This is Why West Coast Anglers are Big Bass Specialists!

On today's episode of Serious Angler's Seriously Western we are joined by Bassmaster Elite Series and BAM Tour pro Bryant Smith to talk about how west coast anglers love to fish in Florida! Whether you're a seasoned angler looking to refine your skills or a newcomer eager to learn, our podcast has something for everyone.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right. Welcome to the Serious Angler Podcast. As always, our goal here is to be talking and hopefully teaching you more about bass fishing. And of course, some random rabbit holes here and there. Appreciate you guys taking time out of your day to listen to this show. And uh today we have a little throwback seriously western show for you guys with Bryant Smith, talking about some big bass catching waves, especially from people from the West Coast that are both, uh, but also some of the big bass catch and waves of the West Coast. So it was an awesome show that was about a year and a half ago that Deacon did with Bryant, and as I mentioned to you guys, there's some weeks that are scheduled, especially this time of year in the peak of bass season. You know, Deacon and I are traveling. So we'll have some old episodes that we'll throw up on here because they were great episodes. And we think that with a lot of the new people listening to the show, our show keeps going week by week. And I appreciate you guys for that. I want to resurface some of the older content we put out because a lot of uh valuable lessons, tips, and information in them. So we'll bring them back to service for you guys. Uh and so this is a great show with Bryant Smith. Uh and uh just wanted to thank you guys again for taking time out of your day to listen to this thing. Currently, right now, Deacon is out on the road. Uh and I myself, I am cramming episodes in here because I'm about to be on a three-week vendor uh travel. I'm actually about to be headed down to Santee Cooper for a bass match or kayak event and then literally from Santee fly to California to Clear Lake talking about my West Coast folk and uh fishing the Batsmaster kayak event uh back to back uh on Clear Lake. So we'll be fishing that one, then flying back home and then have a crazy four different tournaments uh in two days on Cayuga back here in New York. So three weeks of just madhouse. Uh and so we're trying to get the episodes out for you guys. We have some new episodes coming, uh, but we figured on days where we have not been able to get an episode out or or publish for you guys within scheduling with new guests and things like that, uh, that we'd resurfaced some awesome episodes out from the past that have some valuable information. So with that said, uh not a crazy long intro for this one, but I do want to pose it to you guys that if there's any guests uh out on the west coast, being that today is our seriously western segment. If there's any guests or any topics, things that you would like us to hit on, any issues on the West Coast that we can help support, uh please comment down below, whether you're watching on YouTube. Um you can DM us on social media, send us an email at seriousangler at gmail.com, and uh we'll love to help keep supporting the West Coast bass fishing community. But uh without further ado, let's get into this a little older episode with the Deacon and the Mr. Bryant Smith.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

All right, and folks, now we are joined by the one and only Bryant Smith back in California after a heck of a start on the Elite Series, man, starting 2025 strong. How's it feel to be home?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Oh, it feels good. You know, this uh the first trip is always one of the longer ones just because this time I had to go pick up my boat from the bass tank, spent a few days there going over everything, making sure everything was good, and of course it was. Um, and then I went to Tennessee to go break the motor in. I had to break the Yamaha in, and that's that's always a process, and then get down there a few days before St. John's, practice, fishing tournament, back to back with Okeechobee. Um, and then I actually went and pre-practiced. Well, not really pre-practice, I drove around the uh Pascatonk River just to see what that was all about, and then uh four plane rides in one day, and we're finally home. So that was about a month, and uh it's definitely good to be home, you know, especially with the little one and my wife. Uh I was worried they wouldn't recognize me with how long I'd been gone.

SPEAKER_03 3:46

I love it, I love it, man. Well, I'm I'm glad you made it home safely. So four plane rides, what the heck is that about it?

