Randy Howell and Jake's Take on MERCER-211

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Buckle up pumpers, because you're in for another double
dose of goodness. We kick things off with 16 time
Classic qualifier, four time Bassmaster winner and 2014
Bassmaster Classic Champion Randy Howell.
He talks about his return to theBassmaster Elite series, but
we're also joined by the guy whospent three days on the back
deck of his boat at Lake Hartwell.

(00:21):
That's right, Jake Latondras with the ultimate Bassmaster
behind the scenes show. Jake's take.
Both of them join me this week I'm.
Bob Cobb for the Bassmaster. Welcome to Mercer.

(00:45):
Welcome one welcome all friends,family, freeloaders, fishing
freaks, and of course you my humpers.
Happy hump day to all of you andwelcome into the awkwardly
honest fishing podcast that goesby my last name, which is
Mercer. This is the 211th edition of the
Mercer podcast and I hope wherever you're watching or
listening from in the world thatlife is treating you well.

(01:06):
As always, I am thankful that you've chosen to take a little
time to get away from, you know,the real problems on earth and
just joined the particular tomfoolery that we share here
each and every week. Speaking of which, a big thing
coming down next week, next week's show, you got to tune in

(01:27):
because we have a brand new feature that I'm excited to
release during next week's show.I wish I could tease it more.
I know a bunch of you are going to love it.
It's it's going to be a lot of fun.
Plus, we have a freaking banger guest next week.
So. Just make sure you check out
next week's show. But before we get there, let's
focus on this week's show. It is a big week moment of total

(01:50):
honesty as you watch this. God willing, I am either there
or on my way to Lake Fork, Texasfor the fifth stop of the
Bassmaster Elite Series. Going to be a incredible event.
It always is. Incredible fishing.
What a freak factory Fork is andI love going there.
I mean it is the reason I have the career I have.

(02:13):
My career started at Lake Fork at the CTBC thanks to Lenny,
Katie, Andy, Harry, everybody, Eric, the whole gang from Gulf
States, Toyota and Octagon that once had faith in me to emcee an
event. I am thankful for all of them
and I look forward to returning to Lake Fork seeing many old and

(02:34):
new friends. If you are there make sure you
say hi to me. Would love to see you guys all.
It's going to be an awesome tournament with giant weights as
well. That's why people go to Lake
Fork. Let's be honest, no matter that
they go there for the big bite and there is going to be big
bites this week. I'm all excited but next week's

(02:55):
show. But we got a banger here this
week. We have Randy Howell returning
to the Elite series and making his first ever appearance on the
Mercer podcast. I'm thankful for that.
We have a great conversation. But that's not all.
We also are joined by Jake's take.
You might have thought I forgot about it because last week I was

(03:16):
had to stay at Hartwell a littlelonger and I got the opportunity
to interview Paul Marx and Drew Cook who were battling and
outgoing. Down to the Wire was a unique
show, but because of that I didn't get to do Jake's take.
But I will never forget about myboy Jake Latondres and he is
part of this show. But without further ado, let's

(03:37):
jump right into it and hook up with Randy Howe.
Randy Howell, it is wonderful tohave you back on the Bassmaster
Elite series. And have you on this show?
Man, it is so great to be back, Dave, and I'll tell you what
I've said. I joked about it when I was on
Mercer in the morning at Heartwell.

(03:58):
I said I've dreamed of being on this show for the last six years
and I'm finally same here. I'm dreaming to be about on this
this show for the last six years.
So I'm honored to have you have me on here today.
So it's really great. Appreciate it.
Well, I'm happy to have you on any of the stuff that I'm lucky
enough to do. Does it feel different?

(04:20):
Has to a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It definitely feels different. It it's like, I mean, it's hard
to describe. It's a it's a fresh, it's a
fresh, you know, refreshing new feeling.
I almost like you're like you moved towns and went to a new
school or something, you know, and you're just like, I don't
know, it's hard to describe because I because it's not like

(04:42):
I don't know everybody and I still know most of the people.
I don't know a lot of the younger anglers on on the elite
series. I'm starting to, you know, get
to know more of them, but still that part is different.
But the refreshing part of just that, the good old feeling.
Usually you can't get something back when it moves and when you
know you got the old nostalgia of, you know, your favorite old

(05:05):
restaurant in a small town, you whatever that you grew up in and
you go back 20 years later or whatever, the restaurants gone
strip miles there. You know that whole feelings
gone. You can't ever get it back.
But this time it's that same thing like I'm back and when I
walk on that stage and hear you talk and I hear the crowd, I see
the people and just that whole feeling you just gives gives me

(05:26):
goosebumps again. I've always loved.
So having that back is just really a good feeling.
Yeah. How is the response been from
other anglers? You know, from, from what I've
seen, it's been good. You know, I kind of picked right
up where, you know, where I leftoff, because a lot of the ones
that are there that have been there a long time that I know I,
I would never really lost touch on any of them.
Because I work shows and I see them here, see them there and I

(05:48):
watch all the tournaments, all the Bassmaster tournaments for
six years that I haven't been inthem.
I still follow, watch live, watch everything.
So I feel like I know a lot of the people and so we're still
friends, just distance friends and now we're a little get a
little closer to more people. But I'm also getting to know who
some of these new, you know, rookies and younger anglers that

(06:08):
have been making a name for their self the last few years.
I'm trying to get to know those guys too.
And everybody's been super nice,so it's been great.
It the response from the crowd, I think it's been really cool to
like, I mean, just even these last few events I can, you've
had decent events where you werepretty close to cuts, but these
last few events, I feel like, you know, you've got some more

(06:29):
screen time. We've done some wild things in
that screen time. We'll talk about that in a
minute. But it really does like when you
go on social media, you hear howhappy people are to see you
back. Yeah, that that's the good thing
that I really love. You know, I, I've, I've heard it
for the last five or six years. You know, the hardcore

(06:50):
Bassmaster fan base that you know, is, is, it's just
irreplaceable. I mean, there's not you can't
make as hard as everybody tries to make new fans to make new,
the new, you know, just trying doing something new and
different it you just can't change history and the way
things were made and the way things are going to always be.

(07:10):
You know, just like the bass master classic, there's never
going to be anything else like abass master classic.
And no matter what you try to door create, it's never going to
compete or compare with it. And so those fan base people,
every time I work the classic every year, that's what I would
hear every third person in line would say when you coming back
to Bassmaster, man, we miss you over here on bass.

(07:32):
And I'll be like, at first, the first couple years I was so mad.
It would make me so mad because I, because I, I didn't, I didn't
leave because of any problem or any reason.
I just left at the time because it was opportunity to be at the
time to make more money for me when my sponsors, particular
ones and all that. And I really didn't think about
it as like it, like it ended up turning out later, you know,

(07:54):
and, and so I, I was always excited to meet and see the
people again. But then when we leave that
classic, like the people wouldn't know, you know, where
you been? They don't, they didn't know
where I was or where to keep up with anything.
Because, you know, the majority of people that come to the
Bassmaster Classic aren't hardcore follower.
Every angler fans, they're novice fans.

(08:14):
They love the the classic and all, but they don't, a lot of
people didn't know. I wasn't even fishing, you know,
they would just be like, I actually didn't make it out
there today, but good, you know,good luck next year.
They didn't even know I wasn't even fishing on the tour
sometimes. But that's the kind of people
that are still the people that we promote to and that follow us
and are our fans and our friendsall over the country.
They feel like they know you. And so having that group of

(08:37):
people back, knowing that I'm back there, it's really been
great. Yeah, I think the Classic has a
weird position in the world, similar to, I mean, I watched
the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I don't watch any other horse
races throughout the year, but but I watch that every year.
The Masters golf tournament. I mean, I probably pay a little
more attention to the PGA definitely than horse racing,

(08:59):
but I'm glued to the Masters in the Classic.
Has that vibe. Did you ever go through a
period, you know, where you thought, man, I don't know that
I'm ever going to be in one of these again?
That had to be a weird spot as adefending chip, as if somebody
who's won it, who's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

(09:20):
I, I've sat in every way in and watched every one of them.
And I watched everybody win. And every time it happened, you
know, I still, you know, a cry. You know me, I'm an emotional
guy and I can't help it. And, you know, and I watch
everybody because I know how bigthe moment is and seeing it.
And every time I would leave there with it would be a
bittersweet feeling. I was proud for the person that

(09:42):
won and I was excited, but I also felt like, I almost felt
like, you know, what am I? What am I doing?
You know, why am I not here? Why am I not in this?
You know, I don't, I don't this just gosh, I would leave
frustrated, you know, and then Iand then it didn't take very
long in my mind. I started saying, and I tell my
wife and I tell Lakers, he was coming through high school

(10:04):
fishing and I'll be like, well, I'm going, I'm going to be back
one day. When you start to come up and
when you start to get in it, youknow we're going to go by.
Thankfully I've got that legend exemption for winning that
classic. I never knew how important that
would really be, but that that paid off and I said we're going
to cash that in real soon. So it finally happened.

(10:25):
Well, it is awesome to have you back and I guess I kind of
forgot. I mean, I've always said this
about you, but you are truly oneof the most camera friendly
anglers that there's ever. I mean, I always tell the story
about how I remember we, I thinkwe were on Lake George and I was
in the boat with Overstreet doing coverage and you know,

(10:45):
he's taking pictures and you hooked an 8 pounder and
literally walked it around to our side of the boat so
Overstreet could get the goods of youth landing the fish.
I remember Overstreet turned to me right afterwards.
He's like, man, would would you do that if you had that fish on?
And I'm like, not only would I not do that fish that if I had a
fish on the tournament, I don't know that I'd do that when I was

(11:08):
shooting ATV show, Yeah. Well, I, I in this, in this
business, man, you know, way back then, it's the same then as
it is now. And you got to do anything you
can to keep yourself on the screen and keep yourself
relevant and make people want toknow you and want to see and
want to sponsor you at the same time.
So I've got worked hard all my life try to do.

(11:30):
OK, well, the first thing I wantto talk to you about is your
best impersonation of a raccoon or whatever.
We would refer to you as what you did at Pasco Tank to get
that bait back. Look, I mean, I want to ask you
how badly you wanted that bait back, but I don't think I need
to ask you that because I think I saw it.
Yeah, yeah, I'm telling I've told this story 100 times since

(11:53):
then, but it's amazing how no matter you do all the that you
work hard, you do all the great things you can to hopefully be
remembered and then you do one thing like that.
That's all anybody remembers. It's funny, but but but I wanted
that that buzz bait was the fat was the first year lunker lure
made a they had a it's got a lead shaft with a screw lead on

(12:17):
it. And they changed it a little bit
after that. But that old one, I've used it
so long that it hits. It's developed that good squeak,
squeak, squeak sound and so loudthat when it lands, you know,
150 feet away on a long cast, you still hear it squeak.
And I don't want to lose it so bad.
It's just I got confidence and I've caught so many bass on it,
you know, So I said shoot, I mean, I it ain't a big deal to

(12:39):
get on the log and get the bait back to me.
I wasn't even thinking about thecamera being in there until I
started doing it. And I heard heard him and I turn
around and look and he was filming me.
And I thought when I got back tothe boat, I said that's going to
probably make a good video, but I got it anyway.
A buzz bait. That's one of those baits
specifically that I mean all baits.
I think there's certain crank baits.

(13:00):
It's just, I mean, you can get ten of them and there's a few of
them that just just get eaten. Have you ever been one of those
dudes who's done stuff to buzz baits, like tied them on your
antenna and your vehicle and stuff?
Like, do you do all that kind ofstuff?
I've done a lot. I've done everything you can do
back in the day, trying to make things the best you know, and
any idea any tip anybody give me?

