunity to go out and help, you know, especially
help kids or ladies or, you know, anybody who's trying to get into
fishing, you know, I'm always for that because that's how we're
going to make the sport grow. Yeah, you can't. We can't just enjoy
it for ourselves. You gotta pass it on to the next generation. And
I, too, do a lot of that, and I, too, do it for
(33:39):
volunteering as well. But the smiles are the payment, I
think. And I think down the road, too, as you mentioned, just
passing it on and having other people understand,
like, what you do and stuff like that is really great. When
you were teaching at she never quit, did you give them a
background about yourself and what you do?
(34:01):
Yeah, a little bit. I did, you know,
just kind of hit the highlights and. And, you know, just so they knew
that I, I really did know what I was talking about a little bit anyway.
So. And so go
ahead. Really? So, yeah.
And so this year, when you go to teach, tell
(34:23):
me if you can practice right now, like, introduce
yourself to the class.
So let's see here. I'm Rhonda Pitts,
and I do tournament fishing. I was
on the USA Bass team in
2024, and we went to Canada and won the
(34:45):
gold medal for USA at the Black
Best World Championship. So we're going to be doing a
little casting today. I'm going to give you some tech tips and techniques and get
you where you can throw the rod and the bait and make it land
where you. Want it to perfect. You've been practicing
already, and I only wanted to put you on the
(35:07):
spot for that because you seem like you're very modest, which actually a lot of
volunteers at Sheena Rakute are very modest about what they've
accomplished in their lives. And I've always been
taught, like, to not brag about yourself, but there are times where I
feel like you should. You should. And I don't call it bragging,
but let people know your accomplishments because you've worked hard for those
(35:29):
accomplishments. And I. I think you should be very proud about them because I'm proud
for you. Well, thank you. I'm. I'm pretty proud for them
myself. And like you said, if they don't know who you are, they don't know
who you are. And the only way they're going to find out is if
you tell them. So. It's kind of old, you know? If you don't know,
you don't know what you don't know. Very true. And I think
(35:51):
sometimes with the small little circles we have in social media, people
assume that you know who they are. And
I really feel bad sometimes because, as I said, I don't spend a lot
of time searching around on social media. I might open it
and scroll a couple scrolls and I'm out, you know?
And I have some ladies that I admire them, I
(36:13):
know who they are, but they don't ever show up in whatever Facebook
or Instagram or whoever wants to put in my face. So I don't see them.
And one of them I hadn't seen in probably eight or nine years. And
I saw last year at a conference, and I
felt really bad because I didn't recognize them, which I'm. I'm
older, too, you know, like, whatever. And I'm not saying that they looked old or
(36:35):
anything, but I just. It didn't dawn on me who it was till they had
walked away. And I felt like I was very rude. But I think
sometimes. And even people who follow us on social media, we feel
like we're friends. And then you see them in person, and I'm like, who are
you? Like, I don't know. So. So don't feel bad
if you see Mia and you have to introduce yourself, because I really do try
(36:57):
to remember. But sometimes it's. It's a lot.
And, you know, the USA Bass team
is in Italy right now fishing the world tournament.
And Joey Fuentes is a Bassmaster
elite pro, and he's from Arkansas,
(37:17):
and he always wears a cowboy hat when he's fishing.
And they took team photos and had
everybody had to wear the USA Bass ball cap.
And so I'm looking at the photo and I'm like, I know who that is.
I know who that is. And I'm like, who is that on the end of
there? And so I really had to. And it was Joey, but
(37:39):
he didn't have his cowboy hat on, so it was
harder to recognize him. So when you're used to seeing. When you see
folks on social media and their pictures and they've got, like, their jersey on and
their ball cap on and, you know, all of the things,
and then you meet them in real life and they have street clothes
on, well, you don't look the same as you do when you're on the water
(38:02):
or in the woods or, you know, at the gun range or. Or wherever
it is that, you know, you're used to seeing folks on social media.
So, yeah, it's like, you know, you dress
up pretty good. Very true. Well,
now you've given me another excuse for when I don't recognize
people. You look different without your camouflage
(38:24):
on or your winter coat. I actually did. I did have that with one of
the more, um. I mean, in the outdoor hunting industry.
