Flipping & Pitching Secrets with West Coast Legend Ish Monroe

Dive deep into the heart of West Coast bass fishing! We explore the legendary techniques and untold stories that have shaped the region's elite anglers. From the evolution of flipping and punching to the secrets of mastering diverse fisheries, this episode uncovers the essence of what makes West Coast bass fishing truly unique.

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Ish Monroe's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ish_monroe/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

All right. Welcome everyone to the Tears Angler Podcast. As always, our goal here is to be talking and hopefully teaching you guys more about bass fishing. And today's episode, we got a little throwback show bringing back to the surface with Mr. H Monroe. Deacon and I sit down with Itch for a seriously western segment and talk about why the West Coast is so special. So we dive into some different fisheries and different things that we can do in the West Coast and why the West Coast is an awesome training ground for not just making incredible fishing talent, but uh anglers that uh have the the dream of going full-time professional fishing. And we kind of dive into all that, not even pretending to just tournaments, but just the incredible diversity of fisheries that the West Coast has. And so we dive into that with Mr. H. Monroe. We have some new episodes coming up here on Serious Angler, but a little throwback show for you guys today. Hope you all appreciate it. Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen to the show. Let's get into it with Mr. H. Monroe. All right, folks. So we are here with Mr. Ish Monroe. It really doesn't need much of an introduction. If you know anything about fishing, you've definitely heard or watched the famous Ish Monroe fish before. But uh Ish, man, how how are things been? How's the off-season? Well, I guess only not off season.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

There is no there is no off-season. It's it's for me, it's a hundred miles and running. Everybody thinks, oh, you get to fish for a living, season's over with, you get to kick back and relax. And it's just like, no, there's so many things to do. Uh, when you have four acres of land, even in California, there's a whole lot of work to be done. And my wife wants chicken coops, and she wants a new dog run, and she wants planner boxes and rock, and so that's just on top of everything else besides the business side of fishing. Still running the shows, heading to the Wisconsin Fishing Expo, fish a tournament, head to another tournament, come back, work the classic, then go to another tournament, then work another show, then go to another tournament. I mean, it doesn't end.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

That is all gas and no breaks, man. That's getting exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 2:24

Yeah, people want to know the the true grind of you know that there's there's a level of anglers that I'd put you in. Like, and you just spoke about it offline where it's you know, you could try to take the easy route and find a flight that makes sense, but instead, nah, you're gonna take the red eye, fly out at midnight, do the show, come back, and then book.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

It's a time, it's a timing thing, you know. Um, if I normal flights would be I'd have to leave somewhere during the day to day, that ruins my whole day of getting anything done, versus taking a red eye, I'll sleep on the red eye, get there, do the show, get some sleep, get up in the morning, fly on another flight, get back, keep continue at it. I mean, I've got Monday and Tuesday kind of off to do get stuff done, and back to practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Tournament starts Friday.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Rock and roll. That's right. Yeah. No, well, so so I guess to start here, Ish, you start are fishing both all as far as West Coast, West Coast stuff is concerned, the the BAM Super 60, and then it sounds like some of the Pro Ams involved there, and then the central division of the opens. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah, pretty much uh all the Super 60, all the BAM ProAms. I'm gonna come up to your guys' neck of the woods just because I've always wanted to fish potholes, and plus I want to get some practice in on the Columbia River because I am gonna find them stupid largemouth on the Columbia River. And when I do, it's game on. I'm literally, no, I'm gonna fish for smallmouth, make the top 10 cut, and then I'm gonna go fish for a largemouth the whole freaking day because if I catch five, I win.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

There's big ins. We saw Ken do that a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah, Ken did that, and he did it in a John Day, and he had it, he had John Day all to himself for some reason. All this guys just left it alone, and I was just catching too many smallmouth. I mean, I was catching 40 a day on a trap, and it was so much fun that I just couldn't get away from it. And but and then last year, you know, uh Boomer helped me out on a spot, and I ended up making the cut, and I went and kind of searched for largemouth where I heard that they were, it looked beautiful in there. There's just not a lot of them. And so I just know that I'm fishing for five or six bites, you know, all day long, and you just got to cover a lot of water in there and every beaver dam and every patch of grass and fish through it, and hopefully, you know, you trigger one in the striking, and at the end of the day, you got five of them.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah, well, that sounds like vintage-ish and ish uh chasing five big bites all day long, man. That's right up your head.

