Stop Fishing Like Everyone Else...Try These Techniques Instead!

Join us in this episode as we sit down with special guest The Informative Fisherman to reveal the most unique baits to fish in the summertime! When the water heats up and the bass get heavily pressured, throwing the same old standard lures just won't cut it. We break down out-of-the-box summer fishing lures, secret bait presentations, and the best techniques to trigger massive strikes during the dog days of summer. If you want to catch more fish in the heat and learn some unconventional tricks, this breakdown is a must-watch.

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Swimbait: https://omnia.direct/wrynrn
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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

All right. Welcome everyone to the Serious Angler Podcast, where as always, our main course for you will be talking and hopefully teaching you more about bass fishing. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Eichbrett, and our main course for you on this one, I think, is definitely going to be teaching you more about bass fishing because I learned a lot in it. And we are joined by Nicholas Smith, Mr. Informative Fisherman himself, to talk about some unique baits to be throwing this summer. Outside of all the buzz, all the standard stuff, there's actually a little bit of koikie talk, but a very, very unique way in how he fishes and rigs the koikie. But some unique baits that catch a lot of fish that he finds a lot of success on, that he catches a lot of bass on in the summer months. So we're gonna be diving into a lot of that with Nicholas here in a second. But before we get to today's episode, some quick business from the bass boat for you guys, which is always presented by our friends over at Rec Lending. If you guys are looking to get into a new bass boat, currently own a bass boat, or even an RV, and you're looking to afford that better, refinance, call the folks over at Rec Lending. They'll be able to best help you guys get the most affordable rate and make it done and done the right way. So give the folks at Rec Lending a call. Even if you don't decide to go through them, they'll still take the time to help you out, kind of give you the whole family approach to it, which is much appreciated in today's age when everyone that answers the phone is typically AI or some sort of automation. But um a little bit of bids from the Bass Boat is uh shout out to Banks Shaw for winning the Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour event on Grand Lake. Absolutely put a beat down on him and came back to beat Dustin Connell uh in the final minutes, as well as shout out to Jason Christie for his 10th win on the Bassmaster Elite series, doing the Koik ball on docks and trees thing uh over on the Pasca Tank River. And then, of course, lastly, not much for you guys because our businessman himself, Adam Deakin, unfortunately cannot make this episode uh is iCast is coming up here in a couple weeks. I'm gonna be down at iCast. I have uh obviously be there for mostly for business, but we'll be there at the Rapola 13 fishing booth. We'll be at the Evolution Fishing Booth and uh saying hi to a bunch of friends around the industry. So looking forward to seeing everyone down there. If you are gonna be attending, give me a holler. Uh, we'll love to see you guys, shake hands, see you guys face to face. But uh we'll be bringing you guys updates of what's new from there. We might film some lure lab videos while we're there, but for the most part, go in to see some friends, get some business done, and uh looking forward to see all that's new outside of just new coikies and things like that that are gonna come out, which I'm sure is going to be the premise of iCast. But hopefully there's some different new things from a rod, reel, bait, gear tech that we can uh talk about here on the Biz for the Bass Boat segments on Sirius Angler. But um, some awesome stuff. Some new baits have hit Omni official. Make sure you guys are always checking that new arrivals list as well as the sales that they are running every single week. I think it refreshes on every Tuesday or Wednesday or something like that. Uh, but make sure you guys check that out. Uh, you always use code series10 to save 10% off. We have some awesome episodes coming up here on SiriusNga. We got Noah Winslow joining the show. We have John Cruz joining the show, and uh, we're trying to get a couple guys for some big bay episodes and some new panel shows here as well as we rock into later here in the summer, as it's now the end of June, which is just crazy to say. Um, so that we have some more awesome podcasts for you guys going forward. We will have a new real biology for next Monday. Uh, so things are ramping up here on Sirius Angler, getting out of the couple weeks of travel, and uh don't really have too much travel going forward. Uh we have iCast, I have uh an event to be at uh in the Susquehanna River that is the end of July. Uh, have a trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin uh in August, and then beyond that, I have one trip in October, and basically that's it. So you guys should not have a show to miss for the rest of 2026, as we are basically right now at the halfway point of 2026, which is again just freaking crazy to say. And hopefully you guys are having a great 2026. Hopefully you're catching some bass. Hopefully, you caught some uh personal best this year. If you have, comment down below. Love to hear uh the success stories of your guys' year thus far. But uh guys, looking forward to this episode. I've been watching Nicholas, the informative fisherman for a very long time, one of the OG YouTubers in the fishing space. And uh I can't believe it's over 600 episodes later, and we're finally getting him on the show. Long overdue, but looking forward to it. So without further ado, Mr. Nicholas Smith, the informative fisherman. All right, folks, we are joined by a gentleman here that, dude, honestly, we have some guests on that are so long overdue to get people on the podcast where I'm like, I can't believe I'm 600 episodes in and I haven't had them on the show yet. Because, dude, I've been watching your stuff since I was a freshman in high school, maybe. It's been a long time.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Someone's aging me. Someone's aging me right here. Okay, here we go.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Aging might be a byproduct, but it is more of a compliment than anything else because you have some very high quality content. Like I was telling you offline, I have there's been a lot of tackle, very unique tackle that we'll dive into today that I have purchased strictly because of the content you've put out.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

That's what that's what I like to hear, man.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Good. Yeah, but dude, Nicholas, uh, Mr. Informative Fisherman, as the the term phrase is, uh, good to get you on here, man. It's it's a pleasure to get you on the pod.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Yeah, I've been randomly seeing your videos. Uh people have actually shared Bailey's videos with me, and they're like, hey, you look at this guy, he's fishing your bait. I said, I know who that is.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

We'll finally get you on the pod, man, because I was mentioning to you, I see you all the time at trade shows, and typically you're always on the casting tank showing off baits to people and things like that. And is that more just because you can't not be casting, or are you tinkering while you're working?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, so I fish 280 days a year, and I just went to a week-long new product showcase for pure fishing to present to buyers and distributors and stuff. I'm more sore from sitting there. Every dude, I'm like the I'm popping bags of corn nuts, flipping open checks mix. I was probably the most disturbing person to everyone in there trying to watch presentations because man, I I can't, I gotta fish, man. It dude, like seriously, my my butt was sore, my legs are sore, and I'm like, can I go cast in that pool? And so that answers your question, dude. It's because I I have to be moving, dude. I'm a giant, so I like I gotta move 24-7 to keep my joints right, you know?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Go a little stir crazy. I feel that.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Dude, I do. I live on a lake. The Delta's in my front yard. I have a private lake that I manage in my backyard, for those who don't know. So if I'm shooting content back there, I've been managing this thing for almost nine years. Of course, I'm gonna catch the big ones I work on in here.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Suck it up, buttercup. Yeah, you're gonna reap rewards. I'm gonna reap the rewards, dude. If I walk out there with a cup of coffee and I don't even have to leave the boat dock and I jack a six-pounder, I'm gonna flex, man. That's just how it is.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Oh, yeah. These are my fish, man.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Hey, you wanna pet my dog? You wanna pet my dog?

