All right. Welcome everyone to the Serious Angler Podcast, where as always, our main course for you will be talking and hopefully teaching you more about bass fishing. And of course, that does not come without a distraction or 10 here or there. Whether you're here to learn or just hear some bassin banter, you guys are in the right spot. As always, I'm your host, Bailey Eichbrett. We are bassin' captainless today, unfortunately, on this episode, but we are with the Idaho's finest. Oh, today's episode, Colorado's finest, Mr. Adam Deacon. What's up, dude?
SPEAKER_03Oh man, not too much. Yeah, I made the made the quick trip down. I've got some clients interested in a ranch in uh in Colorado. So last minute flew down here. I'm staying at my parents' house uh today and here for a couple of days um getting a little work done on the road. So uh no doubt, man, we can with technology do it from anywhere. Sorry that we don't have full mic set up, all of that, but uh we're we're making it happen here in Colorado.
SPEAKER_04You'd think 2025 they'd have like portable mics that are like podcast quality that you could just throw in your pocket type of deal. But instead I have this long three-foot arm and a mic that's 10 pounds instead. And right. One of these days. One of these days.
SPEAKER_03I think about like it it probably we should we should test it, and there's probably a solution out there, right? It's like you know, how much money do you want to spend on gear as always? But like dude, I mean, think about the little um road mics and stuff, you know, that like just connect your shirt that you see everywhere. Like I'm sure some of those could do great in these type settings.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, really, and this is all technical talk for people, but uh with those, all it is just creates a different audio file. So all you gotta do is just sync it and all it is is matching wavelengths of each audio file, just a little bit of editing. But yeah, it's not a bad idea. But we got these mics, you know, and we're always traveling though, so it could be something for the future. But uh great show that we have ahead for the folks today. We got Mr. Jesse Wiggins joining us, and we have anywhere from shaky head talks to some chatterbait juice. There was a lot of juice he unlocked in this one, but uh uh some pretty good uh some pretty good uh bass and banter, that's per se on this one. But no doubt, dude. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But uh you're about to be you're about to be uh a little bit south, I guess. What what are things looking like in your world?
SPEAKER_04Dude, I got a freaking I mean I'm looking at I was joking, so I was on uh my buddy Alex Rudd's podcast the other night, and I'm looking at my calendar. It's called the big ass calendar.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you got one of those? The Jesse uh uh what's his name? The um the guy who started the entrepreneur, those big ass calendars. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04So they're like 30 bucks, but it's like yeah, I had to spend a hundred hours after using this thing this year. My wife loves it too because she likes to know every plan that's going on for the next six months type of deal. So it's perfect because it literally is a 365-day view of your entire year. You might think that's a lot, but actually once you start using it, especially for like your big trips, it really helps. This is not like you put 9 a.m. appointment on these things. Right, and giant yeah, it's like, hey, I'm gonna be gone these dates, and I'm looking at my July and August, dude, and it's freaking nuts. I've so as we record this, it's a Monday. As you guys are hearing this, obviously, it's it's Wednesday, it's actually day one of ICast when you guys are hearing this. But uh, I fly to ICAST tomorrow, uh, fly out Thursday. Uh so I have a couple busy days down at ICAST, which I'm always looking forward to because that's where everybody goes down and see everyone that we get to talk to on this podcast, but we don't get to you know see very often. Um fly home Thursday night, late Thursday night, get home. I get one day of like getting some editing done, repacking derb local derb Saturday. Then I get two days off from there to basically edit repack again, which I did a lot of my packing yesterday, but I have three days of practice up on Lake Champlain and a two-day Bassmaster kayak d'air on Champlain the week following. And then uh selfishly I'm taking like three, four days to take my time home and fish the Adirondacks and stuff. So that is all on me. But we a week after that, I get the the week back. Um that's all free for you know, steady as uh the our schedule usually is. But uh then we fly to Texas for the first black bass convention or symposium down in Texas that uh our pal Steven Barden's putting on, which is like all the meeting of the minds of all the fisheries biologists from around the country and the state agencies, which will be I'm really excited for that one. We'll be doing some podcasts and content from there. Uh and then get home that Thursday, that Friday, local derb Saturday, and then three days later I fly out to uh meet with you for the Columbia River next month.
SPEAKER_03Let's go, baby.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, so action packed month.
SPEAKER_03Dude, my so like it's interesting, and I think this is a great way to be if you're not a full-time angler like myself, but if you're fishing at a at a high level, I was thinking about this today. Like my year is blocked based on like work and of course like fun and activities and things in the in the between, but like I had a really heavy spring with tournaments, and then the BAM tour, like there's still programs going on, but it then there's a pretty big gap, and then it's a really heavy late summer fall. So like I did the same thing, I don't have a big ass calendar, it just makes me wants to buy one, buy one, by the way. But I have a Google calendar that I is like a Bible for me, and I think you're shared on like all of my calendars, like Adam's Ward calendar, Adam's hunting calendar, like it's all of them, right? Yeah, uh but anyways, so like looking at my fall, I was thinking about this today. So I get back to Idaho uh Thursday. I just moved, so I haven't even I have unpacked nothing in this house. Like literally I have a bed, I slept in there one night since I've had been in the house, right? And it's like so, and that's partially my fault. Some work, some fun. Just went to stock's concert, like anyways. Uh but I'm next weekend, I'm gonna do try and do nothing but unpack everything, and then I take off Wednesday of the following week for the Columbia River Pro-Am, or or Tuesday rather, staying with our boy Ty Manarola. Um so that pro-am, I'm out of the points on the pro am stuff, but I'm just fishing it because it's the last off limits before our super 60 there, right? So I go for there for five or six days on the Columbia River. I come back, have a little bit of time, local derb, etc., small things. Um, and then like this is where it gets crazy for me, as of now. I don't know how much this is gonna this is gonna change, and ranch real estate kind of can fluctuate some of this stuff, but things we know for sure. We've got super 60 that I'll see you at on the Columbia August. I'm considering pre-practicing the Delta sometime after that, which is where uh the next Super 60 is at. And so with with that combo, so that would be like early September, would like to archery Deer and Elk hunt in September. Like that's my only kind of free time this year hunting wise. But I go, like this is my crazy week that I'm like, I don't know if I can pull this off, but I sure hope I can. I'm gonna go for the ABA championship, which is the giveaway bass cat app. There's it's on Shasta, so that's end of September here. So September 22nd through the 28th, Shasta. The weekend before that, there's a combo here, ranch real estate. There's an American Wagyu. Like, do you know what Wagyu is? Like? Okay, yeah. So one of my college buddies, he's in the Wagyu industry. He's coming up to Court O Lane for the Wagyu conference. Who's a guy I used to fish with, Kaito, right? Japanese guy, like we fished in college together. He and a client, I think I'm gonna meet him up there, fish on Court O Lane for a couple of days, but I then go straight to Shasta. I'm gonna pre-fish Clear Lake because again, we're off limits on all these for 30 days, in between. So I'm gonna go Shasta, pre-fish Clear Lake, go straight into the BAM Delta Super 60 event, end of September. I think that's enough. That's three weeks in a row, so I'm gonna miss the U.S. Open, which is that would be the following week. So we're gonna do three California trips. So like this is where things block up, and then hopefully if I make the championship, it's in Clear Lake in November. But like we got a sprint of a fall, dude, and it's all Northern California, unreal fishing, but like it's about to get like I need to sell some dang ranches here because it's about to get wild in the fall.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, dude. Yeah, yeah, you can say that. The only time it really even slows up over here is yeah, after that uh that delta event, and then I'm it's it looks open on my calendar, but that's that that delta event is opening a bow season for me. So it's like when I'm home, I'll be in the woods. You know, it's just gonna be it's gonna be a hectic next couple, like I guess honestly, gauntlet the next uh remaining of 2025, really. For both of us, it's gonna be rock and roll. But uh exciting times. And that that uh maybe is a little bit of perspective for the folks that tune into this podcast. Sometimes, you know, a show might be a day late, or we miss one of the shows for the week or something like that. We've been pretty good about at least getting one show out a week. Um, but uh we have some hectic lives outside of this. So hopefully that gives people a little bit of insight into uh what goes on here at the pod. We stay steady busy with the pod, but also steady busy in our own lives outside of it too. But uh it's it's it's worth it because we come here and we have great conversations like with Jesse Wiggins, and uh looking forward to uh starting this this uh show for you guys here. But before we do, man, um a little business from the bass boat for the folks, which is a big week. Big week.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, huge huge week, right? Um no, so so folks, business from the bass boat section here is brought to you by our friends over at Rec Lending. If you are in the market or want to look at some lending options, if you're looking at a new boat right now, a side by side, uh camper, something like that, it's worth giving them a call digging in um with what they have to offer. They're a great resource and always a heavy recommendation on our end. But we've got iCast, baby. Uh, unfortunately, not going to be there, but you are gonna be there. So appreciate that, Bailey. Um, but man, uh nothing crazy, too crazy in my mind. Um, obviously, the year of the dice, I think that's been probably the biggest topic here. Seeing just all the companies come out with dice. It's a great bait, everyone knows it. Love seeing it get cheaper, you know. I personally have a pile of the OSPs, and I'm like, why did I spend all this money with all these brands now coming out with ones that are $10 instead of 20 or whatever else? Um, so cool, cool to see that. Um, you know, you mentioned this VMC fluke hook. That's sneaky. Love that. Um, I guess, man, what was your overall take from an iCast perspective so far?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, at least for for what has been released so far, right? Yeah, so it's there's always the ones that come out at iCast, you know, that don't do the precursor stuff to it. Um, and so like the main takeaways, you you hit it on the head where it's it's definitely a year of the dice, it's a another year of some of the bigger brands kind of just filling categories, if you will, like nothing that's extravagantly new. They might make it try to look a little bit different than what's already out there, but brands that are trying to get you know, fill categories, uh, meaning like if they don't have a topwater walking bait or they don't have a Nico worm or something like that, they try to just put something out there. It might not be extravagantly, you know, innovative. So definitely that. The one thing like you you hit it on the head too was uh the one thing that really caught my eye was the the new VMC fluke hook, which has a barrel swivel on the front and a nice keeper on it. Um so looking forward to that one because I feel like there hasn't been a great fluke option out there. Obviously, the ways to rig it. Guys do a lot of like tampering, tinkering, you know, modifications to their flukes, and I think this one would be a is a is a great option to reduce the line twist and all that stuff. Um but beyond that, man, I think there wasn't a lot of tech.