SPEAKER_02 5:00

Yeah. Well, that's how you that's how you win. You know, I I see a lot of guys that's they love throwing drop shots and little worms and wanting to catch a limit first. I'm like, no, I'm gonna spend my time trying to catch big ones. I mean, those two hours that I spend could be that one more big bite that I need to win the event. And if you get on a roll and get catch all big ones, then you're just you're good anyways.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

It's true, yeah. So as as far as go ahead. Fish to win. Fish to win, baby. Five biggins. I like it. Man, and that was my first time last year running up to the Columbia. I I just moved from Colorado to Idaho uh this last year. And so it was my first time ever on the Columbia when you guys were there, and then I took my boat about three or four weeks after just to go check things out, and um and I was so impressed, man. I had I had never realized how cool of a fishery that is. I've always heard of that. That's an amazing fishery. Holy cow, the amount of fish in there um was was just incredible. And then the largemouth component, it's a it's a pretty diverse place.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

Yes, very much so.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Good stuff.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

I got a quick question, actually, just to uh quickly backtrack. Like when you were talking about how some guys will try to get the the limit and then go say for largemouth, um kind of in the same train of thought, but like you're a guy that's known for for punching that that power stuff. Right. We had a show, I think it was about a year and a half, two years ago with Fletcher's triak when we're talking about punching. And you know, that's everything he learned, he learned from me. Uh perfect. But it's uh with with that, I'm curious your thoughts. Like we talked about, you know, there's the windows once the sun gets up, you know, around that 9 30, 10 o'clock, where you can when the the typical window, the textbook says to get good for punching, but how you punch when the in the early hours you may not get many bites at all, but usually the ones you do could be very big. Uh is that something that you agree with? How do you approach that?

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Definitely, definitely. No. So I gotta tell uh a good Fletcher story. So Fletcher and his brother both came out here to stay with me, and this is right when the Rebo Rocket had just come out. And the Rebo Rocket was a nine to one gear ratio. They thought they once again they didn't know much about punching, they're from freaking Ohio. So we're gonna we're going to the we're we're going to the Delta, and this is the heydays of the Delta, and they're all jacked up. They them dudes like it's funny, it's like they have Red Bull or Oxley for Fletcher full throttle running through his veins all the time. They're 100 miles an hour. Everything they do, they're jacked up, they're spooling in the middle of the night. They're like, man, we got these new nine-to-ones. And I'm like, dude, you don't want a nine-to-one for punching. So we get out there the next morning, and there's three of us in a boat, and we're just flipping down, and I'm letting them get some bites and stuff like this, and they're catching some threes and fours, and they're all jacked up. And I said, Okay, here's we're coming up to the big fish area. And Hunter pitches into this mat, and dude, he hit this thing, and it never moved. And he's all, I can't turn the handle, I can't turn the handle, I can't turn the handle. And I'm like, just pull on it. And he's trying to pull on this thing, and and it's probably an eight to ten pounder, and it just pops off, and he's like, Man, what happened? I can't turn the handle. I said, That's what I told you about that high speed gear ratio. And they stayed for like three days and they hooked up to a couple of them giants on the Delta and never landed them. And so then they started listening to me about lowering their gear ratio and time of day and all that stuff. But time of day is definitely hugely important. When you get a bite in the morning, usually punching, those are those big resident fish that don't swim very far. The middle of the day, when that sun gets up, is all those fish that were out feeding now are tucked up underneath that heavy, heavy cover. And so that's where they're going to be sitting until you get again the low light conditions and they come out. Bass are predators, they love to eat and be a predator, and they feel like they're the apex predator for all the little bait fish and crawdads, and so they're always out feeding. But them big ones, they don't they don't go very far, they stay underneath that cover because it's their home and they they wait for something to come in there to them. So, yeah, first thing in the morning, usually a big bite. After that, you're catching all the other fish that were out feeding, and you will still catch some big ones. Love that.

SPEAKER_00 9:21

I get father-ish, father punching for the brothers. I guess quick question on that. Who is if it might not even be, it might be all self-taught, but did you have a mentor from the punch standpoint?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah, so when we first started punching out West, they had been doing it in Florida for years, and there's a bunch of great guys, and uh rest his soul, guy by the name of Glenn Brown, who used to fish the FLW tour back in the day, won a couple events, was an amazing puncher, and he actually the first thing he taught me was the knot, and he taught it to me over the phone because I I I went fishing with him and I didn't ask the questions about the knots and everything. We were just punching like he was showing it to me. So I'm at Clear Lake, and this is an old Bassmaster back in uh early 2000s, and it's actually funny that tournament was won by Mark Tyler who was punching. But I was out there in practice, and man, I was getting all these bites, and nobody was punching besides Mark because he had actually been back east as well. I had a couple of those old lead uh uh they weren't even tons, they were about that big weights, one and a half ounce weights. They were lead, they were giant, they're called penetrator weights. Worst thing in the world for punching because they were so big. So I started going down there and I I I punched and I punched and I was catching, getting big bites, and I was losing all these fish. And I call up Glenn. I'm like, what am I doing wrong? He goes, Are you tying the knot? I'm like, what knot? And he goes, the snail knot. And then I'm just like, what's snail knot? He goes, I'm gonna teach you the snail knot over the phone. I'm like, how are you gonna teach me a knot over the phone? He goes, really easy. And he just starts telling me about the half hitches over the deal and getting started and then stuff, and I ended up tying that knot, and it actually helped me catch a lot more fish. But Glenn Brown was definitely to me uh one of the first pioneers of punching.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

