Kyle Patrick: Sophomore Season Preview
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Welcome to Bass University Live, everybody. Coming to you from my mobile studio today. We're having a little work done around the house, so my studio sounds like a construction zone today. But glad to be with you guys. Good to see you, Rich. How's things down your way? Going well. No construction going on here, Pete. So it's the same look as usual. But I

But I can tell you, we sure do appreciate your perseverance and going mobile to make this show happen. It'll be a fun show talking to Kyle Patrick today. He's a high-energy guy, so I'm trying to match him this morning with plenty of Angler's Coffee. I'm just getting loaded up, getting the caffeine pumping through the veins. I love it.

I love it. Kyle Patrick, like you said, will be with us today. We're going to be talking about his upcoming sophomore season. He's going to be an instructor at Bass University this year, and we're going to be diving into some of the techniques that he's going to be teaching about in class at Bass U. So,

Very excited to have him with us. Guys, glad to have you guys with us. It's kind of a mild, very mild December couple of days right now around my house. Actually, I was just talking with Jake, Rich, and we're planning if we can manage a late-day pond-hopping trip.

or late afternoon pond hopping trip today. Take advantage of this warm rain and some of this warm weather. It's been, it's been too many days since I've made a cast. Perfect day for it. It is definitely a, a, a,

a very warm December day. And, uh, today's warm day is followed by some relatively warm rain from the last couple of days. So now water temperature should be creeping up just a little bit. I know the parking lot's busy down at anchor Marina. Uh, one of our, one of our very, very own or, uh,

You know, I'll tease it. He's got a kayak on top of his truck. He may or may not be fishing somewhere out there. It's all it's all good, man. I hope you and Jake get to go out and do it. You got some good ponds right around the house there that should be firing.

Yeah, yeah, it should be rocking and rolling. So we'll get out and have a little bit of fun. Hope you guys are out having some fun doing some fishing. Some of the ice is up. I see guys out on the ice in some places having fun doing that. So it's a good time of year. We got a lot going on. Justin, we've got some amazing deals going on right now at Bash U. And, you know, this we were talking about this.

The shipping deadlines are approaching for last-minute Christmas gift ideas. But, man, not for Bass U. We're a perfect last-minute gift right now. We sure are, Pete. And we got our little Holiday Mystery Box deal going on.

Sign up for the year. You get a little special treat sent right to your front door from us, and it's a box worth of over $50 worth of tackle gear, stuff like that. It's also a great time to get the class tickets. You can get a gift card to bash you. There's a bunch of different stuff.

you can get for that fisherman in your life. And just real quick, wanted to shout out Howie, Ryan, BMF, Bruce, and Chuck over in our chat on BashU.

What's up, guys? Glad to have you guys with us. What's up, Howie? A lot of people this time of year, they have a fisherman in their life and they don't know what to get them. Give them the gift of learning. It's always a great tool. It's going to help them be a better angler. We're awful proud of the resource that we put together here. We have the best anglers in the world teaching about what they're really good at. You guys that are watching,

You know that. So if you want to get a subscription to bash you, make sure you tell your significant other and Jocelyn, we've got our tickets on sale. We've got our classes in the works. What do we got going on? Well, we're going to Athens, Texas first. And we have a couple of people lined up for that. Rich would know better, but I know I'm like Maddie Wong and,

Oh, Greg Hackney. Greg Hackney, Lee Livesey, Dakota Ebert. Some guys that are really firing at the top of their game right now. Awesome. The tickets are available at Bass UTV, right? Yes, you can go to Bass UTV and there's a whole outline. So if you want to just print out a ticket and put it under the Christmas tree, it's a perfect gift. Awesome.

Awesome. I'm really excited. Humminbird, of course, had their new release with the Explorer units of Mega Life 2. We got to spend some time with Brian Thrift, and he is going to be teaching about his use in class...

in Anderson about his use of Mega Life 2 and 360, how he marries those tools, his exact settings, his color palettes, his sensitivity adjustments, all that. That is going to be, I think, one of the seminars I'm most interested in because I'm always looking to improve my game in that arena. So I'm excited to have Brian be teaching us that kind of stuff.

So get your tickets. Come see us. Have some fun. It's a great way to spend a weekend learning and hanging out with friends

people that think the same way you do they both love this awesome sport that we all participate in all the time and we've got a we've also got an as usual some amazing releases at bass university what's our featured release this week rich yeah this week we're releasing chad pipkins uh and the seminar is uh crankbaits deep to shallow and everywhere in between um

And, you know, Chad over the years has caught some really, really big fish on crankbaits. I mean, he's caught big fish on a lot of different stuff, but crankbaits specifically, he's put some really, really big bass in the boat. And it hasn't just been one type of cranking. It's not just been always deep cranking. It's been everywhere in between. He's caught...

Big giant ones up shallow. He's got big giant ones out deep. He's got big giant ones up in the mid-range. And a guy that's been working with a crankbait company for a long time, the crankbait company is Damiki. He's had his hands in a lot of the design aspects as well as Brian Thrift. And he just has a really good knowledge of

what crankbaits are designed to do, where they're most effectively going to be thrown. And he does a really good job at laying out his approach for cranking through the seasons, as well as cranking through all the different depths because no two crankbaits are, are made alike. And, and,

They all have their applications to where they're going to be best fit. So Chad does a really great job breaking that down in this seminar. We have some awesome footage, courtesy of Bassmaster, in there as well of Chad putting those crankbaits to work and putting some giant fish in the boat. So definitely going to want to check that one out. It's really informational. If you're looking to gain confidence in throwing a crankbait, it's one you're definitely going to watch.

you know, I can't wait to watch this one again. It's, uh, it's going to be good. Awesome. Chad Pickens is great. He's an amazing instructor and a great angler. So, uh, you know, you've been cranking your whole life. You're, you're going to pick something up when you watch a Bass University seminar. If you're brand new, uh, there's a ton to learn there. So, um, guys, without any further ado, is, is, is Kyle with us? Yep. Looks like it. I can't see him in, in my, uh, my mobile studio feed. So, uh,

Let's bring him in. We've got he's coming up on his sophomore year like he needs coffee. He's getting some. What is that? Three shots. Come on. Holy smokes, man. That's awesome, man. Well, you shot out of a cannon as usual, man. Good. How are you guys?

Man, I'm doing great. It's the holiday season. Love this time of year, you know? Yeah. Getting ready for our seminar season, getting ready for the tournaments coming up. It's great. It's a great time of year. It is. It's lovely. I enjoy this time of year. It's a little stressful at times, you know, but it's like all the anticipation for the next season, sponsors, all that stuff. So it's kind of like it's fun, but a little stressful at times.

Oh, heck yeah, man. You got to do all this stuff. You got to get your boat rigging finalized, your boat wrapped, and final sponsor deals laid out.

Yeah, this is – for a pro angler, this is a hectic time of year, isn't it? Yeah, it is. It is. But like I said, I enjoy it. And lucky for me, I went down to Elite Sonar in Ufala, Alabama early. Got my whole – my whole boat is rigged, broken in, and they do a crazy job. Like I've got – so –

Speaking, I heard you talking about the hummingbird stuff. So they actually rigged my boat as if there were going to be six graphs on the boat. Now we only can have four, but I haven't had the chance to really get personal with the Mega Live 2. So all of my...

wiring is ready so I can pull graphs off to put hummingbirds on when, when I get to, you know, really plug it in. Cause here, I mean, we can hardly fish right now in New York. So once, you know, I have the unit, I have everything ready. So like once I get comfortable with mega live too, I can take everything off, swap in graphs and then we're good.

