Find Big Bass Faster on Any Lake with This Strategy

How do you consistently locate 5+ pound bass on completely new bodies of water? In this episode, we sit down with South Carolina hammer Cass Anderson to break down his exact strategy for finding big fish on diverse fisheries. From deep, clear spotted bass lakes to shallow grass factories like Lake Guntersville and Santee Cooper, Cass reveals his mental process for eliminating dead water and separating tournament-winning kickers from average schooling fish.

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Caz's YouTube:  ⁨@cazandersonfishing6012⁩  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:20

All right. Welcome everyone to the Sears Angler Podcast, where as always, our main course for you will be talking and hopefully teaching you more about bass fishing. And of course, some random rabbit holes here and there. Whether you guys are here to learn or just hear some bass in conversation. You guys are in the right spot. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Eichbrett, rocking solo on today's show. But we have a great guest. We have Mr. Kaz Anderson joining the show, who is a freaking hammer. Uh he's out of the North Carolina, South Carolina area, fishing all those different lakes like Chatug and Hartwell and uh Lanier. You got all those lakes around that Tennessee, Georgia, Carolina area that have so many options to go bass. And obviously, he freaking catches them. Uh being a full-time guide out there, but also fishing the pro circuit. He does uh a lot of it successfully as well as the content side. You guys need to be watching his stuff if you're not already, which we'll, of course, we'll have linked down below. But we get into a lot of stuff with Kaz on finding fish on those bodies of water, how to break down finding bigger fish faster on bodies of water, especially some of these lakes that have a lot of river channels through them, the main lake, they have a lot of creek arms, things like that. So kind of some stuff we've been talking about in recent episodes. We trickle into here, but we go way beyond that too and talk a bunch of different stuff. Um, tournament fishing specific, but also fishing specific on uh some cool stories of him being a co-angler, his upbringing. Uh, we dive into some of the new Berkeley Lab series that he had a hand in helping with and what makes that special. And we go a bunch of different directions, but there's a lot of juicy nuggets in this one that you guys are not going to want to miss. So stay tuned for that. But before we jump on, as you guys have known, we've made some new apparel. If you guys want some serious angler apparel, Kai fishing weekly, lure lab, or even some of the lifestyle apparel, like the bass boat hats, the Mount Bassmoors, or some of the shirts I've seen a couple of guys rocking now and posting us in some gym content of uh anglers are athletes too. We got stuff like that on there if you guys want to go check it out. Um, but uh before we get into the show, a little bit of business from the bass boat, which as always is brought to you by our friends over at Rec Lending. If you guys are looking to get a bass boat, currently own a bass boat and looking to refinance, uh, or are just interested in the finances of owning a bass boat and want to make the smartest decision possible for you and your budget. Make sure you call the folks over at Rec Lending. They'd be happy to help you, even if you're not looking to go and do business with them. They will still answer the phone and help you as best as they can. Uh, and this week, miss from the bass boat, nothing too crazy industry-wise just yet. We have some stuff that we're actually worrying about. I shouldn't say worrying about, but looking at here industry-wise that we'll talk about uh when we have Deacon on here as he is our industry insider, if you will. Um, but uh a couple things, and that is if you've missed our previous episode from this one with Luke Johns, we had our seriously Western show with him, who just won the BAM Super 60 over on Lake Havisu. Some awesome stuff and some juicy nuggets in that one as well. So make sure you go back and listen to that if you've not already. As well as big congratulations to likely the best angler in the world right now, and that is Jacob Wheeler on his 11th BPT trophy victory down in Old Tejas, fishing OH IV, and I think it was Brownwood as the lake was called, but they freaking smashed and was one one freaking awesome tournament to watch. Him and Justin Lucas going head to head uh down to the wire on that event, and uh also wire to wire, very close. Uh Jason Christie went in the Bassmaster Lead event on the Tom Bigby. Cool to see him and fighter duel it out. John Garrett had a big push at the end of the day. Uh, and just cool to see those guys. You had a grinder and he had a smash fist. So it was cool to kind of see both. And it was a great week of live bassin, that's for dang sure. Um, and before we get into this, a little bit of insights from Omni of Fishing. Uh, as always, you guys can use code series 10 if you want to buy some stuff and get not only 10% off your order, but if you're a pro member, you get 10% of that of your cart, take a hundred bucks. If you're a pro member, ten bucks of that goes back into your cart to go then. Have ten free dollars to go spend back on baits. So 10% of that goes back to you, say for your for your next order. Uh, but right now, if you want to, uh they're running a giveaway to fish with Seth Fighter. If you guys want to get in the boat for the day with Seth, go fish with him, uh, get some content done with him. Uh, they're running a giveaway right now, which I'll link all that down below in the show notes for you guys to click on easily, um, as well as they're running a Rasa Rod giveaway. And this is a group of some tech nerds um that basically, in their mind, they tested they found a way to test the sensitivity of a rod. And apparently the rod's supposed to be more sensitive than Glumis, which is uh pretty impressive what they've done with that. If you want to go try to win one of those, they're running the giveaway again. Link that down below. But some cool stuff coming as always from the Omnia folks, just like the new updates on the pro app. Uh, make sure you check that out. If you have the pro subscription ready, some of the mapping layers they added to there makes it even more intuitive than it already is. And with that, let's kick things over and get into our episode with Mr. Kaz Anderson.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Got them. Like when I went to school there at Carson Newman, Douglas Lake, I swear it could be any pocket on the lake, and I'd pull into it and just and they would just hammer right back to me. It's everywhere. And I don't even turkey on. I've been once in my life, but I think hearing on gobble is the coolest thing ever.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

Yeah, it's like our eastern version of elk hunting is basically what it's.

SPEAKER_03 5:52

Pretty much, it really is. I deer hunt quite a bit, but the last two years I hunted I hunted one week last year, and I was like, if I'm gonna fish, I need to be fishing like as much as I can, because I'll get left to the wayside if I'm spending too much time in the woods.

SPEAKER_04 6:10

Yeah, dude, especially like nowadays, it seems like you know, hear Dylan Nutt talk about it at the classic of like all these guys are out hunting, but I'm out on the water, you know, working on the craft. But gosh, dude, it's hard to get out of the woods sometimes, man, because you get that that buck fever.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Yeah, if I'm not, I mean, if I could win every tournament, that'd be great, but you could pre-practice all you want to and you still won't win every tournament. If I can do pretty good and do a little bit of both and enjoy myself a lot more, that's what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:40

I just want to try to incorporate it. Filming hunting is so hard, and I really wanted to dabble in it, and I regret it so bad because the deer hunt I had last year was the most awesome thing, like seeing him from a long ways away, watching him check scrapes all the way to me, and then just shot him, went and found like it was a TV type deal. It was perfect. Had zero cameras running, and part of it's not like you know, I need to enjoy that for myself, you know. But also, if I could have if I could somehow incorporate everything that I do and not feel like I gotta drag the boat to the lake to make a good YouTube video, that would be so awesome. I just gotta figure it all out.

SPEAKER_04 7:20

Yeah. Well, we'll get there. Shape and refine, but it's it's so true, dude. When you talk about the the content thing, it's like some people kind of are like anti-filming, but half the time, dude, I feel like and I at least speaking for myself here, like, yeah, we do content, you know, as part of our gig, but dude, half the time I'm doing that for the memories, dude. Like, I just like looking back at some of the videos and stuff like that just from an enjoyment versus for the clicks, you know?

