Off The Clock with B Scott

TYLER STEWART - PRO ANGLER | Ep092 | Off The Clock with B Scott

• Off The Clock with B Scott • Season 2 • Episode 92

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You can learn a lot about modern bass fishing by listening to what a touring pro worries about when things are going right. We’ve got Monster Athlete Tyler (TStew) Stewart back with us, fresh off a tournament at Douglas Lake, and we get into the real nuts and bolts of finding offshore schools when everyone has the same electronics, the same maps, and the same ideas.

Tyler breaks down how he spends practice idling instead of casting, how he marks dozens of schools on points, ledges, and humps, and why “having fish” doesn’t mean you’ll have a place to fish once 150 boats hit the lake. We also go deep on one of the wildest tools in his box: the Ben Parker mag spoon. It’s huge, it’s heavy, and it still gets bites from fish smaller than the bait when those Tennessee River bass are keyed on big gizzard shad.

From there we talk forward-facing sonar and LiveScope without the usual yelling. We’re honest about how much it changes tournament fishing, why cut weights have climbed, and what happens when leagues limit sonar time to a short window. Tyler shares what good and bad timing looks like, how decision-making speed separates anglers, and why it can feel like the fish are getting more educated every season. We even detour into deer hunting plans for Kansas, ground blind realities down south, and how tech in general, from GPS to Facebook “research” to AI videos, can make all of us a little lazier than we want to admit.

If you like competitive bass fishing, fishing electronics, and real talk about what’s changing in the sport, hit subscribe, share this with a buddy, and leave us a review with your take: has technology made you better, or just more dependent?

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Off The Cockle Beat Intro

SPEAKER_02

It's five o'clock, and you're off the cockle beat, Scott. Today we have as our guest Tyler Stewart, also known as T Stew, and I got Tim Scott with me to my right. We're gonna talk about fishing. We're gonna talk about how he's been doing in the MLF Pro Circuit, and we're gonna talk about deer hunting. We're talking about all the stuff we love with our buddy Tyler. And before we get into it though, make sure you leave a like, hit the bell for notifications, send some hype our way, and let's jump right in.

Douglas Lake Recap And Game Plan

SPEAKER_02

So T Steve, you just got back from the tournament, huh?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, uh Douglas Lake up there in uh, I guess it'd be northeast Tennessee around Knoxville. Had a decent event. How did like how was it fishing? Like, what were you looking for? What was you doing? What was the style of it? So it was actually like my favorite thing was going on, like the school. So like it was schools out. And uh like the first morning of practice around eight o'clock, I found the first school. And like once that happened, like I was that's all I was doing. So I idled for like three days straight. All through practice, all through practice. I might have made like 10 castings.

SPEAKER_02

So you found that first school and you're like, okay, that's what it is. We're just gonna find a bunch of them.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I mean it could have easily not worked out, you know what I mean? But after the first day, I'd found like 15 or 20 schools. And um, dude. How big is that lake? I don't know the exact acreage, but it did fish kind of small with 150 people. But um, I'll I'll tell you this by three at the end of three days, I had 50 something schools marked, and I might have only got to fish three of them to myself, like that other people didn't find as well. No kidding. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So when you're in a tournament like that, I mean you sort of find you gotta find a bunch of schools because you can't count on being able to just roll up on the school you found.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, like I said, you know, when you got 50 something schools and you only can guarantee pull up on two or three of them, like everybody's finding the same stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Like, I mean, it's amazing how good the electronics has gotten where all these people can find these schools.

SPEAKER_02

And and talking about that, would you would you look for like sneaky schools? Like, because you obvious places where you're everybody's gonna look for schools probably won't be the you know the the idea. Right.

Marking Dozens Of Offshore Schools

SPEAKER_01

Well, I mean, like this like the way it was set up, like most of the schools are on pretty obvious points, pumps, stuff like that. The couple that I found that didn't get found, or at least I didn't see anybody on them, were a little bit off the beaten path. But like if you looked at it, you'd be like, oh yeah, that makes sense. It wasn't like, why are they here? Like some of the stuff we were running, like on Darbon last year. You know, like don't even make sense.

SPEAKER_03

Where were you finding the schools? Were they like off of points, off of ledges, or what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Well, I caught them from anywhere from like 25 to 50 foot off the end of uh points and ledges and uh you know humps, stuff like that. So the lake, it's it's a it's part of the Tennessee River. Uh so like it uh the fish relate you know deep year-round. Like you can catch fish year round out deep on Tennessee River. So and a lot of that just you know is uh determined by the what's it called? I guess the current. And uh some days they were pulling current, like in practice, they were pulling a lot more current in the tournament, so they were a lot easier to get bit in practice. They were closer to the bottom and uh like they would react to moving baits and stuff, but like in the tournament, dude, they were so suspended. Like I'd pull up on these schools and there'd be 30, 40 fish in a school, and you might catch one or two, and then you got to go the next one, and like you just keep rotating and just try to what about the size of the fish in those schools? Were they a bunch of small fish? Big I mean Yeah, I mean mostly like it only took you know, it was 150 of us. It only took 11 and a half pounds a day to get in the cut. So like the lake's full of pound and a half to two pounders. So like catching like a three pounder was a big deal. Yeah, and uh you did catch a uh a good one, didn't you? I caught the second day I had three over three pounds, but dude, I just threw that mag spoon the whole time. Like that's crazy all day. That's crazy. I just threw it all day. I was like, if I you know, I did catch little ones on it, but I felt like I was getting you're better than average fish out of the schools with the mag spoon. I might not catch as many as people were catching on drop shots and big worms, Carolina.

SPEAKER_02

But you were kind of, yeah,

The Ben Parker Mag Spoon

SPEAKER_02

you're you were targeting though, maybe a bigger class.

SPEAKER_03

So the mag spoon, can you explain to everybody what the mag spoon is?

SPEAKER_01

So the mag spoon's like uh it's like a it's called the Ben Parker mag spoon. It's just a giant spoon, it's probably 12, 13 inches long, and it's like three ounces. It's huge, it's as long as my arm. Like it's you have to throw it on a flipping stick. What? Yes, I and you use catching small fish on that? Yeah, like fish smaller than the spoon.

SPEAKER_02

I don't even know if I would have had that in my boat. There's no way I would it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01

You can look it up. The Ben Parker mag spoon. It's huge.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, pull it up, Daniel.

SPEAKER_01

Ben Parker Mag spoon. So, you know, that's a show. You know, that's that's uh how many people threw that? I don't know. I mean, there was probably a few people throwing it, but um you know, in on Tennessee River, they got those big gizzard chad. Yeah, so they're used to big bait, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03

Like um it's uh let's see that I mean I I would never have thought in a million years to throw that big thing.

SPEAKER_01

I was just throwing that, I mean there's a there's a picture right there. You can kind of see in relation to like a six-pounder how big that is. Wow.

SPEAKER_03

That's crazy. Oh, we gotta get through the commercials. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But uh But you know, it's it's a fun way to catch them. And when uh did like they were so deep, you when I would catch one, like I was like it's some

Keeping Deep Bass Alive

SPEAKER_01

of them were in like 50 foot, like I was conscious about pulling them up fast. So like I'd hook one and I'd reel it up real slow because I didn't want like their stomach, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um and and dude, I'll be honest, everyone I caught was they all lived, but they're floating upside down. I'm scared to death to fizz them because I've had bad experiences fizzing them, like as far as like survival rate. So yeah, I mean people were like conscious about bringing them up slow. Yes. So like when I'd hook one, I would just barely pull it up.