That's awesome, man. What, what it's elite, uh, sonar elite sonar and you follow Alabama there. Like I I'm telling you just when I post the, I did a full YouTube video on the whole process. I've never, I've never seen anything like it. It is to date is my best boat I've ever owned from, obviously I stayed with Phoenix. So love, love the, I mean, you're always going to get the best with them in my opinion. And then, um,

the rigging is, is second to none. Like it's the best I've ever seen. Hands down, man. That's well, that's sweet. Do they, what do they handle your, like your poles, your, and your sonar control motor. Is that all they do? Do they do any, any, no, they do everything. So they custom, I've got two, I have one out wire running to all my graphs. Whoa. I have, they custom built all the panels. They took out like, um,

They took out the, like, I guess it would be like the metal panels in my Phoenix and made custom quarter-inch powder-coated panels that they mounted all my stuff on before they installed into the boat. So they put in their own custom panels all throughout the boat, like in the back, like where the batteries go in the compartment and then the side panel. I'll have to show you a...

picture, but it's pretty sweet. The amount of time they put in, I bet you they put in

And they have different packages for everyone. But I think for me, I think they did like 60 hours of straight work on my boat. Wow. Like it was crazy. Yeah, that's big time. I started running one of the mounts that raises up off the deck. Beatdown? Yeah, I got the beatdown. And that's like...

It's like almost at my waist when I have it fully, fully extended. And yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm really loving that thing. Do you do that or do you keep it on the floor? Yeah. So not only do I do that, but I also use, um, so I, I, what I really like about that mount on the front is that, um,

I somewhat keep it on the floor because I like consistency. I like to lock in my graphs where they are. But there will be times if I'm going to scope all day, like on St. Clair, if it's windy and wavy, you can just easily pop it. Literally two handles, you pop it right up so it's closer to you so you don't feel like you're, you know. One, water's not splashing up and getting on your screen as much.

which is annoying. And then two, like your neck isn't like this, like all the way down. It's kind of like this, but I like it because it actually goes through my, like, it doesn't just sit on a panel, right? Like it's up on your boat. It actually threw bolts all the way down underneath. So I'm able to have,

like i can move my whole boat with my with my graph mount right like i can grab my graph okay i got you because it's through bolted down underneath that panel and then in the back i don't know it's probably hard to see but i have it's kind of hard to explain but they're they my graph or my mounts at the console or my graphs at the console sit on two mounts that are on top of

the, you know, where they usually go. And basically I have, I can unscrew or I like, I can loosen them and tilt my graphs like this in and out. I don't know if you've seen that. Yes. Yeah. Cause when you get that sun glare on your back and your units are fixed,

uh it's it's blind and you can't you can't see anything so having that an ability to move it move that graph a little bit man that's that's awesome i want to get that on my next boat i don't have that right now but that sounds amazing it kind of looks like this that's how it comes okay i'm saying and then i mean you guys know you just look it up it's on beatdown uh outdoors but it's they they have pretty they came in and they innovated like

I don't think anyone was doing what they came out with when they did. So I think it's pretty neat. Yep. And that height I love so much because I don't have neck fatigue with it, which is, you know, it's a non-issue once you pick those units up off the ground. But

But I can tell you this. You're going to love Mega Live 2. Rich and I got to have a look at it. How about it, Rich? With Bill Lowe and our first eyes on it were with Bill. And I was blown away, Rich. Yeah, it was definitely impressive. You know, it...

After seeing for the last couple of years, seeing all three different brands, they definitely got right on par, if not beyond where they needed to be with it. So I'm excited for you to put it to its basis, Kyle, so you can see how you like it. Yeah, I am too. I'm really excited to just mess with the orientation of the transducer because it's

What's huge for me is being able to get really shallow and use it and not in perspective mode. I'm talking about forward, but less than five or let's say less than 10 feet. Right. Like you're getting up in that shallow range. How I was catching them on fork last year in the elites like that. That's where I'm really curious to play with it a lot and see see what you can do, because it seems like you can see even further forward.

like when you're in deeper water you can see further than you know the competitors with that that new mega live too so i'm curious to see what it's like up shallow um you know brush like shallow sand mud whatever that you know i there's a lot of messing around you can do with with like with you know forward facing sonar stuff yeah it's interesting there there's

it's interesting you talk about there's a lot of tweaking that can go on that that guys are figuring out how to do things a little bit better a little bit different uh to see things in a different way i could tell you in the shallow water with bill uh of course we you know first thing he did of course you know we're we're on lake lanier where there's you know spotted bass cruising around 50 feet of water and we go into the back of a creek typical bill lowen style you know but yeah but but

But it was amazing because I was looking at an apex and he's linked. I was sitting at the cockpit and watching his finesse jig go down, watching the small bass in the crop just come running out of that brush. And it was really...

awesome to you know just really awesome and fast that's the other thing and i i'd be interested when you get time with it i want to hear uh your opinion because i i the speed with which i was able to recover when i lost my lure you know what i mean like i i missed the cone and i'm i'm i'm

trying to find it again, it's like, boom, it like lights up and it gets you right back to it. When you're, when you're spinning that motor faster than I've ever experienced with the, with the stuff. And, you know, like Rich said, we've been, we're in the boat with all the different products as part of Bass U. So I was, I'm, I'm excited about that, uh, that, that speed, that quickness, I think it's going to help us all.

Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I'm also curious cause I, I'm not, uh, like officially affiliated with them, but they're fish obsessed mount. I'm going to try to get him to really dial in with that mega live to transducer because they up in a way are the best, one of the best I'll say. Um,

companies to use for like mounting your forward-facing sonar units. And, you know, I've used his, you've heard of the Dominator mount, right? The one that is on the arm that you can have at zero degrees and then you can quickly pop it up and make it. Yep. He came, he's going to come out with some,

tweaks to basically make it so it's fully customizable. Instead of LiveScope, this is forward. Instead of one click up at that angle, it would be a quarter of a click up. Because the way you move the scope up and down is really important with

where the stitching is when you look out. Like, you know, because if you pop it too far up, all of a sudden your stitching is totally in the way and like it's not looking right on the screen. But if you were to do it like a quarter of a click up, it would give you a better picture. You'd be able to see your bait splash. You'd be able to, you know,

Right. A lot more control. I'm like, you know what, what you're looking at, man, to be able to do that in real time, you know, yeah, is great. You know, as opposed to like picking it up out of the water, making the change. Right. That's, that's, that's interesting. That's a nice, nice feature. Well, well, you know, when you, when you spend some time with it, you've got to come back on and talk to some bachelor experiences. Yeah. With it. Well, I was going to ask you, well,

What'd you ask for for Christmas? But it sounds to me like you got your boat completely rigged. Was that your Christmas request this year? Oh, dude, I'm so happy. Like, I don't have to...

like my Christmas request was to not have anything looming over my head for the sophomore season. Right. Like I just, I wanted to relax with the family, have some fun, you know, you know, just do whatever and not stress about anything. And I'm all, I'm just about there. You know, that's all. Yeah. That's tremendous. So,

Because when you get kicked off, what's the first derby? What's the date? You know, it's a good – Elite Derby is February on the St. John's, which is going to be a grinder, I think.

Yeah, that's going to be great. And then Okeechobee. So Florida, like I think late February. But I don't know. I'm thinking about maybe doing the Toyota series on Pickwick. I'm really thinking about doing like a four Toyota series because I can do Champlain and Potomac, which is sick. So I got those two. And then I'm like, I just need two more for that wild card.

to go to the championship for what? 235 grand or something. Yeah. Yeah. Punch your ticket to the red crest. You win in addition to that, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. Those, those two tournaments are right in your backyard. Of course, does the Chesapeake not fit into your schedule? Is that, does that, I would love to go back to that, to your, your part, but I just, I don't, I don't think I'm going to do the opens this year. I,

I it just is a weird thing. I have so many guys that I'm really good buds with that are fishing it. And that's so much on the line that like sometimes I just feel like I don't have that cutthroat competitive nature as much. Like if I pulled into a pocket like the winning pocket and, you know,

Any number of my buddies were in there. I just would have a hard time fishing over them for nothing but a check or something like that when they had the chance to make it. So there's that aspect. And then I'd rather fish and try to make more money somewhere. I just...