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, so um of course I managed to schedule it when a giant front just blew across the entire eastern part of the United States, and uh I woke up. I was supposed to have a 545 flight, and I woke up, checked my phone, and I had a notification. It's like, hey, your 545 plane is now departing at 1210. I'm like, oh, well that's that's nowhere close to like nowhere close to what we were aiming for. Um so I got on there, I got on the app, and I rebooked a flight, and I made the mistake of booking one to Minneapolis. And uh I don't know how many of your viewers know how cold and snowy it is up there, but it was we uh we had quite the snow delay up there. They had a blizzard going on and uh everything like that. So that caused me, it was like a three-hour delay there to get all this. There was like a foot of snow on the wings and everything, and then they had to do the whole de-icer thing. Um, we had about a three, three and a half hour delay there, which caused me to miss my next flight in Vegas home. So I had to rebook that. And uh that ended up being a plane ride to LA and then finally back home. So four four planes in one day would not recommend that at all.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Dude, that's brutal. That's pretty bad. I don't think I've ever been on more than three in one day. And that was like, all right, well, that was like that's like like being a bass fisherman, I think I'd rather drive 15 hours straight than be on three plane rides in a day.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Dude, it was I got into Vegas and it crossed my mind if if I was gonna have to wait not much longer, um, it crossed my mind I'm like, Vegas is only especially in a rental car, like I can blaze down the highway at you know 85 and uh you know it was tempting to just jump in a car and go, but uh we got it figured out, and uh my original time of landing was supposed to be about 10 30 a.m. west coast time, and I didn't get in until 7 30 p.m. So it was a long day. Part of the part of the live in the dream package that we all sign up for. There you go. I love it, I love it.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Well, man, give us a little breakdown. I mean, so basically on uh pulling up stats here. So St. John finished 30th and Okeechobee 19th, man. I mean, heck of a two two derbies. Uh Florida is always that, you know, seems guys either start their year really strong or they put themselves in a heck of a deficit. Uh give us a little breakdown on each event and and what you learned and and that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yeah, um, so St. John's, um, you know, a lot of our guys have a lot of experience there because it's a very common stop. And I've only been there one other time, which was last year, and it was later in the year. And uh I actually spent probably of the two practice days, and I only fished two tournament days because I suck. Um, I probably spent maybe six hours on the actual river. So this year it was a little bit different because we weren't allowed to lock into Rodman, um, which is basically where I had all my experience there. So I was I was pretty much starting at uh at zero. You know, we were starting with no experience there. Um, but Florida, you know, it it's always kind of fit my style um coming up from the Delta and Clear Lake, you know, a lot of grass fisheries, tidal, all that stuff. So I had just leaned on that experience and just covered as much water. And my whole thing with Florida is you just I try to find an area that I feel like I can spend eight hours in. Um, you know, I want to I don't want to run around a lot in Florida. I always when I tend to run around um, you know, far, not I want to stay within you know a certain mile radius. I don't want to be running 20 minutes here, running 20 minutes there, not all over the place. I want my trolling motor down in Florida. So um I spent a lot of time just trying to find an area on the St. John's that I felt comfortable in to spend the whole tournament. And uh I did that. I actually it actually ended up being up north, which um you know I think this tournament most was probably the most checks ever cut taking a left out of Palatka, which is was really interesting. Um, I don't know if it was just because of the the cold weather we had, those fish, and it it made sense in my head. If you run down, the further down you run, the warmer the water gets, the further along you get. But when a cold front hit down there, it's gonna affect that water temp a little more. And I felt like it was gonna shut down those fish a little more. So I ended up, you know, I obviously practiced down there, but I was lucky enough to have an area up north that I felt like I got a handful of bites. Um, got one good one. It's like, okay, I feel like I can hunker down in here. Hopefully that cold front doesn't affect them as much just because that water's um, I mean, the difference in water temp, like between Aster. I don't know how familiar you are with with the names of everything down there, but Aster is like 40 something miles down the lake. Um, and I ended up going almost 30 files 30 miles north, and there was a five-degree temperature difference just in that in that stretch. So um I knew at least those fish shouldn't have been as affected from the cold front. That water couldn't drop as much. So, anyway, long story short, I uh I kind of found an area that I felt comfortable in. Um and it was really it was kind of a fun bite, you know, just fishing lily pads and out in front of lily pads, it was kind of cool watching those fish move with the tide. Um, but I was just throwing a striking Hag swim jig with a a rage crawl on the back. And you know, conventionally I'm always doing the Alabama shake with that, and it was weird because they actually preferred it just reeling it. And the whole thing with the pads, well, yeah, it was really it was really interesting. And I think it was more because those fish were a little bit down. They weren't, you know, there were probably some spawning, some pre-spawn at the bases of everything, but they weren't high up in the water column on there. So the whole key was making sure that jig was not coming out of the water and slowing my retrieve down, almost like slow rolling it like you would a spinnerbait, actually triggered a lot more bites for me, as opposed to keeping it really high in the water column, keeping it, you know, kind of skipping across the top. Um, but that was that was pretty much it. Um, you know, day two, I did I did find some jerk bait fish uh that I ended up weighing in. But for the most part, the majority of my weight was throwing that swim jig in those lily pads, slow reeling it out. Um really, really strange way to do a swim jig in my eye, just that slow reel. But a lot of those fish were staging, so you know, I would catch a bunch of males up on the bank, you know, they were peeing, getting ready. You could tell that they were like, hey, it's time to go do my thing. But the females were actually, I would say they were on the because the the pad fields there are huge, you know, it can be 30, 40, 50 feet to the bank of just pads. And uh all those females were on that either outside of the pads, just outside of the pads, or like that first 10 foot inside those pads, just kind of staged in there, I think, ready to move up. Um, but uh it was a good event. It was definitely a grinder of an event, especially after the cold front hit. Um, I was still those guys blow me away every time with how they can adjust and catch them better, even in a cold front um in Florida. They ended up just staying level at the checkline. And I was sweating it after day two. I was like, I I had 11 pounds, I think. After a decent day one, I had 11 pounds. I'm like, oh there's no way. After a 32-degree night in Florida, this cut weight's gonna go down. It made it maybe it dropped a couple ounces, so I was sweating that but made it to day three, and things kind of stabilized a little bit and ended up catching on there pretty good. Good enough to you know have a solid start.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah. I mean, the two takeaways that I'm I'm hearing are basically something to think about. I'm curious your thoughts on this, if this is just a Florida thing and a Florida strain thing. But I feel like it's it's not a bad thing to think about in general when you're facing a cold front, especially going into a tournament or just going out fishing, is maybe fishing that water that's already cold and there's less of a swing to happen. Um it sounds like in that in that window. Um do you feel like that's just a Florida thing, or do you feel like that that could be anywhere?

