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I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Brian Bashore (00:02.478)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning into this episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. I'm your host, Brian Bashore with the Walleye Guys and big shout out to all of you for following and thank you so much for the support. Take a quick second, click the likes, the share, the subscribe, hit all the buttons, tell all your friends about it. More people coming in. We can get some more, share some more information out there with you. And if there's anything you want to hear or talk about or think we should be discussing or some pros that you want to see on here, drop.
the comments below on the Facebook page, the walleye guys Facebook page, walleye guys YouTube page, or all the channels that you're listening to it on the podcast, wherever you can allow a comment or drop a comment. So nonetheless, we are going to dive in here deep today with a 2014 angler of the year, 2006 PWT champion. Guy has qualified and made all the major circuits, fished all the championships and has come so close to winning so many of them. And he's won a couple.
And he is always dialed in. It's our buddy, good friend, Tommy Kemos from over in Wisconsin. So you're going to want to hear what Tommy's got to say. Tommy's kind of an outspoken guy like myself, so it should be a good one. So listen to this episode of Real Talk Fishing with Tommy Kemos.
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to this episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. Today we've headed over to Wisconsin to talk to our 2014 Angler of the Year, 2006 PWT. The guy has fished every circuit, has won an assload of tournaments. If he hasn't got the championship, he's been that close so many times. AOI PWT FLW, aim.
NWT's MWC's this Tommy's done it all so we're just gonna dig into it and dive down deep here with mr. Tommy Kemos How's it going over there in Wisconsin today Tommy?
It's, you know, and it's going pretty well. I appreciate you having me on Brian. Um, yeah, the sun's shining. It's about 70 degrees here. It's, you know, kind of, kind of what we're looking for this time of year, but, uh, the wind of course is blowing today. And, uh, that's kind of the story of 2024 so far, but, uh, Hey, take what you can get, right?
Yep. It's, it's been a windy one for sure. I, uh, actually got out on Chamberlain the last couple of days and guided and got lucky. It was the first two 60 degree days of no win. And of course we were able just to wreck them because I could pitch jigs. Um, you know, a couple, three hours, he picked up a three man limit and it's like, let's go chase some white bat. We don't want to be done fishing guys. Just w they were, you know, a couple older timers and said, this nice, we got our limit. We can't fish a walleye, but it's too nice out to go in. So we went up shallow and.
It just chased a bunch of spawn a white bass and enjoyed the beautiful day. So you gotta, you gotta take them when you can get them.
Tommy Kemos (01:42.176)
Yeah, yeah, I'm jealous that you have that out in your backyard there. That's one of my favorite ponds out there that Francis case for sure
Yeah, yeah, you've definitely had some success there and it is a healthy fishery. It has, it's been a lot of, you know, since NWT came there years ago, MWC was just there last weekend. We have our annual Cedar Shores tournament there. It hasn't been producing as good. The fish are there. They just kind of been in a funk, could be lack of water runoff this year, wind, you know, you just can't get out really. And then last year didn't even get the ice off it until the first April.
This year has been off since the end of February and March was really good and April's been a little tricky, but not catching a lot of those. I mean yesterday and here we are first of May and I still had half the females that caught still on eggs and the males were still milking. So you think everything would happen earlier? It didn't. It's pretty much exactly on schedule. Then there's some late ones, which I always tell people no matter what the weather is, they're going to spawn when they're going to spawn. Period.
Exactly. That's it's the same thing out here too. You know, it's, it's a, they're, they're, they're ready when they're ready, you know, and it, it has a lot less to do with the actual, you know, if the spring is early or late, it's more just the cycle, you know, so, um,
Yeah, we can still have ice on it. No water could be 50 degrees in March and it's moon phase, daylight, all those factors. I mean, it, you know, it's just a accumulation or anything and it's gotta be when it's going to be. Usually, I always say to people that your, your wife, whoever doesn't ovulate when it's 70 degrees out, it just, it's going to happen when it happens. Right? So everybody's so keyed in on that water temperature, like let's get 44 that spawns on like maybe.
Tommy Kemos (03:16.416)
Exactly, exactly.
Brian Bashore (03:27.385)
Maybe not. So it's just, I think that's a perfect way to reference it.
Right. Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (03:32.992)
Yeah, I mean, same thing with whitetails around here. It doesn't matter what the weather is doing. Like it's about the same week within a couple of days every single year. So.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (03:43.289)
Yup. The rest of the rut, you're going to, they're out there, their tongue's hanging out sweating cause it's 55 degrees in November or it's a blizzard. It doesn't matter. Right? I mean, talk about getting stupid. No love is in the air when it's in the air. There's, there's no stopping either parties in this process. It's just, it's go time.
Right.
Yep. Yep. Love is in the air.
Tommy Kemos (03:58.944)
Right. Yeah, no doubt.
Hey, so for those that don't know, Tommy, I guess they're not paying a lot of attention, but let's get a little, uh, just a little background of, you know, what do you do when you're not fishing? Um, and how'd you work your way up to, you know, to where you are in your professional fishing career?
Yeah. So, um, you know, professional fishing was something that was a goal of mine from very early on. I was fortunate enough to grow up on a local lake here in Wisconsin, uh, Southern Wisconsin called Pewaukee Lake. And, and they started to have tournaments and whatnot. I was selling boat launches at the, for the neighbor. Um, and they were running tournaments out of there. And I just, I took a, an interest to it early on and it kind of.
You know, it was something that I, I, I, you know, worked my way through when I was done with high school, I chose to, um, go into some trade schools, um, to, to learn boat mechanics, um, the inside and outs of boat rigging outboards, inboards, you name it, because for me, it seemed like a great opportunity to, um, be surrounded by what I love, which has been on the water, fishing and, uh,
You know, it was a great, a great start and I was, I was able to start tournament fishing. You know, I made a decent living doing it. Um, but it was really hard in the summer to get away and, and get the time to, to do it. So I was rolling into a lot of these events on a short practice. I actually started off fishing bass tournaments and, and, you know, that kind of shows my age back then. You know, the professional walleye trail and BASS were almost, you know,
Tommy Kemos (05:47.808)
rolling shoulder to shoulder. They were both on, um, I believe at that time TNN, uh, you know, that was about the time that we started to get that coverage. And actually it's interesting, cause if you look at on the BASS side or the bass side, there are a lot of anglers kind of my age, which is, I mean, now it's getting, I'm getting to be old. That's what you think you last year, you know, but there's a lot of anglers in that age group.
And that was kind of when the accessibility to all of these events on television became a reality. So you're able to kind of see the glory of it and it really glorified the sport. And that's what really kind of fueled me. But at that time there weren't as many opportunities locally. And so I started to kind of dabble in the wall ideal.
had early success and I never looked back. So, but as far as what I do besides fishing, like you say, for many years I was in the Marine business as a mechanic and a boat rigger. I ran several different service departments over the years. And now I currently operate a chain of coin op laundromats. And that affords me the time to,
get, you know, have the time off to fish all the tournaments, fulfill sponsor obligations, and of course, film episodes of the next bite. So I stay, I stay plenty busy, but I do have a day job, absolutely.
We all have something. It's tough to... There's no one making a living just fishing anymore in this world. So there are very few anyway.
Tommy Kemos (07:35.616)
It's very tough. And, you know, for anybody that's out there that's aspiring to do it, whether it's on the bass side or the the walleye side, I mean, you just you need to have a phone date, you need to have a financial foundation and a business plan, no matter, no matter what's happening. If you don't have a business plan, and you can't figure out how you're going to get from A to B with the money that's in your pocket. You need to put the
pump the brakes and take a good long look at it. I've had a lot of good buddies, seen a lot of great anglers that either A, jumped into it too soon or B, had no, absolutely no business plan that just busted out. I mean, busted out is kind of a nasty term, but the late great Tommy Scarless always used to like to use the term bust out. But,
But anyways, you know, it's just one of those things. I mean, it's a very expensive investment into a sport that, you know, is kind of fueled by passion, not so much by... Right? So, you know, you have to be smart about it. I mean, I love it. But I made a promise to myself and my family early on that...