One of the more a listers several years ago walked past me
and the gentleman, he was very slender, and from his
shows, I guess, because he always had a winter coat on, I thought he was
much larger person. And my daughter was so embarrassed because
(38:47):
I didn't recognize him. And I was like, oh, my God. And so
humiliated. Well, you know, and the camera
does add weight to you also. So, you know, when you do meet some
folks, it's like, okay, that's not really what I was
expecting, but cool. Dang it.
Well, just for the listeners, I'm not trying to make excuses.
(39:08):
I just sometimes have it happen, and it is quite embarrassing.
Start talking. That's when I recognize them, because
I have a thing with voices. And so,
you know, I can recognize someone's voice from another room and,
and know who's talking. So you know, once, once.
(39:29):
Once the vocal cords start up, then you know, I can
generally key and key in on who it is, especially if I've met him
before. If it's someone who's just social media
friend, then yeah, it may happen or it may
not, so. Right. Yeah. And I'm with you on that one. I've always
been one that I can recognize voices and. Or like you're on
(39:51):
the phone and you hear somebody and it's like, I know this is what they
look like. You see them in person. They don't. But then I still remember who
they were because of their voice. So that's very cool. And this
year at she Never Quit last year, did you have tournaments you
went to or you came from work and I know you didn't get to spend
the whole entire time there, but do you think you'll get to spend the whole
(40:13):
time at she Never Quit this coming year? Yeah, I think it
was more. It was one of those deals. Like I
said, time is my enemy. And I had so many things on the books
last year pre planned and so, you know, I,
I only had so much time available and so. But
this year I knew well in advance. So I'm planning to be there
(40:36):
for the entire time and I'm really looking forward to it
also. So the G2 ranch looks super amazing and
I, you know, I can't wait to get out there. Yeah, and I am
excited to see that too. There's been some other events that have been there for
other organizations that I work with. And I'm like, they must be doing
something right because they're attracting people. So this is good. And I
(40:58):
am excited about the additional fishing and that's something that I,
I look forward to seeing. Hopefully I can see someday like
what you all are doing during fishing. I don't know. One year we had
archery during the gun range part at one of the
events and I was able to go and see some of the afternoon
activities. So who knows what your schedule will be this year. But
(41:20):
I'm always just there for whatever anyone wants me to help with. So
nothing else. You and I may sneak out after dinner and go get that afternoon,
that late, late evening bite too. There you go. That would be good.
That'd be a nice. A nice what? A little break and go
decompress in between. Because even though it's fun to teach
and the ladies are just phenomenal women, sometimes it's nice
(41:43):
to just have a little quiet time and go and relax and
get a little getaway. Yeah, yeah. So, you
know that, that right there at dusk, you
know, they fish tend to show out a little bit, so.
We may have to hit that definitely.
And with Women's Outdoor Media Association, I'm looking
(42:05):
at my Founders Award over here on the wall. That's what I keep looking
at. Being a board member,
do you have a lot of responsibilities? Are you just helping coordinate
and organize? What kind of stuff are you doing with them?
Well, it's all very new because like I said, I was just elected like last
week. Oh, very new then.
(42:27):
And so I do know that, you know,
I'm going to help them with the fishing side of it and, you know, bring
that more to the forefront because, you know, predominantly it's been more
the shooting sports that they focused. So
now we're, you know, they're trying to branch out and hopefully I can
help them with that and give them some contacts and
(42:50):
go to ICAST with them and introduce them just
to certain folks and, you know, just
anything we can get the ladies doing where they're outside is a good thing.
Yeah. And I was going to ask you about ICAST if, what I was going
to ask is if you went with them this summer, but if you just got
elected. I don't know. Did you go this, this past summer to icast?
