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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 (00:01.264)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in this episode of real talk fishing with no limits today. We're heading over to get some insight on green Bay from the green Bay man himself, Brandon Ruffalo. what's going on buddy? It was, I just saw you literally like a few days ago.
Brandon Ruffolo (00:19.726)
Yeah, we we talked a little bit on Friday, on Thursday, on Wednesday.
Brian Bashore (00:25.104)
And this whole season, I think you're beating me by like one point for AOI or like. Okay. Nope. You beat me at the tournament by one. That's right. We tied. And since I didn't, I sucked and didn't bring a limit first day you beat me. We're in this exact same position of Erie on day one too. We were tied.
Brandon Ruffolo (00:30.606)
I'm in 30th, but...
Brandon Ruffolo (00:35.726)
I can't, yep.
Brandon Ruffolo (00:42.894)
Yeah, I noticed that. We had that same way on day one on Yuri. You kind of cut out a little early day too, which I don't blame you because that was some brutal, brutal stuff.
Brian Bashore (00:52.848)
Yeah, I saw you. I think I saw you coming and I was going. You were coming south of Keelys, I think in between Marblehead. And that was about the time we came in and tried to jig. And then it was like, it wasn't happening. We were going in and I'm like, I think that's Brandon and he's going to where I left. I'm like, boy, have fun with that. So.
Brandon Ruffolo (00:56.845)
Yeah, that's how. Yeah. Yup.
Brandon Ruffolo (01:12.78)
Yeah, it was an ugly, it was an ugly tournament, man. That weather was pretty rough. Even the whole pre -fish, it was really never a great day where you could just run and do things. I was happy to get the first two events were kind of like, let's get through these two. Cause the next two are definitely my favorite. Some of my favorite places, you know, in the whole, whole country to fish. Green Bay, obviously I relatively local 25 minutes from, from the lower part of the bay.
Brian Bashore (01:19.44)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Bashore (01:24.88)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (01:41.132)
And then Sakakawea, I've been there once, I was there in 2020, and that was the most, one of the most fun places I've ever fished.
Brian Bashore (01:49.2)
It is a phenomenal fishery. Everybody's going to catch fish, however you want to catch them. And you may have to run a little ways. You may not. I mean, you'll get them from anywhere. I know there's a central part of Lake that that'll be a hotspot. but there's absolutely no reason you can't catch them pretty much in the Bay. We launch out of probably as well. So it.
Brandon Ruffolo (02:09.868)
absolutely, absolutely. Anywhere with a little bit of current and some bait.
Brian Bashore (02:14.576)
Yeah. And there's a lot of bait and there's a lot of fish. We got no more overs or slots to deal with. we do only have the three man or the three fish limit at green Bay and a five at Sakaka we, so he still don't have any to play with, but. well, that's just, you know, that'd be so a lot of deciding which one, one big one you want to keep or targeting small fish. So that.
Brandon Ruffolo (02:33.066)
That's true. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, the three limit thing on Green Bay is kind of awkward to me. Just because the local limit for Green Bay is five fish. I just don't understand it. But I mean, everybody's in the same boat. I still think if you come in with four to five pounders, you're going to cash a check. That's just kind of always the case. You kind of sneak into that check range with that four and a half to five pound average.
But it's going to take some giant weight to win that tournament. It's going to take 24 to 28 pounds a day to win that tournament.
Brian Bashore (03:06.576)
That's kinda where I was thinking 25 to 30. I mean that's well, two day wait. I mean.
Brandon Ruffolo (03:15.689)
Sure, yeah, 28 to 29 a day. I mean, there'll be a couple guys that run crazy distances and get three eight to 10 pounders a day. And you and I had a conversation at the launch the day before the tournament about points and about, I don't wanna say laying up, but just not trying to hit that home run. And that was kind of my deal this last tournament. I didn't really have any overs going on the Mississippi and -
My first day I just went in with eight and a half pounds. Great, you know, great under fish. And then in day two, my second cast of the day was a five pounder. So that really makes up a lot of points really fast.
Brian Bashore (03:58.896)
It does. Yeah. Those are good. Under eight and a half. I had just a little over that with a 27 inch over, but I only brought in three. So that, I one first day of practice on the Mississippi. I told my guys, I was like, I already had more fun than I've had the entire week at Erie. It was just, even when it did blow, it's, it's fishable and that place is fishy. There's fish everywhere. not to say the area isn't fishy. Erie's fishy as hell. There's fish everywhere and there's big ones, but.
Like I said, just getting around is, it just makes it a challenge. It takes a little, a little bit of the fun out of it. but those fish obviously like a little waves.
Brandon Ruffolo (04:29.864)
Yeah, there was never a point where my back hurt after I got off the water every day and that signals that it's not too nasty out or it's fishable, so that's always a win.
Brian Bashore (04:42.704)
Yeah. I mean, if you're going to invest all this time and money, obviously you want to turn them to go well and do well. But if you've taken a week off work and you got some people traveling with you, you'll want to have some fun. You want to be able to enjoy the week, you know, whether you're catching them or not, just being able to go fish. That's why I've always liked going to the Mississippi because it very seldom really gets to where it's unfishable. I don't care if it rains or snow, it's just don't blow, you know, 40 and 40 on the Mississippi is, is, is not great, but you can still fish, you know, obviously.
Brandon Ruffolo (04:55.623)
Right?
Brandon Ruffolo (05:02.939)
Right, you're just not breaking things like you are on eerie and that's the thing.
Brian Bashore (05:13.712)
Right. Yeah, that's a lot of boats got broke on Erie. That wasn't good. A lot of damage done. Yup. Been there and have done that plenty of time. Now Sakakuea can get rough. Green Bay can obviously get rough. So, you know, these, these nice river days are over at this point. there is a lot of big bays on Sakakuea where you can launch and kind of stay in there if it, if it does get pretty gnarly out. so, so that'll, you know, but.
Brandon Ruffolo (05:18.631)
My ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba - my ba
Brian Bashore (05:41.392)
You want to get out and around and you want to explore and hunt and find that bite. You don't want to be stuck to a certain area, but it also beats the hell out of sitting in your in your hotel room or your or your house, you know, because you just can't can't get out. And that sucks. So let's back up. Let's go to Brandon. Where what are you doing when you're not fishing? You've been doing this for a while. You've had some, you know, you kind of in and out of the NWT stuff. You go it all in. You've had some success on the trail, especially at Green Bay. You know, you know,
Brandon Ruffolo (05:53.797)
For sure. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (06:10.704)
One of the young guys raising cane, make every time you, when you first dipped your head in, I think it was green Bay a few years ago. I think he did pretty well with maybe a third place.
Brandon Ruffolo (06:18.981)
yeah. my first, so 2020, you know, of course it was a COVID year. None of my family or friends are then girlfriend. Nobody could come and watch the way. And I, I pulled 27 pounds both days in a row. I caught a ton of fish, which was very opposite of the guys around me. I was catching 15 to 20 fish a day watching guys struggle for five or six bites. And, I came in 27 pounds. Yeah. We were not that far from each other. We,
Brian Bashore (06:45.2)
That was me. Yeah. Nope.
Brandon Ruffolo (06:48.964)
We were both on that Larson's at Sand Bay area. And I, you know, both day two, I was done at 10 45 in the morning. I had my 27 pounds both days came in. I was leading for a while. That Corey Springle guy is as good as it gets on the Bay. And he bumped me out of there pretty early, but it was just a special kind of event. And, you know, talking to guys like Jason Shakir and after they're like, well, you got the tail and you should probably fish another one. And.
Brian Bashore (07:04.976)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (07:16.516)
I ended up fishing the whole series that year. It was back when it was only three events and then the championship. and after Sakakawea, I was an 11th Wrangler of the year. And then I got COVID three days before I was supposed to leave for the championship confined to my home. So I couldn't fish it. fished a couple other events here and there. Didn't really fish the whole seasons. You know, things are expensive. It's not always easy to do. 2022, I got married. That was kind of the...
