Dustin Connell "Hate Is Tackling Fuel" on MERCER-209

Alabama pro angler Dustin Connell is a former Elite Series champion and Rookie of the Year. He has stacked up 5 MLF wins and has won 3 out of the last 4 Redcrest Championships. Clearly DC  is a force to be reckoned with no matter where he is fishing. Hot off his most recent Redcrest win, he joins the podcast to catch up and share his take on today's tournament anglers, the need to work towards the good and using the haters as nothing more than motivation or as he calls it “tackling fuel”. 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You guys asked for him, so guesswhat, We got him.
He's a former Elite Series champion.
He's a former Elite Series rookie of the year.
He is a three time Red Crest champion.
That's right, DC Dustin Connell joins me this week.

(00:25):
I'm Bob Cobb for the Bassmaster.Welcome to Mercer.
Welcome, one. Welcome all friends, family,
freeloaders, fishing freaks, andof course, you, my humpers.
Happy hump day to each and everyone of you and welcome into
the awkwardly honest fishing podcast that goes by my last
name, which is Mercer. This is the 209th edition of the

(00:48):
Mercer Podcast and I hope wherever you're watching or
listening from that life is treating you well.
Moment of total honesty as you watch this.
I am not here, God willing, I amin Anderson, SC getting ready
for the four stop of the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite

(01:08):
series. Obviously on Lake Hartwell run
out of world class Green Pond Landing, so I look forward to
seeing everybody there. If you're in the local area,
make sure to swing by, check outaway and check out Take off Say
hello. I love to meet humpers, so give
me a holler. Tell me you're a humper and I
will gladly try to make my way over to say hello to you

(01:31):
wherever I am at. Set event.
Just come on out, it's a good time.
What's going on? Officially unofficial out
another episode. It's been a few weeks, but check
it out on bassmaster.com. That's another podcast that I
host. If you like this, you'll
probably like that. I mean I have 4 different guests

(01:51):
each episode and we kind of address a different topic, some
of them spicy, some of them totally made-up and this week's
is totally made-up. This week's is Should there be
fighting and fishing. It's all kind of comical and
fun. I mean it's not real, but if you
enjoy it, make sure you go over and check that out on
bassmaster.com and Bassmasters YouTube platforms and stuff

(02:15):
that'll be released throughout the week.
A fun show. I have Lee Livesey, I have Kyle
Patrick, I have Brock Mosley, and I have Matt Pangarak from
Bass Talk Live on this week's episode.
So make sure to check that out please, while you're checking
things out. It is an Elite Series week.
So Mercer in the morning, we'll be back.

(02:36):
That's a kind of impromptu walk around walk and talk that I do
with different Elite Series anglers and barely anyone that's
hanging out at the takeoff facility.
Who knows who I'll talk to. That happens one hour before
Elite Series takeoff. So this week we're scheduled to
take off at 7:00 AM, so we'll dothose around 6:00 AM.
You can see it on Instagram and YouTube, so please check that

(03:00):
out. I have to touch something that
is a tough topic and that is thetragedy that hit bass fishing
this past week. There's been several boat
accidents and one of which claimed multiple lives and it's
horrific. It's sad, it's, it's just

(03:26):
tragedy. And I would say something about
what happened, but I wasn't there and I think it's not fair
to comment and give an opinion of something that you really
don't know, although that that does happen and in this
situation happened a lot on the Internet.

(03:47):
I'm not doing that out of respect to all those who are
involved. My thoughts and prayers are with
you. And I get it, T's and P's are
not enough at a time like this, but it's also not the kind of
situation that you want to jump into and give an opinion on when
it is an uneducated opinion. So thoughts and prayers, be safe

(04:15):
out there. We're all going out just to
fish. Let's be safe.
This week's show, this will be afun one.
A dude that I don't get to talk to that much anymore, but you
guys asked for him and he is on the podcast, does a great job.
We talked about a lot of stuff, but really what kicked me off
and what wanted me to get him onthe show was when he won his

(04:39):
third Red Cross, second in a row, but his third in like 4
years. He is the freaking Kansas City
Chiefs of MLF was during his winning moment.
He took time to talk about how the world needs to get a lot
more positive and people need tonot take frustrations out on

(05:02):
somebody like Easton Fothergill,who is literally playing a sport
within the rules that are put infront of him.
And I just thought, how cool is it that somebody at the biggest
moment in their career takes that opportunity to say the
right things? And I think that's the kind of

(05:23):
stuff that should be rewarded inthe world.
And that's why I reached out to DC, and that's why he is on this
podcast. So without further ado, let's
jump into it right now. DC Dustin Connell.
We in this thing. It's been a while.

(05:44):
It has it's it's, it's been a little bit.
We've talked about chatting together several times, but it
never never came came about. And I'm glad to be here, man.
I appreciate you. Well, I'm glad to have you.
I mean, we don't get to see eachother that I mean, we get to see
it. I think I saw it.
I cast, had the the bro hug realquick at the bar, said hello but

(06:04):
we didn't really get the chance to talk so let's catch up.
Yeah, yeah, I've been, I've beenkind of busy the last couple
weeks. We had a good Crest at
Guntersville and it turned out great.
Awesome tournament, man. I'm still kind of riding high on
that. And then my little boy just

(06:25):
turned 1, so I've been doing daddy daycare stuff.
I'm literally out here about to clean the back of this yard up
from his party. And I mean, I actually pan the
camera around right there. I've got toy stuff every
everywhere so. So when you say party, like did
you have a party after winning or is this just your child's

(06:47):
everyday life? No.
We're going to have that party tomorrow night.
Come on. That was my son's first birthday
party was this past weekend and we're having a big celebration
tomorrow for Red Crest. Oh, can I ask you a favor?
And I mean, I'm asking you rightnow, So if I thought this in
advance, it'd be a much better podcast.

(07:08):
But let's just focus on the factthat I thought of it at some
time during tomorrow night during the party, like late,
like when you wouldn't normally do this kind of thing.
Can we just have a one minute check in from DC and I'll just
be like, hey, we're going live to DC in the future right now.
Here we are. We got the band player right
here. Here we are.

(07:30):
We're done with the crab. We've done 820 lbs.
We got everybody here. We're just hanging out.
What's going on? Shout out to Dave.
Let me slide over here, Dave real quick.
Show you something real quick, bud.
Here we go, baby. I, I I will definitely make that

(07:54):
happen. Yeah.
Yeah, we're, we'll we'll be partying pretty good.
So I'll make sure that I don't drink too many sweet teas.
No, please do, Please do. Please get all hopped up on on.
No doubt a lot of people come and said party.
Well, I think we have 40 people coming.

(08:16):
I've seen your crowd though. Your 40 is a strong 40.
Yeah, we got, we got, we got a bunch of guys coming.
I got Jacob coming, Mark Daniels, and then Adrian would
come. He lives in New Jersey.
And then I just got family and friends.
We're coming to hang out. And my buddy Russ is leading the

(08:41):
Open. He's leading the Open.
I texted him last night and I said, all right, go win the
Open, bring your trophy over here.
We'll have a big party with me and you.
So hopefully that pans out for him.
I don't know if his videos posted then now or later, but
yeah, yeah, my buddy, my he's going to be here, so it'll be
fun. Man I hope I didn't just jinx

(09:02):
him. No, you didn't.
You didn't. Nobody.
I mean, no, he won't. He won't watch this.
Nobody watches this podcast anyways.
Oh goodness, yeah. We're going to have a little
party, little get together. And yeah, Guntersville is
awesome. Man, I I love Guntersville that
likes Cray. I mean, it's crazy good.
And just the way that it kind ofwent down just running that far.