Financial gain, right?
Tommy Kemos (09:02.496)
the mortgage is going to be paid and there's going to be food on the table no matter what I was doing with my fishing. But yeah, so I do have a day job, but I have 100 % treat fishing as a business. And I have, because I love it so much, I've always been on the conservative side of, hey, I'm a full -time fisherman. I...
Um, you know, maybe, maybe it's, I'm not sure what it is, but I've, you know, here we are on our second go around with the economy since I've been doing this. And, uh, the first time around, it was in Oh six. I won the championship and. You know, that should have been my launching point to fish, uh, full time. And, and I, I just, something in the back of my head said, just.
You know, go slow and let's see what happens here. And I'm really glad that I, I did that because it, yeah, it's in a position where I don't, I've never had to do anything that I regret. I've never felt desperate. I always leave knowing that the mortgage is going to be paid, whether it catches stinking while I, or not, you know what I'm saying? So, um, you know, I'm, I'm more of a realist with a lot of this stuff and I, I'm.
good move.
Tommy Kemos (10:28.832)
You know, I get tons of people calling and asking me advice and they, how do I do this? How did I do that? And I, my line's always open for those conversations, but a lot of times I feel like people hang up and they're like, Oh, but it's just being, it's being, you know, you have to be realistic. This is a very tough business. It's a awesome business to be in, but it's, it's a darn tough one too.
Yeah, it's a, it's addicting. You get sucked into it. And I mean, you see it in some of the young bass guys. You know, we talk about the expense. I mean, they got a pretty big, a hell of an investment going in, you know, to fish a whole season on the elite. You know, once you make it or you're invited and it's, it's some bust it's, I mean, there's, you see the, the podcasts and YouTube videos out there. Some of these guys trying to track what they're, you know, what they're spending and they're complaining about payouts and whatever. And I mean, granted our payout, we're on, we're on two different playing fields.
You know, we would love to have those minimum of $10 ,000 payouts for the top 50, right? Would be great. We'd like to see 25 % of the field get paid again. Um, but it's, you know, it's, it's, it's all gambling. It's the, it's the risk you take, but you gotta say that's, that's the key to long -term success is having a plan. Your pro angling plan, your business plan, what you're doing and the economy you touched on it. And it's not good right now. It's.
Thank you.
Brian Bashore (11:53.113)
You know, people are being optimistic about it, but I, as a guide, I see it on the wall. Austin just made a post on his Facebook page that he's out for the rest of the season as a guide. I mean, you got to put the, the business and stuff first. And when those trips aren't coming in because of everybody's tightening things up, that's the reality. You got to make tough decisions.
Yeah, that is the reality. And I, you know, Austin is a good buddy of mine. We ice fish together and he's just a great, you know, great sportsman, runs a really good guide business. And, and, uh, I mean, he's an awesome fit. He's done excellent. And just, um, but you know, he's, he's making a smart, he's, he's making a smart decision because he can, the tournaments will be there for him. He doesn't have.
Yeah, and he's cashed a lot of checks.
Tommy Kemos (12:43.04)
Any obligations right now that are making him fish the tournament. He's got a beautiful setup right down here in Lake Michigan. I mean, he's dialed for, for guiding all seasons. And I respect, I greatly respect him as an angler, but I really respect the decision that he's making. It's, it's smart. And we haven't, trust me, we haven't seen the, the, the last of Austin Rogatsky. He'll be, he'll be back for sure. No.
Oh yeah. Yeah. He's a hammer. He's a force to be reckoned with. He had him on a one of our earlier podcasts and we'll get him on again. And yeah, hell of a guy and got a great system where he's, he's hunting, he's fishing, he's all season. He's all, all in. And like I said, the tournaments aren't going nowhere, you know, and maybe he'll probably, maybe he'll jump in on a local or, you know, a smaller circuit that he doesn't have to go far from home and he can jump in for a day and one day of practice type stuff, just to, just to scratch that itch. I know he's got to have. So.
Yeah, yeah, no doubt, no doubt. And there are some good platforms in the weekend side of things that are a good option for everyone.
Yeah. We've got the aim circuit and we'll dig into that a little bit, but you talked about, you know, like we'll use him as an example, but this business, it isn't, it isn't easy. That's not for everybody. And if you're fishing to make a living on tournaments, this is not going to happen. You can't really win enough money unless you're constantly winning first or second place, basically two or three times a year, if even. But it's a sponsorship dollars that you have to earn and work and really try to figure out how to, how to.
have something and be able to add value. You've been doing this for a long time, so you know the ins and outs, um, as well as you're, you know, one of the, the host on the next bite now, uh, we just kind of, what do you, what do you, how do you feel or see that moving forward in the future? And then kind of current on, on sponsorship and partnership situations. You think it's going to tank a little bit, expand a little bit, or just kind of the guys that are doing it right. Should be able to hang on.
Tommy Kemos (14:47.712)
Well, you know, the beauty of the fishing industry and our sport is that the majority of people that are out spending money on tackle and bait and boats and motors, I mean, it is their, it's their pastime, it's their passion. They're going to find a way. And, you know, it isn't...
That's what they do on the weekends, right? Or that's what they do have to work every night. Like they're not gonna, they're not going to give up on that. And, and, you know, over the years, history has shown that people are, they're gonna, they're gonna fish. Like that's, that's the one thing that they're going, they're going to figure out a way. Um, you know, it, it, what I see happening is, you know, there's obviously with, with the interest rates right now with where the boats and motors are at price wise.
It's a pretty big issue. It's a huge issue actually. And you start looking at making payments on $120 ,000 board at eight to 9%. Boy, that'll make you swallow hard. So I mean, I see, unfortunately, I see that slowing down and I'm hoping it isn't a long slow down, but...
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (16:12.512)
You know, as far as the tackle, I mean, it sucks because we were, we really were in a, at a point in this industry where everything was really coming around nicely. There was a lot of great new innovations, a lot of excitement in the sport. Um, you know, coming off of COVID there was, um, a lot of new anglers that, that, um, grew their hat in the ring. Um, and that we're just first experiencing the.
the joy of angling, right? And so that bolstered a lot of numbers as well. So yeah, I mean, it's a really tough reality check right now. And I wish I had a better prediction of what was going to happen here. But on my end, I absolutely have seen it. I've seen companies reacting to it already. And even looking back in 08, 09,
when things started to swing around, it was like you lost the left foot, you lost the right foot, then you're clipped off at the kneecaps. Like it was a slow, a slow burn, but you know, I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm again, I, the sad reality of it is on the Huawei side, we're the first ones to, we're the first ones to see it, right? It's the easiest.
All right.
Tommy Kemos (17:41.248)
The easiest one for the accountants to say, you know, there's more people on the other side. We should be putting our money for that.
But I got it here that, and it makes sense. Bass is a billion dollar industry where a few hundred million, and there's, that's a really big gap between the two. But wall like anglers are just tackle junkies. I mean, we got it by five to one Louvers versus bass guys. It's.
Yeah, yeah, there, there's no doubt. If you look at our supply, I just crank baits alone. Um, I, uh, I'm pretty confident that the walleye guys rule in that department. Um, you know, and, and, you know, the upper Midwest and out West your direction. I mean, those areas are usually less affected by the economy, you know, uh,
All right.
Tommy Kemos (18:35.68)
they can handle bumps in the road a little bit better. So I don't know what's going to happen. I mean, I don't ever like to have discussions like this that aren't positive. And I'm a pretty positive person. I love the sport and I just, I want to see the sport continue to grow. But at the same time, I also felt my entire career, it's important to be realistic and
Right?
