Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
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 (00:01.91)
Hey folks, thank you for tuning into another episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits brought to by Seaguar High Performance Braids and Rufflin's Kennels Clean Cut Cutting Station. Today, it's just me. We're going to dive in here a little deep. Going to kind of let out the secrets, know, or just some answer some of the questions of what does it cost? What is the expense? You know, is this tournament fishing really worth it for me?
But let me be crystal clear. There's a lot of variables that go into that. So a lot of it's going to depend on obviously your financial situation, sponsorship situation, what you're trying to achieve, what your goals are. And it's going to be different from everybody. The only thing that stays the same is the entry fees. Everybody pays the same. That's that. The other expenses off that are all variable, depending on your situation. A lot of things can kind of go into that.
So we're going to touch on that, break that down. There may be two part, might be one part, we'll see how fast this kind of goes into the sponsorship aspect of it and how important it is and how you kind of get into that and how you work with them. So that's what we're going to do. So stay tuned and I'm going to dive right into it right after this quick message.
Brian Bashore (01:28.876)
Okay folks, so thanks for tuning in another episode of Real Talk Fish and with no limits, like I said, it's just me today. We're going to talk about sponsorships and tournament fishing, the cost to break down the expenses of it a little bit. So I kind of got this on the non-blurred background. So you can see my little whiteboard. It's probably, it's going to be all backwards, but you get the gist of it. So as I say, this is going to depend on so many different variables and it's going to be different every year.
And it's going to depend on what kind of circuit you're fishing versus the individual, a program or a team type event. But in my case, we're just going to use the national wildlife tour to the end of the NWT. No way, or form is this a hit on tournaments. And when it's all said and done, you're to be like, why would, why would I probably do that? But it's, it's not, this is good. This is just being kind of transparent to let a lot of those folks out there that are wondering it.
I know there's a lot of you guys that are having to have these debates at home to justify some things. And the reality of it is we do this because we love it. I'm sure you can make some money fishing tournaments, but there's more to it than that. So, and I'll get into that as we get into the sponsorship aspect of it, which may be part two. don't know, but we'll just start at the top. The one thing that never changes is the same for everybody. Let's like, we're going to, I'm going use NWT numbers here is the entry fees, right? So.
Those are eight grand.
Brian Bashore (02:58.574)
Boom. We know that that's 8,000 bucks off the top. So, you know, there's, there's a lot of guys that own businesses, efficient WT. Um, this is where it really comes in different for everybody. I'm a guide. I don't get paid vacation, right? I have a few other guides that work with me, but I'm not making money off those guys. They're just keeping the wheels on the, you know, the prop on the, on the motor spinning basically, and keeping clientele coming so we don't have to turn people away. And, uh, you know, and that's it. And I think that's the way I'd be in that's fair.
Cause the boy, those guys work hard and get it done and keep things going while I'm gone chasing this, which is what I really love to do is compete, you know, and just fish his tournaments. It's so fun. Um, so eight grand. So you're in for eight grand already. Right? So if you got vacation time, you get time off work, paid vacation. Great. You can supplement some of that the week, let's say you're a Friday through Friday. I usually leave on Fridays and then the tournaments are Thursday, Fridays. And I had straight home, um, right after that Friday, and depending on how far it is.
I can make it home that night. Now, like Gary, we start off this year. I'm not going to make it home. I'm going to drive a few hours. You get up four or five in the morning and turn them a day. You fish all day. You don't want to drive, you know, 10, 12 hours a night. So lodging. So this is a really big variable. Airbnbs are usually the way to go. If you're traveling with a group of people, even sometimes, you know, two to four guys is you can really save some money that way. I'm using, let's just 150 bucks a night, seven nights.
That's 1,050.
honestly
Brian Bashore (04:34.83)
That's on the pretty low side of things. That's like hotel room with two people. Okay. Now this is individual pricing here. So this can, this number can be all over the map. You could have an Airbnb for two or three, 4,000 bucks, but you may have six or eight guys in there. You may have some co-anglers traveling with you, which will come into play down here around fuel costs as well. Um, and those guys pitch in and put a little in the boat. Sometimes maybe they fill the truck up, you know, once or twice on the way home or away there, whatever the case is. And obviously the Airbnb's.
You split that up over several guys. A lot of times we get one and it's, two or 3000 bucks, but it ends up being two to $300 a person. would say that it costs has definitely gone up the last few years. I've looked at a few this year and I think I'm not traveling with anybody just going me and I can get a hotel double bed. Uh, Randy's traveling unless he's bringing somebody who we can split that boom, you know, we're a hundred some dollars a night. splitting that 50, 60 bucks a person. Right. So that we can cut that in half. Um,
But that depends, that's going to be different for everybody. The Airbnb thing is really, really nice. Usually it's really hard to find one. If you have three or four guys, you know, fishing a tournament, cause that's three or four trucks and boats that need plugged in at night. so finding a place you can get all that in there, you know, a semi safe place, acreage is always the best where you can kind of get in and out. It can be tricky to get these things in there late at night and get everything parked and plugged and whatever. But having that kitchen and the, and the.
You know, to cook, save you some money, you know, as far as going out and then just having that space for camaraderie is it's it's really the way to go. If you're traveling with more than two people, the Airbnbs usually your best bet. But you got to find one. Sometimes it may be a little ways away. I'm cool with I don't need much. I need a shower and a place to plug the boat in. You know, I sleep on a couch. I'm not too picky at all. But when we go get those nice houses, we've had some nice ones. Not going to lie. It's been it's been pretty comfortable.
especially if you've got a blow day or a horrible weather day or something like that, you know, where you're pretty much stuck, you know, inside and you can't go fish. It's really comfortable to have that in the TV and you can watch the news and movies and in games. so 1,050, 150 bucks a night, seven nights, Friday through, you know, Friday night you arrive, you stay Thursday night, you check out Friday morning, boom, you hit the road, you head back. Next, you're looking at food. I don't eat much when I'm in a fish tournament. I don't eat while I'm practicing and I don't eat during the tournament.
