Ish Monroe Bought a Ferrari From Bass Fishing on MERCER-201

Ish Monroe is a 5-time Bassmaster winner and a 10-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier. Throughout his career, he has definitely lived up to the moniker, B.S.S. (Big Bass Specialist). However, Ish is not only a top competitor on the water. It seems he is a big wheel in the board room as well. His incredible work ethic and tireless drive has made him one of the best promoters in pro fishing. Don't believe me? Ask yourself, how many pro anglers owned a Ferrari? Well, Ish did and he got it from fishing!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Just because I'm still in Florida doesn't mean we won't
have a podcast for you. This week I'm joined by a five
time bass Master winner, A10 Time Classic qualifier.
An angler so successful he once bought a Ferrari from bass
fishing E Monroe joins me this week on.

(00:27):
I'm Bob Gobb for the bass master.
Welcome to Mercer. Welcome on Welcome all, friends,
family, freeloaders, fishing freaks, and of course, my
humpers. You're welcome here at the
Awkwardly Honest Fishing Podcastthat goes by my last name, which
is Mercer. This is the 201st edition of the
Mercer Podcast. And I hope wherever you are in

(00:48):
the world, whether you're watching or listening to this,
the life is treating you well. If you are watching this, you
realize that I am clearly not inmy office.
I am still down in Florida. I am nowhere near Okeechobee,
where I'm supposed to be tomorrow.
I am actually in Jupiter, FL. And here's the crazy part.

(01:09):
I am here to swim with sharks. That's right, you guys know I
love to swim with fish. I am definitely afraid of
sharks. And at some point in Canada it
seemed like a good idea to confront my fears and I'm going
to grow from that. And now that I'm actually down
here, it is somewhat nerve racking.
So hopefully I have great stories to regale you with next

(01:32):
week. But here's the crazy part.
Today got cancelled. I was supposed to go first thing
this morning. It is blasting wind.
I found one little corner of this part of the world that has
a little less wind, and hopefully you can hear me well
here. But today got cancelled.
And as if that wasn't enough of a message from the man upstairs,

(01:52):
I'm sticking around for another day to see if I can do it
tomorrow. That's right.
Intentionally swimming with sharks.
What was I thinking? Yeah, So there's that.
And this past week, what a tournament.
Saint Johns River, Palatka, FL, Palatka, FL, you guys are the

(02:13):
freaking best. You always show out so many
incredible Bassmaster moments because of you guys.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for everything.
And thank you to the Saint JohnsRiver and the Elite Series
anglers for what a kick off tournament.
I mean, just so many amazing moments, so much excitement
around it. And all that excitement

(02:34):
concluded in Bill Lowen's secondElite Series victory.
What a final weigh in. We had a two way tie at one
point, Corey Johnson and Brock Mosley in the hot seat together.
They got knocked out by Shane Lehew.
Then Shane Lehew got knocked outby Jay Shakuric who had exactly

(02:54):
what it took to take the lead. Whatever it was, I think it was
like 19 lbs an ounce he needed. He had 19 one.
If he had 19 lbs even we would have had another two way tie.
Both of those got knocked off byBill Lowen who only caught 4
fish on the final day of competition, one of which was
his first fish, which was paper thin.
They put it in when I was on live, I saw bass track put it in

(03:18):
eight oz and I'm like, we might be being generous with the 8
ounces, might not quite be that big.
I mean it was paper thin, but ithad the three oz that Bill
needed to take his second Elite Series victory.
It was a an amazing weigh in an amazing tournament, a fun week
kicked off some new stuff. The live cast kind of replacing

(03:41):
live mix. It's kind of a faster moving.
We fire through anglers. We have a little phone, we check
in on some action. We try to breakdown what's going
on in the water with the anglers, what they did wrong,
what went right while the FS1 show's on.
So if you don't have FS1, this gives you an option to to watch

(04:04):
something. We also kicked off a halftime
show which some of you loved andlike most new things some of you
did not love. Got a lot of hate on day one,
which which seems to be the way if you start something new, you
get a lot of hate. The hate got less and I think
the show continuously got betterand the show will continuously

(04:24):
get better. Just being honest.
They're going to shut down for an hour.
I mean, cameras need adjusted. All sorts of things need to.
The truck needs to shut down. So they're going to shut down
for an hour. So they asked me and Kyle, Jesse
and Davy Hyde this coming week to do a halftime show, and I

(04:46):
think it's pretty cool. I mean, we break down a lot of
different things. We covered some stuff that Bass
Live never covers. And that's my goal for the
halftime show, to continue to update what's going on in the
water, give you kind of like an update show, basically like a
halftime show, bring you up to speed with what's been going on.
Get some reports on some things like I said that you normally

(05:09):
don't see on bass live and we did a few of those as the week
went on. We've got plans to do more.
It is a blast working with Kyle Jesse.
It's going to get even better when we involved Davey height
this week. So make sure you check out the
halftime show because it is a lot of fun and and the comments
were fun to read. You know they say.

(05:33):
Post and ghost. I'm not that guy.
I, you guys know, I read all thecomments because I think you can
learn from the comments. Good, better and different.
You learn from them. I never take any of them
personally no matter how hard they try to get personal.
Lots of stories from that first event.
There will be lots of stories from this second event.

(05:54):
One of the big stories is Matt Heron's DQ.
He got disqualified for failing a polygraph on rule C3, which is
I'm not going to quote the rulesor anything, I'm not mere
professional enough to do that. But basically the rule where you
are not supposed to get information from a non
competitor to give you an advantage.

(06:16):
He failed at four times and thenwhen he opened up about a
conversation with his buddy in aconversation with his son, he
passed it. So he's got his side to the
story. I have not talked to Matt.
It's very shocking to hear this about Matt is because he's not
the guy you would expect to get popped on that.

(06:37):
But but he did get popped on that.
So and with the blind detectors as extreme as they are this year
and as many as they're doing, I'm sure we'll see other people
get popped, but Matt will be able to share his opinion on it.
I'll offer Matt to come on this show and talk about it.

(06:58):
He's not the only one that's it's ever happened to.
It's happened to lots of different people.
Sounds like to me that, you know, it was kind of a mishap,
but you got to be careful havingconversations with your son
who's a tournament angler, having conversations with your
fishing buddy from that area. I'm not pointing fingers at
anybody. I'm just giving you the

(07:19):
information that I know as far as I know.
And that being said, I have not talked to Matt yet, but who I am
going to talk to this week is a very successful professional
angler. He's a five time bass master
winner. He is A10 time classic
qualifier. He is a a good dude that I that
I miss having in my life. I hope he gets back to the Elite

(07:39):
series. But always a fun conversation
And you want to pay attention tothis conversation because as I
have said, we're talking about adude that once bought a Ferrari
from bass fishing. That's right.
Everybody will tell you that bass fishing will make you go
broke. Well, this is a dude who bought
a freaking Ferrari from bass fishing.

(08:01):
And when somebody like that talks, I learned a long time
ago, you need to listen up. So I hope you enjoy listening to
this week's show. It is the show of Ishama.
Without further ado, Ish Monroe.Florida's nice it I mean, I'll
tell you it is nice. It is nice ish Monroe ish

(08:26):
Monroe. I know this sounds like the way
you would start a podcast, but literally me and you have talked
about doing this podcast well for years.
It's finally freaking happening.It's.
Been a while, long while. Yeah, how you, how you been?
I've been getting how much stuff?