SPEAKER_03 7:47

A hundred percent. I mean, it's been that's the been the biggest reward of it so far is being able to share the awesome stuff we do with everybody else. And I mean, yeah, it benefits you in so many ways, but I'm sitting here being able to re-watch myself, you know, in tournaments and stuff that I would never I used to think seeing a video of me setting the hook was the coolest thing in the world when I was a little kid. And like now, get to see that stuff all the time, it's really cool. I think that if you don't like you know, for me it that stuff changed my life, so I've definitely learned to appreciate the memories that you get from it for sure.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Yeah, yeah, especially nowadays, like family members, friends, that kind of stuff, you learn to cherish that and especially looking back on it. Um absolutely, dude. Uh well Kaz, dude, this is your first time on the pod. Uh, and for everybody's first time on here, we like to kick it back to uh the beginning, and who's to blame for this lifelong addiction of turkey hunting, deer hunting, and bass fishing. So what's the what's the story, man? Who's to blame?

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Yeah, so my dad got me into it at a really early age, um, just loving the outdoors. Um, I live in Haysville, North Carolina. It's a super small town. Lake Chattoug is my home lake, it's right on the North Carolina-Georgia border. But we're really close to all kinds of good lakes around here. I like Chickamauga with an hour, 20, Lanier, hour, Hartville, an hour. Like everything is so close. So we would always travel around and had, you know, all kinds of public land and everything right at our fingertips. So, but my dad definitely got me into it a bunch. Wasn't like a super serious tournament fisherman, but he let me go with whoever I wanted to go with. And um if I could recall one guy that really poured into it and was really like a mentor for fishing stuff. His name was Hayes Ledford. He passed away a couple years ago, he was an older guy, and he was one of the only really old guys, old timers that would take me out and show me stuff. The rest of them, you know, were kind of secretive and didn't want to take a younger dude fishing. But Hayes had a big yellow trite, and it was actually Zell Rollins old boat. And I think it's the best thing ever. When I was like no kidding and probably 12 years old, we were camping at the campground at the lake, and he'd roll up, and my dad, you know, it's a small community, everybody knew that Hayes fished, and um Hayes was like, You want to go with me? And dad was like, Jazz, you you need to go with him, like you'll learn a lot. And so I went and Hayes and I became fast friends, and he took me out every we were fishing together every week for fun, and well before I had a driver's license fishing tournaments together, and he taught me a ton about finesse fishing and spotted bass and how they how they do what they do, and he knew all that stuff, and especially the lake that I guide on and live at now, all of his little hidey holes and the way that he would fish. I learned quite a bit from Hayes, and then just kind of, you know, a lot of people just poured into me though, and tried to learn as much as I could from whoever. And uh my dad and I, whenever I got to wanting to fish high school tournaments, my best friend and I got into it. Our dads worked together, and my dad and his dad, you know, traveled all over the state of Georgia fishing Georgia Bass Nation high school tournaments and eventually led to just a snowball effect. But I've got a lot of people that really helped me. But my dad, you know, was always into the outdoors and got me into it from an early start.

SPEAKER_04 11:21

Lots of things. That's awesome, dude. I I feel like guys at your level, we'll say level of skill, obviously, but also level of let's say addiction. You know, there's there has to be some sort of lead up where it's you know, whether it's dad, grandpa, mom, whoever, um, if it's not them and it's it's somebody a mentor to hear a bunch of these stories of like, yeah, I was just fishing at the boat ramp and some guy invited me to go fishing with them for the day, which is like the coolest stories. I love those. So you gotta have that mentor from you know learning to fish, but also like I'm sure learning to drive a bass boat, operate a boat, all that stuff. That's absolutely huge. There's tons of different things to learn. Yeah. And then that from there, like when you get an older age, then it's finding your circle, your circle of people that you can you can trust and things like that, and building out that network, which is I feel like if you don't have that chain of events, it's pretty hard to be like well-rounded. You need gear that works as hard as you do. That's why Amped Outdoors is the official power solution of a Sirius Angler podcast. From unmatched, battery nerd customer service to performance that thrives in extreme winter cold or summer heat keeps you on the water longer. Click the link in the show notes to get you powered up with Amped Outdoors. Now back to the show.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah, and um it's you know, it's one thing to really like fishing, and that's the tough part about this sport, and it's getting getting harder and harder. But that's it's one thing to like fishing because and it's one thing to be able to to do it full, you know, to the fullest extent. And um, but I always try to, you know, go back to the roots, go fish ponds, go trout fishing. Like we were talking about before this, I just love the outdoors and like I bass fish full time for a living. But I truly love it and am blessed to say that I've always had just a burning passion for it, and being a fishing guide, I love to share it with everybody. And I have people all the time that come with me that are just you know first time, first, first fish, you know, as a young dude, and you never know what kind of spark that you might like. You really don't. And it could be I've met some kids that have hardly ever fished, and they get in the boat and they pick it up like that, and they're just a natural with the way they cast, you can tell they've just got it. And it's really cool to see. And I don't really tell them or let them know that. I'm just like, man, like you're really good, you know, but like I don't want to, I don't want to put it in their head that like they have to be a professional fisherman, like I'm their parent or something. But I'm like, man, like you're really talented. Like you've got you've got the the it factor. Because I remember somebody saying that, and those little words of encouragement go a long way. My dad took me and my brother on a guided trip to Chickamauga when I was probably eight years old, when I first started to really love bass fishing. Went with a guy named Steve Kite, and I was just flipping around docks, and he said, Can you throw a baitcaster? I was like, Yeah, do you care if I can grab that beaver and flip it around these docks? And he's like, I mean, yeah, you can try. And I think he was kind of sketchy because he thought I was gonna blow up his reel.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

And I start flipping the docks, flipping the posts, and I was making some pretty good pitches, and he's like, he pulled out his phone and started videoing me. And uh, he was like, gonna send it to his friends. And then at the end of the day, he pointed at me and told my dad, he said, that one right there is gonna strike fear in the eyes of many, is what he said one day. And I was like, man, that is the coolest thing. And dude, that I still remember that, and like a little word of encouragement goes so far for like somebody that's young that might not know that they're dang good at what they're doing, you know. And for me as a guide, and especially as I get older, I had people that poured into me and encouraged me and took me, and I would love to be able to do that, either for my own kids one day or definitely for other people for sure.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

Yeah, dude. That's that's such a good point. And I feel like an overlooked point too is like the older we get, I feel like, at least personally, the more skeptical I get of things or like harder to take certain things to heart. You know, you have to have a it seems like the more desensitized, I guess, the older you get. But when you're that age, everything's still kind of new and fresh, you know. Obviously, like when you're a teenager and younger. So like that quote one quick line, you know, one quick moment like that can literally shape and impact the entire rest of your life and how you outlook on things.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

It's unbelievable. Yeah, it really is. I yeah, I want to I've been wanting to really start something like a Logan Parks, in my opinion, has done one of the best things that I've ever seen with his foundation that he's got. And like I want to be able to grow my stuff as much as I can to be able to put that out there and do something like that, like a youth day to where I can just get everybody outdoors somehow. It don't have to be a tournament setting, but just like an an outdoor event somehow.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Brainstorming and writing stuff down and trying to figure out the best way to go about it, just to find a way to, you know, I don't know if I'm in the position to say give back, but that's what I want to do. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 16:32

Well, yeah, and I think giving back, dude, is like it doesn't have to be this big massive thing. You know, what what Logan's doing is incredible, but you know, that impact takes a lot, a lot of scale, but you can make that small impact like that guide telling you that you're gonna strike feared people, which you are. Uh well, like you're the the impact doesn't have to be this huge, massive thing to to change somebody's life. So you I think you're still doing that, especially with the guide thing and the media stuff, dude. Um yeah, obviously somebody like yourself that's ate up with it all. Like for the people listening that aren't watching this, he's literally got uh a turkey on his hat dragging a beard right now. So it's like if you the epitome of eaten up with it. Um yeah, dude, that's it's leaving a legacy versus just you know building a reputation.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

That's what it's about. Yeah, it's what you it's how you treat other people and positivity, and this and and that's the that's the thing I'm trying to do with all my stuff is just to be positive and help everybody, encourage them to be outdoors. I think that's what is in my YouTube bio. So that was the mission from the beginning. Um but yeah, any way we can do that, I'm about it. So, but we're having a lot of fun along the way so far.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as we know, this industry needs more of it. So the more we can push, the better. That's for dang sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

That is right.

