Cooper Gallant "I'm So Focused I Forget I Am In A Tournament" on MERCER-199

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
He's a Bass Master open winner. He's a three time Bass master.
Classic qualifier. Cooper Gallant joins me this
week. I'm Bob Cobb for the bass
master. Welcome to Mercer welcome one

(00:24):
welcome all friends, family, freeloaders, fish and freaks and
of course my humpers welcome into the awkward day honest
fishing podcast that goes by light, but by my last name,
which is Mercer. This is the 199th edition of the
Mercer podcast and you would think after saying that that
many times I'd be a lot smoother, but clearly I am not

(00:46):
Speaking of smooth. What a weekend, what AI mean
nothing really to talk about about from we'll get into it.
Big announcement, though. I got some big, big
announcements here. Not is 100 and 99th show.
Next week's our 200th show. We got a great incredible guest.
Somebody's never been in this show before.

(01:08):
Make sure you check that out. But before that show comes to
life, I have been teasing it fora little while for you guys.
I've been telling you, if you'reinto this show, I got some more
for you. If you did not check it out, you
need to check out the TNZ Podcast.
TNZ, why is my mouth not workingtoday?

(01:29):
I mean, literally, I have one skill on earth.
I move the hole that makes the words, but it's not moving
smoothly today. The TNZ Podcast with Tommy
Sanders Marks only kicked off last week on the Bassmaster
Channel, which is on bassmaster.com and I hope you
check that out. Incredible podcast, love hearing
from those guys, but it is a channel, so it has more than one

(01:51):
program. And I'm happy to let you know I
got another podcast that's right.
If you're into this, I got some more like this, but a little bit
different starting next Monday, February 17th.
I believe that is, is that is, am I correct?
Let me just check. Survey says a more professional

(02:13):
person would have known this before I started recording me.
Yes, February 17th, first thing in the morning, get over to
bassmaster.com and check out a brand new podcast called
Officially Unofficial. It's a lot like this podcast,
except a little faster paced. We're going to have four
different guests each show. We're going to broach some funny

(02:35):
topics, some controversial topics.
We're going to be kind of all over the place, but we are going
to get everybody's opinion, try to tell the story from all
sides. And I'm excited that if you're
into this particular brand of ofentertainment, there's more of
it. Bi weekly, officially unofficial

(02:59):
kicking off February 17th, a bassmaster.com on the Bassmaster
Channel first thing in the morning.
Make sure you check that out andplease support it.
I mean as I tell you guys, you guys are the whole reason that
this show has ever become anything in the for any reason.
I mean and without you guys, I am nothing.

(03:19):
So please don't abandoned me humpers get on over to the Bass
Master channel Monday morning for officially unofficial.
I can't wait to unveil it. It's it's a very cool project.
I am excited about it. It's not going to take away from
this show. We're going to be here each and
every Wednesday, but bi weekly on the Bassmaster channel you

(03:40):
can watch officially unofficial and I guess that means we have
officially announced it. We're going to alternate.
So one week you're going to see the TNZ podcast with Tommy
Sanders and Mark Zona, and then the next week you're going to
see officially unofficial and vice versa.
You know how that works. Bi weekly.
You can check it out. I'll be promoting it to Nauseam

(04:01):
on this show probably because asI said, I need you guys to make
it successful. So please go over there Monday
morning and blow it up and let me know what you think of that
podcast. It's going to be available other
places in time later in the week, but first thing Monday,
let's pull out your phone and and let's let's make a date

(04:23):
every single Monday that you go to the bass master channel and
check out Tommy and Zona becausetheir stuff is great and I
really enjoyed their podcast. They talked about a lot of stuff
that doesn't always get talked about and some more of that
happens on officially unofficial.
So make sure you check it out. It's really cool that bass is,

(04:46):
you know, doing this. I mean, a podcast used to be
just something you did in your basement.
You hope people watched well to get them behind.
It is really cool and I think you're going to enjoy it.
I think you're really going to well, I pray that you're going
to enjoy it. It's been a rough week for me.
Please make my week better by not only liking and commenting
and subscribing to this show, but also checking out officially

(05:08):
official, unofficially unofficial.
Why is my mouth not working? I mean, it has been a trying
week for me. I'll be honest, next week's
show, super big 200 show. Hard to believe that, you know,
over four years this show has been here each and every
Wednesday. I don't take weeks off.

(05:29):
I mean, there has been weeks where I should have took it off,
but I don't because I promised you guys at the beginning, I
will be there for you. And that streak will continue
each and every Wednesday, putting humpback in your hump
day and also Monday mornings with officially unofficial on
the Bassmaster channel. So please check that out.

(05:50):
Big show next week, obviously a huge guest, somebody I've wanted
to have on this show for a long time.
It is a very different conversation, a very cool
conversation and please make sure you check that out.
And in other news there there was a football game this week

(06:10):
and that wasn't fun. I mean, it wasn't fun for me.
It might have been fun for a lotof the world, but it wasn't fun
for me. And the Chiefs Kingdom.
That was an absolute trouncing. And we live in a weird world
where nobody takes onus for things.

(06:33):
I mean, it just feels like it ifsomething happens that you don't
like, there's always a reason. There's a there's an excuse.
I mean, it's the referees, it's who a player's dating.
It's all sorts of things. But I'm going to tell you, I got
one person. Well, I got one group to blame.

(06:54):
And, and, and listen up and listen loud.
Yeah, you can do that, right? I'm blaming one group.
Those freaking Philadelphia Eagles, those scoundrels.
They were just playing out better.
They trounced the Chiefs. Their defensive line is

(07:18):
incredible. I mean, their entire team, that
was a full effort. I mean, they're literally all
the Chiefs accomplished in that game was they stopped Barkley.
I mean, they, they stopped #26 and they did a pretty good job
of that. But when they stopped him, they
opened up the pass even more. And we learned how well-rounded

(07:40):
the Philadelphia Eagles are. And maybe I'm old fashioned, but
I believe in congratulating people when they beat you.
And congratulations to the Eagles fans.
I spoke a few podcasts ago abouthow much I love that part of the
world. There are some of the craziest
Bassmaster fans, One of the greatest weigh insurance in the

(08:00):
history of the sport happened right there on the Delaware
River. And I have enjoyed the last week
of watching. I mean, they, I guess they used
to grease the telephone poles. Now they're just, I mean, people
are taking them down and carrying them around town.
You guys deserve to win that game.
I ain't going to make any excuses.

(08:21):
But boy, that was painful to watch.
But after the last, you know #7 years the Chiefs have had, it's
going to happen. Sometimes You, I mean, you
cannot win them all. It is true.
And we clearly did not. Well, we didn't even close to
win that. I, I, I don't think we'd like,

(08:41):
we didn't win anything. None, none of it.
Patrick Mahomes was put in the pretzel and then the half
pretzel and then the full pretzel, and he was just wound
about and people are like, what?What was wrong with him?
Well, I mean, it doesn't matter what you do for a living.

(09:02):
Literally any job. You might be really good at it,
but tell me how good you'd be atit with those monsters running
at you. My man needs a little
protection, but hey, we still the Chiefs and and people will
hate us. Maybe some of people like to see
it and that that was fine, but Ifeel like the they ain't done.

(09:27):
They'll fix that line. They'll fix some pieces and and
so will the Eagles. The Eagles are a freaking great
team and look to be a great teamfor quite some time.
So if you don't like football chat, good news, it's over.
I'm not going to talk about football for a while because we

(09:48):
are right back into, I mean literally that's how my life
goes. The the football season starts
to end and I'm like only three more games, only two more games
out, one more game, no more games, no more football games.
Now it's all bass fishing all the time.
The Elite Series kicks off in a week's time, which is a crazy
busy week when you think of it. Monday, we're kicking off a

(10:10):
brand new podcast. Did I tell you about it?
February 17th, officially unofficial on the Bassmaster
channel, bassmaster.com. Please check it out there.
Just hit play. I mean, you don't have to watch
it, just hit play so that I don't get fired in the first
week of the podcast. And then we have our 200 show on
Wednesday, next Wednesday. And as if that's not enough big

(10:33):
things going on in one week, come Thursday we kick off the
Bassmaster Elite series on the St.
John's River. So life is good and it's just a
little better if you're an Eagles fan, that's all I'm
saying. It's just a little better.
But go Chiefs. The Elites is exciting though.

(10:54):
Let's change topics to somethinga little bit more positive.
Excited to see this season kick off.
Lot of questions about how the schedule will affect things.
And now we get to find out. We get to find out.
And I love the fine people of Palatka.
It's gonna be a fun event and a great week.
So if you're in Florida, we are in Palatka next week on the

(11:17):
Saint Johns River. And then the week after that we
are on Lake Okeechobee. So make sure you swing by, say
hello. I love to meet humpers.
And it sounds weird to people that don't watch this show, but
you guys understand. I mean, it's hump day and your
humpers, what are we going to call the people unofficially
unofficial? Are they still humpers?