(13:22):
I've tried, but I'm, I've never been able to get a buzz bait to
sound like that buzz bait no matter what I did to it.
And some reason I think that wasa combined rust from it being in
and out-of-the-box, wet and damp.
And then you put it up and it, it rust a little bit and you get
out and start using it for a dayor two and it gets moving and

(13:42):
then all of a sudden it just sounds so unique.
And I'm like, I don't want to lose it.
And when they hit it, they hit it so hard.
When they blow that one up, you know, it's by, it's really
bugging them. And that's what I think about
every time when I thought about breaking it off, especially when
I can see it sitting there and I'm like, you're better than
this, Randy. You can go get that bait.
Come on, get it. It's worth.
You'll catch it and make a lot of money on that bait again.

(14:04):
One day you better get it, So I did.
We'll see. The going out and getting it
isn't what shocked me. The fact that you did that
seamlessly without even getting a soaker.
I mean, like to me like halfway back, I'm like, God, that's what
I fall in or you know, like slide in a little bit or
something. Did you ever think that maybe
this was a bad decision or you were committed from?

(14:24):
The start, you might have heard me when I first stepped out, I
skunked on the log because it correct.
It crushed through right off thebat.
It was hollow. And when it did that, I said
this might not have been a good decision.
And but then I then I after it busted through, I started seeing
it was more solid. I reached up there everybody now
and I could hear it's a little little more solid.

(14:44):
So I, I wasn't worried about falling off as far because it
was wide enough, you know, and I'm pretty still pretty agile
and agile, agile, fragile kind of boat.
But I didn't worry about fallingin.
I was committed. It's just like standing up on
the bracket on the trolling motor.
I don't think about falling in. I've never falling.
Knock on wood, I've never falling off my bracket site

(15:05):
fishing. And if I'm not site fishing and
I just try to step up there, it would probably it don't feel
nearly as the same as when your mind is focused on seeing a
fish. I just step up there
unconsciously and and do it. And you don't, you don't have
any thought or fear of it. And that's kind of how when you
get in that zone, same as crawling out on the log, I

(15:25):
wasn't worried about. I just had a go to get that bait
back and hurry up and throw it again, try to catch a bass.
And so that, that's why to me, it wasn't that big a deal, you
know? Well, Speaking of side fishing,
after that event, we had to Hartwell and you took the lead 2
minutes after you took off, likeliterally you.
You. You were the anti curse.

(15:47):
The people that say which I've never got the whole catching a
fish in your first cast, but I have had days where you get one
in the first cast. It doesn't work out well.
But I mean to me whenever they want to bite they should bite.
But tell me about the race to that fish.
Well, I, you know, that in practice, I, I was looking for a
lot of bad fish and I wasn't seeing very many, but this top

(16:08):
pocket, as I cut across the pocket, I spotted this fish and
I and I skipped my sink over there with my hook been in and
it and it swam right over there and ate it and it went sideways
and I could see it was long and I just assumed probably 6
pounder shook it off and then went right back and I marked it
and I saw it was on the bed right in the middle of the
pocket on like a little sandbar and a little 2 LB mail there.

(16:31):
So I'm like, OK, that's great. But it's day 2 morning, you
know, day 2 morning of practice.So we got like multiple days
left that I go back on the 4:00 on the last practice day before
I go pull out and, and I ease inthere and I skip back over there
again And all of a sudden I see the big shadow coming and I'm
like, he's coming to get it again.
I'm like, Oh my God, why can't this happen in the tournament?
This never happens in the tournament and I so I don't I

(16:54):
don't hook him or nothing. I'll shake him off.
I run. I'm oh, I said, OK, if I get a
good boat number, I'll start here in the morning because for
six pounders going to go a long ways in this tournament.
And so I get boat 54 and I'm right dead in the middle almost.
And I'm like, I probably can't make it there, but I'll try.
So I ran and I had schooling fish that I passed by to get

(17:15):
there, but they were everywhere.So I'm like, I got to go.
So I, I roll in and when I'm in my heart's pounding and I'm
running a Ranger Yamaha this year and I come around the
corner and nobody's there and I'm like, Oh my God, this is
amazing. If what?
But long as the fish is still there, this is amazing.
I said, no, hopefully I'll stay here long as I've got to stay
here to catch it. As my, my mind was thinking, if
it's hard to catch, but it'll beworth it.

(17:37):
So when I roll in, I'm out here,the boats behind me coming, I
look back and I think Proznik and Greg De Palma and it was
boats. I don't even haven't gotten to
know everybody's boat rack. Yeah, that's the other thing
about this. I don't know who they all were,
but it was everybody who was coming behind me, but nobody
thankfully was in front of me. That was a miracle.
And and you could hear in my video, I was still putting my

(17:57):
power poles down. I hadn't put my poles down yet,
guys. I was easing in and I made that
long cast where it was and I started.
You know how today is though, with a wacky and I'm wacky
bouncing that wacky Cinco and all of a sudden this already
starts to go slack. I'm like, oh gosh, I tighten up,
I crack. And when I hit it, it was like I
said, oh, that's the one. That's not the male.
And when it came up, I'm like, Oh my God, it was it couldn't

(18:20):
hardly fight. It was just like like a old
dinosaur. It was so old and so when I
grabbed it, I was fired up and Iknew it was in that.
And, and the same time I hear another boat coming, I look and
I see him turning around. I even said to my partner, my
Marshall, I said, you see that boat just turn around.
And I was like, Oh, I can't believe it was my day today, you
know, and I, I said, call it a 61/2 because I don't want a big

(18:42):
eye. And then I'm so it's so skinny
and, and then later in the day I'm having a great day and I'm
calling and I, I reached down there calling and I, I got my
scale out. I said, let's just wait a
minute. I'm like a kid.
I'm time. I'd look in there, his curl tail
was curled up. He was so long.
I pulled him out and put him on the scale anyway, like 8-1 on my
scale. I'm like, Oh my God, it's 8
pounder. And I said text the bass track

(19:05):
guy and let him know that I madea mistake there.
Let's that's an 8 pounder. So he went and did that and I
sent it in and they were like, Oh my gosh.
So then they change it on bass track like that day.
And but anyway, that's the that's the whole story, man.
I'm telling that and that fish basically helped carry me
through. You know, I threw back and half
pounder that day. So without that fish that day, I
would have had another 3 1/2 LB.I'd had like 17 something out of

(19:29):
steel and then 14 half next day I'd still made the cut, but I,
but I may not have made the 10 cut the next day with another 14
1/2, it would have been close. So that fish goes a long ways.
I'm just glad it was my time to be that guy cuz I always, it's
always somebody else. And I always say, gosh, man, if
I could have just been a little bit earlier, I'd have got that

(19:49):
one, you know? Did Proznik and them say
anything or did they just see you putting in the live well?
And yeah. I don't even think they saw me
catch it. I think as soon as you come
around a blind corner, you quickly see a boat and you just
turn right around because it waskind of like a 90° angle right
there. And but in line they were, they
were all asking me, did you catch that fish?

(20:10):
How big is that? And Prozac, you know him.
He's he's, you know, like that with me.
And he was like. He wouldn't even smile or say
nothing. And I was sitting there telling
him the story about how many dogs they found her, and he was
just sitting there. He said, yeah, I tried to start
on that field. That was me in that boat.
I said, oh, God, I didn't know that.
I'm sorry. No, that was an awesome fish and

(20:31):
watching you fish that week feltvery natural.
Like that's Randy Howell fishing, like working around
those docks and fishing. Am I reading that right?
Like, or would you say that thatthat's the way you are?
Very. I mean, it feels like apart from
maybe Alton Jones, like there's very few people I would say have
caught more fish on camera on a soft plastic, you know, stick

(20:55):
worm, sanko, whatever. Then you but that that fishery
set up well for you the way you were fishing.
It did I and I love it. You know, the last time I had
been there was 2018 when I captained Laker and the Bass
Master High School opened there and he was his senior year in
high school. And then we went down and like 2

(21:17):
days in practice. So I got to practice and I'm we
found a bunch of schooling places and some bed fish and
cinco fish and all that. And it was almost the same time.
We were almost dead on the same time.
So I was so when that schedule came out and I was in this year,
I'm like, man, I can't wait for heart will that, because I feel
like that would be my best chance, you know, in the first

(21:38):
part of the season to have a really good tournament.
And I really thought I really thought I could win.
I mean, I felt good about my chances to win.
I really thought I would I wouldrun across more bigger fish the
way I was fishing, but that water, the water clarity got so
bad everywhere and just a lot ofstuff that changed.
You know, of course it always happens, but it just kind of

(22:00):
messed up enough. So I was really thankful to slip
off like I did and still finished 6th, you know, because
it it happened to everybody. But but I love that, like I love
to go there every year. I mean even different times in
the year. I think it's just a great lake.
It fishes big, big, big for everybody to spread out and a
lot of ways of techniques can bedone there.
So I'd love to give back. So Neil Paul, you know, be

(22:23):
listening to this, get us back there every time.
I want to know the Bassmaster Classic there too.
I only get back in a classic there.
I'm pretty sure we'll be back there.
I mean, they didn't build that facility for us not to, not to
go that. I mean when people are like, do
you think we'll be back here? I'm like, yeah, look around.
I'm pretty sure we'll be back in.
The street on the on the park. Hank's got a street too like but

(22:50):
it's like it's like a dirt Rd. I think it's like a back alley
that they had to build. I might be wrong, but I believe
there's a Hank St. that was built because they had to build
it like the night before the classic or something like that
because of of I forget what was going on.
Maybe it was a weather situationor too muddy or they did there's
something, but I'm pretty sure Hank's got something there.

(23:14):
You've mentioned Laker a few times and I think it has been
awesome to. It's weird for me, to be honest.
It's weird for me to watch to weigh in Bow Browning.
It'll be even weirder when I weigh in Laker just because, I
mean, he was him and Oakley sat in the front row of every way.
And then there's kids that like pop in, like when their dad's

(23:34):
about to weigh in, but they would sit like from the first
fish until they, you know, you weighed in, which you don't
depend on where you were in the order.
I mean, so they've watched the entire weigh in and to see how
Laker has embraced the same dream.
But like as a dad, what is is that weird?

(23:54):
Is that exciting? Like to see kid literally
following in your footsteps. Yeah, I mean, it's it's really,
really cool. It's really fun.
It's it's it's kind of a hard, it's kind of a hard thing to
explain what it feels like because, you know, there's a
there's a side of me and and Robin both that we in beginning,
you know, especially with her because she homeschooled Laker

(24:16):
his whole time in Oakley. We put Oakley in 9th grade in
high school for to play basketball because he loved
basketball. So, but, but she, the whole time
Laker was in school on the road and, and we, and if she been a
big educator, she wanted him to be high goals to get into
something that she, that we boththat is passionate that you love

(24:36):
to do every day, but also something that you can make a
good living do it. And we know fishing is hard to
get into that right off the bat and make it, you know, starting
to make money doing it. And so we didn't really push it
on him. I didn't push it on.
She didn't push it on him. She actually tried to kind of
guide him away to do something something else, but he was
hardcore set on it, you know, and Oakley, you know, he's been,

(24:58):
he loved fishing and he won the bass master junior stuff and
state championship and all did great.
But he he still had a mindset. He wants to get into some real
estate. He's at Alabama in college.
He wants to make money quick andbass fishing is not a way to
make money quick. So but it's a passion job, you
know, you got to love it. And so like her, he's eat up

(25:18):
with it. So once we knew him that we were
set and he got his guide licenseon Guntersville and he's making
money, got married and all that's good.
You know, once we knew he was locked in and I really knew that
he had what it took to make it, I kind of turned the corner on
like now he's all in. Now I'm going to go all in with
him and I'm going to try to helphim as much as I can and I want

(25:38):
to see him be successful. And, you know, and just watching
him come along and do that, but just seeing, you know, how just
a good a good kid he is, not just because he's my kid, but
he's just, you know, he's personable, he's humble, he's a
sweet, spirited kid. He loves to see, you know, other
people do well, you know, like the tournament at Santee that he

(25:59):
almost won in the open and finished second, you know, and
Kyle Austin won that one, that local there.
And but just seeing him in that one, as hard as it was for him
to know that he he caught that many fish and still didn't win,
but he was still genuinely is isexcited and happy for that guy
as he would have been for himself.