SPEAKER_04 17:54

Yeah. Well, dude, talking about the location where you're at, obviously from your video, Chatug looks like an awesome fishery being in home lake, but like what you were saying, being that close to Chick, being that close to, you know, you got Murray down there, you got all these diverse fisheries. Do you feel like that's helped you? Because I uh dude, I feel like I when I watch, you know, I see your post from Instagram, the updates from your tournaments keeping up with you, like uh you're smoking them at Wheeler, you're catching giants at Santee, you're I mean, obviously around the house, you're always dialed, but like it seems like wherever you go, dude, you're around them. Like you're around consistent, good fish. And you shake your head, but like it's true for the most part. Like, obviously, everyone's gonna have their their weakness here or there, but like, do you feel like your locations help shape you and and being, you know, at least dangerous wherever you go?

SPEAKER_03 18:44

I'm close to a lot of college fishing helped me more than anything, just giving me the opportunity to really travel a bunch and go to a bunch of places. And in college, dude, I got throttled most of the time because I just like didn't really grow up around the TBA or anything like that. And it's tough in a sense, like when we have finally have tournaments on herring lakes, I'm like, gosh, like thank goodness, because I feel like awesome about that. But I was super close to a lot of places that I got to go at an early age, but I never really understood it to like a tournament fishing scale. Like, yeah, I would learn stuff, but I did a couple things that really helped me to grow as an angler, and like if I could name for sure uh like a massive learning curve that I had. I was a co-angler on the Bassmaster Opens for a couple years, and I traveled with uh Mark Frazier, who just he just recently um finished up with the Elite Series. Mark and I traveled together, so my dad bought his first Ranger boat from Micah. It was his backup boat back in like 2006. So it was an old book. Yeah, I know. So it was a Z-21 Ranger, and um we had that thing for forever. And Micah would send me and my brother his tournament jerseys every year. For some reason, I guess they just liked us a lot, but he would send me and my brother tournament jerseys. I was like idolizing Micah Frazier, you know, he's the bass fishing cube all the time. And he uh would send us those, and one day I was sitting in high school, I was probably a sophomore, and he sent me a text and he's like, hey, uh my brother is gonna fish the opens, but would you want to link with him and be a co-angler? I'm like, call my dad. I'm like, can I do this, please? And he's like, I mean, I I guess so. And uh, so yeah, we signed up. My dad took me all over the country, dude, and me and Mark were traveling together. I practiced with him for a week. And first one was on Toledo Bend, and I finished fourth at Toledo Bend, and it just kind of rolled on from there. And dude, where I would like practice with Mark for the week, so I'd learn, you know, what all he's doing. Then I'd draw out with two or three different guys in the tournament that were all doing something a little bit different for the most part, but got to draw out with some some guys that were some absolute sticks and some guys that were absolutely terrible, but I learned something from all of them. And did really good in the points two years in a row, and I was like, that that really like still to this day I'll go some places that I haven't been since my co-angler days, and I'm like, I remember this area, or he was doing this, or something like because back then, like, it seemed like every tournament was like full-on grind mode, dragging a shaky head. Like you the guys that could do the grind stuff the best were the ones that pulled out and qualified for everything. So it really helps to have like those emergency plan scenarios and everywhere. I'm like, I know I can throw a biffle bug down this bank and catch a couple, you know, like stuff like that has helped me a lot. Then I get to college and I'm like wanting to be a professional fisherman so bad I can't stand it. I'm like, now, now, now, now, now, I want it now. I'm like signed up for the opens as a boater. I'm like, I've done the co hanger for a couple years. I'm gonna sign up for the opens as a boater. Coach Hunter Sales let me do it. Got me excused from school to do it. Probably shouldn't say that on a podcast, but he did.

SPEAKER_05 22:17

And uh so then

SPEAKER_03 22:20

Dude, I fished the first ones on Harris Chain. I fished Douglas and I never sniffed a check. I didn't even go to the last one. And that was a learning curve that I didn't have the time or the knowledge to be able to just go and just jump in them and try to do really well. And I fished college for four years after that. Traveled all over the place with a bunch of different people, had a little bit of success, had a lot of tournaments where we got our teeth kicked in, but I just I learned a bunch just traveling to those places. And even if you don't catch them, if you approach it the right way, you always learn a little something. And uh now I feel like, you know, even out of the pro circuit this year, out of the six tournaments, two only I've only been to two of them ever in my life. I've never been to Wheeler, I've never been to Santee Cooper, I've been to Douglas and Harris Chain. That was it. Never been to Champlain, never been any of these places. And uh I was like, you know, I'm gonna have to go pre-practice and put in some work if I wanna if I wanna figure all this stuff out. And uh I don't know. I I've not really put in as much work as I said I was going to at the beginning of the season, but I'm definitely now that we're in the position that we're in, I'm definitely gonna put in a lot of work towards the back half of the season and try to try to close the deal out. But man, it's definitely a learning curve. You know how it is. I mean, you go somewhere and people have got thousands of waypoints these play on these places and know every everywhere about everything and have fished it in all the kinds of conditions. And I feel like sometimes you go somewhere with a completely fresh perspective, it helps you out, and sometimes you go somewhere with a bunch of history, and that can help bail you out, especially in tough tournaments.

SPEAKER_00 24:05

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SPEAKER_04 24:34

Yeah. Absolutely. I mean granted, they always say that one of the hardest tournaments as a fish is your home lake. Just because of that double-edged sword of maybe you know too much and not you kind of get narrow-minded. But um yeah, dude, I mean it's one, that's a great schedule. I totally forgot how sick the schedule they made for you guys is, but like um one of the things I wanted to bring up. So Santee, I think you said you only had the seven fish the whole tournament, but like you were catching some, like you caught like a nine, like you caught some freaking bigs. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Three for twenty-three the first day. It was it was ignorant. Just and it happened all in the scope period, and I kicked myself over that one more than any just because I it boil it boils down to my practice there. I didn't practice really good, and I didn't have enough places to run during my scope period, and I ended up like revisiting some spots, and if I could have fished fresh stuff for three hours straight, I could have had an insane lag. But yeah, that place had more giant fish than anywhere I've ever seen in my life. I feel like every time you set the hook, it was huge. It was it was that's always nice. It was awesome. Like there was the amount of giant fish that I saw that week, and like I caught some good ones in practice, had 30 pounds one day, and I'm like, and everybody was catching 30 pounds. That was the weirdest thing. Like, you know, everybody's like in tournaments, everybody's like, oh, it's tough, this and that.

