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 (00:13)
Hey folks, we're back with another episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. And we've been on a little hiatus, busy, been super busy. the fall bite is supposed to be happening right now, but it's been unseasonably warm and a water temp is still in the upper sixties. look like it was happening, but we got some cold temps coming, so maybe that'll trigger it. just been busy, been in the camper, been guiding, don't get good enough internet down there to upload anything. So it's really hard.
a podcast, but home for a couple of days. So just going to give you some quick takes on what we're going to call some hot topics. What's going around. Hey, lot of things happening in the fishing world. we are in the official off season and tournaments and WT were wrapped up for the year. a lot of the other circuits are all kind of wrapped up for the years. We're rolling into late fall or early fall here and in the winter and a hot topics and takes that you're hearing all over the world.
and you've heard it all year long, Ford facing Sonar. I'm not going to beat a dead horse. We were, all tired of talking about and hearing about it, but there's been some changes. So, and the bass side of things, MLF, Bass and NPFL have all came out and made up some, rule changes or modifications to meet what a lot of the noise has been over this last season from these angles. NPFLs have just banned it completely, I believe. no Ford facing Sonar in their circuit. so they're gonna.
probably lose some guys and they're probably going to gain some guys that are looking to fish that type of format. Bass has limited it to one transducer mounted on your trolling motor and a max of I believe 50 inches of screen. So it's going to do away with the guys that got transducers all over their boat, every corner and two or, you know, a lot of guys are putting two on the trolling motor, which you know, what have you, it's perspective mode and forward mode. But there's no need to have four screens up front, four screens in the back. This is not going to fly anymore.
50 inches of total screen. that's a little change there. And then MLF, I believe is allowing you to use, so they're set up differently, right? Major league fishing, the Bass Pro Tour. You have periods. I think there's three periods in a tournament and you're allowed to use your live scope in one of those periods of your choice. They have a cover, a special cover that they'll put over your transducer in the other periods to ensure that that angler is not using it. And I think
There may be some situations where there's different fisheries that it's allowed more or not. There'll be some, changes I'm sure coming, but there's some places where it's going to Excel and really help the anglers out. And then there's other situations where that's not so much the case. So it is, just kind of how it works. So, yeah, so that's it. Will the end debut follow suit on any of those types of things in a wild world? Who knows? doesn't seem to be as much noise.
amongst the wall anglers as there is the bass anglers and spectators. But there's still certainly plenty of it. And there's finally some research being done from some DNRs and Game and Fish. know Wisconsin's doing some stuff. Minnesota has been doing some stuff and then using that technology for other studies as well. So there definitely comes a place, you know, where it's helping things out. I know they use it on the bear trauma aspect of things. Will NWT keep forward facing sonar in the circuit?
Will they ban it? they limit it? I don't know. we will time will tell and we will find out. Not like I said, not as much noise in the, in the wall. I world on it. but we're obviously not as, as big as audience and crowd as the bass world is. So, and you know, typically we're a little bit further behind, but, this year certainly showed that it, it's a game changer and you must be a player in the forward facing market. If you wish to compete.
There's still situations and certain fisheries where it can kind of come into play, but it's not going to be like you, have to be on it to be in a top 10, like much of the tournaments over the last couple of years. Mississippi river always plays a little bit different. Certainly can use it. know my first fish first cast there, I used it and caught a, a walleye. but you know, it's a little trickier in certain river situations or super shallow stuff. So NWT is a Bismarck next year. I don't know how that will, you know, play into that. Maybe it's the.
pair or landscape mode, whatever you call it. I don't know, haven't been there. So, but you know, rivers, there's just a lot of fish. You're looking at a lot of stuff in the early spring runoff can be pretty dirty as well. but nonetheless, it's a tool that identifies, you know, fish versus, you know, rocks and what have you, whether they use it to catch them or use it to find them. Those are two different things. And, you know, a lot of us use it just to find them and then throw out some old school techniques to get them.
to get them hooked up and catch them. So, we will see as far as kind of the tournaments go, there is an absolute ton of tournaments out there. No matter what level you're at, where you're looking to go. I'm referring to the wall. I saw there's tons and tons of bass tournaments. There's a, a Derby, a Tuesday night and Wednesday night league and Sunday more, whatever. There's something every day.
Down south of the bass anglers up north. While I guys, got tournaments, you know, all over the place. There's shouldn't be any weekend in pretty much any state. You should be able to find a tournament if you're looking to get into one. And if you're just getting into tournaments, start with some of small local tournaments and jump all in. Cause it is the best thing that will make you a better angle. You may get just whooped on for the first tournament, the first year, the first five years, whatever it may be. But I guarantee you there's going to be lessons learned on every one of those. So.