Especially with the new format, I think it'll also be probably pretty hard for me to get in. But I might try. Honestly, for the Chesapeake, I might try to cherry pick that one, honestly. If they'll let me in.

Yeah, well, we're all going to try to cherry pick that one, too. I'm going to hit you guys up. Yep, yep. Come on, come on. You can stay with us. I'm sure we'll have a wall crash at Riz's house down there. Hell yeah. We'll stack them up in the backyard. Let's go. What do you think the odds are that tournament gets one on a minnow? I would say low. 60% chance. Yep.

I mean, you say low, Pete, but I'll talk. I'm not even going to talk about it right now because I want to save it for the in-person seminar. But there's a lot that has changed since when we went there last. As far as our understanding in a minnow and like all the little tweaks you can do to it to make it such a good bait wherever you go. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I just I think it's higher than you think, to be honest.

You're probably right We didn't see that Play a factor in the last Open there which was two years ago Yeah And that It wasn't a factor then And those fish on the Chesapeake have a weird

Man, they just like to be shallow. But do you remember where I was? I don't want to say it, but do you remember where I was? Yep. And I had a terrible day three, right? Yep. But I guarantee you if I was familiar with a minnow and confident in it, I could have crushed them on a minnow in there. Crushed.

Well, there you go, Riz. Oh, I've never been more motivated now to. Yeah. We. I mean, you can't argue with it. There's no doubt. I mean, that's the thing. It's still that time of year, though, on the bay where it's like, all right, let have let somebody have their best day on a minnow and let somebody have their best day fishing grass.

Right. I mean, it'll be interesting, you know, it'll be, it'll be really, really, really, really interesting. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be fascinating with that. You know, it's a, it's a shallow water fishery. We haven't seen it play, but like you said, we're learning so much. What are you going to teach us about fishing a minnow this year at Bass University? What are some of the innovations that you've come across?

Yeah. I mean, like I said, like how in detail you want me to go? Just, I kind of, I kind of just want to simplify it for people because that's how I've, I mean, that's how I've made my career is not getting complicated ever, literally ever. I've never in my life been like, Oh man,

You know, I pre-practiced the classic at Ray Roberts at the Easton Father Gale. And that dude knows more about all the little tiny Japanese blah, blah, blah, right? Like he knows everything from hooks to weight to certain lines, like everything. He's like Aaron Martins-esque when it comes to that. And I am just like –

always have kept it so simple and it's worked. And, you know, I think that if I can simplify throwing a minnow and the different styles and the different, um,

The different cadences and the way that you have to think about the minnow in a simplified way, I think people will understand a lot better what to do when a fish, say, just trails your minnow. You're sitting at and looking at all the fish in the world. This happens to me. It happens to everyone. You just can't get them to bite. I've had Instagram messages about this. How do you get a fish to bite a minnow when it just is trailing? Everyone's had it. It just doesn't commit. Then it's too close to the boat. You don't catch it.

Or you're a round fish and they won't bite it. There's small, basic things that you can do to figure out, A, if they're bass, and B, how to get them to bite. And it's basic. You don't have to get too complicated. Everyone tries to jump from this bait to that bait to blah, blah, blah. And it can be simplified. I'll just put it like that. That's exactly what I need, Kyle. Yes. I need some simplification because I have –

We had an interesting experience. When we were working with Megalife 2 on Lake Lanier, we were around spotted bass that were being rough, man. They would react to the bait, not connect.

A lot of them Would not react Would just be oblivious To it And I think they were in a mood You know what I mean You know how spots can be sometimes It seemed like the only way that they would bite Was when they were schooling Or when you jumped them You could get that first cast in on them So it is a terribly frustrating Way to fish And you can see why guys get

get turned off by it. You know, I throw it because it's very frustrating. Yeah. You don't get a reaction from 50 fish. You're like, man, let me go flip a dock. Yeah. Like I'd rather go flip because the thought process and I have it all the time. I'd,

I'm relatively average at throwing a minnow at the grand scheme of minnow throwers and professional bass fishing, but I've learned a lot from them and I know a lot, but I don't throw a minnow that much like compared to other people. Right. But I know that feeling. Cause you know, you're throwing at 50 fish and you're like, okay, if I'm going to see 50 fish and not catch one, I might as well just go flip docks and have fun and catch two fish and

And, you know, go out and like at least have some excitement. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's I think that's what a lot of people are dealing with with it. And I'm excited to hear you teach about it. And I want to guys, it's going to be available from Kyle. If you're in Anderson, South Carolina, come down and see us. And yeah.

And you can see Kyle live in person delivering the seminar. We want to talk to you, too. You know, Rich, I think after we're –

working with Brian on the audio visual components of Brian's Thrift Seminar. I think we may be able to do some interesting things with you too, Kyle. As far as getting those screens live, we're going to have some sonar units on site that we're going to be projecting onto the screen so you can actually... That'll be an option for you if you want to use that as part of your seminar. Okay.

Awesome. Yeah. So could I like send you footage to then display on it? Because like I have footage like on my phone that I have recorded prior. Yes. Yes. Yep. Yep.

Yep. Send that footage. We'll, we'll put that into your presentation and, and we'll be able to broadcast that in the, in the classroom. And of course, for those of you that, that don't, can't make the class watching it through the app, you know, we'll be able to, you know, we'll put all that, that'll be part of your entire teaching seminar. So yeah. Yeah. Let's, let's get connected on that and we'll see what we can do to, to make that awesome. But

One of the other things you're going to be talking about is jig fishing, which is kind of cool because you're going, you know, right in the face of what's happening in fishing with the minnow seminar. And then we're going to talk about jigs. Love that. Yeah, no, I'm excited about that one because that's like when I'm practicing for tournaments, that's like my – I throw a minnow –

A jig. And I do throw a Senko a lot. Brandon Pollinick commented and he is right. I am the Senko king, but I'll say that for another time. But yeah, like what you were just talking about when you were explaining the linear bass were being really frustrating with a minnow. The minute you said that, I thought throw a jig.

at those fish like so without even thinking that's what came into my head and i was gonna say it but i didn't want to interrupt you because i probably do that a lot but um that's awesome that's an awesome thought process yeah it's not a natural thought process right it's just that's how much confidence i have in it a lot of people have confidence in a jig i you know i

I mean, like truthfully, Tyler Williams back in 22, I think was the first, he really kind of opened my eyes to using forward facing sonar with a jig, like my favorite bait ever period. And it makes sense because Tyler is from the North. I'm from the North. Um,

but my favorite jig ever, like the way I started to bass fish when I was 12 was throwing a jig and pig like that period. That's what I did. I basically locked it into my hand and had a ton of success in New York with it. I mean, that's, that's the bait that like I've crushed bass in New York with my whole life. So it was an easy thing to kind of get good at with lives, you know, with, with four facing sonar, because basically,

You're so accustomed to throwing it without seeing it fall and without watching the fish react to it, that it adds that extra element to where you really learn how fish react to a jig and certain techniques using the jig that get a fish to bite versus, you know, not. Like, you always wondered when you were a kid or before forward-facing sonar, when you flip that jig under a dock and you, you know, flip it,

are picturing it falling. It hits the bottom. You feel it hits the bottom. And then you're shaking it or whatever. Now you actually can see, okay, there is a fish under there. Okay, it swam over to my jig. What happens if I don't move it? What happens if I move it? What happens if I hop it? So you can...

get to learn all the ways that, you know, whatever you were doing before, how they're responding to it now real time, which makes you just way better at throwing a jig. And even without forward basing, like if I didn't have Lioscope, I would be way better at throwing a jig now after all the years of watching how fish respond to it.

