The Bass Fishing Learning Curve is Changed Forever (Here's Why)

In this episode, we dive deep into the real-world struggles of professional tournament fishing, including how to mentally and physically dig out of a slump when the bites just aren't coming. Logan also shares his unfiltered thoughts on the massive format changes coming to the 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series. Beyond the Elite stage, Logan takes us behind the scenes of the Logan Parks Fishing Foundation and the NSANE Fishing Tournament—a revolutionary combine bridging the massive gap between high school and college competitive bass fishing.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

All right. Welcome everyone to the Serious 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 and banter, you're in the right spot. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Eichbrett, and with me is the stash of the West Coast. That is Mr. Adam Deacon. Sub, dude. What's going on in uh good old Idaho?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Man, spring is here, dude. We are ripping. It is gorgeous out uh right now in Boise, Idaho. It is like 70 degrees and sunny, and I'm just itching to get outside. The bass spawn is near. Uh the landscape is turning green. It's gorgeous out. Ranches are popping off. Calves are running around everywhere. So it's a it's a great time to be in Idaho. There's no doubt about it. And most of the the West in general, right now, this is like the best time of the year.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Heck yeah, man. That's crazy. You're saying vast spawn almost there. That is so nuts. It's obviously one thing that's cool of you know, in our position, the network that we we've built is you know, we have a lot of friends in a lot of different places, and here in like the different stages people are in, it was just we did a show for the the real biology with Bardin saying you know, spawns pretty much all over and uh over with in Texas, and I'm like I I'm still in 42 degree water, boys. Like, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_00 1:49

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

Yeah, it's I mean it's that time of year, dude.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Yeah, it's uh and I should say we are ahead for sure, just with with how warm of a winter we've had. So I'm not saying that it's normal. Like normally I'd say we're next couple weeks is when things are rocking and rolling. However, and we're in southern Idaho, northern Idaho. I talked to a buddy yesterday on court d'allane, it was like 48 degree water, 46, so like closer to what you're seeing from that perspective. But uh yeah, man, it is wild to always think about like it's crazy to me going to like fish a tournament, for instance, on Havasu, and they're basically done. You know, they've been done, and then you come back home, and then like trees are starting to what always tricks me, I and I'm curious if you have this experience, because you do the same things as far as going south and then coming back north. Yeah, I get used to like shorts and flip-flops, and I think that like it's spring when I get home for some reason, and it it it kind of is, but I'm wearing like a hoodie and flip-flops, and I'm like, dude, it's still cold out, like there's still ice on my windshield in the morning sometimes. Like, I it's not just warm because I went came from somewhere warm.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Yeah, dude, it's been a roller coaster, especially this year. Like, it's uh we've had the worst winter, I think, in like 10-15 plus years here. Like it's been frigid. Like, usually in Buffalo, you get like 20 degrees, 20 degrees, and then you get like a 45. We had none of that this year. It was straight just cold all winter long, which I think it's gonna make our spring. I mean, it's been great fishing so far. Um, and they're definitely a little bit uh behind, which I think it's it's good anyway, uh, at least in my opinion. But it's been, dude, like going from 20 degrees in Buffalo to then to Florida and then back to Buffalo and then to where'd I go from there? I went to Tennessee and it was 70 degrees and then back to Buffalo, and then now I'm going to Louisiana. Uh this weekend is gonna be mid 80s every day, where it's like my suitcase of my clothes and my my my I I've been living out of a suitcase basically this this year so far, just because all my warm or cold clothes are back at home, all my warm clothes are going with me, and it's just been back and forth. Dude, I'll tell you what I did last year. This was toy not on purpose, but it kind of helped out, especially for this year, is going from uh from being in Buffalo to Florida and then to Tennessee, and then you know, flip-flopping from uh Buffalo here and there, and then now I'm going to Louisiana is you burn through a lot of line. So I had to I thankfully I bought like a bunch of like SLXs last year for a hundred bucks a pot before they went to 110 or whatever. And uh thankfully I just have like setups that are just I can just flip-flop reels from rods because like you'd be burning through a lot of fishing lines, swapping things over from traveling all over the place. But it's yeah, dude, it's wild, man. It's and of course we're in that time frame now where like yesterday I went out fishing and I launched and it was 22 degrees air temp. And today it's 75, but all the days we have that's 75, it's blowing 30 miles an hour, so it's like you can't win, unfortunately. But um, I'm hoping we'll go down, enjoy the weather in Louisiana, even though it's gonna apparently be dumping two inches of rain a day, and then come back home and it'll be like primo mid high 40s water temps. So I don't have to do no scoping, nothing. I can just go burn bank, chucking wine, and enjoy the we call it the KVD season, where everybody and their mother can be a hero up here. So yeah, that's where we're at anyway. But um dude, we have a great episode today. We got Logan Parks back on the show, which we've had him on probably three or four times at this rate. Um your first time talking with Logan, and the dude obviously is a uh a masterful student of the game and uh looking forward to more shows with him. But we dive into a bunch of stuff in this one. So looking forward to for you guys to hear what Logan has to say. But um, we got some cool ones coming up too. Uh we we he is brought up obviously in this show because they rained terror on everyone in the college series. But we do have Tucker Smith, former uh college teammate of Logan Parks, coming on the show here soon, uh, as well as uh Rich Ledbeater from Bass University coming on. And we have some other more uh shows here coming up in the Hopper with uh some panel shows we got in the works. We're not gonna disclose of those just yet. Um some seriously western stuff. We got Joey Walter coming on uh for Monday.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Joey Walton, yeah, it would be uh I guess it'll go out. It will have already played, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

