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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 (00:00.898)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning into this episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. Today we're over in Wisconsin talking to the American angler himself, Nick Schertz. Nick's a very smart dude and is versed in all species and has fished literally across the country and across the world on the American Predator Team, World Ice Fishing Championships. I mean, he's been there, he has done it, he's been around for a while.
Nick knows his stuff, so you want to learn a little bit about what goes on in these world competitions, you're going want to listen to this one. So stay tuned. We've got Nick's shirts coming up.
Brian Bashore (00:02.601)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to this episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. We're heading over to Wisconsin, I believe, this time and meeting with America's angler, Mr. Nick Schertz. How's it going over there today, Nick?
Brian Bashore (00:16.169)
What, it's, you know, we're in late March. This winter has like, just snuck its head back in over here in South Dakota. I don't know what it's like over there, but it's kind of sucking.
Nick Schertz (00:21.69)
Yeah, we got a little bit of a teaser, had some very unseasonably warm weather and you know, a year on a winter like this where we didn't have a huge cake of ice.
Our ice fishing season is a lot shorter than normal and we lost our ice. It looks like this week. It wouldn't surprise me if we get back out on it by the time things are done because we're looking at probably a couple days of single digits in the next week here coming up.
Brian Bashore (00:50.549)
Yeah, we were I think down to 11 or 12 last night, but the next three days are 60, 50, and 40. Our river fission is going to be fine. It's going to remain open. We're not going to get near that cold 40s. And, you know, with these longer daylight hours, we're good to go. But it's just not, it's not as comfy period as the 65 and sunny that we've had most of March. My grass is trying to green up even. We don't have any frost. So that's going to be a little shock, I think, to the system. But.
Nick Schertz (01:03.256)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:19.085)
Ice fishing. So before we get into your world travels, let our listeners just know a little bit. If you guys don't know Nick, Nick's a hell of an angler, an educator in the angler world. He's been doing this stuff for a long time and has fished damn near every kind of tournament or circuit there is out there from local, national, and worldwide. So what's kind of, what's your journey or how did you get to where you are today, Nick? What are you doing when you're not fishing?
Nick Schertz (01:40.834)
All right, so recently I just got back from the 20th World Ice Fishing Championship that was held in Mongolia. My journey with that started probably in 2014, actually the year before 2013. The US team had hosted and they hosted in Wausau, which is within an hour from where I live.
I saw a flyer for it when I was actually out to eat with my wife and she saw it and she's like, you know, United States ice fishing team, she's like, why aren't you doing that? And I thought, let me look into that, you know. So I went down to that championship to see what it was like and, you know, any preconceived notion I had was wrong, you know. So I'm like, well, they're going to have a tryout for the 2014.
Brian Bashore (02:28.385)
That's a good question.
Nick Schertz (02:36.05)
World Ice Fishing Championship and that one was going to be held in Belarus. So I'm like, all right, I'm going to go to these tryouts and see what it's all about. So I went to those tryouts and I found out pretty quick at the registration meeting that we were using palm rods and targeting.
They kind of were looking at, okay, when we've, they've seen some stuff overseas where they're targeting smaller fish, we need to be able to catch every bite because those tournaments, the World Ice Fishing Championship tournaments, they run on a total weight basis. So each day they have sectors set up and, you know, you might be catching some bigger fish, but you might have to catch small fish to win your sector. So when they practiced in the U.S., they were trying to make it.
where people are out of their comfort zone catching big fish and being able to catch the small ones as well. So that was kind of a little bit of an eye-opener for me, but I was pretty driven and learned and asked a lot of questions and embraced some of the tackle that they handed me to try and ended up probably placing fifth in that tryout and I made the team. It's pretty much since then I've traveled to like Belarus.
Finland, Ukraine, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Estonia, and then this one was in Mongolia. So I've been to about eight world championships and pretty much I've been able to scrape out qualifying to be in that top five anglers to fish at every one I've been to. And the team takes 10 guys every year.
There's five anglers and then five spotters because every angler is in a different sector and then they'll have a person roaming in the neutral zone outside, kind of be in their eyes for them while they're fishing and telling them what's going on and how they're faring in that base competition. So yeah, started out doing that and then kind of fell in love with it. It was, I mean, anybody that knows me, I'm kind of driven by the new, you know, everyone always asks me, where's your play with...
Brian Bashore (04:35.23)
Hmm.
as interesting as hell.