SPEAKER_04 26:11

Even if the fishing's lying their butt off.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Yeah, even if the fishing's good, it's like, oh yeah, it's tough, dude. I don't, I don't know. Like, maybe we get some and dude that week everybody was like, dude, if you don't have 30 pounds, you suck. Like it was crazy. The trash talk, and everybody was smoking them, and I'm like, gosh, this is awful. Like, it's putting so much pressure. Like, if I come in with 20 pounds, people are gonna think I'm terrible.

SPEAKER_04 26:36

Well, there's that part, and then there's like everyone's freaking crushing them in practice, and you show up tournament day, and then it's hard, and you're like, Well, gee, I wonder why, because y'all been smoking them all week during practice.

SPEAKER_03 26:47

One dude told me in practice, and this was like, I I won't say his name, but he's like, dude, these are the dumbest eight-pounders I've ever fished for in my life. I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02 26:57

Like, I'm trying to I'm trying pretty hard to catch them.

SPEAKER_03 26:59

I can't catch one. Um, I have one magic evening of practice, day two. The sun got up and warmed everything up, and I was in this one area, and I trolled around and probably caught a 30-pound bag in an hour, had like three over seven, and dude was just jerk baiting them on stumps and brush and any twig they were on it, and I'm like, alright. There was a few spawning pockets, I'm like, these fish are gonna keep coming in here, and I'm gonna rotate through this area and I'm gonna bag them in this tournament. And then I just kind of got super content and practiced for my no scope on the last day of practice. Had a terrible last day of practice and pretty much wasted a day. There's one thing I've learned with those tournaments, if it's almost not even worth practicing for your no scope because if you're around them, you can do so much damage in three hours with scope that it's not even worth practicing for your no-scope, period. That's bit me twice this year already. And most of my fish that I've weighed have came without live scope. But it's um I just kind of fly by the seat of my pants on that deal. It would be nice to have a hammer hole no scope bite, but at the end of the day, if you're around them, you can make so much hay in three hours that it's it's almost you're worth spending your entire practice. I think you're way more productive.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

Looking for spots for that scope period and then just go fish new water basically on the no scopes? That's my That's smart.

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Yeah, that's because I mean I hate to do a lot of running in my scope period, but that's the thing. I feel like at Wheeler, you couldn't be afraid to run because like you had somewhere over here that they were gonna bite a little better. You'd done fish here, you knew that there wasn't really that it wasn't really going down that good, so you better go over here. And that's what guys like Jacob Wheeler are so good at, like they get the same rules that we have, and he's burning it up in his scope period, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, and he's catching one everywhere, just making the most of everything, and getting in a good rotation. Like that's that's the biggest key. I'm not good at it yet, and um I'm trying to practice as much as I can, and just being really efficient in practice is the key to a good tournament, I feel like. I've ran out of fish too every time, and I've left eight keepers on the table this year so far. I zeroed the last day at Harris Chain and I weighed seven fish total at Santee Cooper. And Santee was a two-day event. So I left three there and five at Harris Chain. At the end of the year, we're gonna leave eight keepers on the table. That's that's gonna sting somewhere if you don't need the BPT.

SPEAKER_04 29:49

Yeah, I mean especially if you don't, but if you do, it's like, yeah, that's the double-edged sword there, but like, yeah, it's for sitting where you're sitting, Noah, like missing eight fish is not too shabby.

SPEAKER_03 30:01

I'm happy with it, man. I uh it's all in how you practice. So you learn little things along the way and learn stuff every year, and this is really my second year of trying to fish full time and trying to make it happen, and um it's been a good season so far, so I'm just trying to learn stuff along the way and trying to become a little more seasoned, if you will.

SPEAKER_04 30:23

Yeah. Well, and due to your point, talking about bringing up Wheeler, like unless I'm really bad at trying to figure out like what guys are throwing and stuff, like I feel like Wheeler's not doing, I feel like his bait selection is relatively chalk. Like, you just I mean, pretty much take for the most part the crushed hoodie lineup. I don't really see him throwing much beyond what's in there. And he just, I think the best at what you said is prioritizing practice. I think he's the best in the world at finding fish and building his milk run. Yeah, like that decision right there. I think that's what makes him the best in the world right now. Yeah, like because it when you look at it, most of the time you see him on live, he's he's throwing a minnow, he's cranking, throwing a buzzbait, like he he's doing chalk stuff.

SPEAKER_03 31:05

Like it's absolutely you don't see anything crazy JDM out there shaking a huge sockamata or throwing a koike or nothing like that, no high-tech stuff. Like he's just very good and has the best spots on the lake all the time, and he finds them like crazy. I don't know. That's that's what he just never is stumped. That's the thing. I'm sitting here scratching my head of where to go, and that dude's always got a plan, and it makes a huge difference at the end of the year.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

Yeah. Well, dude, I wanna I wanna backtrack real fast because I want I don't want to go over I would love to see if there's any stories from this, but your your co-wangler days, you mentioned how you you got in some guys that were freaking hammers and guys that were maybe the opposite of that. Yeah. Uh does any story stick out in your mind of doing the the co-wangler stuff?

SPEAKER_03 31:55

Um, let's see. I honestly were really lucky, and I got nice boaters all the time. And I still talk to a lot of them. I drew out with some awesome people. Let's see, I drew out with Andrew Upshaw. I drew out with uh, let's see who else. Some old school Texas Hammers, a guy named Terry Peacock. He was fishing the Texas team trail, he's an old school guy. Um, the first one I ever got, his name was Johnny Grice. When we were at Toledo Bend, and he was an old school Vietnam helicopter pilot.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

He was yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

And uh he rolled up that morning. This is my first boater ever. And we get in the boat. I'm like, how are you, Mr. Grice? He said, Don't call me Mr. Grice, call me Johnny. Mr. Grice was my dad. And I was like, all right, that sounds good. Like, I'm 16, like I'm barely leading fishing tournaments. And uh, yeah, dude, it was, I don't know, we had a blast that day and we caught some, and it was it was just good. I learned a bunch. So that dude took a a ride out of Cypress Bend Park at Toyota Bend, and he never stayed in a boat lane the entire time. Like that dude knew the lake, and it was scary.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

I was like, oh my gosh, like I'm freaking out.

SPEAKER_03 33:19

And I had another guy that I still talk to from Massachusetts, um, named Eric Johnson, and dude, that is the funniest guy I've ever met because like me and him obviously speak a whole lot different, and uh it was just funny to hear him get all tore up with a northern accent, and dude, I was dying all day, and I still talk to him, and we're we're good buddies and everything. He lives down at Lake Murray now, but uh I met some good people and learned a whole heck of a lot for sure.

SPEAKER_04 33:47

Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 33:49

I like an insane story, one that I could tell, anyways. Uh I did have one guy that uh was hiding smoking cigarettes from his wife, and he smoked like crazy all day, like burned them down. I was back there like and we're up there at La Crosse, Wisconsin, and he said, Yeah, me and my wife, we both had heart attacks a few years ago, and we both smoked and we said we were gonna quit smoking.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

Oh no.

SPEAKER_03 34:27

She don't know it, but I still burn them down, is what he said. I'm not worried about it because this guy won't he won't know. And then uh at the end of the day, he gets in his we were in an old skeeter, and you know the skeeters had the dual consoles that had like the little compartment in the console, and he opens that console, it's like we're about to run away in my last stop. And he opens it up, he's got a bag of missile baits, and he opens it up and pulls out a bottle of some kind of crazy looking cologne, bingay cologne, and he squirts rubs it all over himself, and he said, She'll never know. And we get off the stage, weigh him in, he gives his wife a big smooch, and he looks at me and he goes, pretty slick, ain't it? And we dump our I don't want to talk to him yet, but he was he was pretty slick with hiding them cigs from his wife, but he was burning them down, lighting one off the other, dude. We bagged him that day, too. I I thought I cut a check at that tournament, so that was pretty cool. But dude, we were running down the lake, and I mean he'd keep one lit, just ashing it over the side. It was insane. He rubbed that clone all over it. So any of you smokers out there that don't want your wife to know, there's a little tidbit for you.