SPEAKER_03No, that that's a that's a good comment. That's a good comment. It's interesting to me because I feel like years past it's been like heavy on tech. You know, we thought for quite some time now.
SPEAKER_04New motors, stuff like that, right?
SPEAKER_03Trolling motors. We think of like, you know, Garmin, for instance, right, hasn't come out with a new forward facing in quite some time compared to Lowrance and and Hummingbird. And so it's interesting to me. We haven't quite seen that yet. I I would have probably made a reasonable assumption that something was coming from them iCasted this year, just since LVS very well could, you're not wrong, yeah, from an L VS 34 perspective. But overall, we haven't seen a lot of teasing from a tech perspective. It's and and I know iCast is more tackle related, anyways, but a lot of that stuff kind of gets thrown in, um, which we haven't really seen. So um, yeah, man, I'm excited for you to get down there, get the boots on the ground experience for everybody, here, hear how things are uh looking in the industry. It's always just a great time to to kind of um get a pulse from guys. You know, there's a lot of presentations that'll be talking about the numbers in the fishing industry, what things are looking like from a you know business development perspective, and and how overall things are going. So it'll be it'll be interesting to get that buzz from you afterwards as well.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, for sure. And it's it's yeah, I mean, there can be new stuff that could come out this week, but and obviously if there is, you guys will see it on our social media. I'm gonna try to be as active as I possibly can here and also with the lure lab. Obviously, with iCats, like you mentioned, being tackle heavy, you'll see a bunch of stuff over on the lure lab side of things. Um, but yeah, I mean, yeah, I feel like if there was gonna be something bigger tech-wise, you mentioned there should have been teasers already. We would have seen something, you know, like Shimano does the real stuff like 716 2025. Look like kind of things that gets people talking. Uh, haven't seen much of that. But if there is, obviously we'll update on the socials, and I'm sure the next episode that we have uh in in regards to that with uh Business of the Bass, but in the coming weeks, we'll do some recaps, overviews, see some thoughts at once we can start seeing stuff in action and get our hands on it, things like that. Um, but with that being said, um before we get into this show of Jesse Wiggins, over at Omniafishing, they just got all the new Great Lakes, like their micro series uh that they just released that is now officially on Omniafishing, uh, which Great Lakes has done some really good uh stuff in regards to that that smaller tackle from soft plastics, but also the jig heads, things like that. Um and they made it even smaller now. Uh so it's it kind of is interesting to see certain categories go giant and then certain categories get even smaller. So, like when you thought your Ned stuff could get smaller, it's got even smaller. Um, so it's but they make quality stuff over at Great Lake. So uh go check that out. That'll be linked down below. I also uh I'll link the big ass calendar too. If people are actually interested in that, I'll link that down below if anybody wants to get one. Um, this is more for your wives, gentlemen. Uh it's so you don't get blown up, you know, while you're at the lake or in the woods saying, hey, what are you gonna be doing in you know tomorrow, this weekend? Hey, honey, it's on the big ass calendar. Go take a look. Check out that big ass calendar. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Um, but uh looking forward to iCast. We have a Hobie Eyewear party on Wednesday. I'll be looking forward to hanging out at uh showing some of the new models of shades that they dropped, which if you want to get $20 off of that, links down below to Hobie Eyewear as always. I know you've gotten your hands caught. Oh, we saw a little thirst trap action going on on the subject.
SPEAKER_03I have so dude, I got some good content coming. Not not just that, like just funny stuff that I need to get your help on from a from a just editing slash like, hey, here's what how this would look good. But I have been digging all the new Hobie shades. I get compliments on them everywhere. Like I'm a sunglass guy, not just fishing sunglasses, and Hobie's had a lot of good lifestyle sunglasses lately, and I've been ripping those out. And so yesterday, so I got here to Colorado, got to see whole family siblings. My sister picked up my Hobie shades and was like, hey, these are these are sick. Can I have some of these? And like, I mean, like just you know, completely outside of fishing, I've gotten a lot of compliments on the Hobie shades. So would recommend, you know, getting a couple pairs, get your fishing side, but also have some lifestyle ones. I think uh I think they're doing a great job right now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. And it's the nice part with Hobie being more affordable, it's like I feel like 70 bucks on two, you know, you know. Yeah, you're not breaking the bank, you know. I feel like the average person looks at $150 shades and they're like, God, no, like you know, they're not gonna spend that much money on it, where it's nice in this regard, you know.
SPEAKER_03And they're all polarized. So if you do catch yourself, you know, I was on a river this last week, I wanted to go look for some fish, but I had my other shades on. Guess what? I can still go look at fish.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, that's right. Yeah. But uh man, exciting for the week at iCast. If people are there that are listening, uh, we'll be around, say hello. Looking forward to if you guys have any questions from iCast standpoint, things to confirm, DM the the Sirius Angler socials. But uh man, I think without further ado, let's get into our episode of Mr. Jesse Wiggins. Let's do it. All right, folks. We're back with another edition of Sirius Angler here, and we have Mr. Jesse Wiggins joining the show. Long overdue, long overdue. But uh Jesse, what's going on, man?
SPEAKER_01Oh, not much. Just living in this Alabama heat for a little bit longer. Um looking forward to getting up north doing some fishing and maybe a little bit be a little bit cooler, but we uh we're making it down here slowly but surely.
SPEAKER_04You say that, although I mean maybe it's my northern blood talking, but I've been dying up here. It's been like high 80s, low 90s, which I know for you guys is like every day, but we've been dying up here.
SPEAKER_01That that's still warm for sure, ain't no doubt. But we which we was when well last week when we was there two weeks ago when we was in Maryland or you know, DC for the Potomac event. 110 was the heat index. And I mean, that's the hottest I'd ever fished in. I mean, it was nuts.
SPEAKER_00Like, wow.
SPEAKER_01I mean, 630, you're already shirts already wet from sweat, 630 in the morning. It was nuts. But uh, we made it through it, and what's crazy is the fish were biting the whole time. It didn't even mess with them. So that's kind of what surprised me. 94 degree water temp, and they're still biting, so it was nuts. 94 degree water, 94 in some of the shallow still water. It was nuts.
SPEAKER_04Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, it looked like a good event from from watching it.
SPEAKER_04It looked like, yeah, there was no shortage of bites.