Tommy Kemos (19:04.992)
And I don't ever want to give somebody an expectation that is going to let them down, you know? So.
Yeah, no, you hit, hit it all on the head. Really. I mean, go into smart, you know, with the, with the business plan and have an idea of how you're going to do this. I've heard so many anglers tell those stories. Like I fished one tournament, you know, and if I made money, I could roll it to the next vice versa. I'm never going to tap into the savings or whatever it is. You know, the tournaments have to pay for themselves. And for some of that, you know, a lot of them have that story. They jumped in their first tournament and won it, you know, and it was a big one. So that catapulted them and it's.
It's probably 10 % of the tournament hangars have that story. I'm not one of them. I've jumped in, you know, first term and did the opposite of good, you know, but, you know, with every tournament you'll, you'll learn, but that's the reality of it is. And it's obviously we have a lot of pros and end up it's either single live at home, you know, whatever the case is, you know, there's a little bit of an advantage of that getting in on it when you're young. Now the whole boat deal is however they work that or figure that out to, you know, a whole different deal. But I mean, I can kind of say take advantage of that opportunity while you got it.
Thank you.
Brian Bashore (20:08.665)
You know, while you, while you don't have the mortgage and the, and the kids and the whole family and all the other responsibilities, um, you know, fish as much as you can fish. Cause that's the number one thing that's going to make you better tournament.
Oh, heck yeah. Like no matter what's happening in the world, like the more, if you're aspiring to do it, the more that you're on the water. Even if it's, you know, the area that I grew up in here, it's, um, it's called the Lake country area, but our, our lakes, as far as like Wawais go are super mediocre, if not poor. And, uh, um, you know, so I would go out fishing and try to learn tactics that.
You know, I was fishing all day for the five walleyes that swam in the lake. You know what I mean? Right. Well, like I was bettering myself by doing it and, and, uh, just time on the water, you know, learning your, your electronics, just getting comfortable to where is your, you know, I don't want to say some crazy, like you become one with them, but just so that it's, it's a fluid thing where you're, you can fish through, you know, analyzing your electronics.
You know.
Tommy Kemos (21:18.432)
And it's just part of the whole deal. Your mechanics, you know, running the bow ma, you know what I mean? All those things are, are, are important to becoming a better tournament angler, you know, and, and, and just challenging yourself, you know, every day go try to do something different. You know, it's, it doesn't really, you know, it doesn't really do you any good to just go and whale on fish every day. It's super fun, but it.
It really doesn't make you a better fisherman at all.
No, when it's easy, it's just easy for everyone and you're not learning a lot. I try to tell it to people that, or they have one bait that they're like, I can't you out. This is the best bait you got to use. I catch all my fish on this. I'm like, well, what else do you use? Well, nothing. Well, I'm like, well, that's why you catch all your fish on that. Cause you don't, you're, you're afraid to try something else. You only troll with the uncle Rico number seven flicker shot. It's the, it is a good one. You know, it's probably a go -to, but it's not, you ever tried this or tried that and all of a sudden you're, you're few, you catch it. I mean, there's.
There's lakes, you roll up the bicycle, you put a cigarette on a slow death hook and you're going to catch them. You know, I mean, and it's, yes, it's practice time on the water, um, you know, with the forward facing sonar thing and being, it is becoming one with your electronics and kind of having that, that muscle memory in a sense. I just installed a Garmin the other day and, uh, I said, I got to better practice with this thing, get it dialed in crappy rainy windium like.
No doubt, no doubt.
Brian Bashore (22:45.529)
Well, we don't get to pick the weather for our tournaments. Clearly we've just experienced some of that and we go and that's that. So it's let me go, go fish in the elements. It's not comfortable and go to a place that you, where you can't catch, you know, many fish maybe or whatever it is or struggle. I went out to a little local lake, a trophy lake. So there's big walleye, um, water's low. So you can only fish a part of it, but I got four of them that I would not have caught without that Garmin. And there were three to five pounders.
And it was cold and windy and it was trying to get positioned that boat right into the wind and you know, and learning your flipping distance. And there's just a lot to it, but the more and more you do that, the better you're going to get at it. But if you just go in calm conditions every day, it's pretty easy.
Yep, yeah, for sure.
Tommy Kemos (23:32.576)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, in, in calm conditions, no doubt, but you know, learn even at that, you know, just, I always tell people, you know, with, with the new technology, you know, go out, tie the boat up to the dock and just scan around. So the boat isn't moving at all. And just, that's the best way to like dial in your distance. It's all about distances and your cast and, and, and what those are seeing on the drop. And.
this.
So, you know, I'm guilty of it also. You're, you're so excited to get out there and use your new equipment, you know, that if you just take a little dedicated couple hours to just, I'm not going to fish. I'm just going to sit here. There aren't any fish around here, but I'm going to just scan around and learn, learn that thing, learn the different settings, learn what, what I need, you know, what, what's going to, what's going to.
as far as the different screen colors, so on and so forth, the different color palettes. Some people see the different colors better than others. There's all kinds of little things where if you just spend that a little bit, sacrifice a little angle in time to really learn that new technology, it goes a long ways.
Yeah, I've done a lot of hummingbird training and that's what I tell guys when they get them, I'd like to sleep the poles on the shore, leave them in your truck, go out there, go where you know structure is, go to the dam, go to something that you can see. You know, this is pretty forward facing, but side image and drive around it and scan it and understand what it is you're looking at and where you can see rock and sand and different bottom transitions. And that's exactly what I did with my Garmin there today was went right to where I knew a tree was and just sat up on that tree.
Brian Bashore (25:20.345)
And then did exactly what he said, tuned it all in, get the focus, worked on some distance, got an idea. I mean, 20, 30 feet is a, isn't a cast. It's a flick. Right. It's not very far out there. Even like when you're whipping it out there, you're making like a 90 foot cast, you know, and that's, and that's not hard. So, you know, when you're seeing those fish out there, I think most of them you're, oh wait, I'm trying to hurry up and get to it or whatever the case is. And yeah, it just, it takes practice, but.
Right, yeah.
Tommy Kemos (25:38.368)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (25:50.041)
Leave the rods in the truck, leave them on the bank, go out, spend some time, master your electronics and you'll be a master angler.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, it is no doubt the, the needle. So, um, you know, it's got a master, you got to learn it, you know, for myself, um, you know, I've been with Garmin since two, 2015 was the first season I started fishing with them. So it's been fun to see the evolution of, of this product, you know, and, uh, I was.
able to use those first panoptics units and on the ice. And I mean, this just unbelievable to watch how this is, has basically changed our sport. And what I've learned from using the live scope now and the panoptics, it's a lifetime of knowledge. There's certain things that I was really wrong about.
Mm -hmm.
that I was able to actually see what the fish were doing. It's been fun for me that way. Probably the toughest part for me is that I have been doing this a long time. You can see all this stuff.
Brian Bashore (27:11.353)
Right. Oh, yeah. I don't have any of the dark stuff filtered around mine.
So, you know, I've been at this a long time and I have, you know, been in so many, there's so many different like scenarios, angling situations that I've been in over the years and I have so much memory in all these bodies of water. And it's, it's really hard to, to, to just ignore that. And.
Yeah.
It's kind of turned into my Achilles heel really is that I, so many of these places you go to them and you want to do it the way that you, the way that you used to fish where you thought you had an advantage over the other guys where you were better than, you know, um, and, uh, which that isn't being cocky talking like that. Like you have to, if you're any competitor, right, you have to go into it saying, I can do this better than other guys.
You damn right, you better believe you're there to win. If you're not, thanks for the donation of $2 ,000 and we'll move on.