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I I think that's anywhere. Um, you know, if if if I can fish an area, if I have two choices to fish an area, you know, two areas. One after a cold front, it's dropped 10 degrees, and one after a cold drop cold uh front, it's dropped five degrees. I think that just it's a lesser change for them. It's just more stable. Um, you know, I definitely play that in Florida a lot, but there's no doubt that I do that. I do that everywhere. I always try to find that you want stability. That's that's the biggest thing, especially with that Florida strain. You want stability. They don't like change, especially for the cold, you know, if it gets colder. So I always try to find the most stable areas, especially especially in Florida, but I do it all over the country too.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and I think the other the other big takeaway, I think, was just you really slowed down swimming the jig and just uh just were pulling it through those pads. Whereas, yeah, exactly. I mean, the first thing when I think of swimming a jig is Alabama Shake fast coming out of the water, just flying through the pads, and they're coming out unglued on it, but really slowing down. That's a really big factor.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah. And I think I think it was a really big key because those fish, especially after the cold front happened, but even during it, um those fish strike zones, it was not very big. You know, you really had to get it close to them. And not only was I slowing it down, keeping that thing down in the water column, keeping it closer to them, but I was also being much more thorough with my cast. Um, usually I'm a you know, chuck it every you know 10, 20 feet. And sometimes I was throwing it like three foot sections. I would throw it every three foot, especially if I was in one of the areas where I had a lot of confidence, and I would really thoroughly pick it apart um just to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. Just they just didn't like when they ate it, they ate it. But I think you had to make it pretty convenient for them. They they weren't chasing very, very much. A lot of them, you could tell they would just the way they ate it, they were coming straight up. They weren't chasing it from behind or you know, eating it head first, coming from a different angle. They were almost always coming straight up. So that that was kind of a clue for me. Okay, I need to make sure that I put it over as many fish's heads as possible because their strike zone is not very large right now.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

Yeah, yeah. It it reminds me a little bit, and I think the Delta has a a different factor because you also have the northern strain or more of the northern strain fish being at sections. But I noticed that in a Toyota series there a couple of years ago where it was cold, man, right? It was early and it was respawn, and uh the part of the lake, which I was not in, but the part of the lake or the system where where guys caught them were where it was cold. The water temp was colder, and uh, and I mean there was a little bit more of those northern strains involved in there too. But like totally kind of the same thought process. Like, like this cold front's hitting and uh and that's those fish that were kind of used to that temperature, and there wasn't as big of a drop. Like, that's a really interesting uh point that I quite frankly haven't really thought about when it going into a cold front.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Yeah, I mean, stability is everything, and and you know, no matter where you go, it's gonna be affected by the cold front. But if you can have a little bit less effect where it it drops the water temp drops less for them, I just feel like that's just better odds of of being able to kind of figure them out that day, as opposed to just having them shut down, which you know, the Florida fish, especially, they are very good at shutting down. Um they're pros at shutting down and just not we're not doing it today. I don't know what your plans are, but it ain't happening.