Yeah, that's interesting then because I, you know, we've had Tyler on the show and that's one of the components that he talks about a lot.

And I don't know how you're able to do this with all those shots in your coffee, but letting that jig sit as being one of the most important parts of triggering the strikes. Moving it is a real deterrent at times. Letting it sit still is key. He's way better at that than me. I'm way faster paced. But that's why... See, but that right there is why forward-facing sonar has helped me because...

Before, there was no way I was dead sticking a jig. Literally over my dead body was I going to dead stick a jig under a dock while I was looking at the next dock that I could flip. I was like, oh, onto that one. But now I see a fish. I'm able to be like, all right, he sees it. He's slowly creeping over to it.

I'm going to just touch the line like that and kind of shock, send a shock through the trailer. Now he's getting closer, right? Like I can see it all live. So it made it a lot more manageable for me to, you know, sit there and dead stick, right? And the thing about it that I learned is like, if you think about it, a crayfish or a crawfish, whatever, like I don't know if I think I told Rich this when

you guys came down here. Like when I was a kid, the way I got into bass fishing was I used to snorkel for crayfish from like 10 to like,

17, I would like dive down and I would just catch crayfish because it was fun. And like, you really learn a lot about their behavior. Obviously when you're looking at them under rocks, you're right. A lot of the times they don't move at all. When you get close to them, they kind of just like play dead almost or just sit there. So if a bass is constantly seeing a crayfish, this move away from it all the time,

Like, I mean, how many pitches of the jig and you hopping it away before it's like, dude, I'm not, this is, you know,

this is fake, right? Or whatever. Like they're smarter than we think. So I don't know. I just think there's definitely something about keeping it there and sparking its interest. Like, oh, that sucker doesn't see me. I'm going to get them rather than, oh, that one sees me. I'm not even bothering. Right. Right. That's interesting because that's something that, you know, man, the way he talks about it is just,

getting in a brush pile and just letting it ride in there for, you know, at times. Yeah, he does it way better than me. Yeah, that's hard to do. I'm the same way. But what's your, you know, you drinking Red Bulls out on that boat? What's your go-to out there? Never. I usually don't. I'm pretty much au naturel on the bass boat. Yeah, because I'm already so excited. I learned...

I think it was the 20... Yeah, it was 22 when I didn't make it. The year I missed it. I learned that I can't drink energy drinks because...

I'm already so hyped up. It actually, it hurts my fishing because like, it's like a double excitement. So I've learned that just don't drink energy drinks, coffee, anything before the tournament. And yeah, I'm a little tired in the morning, like early, early morning, but 10 minutes and I'm, I'm dialed in. That's, that's surprising. Who's that Kenta that does the, the Red Bulls? Like dude, I would have a heart attack.

I don't know how he does that, man. Can you imagine drinking five Red Bulls and smoking two packs of cigs? I would literally have a heart attack. That's insane, man. It's insane. It really is. You'd think he'd be buzzing around, but he doesn't ever seem to be bouncing. His interviews are lively, but not like you would think they would be after all that.

Man, yeah. Hopefully his body is doing okay with all that stuff. I hope so, too. Man, that's some crazy business. It is. Let's give some talk about your jig trailers.

You're going to be talking about jigs. I heard you say jig and pig, man. I love that. The kids don't even know what that is. I'm surprised you know that term. Yeah, it's back in the day. So the guy that taught me everything pretty much from 15 to 18,

20 that wasn't self-taught everything that wasn't self-taught by me was taught by a guy named Jim O'Brien and he is obsessed with the jig and pig I think he's how old is he now 50 late 50s and he him and I are still great buddies right and he taught me he actually I he had to I had to go with him to my first tournament because I couldn't drive yet and um

We went all over upstate and he, there was the jigging pig. That's what we want on. Right. We want on the jigging pig. And, and,

- Such a great bait for New York and the North. - Such a great bait. - And the grass and everything that's up there, you know? - Yup. And like the movement of that pit, it's so different. And I think there's a lot of times where it's really good today, even though there's a ton of different trailers out, you know, I switch up trailers a lot. Like I will use a lot of different trailers. Like I had a phase where I used the Chunky D by Missile.

I've been playing around with the adrenaline crop by X zone. I've been, you know, uh, I looked at the, the, the, um, flapping hog or whatever, but what the bait that I've been using since I was a kid, um, is the, um, baby rage crop by strike King. Um, but right now I'm, I just switched man. Like, and that, and that's like, you know, I've,

just being completely honest, like I said, Bass used the one place where I won't sponsor plug. Like I won't just, you know, I really do switch up my trailers a lot. And, you know, there's many companies that, um,

make trailers and they're all great, but it just depends on the situation. Like, like I said, baby rage cross a really good trailer. Um, adrenaline cry. I love it on the back of, of a trailer. And I'm actually coming out with something pretty interesting that I'll get into, um, you know, in January, it's going to be super cool. But, um, like I said, I don't really have one specific trailer that like is end all be all the best. Um,

I think when you guys came up, I was using the Chunky D, right? When we filmed here in New York and I caught a ton of fish on it. But like I said, it varies. What's your go-to, Pete? Oh, man, I went off the deep end with the cleanup crawl this year. Man, I used it on the back of my jigs in the spring and through the fall, and then I went Texas rigging it.

through the summertime. But, yeah, I don't know what it is. I think, you know, like you said, you know, it has a slightly different vibration maybe than when the cleanup crawl came out. You know, it's just slightly different. Maybe it looked a little different, but I just got the feeling that, man, if I got that nearer bass that they would bite it. So me and my son, Jake, we just –

man, it was, it was all about that crawl this year, you know, which has changed. Cause I, I was using a lot of different trailers like you and, and I still do, I still switch up and I'll go to chunks, uh, at times. And, um, you know, but it's interesting cause we had Randall Tharp on, um,

And he is just consistent, unchanged, absolutely unchanged using the big salty chunk from Zoom, you know? I'm telling you, that's like the jigging pig. I forgot. I did have that in my lineup a little bit back in the day. Yep, yep. I remember when that came out. I talked about it with him because we were all, you know, I'm –

you know, old. So it was all pork when, when I learned how to fish it, you know, and they came out with that, that plastic trailer. And I'm like, dude, there's no way they'll bite it. Um, as well as they do the, the pork rind. Yeah. Yeah. And then as it turned out, they did, you know, they bit it. And then, and then with the, with the plastic, it, it,

you didn't have the texture and the, and really the scent, I guess, but, but you had all those amazing color combinations and, and actions that plastic afforded you. So it phased, uh, it phased pork out of the situation, but that big salty chunk, that was the one they just, man, they just stamped out something that looked just like a pork rind. And, uh, and,

and they ate it up and Tharp's been using that for 25 plus years and, uh, and just continues to do damage with that, that simple chunk. Yeah.

