Where Do Bass Go Right After the Spawn?

Wondering where bass go immediately after the spawn and how to catch them when they are exhausted and finicky? In this episode of Serious Angler, Bassmaster Elite Series pro Sam Hanggi breaks down his exact blueprint for targeting postspawn bass, breaking down his incredible 2nd place finish at Lake Murray.

We dive deep into the postspawn transition, detailing exactly how bass move from their spawning beds to intermediate transition zones, and how the blueback herring spawn completely changes their behavior. Sam reveals his strict elimination process for finding the best docks for bass fishing, including the exact depth, shade angles, and deep-water access points he looks for when skipping docks in the afternoon.

If you want to master postspawn bass fishing on docks and dial in your finesse bait setups for tough summer transitions, this masterclass is for you!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right. Welcome everyone to the Serious Scientl Podcast, where as always, our main course for you will be talking and hopefully teaching them more about bass fishing. And of course, some random rabbit holes here and there. Whether you're here to learn or just hear some bass and conversation, you guys are in the right spot. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Igbrett, and joined with me is Idaho's finist, Mr. Adam Deacon. Deeke, how's it going on the Pacific Northwest, dude?

SPEAKER_04 0:23

Good, man. Things are good. Busy as all get out, fishing when we can, messing around with some no new Okuma gear, which has been a lot of fun. Um, pretty excited about what's to come there. Uh, but overall, man, fishing's good. Classic spring rocking and rolling. We're into May now, which is uh just a I mean fantastic month to be out in the out in the outdoors, be out on the water. But yeah, that's what we're doing around here.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

What about you? Dude, it's been a really, really, really weird year of fishing in the north. Um I feel like we never got spring. Like, I feel like a couple weeks ago I was fishing in like 44 degree water, if not colder, and they're like super, super lethargic, and now all of a sudden they're on beds. And there were there was no like pre-spawn staging, none of that that I got to experience. Granted, I traveled a lot around the country between then, but like from talking with buddies that fish hard this time of year, like it was just here and gone. Like there was no, you know, throw a chatterbait or jerkbait, whatever, on the points and catch a pile of them. Like, and it was super hot and super cold and super hot and super cold. And I had it like really weird. Like, you'd either smash them or it would suck. Really strange, but interesting. Um, yeah, like we were already on we already have fish on beds. I was I tried to send it for a quick frog sesh this morning, and um I caught some big ones. Uh I dumped like a freaking seven on a frog this morning, which was lovely. Um, but they're freaking, I just I'm like, man, why am I not getting bit in the frog? And then finally the sun comes up higher, and I'm looking down, I'm like, oh, it's because they're all on beds everywhere. That's that's why. Uh, and they're like super weary to stuff. And all I brought was a frog rod and a swim jig rod with braid, and they wouldn't touch a swim jig for whatever reason, but um still got to catch a bunch on a frog, so fun. And uh say what? What was your water tent? No idea. I didn't bring a graph with me at all. Got it. Yeah, it was one of those deals where like I'm gonna go send it for four or five hours and I'm bringing two rods. And if they don't eat this, then well, I guess we're going home. They ain't eat, yeah. Yeah, yeah. A little bit of a jam sesh because we're gonna be editing all week, pods all week. Um, so you go to Santee next week, at least Sunday. Got a week on Santee, which looks like after watching the elite event, it's gonna be a lot of fun. I hope. Knock on wood. Uh Unreal. Shout out to Chris Johnson for freaking banging him. Um and BP too. I know he had a struggle on the last day, but watching him on live those couple days was freaking sick. Um, but I don't know if I've gone over the schedule with everybody, but like, dude, I come home Sunday the following week. I drive after day two, drive immediately home 12 hours. I have that Monday basically to unpack and repack a limited amount of tackle. I have like three evolution boxes and two bag uh softbait bags. Rods have already been shipped to California because I fly to Clear Lake to fish a derb out there. Staying at our boy Chad's house, stay there till Tuesday. So hopefully I can peer pressure Chad into going back out on Clear Lake that Monday after the fact. There you go. Uh, and then come home and then immediately pack the truck again, go to Cayuga, and we have four tournaments in two days uh on Cayuga the following week. So I have like three straight weeks of just derbs. Dude, that's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

My sleep is gonna be terrible the next three weeks.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Sleep score is not gonna look good.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

No, it's not gonna not gonna be great, but uh I'm very, very excited for it and sleeping for three days straight once it's all said and done. Heck yeah, love it. Yeah, dude. But uh great episode coming up today. We got Mr. Sam Hangi joining the show, and uh, we dive into a lot of postpon fishing, especially heavy on the dock talk, heavy on the koiky talk. You guys have been getting a lot of koiky talk lately, but for good reason, as it's literally the hottest bait in bass fishing right now. We talk about it in terms of fishing it with forward and without forward. Uh, so all of our non-forward-facing users, there's if you if you don't think that the koikie is just a forward-facing bait, Chris Johnson, Pollinick, a bunch of guys showed that this week that it is not just a scope bait. That is there's a lot of different ways. I think we are just opening that can of worms and how that bait can be utilized. Um, but definitely seems like a big fish bait, dude. Like it's we're just tapping into that right now.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

But dude, 100%. Yeah, this is a good one. I mean, first of all, my first time talking to Sam Hangey. What a dude. Uh, great to just hear everything, how he got into the uh great game of tournament bass fishing. And he's just a straight shooter, it seems like, right? I mean, says it how it is, this is how he's doing things. Uh huh. Didn't hide anything. No, just leaving it all out on the table. So uh super cool episode for digging into one guy's thoughts, certainly, on how to fish the Koiky and around that post-spawn time frame.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yeah, absolutely, dude. Well, awesome episode that we'll get into a little bit, but we have a little bit of business to go through with you guys. Um, one of the first things I want to say is, guys, if you are not, if especially I'm speaking to the fishing guides here, if you're not checking out the new version, version two of the blood knot app, I highly encourage you to because if you're serious about making fishing guiding your actual business, your life, the Bloodknot app is the only app to go to. With all of the AI automation, the communication you can do that have AI communicating with current, past, and potential future uh clients for you while you're currently out guiding and making making money and catching fish. It does all that for you, and it makes us the process of basically one stop shop for all of your stuff from calendar to communications to payment process, all that, and especially with it being completely free for you as a guide, check out the Blood Knot app. Uh, we'll have the link down below. You guys can go check that out if you're a fishing guide or looking to become a fishing guide. Um, being free and being very intuitive and one dashboard, definitely uh encourage you to go do so. But uh with that being said, too, we got some more business for you guys, a little bit of business anyway. And uh Deke, what do we got? A little bit of what's the buzz been around the industry?

SPEAKER_04 6:52

Yeah, guys, business for the bass boat section brought to you by our friends over at Rec Lending. If you are in the market, go get yourself uh acquainted with the rec lending crew to talk about financing a boat or a recreational vehicle. Saw that there's talk of the Fed potentially raising interest rates, so may want to hop on that. Um, yeah, exactly. More stuff. Uh the world's falling apart in shambles, anyways. Uh go bass fishing. Go bass fishing. It's we'll make you feel better, anyways. Um, okay. So buzz around the industry. You know, we've had a couple of uh watched Chris Johnson win on Santee over this last weekend, blowout, unbelievable final day. Great, great way. I mean, do that dude just a closer when it comes down to things.

SPEAKER_02 7:41

I mean, dude, the whole field was closers, like watching Corey and BP and all these boys, like that whole field was all closers.

