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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)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to this episode of real talk fishing with no limits today. We're to come around on some hot topics. we've been getting some emails from DMs. Everybody's got questions and WT has released its new payout schedule and pay in schedule, as well as the tournament schedules. The updated version was out a couple, or like a month ago or so. And as we roll in to the new year.
Registration opens up. There's usually some new rules and things like that will come out as well. So hopefully we can get Jeff come on here, the tournament director sometime after those release and we can discuss that if there's any changes or modifications, I expect there to be a few. So, Hey, first off, Merry Christmas. Hope you are enjoying some time off with your family and friends this week. ice, you get a chance go out over this holiday break. If you're getting some downtime.
Hit the ice ice fishing bite has been great. I have yet to get out myself wait for the river to freeze up, which hopefully this weekend happens. So I'm definitely going to get out there maybe by the weekend and definitely over the Christmas time down for sure. So hot topics. That's it. This may, this will be fairly brief. National wildlife tour has just released their payout schedule for 2025 and the headline was.
This is where a lot of you aren't very happy. 2025 M2 payout increase in registration dates. So registration dates, not a big deal. That's typical. Usually around that second week of January through February, had a lot of co-anglers can register at these certain times and stuff like that. Us pros, the fish to pro side, typically a very large percentage don't register till the last minute because
There's no incentive to give somebody else your money until then. payout increases. So with the payout increase, what they've done is went from a typical used to be one in four. So 25 % of the field got paid out. walleye federation took it over a couple of years ago. They revamped some stuff. Vashpro is the majority owner of this went to one in five. So 20 % of the field got paid out. fees went from 15 to 1750.
I think they did that before the change in management. Well, now those fees are going from $1,750 to $2,000 per anger on the pro side. And I believe Coase went from five to 650. So on the co-ing their side, supply and demand is pretty simple. There's been a long waiting list. It's difficult for some of the Coase to get in if you're not signing up for all four. So the prices continue to go up once again, at 650 bucks for two days, jump in a pros boat. However, you may take that.
You're not going to get a guide trip for two days. Obviously it's not the same thing. you're competing, you know, for, for a payout for a pot, I believe it's up to 10 grand. Now all those numbers are based off the entry fees are what they are. doesn't matter how many people are in or not, but the payouts are based on 125 boat field. So.
Last year, the average was like a hundred and I can't remember Bala would know one one eight or one 13 or something like that. wasn't 125. And now you need a full 125 boat field and all four tournaments to keep those championship payouts where they're at. Now, nothing has changed in the championship payouts. It's 40 top 40 points qualify top 20, get paid out. like the.
Last place check is let me look, make sure I get it right. Like 4,000 or something. championship payout, 4163 for 20th. nothing has changed there. Now how that changes is if you don't average the 125 boat field. I know two years ago, they were really close to St. Marie numbers were down. So you just fell under just fell underneath. was like a $600 difference. Bass Pro said we got it covered. We're gonna still get you full payout.
I'm not sure I'd have to go back and look. I think they may have done that again this year. They fell short of it, but they still may have given them the championship of full payout. So that's coming directly from your title sponsor. So good on them. I English all of course appreciate that. However, rolling into 2025, I think we may be dealing with some different terms, complete speculation. However, you've heard me on here before the last six months and I anticipate a payout modification to one and four.
Boom, just happened. and a pay in increase to 2000. Boom, it just happened. So what does that mean? I know quite a few guys that aren't fishing next season. However, there's always a new, new bunch of anglers, new Co's that are moving up to pro side or other guys that are just, you know, kind of getting into it.
So the one in four is better than one in five. Obviously we're paying out another 5 % of anglers, which is great. Cause it's going to pay further down the line. And as long as you keep that one 25, you're looking at those last, you know, five, six spots, you're to probably be anywhere from four to four to six additional payout spots. It depends on how many people are in each tournament. So if you have less than 125 in a tournament, you're let's say, let's use your second place is 20,000. That's going to drop to 19.
