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I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Brian Bashore (00:01.942)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in for another episode of Real Talk Fishy with No Limits. Today is going to be kind of short and brief, just kind of recapping our year. I just want to send out a big, you know, Merry Christmas and thank you all that you loyal listeners and viewers that have followed along this past year. A lot of interviews, a lot of good people on here. And we got a lot more coming up for 2026. So.
But just touch on a few, few things, just some thoughts and some, uh, updates. What's going on where we're at, what we're fishing into next year. Um, wrap it up 2025 good year. Guiding wise, the walleye guys stayed real busy. Um, new ton of trips, uh, fall bite never took off. So that kind of sucked, but the spring and summer bite was, was pretty steady and good. Um, it was fun. Just a few tournaments.
Not so good, but really looking forward to jumping into the full season for NWT in 2026. Love the schedule. I'm going to try and make this a, you know, make it a good year. it's a not for whatever reason, then that is probably going to wrap that circuit up for this guy. There's so many options out there now. You got the head to head pro walleye circuit coming on board. You saw the MWCs. There's a ton of local derbies and governor's cups and big 10 tournaments like in Sakakawea
Casino cup so there's plenty of opportunities out there for guys to get in But it's that time at the rolling in a 2026 figure out what you're gonna do. Where are you going? What circuit are you gonna jump in and I'm going all into the the NWT? Loving the schedule love what the head-to-head pro-walleye circuits do and really love that format Probably pricing me out a little bit. We'll see if get all those you know sponsors I've had in the past been Absolutely awesome if we're able to renew all these things some of those already have
but I get it, the industry, it's a tough market out there, but the word on street 2026 looking pretty good. So we're seeing gas come down. That's a good start. That's a huge expense for us traveling tour guys and just, anybody obviously in general, but I got a nitro ZV 21 with an eighty gallon fuel tank and, I like to go fast. So maybe burn some fuel. aim had their aim next, circuit looking to start that in 2026. They decided to go ahead and bump that to 2027.
Brian Bashore (02:17.39)
Um, some of the things I had planned, just maybe not just weren't coming through as fast as they want, uh, which is, which is all right. They're better off doing, if they're not ready to go or have all the pieces of the puzzle, uh, to bump it a year and get some more things lined up. Um, good news for that is you need to fish an aim event to qualify, uh, for the opportunity to get in there. It's going to go through their angle of the years, um, levels and all that from all the different divisions and States first.
Uh, but that looks like a pretty enticing circuit as well. Um, but the bump in that 2027 gives you basically another year to try to just to jump run at least one aim tournament. have to at least fish one, any vent in your lifetime or aim span to be able to even qualify to jump in that circuit. So, uh, that's the good news with venues is, know, they, they're waiting a year, but, uh, they got a good board of directors. I'm sure they, they they're doing that for the right reason and always tough decisions.
And it's a tough, tournaments are just tough, tough to run, tough to make any money. you fish them cause you love it and, and you run them and you put them on as well as leagues and things like that, just cause you want to get people the opportunity. and you know, you want to participate in it as well, because you love it. You love the sport, you love the industry. So things to think about going into 2026 is you love the sport, you love the fish. So let's just put some positive to this stuff. Let's quit this forward facing so in our debates.
It is what it is, man. You're using it or you're not. What have you. Okay. It's, don't want to go backwards ever. Right. So we're going to embrace the technology and move forward. just get good, just get good on it. So practice makes perfect. And if you don't like it, don't use it. If you don't want, there's certain things you don't like about a tournament circuit. Don't fish it. No one's forcing or making anybody or any of you to do any of this stuff. So it's all by choice. So if you make the choices to do it.
Okay, we're always gonna have some gripes and some things we wish were different. But bring some solutions to the table if you can. Not to say that a lot of them haven't come to the table versus just complaining about it or being keyboard wizards back there. Which I know none of you are, you loyal listeners, are hearing all the gripes and wants and wishes over here on this end, but very involved with trying to make some of those changes. And you're seeing some of these things come to fruition, thanks to a lot of you out there with.
Brian Bashore (04:37.902)
providing input on some of these forums and sending emails to these tournament, know, circuit owners and management companies or whatever. Everything looks, it's going up. We're looking good going into 2026. So let's keep positive. Let's keep it rolling. Let's go out. Let's catch a bunch of big fish on whichever circuit you're in and whichever one you're in, promote it. Tell everybody you're there. Put it on your social media. Show it, show how cool it is and all the great things they're doing. Maybe why you like that verse or something else or what it is you just like about it.