Oh yeah. Yeah, we're recording this on a Thursday. It's just kind of giving you guys a little scoop behind the scenes, but uh we try to do all these ahead of time, which is why we're not the greatest at you know, we're not gonna be the year podcast that tries to hurry you know the same day contacting a winner of a tournament and get them on. It's never gonna be us. But yeah, that yeah, you're right. You would have already heard that then. Um, but that's gonna be a cool one. Talking some.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

If you missed it, if you are ever interested in chasing kokany eaters, bass that eat kokini, which is very niche to the West, this is a really cool one to dig into. It's a super neat way that those fish uh live and interact and get giant. So excited for that.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Absolutely. And I'll pitch this out to people. This is kind of more for the folks. I guess on Spotify you can comment, but uh especially on YouTube, if you guys are watching this and have the capability, comment where you're hailing from. I would love to see what states you guys are uh listening from and tuning into. But um, before we get on with with Logan, Deke, what's been uh kind of the buzz around the industry?

SPEAKER_00 7:26

Yeah, man. Uh a couple things that I kind of thinking through here. Obviously, we saw Christy win. Super cool, man. That dude is just uh electric uh when it comes to shallow water fishery. Uh he's unbelievable. I mean, was in an area fishing around a lot of other dudes and uh and pulled off the dub. So super impressive to see Christy pull out a W and uh love the throwback, man. I mean, not saying he's an old guy, but he has you know been around for a minute and won a lot, and uh he he's a closer, there's no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Yeah, I think I I just listened yesterday to Mercer's new podcast with him, and they called him uh the box maker, which I don't remember what the the reasoning was for that coming up, but essentially it's like what was it, the terminology they brought up. It was supposed to be some Native American language translation, but um I think it was at is it Tom Bigby? I can't remember. So sorry for butchering that. But essentially it long came down to that box maker like aka the coffin maker. And I'm like, that's like some crazy cool WWE nickname right there. And for Christy, I feel like it fits, dude. On Sundays, he's he's one scary man to be uh especially leading an event. You see Christy behind you. That's that's a little intimidating. But um, it was cool also to see one two professionals share an area, communicate well, be respectful, watching him and fighter work together a little bit like from the sounds of it with very little communication, just like work together in just knowing how to operate with that kind of deal. So it's cool to see that. I know a lot of people, um, not that I'm ever bummed to see Christy win, seeing one of the good guys win, but uh definitely would have loved to see a fighter win. He's coming close. It'd be cool to see him pop one here soon. But uh a lot of cool, another derb with a lot of cool storylines to it. So that's that's pretty cool too. But um, what else? What else we got for some industry news?

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah, this one's kind of a fun one. Uh Busch, you know, Anheuser Busch beer company, uh they have got, and this is like of course you have to like go through the thing, be over 21 to find this. But if you go to Bush.com slash bass bank, which we have no affiliation with Bush Beer, but Bush let us know. Uh if you're listening, if you're listening, uh but basically it is called the Bass Bank, and you pitch us your fishing invention. So, like anyone out there, you've got a fishing invention, you get a chance to win fifteen thousand dollars to bankroll your idea, to get things off the ground, and a year's worth worth of bushlight and a virtual meet and greet with the Kiefer brothers. So kind of a neat thing. We love seeing some outside, and I think that was a partnership with Bass Pro Shops to kind of put that on. So neat to see the partnerships around the world as it relates to things, but man, that's a that's a neat deal with Bush. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Absolutely. I mean, a year's worth of Bush Lattes is worth it in its own. Pretty cool deal. Yeah, yeah. And um we got uh we got Red Crest coming up too. Um, so that'll be another championship style event. Looking forward to watching that one, keeping up with that one. Um, I'm gonna put my entire bank account on Jacob Wheeler per usual for these events off of an 11th win of the BPT. Um but yeah, unreal, dude. But as we get into this episode, uh, real fast for you guys, uh some Omnia fishing news. The giveaway to fish with Seth Fighter, speaking of fighter, is still going on where you guys can go enter that giveaway and basically you're flown up and given a whole day out in the water with fighter. And one of the the guys that won or the guy that won it last year, Alex uh Ghaziano, was a former co uh colleague of mine. So he uh got to see the whole behind the scenes of that, and he said it was one of the best days of his life. So uh definitely you got to get in on that. And uh some of the new arrivals, uh some new megabass and G crack baits just hit Omnia Fishing, too. So make sure you guys are keeping up with some of the new arrival page. And especially if you're a pro member, keep up with the pro sales page too, because you're giving discounts, heavy discounts on some pretty cool products that nobody else that isn't a pro member gets. So keep in touch with that one and uh Deke, anything else before we get into this one? No, sir. All right, well, folks, without further ado, let's get into it with Mr. Logan Parks. Mr. Logan Parks back on the podcast, dude. Uh obviously for the people listening, he's in a much better situation than most of us. Meaning that uh you're out on the water, dude. Do you uh do you at least catch any bigs today or are you just doing Logan?

