Forward Facing Will Not Kill Fishing, But This Can

Ty Manarola joins the Serious Angler Bass Fishing Podcast to break down his first career tournament win, a 62.5 pound smallmouth bass total caught over three grueling days on the Columbia River, complete with a full gear and bait breakdown and the six-foot-wave grind that came with it. The episode also features an unfiltered rant on what's really holding competitive bass fishing back: not forward-facing sonar, but the toxic comment sections and online negativity scaring off non-endemic sponsors and stalling the sport's growth. Expect practical smallmouth bass fishing tips, tournament strategy, gear talk, and a candid take on fishing industry drama and why choosing positivity matters for the sport's future. This is bass fishing storytelling and commentary in one episode: a hard-earned win and a hard truth about the state of the community.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right, welcome everyone to the Serious Hunger Podcast. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Eichbrett, and today we got a good one for you. Good one is in regards to I'm not talking about myself here because I am going to go on a little bit of a rant to start this show, but we have our pal Ty Manarola that's actually going to be joining us here later in the show to talk about his win. If you guys are new to the show, Ty Manarola is a hammer from the West Coast, fishes the BAM series, the one bass, uh, just about every big pro-am or pro series tournament out on the west coast, and has an absolute library of second place finishes, it seems, and he finally caught his first dub, and he did so in pretty big fashion. So we're gonna get him on, talk about that, how he did so on the Columbia River, um, catching big, big smallmouth on chatterbait, as well as the old urchin style bait, and we dive into all of that. But um to to dig into this, guys, I I wanted to address something. I felt inclined to address something before we started this show. Um I want to say too, Deacon was not able to join. Deacon's been on a crazy bender with um drawing an elk tag, so he's been in the woods with no service, but also with work, and uh things should be winding down for him here soon. We'll have him back on every episode. But um, like I said, I I felt inclined to address something here before we get tie on here in a little bit. Um, and it's you probably saw the title, you saw the thumbnail. Um, and one thing I want to say, guys, too, is we we try to be as best accurate as we can when it comes to shows uh for titles and thumbnails. So I don't want this to make it sound all doom and gloom by the title and thumbnail. This is just me being being honest. We don't chase views, but there are times where um I feel like when a message is important to be heard, that you you got to play the game a little bit when it comes to drawing people into when there's three million fishing podcasts to try to do better when it comes to titling thumbnail and to get people to click. So let me just get that out of there and just be honest with how that goes. You guys see people clickbait all the time. Uh, I'm not saying this was clickbait, this still is honest, but um, hopefully you won't don't feel like you're deceived by clean uh clicking on this video. But after the BPT season wrapped up, which you didn't really hear much from after the fact, and now the Elite Series season wrapped up, which I'd be remiss to say, you know, congratulations to Trey McKinney. Uh incredible, incredible tournament, incredible season. That was a one of the most fun AOI races I have seen go down to the wire. And uh, we're gonna talk much more about that when Deacon's back here. I'll wait for him to kind of go into heavier detail on all that. And congrats to Evan Kung for the for the win. And shout out to our boy Hayes over at Tackle Talk for the uh the King Kung uh uh infographic that he put up on his page. That that is just clever. I I love that and hopefully that sticks that the King Kung and I've seen a bunch of different people start uh making some fun around that uh in a good way, not making fun of it, but making some fun around the King Kung um name that I believe Hayes came out with. But either way, total sidebar, I'm getting sidetracked already. Is when you saw in that season, all I have seen so far from social media is people comparing of who did well with forward facing, who did well without forward facing, talking about forward facing, talking about the anglers and who's good, who's not, and almost bringing a little bit of a shame to anglers that they were good with it or were good without it. And uh I should say who weren't good or good without it. And I just it feels like every offseason we hit this weird little period where people just start to get bored immediately and hit the keyboard on their phone and just start spewing nonsense and negativity, and this is what really gets me going is this is if you guys want to know why a lot of big non-endemic brands aren't spending money in fishing, it's not because of a tech a technology, it's not because of some new hot bait that's all the rave that's taking majority, what seems like majority of tackle sales, which don't even get me started on that. I I I don't understand why somebody can hate on a bait just because it's more synonymously efficient with a technology. If it gets you more bites with or without, I why would you hate a bait that catches you more fish when you like to fish? Either way, I I I see this and that these brands you know, take a big non-endemic. The reason they may have either pulled out or the reason may they might be hesitant to