(09:22):
I was running like 70 miles up the river and catching brown
fish and spots and big largemouth.
God, somebody is cool. But I, I mean, surprisingly,
April is not my strong. I'm not a big time April
fisherman. I ain't even went fishing since
that that championship day, so. Why don't you like April?

(09:43):
Dude, they're spawning. I just let them do their deal.
I'll let them be finicky and geton bed.
Y'all do y'all deal, I'll catch y'all when you get done and when
there's a Chad spawn. That's just how I've always did
it. Give the love some space.
Yes, let them do their little deal.
Let them have their little rendezvous and get funky and,
you know, do their little grinding deal and then I'm done.

(10:06):
And I'm I'll, I'll let them do that and I'll go finish
afterwards. Probably a more successful
campaign when you think about it, rather than people being
like don't bed fish because of this, just be like, hey, you
know when you're about to. Yeah, I don't want to be
bothered. I don't want to be bothered.
Don't text me and call me. So when we last kind of got to

(10:31):
hang out a little more, I'd say things have gone good for you.
I mean, you've, you know, you, you took out that pesky Kevin
Van Damme and your rookie seasonand and then you went over to
MLF and forced him into retirement.
You know. That that was only a joke,
Kevin, sorry, Please don't disown me.
Oh yeah, Kevin. I love Kevin.

(10:54):
Yeah. So it has been a crazy ride.
So if you guys ain't familiar with which Dave is, I finished
on the Elite Series in 2017 and 2018 and it was awesome.
You know, I won my first tournament, Kevin was coming on
strong, golly, and that was at Ross Barnett.
So it's hard to believe that wasthat long ago.

(11:15):
And then, you know, of course, everything kind of happened and
MLF came along and I went that route and yeah, it's been a
crazy ride, man. It's been awesome.
Super Blasts had some great tournaments, had a few tough
ones, but that's part of the game.
And we just won the third Red Crest event, I mean at my third.
So it has been a wild ride. Pretty good, yes, It's been

(11:39):
pretty wild. So does it turn out that I was
the one slowing down your career?
No, no, I wouldn't say that. I, I will say this.
Sometimes I reminisce times of us on stage and then when I won
and I broke down and teared up and did all that.
So I remember them very vividly.Yeah.

(12:01):
Well, it's awesome to see what you're doing.
One of the things, one of the reasons that like you said, we'd
talked about doing this for a while, but one of the reasons
that I kind of jumped out to youis you took one of your like
moments for pro anglers are pretty small.
Like when you really look at like the actual big impact

(12:21):
moments and you took some of your time when you were having
that moment after Winnie your third red Crest and frequently
kind of stood up for Easton Fothergill, the Bassmaster
Classic champion, and and talkedabout how the world just needs
to be a freaking happier place. And that to me stood out as as

(12:45):
something very cool. So thank you for doing that.
Yeah, you know, I'll say this and I have in the in the past
and, and, you know, we're all wewe've all been guilty of being
somewhat negative or, you know, and I mean, I have myself at
times and, and it's just happens.
But there comes a point where I just feel like we we need to

(13:09):
love one another straight up. And that that that weighed on me
pretty hard. Dude, I was riding, I was
driving and it was like a coupledays after Easton had one and it
just for the the facts here. I don't know Easton.
I've seen Easton at the boat ramp a couple times on Wayla.

(13:29):
Totally egomaniac, just so you know.
Just He is so out in touch, he'sgonna.
Be a piece of trash? I don't know.
But he's about about as good a person as you'll ever be, yeah.
He seems like a great kid, you know, And I keep referring him
as a kid. I mean, he's a grown man.
He's 22 or something years old, but you know, I've seen him at

(13:49):
the boat ramp several times on Lake Lake.
And then he was always nice to me.
But you know, I got on there andI and I watched him win the
tournament. I watched the whole event and it
was just, it was entertaining seeing everything and just how
it went down. And I, I really got discouraged,
dude. I got like to the point where I
was like, this is really bad man, and I just couldn't handle

(14:15):
it no more. I was like, dude, I'm I'm done
with this. Y'all can hate on me.
I can take the weapons. That's fine for the most part.
And then but when I started seeing all of that hate and all
of that negativity. What happened?
We're shut down. Where'd he go?

(14:35):
I'm going to tell you what happened here.
I forgot to tell him to put his phone and do not disturb.
He got a call because he just won the red Crest and now we're
going to have an awkward moment.He's probably going to show up
on the screen upside down. I'm going to have to coach him
to spin it around. And when he does this, Hey,
yeah, move back. Somebody called.

(14:57):
Yeah, that's what happened. You're 100%.
I heard you the whole time. Can you put it on Do Not
Disturb? Yeah, let me see if I can slow
this down. Sorry I'm not on my phone right
now. Oh, this is fine.
This is this is the kind of awkwardness that people love.
You could tune into a much more professional podcast, but we're
thankful that you chose to tune into the Yeah.

(15:19):
We're back now we're back. Look like nothing happened.
Totally professional. So anyway.
But now I was sitting there driving and, and do that wait on
me pretty hard. And I'm going to be like
completely honest right now, I just feel like the, the space
that we're in right now in, in bass fishing and, and you know,

(15:41):
we're, we're, this is a recreational sport.
It just is Dave. And we all know that.
And it's a fun sport and people go out and have fun and we do it
differently. We go out and we pay money and,
and entry fees and we try to winbig money.
I mean, $300,000 tournaments arehuge life changing events.
And I kind of go back to like Tuesday night tournaments.

(16:04):
Those are fun tournaments. Them them supposed to be fun.
And dude, it doesn't matter whether you're out there just
joy fishing or if you're out there on a Tuesday evening
tournament. If you want to use your
electronics and go catch bass, all power to you.
If you want to go flipping lay downs on the back of a muddy
Creek, all power to you. And there's a time and place for
everything. But I can tell you there's not

(16:25):
in my opinion, there's not a time and place to tear people
down and just be negative, man. They're just not and and and I
just, I feel like there needs tobe a call for unity.
And I'm not saying I'm the one to call that.
I'm just not because I'm not perfect myself, but I just
enough. I feel like it's enough.

(16:46):
And let's just come together andlove one another.
And if you, if you don't agree on something, let's just, you
know, let's do it silently. I'm not.
Now let me say this, Dave, I'll get I'll get a little nitty
greedy here. I have never.
So I'm not, I'm not saying this,I guess you would say

(17:11):
discounting someone's opinion. I'm not doing that.
No, no. Someone can have an opinion but
address it totally differently. So like, I respect everyone's
opinion. If you don't like something, you
can, it's free country. You can say whatever you say.
But I don't agree on the way a lot of people address it by

(17:34):
hating and down grading someone's abilities and telling
them that they're trash and thisand that.
And, and I just, I don't agree on that.
And I think we can all have a civil conversation about, I
mean, it kind of goes back to politics.
I don't have to agree on someone's stance and hate them.
I disagree and and hate them. I can just respectfully disagree

(17:58):
and we move along. Yeah, yeah.
And I think first of all, you said, I don't know if it's your
position. I think it's everybody's
position, to be honest. And I think that the bigger the
moment, the more onus is on somebody to point it in the
right direction. I think even the whole, the

(18:19):
whole positive, negative thing is now being spun by people as
like, Oh yeah, you just can't bepositive about everything.
Well, no, I mean so replace positive or negative with
destructive because that's what's happening.
Like you if if you love dude, I feel you.
Nothing will ever happen on a forward facing screen that is

(18:39):
going to be an 8 pounder eating a frog in my life.
But there's a way to say that you know, I love watching them
do this without tearing down andbeing like, yeah, that doesn't
take any skill. I mean anyways, it's.
Yeah, there's just ways to kind of shift around that.
And you can let your expression,you can express your feelings in

(19:00):
a certain way, but not in a lot of ways.
Not not cussing and, you know, just kind of just being ugly
toward other human, other people.
That's just not how I was kind of brought up.
If I disagree with somebody, I'll say OK.
And dude, I I don't really join in on a lot of things.