Nick Schertz (04:44.162)
favorite place to fish and I always kind of say the next place. I like adventure, I like new stuff, I like new challenges. I went over there and I watched those people raise those cups and their country's flag for the medal ceremonies and I'm like dang, I want to be up on that stage overseas. I knew it would be a tall order and for a lot of us there was probably two guys up there with me that were there in 14. We do have some turnover.
Brian Bashore (05:06.646)
Yeah.
Nick Schertz (05:12.846)
because it's expensive and we're more or less self-funded. So it was pretty cool with those guys to say, hey, we stuck with it and we got a medal overseas because that was our goal all along. So pretty awesome stuff.
Nick Schertz (05:29.837)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (05:30.197)
That is a good goal. When people say what's your favorite place and you're gonna drop the Mongolia bomb on them, they're just gonna be like, Whoa, I don't...where's that lake at? Right?
Nick Schertz (05:32.514)
So this lake in Mongolia we were at, it's Ugi, it's like U-G-I-I, it's pretty impressive. I mean the fishing was world class. I mean we obviously post a lot of pictures of the Redfin Perch which are really beautiful and they get really big in there. We had fish in practice up to 17 and a half inches, three pounds for perch and just gorgeous fish. But the tournament was mostly the European Roach. And they're you know...
Brian Bashore (05:59.283)
Peace.
Nick Schertz (06:02.722)
They kind of look something like a white fish, travel in big schools. And there was big schools of them, probably the size range would have been usually in that two or three of them to a pound. So pretty good size fish, you know, it's like catching pan fish over here. And I think this was the, you know, the biggest roach we've seen, you know, there was a few perch sprinkled in, but it was mostly a roach tournament. So as far as that goes, fishing roach, a lot of it is not so much about the catching, the actual
speed of catching, but it's the feeding techniques. And that's something that we've practiced a lot and learned a lot over the last decade is how to, you have to keep these fish at your holes by feeding them. And that's kind of what this tournament's all about.
Brian Bashore (06:53.521)
A little bit more madness to the methods over there than there is in the typical US fishing, it appears.
Nick Schertz (06:54.238)
Yeah, of course, although world competition is no electronics, so it's nothing like what we do over here. We're hand auguring and basically drilling our holes and then setting them up to bring the fish in. So when you start competition, every angler gets drawn in the morning at the captain's meeting for their sector. So I'll either draw A, B, C, D or E. And one of my teammates is eating his own. And then so you basically have five tournaments going on every day.
Brian Bashore (07:03.969)
That's right.
Nick Schertz (07:23.942)
And then the judges for each zone will go down the line and check everybody's bait. You're allowed two liters of ground bait and one liter of wet bait. Your wet, our wet bait would be our blood worms is what we use for. Actually, like it's like chumming and then, and then hook bait as well. And then our ground bait is just, you know, basically flavored organic food, you know, basically that we make different concoctions and test different scents and such like that.
Brian Bashore (07:41.649)
Otherwise, you're chillin'.
Nick Schertz (07:51.958)
where we can kind of, you know, we mix it up and get it to the right consistency. We do this every morning. We basically use a mud mixer and mix a bowl and everybody fills their two liter containers of ground bait. And we make different scents, different formulas and different colors. Sometimes we're using like more of a blonde type material. Sometimes you're using a black darker material and there's different brands over there that we use. And so that's.
Nick Schertz (08:22.658)
Well, we buy it, we buy it in the bags, but I think the biggest thing we've learned, we've had help from Latvia, Lithuania, and friends we've made over there, basically teaching us how to prepare it, right? And essentially the stuff that comes from the store, it's just like most, anything to do with fishing here, we always are tinkering with our stuff after we buy it. The bait's no different, there's bigger chunks in there, we like run it through a sieve, essentially, sift it all into a bucket.
Brian Bashore (08:22.717)
I imagine you can just buy this already made or you guys are all... everybody's making their own.