Brian Bashore (07:01.41)
I usually have Snickers bar, a little something in the morning. and it's just, and it's not cause I'm not hungry. It's just because I don't want to stop fishing. So, and I don't want my stomach to hurt or anything. So I just drink a lot, you know, of green teas and waters and ginger ale is about all I drink and coffee, ton of coffee. and then just some snacks, some jerky, you know, stuff like that. And then maybe if, if I'm able to drive through something on the way home.
After a day of practice, will be usually I'm the one that's going to make something, whether it's throw it in microwave, throw a hamburger on the grill, you know, or whatever the case is, a chunk of chicken at night and call it good. So I can get by with less than 50 bucks a day, probably $35 a day in a mill. Take that times a week. That's 245 bucks. Okay. So you got to take that 245 now end of T we got four tournaments. So we're looking at the whole season here. So we got four tournaments, 245, four that's 900.
And 80 bucks or the year. did I do that on this last one? No, I did not. Okay. So I got to fix that. So that thousand 50, that was one, one tournament sounded good. Make that 40.
4,200, all right, so we're up to 4,200 bucks just for lodging for the season. 8,000 entry fees, 4,200 for the season, 980 in food. Randy does this and has got me on board of it. When we show up at a place that's near a bigger town, we'll run to the grocery store when we get there and then pick up a bunch of stuff so you're not traveling within your vehicle for 10, 12 hours. I tend to get it done before I go most the time, but not always. It just depends if I'm guiding up to the day before I leave.
I'm gonna wait till I get there and then I don't have to worry about ice and unpacking stuff and coolers. Boat fuel. So once again, very variable on the fishery you're at, how long the runs are you making, where are you launching, where are you going? Are you by yourself? Do you have people fishing with you that are pitching in a little bit? It depends on how big a tank do you have. I got a Nitro ZV-21, the 80 gallon fuel tank. I don't need to fill it up every day. I can fill it up every couple of days or every other day I can throw a hundred and some dollars in it.
Brian Bashore (09:19.182)
which is kind of what I figured here at two 75, three bucks a gallon. Nope. So I figured you got about nine. So let's say you got $900. You can obviously top it off tournament days. Um, you got about 900 bucks in boat fuel for the week. Okay. This is once again, paying for it by yourself. That might be on the high side. Uh, it just, it really depends. oops, I did it again.
But if you look at that for one tournament, take that times four, 3,600 bucks. And that's probably not too far off when you think about the whole season. Once again, I've always had some Co's and people traveling or you got, you know, maybe some sponsors are showing up, whatever the case is. You're taking somebody with you, you can split this up. You know, as we do in the tournament, the Co-Ingers tipped the pros for some fuel money. You know, I'll see you easily bring that down a couple hundred bucks.
It's kind one of those expenses that it's just, it's right there with entry fees. This is what it is. You can't, you gotta have fuel in a boat, right? You got to get there and the lodging thing and the food, you can really pick your levels of where you want to stay and what you want to eat. Gas is gas and entry fees are entry fees. Then you get into your, your travel, your truck fuel, right? So I kind of just did an average of 450 miles. You do that, you know, each way. So this is completely variable depending on where you're coming from and how far you got to drive to your tournaments.
I figured 825 bucks, times four tournaments is 3,300.
Brian Bashore (10:54.542)
All right, so we got $8,000 in entry fees, $4,200 in lodging, $980 in food, $3,600 in boat fuel, $3,300 in truck fuel at two and three quarters of gallon, getting about 12 miles a gallon. That's got a new Dodge. That's about what I get. The other one got nine to 10. It depends, you may have diesel and get better, but you're paying for more. Once again, completely variable. Just depends on where you're traveling from, what you're driving.
All that lot of things go into that you break all that down. That comes to.
$20,000
Brian Bashore (11:39.122)
20,080. So 20,080 just to finish the circuit for the season. Right? So that's all for tournaments. Sorry, dog was trying to get out and he gave up and and laid back down. So pretty good investment. So Chuck changed 20 grand can clearly be lower. I can say that I probably don't spend that. And that's not counting your boat insurance, your tackle, your bait.
A lot of other variables are going to go into that. You wear and tear on your vehicle, wear and tear on your boat trailer. When you figure all that in, yeah, mine probably is closer to that. You know, there's just a lot, a lot of variables. This is why a lot of guys fish the ones can pick and choose and that's perfectly fine because it's allowed at this point. So if you want to fish ones that are close to home because it's a lot more affordable, there you go. There's a good reason why.
And it makes sense and a great way to just kind of jump in and see where, see where you're, where it all unfolds and the competition and, know, and is it worth it? Now, last year, the numbers weren't the greatest as far as turnout. A lot of variables involved with that, you know, I think more or less probably the kind of the schedule, fill a lot of holidays and things. So, that was kind of the case for.
I didn't want to go to some of the fisheries as far as they were. Cause that expenses were just going to go up that much more. And don't forget it. I'm a fishing guide. So when I'm not working, I'm not making any money. and sometimes you just, you kind of need a reset year to get things lined up and, get those, those numbers up where they need to be on the financial side of things. I'm very fortunate and I have amazing group of sponsors that help considerably. And that I don't care if it's.
a discount on some tackle because you're going to buy that stuff anyway. And if you can save some money from, you know, those, that sponsorship support. But you also have some that are paying, you know, retainers of several thousand dollars. And that's great because it ain't happening without it. Right. Because once again, that covers those times that I'm not at home or I'm not able to work because I'm at the tournament. So we will get into some of that here in a moment. I'm going pretty fast, so this may not be a two parter.
Brian Bashore (13:56.334)
So you got to look at it. Like I say, last year, the numbers were down and average was like 80 something anglers per tournament. So the reality is you needed, if you fished all four tournaments last year, taking the championship out of the equation. But one thing you got to remember with the National Walleye Tour is the championship payouts are higher than the regular season ones. So they kind of, kind of load that up. So championship payouts are a lot better. They're good. And overall.