(11:37):
Have to figure that out. I mean, it's Monday.
I mean, a Monday's always betterwhen you start with a hump.
OK, so I'll talk about this week's guest.
I'll. I'll rein things in.
A great dude. I've known him since he was
literally a child. And we have a great
conversation. This dude is so obsessed with, I

(12:01):
mean, a lot of people talk aboutthe young anglers and they, they
like to point, well, they're only good because of this.
I'll tell you, there's a lot of them that are great at
technology, but there's also a bunch of them that are just
successful because they're obsessed with it.
And that's what happens in everysingle sport, every single
business really. I mean, when you're obsessed

(12:23):
with it, when your life, nothingmatters to you but catching the
next bass, becoming the best at it, figuring out the best
pattern, you're always better atit.
And he is at the top of his gameright now.
And he is a joy to work with, a joy to call a friend and a joy
to call our hundred and 99th guest.

(12:47):
Without further ado, Cooper, theland coupe.
You got that special feeling right now.
That special feeling when you'reyou've left the snow.
You are free. You were in freaking Florida.
How does it feel? Feels good, Dave.
The offseason was brutal. I mean it, that was the longest

(13:07):
offseason I think I've ever had.Shot a lot going on.
We got some pretty gnarly weather.
We got a lot of snow this year. So it was, it was, it was rough,
but glad to be on the road, gladto be here in the warm weather
and glad to be back in my Nitro.Wow, getting emails business is

(13:29):
good. Speaking of business.
I thought I turned it off. Speaking of business, you got a
new hat on. Yeah.
Monster pretty jacked about thatI imagine.
Super pumped Dave. It's, it's literally a brand
I've wanted to work with since Iwas like super young, even my

(13:51):
snowboard days, you know, I grewup boarding competitively, did a
lot of skateboarding and. Business is good by the sounds
of things. I don't know why that's going
through my laptop. Well, you got to hit Do Not
Disturb on your laptop. How do you do that?

(14:13):
Well, up for the top corner, youshould see a little like, I
mean, you signed monster, but you can't figure out how to put
do not disturb on your damn up the top.
Do you have a Mac? Yeah.
Are you on a Mac? Yeah.
Well, so am I. So you get those two little bars
that are like, one goes foot, foot, and it's up along the top.

(14:36):
Click on that and you'll see this amazing thing will pop down
and it'll be like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, Do not
Disturb. Go to Do not Disturb and boom.
I literally have everything but do not disturb.
Isn't it on the others? My goodness.

(14:57):
This is bad, Yeah. Video, fax, Mic mode, Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth, AirDrop, Focus. Focus.
That's Do not disturb. That's code for do not disturb.
Hit focus. There wasn't.
I got it good. Wow.
Dings. Yeah, for those of you listening
that. Monster.

(15:17):
I'll never sign Monster. Just goes to show you.
You don't even have to know how to put on Do Not Disturb on your
laptop, and you too can sign Monster.
So since you were a snowboardinggeek, you wanted Monster.
Yeah, 100%. And I actually tried reaching
out to them back in 2017 and, you know, it's been a dream

(15:42):
sponsor ever since, even before I got into fishing, like I said,
through snowboarding, skateboarding.
And yeah, it's, it's crazy how it all happened.
You know, like, it was crazy howit all went down.
And to actually be like part of the team and part of the Monster
family is is, it still hasn't even really hit me, but it's

(16:04):
super cool and a lot of great people at Monster.
I got to go down to New York City for the PBR and got to meet
a lot of the guys. Oh, that's why you were there.
I thought you were just like, AIsaw you were in New York and we
texted, I'm like, what are you doing?
Like at rodeo, I'm like, I turned to Sarah and I'm like,
who knew? Coop's a big rodeo guy.
But now it all makes sense. Yeah, and I, I, I obviously kept

(16:29):
it hush. And I remember you asked me
like, what are you down there for?
I'm like, I just cheer with somebuddies.
I didn't want to jinx anything and just kind of kept it to
myself. And it all worked out.
And it's official part of the monster family.
And hopefully I can be with themfor many years to come.
But you know, I made a video like the announcement video, and
it's so funny looking back, likeliterally we grew up living off

(16:55):
monsters. Like I don't recommend this, but
me and my tournament partner Danny would literally bring two
or three monsters each on the boat, a bag of Doritos.
And that's what we lived on all week.
Like no water, just monster. And it's funny looking back at
all the videos because you can see it.
There's monster cans in the livewalls, They're in the net,

(17:15):
they're in the they're all over the place.
So it's funny looking back and it's, it's like I said, it's,
it's crazy that it all worked out and that that I'm a part of
it now. It's it's a dream come true for
sure. It's a dream sponsor.
How did it work out? Did you just stay on them or did
you meet the right contact? Yeah, no, I like I said, I

(17:37):
reached out. I reached out, tried reaching
out to them in 2017 and I'll tell you the story I was on.
I was pre practicing for the classicals on Ray Roberts
driving around and I got on Instagram message from someone
at Monster Energy saying hey ku,we'd like to chat.
And it wasn't the actual MonsterEnergy page.

(17:57):
It was someone who worked with Monster.
And I'm like, no, this can't be real.
This has got to be a scam. So I crept his profile.
It looked legit. So I sent to my number.
The following day, we hopped on a phone call and we're on the
phone for about, you know, 20 minutes, just chat and going
back and forth. And after I got off that phone
call, I'm like, man, this is legit.
Like, this isn't a scam. I thought for sure it was a

(18:19):
scam. And, you know, a few meetings
over the course of basically three months and then bunch of
back and forth. And then I went to that, you
know, with the rodeo and did allthat and got to meet them all.
And shortly after that, it was official but super random.
Yeah, like, just I would have nowhere, which is crazy.

(18:41):
I mean, like, I literally got this message on Instagram and I
was, I was like, Nah, this can'tbe real.
And it was real and it all worked out, but super, super
weird how it all went down. You know, I never knew anyone at
Monster. Yeah, it's crazy.
So how did they reach? Did they reach out to you
because you had reached out to them?

(19:02):
Or was it just a like, how did how did that person think to get
in touch with you? Yeah, so he just he saw me
through social media and he he actually fishes himself.
He loves fly fishing, he loves fishing.
And you know, he came across my YouTube channel.
He loved our multi species content, like all the road trip

(19:23):
videos we do. He loved the fact that I was
fishing the elite series. He loved the fact I was doing a
little bit of everything. You know, the boss tournaments
stuff back home stuff in the States or road trip stuff, multi
species kind of everything. And that's what made him reach
out. And he's like, yeah, I think I

(19:43):
think you'd be a good fit for the brand.
And and it kind of all just wentfrom there.
But yeah, he didn't he, he he only, he's only been working
with Monster for close to a yearnow, so he would have never
known. I even reached out to them back
in 2017. It was just such a coincidence.
I would all came back around, you know what I mean?

(20:06):
Yeah, yeah, it's wild. It's cool that it's cool that
Monster or somebody at Monster sees enough in the sport to get
involved because for a long timeI know when people reaching out
to companies like that, it was just like, yeah, yeah, that's
not not our market. That's not something we're
interested in. Did you have to sell them pretty
hard on fishing or because this person was into fishing, the

(20:30):
sale was kind of made somewhat. Yeah, it was kind of made
somewhat Dave. Yeah, he was into fishing.
He knows about the elites, he knows about MLF, the tournament
scene, the multi species stuff. Tyler Stewart, he fishes Major
League fishing. He's been with Monster.
For. Eight or nine years now and he's

(20:53):
been working with Tyler since he's been with Monster and he's
got to go to some tournaments with Major League Fishing and
he's got to see it all. He's seen all the Bassmaster
stuff, the Classic, the Elites. And over the past year he's got
more of an understanding of of what we do, what the
organizations do and who we are and what we do.

(21:13):
And he was all over it. He he loves it.
And I think it's just going to grow from here in the tournament
scene. Very cool, very cool.
Well congratulations dude, you're living your dream and now
you got your dream sponsor. Yeah, stuff, stuff.
'S working out pretty good coop.It is Dave, it is I, you know,

(21:35):
I, when I first got my truck andboat rapped, I had a moment
where I looked at it and I'm like, these are the people I
want to work with or try to workwith for the rest of my life.
Because truly, every single one of my sponsors on my truck and
boat, I believe in. I've, you know, those
relationships are there. I love the people I work with.

(21:56):
And again, all the people on my truck and boat are the people I
want to work with, hopefully forthe rest of my career.
Today's high tech fishing world can be a real pain in the neck,
especially if you're running thewrong mount.
Beat Down Outdoors, they bring the graph to you and they
support this podcast and care enough about you to make this a
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(22:18):
Now back to the show, a lot of the viewers probably don't
understand your history. And I've tried to explain to
people like when, when it why you have so much backing from so
many people, you know, especially in Canada, you know,
and it a lot of it's got to do with, I mean, dude, you were
that little kid who who said, you know, stood out obviously

(22:40):
because you were young, but said, man, this is something I
want to do. And you truly are like the like,
it's got to be 1% of the world if that they gets to be a little
kid and say, man, that's what I want to do for a living.
And and you're actually doing itand successfully doing it.
And it seems like it gets more and more successful every year.