get into fishing industry or outdoor industry is because of all this drama and negativity online. And I'm gonna tell you guys right now, this is my my claim to you, is forward facing will never be the detriment to fishing. No hot buzz Japanese, American, whatever bait is going to be the detriment to fishing. That will never happen. And look, I'm not saying here that forward facing is good or bad for the space. I I use forward facing, I love using forward facing, I love leaving forward facing at home and never even thinking about it. If you told me tomorrow it was banned, I I wouldn't care because I simply love to fish. I love the adventure, I love going out and being in nature and just going and fishing. That will never hurt the future of this industry. That is never going to be the reason for a quote unquote fall of fishing. Fishing is in a good place now, but if we don't get our act together when it comes to the negativity, the drama, the blame that people are spewing out, the name calling, that will be what the detriment is. And there are a lot of good people in this sport, but there's a few small bad eggs, if you will, uh, and their their herd of Facebook trolls that that to me in the future when it comes to fishing is the biggest threat to one the industry as a whole, because if you're looking at somebody getting into fishing and it's hard to miss, especially the tournament side, the media side of things, because that's a sparkly thing. That is the the rave, that is the buzz, and that gets the most views, clicks, whatever. When they see that, it's hard to miss that. And so for the person trying to get into fishing, when you see that this space has a lot of drama going on, that could deter some people. That that is is not a when you walk into a room and there's some people that are having a good time, and then there's some people that are just being toxic, being negative. No one enjoys being around a negative person because it makes you think negatively and it makes gives you a negative outlook on things. So when they when they do that, that can deter somebody. You can choose to buy a technology, you can choose to see what you want to see when it comes to phishing. Your YouTube search is is not forcing you to watch certain things. You can choose what you want to look at. You can choose who you follow on social media. If you don't like a guy that does a lot of scoping, don't follow him. There's a mute button on social media for a reason. At the end of the day, forward facing will never be a detriment to the fishing industry. It's going to be the comment section. And I'm not saying detriment, I should, I should pause there and saying that fishing is going to die. It is going to be the detriment to the progression of fishing. The reasons why a lot of non-endemic brands, big corporations, don't get into it, in my opinion, is because of that. Now, fishing has a lot of room to grow. And the only thing I think that can pause and hurt us and restrain that progression is the negativity. Now, when it comes to the forward face and things, leave that in the hands of the states. Leave that in this in the hands of your state biologists, your groups of fisheries biologists that are actually doing legitimate data-driven studies to determine whether or not it's good for the sport. That will all get handled. You're not going to have your negative toxic Facebook comment is not going to have any hand in whether you keep or get rid of a technology. Your wasted energy on a negative comment on social media does absolutely zero good for anyone. It does no good for that person posting, and majority of the time, 99% of the time, that person does not deserve it. And again, we're still years later going after the anglers for the use of technology when it's with perfectly within the rules for them to do so. As the saying goes, do not hate the player, hate the game. And what I think what we've seen now and what we were excited for at the beginning of 2026 is we now have three trails that offer you a different product. You have the MPFL, which is zero forward-facing whatsoever. You have MLF and the BPT, which is one period of forward-facing sonar, if they even choose to do so. You had Bassmaster, which was coin flipped, have 60-40 basically, but trying to get to a split 50-50 of forward-facing, non-forward-facing. We had so many different options to watch that whatever you want to watch, you can now. So if you don't like it, don't watch. It's so much it does no good whatsoever. I I can understand the emotional attachment you have. If you don't like the technology, if you don't like an angler using a certain bait, that's fine. You're entitled to that. By going and trying to tear down an organization or tear down an angler by going and being toxic and negative in a comment section or in a DM or something like that. Does no good for anybody. Now, on the flip, I'll say constructive feedback. If you don't like it, explain why. Don't go throwing out name calling, bringing out, you know, spreading rumors, things like that. This does no good for you and your name and image in your community or in the fishing community in general, especially if you have a place in this industry, it does no good for the person or the organization. And it's just overall a bad look in general on the sport of fishing. If you want to see the sport of fishing progress in whatever facet, support it, be a part of it. Because the person sitting on the couch that is being negative, making YouTube videos, bringing tearing people down, spreading rumors, that does absolutely nothing for our sport. Does absolutely nothing. And with that, too, uh the cheating