But check out the Cleanup crawl It just has a different vibe to it I think is really what it is But it definitely gets bites But trailers I've done that thing where When the water's cold I want less action Sometimes And I'll go to the more chunk styles And then I'll go to the swimming trailers In other situations Do you have a system like that Or how do you do it? Um

I usually just have two jigs. So when I go shallow, this is what I'll say for certain. When I go shallow and I start throwing a half-ounce jig, I always have a small trailer. Always. Don't care at all. Like if we're on Lake Fork, I would have a small trailer, shallow. And then deep. Is that for rate of fall? I think it's for rate of fall, but also I just want –

Especially on the way the fisheries are getting pressured now, I just feel like if I'm up shallow, people are beating up on those fish, man. I just want a little bit smaller of a profile jig. My thought process is, yeah, if I'm on a fishery where

There's a lot of little ones and very few big ones. Yeah, I might upsize shallow. But for the most part, I'm grinding through trying to just get bites. So like, what is that four pounder not going to bite a smaller profile jig falling in front of its face? No, it's going to bite it. And then the one and a quarter pounder that are very important fish at times are also going to bite it. So it's it's like, why wouldn't I just downsize and catch, you know, both of them?

Makes good sense. So shallow water, small trailer. What's the deep water? Deep water is just a bit as big, you know, a pretty darn big jig because when you're fishing deeper, again, with forward facing sonar, I can target what I want. Right. Like and then if I feel like they're being finicky, I'll pick up a power shot or, you know, an eco or whatever. Yeah.

OK, but when I'm when I'm throwing a jig out deep, I'm going for biggins like pretty much, you know, 90 percent of the time. Nice. OK, well, that's good stuff. I know. Well, you're going to be putting this to work. Let's let's run down it a little bit because you're going to you're going to start out in Florida. You think the St. John's is going to be stingy in February? What makes you what makes you feel that way?

Well, Rodman's off-limits, so you kind of take that easy sort of limit out of the equation because regardless of what anyone says, it is somewhat easy to catch a 12 or a limit up there. Like, it's not that hard. And then depending on the weather, I mean, Ed Locke and I were talking about this. It's just...

Depending on the weather, it could be so hard to get bites because there's only so many canals in play. And with a hundred and whatever, three or whatever it is, boats on a river that frankly, there's not that many canals. Like it seems like there's a lot, but if you spread out a hundred guys, a hundred of the best guys in fishing and it's,

you know, you can only run so far. A river is so big. You can only run so far and then you can only fish so efficiently that people are just going to eat each other alive in, in the high percentage areas. Now, if it's full blown spawn, yeah, it could be good. All right. Like we could see some, some, some fun fishing like we did last year, like, you know, the Springs, the canals, stuff like that. But if it's not, and they're not pulled, it could be really hard.

Yeah, really hard to get bit. If you look at the weights back at the St. John's in, I forget what it was, 2019 Bassmaster, I think it'll be similar to those weights. And it was, I think, to get a check was, yeah, 12 pounds a day, 12 pounds a day. And then I think...

I forget the other one. It might have been like 9.5, 10. Wow. Yeah, it can be really bad, really bad. Yeah, that's interesting. Why is Rodman off-limits this year? I forget the reasoning, man, to be honest.

I really do. The times when I've seen it off limits, Rich, is something to do with that grass getting choked off in the lock system or something like that. I don't know. They've closed it on us from time to time, and it had something to do with the lock every time. It just seems like a long ways off to be closing it off due to something with the locks and especially –

Like there hasn't been that much grass on the St. John's for several. Yeah. I don't know. I really don't know. You know, I don't know, but Crescent Crescent is in or no good.

That's connected. That's got to be okay, right? Yeah. I mean, I think everything's on limits as long as you, you know, obey no wake zones and stuff. And purchase fishing licenses. Right. That's big news. You know, I don't know if you want to comment on it. Oh, I mean, look, I honestly, like...

At first, I was like, oh boy, that doesn't look good. But man, it's so easy to have happen. The way these states change their... For example, New York, if you buy a fishing license on July 1st,

of 2023, it's going to expire July 1st of 2024. But there's other states where if you buy it October 1st of 2024, it expires January 1st of 2025. So you only get three months if you buy a year license. Like it, that's, that,

confuses me and I could easily see how you know it expires the day before Ben goes out to catch some fish like he always does right like we all do and he made a mistake honestly I think that it got blown out of proportion because of how famous he is on YouTube and all that yeah it wasn't let's just say that it wasn't malicious it wasn't like he you know caged fish or did something crazy like that right to me it's he literally recorded the incident you

You know what I mean? And posted a video about it on his YouTube channel. I didn't even see it. Nobody's going to post a video of themselves knowingly committing a crime. Right. And it's just unfortunate, really, I think. And I think your point about malicious intent, you know what I mean? You're trying to scam the system or something. I don't see it like that. I see it as an oversight. I've done it.

I've done it a million times. Hey, we were just at Lake Lanier, and I'm out in the boat. We're driving out to our fishing, idling out of the harbor, and I'm like, oh, crap. I don't have a fishing license. Oh, yeah. I'm doing it right then. I'm doing it on the water. I've been out half a day. Yeah, you make like five or ten casts, and you go to pick up the trolling motor, and you're like –

what state are we in? Oh, Oh yeah. Let me just go on my phone here. Yeah. So it happens. Like I just hope that for his sake, I hope that there isn't a rule about, cause I mean it was in Texas and the classics in Texas and we have another tournament in Texas. Like I just hope that the state doesn't like, you know, because that can happen. Right. Like you saw, um,

Yeah, if they strip him of his fishing license. That's a penalty sometimes, right? For multiple years, no fishing license. Yeah, someone did that on the elites at one point. I forget what it was. Like,

It was like the same situation where it was way back, like maybe like the year prior or like that year, but, you know, six months away and like the state got him and he couldn't fish. I forget. It might've been the last year of the year before. Yeah. It was last year. Yeah. That, that would be a, that would be a devastating blow because there's two Texas tournaments plus the classic, um, you know, that would be, uh,

Yeah, that would be devastating if it went that way. I think the share Lunker program and the contest that is associated with that is like the infraction that they're kind of leaning on for this. And

But like I said, I've made that mistake personally. Pretty much everybody I know that travels and fishes a lot has made that error. So I kind of have a soft spot for that violation because I don't think, I mean, all of us want to purchase a fishing license and we all do and go out of our way to do it. But it's one of those things that slips through the cracks sometimes.

You know, you're like, oh, man, do I have like do I have baits I need for this day? You know what I mean? Do I have accommodation set up? You know, there's a million things. There's a lot of things. A lot going through your mind and your fishing license. Unfortunately, it shouldn't be at the bottom of the list, but it is. It is a lot of times. But but that was a bad deal.

I'm wishing Ben the best I hope he comes through this And we certainly love to see him at the Classic And all the tournaments this year But speaking of that too Rich and I were talking about this And there's a new Council with With you guys What's going on with that? We don't really know anything about it Or

honestly, I already thought there was a council. I didn't realize there wasn't. And I'm surprised that they're bringing it back. I don't, I didn't, you know, I'm surprised by all of this. I'm a little out of, out around with that. Yeah. I think it's a good thing. You know, I think it's going to take a lot of work from everyone to make it successful and, and, and, you know, to, to continue to, you know,

make it worth the time that it's going to take, right? Like there's a lot of, there's a lot of growth that we need in fishing in the industry itself right now, especially like, I think it's all, it's really good, but we need, you know, it's going to take a lot of time to make it,

you know, uh, where we want it, I think, but I'm, I'm in favor of it. I think it's a good thing that everyone gets on the same page. You know, everyone's on board. I think we have a great set of leaders, you know, Menendez, Cruz, Milliken, Weatherall, I'm forgetting, um, um, Drew Benton, um, all those guys like they're, they're, they, they want what's best for the sport and, and the anglers. And it's, um,

I think it's a good start. Well, good deal. How did you receive the no entry fee? Were you smiling or are you – what side of the fence are you landing on with that one? It's a tricky one. Like I was smiling in that at first because like I'm not –