Right. And it's just going to come down. Now, if you go over 125, that's supposed to be right at that 20,000. might go to 20,100, whatever the case is it, moves up and down just a little bit, based off the amount of entries, first places, whatever boat they've designated and 15 and cash. And that one doesn't change. It's everything else down the line that changes. to my knowledge, I haven't seen that first place cash payout change any, because really it's, it's the boat.
Whether it's a $69,000 Nitro or $89,000 Ranger. that's that. So you add up 125 anglers at 250 bucks a piece and additional funds. That's a 31,000, 250, believe. Yeah. 31,250. And then if you look at the 5 % payout, of course they're making some money on the back and this is not a nonprofit national wildlife tour is a business.
Okay. And the cost of business we all know has gone up considerably the last few years. I imagine the boat prices have gone up. It looks like maybe a couple thousand from 2024 to 2025. So that is, you know, folds into that first place prize as well as the championship and the angular of the year, as well as this cost of doing business, keeping up there.
Back-end operations their fuel, you know all the travel and all that kind of stuff. It just it just cost more Maybe they've hired more staff. I have no idea. I don't run the organization not sure what is going on over there on that but It's not my business. So I'm gonna show up and fish catch fish, right? So a lot of negative comments about it people fishing tournaments has always been Anglers are playing with their own money. We're competing against each other for our own money if you
You do all the math, you look at it, you look at the boat value in there as what it's listed. No idea what they pay for it. You know, white river Marine group provides those boats. Why remember green group is owned by Bass Pro Bass Pro is a title sponsor. Who knows what the, their cost is for those boats. It really doesn't concern me at all. They're not making money that then the circuit doesn't continue. Right. So they obviously are making some may not make a lot. They're not a lot of money to be made in these tournament things. you know, for as much.
travel and work that can be involved with them, especially to take them up to these next levels. there lost my train of thought there. Anywho, if you look at the total payout minus the entry fees,
You know, you're still at like a it's over a hundred percent, a hundred and hundred and 5%. Now you can take out the angular advantage because that is 100 % angular money going back to the anglers that participated in it. that was 250 bucks. If you chose to get in, I believe the co anglers have it as well for a hundred dollars on their side. And it may be coming out in 2025 that they got rid of that. And that money is now just part of your 2000, right? No more angular advantage, but the percentage of people that were participating in that isn't as good as it used to be. You used to be able to sign up.
At the rules meeting so you had a little more confidence or less confidence in your practice like Hey, I think i'm on something good. I'm gonna go ahead and play this side pot, right? That's what it is. You're you're betting an extra 250 on yourself and that pot could go up Well now you have to pay that when you register so you're a couple weeks out and you haven't been to the fishery you have no idea Right, you're still just betting on yourself. So let's come down just a little bit I personally don't don't plan that I'd rather go to the casino throw 250 on Black out or even and take my money and walk away
but you know, I'm gonna use red wing in an example last year, that's an extra 16,000, you know, almost $17,000 in side pot money, distributed amongst those top five to 10 anglers that, that entered in it. So you could get, the third place finisher in a tournament, but being the first place finisher in angular advantage at the top two didn't get in it and, get that, you know, six, seven, you know, $6,000 bonus on top of it. So.
It's a good thing. It's available if you want in it, get in it. If you don't, you don't same with the coangulars. believe it was only a hundred bucks. You take that out. You take contingency money. Cause that's not coming out of the federation's pocket. That's coming out of the boat manufacturers, the motors, mainly whitewood marine group, the ranger nitros and Tritons. I believe Caymus has stuff, but that's not included on anything you'll see. Cause that comes separate. So if you're a Caymus owner, you turn that in separate. I'm not sure if Lund does or Skeeter and a warrior. think.