SPEAKER_02

And uh yeah, because I've I You know it's something you don't really think about, or at least most people don't think about that. Yeah. Is when you're catching them deep out there, especially in a tournament, because you know, you got to come back a live fish.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, in a tournament like that, like you're looking at ounces making such a big difference. Yeah, you know, you could you do not want a dead fish.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Quarter pound was detrimental in that tournament, especially whenever 11 pounds something is what got you in.

SPEAKER_03

So you found these fish with your side image or down imaging? Down inside, yeah. Yeah, so you so you first located the fish for your side, then um you sculpted out with your down.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

And um yeah. So it's a huge spoon. Oh my god, it's so big.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it makes like a 10 XD look tiny. That's crazy. And how do you fish that? So you throw it in, you drop it, you just throw it out there and you let it go to the bottom. As soon as you it hits the bottom, you just rip it off the bottom and then let it go back down and just rip it off the bottom. And like once it gets like in the middle of like a group of them, they just start going crazy, and you'll you'll feel them hitting it. They'll be hitting the front of it, like knocking slacking your line, and finally they'll get the right side of it and get hooked. Wow. But and a lot of times you lose them on it, but luckily I didn't lose a fish on that thing all week. It's got a gaff of a treble hook on the back of it. Really? I bet it does.

SPEAKER_02

So when you hook into them, you're pretty much good. Yeah. Golly.

SPEAKER_03

I ain't never caught a fish on a spoon.

SPEAKER_02

Dude, I don't even know if I I don't even have a spoon. I don't own one. Yeah. Like what situation around here would you ever use a spoon? In any of the schools. You can throw them in schools.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Catch them all the time on spoon in schools. Really? Mm-hmm. Huh.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, we got to go buy some spoons now. Dude, it's I mean, I I mean I did buy some and he mentioned it last year when we we were shooting that deal, you know, yeah. I do have some spoons. But I've never thrown. I guess smile when you said that, dude. Because I got some spoons.

SPEAKER_01

Like he's got some jigging spoons. He's got some little ones.

SPEAKER_03

No, I bought some big ones. I mean, uh not that big though, you know. But bringing the calorie. Yeah. But I did buy, you know, you know me. I've always got the gear, you know. If he mentions something, I'll usually go out there and get it. But um you wouldn't catch me throwing it unless he told me to throw it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

There's zero confidence there. Yeah, we come by Tim. What's he throwing over there? He's throwing a spoon.

SPEAKER_01

He's got the what's that rig y'all? The quizzy quizzy lizard.

SPEAKER_03

He's got a spoon with a with a blade on the top of it. Hey, that that y'all can talk all the shit you want, but that that works, man. I'll never forget. Me and Tyler over there.

SPEAKER_00

There we go.

SPEAKER_02

And we're like, what are you throwing? And he has a lid. How do you have it rigged up? I don't remember.

SPEAKER_01

I think I remember it being like wacky rigged lizard with a spinner in the head of it or something.

SPEAKER_03

No, no, no, no. No, no. I did the spinner

Weird Baits And Bed Fishing

SPEAKER_03

on the uh uh unreleased bait. No, no, no, no. This bait don't exist. These guys got it all wrong, all wrong. Well, let me tell you what I did. So we're bed fishing, right? And we're throwing these tubes in there. I wasn't getting no action. So what I did, I took a took a lizard. I hooked it in the back. I put a nail weight in his head, and I just walked up thing.

SPEAKER_02

Where was the spitter? There's a spitter. Not on the lizard.

SPEAKER_03

Not on the lizard.

SPEAKER_02

I didn't. Tim has been known as one of a very creative, you know, bait kind of guy. You know, he's but it works because like No, he caught him though. That's the thing. He did catch him with it.

SPEAKER_01

And then one day, you know, we pulled up to him. He was on that school on the road bed, and uh he was catching him out of like 20 foot on a tube or something. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, you gotta try things that the fish ain't seen, you know. I don't disagree with you. I don't care what these guys say or what they're making fun of me. It's just funny when we roll up. If I could put a spinner in a lizard's butt to catch a fish, I'm doing it. And it works. Hey, but hey, speaking of the offering, but but anyways, we'll get back to my lizard and my nail weight, you know, because it did work. So I put that nail weight in the head and I hooked that lizard in the back, like back there where his back legs are, you know. Oh, and in the bed. And I just walked that lizard across that bed and smashed it. Winners win.

SPEAKER_01

Do you remember the first bed fish we pulled up on last year, Tim? After the nine-pounder that I caught on the glide? Yeah. That was crazy.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it was, man. Bed fishing is so much fun.

SPEAKER_02

That has to be my funnest like the best time of the year.

SPEAKER_03

That's why we're going to Minnesota. Um, you know, we're leaving what Sunday? Uh yep, Sunday or Monday. We're gonna head up there. We're gonna do some bed fishing on some small east. You know, it's gonna be really, really, really fun. We're also gonna do a setup on an icon, which is gonna be cool. We're gonna take the H22 up there.

SPEAKER_02

That water's so rough, dude. Yeah. Dude, it the water there is like two and a half, three foot rollers. You're gonna let me finish or what you're gonna cut me off or what?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I'm just bringing it home, dude. Uh well, I just stutter stepping in the enzyme. No, I didn't. So we're gonna take an H-22 up there. We're gonna take some counterweights up there. We're gonna set this icon up because it was taking water over the over the bow a lot. And a lot of it is the way he has his boat loaded, you know? Yeah. So I'm talking about boats though, you know. Um, I know B Scott's over here dying to talk. I could see it, you know. But uh

Boats, Jack Plates, And Big Waves

SPEAKER_03

waiting on you. Well, what boat are you running this year?

SPEAKER_01

Uh so this year I'm running uh Phoenix 921 Elite.

SPEAKER_03

You like it?

SPEAKER_01

So far, it's been great. Um, you know, I've I've ran the Rangers, Bass Cat, Vexus, um, and and don't me wrong, I like I've liked all of them. You know, all of them are to me are pretty good now. The Phoenix is a little more sporty.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. You like the sporty style versus your what'd you run last year? I ran a Vexus last year. Um it was a nice boat. I like the seats on it. I had cushy seats.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that that Vexus actually, believe it or not, it doesn't look like it would be a sporty boat, but it was a pretty quick boat for as big as it was. Um I don't know. I mean, there's little things I like more about certain boats. Um but as far as the Phoenix, it uh it just drives so good. Like even for such a big boat, like turning and um, you know, getting on pads, stuff like that, it's just it's been great. So I haven't had it in any just crazy rough water yet to be able to be able to like really give you like a you know a good what's what's going on with that. But I had the Vexus in some rough water and it was good. I will say that um when I was running the Vexus, I never speared a wave. Like, I don't know if it's because the water the boat sits a little bit higher, which is a negative fishing in my opinion.

SPEAKER_03

Trying to because the wind blows you around, right?

