We breakdown Red Wing tournament and the upcoming NWT on Green Bay.

John Ball, Drake Herd and Brian Bashore discuss Red Wing fishing and the upcoming NWT on the Green Bay

What is Reel Talk Fishing | With No Limits?

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 (00:00.869)
Alrighty folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of real talk fishing with no limits. This is supposed to be live, but we're having some technical difficulties. So, we're alive and that's all that really matters right now, but we'll get this here. You're going to watch, you're going to see this. It's in an hour. We'll get this posted up for tonight and then we'll get some, a little edit versions for the audio version for you all to listen to on your road on your way to the next tournament, which is green Bay for us. So.

Joined once again by Mr. John Bala and Mr. Drake Hurd as we're going to go, I go through the, red wing tournament. Well, we got upcoming in for green Bay and, just a couple other things. So how is it going gentlemen, what you've been up to since the last tournament.

Drake Herd (00:47.086)
I'm gonna let John go, cause I took third place, I'm not gonna highlight this, but I'll let him go first. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John Balla (00:50.261)
well, I didn't even fish it. I just practiced a little bit with the guys. No, I just been traveling a lot for work. I was able to do some of the stats after the red wing event. I got out there for a couple of days to see what you guys were faced with and all that rising water rain, pretty dirty, but, now we're just kind of getting prepped to go out next weekend to go do a little practice in on green Bay. So just putting together some stats for that one.

Brian Bashore (00:50.981)
Hahaha

Drake Herd (01:13.389)
Yeah, I got my boys as soon as I get back I get about a day's break and then they're like dad we got to go fishing and they don't really care what it is whether it's off grandpa's dock or Walleyes they just want something to tug so that's what we've been doing quite a bit and I got to fish a little tournament with my Hudson my oldest son we ended up in fourth place so he was pretty jacked about that so it was it was a good time and yeah I'm just

Brian Bashore (01:36.933)
Hell yeah!

Drake Herd (01:40.972)
Same thing, just kind of prepping, I mean, we're whatever, three, four days out before we're leaving for Green Bay and just kind of getting stuff ready.

Brian Bashore (01:48.901)
Well, I'm in the, about the same boat. I, I think I had one day and I have been living in my camper and I think I'm home tonight for this. And I'll be leaving after this back to the camper to guide the rest of the week. but I'm pretty much been on the water every single day since Red Wing. And, I think I've been home one or two nights since then. yeah, it's a, it's a grind. And as you can see, I'm kind of exhausted. So I had to go get a monster to get.

The hydra, I had to stay awake, so I'm going to get back down there until about 11 o 'clock tonight.

Drake Herd (02:17.899)
Yeah.

John Balla (02:19.925)
Yeah, I've been on the road for work. Shoot, six weeks in a row now, I think eight out of the last 10, flying out to Boise tomorrow. And then next week I'll be in Wisconsin and Michigan the following week. Then it'll slow down for me. So yeah, I have the time. I don't even know where I'm at. I wake up in a hotel room. Like what town am I even in? I have no idea. Yeah, it's nuts.

Brian Bashore (02:40.709)
Never get that hotel room when you wake up, you literally like don't know where you are. You get out the wrong side of the bed that you're used to and you're like, that's a wall or whatever it is. I do that all.

John Balla (02:48.373)
well, yeah. So I literally put my feet down and, you know, maybe you have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. And I put my feet down and I literally let my eyes adjust and go, all right, my bathroom is normally that way. Now I got to figure out where it is. So yeah, it happens every single time, every time.

Drake Herd (02:48.587)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (03:02.47)
Thank you.

Brian Bashore (03:05.893)
Yep. Yep. Nope. I've been, I don't know if it's just getting old or what, but I've noticed that happening to me a little bit lately too. Not so much in the camper. Cause if you turn left or right, I mean, you're hitting a wall. It's not huge, but, you know, but, but we kick off our starting to lose and Clark Lake walleye league and we have our inaugural event tomorrow night. So I've been putting that NTC is coming to Francis case next year, which gave us a little incentive to get this thing fired up. Got a walleye Federation stuff all turned in. We're official league.

John Balla (03:15.881)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (03:16.554)
Thank you.

Brian Bashore (03:34.405)
I think we had 16 teams as of now, and then we have four side pots if we get enough, four more teams entered in those to possibly get up to 10 NTC slots. So, that should be fun. So.

Drake Herd (03:38.373)
Okay.

Drake Herd (03:46.345)
Well, I should come down and do that then. Might be a little bit of a hike every week, but whatever.

Brian Bashore (03:49.157)
Yeah, we're using, it might be, we're using the fish donkey app. I didn't want to beat up my fishery and kill all these fish every night. So I'm like, we got to, you know, in South Dakota kill tournaments, of course we don't have permits because we're under, under 20 boats or 19 boats at this point, but I did put in for permits for the rest of the year. But we'll see how it goes. Fishing has been phenomenal there, but last few days were not very good as I was telling John, but more boat traffic, more people fishing than I've seen in a long time. So thanks social media. Thanks for everybody following the guide boats around.

it. Still John, it's yeah, hey, yeah, yeah, I've done it too well. Now my clients are paying the price of not getting to catch anything because of it, but it's just not a place there's 50 rock piles, there's one. And so the fishery ports are no longer happening the rest of the year. So you all gonna have to figure it out on your own. Sorry.