SPEAKER_01That's yeah, they were biting. It's crazy. I guess those river fish, I mean, they're probably I mean, they they're used to it. I mean, they're probably used to 90 degree water temp, 89, you know, 88. So, I mean, what's five more degrees? You know, they still have to eat, so but it was fun. It was fun.
SPEAKER_04What's another couple more degrees? Yeah, for real.
SPEAKER_03What's wild to me though, when stuff gets that hot? I mean, the only thing I can compare it to is I fished a high school national championship one time on Kentucky Lake in July, right? And it was I mean, same deal. Water times like 93. But like, how do fish have, you know, I mean, you gotta look for either moving water or they're out deep. But like from an oxygen standpoint, when it gets that that hot, like, how are they finding that? Like, it just kind of floats you away.
SPEAKER_01I've always heard they just get super shallow too. They either get deep or they get super, super shallow. But um, which makes sense because uh on it, you know, sight fishing. So like he could see them swimming around up shallow, so that makes sense. I don't know, but um yeah, it's just it it seems like it'd freak them out, but they they always catch them, so I don't know. It's just it's just crazy. You kind of just have to put it out of your mind, honestly, and just fish. Like, you know, I feel like it's kind of like it's kind of like when it gets cold, it affects us more than it does the fish. So probably the same way with heat.
SPEAKER_04Well, dude, looking back at the 2025 schedule as a whole, I mean, one derb left. We were just talking about a little bit offline and heading up to Saginaw Bay to end the season, but how do you feel like 2025's been so far for you?
SPEAKER_01Uh the first part of the year was absolutely dog trash. I mean, it was horrible. I mean, I ain't even scared to admit it. I was sucking it up big time. I fell down to like 50th in the points, and there's not but 66 of us, so you gotta do pretty bad to be that far down. Um, it's just stuff wasn't working out. I don't know. It was just bad. Like everything I decided to do was wrong. Um, just you know, lost fish here and there. Conroe, I mean, it was just bad, and then uh um losing fish and stuff, but uh finally got it turned around a few tournaments ago, Kentucky Lake, or made the cut at uh Murray, or made the money cut, and then made the knockout at Kentucky Lake, and then made the knockout at Potomac. So luckily got it turned around. I just got to finish decent at Saginaw Bay, just me looking at it. I just gotta have a good decent finish and I'll I'll make Redcrest, which after the beginning of the year, that's I'm gonna consider that a win as tough as it was at the beginning of the year on me. So uh, but overall, I mean, I would say as long as I do good at Saginaw, I consider it a you know a decent year. Made Redcrest. And you know, there's a lot of other guys that would love to make it too. So I'm not I'm not gonna complain too much just by making it. So uh, but that's the key. I love Saginaw, looking looking forward to it. Um I say I love it. I was there last time we were there at the same time a year, a few years ago. It was phenomenal. Uh swim jig, chatterbait, just just largemouth up shallow was just amazing. And uh the smallmouth, we never the smallmouth wasn't the deal when we was there last time, so it's gonna be interesting to see if it plays this time or not. Um definitely, you know, keep them on us, go check them, see if they're out there, but Only getting to use the front facer, you know, one period. I don't think smallmouth is gonna just absolutely play, you know, throughout the whole leaderboard. I mean, I'm sure some guys will catch some, but it I don't think it'll be, you know, with every fish counts, I don't think it'll dominate. We'll see. I may be wrong, but that's just me looking at it from you know not being up there yet. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04The last time you guys were there too, that was when you were five fish limit.
SPEAKER_01Yep, 2023, the five fish limit. Yep. Yep. 14 or 15 pounds a day made the cut, I think. So and it was largemouth. Like everybody in the top 10 besides Becker was catching largemouth. I think Kevin was catching smallmouth few, but uh, but Becker caught largemouth, you know, during the event, and then he he won it with smallmouth. Five pounds.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that'll be that'll be a cool event. I mean, between your guys' events there and watching like when the NPFL guys went there, like there's no shortage of content, especially when you guys are there, that's for dang sure.
SPEAKER_01It it's it's like fishing a pond. When we was there two years ago, it's like literally like fishing a pond. You see fish like waking over to get your swim jig, like which you never see that anywhere else. Like, so it's it's fun when you see them like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, there's a reason why you guys that travel all over the place get so excited to go out north.
SPEAKER_01It's been explained bottom left and north, man. Exactly. That's why everybody around here, they're always like, What's your favorite place? What's your favorite? And I'm like, New York, St. Lawrence River, Champlain, don't anywhere above like anywhere, Great Lakes. Anything that's connected to the Great Lakes or up there in that region, put it this way: this is how I look at it. And I I figured this out this year. I got to thinking about it. Anytime you start seeing horse and buggies, you're around good fishing. Like you start seeing Amish on the side of the road going up the road in horse and buggy, you better have your fishing poles because you're in some good fishing territory. That's the way I see it.
SPEAKER_03Horse and buggy equals big freaking bass.
SPEAKER_01Big small mouth and a lot of largemouth. That's that's exactly what it means. So just keep that in mind if you're looking for a good place to fish. If you start seeing, you get up north and you start seeing horse and buggy, find the closest body of water and watch what happens.
SPEAKER_03I'll even say that continues as you go west in the country.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, Wisconsin and like saging it, like up in that area. Yeah, yeah, because they got them like at the Mississippi River, like in uh lacrosse, the Amish, they take their horse and buggy down to the lake, like on the boat ramp, and like they're fishing off the the the jetties and stuff. So yeah, I know it it's everywhere. It continues they know where the fish good fishing is.
SPEAKER_04If you see the Amish, go fishing. I like that.
SPEAKER_03That's that's the go.
SPEAKER_04Oh man, it's true because you gotta have good fishing around there because they keep everything. It doesn't matter what size or species. If it's it's going in the box, yeah.
SPEAKER_01There that's supper right there. That ain't for sport, that's for sure. Yeah, so mate. But yeah, I we look forward to go coming up every year. Like it's like a vacation. Like down here, you know, we still fish and it's still fun, but like up there is catching, you know, like it's it's it's totally different worlds. Yeah, I love it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this is your anyone who's listening. If you have not made the trip up north, better go do it because it's it's as special as people say it is.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%. Like, that's what everybody around home, and you know, all my buddies around home, like, I want to go up there and I'm like, if you get a chance, go. Like, I'm it it's worth it. Like, it's worth everything everybody says. Like, whether it be St. Clair, St. Lawrence, Champlain, like any of them, you know, like they're all, and I'm sure there's other little nuggets too that people don't know about, you know, or it's not as popular, but just those is is worth coming up here for.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and there's not really like a bad time to go either. It's just how how warm or cold do you want it to be when you come up here? Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I would I came up in G I went to the St. Lawrence in June this year, um, just just pretty much for fun. Just kind of a like I hadn't been up there in June in five or six years, four or five years. And I was like, I need I want to go up there because my buddy comes up and guides on the St. Lawrence every summer. And he's like, We caught 227 today, and I'm like, and they're all you know, three to five pounders. I said, I'll be up there next week. And I got up here and it was it was nuts. Like you just feel bad for the smallmouth because you just you're just tap baiting their heads in. But it's it's so fun. God, it's fun.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Well, the big thing that's been blowing up here too with with that is the uh the Canadian season that's open when our season up there is closed off as people go up because you can I think it's like a two or three week period, and they just freaking like if you don't have 30 pounds, like you didn't do nothing that day. It's pretty nutty.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's awesome, though. God, it's so fun. I mean, we look forward to it every year. There's no doubt.
SPEAKER_04Heck yeah, dude.