Or don't like about it, whatever the case is, but you talking about it, you're promoting them and helping them grow. And the bigger and more of these all grow, the better for everybody in it, because the payout should increase with the growth. So, um, a lot of times when you have a lot of new tournaments or just even one or two here and there, it kind of fragments the market. Right now there is a tournament where there's bass walleye around every corner. Um, so you can basically pick and choose what you want to fish, but then you get smaller. Circuits, right? Smaller amount of anglers in each kind of circuit, which
In our world, we pay to play. Now I'm going to, you know, we're pretty much fishing for your own money. So a lot of that is going to come down based on your, whatever enrollment of anglers in the tournament. kind of see that with a lot of the MWC over the years is getting less numbers. Some of their certain locations have good numbers and those payouts are higher. Um, I think they did some modifications last year to do a $10,000 guaranteed first. So that always comes back down to getting sponsors on board and to get sponsors on board for these tournaments, you got to have numbers, right?
They want to see the more anglers, the more viewers, all that that brings in the sponsorship dollars. The circuit doesn't have the people. There's not a very good investment for the sponsors. So just things to think about. Like I said, it's that time of year, you know, through the holidays here and come 2026. Bam spring is here before you know, and you're just in March or April and tournaments are happening and you got to be ready to rock and roll. So a lot of things have changed. I don't know if you've ever, if you're
following any the bass stuff. Bass has made some changes in how they're running things over there. They have a non, no info, no information rule. Used to be as soon as the schedule came out for the following season, you couldn't hear, have a discussion, anything about any of those fisheries. You can't buy info. You can't hire a guide in some of those things. And you couldn't fish those fisheries for like six months or something. They gave you a little bit of time, I think. Maybe you could hit some of those in the fall.
Brian Bashore (07:05.469)
but that was it. They've modified that to have a 28 day rule, which means that 28 day rule is zero info. But prior to that 28 day rules, well, you could go fishing. If there was a tournament on that lake, you could fish it or you could fish it. If you're a guide or your buddies or whatever, you could, you could fish it. it's so hard to police that somebody coming up to the angler, the pro bass guy at, you know, swindles fueling up his truck and somebody comes over and says, you're going fishing here today. I cracked him throwing up.
You know, a green Jack camera over here, blah, blah. And there he is. He's in violation and basically has to call that in and tell them and then get booted out of the tournament. they have kind of waved that in a sense for the 28 days. And once you're in that 28 day window, that tournament, no information. NPFL, that's the national professional fishing league and the bass circuit that has banned forward facing. Brad forward runs that go to their.
Their Facebook page, has a press release on it where he put out a statement of probably a few weeks ago now. It's really, really good. Breaks it down kind of how he feels the industry is, why they went to the, the, no forward facing sonar. they've grown exponentially due to it. I'm doing a lot of great things over there. and Bass is making modifications too. So just like the walleye world where we have different options, Bass has several options as well. BFLs.
MLF, you know, they've all made some modifications, all of it's around the Ford facing Sonar. and then some other rules as well. Bass had made some other changes where they eliminated people's live streams. So, which I get that's a big, it's a big business, big money. They got big sponsors. have some TV contracts. And if like Zaldane who live streams this whole thing now can't because that's taking viewers to his live stream versus watching it on their Roku network or whatever, completely understand it where they're coming back.
from on their business side of it. I don't like it. And I'm sure Zeldane doesn't either. probably going to hurt him in the long run. Maybe, maybe not. Who knows? You're talking dollars way bigger than over my head, never dealing with them basses. Been around for long time. So Ultima usually makes good decisions. But things are happening fast in this world. And everybody's just kind of trying to figure it out. A lot of his trial and error is putting some things in place. All right. Feedback on that is horrible or didn't work.
Brian Bashore (09:23.298)
And then they make adjustments the following season. So, still waiting. We haven't seen 2026, NWT rules or payouts or nothing like that has came down yet. I don't want to foresee a whole lot change in or modifications. things to things of note. So I'm gonna get this out here right away, right before Christmas for y'all coming up, the national professional anglers association annual conference is in Bloomington, Minnesota, January 2nd through fourth.
If you're a fishing guide, an industry pro, media guy, or just wanting to know more about the business side of professional angling, this isn't fishing seminars. This isn't all day running to different rooms, learning how to pitch jigs, know, whatever the case may be electronics. This is the business side of it. We have guest speakers of John Cruz coming from the Bass. John's been an industry leader and expert on missile baits for a long time. John's going to...
He, one of the keynote speakers, Jason Mitchell, most of you know, has been around for a long time. TV personality had a huge, you know, good fishing guide business up there on Devils Lake, North Dakota. A great dude understands it, the business side in and out from the walleye world and just the media world in general. Tom Wynn is going to be there, you know, doing what Tom Wynn does talking about the forward facing and Tom Wynn University. So that may be the only, the fishing kind of side of it. There may be a few other minor ones, but it's mainly business.