part doesn't help. And especially obviously, media is a double-edged sword. Media is a great thing because it brings recognition to trails, it brings recognition to the good stories that are happening in this industry, like with Carl and his Fear My Heart initiative, or the different stories you just hear that are feel good and bring awareness to something that deserves it. But it also can be, on the flip, a detriment because you get this cheating scandal, which is one bad egg out of a whole group of people that are doing it. What I'd like to say is buy the book. And because people get the clicks, they go and they spew more about the negativity because that gets more views. Because same reason reality shows do well is because people are drawn to chaos and drawn to drama because it's more entertaining to watch. But in the end, does not do us any good. So I I really just needed to get this off my chest because it's it sucks if somebody that really tries to wake up every day choosing to be positive and choosing the positive route. It's it's not that I don't get negative about some of these things. I I surely do, but I can tell you one of the valuable lessons I have learned in life is not wasting my breath or my time, which is valuable, and we don't get an infinite amount of choosing to go after somebody I may not like or may not have a good image of, or going in a comment section and uh going after somebody about something, it just does no good whatsoever. And it's quite frankly childish. Uh and so I have no time for that. But I just uh while I talk about this in a sense that might seem doom and gloom, I want to tell you guys fishing isn't a good spot, but if we want to continue to continue uh to grow and stay in a good spot and progress, we need to cut the crap because it's just a bunch of childish banter and the toxicity and the negativity that come from a select group does nobody any good. So this is my reinforcement to you guys that are choosing to be supportive, choosing to be positive. Stay down that path. Encourage others to do the same thing because this is the only way that we continue to grow and continue making fishing and outdoors and hunting for that matter a awesome place to be, and encourage that next generation to pick up where we've left off. And so I love this sport, I love I'm never gonna leave this game, but some days it definitely is. You click on a post or somebody sends you something, and it is just disheartening sometimes to see certain people's purview and their willingness to click their fingers a couple times and say something that one they probably never say to your face, uh, and two, uh does no one any good. So stay positive, guys, choose positivity. Like I said, you choose exactly what you want to see when it comes to picking up your phone, looking at your TV, looking at your computer, whether it's YouTube, whatever have you, it is your choice of what you get to go look at. You're not being forced to watch anything. It's your choice to go and choose what you watch and what you engage with. And I promise you it feels a heck of a lot better. If you don't like what's going on, just don't comment. Click off of it. Go find something that you do enjoy watching, and better yet, ditch the phone and just freaking go fishing. It's so much easier. We were in this game because all of us at some point in our lives, likely as kids, if you're like me, have picked up this this sport, this hobby, this game, whatever you want to refer to it as, because we love it, and because it was fun, and because it was an escape from everything else in life. And that is just something that I feel certain people have lost track of and they just need to put the dang phone down. So that being said, I understand people getting stressed out about certain topics in fishing, but I need to stress this is majority of us do not have any hand in what plays out, and so don't stress over it. What happens will happen. And I I've for the most part, majority of states trust that they will make the best decision for when it comes to our fisheries and preserving our fisheries. We just had uh a podcast that'll come out next Monday talking with a gentleman who's down at the AFS meeting down in Ohio, where they're literally a thousand plus members across the country that are involved in conservation, fisheries biology, they're talking about all these subjects and how they can get the best solution to go forward to number one preserve the water, preserve the fish, and therefore have a better thing for us anglers to hold on to, to take advantage of within our rights to have for the future. So that being said, uh I can keep going on and on. We might bring it up with Deacon a little bit next week, but I think for the most part, I just wanted to get that out there. Uh, y'all, if you're still listening, we are about to bring on Ty Manarola here and talk about his win, an awesome positive thing that happened for a great guy and a wicked good angler. And uh appreciate y'all for tuning in this one, taking time out of your days. We said time is precious, and the fact that you chose to listen to this means the world to me. I do not let that slip by. Is you guys are taking an hour or two, if you listen to both episodes every week, to listen to my goober butt ramble about something and obviously tuning in for the amazing guests that we have on, the experts. Um, it means a lot. So thank you so much for that. And uh with that, we are going to turn it over and get on with Mr. Ty Manarola. I did a podcast for two hours this morning and it was like kind of glitchy, but seems to be okay right now. Can you hear me loud and clear?