(08:47):
Good. OK, that was a little awkward.
Awkward. That was a little awkward.
Like you're like pausing and I'mlike.
Well, people still to this day bring up to me our awkward
interactions on stage and I'll be honest, I missed them.
We somehow were able to have a 2minute conversation and neither

(09:09):
of us ask more than like answer everything with one word the
whole way through. Pretty much, yeah.
Is that how this podcast is going to go?
I don't even know anymore. So what's going on in your life?
You're trying to qualify to get back to the elites.

(09:30):
Yeah, to the opens is that Yeah,I, I mean, yeah, to the most
part. I, it's, it's different.
It's I'm actually really enjoying fishing on this level
again. It's pretty crazy overall.

(09:52):
Like I love fishing in the opens.
I love fishing the stuff that here at home, it's, it's a
weird, weird feeling in my life that, you know, I, I want to be
on the elites, but I don't cravethe elites like I did when I
first started. You know, when bass first came
out West back in 1997, it was like, Oh my God, I want to make

(10:17):
the top level. I want to be on the pro tour and
fish against Denny and Kevin andRick.
And, you know, all the guys who I watched to grew up admiring
because of the purity of that time of the sport and how those
guys pretty much handled themselves.
And, you know, I got to see Rickat the Open and talk to him and

(10:39):
shake his hand, which, you know,Rick Berry rarely shakes hands
with people. He's, he's a very, what do they
call him introvert? And, and so he but he, but it's
weird because you see him now he's coming out a lot more and
he's talking to a lot of people more and he's doing a lot more

(10:59):
and that's great for the sport. And I'm, I'm actually loving
that. But to see him again, see him at
the opens, you know, if I was onthe elites, I would actually not
see him because he's fishing theopen.
So it's pretty cool to fish the Opens and see guys like that.
And you know, we had some of theother veterans there, you had
Tharp and McClellan and you know, John Murray was there and

(11:23):
stuff. And it's just pretty cool to
fish against those guys again, because that's the guys that I
grew up fishing against with thethe best part of the whole sport
to me. So you think, do you think that
you're? No.
Let's say you said you, you don't need it like you once did,
you know, but when you were a rookie, you were like, I need to

(11:45):
get to the top level. Yes, you don't need that.
Is that because you've changed as a person?
Is that because the top level has changed?
Why? Why do you feel that way?
I think it's a combination. I think it's a combination,
yeah. It's a combination of all that
one, I think that keeps me sane definitely because, you know,

(12:05):
being a competitor, yes, you want to compete at the highest
level. Yes, I still want to make the
Classic and yes, I still want towin the Classic and would love
to maybe grasp an AOI title. You know, it's funny, I got to
hang out with Brandon at a Skeeter dealer here about a
month and a half ago and just seeing him and it is so funny.
You like, OK, wait a minute, that dude has won two angle of

(12:27):
the years, but you would have swore he's the same guy that
comes in, shakes your hand and like like it's no big deal to
him. Like, oh, I just won those
couple angled years. No big deal.
I'm I'm nobody. I'm just the same guy that
everybody else is and it's cool to see him just being like that.
But yes, I won an angler of the year title.
I definitely have changed as a person.
I got married and that has been probably the greatest

(12:50):
accomplishment of my life. You know, my wife is amazing and
beautiful and wonderful and everything I could ever ask for
then, you know, and, and that's probably another reason why I
like being home and fishing tournaments around here.
And she gets to go to those events with me as well.
So that's pretty cool. Also, you know, I'm definitely
going to get her to an open at some point to let her see what I

(13:15):
dreamed about my whole life was fishing bass Masters.
And yes, the industry has changed.
Yes, no, yes, the industry has changed.
OK, you know I before. We move on to that.
If you want Angler of the Year, will you stop shaking people's
hands? No, absolutely not.
OK, OK, so you'll be just like Brandon.
Has anybody ever won Angler of the Year and stopped shaking

(13:38):
hands? There's been a couple guys, you
know, I, I, I'm not going to getin the names, but they, they
became different people. Yeah.
They were a different person afterwards and and it's and I
kind of get it because the fame will some go to some people's
heads and then the fame will freak people out as well.

(13:58):
How so? You know, when you have people
coming, it is funny because I always remember these stories
about Roland Martin and Bill Danson.
They never told the good stories.
People used to always tell the bad stories about them.
How I went up to him and I triedto shake his hand and he didn't
even acknowledge me and stuff like that.

(14:19):
And people fail to realize that Roland Martin in the freaking
seventies, 80s and 90s was a Godto most people.
Like they once again, they didn't go to church or they
rushed home from church to go watch Bass Masters, which Roland

(14:39):
was a huge part of. Bill Dance still has the longest
line at the Bassmaster Classic than any other professional
angler. Over Kevin, over Rick, over
everybody. And so when you have guys like
that are getting pulled, you know, 100 different ways,
sometimes they miss that guy that happens to walk by him and,

(15:01):
and, and, and now I get it and Isee it and it's just like, you
know, Roland is a great dude. Roland's like that uncle that
you just want to sit back and listen to him tell stories.
You know, you just want to sit back.
Hey, we're going to barbecue. We're going to have a few beers
and sit back and let roll and tell stories.
That's the guy that that's what I want to be around.

(15:24):
And Bill, Bill's always been kind to everybody that I've ever
seen when he's had the chance. But at the same time, the guy
gets pulled in 100 different directions.
So now that's what I say when people kind of get caught up in
it, they're they're not necessarily bad people, they
just they're pulled in differentdirections.
Yeah, I, I think perception, too.

(15:45):
Like I think when you're just fishing tournaments on your way
up and somebody says, hey, Ish, and you don't hear them just
because you don't always hear somebody, they're just like, oh,
Ish, didn't hear me. But after you win a few
tournaments, their perception ofit is like, oh, it's just too
good to hear me now. Yeah.
No, it's, yeah, it's definitely not that.

(16:07):
No, I mean, I've, I've had a fewpeople say it, but then there's
a lot of people out there that back me up and they know that
I'm that first guy that is at a show or a seminar that is going
to shake people's hands and talkto them and tell them about
fishing. I mean, I want the sport to
grow. I want to be a positive role
model in the sport. You know, I haven't always had
my greatest times, but, you know, everybody's human.

(16:31):
Everybody gets pressured. Everybody gets things that
happened in their life and in their career that definitely
don't make them, you know, show the best side of them.
Yeah. Yeah.
How do you, you said the industry's changed.
How has it changed? It's different.
It's I blame the organizations, all of them.

(16:53):
Every single one from FLW to MLFto Bass to NPFL to, you know,
American bass to every circuit out there is they're so afraid
of make, of punishing. And, and it's not only we can't

(17:14):
say this, the organizations as awhole, I can say it's the world
as a whole is, you know, I, I'm that guy that if you break a
rule, and I don't mean like you accidentally, you know, misread
something or hey, I accidentallyran A5 mile an hour zone didn't
mean to. But if you break a rule, the the

(17:38):
punishment needs to be a lot more severe than what it is.
You know, we have a very definedinformation rule and over the
years we've seen more disqualifications over that or
we've seen guys get fines and and things like that.
Well, the punishment needs to beharsher.
And I'm not saying this is a guybreaks the rule one time, he's

(18:00):
basically kicked off the tour. But if he's done it twice or a
third time, he definitely, because obviously he didn't
learn, it's going to continue todo the things that he's, you
know, has been doing. You know, my thing is, is like
this is the guy breaks the information rule, he gets a
polygraph, he fails the polygraph for that tournament.

