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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 (00:02.457)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning into another episode of Real Talk Fish with No Limits. Today we head up north into South Dakota, not North Dakota, just Northern South Dakota a little bit to talk to the one and only Mr. Chad Shealy with the Wahi Wings and Walleyes Guide Service, the home of the Monster Walleyes and the ridiculous amount of roosters running around your house. I just, how's it going up there besides just catching big fish?
Chad Schilling (00:27.342)
You know, it's, it's been a crazy spring, you know, you've been working on the water. It's been a crazy spring with hot, cold, wind, dead flat, it goes hot on the seems like we can't get a happy medium. But the fishing is way different than well, everybody knows about the big fish in Hawaii. But our we've had a few years where you can't get good slots. Now that's all we're catching. We were we're used to catching 100 150 fish a day.
Brian Bashore (00:31.729)
No.
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (00:55.394)
You're catching 20 and you keep 18. And I'm not talking measure, I'm like they're mean to 21 inches. It's just crazy how this system just, it's never seems to be the same. And I've had people for 25 years and it seems like every year they're like, we've never seen it like this. And that's just normal out here. It's good. At the end of the day, you lay your fish out on the cleaning table and you're like, my gosh, we had a good day, but it didn't feel like it. You grind, it's been a...
Brian Bashore (01:00.273)
All right.
Brian Bashore (01:22.321)
Alright.
Chad Schilling (01:23.086)
You work everything you get and at the end of the day you you've earned them and Some days guys don't get them. I've been pretty blessed. I've had one slower day, but the rest of the year I've got them, but it didn't feel like I got them until you lay them out at the end of the day
Brian Bashore (01:30.481)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:37.905)
Yeah, it's kind of, you know, catching a lot of fish keeps you busy, you know, it's, but I think at end of the day, guys are like, man, I got all these 17, eight, 19 inch fish. I'd rather catch 20 of these, you know, than 113 and a half inches or whatever the case may be.
Chad Schilling (01:48.632)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (01:53.206)
Let's take that laying them out at the end of the day though to let them realize what you know and It's it's strange because I feel like I could go out and catch that many fish over 28 inches if you give me a day They're there but obviously we don't target them and it's not really a customer friendly way to go catch them with the forward-facing so it We catch one almost every day. We catch one on a bottom bouncer Just blind cast and a jig rap, but you get one if you go target them
Brian Bashore (01:56.219)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (02:04.591)
Yup.
Chad Schilling (02:22.126)
I mean, every night my son went out, he was out for four hours. He had 11 over 28 inches in four hours. So, and three of them were over 12 pounds, you know, so we're, it's weird. This isn't, and like he asked me the other day, were we not good at this before? Or are they just biting earlier? Cause this feels like a July, August bite and it's going. I mean, it's strong. It's, there's not many guys doing it, which is crazy, which, you know, whatever.
Brian Bashore (02:27.832)
Jace.
Brian Bashore (02:41.125)
Yeah. Yep.
Chad Schilling (02:50.294)
Everybody can love it or hate it. They're a resource out there. I kind of like when people do it. I don't like them seeing them cleaning them, but I do like seeing people catching a personal best right now isn't very hard for a lot of people.
Brian Bashore (03:02.991)
Yeah, was looking forward to cut up this fall. didn't make it last fall. I've been trying to get up there forever. Last time I did, think you and Kim is for shooting that show. And I was like, I drove up from Sioux falls was on the water and missed a big fish bikes. I didn't get there till like 10 AM. You know, and then I had went home that night and I'm like, and I got, that was dumb. I got to stay for at least two days. I was there just to crack a big one, do a little YouTube. And I'm like, I don't have to wait till fall. I'm getting up there after the sentencing and I got a little low, I think a couple, maybe early July, the wife and I had to go out of like Bobridge order. So around the fourth, I'm like,
You know, we may have to just sneak up there for a while, bring the photographer.
Chad Schilling (03:36.494)
Yeah, it's something we do have some skinny fish in the system and it's just, we never catch them when they start migrating down. mean, I don't know whether we didn't know how or we just weren't catching them. I don't know, can't answer honestly, but you do catch some 30 inches right now, weigh eight and a half, nine pounds. Next one will weigh in the teens. I mean, it's just the ones that got here, once they get here, they have their herring that they, I mean, they focus on them and.
Brian Bashore (03:47.334)
Right.
Brian Bashore (03:52.849)
All right.
Chad Schilling (04:03.832)
They get big and we are blessed. It's in our backyard year round. We can go catch them. No, we can't catch them in the winter. I have no idea where they go. have no idea, but all summer we can catch them.
Brian Bashore (04:08.293)
there.
Brian Bashore (04:11.961)
They just disappear man.
Brian Bashore (04:17.297)
It has been a little different this year. I'm seeing that even on the last reservoir on the system, Lewis and Clark. And I was at Francis Case yesterday and the fish at Francis Case are very healthy. had a 17 inch or I couldn't put my hands around. I'm like, these are, uh, these are a little bit bigger when the NWT was here a few years ago, they were a little bit below average, with this, they didn't get much fishing pressure last year because nobody could get them. And I'm like, that's because they were full and now they show that they are full at a 19 and a half. was three pounds, you know, and that, which.
Chad Schilling (04:28.13)
Yeah, isn't that so?
Brian Bashore (04:46.481)
Should be that's a, that's still really healthy, but I had an 18 that was, was under two. So you get that, that mix. You're like, Hey, this one's a bit for a reason, I guess, right? Cause it's hungry, you know, and it could have been a late post Potter or whatever the case was, but we've seen it and yanked it too. got a ton of, if you get them over like 19, 20, they're really thick, but there's a ton of 14 and three quarters, 14, seven eights, which is great. You know, but kind of what you're used to catching a hundred up. You got to go with this, a numbers game.
Chad Schilling (04:51.33)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (05:15.185)
But yeah, it's it's like one to three maybe but then you get a lot of like 15 to 17s and they're They're average but the bigger ones are thick really really thick and healthy so
Chad Schilling (05:23.596)
Okay. Yeah, have all our slot fish are fat. We don't have any thin slot fish. It's just them big females. And I think they made the trip all the way to North Dakota as my guess. And then they've been swimming, they've been working and now they're at home. Now they'll get fat. It won't take long. So.
Brian Bashore (05:38.929)
don't take logging them big herring. It sounds like kind of on the tail end of that big fish stuff because the herring is... I don't know. Somebody said something only a couple years left of that in the system. I'm like, well, it seems to me like I don't know how you determine that.
Chad Schilling (05:54.316)
I don't know either. I, mean, forward-facing, if anything, we learned so much more than what we ever knew in the old days. And it is completely saturated with herring right now. They're everywhere. I mean, they they're all sizes. They're from six, eight inches to them giant. I mean, two pound herring out there and they're, they're everywhere. And if you find them, you find the giants with them, the big fish over it with them.
Brian Bashore (06:11.909)
really.
Brian Bashore (06:17.617)
It's like it used to be you flying along and you graph them basically at full speed almost. And you're like, Oh, there's some fish. And you slow down. You're like, Oh, this goes on for a mile. This is herring.
Chad Schilling (06:25.89)
That's not it. And actually the number of our fish we're targeting, the system's full, but like you said, they're full. They don't eat. I mean, it's amazing how many follows we all have. We're all running pontoons for the most part. We do run our Lund boats too, but we'd have the forward facing pointed at the spinners and stuff all the time. And how many fish swim up and nose it, swim away.
Brian Bashore (06:37.424)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (06:55.374)
We're telling people all day, get ready, get ready. Nevermind. get ready. Nevermind. It's just like that all day long.
Brian Bashore (07:00.765)
It's amazing. I've run my scope back, you know, watching the bouncers and obviously we couldn't do this just a few years ago. And you're like, man, how many fish over the years have I had following me or nipping and just turning. Now you're like, you're you're getting ready and you're like, or just the amount of them you go over. like, man, you saw a couple on the 2D. You're like, we're going to go over one. But now with that, you're like, we're going over them nonstop.
Chad Schilling (07:23.926)
Yeah, that whole it's not fair and all you do is buy that you're going to ruin the system. No, you're going to ruin your mental focus. I had half the time. mean, it doesn't make you like you do. You do learn a lot. It does a major advantage, but at the same time, it don't make them bite. And there's a lot of people who don't know how to read it anyway. So buying doesn't make you good. You got to stare at it. You got to learn it.
Brian Bashore (07:29.727)
Right!
Brian Bashore (07:45.805)
It's as great as it is, it's frustrating as hell as well. Cause I mean, I was throwing a jig and wrap yesterday for the first time all year and I was like, Oh my God, how many fish am I missing? You know, and how fast they would react, which obviously you have to. And the ones I caught were, mean, they literally choked it, you know, but I'm like, I wouldn't have caught any of these without it. Maybe a couple, I would have seen them on a 2D and I did actually, was in the, I was on a spot lock. This was on a jig and wrap was on a Ned rig, but.
Chad Schilling (07:49.324)
Yes.
Chad Schilling (08:05.72)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (08:13.009)
Spalock fishing out the front and then I was packing up to leave and I was like, damn it. I go in the back of the boat and the 2D's got one right underneath the boat. Huge mark. I'm like, well what the hell? So I just dropped it straight down the back. I couldn't get it. So I went up front and just took it off Spalock and drifted back and soon as I went over it, was like an 18 and a half inch or just fat. I'm like, hmm, all right, so 2D does work. It's still there. It still works pretty good.