Tommy Kemos (28:12.768)
Yeah. Yeah. So, but, but yeah, so it's been, you know, we go to these places and it's like, all right, I fished eight tournaments here over the years. I think I know what, what we're going to be dealing with, you know, and as far as what size fish you need to be catching and with that live scope, you know, you hear a lot of people.
that complain about it or whatever. What they don't understand is the fish that are being targeted now with live scope are fish that nobody ever used to even try to fish for. As walleye anglers, we always knew they were out there and we would, that's when we'd get our planer boards out and do the open water trolling deal. And you'd stumble into a few, but now like you can just,
go and you see them and, and, and cast at them. So it's different. That's really what's happening here. It isn't that you can catch them that much better with it. It's that there is basically fishing for different fish now. And, uh, that, that's why all these weights in these tournaments have just been ungodly in my opinion. Um, you know, you, you take even like a body of water, like Lake Erie.
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (29:38.016)
your good ones all week long or five, you know, five pounders, right? Five and a half pounders. And then, you know, the guy that wins it, he's got all six and a half pounders or, you know what I'm saying? Like it's just a different class of fish. A lot of these guys aren't even casting for fish unless they, they see that they're big enough that they would take them to the scales. So yeah, it's a totally different deal. And I am.
You'll never get me to say anything bad about it or complain about it. It's it's humbling is what it is. I mean, it really at the end of the day, that's all I can say is I need to be better with it, you know, and at the same time, I was one of the first guys with it. And I think that is, you know, and it don't don't get me wrong. I've made plenty of money because of it. But the.
Right.
Tommy Kemos (30:36.415)
some of these tournaments just, you know, Green Bay, for example, and Drake and all those guys were just casting at those, those fish in the mud. I mean, that was.
I did that in practice and I was just like, I'm going to get sucked into this and I'm going to, I'm not going to be able to get my limit, you know? And, uh, so, you know, and even at Erie coming out of Erie, like those guys in those big waves, I mean, that's, that's next level stuff right there.
Yeah, that is, that, that is a, that is, I mean, game over, right? That is that I, you can do this in any condition at that point. So now it's like, all right, I gotta, I gotta spend more time. Like I said, I gotta get good. I gotta get better at it. Period. As long as this is available and legal tool, toolbox at our level, you better open that toolbox, start using your tools and just get better at it. So.
Right, yeah.
Tommy Kemos (31:32.576)
Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Yeah. I mean, the only, the only thing that I've seen that I'm a little disappointed in, and I'm hoping we can figure out a solution for it is that, you know, with new technology, there's new responsibility, right? So we can see the fish now. We're casting that fish. We can see our lure as it sits, you know, with the fish and whatnot. And I just.
Alright.
Tommy Kemos (32:01.664)
Um, there's no doubt that we've had some tournaments that have been decided by guys that made bad decisions with it, kept fish that should have been thrown back. And, uh, you know, I just, I hope that people understand that now that we're looking at them, that, that, that jig had better be in their mouth. Um, it's no different than going up on them in three foot of water and seeing them laying there and snagging them. It's the same thing. So.
I'm very concerned about that. I've been fortunate enough to be one of those guys that's had a career where the thought of doing something like that isn't even on my radar. Matter of fact, last year we won the battle on the Bay and...
We ended up throwing, we won it, but if we would have, we actually threw a bigger bag of fish back that we snagged. And it just got my gears turning, you know, about how many people are doing the right thing with it. So that's my only concern, but outside of that, it has been the forward facing sonar deal, you know, it has been, it's just made fishing for me so much more fun and it's.
Hmm.
Brian Bashore (33:08.537)
Right.
Tommy Kemos (33:24.032)
I still like to try to figure them out, but it's interesting, like, again, like I love river fishing and seeing how fish move throughout the day. And there isn't any guessing anymore. Like you can, you can see them. You can try to stay ahead of them, but it's, uh, it's just fascinating to me. I love ice fishing, but using it through the ice, like.
No.
Tommy Kemos (33:50.432)
All of the things that I thought those fish were doing out in open water in the winter, I was wrong about a lot of it. It's been kind of cool. Like, you know, it's crazy to hear somebody talk that way that's spent as much time on the water as I have. You know, I'm not afraid to tell you that. Some of the theories that I had were...
Right.
Brian Bashore (34:05.305)
Right.
Tommy Kemos (34:16.608)
wrong and it's actually pretty exciting about what you know the things that they're actually doing you know so.
Kind of the consensus I hear from a lot though is this, whether I'm catching them or not, I'm learning a ton. Um, you know, so even if this was the go away or not be allowed or whatever the case is, I've learned a ton about fish behavior. I mean, I'm using it the other day in eight foot of water and while we're only four feet down, you know, without it in prior, even seeing any, I'm making a few blind casts. This is I'm, there's not many in this area, so I'm just cruising around looking, but I'm letting it hit bottom and working it. Then when I find what I'm like, Oh, well.
Alright.
Tommy Kemos (34:40.128)
Right.
Brian Bashore (34:51.833)
He's not on bottom. It's like as it drops, I mean, it immediately moves, but then I just hold it up, right? Only let it get near and they dove down, dove up. And by the time I got even started to get close to the boat, boom, they were on it. I wouldn't have, wouldn't have got them. I had no idea they'd be at four feet below the surface in crystal clear water, you know.
Yeah. And that's the, that's the cool thing is that it just, it opens your eyes up to so many different things and even different, uh, water conditions that they relate to and things that they do under, like, for example, around here, like those big wakeboard boats, it's a big deal. You know, everybody's got these boats that kick up the tsunamis and, and, uh,
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (35:39.001)
Yes, they do.
Those things have totally changed. Like again, I'm not going to sit here and say we should outlaw the things. But what I, what I have noticed is that they completely change all these little inland lakes we have. We don't have, our lakes don't stratify like they used to. Once, once we get to, you know, fourth of July weekend when everyone's out ripping around, the lakes they turned up so much.
that it's totally changed what the fish do. You know, normally in the summer, I'd be looking on the thermocline for the fish. Well, it's all mixed so the fish can kind of, you know, be anywhere. We never used to have like deep fish and now I'm seeing fish in 50 foot of water that would never have been there because of the thermocline. But I learned that, you know, by watching.
with my live scope, I can watch as that mixing is taking place even. You know, so it just, it teaches you so much. The million dollar deal is converting what you're learning to cash in the paycheck, you know, and getting them to bite, but you still have to get them to bite, right? So.
Yep. Still got to catch them. Still got to talk them into giving up. And that's not the easy part. All means you don't just put one of these on your boat and fish just jump in. It's a major learning curve and time and practice. But we've got advancement of electronics forever. I mean, forever. And obviously the live scope is a whole new level at, you know, and I'm sure there's, and you know from Garmin, what there's more and better and brighter things even coming down the pipe. But.
Tommy Kemos (37:00.544)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (37:23.289)
You know, side image was big, mega 360, but I mean, from flashers to 2D, none of this is new. And it's just the evolution of things and everybody just eventually accepts and goes on. There's been a lot more disturbance or conversation around the Ford facing sonar for one, because there can be, because there's more outlets than there ever has been. And everybody and anybody can be heard. I think you just had a petition deal in Wisconsin, right? From some locals or some residents or Wisconsin citizens.
raising concerns about it, but ultimately it's still pretty new for anybody to really tell, you know, and, and the bass kind of sets the precedent and tournament fishing, you know, for everybody. So when, or if they ever make any moves on it, we'll determine I'm sure who and how it follows muskies, you know, circuits have done things and there's been some smaller clubs that have done some things. And I get leveling the playing field for a local smaller, you know, this is for fun. I'm like investing a few hundred bucks. Then some guys roll in with.
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (38:23.577)
$200 ,000 setup and they're whooping everybody's butt. Once again, they got to know how to use it. And those locals are, they're just not going to, going to participate, you know, and they're not going to go to those. But when you're fishing the top pro level circuits, that's, that's part of the game.