Drake Herd (04:18.217)
cry me a river, cry me a river. I mean, that means we're doing our job though. That's we're doing our job. I get it. I get it.

John Balla (04:23.285)
Is that sarcasm?

Drake Herd (04:31.272)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (04:35.879)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (04:42.076)
You're so mean.

Brian Bashore (04:45.317)
Yeah, well, the guy today says, can you see any fish on that live scope? I said, when I said no, but I can see your bottom bouncer on top of my jig. You know, you think you're close enough. He's like, I'll slide out a little bit. I'm like, you probably before I could poke you in the eyeball with his rod tip, because come on, man, you know, and I've had clients let it just go, what, what's too close? I'm like, that's too close. This, this is entirely too close. So anywho, all right, so let's get back on the good stuff off. That's my soap box. Damn it.

Drake Herd (04:52.04)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (04:59.472)
I'm sorry.

Drake Herd (05:05.383)
Too close.

Drake Herd (05:13.734)
Yeah, good drama.

Brian Bashore (05:14.437)
It's been frustrating couple days. So if I was catching the hell out of him, I probably worry about it, but I was, and then it just, it got tough, but it'll get better throughout the, throughout the week. Now then come weekends. This is the busy, busy place. And that's good. Like you said, Drake, we are doing our job. They're getting out there. They're catching fish and, just give the guides a little space people. That's all. It's all a mass and just give them a little space. Okay. You know, don't wait for at the boat ramp for them to take off. Just go fish, give them a little space. I'm happy to give you a fo just. God damn it. Give me some space.

John Balla (05:16.629)
Yeah, that's right.

Drake Herd (05:30.087)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (05:41.575)
I'm sorry.

Brian Bashore (05:45.061)
It's just digging. Hey, all right. Red wing. So I don't, we, we wrapped that up local on it. I think there was quite a few locals in the, in the top there. pools three. It looks like it put out some big fish. I didn't spend any time there. pool four, pool four for me, more of the barely into like pep in, but the mouth of it and into it a little bit. we'll look at played, I think it sounded like for some of those big fish for guys and,

Yeah. Jigging, a lot of bottom bouncer, three -way rigging and willow cats. What'd you do?

Drake Herd (06:21.733)
I don't I'm just I was trying to take it all in I pitched a lot of jigs. I mean that's what I wanted to do and We kind of got onto that bite too. I mean it was kind of head of the lakes We went down to four I will say I took my first day of pre -fishing and I think it was my first or whatever and stayed up in three and caught some fish in three I just I wanted to have some spots to go to in three

Brian Bashore (06:48.485)
Drake Herd (06:50.724)
In case I needed to whether we got stuck by a lock or you know, whatever it might be that I could I could fix them up. Yeah, exactly. And it actually did help me well for that part, but most of ours. Yeah, we're we're down head of the lakes area. We did go all the way down to like lake city and fish a lot of those points where You know, they said there's going to be a big fish and there were a big fish down there But there's also a lot of pressure too. You know, it was one of those things that

Brian Bashore (06:54.021)
Right. Which we did.

Drake Herd (07:20.516)
You know, me, Eric, Kevin, we kind of, and Stacy, we would check random spots and we'd pull up and catch some big fish. You know, it was one of those things where you could stop at those points, but you knew like even during the tournament, there's four or five boats on those points and it was going to get tough. So we kept battling and we ended up fishing in more so the head of the lakes area and some current areas and stuff to catch our fish in the end, you know.

My recap is, you know, the first day I really didn't get a big fish bite. I can't really complain about that. You know, I had three fish probably since about 10 o 'clock in the morning and I just kept throwing them back and throwing them back and throwing them back. And then I went up into three with about two hours left, made one or two casts and we were done. So it was like, okay, I can't let a...

you know, a 20 and a half go with only like an hour left. I just, I can't do it. I knew we were going to still be in it. You know, I can't remember what place exactly I was in 44th or 47th somewhere. So I wasn't like mad about it by any means. but I needed a big bite. So second day and I'm sure you guys will touch on this. We got stuck in the lock. I mean, there was, I don't know how many boats did we say were in the lock? I mean, was there...

Brian Bashore (08:38.725)
I was freaking pegged to a 90, 100.

Drake Herd (08:41.09)
Yeah, at least 90 boats. I mean, we were stacked three or four wide and I mean, it was a good time, but it was crazy. Yeah, yeah. And just taking off was crazy. But so but I was fine with that, like in three. So then I went up with my coangler the second day and three and we honestly had three beautiful like 19, 19 and a half inches by like eight thirty nine o 'clock and the lock opened up and I'm like, we got to we're going to go down to four and get a big one. We got plenty of time.

Brian Bashore (08:47.077)
I'd never seen a lock that packed before.

Drake Herd (09:09.826)
You know, like we'll just keep plugging away. And we caught, I don't know how many, I'd say between 15 and 20 fish. And I just, he lost one at like 1230, the major was at like one. He lost a big one at 1230. I lost one at like 1250. And then I lost another big one at like 120. And we lost those three fish and then it just like died. And I was like, well, there was our chance, you know, but.