I don't have some big bank account. Right. So like I, at first I'm like, this is great. Like I don't have to, but then I'm thinking about it and the same thing hit me. It's like, I don't have a big bank account. So I, I need to be like trying to push forward and like make more money. So I felt like, and I'm not a guy that like, if I get a win every like three or four years, I'd be,

I'd be pretty excited about that. Right. But what I expect is to be from 60th place to 20th place a lot of the time, like what we talked about, consistency. And with that, I was going to lose substantial amounts of money under the format of the no entry fee. Yeah.

like substantially because yes, I'm saving, but I have camera boats. I pay a camera guy full time. I have, I have to pay for camera boats at each event. I have to pay for lodging. So you add all that in. And I was in the tournament for forget entry fee. I'm in it for at least five, four grand every time through three, three grand probably per tournament. So I'm in for three grand a tournament.

lodging camera guy. You're right. It might even be more than three, probably four grand. Okay. I was fine with paying five grand on top of that. Yes. It's 9,000 out my pocket per tournament, but 50th place. And I make a thousand dollars every tournament. Right. Or maybe two or three, depending on where it is. Right. If it's in New York, I'm making three or four grand. If I get a $10,000 check and then plus the YouTube revenue, right? Like there's, but yeah,

Without that five grand entry fee, if I'm spending four grand to be in Texas for everything, travel, camera guy expenses, I'm spending $4,000. And I finish 50th and I make zero as opposed to $10,000. I am losing $4,000 straight up. Gone. And if I finish 40th, I'm losing $3,750 or whatever it was. $3,500. Like, so...

It was both ways, right? Because if I finished 60th, I was like, well, I didn't have the entry fee. Right. Yeah. You know, you got like Pete, the way I did it. Sorry to interrupt you. The way I said it was like if Pete, if you had to drive to me right now, what? Probably 10 hours, eight hours to drive to New York and come to a casino in New York. But I told you, you can only bring one dollar to gamble with.

The odds of you making it back to your house with profit is probably pretty low. But if you went in there with 5,000, it might be worth your trip. Interesting. That would be the difference, right? Like you got to, that's what the, now as far as the overall scheme of it for the sport, I think it was a step in the right direction. But from personally, I don't know if it would have been good or bad for me, but I think we found a good break even situation.

What's the breakeven situation? Just the membership fee. It was online. There'll be a change, I'm sure, at some point. There's the...

the $500 thing in the article that everyone puts in. Did you read that? No, no, that's news to me. Okay. Maybe I wasn't even supposed to say that. I don't know. But yeah, we'll find a good point. I think regardless through that council, I'm sure that we'll find, um,

Something that all the anglers can agree on and Bass can agree on. I'm sure there is something like that that can happen, whether it be through a, like I said, a membership fee, right? Where it's like just a small amount of money, but maybe helps, you know, those lower checks, whatever it is that we come to. I think that it'll work.

and make it a little more sustainable. Yeah, and maybe make that transition a little bit easier to deal with. You know, when I was doing this full-time, my, you know, and I still feel this way, I want to look at the 100 guys and I want to look at the 100th place guy.

And I want to make sure that he's making a living at this top level. Yeah, I agree. I want to make sure that that guy's taken care of. And then everybody else is going to be taken care of above that if you have a good year and you get all the chances to win $100,000. Yeah, but at the same time, Pete, do you feel that way about the triple backup kicker for the –

you know, the lions, you know what I mean? I'm not saying I'm not comparing it, but like, isn't it a performance based sport? It is, but you performed to get there. You know what I mean? Like once, once you, once you make that elite,

at that field, that's when you should be, you know, that's when I think our sport needs to, to say, okay, you guys get a minimum contract. You know what I mean? There's, there's a great, I mean, I agree. I would love that. I mean, it's, it's hard to just, you know, to financially pull that off, but that's what, you know, that's what I'd like to see. I, cause you know, my,

sentiment has been, ah, congratulations, you made the elites. Here's a bill for $50,000, you know? And it's like, wait a minute. You know, like, you know, we all want to, you know, make more than that or have a chance to. And when you separated yourself as being one of the elite, you know, that's where I'd like to – I've always wanted to see the sport head that way. So, you know, no entry fees. Yeah.

I know it's going to hit a lot of guys great. It's going to hurt a lot of guys. You got to look at your own stats where you are because there's home run hitters that, you know, they might, they're top 10 and then they bottom 10, you know, and those guys help them. It'll help them. Yeah. Rookies that have no sponsor backing. It's like, Oh my God, you know,

I had two months to acquire this money. Now I don't have to do it, you know, so it'll help them. And, and then there's guys everywhere in the middle that'll lose that, that are going to lose some money. So, uh, yeah, it's very, very interesting and polarizing thing, but,

Um, I'm, I'm, thanks for your opinion on it. You know, I mean, you're living in it. So yours is your opinion is the one that I think that, that I think matters the most, but, uh, what, uh, what, so let's let real quick back to the lakes, man. What's what's on this, the schedule that you're super pumped about and can't wait to get back to.

Obviously fork. I'm excited about fork a lot. Just because it's also going to fish differently, which I'm excited to fish that lake when there's just, it's a little bit different timing because you kind of, you know the lake, but you can break it down differently in practice. Right? Like I know where I caught him last year. I know where everything went down. So I like going to a lake where you've known what's happened in the past and you can kind of scrap it. I know it's hard for some people, but I like scrapping it.

Now, if I told you that I'm not going to launch day one and go straight to where I caught him to look, you'd be insane. But, you know, I like kind of breaking down a lake that I know in a different time of year. So that one, Ray Roberts, because it's a mix between Grand Lake and Fork.

It literally reminds me of Grand Lake and Fork because there's a lot of rock, but there's a lot of standing timber. The layout is, if you put Lake Fork and then you overlaid Ray Roberts, it would almost be identical. I'm telling you, they're so similar. And that's going to be a good one. And it's 300 grand and it's the classic, so I'd like to win that. Yeah.

And then, you know, I'm going to win for sure. Yeah, that is the one to win. And then I think that South Carolina tournament is going to be cool. I'm excited, dude, because I don't know anything about it. I know literally I don't even know where we're launching yet. Like I know nothing about that place and my whole career so far because I haven't been in it as long as a lot of these guys. Like, I mean, I'm from the north. I started fishing.

down south, what, three, four years ago. So a lot of these lakes, I haven't known period, like the first time I've been to all these fisheries, you know, are you talking Albemarle sound? Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. I'm talking. Yeah. I forgot the name of it. Even like, I'm like, I I'm, it's so new to me, but I like that. Like I love fishing new places and I,

That's been my, like I said, that's been my whole career so far. Like I've never gone in, I've gone into, okay. Oneida in the open and then the St. Lawrence. Those are the two fisheries that I've gone to that I've had like all

longer than five days on the water prior to the event in the last three years of tournament fishing at this level. Every other place other than maybe two or three days of pre-practice, I've never seen before in the last three years. Wow. Yeah.

That's impressive, Kyle. I mean, you don't know how unusual, well, you probably do. That's very unusual because so many guys are having great success by putting, you know, immense amount of time on the body of water. And that's, I think that's something that really separates you, your ability to, to break down a body of water with, with really no knowledge of it previously. Yeah, no, it is. It, I, I,

I really appreciate it too, because that way I, I mean, man, if I had to pre-practice for five, like call it three to five days per elite event, man, I'd have no, I don't think I'd have a girlfriend anymore. You know what I mean? And don't get me wrong. Like I went to Ray Roberts for four days. I put four days of practice on Ray Roberts cause it's the classic. And then last year I, I,

Got one day on Toledo and two days on fork because of weather. I made a trip just to pre-fish Texas. And then I didn't pre-fish another lake because I was like, I don't know if it's going to help. And the pre-fishing I did on fork and Toledo didn't help me in the slightest, in the slightest. So today, so this year I was like, I'm not pre-fishing another body of water, only the classic.