Hey, I'm not gonna fish any big events this year. We're gonna pay for a wedding. And then last year I jumped in it and I was gonna fish the whole season. In February, before the season started, the power steering module in my boat lit on fire. So I borrowed five different boats for tournaments last year. I ended up fishing only three events. I did terrible. Just not comfortable in somebody else's equipment.
Brian Bashore (07:46.639)
Right.
Brandon Ruffolo (08:09.699)
just did, and it definitely showed, I didn't fish very well, even on Winnebago. That's only 45 minutes from the house here. And I, I just didn't fish well. but going into this year, it was kind of that, I don't want to say revenge year, but it's just one of those years where you just, you pick yourself up, you dust yourself off. Let's make the championship. Let's accomplish those goals. And, and we're getting there, right? We're two events in, you know, I, I, I'm.
For my finishes, I couldn't be happier with where I'm sitting. One more over on Mississippi and I'm probably in the top 15 in points. I'm 30th right now, I'm in a good spot. My whole team's in the top 40, which is really, really cool. I travel with Dan Harper, Matt Liebman, and John Kupchuk, all four of us are in the top 40. So it's really helpful to have all four of you guys really locked in going to these last two events.
Brian Bashore (09:03.152)
Yeah, that's a, that does make a bit of difference. My team is nobody is, I'm down to one teammate because the other two have basically bailed already. Takisaki can't make anymore. He's got a house sale and a daughter's wedding on the next two tournaments. So I'll give him that one. He's got an excuse and Sam Capelli, whatever. I don't know what's going on there, but that's fine with me. Randy and I do pretty good by ourselves. So.
but we got a lot of points to make up from having a crappy first tournament. So that is good though. You got a good team traveling. Obviously, you know, you're all are on something. what's your take on the whole team thing?
Brandon Ruffolo (09:44.065)
I mean, so for me, you know, if we back up a little bit, my experience before this, you know, my dad was a PWT and FLW pro for a long time. He's a guy out on the Bay, Green Bay now. So I grew up around this. This has been the dream since I was a little kid. you know, seven years old, I walked into career day with a fishing vest on. This is what I wanted to do. So, you know, nowadays getting to do it, you know, obviously this isn't my job. This is my hobby.
I got something else that pays my mortgage, pays my bills. But, you know, it's crazy the relationships you make in the fishing industry, how little it is, but how big it is at the same time. Some of the guys we travel with, Dan Harper is my best friend. He was my co angler two years ago. It just kind of happens that way. So I've been around the team part of it where everybody kind of travels together, you work together, you share your information a little bit here and.
but this is really the first team I've ever been on. Those first couple of years was just me. And, and now it's, it's just, I mean, it's 10 times more efficient, right? Breaking down water, sitting down, having a cold beer after, you know, the day's over and pointing at a map and saying, Hey, this is what we need to focus on. it makes you better. I don't know. There's guys that don't travel that way. There's guys that don't work together. And the ones that do that.
Man, you guys are incredibly talented and I give you all the credit in the world because I tell you what, I wouldn't have caught an over last tournament without my team for darn sure. I wouldn't be able to afford this probably without a team. It's definitely costly and being able to break down expenses a little bit is super helpful.
Brian Bashore (11:31.344)
I mean, you're gucking two lines out trying to cover the whole body of water versus eight, you know, and sometimes you may even fish the same area, but you're all doing different things, trying to dial, you know, something in. I don't, there's a lot of misconception of what the team thing is and I, and I enjoy the camaraderie, the travel, the expenses part. I'm completely fine with just finding and figuring the fishing thing out by myself, but you don't have to, so there's no need to.
Brandon Ruffolo (11:36.702)
Right, exactly.
Brandon Ruffolo (11:41.086)
Right, right.
Brian Bashore (11:58.768)
Right. Until that changes, you know, or we get limited practice days. but these bodies of water, like Green Bay and Erie, and especially really a Mississippi river, aren't things that you can just figure out in two or three days. there's a reason locals finished first and second. There's a reason locals almost won Lake Erie, you know, that we would have called these snipers, the guys that jump in, which, you know, for the locals, they can, it's the rules. You pay it, you jump in. However, they.
Brandon Ruffolo (12:11.677)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (12:27.984)
Fish different, right? And they don't have to be conservative. They don't, they don't care about points. So, so those guys on Mississippi, it's not, Hey, I'm, I'm going to throw my first 24 incher in the box. It's 24 is going back. I'm, I'm playing to win. I need an eight, nine pounder because I have nothing to lose. Right. They're all in. so there's, there's a lot of people that are kind of against that. Those guys jumping in and then there's not, but then again, we want higher payouts. We need, you know, we need to get to 125 boat average and we just don't have enough.
four tournament, you know, pros to get to get to that. So I think that's just the way it's going to be for a while. And, and Hey, pay attention because you can learn some from those locals. So, you know.
Brandon Ruffolo (13:09.532)
Yeah, I definitely agree with you. You know, it's frustrating walking into a body of water when I only get five days of pre -fishing knowing that there's somebody that's spent a quarter of their life on that body of water like the Mississippi that knows every hole, every tree, every rock. But that's a great motivator to get better. And Green Bay is not going to be any different, right? You got, you're going to have 10 different sticks that are...
that are the guys on this body of water. Ryan Dempsey is one of them. You know, Danny Woodke is one here twice. He doesn't have to go to other places because he lives here. He breeds this. Yeah, there's about five or six guys that, you know, when they get in a tournament here, it's cutthroat. They're playing to win. They don't care if it's zero.
Brian Bashore (13:42.896)
Woodkiddy.
Brian Bashore (13:48.176)
Yup.
Brian Bashore (13:56.272)
Brandon Ruffalo. Yeah, I think one of them's Brandon Ruffalo maybe might be a local there.
Brandon Ruffolo (14:01.015)
Brandon Ruffalo is going to give it everything he has to try to get a W in this event. But he also knows that the championship is right here. It's in his grasp. So he, you know, I'm not going to, like I said, I'm not going to lay up. I don't think for this one, we're going to, we're going to give it all we have to try to get three giants in the boat. But I also think that there are other people that will go farther lengths than I will to get a W here.
Brian Bashore (14:25.584)
Yeah, I can think of a few. I know they're going to run up to Washington and then whatever. There's a big fish up there.
Brandon Ruffolo (14:28.986)
Somewhere, man. I don't know. There's some...
There are some giant fish throughout this whole bay. Man, there's a lot of bait this year and it's early. It's like two to three weeks early. There's already guys fighting bait. There's guys getting fish right now. Like I said, my dad's a guide. I get a little bit of a report from some of the lower bay stuff quite a bit. But as far as the bay itself, it's definitely fishing tougher this year than normal. This is a time of year where if I wanna go get...
20 eaters in a day, I can go do that in a couple hours usually. And it's definitely been a bit tougher. I really do think that this will be the toughest Green Bay tournament we ever see on this tour.
Brian Bashore (15:16.08)
Really? So that's the big concern is the timing is the L wife spawn or as they die these, you know, these big wall are gorging on them and they're just not hungry. They got enough to eat. But from what I'm hearing is that's already happening because we're a little bit ahead.
Brandon Ruffolo (15:28.441)
Yeah, it definitely is happening. It's just starting to happen. They're definitely spawning. They're definitely moving into the beta spawn. What could really be good is if we get a really hard warm up, if we get a lot of really warm weather here over the next three weeks, that could really accelerate the process. But some of these fish aren't into their summer areas yet either. Like they're in that spring transitional, where the heck did they go mode? They're just kind of...