I think they all have a little something, but that's not figured in any of their paths. Those are handled from the ownership group or your boat manufacturer to the boat owner. Turn those results into those, those organizations later. And then they get cut checks. There's some Garmin bonuses, some TH Marine. There's a couple hundred bucks here and there. You know, right. So red wing, that equaled about 12, seven, just under 13 grand. So that doesn't come out of the federation's pocket neither, but those are all considered in.
as part of the winnings. That's the way, that's how fishing tournaments go. If you look at the aim circuit, there's really a lot of contingency money out there, especially in the nitro ranger Triton, you know, world. If you have so many boats at, with certain size of field and certain size motors, you qualify for this money. And occasionally it can be higher than the payout of the tournament or really right at it. So.
Those are important things you need to think about when you're, when you're tournament fishing and getting into it. And there's obviously requirements such as being signed up and registered for those contingencies and your boat and your motor, your electronics meet and all the specifications, right? I think our boats had to be at least three years or older, newer to qualify for all those white river Marine group ones. That's WRMG. If you're wandering, you see people comment about it. That's white river Marine group that owns Nitro Ranger Triton.
tracker and in another line of boats. tournament fishing is always it's gambling period. That's what it is. So the house, if you've been to casino, the house always wins. The house is making money. That's how they operate the casino. The tournament organizations always making money. That's how they operate the tournaments. If they're not making money, we as anglers don't have tournaments to fish. So be grateful for that, that there's a circuit to fish.
And the reality is if you don't like it, you don't like the hire, you don't like the payout schedule. You don't like paying extra fees. Then don't fish it. It's 100 % up to you. So that's how it works. There's plenty. And I mean, plenty of circuits on the local levels that have three or four or $500 entry fees that have $10,000 payouts. And ultimately we all do this because we're competitive and you know, we love to do it. And we're, you know, most pros are confident enough that you're going to go ahead and bet on yourself to do well.
If you're fishing tournaments to make a living, you are in the wrong business. It is a horrible business plan and it's not really the greatest financial decision. Sometimes, I see a lot of comments that, these guys are all sponsored, so they're not playing with their money. Anyway, we're not the bass world. I hate to break it to you folks, but in the wall, I world, I would be hard pressed if more than, you know, we don't, not everybody knows everybody's situation, but 20%.
Maybe 30 % of the field is sponsored anglers. I'm fortunate. have great work with great companies, you know, and get taken care of well enough to, to, cover my entry fees and, and, and, know, this isn't cheap. costs a lot to travel and what have you. But these pros that are sponsored are, are, they're not just sitting back. They're earning this money. They're earning every bit of it and are choosing and working with these great companies that support, you know, the.
The anglers and the angling industry, the fishing industry and the community and the circuit. In a lot of cases, they don't really care if you fish tournaments or not. You may be being sponsored for other aspects of what you're doing. It could be podcasts, could be YouTube, could be your guiding, could be, you know, your social, your influence, right? You're working events, stores, shows, whatever the case is. There's a, it's a whole, whole nother spectrum about it. to become sponsored, you, gotta have a platform.
And if it's just tournaments, then that tournament circuit needs to be a really, you know, explosive platform or large enough to, for those guys to get a rate of return on their investment into the angler. bass week, everybody compares, you know, well, the bass people do this. We aren't comparable. We are not apples and oranges. We're fishing fish, right? We're Basset walleye, but billions versus millions. There's a big difference. and they have a lot of staff, a lot of.
millions of dollars thrown into production and all that been around long time. but they still have their own hurdles and they've been jumping through hoops and dealing with things over there as well. And it's a great place for us to watch and learn and follow examples from, the, you know, master has been doing this forever. They, they lead the way in it on the conservation side of things, sponsorship marketing and how they promote and do things. It's not as easy on the wall. I world where it's a smaller demographic, pretty much, you know, Northern upper Midwest.
you know, there's millions of bass anglers and there's millions of wall anglers, but there's always, you there's more bass anglers. So there's more money coming in, in, into those products. Now, I would say there's a, I'd make the argument that the walleye guys may spend more money. Our boats cost more. We buy, we're tackle junkies. So maybe there is more money being spent on the walleye side, but I don't know. That's a good question for.