(26:19):
So that's the that's a cool thing to see.
You know, that's what means moreto me than anything.
Does he remind you of you when you were his age or is he very
different? Oh, he's very different.
He really is. He's so different.
He's so different than me and Robin say a lot of days.
How did he? How is he our son?

(26:42):
Hey, I'm so type a particular neat clean, pick it all up, put
it in order. I'm like that.
And you know, my reels are all laid out.
My handles are just right lined up.
I can't have. And he is totally opposite.
He is a wreck, a mess. It is truck full of trash all
the time. His boats just all just, you

(27:02):
know, unorganized. He gets boxes in from sponsors
and he opens the lid and just throws the box in there and
leaves the box full of baits andlike you open up.
I got in his boat yesterday. He got a new Skeeter, Skeeter
deal and he was my boat, his boat, Sunlight.
I got in there. Try to get something out before
I left. I'm like, it looks like Bass Pro
shops in your boat, dude. You take the stuff out and line

(27:25):
it up so you know what you got? He said, oh, it'll be all right,
Dad, it'll be all right. He don't care.
He's so laid back and I think that's what that really helps
him because he seems to be so cool, calm and collective.
He doesn't seem to ever get stressed and I noticed it in
high school fishing when I capped him sitting there hours
every day captaining him and I and I was always aggravated

(27:46):
because he wasn't intense enoughor he didn't he never he wasn't
like me. And that's the problem.
If if they're not like you, you think they're not good, they're
not right, You know, because I think he needs to be more
intense. He's going to be a pro
fisherman. But he's proven to me that, you
know, his laid back nature, he can do it and do great at it,
man. And he, you know, he amazes me
sometimes even how he like at the Columbus Pool, Mississippi,

(28:09):
the weekend open, he had a bad first day.
He missed a bunch of fish on thebuzz bait.
He told me that night. He said, yeah, I'm on just
locked through tomorrow and I'm going to go back up there and
I'm on just power pole down. I'm on fish 1520 minutes quiet
in one place. He said, I think they're out
there and I think they'll bite. And then if he didn't go power
pole down, nobody else went around there because the water

(28:31):
was so shallow. He he got quiet and sat in there
and he already thought in his mind that that would work.
And then he's got videos on it. He put on his Instagram and then
buzz bonefish just smashing thatbuzz bait and he had to sit
there 15 or 20 minutes still andquiet with no electronics on
before them. Fish would actually react and he
caught 16 lbs ten oz or something come all the way back,

(28:52):
got a check and saved his pointsagain.
So he he does good things, he makes good decisions and I think
he's got the natural instinct and I want him to be more
electronic minded because he's so good with the scope.
He's so good with that. But at the same time he wants to
fish like me because me and him,he's fish like me so long.
So he has a hard time of committing to do all scoping

(29:14):
when he could probably do bettersometimes if he would sometimes
what I've taught him, I hurt himin this day and age with that
technology side, but he's blended.
So whatever happens, if we ever go to a blended type schedule or
1/2 or half or would scope, no scope, he'll be all he'll be
wanting kids that'll be able to still shine.
You brought it up, so I got to ask in in a perfect world, where

(29:36):
would you like it to go? If you, if you are the
Commissioner of Bass Fishing andyou could decide what we do with
that in the future, what would it be?
Well, I you know, I know how controversial it is and how,
man, how mad people get so quickover Gosh, it's crazy what it's
done to the sport. But but I I really feel like, in

(29:57):
fairness, I think a blended schedule where maybe it was half
the tournaments you could do it half the tournaments, maybe not
on because I think it would evenif we did every other day.
And like some of the other tours, I like home MLF have one
period of scoping out of three. And then on the invitationals of
MLF, they have, you know, one day you can do it, next day you

(30:18):
can't do it and they have the lock box, all that that's so
complicated to keep up with and police and all that.
I feel like just simply having atournament that you can and a
term that you can't that might be, that might just be the right
fair thing because I don't want to, you know, I know a lot of
the guys my age and a lot of our, the ones who've been around
a while are really, really hate it and they want it to be

(30:40):
totally gone. And, and I, and I can see some
arguments for that, but at the same time, I, I don't want to
penalize all the younger guys that are, that's their life and
they're trying to make a living.They got dreams and this sport
and they've dominate, they're doing well with it.
And I don't want to just cut them off and make them have to

(31:00):
start all over again 'cause I don't seem right to me either.
I feel like it's a tool and, andyou got to be good with and you
got to put your time with it. And I'm trying to do that and I
have done that and I utilize it and I feel blind if I didn't
have it. I mean, I'm looking at it all
the time, no matter what. I'm not always catching my fish,
watching them bite my bait, but I'm still using it to catch my

(31:21):
fish everywhere I go. So it's part of how I fish as
well. So I'd like, I think I'm blend
would be the fairway to do it and that might, would kind of
make it better for everybody. I don't know.
Well, and then that way at leastyour Angler of the year has been
tested every way. Like whoever wins Angler of the
year, you want to be like that. And I equate it to, I mean, for

(31:42):
years there was people, I mean, Patrick Walters, I use him as a
prime example because he would be in the top 10 for angler of
the Year every year. Then he would go to the North
and the small MO thing he couldn't do.
Well, he figured that out and now he's a more complete angler
and I'm sure a Angler of the year title is in his future.
But that's, I mean, as a fan of the sport, you want to see

(32:05):
everybody excel it at every level.
I mean, so we'll see where it goes.
It it, I think what you mentioned is one of the thing
because it's so polarizing. I think that's one of the things
that gets talked the least aboutlike how good of a tool it is,
even if you couldn't see fish onit, Like even if they I mean,
that's not going to happen, but you know what I mean?

(32:25):
Like the ability that you couldn't see fish, but just the
ability to look forward and be like, I am dead on this break.
I am, you know, there's no guessing anymore.
So it's. Grass lines and holes and stumps
and just everything. Now it's so much more fast and
efficient. And that's why you've seen the
weights it rise in all local tournaments everywhere, like at

(32:47):
Guntersville. You can hardly, you can't hardly
win a tournament local terminal Guntersville less than 28 to 30
lbs because somebody in that group is good with the scope and
nut brothers, Tucker Smith, Hayden Marmot, all the guys that
are around there, they're going to catch that with it.
And so you got to be able to do it and you got to you got to

(33:09):
just, you know, get proficient with it.
And you may not, I may not ever be as good with it as some of
them young guys because I've gotso much knowledge in my mind
build up that stops me from going in the middle of like for
longer than 30 minutes. If I go out there for 30 minutes
and I'm chasing one around, I look over there and I see, I see
that point and that dock or thattree laying in the water and

(33:31):
it's just calling my name. It's like, Randy, come on back
to the bank. Come on back to the bank, man.
Listen, don't worry about them fish out there in the middle of
life. So it's hard to go away, but I'm
learning to do it better and better.
So, but I still like like say blended schedule, I think would
be fair for everybody. Then you'd have a complete
angler of the year. You'd have a complete little bit

(33:51):
of everything that everybody could get better with.
Because I feel like in this sport when we fish 9 events
across the country in a whole season, you're you're throwing
everything like we're about to go to like 4, then we're going
to go to Sabine. We were talking about we're
going from a big fish place to alittle fish place, a place with
a lot of fish place that don't have a lot of fish.
So we have to do everything. So why not let everything be

(34:14):
done and have everybody have to learn how to do everything to be
the best at it? Today's high tech fishing world
can be a real pain in the neck, especially if you're running the
wrong mount beat down outdoors. They bring the graph to you and
they support this podcast and care enough about you to make.
This a short ad read check out Beat down outdoors.

(34:34):
Now back to the show. When you're on the water
competing, what percentage of your decisions are calculated
and what percentages are what percent of what you just talked
about? Like that voice that just says
just do this. Yeah, a lot.
I'm, I'm very, I'm a very, you know, instinct, instinctive
angler. I do a lot by instinct and
intuition and just feelings. Probably, probably more so than

(34:59):
people ever realized. So, you know, I don't know.
I'm not, I've never been a big map, you know, map it out and
plan it out kind of guy. You know, I, I've done and I've
tried, but I still do. I still do most of my damage
running down the lake looking, seeing, you know, looking at my
graph, looking, seeing and riding and just getting that
feeling I need to go do this or go do that.

(35:20):
Some of my biggest wins and and good events have been on
instinct. And so that's kind of who who I
am. Well, I mean, and obviously the
most famous one being your classic win, which didn't total
about face you turn to win that event.
So after you do that, you'd havea hard time not paying attention

(35:40):
to your instinct. Is that something over time that
you just get better at? Yeah, I think so.
I don't think it's something toothat you're just born with that
you're just an. It's just naturally in you
because you can't, you can't teach somebody to be like that.
You know, like Aaron Martin's our one of our dear friends that
not with us anymore. Aaron was called the natural

(36:01):
because Aaron was, was probably the most instinctive, intuitive
natural angler. And, and I was good friends with
Aaron. And Aaron would just blow your
mind with the stuff that he would say and do and think or
tell you that he did. That's why you can never emulate
Aaron because he would mess you up because if you, you couldn't
do what he did, because you couldn't, you couldn't think
like he thought. And and so but, but instinct was

(36:24):
born into into a person. And it's just like coaching
basketball and kids like with Laker and Oakley.
You know, when I coach kids basketball, when we were at home
a lot in the rec leagues and I would try to teach and Laker was
a giant, you know, got up tall and he was taller than all the
other kids like this much. And I'll be like, I got me a big
man and Laker get out there and he was not aggressive.

(36:46):
And I'm a little bitty scrappy. Kids will jump all over and just
take the ball from him and he like, OK, you can have it, you
know, and I would get so mad because I was so aggressive and
so intense. And you couldn't teach him to be
instinct. He you couldn't teach him to
have that wiring that makes a kid be aggressive for something
versus not You couldn't and teach that.
And I learned that through basketball and Oakley got out

(37:08):
there. Oakley was totally off.
So Oakley's like me, he's aggressive.
He went after and he was a as a baller and in the same with
fishing. You can't teach somebody you can
teach somebody to be good at fishing, but you watch some
anglers that are good at fishing, they are good at it
because they're they've used their a different way.
Drew Gill, for instance, on the MLF side, Drew Gill has gotten

(37:29):
out of help Drew a lot as he's grown up with high school,
college. Unbelievable guy, but he is
totally he's a totally a an intellectual angler.
He is electronics intellectual thought and it totally blows my
mind. I love to talk to the kid and
just hear how he thinks. Then try to and you know, and
then it's like I'm not that's not who I am.

(37:50):
I can't do that. So you don't even need to try.
So you got to find out what you're niche and the way you
learn and the way you are, and you just got to build on that.
But you can't try to go make yourself somebody that you're
not. And that's what I tell Laker all
the time. You got, So you just got to do,
you got to follow your and you got to do what feels right to
you. Because if you don't, you know,
you play somebody else's game, you're going to go down the

(38:11):
tube, you know? Yeah, Drew is, I don't know Drew
at all, but I mean, just listening to some of his
interviews and stuff, he's amazing to me the way he thinks.
And it's just, it's just not like, I mean, he doesn't get
involved in the like, is this right or this wrong?
I mean, I grew up on a time withthis.
I mean, it's like asking somebody, why don't you use why

(38:34):
didn't you why did you embrace ATV remote?
Why didn't you just keep gettinglike, I mean, when I was a kid,
I was the TV remote because my dad would be like go change the
channel. But his way of thinking is
amazing. You mentioned Aaron and I never
get tired of these stories because I have a bunch of them
that I witnessed. What is the most amazing thing

(38:55):
you saw him do competition wise where he thought of something
that you would probably have never thought of?
Yeah, you, you have to, you haveto all go.
It's so many of them like you say.
But you know, to what I'm about to say, the, the birds on the
reeds that like Havasu, that town, that was the one, that's
the, that's the one that just took the cake.
That blew my mind, you know, because I was staying in the

(39:16):
campground beside him. We used to camp with him and
Leslie and his kids and ours and, and, and he and he was
catching them, you know, and he wouldn't say a lot at first, you
know, because he was in the he was trying to win.
And then when it got where I, I wasn't in the cut the last day
and I start talking to him at the campground and he's just
giggling and laughing and like he will, he said they're,

(39:38):
they're, they're eating, they'reeating blackbirds.
They're eating blackbirds on the, on the reeds.
Manny, they're the blackbirds there.
That's how I figured him out. He just laughed.
He was just like a kid. He was so excited because he had
figured. I said they're dude eating
blackbirds, he said. He said, yeah, the blackbirds
come down and get water and theyreach out here.
They bust them and they go in and you throw a frog in there
and you flip in there on them and you shake it on the reeds

(39:58):
and they come up and get it. He said, oh, it's awesome, man.
It's awesome. You can't believe you didn't
figure that out. And it would go to a whole
different level. Like I had that conversation
with him at that tournament. He's like, come on, Mercer.
You know how good a Blackbird would taste to a bass?
Like just I think of the other things that just think about how
good a Blackbird would you be a bastard.
I'm like, I would never ever like I would never stop to.