That's awesome. That's super cool. That's really awesome.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

The snail knot, man. I was I was confused. I was thinking thinking about it, I'm like, well, duh, what knot is he gonna talk about with punching? It's like the snail knot makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

But here's the deal the snail knot does not work with regular flipping. There's something about the lighter weight and that cavitation that you actually miss more fish when you're regular flipping. Like if I'm flipping docks or I'm flipping wood, I do not tie the snail knot.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

I I don't either. And I had a tournament partner that would, and we kind of got in a heated debate on this exact thing. Not punching, right? If I'm punching, I exclusively do it. Yes, exclusive quarter ounce or whatever, up to half ounce. I'm generally just tying my palm.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

You know, me, Philip Dutre had this conversation a couple years ago, and that's when I switched, and he was saying the same thing, like he was missing fish, he was losing fish, and he couldn't figure out why. And he says that cavitation does something weird on a smaller weight that it doesn't get a good hook in the fish the same. And he thinks it just rolls up to where it hits their mouth versus like when it hits the big weight, it just kind of goes up and in. But who knows? I catch more fish without yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah. Got it. What about what's your take, Bailey? Are you a snail guy?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Yeah, I'm just the same train of thought. Like it if I'm punching and I got big braid on, I'll do snail, but yeah, if I'm just fluorocarbon flipping docs, all that stuff, I just I I dabbled with it, trying it with the fluorocarbon stuff. I'd I would break off and I'm like, screw this. I'd this is a waste of it.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Yeah, that that that that I think that fluorocarbon, when it hits the round of the eye, it's just completely snaps it off. I used I started putting I started putting a bobber stop into the weight to have some actual cushion there when I was still tying the snail for regular flipping, but now that I've gotten away from it, I don't do that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I'm the same way. I don't even think about it. I don't think twice. But I know some people that do, they they I've like you just said, Deacon, I got a buddy that does it and get in uh you debate about it too.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Yeah. It's it's almost like talking politics to people, you know?

SPEAKER_01 13:37

It's true. We're passionate group, bass fishers. Yes, that's yes, we are very well more of a topic of of debate, or what we've seen more and more here lately of kind of these these one-day tournaments um with weather stuff. How how was Rayburn on your end and what's your take on the one-day derby situation?

SPEAKER_02 13:56

You know, I understand what bass has to do from a protection side of it. Um, I just you gotta remember I grew up in the days of Ray Scott and you know, where they didn't cancel tournaments very often. I mean, it had to be basically gale force winds of astronomic proportion. I mean, I can remember going out and fishing, you know, I mean, I watched them stand up a 22-foot ranger and tell us it's good for us to go. And I mean, they stood this thing straight up in the air and said, Oh, you guys are good to go. And we end up going. I mean, I've fished St. Clair, I've fished Lake Erie. I fished Lake Erie where it took me 30 minutes to get to my spot. It took me three and a half hours to get back in because it was so big. And I literally rode the waves, my co-angler's puking because he's seasick on a lake, and that's how bad it was. Like you'd go in a swell, you'd go in a swell, you couldn't even see the land around you because it was the swell was so big.

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Were those the the tournaments where with Darren Schwankbeck when he broke two boats? If you recall that.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Yes, yeah. And and that, and that's where we were at bass fishing at that time and period. Now, uh, and nothing against the younger anglers, but we do have 18, 19-year-olds fresh out of high school, who are now fishing these opens who don't really have the concept of how dangerous things can be, whether it's just the weather's a little bit rough or the standing timber. I mean, I watch these guys run through areas, and I'm just like, they'll be the first ones to knock off a lower unit. And two days later, you see them at the service yard getting a no new lower unit put on. And so Bass has got to protect himself from that because we have had a few incidences in the previous years where guys were not being safe. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

No, I get it, and totally safety the anglers first. Um, but I in my just just much less traveling around than yourself, but just have learned how to run a boat in some big water. But uh David Height was was talking on live yesterday, actually. Um, he was saying they're you know, these kids have come out and they've been so uh good at the fishing side and are not diminishing any of their skills tournament fishing wise, but he's like you can tell the guys, you know, on a rough day who the veterans are on the elite series and who guys are not the veterans on the elite series that are just eating waves, you know, in this stuff because it it takes a really long time to get good at running big water used to be there.