It's not always about winning. it's why I say start small because this isn't cheap, right? You're going to invest in it, but you're also investing into yourself by doing that and just pay attention to your surroundings and the other angles around you. sometimes sit back and watch the, know, when someone's putting on a clinic and just, you know, try to mimic or see what it is they're doing. That's different. it's not always the spot. Sometimes it's the cadence, the line, the leader, you know, the weight of the jig.
But you definitely have to be around fish to catch fish. So I always say master, master your electronics and you will be a master angler. It's pretty, pretty simple. A lot of tournaments. We have the aim tournaments. have casino cup tournaments. mean, as far as big, you know, bigger paths, have all the governor cup tournaments all around and those all have pretty, you know, significant payouts, big fields. We have the NTC that's coming here to South Dakota next year at Pixtown. myself and half of our Tuesday night league guys who got in.
Got spots for that looking forward to that. It'll be late June. However, the bite out of Lake French skates this summer was not good. Hopefully it's not, you know, for things to come and that and that changes.
But to that point, there has been a lot of focus on that reservoir. And WT came there a few years back at Chamberlain, been out there a couple of times and came there again about this last season, the season before. On the lower end out of Pigstown, at places there's a lot of fishing pressure. So there's a good and a bad of tournament fishing. Tournament fishing brings in a lot of really good anglers. When you have big tournaments like NTC, which could have up to 300 teams in it.
we're in WT, you know, a hundred, a hundred plus boats, 130, 115, whatever was there. Then you have the local tournaments every week. And some of those are having 50 to a hundred boats, you know, teams in them as well. Plus just the regular river fishermen and traffic every weekend. There's a lot of boats, a lot of people fishing. but the tournament level of it brings in some, typically some better anglers, you know, good at good catching, very con you know.
conservation minded for the most part. Catch and release and are not keeping anything. Sometimes not even necessarily trying to hook some of these fish, but it's still a ton of pressure on these fish, educating them, pressuring them, moving them, pushing them. So that can make things a little bit challenging. That reservoir has had a lot of pressure on it the last four or five years. There's a lot of guides up there. Great place to fish, beautiful place. Do not discourage you from coming there one bit. I am Matt.
Imagine there's more than enough fish, but there is a absolute plethora of bait in the system this year, which could be one factor in why people are struggling to get some fish. Cause when they got so much to eat, they're just not interested in whatever you're offering. Are you going to eat whenever they want? Kind of dealing with a little bit of loose and Clark too. You're to have smaller bite when you sell a bite window, but it's going to be significantly shorter. and you'd better be on those, on those fish when they're ready to go. But a lot of tournaments, that's great for the sport. It's good for the industry.
Good and bad for the fisheries. It brings a lot of attention to them, brings a lot of people out. Good for tourism, of course. But that's overall, the more people that are fishing in this world and the way the economy is, the better. It's great for you. It's healthy. Good for your mind. Good for your soul. Good for your spirit. Get out, get outside, get off the devices. Listen to this thing with your earbuds while you're out on the water.
And get those, you know, your kids, your friends, your neighbors. I always refer to this getting the kids out, you know, it's more just getting somebody out, somebody new. Children are usually new to fishing, right? So you want to introduce them, but your neighbor may be fished when he was little and hasn't been out in 20 or 30 years. Take them fishing. You might be surprising and it may trigger and fire a little spark underneath that guy or gal. So, women are a huge fat, you know, rapidly growing demographic in the angling world. don't know what we're up to 55, 60 million anglers now, maybe.
I plan on getting hopefully Chris Horton on here sometime shortly and talk a little policy and politics in the angling and fishing world when it comes to the conservation practices and things that are going on in DC that are affecting all of us anglers, not the political side of stuff, but fisheries management. And talk a little bit about the history of conservation and how the things have come to on the fishing side.
And probably a little bit of, it's hard to talk about it without talking about the hunting side a little bit as well. So, but good, good stuff, good news for tournaments. So NWT I'll refer to, we have all these great tournaments, AIM, Casino Cup, Governor Cups, NWT,
I head to head still got some stuff going on in Wisconsin there. And I got a good little thing going. those are all some pretty big circuits and some pretty big payouts. I don't know what's going on with the NWT next year. Our schedule has been released. Decent schedule. for some, some others have different thoughts about it, but you're never going to please everybody. So you just get a schedule, put it out, and you want to fish them all. They're there. If you don't, you don't have to.