Because it's a waste of money for me and time. I can't say it's a waste of time because you'll learn a lot and you'll mark a lot. But I just felt like, you know, I wanted to give it a go without any pre-practice or any prior, like nothing. And just like I've done my whole time. Because you kind of feel pressure to go out and pre-practice. Yeah. Because other people are doing it. And I'm like, you know what? We're going to just...

enjoy this month or two and then jump right in. And don't get me wrong. I'll go down because the biggest thing for me is getting back in the swing of everything. Looking at my forward facing sonar, making a cast, you know, you get your boat rigged and your, my, my quest might be a quarter of an inch,

off from where my foot pedal was on my last boat so when my foot pedal was down and my head was over here i didn't even need to look up to throw my bait over and have it go perfectly on the screen right yeah but now it's just a little bit off so getting accustomed to all the little tiny things that a new boat brings um getting my casting accuracy back all that like i'll go down to florida and

probably like early February and do like 15 days of straight fishing. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. That's, that's cause you're right. I mean, I, I remember back when I would fish the Federation stuff, you know, and that's how, uh,

you know, that you'd fish on the weekends, you know, and you'd work all week. And then you're on the water for one day of practice for your tournament on Sunday. Yeah. And you're in the trees. You can't skip under a dock. You know, none of your gear is right. And that's just magnified times 10 when you're trying to kick off the tournament trail, you know. 100%.

Yeah, that's good that you're getting a little bit of time in. Well, it's going to be an exciting season for you. I think forward-facing has really helped a lot, helped people cut down on their practice time. I think that can get you around the fish a lot quicker these days. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a big factor. But it's going to be a great year, man. It's going to be fun. You're continuing with your –

with my well my i was just going to talk to you about audio visual situations as mine just kicked in there but uh the uh you're you're gonna you're gonna continue with a cameraman you're gonna continue doing your your youtube thing because that's that's another thing that separates you man it's it's so much fun to watch and and see what's going on with you i'm glad to see you're gonna continue going down that road yeah yeah i'm just gonna keep doing it until basically i uh

I, you know, I, I, I don't see me stopping, you know, as long as, uh, I keep, I have enough funding to do it and sponsors continue to like it. It'll keep it pumping. Yeah. Well, good for you, man. Well, we're, we're excited to see you in South Carolina and, uh,

that'll that's a little i guess about a month away so uh guys get get your tickets come on down hang out with us and uh i'm looking forward to in particular the minnow seminar because that's that's i i'm studying that like crazy especially now that you told me the test week's going to be one that way so i better get on board i didn't necessarily say i said there's a high chance yeah i think i think you're probably right i know justin feels that way for sure but uh i'll

Us grasshounds, man, it's going to be hard. It's going to be hard to pull us out of the grass. I know. I know.

Well, boys, thanks for having me on. I got to jump on a quick deal at 1215. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you, man. Good luck this year. We'll be rooting for you. And, man, we'll see you in a couple weeks. All right. Thanks, Pete. Thanks, Rich. All right. We'll see you, Kyle. What a deal, man. He's up and running, sophomore year, you know, coming down the road here. No practice, Rich, virtually. Right. That's confidence, man.

Yeah. I mean, you know, he, he's, he's working the fishing business from both sides. As far as you know, he, he's not doing this 365 days a year on the water. And that's one of the things that I can truly appreciate and respect about the way that Kyle's doing it is because he's, he understands the business component of it and he's matching his efforts on both sides. And yeah,

I didn't weigh in much on the no entry fees topic when we had him on, nor did I even at the beginning. But I can see from a perspective of a guy like Kyle, where him being as business savvy as he is and understanding how to work with companies and those companies supporting him based on his ability to perform for them,

Those entry fees for a guy like that don't hit as hard because he has companies A, B, C, X, Y, and Z lined up to support him. So those entry fees are,

There's support coming from all different angles, but that comes from the work and the effort that he puts into work with these companies and support their brands. That's just one of the components of it where it's going to help some people, going to hurt some people. Not to take the conversation back to that, but...

Yeah, I mean, he he's got he's got his approach to how he's working this fishing business and it's working well for him right now. So I'm excited to to see him and hopefully he has another great year. Yeah. No reason to think he won't. We're going to take a quick commercial break, guys. We're going to come right back and give away some cool stuff to one of our lucky subscribers. We'll be right back after this.

Welcome to Minnow King. How can I help you? Everything looks good. I'm friggin' starving, man. Been spawning all morning. Ugh, TMI, bro. What do you want? I'll take a Crush City Freeloader and Gizzard Shad. Anything to drink? Water. Ned, please. Welcome to Minnow King. We're gonna have what he's had. Yeah, throw me in a Ned B.O.T., too. Go ahead, please. Calm down. Quit feeding him so much. I'm trying to, man. If you overfeed him, he's gonna hide under a log.

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All so you can make every second on the water count. Welcome back to Bass University Live. That was interesting. Justin, are you there? You chimed in for a second on this minnow thing winning the test speak.

What are your thoughts now? You've been spending some time out there pinging minnows. Do you think it's going to be a bigger factor than we originally thought? I mean, I was kind of joking just a little bit. But, I mean, no, there's definitely a chance it could be. I would probably say on a minnow, maybe 35%. I think one using LiveScope, probably 100%.

Yeah, well, I think everybody's going to be staring out the front, no matter whether they're fishing grass or they're, you know, they're just out in open water. The way I look at it, man, it's going to be a lot of pressure on one, you know, five or six key areas on that flat. And if somebody, you know, maybe backs out a little bit and,

find something well well what do i know man i don't know nothing ah you knew you knew you chimed in man that's you're you're like you're quiet but man when that minnow came up you're like wait a minute i gotta i just wanted to make kyle laugh that was all i gotta be heard on this one well we uh um jocelyn i know we talked about tickets let's bring everybody in justin and uh

We got tickets for sale. Kyle's going to be there. And we got our Texas event going on. And I just placed the order for the T-shirt everyone gets. So hopefully. Wow. I didn't even get to see it. Surprise. I know. Well, that's because you're too critical, Justin. You always got something to say. You guys. All right. Yeah.

He's always got to tweak the design or, you know, change the color. He's got to make it look so young. Always got to have the hat with the little band around the front of it. Yeah. I don't blame you for cutting him out of the decision-making process. Decisions needed to be made, and I made them. That a girl.

That a girl. So our events, you're going to get a goodie bag. You're going to get a course booklet. You're going to get a t-shirt. And what else is happening at our events? Yeah.

We do at the end of each day, we do a bunch of giveaways and we have some sponsors and we have some non-sponsors and we have our anglers that bring some giveaways. So you're entered into winning giveaways at the end of the seminars. Yep. It's always, if you guys don't know, uh, we have three seminars in the morning. We have a breakout session where you get to look in the anglers tackle box and ask questions directly to him about his baits and his tackle and his seminar. Um,

And we'll have a lunch break. We come back in the afternoon session and we do three more seminars. And then we have our roundtable question and answer session where, you know, you can fire off any questions you have about the seminars or about whatever's going on in the world of fishing. So it's a great time. Like I said, a lot of guys meet their fishing buddies.

that they've been fishing with for years and years. They met them at Bass U. So it's a great time. It's always, we're in January this year, so the weather's going to be cold. Hopefully we put Jocelyn in charge of keeping the ice off of us this year in Texas. Hopefully you can do that, Joc. But it's usually cold weather, so it's a great time to learn and get to the classroom to do it, guys. So get yourself signed up over at BassU.TV. If you can't make it,

Get yourself a subscription. There's a great, fun holiday gift pack that you get with your subscription to BashU. So go check that out. Get yourself signed up. All the seminars that we produce throughout the year are released throughout the seasons on BashUniversity.tv and the app that you can get at the App Store. So go check all that stuff out.