Yeah, I mean, it's we're fishing for the biggest fish that swim in the body of water. Um, as far as like the effect that just in general fishing, you know, there's, again, we're fishing for totally different fish now. Um, and I, and I get it, right. I mean, when it's no different than when the underwater cameras came up, right. They were gonna, that was going to ruin fishing. Everybody, they were going to ban it.
Yep.
Tommy Kemos (39:10.304)
So on and so forth. I mean, this is like, this is next level technology compared to that. But you know, it's. Was 2D sonar and then it was side imaging and then, you know, when, when side imaging was, I mean, Humminbird is really the company that was the first to take that side imaging to the next level. And, uh, as far as utilizing it as a fish timing tool and, uh,
Everyone now is pretty much caught up. I mean, everyone has that technology. Garmin site imaging is really, really good now. But still like with anything, you're going to get a certain group of people that they're going to be unhappy with it. And with Spontan we have a conservation Congress, which is, you know, I'm not going to go down that rabbit hole. You know, that's where a lot of that stuff is coming from, you know, and.
All right.
Brian Bashore (40:01.113)
Right.
Tommy Kemos (40:07.904)
the, I think the amount of new anglers that we have seen get involved in this sport, um, kids that are interested in it now because they can relate so much. Um, I, I, as much as I don't like getting beat by the young youngsters, I can tell you that it's.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (40:29.785)
Right.
Tommy Kemos (40:35.104)
It actually has leveled the playing field off in my opinion, um, in competitive angling, um, from the standpoint of, you know, 22 year old kid or eight, you know, 20 year old kid decides to throw his hat in the ring, shows up at the tournament and there's a bunch of veterans that have fished that body of water who knows how many times, you know, they like there, that's a tough.
That's a tough deal to step into. Whereas now, you know, they don't, they don't need with the technology, the electronics. All they need to do is just get kind of pointed into the right section of the lake and they can bust it, break it down and, and, and be competitive with throwing at them, whatever they're confident in throwing at, you know? So, um, you know, from that standpoint, I, I think it's been good for the sport.
really has, I mean, you just look on the BASS side. I mean, it's, um, you know, there's a lot of young, you know, J. Chakurit. I mean, he, he's, he, he's a fricking monster. Like what he's been doing is, uh, you know, um, Jason's a buddy of mine and I, I, you know, being from Wisconsin, there's only been a few bass anglers that have.
really had any sort of impact at the national level. And, you know, Jay's gone in there. He's a young man and he's, uh, he's making a heck of a name for himself right out of the gates, but he is utilizing that technique, the, the, the technology. He does have a great foundation growing up, you know, on the Wisconsin river. Um, but he's a well rounded angler, but with that technology, he's able to go to some of these places. I think.
where it's really made the biggest difference for the Northern Anglers is, you know, when you go down south, having that ability to not have to know the, you know, the secret stretches or the juice stretches, you know, just being able to get into an area and fish what you're seeing on your live scope, I think is a big deal. So.
Brian Bashore (42:54.329)
It definitely keeps the veterans in check when these young guys show up and put it to you and you're like, humbling, right?
There's no doubt. And like I say, like I've just, it's blown me away what some of these guys are doing. But, um, you know, it's, it's hard to, what do they say? It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but it, it isn't that I don't know the tricks. It's just, uh, I'm having a hard time letting, just letting go and, and, uh, putting her on high bypass and ripping around until I see them. It's exactly.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (43:25.433)
It's hard not to be an old dog, right? Sometimes it's, but the learning curve is just so much faster though. You know, for us guys that are forties and fifties, I grew up waiting for the Saturday morning fishing shows and the in fishermen magazine and you got YouTube and podcasts and social media and how'd they win it? Boom. The guy can go out later that day, you know, and try to implement those same techniques in the same spots, you know, um, and, and put it out there.
It's uh, it's common though, so...
Brian Bashore (43:54.329)
And that's great, I guess, and whatever it takes to get more angered into the sport is ultimately what we want. So on the more optimistic side of not struggle industry struggles, this is how we make it better. Right. We, we share the information and we put all the information out there, embrace the technology, you know, teach. And like Tommy said, folks, his line is open, give them a call. I mean, you can probably help people walk them through their Garmin settings, um, which I'm finding out there's a lot more on that one than I'm used to, but it's really pretty simple. I mean, it's.
Like you said, tie up and look at something and then adjust your stuff. It's not, and there's video, there's a million videos out there that are going to tell you exactly where to start. It's going to be different every day, but.
Yeah, absolutely, you know, and it's...
Garmin, a lot of their default settings are their money. Like you can tune on and roll with it. The fine tuning, you know, the one tip that I will give everybody about LiveScope, actually this is a tip about 2D sonar as well, is that dirty screen will always show you more. Everybody is kind of hung up on the...
They want a nice, clear, pretty picture with a crisp fish mark and your bait spiraling down to that fish. Yeah, that's okay, but I wanna see everything that's going on. So as you adjust the different filters, so on and so forth, what you're doing is you're actually, those different things are being filtered out, but it's slowing the unit down as well. I don't care what brand it is.
Tommy Kemos (45:37.024)
And, you know, so you want to have some of that noise. The important thing is though that you can, you're seeing the fish marks, you're able to see your bait, but as you, a dirty screen will show you, will show you a lot more and there's a lot more info that you can gather from that. So that's my, that's my secret, top secret tip, right?
Yes.
And it's going to be more real time. So the, I guess another tip or something I've somewhat learned in just a few days, if you do filter it, you are going for that clean thing. You're going to have more of a lag, right? More of a delay. So if you're one of those that sets the hook too fast, maybe you need to clean a screen up. So you actually fill it before you see it, right. And get to it. But then again, you may not see it because you haven't filtered all the, all the noise out of it. So.
Right. Yep.
Tommy Kemos (46:32.448)
Yeah, the closer to real time that you can get it, it's the better. Um, but more importantly, like you can see little things like water temperature breaks. You can see algae in the water. You can see color changes, which would indicate a temperature. There's all these little things, you know, that, um, can help you to get more of the fish to bite. So you're fishing for the right ones. Right.
Yup. Yeah, it's we're all in on it folks. And if you haven't been getting there and check it out and, uh, head or Tommy's Facebook page, I think he's got all sorts of tips on there. I had to go back and look at your rig and stuff all the time. I do. You had to have some mechanic background. Cause it looks like you do everything, but build your boat in your shop right there. I just put that garment in and I'm like, that's, that's enough for me. I don't, I ain't doing that stuff.
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (47:25.696)
Yeah, there isn't too much. I pretty much do a hundred percent of my bolt rigging and, uh, um, it isn't for everybody. And, and I, I try to, yeah, share some rigging stuff with people. And, and, but I always tell, you know, if you're not comfortable with it, the best thing to do is go to a dealership. Cause you could hurt a lot more than your health. And if you're, if you're not going to, you, you, you want one, uh, drill placed in the wrong spot can be pretty expensive, but, uh, um,
Yep.
Tommy Kemos (47:56.096)
But no, I, you know, having that background that I have, it's, it's helped me out a lot. And, and you know how it is like when we're on the road, you're going to, if it's going to happen, it's going to, it's going to happen at a tournament. And, uh, so having that ability to, um, troubleshoot problems, knowing my boat inside and out when there's a problem, I know where to look. So makes, makes a big difference. And, and, uh, especially these, you know, the first tournament of the year, everyone's.
scrambling to put a boat together and just stuff shows up, you know.
Yeah. And you're not having to wait on a dealer to get it in. Cause first it's March and April, everybody's getting their stuff done. And yeah, I'm becoming quite the trailer mechanic in my professional fishing career. So those are, that's just all part of the, part of the gig. It's just, you put a lot of miles on, you're going to blow hubs and all sorts of stuff.