Business networking with industry pros, not just the anglers. the, the decision makers, lot of time are there from these companies, maybe Mercury, maybe Jesse from St. Croix coming, maybe Michelle's coming from Mercury. The guys from Berkeley are coming. Berkeley is going to be there talking about baits and how some of those are made. It's going to be pretty cool. there is going to be an open forum discussion about tournaments, kind of where they're going and what we can all do. So hopefully there's some people from those tournament circuits that are in charge to kind of.
which I imagine that's why they're having it, will be there as well to get some of that feedback. I think it's 250 bucks to register. It's three day conference or two and a half days. Sunday morning is just some brief sessions and they're out on the road by noon. All day Saturday kicks off kind of Friday afternoon. And there's a, think Saturday night there's a dinner banquet fundraiser. Friday is usually a cocktail party in the evening. It's just good time with a bunch of great people, good networking.
Brian Bashore (11:45.111)
Bloomington, think he block ones go to the mpa.net and get some more information on there. By time this airs, the block rooms will probably be rate will probably expired. And I'm pretty sure you can register up near the last minute if you're, if you're looking for someone to ride with or roommate or whatever the case is. You invest in yourself to grow your, your brand and your fishing professionalism and career. And this is probably the best place you can put that money to get started. So.
super good event to go to. I've been to tons of these, and I'm not actually sure if I'm going to make this one or not. but I'm going to try to, be at the Nebraska outdoor show. This is South Sioux city. This is a new outdoor shore show they're doing. It's at the Marriott event center in South Sioux city. So just across the river from Tyson event center, free to, you know, free to come in. It's a boat sport, travel RV show. I'll be there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I won't be there Friday evening. You have to come back home for some stuff.
I went ahead and got a booth. It'll most likely just be me. I Scott's staying warm in Arizona. Come over and visit, talk fishing. We got a lot of clients out of that Sioux City area. So if you're in that area, swing on over. We'll be there. I have booths set up. I don't know the booth number. Follow along on Facebook. Once I get more info, that'll come out. That's January 9th, 10th, and 11th at the Marriott Event Center in South Sioux City.
The following weekend I'll be in Lincoln, Nebraska at the Sand Hill Event Center. It's the old county fairground there. that's the Nebraska deer and game expo. at this several years. Chris Edwards puts this on, old friend, does a phenomenal job. the best brand show as far as organized and structure wise. January 16th, 17th and 18th. And if you're there on the 17th, it's Saturday morning, I'll be doing a seminar on jigging up trophy walleyes at 10 AM.
And then we're in booth 309, which is just right outside that seminar room. And I'll be there all day, every day, all those days. You want to swing by and visit, talk, talk, fishing, book a trip, whatever the case may be. So those are, that's kind of what's coming up in January. other than that, it's getting ready to go fishing. So, that's about it. I think so wrap up 2025. Once again, thank all of you for tuning in.
Brian Bashore (14:04.782)
Making this thing possible and the sponsors that are here and you guys going out and purchasing those products And I've met plenty of you at some tournaments that hey I checked out this new cigar line Levitt or about this new seven real Whatever that may be and I think I have some new ones coming on board So we'll see about that but to keep the lights on we we need that and we need you to tell them that and To keep watching keep viewing keep shared and chime in if there's somebody
you want to see on here, there's a hot topic comment down in these, you know, down below on all these threads say, Hey, this is great. I, but I'd love to hear from this person or that person or kind of what it is. we have some part twos that'll be coming up here over the winter with some people that we've had on the last year that we're going to bring back and kind of take that discussion on in certain little caveats. And we kind of highlighted that in those discussions too. and see what some of the research that came out with, narrow some of the, the, the topic down.
with some of these industry legends that have a lot of information to share. And that's, yeah, that's probably about it. So thank you once again. Appreciate you so much for following and chiming in and participating and just being fans and followers and being loyal. So it means a ton. We go to these tournaments, know, I go to these tournaments and see the comments and the, go get them. And whether I do good or I suck or whatever those are what get a guy.
You know, through the day and make you, all right, I gotta go keep chasing this, go, go do it again next time. Um, shake it off and move forward, but, uh, feeling pretty good. 2026 is going to be good. Feeling good, confident, love the schedule. Living on that life scope folks. That's just the way it is. And this sets up good for it. Um, I'm to put some miles on, but got the same boat. If you're interested in buying my current boat, it is listed. You can find on Facebook marketplace or reach out to me.
Otherwise we're to run that thing again. It's been great. Absolutely love that ZB21 with that 400 V10 Merc. It's a beast. More than happy to run it again, but if I can sell it, we'll get a new one. We'll make you a deal. It is loaded with North Liskia lithium batteries and the Garmin's on the front and the birds on the console. So that's it folks. Everybody have a blessed Merry Christmas or Fishmas as well. If you're able to get on the ice.
Brian Bashore (16:23.694)
Go do it, get your friends out there, get your family out there, get some new anglers involved and get some ones that used to be involved involved again. That's what we need more people fishing period. So stay safe, have a Merry Merry Christmas and a happy, absolutely amazing new year and may 2026 be awesome and may your lines be tight and those 28 inches come over the rails all day long. So stay safe and we'll see you on the water.