And is there anything I missed, Jocelyn? I'm always missing something. Yep. We got the sub of the week. This week is Dante, man. Shout out to Dante with a nice little maybe creek, maybe river. Where does he live? I want to go there. It looks warm. Yeah. Wow. He's in the water. He sent that over last week, so it's a recent one there. So shout out, Dante, and nice small mouth, probably.

No doubt. No doubt. I look, we're already looking forward to the warm weather. Uh, Jake's pushing me to get out and doing some, doing some fishing. Um, what do you guys want for Christmas? What did you, what did you ask for for Christmas? Awesome. What's your wishlist? I don't know. I feel like I'm so old now. Mega live too. Chris. Yeah, that that's on there. Yeah.

I asked for... Angler's Coffee. That's the one I would want. 12-inch Explorer unit. Nice. New Phoenix boat. The new truck. And a house. And a dog. Oh, I want a house. Pete, what do you want?

Man, I can't believe you just asked me that, and I'm drawing a blank because I haven't even really thought about what I want for Christmas. In the world of fishing, I'm just like Justin, man. I want Mega Live 2, and I want Mega Live 2. I want the Apex 16-inch on the boat this year. That's what I want. That unit is...

What tournament was it? St. Lawrence this year, the Toyota. My boater had that 16 on the console. That's a freaking TV right there. It's awesome. I like one singular unit on the console. If I could have that set up, that would be just one 16. All seriousness, though, I asked for my Christmas present this year. It's Bubba Scale.

A Bubba scale. Yeah. That's a great gift. Yeah, because I'm terrible at calling, too. So I don't want to make the mistake you made this year at Champlain. And, you know, sometimes I just don't put cold tags on them and stuff like that. And, you know, me and Rich Fish tournaments together, it's usually, you know, 25 pounds just laying on the carpet trying to figure out which ones to go. So maybe we'll use the Bubba.

I don't blame you. That's a great, that's, I'm always scared of it, man. The technology scares me. And I had the Rapala scales, which tracks the weights and, and the fish, but I, I, I don't like, man, I don't like using that feature because I, I don't feel like this scale with waves and wind, you know, when you have fish that are close, I'm a, I'm a balance beam guy. I've been doing the balance beam.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that's 100 percent. You know, I think I think the the scale, a good scale and and the balance beam is your one. You want to combo there when they get close like that, don't want the beam. And you know what? One of my pet peeves and I talked about this a lot is guys spend too much time weighing their fish after they catch them.

I mean, they're writing it down in their notebook and, you know, they're punching it into their seminar unit, the details, the water temperature. Yeah. Every one of the guys that we had on that talked about, you know, they're calling mistakes and stuff like that. They, they,

They ended up going with the scale system with the colors and everything like that. So that's what I'm going to try. I understand. Yeah, I want to see those guys get back to fishing. The best time to catch a big fish is immediately after you've caught one. And, man, if you're, you know, monkeying around with a scale and all that stuff, man, you're wasting time, Jocelyn. What's on your wish list, Rich? Man, I, you know, I don't –

I don't really put together much of a Christmas list anymore, but, uh, I guess my wish would be, um, two things and they're, they're in the future. Uh,

One would be for Bassmaster to switch the off-limits day for the Open in July to one day later so that we can fish the Ike Foundation tournament and not be in conflict. Wish granted. Great. That's okay. So we're one for one. And two would be... I didn't even know about that. Two would be that I get into the Open. That would be the second wish because...

If I get into that open, there will not be a person that works harder to do well in that tournament. So I hope that I can fish that tournament in July on the Chesapeake. And yeah, that's where I'm at with it. Everything else, I just wish for good things to come to everybody. Good health, happiness, good holidays, all that stuff. And a safe seminar season for our whole crew. It's a little less dramatic this year, guys. You know what I mean? I think so.

Lots of drama. Ice storms. I mean, breakdowns. Rich broke his neck. Jeff popped a tire. Pete's being ghost. I mean, there was all types of stuff going on. I mean, Justin walked through Tennessee to try and find his location. Put me in the wrong place. Well, Airbnbs, that's my wish this year, that we have actually good houses. Yeah.

All the houses are good, but man, we always seem to step in and find an interesting story, but that's what makes it awesome traveling around and working with you guys. So I'm looking forward to the seminar season this year. Looking forward to seeing all you guys watching that are going to come to our seminars this year. It's

It's going to be it's going to be a great seminar season. Of course, we'll be at the Classic and we'll see a lot of people down there in Texas and and we'll be at ICAST. We'll see a lot of people there, too. So when do you think that, you know, or Rich, when do you got to sign up for that open to be able to get in it? I've been seeing a lot of people post on social that they started signing up.

Yeah. But they're fishing the whole trail. We're cherry picking. Here's, here's what I'll say. And, and I don't, it's different this year because it's, it's number three of four where. If it was four or four. In 22, in 2022, when it was the third open of the three series, I didn't sign up for that one until late July or early August. And that tournament was in September and I got in, um,

This year it being trail three or four. I don't know. I mean, Pete, you would, you would know better than I on this. I hope that, you know, we can get in, you know, if enough guys have tough tournaments in the first two, who's going to want to come up and fish here and the dog days of summer.

I don't know. I'm really not sure. Yeah, I'd just be guessing. Every year is different, and they changed the format again this year, so you don't really know what the response is going to be. It may offer a window for us to get in, Justin. Then again, I'm not dialed in or the field's full.

like uh they have been filling up extremely fast yeah so i don't know uh i would assume that that's the case but um really don't know with the change you never know what you're gonna get but i'm gonna sign up in in february and and you know that that's just for timing reasons with you know holidays money everything else but um i'm gonna sign up in february hopefully i get a

Fast. Pull some strings. I'll be written you guys on. I'll be surprised if you don't take a stab at it, Justin, but you never know. I won't be able to make a decision until late April, May, so it's going to be too late.

But everyone can fish the Ike Foundation Pro-Am on the same body of water. For sure. We're going to try and keep that bass cat in Red Point this year. That's for sure. Whoever it is.

IkeFoundation.org. Go check it out. I know any of you guys that are going to fish that open, that's going to be a great warm-up tournament to come and check out and get to know the body of water if you've never fished the Chesapeake before. It'll be the last day to practice for the Open. And what is that date? It's in June 21st. June 21st.

June 28th for that tournament, by the way. So great job, Light Foundation ladies. That'll be the cutoff day. That'll be the last day, huh? There's a lot of other dates out there. What's that? There's a lot of other dates for, you know, other tournaments that I would like to see before that decision too, you know? What do you mean?

like the Chesters and stuff like that. There's a conflict there, you know? Yeah. Yep. Yep. The, uh, and I, and I'm going to be interested because I'm going to be fishing with Jake this year at some of those. And we may fish the Chesters. We may fish some other tournament trail and we're going to jump in that Ike foundation tournament. And, uh,

It's going to be a great year. Looking forward to 2025. It starts with Bass University seminars coming up in Texas and South Carolina. Come see us, guys. We're going to be back next week. We're going to be doing a Christmas Eve show. So we'll see you guys here next Tuesday. Good luck getting all your shopping done. Once again, Bass University is an amazing gift for an angler in your life. So go check it out.

And we'll see all you guys next week at Bastion Bursy Live. See you guys. Shout out Jeff Olson.