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Oh man, I'm just scouting. I really haven't made many casts at all. Just kind of there's actually a college derb out here right now, so I was trying to stay out of their way. And man, they put on a clinic today. Insane the weights that they caught out here. It's gonna be a fun Lead Series tournament when we come back in May.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Is that gonna be a scope derb or a non-scope?

SPEAKER_02 12:34

It's gonna be no scope, unfortunately. I think if it was scope, we'd really have a chance to maybe break the all-time weight record. So hopefully we uh get to come back because I've seen what this place, the potential it has. I would love a shot at trying to uh trying to truly break the work. I mean, there'd probably still be plenty of sentry belts handed out. I'm not saying it's gonna be horrible, but you know, those 35 plus mount bags probably be not quite as media loads.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah. If only we could just take a screenshot of your your what we have your view right now, because the sun glare off the lettuce in the back of your hat right now is just it's profile picture worthy right now.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

Yeah, this has got to be one of the coolest. I mean, we've done plenty of interviews on boats, but like this is a good one because we've got the good lighting. It's golden hour.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

It is the golden hour.

SPEAKER_01 13:26

That's amazing. Well, dude, um kind of just want to check in with you, obviously, because this is uh first year of the new format in the Elite Series. And um, you know, we're I've been obviously keeping up with all your socials and respect, you know, just like the honesty and transparency of when anglers have the highest highs and the lowest lows, and obviously you have a when you look at your resume through college and getting into the elite series, it's there there's not much there that isn't success. And obviously, when you experience that low, everybody handles it differently. So I'd love to kind of run through with that with you and kind of like how you're trying to get the train back on the tracks.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Yeah, man, it's been a uh it's been a tough couple turbs, to be honest with you. It uh I mean I I felt like I had a pretty good game plan. You know, really going into all the tournaments. I'll say Lake Martin. I just had too many ideas in my head. It's a home pond, kind of like that home lake curse. I wanted to go do something, and I wanted to go do something else, and I never fully committed to one thing. And honestly, like I'll own that one. That one was on me. That one, you know, terrible finish. But really and truly, like Gunner'sville, I found some really nice fish. Tom Bigby, I found some really nice fish, and it's just kind of one of those things where luck of the draw, like someone else finds them and gets on them before you do, or you choose to, you know, get the wrong rotation. And I've had good days where I had the right rotation the first day at Gunner'sville and then got behind guys on day two and it cost me, and it's just kind of fishing, man. You know, and and you can't get too upset about it. Like I've I've been trying to approach the season differently and go harder than like I ever have, trying to study, study my ass off, looking at maps, looking at all this stuff. And I think I've just been trying too hard, man. Just haven't even been enjoying the process. I was getting ready to go to Lake Murray to go put a hundred hours on my motor, side scanning the entire lake, and you know, last week, and I was just like, you know what? I think I'd rather just have fun, like fish a tournament that I like on my home pond, Lake Ufalos, just down the road from me. So I signed up for the open, like I think before the second day of practice and drove down there and and uh had a good event. I feel like fished really well, made good decisions. Um, you know, hopefully that's the uh that's the start to the comeback season we're about to have.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Hell yeah. You should love it. You fish better that way, like impromptu versus a bunch of study and lead up.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Man, I haven't really studied much. Like I'm bad about just showing up places and not even really knowing like what the weather's gonna be like. Just kind of letting it, you know, just just natural, like whatever happens, that's how I approach it on the water. Maybe not as prepared as I could be. And I kind of looked at how I've done the last couple years and I'm like, I'm pretty happy with how I've done, but like I'm gonna be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit like disappointed that I want to be at the top, you know, I want to be in the hunt for Angler of the Year all season long, not just at the first couple. I want to be uh, you know, having more opportunities to win tournaments. Like for me, I feel like St. Clair is really the only opportunity I've even had or even found, like winning fish. So I'm looking at my seasons and I'll finish, you know, 20th of the points, or I think 19th or 21st, the first two seasons. I'm like, that's good, but like how can I get even better? And I thought maybe like putting all this effort into research and you know, watching YouTube and looking at maps and studying new earth and just doing all those things, I could even improve my chances even better. And maybe like that's still the answer, but I've been going about it wrong. But for me, it's just I'm kind of over it right now. I just want to go fishing and have fun like I did the first two seasons, and um, you know, it's I don't know. I I feel like you can try too hard sometimes, and that's where I've been.