SPEAKER_01

Well, that and uh you know when you're trying to boat flip a fish or net a fish when you're a foot higher from the water, it's kind of tough to get it in. But I never speared a wave, so that was cool. So I guess there's like you know, with every boat you're gonna give and you spearing waves with this new boat? I haven't yet. I've I've I feel like if I don't figure out I haven't really figured out how to drive it yet. So like I can drive at top speed. I haven't really figured out exactly where to run the jack plate to keep that nose, to get the nose up, and um you know.

SPEAKER_03

Just something you gotta get out there to get some seat time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like I said, I haven't been in any rough water yet, so it's hard for me to say.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Well, you're gonna figure it out real quick when you get into rough water.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'd be spending those practice days trying to figure out how to ride on top of them. I've been in some, you know, some chop that most boats you couldn't run wide open in. And that Phoenix, you can run wide open in. But when I'm talking big waves, I'm talking like you can't see the bank big waves, like northern big waves. So there's a difference in those waves and like what we get down here. Like it gets rough down here and it gets scary, but it doesn't get like life-threatening, scary.

SPEAKER_03

It's like the distance between the rollers are a lot wider up north, right? Right. And there's so much travel, too. Right. Like up here, you got like waves, waves that are pretty close, but up north it's like we got a big gap between the rollers, and it's like you go down and up big. Big rolling water, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

The ones up north are a lot easier to spear.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Because they're so much, you know, they're so far spread apart. If you let, you know, you get a little overconfident, start you get going, and you let your nose drop, you're going see-do mode under one of them things. That's not fun. I've done that so many times.

SPEAKER_03

We were um me and Beast Scott. Yeah. Me and Beast got Daryl, we uh we speared a couple ways. It wasn't really bad though. No, and it was probably self-inflicted. We're having a good time.

SPEAKER_01

I think we wanted to when you're saying spear, y'all just kind of like cut the top of one and get the water.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the water just came up just a little bit.

SPEAKER_01

We're not talking about like, you know. No, I'm the when I'm talking about spear, I'm talking about fill the boat up one.

SPEAKER_02

No, no, no, no. We ain't done that. Water up to your knees in the cockpit. No, we ain't done that yet. No, that'd have been a little different. That would have been a little different if you're like dang near knock you out.

SPEAKER_01

Like the water, when you go, when you spear one running pretty quick, I it will literally almost knock you out of the boat. Like the console saved the driver, but if you got a co-angler and you spear one, it's like he is getting worked by that water thing.

SPEAKER_03

Have you ever seen someone's life vest go off after they spear a wave? Because I've seen videos of it. I don't know if it's made up or not, but it seems to be funny.

SPEAKER_02

You get hit with enough water.

SPEAKER_03

I'm I'm telling you what. If I was in a boat driving and B Sky was on the passion seat and we speared a wave and his life vest went off, I would piss my pants so hard. It would be funny.

SPEAKER_01

I've never had one go off when I was wearing it. Like they go off all the time in my compartments. You know what I mean? Why is that?

SPEAKER_03

I I've had them do that too. I guess it's just the heat, maybe? I don't know if it's the heat or moisture.

SPEAKER_01

I think it's more the moisture.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, you know. Yeah. I've had one go off and I couldn't get the damn thing out of the storage, I had to cut it, you know.

SPEAKER_01

It's most of the time, uh, seems like it happens to me when I put my cover on. And I guess it gets like it's so hot and gets like condensation in there. Yeah. That's the only time I've ever had it happen. I can see it's not breathing. Yeah. You know, it's not venting out.

SPEAKER_03

Huh. I wonder if they got those inflatable bags you can throw in the bottom of a boat. That's a good idea. You know, I was thinking about, you know, flotation purposes. What are you talking about? You know, like building a boat. Wonder if we can stuff a I wonder if they make something like that. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02

You talking about like what they go underwater with and they air up? No, it's like bring stuff off the bottom of the water.

SPEAKER_03

If we had like a little bag we can shove into a boat, like if it does sink, it it will you know, yeah, you know, blow up. I don't know how you would make sure that it only did that. That might be something nice to look at for race boats, you know. Anyways, it just brought me an idea. I don't know. But uh that's cool

Why The Pro Circuit Feels Harder

SPEAKER_03

though. It seemed like you had a really good tournament though, you know. Yeah, I mean I was watching you online and we were cheering for you. It was like, holy shit, he's gonna he's gonna get up there, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's uh you know, it's it's tough. Like our industry, like we've got so many good guys. You know, we're fishing against 150 guys that are super good. You know, 27th doesn't sound like that good of a tournament.

SPEAKER_03

But it is good out of 150.

SPEAKER_01

When you're fishing against that caliber of guys, it's it's hard to stay in that. You know, I think the cut last week was like 47 or 48 because a couple people didn't show up. It's normally 50. So, you know, just being in the cut is a big deal. So anytime I can get in the cut, get paid, yeah, come home, I'm I'm happy. Oh yeah, oh yeah. I mean, obviously the goal is to win every time. Right. But you're just you know, the reality of it, you're not gonna win every tournament.

SPEAKER_03

That's right.

SPEAKER_01

So do you feel like it's getting harder and harder?

SPEAKER_02

Because do you think people are getting better and better? Yeah, like the the the stage is like higher and higher and higher and higher now, it seems like.

SPEAKER_01

Well, it seems like when I first started, it was before live scope and stuff, and I'm not a live scope hater. I love live scope. Um, this is not me complaining about live scope. I want to keep it forever. You know what I mean? Like it'd be very tough to go back to fishing without live scope. But I will say when it was FLW tour when I started in 2018. You could make a living fishing if you could catch 12 pounds a day anywhere you went in the world. There was a couple scenarios like when we went up north, smallmouth fishing where 12 pounds a day wouldn't get you in the cut. But like Okeechobee, 12 pounds a day, Harris Chain, 12 pounds a day, Pickwick, maybe 13 pounds. Like the bar now with scope is like it seems like most tournaments. I mean, it was it was different last week. We didn't, you know, uh that place didn't have as many big ones as most places we go, but it seems like now you have to have 15.

SPEAKER_03

Really?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, minimum. I mean, I think I caught 15, I caught 14-7 and like 14-9 at Wheeler Lake the tournament before this past one. And I didn't make the cut. Like barely missed it. And Wheeler's not that great of a lake. Like it's kind of a tough lake.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So like, yeah, it's just it's just made it the the guys coming up, they're so good at just targeting better than average fish. You know, they might only catch five a day, but they're targeting the right ones, you know, the ones they're catching. And uh yeah, I mean it's it's crazy. Like, I don't I don't understand it because like it's a time on the water deal. You know what I mean? Like, and I spend as much time, I mean I live on Caney right now. I spend as much time on the water as anybody, like no doubt. And I'm looking at the scope every day, I'm jacking with it every day, trying to get better, and then I'll call show up to a tournament and just get waxed by an 18-year-old that played Call of Duty all night the night before. Yeah, like I don't understand like how and like I've got these, you know, I'm friends with them. And they'll jump in the boat and we'll fish together. I'm friends with some of these guys, and uh you know, it's not that they're any better doing what we're doing, their brains just processing a lot faster. Like, what do you mean? Like I it's more like finding like where they're gonna be at. Like I don't really know how to describe it. It's hard, it's really hard to describe.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, they just got like their brains processing what they're seeing and what they should be doing, if they should do like it's because I mean everybody on tour can look at a fish and say, Oh, that's a fish.