(18:21):
He's obviously disqualified for that tournament.
But after that he goes in for a another polygraph that
polygraphs him for the whole season.
And if he fails that season, then he's done for that season.
And then after that, if he gets busted a third time for the same
thing, then kicked off a tour. And that's going to stop a lot

(18:44):
of it because I guess people, they don't fear the
consequences. You know, I've been, I, I, I've
seen this is, is, you know, people when I was growing up,
you know, they feared God and, and the place that they were
going to go to if they did wrong.
And so that's why I try to be positive as much as I possibly

(19:05):
can. And now people, they don't fear
anything. And so that they, I guess they
go and do things like, oh, well,I'll be forgiven or oh, I'll be,
you know, it is, it's not going to be that bad at the end of the
day. Well, shoot, you start taking
guys careers and they come out who have dreamed about this
thing forever and they get kicked off the tour.

(19:28):
Well, then the next guy's going to see that and be like, I'm not
going to go do that because I'm not going to get kicked off.
I don't want to get kicked off the tour because I've dreamed
about this my whole entire life.And then it becomes, and it
means something a lot deeper. You know, that's where I, I just
think that we as a group, as a whole and the industry, we need

(19:51):
to do better and we need to be alittle bit harder on the people
that do, you know, fail major rules, you know, then and, and,
and again, once again, reading the rules and then listening to
the tournament director. You know, while he's talking,
there's just a lot of different things.

(20:14):
I don't think anybody, I mean, Idon't know anyone that would
outwardly argue with any of that.
I mean, I, I think that you 100%.
I mean, I, I've, I mean, I think3 strikes in some ways is too
much, you know? Like if you fail.
One and you fail the second one you're done.
You know what I mean? Like and and maybe you know,

(20:36):
because I understand there couldbe different situations or
whatever, but bottom line, you want everybody keeping the
rules. I mean, I don't, I don't, I
don't think. I mean, you snag, you snag, you
snag a bass, you snag a bass andyou weigh it in, it's OK, you're
disqualified right then and there for that event.

(20:57):
So then any because you know, when you snag a bass, that's
that is deliberately and blatantly cheating.
I don't if you were visually site fishing this fish and it
rolled over to a corner and you pitched over there at it and
even though you didn't see it and you snag him, that's still
not a legal fish in my opinion. And so, yeah, that guy gets and

(21:17):
he he he weighs it in and he fails the polygraph.
Boom, done for that tournament 100%.
Then once again, we go back to the polygraph.
Hey, did you snag any other fishduring the event?
Oh, you did OK Boom, strike two.Done for the year, for the
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(21:40):
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Check out Beat Down Outdoors. Now back to the show.
And and and that right there, I think.
I have a problem with that at all.
Because at that point in time, yeah, that time guys lose
sponsorship deals. And when they lose sponsors,

(22:03):
it's hard to, for them to be able to afford and continue to
do this as a whole. Because I know that I couldn't
do this without sponsors. I I have great, wonderful
sponsors that I work really, really hard for and I appreciate
them and I never take any of them or for granted because it's

(22:23):
like, Oh well, issue, hey, we need you to be at the show.
OK, No problem. It's not during a tournament.
I'm there. It's I don't have excuses of
being in a deer stand or got something else to do.
It's that company is your job. And so doing your job.
And that's what the thing that Isee with a lot of the new guys
is they don't the work ethic isn't there.
I mean, you always had guys who have excelled at the sponsorship

(22:47):
game because of their work ethic.
But now it's just, I see it's sobad.
You know, these companies are just like, OK, well, I got this
guy. He doesn't sell me any product.
He doesn't do the videos, but hekeeps asking for more and more
and more. So you're separating work ethic

(23:07):
though, because I think a lot ofthose young guys are working
hard on the water. Like you're not saying they're
not working out there? No, no, no, they're, they're
completely working hard on the water because they fish
everyday. That's all they do is they, they
literally, but you know as well as I do is you can be the
greatest angler in the world andwin every single tournament.
But if you cannot sell product for a company and, and, and

(23:33):
tournament winnings, his credibility, that's all that is
the more tournaments you win, It's, it's, it's kind of like I
say about Michael Jordan being the greatest of all time.
You know, he, he, he won championships.
He never had an NBA Finals go toGame 7.
Like he was the best. He never lost in the NBA Finals.
That was, that was what made himso great.

(23:55):
You know, he, he's number one onso many lists.
You know, it's hard to be #1 at everything, even though Kevin
was for a long time, but it, it,it's hard to be #1 at
everything. And, and Jordan was number one
at mostly everything. And that's what makes him the
greatest. And so I'm not saying that these
kids aren't working hard on the water, but they've got to

(24:17):
understand that there's a business side to this.
And you know, you have to give back to the community is I see a
lot of these college anglers whoare not actually even giving
back to the colleges that gave them the platform to get to
where they're at either, you know, it's just like, hey guys,
these guys gave you an education.
They created something for you to become a professional angler.

(24:39):
Why don't you use that instead of just going fishing every
single day? You know, people call me,
they're like, why don't you fishing today?
I'm like, because I've got to goto a boat dealership or I've got
to go to a tackle shop, or I've got a meeting with the sponsor
to help create more products. Professional angling is more
than just being a good fisherman.

(25:02):
It's a combination of being a great marketer, it's a
combination of being a great designer.
It's a combination of being a great person and a friendly
person and a person who can speak very well and talk to
people. And it's also being a salesman
and, and, and that right there, the salesman part is huge.
It was funny. I got in a conversation with a

(25:24):
guy and we started talking aboutthe whole jig head minnow thing
and this and that. And I said, you know, these
these guys that are out there using for facing sonar like
active Target and the Garmin 1 and the Hummingbird one, they
are great fisherman, but they sell jig heads and minnows and
half of the time those minnows aren't even their sponsors

(25:45):
minnow. But then you go back and you
take a guy like Kevin, you know,I remember the classic in
Alabama where he broke out the red eye shad and they said he
sold like 400,000 red eye shads in you know, in a in a matter of
months. Then you know, same thing with
Kevin at Katawachi when he brokebroke out the black back

(26:05):
churches square bill at 1.5 and sold.
How many of those and you go to Denny and how many Denny Brauer
flipping jigs were sold? You know, you go to Greg Hackney
and, and, and Greg Hackney's flipping hook and me with my
frog, like those are the things that sell and excel products
and, and, and that these guys, you know, and I've had a couple

(26:27):
conversations with the, the, thenext generation of Bass Pro and
I'm like, Hey, guys, I get it that your sponsor doesn't make
that bait, but why don't you design something new for them?
That's exactly what you want, exactly how you want it to move.
And, and they will work with youbecause then when you win a
tournament on that product, theyget to sell thousands of them.