(19:20):
I've never really been that mostoutspoken person.
I mean, I'm just, I'll be honestwith you.
I'm still, I say this, it soundscliche, dude.
I still still feel like a kid out here just fishing and living
my dream. And I just, I did, I try to have
fun. I don't like we, we shoot
YouTube videos and we just have a good time and man it I don't,
I'm going to be honest with you,the day when a day comes where

(19:43):
I'm sick of all of this of the negativity and I can't go out
and enjoy fishing. I just won't do it no more.
I want to go and have fun. I want to launch my boat and
love the sport and love fishing.And we got to get back to when
somebody launches their boat at daylight and they see a little
fog on the water and. They they go out and like if

(20:06):
they catch 5, it's a great day if they catch 50 it's a great
day. Because dude, every day is a
blessing. It just.
That is the truth things. I mean, that's why you got into
this. That's before you ever thought
of doing this or any of this. Even if you had, if somebody had
said 01 day, you'll be a three time Red Crest champion, you'll

(20:28):
be doing this. When you were a kid, you, you
were like, yeah, that doesn't. I don't even know what that is.
What's a red Crest? Yeah, man.
But you did it because you just loved it.
Oh, it's my passion. I think it's all of our passion.
And I feel like whether you're, I just get, I get so tired of

(20:53):
just looking at results. I mean, like people see the
results. They don't know the stories
behind a lot of these fish catches.
They don't know the stories behind these personalities.
They don't know, you know, what people are going through and you
have no idea what somebody's going through.
And, and, you know, to try to sum up what I was saying is, you

(21:13):
know, and I don't use this for any kind of leverage on the
situation. I could care less.
But like, dude, you don't know the troubles that I go through
and what Easton went through forsure, for sure, because my dude
was in a really bad spot from what I've heard and seen.
And, and the things that that hewent through and to overcome all
of that is that's awesome, man. That's a that is, that's

(21:37):
something to cheer on. You know, I mean, that's just
why we get up in the morning to see those things happen.
It's a, it's a wild time. It's a it's really a wild time
where, and I get it, if you put it in other sports, I mean,
there's rules that people don't like.

(22:00):
There's always going to be rulesthat you don't like, like name a
sport and you'd be like, well, Idon't like how they do this.
I don't like the overtime rules in the NFL or whatever.
But you don't watch somebody wina game and be like, well, he
sucks. He couldn't have won under the
real overtime rules. Like, I mean, and if you do,
you're nuts. I'm sure there's some people out

(22:22):
there that do that, but you knowwhat I'm saying?
Like, but why are we tearing down anybody in the sport?
Well, my thing is, is, you know,and I said this a while back to
a guy and I talked to him and I said, look, I said we got to get
to a point, this is a rough patch and we got to get to a

(22:43):
point where everyone just respects everybody.
And and it doesn't matter if you're out there in a John boat
and you're catching a limit of crappie every day using your
electronics or if you're fishinglay downs with little Barbie
Bobby Garland grubs and you're catching seven of them.

(23:04):
It doesn't matter. That's their business.
Like they're anglers. Yes, they're fishermen.
Like I never thought, and I saidthis in video, I never thought
there would be so much chaos over how someone reels in a or
how someone catches a bass. Are you like?
What? It's crazy, yeah.
I mean, growing up, if you drovepast a body of water and you saw

(23:26):
someone fishing, that's an angler.
You're not like, oh, that's a a lesser than.
The thing about it is, is and, and I'll, I'm sure people go in
on this. Oh yeah, he's benefited.
And I'll, and I'll be straight up to honest, I have benefited
tremendously off of my electronics.
And I will, you know, it's I've,I've seen it happening in 2019

(23:50):
or 2020. I saw it.
I saw this literally the first time that I saw it.
I was on Saint Clair and I rolled up and there was actually
Jacob, matter of fact, he had the first version of four facing
sonar. And I'm out there planking
around like we all used to do. I mean, Dave, you did it and

(24:13):
you, you plank around. If you get a bot, you hit a
waypoint, you go back to that area and you just mill around
and that's what you did. I mean, I still do that stuff
today, but I saw that and I wentoh wow.
And I have benefited tremendously off of it.
And it is a groundbreaking thingthat I love to do.
But you don't necessarily need that to go out and have fun and

(24:34):
go catch my ass. And I just won red crisp not
even using my electronics. So and they will be tournaments.
They will get one doing that andwhich ones won will not.
But to sum up, I just feel like that we all need to get on a
positive rope of things and part, you know, and pull in the
same direction and let's just bea unified as fisherman and all

(24:57):
come together. Yeah, yeah.
Amen. Preach on.
It's no different than, I mean, you see people that fly fish.
It seems peculiar to me. I'm like, embrace a gear ratio.
Why? Y'all got why all these fire
fishermen got to make 9 casts? Just whip that thing out.
There the whole theory is different.

(25:19):
It's the line carrying the bait as opposed to the bait carrying
the line and. I don't get it.
That ain't my deal. And it's the same way with kayak
guys. They go in the, I mean, no, no
offense to kayak guys. That's a totally different realm
to me. I, I, they got kayaks now that,
that have trolling motors that run 10 mile an hour on them and

(25:41):
I'm like, won't you just go get a boat?
I don't, you know, I don't know what that's that.
They are little tiny boats. They're like they are the boat,
so. But that's awesome to see.
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(26:04):
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Yeah, no, it's, it's. But you don't hold that against
anybody. You know what I mean?
When I see guys like Russ Snyder, who's dominated kayak
tournaments for a long time, I'm.
I'm like, damn good for you. You're a hammer over there.
Like it's it's so it's wild. Well, let's.

(26:27):
When did you. Do you remember the moment in
your life where you were like, damn, I got to fish forever?
So this is a little quick story.I've told this story before a
couple times. You know, when I, I grew up
fishing the Coosa River and I'vealways loved fishing.

(26:47):
I fell in love with tournament fishing when I was like 12.
And then I, I went and fished the opens and dude, I didn't.
I fished one or two opens and then I went, I got, I went
broke, didn't have any money to even pay entries.
I had to go work construction. And I put on hard hat for a year
or so, maybe a little more, saved up my money.

(27:09):
And then I won a Southern open on the Alabama River, which gave
me enough money to go out and try to do this.
And what I've learned, I've did this for 8:00 almost nine years
now is I still love fishing the same way that I did when I was

(27:29):
12. I dude, I'm going to go when we
get off this podcast, like I'm going and I, it's just in my
blood. I freaking love it.
I mean, and, and, and I'm not going to film today.
I don't do this strictly just cause of filming.
And it is my job and I try to domy best I can at it, but I just
want to go out and enjoy a day on the water and just fish.