They're kind of wandering a little bit. It's not gonna be as easy, I think, as normal to find fish. Normally that July to August, they're really grouped up. They're kind of spread out a little bit right now and that's gonna be a bit troublesome, I think. But I mean, there'll be fish caught in the mud. There'll be fish caught way up north. There'll be fish caught near some of the islands, I think. But I just think it'll be all in all a tougher bite than normal.
Brian Bashore (16:03.056)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Bashore (16:21.328)
Yeah, so, and hey, maybe only needing three fish is a good thing, right? Could be a blessing.
Brandon Ruffolo (16:26.359)
And it's, you're not wrong. I think that, as a tour, like it, you know, you're going to say, say three quarters of the field comes in with a limit. They're going to look like heroes because it's going to, Hey, everybody got a limit. And in reality, you know, 70 boats might've only had three bites today.
Brian Bashore (16:46.864)
But I mean, the, everybody knows the place is full of giants. That's the one thing I like about green Bay is when those things hit there's, there's no doubt what you got on the end of that line and the beautiful color. Obviously if you go further North, you know, those ones are awesome. That, that dark gold. but they are, those are some angry walleye. They fight like Mississippi river walleyes, river walleyes fight and are feisty as all hell, but those green Bay things, they got some shoulders and they ain't messing around.
Brandon Ruffolo (16:55.318)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (17:07.99)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (17:12.47)
Well, and I think it's just, it's your genetics and your fish, right? I think a lot of times you go to Lake Erie, you go to Lake Erie, for example, and you're catching a fish that's five or six years old, that's a 24 -incher. They have a crazy growth rate out there. They, you know, people cycle through thousands of fish in a year. Green Bay, those 28 to 30 -inch fish are 20 -year -old fish. They've been around the block. They're not the dumbest fish on earth. Every time you put a hair jigger.
or a rip and wrap or something in front of their face. They're not just gonna grab at it like some of those eerie fish do. They're the smarter walleyes in the system. They're big for a reason. And yeah, I don't know. I've had that first tournament, you know, Jeremy Brenner pretty well. I used to travel with him. We were in six feet of water pulling and a board goes back like it's just sailing back. He goes, we know what this is. I'm like, let's just play like it's a walleye.
Brian Bashore (17:56.464)
yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (18:05.749)
Popped the board off and big old monster walleye heads right there. We both almost fell out of the boat for it. So yeah, you definitely, they are angry, they're big and they're mean and I can't wait to get three giants for a day.
Brian Bashore (18:20.112)
Yeah, I'm actually looking forward to going to green Bay. I just hope there's some good weather. obviously, I mean, I'm, I'm throwing it in there. I think it's going to be one scoping pretty confident. It'll be one scoping. but trolling is definitely not out of the, you know, the question and you catch three, seven, eight pounders cranking or pulling spinners. I mean, that place, you know, you know, I think you were pulling spinners maybe that year that we were over there. Randy Hummel was, and he did well that day and sprinkles not too far, you know, on his phone spinner as well. And I would say those were the.
top two guys on pulling crawler harnesses that I know. I'm not. It's a little slow for me. But if there's a place to scope, Green Bay is definitely the one, the place to do it.
Brandon Ruffolo (19:01.812)
Yeah, crawlers are my bread and butter and I love it. And that's my best been my thing since I was a little kid, even pulling crawlers. It's just the way we always fished, right? We didn't have live scope back then. Now that I have it, I forced myself to use it just because you have to, you got to be good at it to compete with these guys. It'll play. It'll definitely play. It'll definitely, you know, it's definitely an advantage if you're good at it and.
And some of those fish way up north, you might be chasing around for an hour to get one bite. But you know what? That one bite could be a 10 pounder. That one bite could be a 10, 11 pounder for sure.
Brian Bashore (19:33.964)
Right. Yup. Yup. And he only need three once again. So, but Hey, if you are trolling and pulling boards, you could get your three and you might be weighing in at eight 15. So, right. Yeah. Boom, boom, a double triple, whatever the case may be. It's game over. So you hit the right pocket up there and the right little currency with those. I'm not good enough at it to pick out the size of fish. That's where it's going to come into play as guys, you know, target.
Brandon Ruffolo (19:40.307)
Exactly.
Brandon Ruffolo (19:44.627)
Yeah, one pass.
Brian Bashore (20:02.576)
Just those big fish now i'm getting i got the garmin and you can break that that Your screen down into those quadrants like you know if you do two foot obviously if it fills it up You got a you know, a pretty decent size fish I think that's where that comes into play is I need three fish i'm only gonna toss it to you know, three big ones Obviously, you got to find those that area first. But if you find that area same deal you're pulling you find your right depth you're dropping your your base to that depth and you're pulling right through it so It's
Brandon Ruffolo (20:10.962)
Thank you.
Brandon Ruffolo (20:25.458)
Yeah, I definitely I mean, I definitely think that It could be one two days in a row with one path pulling crawlers You know, we've we've got that like we have tournaments that used to be three fish tournaments battle on the bay Is a tournament run by the Sheboygan Wala Club. That's a club that I'm part of that It was a three fish limit tournament back in the day. We switched over to catch picture release now
But back when it was a three fish limit, there was years where 26 to 28 pounds or more won that tournament. And I know people that have won that tournament on one pass, make one pass over the right rock pile and get a double or a triple. And it's like, holy crap, we got three 29 to 30 inches in the box. Let's go weigh in.
Brian Bashore (21:14.608)
Yeah, it makes for a short day, but that's what you're there to do. So profitable. Right. I was kind of bummed at Mississippi thinking, it's so beautiful out day one. I'm like, we're going to, I had high expectations way more than I did. And, I thought we were going to, we're going to be done in a couple of hours. That was not the case. It took the entire day because the fish were not going very good on day one, but they were there. I was going to get them to go, water got a little dirty and there was a little less current, but I'm like, I don't want to be done in an hour.
Brandon Ruffolo (21:18.417)
Short and profitable.
Brian Bashore (21:44.048)
sit out here and fish all day. I got my wish and I had to fish all day for three fish, but it's not really how that was supposed to work out. Green Bay. I won't be, I don't care how nice it is. I'll get three big fish and get the hell out of there. That's fine. There's plenty of good places to go eat near the lunch.
Brandon Ruffolo (21:57.36)
Yeah, the day two of the 2020 NWT, I had a beer and a cheeseburger at noon on a tournament day. That's one of the best feelings I think I've ever had.
Brian Bashore (22:10.8)
Yep, I, what year was that? We got blown out. It was a one day or.
Brandon Ruffolo (22:16.272)
2021. Yep.
Brian Bashore (22:18.064)
Yeah, I was the last boat out, first boat in at 10. So I was at the little bar restaurant across the street, same deal eating, but I had eight pounds. I just broke my trolling motor going across Lake when the river digged up six fish came back in and still finished like 40th because there was like 60 zeros.
Brandon Ruffolo (22:33.999)
Yeah, I was one of those zeros I Went for went for broke a little bit. We had some eight pounders the day before I was like, yeah We're gonna get them today and got there broke enough stuff and didn't get them and went back and well I guess we're gonna pump this one and go to the next one next time
Brian Bashore (22:46.512)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (22:51.792)
Yep, that's I knew you wouldn't get to make the championship without those points. So my goal is to go in the river, just catch one. I mean, I could, a jig and a crawl or a couple casts. I'm done. I'm getting a 16, 18 inch or I'm out of there. And then we're going to go pull, spinners on weeds. Cause we're getting 25 pound bag a day, probably doing that not far from the river. Even then when you get there and all your stuff's broken, you're like, we're, we're not going to go, this is it. We're just going to do this and we're going to call it good. And when you go across.
the bay and you end up four miles south of where you were aiming because the wind they didn't drive into them like this isn't very good. I kind of figured the same thing would happen up north. There'd be a lot of zeros because I didn't think there was enough fish to go around for as many people that were going.