(26:49):
And, and, and at that point in time when they can sell
thousands, they make money. And when they make money, they
can put more money in your pocket.
And they kind of all just kind of look at me like a deer in
headlights, like they don't understand.
Well, this one's already made and it's created.
And I said, I get that, but makea a better one.
There's always a better mousetrap.
Always. You know, Bobby Barrett made the

(27:11):
best frog possible out there when he designed the stag proof.
And I created one for River to see that I felt was better
because I put a little bit bigger hooks in it.
I, you know, change the body andmade the body more flatter so
that it gave a better impressionin the mat.
Like those are the kind of things that I thought about
instead of having to basically can form a bait or cutting

(27:34):
something or trimming or let's just create a bait that that's
perfect out of the package because that's what the average
person wants. And I, I, I, I keep trying to
explain to a lot of guys too, isyou're not selling to tournament
anglers, you're selling to the masses that don't tournament
fish because there's a whole lotmore non tournament guys out

(27:56):
there then there is tournament guys.
When I go into sell a boat for the boat dealership, you know,
I'm talking to them about a Skeeter and a Yamaha.
And I explained to them, like, OK, if you can afford this, then
yeah, we can put the, you know, 2 Lawrence twelves on the bow
and we can put 2 Lawrence twelves on the console and get

(28:18):
you active target to set up two different ways and, and, and
have the 3D and, and everything structure scan and the HD and
all that stuff. But for the average guy, it's
just like, hey man, if you just going to go fishing, you don't
need all of that. You just need some of that.
You know, I believe that, you know, Ford facing sonar is a
huge part in fishing and stuff. Do you, do you, do you need it?

(28:43):
Yes and no. But it's a great way to learn
how to catch more fish. And that's what I grew up in in
this industry was was that too is everything was taught to you
about catching more fish. So just having those
conversations with guys, it's it's a little tough in the new
generation to see that their direction is a little bit
different than that. But yes, they are working hard

(29:04):
on the water. So, but I initially asked you
how the industry had changed andthat's a lot of industry change,
but how do you let that affect you?
Like because they're doing that.I would think if I Mitch Monroe
good, stay on the water. I know all elements of this game
and I'm going to continue to innovate with companies like how

(29:26):
is what they're doing affecting you?
It's really not other than more so the ego of being a
competitor. You know, we all as competitors
have ego. And if you don't want to win,
then you don't need to be competing because I still want
to win. And so I'm still trying to to

(29:48):
make adjustments and figure things out.
And you know, I trust me that last year when I dropped that 25
LB bag of largemouth, that SaintClair, you have no idea the head
that swole up that first day. And I was just like, yeah, boys,
it's about to go down because usually the largemouth are

(30:09):
pretty consistent on that place.And I have no idea what happened
on day 2. Like they they just weren't
swimming around. I don't know if it was a
pressure. What like not pressure is in
fishing pressure, but like the temperature pressure, the cosmic
whatever is in the air, the moonphase, I have no idea.
But I was, man, I was ready to go bust another 25 pile bag and

(30:31):
drop, you know, 75 lbs on the boys in the open.
And I probably still wouldn't have won.
But making a top 10 on largemouth at Saint Clair would
have been a huge, huge accomplishment.
So do you not feel that that's possible at most?
Yeah, 100 percent, 100%. You know, I, I, I.

(30:52):
So I incorporated. I can.
I can tell you that during last year's season, I incorporated
Ford facing sonar on some places.
Because once again, like I said,you have to.
You need to. My wife goes running bikes.
Try to hide. You saw.
You saw. You saw.
Yeah, you saw. Yeah, you saw the flat.
Yeah, either that's it's his wife or he's about to get

(31:16):
robbed. What?
Are the others? Yeah, so, but I I didn't
incorporate it as much as probably everybody that was in
the top ten that made the elitesfor this mixture drifty class.
And so I I still am going to I got there.

(31:37):
I was close. I was literally I was one bad
day at and I remember it at Santee Cooper day one when I
rolled down to my fish and my fish had moved and literally
within a sight of me, my fish went from pre spawn to spawn and
I didn't make the adjustment Autumn, but one I couldn't

(32:02):
because there was another boat there.
And you'll know one thing about me is in my career, you've never
heard anyone say ish hole jumpedme, Ish ran up on my spot or ish
followed me or ish did anything like that, because that's not
me. I'm that guy that, you know, I
see a boat, I run away from him because I feel like there's some
fish somewhere that I can have all to myself because that's how
you win. Every tournament I've ever won,

(32:24):
I've pretty much had no one around me.
Even at Okee, even at Okeechobee, that last day when I
dropped 31 lbs, there was not a single boat around me, which is
weird for Okeechobee of all places, even no locals.
But yeah, I mean, I, it's definitely possible.

(32:45):
I think we, I can do it. I mean, I can make the elites
by, you know, including forward facing sonar, active target and
including regular fishing. And that's going to be a huge
accomplishment for me as, as a person as well.
You know, there's a lot of guys out there that don't believe
that. They believe that forward facing

(33:06):
sonar is the only way to do wellin tournaments and and I think
that's a bad mindset because this fishing and you've got to
be open minded to everything. So it hasn't changed is what
you're saying? It's all just all the same.
You went, that was an emotional roller coaster.
We went around a lot. But for you, it's not changed.

(33:28):
Like that's how fishing always is, isn't it?
You can do it however you choose.
Yeah, yeah, you can. OK.
OK. So what?
So what? So the industry's fine, is that
what you're saying? I, I, the industry's just
changing and, and guys haven't made the adjustment to it.
I mean, you could, you sat down with Rick and you've had your

(33:50):
conversations and I mean that guy's been around for 50 years
in, in, in, in professional bassfishing and he's seen all the
changes. You know, he he could probably
tell you about the pop bar when it was all of a sudden the match
bait, the freaking balsa crank bait, when it was the magic bait
to the A rig to the swim bait, to the chatter bait, to whatever

(34:15):
it may be. There's always industry changing
products and there'll be anotherone.
You know that after this whole deal, there'll be another one
and it'll be completely different.
Gosh, I mean, look at it. We were we were throwing fuzzy
dice for for for a short period of time on bed fish.

(34:36):
Yeah, yeah. Went from throwing giant tubes
the beginning of the Elite series, I'll let you to tiny
little bit of. So where do you think it is in
five years? I have no clue.
I have zero clue. Because you know, we could, we
could be putting hooks on actionfigures and, and, and throwing

(34:58):
them down there and your GI Joe and Transformers going to catch
a bass for you. Yeah, I mean time will only tell
that's. True.
I mean, think about think about it.
I I can still say that I bet youthat the Whopper Plopper as a
whole has probably still outsoldevery pack of jig head minnows

(35:21):
that are out there. Yeah, yeah.
But because I think we get stuckthinking as tournament folks, I
think we all get stuck thinking that is every.
I mean, I did a seminar a coupleweeks ago at at a show that that
has a pretty educated customer base, but they're not all

(35:44):
tournament focused. They're not all tournament
anglers. And I literally did a show of
hands with the crowd. And I'm like, so who is totally
against forward face and sonar? And there was a few who's
totally for it. There was a few and I said, who
here doesn't let it? You know who here doesn't is
neither on either side. And the majority of them put up

(36:05):
their hand. But I think we get stuck
thinking that that this is the entire fishing world.
Like I mean, the majority of theworld literally does not fish
out of a boat to start with, right?
There, there is 10, there is 10,000 bass boats sold every
single year. My dealership, my dealership

(36:27):
sells about 50 to 60 of those bass boats.
Last year they were selling 100 at one point when the the years
are good. But I would tell you that I
guarantee you that a third of those bass boats that are sold
more than 1/3 probably, I want to say 2/3 of those bass boats
that are sold are not sold with Ford facing Sonar.