SPEAKER_01

And everybody on tour can cast at it and catch it if it's catchable. But finding where that's going on, like it's like at the dam for caney at Caney, for instance. You know, when they get on the minnow at the dam. Obviously, we know that because of we've lived there, we've seen that. But you could go idle that whole lake and not catch a single fish on a minnow during that time, and then go down to the dam and catch 40 pounds.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

They find like the dam at Caney in January every tournament.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

How do they do that? In that limited three-day practice. Yes, that's what I'm saying. So it's like they're breaking it down. Anybody can catch those fish if they're on them, but getting on them, and they do it in places like too. It's like we were at a river fishery on the James River, it's like the Washita River. I'm like, all right, we're finally at an event where it's like it's gonna be a pretty level playing field. Like the really cracked guys on scope aren't gonna just dominate us this week. So I have a good first day, fall out the second day. I'm watching live day three. These dudes are scoping them in the mud in two feet of water. I'm like, how? How does that even work? I don't know, dude. It's crazy. Pretty insane to be honest. It's crazy. It's it's and here's the deal this is what I think. I think that uh you know, we all grew up fishing the bank. Like we got confidence and throwing frogs, flukes. Like when we're struggling, we go to the bank, we're throwing a spinnerbait, glizzy lizard, whole lineup. You know what I mean? Whatever. Yeah. These guys I'm not saying they don't have a backup plan because they're good fishermen without it too. But it's like they learned how to fish with it before without it. Like the fundamentals of it. Yeah. So it's like they're not second guessing anything, you know, like, oh, I shouldn't be doing this. I should go run to the bank. Like, I don't know. Like I said, they're they're they're just processing it different than than us. Because like if you look at it, there's a lot of really good scopers in that I'd say 30 plus range age, 30 to 40, 50, you know, there's guys that can do it and that are good at it. But they're not on any league even competing with the guys that are like that 18 to 25. Like it's I can't even think of one person over 30 years old that is really doing what those guys are doing in any league, across any league. God, just that's kind of and it don't even make sense. It's like there's no reason Tim Scott shouldn't be able to go spending enough time on the water with Live Scope and be that good. And you I would think the same thing. And so would all these other guys. I can't. I've done it. Okay. So it's like, I don't know. I mean, I'm not trying to make excuses. Like, I love LiveScope. I hope that they put uh, you know, they stop putting a limit on it where we can actually use it all day. Because

LiveScope Limits And Time Strategy

SPEAKER_01

I feel like, you know, we can only use it three hours a day. Right. This is how I feel about it. Them limited us to three hours a day, they think that's helping the guys that aren't as good. It is hurting us because we need eight hours a day to compete with our three. The little cracked high school college kids, they only need three hours a day. So it just helps them more. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

So whenever their their series comes up where they got their live scope, they just demolish it.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And then you get your live scope, or the other guys get their live scope, and they might you know fumble around a little bit for that three hours. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

I can actually see that because you need like six hours, and they need three hours. So you need a handicap. Yeah, you need an extra 45 minutes.

SPEAKER_01

So I don't think that I mean it might be good for the views, and that's what it's all about. You know, that's what makes our league go, is you know, who's gonna be able to do that?

SPEAKER_03

Why don't they just adapt the new technology and say live scope's here to stay, and this is how we fix it. That's what they should do. I mean, I don't understand why they don't.

SPEAKER_02

But what I will say, like from a tournament competition standpoint, that is somewhat cool about them limiting it. I would say the one good side to it would be it leaves room for strategy. You know, it definitely you have to play that aspect of it smart to give yourself the better chance, you know. So it's kind of like it brings a strategy um aspect to it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, it definitely does. And uh it it matters when you use that scope. Like at the last tournament when we were at Wheeler, I didn't, you know, I found all these fish on stumps and I was catching them on that koike in practice. I was like, oh, this is gonna be this is gonna be easy, it's gonna be dialed. They're spawning on these stumps. First three hours of the first day, guess what I'm doing? Turning the scope on. I go out there, they're pulling zero current. The fish are not spawning on the stumps. They were on the stumps because of the current. I catch nothing in that three hours. I waste that three hours. My roommate comes up to those stumps at like one o'clock, turns a scope on, catches 20 pounds off of them.

SPEAKER_02

See, that right there is exactly like it's strategy. Yes. So I feel like when it comes to that aspect of it, now you have another whole class of anglers that are doing well because they're real strategic. Yeah. Like if you can play that hand right, it gives you that much more of a chance to win, you know? Yeah. And that just stresses you the hell out, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You're over here trying to think, when should I use it? You know? Well, me, I'm like, I'm going to the best shit first, and I'm turning my scope on. I'm gonna catch them before anybody else does. I get there and they're not there. I like but you know what's crazy? The second day I held off. I said, I'm not turning on until 11 o'clock. Just not doing it. So I went and just junk fished till 11 o'clock, caught 10, 11 pounds, roll out there at 11 o'clock, and they're on every stump, every stump that they were not on in the morning the day before. And I just blistered them. So, like a lot of my, I guess, success and defeat comes from just bad decision making. Yeah, it's like a guessing yourself. Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But you know what's crazy? One of those little kids, they would have picked the wrong scope period. They'd have just put the trolling motor on a hunter and went straight out in the middle of the river and scoped three, five pounders or something crazy. Yeah, they're that good.

SPEAKER_02

I guess that's the that's the difference, man. That's what that that's the difference in it, is like they process it and they're like, oh well, next thing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like you pull up a weapon, and like it's like, all right, it's not going down here. I know one of the kids that was kind of depending on the same thing I was depending on, rolls up, don't see any. His brain's like, okay, this is not going on. And he runs down the lake to do something else before he loses a scope period. Me, I waste three hours out there in the stumps looking for fish that ain't there.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That just, that just, I don't know what that's called. Second guessing yourself. Or I don't know. They just I mean, I do the same thing.

SPEAKER_02

I would say confidence probably has a lot to do with it, you know? Yeah. If they're confident they can make it happen, yeah, it's I mean, it's there.

SPEAKER_01

Me, it's like I'm I struggle with when should I stay and when should I go because there's been times where I'm like, I probably shouldn't stay. I end up catching a big one. I'm like, oh, glad I stayed.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But for me, like in practice, I really didn't have much else going on for scope, and I didn't want to waste my period around unproductive water. I knew that they lived around that area, but they just weren't there at that time. So I was like, well, maybe at the end of the period, a couple of them will show up and they just never did.

SPEAKER_02

The stuff like that get in your head too. Like, so if you start the day off with your live scope period, and it doesn't go down, you don't catch no fish. Now I'm ready to drive the boat off the dam at that point. I would be too, man. Dude, and like I know how it feels.

SPEAKER_01

That's not the first time that happened this year. Like, we did it Santee Cooper, which is probably one of the coolest big bass lakes in the world. Dude, I caught a nine-pounder both days of the tournament during my scope period. Only had one fish both days, and I caught them both during the scope period, and they're both nine-pounders. Like, I could not How'd you catch them? Uh Alabama rig overbrush. Wow.