Brian Bashore (09:09.989)
Yep.

Brian Bashore (09:25.829)
Mm -hmm.

Drake Herd (09:38.497)
I just couldn't get him to the boat. I mean, I got the bites that I needed. I just couldn't get him to the boat. And so I only ended up weighing three fish. You know, it's the challenge and I'm sure John will have some great stats on it. It's a challenge that we face, you know.

Brian Bashore (09:51.813)
You sharpen your hooks, man.

Drake Herd (09:54.912)
I know, that's what, it was funny though, like, I don't, and then you start like second guessing yourself, like should you set the hook harder, should you hook second softer, and like all week I was just setting the hook like it was nothing, you know, and then you start second guessing yourself and, and you know, I don't know, it was just one of those things where it was like, this is dumb. Yeah, yeah.

Brian Bashore (09:56.357)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (10:13.573)
The, I did notice that big fish were biting lighter than the little ones big time. I haven't, everybody's always losing fish or losing them at the boat. And I can honestly say, like I'd clients lose them. We lost some 20 pluses there today, but I'm like, it's ever has really happened to me in a tournament where I've had a fish there and then it just came off. Maybe I don't, I don't think I set the hook like a mascot by all means, but I certainly don't now because I got some kind of tennis elbow thing going on and I can't.

Drake Herd (10:33.887)
A month.

Drake Herd (10:38.239)
No.

Drake Herd (10:42.431)
Yep.

Brian Bashore (10:43.013)
I've been fishing left -handed all week because I guess not. I can't. I like, I don't know how I'm going to do green Bay scoping and I can't hardly even set the hook with my right arm. I did. I got all my, I've had three rods I've been using and I've switched them over in the last few days. Just, and I go out at night and I've just been practicing with my left super uncovered boy.

Drake Herd (10:46.207)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Drake Herd (10:53.055)
Start switching reels.

Drake Herd (11:02.975)
Yeah.

John Balla (11:04.117)
Is there a brace you can wear or something Brian for it?

Brian Bashore (11:06.117)
Yeah, I got one on and I got one on, but there's no cure. It's tennis elbow. I looked it up and like my grip, I could barely lift my cup of coffee up and it just says rest it till I sit. And I've been wearing a brace since Red Wing is when it started to hurt. And I'm like, this is serious. You know, and now it's gotten worse. I didn't fish a whole lot today. It's who I was born and yeah, it's bad, but I don't know. I want to probably wear one of my weightlifting gloves. It has a wrist wrap so I can wrap it around my rod handle.

John Balla (11:13.397)
Well, thanks.

Drake Herd (11:17.951)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (11:24.191)
There you go.

Brian Bashore (11:34.181)
And I'm serious, man. That's it's it's already packed in the truck. So that if I just suck at my left hand fishing, which I mean, I can flip a cast is not a problem. It's setting the hooks. I sat on a snag day and I was like, and I was just like, ow. Yeah, it was, it's bad, but I, yeah, I saw this. go ahead.

Drake Herd (11:37.919)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (11:47.167)
Yeah But that's where like Go ahead. No, I just I that's where I like I wonder cuz like Dylan news mom if you watch he he's more of a reaction guy like he gets his baits moving faster than a lot of guys But yet when he sets the hook he just like leans into him and keeps reeling like he doesn't even set it and all of a sudden He's got like a 28 -incher and I'm like, well, what the heck, you know, and then you got Whoever else just cranking on them, you know, so it's like

Brian Bashore (12:11.653)
That's...

Brian Bashore (12:15.269)
So I tell my clients that Moses and that guy said it once he's like you got to get that written on your back your shirt and I always just tell him I said never stop reeling but I set the drags loose I mean you're just don't kind of inexperienced people sometimes and they'll just get nuts I'm just like just just real never stop real and then dragged or set to her Sometimes they're not going nowhere, but I'm like just keep reeling You know when it gets tired you'll gain a little bit But just otherwise they got this thing going on right you reel this arm and this arms doing this your rod tip it's just chaos but I

Drake Herd (12:22.751)
Yep.

Drake Herd (12:34.783)
They're fine.

Well.

Brian Bashore (12:44.837)
You just keep tension on the guys always outfish the or the ladies. A lot of times, why so outfish the husband's in a boat because that's they just pick it up and real just real and down on it and bring it in steady with good, good, good pressure.

Drake Herd (12:52.351)
Yep.

Yep.

John Balla (12:55.445)
I think it's an inexact science, you know, there's so many times where, I mean, it just happens. I don't know if it's, you know, sometimes it's the hooks, but a lot of times it's just where the fish bites the bait, where it gets the hook. And it's, I mean, it just happens. You know, we can't see what's going on. So yeah.

Drake Herd (13:02.687)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (13:11.871)
Yep. Onward.

Brian Bashore (13:12.581)
Yeah, I did.