SPEAKER_03 17:14

Uh-huh. Not today, Captain. Um, good. Well, now Okeechobee, man, 19th there. Give us give us a breakdown on how the big O went for you.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Yeah, Okeechobee was a weird one. Um, it wasn't your typical Okeechobee. I think everybody can see that from the live coverage and how all the top guys ended up catching them. The lake just was not a player. Um and that I think that had a couple of factors for that. Um the dirty water was just everywhere. It was so hard to find that clean water. Um, if you work in a canal or off the lake, locking through somewhere uh or in the Kasumi River. You know, it's just it that lake was just so unstable. Um, and and in practice, it was it was almost comical how the wind would blow. It started blowing from the north, shifted to the south, shifted blowing out of the east, and then a little bit out of the west. And if anybody's been on Okeechobee before, when that happens, it just pushes that dirty water into those areas. So there was no, there was a couple areas with some okay water, some fairly clean water, but even those areas eventually got dirtied up to the point where I won't say it was unfishable, but it wasn't ideal. And the other problem with the lake was it was really low. Um, I guess the Corps of Engineers are are finally dropping that lake down to uh a pretty low um water level to kind of entice the the growth to come back, entice the grass, you know, allow the grass to come back and grow, allow the reeds to come back and grow, and kind of build that lake back up a little bit. So we had falling water on top of dirty water on the lake, and that's just not a good scenario for that lake. And and it was funny in practice, like I I was totally against fishing a canal. I wanted to find them on the lake because you know that's where it goes down historically. Um and uh my travel partner, David Gaston, finally clued me in. He was like, hey, let's go fish some canals. Like that is the only clean water in this lake, it's the only somewhat stable water in this lake, and it's it has access to deep water. When the lake's falling, like, dude, you couldn't set down your boat without almost killing your engine every single time because it would just fog down in the in the mud. Oh, it was a pain, it was terrible. And you had to idle a half a mile, three-quarters of a mile from where you were fishing just to get enough water to get up on pad. Um, it was it was so low, and it and it made it really challenging. So um we started fishing a canal, and dude, it was immediate. Like I pulled in there, he went all the way to the back, I started at the front, and we were like, hey, let's go break this down real quick. I had three fish for 15 pounds in about 30 minutes, and I just I got out of there. I'm like, dude, like this is this is it. This is where we this is where it's gonna go down for us. This is this is the highest bite percentage we've had in any area. Um, so I'm starting here for sure. Obviously, he's gonna start there too. Uh, he caught a couple good ones too. So we ended up doing that in a canal, clear water. And the first day, I'd love to have that first day back. Um, so there was a rock levy that went down and it comes down at a 45, and then it flattens out just a little bit, just a tiny little bit, and it's like a maybe three to four foot wide flap before it drops down into the dredged out channel.

unknown 21:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

So the first day, and when in practice, I was catching them on the bank. Um, so first day of the tournament rolls in, I'm throwing it on the bank, throwing it on the bank, throwing it on the bank, and I caught, you know, I caught what I caught, eight pounds. Um day two, I actually made a bad cast. Uh, and the wind took it, and it actually probably landed six or seven feet off the bank. And I catch a six pounder. I'm like, oh my god, you idiot. You fished over those fish all day yesterday. I thought they just weren't biting. No, my the head of literally the head of my trolling motor was going over the top of those fish. So over the you know, next couple hours I spent. I would make a cast on the bank, make a cast off the bank, on the bank, off the bank. And I caught two good ones off the bank. A couple of, you know, I still caught some on the bank too. Like there were still fish on the bank. But I think that key switch right there was just casting just a little bit off and rolling it right over those fish. And I was throwing a strike king thunder cricket, the tungsten one. That's my absolute favorite one. A little blade minnow on the back of that. And just super slow, slow rolling it down on the bottom, ticking the rocks. And uh just that little adjustment right there actually saved my tournament big time. One bad cast. That's all it took was one bad cast where it landed off the bank a little bit. And uh we ended up catching them. I think I had like 21 pounds that second day. And then the third day was cool. Um, so I rolled in there, and it was a little bit warmer. Um, the the wind had laid down pretty good. And I started doing the chatterbait thing and caught a couple. I think I caught three or four doing that, and then I went over. So on one side there's levee rock, and then the other side's kind of more of a natural bank, has the semigraph, a few mats, um, all that good stuff. And I started flipping a uh six-inch ocha with an eighth ounce weight, you know, standard Florida stuff for spawning fish, and uh slowing that down a little bit. I ended up figuring out okay, these there was a couple fish that moved up on beds, and I could just flip that thing in there, let it sit super slow, drag it out, and I caught I think three or four of the fish that I ended up weighing on that deal. So that was a cool little adjustment to seeing those fish kind of progress because all those fish that I was catching in there on the on the Thunder Cricket were all pre-spawned, they're all super fat, just moved in there, um ready to do their thing, and then they actually kind of progressed throughout the tournament. And you know, Florida fish progress really, really quickly. I've seen them go from dead of winter to let's go spawn in two days. So I always kind of kept that flipping thing honest, but the day three, it actually ended up working out. I think I had 15 pounds and uh moved up to 19th place. But moving up, I think I started day one in 88th place. So to move up to to 19th place, man, that was huge for my season. Huge, yeah, great to get a check, get two checks in Florida, and uh kind of built the confidence, get that kind of train rolling going into the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Absolutely, man. No, great. Well, I mean, you're talking stuff again. I I've never fished Florida. Um, I've fished the Delta some, and the stuff you're talking about, a canal, a chatterbait, you know, fish on and under pat or under a mat, and there's Thulees and whatever on the side. So, like all this stuff is is sounding very very Delta-like to me. Um, what's what's uh some of the biggest takeaways, maybe, and again, this Western segment being the connection in your eyes from Delta to Florida. What what uh what are maybe some of the biggest similarities and then also some of the differences?