SPEAKER_03

Oh be damn.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Just pulled them out of there, huh? Yeah. I bet you you guys look I do. See, dude, so the first the first day I caught that one. I pulled it, it was the second brush pile I threw at. Really? Nine pounder. I'm like, oh, this is I remember I talked to you guys in practice. I'm like, dude, I got them dialed. Like I got giants everywhere. And uh I did. Yeah. And that's ended up how the tournament got won. But unfortunately, the area that I chose to do that in had a lot of pressure. Oh, yeah. And uh so I caught that big one right off the bat, and then dude, I put every pile I went to, they were in there, but they would just come out of the pile and follow to the boat, wouldn't eat, wouldn't commit. I was trying, I threw everything at them. And uh yeah, when you get to that last couple minutes of your scope period and you ain't got them, and you know you don't have nothing else, and it's about to be a grind for the rest of the day, it sucks.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and uh because I feel like it's a lot easier to like put something together with scope, like get lucky and catch a couple of random ones, whether they're roaming. But when you get that thing, when you gotta turn that thing off and you don't have nothing to go to, it's just a uphill battle.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, too.

SPEAKER_03

Like, like, what do I do now?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's hard to have the drive whenever you're you you feel like you're in a a bad situation.

SPEAKER_01

When you can't catch but one with it, casting directly at them, how hard is it gonna be to catch without it? That's why I don't understand how we ever fished before.

Are Bass Getting Educated?

SPEAKER_01

I don't think the fish were as smart. You think the fish have gotten Oh, I think the fish have gotten super educated. Really? I think if they took scope away completely, that the weights would be way down from what they were before scope.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Think so? I think, like for instance, at Caney, all those fish that used to roam around, like that roam around by the spillway, for instance, right before the spawn. None of those fish ever got caught. Ever. All those random fish just floating out in the middle, they didn't get caught. Well, now every one of them is getting caught before the spawn, they're getting caught on beds during the spawn because they can't, no matter how deep they bed, we can see them now. And they're just getting caught through every cycle of life now. You know what I mean? Like when you used to, like you might would catch a quarter of them on beds, accidentally pulling through one, you know, pulling through a bed that was fired up, or the ones that you could actually see, which ain't very many compared to how many are actually. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, in eight foot of water to 12 foot of water, yeah, there's beds everywhere.

SPEAKER_01

So think about how many fish didn't get caught, and then you know, when they pull out to the schools, like they were ready, they were hungry, they were eating. Dude, the schools now at Caney, like it's hard to catch a four-pounder out of a school.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01

It's a bunch of little ones. Yeah. A bunch of young fish before scope, like you could pull up the roadbed, McDonald's roadbed, and catch as many four and five pounders as you wanted when they were there.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

If you get a bite on McDonald's roadbed now, you did something.

SPEAKER_03

No kidding. So it's made that big of a difference.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it they're they've definitely gotten educated, and it might not be as bad on the bigger lakes, but you know, Caney's a 5,000 acre lake, and uh it gets fish pretty hard.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Yeah, it's making a difference.

SPEAKER_02

It's crazy. The impacts for sure probably are I mean, if fish have to be getting educated to some degree. Yeah. I think so. Like you said earlier, you know, like the bed fish that you could see was what people were fishing for. Now, I mean, yeah, just eight, twelve foot of water, you can see them. And think about how many times you cast on that fish and he doesn't bite, even though you can see him. Yep. So the likelihood of you just randomly catching him is very small. Yes.

SPEAKER_03

That's what's wrong with me. I get up there and I say I've casted this fish 60 times and it didn't bit. I mean, how in the hell did I ever catch a fish before LiveScope? I'm throwing directly on this fish. I mean, good lord. I mean, like, over and over. I mean, I can see this fish and everything. I'm like, this time won't bite.

SPEAKER_01

The fish is reacting to it, you know, might even bump it out of its bed, but it's not biting. Yeah, I don't I don't think the fishing's as easy as it used to be. I mean, I think it's definitely harder. The fish are more educated. I mean, it's just like that quickie right now. There, it's something new. They're eating. It's getting dominated. Every term is getting dominated on it. Like that one at Santee last week, Bassmaster, everybody in the top five was stroking them on that thing. It's like what the Cinco used to be. It's like the glizzy lizard. You know, nobody's throwing untouched. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So uh do you think baits have like a circle of life? Like, do you do you predict that like baits are gonna come back in style because people kind of moved away from them for so long as a fish maybe out, you know, grew, you know, died and new fish came, and then all of a sudden this this bait is now new again, potentially.

SPEAKER_01

Um I mean, we saw the minnow, how crazy it was. It's still great, still one of the best out there. But like now compared to then, um, like when it first scope was first a deal, you know, you catch one out of every couple you threw at. Now you might throw at a hundred before you get one to bite, you know. Uh that's kind of how the koiky is right now. Like a bunch of them you throw at, bite it. You saw that one that when I was with you, you know, catching them out of uh fry ball far fry balls and stuff. I mean that's but I think uh I think this time next year they won't even hardly look at that bait.

SPEAKER_02

Really?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, especially with the pressure that gets it. It's unreal how they adapt that fast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I I really don't think it'll be as good. I think it'll be a bait that'll catch fish forever, but I don't think it'll be like just you know Yeah, you think it has its peaks. Like it seemed like a Cinko, don't get me wrong, they still bite a Cinko really good, but it seems like even a wacky rick Cinco is not what it used to be.

SPEAKER_00

Hmm. Right.

SPEAKER_02

I wonder if that's just us thinking that or if that's like an actual factual, like there's no way to really study it, but like because you can't study things.

SPEAKER_03

I don't understand why they ever bit a wacky worm anyway.

SPEAKER_01

I mean one thing that's crazy to me is like you would think with scope and deep fishing being such a big deal now, the bank fishing would come back. Like it'd be like, all right, you're gonna start seeing more tournaments won on the bank on the bank because all the pressure's out there, but I that's really not the case. I mean, I think the fish are getting caught so much before they even get to the bank that it's like it don't make it.

SPEAKER_03

I can't remember last time I caught a fish on a bank. Daryl I can. No, no, he beats the banks up a lot.

SPEAKER_02

The last couple fish I caught on the off the bank were with a jerk bait. Really? Mm-hmm. Yep.

SPEAKER_03

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_02

But I catch myself not doing it often. Yeah. Like if I'm beating the bank up, it's because I was brim fishing or something, and then I was like, oh, that was like a good spot, and throw over there like a couple times. And it'd be like a couple times, throw a couple times you catch caught a fish. You know what I mean? It's not like I'm beating the bank up to catch bass.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it sounded like you had a pretty good season so far. I mean, you're catching fish.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, I haven't had a bad tournament yet, but I have had like a really good one. I've had a couple decent solid finishes. You know, I'm right now I'm in for the championship. So I just gotta go have a couple more decent events. And how many more events do you got left? Two. Two more? Plus a championship if we qualify for that. So good deal. Then uh once that wraps up, I'll be ready to chase

Kansas Deer Hunting And Getting Fit

SPEAKER_01

some deer.

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah. I'm getting pumped up for it already. We got drawn for Kansas, dude.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, seeing that's sick.