SPEAKER_04 7:52

Dude, unbelievable to watch those guys fish at that level. Um, so super, super fun watching that. We've got heavy hitters going on right now on the BPT side of things. Uh Michael Neal catching a great big one, 11 PB for him on uh on punching. Like, I mean, dude, it doesn't come on with it. Like, he's just like he didn't care at all that he had caught the biggest fish that day. He was just like, dude, I finally caught a 10-pounder, you know, and he and then it was 11. And he was like, You gotta be kidding me.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

Yeah, pretty epic. Today it looks like uh, as we're recording this on a Monday, because it goes until the 21st, Terry Scrogins is in the lead, 78 pounds. He has 25 pounds over Cole Floyd, who just won. Um, and he but his big bass is only four pounds. But there's been a pile of fives. Ron Nelson is a 9-10. Um, some sevens, some eights. Uh, and then Aunt Defoe literally just like while we were recording this podcast, caught a 10-pound one-ounce bass. So I'm excited to go to the over the major league fishing media and watch all these freaking magnums getting caught. Dude, quickly diving into this Orange Lake, I think it was the perfect storm for them. Because I don't know if you knew about this whole Orange Lake thing. So Orange Lake was on Bassmasters, like it was in their top 10 list of like top 10 lakes in the country. Okay. Probably one of Florida's best lakes. It was so low earlier this year that boats couldn't get in there. Um, there's like really one main launch because I've been there one time. Um and it was so low that they were actually, I'd heard a rumor that they might be canceling it because it was so low. So it must have come up enough where they get the boats in. But dude, what it did is like those fish weren't getting touched. And so now you have some of the best in the world out there again.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

So they're just catching hammers, dude. Dude, what a what a perfect storm. That's awesome. Pretty sick. Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:57

Well, the last the last bit of buzz that I picked up on this is a wired to fish article. Um, with uh Fish and Chaos is putting on this live stream event, team event. So this is kind of similar to what we're seeing on the Bassmaster team stuff. Uh, afternoon style, noon to seven, it says a lot of lot of personalities, both professional anglers as well as just personalities within the fishing industry. This is going to be a live streamed event and kind of just this more as technology, I think, gets better. We're seeing the use of Starlink and all these other things. More live stream events are becoming maybe more economical to organizations versus the traditional 10 camera guys on an Abbassmaster Elite Series event live going out there. So I think we'll see more of this. I think it's a really cool take. I hope we keep seeing more of this. I enjoy watching live fishing and uh another opportunity for a different one-off kind of tournament.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Yeah, and it's a mix of some big name pros, like you got the Jordan Lees and things in there, and you have content creators mixed in there, Matt Pangrak from BTL. You kind of have a whole commingle of personalities of people, and it by the sounds of it, is I mean, we saw some success of other people doing this thing, like you mentioned short-term fishing, like a couple hours, not eight hours of live coverage, but like three to four hours. Um, and I know Dave Mercer has been a big proponent of this, where just in the age of shortened attention spans, um, that might be the move where it's like, hey, I only have 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. I'm not saying those are the hours, I don't know what the hours are gonna be for this tournament. Um, like I gotta be tuned in these hours. It's not like past live where it's like, hey, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. I can tune in anytime and just see what's going on. Um, so looking forward to seeing what they're gonna what they're gonna do. Sounds like it might be an ongoing thing. Uh sounds like they're gonna start at Lake Gunnersville from what the uh press release mentioned, uh, which if you're gonna go have some fun the summer anywhere, Lake Gunnersville, we can catch them from two inches to 20 feet. Uh it sounds like they're gonna have a good time. But uh yeah, it'll be interesting, man. See what it turns into.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

I like it. I like it. I think it also uh we gotta keep exploring in our sport to continue to make it grow what what is going to move the needle with fans. Um, and I like the concept of a shorter shorter deal, right? Like if the general population can get off work and watch something in the evening and have it be a quicker tournament style thing that's exciting to watch for a short period of time, uh, that's attractive to me and it's different. It's not what we're used to right now. So I like pushing the barrier and um just doing one of those things.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Yeah, and less polished too. You know, I think that's one thing that is more relatable to the general public of anglers is guys that aren't in jerseys, guys that you know might be shooting the shit, you know, talking a little crap, you know. I think uh you look at like the Bassmaster Tuesday nighter thing, none of those guys were in jerseys and they were just getting wild on live. I mean, Mike Iconelli is amazing on live regardless of where he's at. Uh, but like when you have that kind of banter, smack talk, it's relatable because it's like even for people that don't fish any tournaments, you still go out fishing with your buddies, and you're always talking crap to your buddies regardless. Uh, and it's very relatable. So I think it creates an environment for more people to tune in, be entertaining. Um, and not that your normal MLF and B and uh bass live coverage isn't entertaining, but it's for specific segments of people like yourself and I where like we can be in tune and entertained by somebody complete silence and watching them break down water for eight hours. Yeah, where the majority of people they they want to see some action. I mean, if they're not seeing action, they want to hear somebody shit talking to somebody else. So it's uh we're gonna get all that. And I think, yeah, to your point, I think it's great for the sport. We see see the some diversification.

SPEAKER_04 14:10

Heck yeah, man. Yeah, totally agree.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

Yeah, well, before we get into it with Sam, uh quick reminder to you guys um Omni Affishing right now, you can save up to $300 on Mankoda products until June 24th. So you got a little bit over a month uh to still save on those products, and some new arrivals just came in as well. Uh VMC just dropped the switch jig, which is basically kind of like the Okashir head, but you're gonna have a VMC red line in it. Um, some different options in regards to uh weight size of the jig head. Uh new owner ringed soft bait hook. I'm I love a ringed EWG, big fan. Um, so check those out. Obviously, owner makes some pretty badass hooks as well. And then, dude, a new one, I think this is gonna be kind of similar to the that G crack Nico mod. Okay, they're called super bait locks, where it's basically kind of like an insert that has the different holes that you can put into. So, like for wacky rigging, Nico rig. Uh, I've seen people use them for dice baits and stuff like that. Uh a new option that looks like a more kind of built-tough, if you will, uh version of that. So, some cool new arrivals. Make sure if you guys are like me, I want to see what's new and I want to see it for everybody else. So I'm actively refreshing that new arrivals tab every morning when I wake up. Uh, so check in on that and get it for everybody else does. And as always, you guys can use code series 10, get 10% off your order, uh especially for our pro members. Save some money off and get money back. Um, but some awesome stuff going on over at Omni Efficient. And Deke, I think without further ado, let's get on Mr. Sam Hangy.

SPEAKER_04 15:44

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

All right, folks, we're with another young gun here on the Elite Series and uh another member of uh a good a good group of guys that are close here to the Sirius Angler Podcast and the network, the U Call crew. Uh, we got Mr. Sam Hangi in the house. What's up, dude?

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Appreciate you boys for having me.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Yeah, man. Uh good to get you on here. And uh, we were talking offline about a bunch of stuff, Deke. Um, but obviously joining the U Call team. One, they make some badass routes, but two, them boys freaking, oh my gosh. I'm telling them, Deke, dude. It's like I open up Instagram every other day, and there's a new 10-pounder from Hunter or Tristan or somebody. Like it's yeah, they're the most hand catching this for the team.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

I thought I thought you were gonna say those boys make a mean margarita because they do that too.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Yeah, they uh they put a hurting on me last last classic. That's for nature. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

No, they're they're fun to fish with and they're fun to hit the town with for sure.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

They know how to classic. That's that's for nature. Oh, that's awesome. Uh well, dude, uh, how is it so far for you on the elites, man? What's the experience been like?