SPEAKER_04 35:40

She's probably doing the same thing on the side.

SPEAKER_02 35:43

And I was like, she's probably hiding it from him too. She's been lathered up with some perfume at the end of the day, and they're hiding it from each other.

SPEAKER_04 35:51

Gosh, that's funny. Dude, that's one thing I wish I did a little bit more of. I just wasn't in a a place at the time to like travel and and uh do the co-angler thing. But I did it for a few. I did one year I traveled with Destin to Mary, and we did uh the Northern Opens. And uh my first ever open was on the St. Lawrence River, and we're out to dinner. It was Destin, um a legend up there, Dean Mackis, who's an awesome guy up in St. Lawrence. Uh, we're at dinner and the text come in of like boat draw and stuff, and I I thought I was getting punked, dude. My first draw was Chris Johnston on the freaking St. Lawrence River. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, dude. I'm like, that's Destin's like, well, you're getting a check. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah, maybe, yeah, maybe. Uh that that was a fun day too with with Chris, like just obviously being, you know, what it's like on a tournament day with an Elite Series Pro, and obviously now a two-time AOI guy before that even came to fruition. Say what?

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Did he smoke them that day?

SPEAKER_04 36:55

I think he had like 24, 25. His brother, Corey, had had, I think, was leading the tournament after that day. Um, if I remember correctly. But like we were around some some big ones. I think I was in the top 10 after that day. Um, but all I can remember is we were talking about hockey the whole day. So he was it was a cool dude to be in the boat with. And then by day two was the nicest guy in the world, but was complete flip-flop. We stayed on one shoal the whole day. He was using like an ocean rod for a spinning rod. Yeah, uh, but like one of the nicest dudes. So it was you got to see both worlds of it, but there's all kinds.

SPEAKER_03 37:30

Yeah. It's I hate they did away with the co-angless in the opens because that was really one of the last chances to where somebody that just genuinely wanted to learn or didn't have a boat could draw somebody legit and make it worth their money about every time. Like, yeah, you know, BFLs, you know, it's kind of 50-50. Even some Toyota series is kind of fifty-fifty. You're gonna get somebody that knows what's up or not. But the opens, most of the time, I got some really good draws and learned a heck of a lot. And uh, but I I hate they did away with that, but as far as uh that was definitely the most beneficial experience for me being a co.

SPEAKER_04 38:12

Yeah, I think from a networking, it's huge. From a learning standpoint, it's huge. Um, just being able to see new places, things like that. Uh I agree. I I understand that's a whole different like ball game. I like putting myself in bass's shoes and all the information stuff and people working the system. Like I can understand that's a tough decision, but I agree. I I I feel like that was so valuable to people. But um, dude, I fixed one BFL as a co-angler. I was one and done. I told myself I'll never do this again because of my boat draw for it. Uh was on my home lake, it was on Cayuga, and this guy, I can't remember, he wasn't from New York, but he came up and he's like, Oh yeah, I found some good stuff. He's like, I don't think people are gonna be around, and kind of got me excited a little bit. Dude, we launched and he goes to the biggest community hole in the whole lake, and uh he doesn't catch a single bass. I think I caught like 20 fish in the first hour and a half, and he's getting pissed. And about 10 30 a.m., dude, he pulls out his rod locker. There's no rods, it looks like a subway sandwich shop in his rod locker. And he spends the next 30 minutes making subs for himself. While I'm sitting there, like, I had a decent amount of fish. Dude, he got so mad about it that he went in at 11 o'clock. He took us in at 11 o'clock and said, We're done. And they didn't have the scales and nothing ready either. He didn't want to stay. He he like put it on the trailer and like went home, so I had to release my fish and couldn't weigh in.

SPEAKER_03 39:41

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 39:42

That's like Yeah, I was like, I'm never doing this again.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

That is an actual nightmare.

SPEAKER_04 39:47

Yeah, it was pretty bad, dude. I was just I didn't ever argue with him or nothing. I just didn't say anything. I just he got so mad I was catching fish and he wasn't, and so he went to Subway in his boat and called the day. Hmm. Craziness, dude. That is craziness.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

That is brutal. I've been outfished by Mico a couple times, and that was uh I mean it's a definitely a crazy experience when you have that, but you can't, you know, their money's as great as yours is. That's crazy. I'm sorry that happened to you.

SPEAKER_04 40:17

Hey, it makes for a good story now, so it's all good, man.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

Definitely does, no doubt.

SPEAKER_04 40:23

Yeah. Well, dude, uh, traveling around, one of the things I wanted to ask you is seeing all these different fisheries, and especially like from my experience, when you go to places like Lanier and places that are in your region, is there's all these expansive creek arms, and it's the one comparing a topographic map from your guys' lakes to like the finger lakes is completely 180.

SPEAKER_05 40:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:46

And so obviously there's a lot of dead water there, and beyond just burning gas and spending time covering water, is there is there any ways that you found that are efficient to eliminate dead water and find productive water?

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Yeah, um, especially on these herring lakes, seems like the bigger fish always want to hang towards the main river channel for the most part, where the most bait fish is and everything like that. And for big spotted bass, it's almost an inconvenience for them to spawn. Like they just want to stay out there and chase herring their entire life. So I stay more towards the main body of the lake, and sometimes I'll break it down in a couple different categories. So, like, let's take Lake Lanier, for example. In the summertime on Lanier, we have an awesome topwater bite. And you're gonna think like main lake shoals, main lake points, things like that. You'll go down there and you'll see big schools of fish, but they won't always be firing like they should. You can go in a creek arm that doesn't have as much current or it doesn't, um, or them fish just don't get pressured as much and they're just snapping like crazy. And then later in the day, when they turn the water on and start generating, the main lake fish start to bite really good. And some days, you know, the mornings are better in the creeks. I kind of stay more towards the mouths of the creeks always. If I find something super sneaky that actually has some big ones, but rule of thumb is the bigger ones are always gonna hang more towards the main creek channel, and any any steeper contour seems to be the thing. Like I don't really target big flats at all, or long tapering points, or or kind of, you know, everybody fishes those type deal or reef poles. I always like super little, like a straight bank going down through there that's like super not obvious, that has a steep contour going down it. That always seems like where I'm gonna catch my bigger fish. Those big ones will move up to spawn on those steep banks and they'll sink brush piles or there won't even be brush, they'll just be schooled up on those steeper, steeper little turns and steeper points, and that's that seems to be where I catch my big ones always. So I'll I always look for now that I'm on a you know, I there's millions of points and contours to choose from on Murray, Hartwell, Lanier, Chateau. I always start dumping where I can look at a map and know kind of where they're gonna be sitting based on where the channel is. I stay close to the channel from where the herring are gonna follow the main river channel and the fish can be in the channel really fast. It's almost like an interstate, like they get on the interstate and go somewhere, you know, and that seems to be they want to be close to that migration route. I'll find the sneakier stuff in between or near the channel. I'll look for that and won't even really look at the super obvious stuff. If I search for a while and don't really find nothing on those steeper, sneaky looking contours, then I'll go to the more obvious stuff. But for the most part, these guys have caught on and know that that's where the big ones are gonna hang out, so they'll set their stuff right in there. That was a lot right there, really fast. But bottom line is target the backs of the creek arms as much. Stay towards the mouth, stay towards the little subtle little knuckles in the creeks and not necessarily the huge long obvious points. And I feel like you're gonna catch a lot bigger fish and get a lot more bites.