Nick Schertz (08:51.406)
and then we take the bigger chunks and we grind them up in a grinder, put those back in, sift them through again so we don't have anything too big. The idea is that you don't want the fish to get the big pieces because then they'll fill up too fast, so you can overfeed and then shut the bite down. And then we add a few different aromatics and some different ingredients just to help it disperse better in the water. And then of course through practice we find out...
what's the most effective way to pull the fish in fast and then keep them there. So we're using top feeding where we're making balls and dropping them down the hole, like you wet them and then try to drop it straight to fall straight down the hole. You obviously have to make a nice round ball so it falls straight and is still in your target zone below right at the bottom by your hole. And then sometimes we use a feeder, which is essentially we have reels with, we usually put braid on them and we have like a
small plum that's like a cone usually they're made of brass most of them are homemade With a little lead trap door you fill it with your bait close the trap door and then you drop it down You know and it could be Right at bottom a meter off or a couple meters off Snap the line and it opens up and then drops your bait right down below your hole And then wind that in this case we were bottom feeding because a lot of the fish were traveling on bottom
and then also top feeding just because it's faster. And we had checked the lake current to know that our bait was gonna go straight down. All those things are huge, you know, like checking the current and then watching the fish and practice and seeing how they're traveling. So we had basically three days when we got there to just fish on the lake on our own. The bay where the zones for competition were was roped off, no access. So we kind of try to find areas that we think are the same depth as what the zones are gonna be. We...
you know, got familiar with the species of fish. And then when the official practice period starts, we have three days that are official competition days, or official practice days, where we can go around the zones, but only on the outside, they have like a neutral zone, five meters roped off outside of them. We can fish outside the neutral zone around the area of the zones and not in between the short section. So if you picture them, they're like a football field.
Nick Schertz (11:17.09)
These zones I believe were 130 meters by 60 meters, so they're pretty big. And they were set up end to end. And so each day we could fish like off the end, the short end to E and the short end to A and then the long length sides of both of them. And you know, we have a crew of our spotters going around with electronics they can use to make the map, check the depths. And we also made up a giant live scope pole so we could kind of peek and see what the fish were doing in there.
Brian Bashore (11:22.241)
right?
Nick Schertz (11:46.398)
Although the roach weren't really spot specific, they were kind of roaming around. But I mean, it helps gives us a visual of how those fish are traveling. So then, yeah, those practice days, the official practice days, they actually sound a horn when you can start drilling. So everybody, all the teams are out there on the lake, say they start at 10 o'clock and we can drill, they sound an air horn, we can start drilling. And then our practice goes till two o'clock and then we're done. They blow a horn at the end. And...
The way we typically set it up is we take our five fishermen and we assign them to a zone to fish the line outside lines of that zone and just kind of get some notes and see what they think of the depth profile and as far as we can tell from outside the neutral zone. And then after that concludes, we kind of sit down as a team and have a meeting about where we think.
Starting spots should be for whoever draws zone A, B, C, D, E. That's kind of a quick rundown of how we prepare and get ready for that.
Nick Schertz (12:55.768)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (12:57.153)
Well, that's taking the paying attention to detail to a whole nother level. So actually when you're, you're blind, you know, I mean, obviously you could use electronics early at practice, but you're not using them in your, on your fish in a sense, but that's because I don't want you to preach them. And I suppose the whole that you're going to fish in the tournament and attract everything into your area.
Nick Schertz (12:58.326)
Right.
Nick Schertz (13:03.179)
Right.
Nick Schertz (13:09.662)
Yeah, it seems like if the zones are set up, there may be like a deep side or a deep corner. You know, traditionally we've learned that, you know, we've learned by getting beat by it that during these competitions, you figure, okay, now if I have this stretch of zones that people can fish around the perimeter for three days, they're going to set up holes. Everybody that's practicing is setting up holes and baiting around the perimeter.
So all that food has been dropped around the perimeter. So where do you start? You usually start on the line, one of the lines on the zone, because the fish are gonna be somewhere around all the bait that's been dumped on there for the last three days. So typically you're starting on a line, and then you also, you think about each angler in a zone has two markers of their flag, right? So I'll carry two USA markers that they give me for my zone that have my zone and American flag on it. And...
Brian Bashore (13:46.608)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Schertz (14:07.646)
Each one of those, I have like five meter buffer. So the judges that are in my zone will have a five meter tape, a length of rope. And if I'm catching, people will come and try to measure off of me five meters. So I have basically two spots that I can block. Usually we drill a lot of extra holes, but in this one, we were drilling ice, hand augering ice that was like 54 inches. So I mean, I'm starting where I could barely reach the top handle on my auger. So spin and hold.
Brian Bashore (14:36.718)
Oh Jesus.