SPEAKER_02 16:44

Yes, I mean I I run in salt water, I've got a 34-foot center console that I run really big stuff, and I guess it's hard to learn how to run that stuff, and I've learned how to run it over a long period of time, and yeah, those big waves, you just take your time in it.

SPEAKER_01 17:07

A whole different animal. Well, now your schedule going back to back here from different uh West Coast stuff, firing back and fishing uh Kentucky Lake here coming up soon. But what uh what's your take on everything happening out west um in the tournament scene right now? We're talking 2025. West Coast has always had struggles with different things um as far as angler participation in different leagues and et cetera. What's uh what's your take of where we stand 2025 and how you see the West Coast fishing industry?

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I see West Coast fishing industry doing great. You know, uh Mark Lasse has done a fantastic job with the whole BAM trail. Um you know, Wand Bass does a great job. And so now we're back to two organizations with not a ton of tournaments. Yeah, BAM has the Super 60, which is four events, and then they've got five different programs, but that's nine events. Juan Bass has their four events spread from basically Arizona all the way up to Northern California. So technically there's about 13 events to fish a year that I would consider the top-level professional tour of fishing, and then you throw in some championships there, and you got two championships on the BAM side, no championship for Wanbass. So you're back to you know 15 events out of the year. That's a pretty good haul. I mean, you still got to think the average fisherman, which most guys in the West Coast, there's I don't think of any non-touring uh professional anglers on the West Coast, maybe Ken Ma be the only one, but he's retired. And to take 15 weeks off in a year, not including practice time, that's a lot of time for most people. You know, you're talking, you're taking three months, four months, almost four months out of the year of somebody's work, you know, and mortgage payments and gas prices are all higher here on the West Coast. So being a professional angler is really, really hard. So that's a lot of events, and uh, but I like the fact that we have that because guys can now pick and choose and and have some good opportunities to make some real money. I mean, Super 60 is paying 50 grand. Shoot, I can't remember a Toyota series that had a hundred and plus boats that would even pay 50 grand.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Right, so 70 guys or whatever it's gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah, 70 guys because he's gonna pay down the field. I wish he would have just paid up higher. Um, I kind of pushed him on that a little bit, but I understand it, I get it. You know, give these guys an opportunity to make a little bit of money back, you know, if they'll pay down a few more places, that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

I agree, man. I think it's the the best thing for the West Coast guys that we've seen in a while. And and uh I it gives the opportunity for someone like myself who's like, hey, I I my goal is to fish at the highest level that's near me, right? I'm not someone who's at this point interested in going back east anymore. I've enjoyed some of that, but for me, it is a perfect situation. I think there's a lot of guys out there that that fills that fills that need for a pro to level that's 25 hours away.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

And and and and and the part is is I'm hoping that the sponsors get behind what we're doing out here, and that's what I'm trying to show is that hey, you know, you gain popularity fishing the Super 60 and Wanbass, you can do your job as a professional angler of selling sponsors' products. Because at the end of the day, they don't care what you fish, just fishing at the highest level gives you a bigger platform to sell more product for them. But having this opportunity out west here and being able to sell boats for Skeeter, sell engines for Yamaha, sell you know Lowrance Electronics, sell Dio fishing rods, they don't care. What you could fish a club tournament as long as you're selling a bunch of product, that's all that really matters.

unknown 21:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Can you move the needle for us?

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Yep, that's exactly it. And that's what I I wish a lot more anglers would go into the thought process of sponsorship is is not what you can do for me from a sponsor standpoint, but what I can do for you. But this is what it costs for me to get you to this point. Oh, well, you want me to sell you$100,000 worth of product? Well, that's gonna cost you$10,000. Well, I want$100,000 from you, so I'm gonna sell you a million dollars worth of product. You know, the basic standpoint from a sales standpoint is 10%. That's what your value is, is 10%. Any company is willing to give up 10% if you can justify the sales for them. So go out and open up a boat dealership. That's how you sell a million dollars worth of boats, is you help the help get the boat rep into a boat dealership he's been trying to get into. Then that dealership will go out there and sell a million dollars worth of boats or two million dollars worth of boats. Well, then, yeah, it's worth it for them to give you a really good deal. Or give you a boat because you're helping them sell products.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Yeah, and that's something I think that that approach-ish is something you've you've done really well in your career is the almost direct uh connection sales, right? Like we can talk social media, we can talk all of this stuff from a big platform perspective, but there are times when you can move the needle from a personal relationship and a referral to a dealer that goes a really, really different way.