SPEAKER_04 44:11

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SPEAKER_03 45:31

Yeah, exactly. And like um, I've got the all-American on Lake Murray coming up, and it's definitely gonna be one of those things down there. That's a point lake, like those fish love to get on those big points, the herring points and things like that. But they also, you know, are gonna be on some less obvious stuff, and that's gonna be the key to having a good tournament is rotating stuff that nobody else is gonna rotate. And um being able to stay on the move, you know where they're gonna be sitting, pull up, see them, bomb out there, catch one dip. I mean, that's the that's the whole deal at a herring lake is never waiting on them to school or none of that stuff. You want to load it up and get on the move to the next spot. So the more places you can find, it's tough, but I'll always, you know, it's tough because you almost have to find them on the trolling motor. Or, you know, if you're idle scoping or something like that, but it's tough to find them unless you're on the trolling motor because those fish don't you're not gonna see them dotted up on side scan, you know. They they're gonna be sitting there and by the time your boat gets close enough to them, they're gonna scatter and move. So you almost have to find them on the trolling motor. So it's harder to find as many places as you need to find unless you have another little system that works good for you.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

Yeah. Do you that that brings up a great question, do you? Because I've heard from like people on Lanier that they're like, yeah, if you want to catch fish, like they're getting so boat weary, like if you pan on them on scope, find where they're at, and then pan away because they think they can they can feel it. But do you think it's they can feel the sonar, or do you think they just know the boat's there?

SPEAKER_03 47:05

Um, it could be a little bit of both, but I feel like stripers, for instance, for some reason a striper definitely can feel scope. I've pointed scope at stripers before and they go just dart the other way or straight down, like they feel it 100% on Cherokee, Lanier. I've seen it a lot of places. Spotted bass. I definitely I'm trying to I don't keep it on them the whole entire time, but it's not necessarily because of that reason. I'll fan it back and forth, but the whole time that my bait is in the water and I'm trying to catch them, I keep it on them the entire time. Because it's so crucial to know what the fish is doing with your bait to be able to catch it. I don't I think in the heat of the moment when they're thinking about eating something, but like when you see them originally, I keep it off of them until I'm ready to make the cast. And trying to find most of them where they're lined up. But as soon as my bait's in the water with them, I keep it on there, and I rarely ever even look up until I feel one pulling on the other end.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 48:14

Because like it's so crucial to do stuff with that bait to make them commit when they're right up on it like that and they're following it super close, and every move they make the fish either speeds up or slows down. You're like, okay, like that. He didn't like that as much, and that helps you develop a cadence for the rest of the day that you know you might eventually just be able to throw it out there and do the right cadence, and you catch them way easier and way faster. There's the herring stuff is something that from guiding every day, because most that we live in a real touristy area, and most people are up here from May to September. I'll guide almost every day. And I see people throw a topwater over a brush pile every day of the week, every day of the summer, and they get blown up on. And I see like the weight some days the fish want walking baits, some days the fish want popping baits, some days the fish want weight baits. You know, it all depends. And you notice the little conditions and how they're set up and things like that, and we rarely ever get to put that knowledge to use on the on the professional side of things because we don't really go to that many lakes like that. So when you were saying earlier, did that help you like traveling around growing up where I did? It's honestly the worst for live scope. Because um here and Lanier and places like Hartwell, you can be on the TVA and come to these places and survive because you know like what bass look like and things like that. But dude, you talk about a learning curve because we're up here, we see a blob, we throw at it, and it tries to eat our baits like every time. Like it at least comes and checks it out. And we'll go other places like Florida or something where you have to, or anywhere on the TBA where you have to hit them on the head to make them bite, and like a lot of trash fish. It took me a took me a couple of years to really learn. Like last year when I first started, dude, and was like, alright, I'm gonna do this thing, the first Toyota series at Pickwick. I'm sitting there trying to scope, and dude, I'm zipping drum and catfish all day. Like I just have no idea what's going on. I'm like, maybe this is a bass, and I throw over there, and now like I have an idea, but like that's a learning curve, you know, where them guys turn to our places and they see something and they're like, that's a bass. But for us, it's really hard because they come after it so fast and you tear it away from them extremely fast, and nothing really applies other than like finding fish, you know, that we know like places that they can that we can find fish and maybe a few techniques that we can catch them when things get tough. But as far as like learning to scope other places away from these herring lakes, dude, that is hard. Because like we come back home and like when I'm fresh off a tournament, get home first day on a guide trip, and we throw a bait out there, that fish sees it from 25 feet away and starts flying up. I'm like, oh gosh, like it catches me off guard, you know?

SPEAKER_04 51:16

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

Uh the north or smallmouth can say what he may not eat always eat it, but like it they always show a reaction.

SPEAKER_04 51:27

Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm kind of in a similar boat. The north is kind of a way to spoil you because when you go and fish for northern smallmouth in the summer, they come flying 20 feet up to come eat your bait where it's down south. It's yeah, it's completely different. It is an extreme challenge uh in certain certain locations to do that. But do you feel like herring lakes, especially in the summer, is like probably when you have the most rods on deck?

SPEAKER_03 51:54

I could other locations, but like there's not really. I keep mine pretty simple. Maybe like colors and things like that, but I can look at the weather forecast for the day and lay out two or three rods. Um but like I see people out they'll have, you know, a few different swim baits and a few different weight baits, and certain things just like really don't work anymore, honestly, on all these places. Like Cartwheel's super tough, Lanier's super tough. You can't just go out there and throw a pencil popper over them and jack them all the time. And there's certain times of the day that they eat certain things, and I know certain things that they bite better than others consistently, and especially if I'm fishing a tournament, I'm gonna throw the guarantee something that I have the highest confidence in to make them bite. I I experiment a lot with new stuff to try to stay ahead and try to find things. But if I'm fishing a tournament, I only if I have a bunch of rods on the deck, it's usually a bunch of the same thing. That way, if something goes wrong, I can swing one in the boat and throw it out there and get another one. You know, that's that's the only time I have a bunch of rods on deck.

SPEAKER_04 53:00

Makes sense. Um speaking of bait stuff, Berkeley Labs just obviously dropped some new juice. And uh, you're pretty tied into the pure fishing brands. Um I know we have a lure lab episode coming up, or it's gonna be all about this, so it'll be a whole episode all about that specifically. But for the for the Sirius Angler folks, uh, you mind diving in a little bit about like what makes this thing new?

SPEAKER_03 53:26

Yeah, so um they've posted a lot about it now, so I guess I could say a lot of stuff, but it's um it's a whole new there was the max scent era of Berkeley that you know revolutionized scent and taste and profile and everything for especially the smallmouth game. But I mean that scent is so powerful. But they've combined, you know, power bait, they've combined max scent, they've got perfect shapes and they've got good colors and found ways to produce the perfect colors for everybody that we need instead of it being just solid colors. And um it's basically gonna be a new max scent. That's the way that people need to perceive it is it's a whole new deal and it's gonna be extremely powerful, especially you know, a whole new scent that fish have never seen. At Wheeler, I caught all my fish on that new lab series minnow. The action is awesome. There's a lot of good minnows out there that roll. And but as far as them just seeing something new, you know, the scent and it has a new, you know, a slime layer on it that's gonna ooze off whenever you drip it in the water, and it's the diffusion process is pretty crazy. A lot of people have seen the Instagram reels of the slime actually coming off the bay. And it's uh the first time I ever used it like a year ago, I was like, golly, what is this stuff? But I mean I started smoking some fish on it, and it's just something new that you know people need to look at it as the next max scent, and I do think it's gonna be extremely powerful and it's gonna be a tool that you know you're people are gonna build a lot of confidence in pretty quick. I know I have. I've I've it's great that I now have, you know, a sponsored product that I can like do. That's about all I have in my boat right now because I they make the shapes that you need to catch fish and it works. So I love it.