SPEAKER_02

We're excited about it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. I'm ready to get the tractors fired up, go do some dirt work and set some deer stands out. That'd be fun. Oh yeah. You know, but yeah, it's almost time to kill a dip big deer, you know?

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah. I'm ready. Kansas opens in uh I think September, maybe the last week, not the last weekend of September, but it's like a week or two before October. Really? So it it there's still a few deer in velvet, so you have the potential to kill a velvet buck. You know, the fish, I mean the fish. The deer, they're you know, they're not being pressured yet. September is my favorite time to go.

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

I've killed, you know, the last five years, I've shot one up there before the first week of it.

SPEAKER_03

It's easy to kill your target buck early when they're grouped up. That's the best time to do it. And they're on feeding patterns. Yep. I I actually hate the rut for that reason because it's like it's great for seeing deer.

SPEAKER_02

But it's hard for patterns.

SPEAKER_01

If you were a gun hunter, the rut would be the deal.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Being a bow hunter, the rutter. Oh, it sucks, man.

SPEAKER_02

It's unpredictable. Yeah. But it's it's a good thing and a bad thing. Because like you could be out there and during the rut, you you might see a deer you've never seen before.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So I mean it's a good thing, but it's hard to predict them.

SPEAKER_01

Be able to do what you did on that deer last year. I mean, that was that was cool.

SPEAKER_03

That was cool. Yeah, that was cool. Um that was cool. Only problem is I'm too fat to do that. I think you get in shape.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I told Cody when I come back to Illinois, I'm gonna be in shape. I'm gonna be ready for like miles of squat walking. We haven't even gone to the gym. I almost think I went backwards. I think I can actually do less squat walking now than I could before. He's gonna be super disappointed in me. Oh, he's gonna be disappointed in me too.

SPEAKER_03

We're gonna show up looking like a can of a busty candle. I'm gonna roll up and wearing a girdle and I mean like suck all of it in.

SPEAKER_01

You just gotta get you one of those camelbacks, you know, that you put the water in it.

SPEAKER_02

The water won't save me. Let me tell you something. Water's not gonna save me. We were in Oregon turkey hunting this past week, and it's terrainy there, okay? It's up and down. It's terrainy. It was snowing on us. And terrain. My calves, I'm talking about, dude. I only walked probably 70 yards up this hill face when we first got there. And, you know, there's four of us together, and you don't want to be the guy that's like, and everybody else would be like listening for turkeys, and you don't want to be like I was that guy. I mean, I got to the top of that hill, my calves were hurting. I was facing away from everybody, hands on my side, and I was like, I started to see his stars. I'm about to pass out. I was like, I can't, my lungs are cooked. I can't breathe. Something's wrong with me, you know? Because you're fat, man. I'm like, I got I've got to lose some weight, man. Um it's a lot of cargo to be carrying uphill.

SPEAKER_03

I'm telling you, dude. I'm telling you, it's bad.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe uh, maybe this year in Kansas we can get it done out of a stand. We ain't gotta sneak up on one. Yeah, I don't know. I can't make any promises about Illinois. You know how Cody is. He's like burn the road. He don't he won't he won't even hunt out of a stand anymore. That's what Blue Moon is. I have not seen Cody sit in a deer stand in three or four years. Like, have not seen him sit in one.

SPEAKER_03

It makes sense though.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, if you got the time and you know, skill to do what he does, obviously it's effective because he does it every year, makes it happen every year. If you're going up there for two or three days or a week or whatever, it's not really doable. It's like it could happen. The pro the situation like what you ran into could happen. It could easily be where you just spin your wheels and you drive around for three days, you never even hunt.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And he's okay with that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Because he's got the time and it makes I mean it makes perfect sense because if you look at how Cody hunts, like he sees a deer, he'll go in, he'll kill it on the ground, but he's not climbing up the tree. He's staying hid, quiet.

SPEAKER_02

It's it's very little impact that he does.

SPEAKER_03

I literally, me and Ashley literally walked, fold him through this field, and it took us 20 minutes to get from the front of the field to the back of the field. Because we were like tippy-toeing in this field.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, everybody else clowns me because he says I'm too loud every time we do it.

SPEAKER_03

And I'm talking together. Holy cow. Normally I would just walk to the back of the field. We're not walking. We're taking one step. Or you'd ride the Rambo bike all the way to the way to the blind.

SPEAKER_02

You want to be you put the Rambo in the blind. Like, we need a bigger blind from our Rambo bike. Yeah, at least a cover is something for you.

SPEAKER_01

I'm excited about the big blinds that you have this year. Oh, I am too. If if we do do those in Kansas, like there's not a lot of trees up there in that area. So like you're hunting more like ravines and CRP type stuff. So like you can, you know, get some hay bales and brush those things in and like make it look like a giant hay bale, honestly. Yeah. And it it's so much fun. I love hunting off the ground, like hunting out of ground blinds and stuff. I used to hate it, but hunting out of them, I wouldn't do it in Louisiana. Like, our deer are too smart. Oh, yeah. Like, if you put a ground blind in the woods, it don't matter how good you brush that in. You're getting the first dough that comes in there is busting your ass and you ain't killing nothing. Why is that?

SPEAKER_02

I don't know. They're so aware. I I tried hunting out of a ground blind last year, and uh Our deer looks up too. In Magnet, and dude, I'm telling you, I got busted like within 30 minutes of being there. Yeah. The doe walked out and it was coming right down the path. I was like, all right, this is you know where the bug's coming from. She makes it like three steps into this path, and like 180 like looks back at right where I was. I was like, and I got this thing brushed in, spent a lot of time doing it, you know.

SPEAKER_01

And what's crazy is like you can do that early season before even season, get it ready, and they still know. I know. Our deer change their routes for it.

SPEAKER_03

Our deer are just way different. It's like, it's like uh, it's like at the house, we got that big pine thicket in front of us, in front of the, you know, where I got that set set up. I'd be up there, get up there super early. I know there's 10, 15 deer coming to the you know, pile in the morning. I get up there, I fart, everywhere. Everywhere. I'm like, holy cow, I mean, game over. I know. Like you can't even make a you can't even make any kind of noise whatsoever.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe it's like you know, maybe like in Illinois and places like that, they just have so much farming and equipment, and they're they're used to seeing people in that habitat a lot. Out here in the woods, it's like people ain't really walking. Nobody's supposed to be here. Yeah, nothing is supposed to be here. Something's up.

SPEAKER_03

The fish, the fish and deer is all getting smart and we're getting stupider.

Tech Dependence, Facebook, And AI

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, we're I mean, we're relying more on the street.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we're relying more on technology and hunting and fishing worse than ever before, probably. And that's what it is.

SPEAKER_03

They're learning. You know, you know, you know, that's actually a valid point because like when we get in a car, we first thing we do is type in our address or GPS.

SPEAKER_01

And you could just where you went and not even know where like couldn't find your way back to the city.

SPEAKER_03

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_01

No, what was on the route, nothing.

SPEAKER_03

I'm like, I have no idea. My wife will call me and said, Where are y'all at? I said, I don't know. Somewhere, I might be in Missouri, might be in I don't know where I'm at.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I have no idea. I mean, but if you were going off a paper map or actually paying attention to the road, you would know exactly where you are. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's one thing for sure. Like, it will take me, like when we go fishing New Lake, it will take me 20 trips to it before I remember how to get there.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know what I'm saying? Because I'm always just following the blue line. Well, you have to go one time where you have to use your brain and not use GPS. And then you can do it. That's that's the deal.