unknown 22:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

You know what I mean? And I feel like I've heard stories over your career of doing that with different brands that you've been.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Yeah. I mean, the part is is you you make friends with everybody. As much as I travel, you have to go in there to get some service work done on your engine. Well, make a connection with the owner or the national or the sales manager and just you know, make sure everything's okay, especially if they are one of your sponsors' dealers. Like, hey, everything good? You guys getting everything you need? Well, if they're not, then you make a contact to your corporate person and get them connected. Like, hey, they're not getting enough product. What can we do to get them more product? Okay, well, we connect them here, here, here. Next thing you know, it comes back time. The person who made the commission on you selling the product for them is like, I need to have that guy. I need that guy. Like, you can fire everybody else because they haven't moved the needle. This guy moves the needle, and that's what's important to them. They don't pay you to catch fish, they pay you to sell product.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Yep. And there's something to be said about that too, where it's I don't think not just anybody can go and and do that, especially on that relationship standpoint. It does help too when you have a reputation like yourself where uh like the stuff you tout, like you've been successful with, where it's some some of the things. But you build that you build that.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah, you build it. Yeah, to to Isha's point there, I think you build that by also just putting yourself in those positions, right? Like putting on a nice shirt and looking presentable and saying, hey, here's what we're working on um with this brand. I know I'm coming in working on my boat here, but like you do that enough times, man. Those personal connections, they end up snowballing.

SPEAKER_02 24:31

You know, and and and you go into a tackle shop. I mean, gosh, it's it's so easy because we all go into tackle shops. I don't care where you at in the country. Go to your sponsor's product, take a picture of it with your phone of the display that they have and send it. Whether it displays is full or the display is empty. If the display is empty, the person that you send that to is going to put it in contact with the sales guy, and the sales rep is gonna go, oh, well, they need this, this, this, this, and this. They have the opportunity to call and go, hey, uh, I saw that you guys were out of this, and they'll be like, How do you know? Well, my pro staff guy came in and saw the shot of this. Are you not getting it from A, from us or B, your distributor? Well, we have all the stock stuff in stock. And the guy will be like, Okay, because you can't sell empty pegs at a tackle shop. And those are some of the easiest ones because I go into every single tackle shop that I can because I'm always looking for something new and something different, you know. Um, I've got some new uh jig head minnow baits that I hadn't seen anywhere in California that I'm gonna apply out here. So I'm super excited about that stuff. So yeah, just go into every tackle shop, take photos of your sponsor's products, and go from there.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

I like it. Now as far as fisheries go in the west coast, we've seen just a absolute you know heydays and and certain certain time frames that were incredible. But I would like to propose this as two two a two-part question. Okay. Number one would be what what were the three top uh fisheries ever in time frames in in on the west coast? And then West Coast, okay. Are the three currently on the West Coast?

SPEAKER_02 26:19

Does does West Texas count as West Coast or no? That's a no. Okay. So the three top fisheries were Clear Lake, Delta, Trinity. And now I want to say they are still Clear Lake, Delta, and Trinity. And I want to say in those in in in maybe not that order, maybe the Delta and Trinity have will swap places, but Trinity's a phenomenal fishery that doesn't get a lot of play because it's far. It's four hours from my house. And I mean, it's still an hour outside of Shasta, and and there's nothing up there when you get there, but man, there's a whole lot of bass. Clear Lake, Clear Lake's just Clear Lake. The uh 30 is the new 20 at Clear Lake. I don't you got 30 pounds, you're probably gonna get a check. You're not gonna win because you're gonna need 30 something, but you got 30 pounds. You did good. You had it, you had a fun day fishing. Well, you weighed 25 today, not looking so good for you, you know. Hopefully, everybody else had a really, really bad day because everybody's got 22. So Clear Lake is just still deep. Yep, pat on the back. Clear lake's still the best fishery to me in the country. Um, that's not a border lake like Thousand Islands or um Falcon or Amistad that Amistad's actually diminished a bunch in fishing, but you know, OH IV is is a good lake, but it it's still to me, Clear Lake's better.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Clear Lake's so healthy, man. Just it always blows me away getting there. Yep. I've never been to Trinity, though. I'm looking at where it is on a map, and it is so Shasta.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

Yeah, you go basically west of Shasta and you run into Trinity, and it's up in the mountains, and I got to fish there one time, and I mean I caught 50 a day on a crankbait and weighed 22 pounds a day and did not make the top 10.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

And that small mouth, that that smallmouth and largemouth mix there. Like one cash you'll catch a five-pound largemouth, the next cash you'll catch a four to five-pound smallmouth.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Pretty awesome. So if you're willing to go sleep in your truck in the parking lot, great place to go.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

But otherwise, there's a little town up there. It has one restaurant that actually has really great food, and there's one hotel that's got about 25 rooms in it. And so you're either staying, yeah, so book early, or you're staying at the marina in one of their cabins, which they've only got six or seven cabins, or yeah, you're rubbing it in the RV in the parking lot or in your truck.