(27:52):
I like reeling them suckers in. So I made that decision and it
really got real when I was in college.
And I know if there's any college guys out there listening
to this, it's a reality if you want it to be.
Because when I was in college, II was in engineering and I
changed my major. It was my junior year.

(28:14):
I said, no, I'm done with all this.
I'm going into marketing becauseI could graduate quicker.
I said, I'm going to go into marketing and then I'm going to
go and, and make a run at it. And there was not a Plan B plan
C plan. There was no other that will.
That was the plan. It was either do that or be 20

(28:35):
years later doing that. That's what I'm going to do.
You know, so you got to go all in if you want it bad enough.
And that goes for anything. So that was the, the stance that
I made on it. And I, I sold out to it.
Dude. I have.
I support a lot of days and a lot of time into this and it's
just cool to see the progressionof everything.

(28:58):
Did you ever, were you ever at apoint where you thought, Nah,
this or in your head, did that just not compute?
I mean, if one didn't work out, you just had to figure out the
next way. I never I there was times that I
doubted it. I there was times that I doubted
this. And a lot of that doubt comes

(29:21):
from do you, do you believe in, do you want to do you, can you
prove yourself and do you believe, believe in yourself.
And whenever I first got on the elite series, I was, it was such
a awesome tournament. I won that tournament.
Do that, help me out with confidence, of course.

(29:42):
But dude, it's, it costs a lot of money to get out here and
drive around. Dude, I'm, I'm driving, I'm
putting 30,000 miles on my truckand I've been, it costs so much
and the overhead it's still to this day is a lot.
And you got to have some coins to be out here and go play
because it is. I've seen the rough rides home.

(30:03):
I have, I have driven to New York and came home with $0.00
and didn't have nothing. And I'm like, oh, this is bad.
Your phone ain't lighting up. Nobody's texting you, calling
you, and that's pretty cut throat.
I've seen the bad and the good. So I try to stay like right
here, you get too high, don't get too low, Stay right here and

(30:23):
just keep grinding. Did you have, do you have
specific people that stand out to you that were like, yeah, you
can't do this? That motivated you?
Or was it just all support? I think doing anything you're
going to have haters, then that's a subject will pop on
here to minutes, but I think it doing anything.

(30:46):
If if you're trying to do something, you're going to have
people that are either a going to hate on you and be jealous.
You're going to have a very small circle that pull for you
even when you're down. And I've noticed that and I
remember ace speech and I don't know why this came to my head,

(31:09):
but Christie, Jason, he I think he won Saint Clair or one of
these tournaments and he said that on stage and it kind of
resonated with me talking about driving them long drives after
you lose tournaments and nobody,there ain't nobody there.
Big dog, you're driving home allalong.

(31:30):
You won't your phone won't even get a you won't even get a phone
call. Hey, man, keep your head up.
You won't get none of that, but when you win, your phones like
lit up. And I mean, that's the nature of
it. But there's a lot of lonely
times there when you're driving and you're like, Dang dude.
And I just came off 2 rough tournaments myself.
I go down to Florida and I didn't catch them and it just

(31:51):
didn't have nothing to do with the electronics, didn't have, I
just didn't catch them, never got on them.
Random bite here, random bite there, and that's going to
happen. So if you know that going into
this game, you're better off, you're going to lose more than
you win. Seems that's a pattern to win
championship events this year. Suck the 1st 2 events in Florida

(32:13):
because that's exactly what Houston did, destroy the
championship. I'll gladly suck the next two
tournaments if I can win the third tournament.
That's a good average. How do you how do you deal with
the hate though? Like can you totally block it

(32:35):
out because you guys? Get it.
Yeah, a lot of OK, so there was there was a time when Kevin, OK,
and I and I and I say Kevin because he is the GOAT of this

(32:55):
sport. And I'll just say this ton of
respect for Kevin. What he's did has been amazing.
He's an idol of mine still, but I feel like if I see him, I can
shake his hand and give him a hug.
And there was a time when Kevin kind of had a little drought and
I think it was in like he won three.

(33:16):
AO is I was actually a kid at the time and I went to the weigh
in and watched him win those. And a couple of them.
I was actually at the bridge when he won beeswax.
Dang, so was I. That was the last year I didn't
work for bass. I was shooting twit vids on that
bridge that day. That's crazy.

(33:37):
But there was a time when Kevin kind of had a little drought and
he didn't catch them two or three, you know, maybe a year or
so. And.
It was 5. Years, it was a time and, and,
and everybody, all these people came out of the woodworks.
Oh, Kevin's washed up. Kevin's done and they were how
you going to hate on the go to the sport?
How you going? How you going to count him out

(33:59):
anytime and then boom, Kevin wins Nolan, boom, Kevin wins
Nolan and then but you know, andit's like, oh, I thought thought
he was done. And then what's funny about it?
And and I didn't I didn't think that I was going to get on this
podcast and get like get this dive in this deep, but I I got
to and I might be putting a a target on my back here.

(34:19):
I don't know what's crazy is is people can have criticism, but
whenever someone proves them wrong, there is crickets like
church house mouse like crickets.
They they go into hiding. They don't come out and say they
don't come out and say, oh man proved us wrong man, good job.
Hey man, I was I was hating on you earlier.

(34:41):
Good job, though. No, they won't say nothing.
They won't. They crickets and I'm like, how
does this work? I mean, if someone if I follow
somebody and and I'm I'm one of the guy, you know, I'm one of
the guys that catch a lot of hate as well.
But I thought of that when Kevinwent in that little drought.

(35:03):
How you going to hate on a man? That's that has been the best in
this game ever And he's he's proving himself time.
Kevin's past the point of proving itself and but no, man,
a lot of that hate, you're goingto you're going to deal with
that. Easton will.
A lot of guys will. It's just point blank period.
I think the best way to deal with that is, is you don't

(35:25):
listen to it. You never, you just keep
trucking, man. You just do.
And they're going to, they're going to continue hating till
the end of time. And I don't know why people have
that nasty bad aspect about them.
So I don't let it phase me. I keep on trucking.
I use it as a as tackling fuel, you know what I mean?
Motivation. Yeah, little tackling fuel.

(35:48):
So I like that. So that's fine.
I can take it. I'll take the the weapons and if
I don't catch them, that's fine.We'll catch them at the next
one. So, but don't doubt a guy
because all you're doing is is really motivating him.
That's just what what I've seen and and that everybody has their

(36:10):
time. So I never doubt somebody,
somebody can have a bad season and you're going to have those
you're going to, but don't doubthim.
Don't tear him down. So you're telling me that your
your DMS are not full of messages from people that said
after you caught him with forward face and sonar that you
couldn't catch them with a forward face and sonar and then
after you won the championship without it they didn't reach out

(36:32):
to you? They didn't ever reach out.
They never asked me to go to getbreakfast at Waffle House.
They never did, man, they never did.
And the ones that I blocked, theones that I blocked, I honestly
almost went back and unblocked them and then send them a
message and saying how did this age did this age well for you?

(36:54):
But I'm not going to. I'm not that petty and I don't,
I don't really think about stufflike that.
So I don't really care. But I do enjoy the blog button
and I think we all should at times.
But enough with that. I don't even give these people
the the people and the hate and the negativity the time of day.
I don't think we should. I don't even.
Yeah, Amen. I love.

(37:20):
I mean, when you guys were on the Elites, I called you Money
Inc. Whatever you wanted.
The Ding, the Ding crew, whatever.
What? What it what?
Like, is there a name for your crew?
Like what do people refer to it as?
I. Remember you calling us Money
Inc? It was so funny and I'm like
Dave doesn't know this but I'm broke as crap at the time.