SPEAKER_02 17:45

Yeah, I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Cool. Well, folks, he's back again. Mr. Ty Manarola. Although this time, Ty, I feel like every show we've had, we've complimented, but also teased you because of second place finishes. And then we Ty Madden and I talked a little crap about you on the free rig episode out of out of love, of course. Uh, but this time, dude, we got you back because you got you got the freaking dub.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

We did. Got the freaking dub.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

And and you texted me because I don't know if I think our avid listeners, they might know what we're talking about, but we we even Deke and I said it on this show. When do you get one? It's not gonna be like by a pound. Well, what was it you texted me?

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Yeah, you said something I think on the first time we did a pod after I got second three times in a row or something. You said something like, I feel like when you win, it's gonna be like by 10 pounds or something crazy. And I won by over 11 and a half pounds on a smallmouth fishery. So that's definitely definitely you called that one.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

I think it was just it was too easy to read the stars in the sky on that one. They they aligned perfectly for you. And I'll have you know I did screenshot Chad's story because that was just too good about you guys taking naps on the boat. Just full Timmy Horton order of pizza to the ramp.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah, so we um Kevin Cut was in first, and uh on the coastline, obviously, and in the morning I was losing every butt I got. It was terrible. I was like, I got a night penal lead, I just can't mess it up. And I lost the biggest wall mouth of my life and at my feet. Watch it eat my quirky at my feet. I thought it was a walleye. It was glowing above the grass, and I threw it at it and it got vertical on it, and it was so long I'm scared, I was like, I'm not a walleye. I went to burn it in, and it's chasing it, chasing it, and I'm burning it in. I just looked over the like in front of the boat just out of curiosity to see how big this walleye was, and it was brown. I was like, uh, and I stopped my quirky and it just swallowed it right at my feet, and I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna jack her, and she just swims, swims, and comes off. And I was like, no, that was like a seven-pounder. I'm such an idiot, and then jump off like another four and a half, and I'm and chat's just in the back, just every fishy hooks is a good one. He's just bump flipping them down and asking for the minute while I'm freaking out. And I'm like, dude, this is not happening right now. And then um, yeah, then uh walked in, caught up a giant, and cut another couple good ones, and uh cut a couple two pounders and got up to 20. And we went in early, uh, played it safe, went in a couple hours early. I I probably should have stayed out and and pulled up those two smaller ones. But if if someone caught 30 pounds, you know, of small mouth on a really tough bite on a tough fishery, uh hats off to them. So I just wanted to make sure, you know, get back, make sure my fish are good, take care of my fish, be where I need to be. And yeah, so we uh we played some country music on the speaker, spot locked out in front of the marina and hung out for a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

I mean, you can't really ask for a uh a better ending than that. A little bit stress-free. I guess not to start, but stress-free ending, if you will, just because I mean, dude, it's also cool to have Chad in the boat with you, too.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Oh, it was. It was awesome. Yeah, no, he he was definitely keeping me level headed because I was freaking out. He was catching them and I was losing everything, and he was like, bro, you're good. I got up to like 15 pounds, and he's like, We should go back, dude. You you got it. And I'm like, no, I don't feel like I won it yet. Come to find out I only needed like eight pounds, but you know, I'm like, I don't feel like I got it. Then I got up to like 17 and a half, and I'm like, nah, I don't feel like I got it. Then I come up at six, close to six, and I was like, now I got it, you know, getting me up to like 20. I hooked, or I net he netted that fish. I instantly projectile vomited over the side of the boat when he netted that fish because my nerves just took over and uh puked for a little bit, finally called him, um, called my fish out, put him on the bow, and then just sat there for a second and I was like, wow, I think it finally happened. And uh we loaded up and went back.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah. Well, one, I'm trying to picture this scene, and I can it totally adds up. Uh but two, I can totally picture Chad just sitting the back of the boat, like not even paying attention to what he's doing and just roping him because that's dude very on par for Chad.

SPEAKER_02 22:09

He is a bite-getting dude. He was throwing a finesse worm on the back of a chatterbait because he forgot to bring trailers and just smash him. It was a it was a Z-man too, so it was like the elastomer stuff. He had it on, it looked like an L, dude. It wasn't even straight, rigged on there, and just he was just jacking them. I'm like, dude, this is insane. And yeah, no, it was an interesting start to the day. I think my nerves were just getting to me, and I felt like I all I could do was mess it up. And I was trying, I tried to mess it up for a little bit, but I always told myself the tournament I won would be the one where I fished super clean, and that was not the case. Um, I won by an 11 and a half pound margin, but I I could I could have won by a 20-pound margin. I mean, I I jumped off a lot of big fish on day one and on day three, so it's pretty wild when it's when you're around, I guess. I mean, there was a lot of boats in my area, but when you're around the right deal in it, I guess there's you know, it's just gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Yeah. And I can just imagine your all your stuff, as I've seen your stuff before, like gear-wise, it is to a T dialed. And what I know about Chad is he's probably got some beaten-up old rods. Uh, although he's I think he's running those Western Angler rods now, but fluger presidents on all on all of them, four-year-old braid on them, not caring about it, but it just still somehow roping them.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

I rolled up on this little shallow flap for a second, and all I had on my deck was urchins and chatterbaits, pretty much, and a spinnerbait. And I'm checking the spinnerbait, but it's like super calm. And I'm like, I asked Chad, I'm like, dang, I feel like they bought a topwater. You care if I throw your uh your topwater on? He had a plopper style bait sitting on there, and he's like, Yeah, go for it, dude. I picked it up, it's got floral on it, and like this much line on it. Like, I would throw it and get to the backing. He's like, Oh, don't worry, the knot on the backing is good. I was like, Okay, dude, I just drilled it in and set it back out after go because I was like, thanks.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Sounds sounds on par.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