I've had discussions with Bala who has got these records from way back. can kind of fight the tournament payout schedule all you want. it's actually pretty good. So we're back up to one in four. So 25 % of the field's cashing a check, but when you got 80 some guys, that means right. That's only 20. So you're finishing in that 23rd, 21st, 21st or 19th is basically where you're at. You had to. So the, so the average check.
Last paying check all season went to about 21st spot on average. And the last payout.
in that 23rd spot was $2,273. Okay. So you take that 20,000, you break it down by four. You're in for each tournament for five grand. That's cost. That isn't missing work costs and some other things associated with it, right? Five times four, 20,000. So you're in, you're in this tournament for about five grand. You cash a check. You're happy you're on high. You're still down 3000 bucks. Okay. Now that's
Once again, these these fluctuating, there's variables because everybody's expenses are different. let's say you finished and you cashed a check in all four tournaments and you got the last check. Okay. That would have been $9,093. So you didn't quite cover half of your expenses to even fish it, but yet you cashed a check in every tournament. So here's where things come in to kind of get tricky.
Brian Bashore (16:02.858)
Is that bad? You cash a check in every tournament. That's pretty darn good. you can be in a top 10 AOI and not have cash to check. So if you cash a check in all 10 tournaments, you may not win anger of the year, but boy, you are, you're chasing it. You know, you're definitely in that top 10. and if you won that, that's a new boat. So there's a hundred thousand dollars, right? So theoretically, if you look at the payouts last year, now these payouts, this kind of
changed drastically by having a hundred or 125 people in the tournament. All this changes. So now all of sudden your last smaller checks are, you know, you're in the 20th, 30th and you're $3,500, $4,000. Your 10th place check is at right now, last year they were just under five grand, which I think those should always be at least five. mean, the goal here is to cover your expenses at the minimum. So in that case, based off of last year's 2025 season, you need to get 10th place in every tournament.
And if you got 10th place in every tournament, you do win AOI and you do win the boat. So not only did you cover your costs of the season, you made a hundred grand on the boat minus taxes, of course. So see all the little variables and there's twists to come into this stuff. Points are a a big deal. You can have a bad tournament and still finish up, you know, pretty good and angle the year. But if you have a couple of bad tournaments or if you're averaging in the forties and maybe you cash one check, you know, you're going to finish in the top 20, 25.
which unfortunately second place in AOI and last place paid the same. Okay. Nothing. which is pretty typical. No big deal. The goal is to win. so yeah, so you need to finish 10th place in every tournament just to break even. Now, obviously you made it to the championship. If you did that, even if you cashed a check, you know, you finished top 40, you made the championship. The championship has no entry fee. So you've kind of funded that throughout the season.
Which is great. It's the way it ought to be. take top 40 points and anybody who won a tournament who fished all four. Now, if they fell out of the top 40, but they won, but they fished all four, tournament director's discretion can still put those in those, uh, that Angler in the championship, which they've done over the years, which is perfectly fine. And I think most every kind of circuit big tournament does that. Um, good deal. That helps encourage those guys. Maybe they were a local jumping in the first tournament they won and they went.
Brian Bashore (18:27.264)
All right. I'm going to roll that money over and just fish this whole season so that I can go to the championship and chase that. And those payouts are bigger. So, does that make sense? Does it make sense on paper? Is it financially a really good idea to fish tournaments? Not from that standpoint. I didn't make it sound great. know, but it is, there's more to it than that. Right. You, it's a lot of money out. Now, if you're fishing team circuits, you have.
half, know, you got $650, entry fees, got 300, you got 700, whatever aim is, you know, and you're splitting those in half. You're only practicing for a couple of days. Your cost is minimal. You're bringing that down to maybe five, six, 7,000 bucks for the year. And you win one of those and boom, right. You got 10 grand. Um, my kind of deal is I like to hit tournament needs to be 10 grand or more, obviously, unless it's just out the back door and it's a fundraiser for fun or something like that. It's a little different deal. Um,
Most of these anglers fishing these tournaments do it because they love it. They love to compete. They love the challenge. And catching checks is a bonus. Everybody wants to win. It's everybody's goal every day. You know, we all have separate different goals, but everybody wants to win. Nobody's going out there fishing it just to hope. Some maybe when they're new, they're just kind of getting their freeway. They're just like, man, I just hope I can compete or I can cash a check. I guarantee you 80 % of the guys are fishing it or are fishing it to win.
with the points in play that changes as things go, as the season goes, or as the fisheries go too, if you're not on a bite, sometimes you're playing a little conservative and your goal may be just, got to bring in a limit. I need to stay up here in points, you know, cause my goal is to make the championship, which is everybody that's fishing all four. That's their goal as well. I mean, who doesn't want to go fish that last tournament and not have to pay a $2,000 entry fee with a chance of, you know, a hundred, you know, plus thousand dollars back and chasing that angle of the year.
All right. There used to be free entry fees. Now it's the name on the trophy. like you get the trophy, but you get a boat. that's a hundred, you know, 90, a hundred and $10,000 prize package there, which is a suite, makes it, this is attainable. And I should probably chase that. Right. Like I said, different, you're fishing different circuits and teams, lot of variables, but this stuff to think about when I decided to fish national wallet tour, I went through MWC other aim and all this.