Brandon Ruffolo (23:35.149)
Yeah, that was the first year I really dabbled with the way up north stuff and I didn't understand it now like I do the way the current the wind and certain other things play factors. and yeah, that tournament wasn't that was a bad one. I don't want to talk about that one.
Brian Bashore (23:50.256)
I hear you. We'll move on. You're right. That one did suck, but that current, so that's what people don't probably get. I hear Spring will talk about it a lot and, and I haven't felt it so much. but it does make a big difference. And especially when you're on the islands or you're on the door County side and stuff, try to explain how that current works or system, cause it totally affects what you're catching and how you present it.
Brandon Ruffolo (24:10.572)
Absolutely. The easiest way I can explain it for anybody is that, you know, I control one way and my boards can lay flat and I can be going one five and I could spin around and go point eight pulling spinners the other way and my blades look like they're just flying and it takes time to understand what speeds you need to be at. You need to just gauge how you're fishing and where you're fishing. Sometimes you pull across the current, you know, not right into it, not right with it, but across it to
to present your baits better. But as far as current, the best tournaments I've had on this body of water are the ones where I understand what's going on with the current and I can present my baits in the right way.
Brian Bashore (24:52.176)
It's not just running north -south. People think the bay is feeding and it's running up in like Michigan or vice versa. Michigan down. There's remainder stuff coming in from all over the place. It can be...
Brandon Ruffolo (24:54.603)
But not necessarily, no, right?
Brandon Ruffolo (25:02.123)
Yeah, there's there's wind, you know, wind is super influential on the Bay Green Bay more so I feel than almost anybody a water, not because of waves, but just because of where it's going to push warm water and what it's going to do to current. You know, Winnebago is simple, you know, very similar that way too. But I just feel like Green Bay has more current. And yeah, it's the wind, you know, pay attention to the wind if you're if you're pulling into a spot and you're
Brian Bashore (25:13.104)
Yep.
Brandon Ruffolo (25:27.435)
Water temperature is five degrees less than it was today before and you're not above 70 degrees. You probably should just leave. It's probably not worth your time.
Brian Bashore (25:34.608)
Yeah, that, and the water so clean there on portions, but majority of the lake thinks of the zebra mussels. but it's also why the fishing and the small mouth fishing is so good. But it's so the wind obviously helps in that aspect of it. I mean, I've been there and seen, you know, 30 inches at strawberry laying on the rocks in the middle of the day, sunning themselves, you know, and it's like, well, you know, and sometimes you can catch them. Most time you can't, you just get a look at them and go, cool.
Brandon Ruffolo (25:46.474)
Right.
Brandon Ruffolo (25:55.754)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (26:01.872)
That's neat because you can see Ted 15 or even up way north and Cedar river where you can see, you know, you'll see them. I'm like, there's a 30 plus inch or by a boulder, but you'll throw your bait in from his face until you scared away. You know, it's just like, that, I don't know. It's frustrating, but yeah, wind. But that's what it does more. I think than anything there is it moves that water around so much that you'll have, you'd be on a maybe two or three days in a row and you need to go there exactly. Wind shifted and your water temp dropped three degrees in those.
Brandon Ruffolo (26:09.706)
That's, yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (26:24.906)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (26:31.248)
It seemed like it's really hard to do even fish the same area at Green Bay two days in a row.
Brandon Ruffolo (26:36.777)
Yeah, that's definitely true. Unless you have stable conditions two days in a row. I mean, you know, you heard Corey talk about it in 2020 when he won, when he got to his spot and he looked down and saw a little bit of algae in the water and went, man, I think I'm going to win this thing. It's because that's the, if you have relatively clean water, but you can't see bottom in 2025 feet of water. Now it's like, my gosh, you know, I have something to cover my tracks.
I'm marking big fish. There's current here. The water's still warm. There's bait here. There's no reason. Yeah, there's nothing. There's no reason for those fish to leave. And that's the best feeling in the world here when you can pull into a spot and go, yep, it's how it's supposed to be. The worst feeling is when you know you run 30 miles and you look down and you go, my god, I can see bottom and 20 feet of water. No.
Brian Bashore (27:09.04)
Yeah, nothing, there's algae, nothing's moved. Right.
Brian Bashore (27:26.128)
Right. Yeah. And you turn around and go 30 miles back the other way to the mud where it doesn't matter so much. Right. Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (27:30.692)
Yeah, and I've done it and I've done it and it's painful and it's terrible and it sucks when you're on 30 to 40 pounds. But you know what? That's just part of fishing. That's why we do what we do, right? That's why we're, you know, that's why we're fishermen.
Brian Bashore (27:43.472)
Yup.
So we're going out of Oconto for this one, which is, and I believe our Brown County is the tournament boundary again, because of that's how that always is, which is just south of Oconto, I think, not very far, right? But it's so in mud, sharks fed area is what you're looking at. But we think the, I think that mud, I think that mud bike is going to be going by then just cause everything's ahead of schedule and there's, you can pull some weight out of the mud.
Brandon Ruffolo (27:54.662)
Yep.
Yeah, about 14 -15 miles.
Brandon Ruffolo (28:02.95)
Yep. Yep.
Brandon Ruffolo (28:11.718)
yeah, those alewife kind of roll in there first. I actually wouldn't be surprised if you're the bunch of top 10 boats in the mud, right? The biggest thing with the mud that worries me, that scares me about it, is there's no structure. They're not relating to anything. And you could have 40 pounds one day and you can have 10 the next day. And you could do that anywhere, but your highest opportunity to do that is right there in the mud where these fish are always just kind of...
Brian Bashore (28:31.024)
Yup.
Brian Bashore (28:37.776)
Yeah, they are totally Roman. I mean, it'll be interesting to even scope those in the mud. So, you know, I hear a lot of those big ones related to some of those reefs. They were off reefs way out to where it appeared to be nothing, but they're hanging in that area because of the reefs. The mud is the mud. That's that's your structure is the bottom. So, but somebody will figure it out. So, but awful lot of structure.
Brandon Ruffolo (28:44.23)
Yep.
Brandon Ruffolo (28:53.99)
Yeah, totally.
Brian Bashore (29:06.864)
when you go East side.
Brandon Ruffolo (29:08.998)
Yeah, east and west side really. I mean, you get to Oconto, the Shoals, there's reefs and humps and everything all in Oconto. You get to north of Oconto. There's a rock pile every 40 feet somewhere. Same with the East Shore. You got a lot of rocks, some shallow weeds in places. Man, it is just a place with a plethora of area that you can hit and you can go 10 miles without getting bit and it can be super frustrating.
Brian Bashore (29:13.388)
yeah, yeah.
Brian Bashore (29:19.824)
No.
Brandon Ruffolo (29:37.573)
Or you can go three miles and you can get 40 pounds, you know, or in our case, 25 pounds.
Brian Bashore (29:43.12)
Right. Yeah. That's what is probably a tricky and about green bay is there's so many places to go. And when you find them, you find them and you can, you can catch them, you know, sometimes obviously the muds are pretty big area and probably an easier place in a sense to troll or get something dialed in because you're not focused on an individual piece of structure or a jerk bait bite in the weeds or a rip and wrap bite up North. And like I said,
mud's a quick drive or even you're driving by it or I guess down over to it. But there is, you got, I forgot O 'Connell Scholes, which used to call the crib. That's a pretty consistent place.
Brandon Ruffolo (30:13.508)
Yeah, there's always fish around right? I mean we we fish that you know we fish the edge of a kind of shoal in February this year and we were catching them in April post spawn. They'll be on that that show. There'll be fish on that show from you know from January 1st to December 30th. Sure, yeah, and that's.
Brian Bashore (30:38.16)
Yeah, I've got some big ones on there too.