(37:42):
It was so funny on. Markets marketing that's fishing
one O 1. 100% I was like, yeah. We were making lots of paychecks
like that's. It's, you know, it's, it's
crazy, Jacob, unbelievable. I mean, he the stuff he's

(38:02):
accomplished and being with Markand Mark's a heck of a
fisherman. And we added Adrian in our group
and just having them in there iscool because I can go and travel
and you know, you guys people tojust hang out with, man.
I've, I've traveled alone beforeand it's, it kind of sucks
because we have a bad term and there ain't nobody there to have

(38:23):
a, a, a sweet tea with and just talk about it.
But yeah, we, those guys are my best friends and I, I really, I
got their back same way they gotmine.
And when they win, I'm there forthem.
And, and when I win there, they hung around for me at red Crest.
So and they're Jacob them comingdown tomorrow, but it's just

(38:43):
cool to have that group of people around you and positive,
positive people. They're they're truly like a
family to you. I mean, you guys vacation
together like this is not just atournament thing.
And from the outside, it looks very, very cool.
Yeah, yeah, that's like a genuine like brotherhood there.
So it's cool when not saying that things doesn't, I mean

(39:05):
people always we've had times where we we can get down each
other's throat. That's going to happen as well.
But yes, true brotherhood. It truly is.
And it's just cool to see over the years how, because I, I, I
qualified the same year that Mark Daniels and Jacob qualified

(39:27):
for the Elite Series. And I met them at Douglas Lake
during the Opens. And that was in 2015.
That was 10 years ago. Wow.
It's been a. Good decade.
Yeah. It you kind of alluded to it and
it's kind of the next question Ihad for you.

(39:50):
I mean, you look at that's a house full of studs and and I
don't want it to mean what MDJ does or Adrian does, but dude.
Statistically wise, you and Wheeler are freaking.
There's two Brahma bulls living in one frigging stable.
You know, do you have you guys ever like how do how do you not

(40:15):
lock horns? But like, I mean, it feels like
it's you too, and aunt and and then every once in a while
another guy wins. So funny, so which you know
this, but I, well, let me start by saying this iron sharpens

(40:38):
iron. OK, and that's such a cliche
thing to say because you hear that term all the time, but
that's truly like how it is. I'm super motivated by Jacob and
and what he has done in his career.
Not only has he won a ton of tournaments since he was
freaking 20 years old, but Jacobhas become a Dang legend in the

(41:04):
sport of what all the success he's had marketing.
And everything. Yeah, and then, you know,
designing baits, you know, I ended up joining them with the
the Rappler team this year or last year and just seeing, I
mean, he's a genius when it comes to bait designing.
And dude, I want to tell you, heis a fishing nerd.

(41:24):
It's all he thinks about all daylong, 24/7.
He doesn't put in 40 hours a week.
He puts in every day, every minute.
He goes asleep studying and trying to learn new things.
He never quits learning. So seeing that motivates me to
become better and better and better.
And we're always bouncing ideas off each other like, hey dude,

(41:48):
you think they'll buy this and I'll go and I'll launch my boat.
I'm like, I don't know if they'll buy that or not.
Let's try this. And there's little tinkering,
little things that we do. And the same way with Mark and
Adrian, I'm like, hey, you want to ride in here?
And me and Mark go fishing all the time and we're just trying
to learn. You can never stop learning.
But yeah, I wouldn't say there isn't any competition there

(42:12):
because we all, I mean, everybody wants to beat one
another. That's it.
We all want to win. We got that in our heart.
You know, we want to win, but I can tell you this, I never root
against them, boys. I put them.
I would put them on my fantasy team anytime.
Aveco not only makes incredible outdoor clothing, but they care
about anglers. With their 10% pledge, Aveco and

(42:34):
the Shed family donate at least 10% of the company's profits to
conservation and making fishing better.
Now, back to the show. So how do you deal with that
though? As often as you guys come up
against each other, all of you guys have been different
situations where you're all like, is it totally like, does

(42:55):
it change at all? Or is it just like, hey, it'll
be what it'll be? Well, there's times where
there's been a lot of comments where I completely missed the
boat. You know, I won't catch them or
either Mark Will or Jacob and all that.
But we all get we all got different personalities of

(43:18):
fishing. So Mark is a a a slower
fisherman like he he's really good in grinder tournaments.
Me, count me out if they ain't. I mean, if I do really good in
like good slugfest tournaments when I can get a pattern going,
mark if the if he's getting about every two hours, marks

(43:42):
right at home if he can slow down and he's one of the most
methodical guys out there. And Jacob, he's just a damn he's
a damn animal. He can catch him inside.
He catch him if he's getting about every two hours, he's
fine. He's calm, cool, collected me.
I'm not a sight fishing guy. I don't fish like that.

(44:02):
It's hard for me to slow down. I'm a moving.
I like running around and makingstuff happen.
But those guys, to sum this up, they're supportive through
everything. And there's Adrian won a
tournament two years ago, actually, he's won, yeah, he won
Cayuga and he did great Guntersville.

(44:22):
And Mark Marks, dude, Mark, I feel like Mark is going to
probably get one, maybe two thisyear.
And, and I promise you don't don't count Mark out.
He's going to get him a few comeup soon.
So he's those guys are my best friends.
Yeah, no. And and when I said that I meant

(44:42):
no slight to Adrian or Mark. I'm just saying right now if you
look at the championships and AOwise, I mean you guys are two
hard people to live with. It's been a really.
You ever, ever worried that they'll vote you off the island?
No, they, I hope they, I hope they don't.
I hope they don't. But I'll just say this, you

(45:04):
know, it's been a crazy run of, of things of how they happened,
me and Jacob last year. You can't make this up.
It was crazy. We won the 1st 4 tournaments of
the season and I was like we'll look back on this in 10/12/20
years, however how long the goodLord allows us to do this or be

(45:25):
around. But I was like work that the
good old days are right now. Hell yeah.
They're right now, dude, and I'mjust trying to embrace all that
and just catch them and enjoy it.
And I'm on the verge of things are different now for me.
I'm starting to kind of slow down.

(45:45):
Like I'm, I know it sounds so goofy, but dude, I don't want to
get along with my boat and run all over that lake and just
stress and worry about it. I want to go do what I like
doing. If it works, it works.
If it don't and let me just do my own deal.
I don't want to have to worry about make it like I don't want

(46:06):
to have to worry about trying toprove myself.
I just want to go out and have fun and fish.
And if I want to karm or two I do.
And I'm going to definitely giveit 100%.
But I'm I'm done with that. Launching the boat and being all
worried about making this cut. If it happens, it happens.
If it's going to be your tournament, it will be.
You can't shake it. So you're not done with winning

(46:32):
or making 70 mile runs to on thefinal day to win an event.
You're just done with the stress.
You, I mean, I think that comes with, I mean, 900,000 reasons
that you feel that way. I mean, I think pretty freaking.
Normal, I set myself, I set myself up for that.

(46:52):
But like there was a lot of times, and I'm going to tell you
this as a fisherman, you know this and you've seen this happen
in guys careers to where they start really coming into their
own and like you can be hard headed and at times because it's
going to work out really good for you.
And I'm just kind of to the point where I'm like, I'm going
to do my own deal, little deal. I ain't going to try to force

(47:15):
nothing. Like if I don't like fight site
fishing, I'm going to go into a tournament.
I ain't going to site fish. I ain't going to do it.
I don't I don't enjoy site fishing.
I'm not the best at I can do it.But like I try to go off the
beaten path. And if I go off the beaten path
like I did at Guntersville and try to do my own patterns and my
own style of fishing and it works and I win, that's amazing.