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Bro, it's been it has been crazy. I mean, number one, it's just been like dream come true. Like, since I was little, I've wanted to fish the elites. So the whole thing's been pretty surreal. Just who I'm fishing against and like the people I've met this year. But as far as the tournaments, it's been a literal roller coaster. Like, I've I had my best tournament of my career so far at Murray, and then I've also had, I mean, some of the worst of my career this year. Like, it's it's been a challenging year for me. Um but dude, it's been the coolest thing I have ever done, hands down. Like every tournament, whether I do good or bad, has just been like hard for me to wrap my mind around like who I'm there with and who I'm fishing against. I mean, it's been it's been unbelievable. All like I held it at like such a hot. I don't know, I just like put the elites on such a pedestal when I was a kid, and it's definitely it's definitely lived up to the hype that I've had in my head for sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:51

Well, dude, I mean, you're fishing against some of the best in the world, so challenging is is definitely an understatement uh in that regard. But dude, I gotta tell you, it is pretty cool. Um, from from where I sit as a fan of the sport, and obviously uh uh Deacon and I getting the the opportunity, and we're grateful to obviously get a bunch of you know the top pros in the world on here to drop some knowledge. But um, dude, my former gig at gunpowder, you know, obviously I worked very close with Wired to Fish and Todd Hamill over there, and I uh would have like these monthly check-ins with Todd, and he's like, Yeah, we're hiring this new guy. Uh, do you know of a Sam Hangy? I'm like, Yeah, he fishes college, doesn't he? He's like, Yeah, he's gonna he's gonna come work for us, but the kid wants to fish tournaments.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

And I'm like, Well, you need somebody who knows what they're talking about, and if you fish derbs, it means he's ate up with it, and now here you are, dude, on the freaking Elite series, man.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Crazy, bro. Yeah, it's been a crazy post-college, it's been the most unbelievable roller coaster of a ride I could have ever imagined. Seriously.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Yeah. Was that the goal going into college? Was to make it to this platform, or what was the goal going into freshman year?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

Dude, I didn't I didn't really know how serious I was gonna take it, to be honest with you. Like, the whole reason I went to Auburn was the fishing team and was because I like to fish, but I also wasn't like like I didn't fish on a high school team. I went to like a private school with without a team. My parents were really big into the outdoors, like I grew up like fishing, but not like not like tournament fishing. Like I grew up like throwing a wacky room off the bank and like taking a John boat out and just like throwing a jig at the bank, like not knowing anything. And like did a bunch of hunting trips and stuff. Like, I was really involved in the outdoors, and I thought I wanted to fish on the fishing team because I watched the the Lee brothers and Steve Kennedy and all the guys that rep Auburn. Um that's what made me want to go there, but I didn't have a boat or anything when I got there. I wasn't super like familiar with how the whole college process worked. And I actually went there with a pre-law major, thought I was gonna be a lawyer when I went down there, and like the fishing thing was just gonna be something I did for fun. And I fished, I fished as a co-angler with one of my fraternity brothers for my freshman year. So he kind of just showed me the deal and got to fish a few tournaments, really enjoyed it, ended up not doing the fraternity deal and just going full in with the fishing stuff. And I saved up and bought like a it was like a 16-foot like 1990s Ranger with a 125. And I fished my first tournament was Lake Cumberland, and I think I got like 11th or 12th place. And I remember calling my mom after that tournament and being like, This is I'm not gonna, I'm not going to law school. This is this is what I'm gonna do for sure. And literally after that tournament, dude, I quit any other extracurricular I was doing, pretty much never went to another football game, nothing, fished every single day and made friends with. I was super lucky to have guys like Tucker and Hayden and Logan and like just a group of guys that were like insanely good at fishing and just so much better than me at the time to like to learn from, and it just was kind of the perfect storm with being in college and not having a bunch of responsibilities and having guys around me that knew what the hell they were doing, and yeah, just got super into it. And then by senior year, I knew for a fact that I was gonna fish and do this whole deal.

SPEAKER_04 21:15

So it was kind of a progression throughout college, to be honest, so so impressive to me because you see kids now ate up with it, you know, kind of being trained their entire life, right? Absolutely. I mean from a young age, and when you think of other sports and compare things, it's like you guys don't have a shot, generally speaking. The majority of the population, if you haven't been say you're in uh into hockey, for instance, right? Like if you aren't playing at an extreme club level from a young age to even have a a chance to kind of like build the ranks and go somewhere, and and fishing is not far behind that, right? Like there's just a a immense amount of guys that are spending all their time doing this at a young age and parents that are supporting them and building that whole path forward. And dude, you like went from fishing a wacky rig on the bank to you know being ate up in a four-year period. Like that's freaking nuts. Like dude, it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

It's crazy for me. It's it's hard for me to believe for real. Like even two years ago I felt like I mean I still feel like I don't know like I I know I have a bunch more to progress on obviously but like even in looking myself as an angler two years ago it's crazy um how much you can progress just by fishing every day for a year straight. I mean if you go every day for a year it's crazy amount of time and just crazy amount you can learn especially if you have like the support from your folks and your friends and stuff. I mean it it makes the world a difference. That's that's something I got lucky with and I definitely would not have been able to make the elites or do the whole opens deal was just without my folks loving the outdoors the way they do. Like they don't they don't participate in tournaments by any means or like fish competitively but like my mom's my mom hunts all over the world my dad hunts all and fishes all over the world my sisters barrel races for Colorado State does rodeo travels 247 so like I got an outdoor family for sure.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

Dude I went to Colorado State I fished for real of all places yeah no kidding that's crazy yeah my sister's a uh yeah my sister's a freshman out there right now she rodeos for the team what do you study in dude dude don't put don't put me on the spot like that I think it's I think it's like vet big animal vets or something she does she does rodeo bro dude she does it yeah well I I hung out with a lot of the rodeo like fishing and rodeo to me are very similar like yeah right um but I studied agricultural business and real estate at at CSU and so it was a lot of like ag rodeo crossover and then fishing crossover so that's that's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

I love what year did you graduate?

SPEAKER_04 24:01

I graduated in dating myself here 2018 is when I okay yeah that's crazy. That's that's I must tell my sister I did it with a CSU alum there you go man there you go that's wild but man are we are we old enough to say that we're dating ourselves yet Deacon because I graduated 19 are are we that age now I don't know man I I graduated high school in 19 here we go here we go that's when I run into it with these like mid 20s somethings it's always like whenever I talk about graduating college that's when they graduated high school I'm like dude I mean just the age difference in that when you think about it when you're in that age group it's not a big age group difference now.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

No you're in college and you think about a high school you're like what like this is yeah no literally shit I feel old now it's horrible it's it's insane how good some of these young guys are I mean I I'm not even considered like one of the young guys I feel like anymore to be honest like 25 there's tons of guys that are like 17 to 21 that are insane like it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

You're still you're still in that group yeah still young still young it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Enjoy it enjoy while it lasts I I turned 28 this past fall and I on my birthday Ty Manarola texts me says happy birthday Unk and I'm like is this when it starts I got the I'm unk status already before I hit 30 yeah you're watching forever I get called from both Ty and Tyler forever unk like I'm just I'm just the unk of the of the group and and that's just what it is.

SPEAKER_04 25:36

And I've honestly I've leaned into it I'm like this is sick man I'll be the unk.