Chad Schilling (08:37.838)
but it's amazing how many fish we used to catch, because we used to drive over them and hit a waypoint and go back there and anchor and catch them. I wonder if we were ever catching the same fish, because you watch them move so much now, it's like, yeah, you were just in an area where there was fish and you hoped to go back and drop it on them. Now we put it in their face. We give them the opportunity, whether they eat it or not is all on there, but it's a fun tool.
Brian Bashore (08:50.694)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (09:04.107)
The boring days, at least you can show the customer, see, I have you all. They're just not eating what we got. It's rich and yeah, it seems like when they want to eat, they eat.
Brian Bashore (09:12.817)
Yeah, you're right. And as a guide, guide, guide that we have that tool to us that I'm saying, I'm like, they're right here. See, them? And those, and honestly, the past have probably been the, you know, the bigger tip days. Cause guys are like, we get it. It's right now we've got a full moon. There's all that. There's so many variables, right? When fishing about weather, that's all weather, wind, water clarity, all that water temperature is all driven by the weather, which pretty much takes taste of the bite and how your day's going to go, you know, for the most part.
Chad Schilling (09:32.11)
your samples.
Brian Bashore (09:41.413)
But you can look at them like hunting when your pheasants and whatever you're like. They're here when rain windy, they're here. We're going to get them up. Whether you can hit them or not, that's up to you. I'm going to give you, you know, all the opportunity in the world. Fish is a little different. It's like, here's the opportunity, but I can't force them to bite your hook. No.
Chad Schilling (09:46.413)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (09:58.008)
Yeah, we're gonna hope they get in the right mood. So yeah, but what a great game. We're blessed. You get to do it at all. We're blessed. It's a lot of fun.
Brian Bashore (10:00.953)
Yeah, that's a...
Brian Bashore (10:07.631)
Yeah, everybody that doesn't know about guiding stuff. It's a, you know, talked your text chat late last night and Sean is like, Hey, still in the water. It's like eight or nine o'clock, you know, at night. And I'm like, yeah, you're probably doing what I do. Or you had a day or maybe it's a tough day and you go back, you're trying to, you got to stay ahead of it. Right. You're trying to.
Chad Schilling (10:25.335)
I was scoping giants, that's an idea.
Brian Bashore (10:27.427)
Yeah, and I would be too if I was up there. It'd be hard to get me to come in. You know, it's just fun.
Chad Schilling (10:30.606)
Yeah, it's a learning curve that if you don't do it all the time, you will fall behind. And I'm learning that from my now 19-year-old son. He's an animal at it. I mean, he literally will tell you within an inch of that fish's size before he ever throws at it. And he'll just drive by them all day. like, 27, dad, won't. No, 25, we don't want to throw at that one. And goes, oh, here's a 30. Let's catch this one. And it'll be 30 when he catches it. It's like, I wish I could see what you see.
Brian Bashore (10:35.312)
Yup.
Brian Bashore (10:58.673)
Right.
Chad Schilling (11:00.184)
You gotta stare at it. That's what you gotta do.
Brian Bashore (11:02.257)
Yeah, it's practice makes perfect and, and Mo's doing it, doing it right. And then, know, it's, it's a young man's thing. And sure, they, they naturally learn this stuff easier because they grew up with a little bit more technology. Like we were talking earlier than you and I did, but we're, you know, we're not dumb. We're pretty quick learners. We're getting the hang of it, you know, but we also love those old traditional things, right? There's just kind of, kind of the element of the surprise of what's going to bite.
Chad Schilling (11:16.876)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (11:27.67)
I do love blind casting. I ain't gonna lie. I love blind casting. I do it all day long when I'm guiding. But you do know how much you're wasting, but whatever. still like to it. keeps me busy.
Brian Bashore (11:37.327)
Yep. Yep. Keeps you big. You're like, I was probably nothing there, but I'm when you get that tick, you're like, yeah. Yeah, I got it. You know, I left, I'll run up on the scope and just take a peek sometimes and be like, all right, they're over there, you know, but you tell your clients throw over there. put your Bob or whatever the case is. It's, it's fun. And I don't think you ever get that out of some of us. And for those that don't have the live scope, it's okay. You can still catch them without.
Chad Schilling (11:42.07)
Anyway, yeah.
Chad Schilling (11:59.722)
yeah, with half the frustration as we throw it, we know we're throwing at him. At least you don't know it, you're just having fun.
Brian Bashore (12:05.443)
Yep. And that's it. That's name of the game. Let's just have fun. Sit back and you guys get the pontoons. I tell you, man, my, one of my guys has a pontoon and, I fished off it a little bit with him last fall. And I'm like, I, why don't I have one? This is slick, man.
Chad Schilling (12:17.302)
It's pretty.
Yeah, we, this spring we didn't. mean, we had good bookings. We always have the same bookings, you know, and we got, I have definitely, I will bet the farm that I have the youngest set of guides on the lake right now. I don't, I have a couple of 21 year olds and they go down to 18 year olds. Now they were, we finally got everybody over 18, but, I got a lot of young and a lot of enthusiasm and kids that are kids that are different than what I see a lot around the country. I got a lot of
Brian Bashore (12:48.588)
yeah.
Chad Schilling (12:49.196)
These kids love what they're doing. My team is pretty exciting. And man, we have seven pontoons with them going almost every day right now. And we've kind of integrated a bunch of boat boys, which is just exciting. We got these 14-year-old kids who they think this is what they want to do. And first five days, it's still pretty much what they want to do. And that's when you find out after about two weeks or three weeks straight, we got a nice crew of young guys coming too. So it's good. We're training the next generation.
in we lose somebody sometime. it's fun to have young kids. can get on their butts. My old guides, when I chew their butts, their feelings can hurt. These guys just shake it off, and they're ready to go.
Brian Bashore (13:30.007)
Yeah, can they share pretty short-term memories like, you know, some of us that take it personally or whatever, right? They're like, whatever, you know, that old guy don't know crap. I know what I'm doing, but...
Chad Schilling (13:33.774)
Thank
Chad Schilling (13:39.918)
Well, I get a lot of washed up comments. They always tell me I'm washed up, know, because they're the new, but it's all in good fun and we have a blast. I don't know if there's a team that screws around more than we do, so it's a lot of
Brian Bashore (13:46.886)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (13:53.585)
They got a lot to learn. He ain't washed up yet. Cause I bet when the wind gets ripping and it's like, better call uncle Chad to see how we can control this bill. What do we do? You know, and you're like, drift sucks this work this angle that there's boat control, not just life scope, but in general boat control, especially when you got a half a dozen or more rods out with a, you know, a pontoon full of clients. can get, it can get messy.
Chad Schilling (14:06.893)
It's.
Chad Schilling (14:13.474)
Yeah, they can and they learn by their mistakes, you know, just like we had to. doesn't go, I can't do that. So they learn quick. And I always tell them it doesn't have to be hard. can fish easy. You can find a comfortable spot and catch. Well, we're blessed. mean, Hawaii is full of fish. They're everywhere. You got to find the ones that lead, but you can go be on fish about anywhere. And being out of the wind is a little better than being in the heart of it.
Brian Bashore (14:18.245)
No.
Brian Bashore (14:40.859)
Yeah, we, had some of that wind the other day and I kind of just tell them, I'm like, you can be comfortable and we'll catch them and maybe slower, but you're going to enjoy your day a whole hell of a lot more, you know, but if you're hardcore, you want to go rip them and get and fight it, which I really got to find it. Right. If you're driving the boat or your troll or pulling bouncers, you're on that troller motor like crazy. Like man, sucks the winds, right. It's wrapping the line around raw tips. Cause you people are doing all sorts of you seen it all, you know,
Real net bouncer through the top eyelet and you know, you know, routine, you know, gig, right? You're like wind makes everything 10 times more difficult. So if we can catch him and you got a lot of coves and bays, so you got that going for out, have that on blue's a Clark. It's just, that's it. It's straight shot. You got big high bluffs, but if you can get out of it, always, then the, I'm 90 % of the time the client's like, yeah, that's, we love that spot where it was nice and comfortable.
Chad Schilling (15:32.322)
Yes, so do I. So you're not, you give yours the option. I go where it's comfortable and we catch them. And if we don't, guess there's another day, but you're comfortable and safe and yeah, but that's, that's living in South Dakota. We grew up doing that. So we know.
Brian Bashore (15:46.801)
Yeah, this is a windy statement. don't necessarily give them the option. I just kind of tell them what the things are and you make them go to, yeah, I like, I like that one. You make one sound really, really favorable. right. Yeah, I'm pretty, sure they're over here, but you're on a, you're on a phenomenal fishery with just putting out monster fish. It's absolutely insane. I'm going to get up there soon. I'll touch base in early July or something like that. Maybe get up there and shoot some video or, what have you the case, but you got.
Chad Schilling (15:52.746)
Yeah, that's right. Yep.
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (16:16.145)
I mean, we just, get the governor's cups coming, coming up. They just had some tournaments up there, think, or them MWC. All Did we won that one?
Chad Schilling (16:21.838)
Yeah, they just did the MWC. There's a casino circuit. I had to actually see if Bo was going to graduate. I was on his graduation day, so I didn't get to fish that one. I just got back from Devils. They do another part of the circuit up there. And yeah, there's tournaments every weekend. We did the Wolves on the Water last weekend. They had that here also. So it's that time of year. There's tournaments all the time. It's just constant.
Brian Bashore (16:36.815)
Well, spirit, yep.