(36:50):
You know, I mean, guys do get it.
And I tell everybody that you doit.
It's a great tool for you to learn how fish relate and it
will make you a better fisherman100%.
I'm a firm believer that Ford facing its owner will make you a
better fisherman. But some people don't enjoy it.
Some people don't want to play video games when they're out

(37:11):
there fishing. And, and I, and I get it.
The purity of bass fishing is the unknown.
I still love the unknown. I'm not going to be able to use
active target when catching a bass on a frog, but I can tell
you that I can. I've used it when I've been
punching and I've watched fish swim up to my bait while he goes
through the mat and they swim away from it.

(37:33):
So then I know that I need to make a bait change of some sort
to figure out how to get that fish to trigger.
And that's helped me. You know, I've done it with a
floating fly so, but I haven't done it with too many top water
baits. But who doesn't love to catch a
bass on a top water? I mean, when is the last?
Time you threw a float and fly. I threw a float and fly a couple

(37:53):
weeks ago at Lake Shasta. I love the float, but float and
fly. It's the it's no, but it's,
it's, it's my, it's, it's my dirty little secret.
Like it's the one rod spinning rod that I love throwing.
Like I get excited when the water starts to get cold and I'm
like, Oh my God, because it, thefloat and fly will take you back
to your childhood. Watching that bobber go,

(38:15):
watching that bobber go down. It's like, Oh my God, I'm bit
like it. It just it, it overwhelms you
and I and I and I love to see other people that have done it.
You know, I have Mike Lackey from the Vagabond Sport Machine.
He's a San Diego charter captain, chases freaking 200 to
300 LB tuna regularly. That's what his job is.

(38:37):
I took him floating fly fishing and he is hooked on it, loves it
to death. And you're talking about he uses
baits the size of the bass we catch on the float and fly, but
yet he loves it. There's something about, I don't
know what it is, primal childhood, whatever.
There's something about watchinga float like I don't care.
Yes. What you're fishing for, there

(38:58):
is something about it that is really, really cool it.
But you, I mean, I can listen toyou in Castle Dine dissect the
industry every two weeks on his podcast if I want to.
I want to talk about you Ish. You mentioned childhood, yes.
Is it? Not true every two weeks me and

(39:21):
Todd me and Todd have a great stuff.
We don't we don't bitch. We have a great time talking
about because we both laugh at it.
You know, Todd's embrace the industry.
He he he works for a great company striking.
I, you know, I work for River tosee and we can just talk about
baits and products and everything that we see and we
laugh about a lot of stuff. And, you know, it's just funny

(39:41):
because I, I, I mean it, it's just Todd.
He, he's, he's, he's just a great friend And, and I love
talking to him kind of like you.I do love talking to you.
We have a great time talking as well.
But yeah, what's the what's the childhood question?
Aveco not only makes incredible outdoor clothing, but they care
about anglers. With their 10% pledge, Aveco and

(40:03):
the Shed family donate at least 10% of the company's profits to
conservation and making fishing better.
Now back to the show. But, and I'm a big fan of Todd.
Todd knows that I love some. I love his way of thinking about
things. Every once in a while I just
want to swat him in the back of the head.
And spit it out because it takesa while to get there.

(40:25):
But but I do, I do love Todd andwhat I love about his channel is
he throws stuff out there. Like, I think there's a ton of
podcast channels that literally just watch other podcasts and
then ask the same questions, Todd.
Todd's real Todd's real Todd. He's.
A. 100% real. He's a real person and I and I
love that and I respect that about him because he's kind of

(40:47):
like me. He won't hold anything back, you
know, if he if he firmly believes in something, he will
express it. And, and, and I love that about
the guy. So when did this addiction to
fishing start for you? Like, how old were you and what,
what was the moment in your headwhere you're like, man, this,
this, I'm doing this forever. So well the for everything that

(41:10):
we came down a little bit further, but the fishing
addiction started at a super young age that I can't even
remember. My dad has a picture of me that
actually, I think it came out onbass Masters at some point where
I've got an Afro out to here. I can't even talk yet really.
I barely can walk. And I got and, and, and I mean,

(41:33):
I guarantee you I'm, I'm probably 2 years old and I've
got my rod. It's the photos, black and
white. Most of these kids don't even
know what a black and white photo ever is.
But the photo was black and white and it turned a little
brown over the years because it's obviously 40 some odd years
old. But that was the addiction right
then. I mean, that bluegill and I, and

(41:54):
I don't even remember it, but the bass fishing addiction came
from, I mean, my grandfather used to take me in his RV to
these little campsites that had ponds and you'd see these bass
swimming around and they were the hardest bass in the world to
catch. And I remember the first one
that I caught on a night crawler.

(42:15):
I was done at that point. I like, I need to know more
about bass fishing. So then all of a sudden watching
this head to head bass fishing deal on TV that it was funny
because it was, it was kind of like ultimate match fishing well
before ultimate match fishing. And I, I mean, you got to

(42:38):
remember this is ultimate match fishing was 20 years ago.
This was 40 years ago. And it was this I remember they
were head to head. They were in tracker aluminum
bass trackers, the old school ones with the brown carpet that
they brought back the retro 1 and this 18 year old kid and the

(42:59):
16 year old kid were duking it out, throwing spinner baits head
to head competition. And the 16 year old kid for some
reason was just the baddest caster.
It might have been Kevin. I don't know if he he was such a
good caster. It it was amazing.
Watch this as you're going to put that spinner bait in place
and just whacking him and he beat the 18 year old kid and he

(43:21):
got $5000 and at to me 7-8 yearsold, $5000 I could have bought.
I was I was Elon Musk at that point.
I had $5000 of me was like, okay, I'm going to the moon with
with with that. And so it's it was pretty cool.

(43:42):
That was the addiction of tournament fishing and bass
masters. And you know, this is another
conversation I just had was I remember the days of TNN and
watching the bass Masters on Nashville network and my uncle
had cable and I had to catch Bart from San Francisco to El

(44:03):
Cerrito every Sunday to be able to watch Bass Masters.
And it went from watching Bass Masters to recording Bass
Masters on a cassette tape, not VHS, just like it re listen to
everything that was said and, and trying to get the
intricacies of it. You know, Bassmaster magazine

(44:25):
came out with the tournament, the recap of the tournament and
the baits that guys were using. And I just was engulfed in that
because that's, that's what she didn't have drama at that time.
The drama was is who's going to win the tournament?
And, and, and that's what that'swhat to me was the purity of the
sport and the amazingness of Larry Nixon winning again and

(44:51):
Denny Brauer winning again and Rick Klun winning again.
And all of a sudden you have this new guy, Kevin Van Damme
from Kalamazoo, MI, which everybody's like Michigan
doesn't have great bass. And wait a minute, I was from
Michigan, I was from Ann Arbor. So Kalamazoo is like a hop skip
and a jump away. And you had this guy who was
from basically born really near me, and he's one of the best

(45:13):
bass fishermen out there. That was the stuff that got me
excited. That was the stuff that was in
my childhood and in my veins. And you can see now that I'm
getting like the chills. I got goosebumps thinking about
this. And that's what bass fishing was
about. And I think that's what got a
lot of people into bass fishing.Was that right there?

(45:35):
Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah.
I think you speak for a whole generation.
I mean, there's not one of us that hasn't, like, pretended
that Ray Scott in Bob Cobb's voices, you know what I mean?
Like everybody has been all alone in a boat, you know,
throwing a jig at a Reed patch and thought, you know, race.