(23:02):
Does has it started to feel normal to you yet?
Like, still feel like you're living a dream or do you still?
Or are you like, man, that yeah,this is what I do.
No, no, it definitely still feels like I'm living a dream.
I have to pinch myself all the time, you know, like that moment
I had with the truck the other day, looking at the rap times

(23:23):
when I'm on the stage, like going into this season on the
Elites. Like I feel like it's my first
year. I'm getting those nervous
jitters like I've never done it before.
And that'll all change when I get on the water.
I do stress off the water. I do get jitters.
I get nervous and I get like scatterbrained and I feel like
I'm not organized. I feel like I'm all over the

(23:45):
place and I feel like I'm not even ready.
But that happens every year thathappens in between tournaments.
But second, I get on the water, that kind of all goes away,
thank God. But yeah, no, it's, it's, I
definitely am living the dream 100%.
And I, I do, I do think about itevery like every other day.

(24:06):
I, I do pinch myself and, and I'm just so thankful I get to do
it. Dave, Like, like you said, I was
that kid. Like it feels like yesterday I
was 12 years old fishing the rivers and trying to get in
someone's bass boat to go bass fishing and kind of just trying
to fish for whatever growing up.And then, you know, did the
local stuff through the Bass Nation back home and that got

(24:27):
into fishing local tournaments with my own boat.
And then, you know, popped into the opens for two years and now
we're on the Elites. It's, it's been a crazy journey
and I've been so fortunate. I've been so lucky with the
support from my family, you know, parents, all my friends

(24:48):
and family friends who took me fishing growing up and my
sponsors, if you look at my sponsors now, pretty well, I've
been with every single one of them since the beginning.
And I'm just so appreciative because without that, Dave, I
promise you, I would not be ableto do what I'm doing.
Yeah, it's it's crazy. But again, I'm just thankful to

(25:11):
to be here doing. When you're not in the water,
you you've said you get rattled,you get.
So it's is the opposite of many people.
A lot of people need a bit of a break at the end of the season
and they need to get away and kind of decompress.
For you those the trying times like like by the sounds of it, I

(25:33):
mean, as soon as the tournament starts, that's when you finally
calm down. My offseason I'm the most
stressed and the most I'm the most stressed during my
offseason. Like my offseason is by far my
busiest time of the year, like by far.
Like from Christmas to now has been hectic.

(25:55):
Like it's been the busiest year I've ever had by far.
It's funny, weird. I, I've talked to some friends
back home about it. They're like, you know, they
want to go out and have drinks or whatever and go do some go
fish and ice fishing. And I'm like basically having to
say no because I have stuff I got to do, whether it's video
sponsor stuff, planning for nextyear, different things, ideas I

(26:17):
have. It's just non-stop through the
offseason, which is crazy because it should be our
offseason. We should be able to just like
lay back and, and I mean, I could, but I don't know.
I feel like that offseason helpsme prepare for next year or the
next one to 2-3 years. That's how I look at it.

(26:40):
Like my offseason, it's the moststressful, but when it's done,
it's put myself that far ahead to have a successful year or
successful next two years, if that makes sense.
Yeah, totally makes sense. Is it stressful because you're
that much busier or is it stressful because you're doing

(27:00):
things that stress you out as opposed to like I, I don't feel
like I've ever seen you while you're actually fishing
stressed. Like I, I go to fork when you
were rode that line wanting to be the, you know, you were the
only guy below 100 and, and, buteven there, that wasn't the
stress that you're explaining. I don't feel like, have you

(27:23):
always been that way? When you're on the water, the
stress floats away. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
And that's what I was saying earlier.
Like I like right now even I'm like kind of stressed and I just
feel very unorganized and, and like when I'm on the water, like
I just feel like I'm not dialed.But I got four days.
I've only really fished like oneday since I've been here.

(27:44):
So I might take a couple days toto feel, get that feeling.
I don't know how to describe it,but I get this feeling.
I'm like, OK, let's rock'n'roll.But I don't have that feeling
yet. But hopefully we do before we
start practice on the Saint John's.
But yeah, I I do stress and get a little scatter scatterbrained
and kind of disorganized and. All over the place.

(28:09):
But when I get on the water, that all goes away and I just
feel zoned in and got one job todo and that's try and catch the
five biggest boss four days in arow.
Do you? So is that just a time thing
like when you say you'll get to a point where you feel OK, like

(28:29):
is there boxes you need to check?
Like I got to get this organizedand that organized.
Or is it just you're stressed when you're not competing like?
Yeah, I think it's a little bit.Of both for sure.
There's definitely boxes that I need.
No, I need to check and then I go crazy like if I'm not
competing or if I'm not fishing,like if I go three weeks without

(28:51):
fishing and like most of us are like this, like I go cry.
I literally go through withdrawals.
I'm not joking, like I don't feel right.
It's bad. What?
What do you feel? Like when you're going through
those withdrawals, explain it tome.
You're doing pressed. Or just not happy.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't.

(29:12):
Know how to explain? I'm just like I just don't feel
I don't know. I just feel like I don't know.
I just get all I don't. Know I don't know how to.
Describe it. It's not that I'm not happy,
it's just like I just feel like I need to be fishing.
When you're fishing all year andthen you stop for three weeks or
stop for two months, it just feels weird and like you kind of

(29:32):
get out of that rhythm. And I just like being in that
rhythm. That's part of the job.
You we have our offseason and that's time to work and get
things done, right? Yeah.
No, and I get it. I mean, I go through the same
stuff like if I, if I'm not on the water for a certain period
of time, like Saros tell me you need, you need to fish like
because I'm. I don't know more.

(29:54):
Irritable you're just I mean I there's something that fishing
get that's the thing that and that's why I actually explain it
because I don't think anybody can really explain it properly.
But it there is something like this was.
I don't believe that this line of work for you was a choice.
Like I believe, like I've I've told you that your whole life I

(30:15):
was like had zero worries that you would make it in this sport.
I just didn't know if you'd makeit on the elites because that's
it's tough to get there. And not that I didn't think
you'd skill, but I'm like, oh, coop's going to make it because
coop is there is no Plan B really.
I mean, it's either I'm going tomake it on the elites or I'm
going to start ATV show or I'm going to do the YouTube thing or

(30:35):
probably a mixture of all of that.
Did you ever doubt at what pointin your life were you like,
yeah, this is this, I'm doing this for a living?
How young were you? It was.
Probably it was. Probably.
When I when I. Started going to the States and

(30:56):
when I started to realize that people were actually doing it
for a living like the the tournaments.
When I. Knew that there was a slim
chance of possibly being able todo it.
Like you can do it, but like there's a point where I didn't
think that was even a thing. But when I found out that it was
a thing like, for example, the the first classic I ever went to

(31:21):
or the there there's a bunch of different different times where
he I'm like, yeah, I need to I need to do this for a living.
Probably. Probably the one that sticks out
the most was that Boss Nation High School regional
championship on the Saint Lawrence River that me and my
tournament partner, you know, Danny Dave.
And we ended up winning that tournament.

(31:44):
And that's when I was like, OK, like that was our first win in
the States. I'm like, OK, we won in the
states. I guess it's kind of our home
waters. And then that was the tournament
that that got both me and Danny.Like, yeah, we need to start
doing more down here. And, and we did.
And we, you know, we fished tournaments down there and we
got our butts kicked. But the more we fished down

(32:07):
there and the more we talked to people and saw people compete
and. Fish new bodies of.
Water it just realized that if if there was a possibility to
try and do it for a living was there I just like you said, I
didn't really have a Plan B and it was one of those things
that's like I. Have to do it.

(32:29):
Like I just was so obsessed withit.
I'm like, I need to do it. I need to figure out a way.
And at the time I'm like, I don't know how I'm going to do
it. Like that seems like crazy, but
I'm like, there's got to be a way.
And I didn't figure out, you know, what that way was until
later on when I started doing the opens and things like that.
But yeah, it's, I don't know. It's, it's crazy how it all

(32:55):
happened for sure. How?
Much of your current life is spent obsessing over fish like.
Do you have any days? Where you don't think about
fishing? No.
Do you have any? Do you have any hours the like

(33:15):
outside of sleeping, do you haveany hours where you're just
like, I'm focused on non fishingthings.
Yeah. What do you think?
About. I'm not thinking about.
It 24/7 but. I'm thinking about it.
More times than none day for sure.
Every day, obviously, but yeah, I'm always thinking about it.
I'm obsessed with it. Do you?