(43:12):
I did. I didn't have time to go this summer because I had to spend
two weeks in Canada. And then
right after Canada, I learned that I qualified for the
Classic in Oklahoma. So I was
home for just a few days and had to leave for that. So, no, I
did not have time to do iCast this year. So I hope I get to
(43:34):
do it next year. Maybe I'll win again and get
to go to the Pan Am. So
that's always fun to do. It sounds like it's a
blast. And it sounds like also, I mean, you said that there's
the different groups, the wbt, the
ETLA and stuff. Imagine you make
(43:56):
friends along the way since you're seeing some of the same people over and over
again and, and stuff like that. When you go and you travel
to these things, are you having to, like, what are some of your
expenses? Are you having hotels? Do you bring a camper? What, what kind
of, how does you, how do you make it work? So I
am not a camper girl. I, I'm, I,
(44:19):
I don't, I don't do the camper and I don't do camping so I'm
a hotel motel girl. So
yeah, so I'll, I usually go and rent a room
and you know, stay throughout the
tournament. And you know, fortunately a lot of the places
where the tournaments are held, they, the marina has like a motel
(44:41):
there and generally a fishing motel is
not the same price as a Holiday Inn. So that
helps out a lot. So. But yeah, yeah, you know, if
it's, you have to be there the night before to go to the meeting and
you know, do the boat draws and all of that and then, you know, you
fish the next day. If it's a one day event, then that's great. Then
(45:02):
I've only got to stay one night. Generally I can, you know, come
home the Saturday and.
But you know, the, like I said, the LBAA
generally have two day tournaments and the Classic was a three day tournament.
So I was there from Tuesday to Saturday.
And that seems like that could be a long time. I don't know. I've done
(45:24):
some vacations that are longer in hotels. But it's
something that I'm guessing the rewards of the fishing
tournament itself, like just the experience of being out there and living a healthy
life and stuff has got to be great. But do you also have the
expense of like an entry free, an entry fee and then are
you winning money if you win the tournament?
(45:46):
So yeah, there are entry fees that you have to pay and
normally at least the top three spots are
paid, you get a check. So
I covered my expenses that I, that I spent when
I won second place in Oklahoma. So
that, that always makes it nice. Yeah, so that's, that does make
(46:09):
it nice. I think it's super nice. Of course, I mean, I
imagine that's part of why people still do it
and have fun doing tournaments is because you want to try to be in the
top three and kind of make your money back
anyways is my guess. Is that kind of correct?
That. And you know, a lot of the ladies just do
(46:31):
it just for the camaraderie.
You know, it's
women in sports, especially when you're not a
teenager or 20 years old,
there's not a lot of places to go and have just
as strictly a women in sports event.
(46:53):
So, you know, and, and so that makes it nice. You, you know,
it's a bunch of friends getting together and you know, hooping and
hollering and carrying on and ragging on each other
and so. But yeah, it's a lot of fun and I think
a lot of them do it just strictly just because, you know, it's It's a
way to get out and be with other women. Yeah. And at
(47:16):
social and interaction. I've talked about it for a few years
now about how important that is, because it seems like
especially some of the younger generations, and you talked about doing stuff with the
youngsters. They aren't getting that social
interaction as much. I mean, hopefully they're having, you
know, students at school that they can make friends with and stuff. But it seems
(47:37):
like a lot of them are on their devices and doing that.
So different things that we do with women, it's like
the, the reward of seeing someone else be
successful sometimes to me is the best thing. And like, I'm
thinking of that because I have some mentored women's hunts that are coming
up and most of the time I'm not a hunter.
(48:00):
I'm just there helping and making sure they're safe or, you know, helping
them with their gear, giving them tips and suggestions. And
then to see them be successful is so rewarding to me.
So you had mentioned, and I still keep laughing about, you know,
kicking teeth in. And I know you don't mean that literally, but, you know, it's
like you said, the banter back and forth is, it's gotta be fun.
(48:22):
And just you talked about the
outdoors and vitamin D. But also that interaction, I'm sure
has helped with the health as well. Oh, yeah. So, you
know, it's totally a social event. You know, like I said, the
competition is there, but at the same time,
if you've got certain ones you can go to and go,
(48:44):
okay, I used all of these. Do you have any of them? And they'll
say, oh yeah, I got some over here. You know, and they'll, they share with
each other and they take care of each other. If somebody has boat problems
or issues, you know, nobody thinks anything about,
I gotta go and get so and so because their boats broke down
and so, you know, they take care of each other on the water. But
(49:06):
like I said, you know, they, they do, they do have the
competitive side to them, but at the same time, they want to make sure that
everybody comes in just like they went out and everybody's safe
while they're out there doing it. Yeah, that's outstanding. It's
such a great thing that you guys are doing. And so you talked about, you
know, maybe you're out of whichever bait or whatever you
(49:27):
have, what kind of gear besides, you know, your
rod and your, your baits and stuff like that. What kind of gear
would a girl, a woman need to go just bass
Fishing for the day. So for the day, if
you're not on a boat, you know, basically your rod, your reel, and your baits,
you know, you can stand on the bank, you can go fishing. If you're in
(49:49):
a boat, you need your PFD personal flotation device.