Brian Bashore (16:50.597)
There is there on Francis case. We've got the big NTC coming up next week. I think there was like two or three tournaments out of Whitstone and plat last week. You know, there's Sunday leagues. It's just, you're right. It's that time of year. And you got a real big tournament coming up, which is an annual one, right? The Akaska tournament, but you got a little twist on it. And I mean, honestly, I didn't understand it when it came out. was like, this sounds cool, but it's a little confusing though.
Chad Schilling (17:12.01)
It's that's the problem. So that's the deal. And it's we're super excited. And I'm not going to lie when I first when they were explaining to me, I was like, whoo, and I'm getting so many phone calls. My people want to do it. It's not difficult, but it's so much different than anybody's ever seen in the world. And they've been doing it. That's the biggest thing. Everybody's like, we're going to be the guinea pigs.
Brian Bashore (17:24.779)
I can't imagine.
Brian Bashore (17:31.974)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (17:38.734)
This has happened. It's called the big bass bash down south and they're huge. I the bass people have showed up. They just did their first crappie one with the same format. I hope I don't misspeak, but I think they did 1500 people in the crappie one. So I'm looking at the walleye world and begging them to show up. Let's show them this can work. Cause it is, it is for the hardcore guys who want to go focus on getting one bite and getting a, know, winning a huge prize.
Brian Bashore (17:40.891)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (17:52.763)
Peace.
Chad Schilling (18:07.118)
But it's also for, I'm gonna take my kids, get in a tournament. can go, heck, we might win an hourly prize with a 19-incher, you never know. So it gives a lot of opportunities for people to win. And it has a giant carrot hanging there at the end for the guys who only are worried about that. And I explained it a bunch. The simple system is you're fishing for one fish if you're hardcore, and it's a $10,000 fish over the two-day period. You only get to weigh one. With South Dakota rules, you get one over.
OK, so that makes that easy. But one a day, over 20 is you can weigh in. So once you weigh your over, you're done that day. The thing is, every two hours, there's a weigh in. So if you're within distance and you can put your boat in anywhere you want, as long as you start at 8 o'clock, there's going to be lie detector tests, is going to everybody's so worried about cheating. Let's just be more honorable than that. We don't even have to talk about it. Let's just be more
Brian Bashore (18:37.485)
One a day. Right.
Brian Bashore (19:04.086)
Yep. It sounds so simple, Chad. I mean, it really, it really does.
Chad Schilling (19:04.834)
We don't have to do it. Yeah, that's crazy. If you want to be crooked, we're going to catch you or you're going to get humbled at some point. And that's fair and final, but it makes it so people can put in at Whitlock's, they can put in at Mulbridge. We don't have to have the congestion. You can even go out and be sitting on the water. You can be sitting there eight o'clock when the time goes off, you can start fishing. When you do want to weigh one in though, you got to bring it to Swan Creek and the
The scales and everything, everything's right there. You walk your fish up. You weigh it in. Every two hours, there's eight prizes for the biggest fish of them two hours, the eight biggest fish of the two hour period. So the catch is going to be you can sit and look at your phone or listen to the radio, and you can say, there's only a 21 or a 20 ounce or win in fourth place. I want that cash.
Brian Bashore (19:50.906)
Right.
Chad Schilling (19:56.748)
What I've been thinking and one catch I see to the whole system on that is you don't know who's standing in line. So you got that excitement, but it's just, it's a lot of excitement and it's different and it's fun. And you might catch a 12 pounder in the first two hours and get to go sit at the local tavern and wait for something, you know, the rest of the day, if you want to. There's going to be live feeds at the community center and at the lake. can do either or you can fish all day. If you're a crank baiter, it's a dream in my world. Cause you can put as many people in your boat as you want.
Brian Bashore (20:01.819)
Clear.
Brian Bashore (20:11.953)
Yeah
Chad Schilling (20:26.22)
and you take turns reeling them in, you know what I mean? It's, it's legit. Now the scopers, they catch theirs. They kind of got to go sit back and let somebody else run their scope and see if they catch theirs. So there's just so much excitement and so much different. And in my opinion, and I mean, it's pretty obvious by the numbers, we need something different in the walleye world. Their participation is going away and it's
Brian Bashore (20:35.664)
Yup.
Chad Schilling (20:51.566)
For the lack of better terms, it's not that exciting anymore because there's another tournament next week. You know what I mean? It's just this way you got chances to take your family. It doesn't have to be two guys staring at a scope, you know, and you're usually fishing against six, boats that are going to win. I mean, some guy who only catches one fish in two days might win $10,000 and that's based on 200 people. If we get more, obviously then prizes get bigger. I have to go guarantees that 10 grand for first on the.
Brian Bashore (21:11.28)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (21:19.309)
Okay, so if it's less, it's still 10 grand. 10 grand's the minimum.
Chad Schilling (21:21.934)
Yeah, yep, the hourly will vary a bunch compared depending on the amount of entrance. So it it is a little confusing. But everybody that's so worried about, my gosh, this is going to be such a mess. These guys have done this. And I'm hoping we give them enough to make it exciting and hard. But they've done it with bigger than what we're going to show out here. You know, they've done big fields.
Brian Bashore (21:46.513)
There's an app or something to it, isn't there, that you can...
Chad Schilling (21:48.686)
Yeah, there's a it's afco.com you can go and see the rules, all the details and get the stuff and and if you enter before June 20th, you get it's a $200 entry fee you get $200 or the half code here.
Brian Bashore (21:51.941)
Now the web clip.
Brian Bashore (22:01.195)
Right. I heard that and I'm like, think Zell was trying to be broken down for me a little bit. I'm like, all right. So I just read into it. It is really very simple. It's just a lot of words, which for some of us is makes things look kind of complicated.
Chad Schilling (22:07.308)
Yep. It is simple.
Chad Schilling (22:14.894)
Well, buddy, I was trying to come up with different systems and I really hate the way tournaments are right now. mean, I love tournaments and I love tournament fishing. I've born and raised. I just, just the rules that, you you got to follow, no call, just a whole bunch of stuff that makes everything difficult for the guy who has the best day to win. And I was trying to talk to Walleye Classic into doing a no overs.
Brian Bashore (22:24.241)
deep down.
Chad Schilling (22:42.262)
and make it exciting. Let's let these weigh-ins where you run to the scale because you don't want that drop of water to go away and see how big that fish is. And it ain't two 12 pounders that blow it out. And that way, I feel like everybody had a chance. When we put it out there, I got all negative response.
Brian Bashore (22:57.359)
Really? Cause that's how a while he fishes now. It's I don't, you gotta go target your two big overs and forget the slots.
Chad Schilling (23:04.174)
And yes, if you get lucky to have time to catch your slots, that's fine. But there's no reason to go get 12 pounds with a slots when you can have 12 pounds with one fish, you know, and that's how you have to fish and. Love it or hate it. Don't I, I love that we have the opportunity. I don't love the fact that we're killing them all constantly. I will disagree with a lot of the professionals on how many we catch when we go scoping at night. Cause I've followed these fish for an hour.
Brian Bashore (23:23.471)
Yeah, yeah, that's-
Chad Schilling (23:32.682)
Afterwards, I watched them eat. I watched them swim back up to the top of the water and back down to 40 feet on their own without being caught. know, them fish move. It's insane that with the stuff we didn't know before Lyscope and what them fish actually do to themselves all the time that we think they're dead immediately. that fish is dead, they say. If you treat that fish right and fast, I would love to tag a couple hundred of them in a summer and show them they all get caught again.
I know I've caught the same fish before. I've went to the same tree and found him and caught him again. mean, you can, they do live, but what we do, and I love putting this on a podcast. Everybody talks all the, know, what we do wrong, but we don't take them out of the net. We reel them fish up. We do net them. We used to try grabbing them, but it's a, you know, having a 12 pounder is a fight. We don't want to reach in. We don't, we very, very rarely measure one anymore. We clip a scale on if they're big enough.
Brian Bashore (24:20.977)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Schilling (24:30.222)
and we'll pick them up and 12, 8, let them go. Don't even bring, I mean, they're out of the water for long enough to barely not drip. And the one thing that I think a lot of people have been taught wrong, we splash them big fish. don't, that laying them on that surface tip and hold them there until they feel strong. That's where I've lost the most. I feel like, especially as the year goes on, we take them big fish, one hand, we don't hold them by the tail and up and down. We go one on the belly, one on the tail and we splash them like.
Brian Bashore (24:58.587)
Thank you.
Chad Schilling (24:59.136)
a lot in the ocean and fish go three, four feet. They get mad. They don't like that. They explode and they're down there and they're back in their environment as fast as possible and I think that's the best. I don't know. I'm sure we kill one every once in We kill them because they eat a jiggrap and you can't see it no more in the morning out and we have to eat that fish on occasion. But I think we ate four last year and I don't want people to know how many over 10 pounds me and my son caught.
Brian Bashore (25:05.518)
Do.
Brian Bashore (25:17.201)
All right.
Brian Bashore (25:23.601)
That's not bad.
Chad Schilling (25:28.384)
summer. is, if you say it, you're a liar. It's that many. mean, there's nights where you get over 20 of them. I mean, so it's, it's spectacular. And I never feel like I watch them. I watch them swim down on the live scope. And if we were killing all of them, they'd be floating everywhere and we don't see them. So, I mean, obviously some fish die, but if they're a resource we don't use and what's the point in having it. So it's, it's a lot of fun though, man. Are we blessed to be where we are right now? I mean, swan food, these guys.
Brian Bashore (25:32.432)
Right.