(33:38):
Do you think about fishing more or girls more?
I'd say it's about. I'm trying to give.
You a good ratio here. With a solid 70. 30.
Towards 70 fishing. 30 girls. I don't know about that, do you?

(34:03):
Do you think that that will change as you get older or you
think it'll always 7030 life? Who knows?
We'll find out here, but right now that's, that's where I'm at.
You know I want to win a blue trophy, Dave.
Worse than anything. Yeah.

(34:23):
Yeah, I need to win one. Is it going to?
Happen this year, I hope. So I hope so.
I hope so. I mean, things have been pretty.
Good dude, I mean this is your third season.
I mean you've you've done OK. Let me ask you this really
honestly. If I said to when you first made

(34:45):
the elites when you weren't evenin the elites when me and you
did I had you do Bass live and you were still trying to qualify
for the elites. If I had to talk to you then and
we had a serious conversation and I wrote down OK, and three
years from now you'll have made every classic you try to, you'll
have Monster as a sponsor, you'll have a century belt,

(35:07):
you'll have won an open like is,are things going better than you
would have predicted at that point or things kind of right on
schedule? Yeah, I'd say they're going
better, Dave, than I predicted back then.
For sure, For sure, absolutely. I want to go better now.

(35:29):
I just I want now that I'm here,I want it, I want it to go
better. You know, I'm happy.
I'm very thankful for the last two years and making the
classics and having some good derbies.
But that's what's crazy. I us as anglers, I feel like we
get hungry and hungrier every year.
You know what I mean? Like it's crazy.

(35:50):
And I know that does need with time with some people or
everyone, like there's going to be a time where you.
You're you get. What's the word?
Complacent? Complacent.
Yeah. I hope I never experienced that.
I hope I continue to get hungry and hungry every year.

(36:10):
But going into this year, I'm the hungriest I've ever been.
And I say that every year, but Itruly mean it.
Like I'm I just want to get rocking and rolling.
What? Have you ever gotten complacent
in your life? I don't know that you have.
Like, I feel like you've been from the moment I met, you've

(36:32):
been on an upward trajectory. Even watching you finish your
finishes in Canada, you know, you're like, that dude's getting
better. And may from the outside, it
should just sort of seems like you're getting better every
single year. Yeah, I know.
I've never really. Been complacent, like I said,
like I hope I don't ever get like that.

(36:54):
Yeah, I just. Hope I can get hungry and hungry
every year. And I feel like as a competitive
bass fisherman, you need to, youknow, want to do better every
single year. If you don't want to do better,
you're not going to get better. So, like going in every year if
you have that feeling, Like the second I stopped getting that
feeling going into a season where I'm not very hungry, I'm

(37:14):
going to start getting worried. You know what I mean?
Yeah. I, I think that's a healthy
feeling to have, not just as a competitive angler.
I think that's life like I thinkyou should always want to, you
know what I mean? Like, I mean, I think it's good
to be thankful to look back at the end of the year and be like,
I'm thankful for everything I have around me, but you should

(37:36):
always want more. And I don't mean that just
financially or you know, possession wise, but you should
want. To get better.
Every single year. I mean, I would, I would hope.
I mean, I think I I just don't know that it's healthy.
If you don't feel that way, you just kind of yeah.
Punching. The clock out if you don't have

(37:58):
that feeling like if you're justlike, yeah, well we get hammered
on the weekend and then I'll go to work and talk about getting
hammered on the weekend. The next weekend.
I'm going to ever to get like. I mean, I think you drive is
very important to be happy 100%.Like I said, in order to be
competitive you have to have that drive and the second you

(38:18):
stop getting that drive is. Is when you stop.
Catching them as good and you start going downhill.
And like I said, if when that comes, if it ever comes, that's
that's what will worry me for sure.
Yeah. Yeah, I don't think it's coming
anytime soon. I think you're pretty obsessed
and pretty driven. Where does that come from?
Your family? Did your family early on tell

(38:42):
you follow your dreams or, or did they try?
I mean, I know how supportive they are now.
It's ridiculous. I mean, your dad travels
everywhere with you shooting video.
Your brothers, I mean, but were they always like that?
Was that kind of bred into you to be somebody who chases your
dreams? Yeah.
Like at first, they've always been supportive, but there's

(39:03):
definitely a time where, you know, my parents are like Coop.
You got to have a plan, but you got to figure out like what are
you going to do with your life? Or like you got to figure some
stuff out here kind of thing, right?
And they weren't very, they weren't that pushy, but there
was definitely a point where it's not that they didn't
believe in me, they just didn't understand.

(39:24):
They didn't understand the wholething and that it was there was
like this was even a thing whereyou could fish full time and.
Do it as your full time. Job but same thing with them as
they started coming down South and seeing it all they're like
OK wow and then you know my parents they've always been you
know super supportive, but when they started coming down they

(39:48):
that they're my biggest fans 100% they're always cheering me
on and you know and then as far as the filming stuff goes like.
That's something that we've. Always done with my brother.
You know, you're saying like my brother comes to some of the
tournaments and and that supports huge calling.
So good behind the camera and inthis day and age.

(40:11):
Content is. So key for your sponsors and,
and all that stuff. So that alone is is super
valuable to me and they support me huge that way.
And that's something I've done with Colin since we were very
young. We used to film our snowboard
and skateboard videos and we just brought it into fishing.
But yeah, Dad travels with me all year long.

(40:33):
Last year he came to every single Elite Series event and
it's so awesome having them there today because.
Like Lake Fork. For example, when I caught that
last five and a half pounder to get 100 lbs, like dad was in
another boat watching it all go down.
Yeah. Every.
Crazy moment that happened sinceI got on the elite series, Dad

(40:55):
has seen like he's been 20 feet from me in another boat, which
is so cool because like I look over dad and he's like behind
the camera, big smile on his face.
He's going like this and like that's the best feeling ever
just having him there and hopefully we can get mom out to
a few more this year. She came to a couple last year,

(41:15):
but man, it's it's pretty awesome the sport I get from
mom, dad, my brothers and and all my friends and family back
home. It's it's incredible you.
Always have a. Lot of people show up at the
Bass Master Classic and obviously I've been involved
with a bunch of classics now at this point, but I I've never

(41:37):
competed in a Bass Master Classic.
What does that feel like? Like that week, How is it
different? Yeah, it's just.
It it's a crazy week. Like you can't even explain it.
Like it's so hectic from the second we get there until we

(41:57):
leave. It's it's insane.
It's huge and you can't really explain it.
It's just one of those things you have to go to the classic to
to just see it and witness it all.
But as an angler and actually competing in it, it's it's wild.
We get treated like gold. Everyone at Boss is amazing.
They put on a great show and they make us feel super special

(42:22):
throughout the week. Dave, you make us feel crazy
special up on stage and but yeah, start to finish, it's
insane. It's fun, it's a good time.
Everyone's their friends, family, fans.
And it's funny because like throughout the week before we
even start the tournament, it's like holy, like we haven't even

(42:42):
started yet and it's like you'reall you're already drained.
Like you're already like it feels like you fished 2
back-to-back. Elite events is what it feels
like before you even fish day one of the classic.
That's how long of a week it is.But it's so fun.
There's a lot going on. The night of champions is super
cool. That's like one of my favorite
parts about it getting here. The Angler of the year speech

(43:03):
and watch all like like last year they played a lot of like
the old school footage. And that's super.
Cool. That's what gets the the
goosebumps going and the heart racing and it's just such a cool
experience. And and last year was a special
one to me. I've, I've talked about it
before, but the first classic I ever went to, Charles SIM,

(43:26):
another Canadian, fished it. 2016, Dave, I think.
I think so, yeah. Back in 2000. 716 and that was
the first classic I ever went to, so last year was their first
time back since then, so to compete on my second classic.
In Tulsa. Oklahoma where kind of it all

(43:48):
started for me like that dream to be up on that stage one day
that one like was like that one was super emotional for sure.
I remember blasting off in the morning, you called my name and
I'm like, holy smokes, this isn't real.
Like it was just crazy. I remember following Charles
around and following a bunch of the guys back then around and
just being a spectator on the water watching them.

(44:11):
And then Fast forward however many years we're out there
fishing it. And then not to mention sitting
in 5th or 6th place, going to Championship Sunday, like it
was, it was insane, honestly, Dave, like going into Sunday,
and I know I was, I know I was far behind, but I honestly got
that feeling of I think I'm going to win like I did

(44:34):
honestly. And obviously I didn't, I wasn't
even close, but I got that feeling and that is the best
feeling when you go out there onthe final day of the Bass
Monster Classic. With a shot.
Is like all you can ask for. And that was like, I mean, the
first classic I fished in Knoxville, I said we're not
going to be able to top that one.

(44:55):
It was my worst. Like I had a terrible finish.
I think I was like second last, but like that one was a super
emotional one. All our friends and family were
there. That was just a good classic.
Knoxville was such a good venue.And you know, Gus won too.
So that you had to be wrapped upin that, too.
Yeah. So like.