SPEAKER_01 29:14

Sounds like most Idaho fisheries. That's hey.

SPEAKER_02 29:18

I I'm I'm I'm I'm trying to, I'm I'm probably gonna swing by Dorshack uh on my way to potholes or something. I I mean Cody keeps sending me these photos of these giant smallmouth that he's catching, and uh he wouldn't tell me where it was, and then I had to figure it out and made some calls and found out it was Dorshack. So, Cody, I'm letting out your secret because it's not fair that you got that fishery all to yourself, you know, catching all these giant up to I think he's caught one like nine something smallmouth. I'm like, that's to me is like catching a freaking 18-pound bass, largemouth.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

It's uh yeah, that's gonna hurt some feelings. We're gonna be a little quiet on that place. But that that's uh but it's it there's already a lot of people up there. I'll be 100% honest. Every time I'm up there, I see other bass boats. And but what's cool is there's other places than just that. But it but exactly like you're talking hard to get to, it sounds like Trinity. It's like hard to get to, and it's a it's protected because of that, and the fishing is just it's awesome. It's it's cool stuff. I love places like that.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

So to flip the question, kind of the same train of thought, but I'm curious from your point of view, who are who would be your top three angler-wise out of the west coast?

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Top three angler-wise out of the west coast currently or all time?

SPEAKER_00 30:40

Let's go all time.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

All time. I'm gonna throw Dave Leby, D Thomas, and Mike Folkstad. Wow. Are my top three all time?

SPEAKER_00 30:54

I don't know. I haven't heard the name Mike Folkstad before. Apologies on that. What is he?

SPEAKER_02 31:00

He's only won the US he's only won the U.S. Open like 800 times. He I think he has the most U.S. Open wins out of everybody. Um he has won more, probably one basses, and all up across, and he he was one of the first guys to go back east. He won, he was one of the first West Coast guys to win a Bassmasters event. Besides D T Thomas and Dave Gleebe. Yeah, Folkstad is old school just winner. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Yeah, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

I mean, you know what I mean? Like that's that those are guys that you probably looked up to growing up.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Oh, yeah. I mean, uh Dave Gleebe was one of the first guys that ever talked to me at a tournament, and I had no clue who he was and stuff, and I started looking, and you still go back into the 70s, and you're like, that dude has won four Bassmaster events, and you're and two of them were back to back. He taught Roland Martin how to flip. So the deal was is Roland and Dave drew each other. Well, Roland being Roland's like, I'm the king of Okeechobee. And Dave's like, Well, I'm freaking Dave Gleeby, and I'm gonna show you something you ain't never done before. So they go over to Roland's spot and they're throwing spinnerbaits and dragon worms and stuff like this. Well, this is back in the old head-to-head invitational days. Well, Gleeby's turn to take the front of the boat. He goes out there and he is freaking wrecking them, flipping, like destroying them. Roland goes back that night, he's grabbing saltwater dacron line and saltwater rods and stuff, and trying to put it together, a flipping stick, and Roland ended up finishing second to Dave at Lake Okeechobee, and that's how Roland learned to flip.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

Dang, that's stout.

SPEAKER_02 32:59

Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

That's cool.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

Yeah, I mean, think about it. You think about it, Roland still to me, probably one of the greatest of all time. I mean, he's in my he's in my Mount Rushmore of Anglers of all time, you know, not an angler of the years. You can't you can't compete with that because he was good all season long. Now, granted, most of the rules were out there because of Roland Martin, were created because of him, you know, they didn't want you stepping on the platform because he, if there wasn't a rule, he was making up something to give himself a competitive advantage, you know. The jet boat rule became because of Roland Martin, the eight-foot rule of rods became because of Roland Martin, because Roland Martin, after flipping, he was like, Well, we got this thing called Thule dipping that they do for crappie. He goes, Why can't I use an 11-foot rod for that? So he starts doing that and winning tour means exactly. And so, but you know, Roland, Roland, to for you to say that you taught Roland Martin how to flip is is is pretty stout for me. And so Dave Gleeby is definitely, and that dude still has won like 40 some odd boats in a Cadillac. You know, now if you have you give me my top five, I'm throwing John Murray in there next because John to me is the greatest, and then you know, even throw in Dobbins after that. You know, he's still behind, I believe, Murray and Gleavey both in in total boats. That's awesome.

unknown 34:28

Damn.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

What about current day?