Brian Bashore (20:53.868)
bigger circuits that were kind of going on, put them all in a spreadsheet and then they just kept coming to the top. matter how I filtered it with payouts and odds and what, what have you, it just kept popping up, up to the top, no matter what. I'm like, makes the most sense because it's got the biggest bang for your buck. It may have the, you know, the, some of the tougher competition, but I don't know a lot of these guys fish all these circuits and nothing gets these guys fishing to steam circuits. They're pretty damn good too. It just.
financially it fits them better or they just enjoy it more, fishing team thing. it doesn't, because you fish the national one doesn't mean it's always the best, the best credit. It, you know, there's a lot of really, really good sticks. but don't discredit the guys, fishing team circuits and whatever else, cause they are some hammers and they could easily compete with plenty of us on a national walleye tour level. But it may just not be their thing. They don't have the time, the vacation. the MWC does it kind of differently. They have a lot of tournaments, so you can kind of pick and choose the ones that are closer to you.
just keeps your costs way down and, but your return is a lot less. So it's just, you know, whatever works for you. Like I said, we fish it because you love it. I love to compete. getting too old to do the sports stuff. So the fishing thing works out well. You love fishing. You love the people. The camaraderie is just full of, you know, we all butt heads once in a while, but they're really just a bunch of good dudes. and most of any of them would, would lend anybody a hand anytime. they need anything, whether it's on water or off the water.
very, very good, good, good, good group of people. what other, so there's, how do we want to explain it? There's other values outside of winning. Obviously you can win. can sprinkle how to run four years ago. Dewey Wayne Helms got one Hoyer, right? Some of these guys have, you know, Tom Winn has won a couple of championships. Some of these guys have been just crushing it and that's great. That's great for the brand.
Let's use Tom Winnon's example, cause this is a great example. It's a guy who just come in not too long ago. Forward facing sonar has obviously overtaken the, you know, the, all the air out of the room and it's awesome and it's fun and it's fine. We all use it. Everybody has access to it. Right. Everybody's getting a lot better with it. So you're seeing some new names that the board's kind of shifting around a little bit. Everybody's getting pretty good on it. Tom has leveraged his success.
Brian Bashore (23:22.766)
On the national wallet tour, who is basically a forward facing sonar guy strictly. And he'll tell you that that's, that's what he knows. absolutely nothing wrong with that. And he's damn good at it by creating Tom when university where he teaches it. And Tom's very good at promoting and teaching, educating, just really just a good dude. If you haven't most of y'all know who he is here, you get a chance to talk to him. He'll talk to you, give him a shout, call him. He'll answer good guy, but he's able to leverage that and create.
build his brand is recognized. Everybody recognizes him because he was on a national platform with the national walleye tour. Otherwise it would have been like, who is this? He's out there having to try to build it all up himself on social, which he is still doing. But being able to be on TV a little bit and get that extra exposure and the press releases and his name all over. Hey, you know, he's on the podcast. he's been on here several times cause he's a good dude. Turn that in, in the Tom Nguyen university where he's teaching forward facing sonar and he's just keeps cranking and he's still working.
He's making 200 times fold the money off of that. Then he isn't a tournament fishing, but he used a tournament fishing platform to create that and build his brand. I don't know he probably had that idea going into it. Probably not came across it maybe a few years ago and went, there's a market for this. Let me, let me make it happen. There's other guys who have done that. Um, I've noticed over the years, a lot of them have picked up other jobs where the guiding in the winter, you know, on some ice, which makes perfect sense, right? If I'm.
a fisherman and this is all I was doing when I go fish all winter somewhere. Most everybody fishing at SRI tour has some type of other job where there's guides, not too many guides. We get the next bike guys, right? So they got some TV stuff. Most, a of those guys have other small businesses, you know, that they do or side jobs. Some of them, you know, guys just pick up some winter work and yeah, that's, that's, that's kind of it. So using that platform to build your brand.
All right. This is where you can, you can really make it a name for yourself. Look at Gerald Swindle hasn't done great in the Bass Elite Series last couple of years, but he's still one of the biggest names of bass fishing. He doesn't have to win. He just has to be who he is and be true. Right. And has grown his following because his charisma and his comedy, everybody wants to watch it and see how he's doing. Okay. And he's going to have his moments. He's going to have some good tournaments, you know, but a lot of those that
Brian Bashore (25:48.099)
Those guys are, there's a lot of young guys coming up who are kind of cleaning some house and kicking butt. some of the older old guard is kind of falling down a little bit. And this is just kind of what happens. You know, eventually these guys, can tell these last year, these guys retire, you know, because they're not. Able to win like they were. It just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And a lot of them, you get in this game young, they're getting a little older and they got families and their kids are getting into high school and they want to be home more. And they want to get more involved in that kind of stuff, which I totally get.
you see that at NWT as well. Some guys back off because their kids are, you know, a little bit older, really active. They want to be home more. you know, then maybe they come back once those kids are, you know, off to college or out of the house and move on. And they have some more time on their hands, completely understandable. And, and, absolutely no reason not to do that. if that's, know, where you're at. So using that platform to create a name.
You know, guys like myself who are a guide who already had, you know, lot of things in place are still able to use this. And it works for, I imagine plenty of these guys that are on here that guide are like, Hey, this guy's been kicking some butt. I'm gonna use Isaac Lackich in a sense, you're right. Guiding on Green Bay and teaching forward facing his sonar. So guys in that area are like, Hey, this guy's pretty damn good. He's done great fishing. I can go, you know, whatever Isaac charges, spend a day in his boat and he's going to show me how to do this. okay. You know him.
from his tournament platform when he was MWC and now NWT and doing really well, right? So you've got some credibility behind that brand. Now you can turn that all around as well when you're looking at your sponsorship stuff. This is tricky. is, some guys are good at this, some guys aren't. You got to remember, you work for them and your job is to sell whatever it is they, product services they provide.
Most of them aren't going to care. The reality is then national tour is televised. It's the 30 minute show. Even if you win it, you're not getting a whole lot of TV time, but you're getting some, everybody's getting some. And, that can add up. they do a lot on the social media stuff. So Cardenas does a lot of interviews. You're getting time. That's why you got the jerseys and all the logos. You know, you're getting those, that brand is in front of these people all the time, whether it's a boat ramp truck.