unknown 17:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Man, I I totally agree with that, Logan. Like I sometimes relate it to catching a baseball. Like if you're sitting there focused when you're like learning to catch a baseball as a kid or a pop fly, and you're just so worried about it all happening, and then if you just don't think and put your glove up, you know what I mean, then it all seems to work out. So I don't know why that works in so many parts of life, but like appreciate your your openness there because I I totally know exactly what you're talking about, and I think a lot of people listening do.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Yeah, it's just been frustrating because it's and and that's where like you know it could be going so much differently, but just like the rotation thing of like leaving a spot too early and then coming back too late after the window has happened, and like you know, you see the guys you shared water with and they smashed them, and you just like kind of are on the short end of the stick. And so many times the last couple seasons that's gone my way, where like I've had my timing right and capitalized on stuff and uh kind of gotten lucky per se sometimes every now and then. But this year it's like not only have we not been getting lucky, it's just been just one thing after another. But you know, I'm just trying to chalk that up as that's fishing, and you can't get too down on yourself. And I definitely have been treating it more like a job this year, so should have had to take a step back and go fun fish and uh kind of just relax a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Well, dude, it's anyone that follows you and keeps up with you. Obviously, you know, for your guys' line of work as a pro angler right now, you need to be obviously the fishing aspect, but then there's a side business to if you guys want to stay a pro angler, it's the media side, finding things outside of just tournament fishing to uh to make money on, things like that, make a name for yourself. You you've definitely been on that side. It's no secret how hard you work with. And we're gonna bring up the insane tournament, all the different things that you have your hands in on. So you it's definitely not lack of effort, that's for dang sure. But I definitely feel you on the stop, you know, forcing it type of things. But one of the things I wanted to ask you that you brought up right there is you hear a lot of guys talk about I got in a bad rotation, things like that. And some of that can come down to to boat draw, but if somebody feels like they're in that position, how do you try to get out of that if you feel like you're in a bad rotation? Is there any adjustment or is it all theory?

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Um I feel like uh a good key could be like to pay attention to timing windows throughout the day, like practice, especially. And I'm guilty of like finding a group of fish, maybe, and like getting tired of catching a couple, especially on like the Tennessee River, like Lake Fall or somewhere you're fishing offshore, even here, like Santee Cooper. And uh, you know, for whatever reason those fish are positioned and ready to feed, and it's like 1 p.m. But like that doesn't necessarily mean you need to go start there the next day. They're like probably may not be there. So, like remembering that time. Uh I'll give you an example of just kind of uh you know, my experience at Lake Guntersville. I started on some fish the first day of the tournament and I caught a couple nice ones, got one four-pounder, and then I had two places I felt like I could get a bite and moved to my other place around 10 a.m. and got them fired up and caught them one caster after another and had cold up to about 17 pounds, and I caught them from like 10 to 12. But because my fish bit on my other spot first thing in the morning, I'm like, well, if I start on the better place where I caught all these fish, I mean I caught seven or eight keepers, you know, on day one. If I start there, I think they're feeding first thing in the morning, even though I caught those fish at 10. Well, I started there and did not have a bite for the first hour and a half left, and then when I came back, somebody else was powerful down there catching them one cast after another, right at 10 o'clock. And I'm like, dang, bought it, just kind of done what I did the first day, kept my rotation the same, it probably would have been you know better. But just one of those things that like you kind of have to go with your gut and learn as the experience comes to you. Now I know.

SPEAKER_01 22:05

Yeah. What about you, Deke? I'll push that over to you too. Obviously, talking to two pro anglers here, but you on the on the west coast and your experience fishing against the Bryant Smiths and the Ish Monroe and so on and so forth. Like, you got anything to add to that?

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Uh for first of all, man, I I still don't consider the West Coast what Logan Parks is out there doing. But uh anyways, no man, I think it's really hard. Like I think I think sometimes for me, if I'm in a bad funk as it relates to rotation or otherwise, like I just I completely run to a new section of the body of water, you know. Um, especially in our format without having practice, like I find a lot of uh clarity in doing that and just being like, I'm gonna go completely somewhere else and see what happens. So um that's that's kind of how I try and debunk that.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yeah, I totally agree with that. It's kind of been the best for me. It's just completely exit apprentices, get file somewhere new to fish.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