Brian Bashore (25:58.553)
Well, everything after 1st of June in South Dakota is a kill tournament, which sucks. I know when I talked to Blackwell about this years ago and I get it. I thought it was bear trauma, but he said it was the live wells and the water temp. I'm like, live wells have come a long ways. and river fish are pretty damn tough. Especially mid-super-river. I mean, can't even catch those sort of bitches in your live well after a whole day of sitting in there trying to get them out the way I'm in, you know? But I mean, I get it. Not everybody's got, you know, the
Chad Schilling (26:03.885)
It does.
Chad Schilling (26:14.936)
They have.
Chad Schilling (26:21.922)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (26:28.729)
the nicer newer boats and live whales, but the G juice and all that stuff works, man.
Chad Schilling (26:33.826)
does, it does, but there are better systems. We can, we can release them now. We've proven that in a lot of other places and a lot of circuits do it like the bass even do it during the spawn. see that on the relief and stuff. And I mean, my thing is, and I will stick to this. I'm not a biologist and I promise you, I'm not the smartest guy, but if you let them go, they have a chance. give them the, you know, the, dumb and dumber philosophy. So you're saying they got a chance.
Brian Bashore (26:51.546)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (26:59.856)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (27:00.366)
I have never seen one spawn and I will prove this over and over again. Once they go through my cleaning station out there, I've never seen one of them lay eggs the next year. That's 100%. Once we clean them, they don't spawn again. So if they have a chance, there is ways to do that, you know, and it's a little more complicated. I always hear the argument, well, people don't come to weigh-ins to watch, you know, pitchers. And I kind of feel like that's changing. I think people
Brian Bashore (27:10.703)
Right.
Brian Bashore (27:28.759)
I think it is.
Chad Schilling (27:29.89)
People don't want to come to weigh-ins to see hundreds of dead big mamas, know, there that nobody even, we just clean them all. So.
Brian Bashore (27:37.521)
And when is the last time you're at a tournament where somebody held them up? Right. I mean, you get some of that there because you do have monsters, but if you go to the NWT, it's very seldom is somebody pulling it out of the bag and going, Hey, look at these. I like bass where they're always picking up there too, you know, but they're on it. They're getting them down. Someone's running it, getting it in the release boat where we're obviously considerably slower than that less staffed, but you're not showing them anyway. What's the point?
Chad Schilling (27:40.621)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (28:00.194)
Yep. There's, mean, and I'm not, don't have the answers. I'm not pretending to sit here and have the answers, but it is, it's troublesome watching all them big fish get cleaned, you know, and, it, what they always say, you know, we're going to kill them anyway. Well, them, if there's a hundred boat field, 95 of them guys let them fish go all week, whether, you know, they didn't kill them all week. The only reason they killed them is because they're forced to in the tournament and that's it. And man, I don't have the answers, but it is, it,
Brian Bashore (28:28.528)
What?
Chad Schilling (28:29.524)
It's, and we're so good now at it. That's the problem. It was the old, you'd see four or five big ones that MWC these last week. They're every single boat had them, you know, and, and wow, we have an amazing fishery, but I do my clients. I, my clients never get to keep one. We, you know, some of them we kill on accident. We'll get them mounted. A lot of them. I said, we eat them, but a lot of them, we get them mounted. if a customer catches a 30 incher, I'll say,
Brian Bashore (28:32.207)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (28:39.483)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (28:56.342)
she's gonna have babies. Can I let her go? have that exact fish on my wall and you can take it home today. When you get done, you can take that fish home and we don't have to kill this one. And that works a lot. I mean, most people just want to let them go. Most people, know, a lot of people don't put them on the wall anyway, but.
Brian Bashore (29:12.411)
Grab a photo and move on.
Chad Schilling (29:14.134)
what
Brian Bashore (29:25.841)
Hurry up, hurry up.
Brian Bashore (29:41.911)
Right.
Chad Schilling (29:42.862)
for their limit, it, you you try to do your best. I mean, we do make a living off the system, but it's also our favorite place on the planet. And if they said we couldn't do it, we'd be out there every day anyway. We just would never catch, one. So, yeah.
Brian Bashore (29:56.785)
Right. You you filled out tournament permit fees and now they've added the catch photo release option to it in South Dakota. We do that. We have a league night at Lewis and Clark on Tuesdays, a couple of Tuesdays a month. And that's what we do. Aim for week on the board, bump board shot, photo trophy, whatever shot, toss it back 30 seconds. It's in the water. Bam. Enter it in their fish, donkey app converts, measures, wait, done deal. Everybody loves it. You don't have to worry about if your partner doesn't show up and your best five fish where your limits for.
You know, and the only rule when I set this league up was we were doing it this way. Cause I'm not taking all these killing all these fish, you know, in a system that isn't as healthy as a wall hair Francis case, you know, and everybody's kind of like, I don't know about it, but after one night they went, this is freaking awesome. You know, we love this. don't, just first five, and then you just kind of basically you're calling after that. uploads like, you don't need to waste your time. If you've a 15 and yet in your smallest to the 16 to just throw back, you know, and if you've got a bigger one, it kicks out the smaller one for you to move on. But I would like to see the option.
Chad Schilling (30:31.81)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (30:55.697)
And they did it North Dakota last year was a Coquia tournament where they gave them a special permit to do the release, even though they're the same situation, a kill tournament. Well, South Dakota let's offer it. And maybe they do it. I don't know if they haven't applied for it or I don't, not on the form anywhere, but I like to see a special assay. Give us the option to release the ones we can. And if, and if, and if they're dead, they're dead, but if 70 % of these are going to live, let's throw them an NTC is coming to Francis case in a week and you're talking 250 plus boats.
Chad Schilling (31:08.622)
Yeah.
Yep. Yep, exactly.
Chad Schilling (31:23.757)
Yep, exactly.
Brian Bashore (31:24.337)
You know, and probably an 80, 90 % limit of all those boats every day. That's a hell of a lot of fish.
Chad Schilling (31:28.812)
Yep, it is. is. the anglers aren't the ones who are going to fight it. You know, they want to let them go. mean, tournament anglers, I mean, as far as what I see nowadays, they have no desire to kill the wrong fish. Everybody wants to a fish fry. Everybody loves eating fish. during the week, they don't kill very many. They might kill a couple. The whole thing is the old argument was, remember, I seen a fish float and there was fish floating.
I agree with that, you know, and it stinks and you should scoop that fish up if you have a spot for it in your live well and you should be happy that 95 % of them didn't float. You know what mean? That's how I feel about it. It's, it does stink. Seeing a big fish float, I found a 30 and a half inch the other day, it had a 14 inch smallmouth stuck in its throat. Nobody caught it, nobody heard it. The friends from me from Iowa right behind me said, we're cleaning it. And they kept, cleaned it and the smallmouth and they were both fresh.
Brian Bashore (32:23.055)
Yep. And there's one mouth, yeah.
Chad Schilling (32:28.118)
If we could get to that where people are like, hey, it stinks, one died, but we had room in our live well. I don't like seeing that fish get wasted. We don't need to change the law where nobody can have it. And the aim is to punish you if you did bring one in. And I didn't know if I agreed or disagreed to that, but I would love to see like, hey, you know that fish is going to die. Bring it home. if, you just wanted to keep the fish, shouldn't tell the angler they can't, but we shouldn't tell them they can't release them. That's my problem.
I want to give them the option to save that fish. And I mean, nobody wants to see seven, 12 pounders get cleaned when that some little kid fish next weekend, catch that fish and talk about it for the rest of his life. it is, I hope eyes get opened and it's, I have talked, I have preached, I have talked, I have argued, and I've talked to the people at the top saying, let's do something, let's protect them. And I have been met with not the easiest conversation, but
Brian Bashore (33:04.283)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (33:27.15)
I'm gonna keep trying, you know what I mean? If we don't keep trying and begging and asking for it and things like what we're doing right here, I hope we're helpful. I'm not saying I'm not blaming nobody, I'm not pointing fingers. I'm just saying I think we can do better. Well, you can always do better. No matter what you're doing, you can always do better. And that's what we're trying. That's what we're hoping.
Brian Bashore (33:41.977)
Right, always do better.
And you're right. The tournament anglers aren't going to put up a resistance on this. And like you said, we, if we want some to eat, we're going to keep the little ones anyway, you know, and that's perfectly fine. mean, keep, you know, whatever. And I tell them if they catch the big trophy one, yeah, I would love for it to go back, but I get it. your, want it on your wall or whatever. And replicas are pretty damn good. wasn't a big fan of them, but I've seen somebody doing some now I'm like, that's good. I'm like, I'm okay with that. Now that's a good replica, you know, or
Take them out of somebody else's backyard. They would like area and get those things. They want you to take them out of there. So.
Chad Schilling (34:17.632)
But and like we said, we're not point fingers or blaming anyone, because we're all to blame. I'm as much to blame as anybody, we can do better. And I think it's just around the corner. mean, people are going to realize that. And I honestly don't think a weigh-in would be real bad if everybody had a big screen and you got to watch everybody release all them big fish all day. I mean, you sure ain't sitting there going, well, that one's dead. I can't catch it. If you get to watch people take a hero, a grip and grin, and then throw it back.
Man, that fish is there for you. I think that's more popular in the weigh-in world. mean, you could be sitting there with your family going, let's go try to catch that one. It's still there instead of, no, it just went through a grinder over here a half mile away and no one's gonna do it again.
Brian Bashore (34:48.251)
Yeah, Yeah.
Brian Bashore (34:59.511)
Yep. Yeah. You probably get an actual applause out of way when you start seeing some of that stuff.