Brian Bashore (28:09.412)
you feel I got two to three minutes on the TV. That's two or three minutes. You weren't going to get anywhere else. That's on a television show. That's pretty, you know, broadcasted across the Midwest for sure. so that has value what you're doing on your social channels, what you're doing on maybe your website, your newsletters, if you have one, your podcasts, if you have one, these things all bring eyeballs in a lot. and that's what you're selling, right?
how often can that brand be in front of you? The listeners, the viewers, the followers, the watchers, whatever you wanna call it, how often can my product name services be in front of these people? How many are you reaching? So if you're on this platform, whether you're doing good or not, on the National Wallet Tour, your name's still popping up. If you're good on camera, Robert's probably gonna get you on camera more. They may get you on camera more on TV, they'll jump in your boat.
we're all going to ebb and flow and have some good tournaments and not some so good tournaments. obviously if you're just, if you're, crushing it, you're to get more camera time. It's all there is to it. So the reality is just catch more fish, but sponsors are paying you to go fishing. They're paying you to sell their products. So. You know, it pays dividends if you're in there and you do have camera time to be talking about what it is you're doing. Bass guys do it good because they have live and they're on it all day and they have time. and WTS, we don't really know what's going to be on TV or not.
because it's not live. Tom Wynn started doing some live stream last year. I have got everything just about in order to live stream my entire season this year. We're still waiting to hear from the NWT if we can do both days as it sits currently without updated rules. We can just live stream the second day. That's up to them to see if they're going to let us do both days or not. I know a few of us have said we're down with it. But that is just because I want to bring more exposure to my sponsors.
for you so they can watch it, whether I'm catching or not, you're going to see the rod. You're going to see the reels. You're going to see the line. You're going to see the boat. You're going to see, you know, the good and bad of things. can't really say anything bad. I don't really break things in tournaments. Um, what have I do that, you know, that that happens, but there's probably a good reason for it, but you got to be to see what it is. And then you can at least save and you can watch it, you know, over and over again. So the idea is to bring, bring eyeballs to the people as a guide. get to put those products in people's hands every day.
Brian Bashore (30:34.894)
which is probably the most variable thing. If I'm a company sponsoring the guy, I'm like, if you can put this in people's hands every day, that's the best thing you can do, right? You know, use it before you buy it type thing. And I get a lot of that at the end of the day or after a trip, I get an email from a client says, Hey, what was that line? What was that that we had on there? You know, I'm like, yeah, that's the Igor Smackdown or what kind of rod was that? really liked it. That usually comes right away while they're catching or they're digging. like, well, this is, know, what is this? I'm like, yep, that's a Pink Glory medium light, you know, legend, whatever it is.
You know, then they're like, all right, where can I get it? Blah, blah. Or what kind of batteries get a lot of electronics and battery questions. So it's like, yep. got these North litigants. They boom show much in the day. Here's we're at it 65%. We just fished, you know, eight, 10 hours or 80%, whatever the case was. They're like, wow, that's a lot of juice. I'm like, yep. You know, it was windy. I'm like, yeah, this is the way to go. it sells it. It moves stuff. So how much, I don't know. I'm not on the end of the end. The retailers in to see what's coming in and,
The reality is most of you aren't probably telling the people that, would, some of you are, and if you ever do, and if you use something that I'm supported by, please send them an email and say, Hey, I saw it. You know, this guy recommended or used it. every one of the pros would appreciate it if you did that, to help us keep those relationships going. But that's the number one thing is the relationships. have other sponsors that you don't even hear about or on because they're on it because the relationship is good. they're say, here's.
What I'm giving you because I want to see this, you know, because they believe in you and they're buying India and they're just, they're just good people. Right. but you got to deliver whatever it is you say you're, you're going to offer. So my case, I do things different. I got a podcast. I have a large newsletter. I got a website. I got a guide service. You know, I write a handful of stuff. Just said in fish, my wall. I insider had some stuff come out that I didn't write. I just contributed to, I just wrote some stuff last night for him and sent him some photos.
fishermen, you know, and then we do tournaments and the YouTube. So I create all these channels as well as social to drive revenue for me. it ain't, it ain't a lie. And probably nothing compared to the amount of work it is. but there's a lot of these anglers wear several hats and that's pretty much what we're doing. You got Tom Wynn running his tournaments, running a social, running his business, you know, and then running Tom Wynn University and traveling around all the shields this, this year spring doing seminars. Right.
Brian Bashore (33:02.732)
Most everybody's wearing a lot of hats. So once again, I got awesome partners that I get to work with that support me. And if they ever need anything, if they call or shoot me an email and say, need this, can you shoot a video or a photo or, try this out? It's yep. No matter whatever you need, I'll get it. I'll make it happen. If I got to drive somewhere out of my way or whatever the case is, or I'll get all day and I'll go back out in the evening to try to get some video or shots or something for him.
That's what it takes. And I tried to do as fast as I can, but not to compromise any quality. Yeah. So using these platforms, you, maybe you don't make money, maybe you don't cash a check all year and you're in it for 20, but you can turn that entire investment at that time. That was a $20,000 investment into yourself to go fish a circuit. Can you turn that and leverage that into $20,000 in sponsorship money or 30 or 10 or whatever and kind of.
soften that blow in a sense to it, to feed your desire to go do this while offering them, right? Your partners, some, some value and hopefully it's, you know, twofold. I always try to give them more than you get. Okay. Once again, I don't, I don't know how many batteries did they sell? How many rods did they sell? How many lures did they sell? You know, did it, did it make sense? We keep renewing. So I'm going to say, I think things do, but I also offer a lot of different things that are trackable.
So got a ton of questions on sponsors. actually am going to SDSU tonight to speak to their fishing club. And we're probably going to cover down on some of this stuff if the guys have questions about it. It's a very long game. The whole deal here is to build relationships with these people, invest in yourself. If like you go to ICAST or whatever the case may be, don't go asking for stuff. Don't be, you know, I want this, this, I want a tournament. I'm the greatest thing ever. You should be giving me whatever.