Nick Schertz (14:37.794)
Took probably about 40 seconds to hold, but I mean, it's some work. This is about, yeah, 130 millimeters. That's about a five inch hole. So I was using about a five inch hole. Just because there was some, usually we use a four inch hole, but there was some big fish in this lake and it would have sucked to get a kicker on and not be able to land it. So yeah, so we're thinking about where we think the fish are gonna be sitting. And that's where, you know,
Brian Bashore (14:47.841)
bigger the holes are, you're only doing like four or six inch holes, right?
Brian Bashore (15:02.417)
All right.
Nick Schertz (15:06.866)
Some of the countries use live scope, you know, obviously can't use it in the competition, but it was interesting to see where they were sitting in the morning looking from the outside into the zones each day. And then sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn't. Mostly it had to do with like the depth. They were gravitating towards the deeper water. So like say my day two zone, everyone was fighting for one corner because it was like the 34 foot deepest corner.
I studied that map, you know, on the bus ride. We had about an hour bus ride every day to the lake and just sat and studied it and how I knew everyone was gonna go stand in the corner. And then on the first horn, they're gonna jump in the corner to plant their flag and it's gonna be shouting match and you know, they video it and go through instant replay to see who got the flag. Well, so after they check our bait, they'll do bait inspection and check our bait and tackle.
Brian Bashore (15:58.077)
Is it just like a race? Shotgun start, you're all lined up and go or what?
Nick Schertz (16:03.966)
and then they release us to go into the neutral zone or on the zone. So then that's where everyone runs to that corner. But I mean, you don't really have to run because if I go to that corner, I'm waiting essentially.
Brian Bashore (16:35.721)
audio first. There you go.
Brian Bashore (16:40.246)
Hmm
Brian Bashore (16:51.073)
That's crazy.
Brian Bashore (17:13.469)
replacing fishing.
Brian Bashore (18:40.755)
Oh.
Brian Bashore (19:39.218)
So the spotter is just keeping eyes on everything that else is going on and he can be like, Nick, they're moving over here.
Brian Bashore (20:33.583)
You're all in here.
Brian Bashore (21:22.881)
That's hilarious. That's a game. Oh yeah.
Brian Bashore (22:35.837)
It's a fishing's fishing no matter where you're at in the world, right? It's I've been to Krakistan and some of these places in the military and it's no matter what country and everybody's still there's somebody fishing or somebody that wants to, or you can find a hook and a line somewhere. And.
Brian Bashore (23:15.119)
Hmm.
Brian Bashore (23:23.893)
That's interesting. That's pretty well mind blowing stuff and obviously a lot of gamesmanship. Like you said, you've been doing it for a long time and that's exactly what it takes is years of experience targeting species that you don't get over here. So you're trying to learn that. The internet's great and there's so much stuff out there, but there isn't a ton of stuff on these, I imagine. Other countries are putting out things too maybe and I just don't see it.
Brian Bashore (24:21.742)
I was reading this morning, Seegar just released a new line, one of their Japanese lines, which a lot of our products people probably don't realize are made in Asia and China and Japan and whatever. They've been using some of it and they use stuff over there that we haven't seen or used ever. Then eventually they'll get released over here and vice versa. With the new lines, we have so much access and opportunity. People still complain and bitch about it.
compared to some of these other countries, they don't have the access and the opportunities, you know, this many bodies of waters. And if they do, those are super high, highly pressured fisheries. So they're taking some of that cigar line and now they've said, hey, this stuff, you know, these guys are fishing on super, super high pressured stuff. Here's what we use. So now you bring that over here and you're like, oh, this is awesome. You know, the visible line or a super thin or just different type of things. And, you know, and that's.
You see the Bass Trig at some of these anglers from Japan come over and do well because they're used to having the fish super finesse and super, you know, just different styles and tactics due to the high pressure type of fisheries they have. Then they come here and they're like, oh, this is easy, you know, somewhat. Well, it is. It's pretty cool.
Brian Bashore (26:02.317)
That is super, super cool. And that's just the world ice fishing. You've been doing the USA Predator team for a few years. Like you're the captain of that team even, which makes all the sense in the world since you are the seasoned American angler here. What, how was that? So that now we're not on ice, we're in open water. How does that kind of?
Brian Bashore (27:01.557)
Hehehe
Brian Bashore (27:16.053)
Pretty relatable.
Brian Bashore (28:35.669)
That would use.
Brian Bashore (29:06.72)
You're out. Self-funded.