Oh my gosh. But if if he threw it, he probably would have got blown up by a giant and it would have not come off, and he would have got it figured out. He's one of the I've I know a few people like that. Uh, my buddy Andrew Rickman in Texas, uh, Brax Hightower in Texas back in college. Brax would throw a square bill with the rustiest hooks you've ever seen, and never lose a fish. And I'm over there with my good G finesses, changing my split rings, tying on my hooks with braid, freaking filing them, doing all this stuff, losing fish like crazy. There's there's just some people when they got it, they got it, and he's got it.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Chad's got it. Same could be said for for yourself, David. And we're we brought up the C word in fishing right now with with the koiki. And uh, I I guess with with talking about that, I mean, walk us through setup-wise kind of gear you were using, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah, I've got the urchin set up right here. Um, yeah, so I weighed in eight of my fish on an urchin and seven of my fish on a striking thunder cricket. So the urchin, I I do the treble on the 17 size. This is a 17 size. I caught them on both uh scuppernog and um just like that Terramani blue or whatever it's called. Yeah, and uh striking's actually sending me the new Chucker prototype, and it's gonna be a very similar they they really got it right with how that bait works, so I'm excited to start testing that and uh putting big smallmouth on the boat with it. But yeah, just this is open size one G finesse treble. Um, this is 12-pound Tatsu leader uh to some 15-pound braid. And this is my baby. Every time I do get in a tournament, it seems like it's on one of these U call spinning rods. Uh, this is a U Call midnight 732 and a loose custom light 3000. Having that bit stiffer spinning rod with that urchin style bait is key because you got to drive the hook through those arms, which is but they basically act like weed guards. So I lock my drag down, I give them the beans, and then if they're big, I back off of them a little bit once I get the hook home. But yeah, that was that was one of my main setups. And then on especially on the wind day, and then a couple fish in between that I weighed in was on just a striking thunder cricket and half ounce. Got a little menace on the back there. Yeah, and Falcon Lake Crawl Rig Vertical. I've had a couple good tournaments on this this year. This menace on the back, it's got like a cool secondary action where one tail goes a little slower and one tail matches the speed of the blade. Um, and that's definitely I normally throw it for largemouth, but I was around this really heavy grass and it worked out good. And then this is a lose custom pro eight three to one. I normally am a six or seven speed guy, like to throw my chatter rate pretty slow, but in that wind, you were drifting so fast. I literally like sat down, spooled up a eight, three to one, and changed it up because um you had to stay caught up to that bait to even like feel it in the wind. And then um just a U-Call. I normally am like a glass blend type of guy. We got some uh some uh prototype rods that U-Call's coming out with for reaction baits that have some glass blend in them, and that's what I normally throw. But this is just their 7-1 medium heavy eclipse. Uh once it's a little bit stiffer, and just because you know you're flying at them so fast, and if they eat it coming at you and you're coming towards them, you kind of have to have a little more rod just to get that hook home. And then 17 pound Biz X on that. And uh yeah, man, had 62 and a half pounds of smallmouth, never weighed in a large mouth, 62 and a half pounds of smallmouth over three days uh on those two setups, and it was it was pretty special.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Any reasoning behind the red, or is that just a confidence for you?

SPEAKER_02 27:48

Uh yeah, so I was throwing green pumpkin day one, and and in the morning of day two, I caught one on a green pumpkin blade minnow on the back on day one, and uh then I caught uh one in the morning. Uh we had a day Saturday where it blew like 35 miles an hour. So even in this back bay I was in, it was the mouth that was facing the wind. And there's these flats out in front of the bay, these sandbars, and the water was washing them over the sandbars and creating a mud line, and it got over my main area. The water, the dirty water did. So I caught one right away in the morning on Green Pumpkin, but the water just kept getting dirtier and the waves kept getting bigger. So I followed the clear water back and then I made an adjustment. I didn't, I caught that one right away, and then I didn't have a bite for like three hours. And I felt like in that crazy weather, they needed something a little more bold to see. So I spiced it up a little bit, put a little red in it, and that worked out.

SPEAKER_01 28:45

Oh like was it like an immediate switch, like getting bites?

SPEAKER_02 28:49

No, I I probably threw it for about an hour, maybe 45 minutes before I got bit on it. But the first one I caught on it with that red trailer was like a five and a quarter, and I was like, okay, I'm throwing this the rest of the day. It's blowing six foot waves, it's tougher than heck to get a bite, but I just need to get three more bites. I got I had six bites all day that day, but I had the biggest bag of the tournament. Like if I got bit, it was it was a real one. It was just, it was mentally challenging because it was like I got a bite on the hour. I'd just chuck and whine and chuck and whine, and then an hour would go by, and I'd be like, I'd literally say, Oh, it's been about an hour, probably about to get bit. And sure enough, don't get another one. And then I'd go for another hour and just just a grind, man. But thankfully, you know, I got Thor Lithium batteries and I've got a Skeeter Yamaha, so I was able to handle all that stuff. My boat's rigged by bass boat wired, so everything was sturdy. A lot of people had you know problems with graph mounts and stuff breaking. Not my boat. My boat's built for war, so built for war.