SPEAKER_03 25:39

What else you guys do god that's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 25:45

Uh well dude I want to dive into a little bit of honestly your recent derbs but also some post spawn fishing with you um because we saw some pretty cool stuff at Santee saw it at Murray um because I feel like dude some of the fish you were catching at Murray is very similar to how Chris Johnson just won at Santee 100% yeah it's the exact same thing deal yeah and and talking about looking at spawning bays and finding like the nearest docks towards the the mouths of these bays is like at least that's how Chris described it on live and it looked very similar to what you were doing when you left the herring bay um so like when you know those those the bass are getting off bed like what is the first thing that you go look for what do you like to go see and check first when you know like this is the heat of the post spawn they're leaving the bed let's go find them here.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah I mean a lot of those fish most of those fish still stay shallow for a while like it's not like I feel like a lot of guys think that like a fish spawns they get done spawning and it's like a beeline to a ledge at least at least where we're at like you got guys like going to the ledges like mid April like waiting for those post spawners to come out and I don't know I just I feel like you can you can do really well for a long time after the spawn still targeting those like shallow post spawners like Chris did and like I did at Murray the other week but dude it depends on the conditions for real like on the cloudy days at that tournament I didn't really focus on docks as much and I would just kind of rip around up shallow have my trolling motor a lot on a lot higher speed and really just do try your best just to do fish ID on scope and throw it every dot you see cruising up shallow and figure out figure out which one of those are bass just on how they're acting and kind of what I did in practice was I just covered you go to a creek and you say fish respawn in the back of the creek. I'm looking for those steeper banks transition banks that are leading back into those pockets um whether it's a shallow point or a stretch with docks just like something that those fish use to either migrate on or feed on in any piece of structure or good looking area that I see that a pre-spawn or a post spawn bass might stage on that's what I'm gonna go look at in practice. And for me it was just kind of finding areas with the most fish and then on tournament day just figuring out what those fish are setting up on because every day the fish would be on different stuff. Like I would go down a stretch and the day before when it was cloudy they were just all random spread out all over some of them would be in a foot of water cruising some of them would be 10 feet off the bank on a stump like all sorts of stuff and then the sun would come out and you wouldn't see them anywhere and you'd go to a dock you wouldn't see them you'd look up shallow you wouldn't see them then all of a sudden you'd get to a dock and there'd be 35 pounders under the dock and it was just like every fish on the stretch congregated under one certain dock and then you would fish that dock catch one leave for a couple hours come back catch another one leave it was it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Whoa it was crazy had a little post spawn kumbaya before they go eight balls.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Yeah no seriously and they're like hey look a cloikey it was wild though dude some of those fish catches like like that seven pounder that I had on day two I had no idea that like there was that size of fish or that many fish on the stretch like what it happened in practice is I fished down it and I caught like a three and a half and a four pounder just cruising up shallow like didn't see anything crazy but like saw some fish on scope caught a couple decent ones and I was like all right yeah like there's some biting fish in the area came back on came back on day two of the tournament because it was sunny and was fishing down it didn't see anything down the whole stretch and there was two docks on this point and about four foot of water and just like I said I went through the stretch hadn't seen anything like it was like they all left and I got to these last two docks shine under the first one and I can see like five big blobs like right up under the floating docks where you can't skip to just like swimming around like sharking under the dock basically and I sit there trying to get my quirky tomb and I couldn't get to it and like went around to the side of the dock where there was a slit in the in the floating docks where about a one foot wide slit where I could skip my bait in there. And dude I skipped it in there and it was like all five of them just started fighting for it. And I like set the hook and missed one and it came flying out skipped it in there again and six pounder hopped on it and caught it and rolled over caught it they shut down after I caught the fish rolled to the next dock exact same thing there's 10 fish under there and there was one that looked like a beluga whale and I sat there I sat there because that the second one you couldn't even skip because it was just a solid floating dock nothing under to skip sat there until they swam out to the side of the dock where I could get a bait to them and first cast they saw saw the bait at seven seven and a quarter eight it was crazy and then just ran that dock to you all day in the sun and found two more docks that they were just loaded under and only tricked one of them off each dock but they were all grown ones it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 30:46

Dang dude it was crazy dude crazy insane to me like it's interesting that they all group under one dock together right it was wild.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Do you think that that's specific to a herring thing to because they like hunt a lot in groups when it comes to herring or do you think that that's just I mean we obviously know bass school up on different places but just when I think of a row of docks in my head like there is always that one dock you look on scope and you're like oh my gosh there's a yeah there's a group but there's always like you know a couple it's super interesting so yeah it was crazy I don't I don't think it's like specific to the herring deal I think it was just a conditions thing like I don't know it was weird you would look under some docks and just not see anything like no bait no nothing like it was just dock and then you go to another bait or another dock and there would be like a hundred million bluegill under it and like I it was weird like certain fish were just grouping up on certain docks and I've seen that on other fisheries as well where like certain docks just for whatever reason bass prefer them over the others and that's just the one they choose to group up on um but I've never seen such large groups of fish I've never seen that large of groups get on a dock um it was pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Were they like wooden met like was there a certain composition to the dock that separated them from each other or is it just literally run them not really they all had like big posts and a lot of the groups were suspended on like the big pylons of the dock.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

So I think that played but dude not really one of the docks had a giant pine tree underneath it and they were like all suspended on top of the pine tree um so like I no one no one thing that you could run run all over the lake by any means but it was just kind of when you saw it on scope it was like oh that's that's the dock they're on this one. I mean every fish I caught on day two I called my shot before actually casting to it I would see the dock and be like oh my gosh they are on this thing. And then within five minutes you'd catch one.

SPEAKER_02 32:46

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SPEAKER_01 33:09

And then you wouldn't you wouldn't fish for that dock again you'd come back to it because you can yeah they would just lock up because I mean usually if you got one to see it usually the whole group's coming out um so you would catch that one and then the whole group would be out in the front of the dock and they'd kind of look at your bait but they'd pretty much shut off and then you just keep ripping around. But like I said when the clouds come out like I tried to do it on day three and I mean there were so many fish under those docks like it was after day two and I was like man I know it's gonna be cloudy and it's probably not going to be as good but like I saw so many big fish that like I have to go run those docks like I would be I'm gonna hate myself if I if I don't even check them and I don't come in with a good bag. And I spent like the first three quarters of my day checking docks and shallow stretches back where I'd caught them the first day and didn't find anything. And then when I caught that uh I think I had like 11 pounds and then I had a secondary creek that I caught some fish out of in practice just little ones and ran up there with like two hours left and apparently they weren't as small as I thought and just caught two four like a four or five and like an almost seven pounder in like an hour. And it was crazy. Like gosh it was the most like trying to think of the right word just like exhilarating tournament I fished in a long time just because like with the bite I was doing it just wasn't like an easy limit. Like it would take all day to like put a bag together. So like every fish catch you would have was just like so exciting because like you're building your bag throughout the course of the day. So like you did there's so much anticipation for the next time you caught one and it seemed that like every time you would catch one it would be a four plus pounder that so much fun.

SPEAKER_04 34:51

So much fun that's like that's tournament fishing right there man.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

That's what makes it so exciting to me is that 100% now with with without scope and obviously say the water's not you can't visually say see that pine tree the cover that's within those docks that makes those docks as high percentage as they are I mean I feel like the only way you can really do that is side scan it right that's what the only way you can tell what's under there.