(45:16):
After that one, I'm like, there's no way we're going to be
able to top this Classic and youknow, last year it was pretty
Dang close and hopefully next year we can top last year AFCO.
Not only makes incredible outdoor clothing, but they care
about anglers. With their 10% pledge, AFCO and
the Shed family donate at least 10% of the company's profits to

(45:38):
conservation and making fishing better.
Now back to the show. How does it honestly?
Compare to when you sat watchingCharles weigh in, when you were
in the splash. Well, all these different times
and I've always thought it must be neat or different because you
were so driven that you, you know, you weren't just watching

(45:59):
it like a regular person that watches it like you were
watching it. I assume visualizing you know
I'm going to be there one day, but how does it now that you're
there? How does it compare to?
That dream at that time, was that dream unrealistic?
And you know, it's never going to be that big.
Or is is it bigger than what youhad dreamed?

(46:21):
Yeah, like I remember. I remember that classic with
Charles. I got those Splash tickets from
you and I was in the Splash welland there was no doubt in my
mind. I remember thinking like going
back to the thing, like I need to get here.
I never knew if I would but likein my head I'm like, I need to
like. I have to.
You know, when Charles made it, he was a Canadian and we've

(46:42):
talked about it before. Like there was a time where you
know. Canadians and people from.
The States didn't think Canadians could compete because
we only get to fish four months of the year.
And then like seeing the Johnsons and and Gussie and
then, you know, Charles out thatclassic, it's like it's
possible, 100% it's possible. Like the formula is pretty
simple. At the end of the day, it's hard

(47:02):
work. You have to have a passion for
it. You have to grind and you just
have to keep, keep at it and just look at that end goal and
figure out a way to get there. I mean, it's very, very hard,
but it's doable 100%. And I said that on stage because

(47:24):
when I was on stage, I, I saw a lot of kids in the stands.
And I remember when I was in thestands, I heard someone say that
and I can't remember who it was,but they said if there's any
kids out there that want to get up on this stage, you can.
And that. I remember it really like I'm
like, OK, so when I go on stage,I, I like to say that because I

(47:44):
know there is kids in the standsthat want to be up on that stage
one day and they need to know it's possible, right?
Because a lot of people don't think it's possible, but it is.
And yeah. Do.
You, as you mentioned, you know,there was not a lot of Canadians
competing. Now we're getting more

(48:04):
definitely. Did what?
Did watching them compete beforeyou do that just told you it was
possible, right That I mean, that's more levels to the story.
Charles Sims and then the Johnsons and Gussie and.
Gotcha. Gotcha.
What would you tell? What would today's coupe?

(48:25):
I imagine you've grown a lot since that first season on the
Elites. What would you tell if if you
had to give advice to that kid before day one take off of his
first Elite Series event? Would you give him any advice if
you could? Learn how to cull.

(48:50):
I'm the worst. Not what I was expecting.
I'm the worst. Color Dave.
And like I said, Dad's another bone.
He's I can just look over at himand see his frustration like
he's just like shaking his head,like getting mad.
I'm so bad at calling. I bet you last year I wasted two
hours over the course of every tournament day calling.

(49:10):
I don't, I ended. Up getting these why are you a
bad? Color.
I don't know my. Mind just I don't know what's
wrong with me. I just I forget what one goes
back every single time. Every time so.
What I did is I. I have I have one of those
Rapala scales, they're numbered 12345 so I don't know if it's

(49:32):
the numbers that mess with my head.
So I ended up getting acrylic markers, so the one's going to
be white, right, Because the onecall tag is white.
So now I'm going to go by color.So hopefully that'll help out a
little bit, but I don't know what it is.
I'm just, I'm so bad at it, likeso bad.
I don't know if it's because I'm, I feel like a lot of the
times I know, but in the back ofmy head it's like just double

(49:54):
check. I don't want to make any
mistakes. So that's part of it, but I
don't know, I need to get betterat that for sure.
Do you feel? Like you've made some culling
errors or just burns through time for you?
No, I've never made. A culling error.
It just burns through time and I've never made an error because
I spend so much time culling, even if I know the white ones

(50:16):
going back, I check it again anyway because I'm always second
guessing myself. Like what if it's not?
I just need. I don't know.
I don't know what my problem is,but I got to figure it out.
When you're in the water. Let's get inside your mind.
When you're on the water, what percentage of your time when in

(50:36):
a tournament, when you're competing, what percentage of
your time is totally focused on catching the next fish?
Like just focused on. Being the best you can.
Be that day and what percentage of it starts.
Starts to wander. Like, think about different
things, you know, What are we going to have for dinner

(50:57):
tonight? What, I wonder what so and so's
doing. Like does it wander at all?
I'll be honest with you. Dave, I get so focused that
sometimes I forget I'm even in atournament.
Come. On I'm not joking.
My first classic, The Tennessee River, I looked over at Colin,
my brother, he's filming. I'm like, dude, I just forgot I

(51:20):
was in a tournament and it's 1:00.
Like I like there was a pop. There's like there was like an
hour where I was so laser focused.
I was like, just like. And then I looked at my clock.
Like holy, an hour went by and I'm in a tournament.
I'm in the bass master class. Like I got.
AI don't know I. Think I just zone out and I just
kind of, I don't know. It's weird.

(51:41):
But it's a good thing, though, honestly.
Like I'd rather do that than scramble, right?
But no, I'm pretty, I'm pretty focused.
And I'm, yeah, I'm not thinking about what's for dinner that
night. You know, I'm, I'm thinking
about that next bite. I'm thinking about, you know,
what I need to do, where I need to go next.

(52:01):
Yeah, I'd say about 20. Percent of the day I'm not laser
focused. We're I kind of am too laser
focused. And then the other like 80 is
like me thinking of the next move or the next pitch or the
next bite kind of thing, if thatmakes sense.
So. When you zone.
Out like you did there. Do you fish?
Well, then like I in my head I'm, I'm like if somebody zoned

(52:24):
out there, they're not focused on anything but the next bite
and how everything. I mean that that must do you
think that's when you're at youryour peak or, or do you not have
to be totally that zoned out to fish at your peak?
Yeah, No, I don't have to. Be that totally zoned out.
Like I said, it's almost kind ofbad.
Like I get so zoned out like I just like I don't know.

(52:48):
I don't even know how to explainit.
I just get like, I don't know, it's weird.
Is that like a? So go ahead, go ahead.
No, I should say like like. I said, though I'd rather get
zoned out than than scrambling, and I don't know.
Is is that a? Pattern in your life, that Yeah.
Times where you where. Where you all that matters is

(53:10):
fishing like is is the rest here.
I mean, I, I think I can say andI, I, I don't think it's a
secret that. There's a lot of other parts.
Of your life that probably aren't as well put together as
bass fishing, would you agree 100%?
100%. Does that frustrate?
You or is that just the cost of being focused on a bass?

(53:34):
That's just the cost of. Being focused on the bass, I
guess do. You think everyone's like?
That that you compete against. Do you think the majority of
them are as focused as you are in competition or is it
different for everybody? I think it's different.
For everyone for sure, Dave. You know, I think there's people
like me where they're super focused 90 to 100% of the day.

(53:57):
I think there's guys that are 50% focused on what they're
doing and 50% focused on what other guys are doing.
It really all depends on the person.
Yeah, You think guys wonder. What other guys are doing?
Yeah, I definitely think. Yeah, why are they?

(54:19):
Wondering about those other guys?
Well, like other guys. Around them, right?
They're like, even if they're catching them like.
I don't know. Yeah, I gotcha.
I gotcha. You don't think about those.
Other guys, you're focused on what's going on in front of you,
right? Yeah, I'm assuming.
OK all. Right.

(54:39):
Where do you think you are 10 years from now?
Oh, I don't know. Dave, I don't know.
That's a good question, hopefully.
Hopefully I'm doing what? I'm doing now, hopefully I'm
still on the elite series. Hopefully we have at least one
blue trophy. Hopefully we can qualify for a
few more classics. Hopefully we can do more stuff

(55:00):
with the multi species fishing, which we're we're still doing
and which we love. I've always said like I almost
wish we could like end the eliteseason and like June, because I
just I would love to have like two months to travel and and do
some crazy fishing adventures. We you know, I I catch a 55 inch

(55:22):
muskie that gets my heart pumping just as much as catching
A6 pounder in the tournament. It really does.
It does. And you know, I don't care what
species it is. I just love catching fish.
With that being said. My biggest passion?
Is is the competitive side of bass fishing for sure, but love

(55:43):
doing it all and again, I hope in 10 years I'm still doing it
all. I'm hoping I can do the
multispecies stuff and continue to fish on the Bassmaster
release series. Do you?
Learn. Stuff on the multispecies, Stuff
that helps you in the bass world.
Yeah, yeah. And I think it just keeps you in

(56:05):
tuned, You know, you're, you're on the water, you're.
You're you're fishing. It doesn't matter what species
you're fishing for, just being on the water just keeps you in
tune with fishing and locating fish.
Whether it's a muskie, a bass, it just keeps you and it helps
you make decisions on the fly a lot easier, you know what I

(56:26):
mean? It's just click quicker when
you're on the water. It doesn't matter what you're
fishing for. I just feel like you, you make
decisions quicker and like sometimes you're not even
thinking about decision. It just like it just happens.
You're like, well, I need to like, you know what I mean?
That's when you're best, I thinkwhen you're not, when you're
just it's, it's just your go. I mean, I've watched anglers win

(56:52):
Angler of the Year, and that's the one trait that they all have
in common whenever they're just focused and, and it's like
success brings that focus, but it also brings that instinct
that you trust so much. Like whenever you're doubting
your instincts, it seems that's when an angler struggles the
most. But whenever you're like, yeah,
they're right there on that point.
They know they're there without even being there.