SPEAKER_02 7:20

I love it, man. Well, dude, we were already going down rabbit holes offline here, so we we had to get the pod ripping. But I gotta take one break here just to it's your first time on the pod, and every time we have a new guest here, we gotta throw it back and hear the story of who's to blame for this lifelong addiction and to blame for one of the best tackle walls I've ever seen in our industry. Who's to blame for all that, man? Tell the story.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Tell your peeps. There you go. That is just legendary. Man, it's uh I'm not sure if you guys can even see most of it there. It's um, I've had an obsession since I don't I don't really know, probably five, six years old. It's hard to say. It's like you don't really remember back, you know, uh that far, but I remember from catching crawdads, bro, like just going over water. There's there's never been a moment that I don't remember telling my dad, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, you think there's anything in there? And so I have this obsession of like catching anything anytime, anywhere I go, anywhere. Like, dude, you can have a bluegill in like a fountain, and if I'm there and I can see the dang thing, man, we're not getting nothing done. You know, and it's it's a problem, it's definitely a problem. But the obsession goes way back, man, as long as I can remember. And like starting my YouTube career and uh right at the very beginning of 2006, like a lot of people have no idea. I was with I joined YouTube right when they basically started, and I started make making educational content by accident because I was on phishing forums and one thing led to another. A guy asked me for asked me how to use low-profile reels when Shimano made theirs just right after the Lou Freebay Freebay deal with you know going back and forth, and he went over to Shimano and made it in the centripical braking system. Like, dude was like, How do you do this? I went to write a reply, dude. I went to public school in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm no writer. So I grabbed a digital camera, made a video on how to do it. Dude was thankful and said, Thanks, man. A few months later, of course, I forgot my password, just like anybody else. Figured it out, and there was like 60,000 views on a video. And this is like early 2006, even before the informative fisherman YouTube channel. So it kind of lit a fire. I just started doing it part-time with uh my job. I worked for Elon's Mus's first company called Everdream, that Dell bot, and my job was like explaining technical things to the sales guys, and kind of just fell into place. Like I like talking clearly, yeah. And dude, it was like teaching people how to fish. Like, I wasn't a professional angler when I started. I fished a ton, but I wasn't getting paid to do it. Um I'm I was highly experienced, yeah. But getting paid to do it, no, that was very different. And then one thing led to another. A few people reached out. I told my uh fiance at the time, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna try this full time. She goes, I think you're crazy, but go for it and never really look back, man. It's uh 20-year ride.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

That's half the battle, dude, is having that support system of somebody. My wife's the same way. Like, if you got confidence in it, go for it.

unknown 10:41

She beats me. I have to, I have to succeed. It's the only option.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Hey, whatever gets you fishing, right? Right, right, dude.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Right? No, it's crazy, man. It's uh I had a couple people post the other day, dude. Thanks for the 20-year ride, and I'm just like, it's weird. Uh I feel like a young guy. I think I identify as like maybe 30. Um, you know, but my 47th birthday's in two days, man, so it's like happy early birthday, bro. Thank you, man. It's it's wild, it's absolutely wild thinking about how long I've been in this game, and it's just like, yeah, people like ask Eddie Day, every day, like, oh, how can I start social media channels, man? And I'm just like, if you are not enjoying what you're putting out, don't even do it. Yep, like just do it to watch yourself because there's so many people and so many avenues. You truly have to love what you were doing. If you don't love what you're doing, it's it's so hard to compete nowadays. There's so many young guns out there, guys growing up with all the literature at their fingertips, right here. You got programs like Bailey Show right here. Like, they're getting tons of intel, man. This is stuff when when I grew up was in a book, bro. I got books over there from Rick Klein, Davey Height, man. You know, all the OGs. I got the KVD spinnerbait VHS autograph, bro. Like, yeah, it's crazy. And and it's I I'm one of those people that I'm just like, dude, you cite your sources, it's so crazy. Anything you like see that's new, like mid-strolling, or you know, mid-strolling, totlining a minnow, it was done before forward-facing sonar. Yeah, you know, Cherokee, like they were they were doing that vertically on 2D sonar. There's so many techniques. Now, the urchins, that's new.

SPEAKER_03 12:46

That's definitely new. Yeah, that's definitely new.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah, you know, yeah, all this fun stuff, that's all new.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Incoming flood to your DMs as this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Tell me what a neck. This is what you want right here. This is what you want, a tough toad necklace. So if you've ever seen, you guys are probably pretty young, but if you've ever seen the movie Universal Soldier, this is the joke. These are my ears.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

I have seen that, unfortunately. You did? I have. I know exactly what you're talking about. Oh, this is great. I can already tell where this podcast is gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Um, it's such a lousy movie, but it's great at this point. It's like, dude, it's like over the top. It's like lousy good, like classic dude movie.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

You're like, why am I watching this, but I also can't turn it off at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

So good.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Well, dude, uh, to to steer this ship into what we want to talk about today is like I mentioned earlier, is some of the more unique baits I've ever purchased become out of influence of the content you put out. And not only just the content you put out, but literally you had the hand, if not the sole hand, in creating them. Um, and so for for people like right now, all people are seeing everywhere is jighead minnows this, jighead minnows that, koiky this, koiky that. Yeah. What are there there's still a lot of baits out there, especially baits no one's talking about that are unique that catch the freaking fire out of them.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Tons, dude. Tons.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

And it's it's just doesn't get the hype. That's all it is. Does it get the hype? If if you don't know, you don't know. Um you know it's it's interesting. So Bailey and I were we were talking about a bait before this came on. And I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you guys, I have really mixed feelings towards this. Uh, the big bite BSE. Okay, I don't work for them anymore. I don't get paid for this. I kind of got screwed over on the whole ordeal. This is a bait that was 100% my idea, my concept, my build. They actually built it for me, and yes, I all the blueprints, all the prototypes, everything on my wall right there. It's a bait I fish year-round with a 5-0 EWG, 65-pound braid. Doesn't matter where I go. I live in Northern California. I fish clear water, I fish dirty water. Absolutely strokes them. It was the best skipper ever. I had a meeting with Tackle Warehouse a couple days ago, and I wanna I wanted them to let this bait die. It's the first time in my life where I was like one of my own creations. I I I want to see it just disappear off the shelf so maybe I can remake it with another company. But that's kind of like screwing you guys at the same time, and it's like, man, it's such a it's like a bittersweet thing, man. Like I wanted to shadow box this bait. I fish it year round, it's insane, it backslides, it quivers. Trust me, if you haven't tied this on, you're you're missing the bus. And it's like I want it to go away at the same time, and it's it's brutal. But this is honestly one of the most unique baits that came out just a couple years ago. I released this at iCast, and dang, I fish it year round, but uh brutal. When a company buys another company and they don't honor your like your royalties for your designs and stuff. This is why you guys, if you're a social media person, protect your ideas, man. Protect it. That's honestly that's probably my fault. I I probably could have protected that a little bit better, but at the same time, it's insanely good, man. So uh it's when I have it tied on, it's off camera, you know, and that man, it's a very weird feeling. It's like raising a kid, and they're like, hey man, this family's gonna adopt him. You ain't my dad no more.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Oh jeez. Oh no, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, no, I totally get that.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

It's awkward like that, it really is, man. And it's just it's just one of those insanely good baits. And that's why, like nowadays, luckily pure fishing, when I when I'm helping design products, now my royalty's right in the writing, everything, because I told him I'm I said, I'm paranoid about this stuff, guys. I need to make sure it's all in writing, you know. And luckily we are now, so I'm protecting my butt finally. I was just so obsessed with fishing my creation, I couldn't walk. Couldn't walk away from it. And it's my fault, so it's all good. Ain't their fault. They're all right. I actually like the big bite people. I like the majority of their team too. A lot of them are close friends, but that's okay. I don't work there no more, and it's all good.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

You need gear that works as hard as you do. That's why Amped Outdoors is the official power solution of a Sirius Angler podcast. From unmatched, battery nerd customer service to performance that thrives in extreme winter cold or summer heat keeps you on the water longer. Click the link in the show notes to get you powered up with Amped Outdoors. Now back to the show. Well, dude, uh, I mean, real quick on that. If if people have one already, yeah, uh like myself, I'm I'm down to my last two packs of them because as we were talking about, I was fishing them. Wasn't sure what to expect out of it, but that thing, like you said, straight up freaking catches them. What's what's the setup you're using for it and how are you fishing it?

SPEAKER_01 18:02

So 5 aught EWG. Yep. Um, I actually like the BKK 5.0 armor point. It's a high carbon, so it's an extra strong EWG because I skip this way back beyond where you would throw a frog. And I throw a 65 um pound braid, and I use the Berkeley X9. X9 is a nine carrier braid, very round, to where it skips remarkably well. And the reason I use 65 is 65 is 15 pound diameter, it feathers across your thumb remarkably well. Um, once you start getting really good at skipping, you can bend skip where I curve the lure around docks and stuff like that. I know that that price sounds insane. Matrix.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

You got some videos doing that, dude. I can watch it all day.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah, I'm that's all I do pretty much every single morning with my cup of coffee and my dog is I skip docks. So I try to I pride myself at being one of the best in the world at it. But you can do that with 65-pound brake, you can't do that with 50 nearly as well. Um, the brake grabs the water, so it helps your bait turn. Like you can slide skip. You can get one of those like a digital cast control, uh like the Voltics, you know, the new one by Pure Fishing. You can get that, the Abu Garcia one. And you can skip, but you're not going to be able to slide skip that where it looks like it's just sliding across the surface, looks like a dragonfly or something skimming across. That's a slide skip. You really can't do that with digital cast control. So everybody sends me these videos where I hear mew, meow, pew, and you can hear that digital cast control in there. And I try not to be a dickhead when they send it to me. So I just say I do it without the training wheels. I know, dick move, right? Dick move, but it's it's all good, man. You gotta be kind of a dick if you're on the water, huh? Hey, you said I can cuss on here, Bailey.