Brian Bashore (29:53.338)
That's awesome. I'm glad we're sending the best of the best out there to represent. And I think it's going to pay off and those silvers are going to turn into gold. And you're going to get to raise that flag and sit on that podium. And as a former military guy, I get it. I get the pride and the, it's not about the money. It's about representing, you know, and kind of sticking it to some of these other countries sometimes. So.
Brian Bashore (30:19.293)
Yeah, it does.
Brian Bashore (31:47.197)
Yeah, we need to open up, you know, get the exposure out there bigger on this. So you get a better pool of anglers on it. That's better. You have great anglers in already, but a wider pool cast a bigger net pun intended to, you know, to get the people in there. And then obviously you want industry people to see this. So we don't have to be so self-funded and you can help out along the way. Cause that's going to increase your pre-fishing right. And all your practice, you know, considerably, if a guy does that.
Brian Bashore (32:27.049)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (33:29.562)
Right. And even if they're, I mean, as the younger people think, it's the same as a wall line and your red fin. I mean, but they're not. Different water temps, different type of structure occur. I mean, gravitational pull, everything's different. It's just not the same.
Hmm.
Brian Bashore (33:49.021)
Yep, that mean.
Brian Bashore (33:59.857)
But you're investing in yourself and if it's a bucket list thing for people, it's tryouts over there, you're still checking that bucket list box. And if you get it dialed and you figured it out and you're good to go, you make the team, if not, this is my annual vacation that I planned for. And either way, I'm sure it's a good time and you learned a ton and maybe they hang around and support the team that's there. So.
Brian Bashore (34:47.037)
It's a great experience, a lot of work, a lot of logistical things to deal with and have, I mean, way outside of fishing, you got a crap ton of planning and prep that goes in.
Brian Bashore (34:59.776)
Hmm
Yeah, no doubt.
Brian Bashore (35:41.067)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (35:53.629)
That is, uh, yeah, that's, that's big. That's awesome. I have to do that. So circle back to, we're back to the United States. Now what, what's Nick kind of fished this year? What circuits and where are we going? I think you said you're off to spring Valley, aren't you?
Brian Bashore (36:21.505)
22.
Brian Bashore (36:57.046)
Me too.
Brian Bashore (37:02.846)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (37:13.041)
Not at all. Soccer hit hard. Soccer's a strong fish.
I think they're super cool.
Brian Bashore (37:38.557)
Yeah, that's always the iffy thing about that term. It's first one ice out weather. I mean, you fished, you know, last year with the NWT start off the year there. And it was, the MWC hit it on the horrible days of the weather. I mean, I saw so many guys on day two that were coming in early, like real early. And they just said, well, yeah, they're like, I'm out. The lines covered in crap. And I think 20 boats didn't even go out the second day because they were kind of, kind of out of it and your motors are, I mean, you're just, you're breaking stuff. I get it. Um, weather was good for us though. I think.
We had to miss cold, but it's March. What the hell do you expect, right?
Brian Bashore (38:53.062)
It does get tough.
Brian Bashore (38:59.801)
Yeah, it sucks when you get to a place you can call and you don't get a call because you can't catch enough. So I did call, fortunately, but I think I got nine.
Yeah, same deal. Love rivers, put me on a river anytime. I got a much better confidence and growing up on rivers is, you know, I like it. There's a lot of spot on spots in rivers. There's a lot of different things. You gotta be very versatile. You gotta be quick to make those decisions, which all term it is, because fish move a hell of a lot more on a river.
Brian Bashore (39:52.029)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (40:04.245)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (40:20.456)
Mm-hmm.
Brian Bashore (40:29.313)
access.
Brian Bashore (40:34.788)
because there's a lot of big fish in there.
Brian Bashore (40:53.322)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (41:09.467)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (41:13.277)
It's a mental game. This whole season is going to be, did you keep the right fish? Did you catch them? Did you keep the right fish? Period. And it's gambling, which it is anyway, in a sense, but it's making those right calls and it makes it a lot more, a lot more stressful.
Brian Bashore (41:48.937)
You got to get one. You got to get one and then you're done. Right. And that's, that's a big deal if you could keep two, but it's, that's the same rules we have here in South Dakota is for, for walleye.