Berkeley or somebody like that to ask them what baits are selling the most and last I heard they sell more walleye baits so You know and that's that's on the wall anglers because we we got to have three or four of each right when you're talking crank baits, so a Lot of money in it. You're betting on yourself guys want to complain about this and that just it's gambling. It's that simple If you don't like it, you don't you don't pay it. We're
Fortunate and unfortunate enough in the walleye world that it's a pay to play. heard some, some comments on there like, just have, you know, get rid of the Co's and you know, I have two pros sign up and pay the same thing and increased payouts. Well, that's, that's called the MWC. It's a team circuit. There's a big difference between a team circuit and a pro and a pro am circuit. the NWC is a pro am a pro and an amateur. There sounds like they're going to always keep two people in the boat for safety issues. Cause we fish a lot of big water.
I get it makes sense. and the code thing is just, it's a little different kind of a beast. don't really pay a lot of attention to it or follow it a whole lot. Cause it's not my, my realm or really my concern. I think the code sign up, you know, someone, I believe we're said it once in a meeting. So just a privilege to get a jump on one these guys boats, you know, that may be the case most of the time. I get it. It doesn't always work out that way. you're going to run into situations. I'm going to talk.
We'll talk about that here in a minute. We deal with the schedule, but just take it in, man. If you're a co, you're jumping in, you're there to learn, watch, you know, that pro wants you to do well. But then again, this isn't a guy trip where he's not, it's not his job to educate you and tell you how to tie stuff on and do things. Most of them do. They want you to be successful because if you're successful, they're successful. Cause the boat is what you're weighing in that day. Right. The combined weight in that boat versus both anglers now it's live scope and things have changed a little bit, a little different.
A lot of stories out there where I'm just running the net, blah, blah. Maybe that's the case because the guy upfront is catching them so fast and it's just, that's the world we live in. How it's different. We will see come January, if there's any modifications to that or some of these limits that we had to deal with last year with the lack, with the no party fishing, which was the rule everywhere we went. this year we'll get into that right now. The schedule we, they made a modification, went from Bismarck to pier. Basically went from the river to Missouri river.
Lake Sharp out of Pier, which is great fishing in April. None of these places could be muddy. You never know what you're going to get on these early Springs, right? Mississippi. We've tried that a couple of times early in the spring. It was flooded. had to move. The Missouri is usually pretty safe. I personally was looking forward to going to Bismarck, wanted to fish there on that spring while I bite. They have moved it due to a few reasons. The locals up there who, who Zach talked about that on the previous podcast that they're only allowed a hundred boats.
and WT obviously hopes for more than a hundred boats and there's already the big muddy and some other tournaments. And firstly, those guys have that tournament every year. They obviously are front line for that permit. so it just may not have worked out. then talking to other locals like Heizer who says the boat ramp situation is kind of a deal. Cause there's a lot of fishing pressure, a lot of locals and just everybody's fishing there. Cause it's really good fishing kind of like the Chamberlain area as well. Except you're really the opportunity to get a lot of big fishes is a.
It's really good up there is why I wanted to go. it's having to launch from down south. And then as you're driving up, it's navigation of that system is very, very hazardous. a little tricky, a lot of stump fields. And we started doing the big crowd of boats and tournament boats that sometimes guys are a little careless and kind of flying around. you're looking at, you know, obviously some, some damage to your boat, your props, your lower units, your boat or other anglers, whatever the case may be.