(40:20):
Think of like what this would. But he, I mean, routinely, I
remember being Overstreet recovered him in Lacrosse and he
was fishing this channel like a man made boat channel and it was
like the width of, I don't know,it's probably 60 feet wide.
Yeah, mouth of the little black,Black Riverdale.
Yeah. Yeah, and that and he was
catching an insane amount of fish.

(40:41):
We were covering them and that'swhen the flotillas were really
big. I mean, live has really cut down
on the amount of boats that go out and chase you guys, but we
were. Kind of black blocked out, so we
talked. To him the next morning, we're
like, yeah, we got to get closerto you because we're getting
blocked out from all these spectator boats.
And he's like, and I said, wherecan we go?
And he's like, bro, just just goto the other side of the

(41:04):
channel, pull down. It's perfect.
And I said, OK, so so we pull inthere and we go to the other
side of the channel and I'm likeright here.
He's like, yeah, pulls down. All right.
So we do that. And he, you know, doesn't catch
him for like, the first hour. And this is like, he was
blistering them before this. And he kept looking up at us and

(41:26):
like just like, almost like. And then finally, finally he's
like, bro, bro, you're ruining everything.
You, you got to leave, you got to go.
And initially my thoughts, like,oh, he thinks we're bad luck
because that happens. And I'm like, we're ruining
everything. He's like, yeah, bro.
What happens is the shad come inthe channel and you interrupt

(41:46):
the the shad. And if you don't, if you're not
there, then the shad aren't interrupted.
But because you're interrupting it, they don't make it around to
me. So the bass don't feed and
that's why I'm not catching them.
And I remember turned over St. and just being like this dude,
it's nuts, nuts. We pulled out of the channel and
I swear to you 20 minutes later he catches, I mean, the way his

(42:07):
mind worked. I, I wish the world got to see
him with forward facing sonar. I mean.
Yeah, yeah, It would have been so amazing.
That's why I say, you know, Tucker Smith, who finished
second last week at Hardwell. Tucker, you know, grew up
fishing with him a good bit. Logan Martin and, you know, and
Tucker, Tucker's real quiet, so he don't talk and tell a lot of

(42:29):
the stuff. But you know, Aaron used to tell
me Tucker was like my little protege, you know, Tucker,
Tucker does listens to any fishes just like me, thinks like
me. You know, he's like, if I he's,
he's just like me, right. You know, he's going to be, he's
going to be awesome one day, man.
He's going to be kicking your butt one day, you know, and he
would just laugh about it, you know, and and so Tucker has a
probably a lot of knowledge thathe learned a lot fishing would

(42:51):
like with with Aaron and and he and Tucker, we were talking
about it in line at Hartwell last week and he said, yeah, I
wish, wish he was around to see,you know, to see how good he
would do with Ford face and sonar, because he would probably
be amazing with it as good as hewas without it.
Yeah, and he was, I mean, for his natural angler, he was also
like a big technology guy. Like he was one of the first

(43:14):
side imaging guys, one of the, you know, he embraced all that
stuff pretty early. Yeah.
The amazing man, an amazing, amazing man that we were all
lucky to have in our life. I always say the weirdest thing
about Aaron is sadly when peoplepass, I think no matter who it
is, people are like, all that person was amazing that you
know, they, they, they bring theamazing.

(43:35):
But I feel like Aaron was so special.
Not nobody ever would have predicted what would happen with
him, but he was so special. I think we all knew how special
he was at the time. You, you know what I mean?
Like you, he didn't have to passfor people to be like, wow, that
he was an amazing human. You got that right.
That's exactly right. The world world needs more like

(43:58):
him. That's.
Right, need to be a lot more people like that on our on our
tours that are grateful and thankful to get up and go fish
every day and do what we do. And you know, and and and stay a
little more positive about stuffthen, then then the not because,
hey, that's one thing about it. He didn't never get down in the
doldrums of or negativity and hedidn't ever get caught up in any

(44:21):
of the the gossip or any of the stuff.
He just focused and did what he did and always loved it and he
was always laughing and smile. The only time he was in a bad
mood was when he wasn't catchingthem good, you know, which I
wasn't very often. No, no.
Does that bother you? The the the amount of negativity
and stuff that floats around fishing.

(44:41):
Yeah, it, it does it, it's, it's, it's sad to me that you
know, but that's just the world,you know, and it's the world
where we all are in because of technology and of of social
media and, and all the stuff that we all make our living
with. That still, it's just still sad
that there's that many people even in our sport that's as pure

(45:02):
as our sport is still that many people that that have such
terrible. You know, that can be so nasty
and angry and like comments, youknow, like comments, just
reading comments on on one thingto another, as simple as
anything can be on a simple video post of a fish catch.
You read comments. What is wrong with people?
Why are people so mad or so angry, worried about you know,

(45:26):
why? Why is why?
How are you even watching and falling fishing?
If you think like this, you knowyou how'd you even find this
video? If you think like this, you
shouldn't even be following me or watching my video.
So if you're got that mindset, you know, I don't understand it,
you know, but it is just the world we live in.
And it's the thing that we just have to try to keep smiling and

(45:46):
keep doing the best to, to promote good and remember what
we, we do this for and thankful to be doing it every day and,
and, and just try to make it better every, you know, one one
day at a time, each person at a time, you know.
That's that's the right way to do it.
And it's not just I mean people think you're like the forward
facing sonar thing. Sure, people have their opinion

(46:08):
that that I'm talking about. I mean, you catch a you want to
find out how bad you are a bass fish and just catch a fish on
bass live. I mean.
You're you see people. Landing 810 pounders and there
is a bunch of people are like, Oh yeah, he shouldn't have done
that. That hooks that was wrong.
The direction that like I'm justlike, you know, it worked.

(46:29):
Yeah, yeah, as simple as as simple as like it like I posted
a video at let the Albemarle sound in practice and bouncing
in the boat showing how rough itwas.
Just a little clip like that andyou get hundreds of comments and
you get people that say strap your rods down.
You must not be too rough. I'm like, oh, my rods are
strapped down. They'd already been gone.
They weren't strapped down. All these people, just every

(46:52):
little thing you can criticize to try to come up with.
It's like, well, I take the timeto do that.
I don't understand it, But we'renever going to get better.
We just got to, we just got to do our best to, to do, you know,
to shine good positive light andyou know, you know, and, and my
faith and that's what keeps us going.
And I'm just thankful and tryingto do everything right.

(47:13):
That's the only us. The thing.
Everything is so critiqued. You've got so many rules and
everything is so critiqued. You just really have to be
careful not to mess up on some little things somewhere because
you'll get crucified for it if you do.
So you just have to really thinkhard.
And that's the thing with we, with Laker, young as he is, you
know, he's loose and goosey, like I said, laid back, you

(47:34):
know, sometimes he's not worriedabout or thinking, you know, and
that's just makes me think more about you got to really pay
attention, read your stuff, knowwhat you're doing and just make
sure you do everything right because you don't want to mess
up because people are really hammer if you do and you don't
want that happen, so. Yeah, well, Speaking of doing
everything right, one of the many things that you do right,

(47:55):
dude, is your relationship with King's home.
It is amazing the amount of money that you've raised and,
and really I think you've inspired a lot of boat giveaways
like since then you see different charities and
different people doing boat giveaways.
Tell me about that relationship.Yeah, yeah, that's the that's

(48:17):
the thing that we're most just proud of and thankful for that
we've been able to be a part of,you know, when we started it way
back in like 2011 and 12 and just wait.
It was the 2007 classic on Birmingham.
And they they sent a message to me on Instagram on face where by
then it was probably to my website and said, we want some
fast guys to come over here and do some talks to the kids at the

(48:40):
Boys Ranch. And at a time Bassmaster was on
by ESPN and they'd say, well, wecan't send a group over there
because we're when Jimmy B foundation is all we work with.
So if you do something, got to do it on your own.
So I just went over there to do a good deed.
And you know, once I got over there and met him and started
going through, they took it on. It took us on a tour of
everything. And I was like, gosh, man, I was

(49:01):
just in tears everywhere, just seeing all the the hearing the
bad stories of the girls and theboys and the abuse and the bad
places they come from. And I knew right then we were
there for a reason. We needed to do something to
help. So that's when we kind of
started going and speaking and doing stuff to help him raise
money. Then we come up with the boat
giveaway idea. And then two year, a year later,
I went to classic right there inBirmingham where King's home is

(49:24):
located. And we had all them bust in
there for the final day. And it was a Cinderella story.
You couldn't have made you couldn't made it any better than
making it up. I mean, if I'd have written my
own script, it couldn't have been as perfect as it was that
day because I didn't have a cluethat I had a chance to win.
I was just happy to be in the final day and I could showcase
them in the the crowd and you were going to point them out and
everybody was going to see them and they would feel special.

(49:45):
And then here, Robin Van there, she said, come on, bro.
You had to do it, didn't you, Dave?

(50:06):
You had to make me cry. I think you made you cry.
I mean, I just I. Did this to one time a long time
ago. You remember this to my house
whenever you in my house after the class.
There's something about you. I don't know what it is.
Bring the you bring the emotion out at me.
But he just couldn't. You couldn't have scripted it

(50:31):
any better. So since then it's just gotten
bigger and better. You know, we're saying why.
Come on. So it's 15 year, 14 years now.
So we've done the boat giveaway every year $100 tickets and man,
we've had, we've raised $3.7 million and I won't, I watched

(50:51):
kids from way back there at thatclassic that were, you know,
1214 year old kids that are now,you know, 2527 years old that
are married, already been through military, been through
college. And I'm just success story after
success story. Like it's about a 90% success
rate. King's Home has with the kids
that come through there that they're going to be successful

(51:13):
and have a good job. Don't have, you know, that just
changes their life. So, and I know everybody that's
donated $100 for those tickets every year.
I've watched it and I know how frugal that ministry runs and
how much they do with that moneyand how legit everything is
done. That's why we were so passionate
about, you know, making it bigger every year.
And my goal is still to do 5000 tickets in a year.

(51:36):
That'd be half $1,000,000. And because 340,000 like last
year's $400,000, we raised last year's first year ever.
The man won the boat. He was 7079 years old and he was
pretty well off man had a boat of his own and he, he wanted to
give the boat back. He wanted to sell the boat and
give the money to him. So sold the boat 75,000.