Brian Bashore (42:05.967)
Yeah, that's a kick in the stuff. Yep. And it's going to happen. You're going to hear all the stories on stages. I kept this and then I kind of 30 incher and had a throwback. And I mean, the locals obviously have a little upper hand on any river because they know where, you know, it kind of is what, but I heard from a lot of them that aren't going to fish it because they said there's no advantage. Um, on Britt King's podcast, he touched on that. They don't feel like they have an advantage because it said everybody can catch the one, you know, but it's catching those.
catching two is a little tricky. And that kind of took away their upper hand, so they aren't jumping in on it. But we'll see, that may change. As time gets closer and they're on something, they might be like, all right, I'm getting in because I know I can go get a eight, nine pounder consistently, which I haven't fished that part of the river, but I know they're there. They definitely hold them. So yeah, it's gonna be a huge, the whole season is gonna be like that. Did you keep the right fish?
Brian Bashore (43:01.119)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (43:14.477)
Yep. This is what you get. Be careful what you ask for sometimes, right?
Brian Bashore (44:03.998)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (44:17.021)
No, it's the one.
Brian Bashore (44:25.502)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (44:48.297)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (44:56.885)
Yeah, the supply is back. They got the product now, but it's not selling like it was then.
Brian Bashore (45:25.989)
It is, and I think it's people outside looking in think it's amazing and marvelous and there's all this stuff and Red Crest has finished. We got the classic coming up this week. You know, for whatever reason, we have a gazillion co-englers signing up for the NWT because Cardenas does a great job of promoting the hell out of it on social, you know, but the pro numbers for what I'm saying right now, there's not a whole lot of us signed up yet, which is typical because we all like to hold our money until last minute and then sign up.
makes perfect sense until there's a system in place to where they there's some incentive to pay earlier. I think numbers will be what they'll be. I don't know if they'll be as good as last year or not. Just due to that. I don't think people realize that the economy isn't quite as good as many are saying it is. But there's other aspects and industries where it's thriving pretty good. That really affects our, the professional walleye tour guy a lot. Fuel prices is huge. That's one of our biggest expenses. I mean, these boats aren't...
They don't get 20 miles a gallon. It's, they're just driving out of Lake, throwing dollar bills out pretty much as you're going. So, you know, and lodging and as I talked to plenty of other guys on here, a lot of us work in teams and it's really just more of the travel, the camaraderie, being able to share and split, you know, who's cooking dinner and being able to get a house or something for cheaper than hotel rooms when you got 200 bucks for a whole week of lodging when you split it up, you know, four or six, eight ways. Yeah, it's a challenge out there.
What can we do to, I think we just keep providing our input the best that we can, right? Where anglers are definitely doing that and being heard, but, you know, there has to be action on it on the other side of it too. But that will come, but I'll still be able, if you don't like it, don't fish it. This is all completely on your choice. There's AIM circuit out there. There's MWCs, there's Casino Cup. If you live in North or Northern South Dakota, there's no reason to leave that area. Those are paying a ton of money.
cheap entries and you're fishing, you know, good fisheries all relatively close. And you can have three people in your boat if you want. Um, there's this, you know, Ames got the river circuit going out. There's opportunities and options out there. Uh, exposure wise, it's you got to self create your media in a sense nowadays, um, you know, more or less anyway, you're going to get it in David T's televised, I have that in Cardenas does a good job on social stuff. So it's out there, but to advance your own.
Brian Bashore (47:51.989)
personal career and stuff. You do it because you love it, but you never go into the tournament angling world thinking you're gonna make a living because you're not, right?
Brian Bashore (48:31.913)
You know?
Brian Bashore (48:49.319)
I like-
Yeah, I like to go places we haven't been. Let's go somewhere new. Let's go to Lake McConaughey. Let's go to, uh, Arkansas. I can't think of the damn lake right now. Um, Bolsheviks. There you go. Which I mean.
Brian Bashore (49:09.809)
No, Otter Tail for the championship was it. And which is with the new championship system with 40 boats, we can go to these smaller lakes. I think that's kind of the purpose to it.
Brian Bashore (49:42.959)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (50:00.984)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (50:37.853)
don't fish or, or just keep, or just keep donating your money. I mean, it, it's, uh, yeah. And I, and this, our schedule for the end of T sets up a little different this year's traditional troll bites, obviously Erie and, and who knows about here on and then, and the river is a little different. I know I didn't touch mine and spring Valley with it. Um, you know, and I'm sure you guys did it and you can definitely, yeah, you're, you're seeing everything and you're just going to throw it.
cheap at all day or something. I can't tell the different species on my mega live. I just updated it so maybe I can a little bit but those fish move so much you don't get a good picture of it in the small cone you got because you got it for such a brief amount of time. I don't think they work near as effective in the rivers but I haven't used it a lot and maybe if I had a pole versus on the trolling motor you know so the trolling motor's not moving around so much would help a little bit but I know if you're pulling a three ways and you can watch it you know the fish come up behind it and it's cool.