SPEAKER_03Well, well, I'm gonna yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, what's what's neat with this to me, uh, I guess it kind of roll into you, you like heading up north every year. But man, the 2026 schedule, um, would love to know your thoughts on it overall. Looking at stuff, I mean, just kind of got released, but pretty, pretty uh eye-opening to me, some different stuff.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, no doubt. You know, I I had no idea any of those lakes were coming. So it was kind of a shock to me when I first turned it out. You know, they sent it out, and I'm like, dang, this this may be pretty cool. Like, you know, um like those lakes in Texas. Obviously, everybody's heard of Ivy, but like Brentwood and Whitney and Way, I'd never even heard of those lakes. I knew Alton Jr. lived on one of the lakes right there close, like Waco or whichever one, or you know, real close. But um, you know, no tournaments ever fished them, I guess, because they're a little bit smaller. So that is cool, the 50 men feel, like just looking at it like selfishly, you know, 50, 50 guys, like it's it's gonna be fun getting to fish, smaller, smaller lakes, only 50 guys fishing, like um getting to go to Ivy, like that's pretty cool. Like, I would never probably go out there without having a tournament out there. So like it's it's uh it's I mean, it looked awesome to me, honestly. Just I mean, it sucks having people getting cut and it going to 50 guys, but um it's gonna be fun though, like just looking at it from my point of view, it's gonna be fun getting the fish lakes like that. There's no doubt. And it'll be uh maybe I mean it's probably gonna be good for those those places if you know if we hit them at the right time and catch a lot of fish. So it's I don't know. I'm looking forward to it. There's no doubt after looking at the schedule. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean, to me, like I'll just rip through it real quick just so people understand what they are, but it's like kind of combines some old mainstays and then a lot of maybe bodies of water that were hit in the past by tournament organizations, but not as much, and then also all sorts of new smaller lakes, right? I mean so it goes stage ones, Gunnersville in January, then Lake Hartwell, right? Like two very famous great fisheries that are fun to watch, fun to be a part of, and then it goes, like you're saying, Lake Whitney, Lake Waco, which I've never seen an event of theirs, right? No, and then it goes Ivy, Lake Brownwood, so West Texas, way down there. Um super cool. Red Crest is still TBA, but then what I like is like Beaver Lake in April, May, which is like man, beaver used to be a main stem. I mean, growing up, I'd watch all the FLWs on Beaver, super clear fishery, like a lot of Western guys, you know, did well there, so super cool. And then Orange Lake in Florida, which I know nothing about. Do either of you guys know anything about that one?
SPEAKER_01Neither, never heard I'd heard of it, but I didn't know.
SPEAKER_04I fished it one time, but it's like always been on that Bassmaster top ten lakes or whatever. People always rave about it being a good lake.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and and then Grand Lake, of course, super famous in June. Uh, but then Lake Erie, which is another one that used to always get hit. And as as we were talking off air, our buddy Andy guides right there uh on the other side of they're going out of Sandusky, it looks like, in this in August. But like, man, just like I don't know, as much as people complain about schedules and fishing and all this and that from a fan's perspective, like this one. I I haven't seen, let's put it this way, I haven't seen this good of a schedule, I feel like, or something that is just diverse to me in a long time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, as far as putting places on there that people like when you get three or four, you know, events where people have well, actually four or few. I mean, Erie people know Erie, but they had a lot of people that's watching probably have never seen a Bassmaster show or FOW show on Erie. So like I would say four or five new locations counting heavy hitters, like that's pretty legit. Because most of the time you don't have any that you've you know haven't heard of. Like, so it's gonna be, you know, even in Grand in June is totally different, honestly, because it's usually always March or April when we've been. And that's the only time I've ever been was April, so um, and March. So like getting a post bond, you know, in Grand Grand, you never know if it's gonna be flooded, bushy. You just don't know. It's gonna be so we haven't never seen it. And then um like Erie, like with our only 50 guys being able to trailer, we may even get to, like I was saying earlier, we may get to go to Buffalo. I don't know. Like it I don't know what the off-limits are gonna be, but um, I don't know if we get to go to St. Clair or I don't, I just don't know yet. So probably not if I had to guess, but um it's gonna be fun. Like I mean, like I said, it it's it gets you excited and hope people pay, you know, watches and like for the the average commenter that gets on there saying they don't ever go to new places, they don't get to say that about this this event. But it it's kind of hard. Like I see the the tournament organization's side of it too, because obviously the towns pay for us to come there, the tourism. They they paid that because they want to get their name out and you know show that they have a good lake. So you and then there's a fine line between a lake being big enough for a a tournament, you know, a tournament event. So like a lot of people complain that they don't ever go to new places, but there's just not unlimited of places for guys to go, you know, big tournaments to go. So um with 50 guys, it opens up a lot. And I think that's gonna do a lot for these little towns, and especially if we get to catch it on my Waco or or uh those around there, it'll about you know, because nobody's ever heard of them. Everybody's heard of Ivy, but it's just hard to get out there and do it. But you put a TV show on it, then you know, and then guys are catching, you know, a bunch of fish or some big ones, then you know, it'll make a lot of difference, I feel like. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So real fast, when you mentioned like the the off limits, is that referring to like where you guys are allowed to go and get the boat in two fish, or does that refer to like uh the furthest boundary to like where you're able to trailer and launch?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it'll probably be the what I'm talking about is actual fish. Like they'll be a there'll be a point where we can't fish any farther. Um yeah, I mean, I guess you could probably trail her and then drive over to the you know where you're not off limits or whatever, but it's always there'll be a line where it's like a brick wall, you can't fish past this point, and that'll be the off limits.
SPEAKER_04So with that uh with that smaller field too, like even like with this year, um, have you felt like you've had more room to go and fish or more opportunities, more places available to go fish, or do you feel like even with the guys with a smaller field just all being hammers, like the the main stuff's still gonna have boats on it? Like how how do you feel about the smaller?
SPEAKER_01Oh just selfishly, I I love it with only you know the less boats. Like you just imagine, you know, you go out there and practice for two days, you hopefully find a couple decent spots, and then you know, a 200-boat tournament, you're gonna have three boats on all that stuff, you know, two or three throughout the day. With our deal, you know, a really good stuff, it'll have a boat or two on it, but it is nothing like, you know, a 200-boat tournament. Nothing. So, and you actually get to let fish rest. You don't have to sit there the whole time. Like, that's just it's just so much more fun. Just like I said, that's just me looking at it selfishly. Like, it's just way more fun, you know, letting stuff rest. Or, you know, if you're boat 40, you're probably gonna get still get to get on a spot you want to get on. Like Kentucky Lake, like we only had 50 guys or 65 guys out there, and you know, it gets crowded in those ledge tournaments, but it like there was definitely people fishing the same stuff, but you still got to fish. Like I had one really good spot that was a long run, and I was pretty confident that I could run down there and get on it. Now, if it would have been 200 boats, I would have been running all the way down there for absolutely nothing because there would have been three boats sitting on it, you know. So it's like it gives you just a little bit of peace of mind, you know. Obviously, even if there is someone on it, it's probably gonna only gonna be one boat, and you know, you can usually work together or whatever it may be, but it's just it's been awesome. I mean, it's just been I gotta love it. And like I said, and even going to 50, that's 15 less boats out there. So um, it's definitely more fun for the guys in the tournament, there's no doubt. Heck yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, dude, before we uh dive into some some other topics here, uh we talked about it briefly offline as well, but uh with uh what you're taking your boy fishing and stuff like that. I love the content, like you're saying you're fishing the tournament and he's out there swimming, like I saw that video the other day. Um, but uh obviously seeing his entry into fishing, having having you as his pops. But what what was your uh I guess who's to blame for for your lifelong addiction uh fishing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's certainly my dad as well. And like I remember being his age, River's age at five-year-old, and and going with my dad. Um I remember feel I as I got older, I felt sorry for my dad because he never got to leave the house without me going fishing with him. Like I would wake up at 3 a.m. and I'd just be sitting there on the couch waiting for him to wake up because he was not leaving me, you know. Like I knew he couldn't tell me no if I was sitting there waiting on him to get, you know, leave. I was guilty of them to letting me go. Wherever, whether it be hunting, fishing, rabbit hunting, squirrel hunting, whatever it may be, I was I was going. But uh, but yeah, that's he had us fishing. Like people ask, you know, people ask, well, when did you catch your first fish? Or do you remember? And I'm like, I have no idea when I call my first one because we was doing it at so young. Like I just remember fishing, you know. I don't remember what species it was. Like, if it was, you know, if the bluegill were bedding, we were bluegill fishing. If the Doug we used to call them sucker fish, they're like little carp. If they were running up the creek, we were fishing for them. If you know, if the bass were biting, we were bass fishing. If the crappie were in the laydowns and stuff, we were crappie fishing. Like it was just something, always. If nothing else was going on, he'd bait us a carp hole and we would go fish for carp off the bank. Like it was just we was just always fishing. I mean, every single weekend. Where anytime he was off work, we was fishing. So that's definitely where it started with me. And then I'm hoping like those tournaments with me and Rivers been fishing, we had to get up at 4 a.m. because the tournament starts at 5 a.m. It goes from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. just to kind of beat the heat a little bit down here.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And uh, so I have to get him up at 4 a.m. So the first tournament we fished two weeks ago, I had to do some talking into him. Like at night, of course, he's like, I'm going, wake me up, whatever, you know. Well, that morning he just kind of rolled over and he finally got up and he was ready. And then he took a few naps on the boat the first time, but I mean he did good, I'd say, for his first time. And then yesterday.