SPEAKER_03 20:00

You did, you did. Go for it, man. It's all good. Uh what rod?

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Don't call my viewers a dick, Nick.

SPEAKER_03 20:06

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

So the rod I use, I'm not calling you guys a dick. I said I was a dick.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

There we go.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

This is the torque stick right here. This is my company, stick fishing, right here. 7'4, uh medium heavy, leaning more towards heavy with a fast tip. And this is a composite blank right here, and I use the Revo SX921 right there, and that's that 65-pound Berkeley X9. Same one I throw a frog on is the same one that I throw the BSE on.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

So I'm always skipping on that. I did 17 revisions of this rod when I was originally building this concept. So this was actually our number one seller this year, sticks as well.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Oh, heck yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

It's insanely light. Like, I like a lot of power and I like real light. So we did carbon nano mesh over the blanks. So they're about a they're 65 million modulus, so it's a light rod, okay? And all that's like a high hexel. Don't worry about that. The modulus is just a wrap of the, you know, yeah, the internals. But we wrap it with a carbon nano mesh, which would make it like a little extra strong. It's not an ugly stick. Don't throw it in your freaking garbage thing, man. Don't try to bend it over with your homegirl on the end of it. You can bring it up.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Don't pull a Matt Robertson rage room skit that they did with ugly stick.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

You know, Matt's with ugly stick, he could beat the hell out of those things. It's all good. I can't do the glass thing, man. I can't. I can't do that.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

It's too whippy for me. Even the cranking craze, man. I live on the California Delta, and everyone's like, oh man, you gotta have a 710, 711 glass cranking setup. And I'm like, bro, no, I don't. You know, I I designed the six reaction stick, seven foot six, which is freaking insane. It fishes like glass, but it's so much lighter. Bro, when you're out there throwing from sunup to sundown, you guys, you really want extra freaking weight in your hands? Tripping, dude. I wear glasses for 10 hours. It starts hurting my freaking ears and stuff over here. Yeah. Especially if you get old, Bailey. You'll know. You'll figure it out someday.

SPEAKER_03 22:18

We're getting there.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

People look, they see what is those black bags on your deck, bro. I'm so desperate for extra cushion. I cut my wife's yoga mat up and I spray glued them down to where I put my babies.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

It's that bad, dude. It's that bad.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

You do it every day, man. Yeah, yeah. Some adult industry stuff, you know, but hey, whatever. Old guy or adult industry stuff. Whatever.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

200 days, 280 days out of the year. That can I can wear and tear, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

It hurts. It hurts. Sitting down hurts more.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Yeah. Well, we'll try to make this snappy for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

We're talking about tackle, bro. I won't be hurt.

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Good, good. Well, dude, for the people listening that are looking to go out the summer, obviously there's the mainstays with the frog and punch and things like that. But let's go through your top three unique baits. People, you know, baits that people maybe aren't throwing right now that they should be looking at for the summer.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

For the summer, man, um, it just depends. So if you're fishing a shallow, grassy fishery, tough toad, tough frog. All the way. Shallow, grassy, sparse flats. I'm gonna throw a toad. There's a lot of cover. I'm gonna throw a toad right over there for you. The kicking version. I co-designed this along with Jose Chavez back in the day, and Mads and I have refined it. Mads Grosel. Refined it to where it's an extra thick. This is the extra large version, so we have regular size 60, 65 millimeter that most people are used to for like hollow bodies and stuff.

SPEAKER_03 23:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

And then the big bad boy right there. You're looking at a 70. Okay. Is that the same material? Yeah, this is thermoplastic TPE. You know, everybody's wanting the TPE koikies that you can stretch a lot. So we did TPE out of these years ago.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

And we're gonna take a quick break to tell you guys about our friends over at Humbert and Mancota, and especially about the Minkoda Ultrex. Minkoda Ultrex is built to provide you unmatched control of your bass boat and lock down your spot once you find some fish. They are built for bass fishing with unmatched control and effortless steering from an ultra-responsive foot pedal, turning any spot into a stronghold. It's the industry's gold standard of GPS anchoring. There's a reason so many anglers and professional anglers alike trust the Ultrax for its durability, reliability, so that there is no questions it's going to perform when conditions are at their worst. And now back into the show. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

Yeah, crazy durable. Uh, these will last you easy 30, 35 fish, you know, if you're rigging it right. And so the difference is with TPE, so the little normal guy, almost three-quarters of an ounce. I will outcast any hollow body. Quote me on this. I put myself online. Challenge me. Challenge me. Anyone, you will not outcast me with any hollow body with these, okay. My hook, and you say single hook, right? Oh, that's a problem. The reason you miss with hollow body frogs all the time, and I've designed hollow body frogs. I sell them, okay. I catch no joke, close to a thousand frogfish a year. Watch my content. I don't need to BS you right here. Buoyancy. Sit on a ball in a swimming pool, okay? Think about this. A hollow body is like a ball. You try to push it under a swimming pool. So if a bass is a couple feet under the surface and tries to suck in that buoyant object, it's only going so far. This is why they grab your freaking legs. Happens every time. TPE, thermoplastic elastomer, okay, is much more dense. It's buoyant and it floats. It definitely floats, but it drops way easier. I've got videos, I'll I'll show it to you. You can maybe throw it a b-roll or something over the top of your clip.

SPEAKER_04 26:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

But it drops to them way easier. You cast farther, you don't get any water in your frog. It walks on a dime easy. The only thing a hollow body has is a color advantage. Thermoplastic is hard to get perfect colors, but we're talking about the bottom, anyways. That's what we're talking. You know, they're not looking at the top of your friggin' frog.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Very true. That's one thing people overlook a lot.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

So these guys are absolutely insane. Uh, you get two in a package for like 11 bucks, too, from Savage Gear, which is crazy. Yeah, considering the frog cost is going way up.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

That, yeah, and for for folks, I can speak to the Tough Toad as one. I don't know if you knew this, I wrote the press release on the Tough Toad when it released at iCast when I was working at Gunpowder, uh, Gunpowder. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

That's when I first met you. That makes more sense.

SPEAKER_02 27:06

Yeah. Um, the first time I had never gotten my hands on any until I was in, it was like the following year, I was in Texas and I was fishing with uh Jordan Westerman and Christine Fisher. And obviously Christine Fisher, she's with Pure Fishing now. Yeah. Um, and she was throwing that tough toad, we're all frogging, and she was just she was crushing us on this thing. We're like, what are you throwing? Because like we're getting blown up on, we're missing fish. And she's nailing every single one. And she gave us a couple of tough toad to use, and I I tried it, and dude, I like I was telling you, I just filmed a video the other day with the tough toad. Bro, bought a couple packs because of it, and that's it's it's for real. Like, people guys, it is it's legit.