You know, and that's neat, but I kind of like that element of surprise too. Like I know there's fish there. It might, you know.
Yeah, we're not young bucks, but I'm very tech savvy and in the advancement of all those things. So I totally get it. It's like I said, it's a tool. You better have it. You better figure it out. And whether it comes into play or not on a tournament, you don't know until you get there. So we're all, you know, eerie as a kickoff this year and it's gonna be really interesting. Does somebody, you know, does Nick or I figure out a forward-facing zone or a bite? Or is it back to traditional, put four off-board boards out and crank baits and.
and try to catch doubles and triples.
Brian Bashore (52:47.658)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (52:51.569)
Yeah, we do. And that's cool thing about tournament angling and all these awesome, everybody's a good stick on there. Right. So they're going to figure it out. You know, you hope it's you or you or yourself or whatever the case may be, but somebody obviously always figures something out, you know, and maybe it is a crankbait bite and they're just at a different spot or a different speed or whatever it was, but ultimately a tournament fishing is this, I got a plan and be prepared to throw that out the boat soon as I take off, because as soon as I get to where I'm going, that plan no longer seems to work most time. Right.
No, you got to listen to the fish, pay attention to details like you do in the ice fishing championships, you know, let the fish tell you what they want. And then you got to just be quick to not get stuck in your ways and make adjustments. That's usually how it works. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (53:40.385)
Yep. Spring Valley is coming up, so that'll be a good icebreaker for you, a fun one. That was my first time there last year. Granted, the weather was topsy-turvy, but it was a river. So every day, what's nice is the wind's never really a big concern, unless it's coming up upstream. But there's so many places, and these rivers are just, I thought it was kind of fun. It was dirty water, and we're smashing the fish, kind of like thought maybe would be, but part of that was because the weather was...
was miserable until term of day, but I didn't think it was gonna go as good as it did. And I think a lot of us that were even in the top 10 were kind of surprised, like, oh, that's good enough. But it wasn't a great buy. So.
Brian Bashore (54:45.265)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (55:00.657)
Well, females, that's what you needed.
Brian Bashore (55:28.693)
So you were...
Brian Bashore (55:32.465)
literally out of a check one or two spots probably. Yeah that sucks. I've been that guy. You know, yeah that always sucks. Yeah I had to went to a spot that caught a couple of practice went I don't know, probably go there. I think a Hummel fish there. It ended up being a lot of people fishing that flat by the grain rock elevator thing whatever the hell that is down there. Bone lead though. Most people weren't.
But it was females. I was catching, you know, pre-spawn females. But then day two, still caught them. But they weren't pre-spawn females no more. All of a sudden the males, so either they left and the males were first in and first last out. I was like, ah, well that sucks. And from like fifth to ninth or something like that, I put it just got one or two more of those females. But it was a little tougher for that Corpus fish in there, Max was fishing there. There was a lot of fish that were caught there. I think two or three of the top 10 teams were out of there. But.
Like so it's a spot South had some spots North obviously where JJ got his big one. I caught some up there and saw it too, but it just, I thought everybody's going to come up here and do this. He's fishing to get the crap beat out of them. And I did catch a wall. I had practice up there. So that's a big, that's a big advantage here, but no, not too many of them were caught. So
Brian Bashore (57:00.977)
Yep, yep. And we kind of, I got an 18 and it was up there and actually it was, I got up there pulling lead on that inside channel or it was less current. Um, got one or one or two of them there. They were, yeah, an extra pound almost. I mean, they were fat. Oh, that was like, all right. But never made the run up there and was like, eh, I'm good. Wasn't as, wasn't as consistent. That's a, there's, you go north or south. You kind of commit. You can make it. It place wasn't super big, but.
Brian Bashore (57:48.049)
Yeah, always.
Brian Bashore (57:59.569)
Yeah, that sucks about rivers and that's it. That was the bite that was the winded bite you were on right there. Basically. It was easy. No doubt about it. And then typical river fish, you run 20 miles one way to get there to go, come on man, where did you go?