(47:40):
But if I go and I take that riskand I make that 70 mile run,
there's two things going to happen.
Either it works or it don't. And when it don't, the haters
are going to come in and say, oh, what happened?
And then after that I'm going tosay, well, I just didn't get on
them. I was stubborn, I was hard
headed and we going to go to thenext one.
But if you go and you win the tournament, it's like you're a

(48:00):
hero. And I'm like, dude, it's not
that easy. It ain't that easy turning your
back on every bass on the lake. And but now I'm just, I'm just
maturing as a, as a fisherman. I'm starting to process things a
little differently. And I think that's the biggest
thing because when I first started Dave, dude, I was green

(48:24):
in 2017. I didn't know.
I didn't know. I ain't never even went in on
these lakes. Now I've gotten to the point
where I've been to Champlain, I've been to Saint Clair, I've
been to Okeechobee 15 times and I'm like, I know what I like
doing. I know where I'm familiar with
the lakes and you just get seasoned.

(48:47):
If you could go back in time andgive that version of you that
first pro level event some advice, what would it be?
Slow down. Just slow down, bro.
Just chill. Just chill.
Just quit running around. Just slow down.

(49:08):
Because I've said this for years, it is so hard for a
fisherman. OK?
Keep in mind, you have to understand in the the mornings
of the tournaments, you setting your alarm, you're getting up,
you're wide open. You're you're trying to hurry up
and get to the boat ramp. You're running by the gas
station, you're launching the boat.
You're in a hurry. Oh my gosh, I got to rig these
rods and get everything. Then you blast off and then you

(49:30):
run and you're wide open and when you get there to your
fishing spot, you got to slow down and just chill and just
fish. It's so hard to go from 1000
mile an hour to like 5 mile an hour and just do your deal and
back. Back in the day I would be still
stuck on a million mile an hour and it worked.

(49:53):
But now I've learned like, don'tdo that when you start stressing
and when you start spinning out,the worst thing to do is speed
up. Which is easier to do when
you're not broke. Facts.
So even if you gave that advice,that person, you would be like,

(50:14):
well, yeah, what am I eating tonight?
I've been there for sure a many,many days and I don't ever
forget them. And I will say this as well, you
give a man $5000 in his bank account and you get a man 50
grand in his bank account and they feel totally different.
Yeah. And that's true.
I think we've seen that, you know.

(50:37):
What do you think makes you goodat this job?
Like what is the characteristic,the one thing that stands out to
you? That man if I was building a pro
Angular, I'm glad I got this. This can be a enemy and this can
be an advantage. Is being versatile OK?

(50:59):
You're being you're very versatile.
And I've always learned. I mean, dude, I've read every
Bassmaster magazine in there outthere.
I've watched every old Toledo band video when I'm just telling
you I'm a student of the sport. But being versatile can help you
and it can hurt you. I don't have a problem sitting

(51:21):
in 40 foot. I freaking love it.
I don't have a problem swimming a jig in one foot.
It doesn't matter. Sorry, I can you hear that?
No, that's fine. Yard maintenance is important.
But. People in my part of the world
are just like, I can't wait for that, Sal.
Yeah, yeah. 100% yeah. So being versatile is one of the

(51:46):
things that can hurt you and help you, and it's one of those
things that it can hurt you because you got a million
different things you can go do. All I'm catching them on the
jerk bait. All I need to be flipping, all I
need to be using my forward facein my acting target.
And I just feel like at times I need to dial into one thing.
So being versatile helps me a ton become a lot better

(52:06):
fisherman. If I roll up to a Clearwater
place, dude, I ain't got a problem.
I mean, I'm cool, I got a muddy water place.
I'm right at home as well, but when you got too much going on
at one time, you don't never dial in on one thing.
So being versatile helped me become the fisherman I am today.

(52:26):
You got any tattoos? No, I'm going to get one of My
wife won't let me get one. I was going to get two of them
rather on my wrist. I was going to get a a a mooch
minnow. That's a long term deal.
Yeah, I know it's going to be there forever, so.
DDQ yeah, get off that wallet he's got he's.

(52:48):
Willing to come help me out withhis tattoo bro.
But no I told my wife I was getting I actually said it on a
YouTube video. I said I swear, if I win this
tournament, I'm getting a tattooof that mooch Minnow on me and
she ain't know what that happened.
No, not a fan of the ink. No, I don't have any tattoos.
All right, all right. Well, whatever are are we moving

(53:11):
to a different location away from the yard maintenance?
I got my yard guy in here. He am.
I out here cleaning up. I'm going to step inside.
Hey, that's that's something that that young DC never had a
yard guy. I got a.
Yard guy, Hey, I know we might hop off, but that's the one we

(53:33):
were talking about earlier rightthere.
Yeah, that's at the very top right there.
That's what kind of got me started there, so.
Dang, that's that's that's no starter kit trophy case dude.
Like, things have been pretty good.
It has been good, man, been veryblessed.
So it's so it's been it's been aride for sure.

(53:54):
So I look around and I'm like, wow, so.
Very cool, very cool. No, it's been awesome to watch.
Are we losing you now? Is that what's going on?
Is is is it time to say goodbye?No, no, no, my guy, my yard guys
out here, he's he's blowing off my back porch.

(54:17):
So he's doing his job, but I'm. Good.
All right. What's the future for you?
Where are you in 10 years? I don't know, you know, I've had
that that question I asked me this past week several times

(54:37):
and. Oh, he is relentless, isn't he?
I mean, it's like he's followingyou around.
I. Don't tell him to cut it at all.
No, it's fine. It's fine.
I got to tell him. I'm going to tell him.
I'm going to Skype. Cut it.
Tell him. Tell him I'm the Red Cross
champion. Turn that off, damn it.

(55:03):
Oh boy. OK, there.
This has been a new adventure. It's it's never going he's.
Blowing. Why is he blowing off my truck?
There's nothing on my truck. He's just trying to screw with
this podcast I believe. All right, he's moving along.

(55:26):
Hopefully so anyway. Sorry, Sorry Dave, we can edit
all that out, but. I think it's wonderful.
Yeah, I hit that question a lot.And I'm like my goal the next.
I mean, I I want to be doing this as long as I can.
You know, you see Rick Klein outhere, Rick's been doing it

(55:47):
forever, man, And I just want tobe in this game as long as I
can. And you know, the trophies will
come and they'll, they won't come.
I've noticed that too. You're not going to have good
years. But I want to embrace as much as
I can. And a lot of guy, I had this
question the other day, they said that I've, you know, I've

(56:09):
won 3 championships and that is a very prestigious thing to have
because not a lot of guys have that.
And they said, are you in the conversation of, of some of
those guys that are above you? I'm a Rick and Kevin.
And I said absolutely not. I said because them guys are my
heroes. I don't care if I win three more

(56:31):
tournaments from here the next 10 years.
Them guys are my heroes and I look up to them.
So no, I've never been. I don't consider myself in that
situation. I just love fishing.
And if I'm here the next 15 years, we'll talk about it then,
you know, But I just want to leave a positive impact and

(56:52):
bring more people in the fishing.
That's my goal. So you plan on sticking around?
I mean, you are not Oh. I ain't going nowhere.
I'm still mad at these suckers. I'm going to get out here and
get after them. I ain't planning on going
nowhere. Good Lord willing, you know so.
That's good, that's good. The YouTube thing that continues

(57:12):
to be a big push for you, I imagine.
Yeah, you know, my my camera guyso real quick story, I I started
we started doing the YouTube stuff in like 2018 and it's been
awesome. Just look me being able to look
back at them tournaments and relive them.