It just gets tricky and then getting kind of locked in between people and people on top of each other. Missouri down here in South Dakota is pretty wide open. We don't have too many of those areas. There's a few, islands and stuff up at the Lake Sharp area, depending on the water levels you're to have to watch out for. but the bite should be good and everybody should be able to be spread out, you know, decent. so that was a modification they made move that to Lake Sharp into April should be good.
however, party fishing is allowed in the state of South Dakota. So you should be able to box eight, maybe seven, depending on what the, the, tournament, permit states, usually in South Dakota, it's two man limit. So it's going to be eight fish, two over 20 inches. you know, four per person with one of those four being over 20 or all four being under 20. you'll be allowed to all over 20 inches while I saw her saw guy. doesn't matter. So, that'll be nice. Good way to start.
The season, everybody get some points, everybody catching some fish. These April tournaments are always just kind of weather dependent. just, you don't, you don't know, but pretty consistent bite nonetheless of it. It should, should be good looking forward to it. And then that rolls into May and into lacrosse, which is another good fishery, right? Mississippi river never fished it in lacrosse for walleye, or at least not very long. Bass fishing is really good there. I heard it was a great year for walleye there, but that's cool.
Eight, I believe, but you'll be able to go down to nine and up to seven. I am assuming when these rules rigs come out, we fish nine a lot from the prey to Shane days where it's usually pretty intense. You can go up to nine or down to 11. So you have nine, 10, 11 and here we'll probably get seven, eight, nine will be available. so should be fine. Should be good. Everybody will find fish and catch them there. I think that's mid or late may. Don't know what the water levels will be like assuming it's going to be all right. We are cold and getting a little bit of snow. but.
way I understand it is they could use some that Mississippi really flows fast in the water levels. Literally change. Now after that is where scheduling and strategic thinking doesn't didn't go into play so well. which is why I feel like you're gonna have a few less anglers on tour this year. not just cause of increase in the, know, in the pay in, the payout is great. And hopefully that keeps guys kind of rolling that money forward or staying in longer because now they finished in that 5%. The problem is if you're
Entry levels aren't 125 and they're only 115 or 110 or even under 100. You're not getting obviously the amount of spots you go back shrink. You might only pay in 18 spots back or 22 spots, you know versus 30 or 25 or whatever it is. It's 25 % of wherever the field is. So that's that. That's just how that works. But nonetheless, it's more still 5 % more than what it was. So that is good. Granted cost you more to get in.
Then you go, believe it's Dunkirk, New York would be the third stop. that's Eastern Erie Basin. Great fishing. Once again, I hear the community is really great. Long ways to drive for a lot of people, a lot of cost. Now at this point, you're chasing points. You are, you finish up at Huron. So another could be a decent, I just, when I say long drive, I'm referring to the Dakotas. Even some of the Minnesota's that's a pretty good John. If you're already out East, boom, it's close.
The reality is majority of the angler fish and WT, don't have to look at percentage of it, but it's well over 50 % are Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota. Basically, Minnesota, Wisconsin. That's the majority of hub. East is a very small percentage and way West like Montana, Idaho, or something like that is super small. Quite a few North Dakota, handful South Dakota, a ton of Wisconsin and Minnesota. And then there's a pretty good little pod, you know, in that Eastern area, Ohio.
And Lake Erie, and they always show up. like Dunkirk, Erie tournament always draws a lot of locals. Obviously they, they know the body of water. They live close by there. They're going to get in it so that that can help the numbers for that. time there was a championship, so they couldn't get in unless they fished all year. Now they're able to jump in on one. Now, unfortunately, last year Erie was first, they jumped in on it. And a of those guys said, well they rolled and they stuck with it for the whole year because they did well enough to kind of finance the rest of the season. Well, now you're jumping in on the third.
Will they come, you know, far west to jump in on the first two, you know, in hopes to do well there and stay up in the points and then roll over to Huron, which is still, you know, quite a ways away. And personally, a couple of fisheries that I personally, I'm, I'm, I'm good. I don't really care to go fish them all that much. and from the way I understand it, it goes for a lot of other people as well, but they're not, they're not, not as if they're bad fisheries. Huron's tricky just cause the championship was there last year. It's always a rough body of water.