(51:59):
They got the money back. So we raised 400,000 last year.
First time that's ever happened.So we can, we can do 2.
You know, it cost about $170,000to run one group home.
So you raised, you know, 400,000.
You got two group homes that arerun all year with the house,
parents, 5 kids in them, everything.
So you put it in perspective andI know what we're working for

(52:21):
every year and that's why we're passionate about making it
bigger and better every year. So I'm just thankful that we can
do it and that, and that's, that's the stuff that keeps, you
know, keeps us focused on being positive, you know, because you,
you, you see all this nitpicky stuff and when the world going
on, but then you, you look back at, you know, these kids and
these ladies and you hear all their stories and you know, that

(52:44):
makes you get your perspective back right quick when you see
how thankful we are that we are living like we live when these
kids are struggling to just to survive.
And so least we can do is, is support and help them and you
know, and, and shine a positive light for them.
And it's really over the years, it's, it's helped not just this
ministry, but in other states that have implemented what we've

(53:06):
done and other ministries that have kind of brought the light
need based ministries everywherearound it.
Because every state, every city is got a boys and girls home.
And it's some type that's real similar and, and want somebody
in the area sees it and knows about it and they want to get
behind it and donate to it and help, you know, it changes the

(53:26):
world, you know, one state, one city at a time.
So, and that's what we're, that's what we're trying to do.
And we're thankful that it's working out.
I think that's the ultimate level of success or goal in
life, to make things better, to make an impact, and you guys are
definitely doing that. So.
Hopefully this show can help make an impact and we can

(53:49):
continue to help raise more money.
How did they enter? Kingshome.com Just simple
kingshome.com If you just go forward slash Randy Howell,
it'll take you right to the boatpicture donate page, but
kingshome.com $100 ticket donation and you can do as many
tickets as you want as tax deductible.
The draw on this year will be November.

(54:10):
Is it 16th, 17th which year thisyear?
It's one day different every year.
So because it's always on Saturday.
So I think it's November, but it's on the website think it's
November 16th. It's still pretty early right
now so but the tickets are available all the time and it's
and we have a big kids fishing event.
We bring all the high school fishing teams in to the boys at

(54:30):
the girls ranch and we fish around the lake with them all.
And then we draw the ticket at 2:00 central that day and 1
lucky winner gets that boat and we get to make a huge
difference. You know that last all year.
It's an amazing program. I'll put the link down below in
this so you guys try support this because the world meet
needs more goodness like this. Randy Howe, I love having you

(54:54):
back in my life. I appreciate you.
Same here, brother. I appreciate that.
I know we went a little long, what we were like 51 minutes,
but hey, it's all right. We had something good to talk
about the whole time. Yeah, and we never me and you
have never run out of conversation.
So we'll we'll definitely do this again in the future, but
and not that you were out of my life, it's just we didn't get to

(55:16):
see each other all the time. It's.
Just it's normal. Being on the stage when I walk
by on this way that you like. Hey, Dave, you like to be coming
back? Yeah, you said that.
I did, I did, but I'm happy to see you back.
Yeah, yeah. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Hopefully we'll win something

(55:36):
soon. We'll be back.
I'm here to talk about that. Sounds like a plan.
All right. Thank you brother.
Jake's take back in your life and we're a week late this week,
Jake, but but I I appreciate youas always.
Well, I figured you probably hada lot to talk about with the 1st
and 2nd place guys after. Well, it wasn't.

(55:56):
Actually, first and second because second actually was
Tucker Smith, but it was the IT was the two guys battling it
out. I was at a a media event.
They were both. There.
So it was a. It was a.
Cool opportunity to sit down with them both and.
Absolutely. It delayed us talking, but.
That's OK. We had a, we had basically two

(56:18):
weeks off. So this fits in well.
We can talk about Lake Hartwell and we can talk about Lake Fork.
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited for fork.
I mean, it's always Oh my. Goodness.
It's an incredible event. Like I, I mean, it's weird going
to a fork event and when this airs, it'll be tomorrow morning,
but going to a fork event that it has that weird feeling where

(56:39):
it's almost like a classic, you know what I mean?
Like where you're like, this is not, this isn't just going to be
a normal tournament that there'sit's freaking fork.
Right. And, and, you know, we know, I
feel like maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves here by
talking about it, but man, I think this time of year there

(57:00):
are going to be some giant bags coming in.
And that's, that's, you know, even a bigger exclamation point
behind Lake Fork, just being able to fish at this time of
year when the lake is totally full, you know.
It excites me. We'll we'll, we'll talk a little
bit about Fork, but let's wind things back to Hartwell.

(57:21):
An incredible event. As usual.
Yeah. I mean, I talked about it last
week, but Green Pond Landing, everything that that group does
is incredible. That is, that is truly the way,
like if you want to increase, ifyou, if you're a town or a city

(57:41):
or community close to a lake that has, that's a Big Lake that
can host large tournaments and has a, a, you know, a, a large
or good population of healthy bass, whatever kind of bass they
are. Greens Pond is your model for
increasing revenue in your community based on bass fishing

(58:02):
alone. Because that place is like,
it's, I mean, just every morningwhen we walk down at 5:30 in the
morning, walk down to the cameratrailer, we're all like looking
around at and how everything's lined up and the, the, the sort
of the stadium seating, it's built into the hillside and
we're all walking down. All the lights are on.
The, you know, the fire department's there with their

(58:24):
crane and the big flag. And we're just walking around
going, this feels like the classic.
And it's just so, it's so perfect.
So for all you communities out there that want to raise money
near a lake, check out Greens Pond because that place is it's,
it's incredible. So who did you spend the
tournament with? I my first day, which was fairly

(58:47):
uneventful was, was with Wilchercoming out of his win at Pasqua
Tank. And you know, he I think he
caught, he caught his fish, but he just didn't have that on Lake
Hartwell. You either got to have, you
know, five really good ones or that you got to have that big
bite, big kicker to really put yourself in contention.

(59:10):
So that didn't happen on day one.
And then for the next three daysI spent with the one and only
Randy Howell, which was a great experience.
What what an interesting what very well versed, professional,
experienced bass fisherman and Randy Howe.

(59:30):
Yeah, yeah, he's, I said this tohim on this show, but he's one
of the most camera friendly prosin the history of fit, like, you
know what I mean? Like I mean, well, he once took
an 8 pounder off to the side of the boat that me and Overstreet
were on so Overstreet could get pictures while fighting, said 8
pounder. Even when he was he, I mean, it

(59:53):
was kind of comical. But you would.
Be like, OK, we're live on live cast and he's like, now explain
to me what live cast is. I want to make sure Sometimes
people are boring on this. I want to make sure I'm talking
what I'm like. He was trying to figure out what
was what because I mean, it's a new factory.
Things have changed a lot since he was here, but.
Very entertaining stuff actually.

(01:00:15):
Not just this but Pasca tank he was.
That's when he raccooned across a a log to get his buzz bait
back. But great on camera.
He, he, that's what I and that'swhat I mean about being so
professional. That's probably some, you know,
part of what I want to talk about today is, you know, I'm
starting to see differences now between the older experienced

(01:00:39):
anglers and the new kids on the block that are coming up.
And a lot of those differences are are, you know, they're
detail oriented, but they're sort of evolving in two
different directions, which I find to be really interesting.
And one of the things about people like, you know, Randy
Howell and your, your older guysis they already know.

(01:01:00):
They know what they have to do to entertain because at the end
of the day, they're just bass fishermen.
But when they're on television or in front of a camera, they
have to be containers to be successful and be marketable.
That's, that's definitely part of what Randy does.
Excuse me, I thought I got rid of that cough.

(01:01:22):
Avco not only makes incredible outdoor clothing, but they care
about anglers. With their 10% pledge, Avco and
the Shed family donate at least 10% of the company's profits to
conservation and making fishing better.
Now back to the show. No, he's, he is amazing.
And, and I think, I think there's a weirdness to like his

(01:01:45):
whole generation of anglers. Like they all kind of me and
Swindle talked about it at the event, like how rarely you see
anglers now showing their bait. Like it used to be, like, look
what he ate. And it's not just because
they're hiding it. It's I think there's a weird
thing happening in the sport where you have a new generation
anglers, right, wrong or indifferent, but they're very

(01:02:06):
focused on catching fish. They have spent very little time
focused on the showmanship. And not that they're not good at
it, but when you think of how people, and I use Polnik as the
example because I'm like, when Polnik showed up on the Elite
series, he had Van Damme, he hadGerald, he had Ike, he had
Skeet, he had the list goes on and on.

(01:02:29):
He had Randy Howell, he had all these different people that you
could look at and be like, that's how they are on camera.
That's what they give on camera.And it's weird because the
transition in the sport, I wondered that a lot of the
younger guys, there isn't as much of that in some situations

(01:02:49):
now and they don't have that blueprint.
Some of them. I mean, you look at Kyle
Patrick. I mean, I love the dude.
I mean, he's always giving you something.
Even when he's got nothing, he gives you freaking something.
He always got some. But that's a huge part of the
sport. But right, wrong or indifferent,
I mean, it's it's one of the things that set fishing aside.

(01:03:11):
Like in baseball, you're not supposed to talk.
I mean, people, baseball puristsget upset that they interview
the manager in between innings, you know, in the dugout, well,
I'm fishing, you got to catch the fish.
You got to explain why you're catch the fish, make it
entertaining and promote your sponsors by showing Bates and
stuff. So there is definitely a

(01:03:32):
difference there. I think a lot of young guys will
adjust in time, but it's not as they will.
It's not as simple A transition as it probably once was, if that
makes sense. Yeah, I agree.
And you take, you know, there's introverts and there's
extroverts, right? And you take the extroverts like
Kyle Patrick, even Eastern Fothergill, you know, if you go

(01:03:53):
to YouTube and watch his Kings of Bass videos or whatever he's
shooting for whoever, whatever brand, he's very methodical.
He's very cerebrally oriented. It's not the most the
entertainment is the value and the knowledge that he gives you,
particularly from the new techniques and, you know,

(01:04:15):
chasing fish down with front facing sonar or whatever it is.
He's got that, that, that technical knowledge base.
And then you take someone like Kyle Patrick, who is funnier
than Eddie Murphy at times. He's always, he's always cutting
up. He knows the value of of humor
and comedy, keeping people entertained and keeping people

(01:04:38):
engaged. And then you've got someone like
Logan Parks, like Logan is a marketer like.
He's very. Professional.
When he came up in in the Auburnbass fishing team system, you
know, he was the president of their club.
He organized everything. He made sure everything was
perfect, you know, from boat raps to jerseys to everything.

(01:05:01):
And I knew even at that time when he was a junior at Auburn
that he was going to be one of those guys.
He just understands marketing. He's going to be a value to the
brands that he represents because he knows how to push
those brands. And then you go and then you
take these, the guys in the middle, let's exclude the KV D's
and the Randy House and Icanelli's and the Swindles.

(01:05:24):
Those guys that have been doing this for years, it's just second
nature to them. But then you take someone like
like Lee Livesey, he knows like he, he's coming into his own.
He's one of the best, best fishermen in the world right
now. And he knows how to represent
his brands. And and I think the authenticity

(01:05:45):
behind marketing is where it's at.
Because. You you can sell you can sell a
guy his own car. You know that that doesn't
understand when you're trying tojive him.
But when you take someone that actually stands behind their
products, like Lee does, and allthese guys we mentioned, they
understand how to pull the authenticity out of each

(01:06:07):
product, especially when it's happening.
And you plug that into a live broadcast.
Like Randy knows how to plug what he's doing at that moment
into the live broadcast. So he maximizes his opportunity
when he's on camera, which is what, you know, a lot of times
you get a few words. Some people talk too much and,

(01:06:31):
and some people don't talk enough.
And I think the guys that talk too much are way better off than
the guys that don't say enough because they're not maximizing
the their opportunity. And that's really what their
sponsorships are looking for, right?
Yeah, yeah. No, it, it, it's and I think it
it comes in time too. You know what I mean?
Randy Howell, if you go back andwatch Randy Howell footage when

(01:06:54):
he first started, I'm sure he isnot the same, you know what I
mean? That's comes from years of like
having coverage and watching andbeing like, I didn't like what I
did there or I need to be betterand just being comfortable.
I mean, just the fact of being comfortable.
I, I think that's why I understand and we're seeing
young anglers accomplish things that we didn't see in the past.