SPEAKER_01 27:47

Yeah, they don't get it, dude. They really here's the thing, guys. Like, here's the thing, okay. Like, this is this is a thing, dude. I own every freak. See this whole cabinet right here? This whole one right here? Yeah, that's all frogs, those are all hollow bodies.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

People are like, oh, I got a lot of frogs in my box. Nah, my man's got a frog cabinet.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Bro, I with hollow bodies, I was going through roughly 70 to 80 give or take a year. Okay, and I don't throw hollow bodies anymore. Yes, TPE is a little temperamental to heat. It absolutely is. Um, you leave it in the direct sun, they can get a little sticky. You don't want to put them with the other plastics or the like the OG Z Man Ned rig stuff, they will melt your uh your PVC baits, your polyvinyl chloride, your standard worms, your senkles, your stuff like that. They will melt them, so you have to keep them separate or keep them in the clamshell that they come in. It's like perfect holders. So, yeah, a little more work in that regard. But bro, it's like horse and carriage traveling versus car. And they both get there, okay, but you're not taking a horse and freaking carriage. And for me, once I started playing with it way more, like, dude, there's no way. And when I made that video saying, guys, there's no way I'm ever going back. No way. Even if they discontinue it, dude, I'm going to the freaking warehouse and I'm get I'm probably going to jail because I'm taking everything. Like, dude, as much as if you love frog fishing as much as I do and you haven't thrown the tough toad or tough frog, I don't know why. I'll tell you a simple explanation, okay? Here's the oh, here's a solid argument for you guys. The bend right here. Okay, so let's say you're fishing a thick mat. That's not a problem. It really isn't. So the hollow body with the two, the frog prong that sits flush with a hollow body, and the reason why you still catch them really good on some days, if the mat that the the bass is under is close to their head, there's not a lot of restriction from the buoyancy of a hollow body. If they're very close, a hollow body can still be great. Don't get me wrong. But if a bass is trying to suck it from deeper, when you hear that and you're like, oh, because you know that was big. How often do you see a six, seven plus pounder go jumping out of the water for your frog? They jump after you hook them. They're like a vacuum, dude. They suck everything in there, yeah. And so this is why they needed that prong hook, man. Dude, when they grab this thing, it's like a freaking worm. Like, okay. I put them on spinning rods with my kids, dude, and they'll eat them. And I'm like, okay, now reel down, get tight. Just like I'm freaking teaching them to fish as a stick worm.

SPEAKER_04 30:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Yeah. Like, there's no timing. One one thousand, two one thousand. No. None of that nonsense. You hit them right away. I've taught so many frog instructionals over the years that are just almost pointless considering when you use this bait. I make nothing off of these. This is before the acquisition when Pierre Fishing picked up Savage Gear. I make nothing off of these. Just remember that. I'm over here preaching like these are my newborn. I make nothing.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Hey, when you're an advocate of it and when it works, yeah, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Dude, I just want them to stay. I want everybody to freaking realize, bro. Like, because if they don't sell, they'll shelf stuff. It's gone, dude. It's gone. Companies won't replenish them. Oh, so guys, think about I want you to think about this. Hold on, Bailey. I'm gonna let you get back to your next question.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

You gotta dude.

SPEAKER_01 31:39

I want you guys to think about this, okay? Just like when like you go to a lake, all right, and the bite's popping off, the local tackle shops there. If you don't say nothing about the bite popping off, you ain't gotta say the exact freaking waypoint. Just say, hey, they're eating, you know, such such and such pretty well at this lake. And they go to that local tackle shop and contribute. If that local tackle shop went out of business and you know about a bite that was popping off where people could have gone and supported that place, don't complain when it's freaking gone. And it's the same thing with a lure, man. If you discover a really cool lure, hey, tell tell your friends and stuff, man. Hey, this is cool, or tell a tackle shop, call a local tackle shop. Like, if they don't carry a bait that you're looking for, say, hey, I think this bait would sell great in your area, otherwise, they just disappear, they're gone. You there's so many good baits over the years that have just disappeared, yeah. And it's it's ridiculous. Yeah, it's like for collector nerds like myself, yeah. I'm I'm gonna run out and try to track it down on eBay. Yeah. Yeah, I got man's chugging spit poppers, bro. You guys don't even know what that is.

SPEAKER_02 32:44

No, I have no idea. I was just about to ask you, dude, like, what do you think is the best discontinued bait?

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Oh, look. Uh evolution baits, grass burner, oggle war, uh, mold two, not not v1. It's got a bigger seam. Um, it doesn't have the intention in the lip. So good luck, guys. They're like 50 plus bucks on eBay. If you get them painted, they're like a hundred bucks. That's a Midwest deal. I I know Bailey knows that. Um Man's Hacklecraw, uh, man's Baby One Minus. Bro, there it's there's so many, bro.

SPEAKER_02 33:31

I just listened to a recent Mercer podcast where he had um uh Byron on and he Byron Velvick, he's selling some of the baby one minuses right now.

SPEAKER_01 33:42

Oh, that sucker, dude. Why is he exposing it? I try to give you guys some juice. Next message coming to the bachelor. Next message going to the bachelor. Why you swoop me, dude? I was trying to upsell mine.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

That's amazing. Dude, that's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 33:58

He's talking about that. Dude, like for you guys that bankfish, like if you're watching this bankfish, like, man, I grew up in the Bay Area, dude. I was fishing like public water. The baby one minus, you know who turned me on to that? Shaw Grigsby. When it first came out, I was in Kalamazoo, Michigan, Michigan, visiting my mom's side of the family, and I went to DR Sporting Goods. My uh mom's side of the family's friends with the Van Dams and the Vanderves. Kenny ran the DNR store there. Yeah, and um Shaw was there, Kevin was there, Davy Height was there, and Shaw. The the reason why Shaw, uh Grigsby is still my favorite angler of all time, I was like 17, 16, 17. I had a shaved head, I had a silver chain, I looked like the biggest wig in the neighborhood, bro, for like wannabe thug white boy. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was me. I was trying to rap too, I'll admit it, whatever. Don't laugh at Don Flip. No, no, seriously, though. Seriously, and uh Shaw goes, hey, describe the fishing area you fish. And I'm like, uh, it's embarrassing. It's like a little like two-mile around public pond. And so he's like, is there like pilings going in? And he's like, I'm gonna show you how to uh tune a crankbait to run a certain direction. That's what you need to do if you're bank fishing. And he takes, gives me some little pliers, and Shaw put everything on his list. He paid for it for me. Oh wow Shaw showed me how to bend it. He goes, It's gonna run this way, so you gotta walk to the right. Otherwise, it's gonna swim away. But it'll hit the wall and deflect. And you wanna have your tip up when it deflects, too, because they're gonna eat it and then they're gonna bow up on it, then lower your rod tip. And I'm like, Okay, I don't know what the hell this dude's talking about, but okay, I was taking notes. Sure enough, bro. I went home. That became a staple in my collection, man. Like, so crazy. So crazy how that works, man.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

That's impressive. I'm I'm clipping that because that is freaking some juice right there. That can be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 36:03

That thing only runs like foot, foot and a half deep. But dude, uh, back in the day, the Bill Lewis Echo, the man's uh BB1 minus, the minus was just incredible. Do you truly have to have a medium power rod? Like the Sticks number three, um, seven-footer, medium power, true medium power bait caster. It's close to BFS, but not uh not gonna prance around with your friends. You know, it's it's it's an actual medium. Um you gotta be able to throw a light bait, bro, like 10 pound fluorocarbon on a bait caster, dedicated something light, like uh like a 100-size bait caster on there. Smaller the bait caster, the lighter the line, the arbor. Yes. You guys should have one of those in your lineup.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

All right, all right.

SPEAKER_01 36:50

Actual use for like three XDs, baby one minus, tiny underspins, tiny weedless underspins, 10 pound gin clear, little 100-size bait caster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:02

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Like that is so much smoke, bro. You can fish deep with those things too.

SPEAKER_02 37:07

You got people opening up. I'm sure, I'm guaranteeing it right now. We got at least 30, 40 people opening up shopping carts or going on eBay and trying to trying to find it.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

This STIX right here, guys. The hybrid stick, the number three. Check it out, dude. Buy it if you don't like it, dude. I'll I'll just take it back. I'm not even sweating it.

SPEAKER_02 37:26

Um I'm making note right now to link that down below for people.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Oh, so I'll tell you real quick about my rod company. So I travel all over the US constantly. That's what I gotta do. And I I like hated doing mix and match. So eight years ago, I designed the company called Sticks. It's six rods to do everything. Each rod has a whole category of baits. So check it out. Go on uh stixfishing.com, watch the videos, I talk all about it, dude. Um, each rod individually is 150 bucks. You could buy the full set at 700 bucks. So I mark it down because it doesn't take me extra tubes, I don't have to pay for extra shipping, I don't have to pay for fulfillment people to like you save me money, so I just pass it forward. That's how it goes. So if you want to hustle and sell them for uh 130 bucks a piece, you go make yourself some money. Like I yeah, and I think our father's day sell is still going on, so it's even it's even more off. I don't think I don't think my guy removed that yet, so take advantage.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

There you go. We'll we'll link that down below for people, man. We can go check that out. Because I know uh I obviously learned about it from you, but also I watch a lot of Damien Tao and he uses sticks too.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Such a good dude, dude.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

Amazing dude, amazing fisherman.