SPEAKER_04 55:24

Yeah, and I feel like from outside looking in, that especially that lab series minnow was like the one category that Berkeley really needed to fill because they came out with some minnows and they were good, like they can get the job done, like the flat-nosed minnow. I've seen, you know, like uh Justin Lucas was cracking big ones on Santee Cooper with the flat-nosed minnow like two years ago. Um, but they needed like a good I shouldn't say a good, a better minnow. And I feel like after just won the freaking classic, I feel like they got it.

SPEAKER_03 55:55

Yeah, I've used them for a while, and they really were testing it, you know, as far as to come out with something. We don't want to just throw darts at a board and uh hope something sticks. We've got, you know, this has been a long time coming, and now we have perfect shapes that are, you know, every single turn and shape of that bait and every color and every aspect about it has a purpose. And, you know, it's it takes a lot for a major company in the industry like Berkeley to to launch something that you know they think is truly going to change their brand for the future, and I think that they've done it. I think that they've got the shapes that are gonna be crucial to the longevity of the brand. And I know that in my position, all of the pro staff has been, you know, super, super impressed. We've been catching them on it for a long time, and the way that we're marketing this is gonna knock the socks off some people. So I'm excited about it. And it got a pretty good launch there a few weeks ago for sure.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

Yeah. It always always having a classic win.

SPEAKER_03 57:01

Yeah, it wasn't a plan to have it. This was supposed to be coming out, you know, later in the year. They've been pretty heavily involved with the development process and all the all the calls that we've had. And when I was on Wheeler, we're like emergency call Tuesday morning, you know. Like we're like, all right, we gotta we gotta see what we're gonna do about this now. And uh they've got some good plans, but I definitely think, you know, I didn't really know what I was supposed to say going into this about it, but they've been posting a lot of stuff, and I definitely feel like I can say now that it's gonna be it's just a new max in is the way that people need to perceive it. It's gonna be powerful and fish are gonna love it.

SPEAKER_04 57:44

Hell yeah, dude. It's awesome to watch as just a fan of the sport and different stuff like that being revolutionized and things like that. Um was cool to see some of the pure fishing folk from my former gig, you know, before I went full time with this, and so see them and they're running around with chickens with their head cuts off, you know, trying to get ready for this the launch and all that stuff. So it was it was cool to watch this behind the scenes. But uh, dude, have you have you been to the Berkeley lab in Iowa yet?

SPEAKER_03 58:10

Up there in Spirit Lake. It's awesome. And uh that was an experience I'll never forget just to see how all that works. I'm ready to go back soon. I think we're gonna start working on some projects I'd like to get back soon. But man, that was a that was an experience. Me and Ragsdale went up there for a week and learned a bunch about how it's made and you know, really learn to appreciate the guys that are behind the madness because they're sitting up there constantly in the labs thinking about it. And everything that every science, you know, statistic that comes out of there is true.

SPEAKER_01 58:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 58:45

You don't know until you go and uh until you see the tests that they put these baits through, and you know, it they're not just throwing darts at a board, like everything is true that it's coming out of there, the numbers the 18 times longer. Like they didn't just pull that out of their hind end, like that has been tested. And it's pretty yeah, it's pretty cool to see.

SPEAKER_04 59:06

Some some massing nerds, that's for sure. Shout out to uh Kyle, Dan, Mark, Procnowell, all those guys. Um, did you get the fish bogie, dude, while you were there?

SPEAKER_03 59:17

It was frozen. I drove out the Kyle and Ragsdale and I went and rode out. I'd never seen ice before. And dude, we rode out we get there and I'm like, dude, the roads are frozen. Like, this is kind of dangerous. And those people are just like ripping around the hotel parking lots iced over. And then they're like, y'all want to go out on the ice and like drive around and look at some ice shanties?

SPEAKER_05 59:40

I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:41

And we get in Kyle's ATV and start riding around. And he just drives that thing on the ice, and I'm like, holy smokes, dude, like get us off the- I'm thinking we're gonna fall through. And he's like, dude, they drive semi-trucks on this stuff.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:55

I had no clue. And I got to see an ice shanty, and there's just, you know, there's bottles of whiskey laid everywhere out there all over the ice chanties, and it seems like it's just one big party out there on Okiboji and Spirit Lake.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

But it was you gotta stay warm somehow.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:12

I'd love to get up there and do some fishing because I hear that they are not the smartest fish.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

Yeah, yeah, it's uh it's one of my favorite places. Uh, I I try to tease my wife often of like, hey, we should uh we should move to Iowa, you know, big deer, big bass around that oak boji area. Um I I got spoiled, dude. My former gig over at Gunpowder was, and obviously they have you know the partnership with Pure Fishing. My first like month working there, I got to go fly out and see all that. But it was like I think it was mid or end of May. Like literally they were pulling up to go spawn. And it was me and Brad Rutherford and I think in the first 30 minutes we had like 22 pounds mixed bag just going down the bank. Like yeah, it's an awesome place, dude. You'd love it there. It's it's it's a good time. Anyway, you want to catch him, you can do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:01

But Brad is awesome, dude. Yeah, I've known Brad. Backstory on that. So I've been with Pure Fishing since my freshman year of college. And I've known Brad probably since I was like 10 years old, because he went to college at Young Harris right by my house. And uh he was the local hero, you know, when I was young. So that it was pretty cool that you know we're all friends. Me and him and Ragsdale have known each other for a super, super long time, and for us to be working together now, it's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:32

Heck yeah, dude. It's important to have the dynamic.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:35

Absolutely. I didn't want it to just be like a because it, you know, we're friends, you know. I didn't want it to be just a piece of paper that we signed. You know, we're actually great buddies and care about each other a lot and would hang out with each other if it didn't mean work, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:49

Absolutely. Well, dude, uh, as we wrap this sucker up, uh two questions for you. One is, you know, now that we're on the bait conversation, is if you get one ride reel bait for the rest of the year, you can only choose one. What are you rocking with?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:08

Looking at the tournaments that we got, let's see. We got Douglas, we got Champlain, and we've got U Fall Oklahoma. That's three grinders.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:22

It's probably gonna be Did you just call Champlain a grinder?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:27

No.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

No.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:31

Douglas is gonna be catch a lot of fish, but uh that's tough. I'm gonna go with let's see. Do I get two rods and reels, a spinning rod and a bait caster, or just one?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:46

Sure, we'll make it interesting. We'll we'll give you that. We'll give you two.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:49

Alright, so uh one is gonna be the lab series minnow for, you know, I'm gonna use an eight, I'll see, eighth ounce jig head. I'm gonna take an eight.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:00

Well three sixteenths. I'm gonna take a three-sixteenth ounce NACO jig head. Lab series minnow, I'm gonna take the four and a quarter size. And I'm gonna uh, let's see, 7-1 medium Finwick world class with a 3,000 size Xenon and some 12-pound carbon with 15-pound braid. Second setup. No scope NVP right here. A chatterbait. Half ounce chatterbait. I'm gonna put, let's see what I'm gonna put on the back of it. Probably what's my favorite chatterbait trailer? Gosh, it's so tough. I mess with this all the time.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:44