(57:14):
You just know. And whenever you're fishing like
that, that seems to be when anglers are at their best, for
sure. For sure.
And that's how I feel like and Inever used to be like that.
That's something I've just feel like I've, I've grown and gotten
better at over the past few years through the Opens and the
elites. And it's hard to do in fishing,

(57:35):
you know, it's hard to, you know, scrap a plan or it's hard
to make a move. It's hard to go somewhere you've
never fished during tournament hours.
It is. It's like one of the hardest
things to do in tournament fishing is just to roll with it.
Just go fish new water, figure something else out, figure it
out. And that happened to me a lot
last year. You know, I had terrible

(57:55):
practices and people, people always chirp me.
They're like, Oh yeah, bad practice.
And it's like, no, I did have a bad practice.
And I kind of just rolled with it and I went and figured it out
on the fly. And, and it's it's more fun
because like before a tournament, there's so much
unknown. Start putting the pieces of the
puzzle together during a tournament.
Like it's the best feeling ever.I'm actually going to be doing

(58:20):
another series this year, Dave. So we're doing like the chase,
right? All the tournament videos, but
I'm actually going to film and post all my practices.
So now people can't be calling me a sandbagger anymore because
they're actually going to see what goes down in practice.
And the reason I'm doing that isbecause, you know, people see
see us fishing in a tournament. I just feel like practice is

(58:42):
different. I always get asked the question
like, oh, how do you tackle a new body of water if you've
never been there before? What's going through your head
when you launch your boat in themorning on the Saint Johns
River? And I feel like some people
think we have like a formula. The second me backer bow down.
We do, but I I mean some people might, but I don't like I just I
literally just back the boat in and.

(59:04):
Go sometimes. I don't know if I'm going left,
right. I just, I just go.
So that's kind of what I want toshowcase is like.
How every tournaments? Different and what I'm thinking
throughout each practice day andhow I'm going to tackle that
body of water and figure it out in three days, you know what I

(59:25):
mean? And then if I don't figure
anything out, it's like they watch the practice video and
then they watch the tournament video and they're like, wow, he
actually didn't figure anything out in practice, but he figured
it out on the 4th day. That's kind of, I kind of want
to showcase that a little bit more, yeah.
So you go to a new body of wateryou've never been to you

(59:47):
realistically just back in and don't know whether you're going
to go left to right, like, do you not?
Have you? Surely you've done some research
and. Feel like OK well.
I this is what I need to look for like for like.
I mean, how free is it? Some tournaments are very free.

(01:00:09):
Saint Johns River is going to bevery free.
I don't know what I'm doing for that 10 idea.
I don't know if I'm going left or right.
I know I'm going to think about it until the night before
practice. But like you look at a.
Tournament like the Saint Lawrence, we're not going there
this year, but just for an example, like I know exactly
where I'm going to be going. I know exactly where the general

(01:00:31):
area I'm going to be fishing. So it really depends on what
tournament we go to. But there's definitely been
tournaments in the past where I literally launched my boat with
zero clue and I don't do much research because it hurts me
more than helps for sure. Big time.
Like it hurts me bad. Really.

(01:00:52):
Yeah. How like just waste time?
I just stuff. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. And I learnt that earlier on
when I was, you know, doing the coasters and stuff back then
like I would, I would do so muchresearch, Dave and I I thought
it never worked for me ever. And yeah.

(01:01:14):
I'll do, I'll do. General stuff, Dave, but like
like tournament results, like general, general stuff.
But I'm not the type of guy that's going to be zooming into
the graph to see where they caught it and like things like
that, you know what I mean? I'm not looking for the flagpole
on the bank to find out what shell bet he's fishing like
because that just, it hurts me every time.

(01:01:35):
I don't know why, it just does. And then I start thinking that's
what I need to be doing when I feel like I just need to do what
I'm comfortable in. That's one of the weirdest.
Things for me, I mean, obviouslyinformation waypoints has been a
big topic on the elite series ofthe last number, not just over
the last number of years. I mean, it's been more public

(01:01:57):
maybe last number of years, but it's always been a big topic.
But I also, I look at my personal situation and over the
years of shooting television shows, I mean, I've got lots of
information from people, but I can literally, and I'm not
talking about information a yearin advance.
I'm talking about information two weeks in advance, a week in

(01:02:17):
advance. But I can literally count on one
hand how many times I left thereand was like, yeah, that really
helped us outside of, you know, if you go somewhere and you've
got a guide or something, that'sone thing.
But I'm talking about just somebody saying, hey, you need
to be Keenan on this kind of structure.
You need to be in this area. Most of the time you do that,

(01:02:38):
it, it feels like it backfires on you.
Like you've at the end of the trip, you're like, we wasted an
entire day chasing that ghost. And then when we finally just
went fishing the way you wanted to fish, it works out and you're
like that. If I hadn't had, if I hadn't
chase that ghost for a day, how much more could I have learned?

(01:03:01):
Do you think that the waypoint thing is as big a deal?
I think it had just. Situational.
I think it all depends. On the fishery too, Dave.
Yeah, I. Mean like I can give you.
A waypoint to a boulder on the Saint Lawrence?
That's different. Yeah, guarantee you.
You're going to catch a 5 pounder almost every time,
right? Then you go to somewhere like

(01:03:23):
Okeechobee and you're like, oh go fish here.
There's hydrilla, whatever. And it's like, Oh well, that
was. Four months ago, a.
Hurricane rolled in, nothing that doesn't even exist anymore,
you know what I mean? So it all depends on the fishery
and like, time of year and it depends on.
There's a lot of variables there.
But yeah, I don't know. And it's one of those things,

(01:03:43):
too. I mean, it, it feels so much
better, Dave, figuring out on your own.
Yeah. Yeah, I.
Do you with? All of that kind of stuff.
I mean, the debates in the fishing world, I feel like you
kind of stay educated on it, butyou also kind of like there's
been several times throughout the year where me and you have

(01:04:06):
talked and you just been like. You're.
You don't let that stuff obsess your time, it feels like, from
the outside. Is that intentional or is that
just, again, the person you are?Yeah, it's just the person.
I am, I just don't, I don't know, I just like, especially
like all the negativity and all that stuff like I, I just like,

(01:04:29):
why like I'd rather just not even worry about it.
Just whatever. I I just don't honestly, I just
don't care. Like I don't, I don't want to be
a part of that. I don't want to be a part of
negativity at all. Try and stay away from that as
much as I can. I get it.
I get. It I I think that that's.

(01:04:51):
I mean I I. Obviously push positivity a lot,
but I mean, I, I push realism. Like I think there's things that
need to be talked about and things that need to be made
better. But ultimately I don't know
anyone in all of the time. I mean, this 15 seasons or
whatever, I've done this, I can yet to find someone that really
is in a negative mind space thatdoes really well or, and even if

(01:05:16):
you don't do any better, here's the thing, you're going to be
freaking happier. Like, like if, if, if I tell you
the world's out to get you repeatedly.
You're going to start to feel. Like the world's out to get you,
and not one thing has changed inyour situation.
Is that always how you were as asnowboarder?

(01:05:37):
Did you get wound up in the snowboarding controversies of
your childhood? Not really.
No, no, we had fun, Dave. We, we had fun.
I've always been like that, I mean.
I'll admit it, I'm. Negative, sometimes 100%.
We all are at points. I can get wound up and negative

(01:05:58):
about a lot of things, but if something comes up I do my best
to stay out of it. For sure.
Like you said, the second you become a negative person in the
fishing world, the tournament scene is in this game.
You have to stay positive all the time.
When you're on the water, you have to.
The second you start being negative is the second you

(01:06:20):
start. Not catching them. 100% and I've
been negative on the water and I've never caught them when when
I get frustrated and I'm negative about certain things,
yeah. I've run a Yamaha outboard for
over 30 years. It has got me home safe each and
every time. If you enjoy this podcast,

(01:06:40):
remember Yamaha supports it and they care enough about you to
make this ad read very short. Now back to the show.
Polnick had a. Great line when he won his last
Angler of the Year. And I'm going to get the quote
wrong, but it was something to the effect of some mornings I
wake up and I'm like, before I even get out of bed, he's like

(01:07:02):
some mornings I wake up and I'm like, I am going to blast him
today. And he says.
Then there's other mornings I wake up and I'm like, I'm.
Just not going to catch. Him today, this is going to be a
struggle and he said the crazy thing is like 80 to 90% of the
time it's right yeah, which. Which it just.
Proves 100%. What do you think the?