(01:07:16):
So all of a sudden they're beingthrust into that area.
But but it, it's definitely partof the sport.
I mean it, it's, it's part of being a complete professional
angler. It's what builds, I mean it
really, it's what helps grow this business.
I mean, look at probably even inJapan, look at the difference,
and I'm not knocking anyone at all, but, you know, look at the

(01:07:40):
difference between Taku and Fujita.
There's a huge personality difference.
There's, you know, they're both going out of their way to learn
the language. Taku probably spent more time,
you know, learning the language from a.
But from. Getting very good like.
I am, he is. Super impressed, like the only
time he has trouble speaking English now is if you ask him

(01:08:02):
about his baits then it gets very choppy.
And you can't tell if he's trying to hide it or.
If he I know what he's up to. What?
But, you know, each and everything.
He's gotten so much better. Yeah.
No. But the value there you think,
do you this is a question, do you think their main focus is

(01:08:25):
impressing the American viewers or translating that back into
bigger dollars in Japan or bigger, bigger support in Japan?
I don't know that I could answerthat.
I mean, that's, I think it's, it's personal to them.
I think they want to, I think they want to fit in though.
Like, I mean, I think they want to impress.

(01:08:47):
I think if they impress the American viewers, they're
impressing the Japanese viewers at the same time, you know what
I mean? Like they want to see that, you
know, it has it's everything. Like, I mean, part of why
Takumi's Takumi in Japan is because of what he's become in
America. And again, it goes back to them

(01:09:07):
being genuine and being who theyare.
If if Kya all of a sudden started trying to be like
Takumi, it wouldn't work. No.
Or vice versa, like if Takumi tried to be very serious and
very it wouldn't work if Lee Livesey tried to be Brandon
Polnik. Both two things that really
work. Like Lee, I keep pointing it out

(01:09:28):
to him. Lee is getting a huge pop from
the crowd no matter where we go.And it's because it's genuine
and it's real. He's had some big moments like
the classic. It's going to be real
interesting to see how his hometown crowd reacts to him
this week. You know, it'll be great, but
but that's part of building a personality, a public persona, I
think is and he's been lucky to,you know, to have had a big bass

(01:09:52):
master classic in his home state.
Like I always use the Conor McGregor example and it's they
when they wanted to sell him to America, they they showed the
world him in Boston where. There's such a high.
Irish content and they're going to cheer and go nuts for him.
But the rest of the world saw. That and they're like, yeah,
this guy's the rest of the worldsaw Texas react to Lee Livesey,

(01:10:14):
and they're going to see it again this week.
And I think that helps build. But that didn't answer.
It's a great analogy, actually, the McGregor to Boston, because
Boston's basically Dublin, Massachusetts.
Well, and that's nothing new. Like in all of.
I mean, I look at what they do in in in pugilism or MMA or

(01:10:36):
whatever is that's the master marketers of the world.
You know what I mean? Like Don King, total scumbag.
But hey, master marketer as far as like putting people in the
right environment, I mean, you need you need to see the world
react to that. So yeah, I digress.

(01:10:57):
But but I think they're all doing a great job.
They just. Everybody's got their own
personality and own character. And I think, you know, the
younger guys moving up, I'm no pro at this, but you know,
looking at it from the outside in, I think, you know, advice to
the younger guys that are comingup, even reaching down into high

(01:11:18):
school and college right now, all you guys that are watching
this, that are coming up, you take your best qualities and you
exploit those things and you turn those things into values.
Like we talked about earlier, Easton, I do watch Easton
Fothergill's YouTube videos because he's so interesting.
It's it's, it's very monotone and sort of it's very black and

(01:11:44):
white. But he's so knowledgeable
technically, technically that you can understand why he does
so well because he studies this.He's like a professor.
He's teaching organic chemistry and fishing on YouTube.
And you can learn a lot from that.
You may not be entertained by like Pat, you know, some people

(01:12:07):
like Iconnelli, but you're goingto be entertained by the value
you gain from his knowledge. So it's everybody's different.
It's all a value. And when we go live, that's when
you really see, you know how prepared or how, how you know
someone is reacting to the camera you you know where they
are in their professional in their professional.

(01:12:29):
World. Yeah, yeah.
All right. So ready how?
Yeah, so he basically caught everything on a on a Cinco and
he kept it very simple. But you know, one of the things
that I found interesting, you know, when you, when you ride
with someone three straight day,three or four straight days in a

(01:12:50):
row, you do get to know someone.And, and it's like taking a road
trip with somebody because and you have to, you know, you show
up in the morning, you're with them all day.
Sometimes, you know, things are going well, sometimes things
aren't. So I have to react a certain way
in the back of the boat. And with someone like Randy

(01:13:11):
Howe, who's been there so many times and he's been very
successful. He's got a history on Lake
Hartwell. It's one of his favorite lakes
in the world to fish. You know, I really I'd never,
I'd never been in his boat before the flip.
I'd never covered Randy and really didn't know him that
well. I actually got to know him a
little bit before he came back and and was excited to be in his

(01:13:37):
boat because of who he is. You know, his his experience
level. I find it to be really
interesting that he's one of those dads.
You know, he's he's back in the Elites.
His son Laker is working hard inthe opens and, you know, there
he's he and Laker remind me of Steven and Bo Browning.

(01:13:58):
Yeah. You know, I I want to see these
father son combinations in the elites because I just feel like
the the older guys, Steven and and Randy are looking at their
sons like they're rooting for them harder than they're rooting
for themselves, just like any great parent would.
Yeah, absolutely. And, and, and I find it really

(01:14:19):
interesting that they talk abouttheir sons so much.
And and you know, Randy's, Randy's a family man.
That's one of the things that I learned about him being in his
boat on Lake Hartwell for as long as I was.
Was he. He talked a lot.
Even when the camera was off, hetalked, talked a lot about his
family and his faith and God and, and all those things.

(01:14:40):
And I, I feel like the more I got to know him, the more, the
more I felt like this guy is he's the real deal and he's just
a, he's just a really genuine, genuine person.
He's the guy you want to associate with because of his
character. Wow, Wow.

(01:15:02):
Yeah, I know. Great man.
The great man. Very entertaining.
So you. He was fishing shallow water.
He in one of the patterns that he that he really locked in on
was very similar to the pattern that Jason Christie won the
classic on Hartwell. They fished it differently, but

(01:15:24):
the fish setup pattern was the same.
They were all in that all, the most all the fish he caught were
in the walkways between the shore and the docks.
And he found that the ones that were leaning in the water and
they created these little caves,you know, where the, the dock

(01:15:44):
was, wasn't pulled back up to the to the shoreline yet where
the water had come up. That's where he found most of
his fish. And Jason was flipping a jig in
there and Randy was skipping a Cinco in there.
So they fished it a little bit differently, but they both had
to come in at the same angle. They had to pull down so they

(01:16:07):
could get under the cables. Those cables at Hartwell are
always playing a big role in howthey do things.
They're either going to pitch over them, get closer and pitch
over them or flip over him or they're going to stay back and
skip under him. And Randy, his accuracy skipping
anything really, but the Senko, especially on a spinning rod,

(01:16:30):
his his accuracy is phenomenal. He's got a lot of freaking fish
on a Senko over the years. I mean, yeah, he's he's pretty.
I mean, watching him fish, that was stereotypical of Randy Howl
fishing. I mean, I think a lot of people
look at him as a cranking guy because he won the classic, you
know, cranking that RIP rap. But dude, I mean, put a sanko in

(01:16:51):
his hand and let him chew up theshoreline and he usually does
pretty well. That's pretty much all he, I
mean he, he really only needed three rods.
He had a frog for some situations and he had he had a
glide bait for a few situations where he was trying to get, he

(01:17:13):
was trying to expose fish because there was so much pollen
on the water, the water clear, it created, you know, a
visibility issue for him and where he was trying to find some
bedding fish. And in day on day three and
four, he couldn't, he couldn't see anything.
There's so much pollen on the water.

(01:17:33):
So he was using that, a frog anda glide bait to expose fish.
And then like a lot of people don't do, which I never
understood why. I remember asking Jamie Hartman
one time, I think we're on Okeechobee.
He was, he threw, he was flipping the reeds in a big, a
big like A7 pounder came up and missed his bait.

(01:17:54):
And he pitched in there a few more times and he and he moved
on. And at the end of the day, I
asked him that was like, that was like sort of midday and I
asked him at the end of the day so I wouldn't get in his head.
After the day was over, I said, how come you never went back and
tried to catch that 7 pounder? And he he literally looked at me
and he goes because I'm a dumb ass.

(01:18:16):
And so he's at least he was being honest to his credit.
But you know, that's something that Randy definitely did.
And when he saw a fish, if he couldn't catch it, he always
came back to it. Always.
Even if it was if he had 20 minutes left and he had to run
by it to get back to take off. He all and he, he managed his

(01:18:39):
time really, really well. But he always came back to fish,
even if he saw one swimming by adock and, you know, 15 feet of
water. He was like, I know that fish
lives there somewhere. We just got to go back and try
to fire, find where that fish is.
And sometimes, you know, he was successful, other times he

(01:19:00):
wasn't. But I found that to be
interesting. And I, I think, you know, one of
the things that I've noticed about especially, it just sort
of came up in my head when I wasspending time with Randy was the
way the, the, the, the older anglers, the veteran, let's call
them a veterans because they're not.
Old. Yeah, yeah.
The veterans are evolving one way, the new kids on the block

(01:19:24):
are having to evolve the other way.
And I say that in that the, the veterans are evolving with their
traditional old school techniques and they're adapting
that to their 4 facing sonar, even in shallow water like this
is becoming more and more of a player.

(01:19:45):
So they're adapting from old school to new school.
And the new kids on the block, not that they don't know
traditional methods, but they'reevolving the other way.
And they're, they're, they're, they're heading towards the same
pinnacle, but they're taking their new techniques,
particularly front facing sonar and adapting that to traditional

(01:20:06):
techniques. And I feel like there's a,
there's a. Crossroads there where all of
this blends itself together and you've got yourself the new way
of bass fishing and you're blending old school and new
school, but the young guys and the veterans are Criss crossing
and how they're evolving. Does that make sense?
Yeah, yeah, somewhat. So, Bill, go ahead.

(01:20:31):
I'm sorry, Bill Lowen, I went upto his boat on day three, the
morning at the at the dock on the morning of day three before
takeoff. And I said it's good to see you
here again, Bill. He's made all four, all four
cuts this year. I think he made he make the last
two at the end of last year. So he's had like 6, he's made

(01:20:52):
six. He's got six straight paychecks
and without Bill's a a very goodfriend and I love him and his
whole family, but they're at theend of you know, or really last
year I found him, you know, to be he was he was in the dumps.
He wasn't doing well. He was he was, you know,

(01:21:13):
straightforward with his negativity towards front facing
sonar and the new kids moving upand when and I always make a
point to go see him, especially on day three, because I love him
so much. But he said to me, he goes, you
know, Jake, I just finally figured out that what I needed
to do was stop worrying about what everyone else was doing and

(01:21:35):
start fishing the way I want to fish again and have fun.
And that's all it took. And now I'm cutting a paycheck
at every tournament and I'm like, ta da, There you go,
folks. Yeah, yeah.
And he's been very open about that, that, you know, he let it
get in his head and he, and he'snot anymore.