SPEAKER_04Getting that call to go fishing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I hope so. We good now.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, we got you.
SPEAKER_01But so yeah, when um when it got time to get him up for this second tournament, he was like, I I said, You going fishing? And I mean, he just popped right up. Like it was awesome. Like, I didn't even have to talk him into it. So I'm like, all right, he may be hooked now. And then he then he hooked that fish by itself yesterday. Oh my god, I was giddy now when he caught that one by itself. And uh, oh, he was too, though. He's like, I can't believe I caught one. I caught one. I'm like, it was awesome. So uh, but it's just stuff like that. I can remember catching them, you know, in a tournament with my dad, so I just hope that he has that same feeling growing up for sure.
SPEAKER_04That's gotta be a cool full circle, proud dad moment type deal, watching all that go down, dude.
SPEAKER_01Oh, it a hundred percent. And that's why I said I just hope he hope he sticks with it and and and keeps wanting to go with me. And that's why he'll go and he'll fish for a minute, and then he'll sit down in the boat and he'll eat some chips or he'll look at my phone or something for a few minutes and he'll jump back up and fish. So I just let him, and then like the other day he just wanted to swim. He's like, it was 8 30 in the morning, he's already wanting to jump in the water. I'm like, and to be honest, I knew we already had the the the tournament won. So I was like, just just jump in, son, I don't care. And so he just fought. I I had a rope hanging off the side of the boat and he'd swim for a minute, and then I'm like, all right, I'm moving. And he'd grab all of the boat and I'd troll the motor up to the next little spot. It was pretty funny.
SPEAKER_04That's awesome, dude.
SPEAKER_01It was awesome. So so now I know he's gonna want to fish every time, or he's gonna want to swim every time we go to the lake, but that'll be okay.
SPEAKER_04Hey, that's the stuff he's gonna remember forever, man.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. What's funny though is we was I was live scoping, most of them are you know, actual target, but it was um like they didn't even the fish didn't even care. Like he's out there swimming right by me and their fish 20 feet down, they're still biting. Like, that's what's good. Like we make a big deal out of everything, but a lot of times it don't even matter.
SPEAKER_04That's cool, dude. Yeah, I love that. I can I can resonate with that. Um, I was told this story. I don't remember this happening, but I was uh my dad started taking me uh bow hunting with him when I was four. I don't remember ever going. I have no memories of it, but apparently when I was five and he went out, he went out opening day bow season and didn't take me and uh didn't tell me he was going. And apparently I gave him the silent treatment for like a whole nother day because he didn't take me. So that's it's a good sign though when you got him jumping up at the at the any instance to get out and go fish or hunt with you. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01Like I was talking about earlier, my wife had to go start going back to work um in the office, and uh so turkey season came this past spring, and I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do if I'm having to keep him. And I I was like, Well, I know what I'll do, I'll just go build a blind. So I just started building blinds like in some popular spots for turkeys. I was like, if they're goblin, I'll just take him with me. We'll set in a blind if we have to. Like, which I never would have set in a blind, but I would like, if if that's the only way I get to go, we're gonna be sitting in a blind if he, you know, to keep him from being seen. So yeah, but yeah, we're gonna be out there, ain't no doubt. If he'll have it, he's going, he's gonna be with me and uh just looking forward to stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04Heck yeah. I'd love that. Well, dude, uh, I told you I'll find a little bit, we'll be we'll be cracking into some shaky head stuff because for whatever reason we never really broke into that on here, the the lure lab show we do. But um, before we do, like you're you're known as I would say as the shaky head guy in this industry. But uh outside of that, like looking back on your career so far, what what else besides the shaky head stuff, what else would you want or think that you should be known for, I guess, up to this point?
SPEAKER_01Um that that's that's probably that's probably the main thing, no doubt. Like I've won uh ever several tournaments with it, but um also won the opens, all the opens, um not all of them, but two, two of the opens uh on a crankbait. So the shaky head and the crankbait is my deal. Like that's what I if I can catch them on that, I'm confident. And chatterbait is becoming the same thing. Like I've made a lot of money on a chatterbait the last few years, but I credit that to my brother. Like he kind of got dialed in with that bite, and uh like he just kind of taught me what to what to do, what colors is the best, what to use, trailers, all that. Like he kind of helped me a lot with that. But and now I have the utmost confidence in a chatterbait. So a lot of times I'll pick up a chatterbait before a crankbait now, just because if they'll buy the chatterbait, you're getting them in the boat most of the time. Like a lot of times crankbaits are not gonna stay hooked and just you just leave too much up in the air. But if they'll buy the chatterbait, I'm definitely gonna throw it over a crankbait 100%. But but yeah, just a square bell is what I've won, you know. A square bell and just a medium diver crankbait is I've won, you know, it's played in pretty much every win I've big win I've had.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I don't know if I want to be known for it or not, but I definitely have it tied on, you know, in a lot of big events when they're biting it. So but I'll I'll take I'll take a shaky head. I mean, I'll be known as a shaky head guy. I don't care. Like it's if it keeps catching them and and winning tournaments, I'll uh gladly be throwing it.
SPEAKER_04Heck yeah. Yeah. If you're willing to uh uh to uh talk about it, what what's your your go-to on the chatterbait in regards to like baiting trailer?
SPEAKER_01So if it's like if it when it the water gets warmer, like if I'm in Florida or when I was up at Potomac, like I like a boot tail on the chatterbait, like a skinny dipper or like a uh like a rhythm wave 3.8 or something like that. Like that's Jackal's little skinny dipper like little swim bait, so like a finesse swim bait, but um I like like a skinny dipper on the back of it is killer. It gets some ferocious stripe bites. I mean, they'll knock slack in it a lot of times. Um and then chatterbait obviously is just a jack camera most of the time, some kind. Um jackal actually were have they have the um the brake blade, which is what was they had in the Japan, so but the Patent run out, I think, on the chatterbait or something. I don't, I think we're getting to release it over here eventually. I don't know exactly the details, but it's a good one too for grass. You know, Jordan Lee actually won the the first ever MLF tournament on the brake blade. Everybody thought he was throwing a chatterbait, but he was throwing the jack-o one in grass. And so it comes through grass really, really good. So if it's if it's grass, I throw it a lot, but if it's around wood and stuff, I usually throw some kind of uh chatterbait, jackhammer. And color, it just it just depends. I throw a lot of different colors, but my favorite color is some kind of white trash or you know, dirty white or whatever that color is, and then um so and then uh like bluegill, I'll throw like Brett's bluegill. If it's if I think they're eating bluegill, and then um like a black and blue one, obviously, is always usually tied on. And then there's one I'm really giving up the juice here. Jordan's gonna kill me, but uh the um the uh green pumpkin shad. It's got like half green pumpkin, half white skirt. They bite that sucker everywhere in the United States, they'll bite it. If it's but I like it when it's just just a little ding, but like not really dirty, but not really clear, just you know, medium color water, like just pretty dingy. And that's the one I throw. I usually pick it up. I mean, I'll have it on the deck at least every tournament, you know. So uh but that and then um trailers, I don't know that trailer really matters a lot. Like I like I said, when it's warm, I thought like in Florida, I throw I put that boot tail on there, but other than that, I usually either use like the Zacko or just some kind of you know flat tail shad trailer on there. So I don't know that it's that because if you watch a tournament where chatterbait, there's like 10 different guys catching them on a chatterbait and they all have 10 different trailers, so I don't know if it really matters that much. But uh there's something about that jackhammer they like. I know that for a fact. Yeah, they like that jackhammer, so that's what people like. If you try this, I'm like, I don't know, they bought this one, so I'm just gonna keep throwing it until they they're not biting anymore. But but yeah, that's uh that's my chatter, but I don't like I said, I'm not an expert in it, but I'm becoming I it's a confidence bait. There's no doubt about that now.
SPEAKER_03What what about weight now, as far as uh chatterbaits go? What's your kind of go-to?