SPEAKER_01 38:39

Um Damien picked up the sticks seven years ago.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

I know he throws that one spinning around. It's got the blue Yeah, the hybrid spin.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

It's the spinning rod version of the bait caster I was telling you about. Yeah, so it's got more neck, it's got more choke on it for like ripping shit out of like heavy cover with shaky heads and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 39:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:04

Like a Texas rig Senko, it's like, okay, do I bait cast? Do I still throw it on the wand? Do I use 20-pound braid and put a heavier leader and molliwop them when I can bomb the worm way the hell back beyond stuff? Yes. Yeah, so that one has its unique purpose, man. Its unique purpose is heavier finesse applications. Like people don't, they're not designing stuff for that. And like the majority of sticks rods are moderate, fast. And the reason why, guys, because they're comp composite, so they recoil faster. So they feel firm, but they're have a moderate, fast taper. A little more cushion for the pushing. Now, the reason for that is because about eight to ten years ago we had a bunch of line advancements. How many of you guys throw freaking mono? Put put your hand up, Bailey, if you throw a mono. Bailey identifies as 1,000 people. There you go. Nobody's hardly ever throwing mono anymore. Okay, all those freaking rod designs with the extra, extra fast, dude. That's all designed for mono because that stuff's like a freaking rubber band. Yeah, we're all using low stretch line, we're using straight braid, we're using braid to fluorocarbon, all low stretch. Why shouldn't your rod have more cushion? It just makes freaking sense if you want to catch more fish. Plus, you can hit them harder and you look cool. You can show out for your boys, but your rod bends a little bit more, but no, you don't get that rip, you don't get that tear where it's ripping through fish. And dude, rod designs, dude, they they didn't evolve. It's so weird to me. Like, it's all the same crap. Look at all the builds, look at all the tapers, go to your favorite rod company, you're like, who the hell built it? Go look. I mean, I'm not trying to knock you guys as companies, but whatever. If you land it in this category, kiss it. Because it dude, if you don't know who built the rod, what they freaking freaking built the rod for, why the hell would you even buy it?

SPEAKER_02 41:04

I'm with you, man.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Rods are expensive, bro.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Yeah. If my kid asked me for 150, 200, 300 bucks, you're right. And you're gonna spend it on something you don't even know who built it. It's a 385 extra, extra fast CB348. What the hell are they talking about, dude? Like, dude, look, I've been fishing my whole freaking life, guys. I've touched every rod known to freaking man, okay? There's some great rod companies out there, but for the most part, it's like we don't have this on our lineup. Let's just add it. Let somebody else figure it out. That's kind of lame.

unknown 41:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Anyhow, so I don't start bashing more people, Bailey asked me.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

Well, dude, let's get into number two. Uh second unique bait for the summer that most people aren't throwing.

SPEAKER_01 42:00

Man, um, so for deep rocky, dude, I'm always gonna lean on a shaky head. And look, look, I'm throwing urchins too, guys. I'm throwing urchins here around. I I am doing that, and we'll get into that. But if you don't have a freaking shaky head rigged on, so let me climb up here.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Back into the tackle room we go.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Yep. Dang, that was warm right there. So, finesse shaky head, yeah, you can use the lab stuff, okay? And I do, I love it. It's cool, but it's hard to get a hold of. Um, here it is. So here's a new fun one. I don't know how many of you guys throw a Berkeley uh Magnum Hitworm. So they got the big size now. It's coming out with Maxcent. So I love throwing a big shaky head and a much more finesse shaky head. Okay. So the biggest problem is people do not fish the shaky head in heavy enough cover. Heavy enough structure. Go big, dude. Put like 15-pound leader on 20-pound braid and use a freaking quarter ounce shaky head. Like out west here, most people have no idea, but dude, you can go to Clear Lake, you can jack them. You can go to New Maloney's, you can jack them, and those are polar opposites for those that don't fish the West Coast, okay? We're talking shallow denji versus deep clear. Shaky head, dude, is such a good summertime bait. Let's say you're out cranking deep, like you catch one or two fish right there, you better have a freaking shaky head to throw back on the same fish so you can milk that spot. That's simple reality. It's flipping, dude. Flipping, flipping, flipping. Nobody wants to fish out shallow anymore. More because we're all scoping. Alright? Let me tell you something, dude. Since the last seven years since scoping's really started to ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp. My flip bite, I got all my stuff back. Everyone wants to be out deep looking at them, dude. These fish that were getting shallow pressure don't seem nearly as much anymore. Like, dude, it's the freaking way to go, dude. Oh yeah. Let me show you. Let me I'm gonna grab something.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

I love this. We're just going down the tackle room.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

We're getting into this. Alright, here you go. I know you guys don't want to see this, so close your eyes if you're offended easily. My pants are still on. Okay. Notice something here. Notice something. What are you looking at?

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Okay, I see the.

SPEAKER_01 44:51

Yes, this one's a male. Uh-huh. This is the male version.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Everybody's fishing these things the first way they learn how. Okay? Like a jerk bait or a wacky worm. They're using a quad hook or a treble hook and they're throwing it out, ripping it on suspended fish. Dude, you know how freaking good these are if they're TPE. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Elastec stuff, they float. That's a Jika rig, okay? Or a jig rig if you're American and you want to say, hey, we made it before the Japanese did.

unknown 45:26

I don't care.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

It's all good with me, bro. So that right there, that ball head, okay, the jika rig, you can mid-stroll it, you can rip it, but you can fish it like a freaking jig because it floats up off the bottom like that. Bro, I hate to say this. Uh Andy Kachia, the legendary Delta angler that passed away a few years back, one of my best buddies for fishing in Delta. I got tons of handmade jigs from Andy. Bro, I couldn't throw them this year because I couldn't put this down. Yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Replacing the jig.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Exactly like a jig, and I'm throwing it out there and I'm doing coochas hop and pop. But rip rip, let it fall back to the bottom. Rip rip, let it fall back to the bottom. These things are here to stay, bro. This is not a gimmick. This is a knockoff in my hand. I don't give a crap. I bought it from Alibaba Express. Yeah, not Timu. Teemu sends you like crap, dude. Download the app, Alibaba Express, and type in uh Bazooka urchin.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

Bazooka, okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

That's that's the full cast knockoff. Sorry, hide up. Whatever. Everybody's knocking them off, anyways. They made enough money, dude. They're upset. Dude, look at the cost on their freaking website, dude. They're doing alright.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

They're okay.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

They're okay, dude. These knockoffs, this is it's damn near the same thing. Okay. Throwing it on a jika rig, and I'm gonna show you some cool action right here. Okay. So, oh, for those who wanted to know, the only time um when you're doing a Jika rig like that, you can use a regular drop shot weight and push a nail through to make it round, just like a free rig weight. You can use a nail and open that up. Go on my Instagram, dude, you'll see it. Really simple. The single hook, the reason why guys run into problems with the single hook is if the urchin turns, it blocks the hook, or if it slides into the bend, it blocks the bite. Use a bigger hook and go a third of the way through the urchin, it will not block if I twist it. See that? No block. No block. You won't have a problem with a single hook, and you can use a weed guard and you can throw it in a cover. You're not doing that with a treble hook.

SPEAKER_04 47:39

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

Well, you could. I'm gonna tell you what you can and cannot do.

SPEAKER_03 47:44

You can do it one time.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

You can do it once. So that's a size two. Um, that's the uh the not the ultra uh owner hyper hyper wire size two split ring allows both wires for the split ring to go inside the eye of the hook. Otherwise, you're gonna get caught in that gap.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

Okay, so the size two is as small as you can get. That's the easiest way to figure that out. Um, here's the cool thing when you mid-stroll it, this is a rocking motion because of the weight.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

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SPEAKER_01 48:47

So it rolls, it's got a headbanger motion like a rocking chair, versus a rolling motion that they're used to seeing. And guys are throwing these on the trebles with the nail weight and they're popping them, so it's stop go. It's an entirely different look. I catch more rocking it on a Jika rig. Seriously. I've been going hard with these things uh since the end of September. Um, I got my 500th one two weeks ago, 500th hookup, on that setup right there. So I know that doesn't, well, doesn't seem like a lot, but it's not it's not a full year. And I do live on a private lake, so I really, really get to test things as much as I want. And uh whack big ins that are unpressured, and it's amazing. Yes, yes, it is. Then I go out for sushi, then I get a frappuccino, and then I go whack more.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

That sounds terrible. That's awesome, dude.