No, I did have one spit that I did have that happened to me the other night. So I did have it. It was a good one. And I got right to the boat and boom, my jig flew out and flew right by my head. 10 minutes later, I have a guy with a one on a slip bobber. And so I sat, I reeled mine right to the edge of the boat, sat it down. That jigs just laying in like six feet. Helper netted, I go pick my rod up. I pick it up and like, 21 incher. I'm like, huh, probably the same one that just threw my jig at me is my guess, but.

Drake Herd (13:25.055)
Nope.

Drake Herd (13:40.511)
Yeah, that's right.

John Balla (13:43.061)
Well, I don't know if you ever saw that target while I video that wasn't there like a jing wrap that a fish like threw out of his mouth and the guy netted it after it was in his boat. Like he literally the fish literally like just went and spit out a jing wrap like. So. Yeah, but I got a couple of questions for you guys. Going into it, Drake, you'd fish there before.

Brian Bashore (13:53.349)
through it.

Drake Herd (13:56.095)
Yeah, that's one of those things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Brian Bashore (13:57.061)
All those hooks, right? All those hooks. How are you not hooked up?

John Balla (14:08.469)
So what was your overall impression after practice, after the tournament in terms of the fishery? And then same thing to you, Brian, after you've never been there before, what was your impression of the bite and then kind of what were your expectations, I think, going into the tournament?

Drake Herd (14:22.239)
I'll be honest, it was probably my best pre -fishing to be honest with you. And I hate to say that prior to a tournament, but like, I felt good. Like I'm like, we're getting plenty of fish in that 17 to 19, 19 and a half inch range. And then I would say Kevin and Eric McCoy, they caught bigger fish, but I was still catching some. So I like, I wasn't really worried about it. And I'm like, we'll just kind of plug away. We'll take our time and we'll get them, you know.

And Kevin and Eric did, I mean they both cashed very good checks, you know, but like it was like, God, I just needed that big fish to get to the boat, you know? So I would say, and I don't know if it's because of the technology, John, or if, you know, we just fish different areas or how we fish now, I don't know. I just, I know that was the most fish by far that I've caught in Red Wing since I've been pre -fishing there. And it could have been that the bite was just,

that good too, you know, it's like the perfect time of year too, you know.

Brian Bashore (15:21.541)
But all the locals said it was, it was off that week. You know, it was really good until you all got here. And I'm like, I don't know. It seems pretty decent to me, but.

Drake Herd (15:24.479)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (15:30.079)
But I think those locals get stuck in their ways. Like it's just one of those things where we go there and we look for something different. You know, like I hate current. So like I'm trying to find fish out of the current, you know, it's a mess I can, you know, I mean, I don't mind current, but like they get stuck in their ways. Well, if those fish don't bite, then they don't know. Whereas we just keep searching and searching and searching. And that's where Eric is honestly the best out of us.

doing he just keeps searching and searching and then all of a sudden he'll stumble onto something you know it's just one of those things I don't know that's my opinion

Brian Bashore (16:06.501)
I, I loved it. I had more fun in one day at Red Wing than I had a whole week at Erie. So, I mean, it was, I didn't care what the weather was and it was pretty decent the whole time. And, I mean, it didn't catch a lot of fish. I thought it'd be a little better, but then I did get some things figured out and then I started catching a lot of fish. mainly spend most of my time in four, Randy found some fish in three. And I'm like, and I checked it out a little bit Wednesday cause I took the boat up, you know, to get the boat slip. So I spent some time in there. I'm like,

I don't like any of this up here compared to four. I'm like, you better have a spot. So, but I never even went to it. I just tooled around by the lock until it opened up and I didn't catch crap, but I was pretty confident. I thought I could easily, not easily, but probably get 12 pounds in a couple hours each day. And I never got 12 pounds. day one, I noticed when I went to the lock that the rollers were down. And I'm like, Hmm. I noticed it. And I'm like, that might be a problem.

Drake Herd (16:36.927)
Thanks.

Drake Herd (16:51.903)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

John Balla (16:52.213)
Wow.

Brian Bashore (17:02.757)
cause my big fish pot was off the channel, Jason and Corey were fishing there as well. And I'm like, all right. And then I got to my first spot where I was going to get my 19s and we did get a couple of decent fish there. So it would have been a bonus to get a, you know, you know, a four or five pounder, but I'd get like 19 and a halfs pitching jigs, jigs and crawler, jigging plastic, digging plastic was working better for me. Jerk, Z -Man jerk shed. I got there and it was muddy as hell. I'm like, Hmm, this is.

Drake Herd (17:14.239)
Thank you.

Drake Herd (17:19.423)
Okay.

Drake Herd (17:31.391)
Yeah, but that could be a good that could be a good thing too like you never I mean a lot of these guys don't miss anything But you show up at a spot and there's not many got like that's awesome. Like I get excited

Brian Bashore (17:31.621)
a little bit of a problem. I don't think we... and I thought, for sure there's gonna be other people there. Nobody. And now we know why. That we didn't catch crap.

Brian Bashore (17:47.589)
Yeah. I was like, Randy and I, or Randy popped a 25 and he, you know, reeled his, he missed one and it followed up to the boat. Well, he took the phone call from his wife, sat his rod down, picked it up, had a 25 -incher on it, you know, at practice. And I went there and made three casts 19 and a half, 19 and a half, 18. I'm like, all right, I'm good. You know, and hit it one other time at practice and I think we popped maybe one more. Well, Randy went through it one other day and got like a 21.