(57:35):
So that's cool to do that. But also, man, there's a lot of
people that got into fishing just because of YouTube and
learn so much about it. So, and it's an awesome thing
because a lot of people follow what we do and a lot of people
love it. And it's been great, man.
I mean, there's so much support on YouTube, dude.

(57:56):
It's, it's, it's awesome. We're actually going to drop a
championship video for Red Crestat Guntersville, I think on
Monday. So the day after you probably
win this post, it all have been posted, but we're going to drop
that. And it should be a It's going to
be a long video, but YouTube hasbeen great.

(58:18):
What are you scared of? That's a good question.
I don't know, in general I'm scared of cockroaches straight
up. Why?
I don't know. I just don't like cockroaches
bro. I don't like them.

(58:40):
Suckers. I don't like them and but no.
So like, would you rather see a snake than a cockroach?
I don't care about snakes and mywife hates snakes.
I do too, I. Tell you hates them.
We were on the beach at Cancun, OK.
We went down there on one of those trips with Jacob and my

(59:02):
crew, and there was a guy walking down the beach and he
had like a big snake. I guess it was one of those
pythons or whatever ball Python,I don't know.
Well, anyway, he's walking down the beach and Victoria, my wife
looked over and said, Oh my God,is have a snake and she has like
a phobia. She was pregnant at the time.
And she took off running up the beach, pregnant wide open, Dang

(59:27):
near ran all the way to the room, scared to death, crying,
screaming. And she hates snakes.
But I don't care about snakes ornone of that.
I I I don't like cockroaches. Yeah, I get not liking them.
I mean, but you're not scared ofthem, are you?
Like if there's one on the floor, do you deal with it or do
you call Wheeler into? No, I'm, I'm killing him.

(59:49):
I don't, I don't like that. I would not like cockroaches at
all. I would say the other thing that
I'm kind of scared of, I used tobe scared of airplanes and I
kind of got over that. I had some anxiety about
airplanes there for a while. Where did you think about it?
Like you really stopped to thinkabout it?
It's all very weird. Oh, 100%.

(01:00:10):
All right, You're in a chair in the sky.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I had.
I had some anxiety about that for a while, but other than
that, that's about my two biggest few fears there.
That's about it. You said that you'd never be
compared to Van Damme or or RickClun because they're your

(01:00:30):
heroes. Who was your hero?
Like, who was the guy for you? I'm.
Probably going to say I'm probably going to say Rick, man.
I'm going to say Rick clung to be honest, because Rick is man.

(01:00:52):
I grew up watching Rick. I mean we all watch Rick and
then I got so much respect for him to still be doing it.
He gives everybody hope. Like, dude, I'm 35 and I'm
sitting there thinking I'm like God damn mighty.
If I drink too many sweet teas, I'm down for three days.
Rick cluns out here fishing tournaments at 70 something

(01:01:13):
years old, getting after it steal and and like it's it's
crazy to see. But the old like Rick and just
that group of guys that they came up with, you know, Rick and
some of them older school guys. I mean, Bill, Bill dance legend,

(01:01:35):
and I'm not I know he wasn't thetournament saying guy, you know,
like everybody's saying, but Rick Kevin, I would say my age
group Kevin, but always dude, I'm just telling you, ever since
I was 10 years old, I've been watching all them guys and it's
amazing. I'm still fishing against a ton
of them right now. It's it's cool to see that new

(01:01:57):
group coming in, though. So we got that new group of guys
coming in. I I don't feel like I'm a new
guy no more. I kind of feel like, Hey, I
haven't been here a while, so there's going to be some Dang
hammers in the waiting. I mean, you're going to see some
Dang superstars show out here soon and they're coming and I
know that. So I got to keep my head on
swivel. It is, it's wild watching the

(01:02:20):
progression like any, I think it's very similar to other
sports, you know what I mean? Like if you look at the PGA,
Tiger Woods brought the whole fitness thing to the PGA.
Before that, I mean, guys were whoever they were.
And I've seen Kevin come along and speed up the game and change
just how everybody marketed and there's been different levels.
But it does feel like, you know,then you guys came along, you

(01:02:44):
know, there's been different levels the whole way along, but
it feels like this next new group that's here is like, dude,
you guys all grew up anglers andbecame tournament anglers.
It feels like they went at this at a whole different level.
Like they're like, I'm going to be a tournament angler from day
one. Yeah, these guys and I hate even

(01:03:06):
mention this again. I hate even saying the word, but
the Ford facing side of things, I mean dude, there's freaking
masters out there now. I'm on the 1st.
We were on the breaking edge of everything and we got on that
deal for several years and it was so good, man.

(01:03:27):
God, it was so good the last fewyears because not everybody
really got onto that deal. And what's crazy about it is,
dude, I have did. I did guide trips for a long
time and I've seen these kids nowadays and I'm just telling
you, there's 12 year old kids that can skip a dog just as good
as anybody. Them suckers can cast, they can

(01:03:52):
catch them on Ford faces, sonar,they can catch them flipping.
And I'm like, dude, the learningcurve.
When I was a kid, I threw shaky heads at rock walls.
Yeah. I didn't like I was literally
tungsten weights came out like in like 2006.
Like I don't know it maybe in earlier 2003 or whatever, but

(01:04:14):
like I literally remember flipping lead weights.
Now every kid that's 10 years old has an ounce and a half
weight on their Dobbin mats. 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,
remember, Yamaha supports it, and they care enough about you

(01:04:34):
to make this ad read very short.Now, back to the show.
Yeah, it came out. It was like a whole new, like,
I'm never going to buy that. They're too expensive.
You know what I mean? Like, you watch all the
elevations that have come, but they are not that.
They're a different beasts. These kids nowadays, they're

(01:04:56):
freaking fishing machines and I know that I'm like, they're
coming. They're coming every year.
And then guys that are over at BASS and even the guys that are
coming in with Major League fishing, I see them and I'm like
that kids got it, those kids that got it.
And you got to have that it factor of like the instinctual
side and then the fishing ability side.

(01:05:18):
And then you got to have the motivation and they got all
three. Yeah, Yeah.
Well, the thing to remember is like, it's easy to make that way
of fishing seems simple and that's it's kind of been
demonized that way. But if they put the time in to
become a master with that, I mean, we've literally watched
let's say the last two years, let's say, and that's being

(01:05:42):
conservative. It's probably been the last
three years that every pro in professional fishing has done
nothing but try to get good at that because they have to.
And they still haven't got to the level that some of these
kids have got to. Which just says to me like if
they had the wherewithal and theability to stick with that and

(01:06:02):
figure that out, even if they don't have part a part, other
parts of the game, they'll get it.
Like they they've got the drive and most of them have those
parts. Like most of them that I've
seen, like you said, they can skip when they're 12 years old.
Yeah, that's that's one of thosethings.
Being well-rounded is definitelygoing to help out.