(01:07:26):
Most valuable lesson you've learned?
In your first few. Years on, the Elite series is.
I was going to say just do. Your own thing, it's.
A good lesson. Yeah, do your own.

(01:07:46):
Thing and and again, that's justhow I am, but I like doing my
own thing and I find when you doyour own thing, you're going to
make a lot of mistakes, but you're going to learn from those
mistakes and become a better angler at the end of it, I feel
like. And doing your own thing.
Also gives you confidence in yourself.

(01:08:10):
What do you think the toughest? Lesson you've learned in that
time is the toughest. Lesson I've learned.
We'll come back on that one, allright.
All right, I'll ask you a reallyeasy question.

(01:08:31):
What is the best part about yourjob?
The best part about my job? Man, I love.
The people, Dave, I've met so many cool people over the past.
Ever since I started. Coming down here, it's crazy.
So many have so many friends down here.

(01:08:51):
That's probably one of my favorite parts about it.
Obviously catching bass is superfun, competing on the Elite
series, super fun. But being able to travel and I
love being on the road and beingable to travel, fish and meet
people is the coolest thing ever.
I'll tell you a quick story. So I was I was pre practicing on

(01:09:13):
the Pasqua Tank River. We have a tournament there this
year and. Mainly just driving around.
There for three or four days, putting some hours on the
mercury. Just it's a big body of water.
It's huge. So just driving around.
But it got to the point I'm like, I'm going to go take a few
casts. So I pull a rod out of my rod
locker. I go up this Creek, start

(01:09:33):
flipping docks and I see this older gentleman walk down the
hill and I thought he was going to give me crap for fishing his
dog, right? His name was Gary.
And we talked for probably 30 seconds, right?
But I thought he's going to yellat me.
Super nice guy, just wanted to come say hi.
I got an e-mail and then I kept fishing along, did my own thing

(01:09:55):
and I got an e-mail the next dayfrom Gary.
He found my e-mail through my website and then my birthday was
the next day and he found that out through the Bassmaster
website. So he sent me an e-mail.
He said me and my wife Monya would love to have you over for
dinner tonight. And we also found out it's your
birthday and Monya would love tobake you a cake and damn.

(01:10:21):
So I went. And I ended up staying there for
two nights and they're the nicest people ever.
So now when I go down there, I got new friends and I love doing
that. You know, I love meeting new
people. And I literally said 30 words to
this guy and he asked me to havedinner and eat some cake for my
birthday. And I'm like, it's kind of
weird, I'll admit it. It's it's weird that I did that.

(01:10:43):
But looking back, I'm so glad I did it because they were the
nicest couple ever. And when we go back in a few
months, we're going to get together and not right there is
like one of my favorite parts about doing this is, is meeting
people. But that was just a crazy fun
story. I remember like.

(01:11:05):
My mom called me. My parents called me and they're
like, what do you mean you're going to this Gary guy?
Gary at Maria's. House.
Yeah. How?
Old is this Gary? Is he married?
And mom's Googling him, trying to make sure he's not a serial
killer and all this stuff. And just, it was funny.
But yeah, it was. I love doing that stuff.

(01:11:25):
I think it'd be super cool to film like a series, just like
travel the world and stay with random families and take them
fishing. I thought that always was
pretty. Cool, Did any party?
Yeah. Like, was that just your parents
thought that or were you like? What's this, Gary up?
To what do you mean? You want to bake me a birthday

(01:11:46):
cake? Are you just, you're just that
kind of dude. That was like, yeah, I'll go
there. There was part of me.
I'm like. I probably shouldn't.
Like it's kind of weird, like. Talk to this guy for. 30 seconds
and Money wants to bake me cake and he's going to make dinner.
But no, I'm like screw it. I like doing off the wall random

(01:12:08):
stuff like that. And I did.
And like I said, I'm so glad I did it.
Yeah, yeah. Was dinner.
Good. That was amazing.
You stayed. For two days, so I imagine it
was good. Yeah, the cake was.
Good. The beer was good, the dinner
was good. It was awesome.
That is. It's wild the amount of times

(01:12:29):
that happens, you know, like on tour where people, I mean,
Takumi, I know several times where somebody's like just
showing up, like I forget where we were, but there was like a
guy with a launch right across the street that had like a guest
house and he came over and he had some Asian connection.
He offered like all of the Asianguys, hey, you can stay with me.

(01:12:53):
And all of them kind of took down his name and said, well,
check that out in the future. Takumi showed up there the next
morning. Like Takumi, he's like boat ramp
I'm setting up, like he set up shop.
And but it it's true, the amountof people that you run into on
the road. I mean, there's always the weird
stories, but there is there's somany great people.

(01:13:14):
Do you think outdoors people arejust better people?
I think so, Dave. Yeah, there's.
A lot of. Very, very good people in the
outdoor industry, fish and hunting and.
That's one of the coolest parts.About what we do again is is the
people, so many nice people out there and.

(01:13:38):
Yeah, who knows? Who we're going to meet this
year, Yeah. And hey, Coop's a good guy.
I mean, he only only thinks of girls 30% of the time. 70% fish
and that's. Very.
Off very most people are the opposite we got.
To win a blue trophy, Dave, that's all that's on my mind
right now, all right? That's it.

(01:14:00):
So if I see any girls around you, I should tell them.
Get on go. He's he's focused on bigger
things, just. During derbies.
Oh, OK. It's very cool to see inside
your head and see how things aregoing you.
So now when will you go home? You're in Florida now.

(01:14:20):
You will go home when. I'm not too sure.
I actually might. So obviously here for the next
three weeks for our two back-to-back Florida events,
then we have a break and betweenFlorida and the Classic, I want
to try and fly home and do steelhead fishing off the beach.
Oh. That's fun.

(01:14:41):
It's super fun. And it usually happens give or
take first, second week of March, it can get really good.
So that's going to be right around the time when we're done.
So I might fly home and do that for a couple days if it's if
it's gone. But it's so fun.
We've talked about we need to dothat, Dave.
It's we do. We do we.
Need to make that happen. Do you do you do it right in

(01:15:02):
front of it? Like it's literally right where
you grew up, right? Like that's I mean, is that
where you're doing it right there?
Yeah, like the Bowmanville. Creek runs right, not in my
backyard, but within 32nd drive.And what happens for people that
are watching? There's steelhead go up all the
Lake Ontario tributaries in the springtime around March and.

(01:15:27):
Before they go up the. Rivers, they just cruise the
shores of Lake Ontario and even when they're going up the
rivers, they'll just cruise the banks and then they'll find the
river melt, they'll feel the warm water and but when they're
cruising the shores of the lake,you just bottom bounce.
So you throw out a, it's basically a Carolina rig with a
foot to a 2 foot lead. And then you have a row bag,

(01:15:49):
which is salmon eggs or trout eggs or brown trout eggs tied in
a sock with little floaties. So your row bag floats up and
you literally just cast it out there and set your rod up on a
stick, have a bonfire, hang out and wait for the rod to go off.
But it's fun once you hook one, they've got all of Lake Ontario
to fight and it's a lot of fun. And I want to, I'm, we're going

(01:16:13):
to try this too. You know Willie, right, Dave?
Yeah, Yeah. So Willie ended up getting me a
drone. So we're going to try droning
our row bags out into the lake and dropping them like past the
mud line. So that'll be pretty cool too,
because sometimes the pier and after a rain or something, you
can't get past the mud line and you won't get bit.

(01:16:35):
So we're going to try bringing the drone up and flying it out
past the mud line and then dropping it.
I'm pretty pumped for that. You there Dave?
Are you still there Coop? We're losing you.
You there? Yeah, I'm here.
But I lost there for a second. All good.

(01:16:57):
We'll cut that out. So you get it gets you're
getting the row bag out past themud line.
You've never done that before. I mean we've.
Been able to sometimes cast pastthe mud line, but sometimes the
mud line's too far. So like you have a drone and you
can fly to an extra fifty 7080 yards.
That's like the ticket and then like I think it it'll be cool.