SPEAKER_01So I look at it like four foot and less, I throw three eighths, and then like if it's five or if I want it to get down to five or six, I'll throw a quarter. I mean a half. Um, I don't hardly ever throw a quarter, I'll always throw three eighths or a half, pretty much the only two I I've ever thrown. I've caught a few on a three-quarter. Like if you got, but we just don't see really deep grass anywhere we've been, like, you know, six or eight, ten foot grass. I'm I haven't fished ten foot grass in forever. But uh, you know, six foot to four foot is usually half ounce. Like at Gunnersville, you catch a lot in that four to five foot. You can catch them on a on a half ounce. And then, like I said, four foot and less is three eighths. You can kind of vary your speed to you know keep it bumped. The main thing with the chatterbait is you've got to get it to bump, bump whatever you're fishing, like whether it be a laydown or grass or whatever, you gotta be you don't get to catch many on it down here, especially largemouth down here bumping without bumping something, you know, whether it be a lay down or uh thump or grass, whatever it may be, is this it's kind of it's just like a square bait. Oh, you just gotta, it's just a different presentation, but you gotta get it in in the in the stuff to get them to bite it a lot of time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you wanted to bump into all that.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_03I like it. So I guess maybe we'll transition into what you are what what you're known for, certainly from the public's perspective, shaky head-wise. But I think let's break down starting just with all everything from a shaky head perspective, but as far as the the head itself, right? The lead head itself or whatever it's gonna be, what is the the best shaky head in in your book as far as a hooking weight goes?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the one the best one is our is our homemade one, and it's it ain't nothing really special, it's just what we put together. You know, we didn't make a special mold for it or anything, but it's the 60-degree uh vertical line tie mold. It's the 60-degree the head. Um, usually 316ths to a quarter, you know, some instances three eighths, some instances an eighth. If I'm fishing really shallow stuff, we'll use an eighth. But uh, it's just a like I said, a vertical. I'm trying to get somebody to make me one and like sell them. Like eventually I will have have somebody doing it. Because they don't, there's not a good one on the market. Like I haven't seen it. Now there's some local people that make them, you know, you might get some, you know, that's that make a decent one. But as far as like mass-produced one, there's not one. And but the key is having that line tie so you're not getting hung up constantly, because you will get hung up with a shake, yeah. There's no doubt about that. So you just got to get that line tie right. And then the hook is we throw a trick worm or like a six-eight flick shake, five-eight flick shake, like a longer worm on it a ton. And I'm always going with a longer shank hook. So the hook we use is a five-all thin wire hook. Not thin wire, but I think maybe like a medium wire. It's not a big jig hook, but it's just a but it's a solid hook. It's not a little bitty, you know, hook you would think of. Like it, you set the hook and it's not gonna flex on you. Because like I said, we or like I've said before, we use like beefier setups. So I'm using 30-pound braid with a usually a 12-pound liter. If it's thicker stuff like Lyra laydowns or the water's dirty, I go up to 15-pound liter. And if they're really biting, if they're spawning and they're really biting, I'll use 17 or 20-pound liter. Like I'm not scared to beef it up. Because I mean if they're gonna bite, but I would say 90% of the time I'm using some kind of 12-pound liter on there. I hardly ever go under 12 with a shaky head, just because our setups are so beefed up, like, like I'll end up breaking them off if I go under 12-pound test. And usually if you have to go under 12, a shaky head's you, I mean a drop shot or something's probably gonna be better anyways. But uh I like, like I said, 30 pound, either 20 or 30 pound mainline braid with that 12-pound leader. But the head, the jig head is the deal, just not getting hung up and catching them. Like I always everybody's telling me, I I'd never really experienced this, but everybody's telling me, like, man, I lose them with a shake head, I lose them, I lose them. I'm like, I've never had that problem with our setup. So that's why I feel like it's the deal, because we don't lose them on it. And you know, like I said, I've won a bunch of tournaments with it. So I just I've stuck with our deal. And like I said, it's a round, I don't know if I mentioned it, but it's a round, it's a ball head, um no, no screw lock. Like I it's you you you thread the worm up onto the collar. And the reason I like that is because it like it makes that worm, it turns that worm into like an S shape when you thread it up there, and it's gonna make that worm, you know, spin as it sinks. You can watch it on front facing, like you throw your shaky head out there, you can see your your your spinning rod, or I mean your shaky head shake as it or spin as it's going down. I was I was watching it the other day, and a lot of bites come on that initial fall. A lot of bites do. And if it ain't the initial fall, it's like they seen it go down and they come over there, and then you shake it three or four times and then you get a bite. And most of the time that's because they seen it fall and they just followed it down and and are watching it. So that's what I like. I mean, that seems to be you know pretty good setup for us, so that's why I keep it like that. And then uh now if you're throwing like a half ounce or a three-quarter ounce shake head with a big magnum trick worm or a big old monster or something like that, a screw lock probably ain't I mean it ain't gonna matter. You can use a screw lock. I don't know. I just but with that, you know, five-inch worm or something smaller where it's gonna sink slow, you want that you want that spiral in action as it's sinking, I feel like, because you get a ton of bites on the initial fall uh most of the time. So I stick with that. And then rod and reel, it's like I said, it's beefed up. It's a 7-1 to 7-3 medium heavy spinning rod. Um, always medium heavy, nothing ever medium, because I just don't feel like you get a good hook set. And you're like I said, you're using 12-pound line, so you're not gonna break. Um, but that's my that's my setup. It's kind of I kind of scared it out there a little bit, but just to wrap it all back up real quick, uh, or homemade jig head, uh five alt thin wire hook, round a round ball jig head, 60 degree vertical line tie, uh 30 pound, 20 to 30 pound braid, 12 to 15 pound leader, and uh 7 to 7.1 to 7.3 medium heavy rod and give them the gas when they bite it. Just like a jig. I mean, it's a jig, it's just don't have a skirt on it. So just set the hook, you know. Don't be leaning into them, give them the gas, and uh you'll you'll land them. There's no doubt.
SPEAKER_03So that's a a a question for me with that, right? Is like we're talking about a pretty beefed up setup. You just compared it to a jig here. Have you always, and maybe what's and this may be a dumb question, but why a spinning rod in that situation? Why not throw a casting?
SPEAKER_01Yes, you can go to like if I'm using like a three-eighths or a half ounce, shake your head. I'll use a bait caster a lot of times, but like using an eighth or a three-sixteenths, when like a lot of times, I mean, obviously, if you're bombing it over like shell beds or something, it ain't gonna matter. But like most of the time I'm throwing it around the bank, around laydowns, around whatever, you know, whatever may be docks. A lot of times it's on docks, a lot of times. It's it's a killer on docks. So I'm gonna I gotta be able to skip it very perfectly, you should say. And uh, I don't want to be going back and forth between a bait, like I just keep it on a spinning rod, I beef up my setup, and that way I'd never have to change it. And then plus, if it really, if you really have to work the bait, like shaking it, it's so much easier to shake it with a spinning rod. Just keep it slack in your line and you know not moving it very much at all. I call it shaking the tail. You don't want to move the head, you're gonna feel like you're just shaking the tail of the worm. So you shake the slack in your line, and it's just so much easier for me on a on a spinning rod. And I feel like it's you got just you got way more control with those lighter heads when you get around docks or laydowns or skipping it under bushes or whatever it may be when you have to be very accurate with it. And I mean, I don't care if you're Kevin Van Damme, you're not skipping an eighth ounce shaky head with a bait caster very accurate every time. So, but with that spinning rod, I mean, I can put it up a ticks rear end. So that's why I just I just stay with it. I just stick it, I just stick with a spinning rod. But like I said, now if you're you know bombing it over shell beds on Kentucky Lake or something, you can put it on a bait caster. There's I don't feel like there's that much, you know, advantage to having it on a spinning rod. I still throw it on a spinning rod just because I like I'm just used to it and I set the hook. I mean, I just the way I lean into them, but uh it's just what I've you know come to know. But but a half ounce or you know, even a three-quarter ounce, you know, big magnum shaky head, you obviously you put that on a baitcaster. Yeah I'm more skipping a three-quarter ounce up around docks, so you don't matter.
SPEAKER_04Right. I'm most intrigued about when you're mentioning the having that S in your worm because I feel like especially nowadays when we're talking about rigging and like maybe maybe it's the the jig head minnow uh in people where they're like it has to be absolutely perfectly straight, where they're talking about that worm's gotta be perfectly rigged, right? Or they're uh where it makes people think that it's gotta be perfectly straight. Where I think that having that S is a might be a little bit more of an eye-opener for for some folks where they look at it and like, oh, that's kind of looks weird, but then seems like that's like you're saying, like, similar to like a beaver, you know, where that spiral is what triggers those bites. Yep. That's that's super intriguing.