Get me out of here.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Well, especially on a place like Gville, like that seems like they live every freaking where on that place. Uh there's gonna be fish just if you can catch them and if they're gonna be worthy of class, it seems. But um dude, I want to kick things over and talk about your insane tournament because it seems like every year that thing keeps getting bigger and bigger. And so I'd love to hear about how the last one went and kind of do like get a little bit of insight to the the vision you have for that going forward.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah, man, it it continues to grow and uh we you know keep having some amazing success. And I really think it just it boils down to the passion that we have for the you know the sport and the future of the sport. Um, all the people that are involved. You know, my amazing wife is is super super helpful to putting on this event. We uh actually had our wedding planner uh shout out to our wedding planner, Morgan. She stepped up and was our co-event coordinator last year, so she kind of took a major load off of uh off of mine and Caitlin's shoulders, and she helped out a ton, and she brought all of her her girls that help her with her weddings, and they came and helped our event, and she's helping again this year. And I mean, just all the volunteers. We had over a hundred volunteers this year at our event. Um the School of Hospitality at Auburn sent you know probably 30 or 40 different students over the couple days of the event, but um man, they have it just continues to grow, it's awesome. We actually had 400 anglers compete in uh 2025, and so if for those of y'all that don't know the format, it's a college angler and a high school angler, and they fish together as a team. And the college angler picks the high school angler through a draft. So we have like a draft and they get to pair up and fish together as a team for a tournament. And so we had an equal number of each, 200 of each, 400 total anglers, and they actually traveled from 37 different states to compete. So it's crazy. We're just having an unbelievable draw across uh, you know, really across the country. And uh it just goes to show that our format's working and we're really uh honestly probably not good for me, but I'm training up some really strong competition to come up and uh take my money.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

That's amazing though, dude. Because I mean, over time, when you talk about in my mind, their reputation and legacy are two different things, but they kind of go hand in hand with that. And you're over time you keep up with that thing, dude. That's gonna be a big you never know where that can be in five, ten plus years if you keep up with it. And it's you know, you're gonna see some kid on the Elite series that wins a tournament, dude, and he's gonna remember, you know, that that event could be his spark. And that is that's gotta be a cool thing when you sit down and really think about it, dude. You need gear that works as hard as you do. That's why Amped Outdoors is the official power solution of a serious 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_02 26:26

Yeah, it's it's really cool. It's just cool to continue to see all the stories that come out of it. You know, I think we're well in the 20s or 30s uh of numbers of scholarships signed from kids meeting colleges at our event. And uh we had something really cool happen this past year. We did the vote giveaway. Uh every year we draw one of the random contestants to win this nitro mercury that we're in, fully rigged, fully loaded. I mean, we got everything in there. We we even take I take all my stuff out, but I fill it back up with new brand new Advicar and Berkeley stuff. Um but this kid he won, his name's uh Jacob Gerrell, and he's from Indiana, and he was a freshman in college at University of South Carolina Union. So this was his first season fishing as a college anger, but he'd fished the previous season as a high school angler, and he got paired up with Caleb Hudson, who is now on the Bassmaster Elite Series.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

And Caleb Hudson was at USC Union, so he got this kid from Indiana that doesn't really know what he wants to do, and he's down here fishing this tournament because someone told him about it, and he gets paired up with this kid, then he decides to go to USC Union, and he had such a good time and such a good experience with Caleb that he decides to come back and fish as a college angler. He's the only kid that came from their team this this past season and wins the boat. Ironically, it was like the same day that Caleb Hudson won the uh Bassmaster, the Bassmaster EQ on Lake Okeechobee and punched his ticket to the classic and the elite series. So it's a pretty cool day for those two guys. It's kind of fun of how it worked out.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

That's so sick, man. It gives me chills, like love stories like that. It all always was the connectivity, it all happens, and then you have it all work out.

SPEAKER_02 28:20

It's like the string theory kind of thing, you know?

SPEAKER_00 28:23

They're attached. That's sick. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Love it when a plan comes together.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah. Yeah. I I like too the the wedding planners getting involved. I mean, those listen, the wedding planners scare me, man. They just are so dialed in when stuff's going on. So like to have them help at a tournament makes so much sense to me.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Oh, they've been so helpful, man. It's it's been awesome uh to have them. And she's uh her and my wife have become pretty good friends over the last couple years since we got married. So it's been awesome to have their team. And just, you know, I mean, even like uh one of my old high school boat captains, his name's Dr. Shaffner, he's from Auburn. Um, he's helped us park, you know, and that's no easy feat. You got 200 truck and boats coming in for this trophy presentation, driving in from Lake Martin and having to park them outside of this uh arena. It's tricky, and he's been you know super helpful for that every single year.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

So heck yeah, dude. It's awesome. Well, hey, and shout out to your wife too, man. When is uh little parks coming along?

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Yeah, and on top of all that, yeah, we've got uh baby parks, baby parks due in July. So uh pretty exciting to bring on a new member to the family.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

That's cool, man. Hopefully you'll have some baby luck coming your way too.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

I know that's what I said. The last last day I weighed in at uh the elite, I'm like, Mercer, I thought that there was like this baby bag, and that everyone that had kids catches them. So I don't know if like we need to go ahead and try to hurry that thing on up or what maybe you have to have the kid for the luck to kick in, but uh it could it can come on whenever it wants to, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Honey, what are you doing this weekend? How about we have that baby now? Just in time for Arkansas River.