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Um, I mean, I feel like I am a good Florida fisherman because of the Delta. Um, I understand grass, I understand Thule's, I understand how they set up and all these things, and it's super, super similar. Like hard spots, all that good stuff. Shell beds, um, all that stuff, I literally take it to Florida with me. And it gives me a lot of confidence on how to break down those bodies of water and what to look for. Um, yeah, I I feel like I truly feel like if you're a good Delta fishman, you will you will be you'll be at least comfortable in Florida. You know, it's it's that similar. Um, yeah, I remember watching Mark Daniels Jr. Delta Legend. Like, dude always caught him on the Delta, and I watched him always finish well in Florida, and I'm like, that makes sense. Like, that's there is a correlation there. There's no doubt. If you're good on the Delta, you can catch them on Florida. The biggest difference, I would say, between the Delta and Florida is like I said before, that progression is super fast in Florida. Like they move up, they spawn, they're done. The Delta, it's a little bit more drawn out. Um that that movement, just because we don't have those super drastic weather changes like Florida has, like when it goes from 32 degrees and then two days later it's 80 again. We don't really have that a lot in in the Delta. So yeah, in California in general, exactly. So that progression is is definitely a lot slower in the Delta um than Florida. But that's that's that's the biggest thing. Um if you're if you're good on the Delta, you'll be good in Florida, there's no doubt.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

That's awesome. That's cool to hear. And uh, you know, something I think about a lot is we we talk a lot about all the stuff that Western guys have learned out west and take to the east with them fishing, but just overarching in general. Now you're you're have spent a good amount of time in the in the central part of the country and the eastern part of the country fishing on two other different tours. And what I guess I'm curious about is what stuff that you've learned out on doing the eastern stuff that now, I mean, you're someone who's fishing for two tours this year, fishing the elite series in the band 60, running two boats and flying and doing all the crazy stuff, you and Ish and whoever else is doing it, it's wild. But what uh what have you learned back east, or what are some of the biggest things you've learned back east that you bring back west now?

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Um I don't say this very often, but the biggest thing that I've gotten from back east is forward-facing sonar. I still believe, and it's weird because usually the West Coast is we lead a lot of the new stuff. We really do. Um, a lot of the techniques they originate in the West Coast and then they move east. Forward-facing sonar, I still truly believe that a majority of West Coast anglers are still one to three years behind the East Coast. Uh they don't and that being said, I think the fisheries are a little different, they're not as conducive to the dominance of forward-facing sonar. Some are, you know, Mojave, great example. Like if you weren't, if I wasn't using my Laurent Active Target 2, I was not catching those fish. There's no doubt in my mind. I think the the three best guys with forward-facing ended up in the top three, and that's not an accident there. But in the majority of Northern California, especially, forward facing is not as dominant yet. You can still compete without it. Um, you can still use it kind of as a tool to go along with your I hate to use the word conventional fishing, but you know, fishing before forward-facing sonar. Um, I think you can still compete doing that, but I still think that the West Coast is behind as far as using forward facing to its truest potential.

SPEAKER_03 29:48

Yeah. Man, I totally agree. I think it's cut it's I think it's catching up. But my my my take on all of this was like I uh went and fished as a co-angler behind Spencer Sheffield on Champlain and was like that's a treat. Wow. Learned like eyes all of it. I you know, like blew my mind. And this was like, you know, three or four years ago, five years ago, like it was a long time ago. And I felt like the same situation. Like in general, I would say the West Coast was way behind on forward facing that point. It's catching up. I'm seeing way more guys looking at their grass now. Um I would say, and I would then go on to continue and talk about the Pacific Northwest, where where Boomer and I fish a lot, is I would say to some degree, is maybe even behind that, slightly, like maybe six months or a year behind Northern California and then that because it just kind of trickles down, right? But like I it's something that I've thought about too, and I've really tried to stay on top of because I I agree, man. Like I you said, I think the clearest example is you you look at um the one bass US Open every year of like of all the guys from back east that come, like they all have done very well in it. Very well. And and and it's like, well, that's strange. These guys have been fishing Mojave or Mead for however long. And and uh it's it's it's exactly that, right? And so I think but I do I do I do think that like I you know Don Pedro Pray on this last week. Like I saw a lot of guys looking looking at uh they're forward facing rather than uh rather than what's in front of them necessarily. Yeah, but it's you had a great tournament, by the way.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