Drake Herd (18:08.063)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (18:16.101)
You know, just Lindy rig and a leech or something like that and got what I'm like, yeah, that's, that's a good spot for 19 and maybe you'll get a big one. And my other spot was bouncers and man, they did not want anything funky, plain hook and a bead. Big fish. You put color on that thing, a smiley blade, a whatever drum and little is just junk. You just got junk and small wallet. You just want to straight up leech and a bead. Big fish. I was getting 24 to 26 inches every day, one or two passes, no biggie.

Drake Herd (18:38.111)
No.

Brian Bashore (18:45.541)
And did that at a couple, three spots like that. And then I had a couple lead core spots, had a couple of shallow spots. First spot I went in for, I went and scoped to 20 and a half. First pitch I caught was 20 and a half. I'm like, yeah, all right, this is going to be good. Then I didn't catch another 20 for like two days. Then I got in and where I caught them every day in that 24 to 26, we had a 27, I think Ted caught a practice, but never nothing again from that spot, but no current. That was muddy. So I switched things up, ended up, you know, throwing back some smaller ones. And then I think.

Drake Herd (19:06.303)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (19:15.493)
It was like 10 o 'clock, 11 o 'clock. I'm like, we're going to start boating some of these little 15 inches all of a sudden. So I pulled, pulled cranks and you're just catching left and right and threw a couple. Well, I don't know. Maybe I think it threw one like 16 inch or in still Sager. Like we got, we need a fish. And then I went up to a different spot and really into the mouth and willow cat at a 17 incher. I'm like, yeah, we, I said, any, anything over 20 at this point is going to the box. It's noon.

Drake Herd (19:33.247)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (19:44.549)
Then I called the lock and he said, you're, you're good. You know, I'm like, all right, we got a couple more hours. I said, let's go back to where we started. Let's slow it down and go live bait and pop to 27 on a jig and crawler. I'm like, all right, well that helps considerably, but that's it. Running three fish. Couldn't find, couldn't get it, you know, didn't have enough time to run around. Just pick up another dink, which that, that hurts big time in that thing. And then day two went back to the same program. Except I went straight to my big fish spot and immediately got a 24.

Drake Herd (20:02.098)
Yeah, exactly no, it's 2324 it's the same thing

Brian Bashore (20:14.437)
And I was like, it's healthy. It's a good one. I'm like, all right. I need the point. You said 23, 23 though. Come on.

John Balla (20:19.605)
We talked about that.

Drake Herd (20:28.305)
Yes.

Brian Bashore (20:29.413)
It's good because I did, I got three or four that day, but the 24 was the biggest, but, but he was, he was, he was fat. So I weighed him. I'm not, but I contemplated for quite a while because it was like, but we had to wait that hour and a half for the lock. So now it's already, you know, nine something it's windy as hell. I can see chasing quarter troll and they're catching as well. And they had about the same size bags those day. They got them to go. Randy got some out of there. They were biting. Then we got like a 17 and then I went over to my.

Drake Herd (20:33.265)
Yeah, see, told you.

Drake Herd (20:45.841)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (20:58.757)
I got that pitch jigs and got that 27. I'm like, maybe it won't be bad over there wrong It was blowing like hell but it was a point and we just pot locked and just Went through crawlers and and I was throwing a plastic I switched up to a beefish and moxie with that paddle tail and then I bam eighteen and a half eighteen and a half Through back of real fat eighteen and a half. I'm like we have four hours You know, we're like three and a half hours. We can we need a nineteen and a half. This is cuz we're gonna be done we got an 18 a box it then it got a fat one and

Drake Herd (21:21.2)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (21:27.877)
And then it literally took three hours to get another 18 and a half after I threw them back. And I was like, I was like, yep, we'll keep that one. It's time to go. We're out of here. You know, that's maybe 10 pounds. I think that's what it was. It's a little over, over 10 pounds, but, but kind of another 21 or 23 and like this spot isn't supposed to be full of big fish, but I thought the place was healthy. There was a lot of big fish. It was fun. You could do kind of whatever you wanted. It seemed like you could sit on them with cats. You could pitch jigs, which.

same, you know, we're in the same boat there. I got off those currents. I did catch a lot of big fish in, but the current down in the mouth or even on pep and wasn't obviously nothing like pull three. So it was, it didn't have three way to just put up two ounce bottom bouncer on and pulled upstream and downstream.

Drake Herd (21:57.168)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (22:05.455)
No, right.

John Balla (22:12.021)
But what about a top couple locals wanted on Wing Dam? Did you guys ever jump on any? Did you try a few?

Brian Bashore (22:21.125)
I did and I didn't catch anything.

Drake Herd (22:23.375)
Yeah, I'll be the same way. I mean, I'm not a great wing dam fisherman, but like you could pull up on a wing dam and scan if there was fish. And I just didn't really see that many fish on any of the wing dams. And I was always told, you know, I'm kind of growing up that like you have your trolling motor on between like two and four, four and a half. But if you get much higher than that, there's too much flow. Well, I really wasn't finding many that I'm like, this is, they're going to be here, you know? And so.