We're set up a little bit different than the bass world where we, it's more or less a pay, pay to play, not a qualifying event. Only you qualify as the championship and the only way to make the championship is to fish all four events and not do horrible. been there, done that, bringing the limit rule number one, right? Catch five fish or three fish or four fish or whatever the guidelines were this year. But I expect some changes are coming down the pipe and we'll hear about these, usually releases stuff.
before the registration opens in think January or mid February. So expect some of these modification rule changes. I believe what I've heard is these are all for the better. Moving into the 2025 season. I don't know what any of these are. There's no facts. There's nothing's out, but once these are released and are out, if there are any at all, we'll try to get Jeff Kelm assuming that organization is still running things moving forward.
on the line and, kind of go over those and discuss those and see what it holds for the upcoming season. I do know of quite a few pros that have been fishing for quite a while or stepping back for at least a year or a little bit this coming year that aren't going to fish. it's a pretty significant number. However, every year there's another group of new guys that come in and it's kind of a natural attrition might be a little bit more than normal this year. some of that schedule, some of that is just the economy. This is not cheap.
yeah, and it's just some people just, you know, we just, whatever, just the way it is. They have other things to do or just kind of, so much getting old and aging out. So, it's just kind of how these things work. And there's a new wave of angles. We've got a lot of new guys that have come in, you know, the last couple of years, honey, nitty, will pop and some of these, and they're doing really good. So it's just, you know, kind of the, changing of the garden, the sense as some of the guys that have been around a little while are, are, are moving on and.
Typically the progression kind of goes local up peaks. then as you kind of leave the national level, a lot of guys will go back to some of the local things just to scratch that itch, stay close to home. It's fun. You, lot those are team events. You and your buddy can go out for the, you know, the one or two day event and just have a good time and scratch that that itch of tournament fishing because it is addicting. And if you're competitive and you're 40, 50 years old, like a lot of us, you're not playing sports as well. Right.
Or at least you shouldn't be because you're going to pull a hamstring or break an ankle a little bit easier than you did when you were in your teens and twenties. it's just a great way to stay active and stay competitive and just kind of fulfill that, that need. I like to see as some ladies getting in upon these tours. know we've had one, you know, Mary Ann Husky did it for awhile. Other than that, no one's really, we've had one or two have kind of jumped in here and there for a tournament too. And I think they had some issues with some anglers, understandable, but.
not acceptable and we, but we definitely have had co anglers, a lot of a gal coiners have jumped in and gave it a shot. So like to see them, you know, you ladies are out there listening, get on the pro side of it. I think there's probably some out there that are, are skilled and talented enough. if you're not getting on the co side and check things out and work your way in. So I think times have changed enough that some of these, these anglers who weren't so
to some of the ladies in the past are either gone or at least open their eyes up and are little more respectful nowadays. So it's a win for everybody. So let's get everybody involved. Like I said, maybe some rules coming, changes coming for next year. We don't know once those are out. We'll definitely discuss those. I can expect things. Hypothetically, I don't know anything. Entry fees probably going to go up. Payouts.
Obviously we're going to have to modify with that. If you're to want more money from anglers, you're going to have to extend payouts or increase them or what have you. Not that they're horrible. mean, they're giving away a boat. Angler of the year changed a years ago to receiving a boat was great. Yeah, a lot of things. Schedule is set. That is what it is. The number of events is set. Not to say they can't add something, I guess.
A lot of issues with the no coal or the short fish limit, three fish, four fish type things this year with the lack of party fishing. hopefully that gets addressed. that was not a lot of guys weren't a huge fan of that. course, tournaments like green Bay where it worked out as it was so hard to catch fish. Three was three was a good goal. So, that's not always going to be the case, but they were going to Dunkirk, New York, which I think is a great fishery from what I understand. It's this Lake Erie. So catching fish isn't an issue, here on.
Hit or miss sounds like championship is there. I know MWC was there last year and I had some blow days as well. can just, the place can just get to ripping. and where else we're at? Bismarck, you know, that's early or late April. It's North Dakota. It's really going to be a little bit of weather dependent, but the fish are going to be there. should be fun. And then the lacrosse is the second event. that Mississippi river is full of fish. So we'll figure, guys will figure it out. Not a place to typically go.