SPEAKER_01It is. I mean, I feel like that's the key to you know putting it on a collar is is having that bend in it. And I even remember like we used to use a trick worm all the time, and you'd get them, you know, you get some packs that are just that the the tail of them be kinked up or something, and you're like, what is this? And you throw it out there and you catch them with it, and you're like, nope, that's because that was so we used to get trickworms, and like if they'd be kinked up, I'd be like, This is I love these worms. Like I want so the flick shake is made with that bend in it, but it's just not made for a shaky head. I'll be the first to say it it like it's it tears up very easily because it's a wacky worm, you know, worm. But that bend in that tail, you put that thing on a shaky head. Like if I'm in a tournament, I throw that most of the time. I put it on there because I know they bite it. Like practice, I'll use a trick worm, whatever, just so I don't rip a thousand, you know, flick shakes. But like I won that tournament on um um Lake of Ozarks, our our MLF tournament. I was throwing a flick shake on the on the back in the tournament. Like I don't even think I made a cast with it in practice, but I I know they're gonna bite this in the tournament. And it's that mold of the worm has the tail, you know, it's got the little crook in it. And uh, so but I you it don't have to be perfectly straight when you're fishing it like that on the bottom. Like that S 100% makes them bite it, you know, sinking, I feel like. And if you put it on a screw lock, you know, like like an eighth ounce on a screw lock, it just they'll still bite it. Don't get me wrong, you're still gonna get some bites. But I just feel like I did really well with that setup, and I I just stick with it, and I know they bite it. So, and I've had a lot of co-anglast ask me for a shaky head after they're not catching anything behind me. So I I'm like, well, I might be using the right one. They'll be using a screw lock and then they're like, Man, can I get one of your heads? I'm like, sure, you know. So that's kind of now they may be an instant where a screw lock outfishes it. I mean, I don't know. I haven't seen it yet, which I don't use a screw lock ever, but besides like on a you know, three quarter ounce or something like that, but uh football head, you know. But yeah, I just always go with a collar. I like sliding it up on the collar, and I just feel like it gets more bites. I mean, like I said, till I'm proved wrong, I'm gonna stick with that theory.
SPEAKER_04I'm sitting here with uh shaky head rigged up right now, uh, and it's got a freaking screw lock in it. Rookie.
SPEAKER_01My goal is my goal is to get the get get ours mass produced. Like uh I got to because uh everybody's always asking me what shaky head set up. Like I mean, like in my comment or you know, messages and stuff, which one do we use? And like I just have to tell them homemade, which which I'll give them the setup. And like I said, like I said, we didn't make the the mold or anything. It's mold you can buy, but it's just combining that hook, you know, with that with that head, and I feel like you know it increases your chances of landing them, you know, tenfold. You don't you just don't lose many. Like I said, it's like a jig. I mean, with the setups we use, and you know, you don't lose fish on a jig very often.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03So I mean, what's what's interesting to me, so I'm I'll be the first to admit I'm not I'm not much of a shaky head guy. I got turned on to that jack-o-worm probably through through watching you, quite frankly, Jesse, and like did that in high school, and I've used it. I mean, I've got e boxes of them, right? I use them for everything for drop shotting, wacky rigging, you know, and shaky heading. But it's interesting to me, this is the second time, Bailey, when when we were at the Super 60 event on Don Pedro, you know, Greg Gutierrez won that hammer out west here, who has won a ton of money on a shaky head, especially on spotted bass. And he talked about that same thing, the spiral, right? On on the fall of things, and he does that with a darter head, he does it with a shaky head, and it's just like, man, it's all resonating now. It's like, man, I need to need to pay a little bit of attention to this whole bent worm thing. Because I'm the same way with like minnows, with I want everything to be perfectly straight, and it's like I just gotta start slapping it on to see what happens.
SPEAKER_01Now, minnow it minnow may be different. I don't know. Like, I always rig mine straight, I will say that, but but I think they like that it's gotta be straight to to roll, like they, you know, like it's it needs to roll. But uh, but a worm though, it does not have to be straight. I don't know what it is about it, but it does not. Like, I don't care what anybody says. It don't now obviously you don't want it crooked to where it twists your line, reeling it in, all that. But you yeah, a worm is it don't have to be perfectly straight on there. I know that for a fact.
SPEAKER_04Love that. Well, dude, uh this little little segment we have on our sh every show is it's a fun one. We call it the uh the amped outdoors electric take. And so uh amped outdoors is our lithium solution here at Sirius Angler, and this is uh what we call a bold question hoping with the emphasis on the hoping for a bold answer. And uh so with that, it's uh what do you think in your mind is the most underrated way to fish a shaky head and then also a place to fish a shaky head? I know you mentioned like docks and places like that. Maybe a place where somebody doesn't think about picking up a shaky head that you might do.
SPEAKER_01Um 100% is the eight going to an eighth ounce or a sixteenth ounce and skipping it up super shallow docks, uh, grass. Like an eighth ounce will come through grass wet, not moss, but like real like crisp hydrilla. Like an eighth ounce will come through all that, you know, pretty, pretty well. Um but yeah, I th I would say up super shallow, skipping around docks, you know, instead of a wacky worm. Like the reason I feel like I won the tournament at Ozarts is because I was throwing a shaky head instead of a wacky worm, because there was a lot of guys throwing a wacky knot catching many scoreboes. You know, that's catching a lot of fish. But for some reason they wanted it up there, and I was using an eighth most of the time just so I could skip it um up under walkways or the back corners of the docks or cables, whatever it may be. So 100% I would say the most underrated is the eighth ounce shaky head, whether it be a finesse worm or a Cinco, um like a five-eighth flick shake, whatever it may be, something you can skip real easy. A cinko just skips so easy on there. Um, or not actually a Cinko, but just a stick worm. You don't want to put a Cinko on there because it's gonna rip to pieces trying to skip it. But like a dinger or like I take the six-eighth flick shake, bite it down to five inches because it's about the same you know, diameter circle as a as a Cinko. I'll skip it, uh bite it down to like four or five inches, but just eighth ounce, putting it, putting it where places you know people haven't put a bait, especially when they're up shallow spawning, it is deadly. You can catch you know tons of fish doing it like that. Love that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's sneaky. I like that.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, that was kind of a long answer, but oh, that's perfect.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's perfect. That was the uh the bold answer we were hoping for. Totally.
SPEAKER_00Good deal.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Well, I guess and to kind of wrap things up here, we've been having fun asking guys who who they would like to fish with in certain situations. But you know, if there's one guy on tour right now, if you were to be team partners with in a team event, who who's it gonna be?
SPEAKER_01Well, just for me wanting to win the tournament, I'm gonna have to go with Jacob Wheeler. I'm not even gonna act like it. I'm I mean, yeah, uh, I feel like we'd have a pretty good chance as long as he's running the troll motor. So what do you need me to do, Jacob? You need some water? Here, here, I'll give you some water.
SPEAKER_03All caddy back here.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. He's like, Oh, you want to you want a nine-iron? Oh, seven, three. Okay, I'll get that for you.
SPEAKER_03Let me rig that up. I'll retie it. You just keep fishing.
SPEAKER_01Here, sir, is this is this not tied right? Here, you throw this out there. Uh now uh we the what's fun though is our team series, we get to pick a teammate. Obviously, I don't get to pick Jacob Wheeler, but um we get to pick somebody, obviously. So I don't know. Uh I'm fishing the next one, so I I'm actually thinking about that right now. Who am I gonna get to pick? Um that you know that don't already have a teammate. So um I guess we'll get to see how that works out. But obviously, I like winning the most, so I'm gonna go with Wheeler if I get anybody, obviously. You're crazy if you don't pick Wheeler, I in my opinion.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, put your pride away.
SPEAKER_01No, exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04That's like a whole draft room style deal, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's fun. It's it's fun. You know, I missed the first one. Um, it's tough not getting your name called, I promise you. Like I was sitting back there and they're calling names, and I didn't have enough the first of the season, I sunk it up, so I didn't qualify for it. You got to be in the top 24 in points for the first three events, and then you take the next three events, so the second three, and you take the top 24 of those, and you get the and that makes the second series of the team events. So the first one, I was like in 50th in the points, so I didn't get to pick, and nobody picked me, and you everybody's picking their, you know, most time they pick their buddies, obviously, after the really like Wheeler and them already, you know, are gone. They pick, you know, well, whoever they want because they're the first ones. And uh, so you sitting back there not getting picked, you're like, oh, this sucks. I gotta catch them better than this. Like that's just people don't really realize when you you get in your it's like being on the playground and everybody's picking everybody else and you're sitting there not getting picked. You're like, dang, I'm gonna have to put it on and put it in my own hands. So luckily I started catching them right after that. Like that was motivate. I'll be honest, that was straight up motivation, not getting picked, and you're like, oh my goodness, this sucks. And uh, so I was like, I gotta do better. So the second three points wise, I did I did get enough to make it, so I get to pick somebody now, and uh or get to be a team captain or whatever you call it. So looking looking forward to the to the team series. Those those events are fun. Like I enjoy watching them as well, which I'm a big fishing fan. Like I watch all fish in the read. Is all kind of YouTube, like I'm I'm just a fishing nerd. I'm not scared to admit it. So uh I it's fun to fish them, and I I hope it comes through on the TV how fun it is to watch it and stuff. So it's they're they're cool events.