You know, I'm sure those guys know there are little honey holes that are tucked back in where they can get one, but it's just, I didn't get any many on wing dams. Maybe one.

Brian Bashore (22:59.236)
It was ripping through there.

John Balla (22:59.253)
So.

Generally, it just pushed the fish in towards the shore. That's really what it did. They didn't leave the wings at all. They just actually kind of moved a little bit tighter in the shore and maybe in the back couple in a series. That was kind of instead of the first two of them, but.

Drake Herd (23:04.718)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (23:09.39)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (23:14.318)
Yeah, and that's where I was scanning one and I literally I'm like, maybe and then I hit shore. My dad's like, yeah, that's definitely why I'm there, you know, because I'm like, there will be on the inside and buried the boat right into the shore. Like, whoops, it got a little tight on that one.

Brian Bashore (23:23.661)
Yeah. Yeah. I fished that inside. I fished the inside corner of a couple and I think courts is on the same couple one, one day of practice. And I threw some cranks at it, threw some little cats back there, you know, drop a couple of cats back and then just started casting and stuff. And, and you'd see a few of them on your scope or side scan, but it, yeah, I didn't, didn't give it a lot of time either. I just, if I would've caught one, I had it would have had more, I've caught them on wing dams before. And I don't, I don't mind that, that style of fishing at all, but they just.

Drake Herd (23:34.446)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (23:47.66)
No. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (23:53.189)
just wasn't happening.

John Balla (23:54.453)
Did they, and you mentioned Drake about the paying attention to the moon phases. Do you guys normally do that? And like, did you guys say going into the term, you're like, all right, I have to be on my juice during those moon phases. Like that's where I have to be. That's awesome.

Drake Herd (24:00.716)
100 % I watch it like a hawk It's crazy and we will talk about it the night before every before every thing like we need to be here or here You know and and we watch it especially I mean I'll take any advantage I can get when I need a big fish like it just it's one of those things you know And I live religiously by that

Brian Bashore (24:08.293)
Yep. Yep.

Brian Bashore (24:31.205)
I use BassForecast.

John Balla (24:35.317)
Nice.

Brian Bashore (24:36.741)
So it gives you the majors and minors and the, you know, good fair today's a 6 .5 out of a 10. You know, the majors at four, 420 to 622, you know, or three for it.

Drake Herd (24:36.971)
Yeah.

John Balla (24:48.021)
Yeah, there's another one in fishermen. I think if you go to their website and just type in Solian our tables, it'll ask for your zip code and what species you're fishing. And you can get some majors and minors in that too. That's for anybody that's listening, wants to check that out. It's you're listening to two professionals saying how they're fishing a tournament and they're going to their juice, their best stuff when they're looking at a Solian our table. So it could be super helpful.

Brian Bashore (24:52.449)
Yep.

Drake Herd (24:59.115)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (25:09.093)
I tell my clients at all time. I like if you only got two hours to fish fish whatever these two hours are I mean it's same with hunting it. It's all moon and you know barometer I watch it all and yeah, that's it. It's like Drake is like hey, I got a big fish spot I got to be there during the major period, you know going going to the juice so

Drake Herd (25:16.235)
Okay.

Drake Herd (25:26.219)
Yep.

John Balla (25:28.372)
Yeah, so do you want me to recap Red Wing real quick just some of the stats or no?

Drake Herd (25:32.938)
Yes, I'm intrigued. I am intrigued.

Brian Bashore (25:33.509)
Yeah, yep.

John Balla (25:36.693)
Yeah. I mean, you, you heard most of them, but for anybody, it might not have seen the stuff that I posted on social media. locals did really well. They took 151 ,000 out of the $272 ,000 total purse, which was about 55 % of the money. They cashed, you know, seven anglers from Wisconsin, seven from Minnesota cash 14 out of the 23 checks. 49 out of the 117 anglers caught two day limits of four fish a day. We talked about that in that last podcast.

Brian Bashore (25:47.109)
You

Drake Herd (26:00.586)
Mm -hmm.

John Balla (26:06.485)
about just like the very same thing that happened to you, Brian, you throw a few back and then you come in one short and then you're like, boy, I could have kept that 50 and a half in earlier, but.

Brian Bashore (26:14.661)
You know, the funny thing was everybody that brought in three fish, you think you'd be missing the overs. Everybody had the overs. We're all missing an under because we ran out of time or threw them back.

John Balla (26:24.821)
Yeah, that's crazy. So that it just goes to show you that, you know, when it comes down to a no -call tournament, it's it's limits aren't always going to be the case. Justin Schneider and that note, he caught two more limits. That's his 23, 23rd straight weigh in that he's caught a limit fish in an NWT event, which is just insane. That's yeah, that's just insane.

Drake Herd (26:30.025)
I know Guy's just the machine yeah You would think that wouldn't be hard, but it is so hard and crazy Yeah, I know yeah

Brian Bashore (26:38.981)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (26:46.501)
Yeah, that's impressive.

so hard. I did it one season. I had one season and there was two of us out of everybody. There was two of us did it the whole season. So that must have been when Snyder must have started to streak right after that.