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (48:45.792)
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (48:49.952)
All sorts of fun stuff, yep, yep. And it's just kind of being prepared, you know, for, yeah, if you dig into our trucks, you know, there's, try to be prepared for about anything. So it's a good week when you're not digging deep in the pickup truck.
Yeah, there's.
Yeah, there's probably more tools in the back of my truck than there is. I mean, I got an extra trolling motor. You know, there's a lot of stuff and most of it's not rods and reels. There's plenty of that, but it's, you know, and that's a great skill set you have to be able to rig and put your boat together because it's inevitable something's going to go wrong, especially when we got rough water and you're banging stuff around. Sounds like a lot of boats were pretty tore up from the last tournament that made long runs.
Right?
Brian Bashore (49:36.889)
But being able to fix that on the fly versus that's, that's your day. Now you're off the water and you're, you know, you're kind of hosed. Um, that's a, that's a huge saver. So, so anybody thinking about a trade school, there's a big opportunity. I know a lot of the, uh, Wiesner was on there saying he's looking for, you know, rigging mechanics, boat mechanics. And he's like, if you just are interested in being any kind of mechanic, we'll train you. You know,
Yeah. And there, there are great opportunities in that. And it's, uh, you know, over the years I had job opportunities with, um, having that background, I've had job gotten job opportunities from different boat companies, even, um, back when I was still in the boat business, Skeeter offered me a job to be a, uh, test pilot. And, uh, at the time I was, I'd already kind of started.
you know, my, my path into the, into professional fishing and I, I just didn't want to move to Texas and, and, uh, but like that would have been a pretty cool job to go out and see if you could blow a boat apart every day. They kind of been good at it too, you know. Uh, yeah, so.
Yeah, I don't doubt. Yeah, I think he would have. I've seen Tommy out there, plenty with his ratchet, tightening his motor down before a long run. So I'm like, yeah, he's giving it hell. I know where he's going.
Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, that's a, that's a, for anybody, you know, that's another thing like check your, check your hardware. It's easy enough. Already he's got a couple of wrenches just throughout the, you don't have to be fishing tournaments either. Like throughout the course of the season, give it a turn, make sure everything's tight and, and, uh, that'll save you some heartbreak as well. But, uh, um, but yeah, so getting back into that, you know,
Tommy Kemos (51:24.992)
Speaking of Wiesner, a lot of people don't know him, but he's one of the top mercury mechanics in the country. He knows what's going on. He runs a great dealership there. He knows the ins and outs of this whole business as well. There's some great trade schools. One of the schools I went to was the Marine Mechanics Institute down in Orlando, Florida.
I also went to, at the time it was called Detroit Lakes Institute up in Minnesota there. And yeah, so I went to, that's where I ran out of school. All my buddies were going to college and universities and I rolled the trade school and I loved it. Great, great opportunity. Great. I mean, there's so many opportunities in the trades period that you have to give it a good.
No.
Tommy Kemos (52:24.)
because well, I'm hard -boiled for sure, you know.
And if you can make a hell of a lot of money in the trades that people are overlooking that, you know, this, there's not a lot of framers left out there. I'm a Mason biker. There's not a lot of Masons. There's not a lot of people that want to do that work. And you can, you know, electricians, HVAC mechanics, plumber, you, you're going to be able to name your price. It's a hundred dollar an hour minimum, right? To show up or do anything nowadays. And you're not getting that when you're sitting at a cubicle and whatever else. You may have some other creature comforts, but you're willing to do a little work.
Oh yeah, no doubt.
Brian Bashore (52:54.809)
and get your hands dirty. There's a lot of, a lot of money and freedom to be, to be made out there, especially in the trades.
Oh yeah, absolutely. So yeah, I mean, I was, I was fortunate to, to, you know, find that career path and it, and it, you know, learned, learned a lot of great skills that I, I use today a lot, quite a bit. So, but yeah.
Tournament fishing never works. Well, it's working out but for whatever reason if things just go off rails, there you go. We always got something to fall back on.
Oh yeah, our toolbox is always ready to roll if you need it.
I bet that comes in handy as hell with those laundry mats because I never been the one where every machine was working.
Tommy Kemos (53:35.904)
Yeah, oh yeah. One thing that's for sure is something's going to break, no doubt.
Yep. There's no doubt. We just, we just came off of here. We got, you know, a lot of guys picked up some points. Um, I barely did cause we had a major football on day two with, with, uh, we fished at about a half hour, but.
That was nasty on day two.
It was, and I've heard some more stories from other guys at Cooing which were throwing up and just not into it. And I don't even know how to explain it, but I had some, something higher power just saying, you got to get this guy out of here. Just things just aren't good. We'll, we'll survive the boats in one piece. Um, a lot of boats I'm hearing are not in one piece. Uh, that's, that's, that's just the way it is. I guess it's the Campbell you take. It's not like they're built well, but it got pretty gnarly out there.
Yeah. You, you put, you know, we had 30, probably 30, 35 mile an hour winds there for a while. And, uh, that, that place gets so ugly. I mean, that, that Lake Erie is the only, I made some pretty long runs on the Great Lakes over the years and Lake Erie is the only body of water that I've ever been out in on a tournament day. And I wasn't sure if I was going to make it back. And that was.
Tommy Kemos (54:57.024)
back in, I don't know, no, no, this is going back even farther than that into the PNBT. We had a tournament out of Dunkirk also though, back in like 2003, I think or 04. Yeah, there were the waves were we had 50 mile an hour straight line winds come up and we were all east of Dunkirk. And yeah, it was, it was ugly. That was definitely one where I was.
three or four years ago.
Brian Bashore (55:03.129)
No, no, cause that one was.
Oh.
Tommy Kemos (55:26.272)
Mike Coingler was actually, he was actually in shock after about a half hour of running. Like he was absolutely in shock. Like he was out, he was gone. We got in and I started talking to him and he was like, why does it go unresponsive? Like, hey, it's like, you know, and, uh, but yeah, that was scary. One vote did flip in that tournament, but, uh,
Oh boy.
Tommy Kemos (55:55.68)
Yeah, Lake Erie is no joke. And you know, when the weather comes up on those, you know, when you take a gamble, when you, when you go out on the Great Lakes and our boats and, and, uh, there are, you know, that wind comes up. You always hope it doesn't, but most of the time, if you, if you look at two or three different forecast models and you see wind in two out of the three of them, that wind is coming. And they were.
Oh yeah.
Brian Bashore (56:21.945)
It's going.
That forecast on Friday kept flipping back and forth all week. And, uh, that morning, I actually thought they were going to cancel it before we got in the water. Cause it was nasty in the morning before we launch. And then it laid down and I'm like, huh, I've seen this before. That's exactly what happened back in 03. It laid in the worms. It laid down, we got out, got set and all of a sudden just straight.
It did. A lot.
Brian Bashore (56:38.873)
Yeah, it was.
Brian Bashore (56:45.305)
Yeah, yeah.
Tommy Kemos (56:54.912)
white water coming up.
Which is exactly what happened.
But yeah, fortunately, oh boy, I just saw my dogs go running past. They both have rabbits in their.
They'll be sleeping in the garage tonight. Their favorite time of the year, all you can eat bunnies.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I knew we were going to go to us talking to some guys. I'm sure I'm like, Oh no. I said, he's gone. It's going to lay down. It's it. It was fine. You know, you just gotta, you gotta use your head and manage the situation. And I mean, all but four or five boats basically fished all day. And it just, um, you know, it just is what it is. So, I mean,
Brian Bashore (57:36.985)
People kind of plan for it too and say, ah, I'm not going to go where I want to go. I'm going to go over here. Cause at least I can fish here all day, you know, and then I just have to worry about getting in. Some have made those decisions.