(01:17:18):
So that's like a big part of whyI want to go home and do that.
Taking those shark. Skills.
Yeah, Steelhead. I don't know if it's ever been.
Done. I mean.
I don't know. I don't know anyone that's ever
done that. I mean, we're lucky you don't
have to do it most of the time. Yeah, it's pretty freaking good

(01:17:39):
fishing when it's happening it what it do you have like a
greatest single fishing moment? Like if you can't, can you like
do you have? The first one that came.
To mind when you said that, Dave, was that sturgeon we
caught in BC that one and then my my first bounce I caught, but

(01:18:01):
that sturgeon one was that was insane.
That was crazy. And it was such a cool story
because I remember we got down to the boat ramp.
We were there doing one of our road trip videos, and we met up
with a couple buddies that liveddown there, a guy we grew up
snowboarding with, Cam Vinstra and his two cousins, Brandon Van
Dyke and Ruben Van Dyke. And Ruben, the night before,

(01:18:24):
he's like, yeah, my buddy's going to take us out fishing in
the morning. We're like, oh, sweet, we're
going to go catch a sturgeon. We get down to the boat ramp in
the morning, and Ruben shakes this guy's hand.
And I look at Colin. Colin looks at me.
I'm like, I thought he knew him.Turns out he bought us a trip
and it was cool because every single one of us in the boat
caught a sturgeon and Ruben was like, no, you guys, you guys

(01:18:49):
catch him. I'm good boys.
Like, and he was the one that bought the trip.
We're like, dude, you bought this trip like you catch a
sturgeon, right? We're trying to give the rod to
him and he wouldn't take it. And every single one of us
caught one and the rod goes off and Ruben had not caught 1 yet.
And it was that giant. It was a, it was that 9/6 or
10/6. I think it was 10 foot 6 inches.

(01:19:10):
Such a big sturgeon. Ruben caught it took him an hour
and 55 minutes to reel in and hedid it all on his own and it was
the coolest thing ever. Our guide, it was the biggest
fish. He's beached, so like he was
like crying like it was a special moment.
It was super cool how it all went down.
We got that all on film too, which was even even cooler to

(01:19:31):
look back on and and watch againand relive it all.
Do you go back and? Watch stuff like that very often
or ever. Yeah, sometimes.
We'll do like, sometimes I'll beout like my brothers and we'll
watch like old snowboard videos that we have or skate videos and
fishing videos. And it's pretty funny, like, and

(01:19:54):
that's one of my favorite parts about filming, documenting it
all is because, like in it's going to be so funny and so cool
to watch in 20 years from now. Yeah.
Like this podcast podcast. In 20 years from now, I was
going to be like, holy smokes, you know what I mean?
Yeah, there's. Things you probably said today

(01:20:15):
that 20 years from now you'll look at and you'll be like, I
can't believe I ever even thought that 100%.
I can't just imagine. Klun's career, if he could have,
like if you could just go back and if he was chronicling all
those memories, it'd be insane, yeah.
Yeah. It's been a good.

(01:20:36):
Chat, I mean, when Wi-Fi has allowed us, yeah, I what's more
likely 10 years from now? More, more, more.
Likely 10 years from now you're a multi time elite series
champion or you have multiple children and you're married.

(01:21:00):
Who knows, Dave? Who knows?
See. You don't want to close the door
on that. So there is, is there are there
any ladies in your life Coop? Nothing.
Nothing serious, no. No, OK.
OK, it's time for chicks. Right now, it's time for.

(01:21:21):
Trophies. And guess what?
Chicks dig trophies, coop. Hopefully we.
Can get one this year whether it's blue or brown.
Yeah, that's good. I mean it's why win a blue one
when you can win the classic. I'm sick and tired.
Of hearing you say the only Canadian to never win a

(01:21:42):
tournament, but a said it once I.
Mean I mean it. In a good way.
It fires me up. It makes me hungrier.
So keep saying, all right, OK, I'll say it.
I'll. Say it.
I mean. I just say it for the I didn't
mean. That seriously like it?
It's bugging me. No, it motivates me if anything.
No, Yeah, Hopefully you're not saying that next year.
OK. Make it happen which event you

(01:22:05):
think. I have no idea.
Dave, leave it to the fish. Gods, yeah.
Yeah, OK. Leave it to the gods.
Any of them. I'll take any of them.
All right. All right, Well, I'll see you
soon. Yeah, Yeah, we'll.
See you in soon. Very soon, yeah.
Getting close coming. Up.

(01:22:26):
Yeah. Get your shit together.
Don't be so stressed. I know, I know.
It's the little things that stress me out, like I got to do
laundry. It's the little.
Things like the major things don't really stress me out.
It's the little things like I got to do laundry, I got to put
line on 7 reels and but we'll get dialed.
We got I'm going to take a day off here tomorrow or the day

(01:22:48):
after and get everything sorted and organized and have to do
something to get my head back init.
So what are? You doing that day, you just
kind of sit in your boat and make sure everything's lined up,
make sure everything's. Is that kind of what you do on
those days off? Yeah, more so.
Just like making sure I have everything, not so much get

(01:23:11):
organized. I'll be honest, I'm not very
organized to begin with. My boats probably one of the
messiest on tour. That's just how I've always
rolled. But no, it's more so just making
sure I've got everything in the boat, making sure my truck's
somewhat clean so someone can sit in the front seat.
Yeah, do an oil. Change on the Merc almost got

(01:23:32):
her broken in and just some little things tweaking my
electronics. Making sure everything.
Is good and ready to go. You got New Jersey.
This year with Monster, you got a new Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, nice. Yeah, it's.
I don't have it yet, but it should be here in the next day

(01:23:53):
or two. Cool.
Cool. I look forward to seeing it.
Yeah, I'm looking. Forward to seeing you, Dave.
Yeah. Good chat, ku.
Appreciate it, Dave. Always like chatting all.
Right, I'll see you soon. Yep, safe.
Travels travels to you as well. The one I only Cooper Gallant,

(01:24:15):
Gallanter Gallant. What are we going with?
If it doesn't matter. Like I said to you last year, I
don't even know what it is. Go on.
So if you met, if you. Met said girl and she said
what's your name? What would you tell her your
name is? Cooper Glenn So it's good, but I

(01:24:36):
said you want to like I've said that to people before.
It can't be. Both, dude.
Galant. Gallant, Oral Gallant.
Are we going to go? Gallant.
Yeah. And let's just make a.
Decision like once and for all. Your dad doesn't know what
direction it goes. I've asked multiple family
members. They're like Gallant, Gallant.
Like that's the ultimate Canadian thing.

(01:24:57):
Cooper, Gallant. Gallant.
Yeah. All right.
That's what it is. From now on, I'm not going to
ask anymore, OK? Monster Pro.
Cooper, Gallant. I think.
I think. I like.
Gallant, better Gallant, say Gallant.

(01:25:18):
Thanks. Dude, see ya.
As. Promised good stuff from Cooper
Gallant, not Gallant unless you want to.
I mean, I've literally asked multiple members of his family
and it's kind of whatever you want.
So I guess we've decided it is Cooper Gallant or Gallant if you

(01:25:38):
want to, a great dude. And so you want to know what it
takes to make it in the Elite series.
Well-being 26 years old and. Thinking about girls.
Only 30% of the time and bass 70% of the time.
I mean that I maybe just explains a lot about my.

(01:26:00):
Youth. That I am blown away by that
stat. I'm obsessed by fishing but I
don't I don't know that I was 7030.
Thanks Coop for being on the show.
Forgot to let you guys know. If you are in the local area and
you are going to the Toronto Spring Fishing and Boat Show,

(01:26:21):
make sure to come by there on Saturday at noon.
I will be there on Saturday at noon with the seminar one day
only. On Saturday I will be there, and
then after the seminar I'm goingto be hanging out in the BKK
Hooks booth. Make sure to swing by, say
hello. Love to meet The Humpers there.
And yeah, new podcast next week,officially unofficial February

(01:26:45):
17th. Monday, February 17th, Put in a
little hump in your Monday. What a way to start the week.
First thing in the morning. Get over to bassmaster.com.
The Bassmaster Channel, officially unofficial.
Our 200th show next Wednesday with a very surprise, incredible
guest. Let me know in the comments, who
do you think the guest will be? Throw some guesses out there.

(01:27:07):
They've never been on the show before.
That's that's my hint. For you and of course the Elite
series back in your life next week in Palatka, FL.
So lots going on. I didn't even get into it, but
there's a whole new halftime show that I'm doing with the
Elites and Kyle, Jesse and DaveyHyde and a whole bunch of us

(01:27:31):
involved in that. It's going to be a lot of fun.
So there is lots going on. While you want to get
downtrodden, there's some Youtubers who will have you
believe that the fishing industry is in peril.
There's a lot of new stuff coming, a lot of cool stuff
coming, and I am just happy to be part of it.

(01:27:51):
And a screw football season, efficient season is is much more
positive for me. You guys are awesome.
You guys make this show what it is.
Make sure to like, comment, subscribe, do all the things
that I asked you to do to strokethat algorithm and make a social
media cool and have a great week.

(01:28:14):
Enjoy being. And as always, Bob Kopp, why
don't you take it away? Thanks for watching.
Please like, comment and subscribe because Bob Cobb of
the Bassmasters told you to you here.

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