SPEAKER_00 30:17

That's awesome. That is funny. Well, man, especially seeing you know all of these and making an impact on these kids coming through um the insane tournament. The high school kids now, and and I think kids coming up in general, obviously we've seen this technology play as such a such a factor in everything. My question more relates to now we're seeing kind of mixed formats as it relates to tech, for instance, on the Elite Series and otherwise. What's kind of your recommendation or what conversation are you having with young anglers learning and developing now, kind of on an approach standpoint to learning the game?

SPEAKER_02 31:06

Yeah, I think uh, you know, I think just a diverse schedule that they do get to fish really does provide them the opportunities to experience everything. Like I watched the weigh in today of this Santee beatdown, and you had a lot of guys saying, Yeah, they caught them on a minnow, but there was a good bit of guys that had 25 plus pound bags that said they caught them finding a chatterbait or bed fishing up in the dirt. And uh I feel like the college and high school, like, or I mean at least the college, it it definitely spreads the anglers out across the country. It gives them a lot of different things to taste and sample and gives them a lot of great experience to build on. And like just like the Elite Series, you know, we go, whether it was all scope or no scope, like we go to Arkansas River, we go to Tom Bigby River, it's probably not gonna play that much, you know, no matter what happens. So I I don't know if you know I would really say that they need to do anything, but I I definitely see the high school side of things, you know, if they're only kind of fishing a handful of lakes around the house, you definitely don't want to become like a one-trick pony. Um, I have seen some high school kids that kind of, you know, they don't know about anything other than floaters, and that's not a good thing either. So uh definitely uh need to be going out and fishing with as many people as possible and learning, you know, every aspect of the trade, especially now with the limitations of the technology, uh your knowledge of the bass fishing. And that's where I feel I feel fortunate that I did grow up before it. I didn't have it until my senior year of high school or senior year of college. Um so I've only had it for a handful of years, but yeah, really I've only had it since like 2020. So it's uh I learned the game without it, and although my results don't show that this season, I'm thankful that I do know how to do other things than just scope.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Right. Well, and two, I feel like through the opens and you know, the pro circuit or invitational, and I can't remember what it's called now, but to get to the BPT, like I feel like even One Trick Ponies can't really qualify unless it's through at least getting the classic, I guess, to an open if you can you can win in a single event. But I feel like points-wise, I feel like we're the new format of how all that works too, like one trick ponies can't really make the elites either. So it's even important just to get to the the the triple A stage.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Yeah, 100%. And I I think that you know, fishing in college, really traveling the country is that was so important for me. Um growing as an angler, it prepared me to fish the open. So I think that it it that does a fantastic job. We go fish these places that we go fish. Go fish Murray, you go fish Santi Cooper, you go to Gunnersville, like you go to St. Lawrence River, they go the same places we do. So I think that's one of the best like proving grounds and training grounds that they can experience. Such a cool opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

Yeah. I guess uh to go in hand with that, you know, you see all the the rave, you know. We see it, we saw it with the minnow, we saw with the dice, we're seeing it with the koikie style baits now. Like, how important do you think is for also for them to study and trying to be on top of bait trends, or do you think they still need to have you know that confidence in the the chalk baits, you know, being able to drag a jig, crank, chatter wagon, all that stuff. What do you think on that?

SPEAKER_02 34:42

I mean, I think I think learning new techniques is always important. Somebody gave me a piece of advice coming up there saying, you know, be an uh early adopter of new technologies and new techniques, and try to learn them. And to it to a or I guess in a way that's kind of hurt me because I spent a lot of money on new baits, new exciting stuff. But uh, it's also really helped me because you know, when Labscope did come out, I I got it quickly and tried to learn it quickly. And when the minnow started to become a thing, I was feel like on the forefront of that. Learn that. I would say, you know, like these these guys would be foolish not to try to learn all the newest techniques. I mean, it's it's more advanced and more difficult techniques a lot of the time. A lot of people like see these highlights of guys just reeling them in, but they don't see the thousands of near misses and how they have to work their bait perfectly. Like I invite you to come out here and shake your men out. You're not gonna catch anything. Like it's it's very hard and it's uh it's important to learn those super effective techniques.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

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SPEAKER_02 36:44

That's where it was cool to have my live stream on YouTube was like to go back and read the comments. Um, last season when we were able to, it was like people were like, wow, it's you know, it's not just casting and catching everything. Like he's he's talking about how many times he's been followed and didn't catch one, and you know, even able to see my screen, see what we're actually talking about, and show them what a whole tournament day looks like from start to finish. It was really, really cool to bring people along. I feel like it was a great way to teach people, especially about decision making.

SPEAKER_00 37:22

Absolutely. Well, I think it's a really cool new trend, right? I mean, you're you're kind of you especially are an early adopter to that technology, too. You know, the idea of putting a Starlink on the boat, running live throughout the day. We're seeing that trend pick up um every year. More and more guys are doing it, and I totally agree. I mean, I think it it teaches so much more. I'm not interested as a tournament angler myself, I could care less watching highlight reels. I mean, don't get me wrong, it gets me fired up, it's just as cool with whatever else. But if there is a there we go. Got him back. I want to learn from guys. Like, if there was a private subscription to watch like some of these Japanese dudes right now, I would be paying to watch them all day. I can care less about watching highlight reels. I want to see what's going on in the thought process throughout a tournament day. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

You still got us logged?