Chad Schilling (35:06.766)
things like you're gonna get some yelling at weigh-ins and stuff and things like that again, if you get to that and everybody, know, whatever, I don't see how you can cheat a measuring system and you know what I mean? You lay it down, old people try to stretch it. Well, they just messed around for a half hour. They probably would have caught another fish. Lay that thing down, get it down, have it on record and whatever. I mean, I don't have the answers. I'm not gonna say I do, but I would be, I would go to all the weigh-ins if I could watch fish swim away instead of being cleaned. And I just fished a tournament up in.
Brian Bashore (35:17.723)
Right.
Chad Schilling (35:35.294)
and the casino circuit's trying to do their best to keep, you have to bring in live fish. And the stress of me watching them fish all weekend in the live on Saturday, Saturday, four footers, I'm fishing six feet of water with a jigging crawler and my first one is bleeding when I net it. And I pumped it full of G-juice and that stuff and I got her home alive seven hours later, but don't think there was a 20 minute period where I didn't have my head stuck in a live one.
Brian Bashore (35:38.171)
Yep. Yep.
Brian Bashore (35:46.063)
Right.
Brian Bashore (35:54.534)
Yeah.
Now...
Brian Bashore (36:04.057)
Right.
Chad Schilling (36:04.832)
I'm she was okay and it's just like, we don't have to do this anymore. She might've died if I let her go, but her chances were a lot better if I put her back, you know?
Brian Bashore (36:13.457)
Yeah, it's you're spending so much time or your partner's babysitting those fish all day and weight clipping them, getting them down, getting them to stay down or fizzing them or whatever the case may be when let's just take the photo, put them on the board, throw them back, or at least give us the opportunity to release them at the end of the day. We bring them in.
Chad Schilling (36:31.128)
Well, we release them all week. That's my whole problem with it. Everybody releases them all week and they say they're only floating on tournament days. Well, that seems a little strange.
Brian Bashore (36:33.039)
Right.
Brian Bashore (36:39.665)
Yeah, I mean, we got a lot more eyeballs on us, but you know, sometimes there's not a ton of people at these weigh-ins anyway, but when you do throw them back, they usually die right away. And there's somebody down there with a net picking these up or kids just waiting to grab them and say, yep, look at all these fish we get to eat tonight, you know, and, I don't know what they're going to do the NTC when you have these. I'm like, okay, I got, we got our eight fish. You know, I'm like, I don't want any of them. So I mean, I'm not, you made me bring them in and kill them. They're your problem.
Chad Schilling (36:43.778)
That's really it.
Chad Schilling (37:02.861)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (37:08.283)
There's, you know, I don't want them. didn't want to do this. So.
Chad Schilling (37:11.572)
I so yeah, whatever. Like we said, we're not throwing blame anybody's way, but there are better systems and there's a better system in what I do every single day. I've always working to improve on it. I just hope we improve on the tournament world and it would be, it'd be pretty exciting to see the NTC not have, or the NWT, you know, you go a place and you gotta have your partner's got to catch one or you got to, you know what I mean? I mean, I seriously was coming back. I was bringing my son and we were, we were going to do the tour this year. And I'm just like,
Brian Bashore (37:33.327)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (37:40.524)
But until they figure this all out, you so we're not going and hoping we get lucky and catch them in the right order. Cause I mean, it just takes a lot of the skill out and the guy who gets lucky and catches them in the right order or doesn't care about his season, you know, keep throwing them back all day. Cause you got to worry about points. And if we can go to something like that in that game, sign me up, me and Bo, Bo's ready. I'm just not ready to throw him to the wolves when there's so much luck and timing and
Brian Bashore (37:42.63)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (38:09.614)
stuff like that involved. I he can scope with anybody right now. He really can't, but for him to go catch him, you know, he can tell the size, but what do you throw at that 25 when you're not going to win, but you got to keep it for points and let's go catch the best limit we can in a day. And at the end of it, let's see who caught the best ones.
Brian Bashore (38:28.591)
I mean, the bass guys get a calling permit everywhere they go. I believe all of these are out there for like NWT. You just have to do the work and apply and ask the questions. And I can't say they do or don't do it. I don't know. The federation isn't in the own Kalman. Those guys are in charge of that and maybe they do. Maybe they're getting denied. I don't know. I'm going to guess that.
Chad Schilling (38:36.791)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (38:47.008)
It's looked down upon in the game of fish and parks. It might be getting better, but it was looked down on for quite a while, the catch, record and release. And I think they gotta be seeing, you know, that the options are there and anglers are good and it can be done in a safe and it's the best thing. I mean, there's just no way killing them is the best thing. There's just no way that.
Brian Bashore (39:09.709)
No, I talked to Brian Blackwell. So I was listening, he's basically the head biologist for GFP and good guy, knows the stuff and our South Dakota GFP, the COOs and our biologists do a pretty damn good job. You know, obviously compared to lot of the other states, but I talked to him about it when we're looking at AIM, I think there should be a North and South Dakota circuit. I think that would help their AIM numbers a lot in North Dakota, but the problem South Dakota was the kill term and stuff. So I talked to him and I explained to him what it was.
Chad Schilling (39:32.108)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (39:39.023)
Maybe just he didn't get it the first time, whatever, but it clicked and he was like, yeah, I got no problem with that at all. He's like, I'm like, they don't go in the live wall at all. Like they're back in the water and 30 seconds, you know, or a minute at the, at the most, right? If you're have wind and other elements kind of cause a problem. So he's like, yeah. He's like, I have no problem with that at all. Go for it. You know, and then they added that to the tournament page. Now when you, know, it's killed tournament.
Chad Schilling (39:50.638)
You
Chad Schilling (39:59.988)
Yep, and that's.
Brian Bashore (40:07.973)
Catch and release tournaments, but after is it June 1st through September 1st is killed tournaments. I so any before obviously is you can catch release. Hopefully that's what you're putting on there and then catch photo release. So, you know, that options there, like you said, I think they're getting it and to sustain your fishery. That's absolutely phenomenal. Let's keep that. Let's not let it die off in two years. Like some biologists predicted that the things that about the class of herring was going to kill off or something.
Mother Nature is going to do its things like the zebra mussels and we had all down here saying we just let nature just do what it does. Right? They got here, they'll leave here. Something else will move in.
Chad Schilling (40:40.802)
Yep, that's right. Yep. Yep. It's well, you want to hear God laugh, make a plan because it don't matter what we plan that over. I mean, Mother Nature is the same way over. You want to want to make a plan? Let's see how this hits you. You never know. And I mean, the future is bright. I look forward to it. We have low water levels, you know, and the amount of trees and brush growing along this system right now does come up.
Brian Bashore (41:08.731)
Yeah, yeah.
Chad Schilling (41:11.43)
my gosh, I would give anything for everyone at GFP to let go. Let's pour the perch to this thing here when that water comes back up because there's something that can take place of the herring if the herring would go away. And boy, I like eating perch almost as much as them walleyes do. So you'd have four agenda and a fish that's very, very desirable. know, we are seeing numbers of perch. Our crappies have actually caught a few this spring. We're protecting. I do know where there's some beds.
Brian Bashore (41:18.065)
You
Brian Bashore (41:27.323)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (41:39.904)
I tell people all time, yes, I can go catch some. No, I won't. I won't go touch them. We're starting to see a little bit of them again, but the water levels can stay low. I'm fine with it. Give me another year and then let's let this thing come back up. And boy, the future will look real bright when that all.
Brian Bashore (41:44.453)
Wait,
Brian Bashore (41:52.859)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (41:58.661)
That's fisheries, boom, little water, willow trees, all this stuff grows up. Then bam, you got up not necessarily a flood, but a nice high water year. now it's, there's Harlan County, Nebraska is a great example of this stuff where you couldn't get to fish for years. People just didn't know how now they're getting a little more educated. But then after a few winters where that ice started pulling those little trees out and now you had little pockets and it was like four or five years or less. Like, it's tough. It's tough. And also you're like, here. had 15 walleyes over 25 inches and two days there.
you know, it's been 10 years ago and that was like unheard of, you know, I'm like, that's cause you couldn't catch them for a couple of years and they just got fat and they were hidden. So that's what, you know, hopefully you're going to happen to for why.
Chad Schilling (42:31.576)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (42:37.582)
We were winning a very high portion of the tournaments back when my kids were little and it was all pulling planer boards over trees and you know, that's like throwing a straw in the wind. Now we can go target them and we can throw a bobber to them. You know, I'm just, I'm like, I think about the water levels coming back. I just did that in Devils, man. We were weed fishing. I've never had weed fish before. Never had the opportunity. I quit before scoping, you know, and I just have never got to target them in weeds and
Brian Bashore (42:51.503)
Alright!
Brian Bashore (42:57.595)
Yeah. really? Yeah.
Yep.
Chad Schilling (43:07.374)
I'm telling you, it's a good thing I had to come home and go to work, because I'd have been there throwing it. I learned so I only got to fish devils two times. I've fished it three times in last eight years. And the last two days up there this weekend was that that is so much fun to throw at them, fishing them weeds.
Brian Bashore (43:24.657)
It is, that's great place for scope. that's kind of where I got my, a lot of, you, if you need to learn, it's a very target rich environment because you have so many isolated structure, you know, pods that they're obviously on, whether it's rocks, weeds, or trees, or a combine or a barn or whatever the hell it may be underneath water, right? They're there and you find them and then you just got to figure out, you know, how to get them to bite and it makes it fun. You're going to lose some lures though.
Chad Schilling (43:30.945)
It is that,
Chad Schilling (43:36.566)
Yep. Yep.