Yeah, I was far off. I could trough them. Where I was at, I was able to pretty much trough them all the way back in. So it wasn't, it wasn't, I mean, a while there though, it was, I was troll, I was troughing them, trolling. And, uh, like every third wave was breaking over the side of the boat. And I'm like, this is, I told my coangular, I'm like, this is, this is getting to be borderline where we may call it a day here. You know?
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (58:15.129)
Yeah, I had to go into them for a little bit and that's what put us over the, like, this is no good. And then when he went, we were able to turn and trough like, Oh, you know, been there, done that. And this is, this is manageable now trolling in it. That's a whole different thing. Just getting in was, you know, cause you're going usually 20 ish or so to trough. You got to maintain a speed so that you don't take them all over the top and get tossed. Um,
Well, we're heading to the Mississippi, which I know I'm pretty sure it's a favorite place of yours. It's a river. You and I are both, we love the rivers. What, how do we think that's going to set up? It looks like the water levels are rising finally.
Yeah, I've been keeping an eye on those water levels since we got back from Uri and that, you know, that pretty much dictates the bite there. You know, just you got to watch those water levels. And, you know, I don't know what's going to happen. Like it looks like it's manageable right now, but they're getting a lot of rain up north and...
But we'll see, like it would be fun to go there and have like just decent water conditions. Um, I think that you'll see a ton of really nice weights though. It is going to be different with our limit that we have to deal with. Cause we can have one over. So that's, that's going to, um, that's going to make it a much tighter tournament. I think.
The rest of the season is going to be a much tighter tournament. Now that we're done with the coaling and these shorter, these smaller limits of fish, it's all about the decisions.
Tommy Kemos (59:48.192)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (59:55.168)
Yep, it's, and you know the...
And the thing about the Mississippi river is that there's 10 and 11 and 12 pounders swimming around in that pool four and pool three. Um, so it's going to be. You're going to have to really not get lucky, but you're going to have to hope that your overs are decent. Um, you know, that time of year fish under 20 inches is if you catch a monster.
you might get it to sniff three pounds, but most likely they're going to be like two and a half pounders, right? So, yeah, you're going to be able to make up a lot of ground there, I don't think with like super smart slots. So it'll be, it'll be interesting. The, to throw back a five pounder though, it's going to be really hard, but.
Right, I mean that puts you at 12 -13 pounds probably have a lot of those 9 -10 pound weights maybe.
I feel like.
Tommy Kemos (01:01:04.672)
So yeah, I mean it'll be interesting. I always love going to that river. It's been, we have a love -hate relationship. It's, I've had some real good tournaments there and I've had some like just really mediocre tournaments where I'm just not, I'm on the fish fry, I'm not on the winning fish, you know. So hopefully, and another thing,
This is the first time that we've been to Red Wing since like points are an issue as well. So that's going to, it's going to play into things as far as what guys are keeping and what guys are throwing back as well. So.
Yeah, you'll see some more conservative fishing as the season progresses. Not for me, when you crap the bed on the first one, you can't, there's nothing. You can't be conservative. You got to make, you got to make up a lot of points, um, or just hope there's a whole hell of a lot less people, but I don't, I don't want that. We want as many anglers as possible. You want those payouts to get stretched and I'd rather compete against 150 versus 50. So.
Bye.
Tommy Kemos (01:01:58.016)
Right.
Tommy Kemos (01:02:11.872)
Oh, for sure. Yeah, no doubt. Um, I, I figure they'll be out of that field that we had at Erie though. You, you won't see 50 of those names on the roster. Um, that just had no intention of fishing anymore than that first tournament. So, um, I mean, there's about, you know, 30 to 40 river studs out there that are, will probably throw their hat in the ring for this. So I would.
I'm guessing we're gonna see probably a 110.
Yep. I concur. And you know, the rivers are, I love them, but the locals always have an advantage on those rivers. You know, the guys that grew up there. I mean, we go there a lot for these, I've never been to Red Wing and, and shame on me. Cause it's not that far away. And it's just hard to go. I got two hours, really good fishing here. Why try four hours? But like you said, you got all those 10, 11, 12 pounders there. Those are a little easier to come by out there than they are on the Missouri river. So it, uh,
Okay.
Brian Bashore (01:03:16.249)
Yeah, just can't wait. Looking forward to it. I expect the same thing, probably a little just over a hundred something competitors in this one. And it's such, you know, a lot of talk that's forward facing. So in our playing to it, like Peppin's obviously, you know, maybe got to be into play. It seems to be obviously a lot trickier on that river system using it, but you know, maybe it's to pull them out or nonetheless, it's river fishing. There's you're you're bringing everything you're trash fishing.
Right. Oh yeah, yeah, there's, there'll be guys pulling live bait. You know, the obviously little cats are always an issue out there.
stuff is gonna work with us like going out of Minnesota and yeah there's...
Because you can't have them on the Minnesota side, is that right?
I don't really know exactly how the whole thing plays out, but I...
Brian Bashore (01:04:12.281)
Well, Musk, his new Everett's resort, sells them. And he's on the Minnesota side. So maybe you can't have him on the Wisconsin side, or is he not?
Okay.
Uh, no, no, Everett's is on the Wisconsin side. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I, I don't know. It's always, I always try to get them and it seems like I always end up pitching something, you know, ripple shad or a ringworm or some, you know, but, uh, um, yeah, so that'll, that'll be a factor, but yeah, I mean, open water trolling, there'll be guys scoping.
Oh, is he? Okay, well, the hell I know.
Tommy Kemos (01:04:49.696)
the water level's going to 100 % dictate what the deal ends up being. If that water gets muddy and high, that changes a lot of the different ways that you can catch them. But it's just a matter of figuring out every day where they're going versus where they're at. So.
The key to successful turban fishing is staying ahead. One step ahead, where are they going? And in the river system, they're going. They're always moving.
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (01:05:24.8)
Yeah, they go a long ways and you know, you can't, you got to be willing to forget what you learned the day before on a river because it can hurt you for sure.
It can, and it's super hard to do. So, you know, especially with that river, where you have so much current and things moving. Now the big fish spots, maybe, maybe they hold there. I mean, there's, there's the spots for a reason. Those things produce fish year after year. And that seems to be a place where community holes it's been one out of and they just produce, that's why they're community holes, but it can produce the right fish. But more often than not, I think those winning bags are coming.
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:06:04.665)
out of cuts or back, you know, hopefully we have some higher water. So all these back bays become into play. And we're not fishing in crowds.
Yeah, definitely fishes a lot bigger as the water comes up. That's for sure. And, you know, a month ago we were looking at pretty low water for that tournament, but it's, it's looking decent. Um, like I said, let's, let's see what happens in the next week. I think next week, I don't know, our forecast around here, we got rain five out of the seven days. So we'll see what happens, you know.
Yeah, it, it, and no other river really changes as fast as the Mississippi does. So with all those blocks and levels, the rise in and lowering and the Missouri's up a little bit right now, which is almost up to normal. Um, but you go to the Coquit, still way low. A Wahi could take another 15 feet. Francis case is about par. Uh, sharp isn't, isn't doing too bad. Lusen Clark's pretty typical. Um, yeah, but I don't think they're, yeah, we've, we just had a lot of rain.
quick runoff, not even the release of anything coming through dams right now. It's just rain. So, but those reservoirs are made to hold a bunch where the Mississippi is, uh, they got, they gotta have water down river. You gotta move barges and you gotta move things, um, up river. I mean, the whole thing. So it's a lot more critical on, on water levels and what's happening and controlled a little bit more close in a sense. So nonetheless, it's the Mississippi. We're looking forward to it. And I'm definitely can't wait to get there and get back on a river.
Uh, then we're off to green Bay, which is probably another place you tend to love a lot. I imagine you've had some good success over there.