(01:21:55):
I mean, it, it's pretty amazing.I mean, I still think he would
let it disappear if he could. Like I mean, if a genie landed
and said, Hey, do we want this here or not?
But I mean, right now that's what he's competing under.
It does feel like, and I mean, this is all made just ball be my

(01:22:16):
head, but it feels like it's a lot closer to being limited now
than ever. At least.
I mean then I'm strictly only speaking about bass, but I don't
mean I don't think it'll be eliminated, but I I think it'll
be limited to some extent in thefuture.
And and I pick up that vibe fromanglers from just, it's just a

(01:22:39):
vibe. I mean, it just feels like, you
know, it's, it's all a freaking learning experience too.
That's the thing. Like people are like, I don't
like this. It needs to go away.
I hear you, but nothing started that way.
You know, like everything they have to go through the, the
learning experience because I mean, if you look at the Alabama

(01:23:00):
rig, which people love to compare to, I mean, if anything,
I would say that that probably got eliminated too quickly
because it, you know, when it first came out, it won every
single tournament and it was super dominant.
And it was like, that's all thatwe're going to be seen and
that's why it went away. I mean, it was the anglers that

(01:23:20):
drove it to go away. And now in retrospect, I mean,
it wins when it's when it's a thing.
It's a thing and it it's tough to beat.
But there's a lot of the year. Where it's not a thing.
So is a frog. Yeah, You know, I mean, like,
we're going to. I think we're going to see that
at Lake Fork. But yeah, I, I actually liken it

(01:23:42):
somewhat to the NIL and, and transfer portal and college
football where, where it's this new thing.
And you know, when you gain, when you gain something from it,
like you gain a, a major collegetransfer because you had the
funds to pay for NIL money. And you get this stud of a

(01:24:04):
quarterback or stud of a runningback or whatever that comes to
your team from another team, then it's all great because you
gained something. But then if someone comes and
gets one of your players, then all of a sudden it's the worst
thing ever and you hate it, you know?
And so and I. Think as a Tennessee fan, I feel
like you're not. I feel like you're just opening

(01:24:25):
up. Yeah, I am.
I got a lot to say there about Niko and La La, but I but I feel
like it's the same thing and it's just, you know, it's a
transitional time. It's a, it's an evolution in the
sport and it's all blending itself together.
And like you said, I think, I think it, it is working itself

(01:24:45):
towards some kind of limitation.I don't believe that it's ever
going to go away because it's part of the sport.
But I do think, like you said, there's going to be some
limitation. And what did it take?
It took some experiences, some test labs and you know, Guinea
pigs out there, you know, operating some the viewership

(01:25:05):
responses, communication with the rest of the world to really
sort of narrow this down. And I don't think it's to any
any surprise to all any of us that have been patient knowing
this was going to come at some point that, you know, there's
going it's going to create ruleschanges and then once they
settle in to, you know, making everybody happy at the same

(01:25:27):
time, then we can all move forward.
Yeah, yeah. Amen.
And, and here's the other thing.On the Internet, you would think
that there's this group of youngguys who are like, no, no, this
can't go away. This can't go away because I
mean, that's how it's spelled out.
I don't hear that. I mean, I hear, I hear anglers
wanting. I mean, there's some anglers

(01:25:48):
that don't like it. And I get that.
I totally get that. There's negatives and positives
with everything, but you don't hear a lot of the young anglers
saying, no, we can't fish without this.
I mean, in some ways I've heard anglers say young anglers say
take it away. I want to show the freaking
world that I can catch them and there's going to be some of them

(01:26:09):
that are going to have to adjust.
But I think we're seeing that inso many ways.
And it's similar to weirdly, theNIL thing that you brought up,
which initially I thought it wasa horrible analogy, but when you
think about it, so you get this super talented athlete that
comes to your program and that'sgreat.
Those are all positives. But that athlete also knows
nothing about the playbook. And it's similar when you look

(01:26:32):
at a lot of these young anglers that are super talented and are
accomplishing things, but they still got to work on the other
part of the job, the, the, the, on the camera stuff, the, the
just different things like that.So it is what I'm saying is it's
going to be OK people, everybodyjust relax.
It's just, it's just bass fishing.

(01:26:52):
And here's some positivity to add to this elaboration.
Don't say that word. That word's become a negative.
Word, hey, you know, but that's what that's what we stand on,
right? That's our foundation
positivity. I guess.
Aretha Franklin should have sanga song about positivity.
I should do respect. Yeah.
So one of the really cool thingsthat I see coming out of it, and

(01:27:15):
I know you do too, it are peoplelike like Rick Klun and Cody
Hough, Randy Howe and Drew Gill.There are people and there
there's a lot more of them out there.
I just can't name them off rightnow.
There's old school collaboratingwith new school and they're
teaching each other what they know.

(01:27:39):
And I find that to be fascinating because that's where
the evolution is going. Just like we were saying,
they're they're they're the evolving across each other in
two different directions. But it's all going to come back
to me at the same point. And I found it interesting that
Randy talked a lot about Drew Gill and how much they work

(01:28:02):
together and how much he learns from him.
And he probably didn't say it asmuch that he teaches him what he
knows on his end of this end of things as well.
But you know, that's how it goes.
Because if they're, you know, they're sharing information, if
they go out and, and, and practice between tournaments on,
you know, some neutral lake or whatever, and they're, they're

(01:28:25):
learning from each other. I mean, to me, that's where all
this is going. And, and I, I again, I just, I
find that to be fascinating. And I thought a lot about that
when I was in the boat with Randy and how perhaps his
process and a lot of other anglers processes are working
right now because maybe that's rejuvenating for them.

(01:28:46):
Mercer. Maybe that's this gives them new
life in that man, this is fascinating.
I'm learning something new. I, I, I wish I'd have opened up
to these younger guys quicker orwhatever, whatever they're
thinking. Maybe that's a a restart and a a
new level of energy, especially with these guys that have sons

(01:29:06):
that are up and coming anglers like Randy and Steven are.
I mean, I mean, I mean, how coolis that?
I've run a Yamaha outboard for over 30 years.
It has got me home safe each andevery time.
If you enjoy this podcast, remember Yamaha supports it and
they care enough about you to make this ad read very short.

(01:29:28):
Now back to the show. Yeah, no, it's, it's an
evolution it and and I think it's one of those things where
nobody's ever going to be publicwise totally happy.
But you know what I mean, There's those that love the
certain things and but I, I, I think the anglers are finding
their way that that's what I'm finding anyways.

(01:29:51):
They're they're finding their way.
It's just weird because now the instinct, that was always the
way. Like when you listen to somebody
like Drew Gillen, he's a dude. I don't even know Drew.
I've just literally listened. I don't believe we've ever met.
I know we've never met. I shouldn't.
I mean, I don't meet that many people that I wouldn't remember

(01:30:11):
meeting them, but we've never met.
But I've listened to his different interviews and stuff
and, and it amazes me because he's very like cut and dry.
Like it's not the it's just the instinct is now replaced by
certainty in some ways. Like if you watched how Wesley
Gore fished fry garters on docks.

(01:30:33):
I mean, I had an aha moment during the coverage where I was
like, of course, like this is just math.
It is literally math all over again.
Like if you watch mathematicallyhow Kevin changed the sport and
how he put his bait in front of more fish, he didn't see those
fish, but he put his bait in front of more fish and in turn
caught more fish. Well, that's exactly what

(01:30:53):
they're doing. Wesley Gorewood would roll up on
a dock and be move on. He would.
So when one day of competition, he would literally
mathematically fish three days worth of docks if you were
fishing in the traditional way. And that's what it's it's coming
down to now, the debate of whether that's right, wrong or

(01:31:14):
indifferent, whether you like that.
I mean, I think Swindle made a great video this week where he
pulled into a campground. I don't know if you saw it, but
he's like, I didn't, I just pulled into a campground.
There was all these people linedup watching their cork.
And he says, that's how I grew up fishing, which most people
grew up fishing. I mean, that's the first time
float. I still love float fishing to

(01:31:36):
this day. And I think it's because of
childhood memories. But he's like, I wonder if those
people would all be lined up there fishing and enjoying the
sunset and laughing and doing whatever if they put a machine
in and we're just like, what? There's one fish here.
And when you think about it likethat, you're like, that makes a
really good point. I mean it's I mean.

(01:31:56):
Maybe they would if you gave them all a boat with front
facing sonar, because the guys with boats, you know, or or I
don't know what the sales numbers are on on forward facing
sonar units, transducers and andand monitors right now, but it's

(01:32:16):
got to be pretty high when you can people save money to go buy
one. Yeah.
And so I. Mean.
But you know. It's X-ray vision, I mean.
Yeah, basically. Used to be a superpower.
That's right. That's right.
Well, that's one of the things that I find interesting is, is,
you know, you go, you get in a boat with someone like Randy or

(01:32:39):
Jason Christie or Bill Owen or, you know, some of the veterans
that use their traditional superpowers to, to, to guess as
to what fish you're doing. They go, they catch two in a row
that becomes a pattern. Then they turn that into a
pattern. And Lake Hartwell is one of
those perfect places that that does that when you find up, if

(01:33:01):
you catch two or three in a row in a certain area or a certain
environment, typically the wholelake is like that.
And so, you know, it makes it easy on on A to pattern fish on
a lake like that. But then you take the the
younger guys with FFS and they're starting to have to do
the same thing like you listen again.

(01:33:23):
I go back to, to Easton's commentary and some of his
videos, but I hear it from, you know, other people too.
And, and, and the younger guys that are really, really good at
this, They're having to read in detail what the fish are doing
because just because you see a fish on front facing sonar

(01:33:44):
doesn't translate into a catch. And if it translates into a
catch, if it's a school of fish,it doesn't mean you're going to
go catch the biggest fish in that school.
Usually it means you're going tocatch the smallest fish in that
school and you learn what the big fish aren't going to do,
which you really want them to do, which is, which is eat your
bait. But they're having to readjust
to where they're not only seeingfish, they're reading the, the,

(01:34:10):
what the fish are doing. So they're either and, and the,
the, the word flash is like the,the, the word that keeps coming
up. And at these tournaments, when
I'm talking to guys, they see this flash.
And that flash makes a difference because when, like
Easton says, when in the open water, when you see the flash
and it, the, the spot becomes hotter on your graph than it is

(01:34:36):
when you first see the fish. That means the fish turned
around and, and I find that these little details that those
guys, these micro details that those guys are adjusting to are
no different than the, the patterns and the details that
the veterans were were honing inon years ago to, to understand

(01:34:58):
the fish better. And I just, I, I, I just again,
I, the more, you know, the more I learn and the more I'm in the
boat with these guys, the more fascinated I am with how that
whole system and technology and the way they use it is evolving
for both the veterans and the young guys because they're using

(01:35:18):
it, they're they're using it in more detail now.
And it's way to me. You can call it video gaming all
you want and you can call it cheating or not fishing,
whatever. I mean, even beside the fact
that, you know, it's fishing with a rod, a line and a hook
and a bait and you're trying to entice a fish into to eating it,

(01:35:39):
I just think that what they're learning and how they're
learning is truly fascinating tome.
You, you have on your notes here, and I mean, I told you to
take notes. You took a lot of freaking
notes. So if you guys wonder why I keep
glance off the side, 'cause Jakesent me his notes right before
and I'm like, you took more notes than this than I take for
the classic. Notably making decisions that

(01:36:00):
younger anglers don't see. So what?
What is that? Like like Wesley Gore moving on
from dock to dock not seeing them.
OK, that's one, that's one. That's one technique.
That was something that Wesley Gore has adapted to using his
front facing sonar. Don't think that that he's

(01:36:24):
seeing everything and not missing a big fish here or two
up on the other side of the wheel on a rolling walkway on a
dock. The older guys are combing
through everything with their baits, whereas some of the
younger guys are looking and moving on and no one, no one is

(01:36:47):
scared that that's just, that's the thing.
When I was a kid and I was bass fish with my dad or whatever, we
fish for crappie, shell crackers, bass, whatever,
walleye, soccer, whatever it was, if someone was fishing near
our hole, my dad would just get mad and go to another one.
And, and, and, and now having been involved in this, you know,

(01:37:13):
Elite series for 14 years, no one's scared to fish behind
anyone, except maybe if John Coxis up there in shallow water.
Then you just like, okay, I gotta go find another spot.
But no one scared to fish behindanother person anymore.
And I feel like, I feel like it's because everyone has their
own little secrets. One guy's throwing a, a white

(01:37:36):
chatterbait through there. Another guy's throwing a pink
fluke. Another guy's going to come
through and, you know, and flip a Cinco in there or whatever it
is. And, and, and they get bit.
And the only reason they avoid each other now, at least most of
most of what I see is because they don't want to get in
someone else's way because they were there first.