SPEAKER_02 38:31

Yeah, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_01 38:32

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Yeah, I mean, it's it's cool. I I someone actually sent me a DM after the classic. Like, man, it's just so cool to see you know your game plan completely like fall apart within the first 30 minutes to an hour, where like you realize that you're not gonna catch them where you previously were because I was fishing shallow, real shallow, in the backs of some freaks. And my my water temp fell about 12 degrees and turned into chocolate milk between the freezing cold weather and the freezing cold rain we had the two days before the tournament started. So I kind of had to scrap everything I had and uh just fly by the seat of my pants and uh end up making some good decisions on day one and almost made enough good decisions on day two to make the cut. But this guy DM'd me and he was like, man, it was just so cool to see like how you switch things up and how you completely adapted to the conditions. And like I feel like there's a ton of value in that. Um I'd like to continue to do that and package that in a way that it's worth my time, you know, because it's really expensive to run the Starlink and um without being able to be on YouTube and make the YouTube ad revenue. And and two, like you're just kind of giving up everything. I mean, I like I'm taking you along with me for the whole entire day. You're seeing every bait I'm throwing, you're seeing every place I fish. Like, there's a ton of value in that. So until we can kind of figure out a way that we're able to make it make sense. I think I'm done with uh the streaming of the tournaments for that. But I think we've got some other cool ideas of of things we can do outside of tournaments, streaming the fishing. So I'm excited to uh to start rolling some of that stuff out later this year, get a little bit more time.

SPEAKER_00 40:26

So I'm I'm curious, Logan, as far as the economic model of that not making sense. Where how do you feel like it could make sense? It will is there a way that that makes sense as an angler?

SPEAKER_02 40:40

Yeah, I mean, it made sense for me when it was on my channel because I was gaining subscribers that was directly reflecting in like you know, more sponsorship power. Like I was able to sell stuff like the title sponsor of the live stream and build graphics that had sponsor logos on like you know, when I was catching them on specific Berkeley baits, we could pop up those baits, and like we could just do a lot more cool things and create it, created new opportunities of things that I could be able to take to a sponsor, package and sell as a new deliverable, or just you know, add on top of my contract as like more valuable than and then I mean the YouTube ad revenue side of things. I uh I was making enough to cover my gas every day, so that it was like a free day of fishing. I mean, it made total sense. And um yeah, I get that there's there's all these licensing things and stuff like that when you put basket, but you know, the stream on baskmaster.com, I kind of lose all of those benefits and I still give up all of my knowledge and all of my baits and all of my spots, and it's just it doesn't make sense for me. So I'm hoping that we can kind of collectively come together in the offseason, maybe find a way that uh it makes more sense for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Yeah. Yeah, I certainly know the fan loved it too. It big time. It's cause it's harder to access too, because I didn't even realize it was happening until you look at Bashtrack and see if there's a live symbol next to somebody's name, because where it's on YouTube, like when we're subscribed to your channels, it pops up.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:22

Yeah. So it's a little bit easier to find.

SPEAKER_02 42:25

I think what I will do is is still stream like privately and like to record the event and post that on YouTube and make that like a subscription-based service. I've been looking into kind of doing those uh YouTube subscription things where people can pay like five dollars a month or whatever to join. And I mean, to be honest, like I don't think there's anything more valuable out there than watching uh angler fish an entire tournament from you know start to finish. Like, there's no better way to learn than that. Like, I would pay a lot of money to sit and watch Jacob Wheeler's entire day. Like, you could learn so much from that. So I definitely think there is some value in that. So even if it's not live, I'll still be able to post that to my YouTube channel after VIPACT and uh and put that behind a paywall. And anyone that's interested could go and check them out.

SPEAKER_00 43:24

Dude, I love that. I think that's a a great way, and I I can't agree more. I mean, that's the stuff I want to see. I want to learn from the guys doing it at the highest level, and uh makes a lot of sense to me. At Sirius Angler, we're a half-ton truck crew, and we're towing boats all the time. You already know the deal. You load up the bed, you hook up the trailer, and now you've got squat, sway, and that moment when the wind hits or a semi-passes you, and you tighten up on the wheel. After looking at a bunch of options, road active suspension was the solution that made the most sense for us. It's built to help your truck feel more level and more controlled when you're towing or hauling. If you want a calmer, more confident drive to the ramp, check them out and use code Sirius10 for 10% off.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

Yeah. Well, Deke, you got anything uh left for Logan before we hit him with our last question here?

SPEAKER_00 44:10

No, man. Uh enjoyed enjoyed everything. Thanks for joining us on the water. Uh it's always uh it's cool. You can multitask in today's world. Technology is crazy.