John Balla (26:54.965)
Drake Herd (26:59.592)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (27:03.304)
Yes.

John Balla (27:04.245)
I think his last one was the beginning of 21 or 22. I forget which I had it in the stats, but something like that. I think the date, it was Detroit River. When was that? 2021?

Drake Herd (27:09.928)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (27:14.152)
Yeah, somewhere in there. Yeah, that one was that was almost impossible to catch him there Yeah, that was impossible

John Balla (27:17.781)
Yeah, something, yeah.

Brian Bashore (27:19.269)
Yeah, like six, 62 zeros, I think, or something like that. Yeah. I got one each day. So.

John Balla (27:23.381)
Yeah.

But yeah, I have no stats on how many people caught overs. You just kind of had to maybe guess on the weights. But it looks like there were plenty of fish and you know, probably a lot of guys did what you did. It went to a certain part of the day. You keep it 20 and a half or 20 or you just have to. And it helped you Brian, because it shot you up the angle of the ear points. I mean, it did move you up from Erie quite a bit. You know, just making that decision for that one. I mean, it could probably help you 35, 40 points, I'm guessing.

Brian Bashore (27:46.341)
Yeah, 50 some spots.

Drake Herd (27:49.991)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (27:53.028)
Yep. That's exactly what I told the, I think I told him in the boat. Everybody's had him. I remember his last name, the older guy is a retired vet. And I was like, I looked at it. I said, I need the points through the box. I went, no, we already crapped the bed on day one. We're not going to wait. Let's get some points.

John Balla (28:00.405)
Yep.

John Balla (28:09.781)
But yeah, a lot of, I mean, defa bar, he's, you know, geez, he's five or six in his lab checks. His last events, max Wilson's got six in a row, nine of his last 10 events. He's cashed a check. Eric McCoy has got six in a row, including three of his last four top tens. Papen foos. What's that? Yeah. Papen foos has got three top tens in a row. Dewey Jones 14.

Drake Herd (28:15.558)
Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (28:27.813)
He's on fire. He's on fire.

John Balla (28:38.069)
of his last twenty events. That's just absolutely crazy. And Dylan Newsbombs got five in a row, five checks in a row. So there's two guys shooting to try and tie the record of the late David Anderson who had seven tournaments in a row, cashing the checks. So Eric and Max have a chance to tie them coming up to Green Bay, which is pretty impressive.

Drake Herd (28:44.518)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (29:00.325)
I would say those two have a good chance of doing that at Green Bay.

John Balla (29:03.509)
Absolutely, absolutely. So, Copchock had the biggest bag of the event with 16 six on day two. Don Marks moved the most from day one to day two. He moved to 48 places. That was the biggest mover. that's kind of like, I mean, I guess the relevant stuff, but yeah. Average fish. I think, what was the average fish I had in that thing? I think it was finishing you in something like, if you cut a limit of the average.

Drake Herd (29:12.07)
Yeah

John Balla (29:34.645)
I'd have to look at my, it was two one, which is right along with everything. It was like two one or two two, which is basically a little bit more like one or two tents higher than historicals. So it, it going to four fish in an over, probably raised that a little bit. Five fish might've actually brought it back down because I, and this is what we're going to probably talk about at Green Bay is when you go from five to three, do the averages go up for three fish?

Brian Bashore (29:38.373)
That'd be two and a half pounds almost.

Drake Herd (29:41.477)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (29:42.853)
What's?

Drake Herd (29:55.076)
Down. Right. Yeah. Now, yeah.

John Balla (30:05.525)
or down, you know, so yeah.

Brian Bashore (30:06.789)
Yeah. Yeah. And there was like that 27 I caught on day one wasn't a tank, but it was a 27 going in the box. But I'm like, this, and it was beat up bad. Like, I mean, it was clearly a post spawner and hadn't put the feedback on, but I got other ones that were in it and Ted kind of 27, the same thing. It was kind of skinny, but some of them 24, 25, 26 is we're not, they they've been eating well and they were good to go. So like, it doesn't really matter. Sometimes it's one of those, one of the, one of those scenarios where it doesn't matter. It was all about the size and the weight, not the length. So.

Drake Herd (30:23.844)
Yep. Yep.

John Balla (30:37.109)
Drake, you had mentioned, remember where he would probably finish if you caught two limits of unders. And what, how, and what would have been a, not the highest, you can't pick the highest, but what would have been a fairly above average.

Drake Herd (30:41.316)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (30:47.779)
Well 2 2 times 4 what is that 8 8 yeah, that's what I've kind of

John Balla (30:53.045)
8 8. So 17 6 for two days. That puts you in like 59th 60th place.

Drake Herd (30:57.442)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (31:00.485)
50 -50 song.

Drake Herd (31:03.106)
Yeah, so it wasn't enough. It was, yeah.

Brian Bashore (31:05.381)
No, yeah, they weren't that big even this night. I mean some 20s were not even three pounds. So Yeah, they were a little lighter

John Balla (31:05.525)
Yeah. Yeah.