That was awesome.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

It's one of those where you uh yeah, wish wish I had my second day back and and I had such a look at her seat to win that thing, you know, and broke off a a big one, and then I just I I should have had more more behind me. But anyways, thank you. Appreciate that. We'll get one one of these days.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Oh yeah, it's coming, it's coming. You're you're too consistent, and that's you know, that's what everybody told me, you know, 10 years ago. It's like, yeah, you're always in the top 10, dude. It's coming, it's coming. You're like, when? When is it coming? I'm ready, I'm ready. And and uh no, it's definitely coming for you too. You're you're gonna pop one of these big ones for sure.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

Appreciate you. Well, uh on that topic, man, you are back in California. I mean, going to the classic, right? Yep. It'll be wait to see you down there. Do you know is Boomer going at all?

SPEAKER_01 32:30

Uh I don't I I don't think he's gonna make it to the classic this year. Uh I think he's he's a little busy right now with the Rod Company, so good problem to have. Good problem to have that's good. Well, good.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

Well, the Sirius Angler crew will be down there, and that is for anyone else listening. Uh, come say hello to us. We'll be floating around. Certainly we'll be in the amped uh outdoors booth and uh be running around. So um excited to see you down there. But other than that, man, is your next tournament the uh the bam um on Don Pedro?

SPEAKER_01 33:03

It is, it is. I am so ready for that. I I feel like I haven't fished, I mean, the US Open, the US Open. Um, I haven't fished like a normal just pro-am. I I guess this isn't a pro-am, pro tournament on the West Coast in the springtime and probably gosh, six years. Like it is it's I I got on that plane and I immediately started thinking about Don Pedro and how excited I was to go get there, go compete against all the guys that I've you know competed my whole career against on the West Coast. Like, I am so excited for that one. I cannot wait for that one to to show up.

SPEAKER_03 33:44

Dude, heck yeah, cool, cool. Well, I'm I'm uh I'm fired up for it too, and what a fishery man. I have never uh you know, I hadn't I haven't been there until this last uh this last tournament, and man, I was impressed with it. I um I had a I had a really, really good time and and caught two personal bests, which is very rare. I mean, like I've never really caught a big spot, and it wasn't a giant by any means, but I caught a 522 spot in practice. The big one was that's that was my biggest spot ever, and then and then caught my biggest largemouth too. Um, so it was uh I was like, this place is cool, man. I like this place.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah, Don Pedro, I don't get to go down there very often. I think I've probably only fished five or six tournaments down there, but that whole motherlode region is is just so chock full of fish. It's not ever really hard to get a bite. It's nice to just go and just go fish and catch them. Uh, and that's you know, barring any crazy weather, I I don't think the bite's gonna get worse. I think it's only gonna get better from here. So I'm I'm super excited to just kind of go and lean on them for for three, hopefully three days over there.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Yeah, man, I'm excited. I've never fished in a format where there's no practice whatsoever. I mean, just rolling up and going, man.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

Yeah, yeah. That one's uh that one, I'll I'll be honest, I'm a little nervous about that one. Very rarely do I just show up in practice and start catching them. Um I've never been that I've never been that guy. Uh you know, you hear all these guys, they come back after day one, and like, I've I found them. Like I'm on them, I caught the crap out of them today. Like, I'm gonna smoke them. And I'm like, yeah, I've I got two bikes today. Uh it's always been kind of it's always been kind of a process for me. Um, I don't I'm really good at eliminating water. Uh I'm probably one of the best at it because I'm really good at finding bad water to start with. And it takes it's just always taken me a little while to kind of dial things in. But this tournament, it's one of the reasons why I wanted to fish this format is it's gonna force me to make decisions quick, make adjustments really quick, and figure out those fish that day. Um, and like I I only think that can benefit me as an angler uh going forward, you know, having that pressure, knowing what guys have, knowing if guys are catching them, um, all that added pressure with no practice. It's gonna force me to keep a really open mind and it's gonna force me to make. I think my problem always has been is I don't make adjustments very quickly. I like to make sure it's not working for some reason. Like, okay, I'm gonna go throw it. I haven't got bit for two hours, but I'll I'm gonna give it one more hour just to make sure this isn't happening. And uh I won't have that opportunity in Super 60. Like, I gotta abandon ship quick when it's not working.