(01:37:58):
It's not about whether someone picks a spot or a location or a
Cove or a row of docks or anything apart to the point
where they don't have confidencein it.
Sometimes that's the case. Most of the time they just don't
want to disturb. It's respect, right?
But other times, if they see a guy pulling out of a Cove, they
keep going in there anyway and they end up fishing it.

(01:38:20):
And sometimes they catch. They go in and catch a big fish
that the other guy missed. And so you know that that's it's
all that's it's all. That's why live to me, the
perception of watching live bassfishing, you know, whether you
like the production values or not when you're watching live

(01:38:40):
bass fishing, That's what's so interesting to me and even more
so for us that are that are in the boat with these guys.
We see what goes on between like, you know, between whenever
our anglers on, on a live broadcast, we see what they're
doing, the decisions they make, even with their baits, when they

(01:39:00):
change colors, they're using thesame exact chatter bait, the
same exact, you know, soft body that they put on their chatter
bait in a different color. And all of a sudden it makes a
huge difference. And they lock in on that pattern
and they start moving on and they just start the older guys
just really Greg Hackney's the prime example of that.
You know he could take, he couldliterally take a fine toothed

(01:39:24):
comb that's 12 inches long and make a cast between each bristle
and end up catching a fish that some guy just came through, made
3 cast, didn't believe there's afish in there and moved on.
Yeah, yeah. And I think that that's also the
the adjustment for a lot of the vets too, has been the things

(01:39:44):
that they've gotten so used to see.
And I don't mean even things in the water.
I got a cool show coming up nextweek with John Cox and he talks
about it but like his his. Belief.
In not using it is because he doesn't want to block out all
the other stuff like the frog that jumped in the water or the,

(01:40:05):
you know, like all of a sudden Iseen, you know, some shad up in
the shallow or just even the movement of a stem of a Lily
pad. I mean, how many fish have been
caught over the years? Because you just see the pads
just kind of quiver under there and something's making that
happen. When you get locked into that
screen, you start not seeing that and exactly it, it's it it

(01:40:28):
really is fascinating. And the truth of the matter is
you fishing has always been you do it as you wish.
I mean, there's people that fly fish, there's people that, you
know, use mooching reels. There's just all did there's
bank. I mean the truth.
Is dunkers, bank fishermen, boatfishermen, bobber fishermen, you
know, artificial bait, whatever worm fishermen, leeches,

(01:40:52):
minnows, whatever it is, there'sa variety of things that you can
go do. And at the end of the day,
fishing is about, I mean, I, when I go fishing, I, I do it to
really to let steam off and go enjoy myself and, and, and just
take the pressure away from my everyday life of being a dad to

(01:41:13):
three young kids and having 2 small businesses that I have to
operate and the stress that comes with that.
I go fishing to have fun. Yeah, that's why everybody, I
mean, started it. Nobody was like, there's where
I'm going to dominate in life that, you know, it was just it
brings fun to you. And that's that's what the world

(01:41:36):
needs to get back to focusing on, if you ask me.
And we're going to have a fun week this coming week.
Oh my goodness. Like freaking fork, I love that.
Like I mean, I love the people. I love the, I mean, I have such
sentimental connections to him because without the Toyota Texas
Bass Classic giving me an opportunity, the guys from

(01:41:59):
Octagon, Lenny and Katie and everybody from Octagon that, you
know, in Gulf States that allowed me to MC that, you know,
Toyota Tex Bass Classical, Lake Fork and all the people I got to
meet over the years. There's no way I have this job,
which is here's another frustration thing.
So many people, but I mean, I'llget comments about this in this

(01:42:21):
week's podcast. You know, what the world needs
to do. We need to take the top 15 from
Bass and the top 15 from MLF andwe need to put them against each
other. And I'm like, we did it for a
freaking decade. It was the top 15 from FLW, the
top 15 from Bass, and the top 15for the PAA at the time.
That event I feel like came before it's time and weirdly

(01:42:45):
didn't get the respect that it deserved.
But I mean, that happened for years.
But anyways, that's why one of the reasons I love fork.
I love all the fine folks I run into there.
Like, I mean, you go to a Taco store, you go to a convenience
store, It's just. Exactly.
Great. It's a freaking it's like
Okeechobee. It's a fishing community like
every corner Okeechobee even like I mean you see businesses

(01:43:07):
that are like roofing companies and they have an angler spin on
it, you know what I mean? Like everything is connection
deficient. I go I honestly you, you nailed
it. When we go to Lake Fork, I
literally go to like the bait shops around the lake and I shop
for baits because I find baits there that I can't find in other

(01:43:29):
places. And they they have really nice
apparel like they know how to run their bait shops.
And it's like you said, it's because it's a culture.
And I and I, I do think that Lake Okeechobee is a very good
analogy of that. And perhaps Lake Hartwell is
part of is like that as well, where everybody around there

(01:43:51):
revolves around the fishing community.
That is what the resource is. They take advantage of that, not
to mention what tech, the state of Texas and their freshwater
fisheries, what they do and how much they care.
You know, I, I went with Bass University, I was filming with
them a couple years ago and we went to Lake Fork to film and

(01:44:14):
then we went over to the facility.
I forget, was it in? Athens.
Yeah, in Athens, in Athens, TX, we went to the facility and the
the head of the fisheries department showed us, you know,
the the, the, the spawning, the.Lunker Bunker.
The lunker bunker, the big, the tank in there where they where

(01:44:36):
they bring in the the 13 plus pounders in there and and hold
them until they're ready to spawn to go into the spawning
raceways and all that stuff. And you come out of there, you
come out of there thinking to yourself, this is how I wish my
state cared about bass. And then you start thinking

(01:44:59):
about the revenue that that produces for their state and
every little town. Look what you know, Look what
has happened to OHIV and in the middle of nowhere Texas once,
you know, once Milliken and JoshJones and those guys exposed
that lake. Look what has happened there.

(01:45:21):
I heard, I heard it went from literally nobody to, you know,
700 plus gods on that lake. I don't know if that's true or
not, but I that's one of the things that I've heard and the
parking lot's always full now and all that stuff.
So, you know, Texas, just the, the state of Texas itself, and
they built Lake Fork for that very reason, as I understand it.

(01:45:42):
And they're going to continue touse that model to create more of
those environments and lakes forpeople in towns like Yantis to,
to, to thrive on. I mean, the restaurants thrive,
the hotels thrive. And Lake Fork, I can't wait.
I think this time of year I I dohave a friend that lives on Lake
Fork, Steve Eldred. He's a part time guy.

(01:46:05):
He's a fireman and an EMT in that area and he guides part
time. He told me he just was texting
me a couple days ago. We're planning on getting
together for a grill out or somesome beers or whatever during
the tournament and he had some clients out and they were
throwing a frog and his literally at that moment he was

(01:46:26):
texting me that he had already caught I think 2 over 1717 and
three quarter and 1/8 and 1/2 pounder already that morning
throwing a frog. So this is going to be insane
dude. Yeah, it's going to be awesome.
It's it's going to be a fun one.I can't.
Believe the live broadcast for those of you watching this and

(01:46:49):
if you you watch it tomorrow before we go live on Thursday,
y'all better TuneIn because thisis going to be a freaking a a
giant bass crush. Yeah, yeah, everybody.
Last year the entire top ten joined the Century Club.
It was. Exactly.
Ridiculous it and it always is. And the coolest thing about

(01:47:10):
Texas, and like we've said, all the people that are connected to
that text parks, wildlife, it was just how giddy they get
about all that stuff. You know what I mean?
Like. Whether it was Dave?
Terry, he's retired now. Tom Lang now, like I get texts
from them randomly on a Tuesday.Oh, another share lunker was
caught today. Like they're literally that
excited that they they, I mean, they're it is not incredible by

(01:47:35):
accident. It's incredible because of the
hard work and the facility we'rerunning the tournament out of
now is truly world class. I mean, it's I mean to go to in
a row like that to, you know, where we used to run tournaments
out of the Sabine River authority land where they it was
always flooded and whatever now is just it's awesome.
It's going to be a fun week. So if you see either Jake and I

(01:47:58):
at the event, holler at us. I mean, I always love to meet
humpers. It continues to entertain me
when somebody else proud humper and I'm love me some humpers
busted Tim Doobie last week because I was doing live with
them and people started yelling up the hill, hey, I'm a humper
and I said I love humpers and Doobie goes, what's a humper?

(01:48:22):
And I'm like, well, clearly I said, do you listen to my
podcast? He goes, yeah, I said no, you
don't. And he showed it to me.
I'm like, if you don't know, what a freaking humper.
Is you know. Listen, so Tim Doobie is a good
dude, a lot of nice things, but he's not a humper.
Hey, you would think a a doobie would know how to hump.

(01:48:44):
Hey, I said it. You did, you did, you did.
Well. It's going to be a fun
tournament. I look forward to seeing you
there and. I leave tomorrow morning, I have
a direct flight into Dallas, jump in my rental car and and
head to Yantis and the first thing I'm going to do is hit

(01:49:04):
those bait shops and spend all my money.
And here's the weird thing. I mean, and I love orange.
The amazing people will see an orange in the following week.
But what were we thinking? I mean, we should have went
orange then to Fork. I mean, we're going Sabine
River. We're going from Lake Freaking
Fork and then we're going to go to Sabine River.

(01:49:26):
You're literally people are going to start catching bass
that. Are the size of the baits that
they were. Using the week before it is
going to be bizarre, but they'reboth going to be great events.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. Yeah, there's going to be glide
baits and swim baits at fork that are going to be bigger than
the bass that are going to be waiting at the Sabine.
River I'll go on record to say this the big bass at Lake Fork

(01:49:52):
whatever it's going to be that big bass will be a good bag on
day one at the Sabine like it'll.
The big What's your prediction on the the the biggest Bass Lake
fork? I mean, we're double digit and
we got to have a double digit. 11711 one and 11 seven are the

(01:50:17):
two biggest bass ever caught on live on on Bassmaster.
And one was on fork, but they were both on fork.
Both on fork, so Hamner caught his on fork and Brandon Cobb
caught his on fork. That's right.
That's right. An 11/1 and 11/7, I'm making a
prediction right now that someone's going to because

(01:50:39):
there's going to be fish caught off beds for sure.
And I've, I've, my prediction isthat we're going to break that
record. So we're going to have one
bigger than 11/7. I think we're going to have one
close to 12 lbs. Yo, I hope so.
I hope so. Can't wait.
As always, an amazing Jake's take.

(01:51:00):
Well, I'll see you in a few hours on Lake Fork.
Can't wait. Thanks, Dave.
So that's it, that's all. I thank you for tuning in.
I thought this was a fun show and I hope you all agree keep
the grow going. Make sure to like, comment,
subscribe, do all those things that help stroke the algorithm
and keep this show cool beacon of which fine streamers.

(01:51:23):
I appreciate all of you Thank you for all the ratings and
reviews on Spotify and Apple podcast.
Keep that rolling and well, we'll keep showing up here each
and every Wednesday. Have a great week.
Life is short, enjoy being and spread happiness because guess
what? It it just, well, it just feels

(01:51:46):
better. I think so anyways, and I hope
you agree. Hey humpers, if you make it to
Lake Fork, make sure to say hi. I'll see you there.
Until next time, enjoy being andas always, Bob Cobb, take it
away. Thanks for watching.
Please like, comment and subscribe because Bob Cobb of

(01:52:08):
the Bass Masters told you to youhere.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Breakfast Club

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Randy Howell and Jake's Take on MERCER-211

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}On Purpose with Jay Shetty

The Breakfast Club

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

Randy Howell and Jake's Take on MERCER-211

On Purpose with Jay Shetty