Brandon Ruffolo (30:42.147)
You know, same Young's Reef is there. There's a bunch of little reefs on the inside of Oconto. Lots of weeds in that area. Like it's got, it's all great habitat. If you've never been there before, you pull in there and you're like, well, I got 20 miles of weeds and rocks and mud to play with. Shoot, I can, I can spend, I can, I can spend two to three days here to break it down. And in reality, if you don't, if you spend more than a day there breaking it down, you're probably wasting your time.
Brian Bashore (30:44.24)
No.
Brian Bashore (30:50.32)
Mm -hmm.
Brian Bashore (30:56.688)
Yeah, that's a day.
Brian Bashore (31:07.856)
Yeah, you better figure it out, figure out quick. Cause you have 20 more areas that are equally as big. Yep. Yep. But it does hold fish always. It's just doesn't hold the right fish and when they'll be there, will they be there when you get there? and what is it that's going to trigger those to bite? Obviously we all have an idea and plans in our head and where we want to start and how we're going to work the whole thing. But like I said, when's it going to dictate just about everything. So it dictates your practice. And, and do we, I told the guys that have come with us that, I said, I said, there's no other place that I.
Brandon Ruffolo (31:12.77)
That are the exact same. Yes.
Brian Bashore (31:37.936)
launch and relaunch throughout the day more than green Bay instead of making it. I'm like, well, fish a couple hours, but the boat on tour to drive somewhere else, dump the boat off it for a few hours or the rest of the day or whatever, but it's not uncommon to maybe launch two to three times a day. Sometimes just because the wind, I'm not going to get, you know, why beat yourself up to go 20 miles when you just unload it, drive, you know, 10, 15 miles and put it back in the water. So.
Brandon Ruffolo (31:42.161)
Yeah, for sure.
Brandon Ruffolo (31:58.818)
Right, right for sure. I'd let it, let it's cheaper than premium anyway. I'd look at it. It's easier and more efficient if I just drive around. I got to go two or three miles with the boat than it is if I got to run 30 miles with the boat, you know, unless it's dead flat calm.
Brian Bashore (32:05.392)
Yeah. Yep.
Brian Bashore (32:16.912)
Yep. Yeah. If it's flat calm, then it's, Hey, I'm just fly to the other side of the lake. You do whatever you can do. I mean, we all love those days of practice because we can cover a lot of water. Sometimes fishing may not be as good as a little breeze, but I know I broke a windshield at green Bay and it wasn't that windy. Just heading from Marinette to the green and through, I don't know what it was 15 mile an hour winds maybe, but that laces a lot less rollers like Erie and more chop to where you're, if you can't get up on top of them, it's a slap. And then that's when.
Brandon Ruffolo (32:41.376)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, the waves definitely they I don't feel like they're They're not Winnebago where they're like really super tight like Winnebago I feel is like one of the worst places but but yes, they're too far apart to roll over the top of like a you know, and they're not They're terrible. They suck. especially especially like a northeast win like the year, you know, we had a one -day tournament You're running in six to seven foot waves and you're like, holy crap. This is terrible
Brian Bashore (32:53.968)
Yeah, they're just too far apart to...
Brian Bashore (33:04.016)
There it is. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (33:08.464)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (33:14.384)
Yup.
Brandon Ruffolo (33:14.432)
And that's just when you're running sideways. Once you start running into him or with him, it's like, this is impossible.
Brian Bashore (33:20.816)
Yup. Yup. Been there, done that. At a time I got blown South where I was going because when he had a turn to drive into him, like, Jesus, this sucks, man. But that's a, that's what we do. That's what we signed up for. Call us stupid, call us crazy. You know, whatever. I just, we're going to call us a little bit, a little bit crazy, a little, a little over passionate maybe at times, but it's the competitive edge of what we all love to do. So we'll just keep doing it. All right.
Brandon Ruffolo (33:43.456)
Yeah, we do this because we love it, right? I mean, this is something that we all, you know, if you don't love it, you don't do this.
Brian Bashore (33:49.808)
No, you'd be a, you'd be nuts. I think some of the coanglers that are new or learning some hard lessons that, I better really love this. Cause that guy does, and he's going to go through whatever it is in front of me to get to where he needs to go. And,
Brandon Ruffolo (34:01.024)
Right, yeah, if you don't love it, you might as well take up golf or tennis or something where it's in warm weather, you know, but.
Brian Bashore (34:06.8)
Yeah, a little, you can dictate things a little bit more. I mean, I don't, it's going to control the weather by all means, but when you mix in being on, on water with it, it's a, you know, I have to deal with it every day as a guide. And I, the older I get, I don't give me blue bird flat columns every day. I don't, if it makes fishing tougher, I got ways to get them, you know, I'm on a river, so I got current and dirty water. I'm fine, but give me those days any day.
Brandon Ruffolo (34:10.496)
Right.
Brandon Ruffolo (34:25.982)
Yeah, I'm -
Brandon Ruffolo (34:32.382)
Yeah, I don't disagree with you at all. I don't disagree with you at all. Whether I'm old or young, I would rather have a 70 degrees and five mile an hour wind than a 80 degrees and 40 mile an hour wind any day.
Brian Bashore (34:44.688)
Yeah, I mean a little while I chop it can get good, but I'll just take a flag all day. So, all right. We covered out on green Bay. Pretty good. 25, 28 pounds you think a day. So you're talking.
Brandon Ruffolo (34:55.166)
Yeah, I definitely think 25 to 28 a day. I think an 8 to 9 pound average is going to win you that tournament. It'll be done. I'd be shocked if it's not done, but...
Brian Bashore (35:02.416)
some big fish. I know that's some big fish. Somebody may even crack 30 in one day and 24, 25 the next day or whatever. So they eat those L -wifes, obviously very fatty fish and that's what they're just gorging on right now. So they should be obviously past, you know, we're post -spawn, but they should be pretty plump and ready to, you know, put all that weight back on by then. So.
Brandon Ruffolo (35:12.99)
Absolutely. I would not be shocked. I would not be shocked.
Brandon Ruffolo (35:20.158)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (35:26.109)
Yeah, we've been post -pawn for over a month now. Those fish have really been packing on the weight for sure.
Brian Bashore (35:36.976)
Good. Can't wait. Can't wait to hook into one of those. hope hook into six. Well, maybe like 26, we got to figure it in practice, but six is all it's all a guy really needs. Right? Well, your tournaments, you've been fishing off San WT covered down on that for a little while. You do some aim out there and I, did you not do a little stunt with head to head?
Brandon Ruffolo (35:47.004)
Right?
Brandon Ruffolo (35:53.884)
So I don't do aim I haven't done aim yet. I love the format We have the Shibuya Walleye Club right here. It's pretty cutthroat club. We have 40 50 boats that fish every tournament So I've been doing that for I think seven years. I think I've qualified for seven or eight National team championships in a row now my wife and I fish the club now together, which is a lot of fun. I See she gets it
Brian Bashore (35:59.096)
yeah, I have no name.
Brian Bashore (36:02.96)
Good morning.
Brian Bashore (36:17.456)
fun. She gets it now she gets that she's got a little little taste of it and she gets it. Awesome.
Brandon Ruffolo (36:22.844)
She gets it, that's how we met. So that's, she gets it. You know, I give her a lot of credit for putting up with me. Cause you know, I'm sure you get it. We get in that tournament mold. We get in that really cutthroat mode and it's just a $30 club tournament. And I probably should be nicer than I am.
Brian Bashore (36:34.384)
It takes a special kind of woman. Yep.
Brian Bashore (36:45.039)
It don't matter 30, 30 ,000 it's tournament and I, my wife's fish tournament with me once years ago and I think we did eighth or something like that, but I won't tell the story about her not going to fish off with the net because she says I always bring that up. It was the big one of course, right? But it was fun, but now that she gets it, you know, it is totally.
Brandon Ruffolo (36:48.284)
Go.