SPEAKER_03 36:53

Dude, you are like I this gives me hope that one day I can like close to the level of angler of Bryant Smith because your fishing style is the same way. Like when I when I find them in practice, it's like the last day of practice at 4 p.m. And I'm like, oh I found a couple of them. Nice. I got a starting spot for them. Like yeah, now we now we got something to build on. Yeah, exactly. Like I'm so good at eliminating water, and then I'm really good at just like wasting a bunch of time sticking around something that's not working.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Yeah, yeah, that's that's me. That's me. I gotta make sure it's not working. I gotta, you know, oh, I haven't got that in four hours. Let me give this spot one more hour. I see them down there, they're gonna bite eventually. No way, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

No, I I feel you, man. Like that's that's how I feel. And so I'm I'm excited for that exact thing. Is like it's gonna it's gonna really push me to uh to just fish free and really move around and um if I need to adjust and rather than uh get complacent. And I think like you said, in regular tournaments where you do get practice and back on the elite series and things like that for yourself, it puts you in a in maybe a different mindset or build some confidence of of really changing quick if you need to in a tournament situation.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Yeah. And you know, it's funny too, because in practice, like I said, I'll I'll I'll beat a dead horse. In a tournament, I'm a totally different angler. Um, like I I make adjustments when I'm when I'm fishing to what I feel is my full capability, I make adjustments really, really quick, um, quicker than I do in practice. But for some reason, if I've always told myself I need to practice more how I play, because that would totally help my practice. I would cover way more water, I would just keep rotating through things just like I do in a tournament. Like I don't I don't sit there in a tournament and you know watch myself die. I make sure I am gonna do everything, make every adjustment that I possibly can, unless I'm super dialed in on something. Like I've I just keep trying stuff in tournaments, but for some reason I do not practice how I play. And uh I think this is definitely gonna help me kind of kind of do that.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Man, and and I don't this is this is anecdotal in myself here, but I've thought about that lately too with myself the same way in practice where I spend so much time in an area. Like I looked at the my first day of practice on Don Pedro the first time, it was like, dude, I've been in this bay for since you know it's two o'clock now. Like, what am I doing? You know, I've seen none of the lake. Yeah, like I'm just sitting here, and and I think part of that, and this is just for me anyway, I've noticed that the last couple of years with forward facing, is I get really zoned in at just looking around at everything. And whereas before any of that, like I felt like I did cover more water, wasn't maybe as effective, and I covered, you know, Sam Rayburn, I'll just run 60 miles. I'm like, what am I doing? Um, but I feel like that has really slowed me down, and I agree. I need to maybe push the gas pedal a little more often in in practice when it's a practice situation.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Yeah, and that's a that's a great point. And the same thing has happened to me. The the forward facing has definitely slowed me down big time. Um, but it it's just something that I have to learn. Like this whole forward-facing thing has been a giant learning process, and and that's one thing that I definitely need to work on. Just because I see the fish doesn't mean that they're gonna bite, doesn't mean mean that I need to be there. Um, and you know, growing up, I was always the guy, you know, we'll take take Shasta for example. If I'm fishing Shasta, I'm fishing, I'm making two casts on a point and I'm leaving. I'm gonna try and fish as many points as possible throughout that day. That's how I've always fished. You know, clearly, same thing. If I'm like, okay, there's a dock pattern. I'm gonna fish as many docks as I can and put those odds in my favor to get it in front of the most active fish. I don't want to sit there. I've never been the guy that sits there and tries to figure out why they're not biting or what I can do to get them to bite. I just leave and go find more active fish. Forward facing has definitely slowed me down over these past couple years because now I know they're there and I try to figure out how to get them, just like what you were saying. You try to figure out how to get them to bite, but in reality, you just need to move on. Um, you just need to go find a different area, do a different pattern, whatever it may be. Uh, so that is definitely one big learning process that I'm still going through. Um, there's no doubt like a horribly embarrassing example of that would be Okeechobee. Um, I launched my boat, and I'm like, this is the first time I've ever really done the scout mode thing, the perspective for La Rance. And I'm looking around, I'm like, oh, this is awesome. Like, this is so cool. I can see everything. Like, there's the reed clump. And then I see this bed, this giant bed, and I have no idea that the tilapia are spawning right now. Like, just completely over my head. I'm like, oh, there's a good one in that hole. I swear to you, I fished for this fish for a half hour before I finally kind of poked up there and I see this giant white thing with the big googly eyes. I'm like, the half hour of my life that I just spent fishing for a tilapia. So it isn't bite either. Like you could No, I never got it to bite. I never got it to bite. Like, they don't they are the worst parents in the world. They're just completely you get close to their eggs and they just completely bolt. They have no care in the world. You guys are on your own. Sorry, I'm out. But this fish, I'm like, I've literally fished for a tilapia on a bed for a half hour. Like, just a complete idiot.