Yeah, I used to always overcomplicate this. Now I just kind of dumb it down like it took a little bit of a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:48

I throw the power sticker a lot, like the, you know, just an old split tail style bait, it's hard to bait. Yeah. And uh I feel like if I had to pick one, that would be it. So a power standard style bait, half ounce chatterbait, 17-pound line, 7-5 medium heavy Fenwick HMG. So I I like those HMGs as a little bit. It's a lower price point rod, but for moving baits, man, it's phenomenal. And I have a Xenon 8.3 to one. So I'm gonna got a chatterbait for my no-scope and a minnow for my scope period. So I feel like I'm pretty dialed in. If I had to pick one out of those two to go with for the rest of the season, um scope period's gonna be pretty valuable for the rest of the season. I'm gonna have to take the lab series minnow. Not to, I I not to make everybody upset, but I'm gonna have to take my scope period over my no scope period for the rest of the year if I want to ensure some some catching.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:45

Yeah. I like it, dude. Hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:48

How about you? If you had a rod for the rest of the year, what would yours be?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:57

I mean, you you kind of nailed the the one. I'll try to make it different here. Uh because I mean, especially nowadays, I mean, it's no secret. It's the the minnow just works everywhere. Yeah. Uh we got a pretty sick schedule the rest of the year. Uh honestly, actually, I feel like it'd be a bad move going to uh a minnow for my schedule this year because we're going to uh uh Caddo and Bistinodown, Louisiana, and then we go to Santee. But I from Santee I fly to Clear Lake, which is gonna be dope. Definitely want the minnow there. Um awesome. I can't wait, dude. I'm so excited. Uh I'll get there and it'll be 30 mile an hour wins, probably. But we'll uh we go to the Susky after that and then Wolf and Fox River, which is like two smallmouth river systems.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:39

I mean you've got it.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:41

You know what, dude? Give me a spinnerbait. Give me a spinnerbait. That's what I'll rock the rest of the year with.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:46

Hey, I like a spinnerbait. I've had some luck on that thing before. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:51

It works now and then.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:53

You've got it.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:54

It's hard to sleep on it, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:56

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:57

Say what?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:58

You've got a jam up schedule. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:02

Yeah, we uh thankfully I have a very uh supporting wife because I have a pretty wild May and June. I go down to Santee for a week, fly, or not fly, but I drive home Sunday night after day two, immediately home, 12 hours, say hello to my wife, bye to my wife. Life and like you know, basically that meme of The Simpsons, the guy walks in, hangs his hat, takes his hat off, and walks back out the door. That's kind of what I'm doing, flying to Clear Lake. And I come home from clear, and then it's we have four tournaments and one weekend on KUG, so I'll have a pretty crazy three-week bender. Wow. That'll be kind of nutty.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:38

That's gonna be fun though. Yeah, you better keep her around.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:45

Yeah, yeah, that's her danger. Uh but dude, uh, to cap this sucker off, as you know, um, anyone that's you know, it's their first time on the show. If we could if you could invite three different people to dinner, have a steak, have a beer, pick their brain. You know, they don't have to be fishing, they could be alive today or a thousand years ago. Doesn't matter. Any three people, who are you gonna invite?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:08

Let's see. Jacob Wheeler for fishing.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:13

I'm gonna have I'm gonna have my good buddy Jordan Lee there for a good time. We're gonna laugh a bunch. And I'm probably gonna have to pull it. Jimmy Houston. I like I read Jimmy Houston's book called Catch a Better Life. It's a devotional book. But I feel like as far as industry advice that I could get from an old timer of just like back when the values were made of doing people solid, I feel like that's something that's, you know, that's that's what I want to, that's how I want to be is do people the right way and you know, have, you know, a handshake mentality. And I feel like if you could paint a Mount Rushmore of bass fishing, you're gonna have your Bill Dance, Roland Martin, Hank Parker, Jimmy Houston, and I've met Hank Parker a couple times. Dude is amazing. But I I mean I had a Jimmy Houston rod and reel, a camo spinning rod from Dick's Sporting Goods whenever I was little and fished the ponds. It was like the first rod and reel that I really had. So that would be my three. But I would probably be talking to Jimmy Houston the most because I really want to take that guy fishing or meet that guy, or like I I feel like I could learn a ton of just valuable things about not how to catch fish, but probably catch fish, but just about you know, how to make a living and how to do things the right way, bass fishing. From a faith perspective and a business perspective. I feel like he's got a lot of good stuff to offer.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:54

Yeah, and you can he still comes to these events too. You can tell he's still eating up with it. Like that's just what he wants to do.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:01

That's somebody I've always admired, and like as I get older, I'm 20, I'm not old, I'm 23, but like as I get like I re I I I realize, you know, like how hard it is to make a living doing this stuff. And uh back in the day, you know, it might have been easier to make a name for yourself when you had some success, but as far as you know, making it building an empire and making a legacy for yourself, you know, I feel like you've done it the right way. That's that's who I want to be like. It's a good role model, I'll put it to you that way.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:35

Yeah. Absolutely, dude. Absolutely. Um we're we're lucky that a lot of the uh we'll call them the founding fathers uh helped instill that, you know, with the Jimmy, the Hanks, Bill Dance, you know, just amazing, amazing people. And obviously we still have amazing people in this sport, but obviously as it grows, you get some some bad apples. But dude, I'll say this is that you're doing it the right way. Um love keeping up with you, man. And love that it's we finally got got you on the pond, and it's it's not gonna take us as long to get you back on here. I promise you that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:06

Thank you so much. I really appreciate you inviting me. Y'all are doing some big stuff here too. Always appreciated our friendship. You know, wish we got to hang out more and fish some more, and one day we'll make it happen. But you're doing good, and I can't wait to get back on this thing.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:20

Heck yeah, dude. Well, uh, we'll obviously link all your socials and stuff like that down below for people to keep up with you with so they can subscribe to your YouTube and keep up with uh the rest of the tournament schedule. But uh, dude, it's been a pleasure and we'll talk to you soon.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:33

Sounds good, Bailey. Yeah, thank y'all. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:36

All right, and that's gonna do it for today's episode, Mr. Kaz Anderson. Huge shout out to Kaz uh for taking time to come on the show. Definitely gonna be getting him back on here soon as a great conversation. Obviously, the dude's a freaking hammer, uh, so good to break down some stuff with him as he's been all around the country, catch in different ways, and catches freaking big ones too. Uh, hopefully you guys learned some stuff from that one. If you guys have any suggestions of topics, guests, things like that, the people or things you want talked about on upcoming shows, comment down below, DM us, send us an email. We're always open ears to what you guys want to hear and uh love hearing different ideas of what you guys are thinking about that we might not be. So make sure you guys are tuned into that and uh you're subscribed to our YouTube channel, our social media. Uh, and if you are listening, have not left us a rating or review yet. We uh got a new order of Sirius Angler stickers. I do owe some of you guys some, so those are coming out soon, I promise. Um, but if you have uh not gotten your uh stickers yet, send us a little ping as a reminder. But screenshot your rating or review, send it over to us with your address, and we'll get some uh free Sirius Angler stickers headed out your guys' way. But uh, you guys are awesome. Appreciate you tuning into this episode. We got some cool real biologies and future episodes coming up on here at the Sirius Angler. You guys are amazing, and we'll see you on the next one.