SPEAKER_01 35:16

Yeah side scanning or I mean if it gets under certain conditions like really sunny you can kind of pattern it with your eyes like some of those fish will sit right up under the floats like you saw what Chris Johnson was doing where like so he's targeting those shade pockets or targeting um like the black floating docks that hold heat like so you can do some of that stuff without any electronics but a lot of the ones that I was doing you really needed live scope to catch those fish outside of the few sight fish that I caught on day four um primarily it was just like they're suspended on a dog post 10 feet under the water and like you would have never you would have never seen them. Whether you were on side or not like you could have found some of those brush piles like the ones with the pine tree but it still took me 15 casts to catch one out of it just because they were deep and moving around and it was hard to hard to get them to see the bait and I was fishing a little more dirty water but you know that on both Murray and Santee right now everyone and their mother skipping docks with Koikis right now.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Dude when I got because I I had a horrible tournament at Santee and when I got done with day two and I looked at live coverage and saw that everyone was catching them skipping a quiky on docks I was like oh my gosh you've got to be kidding me that is unbelievable there are a lot of uh a lot of Karens uh that have houses on the lakes that right now are probably pretty pissed off with all these all these guys and they're fuzzy balls skipping my doc it's crazy dude it's the new wave it is the new wave that is for sure yeah it's like one of those things right to me where you're you're behind always when you hear about it like now right like this has been going right we know that unfortunately like you're you're like you missed it potentially but there's still so much happening on it right but it's like dude I mean it really put it into perspective this week for me anyway I was able to watch some of the live on uh Santee and it was just like dude I mean the the amount of just conversation that guys were having like Polinick talking about how a guy paid 2200 bucks for a box of 10 of them like I mean just the the stuff it's like you know you always think about it like okay well these guys have a connection or can get it whatever else and it's like when you see Chris Johnson jumping in the water or was it Corey I don't remember which one of them is like dude this is nuts like this is actually crazy.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Bro you can't get them like it's it's so hard to get those baits it's it's unbelievable. I mean sure just see how fast it kind of dies off or like how how long it takes for fish to start to get like they are with the minnow where like your conversion rate goes way down um dude big conversational topic I've had that conversation with eight people over the weekend you know what I mean like when does this end?

SPEAKER_04 38:03

Is it gonna be which type is this is an A-rig or is it a Sanko right? Like which one which caliber I'd love to hear your thoughts on on it.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah I feel like it's like a mag draft dude like it'll always play like it'll always play but like you remember when the mag draft first became the thing and it was like every bass you for there it was like two three straight years where like every bass you put that swim bait in front of like you're gonna catch it and they still bite it really well but like the craze has died off a little bit and like I feel like it'll be a lot like that like it'll be a tournament bait for the rest of time but I don't think you're gonna see like a hundred out of a hundred people only throwing it in every tournament like it is right now. Um kind of like the jackhammer and like the like I don't know just like all the big baits like it'll always be a thing and it's never going to go away but I don't think that bass fishing for the rest of time is just going to be throwing Koikis at docks or whatever or whatever. But but no it's gonna play for a while dude I mean it's it's pretty unbelievable how well that some of those fish react to it. It's crazy man it's crazy it's like a glide bait except they actually eat it every time like it's it blows me away I bought one I bought a Koiky off eBay like two and a half years ago I just saw it and was like dude this is the craziest thing I've ever seen and just like ordered it and dude I literally kept it in my truck and just like played with it while I was driving down the road for like never even threw it.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

Yeah you never even threw it I know I remember at Clark's Hill at the open at Clark's Hill last year one of my buddies got in the truck and he was looking at it and he was like dude what the hell is this thing and I was like oh I don't know isn't that the dumbest bait you've ever seen and he was like yeah no way this works and I was like oh no no chance dude no chance that works I've said it so many times on this show but that is like two years ago that's when my mind changed when I'm scrolling social media or I'm browsing a tackle shop whatever it is and I'm like that's stupid I you have to buy it then yeah I'll I'll never make that mistake again guaranteed year later you look on live coverage you're like well it's smoking I guess it's the best bait in the world guess I was wrong I mean this is one that like I go back to and it's a smaller one but it's one of those that like took over the world especially in the post spawn for a minute I thought the whopper plopper was the dumbest looking thing like what is this musky lure and then it was like oh like it gets drilled dude like yeah it blows me away makes you feel like an idiot for writing it off in the beginning we were just talking about that Deke offline a little bit uh Cole Floyd with the with the whopper plopper at heavy hitters down in Florida caught the seven and had one that was from from IV and even JT Kenny said he thinks was 10 plus that like just freaking two feet out of the water yeah yeah free willing is that like I've seen that I think on social that's crazy. Yeah wild nuts with that dude uh but man like capping off the conversation about dock fishing especially this time of year it's forever reason I I personally hate fishing docks for especially up here just because everyone does it um and it's something I need to get over especially done by you know the rest of the Bastin world is docks always play but this time of year is an awesome time to be fishing docks exactly for the reasons that you caught them that Chris Johnson caught him it take your situation from Murray away what is like the ideal dock that you look for depth wise is it half cover does it have forage around it like what is what is a dock that you look at and you're like I'm gonna catch a bass off that yeah dude something something that's just like around somewhere where you think fish would spawn um it's just like basically the geographic location of a dock and one that doesn't have I don't know just depth as well um but the biggest thing's geographic location like you want to be around a spawning bay you want to be around a major creek somewhere that has a large population of fish um like the docks that I was fishing in that tournament would be towards the back of a creek in a spawning bay and it's the first last row of docks before you get to the back of that creek.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Just anywhere in your mind that you can justify a fish would pull up and use throughout the course of their spawn. So I usually focus a lot on creeks. If I am fishing a dock on the main lake it probably needs to be around a pocket somewhere the fish are going to pull up into but um I don't know I feel like the biggest fish in the lake a lot of the times live around big creeks, big spawning bays just areas you think there'd be a big population. So I haven't found like a certain type of dock being better or worse than any other um it's really just covering water fishing a lot of docks and just playing the conditions in your favor and because it changes week to week man it's not I don't think it's something where like the fish are on this dock every day and it never changes. A lot of it's just like for this week they've got a group of three fish under this dock and it it changes all the time. So a lot of it's just using the conditions but I definitely like to focus around spawning base around pockets, creeks, stuff like that where fish are going to spawn.

SPEAKER_04 43:13

Yeah that makes sense go ahead D yeah I was just gonna say maybe this is kind of truly to wrap up the dock topic both from a especially with the format currently being forward facing the not forward facing a lot a lot different when you can see them especially if it's on a place where there's five and eight pounders and you're like well there's a blimp like that versus not seeing them how do you approach docks I mean you hear guys all the time like oh you know Grand Lake the the you know back posts are playing like the back posts of the dock are playing that's where the females are and this was all kind of maybe pre forward facing talk on where stuff goes but both with forward facing and without how do you approach docks when you are getting ready to make your first catch