SPEAKER_03

You gotta use your brain. And I think we're just not using and I think everybody's gotten used to not using their brain because we rely on technology. It is. It's an illness. It's like a disease, really.

SPEAKER_01

It's gotten so bad on candy. I'll literally like during bed fishing, I don't even get up there on the trolling motor. I drive with the remote in my driver's seat, looking on perspective at the backcraft. That's bad. That is bad. Terrible. It's like, why would I stand up when I'm just sitting here?

SPEAKER_03

I can sit here and just look around. Technology's gotten so good, but it has made the human race lazy.

SPEAKER_02

Lazy and stupid. Yeah, sure. It has. It has. I see it every day. Our attention spans are crippled. I'm talking about like, what was it? I seen something the other day where it's like talking about the average attention span now is like eight seconds.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Eight seconds. Because that's about the longest video we'll see on TikTok. Yeah. Eight seconds. You know how crazy that is? Oh, yeah. Dude, I'll be watching Netflix and it'll get kind of boring, and I'll just fast forward a little bit until uh something's happening.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I know. On YouTube videos, I'll I'll start I'll start going over and I'll wait till I see the spike on the line and I'll just watch that spike and then I get off. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_03

I know it. I catch myself doing the same thing. It's like, oh, let's get to the good stuff. This shit's boring. Yeah, that's what they do to us when they watch our podcast. For sure. So this shit sucks.

SPEAKER_02

I know we're gonna manufacture it. We're spikes in all of it. Yeah. Well, it's that's awesome to have you in here, man. Yeah, I've been a minute. It's been a minute.

SPEAKER_01

Appreciate it. It's it's been good and uh yeah, looking forward to it. Uh had an awesome season, and uh I know we didn't talk about it much, but I had an awesome season in the MSTC last year.

SPEAKER_03

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_03

Man, that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01

Favorite boat I've ever had. 1753 Havoc MSTC. Ran it through the worst stuff ever, didn't put a single dent in it.

SPEAKER_02

I mean the MSTC is stout. That's what it's for, though. You know, that's that's that boat's purpose.

SPEAKER_01

Either way, I had a great time, felt safe all year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it was uh it's a good solid boat. It's fun too, because then like you know what you got and you can hit some stuff, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Well, that other brands I've had, it's like every time you hit a stump, you're like, well, my boat will never run the same again because it's probably got a giant hook in it now.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

That being able to just like peace of mind, go where you want to go and not worry about it is crazy.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, I had you know, I put in an ice storm last year, and uh my boat fell off the trailer at the top of like a 20-foot ramp and slid all the way down the ramp into the water and it didn't even that's good stuff.

SPEAKER_02

Well, Brian Jesson does that about once a season. He does it just for fun. He just does it for fun. Yeah, Brian Jesson once a season does that. It's like a you know, uh just a every year thing for him.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, those I beams with MSTC is pretty simple.

SPEAKER_02

Inverted kills, too. So like you're not denting your kills up, you're not moving eye beams. The whole bottom is locked together. Yeah. You know, longitudinal and cross.

SPEAKER_03

You got extra strength by the kills being inverted. I mean, there's a lot of strength factors that go into that boat. Yeah. Um, I mean, it's our number one selling boat for sure. I mean, it's like a hundred percent. The DBSTs and MSTCs are like they're the workhorse of the I I ran the 1653 MSTC last year and I enjoyed that one too.

SPEAKER_01

But this year with the 17, it I it's You feel like it was just I felt like like for instance, like Feltenthal, somewhere we hunt a lot. When you're idling across a flat, and let's just say you got you and your buddy and a lot of the weights in the back. In the 16 it felt like You were back heavy. I was back heavy and I couldn't get on pat. Like I couldn't idle like couldn't idle as efficient to get across a flat. In the 17, it felt like it s it floated so shallow. Yeah, it drafted shallow. And uh dude, there were so many scenarios where um other brands and stuff couldn't get up and get out of where we were at, and you know, we were just up and out. Yeah, the mud buddy was sick too. I mean, you know, a lot of people don't have much to say about the mud buddy, but B. Scott told me last year, he said, you know, that's if I had a boat to choose, a motor to choose, that's what I choose. And he said, if you get one, you're gonna feel the same way. And he wasn't lying. Yeah, the bump button for me, dude, like for me is like the how balanced it is on the boat. It is.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. The power head is actually inside the transform just a little bit, and it's not as hard to pick up.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, like when you're running across something and you push down to get that motor up out of the water, no effort, no tiller torque.

SPEAKER_02

Has less lean in the boat, left and right. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that. They need to look at it, you know. It's the balance of the rig itself that's what makes it so nice.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I don't understand why that is not like and it might be in some places, but why that is not the primary motor you see on the water.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's all about marketing and market share, you know. I mean, if if if if a lot of people look at the facts of a Mud Buddy versus everybody else, Mud Buddy wins. I mean, they just got a lot of features, they have a lot of um technology, um, they're fin finished. I mean, there's a lot of good stuff about a Mud Buddy that shines. I just I just think a lot of people, it's all about market share. Yeah. And I think I think other brands have done a good job, especially down in the South.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, for me, like uh, you know, I had a different brand first, and the sole reason I bought that brand is because that's what everybody else had. Yeah, I mean it's like that's it. It's like, you know, if everybody else was running this, it must be the best. Yeah. And I was totally wrong.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Like yeah, a lot of people don't understand it until they actually we actually did a little video comparison between the two and the two main brands. And uh uh both motors are great, but I I do think that the Mud Blade will outshine if you look at factual stuff.

SPEAKER_02

In my opinion, that's what I would go with for sure. Yeah, for sure. And I mean, I bring it up every time because the bump button is so nice. Yeah, that is so cool. Like when you're just getting decoys or something, like the bump button is the shit. Yeah, no doubt. And the in the trim.

SPEAKER_03

It is. I I like the trim on the motor. I do too.

SPEAKER_01

I do too. Like when you're snowing it away, I like the push pin. I like how much lower it sits on the back of the boat. So when you're going under limbs and stuff, you're not hitting them. Yeah. With previous brands, I'll rip that uh, what is it, for the air fill, like the air filter. Uh, I'd rip that thing off all the time. Yeah. Branches and stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Low profile, the weight of the motor is over the transom. Balance super good. Balance good, it's easy to lift up. You got the bump switch, and you know, the trim on the side of the motor is great. Uh you don't have an extra part you gotta have to just to travel with your motor. So, I mean, there's a lot of good. Transom saver, that's a huge deal.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, because you gotta keep up with that. Yes, that's you know how hard it is to keep up with shit. Yeah, I can't keep up with nothing.

SPEAKER_01

And those transom savers, you know, the regular, they rip the paint off the those motors every time you went, you know, you go down on it. Yeah, or I guess it'd be going up on those motors. Yeah, yeah, they pull the paint off, looks like crap.

SPEAKER_03

Mm-hmm. Yep.