(45:58):
Scott is commentating this, you know, no different than people
that grow up wanting to play football.
Yeah, they're not watching. Montana making the throw like
you, you, you. That that's how much it
imprinted on people. If you, if you're not watching
the cast, you're, you're missingout on the, the history, the the
greatest, the reason why we all do this, the love and, and, and

(46:23):
because there's a lot of guys who can't explain why they do
this other than they just love it.
But like, if you watch the cast,you'll understand why you love
it when that big one that jumps out of those bushes when you set
the hook or that bite or the break off, the loss.
I mean, it wasn't always just about the winning.
I mean, when a guy broke one off, you could feel his pain.

(46:46):
You could see it. It was embedded in you.
So let me just play devil's advocate.
Let's say if you were in your teens right now, you don't think
those kids are feeling the same thing when they're watching
like, have you? Changed or.
Has bass changed? Maybe they are, I don't, I don't

(47:07):
know. I, I don't know.
I've asked, I've asked them the questions because I have a lot
of guys around me that I'm hope I'm trying to mentor.
I'm trying to get them to explain to them about the
business because they want this so bad.
They really do want this. And it's, they're asked.
They're these are the smart onesthat ask me, you know, how does
it, what does it take to get there?
And I explain to them and I sit down and I break down the

(47:28):
numbers to entry fees versus winnings versus sponsorship
dollars. And some of those guys, they're,
they're, and a lot of these kidsare well smarter than what I was
at that age. They get it, they understood it
because honestly, I want to tellyou, if I was to think about it
now, if I would got into bass fishing, I probably would have

(47:48):
had a regular job at the time when I was first getting in.
But I got fortunate and the dream kept me there and it kept
me aspiring. So, yeah, maybe they are feeling
that, but I, I can't tell you that I the hooking of A7 pounder
on a spinning rod and the hooking of A7 pounder in a mat
is I don't, to me, it's a completely different feeling.

(48:11):
And that mat that, that vision, that 7 pounder in that mat is,
Oh my God. And he's pulling it and he's
ripping the mat to shreds. And then you both put them in
the boat and there's this giant thug in the bottom of your boat
and you're just like, yeah, yeah.
So maybe they are. I mean, maybe they are.

(48:34):
Foreign facing sonar is cool, but I've said this a bazillion
times it's never ever I I've seen some really cool stuff I've
learned so much from it, we all have.
But I've yet to see something that's as cool as an 8 pounder
eating a frog and yet to see something that you know like
there was Lucas posted a video afew days ago that I saw of him.

(48:55):
He caught like an almost 8 pounder in a tournament and I
didn't even need to see the fish.
Just like literally he set the hook And that the feeling that
you get from just seeing the hooks, that feel, I mean that
you can't replace that. No, I mean that that's I've
caught a tin on a frog, I've hadmultiple tins on mats.

(49:18):
I've flipped. My biggest fish is a 14 LB, one
ounce bass and I flipped it on abrush hog a long, long, long
time ago. And the feeling of that hook set
and you thinking that you're actually snagged because it
doesn't move. And then when it starts pulling
and you've got 20 LB tests on a flipping stick and you're trying

(49:40):
to pull this thing and it's not moving.
You're like, what did I just hook something that's not real?
And then this thing comes wallowing up with this mouth
open and you're just like, Oh myGod, there's just, there's just
nothing like that to me. Yeah.
No, I agree with that. I agree with that.
So on the way up would you couldclassify your route up to what

(50:06):
you became an easy 1A tougher 1 like.
So completely hard, completely completely tough, completely
tough from so many different angles.
I mean, you, you've got to understand is one.
I was different because I was a West Coast guy.
You know, there weren't many West Coast guys and the ones

(50:26):
that were out there weren't verylike much.
I mean, you had Rich Tauber who looked like a surfer, you had
John Murray, you had Byron Velvik.
You just, the guys that were from the West were different.
And and so then I come along andit's just like, let's let's see
where this goes. And it was a tough, hard Rd.

(50:49):
I mean, I, I was traveling, you know, back east to unfamiliar
territories. I'd never spent any time in the
South at all before fishing. I mean, I would go to Ann Arbor
to California, Ann Arbor to California, never went anywhere
else. And so now all of a sudden I'm
in Eufaula, AL or I'm down at Clewiston, FL Lake Okeechobee

(51:13):
and, and things are just different at that time and being
from a West Coast guy, I was just like, OK, hey, everybody's
cool, everybody gets along and get down there.
It's a little bit different, butpeople embraced it.
And it, it the great part about people is there's change and,
and people adjust to change and they, they go along with it.
And, and so when I show up therewith my hip hop music, thank God

(51:36):
I had Skeet Reese there with me playing the same music that I
was playing. We were good because I wasn't
the only one. Yeah.
Then I comes along. Then I comes along.
Oh yeah. My people.
Is, Yeah. Is is who?
But oh, who's that guy? OK, he's got tattoos and he's

(51:56):
break dancing and yeah. But he initially wasn't.
I mean, I tried to conform too. I mean, pre classic victory, I
was pretty. I mean the image I put out there
was. I mean, he was pretty clean.
He he pretty clean. He was, yeah, he was pretty
clean. He was pretty clean at that
time, yes. Did you try to do that at the

(52:18):
beginning? I think it's almost natural that
everyone kind of tries to conform to a certain.
Extent khaki, khaki pants tuckedin shirt, vest was properly
pressed every, you know, my tournament vest was properly
pressed at every time, you know,and my hat was down, you know,
wasn't tilted to the side for until a little while after that,

(52:41):
you know, glasses were, sunglasses were pretty generic,
you know, normal $10. I think they were striking
sunglasses at that time to the silver frame, blue frame cocoons
that I've, you know, wore to thesilver frame coasters that I
wear now. Yeah.

(53:02):
Was was race ever an issue? I mean, I had, I have to imagine
it was, I mean, there was not many West Coast guys.
Race was race was race was race was not as big of an issue in
bass fishing as it was it was inreal life.
I will tell you that. I mean, even once again, I grew

(53:23):
up in California, so we had everybody.
My, my high school was called International Studies Academy.
There was every nationality thatyou could possibly and everybody
got along. So for me, that was, that was.
But yes, when I went back to, you know, other parts of the

(53:44):
country, it was definitely different.
You know, I, I saw my cousin whodidn't date a girl of his race
and watched and saw the, the looks that we got as the three
of us walking together and, and,and so those were the things.

(54:06):
But overall, I, I would say withthe fishing stuff, it was, it
was, it was pretty, it was pretty overall cool.
You know, and, and I and, and everybody never really, you
know, more is funny because morepeople try to say that I played
the race card then what I thought out there.
And as you know, I'd never play that card.
There was no, there was no reason to.

(54:27):
I want you to judge me on my fishing ability and the person
that I was and not necessarily on my skin color.
Yeah, no, I mean, to be honest, I never even hear you talk about
it. There's no because.
There's no, because there's no reason to.
We are all the same people. We're all, once again, we're all
Americans, except for the few Canadians.