It is a pretty place. you can go down to Saginaw. Be tricky. It just doesn't seem to hold a lot of really, really big fish. There are clearly big fish there, but they move around a lot. It's just a, it's just a tricky fishery and me. You just don't see a lot of tournaments there. the Michigan walleye tour goes, you know, around that area and those guys do well. And since this is an open regular season tournament, maybe some of those guys will get in and help keep those numbers up.
I just not anticipating it, but have been wrong before and hopefully I am wrong again. And the numbers are good and the championship payouts stay where they need to be. So, that's kind of where it is going into 2025. So it is a business. The NWT is a organization with ownership and management companies. They're there to make some money and then give us a platform and a place to go compete. And if you don't like it, don't do it. If you want to dip your toes in the water.
You can pay your couple thousand dollar entry fee and meet the boat minimum requirements, which are pretty minimal and, and jump in and kind of put your money where your mouth is. There's a, some comments on there. Some guys talking about like the team thing. That's ridiculous. yes, the, the headlines are a little, little misleading with a payout increase. It's a pay placement increase. but as always, we're always playing with their own money. a couple of other things is the.
We covered the schedule. So strategically thinking, what I like, when I look at the schedule, if I'm making it on the back end, instead of seeing which communities are just going to give us the best money, I'm first I'm going to put out a, RFP, do the communities. and we want to go to the places that we can go. That's going to benefit the community. It's going to bring people there, maybe not at their peak time. and we, so it's not necessarily which come.
Community is going to pay us the most. want to go to a place that's going to have a good bite, how we can bring more money to that, that local community and a place that anglers want to go. Right. So they're going to show out. We're going to get good boat numbers, more boat numbers, more money for that community, more money for all the anglers, more money and everybody, everybody wins. tough bites, tough bite. don't really care if it's a tough bite or not. Green Bay last year was a tough bite. That was okay. When you, when you caught, when you got on a few fish, you knew that I think it's tough for everybody. It's okay. those make for better tournaments, I think.
not a boy, easy tournament is always nice too, but then the weights are also close. You know, you're really battling in your head on what you got to keep when it's a tough bite. You know what you're keeping. You're keeping everything that hits the life. Well, so it is the boat. It's going in the box. but when you think about it, and we did that this year with Sakaka is when your fourth tournament, when the, when it's on the line, when you're on the border of points, you're sitting in that.
mid thirties to fifties and points to where if you're in the twenties, you're probably like, have to show up. My goal is to make the championship. I just need to drive. I need to drive 18 hours, whatever it is, catch one fish and I'm safe. Cause if you zero, you're not making the championship. ain't happening. Too good. Everybody's too good out there. Unless 80 % of that field zeros in a tournament. Cause it's horrible. You're not going to make the championship and green Bay was like that. And if you zero, you didn't make championship. So it's pretty simple. You need to.
So by catching a fish, got your points. Maybe it was obviously the, you did horrible in tournament, but you secured your spot. may move from 20th to 35th place, whatever you're still on top 40. You're in the championship. Now, if you're that 30 ish to maybe 50, you need to have a good tournament. Well, are you going to invest your $2,000 entry fee or $2,000 in travel fuel? You maybe got four or five, $6,000 plus wrapped up in a tournament to make the championship on a win where you have to go have a good championship. So when it's, if I have to drive clear East.
You know, to Dunkirk on a, or here on for the fourth tournament, you know, and you're sitting at 50th, you made that decision for, for me personally, I'm good. I'm not going to go. And that happened with a couple of guys this year. know at least one was in sitting in 39th, 40th said, I'm not going, you know, the rest of the kind of travel team didn't make it or was sitting too far out. It was kind of out of reach. we did have a good turnout to Coquia. A lot of locals got in it and awesome. That place always shows out.