SPEAKER_03 43:29

Dude, that is hilarious. It's it's tough out here on the streets for the tilapia kids.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

The worst part was there's a there was a huge tilapia, like I guess they've spawned before, and all the tilapia fry was lining the banks and inches of water. Like that was the only place that they could go to where there's clear water and they felt like there's a little bit of safety. Hey, dude, every single fish that was under two pounds was on the bank eating the tilapia fry. I'm not kidding you. That tilapia fry are this big. I sat in one area on the lake for probably an hour, and the entire little bay, the whole edge of it was just little tilapia fry dying.

SPEAKER_03 44:15

Like it's it's increasing. What? By by bluegills and bass and everything?

SPEAKER_01 44:21

Bass, bluegill, mudfish, gar, birds, like I'm sure a few gators smoked a few, like everything was eating the tilapia. So I guess I guess I should kind of be impressed. Like if you do see a tilapia that's like three or four pounds, I'm like, you you made it through the gauntlet. Your parents clearly abandoned you. You made it through getting eaten, and you're here. So good for you.

SPEAKER_03 44:51

Yeah, you may you maybe need to tip the cap to a tilapia more often. Yeah, like had a rough life, but he made it. But he made it. Successfully. Oh. Well, man, I think we kind of get close to wrapping things up here. But uh tell the folks I've been seeing and I've listened to a couple of your episodes now. It's just hilarious the banter between you and Boomer. Um and Bo for that matter, just cracks me up. But uh, but give some folks some background on uh on Alpha Bass Cast.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Yeah, um that's our I guess you could call it a podcast. It's kind of more of a another word show. Uh it's uh it's just us, you know. We're we're trying to, just like you guys at Terry Fangler with the Sirius Western, we're just trying to grow the sport on the West Coast. Um, we want, you know, we got our roots here. This is where I started, this is where you know Jake started, where Bo started. Um we just want to, you know, kind of talk about the West Coast and try to keep it relevant because there's a lot of there's a ton of great anglers. There's a huge angler base in the West Coast, and a lot of times I feel like we kind of get forgotten by the mainstream, if you want to call it, the national media, bass fishing media. And uh, you know, we just want to show some love and and you know, kind of build bass fishing back up on the West Coast because I mean it's not gone by any means. Um it's had a few rough years, just like everybody has. And uh, if we could spread some more positivity, kind of bring a spotlight to West Coast fishing. I mean, that's that's what we that's what our goal is, and just try to keep building West Coast fishing. So more guys have opportunities like I've had, you know, I've been super blessed to to be able to come up on West Coast and actually make it to the National Circuit. Like I want, I want to see more West Coast guys on National Circuit. I want to see Bam Super 60, like just killing it. I want to see one bass doing really well. Um because they you know, it's where I grew up. So that that was our main goal with it, and uh, you know, I get to give Jake a bunch of crap too. So um that's always a fun time making fun of him. I always enjoy that. Kind of one of my my hobbies that I do on the side. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 47:19

That's it's always the most fun giving Jake Crap. I think that's that's one of my favorite things to do. It's that's it is he's such an easy target. He's like, I yeah, I was walking by and I heard like that you caught a 10 or something, and I was like, Adam? It couldn't be Adam, there's no way. And he's like, Yeah, shut up, Jake. Yeah, I can catch a 10 every once in a while, mate. Oh, he's such a clown. Well, sweet man. Well, I'm looking forward to hanging with you and with Jake and Bo and all those guys, certainly some more with the Super 60. Um will be really cool. Bailey is gonna come out to those events, he will be at this next one. And we're gonna do a live show um after with uh the winner in the top 10, or or certainly the winner at least, kind of after Championship Sunday, whoever that may be. So that's awesome. Excited to push more of the Western stuff with Sirius Angler, and that's a huge goal of ours uh as well. So great to great to see that. And the more eyes, the better, and we can just push more of the West Coast.

SPEAKER_01 48:24

Heck yeah, that's what it's all about, man. Growing the sport. That's what we're here for.

SPEAKER_03 48:29

Heck yeah. All right, man. Well, have a great rest of your night.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

All right, you do the same.

SPEAKER_00 48:33

All right, folks, and that's gonna do it for today's episode again. A little throwback show. Hopefully, you guys added some little tidbits to your game from the stuff that Bryant Smith was talking about. Uh, always, always a trait to get him on the show. He's a great dude and even better speaker. And uh what you guys have looking forward to is on Wednesday, we'll have a new Tears Angler episode, and we'll actually have Zach Burge back on the show, who's just been on a freaking heater, it seems like the past few years. So we'll have Zach on talk about a little bit of that and some awesome and dive into a little bit more juice as well. So appreciate you guys taking time out of your day to listen to the show. We much appreciate it, and I'll see y'all on the next one.