Anytime the outboard motor is cranked up, you need to have
your PFD on. And so because
things happen so fast on the water that if you do get
thrown, you want to make sure that you're going to float.
And it doesn't matter how good of a swimmer you are, when you hit that
(50:11):
water at 60 miles an hour, it's like hitting the concrete.
So, you know, I will always
preach, you know, where your pfd.
Yeah. And basically, not much gear required. You've
got your tackle and then rod, reel, bait, and
pfd. That's it. You know. You know, if
(50:34):
it's raining, you may want some rain gear, and if
it's really cold, you may want to bundle up. But, yeah, I mean, that's the
great thing about fishing is you can go to Walmart, you can buy a rod
and reel combo, and then you can go around the corner and you can buy
a package of hooks and a spool of
lawn and a bag of, you know,
(50:55):
plastic worms, and you can go fishing and catch fish,
you know, so you don't have to spend a lot of money on
it to go out and enjoy it.
I wish I had that mindset. I don't have that mindset. I spent a year
buying gear and baits, and, you know,
(51:15):
when you get. Competitive, you're gonna spend more money. Well, you
know, July of 24, we
won Icast, which qualified us for the Pan Am this year. So
as soon as I got home, I started, and I knew we were going to
be fishing for smallmouth, and we don't have smallmouth in Arkansas,
so I knew that's what we were going to be doing. So I started buying
(51:37):
baits last July. Okay. That way I
didn't have to do it all at one time. But every month, you know, I
would. I would buy this and then I would buy that, and then something new
would come out. Oh, I bet that's really going to catch them, you know, and
so, yeah, I spent a year buying gear, and then, like I said,
I threw one type of bait the whole three days I
was there. And so. But that's how it works
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vorme.com miaanstein. And so
we've talked about bass. You've large mouth, smallmouth. Do
(52:45):
you fish for anything else or is that pretty much it? You said sometimes
you may come to Colorado for trout. Like what other fish do you go
after? So the Frying Pan river is one of my favorite
places to go and fish. I love to go there to
Basalt and, and fish there at the Rudy Dam.
And it is just so much fun. Now I do cheat and
(53:07):
I use, I don't, I don't use flies. I'm not a fly
fisherman. I do carry my spinning rod and
I'll use a rooster tail or a panther martin or something and. But
yeah, I love to come out there and go trout fishing.
Even if Joe and I make a trip out there for just a couple of
days, we're going to have a rod in the, in the, in the vehicle with
(53:28):
us and by at least one time go fishing while we're there.
They are fun and they are so pretty
and it's just, and it's just great to just stand there on the
side of the mountain with the river running in front of you and you know,
all of God's glory around you. Absolutely.
We were, we were actually on the Frying Pan one year
(53:51):
and we were catching fish. We caught quite a few fish that day. And we
get back in the truck and he looks at me and he goes, my hands
are cold. And I said, me too. We're just, you know, basically in T shirts,
you know, light jacket maybe. And we turn the vehicle
on and the temperature comes up and it was like 30 degrees
or something. It was like, it doesn't feel that cold. You didn't have the
(54:13):
humidity.
You know, you're dying because your bones hurt. But you know, it was, it was,
the sun was shining that day and it was just
beautiful. I caught about a 4 pound pound brown that day too. So. Yeah.
Oh yeah. That'll make you warm up. Yeah. Yeah. So my blood
pressure was kind of up that day.