(54:47):
I mean, we, we, we, we adopted you guys, you know?
Give it time it seems. Yeah, exactly.
Give it time to be. Gosh, you guys are.
You guys are good. But there was there's no reason
to because once again, my bloodsred, your bloods red.
You put your pants on the same way I put my pants on.
You know, as long as you treat me fairly, I'm going to treat
you fairly. I'm not going to judge you

(55:08):
because you're taller than me, smaller than me, bigger than me,
you know, whatever it may be, there's no reason to judge
anybody other than how people treat you.
And so that's why I've never ever thought about playing that
race card. And I'm going to always be me.
I'm going to listen to hip hop music.
I don't listen to country music a lot of, but overall it's a not

(55:38):
delete them, block them, not block them, just not take their
call. But yeah, there's no reason to.
I mean, once again is not disturbed.
Oh, I yeah, I didn't do that. I'm sorry you didn't tell me as
many podcasts as I've done. I've should have known.
But yeah, I mean, it's been cool.
Like I just and I just like I said, I treat people.

(55:59):
I don't judge anybody on their color or their nationality.
I judge them on the person that they are.
And yeah, there's a lot more people that I would say that are
dirtbags on every aspect of every angle, and I just don't
associate with those people. Yeah.
I think that that says a lot really.

(56:20):
You know, where you said it was a bigger deal in regular life
than it was in fishing? Because I think that people
would look at fishing stereotypical, you know what I
mean, and say, you know, it's a southern spot.
People would want a pigeonhole with that.
But it just shows that's that speaks of the people that fish.
I mean, you got to think about it.

(56:40):
We've had we've had, we've had aJapanese Classic champion, we've
had a Canadian classic champion,we've had every walks of life
that fish bass fishing. And so how it's not really a
judgmental thing. I mean, you look at how many
African Americans now fishing tournaments, there's a lot of
them and, and it's pretty cool. And, you know, so yeah, there's

(57:05):
no reason to judge anybody on their nationality or color.
Yeah, no, but people still tiptoe around it.
It is a weird kind of like because, because and I've always
go ahead. I said because of you look at
where society is right now. I mean, we are we are so divided
as a country. And, you know, when I was
watching this whole political deal, I, I saw so much of both

(57:32):
sides playing that race card. And then they were, you know,
well, this is the Latino voters and this is the African American
voters, and this is the Asian voters.
And they're all thinking this and that.
And I'm like, does any of that matter?
Absolutely not. What matters is a person who's
voting and who they're voting for, and it's all about the

(57:53):
person who can do the best job. I don't care.
Man, woman, black, white, Asian,Latino, it doesn't matter.
It's about the person that does the best job for the people as a
whole, and that's what it comes down to.
The world would be a happier place if people thought like
that more often. And and they should.

(58:15):
And it, but the mainstream, mainstream media, mainstream
media made. It's all about what mainstream
media does. Yeah, 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,
remember Yamaha supports it and they care enough about you to

(58:37):
make this ad read very short. Now back to the show.
Well, you've had an incredible career.
I mean, you've overcome a lot, but you've had an incredible.
Incredible career. Is it frustrating to have to go
back to the opens? No, not at all.
I'm telling you, I'm I'm enjoying the opens.

(58:58):
No. But there's no part of you
that's like. I was there.
No, no, no, no, no, no. You got to see, here's the deal.
This is what I think the elites have lost.
They've lost the camaraderie because I've heard about it.
The guys now are so desperate tobeat the other guys that they're

(59:23):
you don't hear about guys helping guys.
You don't hear about guys rooming together, having a good
time and partying like we used to.
Yes, we are older. We don't get to party as much
anymore. I don't know, dude.
I mean, they still party and they're still and there's more
guys helping each other today than.
You think so there. Ever has been.

(59:45):
OK. Look at how I mean how how many
teams was there when you were fishing the elites.
Now there's like so many teams like literally that will go up
during I mean so much that so that some think it's a problem
that will literally during the tournament roll up on a dude and
say, Hey, you need to go to thisspot because they're chomping.

(01:00:06):
I mean, there's more teams now than when I.
OK, I guess so I guess there's more teams now, but those teams
are still teams of these two or three, four guys versus
everybody helping everybody. I mean, I once again, some of
the biggest competitors in the world.
I remember, like I said, Rick Klun telling me, hey man,

(01:00:28):
they're eating a spinnerbait or,or Van Damme, like, hey man,
that ditch down there, you're not catching them.
That's my that's my backup spot,but I don't need it stuff.
And I, I guess maybe that's the difference is, is I just, I
don't hear about the same. And I hear just about guys who
man, well, he told me about thisand that wasn't real or that

(01:00:48):
wasn't true. And so I guess maybe I, maybe I,
if I get back there, I'll see that.
Because I mean, the plan is still to get back to the elites
definitely then and still fish the elites, fish the opens
because I am enjoying the bass master opens.
It's, it's back to it's, it's, it's fun.
It's fun for me and and like I said myself and when I stop

(01:01:10):
having fun I need to quit. Well, and you've, you've been
one of the, I mean, it's pretty a lot of people talk about it
now, but you were one of the original.
Like the more fun I'm having, the better I fish.
When I get away from having fun,it it, I get away from having
the finishes that I like to haveand then nobody's having fun.

(01:01:30):
Yep. 100% you got 8 minutes, 7 minutes and 20 you got 27
minutes and. 30 seconds. Wow, oh wow.
I better get hard hit in here. Yes.
How are you? How have you been?
So you are one of the most financially successful pros I
know. I mean, you are a person who has
and I, I don't know if you get mad at me.
You say you bought a friggin Ferrari from bass fishing.

(01:01:51):
How the hell are you so financially successful as a bass
fisherman? My wife's not around single,
being single, being single, no, honestly just good business,
good business decisions, honestly good business
decisions, you know, and workinghard for sponsors.
And like I said, it's my dad. Basically.

(01:02:13):
He put it in my head when I was young age.
The harder you work, the more you'll be successful.
And so I, I still never tell a sponsor no.
Every time a sponsor is asked, they're like, hey, we need
somebody to go. I'm like, I'm, I'm usually the
first one and I'm there. And I don't work for my
sponsors, just my sponsors. I work for the industry, you

(01:02:33):
know. Yeah, even when I was told not
to show up to the Bass Master Classic, I showed up to the Bass
Master Classic, you know, because you did.
It's I did. You showed up as the first
person you ran into was me. Yeah, if you remember, you ran
and and, and to be clear, Bass didn't tell you not to go to
the. Bass.
No, they did not. The bass, not that we know.

(01:02:54):
No, no, no, it was not bass. It was the other.
It was, it was another organization.
And you know, at that time I wasn't fishing bass.
But once again, I still showed up for the industry and I showed
up for my sponsors. And that's where I think things
have gone wrong is, is we've gotten to a competitive battle
and you just got to be a lot more professional.

(01:03:14):
And I love them and you know so nothing.
Nothing's bigger than the sport.Now and, and nothing.
And I tell, I tell that to everyyoung kid even in football.
And, and that's what people needto realize.
I watch these guys in football who think that they're bigger

(01:03:35):
than the NFL and I'm like, there's nothing bigger than the
NFL or the NBA. Nothing.
Do you visualize like? During your career?
Have you visualized some of these successes that you've
achieved? Yeah, yeah.
I mean, winning is winning you. You visualize winning.

(01:03:57):
You visualize making classics, you visualize being successful.
If you don't visualize it, you don't have a road map.
When you visualize it before youdo it, you have a road map to
get there in the road map. And once again, we always know
that the road map isn't always as accurate as you want it to
be, but there's a road map there.