Brandon Ruffolo (36:59.898)
Yeah.
Yeah, my wife, she gets it. I love that woman. She does a great job. We had a great year last year. We ended up not fishing one of the club events. We took eighth in team of the year. We took the second. We had a second place, a fifth place, and one bad event where we didn't get to fish the last event. So I, you know, she gets it. She's really, she's a good stick. She's a better hair jig fisherman than I am. I shouldn't say that, but she's really good with a hair jig.
Brian Bashore (37:22.384)
Pretty good.
Brian Bashore (37:26.736)
really?
Brandon Ruffolo (37:31.802)
Yeah, so I'm fishing head to head this year in the head to head league, which is cool. It's a good showcase for my sponsors. And it's fun. They do a really well run league. My good buddy Mitch Don and I fish that together. And there's some hammers in it, man. There's some really great sticks. Fish some master walleye circuit events, kind of cherry pick those on the bay a little bit. That's a mild success in those. I fished a couple.
I fished three of those, I think I've cashed checks and two of them down third place. I probably should have won that one, but yeah, you know, Green Bay's home. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (38:08.848)
Do you do the, yeah, you got a lot of opportunity out there. How about the Merc Nationals? You ever jumped into that when you're close to bagel?
Brandon Ruffolo (38:14.457)
I fished that once. This is actually my first year ever running a mercury, so I probably will fish that here in the future. I try to stay off of Winnebago personally. Man, there's so many great sticks on that body of water, and I give credit to all of them, because every time I think I have it dialed in, I just shit the bed. That's the best way to put it. I just...
Brian Bashore (38:29.84)
Yeah, I love that body of water.
Brian Bashore (38:40.848)
Yep.
Brandon Ruffolo (38:42.712)
Last year I had 12 to 14 pounds a day every day at practice. I weighed two pounds on day one. I was, I've never been more let down by a bite.
Brian Bashore (38:46.32)
Ahem.
Brian Bashore (38:51.408)
No, I have had the same deal. A lot of common great practices and just crappy tournaments there. I had to practice this unbelievable. I mean, we were catching over 20 pounds a day between Randy Ted and I in like six cast every day. Somebody went and checked the spot and made two or three casts and pop six, seven pounders. It was stupid. And then term of day, it lightened at four in the morning and that might.
Boop, all gone. Six boats there. I saw one guy catch a seven eight pounder and I caught an 18 threw it back and I brought nothing in. I mean, I could have went and caught the 14, 15 inches, but it wasn't, it didn't matter. I wouldn't do you any good. Yeah, that really, really sucked. And we had another spot that was equally as good. I kind of had, you know, I looked at a map and went, this is the same as that minus it was like three foot deep, you know, and.
Brandon Ruffolo (39:21.528)
Gone. Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (39:34.904)
Yeah, some humble pie, isn't it? That place is good for that.
Brian Bashore (39:50.704)
All right, we'll do this. And, and caught them over there too. the other two guys fished that in the afternoon and got fished, but they, that was 26 is and fives and 28 all turned into 17 18s. And I, I just, I gave up and bailed and went and left, but I'm like, wow, it was, I mean, we're, I've never been so confident as a team. Even we're like one, two, three, you can't, I mean, 20 some pounds a day at bagel. Come on, give me a break. You got that thing in the bag. Yep. I remember Ted found that by, and he made.
Brandon Ruffolo (40:14.07)
Yeah, that'll win every tournament there forever.
Brian Bashore (40:20.816)
I'm gonna eight cast and caught six fish all over 25 inches. Then I went in there.
Brandon Ruffolo (40:24.722)
my God. I don't think I've caught that bait, but it's over 25 there in my life. It's all special.
Brian Bashore (40:28.848)
No, I went there, same. I made a couple of casts, caught a few and a musky. Randy went there and like one person would just check it every day and literally just make a couple of cats. You couldn't see them. We didn't have scopes. He had to, he had to fish it just a little bit. And it was like, you know, whether it came off or you got it, you're like, okay, it's good. I'm out of here and really didn't see anybody else around the whole time. And it was a stupid, but yeah, I don't know. I like mega, but when you live that close to green Bay too, and you have those 25 to 30 inches everywhere you go.
Yeah, why would you go to Bago, right? It's like sprinkles. You'd rather just go to the Green Bay. It's a whole body of water, but I won't go to it.
Brandon Ruffolo (41:00.054)
And he lives closer to Winnebago than I do, you know.
Brian Bashore (41:07.76)
Exactly. So, you know, I like the diversity of it though, being able to do all the different things in the river aspect, but you're right. There's a ton that place gets a ton of traffic, ton of local good sticks. The fly thing is, you know, it's kind of fun, but there's some people that really have that figured out. the green Bay as well, locals, you guys understand that current better, you know, you got local information, you know, what the real time what's happening with bait, obviously with your dad guiding on it, no one's going on every day. It's just.
Brandon Ruffolo (41:13.302)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (41:39.027)
Yeah, it's and there's so many great sticks that fish the Bay Green Bay And I just feel like there's so many great six that fish both of them There's a lot of great anglers. I come out of this northeastern, Wisconsin area Because it's so cutthroat right Winnebago is incredibly cutthroat Green Bay There's you say there's 15 tournaments a year on Green Bay and every one of them. There's guys that crush them There's never bad tournaments. There's always guys that
Brian Bashore (41:39.824)
You know, you got an advantage, so you got to stay there.
Brian Bashore (41:46.128)
time.
Brian Bashore (42:03.984)
new.
Brandon Ruffolo (42:05.939)
will come in and you're like, how on earth did he crack 40 pounds in this bite? And it's just, one, it's a testament to the Bay of Green Bay, and two, it's a testament to the angler center from around here.
Brian Bashore (42:10.416)
Right.
Brian Bashore (42:17.424)
It doesn't matter how tough it is. Somebody always gets them. It's not tough everywhere and they're always biting somewhere period. You just didn't figure it out, right?
Brandon Ruffolo (42:20.659)
always. Yeah, that's why I always say that to people, how's the bite? I'm like, well, I'm zeroed today, but they're biting somewhere, you know, and it's, and it's real. That's right, right.
Brian Bashore (42:31.12)
It's, it's good. Just not where I was at or maybe it was where I was at. They just didn't like what I was offering or how I was offering it. So that's always is a kind of a pain in the, you know, humble pie. When the winner was within eyesight of you all day and you just couldn't get, you couldn't buy a bite and you're like, what the hell? It's simple. It's a cadence of speed, a line, a depth of weight. There are so many variables that go into it that make that little bit of difference from one bite to putting 25 in the boat or 15 to 20 when you're.
Brandon Ruffolo (42:38.835)
gosh.
Brian Bashore (43:01.136)
Polar Larson's reef area and the other three of us are struggling to get a limit of fish because you are, could have been from going 1 .2 to or 0 .8 to one, you know, whatever, just a little bit of variation in speed. And that's what it took for those fish, not to just look at it, but to attack it. Details, so many details in this set.
Brandon Ruffolo (43:14.353)
Yeah, yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (43:20.849)
Well, that's why there's guys like Corey and John Hoyer and Tom Wynn that are the best at what they do because they are that far detail -oriented.
Brian Bashore (43:30.416)
Yeah, you gotta be, you gotta be dialed in. You gotta everything. I mean, down to your not it. It all matters. there's days and there's bites when you can put a cigarette butt on a hook and you're going to catch them. you know, but the, they're not eight, nine, 10 pounders. there's obviously a little luck involved with fishing sometimes. I don't know. You heard it a lot in Mississippi and it kind of unfold a little different than anticipated. I thought it'd be a lot of, a lot of three fish brought in because guys were throwing back overs and waiting to get a big one. Didn't get it. That.
Brandon Ruffolo (43:40.945)
Sure.