Tommy Kemos (01:07:43.712)
Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I need some redemption from last year. That was a, that was a tough one out there for me. Um, but, uh, no, I'm, I'm looking forward to it. The three fish deal is, you know, I don't really know what to think about it yet. Um, yeah, you only got to catch, but you literally could be out of the tournament after day one. If you, uh, decide.
to be easier, right? Only you got to catch three.
Brian Bashore (01:08:11.257)
Yeah, you.
wrong three, you know, if you're, if you're three way as much as one of mine, you're in trouble. You know what I'm saying? So, um, but, uh, at the same time though, I got, you know, you can, there's definitely going to be people that are, um, way too, way too conservative or way too aggressive, I should say that are going to come in with just one fish.
Yep. Yeah, it's gonna be tough to make up ground. Somebody gets the right three. It's tough.
Tommy Kemos (01:08:43.424)
It'll be a nine and a half, 10 pounder, but you know, um, so you're going to definitely hear stories of people more than a bunch of fish back and regretting it, but, uh,
Lettin' em go.
Brian Bashore (01:08:55.481)
Well, this is all Isaac Lachius just made a post earlier today keeping track of fish over I want to say 25 27. I think it's got 229 in the last couple weeks basically eight 12 pounders
Oh yeah, there's plenty of big fish in there and if that's what you're targeting too, I mean you're gonna catch them. And this time of year the fishing's pretty darn good there. It's closer to when we're gonna be there. They start to get a little flipped, so we'll see what happens. But right now is a good time of year to...
Threat.
Tommy Kemos (01:09:35.264)
Pretty much now until the ill I was coming in as a pretty good fit.
Pretty much now until we go there is really good time to be there. It's the way I understand it, right? Come mid -Junits like this gets to be really tough. So, but we're still going to catch them. Everybody, somebody always does. We always figure it out. There's still fish. They got to eat. You just, you got to figure it out. Name of the game.
Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (01:09:57.024)
Yep, yep, no doubt, no doubt. So yeah, it should be good. I mean, I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. The tournament that I wasn't really looking forward to is behind us. And the rest of the season looks good to me. If I had to pick my least favorite place to fish a tournament, it's Lake Erie. Like without a question for a variety of different reasons, but I just don't.
I'm not a big fan of the place to be honest with you.
Nope. I agree 100%. So I want to say Green Bay because I just suck at Green Bay, but once I've started to figure it out, I love catching those Green Bay wallites because they're angry, they're big. I mean, it's the potential to really do well in Green Bay is just there. You just got to get it figured out. It seems like that place changes faster than any other place for me, but just not a lot of experience out there.
Yeah, Green Bay is a much more diverse fishery and I just think it lends itself a lot better to exciting tournaments and a little bit of something for everybody spreads the field out, you know, so.
Yeah, it does.
Brian Bashore (01:11:12.409)
Yeah, they are fish everywhere where areas usually two or three pods of fish being worked by everybody. And now it's whatever method you choose. So yeah, they were rolling the Scott quia, which is good. No matter when you go there, um, big fish, little fish, number of fish, fish, every one of fish go long run short run. It doesn't matter. You're just going to catch fish and it's a beautiful place. Uh, my favorite place out of everything. So really looking forward to that one. I expect a pretty small field for that.
Cause the last tournament of this, you know, the point season, so people that are traveling that's the furthest one away. So if you were far East and you're on the kind of cups, you need to have a good tournament. Probably you may not, you know, venture to go in and to spend that money to go that far. So it's usually a little, little smaller turnout, a hundred to 110. Um, but we get a lot of locals there. So.
Yeah, I mean that's our only trip out last, so I would still think we're gonna see at least 30.
Missouri river guy show, you know, maybe for me, right? You know, it includes people from down in your neck of the woods too, you know, you get a few of those guys from out Montana come over and throw their hat too. So.
Oh yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:12:30.265)
Yep. Yep. A lot of Montana guys go over there. I got some fuzz floating around out here. Alrighty. Well that is, uh, we've been chatting for a long time. We'll wrap this thing up. Um, a lot of good insight for Tommy, uh, Ford Facey and the Garmin stuff. If you could leave everybody with one little tip, little nugget to help them out in their future angling tournament career, anything, what would it be?
Well, I think, I think the biggest thing, um, as if we're talking like the business piece of tournament fishing, I think the biggest thing is that, um, credibility is, is key in, in, well, about any business, right? But the fishing business for sure. And there, there are a lot of opportunities for people to, um, endorse products or talk about things that.
they actually aren't using or don't believe in. And the biggest thing is, you know, stick to your strong points and just try to build up a reputation based on your strong points in the sport. And...
just stay true to it, you know, be honest with people and nobody can take your credibility away from you. And credibility isn't something you can buy, you have to earn it. So you, and you're the only one really that can wreck it once you've earned it. So, but the end of the day, everybody can end up figuring out a way to catch a fish, but the credibility is what goes a long ways with.
not only companies in the industry, but your fellow competitors as well. So big deal. It's important to me anyways.
Brian Bashore (01:14:20.121)
Yep. No, for sure. That's a very good. And, uh, yeah, you control it. You're in complete control of this. So it's the sponsorships are our partnerships and they all just happen overnight. These are relationships that are built over years. And the best ones are with when you have the best relationships, just like Garmin and Triton, you know, St. Croix happened to be the same company here. These are years in the making. And then once you're there, it's established and doing what you say you're going to do.
Yeah, that's the deal. And you also have to understand that a lot of the people in the industry, they may not be at that company next year, but they're probably going to stay in the industry as well. So those relationships are really important. Whether it's your local bait shop owner that you pick up as a sponsor and help out, or if it's...
You know, that's.
Tommy Kemos (01:15:19.232)
somebody at the highest level of a company like Pure Fishing. Getting your foot in the door and keeping your best foot forward is a big deal.
True true. Oh, there you go folks lots of wisdom dropped by mr. Kibos today If you didn't learn something you got it. You got to relist it and open up your ears You're hearing and not listening folks a lot of a lot of good stuff So thank you for your time Tommy and looking forward to seeing some more of you on the next by shows coming up So you've been doing a couple three of those a season it looks like and and gotta be just a blast
Yes.
Tommy Kemos (01:15:59.328)
Yes, sir. Yeah, I mean, unbelievable opportunity that the Parsons have given me and I sure appreciate it. And it's a big deal. And it's a fun group to be a part of. So we I take great pride in all the shows that I put together. And I know the other guys are in the same boat. So we try to.
Try to have fun with it, but make it something that's worth watching as far as learning a thing or two.
those outtakes at the end that there's all you can tell there's some fun and there's always some good stuff going on so you know it's the best fishing shows out there so.
Bye.
Yeah, I appreciate it and I appreciate you having me on Brian. Looking forward to seeing you coming up here in the Mississippi River. So take it easy.
Brian Bashore (01:16:49.593)
Yep, just short two weeks away is all. I feel like we just got home, but that's kind of how summer goes from here on out.
Yeah. Yeah.
Tommy Kemos (01:16:59.264)
Yep, yep, going and going and going. So, but, well thanks again and we'll see you soon.
That's the way we like it.
Brian Bashore (01:17:08.441)
Yep, you bet. Thank you, Tommy. And thank all you for tuning into this episode of Real Talk Fishing with no limits. You can either you're watching this over on the Walleye Guys YouTube page or on the Facebook page. You can listen to it on Spotify, Apple, Google, pretty much if there's a podcast platform on there, it's Aaron on there. Download it, hit to subscribe, head over to Tommy's Fishing, Tommy Kemos Fishing and like his pages, head over to the Next Byte, check them out, watch the shows, like their YouTube, like their social, share it.
Get the word out, spread the word, share the information of all the good fishing that's going on in the walleye world. And this will see you next week. Stay tuned and we'll see you on the water.