So hope to have on here in the future. If you have some people or items or topics you want to discuss, drop them on here. Go over to brian at the walleyeguys.com. Send me an email, comment on anywhere or anywhere that's posted walleyeguys page, YouTube page, leave some remarks. Let me know who you want to see, what do you want to hear about? we're going to bring on some guys to talk about fishing line, you know, the ins and outs of it. pretty interesting stuff. Rods, how they're made and what, you know, why they're
you know, species and techniques specific. these are pretty cool stuff when you get into these experts and get into the weeds on some of these things. and like I mentioned earlier, some policy stuff and a little bit of history of conservation. really want to plug in on that one and just educate a lot of people out there on how these things work. Cause I don't think most know and that's understandable. It's not taught in school very much. and there's nothing really sexy about it. It's kind of boring. unless you're a nerd like me and some of these other guys who, just.
like it and understand it, but I think the more you understand it and understand the funding and how things work or don't work, you may have a little more respect for just a little bit of understanding is going to help you understand why your local DNR or your GFPs do certain things. Not that they're always wrong, but they're definitely not always right, but they're not always wrong either. A lot of the stuff, I mean, it stems to the farm bill, right? Even in aspects of that on where funding and certain
Funds and allocations come, but mainly the Dingell Johnson funding is what's going to move the needle on a lot of fisheries and the tax. 10 % excise tax on our gear. So we'll get into that. I want to get into it now and go down to rabbit hole. Cause I'll talk to you forever about it. And I want you to tune in specifically for that because you, if you're not interested in it, hopefully you can, you could get through it and you'll learn a lot and be interested in it. if you are interested, then you can't wait to hear about it. So, might have two.
gentlemen on here for that one. So that's just trying to give you guys some hot topics. Update on the fishing. The fall bite should be going. It's starting to kind of pick up all over the place. Lake Oahe is putting out some tanks right now. Typical hope to get up there and try to shoot a video or something over the next two weeks. The next week is solid booked with guiding. We've had, like I said, unseasonably warm temps. The fish are still shallow. The fish are still deep and they're transitioning and moving. The water temps are in the mid 60s and
maybe low 60s, upper 50s at night, but the shorter days, it's cooling down quick, even though we have it's 75 or 80 degrees out right now on October 10th as I record this. it is, yeah, it's warm. But if you recall last fall was pretty darn warm too. And October is usually like my favorite month, you know, and it's so, so, but November is when it really, really got going. And that may be the case again this year.
However, you're gonna have those days in October and you could just be a few hours north where it's a little cooler and those fish are already firing. So just stay on the move. you're on deep fish, fish them. If you're on the shallow fish, fish them. I've been fishing both throughout the day and seeing which ones are biting. So the river's moving a lot of water. So those shallow fish are a little more active than the deep fish just because that water's clean and there's good current. So once that water gets a little bit, drops another eight.
Degrees or so those fish are going to be out of there and are going to be heading to the deeper stuff. So To a point sometimes then that water gets really cold and then they're going to slide up shallow But they usually don't do that till night. So a lot of bait in the system Like I said, like always been putting out some big ones I know some night bites are happening up a green bay already. So The photo since it's this aspect of it. The fall bite is the fall bite. It's going to happen regardless if it's
stays 70 degrees out or not. The days are getting shorter, so the water is going to cool down because there's not enough sunlight to heat it up throughout the day. The nights are in the 30s and 40s, so the water temps dropping. It's going to go. We can get maybe one or two real good cold snaps that might kind of fire up some of the fish. So catch a lot of fish, just not as many big fish as I would like to see at this time of year. But they're coming. It could be tomorrow. Who knows? So any day.
What else do we got to cover for hot topics? think that's about it for now. Just a short one. just let you know what's up. I'm gonna get it. I gotta get some of these other guys lined up. Everybody's been real busy this fall. We got a lot of guys trying to get on here. They're out elk hunting. They got deer hunting coming up. We have the Dakota Angler ice Institute coming up here in just a few weeks. I actually about four weeks away from today. I think, you can catch me. I'll be out there I think on Friday and Saturday at the Norse lithium booth.
Norse has got an awful lot of cool products. They release them at ICAST. They'll be released to the public here shortly. You know, hopefully you'll have them and ready to go by spring anyway for your boat. Some awesome new gear. Be there with that. And then I think that's it. I think I just missed the Big Ten tournament. Lex Cockweeds I never missed before, but too many things going on.
I'd like to buy it with a little tough, but there were still some pretty good bags caught, which is normal and look like just a good time as always, because Jeff runs a hell of a tournament. So I can't wait to get back out there next year in October and hope to never miss that one again. Great group of guys. So I think that's a wrap. So thanks for tuning into this episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits brought to you by Seaguar's Performance Braided Lines. Stay safe. We'll see you on the water.