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Like the current day current state, you know, Ken Maw's uh at the top of my list for West Coast guys. Um Hayden Lee's in that mix there a little bit. I can't say top three though. Um oh man, there's so many good new guys that just haven't had the opportunity to get to that status, you know. Uh Logan Hunt's um gosh, uh what's his name, the kid out of Mariessa. Oh, he just he won last year the championship. Yeah. Yeah, Mariani. Mariani, yeah. I mean, that dude has been kicked off of tours because he's so good. I mean, there's just a lot of guys, but right now Ken Ken is still Ken. You know, he's he's he's the uh thousand-pound gorilla that I say that I I chase after after every single event.

SPEAKER_00 35:34

Love that. I hear we we hear a lot of stuff about Ken Mawa. Yeah, especially out on the East Coast.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

And he's a good dude, and he's a good dude. And I I uh to me, when guys are good dudes and good fishermen, they just kind of move up on my list a little bit. It's kind of like that hot chick. She could be a 10, but if she's got a bad attitude, she becomes a seven real quick. And she could be a seven with a great attitude, and she becomes a nine real quick.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

That's right. I'm I'm 100% with you there. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

I'm trying to remember what the show was. There was like the there was there was some I want to say.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. If she's a 10, if she's a 10 in personality and she's a 10 in hotness, then she's a dude. We're gonna capture it, we're gonna capture it, and we're gonna try to clone it. It was a deal. That was so hilarious. I just I mean, and everybody kind of took it, it was just like, it's it's a hundred percent true, you know? Yeah, it's a hundred percent true. The hotter they are, the yeah, girls are like, yeah, I'm I'm fucking crazy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

Oh no, it's so good, man. Well, on that same same vein, I I'd be remiss if I didn't tell this story about uh, man, like I have always looked up like ish, you know, watched Fastmaster growing up, everything like that. And and I just, you know, in the last couple years started fishing some of the Toyota series at West, and etc. And two years ago, I I finished third on the Delta, and you were in the top ten or somewhere on that final day, and you just came up and like I didn't say a word to you or anything. You just came up and were like, man, how'd it go today? Like you you came up to me, asked me questions about my day. Um, and so that same vein of of Ken Ma being a great dude and someone who also uh who also fishes and backs it up from that perspective, felt the same way with you and was just like you didn't need to appreciate that. Thank you. Talk to me at all.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

So we're fishing, we're having fun. I'm you know, this is what I'm seeing is going on right now is the camaraderie and the funness is going away. You know, I had a I talked to I talked to uh Fletcher and Hunter. I talked to Fletcher a lot more. I talked to Fletcher probably three to four times a week minimum. And we were talking about it last night, and we were just talking about how he's not having fun anymore, even though he's fishing on the highest platform for major league fishing. And and I said that's why I left is I wasn't having fun anymore. I'm having fun out here on the West Coast fishing tournaments. I mean, there's still some cutthroat, and there's still some guys living in the gray a little bit, which I'm not fond of, but overall I'm having fun. Show up, like, hey man, how's it going? Like, exactly. Just you want to talk to a guy and see how his day was going. You know, the one thing that I loved about Aaron Martins was Aaron Martins loved the fact of people catching fish. He loved when guys were catching fish, he would do anything and everything to help you catch more fish because he just loved the fact that people were out there catching more fish.

SPEAKER_00 38:49

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

I dig it. There's a culture there, man. Yeah, there's a culture there that's a Western thing. Bailey Bailey's gonna come out for the BAM uh 60 events this year. Super excited. We're gonna do live shows uh at the end of BAM 60. And so I think you're gonna get to experience some of that.

SPEAKER_02 39:04

Like I've be careful, big Ed. Big Ed might have have a little problem with that in his his podcast stuff, so you gotta watch it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

We we got it all squared away with Mark and Oh, did you?

SPEAKER_02 39:15

Okay, good, yeah. Yeah, taking his taking his job, taking his job. I'm gonna tell him young guys come in, taking your job, Ed. That's how they roll.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

That's how they roll, man. No, but there's there's a culture thing, dude. Like I learned when I was in Colorado, I would travel to either kind of the east or the west. And I noticed every time that I went west there was less boats, but the culture and the environment of like guys messing with each other and having a fun time at the morning at the ramp was completely different. And I'll stand on that to this day. I've always noticed that whenever I would travel to the Ozarks or Oklahoma or Texas or going the other way, it was like there was just this funness, and and I I've enjoyed it, and that's why I live out here now.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

It's like yeah, the West Coast is way fun. I mean, guys, I I think because guys have other sources of income, you know, back east, it's the only source of income, and guys want it so bad if they're willing to do anything and everything to get there and be cutthroat and be angry and be miserable. I I'm just not about that. I want to have some fun.