And thinking that you're getting 20, 30, 40, $50,000 retainers. You're not, and they're not. So it's, it just, it just doesn't work that way. You got to have a good relationship with these people, do what you say you're going to do, and then over-deliver that. And understanding that you're going to start at the bottom. We all did it. You start with that discount on a product, then maybe it turns into some free product. And maybe it turns into some free product and.
Brian Bashore (35:25.39)
a little bit of money or an allowance to go pick and purchase whatever product it is you want. And then maybe it turns into a retainer amount, which could be, who knows, right? A hundred bucks, a few thousand dollars. It depends. Um, and then it could just be, all right, we're going to cover entry fees or we're going to pay for your boat wrap and this or whatever the case. There's a lot of things, but it depends on what are you selling? What are you offering them? Okay. If you just do the same thing over and over and you're like, just finished tournaments. I got a social social media page.
That's all they're getting in return. Then your levels may not change a whole lot. unless your brand grows, grows to it's not a, you're not a micro influencer. You're a little bit bigger, you know, or you're just putting out really good quality stuff and you can validate those numbers with your reports or your portfolio slash resume, whatever it is you present to these people. create a portfolio. I think it's 10, 11 pages long. That says, you know, here's who I am.
Here's what I do. And here's all of my media outlets. And here's the numbers and the viewership and the male, female and the age demographics, the watch hours, the listening time, podcasts, YouTube, social media pages, newsletters, website. You know, here's the traffic. Here's where it's coming from. Here's the list of events, you know, and here's maybe a five year list of running tournaments, you know, good and bad.
And then your angling plan is, here's what I plan on doing 2026, 2027. Maybe you're to do some, some youth fishing events. You know, you're to fish this circuit and you're going to do all this. And then you're to do these half a dozen in store, you know, appearances or a couple of boat shows or what have you. Let them know what, what, what am I signing up for? What am I getting? What are you just going to go fish tournaments? And then I just hope that you do well and that you get some TV time or are you going to create all this media yourself?
Fortunately in the walleye world, don't have a lot of outdoor writers following the tournaments. They're not showing up. This used to happen a long time ago before social media was big, but now it's more or less kind of, you kind of got to create your own. and WT does with the can, but Rob's one man show. and that's all of that is, is, is great. And just kind of look at it as earned media, right? It's that's free stuff. Publicity you're getting from them, which is great.
Brian Bashore (37:49.783)
jump on it every time you get the chance. Commie Scarless said it once to me and says, anytime you get a chance to get a microphone in your hand, you better take it. And I couldn't have said any truer words than that. So.
All right. So I built a portfolio resume, give it to these companies. you're selling yourself, but you're selling what it is you've done. What brands are you working with currently? And if you're just getting started, you're not going to have any, right? You know, somebody's got to take a chance on a new guy. We all, like I said, we all started at the bottom. There was somebody somewhere, I think it was amphibious sunglasses. I started with first, wasn't a very good deal. Well, we probably paid them, you know, more than getting a couple of things back, but it was like, all right, you got your foot in the door. Understood kind of how the.
the business side of it worked, right? And WT guys, think are pretty business savvy. We had a lot of business owners. A lot of the bass guys I hear say they didn't have a lot of business knowledge, but they get in a lot younger and they just got bigger exposure and different things kind of coming at them on our level. It's not that big and a lot of general ages, a little bit older. Just, I think you get a lot more business savvy and a lot of guys are business owners. So they kind of get all this pretty good. And they're, you know, it just, it's a time thing. How much time.
Do they have an investment in summer? Just like, don't care. I don't, I don't need the money. got a great business. can take all the vacation I want. making tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions, whatever. I'm just doing this because I love to do it and I can afford to do it. That's that. Some of those guys still got some sponsorship or some swag stuff because they're good at promoting that company wants to partner with them. And they're like, why not? I love your products. We got a good relationship, you know, whether I need it or not, right. They're working together and.
And whatever the case is, it's not, it's not by business or your business, how some of these people do those things. It's their business and their partners. And that's really all the matters is a King always says, keep your eye on your own bobber. Cause that's really what matters is what you got going on and what your contracts and relationships with your partners state. So a lot of people always wonder, you know, how does that guy do that? I just got a truck wrapping a boat wrapping, blah, blah, blah. And I can tell you, yeah, they do. And a lot of those guys paid for that out of their pocket. Now, because I know those companies, certainly know.
Brian Bashore (40:00.783)
Some of those companies are doing it and that's completely fine. That's them invested in themselves, showing that company, Hey, look what I can do for you. You know, and then maybe a year later, that company is going to step up and be like, that was awesome. We saw the added value there. You know, we're going to bump you up to this level. there's sometimes you kind of got it. It's hard to say you can't really show them all the numbers until you've done it. So that's the tricky part with the phishing business.
Everybody wants do the live stream. Why don't NWT do this or do that like this, do it like that, because all that costs a lot of money. And it's really a big risk to do it at then, but you got to build it and they will come. Right. So it's somebody with a private equity and investment putting all that out there thinking, okay, I hope this pans out. And then they see all the live stream numbers and the media cover all the, okay, now we have a, we have something to sell. We have a really good package because it worked out and we can go back in a non-academic sponsors, which means outside of phishing industry.
And we can go to these tire companies. We can go to the FedExes. We can go whatever and say, Hey, look, we're televising this. We're live streaming this, blah, blah. Here's our numbers. You on board. We're going to, we're going to do this, this, this for you. We're going to give you 30 second commercial spots. We're going to put your logo on everything, you know, whatever banners everywhere on the commercials and the TV show, whatever the cases they create their cell package. And they'll be like, yeah, that looks great. There's a cost, you know, per million a CPM is views are worth so much per thousand.