SPEAKER_02 44:20

It's awesome, man. It's cool.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Yeah. Well, dude, uh, as your golden hour sounds like it or looks like it's uh fading away from you, we'll leave you this this last question. Is uh um what talking about new things that are pretty cool. Bassmaster's doing the whole Tuesday nighter deal, which I'm very intrigued to see how that first one goes down. But um, I want to throw this at you from two different perspectives. Um if you get picked for that, you know, and say say you're the you're drawn as one of the boaters for it, who on the elites would you want to be your co-angler? And then if you are also on the flip of that, you're one of the co-angers, who would you want to be your voter?

SPEAKER_02 45:08

I would say who would I want to be my co-angler? Probably have to say Tucker Smith. Yeah, we we've got some pretty good history together. Um we turned up my senior year of college, and he was my co-angler then, and it was a pretty good season. So I would love to uh love to run it back.

SPEAKER_03 45:33

Run it back.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

And if I was a if someone was my boater, I would probably say. I'll probably have to say, like, I don't know, Chris Johnson. I mean, he hasn't won two back-to-back angle of the years. I could probably learn something now. Chris or Trey or, you know, those guys.

SPEAKER_01 45:58

Heck yeah, dude. That's awesome. Well, man, thank you so much for taking time out, especially while you're you're out on the water. And uh, you know, keep the boat safe while you're out there and looking forward to keeping up with what's next for you, dude.

SPEAKER_02 46:10

Yeah, I appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

Yeah, sir. Well, awesome, and we'll uh we'll be talking to you soon.

SPEAKER_02 46:18

All right, sounds good.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

All right, and that is gonna do it for today's show. As always, thank you to Mr. Logan Parks for joining us for this one. Definitely got to get him on more because I like how he approaches things and thinks about it. And Deke made a great point too of like there definitely is a threshold of how much you can focus on something. Where it becomes that you're you're trying to force it, you're almost trying too hard. And I think there is a big difference between trying too hard and working hard, if that makes sense. Totally. Yeah, but he uh hit that nail on the head, and I'm sure he'll get trained back on the tracks and getting after it in this format. But um I mean it'll be a fun a fun event for them.

SPEAKER_00 47:01

Yeah, I mean, I think I think, and you're you're sitting here, it's not a I I guess I I didn't mean in any way not working hard. I mean, clearly, you know, a guy like I mean he's literally idling on Santee pre-practicing, right? As we're as we're talking to him. Yeah. But the the point is, especially after guys like that that have been in this game for so long and have paid their dues, there comes a point where like it's so much more mental and just relaxing, and it's more of the art of the game versus the try. I think that everyone has to get so proficient on that work ethic side of like grinding and figuring it out in practice, and also the Google Earth study and the you know, the YouTube study, whatever else, all this stuff. However, like there is a there is so much of that that's a art game to it. And that's the part that I love and keep trying to come back to because it's the truth, man. It's it's just I don't know why it's that way, but I think that's within a lot of things in life is like when you almost stop trying so hard, you end up getting to where you were trying to go. And it's not that the effort's not there, it's just like the mindset shift of like if it happens, it happens. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Right. Yeah, because we've all been on the water, whether you fish tournaments or not, and you're doing something, and it almost feels like well, one, you're not getting any feedback from fish, and it almost feels like you're trying to force something into fruition, which when you're dealing with another living organism is never usually a uh usually doesn't work out the way you want it to. So it's you kind of let things come to you, and you hear guys that, you know, when they talk about fish and freeze, they they kind of enter that flow state where it's decisions are kind of snappy and things like that. And it all comes down to like you're talking about, well, rotation, you know, of maybe not the actual fishing itself, it's the decisions that you make if you're trying too hard to force something that's happened before or what you think might be happening, you're not actually listening to the the signs in front of you that you might be trying to force something to happen instead of letting what's in front of you happen, if that makes any sense. But um great conversation, as always, Logan. Looking forward to the next one already.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

But um yeah, biggest one for me is just I like I've I've followed along with Logan in his journey and and otherwise and followed each other on social media, but like, dude is so genuine. Like, what a what a great guy to talk to, and also just his um very everything. Like, I mean, he's like, you know, just laid back. Here's what it is, uh, open book and best kind of guys to interview. So appreciate him coming on.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Yeah, very savvy, very straight to the point. There's there's really no uh no questioning what he's saying. It's all of uh what's on his mind, he's gonna tell it to you, and he's not gonna hold back, which is appreciated. A lot of people, I mean, I think we need a lot more of that in this world, that's for dang sure. But uh, dude, great show. Appreciate everybody for tuning in. Look out for the new episodes coming up. Uh, check out any of the previous episodes if you guys missed that, especially talking to some coconut eaters out west. Um, but we'll have Tucker Smith coming up on here soon and Rich from Bass You. Some awesome shows ahead. But as always, appreciate you guys for tuning in. We'll see you on the next one.