SPEAKER_01 49:47

All right, now that I got everyone pissed, we're good. Let's next no, no, flipping, dude, um, which is so crazy. Like, people like heavy flipping and punching if you can. If you can, man. Me and Bobby Lane about four years ago, I've always thrown a one and a half ounce tungsten and a three-quarter ounce, okay? And tungsten's crazy expensive now, guys. There's two brands on Tackle Warehouse right now that they still have a tongue bunch of tungsten weights for the two-ounce that are uh like $14. And right now the average cost of a two-ounce tungsten is like $31, $32.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

Holy smoke!

SPEAKER_01 50:28

Go find them while you can. I already loaded up so you guys can go.

SPEAKER_02 50:31

Oh my gosh. It's cool you mentioned too, outside of the tungsten thing you do. That's yeah, that is just insane. Um but the shaky head thing, dude. Uh, I got a buddy of mine, Casey Reed, who is a shaky head fishing fiend. And I've seen him I've seen it like you're talking like shallow brush piles and stuff like that, where most people will flip a Texas rig Sanko or a creature bait or a jig or something like that in there, myself included. He'll take the shaky head on 16-pound floral and toss that in there instead, and he beats our brains out with that thing.

SPEAKER_01 51:05

There's just something too heavier shaky heads in cover. So, dude, I don't know. One of my best buddies, Josh Parrish, motherlode stud, won tons of stuff out here. That fool, he's a big bait swim bait specialist. Like, he's the guy last year that caught like uh two over 14 and 115 and a half. Okay, yeah, he's a swim bait specialist, but no matter how many big baits are on that freaking deck, dude. We always have no joke, shaky head died on. Like, no joke. Just always catches them. No joke, man. It it's always catching them, man. It really is. So summertime for me, man. I have deep and dig. Deep and dig, or as heavy as cover as I can find. Like, skipping's my specialty. Man, heavy shade, dude. So many people waste time like on outer grass lines, dude. Good quality swim jig. Get in. Get in. And if it gets calm, put your put your vibrating jig down, your chatterbait, what have you. Your slobber knocker, your uh your jackhammer, your it's your turn, Bailey.

SPEAKER_02 52:15

Uh those only two.

SPEAKER_01 52:16

It's supposed to be one, bro.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

What's the one that Tackle makes? I started using that one actually recently. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Tackle Warehouse makes one? No, Tackle. Tackle like that.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

It's got that weird like 90-degree blade.

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Stumped.

unknown 52:29

Dang it.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

I'm trying to remember the name of it.

SPEAKER_01 52:31

I got caught. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 52:32

It's like it's a cool like 90-degree blade, but either way.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

Dude, if like a lot of people, I would say 80% of plus novice weekend warriors are not throwing swim jigs, and they'll throw a chatterbait. And dude, that makes me scratch my head. Dude, guys, when it calms down, like you don't always have to like slow down and finesse fish. You could throw a swim jig. And those same fish that will eat it when it's windy or stained will now eat it a little bit better when it's cleaner and calmer. The swim jig does the exact same thing. You just get a little bit more aggressive with it. Get a beat in your head and fish it with a beat. It's Michael Jackson stuff. You start rapping while you're fishing. Yeah, just start rapping.

unknown 53:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

It's good for you. Man, I love it.

SPEAKER_04 53:17

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Yeah, get aggressive with it. The swim jig, dude, murks in the summertime. A lot of people are not aware of that. You know, most people like they just think, oh, it's chatterbait or nothing. Ah, they're not eating the swimmer. Um, one of the single deadliest lure combinations is still a four-inch freaking Kitech with a weedless underspin, an owner flashy, bro. A 4-0 owner flashy, the lightest weight you can get in a four-inch underspin and drag it. Drag it in grass, drag it in deep shady rock piles, touch the freaking bottom. If you are not touching the bottom, you're not fishing an underspin correctly in the summer. Touch the bottom, get stuck in the grass, rip it free, reaction strike. You know, we all know the name of that. I don't need to explain that bite to you guys. That's crazy underrated summertime bait. Um, shaky head, crazy underrated summertime bait. Not a lot of people are flipping anymore, which blows my mind. You know, the majority of people want to throw a moving bait, they want to chuck and wind. And honestly, I think one of the biggest like style mistakes that people make in the summertime is like having this cruise control speed. It blows my mind. Like, go too fast, go middle, go slow, go too fast, go middle, go slow. Like, I know you've heard people say this forever, but play with your cadence. But play with real fast. Believe it or not, when the fish have a lot of energy, if the water is, I think uh Doug Hanna one time did this test, and the fish that are buried in hot heavy cover, their optimal temperature was 84. I believe it was 84, which is hot. Oh, that's hot water, dude. That's that's that's some I'm I'm gonna get out because I'm too hot, type of water over a certain amount of time. And those fish were reacting fast to everything. Now, if you don't have green foliage in the water, and as it gets warmer, you have less dissolved oxygen to where you have to slow down. If you're on a rocky reservoir, the closer it gets to 80 degrees, 80 degrees, they may drop down into a thermocline that has better aeration in it. All dissolved oxygen means is the wind breaking up oxygen, raising the oxygen level in the water. The hotter the water is, that's more rare to find better oxygen, unless there's a lot of green foliage, and you'll know immediately. You'll see bluegills, you'll see shiners. If you don't see those, leave. Leave. It's it's pretty friggin' simple. I like it. Yeah, nerd stuff.

SPEAKER_02 55:58

There's some really good suggestions in there, especially the underspin one, too. Man, uh I like that one a lot.

SPEAKER_01 56:03

Yeah, dude. And you can there's so many variations of underspin. Uh, G rats coming out with a big one with super lightweight, their weedless underspin, so you can throw six, seven, eight-inch swimmers now on those, yeah, with eighth ounce weights connected the underspin with a center body weight. Yeah, dude. There's there's just an incredible amount of options. So no matter where you go, dude, there's just it's always different. Deep, deep clear, deep stain, of course, you can throw reaction, cranking, all that fun stuff. Everybody knows that. You know the most underrated crankbait of all time?

SPEAKER_03 56:39

I don't.

SPEAKER_01 56:40

I don't work for striking 3XD in the summertime. If you're on a smallmouth or spotted bass lake or a shallow, largy reservoir, you ever throw the 3XD, Bailey?

SPEAKER_02 56:52

No, 3XD is usually like a spring thing up here for me in New York.

SPEAKER_01 56:57

Jacks them all year. Jacks them all year. Yeah, it's so freaking underrated, bro. And you're burning.

SPEAKER_03 57:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Yeah, that little sucker, but you gotta have light line and a light rod, like I was saying earlier. It's one of those tiny crankbaits that you want range because it has a steep rake. You can get that thing 12-15 foot if you can get a hundred-foot cast out of it. That's gonna require 10-pound fluorocard and a medium power rod. Not no medium action nonsense. Quit saying tapers for powers. That dude, that's my pet peeve, bro. That is my pet peeve. Oh. So hopefully you don't do it daily. I'm gonna go through all your content after this, bro.

SPEAKER_02 57:45

Oh, you're just gonna yeah, you're gonna steamroll it, man. I'm gonna get all these hate comments from informative.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

What is that? What is that?

SPEAKER_02 57:51

Oh, brother, this guy stinks. No, man. One quick question on the on the cranky thing. We're talking about fast. I have heard of people we'll call him out here uh and give him some props for it. Brad Rutherford over at Party.

SPEAKER_01 58:07

Oh, Brad! Burke Brad!

SPEAKER_02 58:10

He loves that freaking frit side, and he throws it on a 9-1-to-1 or a 10-1-to-one, whatever the the Xenon can go up into, and he burns that sucker. And he smoked.

SPEAKER_01 58:22

He just got exposed, bro.

SPEAKER_02 58:24

Oh, yeah, he did.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

Yeah, he did. There goes your bite, Brad. No, that's fine. Um uh hold on. Thinking if I will be in trouble. Um, here's what I can say. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That bait is getting a massive improvement, and it's coming this fall. That's that's all I can say. But, dude, I gotta fat order it before they freaking sell out everywhere else. Uh that bait just got a fat improvement, dude.