(01:04:17):
And success always has had a road map and there's always some
failures or wrong turns in it. You know, shoot, my maps took me
down a little dirt Rd. the otherday at Sam Rayburn, but I still,
I still made it to the house. Not as told me it was faster,
but it wasn't faster, but I still made it to the house.
And that's the ultimate goal. You definitely visualize it.

(01:04:37):
So when you visualize it, is this something you do as you go
to sleep? Is this something you sit down
and meditate? Is this something you do while
you're driving? Is it something all the time?
Every day, every day, all the time, I'm visualizing the next
move. I'm visualizing the next thing
that I need to be successful. So what have you been
visualizing lately? Oh, selling a lot of product

(01:04:59):
sponsors in multiple different avenues and this the road map to
get to that is I haven't wanted to talk about it just yet, but
I'll I'll, I will be able to talk about it at some point and
people will see. You're saving that for Castle
Dines podcast is what. You.
No, I'm not saving it for CastleDines.
I'm saving that for, I'm saving that for whatever it it has been

(01:05:21):
accomplished. I'm all about, you know, once
I've got there, then I'll tell you about it before telling you
that I'm going to try to get there and just do it.
And that's part and that's part of visualizing, yeah.
Yeah, I gotcha. What's your favorite sound?
What do you mean? What's your favorite sound like?

(01:05:42):
You have to stop and think What?The ocean?
The ocean. The sound of the ocean, OK.
More than that. That's my more than bass
fishing. The ocean is my happy place.
The ocean is the purest thing inthe world.
When you go on a 10 day trip in to chase tuna and all you're out
there in the middle of nowhere and all you see is stars and you

(01:06:03):
hear the ocean crashing up against the boat or the rocks.
It's that there's nothing betterthan that.
Or the sound of that freaking tuna bite and and peeling off
100 yards of line in about 30 seconds.
Do you? Have any fears?
I mean, I'm claustrophobic. Do you, do you have anything
like that? Are you scared?
Of course, she walks in the sametime that I, if I say I have any

(01:06:25):
fears, is losing my wife. Yes, that's a natural one.
Yeah, I know. But you asked me the time.
I could have said that and she wouldn't have heard it.
But she now she's got leverage over me.
She knows I'm scared of losing her.
But thanks. Thanks, Dave.
Thanks. I appreciate that.
Well, I mean, she SH, I mean, I think she knew.
I think she knew. She knew.

(01:06:47):
She knows. She knows.
She knew that before that I was afraid of losing her.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, I don't want to go over
time. I didn't realize we were against
such a time pump. Track.
Well, no, it's not that is once again.
Hey, hey, like like you said, you have a trip that you've got
to get ready for. I've got a boat sale that I'm
working on. You know, I've got to be the guy
to got to be the guy to sell a boat at the Skeeter dealership.

(01:07:10):
I mean, when the guy wants to buy a boat, you, you go there to
take him, walk him through it. And if he wants to go for a test
drive, I take him on a test. Drive.
Yeah, yeah, that's why. That's why you bought a freaking
Ferrari from Bass. Exactly. 100%.
Would you ever start a course? Hi my name is Ish Monroe.
I bought a Ferrari from bass fishing.

(01:07:32):
Follow me for weekly tips. I, I told, I told all my
sponsors have asked me about doing that stuff and I said all
you got to do is just get the guys there and tell them that
they got to listen. That's the hardest thing is, is,
you know, I've definitely tried to help out a lot of people
because I want the industry to be successful as a whole.
And then, you know, because if everybody's making more money,

(01:07:52):
I'm just going to have to outwork them.
But yeah, I would definitely love to do a course on how to be
successful in bass fishing because I think it is neat.
It's. Very needed, very needed.
Well, if you're not nothing, you're a punctual and and I
don't want to keep you over. Time but I I enjoy our.
Conversation, I mean. Definitely.

(01:08:12):
It was good. It went a lot of different
directions. You said you wouldn't hold back,
but you kind of held back at onepoint.
I didn't hold back. What did I hold back on?
What like I'm working on some stuff I don't.
Really. Well, that's, that's right.
Well, that's once again, that's like I said, you, you just, you
hold it tight to the hip until it's finished.
When it's done and in process then you can talk all about it

(01:08:35):
all you want. OK, you know, superstitious at
all of course of. Course, of course I got what are
they, the banana? I'm not doing those.
The lucky underwear. Yeah, the lucky underwear thing,
I don't. I like showers way too much for
that. Yeah, the first cast deal, I got

(01:08:55):
that one out of the way. But yeah, really only the banana
thing is the only superstition that I have.
Yeah. Or I do.
I do believe. I do believe if something bad
happens to you right before a tournament, like a flat tire or
something, you usually have a pretty good tournament overall.
OK, that's a good way to turn things around.
I think it's. Kind of like the old if you get

(01:09:19):
of a seagull shits on your head,it's good luck.
Not really. Somebody said, yeah, somebody
said that. Yeah, yeah.
You hear that all the time on the salt water trips.
Yeah, if it rains on your wedding day, it's good luck.
That was totally made-up by somedad trying to console his
daughter. Don't worry.
It's good luck. It's good luck.
You guys are going to last a long time.
The one and only is Monroe. Thank you dude.

(01:09:40):
Can we do this again when you'renot swaping boats?
Or when you're not and when you're not freaking flying to
the event down in Florida, I think it is maybe flying
somewhere. You're flying somewhere, you're
all over the place. Yeah, going a lot of places.
That's good you. Got to keep busy like you said.
Exactly. Keep working exactly.

(01:10:01):
Work all you can. Amen is Monroe.
Thank you. Appreciate it, Dave.
That's it, that's all always great stuff from Ish Monroe.
Thank you very much for taking the time to shoot that show with
me. Obviously I shot that show
before I even left for Florida, but I'm shooting these parts in
Florida while I wait to yes, you're right once again,

(01:10:22):
intentionally swim with sharks. Keep your eye out on next week's
show. We're going to have a mega show.
Jake Latondra's going to be herefor his first Jake's take of the
season about the 1st 2 Florida events.
We're going to have a couple of guests from there.
We will have one of our old school mega shows and we will
recap everything that happened in Florida.
Reminder officially unofficial is available on YouTube now.

(01:10:44):
For the first week it was up on bassmaster.com, but if you
didn't watch it there, make sureto watch it on YouTube.
I'll put the link down below in the comments and in the
description. Make sure you check it out and
thank you all for the incrediblesupport.
Crazy viewership for the first episode.
More good shows coming and it's also on Apple Podcasts, I think

(01:11:06):
kind of weird. You got to look up officially
unofficial, which is spelt a little different.
OHFISHALLYO, fish alley unofficial, look that up.
I think it's under the Bassmaster podcast platform.
It's kind of weird the way they're posting, but if you look
it up, you'll find it on Apple podcast, Spotify, all those

(01:11:29):
things. Make sure you watch that.
Keep your eye out for a mega show this week, enjoy Lake
Okeechobee. I'm sure we'll have lots more to
chapters to add to this story. And hopefully during the mega
show I got all all my digits because yes, I am intentionally
swimming with sharks. That's it, that's all.

(01:11:51):
Until next time, enjoy being. And as always, Bob Cobb, take it
away. I need a frozen drink pronto.
Thanks for watching. Please like, comment and
subscribe because Bob Cobb of the Bass Masters told you to you

(01:12:16):
here.