Chad Schilling (43:43.17)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Schilling (43:48.244)
It is. Yeah, it's good place to sell tackle also. So yes, that's very.
Brian Bashore (43:53.131)
Yes, it is. It Actually the jigging wraps, I could imagine those pillars of those, those power poles, how many jigging wraps are tied to those. And it's like, it's busted up concrete and rebar around the bases of them. It's just, it's gnarly mess. think half time you're probably getting snagged on a pile of jigging wraps, you know.
Chad Schilling (44:09.806)
Yep. That year when I was winning the NWT up there on day one, I went through 36 jigging wraps and I quit fishing at 10 o'clock in the morning. I mean, I didn't even miss a whole day. I would have went broke. I could have won the tournament. We paid Rapala. So it would have been a mess. yeah, it was it's a it's a it's an amazing place to fish it. It's so much different than here. It just makes my day to go there because you get to do so many weird things that I enjoy it all. I do like trying absolutely everything.
Brian Bashore (44:18.309)
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah, that
Brian Bashore (44:38.517)
That's as the SCAC is my favorite doubles is my second anywhere on the Missouri rivers, you know, right there. But doubles is just exactly what, what you just said is you can fish however you want. And tournaments, when we go to like a bago system, a devil's lake somewhere like that, where you can go, you can fish your strengths, whether that's the right thing to do or not, but you, you're going to enjoy it so much more. You're not stuck to open water trolling or something, which I love playing her boards and watching them go down at Erie or something, but.
Chad Schilling (44:59.287)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (45:06.266)
Boy, if I can have a jigging rod in my hand, just like you, right? We're a little addicted.
Chad Schilling (45:12.354)
do like everything. And everybody always asks me in my world, know, jeez, you hunt and fish every day. Which one do you like more? Well, I fish until about the end of August and I'm not lying. I'm done. I get done. I'm going have a little tournament run there at the end with the governor's cup in the Afco and a casino circuit tournament. I'm gone. I'm putting a bow and arrow in my hand and I'm going until the day Shonda says I got to be lined up hunting pheasants. And I can't look for, I look forward to that as much as anything. And about the end of
Brian Bashore (45:14.918)
Yep.
Chad Schilling (45:41.74)
January, who am I ready to go ice fishing again and get done shooting things? So it's I'm extremely blessed to get to do it in a beautiful place and got a good team around me and a bunch of kids. So it's a lot of fun and thank thank God he put me here because I had a failed anywhere else I went.
Brian Bashore (45:44.944)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (45:59.097)
It's a good place and it's awesome that you got something for all those kids in the area. mean, the reality is there's not a whole hell of a lot to do up there if you're not farming, you know, whatever the case is ranching.
Chad Schilling (46:06.966)
right. I can tell you what they do, they graduate and they move as far away as they can if they don't do that stuff.
Brian Bashore (46:13.265)
Yep. Yep. They're out and they get a taste of something somewhere else and so be it and good on them. And a lot of them, I guarantee you probably come back home when they have raising families. I see that. I see that everywhere. And that that's great. But give Chad a call. If you need a job, kids, you've got to grow up there. And like I said, that's, know, after five days, after two weeks, you really kind of get to the guy life and go, Ooh, this is exhausting. isn't just going fishing every day is fun. It's a...
Chad Schilling (46:21.806)
That's exactly.
Chad Schilling (46:28.536)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (46:36.93)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (46:39.983)
Your day starts a couple hours before they show up to several hours after they're done.
Chad Schilling (46:44.098)
That's exactly right. Well, my low man on the totem pole today got caught. I was like, well, you don't get to fish today. We're removing flooring. You get to pull staples out of a floor all day. So it's not all catching fish and net and big fish. You do have other things, but he'll move up the pole quickly and he'll get to tell somebody else next year that they got the crappy job when it comes to it.
Brian Bashore (47:03.887)
Right, you gotta cut your teeth. When is the, so when is that AFCO tournament? July, end of July?
Chad Schilling (47:10.016)
Yeah, it's the July 23rd or 25th and 26th. I should have wrote that down, but it's the yeah, it's the third. It's the last Saturday in July.
Brian Bashore (47:21.349)
July. Yeah. I think we have our family vacation that week. So looked at it. was like, damn, yep. We're going to the upper UP. was like, I'm like, I'll go, I'll go out there and chase a big fish around for a couple of days. And no, and a $200 entry. like I said, by June 20th, you get your, basically get your entry fee back in Afco clothing, which is awesome. You know, you know, great, great stuff. The Reaper, I mean, it's just, they've been bittest a long time making it because it's good stuff. Period. They give it. Yeah.
Chad Schilling (47:31.822)
Yeah, I put that brand, can't beat that, so.
Chad Schilling (47:48.426)
One, they have an amazing market on the ocean, offshore stuff. And the Midwest is where they need a market. I mean, just to give us this kind of opportunity, mean, companies don't do this in the walleye world, especially on a small level, like a regional level and on the greatest playing field available right here on Hawaii. I just hope.
Walleye anglers need to show up, show their support for something like this. And man, it's an exciting deal. And they already have three times the participants they had last year. And that was in the first few weeks of it. And I get calls every day and I explain. They're like, well, gosh, I'm bringing my family for that. And so we are in an area where we're getting rooms. So if you're going to do it, quit messing around. Get ahold of us. We'll point you in the direction where we don't have rooms.
Get it locked down. Get out here. There's beautiful campgrounds. Our parks do such an amazing job. Ryan Parson and the crew here, our parks and the whole area, well, you've camped out there and stuff. Get something reserved and get out here and support this. It's gonna be fun. I mean, the cast is always fun. So come catch a big fish and have a good time and maybe win a bunch of money.
Brian Bashore (49:01.562)
Right.
Brian Bashore (49:06.288)
Yeah. South Dakota state parks are pretty damn nice. I pretty much live at one all summer. it's a, my wife does a lot for tourism and other states and travels and car camps. she's like, these all, they all suck compared to what she's used to, you know, at Lewis Clark is by far way above anything. Cause it's, I mean, it's massive. Uh, but yeah, they do a great job. Keep it mode, keep the bathrooms clean, the trash empty. mean, and then you, yeah. No, all your clients is like, are probably like, what is this thing?
Chad Schilling (49:28.248)
Cleaning station or second is no one has anything like what we have.
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (49:35.359)
I wish we had these, you know, and, if they do break down to the grinders are busy and, know, the next day you come back to their, they're up and running.
Chad Schilling (49:43.192)
We are blessed. have, I mean, we've just started the last few years where we have people who live at the parks, you know, and they take care of them. They just live there and that's what they get. I think they get their camping to take care of things. Our guys out there right now, we had an outlet the other day and that guy was wiring immediately and had everything fixed. And it's just like, thank you so much. I mean, it's, are, again, we are blessed.
Brian Bashore (50:05.595)
We we we live in a great place and you got so while he wings the walleye So get a hold of Chad if you need rooms, you got some places you got another place to didn't you guys buy another?
Chad Schilling (50:14.936)
We've leased the Prairie Pillow Sportsman's Lodge. It's better for the hunting end because there's a little gravel going there. Some people don't mind. We do keep boats in town for the people who do stay out there. We have a couple rental houses. We have a motel. And then we have the two lodges available for lodging. we have good friends around the area that do some Airbnb stuff. And we also have another couple lodges in town that are available too.
Brian Bashore (50:16.867)
Okay, at least, yep.
Brian Bashore (50:21.818)
Okay.
Chad Schilling (50:42.222)
The beautiful thing is you can stay at Whitlocks and put in for this one. And it's a 25 minute boat ride, but you're here to weigh in your fish. Mobridge, everybody's going to get supported by this tournament. what's great for us is you can be right here close to the scale or you can put in wherever you want. And I'll promise you, I'm not going 10 miles away from Swan Creek. Everybody can know that right now. there are going to be some other additional prizes and stuff added.
quite announce them yet. got there there but there's going to be other ways to win. I mean it's going to be like I'm hoping there's kids and female you know weigh-ins and stuff like that. Absolutely as we start getting more and get closer we're going to announce some more of that stuff and I'm excited. have been well heck I skipped the classic the last couple of years because there was 18 19 boats I could work or go to another one and I was
Brian Bashore (51:13.389)
yeah.
Brian Bashore (51:21.359)
Yep, like categories and what have you. Yep.
Chad Schilling (51:40.75)
I was at the top of the list for signing up for this one and all my guys are signing up and anybody can beat him. You only need to catch one. That's the cool. Everybody's got a chance here. And the thing about my son and Dewey and Tyson and guys like that, if they come to this, they're going to target that $10,000 fish. There's a good chance they don't win a category or anything because they're going for that one fish, you know, and I'm washed up. So if I got an hourly one, I'm waiting.
Brian Bashore (51:48.037)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (52:08.879)
Right. Help away that sucker. Right. I'm gonna cash in each day if I can. Yep. Yep.
Chad Schilling (52:12.908)
Maybe I'll get lucky, it wins the whole thing, but there's gonna be so much strategy, there's gonna be broken hearts, because they're gonna be standing in line with the wrong fish, and it's gonna be.
Brian Bashore (52:21.391)
And that, and you don't have to catch your fish and then bring it in right away. don't think what people understand. You can sit on that thing all day long and wait for the right window.
Chad Schilling (52:26.19)
Chad Schilling (52:29.666)
Yeah, but waiting for that last hour is gonna be a little scary because there's gonna be other doing that, you know, and yeah, you might be down at Whitlocks and you just give up your boat for the whole day and you watch your phone seeing what what hours you can win. Well, if you get to the last hour, guess what? There's three or four other guys that were sitting in the back of a boat waiting for their partner to catch one and bring it in too. So that last hour seems to be the hardest one in my mind to win. But it's going to be who knows? That's the whole thing. We can talk and talk, but it's going to be.