SPEAKER_02 58:56

Okay, we'll be looking out for that this fall.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

You can you can DM Brad. Everybody else, sorry, guy. Just Brad's got some random DM source for it. Bailey's got the direct source, okay? Look for Brad Brothers on Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 59:16

What's with all the DMs?

SPEAKER_02 59:19

You're gonna call. Are you talking about my bite with the Fritz ad? That's Brad. Yes, I was.

SPEAKER_01 59:24

Yeah, Fritz sides, if you guys don't know, David Fritz, it's the Berkeley bait. Okay, it's a flat-sided uh crankbait that they put the weight modifications in so you can still cast it. Uh, flatter sides, you can work real fast, and they also work remarkably well in very cold waters, arguably one of the best, probably top five reaction baits you can throw in freezing cold water.

SPEAKER_02 59:45

I just thought I was just catching them on it at Grand Lake this past weekend. Yeah. John Cox throws it in the summer. Like it's there. You go. You know if John Cox is throwing it and it's not a Sanko or General, I should say. Uh then yeah, he's catching them. Uh, but that's yeah, that's freaking. I like the talk about changing up the speeds because yeah, a lot of people are just cast and just wind.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

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SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

You'd be amazed. Fast, dude, like with crankbaits, and I'm you guys have probably heard this in the past. I don't if you watch any of the old school cranking offshore tournaments or ledge cranking stuff, back before scoping, like you would see guys talking about firing them up. Like Kevin would be on a knee, David be on a knee, everybody'd be on a knee, just trying to pound the freaking bottom. They had seven to one, so these fools are probably throwing their shoulders out. That was the fastest thing they had. You know, you go back at that time, and I remember dudes. Now you go back, if you look at crankbait literature right now, people are gonna tell you, yeah, get yourself a five, three to one. Bro, I don't even own any of those anymore. You know what my slowest bait caster is, Bailey?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:27

I'm gonna guess like an eight something.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:32

Bro, that's as slow as I go, and I fish year-round everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

I still use a six, two to one, but the more I keep listening to stuff like this, the more I'm thinking about switching to that higher gear.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:44

You get slow down. Especially if you're looking at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

Yeah. That's how I was catching them at Clear Lake. I was throwing uh the DT 16 and DT12, and it was like so slow to the point where I'm like counting the rocks the bill was hitting, and that was the only way I could get them to get it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:01

Yep. Yeah.

unknown 1:02:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:04

Should have Jiko'd one of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:06

I should've, man. Retrospect. I should have. That's how the thing got freaking won, was of course.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Yeah, we got this building stream shoot I'm hosting at the end of July at Clear Lake with uh some YouTuber guys. I don't know if I'm supposed to say too much, but that's gonna be that'll play. That's gonna play.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:20

I'm sure it will.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:24

I'm not even scoping, dude. I'm bringing my boat without scope. Just because these guys want to learn to skip so bad and flip and frog. So I'm like, yeah, no scope, no scope.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:35

So I'm I'm a I'm a peerist on this subject, which is interesting, because I I say there's two different this this this may be a separate little tangent right here for you. But I say there's scoping and there's bass fishing. They're different, dude. They're different, they're one and the same right now because you can do both in a lot of tournaments, but you have guys that grew up bass fishing, and you have guys now that grew up scoping, and you look at the best of the best are guys who were landed on that transition period. Guys that have intuition without it. You know, you're looking at your your Gills, your Connells, your Wheelers, and these are you know, a lot of these top top ten guys are guys that were able to fish before, or grew up fishing with like a dad or a buddy or an older brother that you know fish just old school style bass fishing, reading current seams, you know, reading foliage, reading water temperatures, and not relying on seeing fish first and reading body language of the fish on the graph. That's a whole nother art. Okay. These young dudes that grew up staring at it, I I use it every other day. They will probably still beat me at it in some places strictly because that's what they grew up using. When you were in that vehicle and you were behind the wheel of that vehicle 24-7, you will master that vehicle.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:01

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:01

And the reality is now that we have these like windows and tournaments, so you can use it here, you can't use it here, you're gonna see those guys in that age group that have both of it like being the dominant player.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:16

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:17

I always bust Drew's Drew's nuts on uh when he's up fishing shallow, he posts an Instagram thing fishing a frog. I say, Oh bro, you're not supposed to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:27

Yeah, I thought you were.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:30

Put that down.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:32

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

Oh, yeah, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:35

Yeah, we we definitely need to be getting you on here again because I feel like we can talk for hours on end. And uh obviously you're max a lot of topics. Um the last question before I have some fun questions that to wrap this up around.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:50

All right, let's go.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:51

But I do have one. We talked about it offline that was uh something sneaky when it comes to the jig head minnow stuff that you do with your jig head.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:59

Okay, okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:01

And that was the last thing I wanted to hit on in here, but then we'll hit the hit the fun questions.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:04

But I forgot, and I'm glad you brought that up. I forgot too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:08

That's why I told you offline I make notes because my goldfish memory.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:12

Okay, can you see that strolling jig head? Yep. Okay. This is just the ducat one. Dude, there's so many. Don't even sway. Whatever your favorite is. If it has a long shank, okay, to it. I want you to think of something right here. We're gonna go to crankbaits and then we're gonna come back to this. Okay. Everybody, if your hook point aligns straight with your shank like that, and you're strolling a minnow, you're losing fish that you don't have to lose. Alright? Think about this. Remember when KVD did the mustad triple grip trebles, the EWG troubles where the points were raked in slightly, they pointed in, not a round then, but they're pork uh pointed in some. I said porked, that was weird. Port came out, maybe maybe I want to route. But so the EWG treble has an inward rake like that to where when it hooks them, it hangs on really well. Where round bin, if they're slapping at it, hooks them well, but it doesn't hang on as much. Okay. So back in the day, I replaced all my front hooks to those triple grips, and I put a round bin on the back. So think about this. If they eat the bait head first, the EWG has a proven track record of hanging on to them better. Where if they're slapping at the bait, an EWG has a proven track record of not hooking them as good as a round bin. So I did the combination of them both. Back in the day when you've seen people tie in their trebles on, I was a big part of that craziness. I tied tons of my treble hooks on, and you'll notice on the front of my baits, if it's small enough for a bass to get it all the way in its mouth, it has an EWG on the front and a round bin on the back. I'm one of very few people that runs a combination of different style hooks like that. So how does that apply to this jig head right here? Who's figured it out? Who's figured it out? All I do is bend that point down just a little bit, and your hookup to land ratio is way better. Way better. Essentially, this is in a round bin configuration.

unknown 1:07:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:21

You see what I'm saying? You see the backbone of the hook right there, how it's parallel with the point? If you bend that tip forward, you're in that EWG style triple grip configuration that doesn't like to let go when a fish thrashes or leverages. That is the big difference. Your hookup, like let's say if you're in a tournament, okay, and you go out and you're you get 30 bites versus another dude 30 bites, and he's fishing it like this, and you bent that tip just slightly down, you will win. You will win on average over a multiple-day marathon, not knowing anything more but to bend your hook point down just a little bit. You'll win.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:59

So when you're going to go bend that down, where are you going to put your pliers to then bend that out a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:06

Right here, right at the top corner of the bend. I just want this part to tilt down just slightly. I don't want it running parallel. I want that just tilted slightly down. You're not putting a huge bend.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:21

Like the was it the Gamagatsu Horizon head kind of has that small little it kind of bends down a little bit more too.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:27

There you go. Already solved. So you already know by looking at that jig head. Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:34

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:36

One point. There's one point. They're not gonna slap at it and pick up that one point in a round bend configuration. They're eating your minnow. It should be in an EWG style configuration with that hook point coming down somewhat. Dude, it saves you so many fish, dude. And it's like I bro. I uh I fish the minnow a lot and did not think about it myself until one day I had three throw it. I hooked him at like 80 feet out there. And you cannot control a fish when he's that freaking far, especially when you're on a wand. Okay. Like you can't keep him down if a big one wants to thrash, they're gonna thrash. And they threw it. And I brought my bait back and I looked at it and I said, Why why am I doing that? Bent it a little bit and like next nine in the boat. Didn't matter. Thrashed on top, didn't matter. I had him as long as you stay tight and you're not an idiot. You know, it helps tremendously.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:38