Cause it's phenomenal fishery and people just want to go there. kind of the same with Aries and it's a place people just want to go. So they usually, they usually show out pretty good. The whole Missouri river system usually has pretty good numbers for the most part. So that's something to take into consideration. I always like to see that, that fourth tournament centralized, a bago, a green Bay somewhere like that. That's pretty central from East to West where everybody's got that, you know, a couple hours to six, seven hours, not those 14 plus hour drives. And they're like,
cause that's the saves. That's a lot, a lot of expenses come down, you know, and they can congregate there and have that. when you have to keep it so far, one direction, the other one, you're, you're, you're kind of losing a little bit of people there. That's just my personal opinion on that. we do angular surveys, whether they have taken stock in that or not. don't know. I haven't seen too many changes from it, but as the pros we have asked for increased in, in, entry fees for increase in payouts. And I guess we kind of got that with the.
Going back to the one and four versus one and five. So, bass, if you notice over the last year has had some challenges as well. They changed their payout schedule. They modified it considerably, which they brought it clear down to $500 payout, which is the slap in the face at that level. but no entry fees. So, I mean, that was a $40,000 savings from the get-go, but if you saw all the guys, they did the math.
You know, so it really only benefited a couple of guys and those are the guys that would just weren't doing well. you know, the majority of the field that was doing well because they pay out, you know, a top 50 or whatever it is or cash and checks of some sort. like, no, this is a, you know, this is a big hit, you know, from my $40,000 investment upfront. it's all done different. They're not paying to play. They've earned their way in it. Okay. They got to do get in early in deposits and pay the entries upfront or percentages of it. it's a whole.
whole different systems. You're dealing with a lot more money. that was kind of something, a decision that looked like bass has kind of made on their own. Since then they have stood up a Angler advisory board from some of the anglers, received some input and feedback from them. And now they have modified that to the anglers have a $10,000 investment into that season. where they call the entry fees or whatever they're all putting in 10,000 and that up that brought their payouts back up to make a little bit more sense. It balanced it out and the anglers are happy with it.
when you're talking about a multi-million dollar trigger like that and placing 40th and getting a $500 check, that's no thanks. You covered your gas for two days. It's just, an insult in a sense at that point. So the NWT, we do not have an advisory board. Maybe we need one. have a unofficial group. and there's a handful of groups really that have.
communications with, with ownership and management. you know, and they've listened and taken some of that to heart, think, and, have made a few changes in adjustments from it. some of the people, you know, definitely have their ear like the next bite guys, of course. but I can tell you that they are some of the most uns, you know, outspoken guys when it comes to trying to get changes made for the better of the anglers.
You don't want to bite the hand that feeds you. get you. But this is a great group of guys who are looking out for the anglers and saying, we want more of this, this, this, or you need to do this better, this better. What are the cases? Definitely providing feedback as well as myself and many others. And a few other groups are all sending emails and letters and things like that. We've had plenty of conference calls with them as well. So we'll see where things go. But 2025 is, that's the schedule. Lake Sharp.
lacrosse Mississippi river, Lake Erie, Dunkirk, New York and Lake Huron. And then the championship at Green Bay, which Green Bay I guess, August, September championship. That's a great place to go. Great place for a championship should be a great bite. That's going to keep some guys on the hook. When I go, I would, I would love to go to that, but the two before it just no thanks. you think about the championship, it's no entry, right? So you earn your way there, which is great, which they changed us a few years ago, which was awesome in a way it should be.
Okay. So it's last place there. Last payout out of 40 is 20 is like 4,100 bucks. Okay. Well, don't sure if that covers two entry fees, you know, but for someone who's doing the math going to here on and Dunkirk is way more than two into $4,000. It just doesn't, you know, do you think he could be, you know, cash check? Sure. But you're dealing with the top, you know, the best 40 and, and you still got to, you still got a place, right? Obviously we're all, everybody thinks we
You're going into thinking you can win it and that's the only mindset you should have. but you still gotta be the least wanting to cash a check. So, easier said than done by all means, but that's where you're at. You don't like it. You don't have to do it. No one's making you. I know there's a few people we've got sponsorships. It's in your contract, fishy circuits. And if they're asking you to do that, I hope they're paying for it. You know, we're being compensated well to do it.