And that's what a of these big companies look at and say, okay, I'm going to pay $40 or it could be 37 cents. It depends on what it is of a CPM for this type of marketing venue, you know, based off whatever kind of budget I have and do these marry up. All right. That's a good investment. We'll do that. Okay. Um, that's kind of how that works. It's tricky. Uh, so yeah, there's a lot, a of, a lot of risk and cost upfront to hope you get it on the back end return, but guess what?
in a fishing tournament, there's a lot of cost up on the front end called entry fee in hopes that you get a payout on the backend, right? Really kind of how all businesses work and fishing tournaments are really gambling in a sense where you have a little bit more control, I guess. Sometimes you have some control over the outcomes. Not always, but for the most part, you're in control of it to a sense. So, but you and 80 other guys are all in control.
Brian Bashore (42:24.672)
Right. That's where the variables come into play. So we can't control whether we can control, you know, water levels and currents and things like that. And no matter how, you know, many fish are there, sometimes you just got to figure out how to make them bite. Cause you can't make them bite if they don't want to eat, but everybody's pretty good to find a way to at least get a few, you know, to bite, for face to soda or by all means certainly helps us with that little bit. So. All right. I didn't need two parts cause I went really fast. So we'll go back to the top.
And I'm sure this strikes a lot more conversation. Um, so ask those questions, put them in the comments, you know, or reach out, you know, what, what do you want to know? I try to share as much as can. There's some things that, uh, I'm going to help you to a point, but you gotta, you kind of gotta, you gotta do some of it yourself, but we're looking at entry fees, 8,000 lodging 4,200, 980 and food, 3,600 and boat fuel, 33 and truck fuel, $20,080 for four tournaments.
championship I left off there, the payouts are different. There's obviously expenses of getting there and lodging and food, whatever, but you got to figure you're not paying $2,000 entry. So you kind of watch that all that evens out. You're fishing for money, which is a, which is why that's the goal to get there. So, and sponsors align with the companies that have the same beliefs and values. do almost all of my companies. I think our American made products. know when COVID hit, you know,
A lot of guys were struggling getting products and this and that. I said, I have absolutely no problem whatsoever. They are all made right here and they shipped them out. mean, obviously it's supply and demand was a little bit of an issue. And I think some on some of them, backed off a little bit and said, make sure you fulfill the stores and other consumers first. We're fine. We'll take a back seat. Some of the pros said, I I don't need new rod, reels or tackle right now. I'm good. We'll wait until you're caught back up. Um, but you know, all that, most of all the stuff is made right here and they never had any issues.
The YLX is the Seaguar is the St. Croix. Cold snap all this gear is here, so we had it. Align with beliefs, good companies, products you use. I see it all the time. A new company comes out. There's a half dozen. know these guys are getting bombarded with emails, right? Trying to figure out who these who do they go to? Which whatever that's name of the game. The worst possible case scenario. Someone says no.
Brian Bashore (44:50.382)
Right? You're going to, if you're in sales, you're to get a lot of quite, you're going to ask a lot. You're to get a lot of nose back sooner or later, something's going to hit and you're going to learn to refine, you know, your, approach, right? Your value proposition of how you present to these companies and organizations and who, so that's building those relationships. So you figure out who it is you need to be talking to. Um, you're talking to the right people. Um, but I also understand that you may, and they say they're going to start at the bottom. just manage expectations. And even though once you are maybe to the top,
that the markets and things change. Companies get sold, people leave, economies go up and down and your levels of contribution are going to go up and down with it. So no matter what you're kind of producing, all comes back to the bottom line of the company. got to really spread that out. Now that there's so many tournament organizations out there, which is great for the anglers, they give options. But then again, it's not because it's fragmenting the market instead of being a hundred, you know, top tier guys. Now there's 400, right? Because they can fish this, this, this.
national level or very well exposed tournament circuit that's getting them just as good a numbers. And so now your, your percentage of whatever you're gaining may come down 25%. Who knows, right? It's got split four different ways that they're trying to stretch it out. Also realize your market, your demographic, where are you in the South? You a bad guy, you in the Midwest, you all that guy, what state are you in? Is there already like five pros in that city town or in that region?
That company doesn't need more right there because they have the stores covered. They have this, the shows, boat shows covered. Um, you know, a lot of them be like, I only want, you know, two guys from Nebraska, three or four in South Dakota, you know, eight to 10 in Minnesota, eight or, you know, six or eight in Wisconsin, because that market's big and there's a lot of different opportunities. Um, so that too, so it may not be that you got nothing to offer since they don't have any room for you right now, but keep that relationship and check in with that person. And I'll tell you.
If you're doing things right, they already know who you are. You're on their radar. These CMOs, these pro staff coordinators and managers, they're watching, they're paying attention to tournaments. They're seeing where people are fishing. They're watching your social media channels, channels, whether a YouTuber or just a Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, what have you. They're paying attention. They see it. Okay. So, and if you're using these products, tag them in a product, whether they're sponsored by it or not, let them know that, I'm using this.
Brian Bashore (47:17.976)
I like it. It's good. Throw them a bone. You know, maybe it'll drive some cells and that'll put you on their radar. I would suggest you do that for a year or two before you even kind of reach out to them in a sense. You'll see that a lot. People will be like, this is a non-sponsored post, but man, I've been using this thing and it's awesome. I drink a lot of ginger ale, usually the pure Graffrida, they didn't have it. That's it. I don't drink any kind of soda, really just that, period. You know, and I have for years. So ginger ale, be like knocking on the door. Probably not, but.
that a seven up or something. I think set distributor. Hey, I got a lot of great things to say about it. Okay. So when you, you're taking those photos and, they're trying not to be so product pushy, heavy, it's hard not to be sometimes, you know, tag them in it, let them know that I'm, down with this product. I love it. I've been using it. But if we start to see the guy with 15 different things and he's swapping people every year and going from this to that brand to that brand, they see that too.