(54:37):
How fun. And do you ever keep any of the fish or is it all
catch and release? Everything you do? Mostly we do catch
and Release a couple of times. Maybe in the
fall when it first starts cooling off and the water
temperatures start cooling off, we'll go
fishing for food. And when we do that, we,
(54:58):
we like to keep this. If it's bass, we like to keep, you know, 16
inches or under because we don't like the big fish. And
the more of those you can get out of your waters, especially if it's a
lake, the better off it is for the fishery anyway. So, you
know, we keep a, if we catch a boomer
copy, you know, we may catch, we may keep those, but
(55:20):
generally we just catch and release because, you know, we do have a freezer
full and we don't believe in taking more out than what we're putting
in. And so, you know, I want it to be there for the next
generation. Absolutely. And so if you had one tip
to give to somebody who wants to go fishing or if they are
already an angler, what kind of, what's one tip or advice
(55:42):
you would give them? Just keep at it and have fun at
it. You know, once you
catch that first fish, if you haven't already,
you'll be hooked. Hopefully,
hopefully not literally hooked. But sometimes that happens too.
(56:03):
But yeah, it's. And it's so much fun. You know, you got that. You
know, anglers have the same. The tug is my drug.
And so tug of that fish on the end of your line, that's your drug
and that's your adrenaline rush. And, you know, once you get him in the
boat and, or on the bank and you can
look at him and take your picture with him and put him back in there
(56:26):
and watch him go back in the water just as, just as healthy
as he come out of the water. To me, there's just something about that
that's just amazing.
Only sport that you can
capture, catch whatever you want to call it, your prey
and put them back in the same condition that they came to you in.
(56:50):
So, you know, if you're deer hunting or turkey hunting or squirrel hunting, you know,
in order to gain the animal, you know,
you have to put it down. But in fishing, you can still put it back
and it's alive. Right. And I was going to say trapping is one
also, but that's different. Episode I'll link to trapping in the show notes.
If anybody wants to learn more about trapping or if you have questions about
(57:13):
trapping, shoot me a message on social media and I'll
answer questions for you about that. But that also depends on your
state and your state's laws. So. But yes, you're Absolutely
right. And fish handling is something that we teach a lot. We do a lot
of fly fishing clinics, and I, I fish with whatever, but
we teach a lot about fish handling, especially with trout, because a
(57:34):
lot of people who have fished for some of the more hardy
fish don't understand how delicate a trout is. So that's
something that I've been trying to get one of my friends on
to talk about trout as well. But maybe in a future episode,
we'll get him on here and talk about different fish.
(57:55):
They are their own species, and like you said, they're delicate. You have to be
very gentle with them. You can't have them out of the water very long, long.
You can't hold them very tight. You know,
you want to make sure their slime coat stays on when you, when you do
hook them. And, you know, like I said, keep them in the
water as much as you can. You know, even. Even while you're taking pictures, you
(58:18):
know, pick them up, put them right back down in the water, and then pick
them up and put them right back down in the water because, you know, they
are fragile, but they're beautiful. They are beautiful. And
you talked about your big brown trout that it's,
it's so nice to fight a big fish like that, but they also get very
tired. So that's. Like I said, we can talk trout on a different episode.
(58:39):
But I just was super impressed about your season,
and I wanted to kind of share the excitement of your season with
the listeners, as well as some fishing and now a little bit
about the Women's Outdoor Media association, too.
Yeah, it's. It's been an amazing year, and, you know,
I'm just hoping I can keep up the momentum and keep it going
(59:01):
into 25, so. All right, well, we'll
be rooting for you. Will you let us know for the listeners, will you let
them know where they can follow your adventures and where they can
cheer you on, too? So I'm on Facebook and
Instagram. Rhonda Pitts fishing on Facebook and
Instagram. And also there's just Rhonda Pittsburgh, last
(59:24):
name is P, as in Paul I T S,
if you're not looking at the screen. So,
yeah, come follow me and share my
adventures. Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining me on
this show and for sharing some inspiration with the listeners. I really appreciate
it. Well, I appreciate you having me, Mia. It's been great. It
(59:46):
was great meeting you last year, and I'm looking forward to April,
and we're going to get to hang out and do it again.
Hey, this is Lloyd Bailey, the Armed Lutheran host of the Armed Lutheran
Radio Podcast, reminding you that the podcast you're
listening to is a proud member of the Self Defense Radio Network.
Check out all the great content@selfdefenseradio.net.
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