So somebody made a comment. Like I said, everybody, they think everybody's sponsored. And I'm telling you that that's not the case. will go on a limb and say majority of the boat people, the boat wraps and all that kind of stuff. got one are paying for that stuff themselves. Not all of them, homies, not all of them. There's a good handful of guys that their companies are that wrap, you know, or they've worked to do a lot with whoever wrapped it to, pay for it, which is how it should go. But some are just paying for out their pocket, which is nothing wrong with that. They're giving that back to their sponsors or whatever they have on it.
And they're helping, you know, save the condition of their boat just a little bit from some dock crash by having that extra layer. It's not super expensive for those wraps. So it's not cheap either though. Nonetheless. So that's where we're at. If I got something wrong or mixed up, I'm sure I'll hear about it in the comments, but those are just a couple of quick hot topics. Y'all been sending me messages wanting to hear, you know, the breakdown a little bit more. Go read some of those comments. Bala broke it down a little bit.
You know, on the net of 7,750 is still what's going back into the, you know, the Federation's pocket or a bass for whoever is making money on the circuits. That'd be best pro in a sense. But like I said, there's additional costs that have obviously occurred for all these organizations or anybody running tournaments over these last few years in the state of the economy. So hopefully things in the economy turn here real soon and coming in our new year with our new administration.
can only hope things get better and gas goes down because that's probably one of our biggest expenses. you know, and that can, that can wash out that two 50 increase real quick, by getting gas back down the, you know, in the low to mid $2 a gallon versus a three plus that you're having, or if you're putting premium in your boat, you know, almost four bucks, cause these, these boats are big and they got big fuel tanks and it costs a lot of money. So,
But if you're chasing a dream, it's got to cost you a little money, but the goal is to win some of that back and love what you're doing. If you're not loving it, don't do it. You got to be having fun. but if you're looking to dip your toes in it, just know what you're getting into. and don't, don't fish tournaments to make a living. Fish tournaments cause you love to fish. You love to compete. they're giving you a platform to go do it. So be thankful for that. Thank the NWT. Thank Bass Pro. Go buy your stuff over there and say, we're.
Appreciate you putting this on. No one's ever going to get it right. It's going to be a constant fluid. It's an evolving type thing. Everybody that runs tournaments has all these headaches and deals with this stuff. You can't take 300 people and make them all happy. you do your best that you can to do things to the best, hold it to the highest standards, you know, and there's a lot of changes on stuff that a lot of us would see. And some of those are starting to, starting to happen slowly.
I know they have aspirations over there to make it the biggest, best thing out there. is the national wildlife tour. It is not the only pro level circuit out there. There are other circuits that you can fish and call yourself a pro on as well. So if you're looking to getting into tournaments, I'd recommend starting at some of those smaller local things, get a good feel for how it goes. But yet then again, don't be intimidated by just jumping in. If you're fishing on Mississippi river is a great example. If you live there.
And you know that body water read the rules. Great place to jump in because I guarantee you have the upper hand over guys have never fished that across area because you know things. Red Wing last year was won by a local. It happens quite often. Those guys know those bodies water like the back of their hand and they have the upper hand. And as long as the format is pay to play and anybody can jump in snipers as we like to call them, the locals.
That's the only way they're going to keep those numbers up to 125 average or above to keep those payouts were as as advertised is by having those guys in whether we like it or not. So maybe someday down the road, it'll change and we'll pay our entry fees up front and it'll be limited to the 80 that qualified over the last year plus the next 40 down or whatever it is. I mean, have to start somehow. We can get to that level, but we're a little ways from it if ever. So that's it folks. So
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, stay safe, we will see you on the water. Or ice, depending on where you're at.