Brian Bashore (58:23.59)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (58:27.357)
Yep, yep, there was a lot of struggles to get limits, but you guys will have a blast there. Hopefully the weather's good for you this year, and it's just good to get that first tournament out of the way. We got ours coming up here at our Cedar Shore event, April, I think, 6 and 7. We got crap weather moving in for the next two weeks, but catching five fish here isn't a problem at all. It's getting those two over 20s and how big, you know, if you can crack that eight or 10 pounder, you always win. But we've changed it from a one to a two day or two one day tournament type deal. So.
more of a consistency pays type guy that 12-15 pounds a day is gonna do you well. But just like any of those Mississippi same way where you're gonna have one over 20 it's you crack them big ones that's it you know now it's yours to lose right just don't screw it up you know don't come in with one fish.
Brian Bashore (59:30.242)
I want to be out there now. There's this crush on them and they're fat. The pre-spawn over probably going to end up with some post spawn fish and I want to go now.
Brian Bashore (59:49.983)
Oh yeah.
Brian Bashore (59:57.984)
Really?
Brian Bashore (01:00:18.621)
Yeah, it turns into mud. It's game over.
Yeah, no, it's it.
Yep, it goes to mud. It's a whole new game. It's no good.
Brian Bashore (01:00:37.293)
It'll be a good show. It's at 40 plus pounds a day is probably where you're going to need to be to just to compete. Assuming maybe it's kind of gone down a little bit last few years, but right now it looks like you're going to need at least that. So yeah, I'd say maybe mid thirties. Yeah. Post bond. Awesome. That's a, an absolute plethora of stuff. And there's a reason we call Nick the America's angler because they do traveling all over the world, getting it done and representing.
chatting for him. We're going on a little over an hour here. Let's wrap this thing up. He's probably got some passports to go get stamped or something somewhere. He's got things to do. What uh, taxes? Yeah, I did mine already. You know, taxes suck. So for any old business owner especially, I didn't want to do all my own stuff. I went into QuickBooks a few years ago and thank God. It's just...
come the end of the year, I can kind of export this and this. It tells me where I'm at, quarterly stuff. And it still spends, usually do it during the classic. I'll sit at home and watch it and spend the entire, you know, two days doing it. But I did it weeks ago and I'm going to the classic. So I didn't want to, I got it done. So it's done and in the past, but it's taxes and it never goes away, unfortunately. So, and I, and Spring Valley. So I had to, I do got to send the great state of Illinois somebody for winning money in Spring Valley last year. So.
Thanks. But you know, North Dakota, I want more money and don't know them nothing because their tax bracket's so much different. So, but that's Illinois for you. Anywho, what to leave our listeners with one little tip or nugget to help them on their angling career or profession, whatever you got to offer them, Nick.
Brian Bashore (01:03:04.477)
No, and I can tell you folks from pre-fishing, I've been around Nick, I've seen Nick fish, I've watched him on his head to head. Very smart, very methodical. And I can guarantee he's watching that. Visualizing that fish bite his bait. Then it's immediately he's thinking, why? What did I do? How did I do it? You're paying attention to every detail when I think of it. And that's what makes Nick Shirt's America's Anchor and getting it done. Man, cause you are.
You are a cool cat on that and a smart man. And for those that don't pay attention to those details, they're missing a lot of fish. And I think that ice fishing stuff, it just makes it better. Everything you're doing.
Brian Bashore (01:03:53.074)
Right? Yep, nope.
Nope, I feel ya.
Brian Bashore (01:04:33.449)
That's awesome. That's the most rewarding you can get when you figure it out and do it yourself. Actually, when you can get the kids and the whole family involved, that's, uh, not enough of it going on nowadays. So, all right. Thanks. So thanks a ton for your time today, Nick. Appreciate it. Awesome. Awesome stuff folks. And if you were watching this, you're watching it over on the wall. I guys YouTube page or the wall. I guys Facebook page, and you can pick this up on any of those podcast platforms out there.
Amazon, Spotify, Google, Apple, and I'm probably missing one or two, but they're over there. So check Nick out, follow along, look up the American predator teams, the world ice fishing competitions. I'll look that stuff up and put some links to some of those down below so people can find out some more information about that. And that's a wrap, folks. So thanks for following along today and listening to Nick break down the national world of fishing for us. So.
Stay tuned and we will see you on the water