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Yeah, with forward facing dude, I don't even all I do when I have forward facing is look for bass. I don't care about anything else besides seeing a bass on the screen. So uh I'm really not paying attention to anything besides what the screen shows me. I'm looking under as many docks as I can look under in a day and seeing which ones have fish on them, and I'm coming back in the tournament. But without forward facing, and that that sounds really easy to say when I say it like that. Like you just rip around and look for fish and then you go back and catch them. But like that, that is not the case. It's it's super hard to do. Just fish, cat, fish, carp. I mean, it's it's it's a real it's a real process to to figure that out, even with scope. So I'm not trying to downplay the simplicity of that. But without scope, it's definitely a lot harder. Um, and it's something that I need to get better at personally. You know, I fish docks a lot um when I was getting into fishing and still do without scope, but I didn't have the level of confidence with that koiki on docks without forward facing. Um, like I should have going into this event. I would have done way better at Santee if I just literally just kept doing the same thing I was doing and didn't worry about the fact that I have scope. But it's just a lot, it slows your process a lot down. I mean, in the post-spawn without scope, a lot of those fish are getting on docks because of shade and because of the temperature with being post-spawned. So a lot of the times I'm targeting those black floating docks, shade pockets, pylons, and that's kind of how I'll pattern them without scope. So I'll be like, when they're really sunny, these fish are getting right up under those black floats, and I'm trying to keep my bait around those black floats. But if it's cloudy, maybe I'm gonna be targeting like the dock pylons, and I'm throwing a drop shot at those pylons and letting it fall all the way to the bottom, or you know, a mirage of different things, but that's kind of how you do it without scope, is paying a lot more attention to the specific type of structure you're fishing and not necessarily worrying about anything else. Where with scope, I'm paying attention to looking for bass and putting my lure in front of a bass and not necessarily worrying about, oh, I need to only target these black floats today because that's where I saw them in practice. But if you do that with live scope, it's just kind of counterintuitive because you're not allowing yourself to change throughout the course of the day. Like it's a new day, those fish might be on the pylons, and you just spent all day only scoping the little black floats when you only came in with 12 pounds. But if you were just looking at live scope looking for fish, you could have come in with 25. If so, like that's kind of how that's kind of how I do it.

unknown 46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Um, when I'm fishing up shallow, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Yeah, looking for the high percentage parts of each dock.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

Yeah, absolutely. And just trying to without scope, just trying to pattern what type of structure those fish are on that day.

SPEAKER_04 46:46

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it comes back to the same conversation always. And it's really cool, I guess, from the perspective of of these last two tournaments for you, because you got to see the same pattern play out, one with scope and one without. It's kind of like an interesting case study, I think. Like for our where our sports kind of sits right now with stuff. Like at the end of the day, all all of all of scope does is make you more efficient, significantly more efficient. And it's no different on docs, right? 100%. You're just faster at everything you can do, you can decide on whether there's fish there or not immediately versus taking the time. So, like, it's all it is, it's just on docks this time.

SPEAKER_01 47:27

Yeah, no, it's crazy. Like on uh on day four of the tournament, talking about just being more efficient and like the difference of having scope and not having scope. I had a dock where I had caught a five-pounder in the morning and I could I saw with my eyes two or three more fish setting sitting under that specific dock. And I'd caught a fish off that dock the day before. I knew there was a group of fish on it. And I left, came back at the end of the day to fish this dock and catch another fish and see if they'd set back up and looked under the dock. There was nothing there. And I was like, dang, I guess I can't believe they left. That's crazy, and fished like 10 feet further down the stretch, and there was just a submerged twig, twig between two docks, would have never casted at it without scope. And I just shined up there and I could see two blimps up shallow, and I was like, Oh, this might be bass, and flicked up to them just without without scope, it would have looked like I was just casting at nothing. And it was this that same group of fish, 100%, that came out and caught another five-pounder. So it is crazy.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

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 SIRIS10 for 10% off. Well, that's just more learning too, right? Like, I think that's my favorite part about scope, is again, and I harp on this all the time, is the learning side. But it's like, okay, now apply that to a time where if you don't have scope, like, okay, they're not under this dock. Now the problem is you might fish that dock for 30 minutes and be like, crap, they're not here, right?

SPEAKER_05 49:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:12

But but it's like they're just gonna be, and all the time, I mean, especially on on clear water fisheries that I'm lucky to look at sometimes here in Idaho and the and in the north, like there'll be a beautiful brush pile, and then there'll be a five-pounder on the tiniest stick, right?

SPEAKER_01 49:27

And you're like, Oh yeah, yeah, what are you doing over there?

SPEAKER_04 49:31

Like, and and so it but it's a good case or it's a good like thing to think about. Like, okay, they're not on the dock, but they might be on another piece of cover nearby. I need to fish around and see what see what else there is, you know.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

Yeah, no, because now you'll go back through and see that tiny twig, and you're like, Hey, they might be on that sucker. I need to cast it, though. Give her a cast, yeah. Yeah, uh well, to wrap up the Koiki talk, too, is I obviously I know it's it is the hottest bait right now in all bass fishing, it's the craze. Um, I know there's still a lot of secrets on it. Um completely up to you on if you want to disclose how you're rigging it or not, but I'm more curious from the a lot of the conversation I've been hearing lately is rod reel line setup. Uh, and I'm curious to dive into you. Obviously, being one of the U Call boys now, like what rod are you using with that? What line, all that jazz?

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Yeah, I do I like to I like to just throw heavy everything for the Quickie. Um, I throw uh four aught brutal single hook Nico hook um on my quickie. I don't usually use the treble, that's just kind of a preference deal. And I throw it on a 7-3 heavy U call with lockdown drag and 20-pound fluoro and reel them in the boat as hard as you can and set the hook as hard as you can. And I've honestly had a really good landing percentage with um that specific hook. It's definitely not what the majority of guys use, but just for how I fish and how I like to fight a fish, that's just kind of been my preferred setup. Um, yeah, but I throw it on the exact same setup I cast a jig with, so pretty much the exact same way.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

Yeah, it's cool, and it's it's you kind of have you to do your own little personal private investigating right now. You see, there there's a combination, I feel like, of guys that are tinkering with it and doing different things, but also there's a lot of smoke and mirrors of like, I'm gonna show you this is how I'm rigging it, but I'm not actually rigging it this way, and you kind of have to like I think it comes down to trial and error because I've tried the quad, all that. I'm in the same boat as you, or I've been I've been using a four-out flipping hook through the middle of it, and then just giving them the beans on a frog rod, and that's yeah, kind of been the the go-to for me, dude.

SPEAKER_01 51:39

If you get a hook in them with that, like if they bite it and you set the hook and your rod doubles over, that fish is caught. Like, at least for me, like if I set the hook and the rod bends, catch it every time with that Nico hook. I'm sure uh I'm sure you probably get a lot more of like those fish that are just nipping at it with the treble. But the ones that actually eat it, you get them in the dang boat with the single hook is kind of how I've been so far.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

I'm no expert, but I've done it a lot, and that's I I think you're an expert on it, but like I I struggle, right? I go back and forth. Like, I've got three of them on my front deck right now, one with a treble, one without one with you know, all these different things, and I like see ups and downs to both. And I also think the different sizes play a big factor here. It seems like the longer, the bigger the size, the softer the uh antennas are, so they they seem to bend over a little better. I feel like so you can like crack one, and obviously setups different here too, but it scares me with the treble and the quad, for instance, Bailey, where that's legal, is like the I mean, I don't know. I caught a bed fish this last year on on Havasu during that tournament on one, and it dude, I mean, that treble scares me because they freaking inhale it when they get it sometimes, right? Like they get it all the way down, and like you get gotta worry about killing one. So, um, man, that's that's cool to hear though that you're having you see what seems like pretty good success with that. What what was the name of the Nika hook again?

SPEAKER_01 53:06

It was the four-off brutal talisman rightugi hook, but I I will say you definitely I have not found a hook yet that does not run the risk of just tonguing them or just getting them straight in the gill. I mean, every once like it's pretty rare. Like of all the fish I caught at um Murray, I only had one that had it bad, but like he had it bad. I mean, it was like four-op, brutal, straight through the tongue. But for the most part, it'd been pretty good. But I do definitely still have that issue still with the single hook. But I also kind of like with that single hook, I feel like it looks a lot better, just um without having all the hardware of that quad. It's just a little bit more natural, I feel like. So that's that's another reason I've kind of been throwing it as well.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

DV said something cool on live, and it's a great point. It's like I I've never seen from the pictures on the water or video, whatever have you, of any of these fish eating the koiki and it's like outside their mouth. He's like, if they have it, it's gone. Yeah, so like for the Johnsons or whoever, you know, for for Pollinic around the trees, like when they can't when they eat it, like all you gotta worry about is just keeping tension because you're not gonna hang a hook up on the dock post or a tree because it's already in their throat.