SPEAKER_01 29:51

Yeah, I like that. That should be a bass boat wired slogan, built for war. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So that's interesting, dude, because I feel like, and personally, I'm trying to think of what I would have done in that situation. Instead of going to a red, especially like smallmouth, a lot of guys I feel like would have gone to like gold, yeah, chartreuse, gold blade, white. Like, what gives you the confidence? And maybe it's a regional thing for that area, but like what gives you more confidence in sticking with the green pumpkin?

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Um, the fit so the big one I caught on day one spit up a bluegill, a big bluegill, you know. Wow, hand-sized bluegill. Those bigger fish, there's a lot of small bait in the river right now, but those bigger fish just like that bigger profile, and they always eat crawfish. Um, don't get me wrong, a chartreuse and white spinnerbait is a great bait there, or chatter bait. They they bite it. Um, but I like going to that more natural, kind of darker hue on that river system because the big ones target bluegill, especially in those back bays. And um, yeah, so I stuck with that. I I got a cool story. So day three, final day. It was calm in the morning, so I was kind of scoping more and doing that, and uh caught a few, lost a few, and then the wind cracked up again and it was blowing pretty hard back into the area. And I was like, oh crap, here we go. Well, back to the thunder cricket, and I'm drifting at like three mile an hour with the wind, just chucking down the grass line, throwing my thunder cricket, and I was lining up this certain type of grass that they were on has like holes in it and gaps in it. And uh, so I would try to use my forward facing to line up where I'd chuck my chag bait to get it through those holes. And I'm looking to make my next cast, and like I'm drifting so fast, and like 30 foot from the boat, I just see this giant blob fly out of the grass, eat a dot, like two foot on the surface, and stop. And I was I literally told Chad before I even grabbed the koiky, I was like, if that's a bass, it's a giant. So I reached down, grab it, like gauge how far I think I drifted and the amount of time it took me to grab my my bait, and just flipped it like basically up my big motor. And I'm like turning my troll motor back towards the back, trying to find and it's in this is in grass, floating grass everywhere, waves like crazy, scope super busy, and it's hard enough to scope in that crap when it's calm, you know. And I looked back and that fish like blinked and started coming up, and I couldn't even see my bait, and I twitched and it came up again, and I'm like, oh my gosh, she's on it. And I twitched it one more time and she just went and stopped like a foot on the surface. I didn't even check, I just swung, jacked her, caught that giant that sealed the deal for me, and she had a giant bluegill tail in her throat. And if that fish didn't come up and eat that bluegill as I was flying by, and if I didn't get lucky and make that perfect cast, I still would have won, but I would have not had the bag I had. That was god right there, dude. It was crazy.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Jeez, God, yeah, that doesn't suck.

SPEAKER_01 32:49

I mean, were you catching numbers, but or was it purely just size?

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Day one cut a lot of numbers before they were all beat up. A lot of the field fish in this area. I just felt like I dialed into what types because there's two different types of grass in there, and there were one one type of grass, there's only about 10% of the grass in there, is that type of grass, and that was the key. I think most people were just more chucking and winding, and every once in a while they'd go over those grass patches, and I don't think they knew why they were getting bit, they just knew they could get bit every once in a while. Um, but I was really targeting those specific areas with that type of grass, and uh by day two, yeah, I only got six bites, and then day three, I think I caught six or seven, eight fish, and they're just you're if you got a bite in there, it was normally a dandy.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

So I know some people are gonna be wondering, myself included, like with current that fast, what what is what do you think is the reasoning for fishing with the current versus against? Because naturally, when people think river fish, you want to be fishing up current, bring it back with the current so it's more natural, or do you really think it just didn't matter?

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Yeah, so the the area I was in is a protected area that has a little bit of main river current flow that comes in through the top, but it's not like it's more like a lake back there. So all the current that was in the system was wind-driven current coming one direction, and then the natural current was coming the other. So, really, I don't think it really mattered, but especially on day two, you were at the mercy of it. You had to fish it that way. You I don't care what reel you had, what boat you had, if you tried to stay up it, you wouldn't be able to go forward for one, like against the wind. Um, you'd just be taking over the bow and the wind's stronger than your troll motor. And so I just put my poles down, I would turn my troll motor towards me and just constantly be bumping it, trying to slow myself down as much as I could. And I would throw kind of at a 45 behind the boat a lot to bring it with the waves. But actually, it's it's the waves were so big big on day two, it was so hard to feel because your line would climb the wave and then drop down and go slack. You know what I mean? So, like, you know how you drive a boat and you run the trough? I was kind of like aligning, I would look at the gaps in the rollers and I would try to like hit a gap and like keep my rod tip with the gap and ride the trough of the wave to keep my bait down. Yeah, it was getting it was getting with it. It was fun, it was very immensely challenging to fish in that very difficult, but it was it was a fun day, and it it was a cool grind.