And they'll also, if you think that they don't ever communicate with each other, you're very wrong. If you were with a Mercury and then you switch over to Yamaha and guarantee that Yamaha's first call is back to Mercury to see how you were as one of their staffers, ambassadors, whatever you want to call it. If you're switching rod companies and competitors, a lot of times wherever you work with that one company leaves or that company gets bought out and they go to another company.
you know, keep that relationship going. Cause it may, you may go with them. Okay. Cause things can change. may be with the brand that that changes. Um, that happens too over time. There's just evolution of business. Right? So there's a lot, a ton. think Gary Parsons, I talked about some of this on a podcast a while back and try to get him on here again to dive in deeper. Obviously him and, you know, chase and those guys live that every day. They've been doing it for a long time and it's a different level when you're trying to do stuff with the TV show. Um,
But then again, their lever, which the Parsons and Kavya's did for years, their experience and their winnings and exposure on the top fishing tier circuit to grow that brand and that TV show and everything else that goes with it. So now you've got Kemos and Shakira can sprinkle and those guys on there with along chase doing it and, just kind of snow that's all snowballing for all of them. And it's good, good, good for the sport. Good for them. Good for their sponsors and partners. Uh, and ultimately good for sporting good for the national wildlife tour circuit to have people like that.
Brian Bashore (49:39.235)
fishing it so we get more eyeballs on it. Cause even guys like me who haven't done very good last couple of years like eyeballs on it. Cause that helps their ratings and their numbers go up, which helps ours. Speaking of, you can now watch this podcast on outdoor action network TV right there along with the neck fight. So I do believe you got to subscribe to their channel, but they are carrying real talk fish and podcasts. have some other podcasts on there, but they're carrying it on there now as well. So.
tune in to over there, get your monthly or annual subscription from them. And while you're driving to the tournament, you'd be listening to this and then you can flip on the next bite show and watch one of those, or you can watch them fish and handbook. It's a load. Outdoor network has got TV is outdoor action network. He has got an absolute load plethora plethora of out hunting and fishing shows on it. Another conservation content. says it's good and it's got a lot. don't think it's really all that much month far streaming type goes your, you know, most of those are.
Seven to $15 or somewhere in there. So, but we are on there now. You can watch and listen as well over there on their platform. Um, that's probably about it. So I think it recapped it all. That's what we're looking at. We're rolling into 2026 here. Pretty pumped up. got the first tournament just coming up here. You know, a month and a half, two months away at Lake Erie. It's going to be good. The season is looking good. We're still waiting for the NWT to put some updated rules and.
confirm scheduling things before we lock in some lodging. They haven't done it yet. I would expect to it any day. I know they just had some meetings a week or two ago. This means a couple of things that there's some changes coming in. Maybe those are in 2027, but they got to modify them now to fit into that. I don't know whatever the case is, but I know they're meeting, so I'm pretty confident it's happening. But we'll know and we'll probably have more to talk about once those come out and if there is any major changes or shake up in the format.
whatsoever, but now's the time to make them if there is, because there's an opportunity, you know, to really bump this, the circuit up to the next level and take it because we got new tournament circuits coming on the platform this year. Aim next. Isn't going to launch this year as anticipated. there's still, which is we've talked about this for, they're going to wait, I think another year or what have you, just to get some other things to line up. So not everything quite went through, that happens and that's fine. You know, you rather bring it to the table. Ready.
Brian Bashore (52:04.972)
versus kind of fragmented and piece part didn't have a bunch of issues. Cause it'll just bad news travels way faster than good news. And if they have some hiccups, know, it'll just end up with a bad rep, even though for the most part, anything I've ever heard, I have a fish named circuit, but they've been pretty good to go. Denny runs a really tight ship over there and their board, which is anglers and owned by anglers and their anchors, four guys on a board. It's all above board and they just, do a good job. So good circuit. MWC has got their stuff. Spring Valley is coming up and literally a month, five weeks away.
Um, I think the head to head thing is still happening. I haven't heard a lot. I assume people are all signing up right now and they'll be, you know, as it gets closer, you'll start hearing more about it. Guys will be talking about, Hey, I'm fishing this one and this one, or just this one. What are the cases? You haven't seen a lot of that happen yet. Um, so we'll see, stay tuned. And that's our job here is to keep you posted on what's going on. And. Oh, I wanted to bring it down. I'll save it for the next one. We want to talk about the world. I think it's the world.
Bass, can't remember. got a tournament with 1.25 million going to the winner in a bass world. So a world that Brian birds running this thing. This is, this is it. This is a perfect example of a, uh, uh, individual step it up and say, I want to see this. I want to see the top, you know, the top 20 or whatever it is out of the MLF, the top 20 or 40, what I can remember the numbers are, maybe it's 40 each 40 out of the bass. And then a couple winners out of some nation tournaments and what have you.
And I'm going to bring you all together, no entry fee. You're going to fish one tournament, I some hickory like, know, three or four day format, whatever it is. And the winner gets 1.25 million. I think it's like 13 million in total. It's a lot. It's a lot of winning and no entry fee, but you know, these guys are having to, you got to qualify for it through these other levels. Um, biggest thing in bass fishing. So yeah, we would love to see that in the walleye world, but we're a ways away unless somebody's got some money. want to create something like that. I would definitely help you put it together. So.
Anywho, all right. That's a lot. That's a lot. I talk fast. Just gets me fired up and I got to get hitting the road here soon. So thank you all for tuning in. That's our kind of the down and dirty cost efficient and, how to, how to work with those sponsors. The number one thing working with those sponsors and having them if you need them, you should, you should need them no matter what. They need you as long as you're doing good work out there and, and doing good things. So.
Brian Bashore (54:31.586)
Thank you all for tuning in. Once again, you can catch us on the outdoor action network channel, Spotify, Amazon, Google, all Apple podcasts, YouTube or the wall. I guys Facebook page, check it out. You're watching. If you're listening to it, you can watch it on YouTube and on the wall. guys page. Otherwise you can listen to it on all those streaming services or those podcasts services. And I think that's about it. I think we, we are getting the boat out tomorrow. We were put the ice stuff away and I am.
Very, very happy about that. It's tailray season, so time to get fishing below those dams just to get the line wet and make sure things in tune. So nonetheless, thank you all once again for tuning in and we will see you on the water.