SPEAKER_01

Wears out over time. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. A lot of features, a lot of benefits. Uh, you just gotta look at the facts, compare the two. But um do your own research. Yeah, do your own research. No, stay on, you know, what stay on Facebook. Let's talk about technology people being lazy. You know, it's so easy to get on Facebook and just look at data, information to make a financial decision. And people are so lazy they do that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and a lot of times Dave, Dan, and Donnie don't know what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_03

No, they don't know what they're talking about. And uh, you know, I always talk to customers, they call me, it's well, I've seen it on Facebook. I said, Well, that's the first mistake.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, you have all these opinions and you listen to all these opinions, you don't you you don't know what you're talking about. And it leads you in the wrong direction. I talked to a guy a couple of nights ago and uh trying to get a boat set up, and he's already bought like 10, 15 different props. I'm like, well, that's your problem. You know, you gotta quit chasing a prop game. Um but uh we're getting all that stuff fixed and trying to get new information out to people and picking the right models and picking the right setup and top end speed. We're big on top end speed, we're not big on dragging our ass to the water. So, you know, there's a lot of good stuff on Facebook, but there's also a lot of bad stuff on Facebook, you know. So it is what it is.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I saw a video yesterday of an alien get an interview on Facebook, so can't believe everything.

SPEAKER_02

The AI, let me tell you something about the AI too. It is getting crazy. Yeah, you'll know. I see videos now and I'm like, I don't believe anything because like hell it's half of them are AI. Yeah. And it looks so realistic. Like you see those videos of Trump talking, giving speeches and shit, and you know, like damn well that he's not saying this. Right. But it's I mean, for like an older person that didn't know about AI, they would look at it and be like, dude, I can't believe they're saying that.

SPEAKER_01

And not even just the older people. Like, there's a lot of stuff on there that tricks me and my generation as well.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, I mean, I watch a video, I I I go tell I show it to Ashley, and she's like, Oh, that's AI.

unknown

What?

SPEAKER_03

Shit, I just shared it.

SPEAKER_00

What do you mean it's AI?

SPEAKER_03

I just shared it. Like for real. You serious? That's AI? She goes, Yeah, that's AI. I thought it was kind of weird that that dog did four backflips. You know?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, the subtleties of AI is getting us. That's how I just thought it was a talented dog.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, that's AI. Well, maybe it'll get better. So you're looking forward to these last few terms you got, getting getting in that championship?

Next Stops And Season Closing

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's uh that's the plan. Um, we got to go to Oklahoma next week, uh, Lake Ufaula, and then we go up to Champlain, New York, which is That's a long trip, huh? Yeah, it's a long trip. But you know, I've had I've won one event and I've had three chances to win going into the final day. And Champlain was the closest I've been to winning without winning. So I do like that lake. So looking forward to going back there and uh, you know, hopefully having a good event and you know, finish the season strong. So, but you know, and and and and how many years have you been fishing professionally? Eight. Right? Yep, yep. So it it's tough, it's tough to even be in the position to win one. You know, I'm super fortunate to have gotten to win one.

SPEAKER_03

Like it's a lot of talent out there.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I mean, and uh no matter how good you are, you have to have it go your way. Like you have to I'm not gonna say get lucky, but it at the same time, like I mean you need some there's there's luck in involved for sure. Yeah, I mean you could be on the fish and everything go right and you not land them. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. It just He bites it wrong. Yeah, you don't get it good.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Or, you know, there's just there's so many variables in fishing.

SPEAKER_03

So it's definitely harder than what people think it is.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah. For me, if I can just go out there and be like a halfway consistent angler, you know, that that's kind of my goal. Um in the past, I've just been for me, I've been pretty inconsistent. Like I'm liable to be in the top five one week and then be in the bottom five the next week. This year I've been a little more consistent, but I've been can kind of consistently in the mid-pack, which isn't really where I want to be, but at least I haven't absolutely bombed yet.

SPEAKER_03

So that's good. That's good. It's definitely tough though. And you've been so I mean you're pretty honest about it too. Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, it's no walking apart. No, there's a reason to professionals, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. It's it's uh it's a good time though. I mean, I wouldn't trade it for anything. Yeah, I mean, I I like competition. I grew up doing the motorcross deal. Like, you know, I I kind of like that uphill battle, you know. So well, good deal.

SPEAKER_02

We'll be hey, we'll be cheering you on, dude. We're ready for it, dude. We'll always be we'll always be watching the thing, dude. You know, like updating it. There's Tyler 100th place. I'm like, there's a I'm like, well, actually be like how many people are in this tournament.

SPEAKER_03

Actually, like, I think Tyler's live scope's broke. He ain't caught shit in five hours. That dude's got bad serves. He can only use it for three, three hours, you know. She be talking shit about you, Tyler.

SPEAKER_01

She did at least watch the last one.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, she did. Yeah, she did. She did, she did. Yeah, but she be talking crap about me too, though.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, we had a little tournament this past uh we had one day to fish before we had to leave somewhere. We fished white oak, you know?

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

And so we did this little bubble deal. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, a little bubble tournament. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02

Dude, I got so lucky. Oh, you found that school. I found a school.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And dude, I caught him. But that was literally, I mean, complete luck. All I had was perspective too. I saw my perspective, and I was like, I was like, that's gotta be brim or something, you know? Yeah, it's gotta be brim. I threw in there as a bass. I was like, huh. Threw in there again is another bass. It's like, oh dude, I'm setting up shop right here. I didn't move the whole rest of the day. Yeah, he yeah, he won.

SPEAKER_03

He beat us. But uh Ashley called me. She goes, Is your scope broke? I'm like, no. She goes, Why aren't you weighing fish in? I'm like, because I got bad service. I really didn't catch anything. Oh yeah, I was like, I got bad service, I'm catching them.

SPEAKER_01

It's like that time you told me you caught like eight back time. Remember that? Yeah. And then lied about it. Yeah. Well, crap, man. I was like, what'd you catch them on? Uh, Alabama rig. I was like, well, dang, how deep are they?

SPEAKER_02

Uh the follow-up questions gave away. He could he couldn't consistently lie. He was like, he knew he was out of out of chance to get it.

SPEAKER_01

He wouldn't even look at me when he was answering me.

SPEAKER_03

Well, it sucks, man. Have a professional fishman as a buddy. And not being able to catch fish. Yeah, I mean, I can't even be in this group. I know. You know. I know. Well, we got a lot to go on. Uh, we're about to pack up and head to uh where are we going? Meet and greet in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Smith Motor Company. Yeah, yeah. So we're about to leave out today, head that way, go shake some hands, do some H22 setups. Then we gotta go to Minnesota. Then from Minnesota, we're going to Alabama. So we got busy three weeks ahead of us.

SPEAKER_01

Heck yeah. Well, won't be long. We'll be putting the stands up and getting. Oh, yeah, dude. I'm I'm pumped up about it.

SPEAKER_02

So looking forward to that. All right. Well, I think this was a good one. T Stu. It's always nice to have you back.

SPEAKER_03

Always a pleasure to have you in here.

SPEAKER_02

And good luck on the rest of the tournaments. Hopefully you go in, finish strong. Yep. Like a champion.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

And we'll catch you guys on the next one.

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Brandon "B" Scott

Host
Head Shot

Tim Scott

Co-host