SPEAKER_01 35:21

So is the wind going with the current or against?

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Against, and that's when it gets big. When that wind goes against the current on the Columbia River, they pick up and they get after it. Now, it wasn't completely unsafe. You can run the bank a lot of places there as far as running goes, and then then you know, if you get in it, you just gotta give yourself ample time and keep your nose up. Like we came back pretty dry, you know. Like it's it's not the end of the world. Now, fishing in it when it blows out of the west, all the backwaters, the mouths of them face west downriver. So getting out of it and being still being in a product productive area is pretty hard. So yeah, I just made it to where you just you know everybody had to deal with it, and you just have to figure out how to get a bite.

SPEAKER_01 36:04

That's crazy. Yeah, walk us through your weights for each day.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yeah, so day one, I uh I fished pretty dirty. I was like, I was happy but mad because I had there's no reason I shouldn't have had 23, 24 on day one, but I had 2065, and I think the lead was like 2072, but there was like nine bags over 20 pounds. Like they were all it was like 2072, 2071, 2065. Like I think I was sitting in the third or fourth. Um, yeah, and then a couple guys weighed in a big largemouth in their bags, which obviously really helped, but I felt good about the fact that I had a lot of cookie cutter smallmouth, you know, to be consistent. Um and then day two, I think the next biggest bag weighed in on day two was like 16 or 18 pounds um because it just got so tough to fish in that win. And I had the biggest bag at the tournament, I had 2190. So I went from you know a quarter of a pound out of the lead to an eight-pound lead in one day. Um and then day three I had just over 20, 2004, I think. Um, and that was the biggest bag in the final day, too. So I just expanded my lead another two. What? Oh yeah, I there's no reason I shouldn't have twenty-five, twenty-six.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Yeah, that's pretty weird to think about, but that's crazy. Yeah. That's all I cared about.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah. So what is if you're walking away from this as we start to to wrap this up a little bit, what did you walk away from learning lesson-wise? Because everyone says you learn more from the losses and wins, which I think is definitely true, but there's still always something to take away, especially on an unsatisfying win like where you mentioned how on day one where you were happy but mad. So obviously there's something still to learn from when you have that. Because you hear like Polinek talk about anybody that wins that is happy about the win, but knows that like it still could have been even better. There's still something to learn from that. So I guess if you had to walk away with one learning lesson, what would that be?

SPEAKER_02 38:15

Um I would say stick to your guns. I think more tournaments get won sticking to your guns and dying on the horse that got you there than not. And I've always been the opposite. I've always been the type of guy, like, oh, I'll just go catch him somewhere else. Like, don't don't die on it if it's not working. But day two, I just knew the potentials in that area, and even though I caught one fish for the first three hours, and you know, a bunch of boats around me weren't catching anything either. I was like, this has the winning potential. I'm going to die in here, and I'm going to make this work because this is the best area, in my opinion. And it worked. And normally I would be if I didn't get bit for an hour, I'd be like, I'm out of there, you know, I'll go scrape something together.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:05

But sticking to my guns, dying on the horse that got me there. Then after day two, I have this huge lead, and I'm thinking, should I just stay close, you know, kind of punt, try to catch like 14 pounds? Because I didn't know if I could get five bites in there. I only got six the day before, but they were the right ones. So I'm like, nah, dude, screw that. Go do go do your thing, go catch 20 pounds plus. And it worked out.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Hell yeah. Do you think that was like a feeding window thing, or is it just the fish were moving each day?

SPEAKER_02 39:31

I think they were just so pressured because in practice, like if you caught one, it had like 10 with it. There were so many fish in this area, and a lot of them were big, and they were all ganged up. But the more and more pressure they got from all these boats and all these guys, you know, catching one here, catching one there, they got really broke up. By day two and three, both me and my co-started catching fish with whole holes in their mouth, you know. Yeah, it I mean, it was a it was a small area. It's the size, it was the size of like a small creek on like a Texas Lake, like a small creek on Rayburn. Um, wow. And I bet you there was 20 to 30 competitors fishing it all day. But everybody else was rotating it. I never left. Um, they would rotate it, they'd start there in the morning, then they'd leave, and they'd come back around noon, then they'd leave, then they'd come back in the afternoon. I just stayed, and if there was one that was gonna be biting, by golly, I was gonna be there when it was.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

You know, there's a handful of guys that saw you there, saw you come back in with the bag you had, and they're saying the cliche cliche old line of God, if I just stayed in that area. You know that you're making guys say that right now.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

Probably, but I really felt like I was on like a pattern within a pattern in there, fishing that specific type of grass. Um, so I definitely think, and you know, I I just think I I had you know I had the right baits too, you know, striking thunder cricket and an urchin. I feel like every cast I made was an efficient cast with the right bait for the situation in the right area, and that's what it that's the you know, if you have all three of those things going for you and you're in a good mental space, that's that's when you're gonna win, I feel like. Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:06

Well, congrats, dude. Cheers to you, man. And uh cheers.