SPEAKER_03 54:21

You just gotta just keep the keep the tension, they'll come out.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

So it's also a really hard, it's a hard bite, it's a hard bait to feel the bite on too, just because there's so much resistance, just because it it pulls it pulls so much water when you move it that like every time you jerk the bait, your rod bends, and like it has some pullback just because it moves so much water. So, like a lot of the times I had one at Murray where like I threw up so shallow that like I couldn't even really see it on scope, and I'm just jerking the thing back, jerking the thing back, and I look at scope and I'm like, dang, there's a giant swimming right at me. I'm like, Where's my koiky? I've got to get it in front of this thing. I'm like jerking, I'm like, where is this? And I like reel up and it just had in its mouth the whole time. It's hard to tell.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

That fish is just swimming down there, and just like oh yeah, exactly. Like this urchin is fighting back.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

I know I was like, dude, why can I not see my bait? Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 55:16

I've done that way too many times with way too many different techniques, like it's embarrassing.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

It is embarrassing, dude. I'm sure if you saw me trying to skip some docs on live with that thing, you would have laughed out loud. I I think I hit a total of like 300 pontoons throughout throughout the course of that week. It doesn't skip very well either. No, you gotta you gotta fling that thing to get it under there. Yeah, it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 55:38

But so so what kind of a weight are you using and and how's your weight setup look like?

SPEAKER_01 55:44

I just I've found that just the eighth ounce has been the best for me. Um if it's like a bedding fish or a stationary fish where like I can let I can take longer for the bait to get down. Sometimes I'll go down to a sixteenth, but for the most part, when I'm just fishing down the bank, I'm throwing an eighth 99.9% of the time. Never anymore, and only less if it's a bed fish or a fish that's sitting still where I don't have to worry about getting to it. It's kind of how I work mine. But I don't know, that eighth has just been a good like in the middle fall rate for me. You can still throw it at stuff that you're not positive fish are on, and it doesn't take too long to get there, but it's also not sinking like a rock where like you're just not gonna catch any. But I have caught fish with a quarter on it when I fished it really deep. I've put a quarter, but definitely you're gonna miss some, you're you're gonna not get some bites because of it. Because I feel like a lot of the I feel like a lot of the reason just the dice baits are so good in general is outside of a jerk bait or like a wacky rig. It's really and it this does it better than a wacky rig, is just suspend. I mean, there's not really any baits on the market that you can twitch and keep it suspended right in front of their face without it falling, especially if you like hold a little bit of tension, like you pop it and hold that tension on the line, that like you can really hover the bait so well that like I feel like that's why they bite it. That's why they bite it so well, is just that the fact that you can suspend like that.

SPEAKER_02 57:11

We we put out a post on uh on lure lab, gotten our hands on some of the new six cents abstract, and one of the guys was like, He goes, It's a piece of crap, it doesn't he goes, it floats, it doesn't sink very fast.

SPEAKER_03 57:23

And I'm like, Well, I hate to break it to you, but that's that's that's what they're supposed to do. Gotta put a weight in it, bro.

SPEAKER_01 57:31

You gotta put a weight in it. You're gonna learn today. Oh, that's funny. But it's it's also a badass sight fishing bait. Like on the final day, I had two that like I just saw them swimming down the bank, threw it over them, and then just swam it, twitching it on the surface. And dude, that ate it like a dang frog, like boom right over the top of the surface and ate it. Caught two fives on the final day, just throwing it at fish swimming down the bank, and like it's fun to fish with or without scope, obviously, judging by Sandy Cooper. But yeah, super versatile.

SPEAKER_02 58:04

I mean, it's like I think we're only tapping into different ways you can fish it right now.

SPEAKER_01 58:09

Yeah, you can do so much with it that like I think there's a lot of stuff that guys haven't even really started yet. I'm interested to see how well it plays, like on like the deep ledge schools and like stuff like that, like a little bit of the deeper summer fishing, just because guys are obviously gonna be throwing it a lot this summer. So I'm interested to see if this thing like is still as productive once we get out of that post-spawn and more into like the straight summer fishing, where like all the fish are offshore, the dock bite's not really as good, shallow cruiser bite's not as good. I'm kind of interested to see how how that plays out.

SPEAKER_04 58:39

Yeah, man, it's same. I'm I'm gonna ask, believe this. I guess we'll go down that rabbit trail just a little bit here. Like, where where's your thoughts, both of you, as it relates to smallmouth, um, some of the smaller sizes? Like, what does this look like as the elite series starts to swing north?

SPEAKER_01 58:59

I mean, you're gonna see it, you're gonna see it 100%. Like, this is the year of the quirky. I don't care if they send us to a dang farm pond, like they're gonna be throwing it, but but you can catch them on the full cast. Like, I've caught smallies on the full cast. I definitely don't have as much confidence unless you're at like St. Lawrence or somewhere where you have to catch straight five pounders. But I've thrown it a lot at home here in Knoxville, the 17, and had a lot of success for smallies and largies. I haven't thrown the 13 super much, or like many of the super small ones. I've caught a bunch on the Yamato Uni as well. That's a really good one for smallies that I've thrown back home. But definitely the 17 is gonna play really hard. And I think we will be surprised at how how many people are throwing a full cast at some of these northern events that we go to, like Champlain. I'm sure it's gonna be uh used a lot. St. Lawrence, I'm sure it'll be used a lot. Pascal Tank, obviously they're gonna throw it. That's not really a northern event, but um yeah, I think it's gonna play a lot when we go up north. I think it's gonna play a lot, especially with the smalllies. I I think the full cast will probably be the predominant one just because that's the hype right now. But that 17 definitely works for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

I yeah, I mean, for Deke, the way Sam was talking about from a sight fishing standpoint, it's so good from that standpoint. Even just the normal dice. Um, I think anytime you get in clear water, that's just it's ace, like it's just uh from that standpoint. I mean smallmouth especially, but even largemouth on like the finger lakes, clear water. It's as I was catching them on uh we have a place called Cucka, you know. In the summer, a lot of our clear finger lakes, like you'll get some not many, but like big rogue fish that just cruise like on the bank, and they've seen a five or four-inch wacky rig for the past 15 years, and you lead them with a dice or the koikie. Um, and dude, it's like it's night and day beeline towards it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:06

Um I think maybe with the hookup percentage. The only thing I could see it, people not thumbing it as much is just because some of those northern small eats are a lot more willing to just bite anything. Not obviously it's still tough, but a little bit easier to commit 100 a southern largemouth, obviously. So, like people might gravitate more towards baits where the hookup ratio is a little better, but I know that a lot of guys up north are having really good success on it, so yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:34

Well, one last just you mentioned the 17. Are you throwing that still on a casting rod? Is your rigging different? Are you on a spinning rod? Treble hook 17.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:43

I'm on a spinning rod, still on the talisman. I just use the three aught. Um, still just use the talisman on the three-off, and I've had really good success with that too. Um, but yeah, lock basic, not lockdown drag, but like pretty heavy drag on the and I throw the seven, three medium um you call for that one. And it's a really good setup. That's the best I've found, especially with that hook and that rod. But yeah, just a heavy line, 12-15 pound leader, and that's how I've been fishing it. And I've had a lot of good success as far as just landing fish. Give them the beans. Oh, yeah, you give them the beans for that thing, it's fun. Definitely one of the most fun ways to catch a bass. It's like cracking them like that. That's it's fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:24