(01:06:24):
And I'm just telling you, there's a lot of things that are
elementary now. Straight up, this game has
changed and you know, this, it'spulling up to a brush pile now
and fishing a brush pile that's elementary.
Like it's just not that complicated now.
Yeah. And I remember I called them, I

(01:06:47):
called him at Champlain in a tournament and I was throwing a
jerk bait and I was one of the only guys throwing a jerk bait
up there. And I was fishing some of those
blow throughs and I was catchingsmall mouth.
And like, dude, I, we didn't even know this stuff that came
out yet, but I'm throwing a jerkbait on a bunch of places.
And that's when they would bite.They would bite a jerk bait then

(01:07:09):
now they don't bite jerk bait that good.
They just don't unless you're looking at them.
Yeah. You can't blindly pull it to a
brush pile. Now make a cast on it and get in
the bite. So it has changed and they have
adapted, and that's all. In a world full of adapting and
changing, you got to change withit.
It's sometimes when you're watching it on forward face and

(01:07:30):
Sony, you're like, if you reallythink back, it's amazing the
amount of fish that people caught blindly.
You know what I mean? When you look at how many
precise cast you have to make toa fish and you're like, I just
threw over by that brush pile and covered it with four casts
and thought I had done my job. No I fished way too fast.

(01:07:52):
I nap now that I see that use anactive target.
I'm like dude I fished so fast I'm it's amazing.
I even called a bass because I Iwould pull it to a brush pile
and make 2 casts and I may not even been near it at the time.
And just, you know, so you learnso much.
Never stop learning. Do you think people, I mean, so

(01:08:17):
when you told the story about you and Wheeler being out in
Saint Clair, I mean, you were early adapters and that's and
you some of your success is because of that.
Well, at one point people started flipping and there was
guys buying special rods and stuff like that.
Do you think those dudes put up with the same ridicule that some
of the Ford Face and Sonar guys have put up with?

(01:08:37):
No. I'm sure there was some of it.
It's just there was no board to put it on.
There was no. So I got, I got to say this, a
mark. OK, Aaron Legend and man Legend
in the finesse game. OK, a mark.

(01:09:01):
I remember him and a bunch of these guys they're sitting in
open water on Erie, dropping on him suckers with 2D in open
water. They were on that deal.
They didn't have a way to reallybe effective doing it, but they
were in open water following seagulls dropping on them in 30
foot with 2D, staring at that sucker all day long.

(01:09:24):
But so nobody won't talk about that.
No, no, that's truth it. Yeah.
It's just weird. It's a wild time.
It's a wild time. Where did Ding come from?
Like where did it originally start?
Good question. So I was in a tournament with my

(01:09:48):
brother and we were fishing on Logan Martin and we're fishing a
tournament for like 17 grand. It was a big local tournament
and then I rolled up to a place and they were, they were
shopping. I mean like 4 pounders, 4 LB
spots, right? And me and my brother got him in
the boat and and every big one that we caught, we was over a

(01:10:08):
lot. I looked over at him.
I went. Ding, let's go, baby.
So then my kind of Ding originated there and it was just
a fun thing that me and my brother did.
And we had been hitting a lot lately when, you know, we really
got on, on the Ding stuff for a while and then, you know, but I,
I will let one out every now andthen, you know, but it's, it's

(01:10:29):
just a fun, fun thing we do. We just have a good time.
I mean it, it got to the, I meanwasn't to the point that there
was bells being brought on boatsand stuff like that, I mean.
It was cool. Yeah.
Yeah. They bring us bells and whatnot.
Man, that was so old. Heck yeah.
Do you ever think you'll competefor another Bassmaster Classic?

(01:10:50):
That's a very good question. And I, I, I figured that might
come up and I'm going to say probably, I'm going to say
probably one day, one day. It's, it's definitely on my, my
list of things I would like to do.
And that's just a personal thingfor me.

(01:11:11):
I don't know when I couldn't tell you when I had contemplated
on fishing some of the Opens, not for the qualification side
of it. Well, man, I just wanted to hop
in them suckers and just fish a few tournaments and see what
happened. And maybe you win 1 and make the

(01:11:33):
Bash Master Classic and fish it.You know, I think it'd be cool
to fish. It isn't something that I'm like
dead set on doing right now, butyou never know.
I mean, I may tinker around a fish few Opens here and there,
and if you get lucky and win oneand they have a classic in
Alabama, I'd love to be in that sucker.
Yeah, yeah. Do you do good in those Alabama
events? Yeah, it's been good.

(01:11:53):
So I'm like please y'all come back to lay late, that's on and
let me try to get in that. Well, it's been great chatting
with you and catching up with you.
Things are going well. I, I think maybe we've come
together and mended some, you know, if we can get along,
anybody can get along. I believe the children are the

(01:12:16):
future kind of vibe. Yeah.
So, and I'll touch on this before we close, I felt like
there was kind of this weird airbetween a lot of bass and Major
League fishing guys there for a while.
But I think a lot of that just kind of went away.
And I feel like, I feel like 2025 is like we're, we're it's

(01:12:36):
coming back for full circle. We're all in this together.
Let's freaking get after it and let's turn the course of things
around. Let's bring back some positive
deals. Let's have fun.
Let's, let's breathe a little air into, into the space and,
and just enjoy what we do and just appreciate it because this

(01:12:57):
is a, this isn't like we're veryfortunate to have professional
bass fishing and we're very fortunate to be in this game.
And, and it's, it's a fun deal. And I'm, I'm going to have fun.
I don't know about everybody else, but DC is going to have
fun out there whether you catch them or not.

(01:13:19):
You think forward facing Sonar, the forward facing Sonar debate
kind of took care of the Bass MLF debate.
It seems to seems to have distracted people.
Well, they both, I think there'sa bunch of anglers that can both
agree on that. Oh, and then there's some that
can't, you know, So, but yeah, it, it's all going to work

(01:13:40):
itself out. I'm fully, fully confident in
that. And I don't know, I mean, it's
just a, it's a weird time. There's been so many podcasts
and so many talks about everything.
And my, my ending quote is let'sjust love one another.
Let's just go fish and have fun,man.
And let's let's, if someone wants a classic man, let's

(01:14:02):
freaking cheer them on, dude. Let's just let's be Stewart to
the sport. And if you don't think that
we're a Stewart, then you can address that.
But just be nice if you do, you know?
Amen. You said it earlier and I do
believe it. I mean you can get down problem
with things, but these truly arethe good old days.

(01:14:22):
Like Dave, we're living in them right now.
Man, that's freaking wholesome. I mean, it's dude, it's
springtime. There's birds and bees buzzing
around, Everything's blooming, signs of winter time is going
away. There's going to be big brownies
on bed here soon. I mean, my, it's, it's exciting
times. Let's be happy about it.

(01:14:46):
Amen. Great stuff from DC, always a
fun and entertaining dude to chat with and I appreciate him
taking the time. And we dealt with some stuff.
I mean, we had gardeners, we hadall sorts of stuff, but it was a
fun conversation and a refreshingly upbeat and positive

(01:15:09):
outlook on things. So thanks DCI, Look forward to
having him back on the show again in the future.
And hey, once again, if you're near Anderson, SC, come on out
and say hello. I want to see my humpers at the
Bassmaster Elite series this week.
Green Pond Landing, Lake Hartwell.
It's going to be a fun one and Ihope to see you there.

(01:15:32):
Regardless of where you are, spread happiness in the world
because guess what, the world can use it.
Have a great week, enjoy being and as always, Bob Cobb, take it
away. Thanks for watching.
Please like, comment and subscribe because Bob Cobb of

(01:15:53):
the Bass Masters told you to youhere.