Brian Bashore (43:58.544)
Everybody got overs. They brought three fish in like me because we didn't get the unders. So, you know, we needed the spot you had where you had a whole crap load of 18, 19 inches and had it. They just didn't go. But I was like, there's a lot of three fish, not a lot, but a handful of three fish limits, but they all had overs and he didn't have the unders. So it's like, that was there. And you hear them like, yeah, I went to fish for my unders and cracked a 29 incher. You know, I got a 27 day one on my under spot and then get anything on the over spot. So.
Brandon Ruffolo (44:22.481)
Right.
Brian Bashore (44:28.08)
And then day two went there in the morning. Then we went there second stop and got three overs. I'm like, this is where I supposed to, I've been getting all my 19s and I'm got you in a 25, 23, you know, 27. So.
Brandon Ruffolo (44:41.04)
God, I could have killed for one of those fish on day one.
Brian Bashore (44:44.784)
Yeah, I mean I had a 27 but like I said, I would have killed for one of your 18 inches so...
Brandon Ruffolo (44:49.295)
Yeah, I had a spot, I had an area where it took a lot. Those fish were goofy day one and day two really. I don't know if that high pressure and all the lightning and all the wind moved in, you know, moving in the two days before. They were in a goofy mood a little bit. And really, I mean, we were running a goofy rig, which is kind of a three -way rig deal with a crankbait that we were getting. I could probably catch 20 unders in a day, maybe 25.
Brian Bashore (45:00.848)
Yeah, day one was weird.
Brandon Ruffolo (45:18.607)
and most of them were, you know, I'd say half of them were probably between 17 and a half and 18 and a half. They were that perfect two pound under. And that was my hardest part is I just, I never caught an overall practice. One of my teammates did and he caught one in the tournament. We all agreed like we got to get to this spot to get, you know, this one little hole. And I passed a lot of boats coming out of the lock to get to that hole. And like I said, my second, he was pulling my buddy.
Dan was pulling up while I was leaving. I popped a 20, 23 incher. I left, he popped a 28. And our other two guys ended up getting seven to nine pounders in there as well. Like it just held fish and you know, it worked. And it really, you know, it saved my season a little bit, right? If I come in with eight pounds, I finished with 16, 17 pounds. You know, I take 70th, you know, instead.
Brian Bashore (46:15.728)
Yeah, then you're right on the tail end of 40.
Brandon Ruffolo (46:17.001)
Right. So instead I jumped up, he jumped up 25 spots. I'm in 30th for angler of the year. I got a really nice look at what the championship is going to take and going into my home body of water. And then to kakao is again, like one of my five, four or five favorite places to fish. Let's, let's get after these next two events here.
Brian Bashore (46:35.152)
Yep. It's, it's, it's my number one favorite place to fish. So it's, it's good. It's been good to me. Where Bala put his stuff, how'd I talk to him? I got to do a 35th or better or not, or a really good, and then have a little bit of room for really crappy and the green Bay would be the crappy, just never done well. I've had a few good bags, 25 pound bags, throwing sugar. I know I just didn't get it two days in a row.
But, yeah, it's there and I know I'm going to live on my life scope and try to figure it out, but the trolling rods will be in the truck. They won't be in the boat, but they will be in the truck and my partner, Randy Hummel will figure that out. I have no doubt about it. And, and that's where teammate comes in handy because I'm going to do this. You do that. Let's try to put something together and only two of us, we've got to cover a hell of a lot of water. So.
It's coming up quick. It's only two and a half weeks away We're gonna do another update with Bala and her before we go live and then we're gonna try to do this live here a week after this post about this coming Monday the Monday after and We'll play a little fantasy prediction on that one. I kind of kicked their butt on the first one with my picks I had Hunter in there and myself
Brandon Ruffolo (47:31.437)
Yeah, my dad and I, and then the guys that we travel with, we're all talking about Angler of the Year. I picked Hunter. I said, after that strong first event, he knows the Mississippi River. He knows Green Bay and he's good enough for the live scope to go do it on Scott Gawee.
Brian Bashore (47:55.44)
Mm -hmm.
Brandon Ruffolo (48:00.395)
That dude's gonna, I think that guy's gonna win Angler of the Year. I do want to throw in, like, my buddy Dan Harper is an eighth. Big Dog is better on this body a while. He's fished Green Bay like three times. And one of those three times was with me at the MWC and he cracked like four 30 -inches in like two days. If anybody's gonna run up and catch him, I'm gonna throw my money on him.
Brian Bashore (48:10.)
Yeah, he's rolling.
Brian Bashore (48:28.272)
And then Matt Liebman is new to the full circuit, I believe. And he's, he's had a good area, you know, hanging in there. He's good enough at area. You can always have one of those. When you get to the top 10, you can have a mulligan and still, you know, I mean, you can be in there.
Brandon Ruffolo (48:31.05)
Yep, yep, he is, yep.
Brandon Ruffolo (48:38.762)
Sure.
Sure, you sure can and it helped that, you know, he had a great eerie event, jigged up some giants, cracked 30 pounds both days. Maddie did a great job. I'm the only guy on the team without a check cash so far. Big John Kopchak, he crushed 16 pounds day two. He's leading it for a while here on the Mississippi. So it's my turn to go out and crack a big bag here two days in a row. And...
Brian Bashore (48:57.232)
Yeah.
Brandon Ruffolo (49:07.786)
you know, jump a few more spots in the points standings. But as far as my team goes, man, I appreciate those guys, love those guys. I couldn't do what I do without them. And they're all great minds. And it's really cool when you're all working together, how it all worked out like it did on day two in Mississippi, where we all pull into an area, say, hey, this is the area we need to be popping over and we all leave and go get our unders. And the finishes showed.
Brian Bashore (49:32.112)
Yeah, that's awesome. It's awesome. There's enough there that you could all go fish the same, same hole more or less and pull them out of there. That's how that place, the place sets up like that. I mean, cause they cannot be there that an hour later, four or five of them show up and you needed one. So it's get it go. There's no reason to sit in there and yeah, yeah. They're soaking a little cat or what have you. And just bam, they just devour them. It's, it would make that place awesome when there's no slots or something like that. Or like predator Shane used to be when he gets monster bags.
Brandon Ruffolo (49:36.842)
I don't know if that will ever happen again.
Brandon Ruffolo (49:44.17)
Sure.
Thank you. You know five hundred.
Brandon Ruffolo (49:56.516)
Yeah, I couldn't imagine if you got to that spot and it was like it used to be where there's no unders, you're fishing for five bites, that could have taken 45 pounds a day to win that tournament.
Brian Bashore (50:10.288)
Yeah, but it's like that because there's slots, you know, Mrs. It's not green bait. It's not that as big, you know, but that's, Hey, we got no more slots. So there's no more, I catch one. I'm staying to catch two more. So, well, it's definitely, this one is lining up, laying up good for you. And, and, I'm looking forward to it. you might make my fantasy team.
Brandon Ruffolo (50:13.896)
Right, right.
Brian Bashore (50:34.64)
I got a little faith in you on green bay. You might, you might be in top five. So you might be maybe Harper will now too. And you're dropping nuggets on the guy. He's the man.
Brandon Ruffolo (50:35.472)
Well, I appreciate that.
Brandon Ruffolo (50:41.672)
I'm telling you, Big Dan, Big Dan's as good as anybody, I'm telling you right now. He's underrated as heck, he doesn't have a bunch of sponsors, he's both one of the oldest ones on the tour, I'm telling you right now, that boy is good with a digging rod as anybody.
Brian Bashore (50:46.608)
Yup.