Alright, I'm gonna give that a shot.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:40

It's so annoying, dude, when like like I feel like I should know, and then I'll just be a dummy about it for a few days straight until it clicks. I learned the hard way, guys. Failing a lot. Learn from my mistakes, dude is like I still get a backlash from time to time, too. Let's just be fully honest right now.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:03

Yeah, I am known to get a wind knot or two in my day. I am high-ticked fishing broke rods. All of it, all of it is true. I leave out the plug from time to time.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

A DC on Grand Lake literally reeled one all the way to the tip of his rod when he was trying to scoop the fish. So it's like the best of the best still do it, man. It's all good.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:31

Dude, it happens, bro. It so happens. It is it's so funny because a lot of us try to hide it, you know. Like, and I find myself trying to hide it because it's embarrassing, bro. When you're doing this for 20 years and like you're a leading knowledge guy in the industry and you're designing stuff and you do something stupid, it's like, oh man.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:52

I put it out for the world because just because I feel like I feel like people resonate with some of the the dumb stuff that experienced people still do every now and then. Now, I think the better you get, the less you do it, of course, but like nah, it still happens. It still happens.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:10

Dude, you know what it is? It's you younger guys are better with humility. I I think us guys, you know, over 40, like we're in a generation where we couldn't show any signs of making a mistake or it was looked at different.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:23

No, we can't.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:24

It's weird. I noticed how old are you been?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:26

28.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:27

Yeah, see, I notice a lot of you guys are like, you're way better at laughing at yourself more than old timers and like doing pranks on each other, and it's like acceptable. And you'll see like guys my age in the comments, like, I would beat your ass. You tried that off me. Like, we just can't take it. A lot of us can't take it, man. That's funny. I try to I try to be more like you guys, you know. That's what I'm trying to be. Yeah, you see this flat rim right here.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:52

Yeah, look at you styling wrapping all of it, man. I love it, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:57

Yeah, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:01

As as we wrap the sucker up, my last question for you. Just like we started off, every new guest that we have on this show, we we ask these questions to start and then to close out. And that is it's a it's a little bit loaded, one. We never prepare people, uh, which is kind of the half the fun in it. Okay. Uh, and that is if you could invite three different people to dinner, have a steak and a beer, and pick their brain. They could be fishing, they don't have to be fishing, they could be alive a thousand years ago, alive today. It does not matter. What three people are you gonna invite?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:33

Okay, I'm a history nerd, so here we go. Uh Nickel Nikola Tesla, for sure. Um, Abraham Lincoln. Number three, Elon.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:48

You got some high IQ conversation. Well, I'd be more intrigued to hear the conversation between Elon and Abraham Lincoln. I'm like, you guys have what?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:57

Right, right, right. No, it's it's there, they're such interesting, and the the level of autism and OCD that Nikola Tesla had. I I just want to see it for myself. I'm an ancient history buff. Like, it's what I love. I follow a lot of anthropologists, like science is always my thing. Like the scientific process, even when I'm doing with baits and stuff, guys. Like, I'm obsessed. Like, I'm obsessed. If something's like weird about a bait, I got a swim bait right here that I'm dialing in today. Um, Mads in Savage Gear probably wants to strangle me. Uh, because I'm like, uh, what time's the factory on tonight? Three. I'll be there. And I'm like, okay, can we do can we do this? Can we do this? So I don't know if you guys know, but like 10 years ago I joined Savage Gear. I'm not sure if you've seen the bait curve, but dude, I'm like, it's a love-hate thing. I think they hate me a little bit, but they love when the project's done.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:03

Yeah, all right. That's what that's the no no project that comes out well is easy being done.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:09

Yeah, the scientific process I am obsessed with, and there's so many great minds out there, man. Um, you know, it's it's it's truly incredible. And it's when you when you watch some people that you were like, okay, I don't even comprehend what they're saying. You know, let me dial this in. You know, that's that's what AI is for. Bring it open. Like if you don't understand the subject basis that they're talking about, type it in. Learn so much, expand your mind. It helps with fishing tremendously. You know, I used to tournament fish a ton, and now like the scientific process is like it for me. That's what I'm obsessed with. I want to like beat myself. That's weird. Um, but like I want to challenge myself out, and yeah, I want to beat myself too, baby. No, it's I want to challenge myself when I'm out there and I want to perfect a technique. Like, if I know they're eating the frog and I know they're flipping, like I'll try something really weird. Like, I'll go ultra finesse, heavy tungsten, trying some different flipping technique. I'll try variations of hooks and rigs and different knots, and it it's it's so weird, man. I don't even tie like the normal knots anymore. I do all weird stuff, like I'm obsessed with forward, like Berkeley forward, and the people don't even know what that is. Do you guys you guys even know what fused flying is? Most people think braid fluorocarbon mono, co polymer. Um, but fused is an entirely different category that lands into like the braid category. There's just so many unique things coming out, and I think a lot of people want everything to be dumbed down because it's easier to sell that way. But guys, we're living in like such a cool time of fishing creation with the technologies, the new type of TPEs that are coming out, TPVs coming out, like material science is getting crazy. Like, dude, we're getting like fishing's gonna be like super cool. Don't just get upset at the forward-facing sonar thing because we're gonna we're gonna there's so much more to go with that. Hey, it it's really cool. Really, really cool time to be a fisherman and to be alive with all the technology that's coming.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:19

I love that, man. Couldn't yeah, and I'm getting excited just feeding off of it, man. And that is like the perfect line to close this thing out of because you said it perfectly. We say it all the time on this show. At the end of the day, fishing is still fun, nothing's changed about that. And you can choose whether to get worked up about something or not. That is at the end of the day, that is your decision whether or not to get worked up about something. It is your decision whether to go fishing or not. At the end of the day, fishing's still fun, and love the way that you just you kept that offering.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:49

Absolutely, bro. I'll fire off an F-bomb losing a one-pounder sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:56

What happened here? I gotta roll my hook.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:58

You're like, that's not what I said, bro. That's not what I that's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:04

Well, dude, thank you so much for taking time out here. Is it we need to get get you back on here a couple more times, bro, because that was just stay with it, bro.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:11

If I'm home, I'm in.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:12

Yeah, hell yeah. Well, dude, am I gonna see you in a couple weeks at iCast?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:16

Um, I'm still debating if I'm gonna go. I got a ton going on, so we'll see. It's up in the air.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:22

I was gonna say, usually it's not mandatory for you anymore because pure fishing ain't going.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:26

Yeah, yeah. A couple other companies wanted me to go, man, but I got I got like 15 straight days on the water coming up, so it's gonna this can be a hard one. I don't think I'm gonna be able to pull it off, but I do like going there and catching up with everybody.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:40

Yeah, yeah. Hear that. Well, either way, we'll stay in touch. And uh again, thank you so much for taking time up. All right, thanks everybody at home for watching. All right, guys, that is gonna do it for today's show. Hopefully, you guys learned a lot. I certainly did, and we'll be tinkering around with some new baits and uh new ways of how I'm rigging my current tackle going forward because of some of the stuff that Nicholas dropped here on this show. But uh, hopefully you gain something from it. Let us know down below if you did. Uh, make sure you guys go and grab any of some of the baits that he talked about. We'll link them down below if they're on OmniAffishing and you can always always use code series 10, save 10% off. Sorry again that it was just so low for me today. Deacon is currently just swamped with work and he has an event this weekend, the BAM Tour Super 60 event on Brownley, which is his home water. So hopefully he is currently well, he doesn't fish until Friday. This episode drops on a Wednesday. Hopefully, by next week's show, we'll have some pretty good news, but hopefully a dub that he'll he'll get on the Super 60 event out there. But uh great shows coming up for you guys. We have John Cruz, we have Noel Winslow, we have a bunch of different ones in the works. So, guys, appreciate you as always tuning in. Make sure you guys go over to our website, Sears Angle Network. We have some people recently asking about apparel. We got some lifestyle apparel, podcast apparel, a bunch of different merchandise there. If you guys want to support the show a little bit further, but we'll see you guys on Monday for new Real Biology. So without further ado, we're gonna tune out. Appreciate y'all, and we'll see you on the next one.