SPEAKER_01 40:22

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

That's the title of this show. That if you fish on the east coast, you don't have fun.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

No, I'm not saying that I'm not saying that guys don't, but I'm just saying from what I see, and the fact is the West Coast, I'm enjoying it right now, and I'm enjoying it a lot. And you know, that's why I'm fishing and fishing the opens. I'm I'm having some fun fishing in the opens too. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

Thank you. That's good stuff, man.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

That that there needs that theme needs to be saying a lot louder, especially the current day. Well, when you don't talk about the generations.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Yeah, I I've already said when I stop having fun, I stopped fishing.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

That's true.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Yeah, that's a good way to be. So I guess to wrap things up here, we've got uh Don Pedro, uh Pro Am and then Super 60. You've got Kentucky Lake in between that. What uh what can folks expect, I guess, out of Don Pedro? Number one, I guess this time of year, and and that kind of a thing. And then what are you looking forward to on Kentucky?

SPEAKER_02 41:28

Oh, you're just trying to get in some some of my secrets. I know it.

SPEAKER_01 41:32

Um Bailey wrote, we've got a little note sheet in front of us, and he goes, Yeah, classic. He's been trying to get the juice.

SPEAKER_02 41:39

Yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. Um, no, both events, both events on Pedro are gonna be fantastic. Um, what I think you're gonna see is you're gonna see a major influx of not early pre-spawn, but mid to late pre-spawn. We've got 70s all next week with the lows in the high 40s to low 50s, which means that water temperature. The water temperature was already warm for this time of year. I mean, it's been averaging anywhere from 52 to 56 degrees, which is way warm. It never got into the 40s like it normally does on those lakes. Um, so the fish have been in a pre-spawn mode for weeks now, and now with that 70s, they're gonna be really towards the end of that pre-spawn and thinking about getting up their spawning, and then when we come back, it's gonna be a full-blown spawn mode. I mean, super 60, the first goal is to make sure that you make the top 10. The second goal is then to win at that point, and so you can go out there and yeah, you can chase big ones with big swim baits and catch a giant bag. I mean, super 60, there there could be some 30-pound bags caught in, you know. There probably will be a mid, I'm thinking a mid to high 20s bag at Pedro each day to probably win. Um, just because the fishing's been phenomenal. I mean, there's gonna be a lot of 12 to 15 pound bags. I mean, that's gonna be probably standard issue uh for showing up to that lake. And you know, I was out there yesterday, day before yesterday, and fishing was pretty good. My buddy was out there yesterday, and he said he caught some a lot of two and a half to three pounders.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Yeah, never been there. Looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

Yeah, oh you'll love, you'll love it. It's a it's a great fishery, it's pretty decent-sized lake overall, um, and a lot of different ways to catch them. Um, you don't need your flipping sticks because there ain't nothing to flip. No grass.

SPEAKER_01 43:43

There's nothing to flip.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Yeah, and there's no gr and there's no grass in the lake. Got it.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

Got it.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Awesome. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Cool. Well, man, Bailey, do you have anything else? I want to take up any more ishes time, and then we'll crank our crank our stuff out here later on.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

No, uh, this has been this has been awesome, man. I appreciate taking time out and chatting with us. Yeah, yeah. Cool to hear a little current state, but also do some reflection on uh how cool the West Coast is and the anglers and the fisheries that come from it, man.

SPEAKER_02 44:11

I've always thought that the West Coast, you know, had the best anglers because we got the most diverse fisheries. We have deep, we have shallow, we have the river system of the Delta, you know. We've got the Columbia River, we've got smallmouth, largemouth, and spotted bass, you know, versus a lot of places just might have just smallmouth or just largemouth or just spotted bass or just a largemouth and spotted bass, and you know, not a lot of you know, tidal fisheries or river fisheries. And so we've got lots of diversity.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

All right, and that is gonna do it for today's show. Appreciate you guys again for taking time out to listen to this one. Awesome having Ish here on the show, and definitely gonna be looking forward to having him more on the seriously western segment. It's been a little bit because it's been about a year and a half since this show was uploaded, but we will be getting Ish on hopefully here soon talking more on what he's been up to on the West Coast and a lot more about the West Coast fisheries and what the West Coast has to offer in the bass fishing community. Again, if you guys have any guests, any topics, things like that that you would love for us to talk about, especially to support the West Coast bass fishing community. Feel free to send us a DM, comment down below, send us an email. You guys are amazing. We got some new episodes coming up here. Sirius Angler, you guys are amazing. We'll see y'all on the next one.