Oh it's freaking awesome. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

Well, Deke, you got anything else for Sam before we let him go here? No, man. Appreciate uh all your all your comments, man, and and taking the time to come on and and share how everything's going. You seem like a great, genuine dude. So look forward to meeting you in person sometime.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Yeah, I appreciate you boys having me on the podcast. It's a good time.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:45

Yeah, well, we got we got two fun questions for you here before we let you go. Uh we won't let you go that easy. Uh, but uh if you were to name one person on the elites that if it came down to like if Bass does the Tuesday nighter deal and you get to pick your team partner, who's that gonna be? And then also pick one person that if you're gonna go party down at the next classic, hopefully on a Sunday night after you win the dang thing, who who is who are you gonna pick as your team partner and who are you gonna pick to party with?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

Oh gosh, that's a good question. That's a really good question. I think uh I think for team partner, I would have to go Robert G. That's just uh that's just a day one Knoxville buddy of mine that we've we fished a lot together growing up and here recently, and I think uh I think we take some money if we if we are fishing together. And going out on the town, I think I would want to go out on the town with Carl Jockson. I think that would be that would be a great one to just see burning it down. Carl's just such a nice guy, and like I don't know, it'd be it'd be hilarious to go out on to go out on the town with him. So I think those would be my two picks.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:53

I would love to be a fly on the wall when he goes around just because the amount of people that probably stop in their tracks and look at him, they're like, You're not from here.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:00

Oh yeah, no, for sure. I was gonna say Rob G for both, but he usually is with me every time I go out on the town. So we don't do one out of the ordinary.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:12

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Uh well, dude, uh, it's your first time on the pod, and for everybody that comes on the show, we always ask him this question to wrap things up, and that is uh, if you can take three different people to have a steak and a beer, pick their brain, you know, could be alive a thousand years ago, could be alive now, doesn't have to be fishing. What three people would you invite to a steak and beer dinner?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:36

Oh, dude, that's a good question. Probably be a crazy mashup. Um probably Kanye West. That's a crazy one. That's a crazy one. I don't want to hear for that. But Kanye West. Um, I gotta have one from fishing. Probably this is so generic, but probably Brandon Polinick just because of just his story. I would love to pick his brain on everything. I I still can, but him, Kanye West, and then this is this is a good question. I I feel like I can't I can't do two fishing people because there's just so much crazier stuff, so many crazy people you could talk to. Probably like it's gotta be like an early president, not Christopher Columbus or like something crazy, some sort of like crazy explorer, so yeah, some sort of crazy explorer, like Christopher Columbus or something like that. That could be interesting, yeah. Just just to see what's up, yeah, just to see what it was like. But that would that would probably be my three picks.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:39

Kanye BP Christopher Columbus.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:42

Yeah, that's a that's a crazy lot. I mean, dude, you can't tell me that would not just be the craziest dinner of all time.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:46

I think that'd be fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:48

Dick, I think what we need to be doing from now on is when we ask these questions, we need to have AI put these four different people at the table and just take a picture of it or yeah, make a picture of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:58

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna do that for you. Sam, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna make that picture actually. Now that I'm yeah please do I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm actually so excited to do this because I just want to see your guys' all faces out of steak and beard and just like Kanye next to Brandon in the middle of Christopher Columbus and you're just like taking it off.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

Yeah I don't I'd have a wealth of questions for them boys.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:23

Yeah well dude thanks for taking time out it was awesome to get you on the show man and uh looking forward to getting you back on here in the future yeah same to y'all thanks again dude of course man we'll be talking to you soon all right folks and that's gonna do it for today's episode Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:37

Sam Hangy uh be sure you guys tune into the serious angler social media as I'm absolutely gonna start AIing pictures of our guests with their three to dinner pictures on social media after the fact dude I'm so excited I can't believe it took me this long to think about that oh man it's gonna be especially that specific crew is gonna look so awesome on AI. Kanye West, BP and Christopher Columbus.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:00

I'm more intrigued of like what AI is gonna make Christopher Columbus look like, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:05

That's what I'm saying. I'm so excited for this.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:07

Yeah I know some people don't like what they call the quote unquote AI slot, but this is literally my joy of AI is creating stuff like this that's just simply proper humor. Yeah it's for humor. Good time but um dropped a lot of juice in the Koiky dropped a lot of juice on some dock fishing some post spawn fishing. Um so I know a lot of people obviously in the lakes that you fish they're gonna might not have the giant creeks you know like a Lake Murray might but it might have spawning flats with docks just outside them. Now is the time to go hit them whether you're in the south or in the north it all applies um so some great knowledge and tips from Mr. Sam Hangy and uh dude another another great episode. Great episode man um just love love when we can get more juice in a guy's opinion and uh and a very old opinion he's like look I don't know if this is right but this is how I'm doing things right like and and here's here's what's working for me and uh just instills confidence in in um what he's doing and uh excited to go mess around with uh more fuzzy baits man oh yeah you're the fuzz yeah we were talking about he he mentioned the mag draft I feel like iCast a couple years ago was like the year of the mag draft where every brand dropped their version of a harness swim bait this iCast is going to be straight fuzz like last year was dice this is just straight quakey fuzz like this is it's all urchin stuff is this this coming iCast I can see it now 100% dude yeah 100% yeah well folks uh great episode coming up soon uh you guys will obviously have an episode for for next week we might not have any relevant industry stuff because we'll be recording it this week as I'll be out of town uh in Santee next week obviously Deke you guys a bunch of travels going on work wise um but we will have a new uh real biology for Monday uh barden speaking of travels been all over God's green earth so apologies for the inconsistent real biology shows we have the fish chief for Tennessee coming on the show as well as a biologist from South Carolina which is perfectly timely after the Murray and Santee events to start talking about some of that stuff. So you have that to look forward to uh and obviously some more awesome seriously westerns as I'll be out on the West Coast for our week of the Western segment. Uh and hopefully we'll be able to do a little on-site pod with uh our boy Chad from Clear Lake I like it man yeah it'll be a lot of fun I can't wait dude I'm so freaking excited I'm gonna be shaking the whole flight there I'm just my legs are the person next to me is going to hate me. I can feel it you're catching your PV dude it gets coming you're on the pond to do it for sure we'll do you think fuzz frog or minnow if you had to guess the three that would catch a PV on all of them all of them I if it's I'm I'm manifesting the frog bite that's what I'm I mean you do it like there's no doubt in my mind that that you're you're around you will you don't have forward facing but if you did you would see 40 pounds every the other creek arm you're like well there's a billion big ones there's a billion big ones just a matter of getting them to eat yeah yeah I uh part of me is kind of bummed that I don't but part of me is actually happy that I don't just for the period I'm just gonna go be able to enjoy the scenery go fun fish um go give Damian Tau all of my money um but uh shout out to uh Dave Erke and John Mahoney who are the guys that helped me out in basically allowing me to fly to this event and have a kayak rigged up ready to go so I don't have to uh drive three days to go fish this one because I was I was really thinking about it dude I was thinking about taking a couple weeks and just like making a whole freaking trip out of this thing. Good for you. But uh in an in another year we'll we'll make that happen eventually but there you go um yeah either way I'm looking forward to that and looking forward to keeping everybody up to date on on the travels and bringing along with it on here on the pod but also on my personal channel and all that shit. But uh dude another great episode great to chat with you and uh hopefully the folks enjoy. Heck yeah man on to the next that's right folks appreciate y'all and we'll see you on the next one