SPEAKER_02 41:10

I made Bailey have a drink with me. I haven't even taken a sip yet, but I told Bailey he had to have a beer with me if I won.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

Yeah, and for the people watching, I I'm I yes, I did hold up a sparkling spring water can, but there is um some spicy tequila in there, just just for Ty. Just for Ty. Appreciate it. But uh yeah, cheers to you, pal. Cheers to our boy Chad for another the second co-angler dub this year.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Yeah, he won two out of the three up here. He's I wonder if he's gonna get protested if he tries to fish him again next year as a kill.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

He'd be like the worst person to protest to because like he is so straight by the book and just oh yeah, he's such a nice guy.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Yeah, but he's so for those who don't know Chad, he's literally leading AOI for the pro division of the other uh division in this deal. But it Bam's got this co-angler opportunity where if you win AOI for co-angler, you can fish the championship as a pro, entry fee paid for, and a division as a pro next year paid for. So he just paid for next year's season and his championship by coming up here and fishing as a co and frickin' dominating. So he had a plan set out and he executed it very well. Um just a dog, yeah. He just called it shot. He's like, Yeah, I'm just gonna try to win AOI so I can get everything paid for next year. That's why I'm here. Cool. And he's probably gonna win AOI as a pro in the other division. So yeah, yeah, he's gonna be a problem once he makes it into that 60.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can agree with that. Uh awesome dude, though. Um, easy one to rally behind, and just the West Coast, man. It's just a freaking awesome group of dudes.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Yeah, we got a cool community out here, man. I mean, there's some negativity, there's some haters out there, but for the most part, everybody's positive and just happy that we have a professional level circuit on the West Coast because we've lacked that in the past. And yeah, it's uh it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Heck yeah, dude. Well, man, as we wrap this sucker up, anything else that the folks need to know about? Anything they should uh go check out?

SPEAKER_02 43:05

Uh if y'all want to follow me, um my Instagram is Ty underscore Manarola. Um, I just posted my first YouTube video. I didn't get very many views, obviously. It's my first YouTube video, but uh had a Gordo camera guy with me for an event, and I'm gonna try to I'm gonna try to put together a media packet and put it together enough sponsor dollars to um to try to have him full time next year um on the tour and kind of tell show you guys the story of you know a West Coast traveling angler. And um yeah, thanks all my sponsors. Um thanks family and thanks to you guys for having me on again.

SPEAKER_01 43:42

Thank you, buddy.

SPEAKER_02 43:42

You always gotta say, Oh, and and no thanks to Adam Deacon for not being here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

What a loser. Yeah, he's too busy getting ahead of him.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Too busy having fun shooting doves.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

Yeah, well that too. Yeah. He chose dove hunting over talking to the champ.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

I can't blame him. I really want to go. I need to go check my fields.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Oh, god, as this show uploads, I'll I will be in the woods scouting for whitetail season coming up here in literally a month on the dot. So I'm looking forward to that. But uh dude, always good to get you on here. Like I said, you always got a seat here on Sirius Angler, and uh congrats again, man. I'm hyped for you.

SPEAKER_02 44:22

Appreciate it, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

All right, pal. We'll talk to you soon. Alright, guys, that is gonna do it for today's show. Like I said from the beginning, uh I had a little bit of a rant there and Ty is awesome. Uh he is a guy that I love to be around, very positive, dude, and one that works very hard. And this was a win that is uh long time coming and is not gonna be the last one. I wouldn't be surprised if he kind of goes on a roll now. Uh because that dude is dialed and has just been inches away every single time, it seems like, when he hops into a tournament. And uh is a great guy because he likes to spew a lot of knowledge. And the knowledge is the reason we do the shows to help you guys go catch more fish, which is the reason why we do this thing. It's because we love to fish. As long as you keep that the goal of choosing positivity and just choosing the love for fishing, uh, you'll be down the right path. So, guys, I appreciate y'all for taking time out of your day. We have an awesome real biology episode coming up on Monday. We have Caleb Bell joining us for next Wednesday talking about the summer to fall transition. As Caleb is a freaking nerd when it comes to the bassin. So there's gonna be a lot of juice in there to help you guys uh catch more fish as we hit that transition period where things can kind of get tough, but you can also make some hay, and Caleb's gonna highlight all of ways to do so. But uh folks, appreciate you so much for taking time out of your day. If you're uh watching on YouTube, please like and subscribe, share this video with your friends, spread that positive message, and uh if you're listening, please like. Uh well, not like, I uh excuse me. Leave a rating and review if you have not already. Appreciate y'all, and we'll see you on the next one.