Brian Bashore (52:32.357)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (52:53.691)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (52:58.481)
That's what makes it fun is you just don't know and there's the gamesmanship right the little strategy and did you play it right and And I mean you but you just you really don't know unless you're like in line and you're like, wait I'm gonna run back to the boat with this one. I don't want to bring it in I think I think you got to be kind of like you're already in buddy. You've checked it. You don't get it, you know
Chad Schilling (53:04.555)
Yep. Yep.
Chad Schilling (53:14.126)
I'm sure they have a system for that. Can you imagine 1,500 crappie fishermen and everything's within an ounce? That's the school of my mind. mean, we're gonna have some big weights and I'm sure the big ones will be within a few ounces of each other, but it could be like 1.532 weight crappies. I mean, I can't imagine, so.
Brian Bashore (53:21.081)
Yeah, yeah, that's...
Brian Bashore (53:31.877)
Right.
But you got incentives though, every two hours. mean, there's a reason for somebody to be bringing fish in every couple hours. And if you get a couple of hundred, don't know how many signed up so far, it seems like a couple of hundreds of no brainer. mean, you get the Gov's Cup and these other, you know, the locals that are, that are a hundred plus people showing up for these with a less chance of winning anything. You know, to now you got basically a free entry in a sense.
Chad Schilling (53:50.574)
Yep. Anything. Yes. And 32 payouts a day. You know, there's four, eight places paid out. So there's 32 a day plus the big one. mean, so everybody likes to win a little something, even if it's not the check you were looking for.
Brian Bashore (54:08.239)
Yeah. I mean, it's kind of like getting the door prize almost here. And it's a lot less dress in a sense, cause you're just fishing with, like you said, a bunch of people in your boat. You got one goal, one fish, you know, the stress is when do I weigh it in or do I weigh it in? That's, that's it. Right. So, that's fun. That's what makes it fun. I think that's it. I got to double check this family vacation thing and see if we're back by then, but I'm sold. I saw it early. Like I I got confused, but I was totally overthinking it. And, and then.
Chad Schilling (54:34.542)
Me too. And everyone gets in. The thing that I get, which I mean, it's not, is, everybody should have questions. There's no dumb questions, but people call me and they're like, well, how are they going to manage all this? And I'm like, guys, we're going to be small potatoes for this is a team that comes that does this. I mean, AFCO, when I talked to them, when this whole thing was born, they called me and said, we want to do a tournament there. And I had just walked out of a walleye classic meeting where we're trying to come up with a way.
Brian Bashore (54:50.779)
Right.
Chad Schilling (55:02.242)
to make the walleye classic something again, you know, like we used to fill the town and have so much excitement and fun. And last year there was 19 boats, you know, we begged three or four of them to fish it at the end. I like some guys use my boat so they can go fish it just to get some new blood in there. And it was, you know, it was like, this is sad because it's such a great event. People love coming here, but that time of year it's hard to get excitement in tournaments. There's been a tournament or four every weekend. And this is just that.
Brian Bashore (55:29.681)
All right.
Chad Schilling (55:31.98)
different, you know what I mean? And it's
Brian Bashore (55:33.777)
Well, I mean, tournaments in general, and I think you touched on one of your posts. It's the wallow world needs something new, whether it's live streaming or not. don't think people understand that. And I've said this a hundred times when they're the cost that goes into that. You can't compare it to the bass and what they're doing. It's literally, I think I got it from them once 200, some thousand dollars per hour. You know, when you're paying your camera guys and streaming and studios, I'm like, yeah, we don't.
Chad Schilling (55:44.866)
Yes, exactly.
Chad Schilling (55:53.205)
my.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (55:58.993)
There's not $200,000 all year in some of these circuits. that's, not going to happen. It's, know, it's not going to work out that way. But, you know, this is a different twist. Economies, economy, gas, fuel, none of this stuff is cheap. You shouldn't be fishing tournaments to make a living because you're not, right? You got to go broke pretty quick. You're doing it because you love the sport. You love the passion. You love to compete. I've been donating plenty the last year and a half and it sucks, but I'm not going to give it up. I'm just going to strategically fish ones that don't cost as much.
Chad Schilling (56:19.778)
better.
Brian Bashore (56:28.689)
But we're gonna keep doing it.
Chad Schilling (56:31.47)
Exactly. And you know what? I mean, I don't like the unloading. I don't like all that chaos that come with tournaments, you know, and try to and this hopefully has that answer to that too, a little bit. What they do and the way it gets big, like when these things blow up and they get big, they have several weigh-in sites. Right now, we're not planning on it because we're hoping for 200 people. Like when they have 1500, 3000 entries, whatever they get to and some of them big bass mashes, they'll have five different weigh-in stations.
Brian Bashore (57:00.657)
They'd have to. So yeah, American Fish Tackle Company is a huge company, big in the conservation world. AFCO gives back a ton and does a ton for the resources, which theoretically is that's what they're doing with this. Yes, you're catching a fish and it's South Dakota. So we got to skilled or whatever the case may be. But those that don't fish a lot of buying a fishing license. Right. You're getting Pimmins Robinson stuff. They're buying or not. They're a Johnson. Funny stuff. Right. You're buying license. You're buying tackle. You're buying the Marine tax fuels.
Chad Schilling (57:01.89)
That would be pain, it?
Brian Bashore (57:30.533)
All this goes back to the state or go back through the federal funding gets funneled back to the state, creates money, goes back into our fisheries.
Chad Schilling (57:36.492)
Yep. Yep. And AFCO is huge in conservation. mean, they, they've got a bunch of ideas and things they're going to do. They hand out cleanup bags. There's an award for who fills up the cleanup bags, the fullest. And I mean, they do all kinds of stuff. everything's about conservation and taking care of the system. And it's a man, it's a family who loves fishing and loves conservation and taking care of things. So, I mean, it, if you're going to stand behind something, this is a heck of a company to stand behind.
I'm so proud to be and I met them through pheasant hunting. I took Mike Ballester and Bill Shepke pheasant hunting. I didn't even know who they were. We were having a blast and just great people. And that's how this whole thing got born. mean, we were like, we want to do a tournament here. was like, who are you? You know, I didn't even know. I have a clue. I mean, it's a friendship that'll last forever. These guys are just good people. They're good. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (58:28.913)
Yep. Yep. I know Mike. So yeah, they're doers. So thank God. and then Mike's involved with all sorts of stuff. So, is probably how he found you. And then he knew, oh, wow. Hey, this is a good place to have it. Cause he's, know.
Chad Schilling (58:36.076)
He said everything.
Chad Schilling (58:40.738)
We got invited on a late season Fezzanotte. That's a cool thing. wasn't like he just got thrown into the mix with the Schilling shit show as we like to call it. And it's been a, it's been an awesome friendship ever since.
Brian Bashore (58:47.269)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (58:52.369)
You know, and for guys like us that make our living on these resources, is the protecting these resources is the first and foremost important thing there is. If we don't have it, we don't have a job, but we don't have a future. So it's not always just getting the kids back. It's getting anybody back real, real reignited. You know, COVID helped that and in somewhat sense, people that kind of took time away from fishing or outdoors got back into it. So I went left and, but I think overall numbers continue to climb hunting to.
tends to drop. North Dakota had an uptick, but fishing numbers still may be slow, but they're on they're climbing.
Chad Schilling (59:27.714)
They're climbing. And that's my thing. I try to tell people about guides and people, mean, they're bad at everything you do and don't, there's people who don't do the right thing and that's their deal. I'm not throwing stones because nobody's perfect, but I take, I mean, we go four to six people a day, every single day of the week. All my people wouldn't be fishing if they didn't have the availability of going with us. They don't own rods. They don't own boats. A good portion of them.
Brian Bashore (59:32.273)
and
Chad Schilling (59:55.822)
couldn't do it by themselves. They can't climb in a boat. So we are giving people, I mean, yes, we make a living at it, but we're also putting people out there that wouldn't do it. And half of them now are bringing their grandkids who haven't had the opportunity and they don't do it. And we cause a lot of addiction. It costs a lot of money. I mean, we bring a lot of people.
Brian Bashore (01:00:12.111)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:00:15.863)
good health addiction though. This stuff's gonna help sustain your life and make you live longer.
Chad Schilling (01:00:19.758)
Absolutely is true. it's, Yeah. Well, and somebody needs to come buy one here. I got one right next door. They need to look, call my wife and call some people here and we got one. It's open. So it is for sale. It, there's a couple, there's always people looking. everybody keeps trying to talk me into it. My life is bliss. I'm not going to lie. I really, I really live a good life and owning a bar and a restaurant doesn't seem to
Brian Bashore (01:00:22.703)
Let's chat introduce you to the Akaska bar.
Brian Bashore (01:00:31.333)
that place is that still for sale?
Brian Bashore (01:00:43.013)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (01:00:48.632)
fit into my hand the way my cards are dealt right now. I would love to see if I had the energy, I'm getting to where I'm ready to go the other way, slow down, not wear Carter's. it, but yeah, anybody who's interested in something like that, get ahold of us also, and we can point you in the right direction. It needs a good family that needs to come in there. And there's a lot of opportunity there also.
Brian Bashore (01:00:48.752)
No.
That's a lot of work.