SPEAKER_04I have enjoyed watching the the team series and the the communication and the mix of like strategy that you guys go through, but then also a little bit of smack talk. I haven't been uh that's that's some fun too. Even like inner team stuff. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01That was some of the funny stuff watching them. Some of those guys last year when the trolling motor was tearing up. That was I was dying laughing. I ain't gonna mention no names, but that was funny. They ended up winning it too. That's what's crazy. Is that yeah, you can overcome adversity for sure. It's pretty funny.
SPEAKER_04Well, dude, on the flip, you know, of asking for somebody to go win. Um, you know, one angler on tour that uh to that you'd put in charge of of planning a bachelor party, who who would be your pick there?
SPEAKER_01Oh, probably uh probably Gerald Spohr, I guess. I don't know. I guess he seems like he's always having a good time. Um definitely not myself. I'm kind of a fuddy dud, I'll be honest. I'm I'm kind of a I don't I'm kind of a loner when it comes to that kind of stuff. But uh I don't know. There's a lot of those guys that have a good time. Or scroggins probably, maybe Skeet. I don't know. That'd be all the guys I'd want to be there, that's for sure. Like because I've seen at those parties they're out there dancing and stuff at the like our our our inventory balls and stuff we have. So I feel like those guys would be good for sure. Oh I mean, they always seem like they're having a good time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm sure if Crete was still on tour, he'd probably be the popular guest.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I follow him on social media. It seems like he's always at a bachelor party or something. He's always got his shirt off every time I pull up this. But so he's definitely always having a good time.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's awesome. Well, dude, um, obviously, first time on the show, and like I said in the beginning, long overdue, uh, that's entirely on us. And it's uh with that, that you know, everyone's first time on the show. We love to leave the show with this question. And uh, that is if you could bring three different individuals to come have a steak and a beer and and and pick their brain, um, they could be alive a thousand years ago, it could be live now. They don't even have to be in fishing, could be any three people. Uh, who would you invite and why?
SPEAKER_01Oh shoot, I ain't never even in Manas something like this.
SPEAKER_04So three people, no matter fishing or what, just three people it could be LeBron James, it could be Trump, like whoever the hell you wanted it to be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh Lordy mercy. I don't know. Probably just for just self, just just wanting to uh just see what would go down would but definitely be like Trump, Jesus, and maybe Kevin Van Dam, I guess. That would be wild. There's no relation of any of them. There's no reason, like one specific reason, but it would I just feel like you could get every end of the spectrum from them three. Oh that's awesome.
SPEAKER_04That's that sounds like a bumper sticker. Trump's KVD. There you go. There you go.
SPEAKER_01I just want to know what, like, there's something about like Trump. Like, I ain't even saying I like the guy, but I it's just like to build what he's built, do what like I don't know. There's something about it that he's got something going on. So I don't know. I feel like I would like to have a conversation with him, just see like his thought process behind stuff because it's just like like him or not, you gotta respect what he's done, like how he's got to what he's got. I don't know. I just feel like that it's I don't know. Even if I don't know, I just feel like I'd like to have a conversation with him. I don't know. That's just me looking at it.
SPEAKER_04So he's been a popular one amongst that, uh, amongst that question.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I and I honestly feel like it ain't because people like him, it's just like they just want to be like, what the heck is going on with this guy? Like, we gotta we need to talk to him for a second, you know.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so intrigued, no cameras, no mics, off the record. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Have you ever uh have you ever watched the Shane Gillis impression?
SPEAKER_01Oh, yes, yes. I say it all the time on TikTok. My wife loves that shit. It's hilarious, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, dude, thank you so much for taking time out to uh come on the show. Uh, and hopefully we'll get you on again here soon. And uh hopefully you have a great finish at Saginaw Bay and make Red Crest, man. Looking forward to see where that's gonna be at too. Yes, sir. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Momentum.
SPEAKER_01Thank y'all. Thanks for having me. Thank y'all.
SPEAKER_04All right, folks, that is gonna do it for today's episode. Like we've mentioned briefly in the intro. Jesse uh let loose of some nuggets on the shaky head stuff, the chatterbait stuff. Uh, some good takeaways from here that's gonna make me go spend some more money, Adam. I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_03Dude, for sure. Like, I I think uh some absolute juice, just such a genuine guy. Cool, but this is the first time we've had him on. You know, I haven't really interacted with him at all. But just you can just tell everything coming out of his mouth is the truth. It's like, hey, this is what it is, this is how it is, this is why I like these things. But yeah, man, some some cool takeaways. I mean, the chatterbait talk was was unique to me, something that uh I didn't really think about with him, right? So that was a that was a neat tangent, and then just the intricacies of the shaky head. You know, you think of it as such a simple thing, and it's like, wow, there's a lot, a lot more to this that he sees, and also blows me away that no one has made a head that he loves and is using. Like he he literally made the statement there's nothing on the market that is good from a shaky head. That's pretty bold. Like think about how over like you know complicated our tackle industry is with everyone having 900 jig heads, you know, all these different brands. And it's like, how has no one made this thing? Like it just blows me away. Like it's it's and he literally went the blueprints, not like he's hiding anything, it's like 60 degree hook with a five op, you know, medium wire hook, like pretty easy ball head, yeah, you know, like no screw lock.
SPEAKER_04It's like I got the formula, just somebody work with me on it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like so. Anyone out there, go go give Jesse a call and start selling some freaking jig heads.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, for real. Hopefully, we'll send some business his way from the show and get her get her hands on some better shaky heads. But yeah, like he's the guy. Like, you want to get a good shaky head? Because it's it's not like shaky heads are going away, you know, especially with forward facing people are everyone's using shaky heads for the most part, right? And it's uh obviously certain other jig heads get some more more buzz and craze as of recent, but the shaky head's always been good and it's going to continue to always be good. Totally. It's gonna be sick. Well, we'll link at least like uh uh we can't exactly link his homemade stuff down below, but we'll link like the flick shake, things like that, some of those baits that he mentioned down below for you guys to if you want to get your hands on some, as well as uh his favorite color and brand jackhammer that he likes to use at the jack uh the chatterbait. We'll leave that down below. Links to Omnia. Save yourself some some moolah on that. But uh otherwise, man, great show. Uh the next week's show, we got Mr. Ben Milliken coming back on. So that's gonna be uh a heavy hitter right there. The I mentioned last week on the show that we were getting John B on. Uh we had some apparently he had some troubles with a trip. Uh so unfortunately that one fell through, but we were actively working on getting that show back up uh and scheduled for you guys. So hopefully that'll be here soon. But we have some awesome guests lined up. We'll have some iCast content, things like that. And then obviously in a couple weeks, when I go down to the uh Black Bass Symposium with all the fisheries biologists, you guys will have a heck of a lot of new real biology shows coming out for you. Uh, which we just released one earlier this week talking about why and the real reasons why bass have the uh black spots or the blotches on them and why they have red lips. Because how often, Adam, have you heard oh red lips, dude? They're eating crawfish.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, literally my entire life.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so it's cool. We do a whole thing. We had um Steve obviously with his crew down at um the Texas uh Texas Brigade camp. It's like a youth camp where kids are basically are studying fish biology at a younger age to become fisheries biologists later on, which is awesome. Um, we had some pretty good conversation on on exposing some of the truce, I guess, if you will, on all that. So it's uh kind of cool deal, guys. Go check that one out. But uh man, great episode here today. Got anything else for the folks before we tune out?
SPEAKER_03No, man. It's a great one, and uh looking forward to the coming weeks of of getting some more content out.
SPEAKER_04Heck yeah. Well, folks, appreciate y'all as always, and we'll see you on the next one.