Brian Bashore (50:53.808)
Those are the guys to watch out for cause they're just fishing. They don't have to worry about nothing else. And, and I mean, live stuff, but they don't have to do the other game stuff. So that's awesome. It's a, it's wrapped this thing up. You got me. I'm pretty pumped to go to green Bay now. And that's not, that's hard for me to get. I talked to the co -anglers here, like, you're not making it sound very appealing. I'm like, no, no, it's going to be fine. It'll be fun. I'm just telling you, I'm going to live on the screen up front. So bring your pole. I have the, or add use mine, but if you want a garment, I have a bird in the back.
Brandon Ruffolo (50:59.496)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (51:23.472)
I'm like, bring it because otherwise you can just stare at the back of my head all day. Sorry. It's just, that's the game, you know, I'm like, well, yeah, I'm like, well, it makes sense. I'm trolling because I'll just need a break, you know, whether it's just for an hour or two here and there, but I'm like, this is the way it's going to be guys. So you want to, you want to play the game? You need to get in the game. And that's, that's where it's at, but certainly plenty of fish to be caught, caught trolling at it. And these guys haven't been there and new guys like to go take a little time out of that day and just show them about.
Brandon Ruffolo (51:28.453)
That's part of pre -fishing, man.
Brian Bashore (51:51.92)
pulling crawler harnesses and we're going to pull some Randy Riggs. We're going to do this and show you how and why. And then we, here's, here's what I know. If you really want to learn this stuff, go get in Hummel's boat. He'll, he'll take you to school. I'll get you through first grade. He's going to graduate. Yeah. So that's how good that guy is at that stuff. But leave a nugget. You got something, a little tip, anything for our listeners to help them along their way.
Brandon Ruffolo (52:08.229)
Sure.
Brandon Ruffolo (52:14.245)
Man you sent me that and I I've got a couple nuggets if that's okay So so one nugget is if you're just getting into this if you're whether you're turning a fisherman out you're fishing from the bank Love it, right? It's the same as us. We love it We love it But if you're the guy sitting on the bank enjoying yourself, make sure you're enjoying it. Make sure you love it Life's not long enough to not love it To you know
Brian Bashore (52:19.472)
Drop more!
Brandon Ruffolo (52:41.604)
If you're also new into this, hire a guy like yourself, like a guide, hire a guy like yourself, my father, there's a lot of great guys in the Green Bay area, Lake Erie, all these places that can teach you, that are happy to teach people what they understand and what they know about walleye fishing. And three, if you're doing this, if you're on the tour, I don't think we can stress this enough. And it's not just LiveScope, but understand your electronics. I catch more fish because of side scan than...
Probably then probably then probably live scope to be honest with you just because I'm looking at what I'm you know Okay, there's a rock transition right here. Boom. There's a fish on the edge of it. Okay now we're gonna spin around I'm gonna live scope a little bit whatever but if you get in touch with your electronics man, there's a reason Tom win There's a reason sprinkle. There's a reason John Hoyer Jason Shakir these guys are all really good because they can look at their graphs say yep It's all right right now and they can get on the front of their boat and do their thing
Brian Bashore (53:11.024)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (53:41.328)
Yep, you are a hundred percent correct. I would say to be a master of electronics, you'll be a master angler. I live on my side scan. Get rid of my 2D, get rid of my DI, just give me sky scan. You know, when it came out, I've been a bird guy ever since. I got great side scan and it's there was a, that's it for signing structure. I'm like, good for you. I'm finding fish with it. And I turned and just, I just throw right at him. I can even almost pick them out of rocks. I'm so, you know, dialed into the side scan and I'm adjusting it.
Brandon Ruffolo (53:46.339)
Damn straight, absolutely.
Brandon Ruffolo (54:03.011)
I can see fish.
Brian Bashore (54:10.992)
You know, and even on the Mississippi, I'm running 455 kilohertz cause I'm fishing shallow. And I kept telling guys, I'm like, I'm like, get off, take the mega off, go to 455. I'm telling you as like, you know, all of a sudden there's hundreds of fish versus the four or five you saw.
Brandon Ruffolo (54:15.139)
Yep, absolutely.
Brandon Ruffolo (54:23.906)
And I tell you, the big debate is, my God, should we get rid of four facing sonar? And I'm telling you, if they did, I'd be a better fisherman because I'd be in a better spot because I don't stare at it every day all day. So if you do it, you do it. I don't think they should. I think if it's a tool that's given to us, we should roll with it. So I'm good with it either way. But I tell you right now, man, side scan will teach you more about a body of water than almost anything else.
Brian Bashore (54:34.672)
Right.
Brian Bashore (54:38.544)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (54:53.456)
Yep. Yep. It is good. I wish it worked at 40 mile an hour, but you know, it's, it's, but it's probably good. It makes you slow down. So, I mean, you can really figure out the trees, the weed lines and just drop way points and do your thing and just, it's so good. So yeah, I love it. And like I said, if there's one thing to leave as far as electronics go in the boat, don't take my side scan, take everything. And I, and I'm a shallow guy. So 2d don't do me a whole hell of a lot anyway, 2d is all flying down the lake. So I, in case I,
Brandon Ruffolo (54:57.153)
Yeah, me too.
Brandon Ruffolo (55:14.337)
Yep, I agree 100%.
Brandon Ruffolo (55:19.169)
So same here.
Brian Bashore (55:23.056)
run into some two foot water, but by then it's too late. So, you know, the transducers on the back of the boat. So when it tells me what's underneath me, it's no longer underneath me. you know, you're sitting on it nonetheless, but you get to get a good going on there. Anyway, awesome brand and good stuff. Thanks for coming on man. And, looking forward to competing with you at green Bay. I was just to say, you know, whooping yard or whatever the case is, but, we're competing. We're going to.
Brandon Ruffolo (55:26.017)
Good night.
Brandon Ruffolo (55:51.361)
You can say that, that's no problem. Brian, you're a great guy, I appreciate you. Man, I hope I kick your ass on Green Bay, that's how it is.
Brian Bashore (55:53.296)
I'm just gonna hold my...
Brian Bashore (55:58.608)
Yep, exactly. I hope to hold my own and do a 35 or better. And you know, the idea with the second of the year stuff, points is, is points for the championship. If you just win one, you're in long as you fish all four. So that's what I, that's what I, I told ball. I said, I'm, I'm so far out of it from Mary. I was like, I just, I, whatever. I'm going to fish them all. Cause I'm going to go win one. And then I made an auditory about it. So the AOI, I'm not concerned about that at all. The AOI is 40, 39th and 40th. That's all that matters.
Brandon Ruffolo (56:09.185)
Yeah, maybe I should just do that. We just get it all.
Brandon Ruffolo (56:26.462)
Yep, that's all that matters.
Brian Bashore (56:26.576)
I don't care if it's 24th or 40th, 40th, or just win one and you can be number 41 and you're in. So I'll take that. So, all right, man. Thanks for your time. I'll let you get back to it. You got to go keep that wife happy and keep her, I'm not even gonna take her fishing if you got a nice evening out there. So, okay. Good, good. Happy wife, happy life. Yep, that's right.
Brandon Ruffolo (56:42.59)
we're going out Saturday. We're going to go check some stuff. Yeah. I got to go make your dinner. So.
Brian Bashore (56:50.672)
All right, man. Well, thanks for joining us and thank all of you for tuning in. You can catch us over on Apple, Spotify, all those podcasts platforms. And you're either, if you're watching this, you're on the wall. I guys YouTube page or the wall. I guys Facebook page and, stay tuned. Cause next week we're going to go live and we're going to talk to John Bala, Drake, hurting myself. We're going to break down Erie or not here. Excuse me. Green Bay predictions and get a little insight on who our fantasy picks and how we finished last time. I'll just give you a little teaser. I kicked their ass on the last one. So.
we'll see if the stats fall. We had to change our rules up a little bit going forward. So because Bala picked a bunch of anglers that were locals that didn't fish it. So that didn't help them. so we, we modified that, but, stay tuned for that one and thanks for tuning in guys and stay safe and we'll see you on the water.