Brian Bashore (01:01:09.425)
There you go. He's the mayor of a Casca folks. It's, it's, it's their number one salesman.
Chad Schilling (01:01:11.446)
No, I'm not.
Chad Schilling (01:01:17.011)
man, I sure appreciate this opportunity, Brian. We've never done this before, but it's been a blast. Thank you.
Brian Bashore (01:01:22.609)
You bet. yeah, time to wrap this up. We got to leave these listeners. What kind of tip or a little nugget you got to make them better along their journey. think we've already dropped 20 of them for them, but.
Chad Schilling (01:01:34.42)
you know, the one thing I always do is like I talked about, make it easy, you know, fishing doesn't have to be hard and it doesn't have to be stressful. And something I see a lot here that, I mean, this is something not a lot of people talk about, but I've got people who come to the cleaning station. like, only kept four fish today. had, we don't have the rules you do where they have to be 15 inches and people will ruin their whole day to catch all over 19 inches. And they'll let go 14 and a half inches all day long. Cause they had to be that long. And
Take what you're dealt in a day. Be happy. it. know, and eating a small one tastes so much better. I used to have a rule, if you can't eat three by yourself, you're eating too big a fish. Now it used to be my rule and we had so many small ones, but we're only granted so many days out there. Don't ruin it because you had to have all 15 inches or 16 and a half inches. Take what you're given and enjoy the day and be good. Be nice to each other. Man, it seems like that's one thing we have seen a little bit more this year is.
People get a little more worked up and the weather probably had a lot to do with that, you won't catch one of my crew members yelling at you or doing any of that on the lake. And I see other guys doing it and doing that. Please, if it ever is one of my kids, let me know and then don't let the cops watch while I fix that problem. Because we're all in our world and we keep everybody, we try to be happy and do it the same and treat everybody fair, so.
Brian Bashore (01:02:46.865)
Right, we're going to take care of it.
Brian Bashore (01:02:51.885)
Right. There's some corrective measures that get taken sometimes. We all make mistakes, but you know, and we get a little excited sometimes with fishing and our clients get real excited, which always tell me that's great, but slow down, take it out of the rod holder a little slower, you know, but that lately I've been like real faster. Come on, this fish is going to swim ahead of the boat. go. You know, but they're learning, right? Like you said, you're giving them opportunities. And I actually heard the same words today from that couple retired guys this morning and we got them quick.
Chad Schilling (01:02:57.09)
Yes,
Chad Schilling (01:03:09.134)
Thank
Brian Bashore (01:03:21.905)
But he quickly realized first they were like, this boat's awesome. You know, I got the 400 V 10 audit. He's like making fun of his buddy who he fish out of his boat. And he's mainly, he goes, I'm, getting rid of my boat. He's like, I'm never going to the other guy's like, I'm never going to go in your boat again. You know, and he's like, that's fine. I'm getting rid of it. He's like, by the time I pay for my boat, do this, goes, why don't we just hire this guy to take us out to two or three times a year? Anyways, like they don't have to store it. I don't have to do this. I was like, that's a great idea. You know, you know, here's the availability camera. Like it makes sense.
Chad Schilling (01:03:47.584)
Yes, it is.
Brian Bashore (01:03:51.185)
You know, if I travel sober for, I'm like, I'll just hire a guy. I'm not going to spend the fuel and everything. Right. we're educators.
Chad Schilling (01:03:55.822)
Exactly. It's, and it is, and we try to do that the most we can. And yeah, it's, it's such a great thing. And the walleye world, need to rebuild. mean, people throw shame at everything. The scoping isn't quite as bad as they're talking all the bass world, you know, they're fighting, fighting it. Don't have no animosity. If you don't scope, your probably neck feels better. You're not everybody else. And it's going to your day. Don't go in and.
Brian Bashore (01:04:19.859)
All right. Yep.
Chad Schilling (01:04:24.186)
at the cleaning station be mad because somebody had four bigger, and you'd be happy for them. It's too much fun doing what we do to come out of there looking for a reason to be mad every day. Go find a reason to be happy, and it makes your day better.
Brian Bashore (01:04:35.739)
There you go. No better words than that. Find a reason to be happy. Turn off the news and go fishing and just be happy. right. All right. Owhi wings and wall eyes folks. Check it out. We'll put some links below. I'll send get some links to the Afco page so you can sign up for the tournament. Let's get it. Let's get 200 plus. Somebody's going to win that money. Don't make sure Chad isn't the guy. He's got to give her hell. So is this old team and boat, you know, he's got to, they're going to be on it. So
Chad Schilling (01:04:40.858)
fish.
Chad Schilling (01:04:57.046)
Yeah.
Chad Schilling (01:05:03.246)
They're going to be on it, there's a lot more involved now. We honestly believe we can go get two big ones in perfect slots in most tournaments and you don't have to do any of that. You just got to catch one bigger. We rarely catch the big fish in a tournament.
Brian Bashore (01:05:15.693)
And the reality of it is it's going to be someone who just lucks into it. It's going to be a one-timer pulling a big crankbait and just...
Chad Schilling (01:05:19.052)
hope so. That's exciting.
hope somebody drops a bottom bouncer and catches it. that's what I would love. So I want to do where everybody goes in the tournament saying, I'm going to win something tomorrow. You know, and that's, think that's what's hurting the tournament circuits is people know there's certain guys that are better at it, the scoping stuff. And you know, now you don't have to be perfect. You've got to get one bite.
Brian Bashore (01:05:26.507)
Yep, exactly. Yep. Yeah, that's awesome.
Brian Bashore (01:05:44.441)
You got to be lucky and lucky is better than being, you know, the being good sometimes, right? So you don't have to worry about what you order they come in as long as it's big. It's all the matters. It is fun. So I hope to see you all out there. We'll see. Like I got to check my calendar and, you know, I don't need to pre-fish. So that's the good thing. If you just got to show up, you show up and figure it out. So. Yep. I got, I got a scope and I got lead core rods. It's all I need.
Chad Schilling (01:05:49.677)
Right, so.
Yep, it's going to be fun to watch no matter what.
Chad Schilling (01:06:08.183)
We'll drive around and get that bike, you know.
Brian Bashore (01:06:12.817)
Right. A couple of those and a couple. That's it. Good to go. Better have that bottom bouncer, I guess, though, because that's going to be the ticket. A little slow death out there. Hard to beat it. Hard to beat it. It is hard to beat it. So. All right. Well, thanks a ton, Chad. We will hear from you again. Maybe we'll follow up after that tournament a little bit. See how I went and see kind of how the wheels all didn't fall off and how it spun and hope to God they don't fall off. Maybe we get 400 people. That's a good problem. So.
Chad Schilling (01:06:13.082)
The other one is exactly the same.
Yeah.
It's hard to beat it. happens. You get one big win on that too.
Chad Schilling (01:06:38.402)
Hey, if something goes wrong, it's going to be storms or something. And that is what we deal with at any tournament. So that doesn't matter what's planned here, but hopefully she'll smile for a few days there for us.
Brian Bashore (01:06:43.419)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:06:47.833)
Yeah, we can't control that, so.
July's semi-stable weather. it's going to be hot. That's the guarantee. It's going to be hot itself. You haven't been to South Dakota in general, but especially that area in July, it's going to be hot. It's going to be dry. Wear pants and long sleeves because the flies are going to bite the hell out of you. So douse yourself in some spray, but it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun as hell. I'm not the mayor of Agassiz, so I don't know.
Chad Schilling (01:06:55.01)
Yeah, way to mess that up, Brian.
Chad Schilling (01:07:10.584)
Yeah, you're not selling this buddy.
Chad Schilling (01:07:20.576)
Yeah, you're a man. Me too.
Brian Bashore (01:07:20.657)
Take that back, but you're right it yeah, man. I'm pumped up for it. So We got to get that going wildfire all across of the people out east got places to go do it on Green Bay do it and Lake Oahe do it where there's so many great mysteries
Chad Schilling (01:07:35.918)
they do it I'm going to try it. It just seems like too much fun. So yeah, it's a cool deal and maybe it'll bring a bunch of life back into an awesome sport that needs to have a little rejuvenation.
Brian Bashore (01:07:47.697)
All right. And in an awesome community, all those, those towns up along that river there, they could, they could use all your support. This is what they believe and thrive on, you know, theoretically. And, and it's a good business, but we're not getting rich and we ain't retiring anytime soon. You know, I mean, Chad's retirement plan might be behind the Acasca bar. don't know. it's this guy.
Chad Schilling (01:07:55.758)
Exactly.
Chad Schilling (01:08:01.676)
No, no.
Chad Schilling (01:08:06.52)
No,
Brian Bashore (01:08:14.245)
right?
Brian Bashore (01:08:19.889)
She's somebody's got to buy it sooner or later. So they're going to come up there Fezzah once and be like, this place is beautiful. It's awesome. I want to stay here. Well, I have just the perfect opportunity for you, sir, ma'am. You know, it's a great deal. Great deal. Alrighty. All right, folks. Thank you a ton, Chad. And thank you all for listening and tuning in to another episode of real talk fish and brought to you by Segar high performance braids and seven reels.
Chad Schilling (01:08:31.366)
Right on. Yeah, that's right.
Brian Bashore (01:08:45.649)
Check them out at seven reels.com. Those are made by St. Corey rods and a cigar.com. got some of the best braided line out there. I don't know if you got any chat, but I'm going to bring some up your way so you can try it out. But the cigar smackdown is some good, good stuff. So, uh, thanks for tuning in, stay safe, and we will see you on the water.
Chad Schilling (01:09:03.736)
Thanks guys.