Drake Herd (31:09.666)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we weighed a ton of fish, you know, it was just one of those things. And you'd get like one would just be a football and he'd be like two, five, two, six, and you'd be like, yes. And then you'd go like on a streak of one 13, one 14 for forever. Yeah. And you're just like, I can't do that. It's not two pounds, you know? So I had to want to know, what do you do?

Brian Bashore (31:26.437)
Yep, a lot of 113 114s. Yep.

John Balla (31:29.941)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (31:35.685)
Yep, I think a lot of guys said that two pounds was kind of the cutoff for the, you know, for the, for the unders, because even if it was a 20 incher, it's too barely over two pounds. But yeah, a lot in that 113, 114, you're like, God dang it. It's an ounce, man. It's a two ounces, but.

Drake Herd (31:38.242)
Yeah. Yep.

Drake Herd (31:42.914)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (31:47.17)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Exactly.

Brian Bashore (31:52.229)
is what it is.

Drake Herd (31:53.506)
Yeah.

John Balla (31:54.517)
So it did help you guys move up Drake here in 28th for angle of the year 298 points you're. 19 points above the cut line. Brian you're at 247 so you're basically 32 points behind the cut line. And you got two tournaments now to basically make it up so. Well it. To make it to just to finish in that like.

Brian Bashore (32:04.965)
I'm... I'm...

Brian Bashore (32:15.237)
Yeah, pressure. I like pressure. That's good. It's better with pressure.

John Balla (32:22.261)
Right now 40th place is averaging a 62nd place. So you gotta finish 16 points inside of that, so you're 46th place. If you finish two 46th places, you're gonna be right on the bubble. So there you go.

Drake Herd (32:27.553)
I wasn't gonna say anything, but I'm like this Brian's isn't exactly sold on Green Bay right now, but he is to Kakauia So it's like we're gonna see how this averages out

Brian Bashore (32:35.077)
we're going to my least favorite place so

Brian Bashore (32:46.213)
Yep.

John Balla (32:48.917)
Right.

Brian Bashore (32:49.221)
Yep, well, you know, I've been working on the scope and so much that I can't hardly fish anymore So, you know, I'm ready looking forward to Green Bay problem is setting the hook on these not 15 inch fish is gonna go I might lose a couple rods in the drink. I don't know. We'll see we'll see how the left left arms working So I'm looking forward to it Yep, I'm good. I'm good. Yeah

Drake Herd (33:02.024)
Yeah.

John Balla (33:07.221)
You know people at St. Croix, so you're good.

Drake Herd (33:09.896)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, what are you coming up with on that?

Brian Bashore (33:12.901)
Who may go, I'm looking forward to it. So I think it's looking forward to catching some of those. I love green Bay walleye because they, they ripped the rod out of your hand. They're, I mean, they're, they're pissed off. I'm like eerie walleyes and you know, river walleyes are as well, but I'm looking forward to it and, and kind of glad we only need three.

John Balla (33:29.973)
Wow.

John Balla (33:34.389)
Drake? Drake, how do you feel about Drake?

Brian Bashore (33:34.437)
It's easier to get three than it is to get five, so I'm okay with it.

Drake Herd (33:37.664)
Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna come down to numbers though again. So...

Brian Bashore (33:45.925)
All right, let's dig into Green Bay. We got, we got recap Red Wing. We got the scoop. why is it the three fish limit? Dude, all the, some of the rule changes, but from what I understand it, Wisconsin Green Bay is a five fish limit per person. So I don't know if that was a miscommunication or under, cause I mean, a lot of Wisconsin three fish, I get it, but Green Bay is five fish per person. So it should be a, I would think of the theory goes out the window right there, right. With the one main limit and the, and the non -party fishing, but.

Drake Herd (34:11.328)
Nope.

Brian Bashore (34:15.461)
Whatever it says, the updated rules from this the other day of your confirmation says three fish. So it's three fish. So how does, how does that work? Brandon was on here a week ago and said to the L Y spawn is it's going. Thanks. It'll be tough, but maybe over. I had a phone call from a fellow green bear there a day and says, no, you're going to hit it at the absolute peak. that it's, it's, it's full on, but if there's, you know, the wind.

blows the right direction. It could kill a bunch that get stuck in a bay, but it looks like the weather's pretty fair out there. Brandon thought 25 to 28 pounds a day on three fish. So you're looking at eight pounders.

John Balla (34:58.805)
nine pounders.

Drake Herd (34:58.848)
That might be a stretch. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. We'll discuss this a little more. That might be a stretch, but...

Brian Bashore (35:00.261)
Nine founders. Yeah. Right. Public school. So.

Brian Bashore (35:08.645)
Well, go for it. What do you think?

John Balla (35:10.773)
So I'm going to throw this question out there though. So when, when you hear, when you hear people say the allies are in to me, I'm like, okay, what does that mean? Does that mean I'm never going to catch a fish? Does that mean I got to figure out how to catch them? What does it mean to you guys? Like what, what does, I mean, someone says the allies are in, do you just never take it off the trailer and say, screw, we're not going to catch them. I mean, no.

Drake Herd (35:12.128)
Yeah, I want him to talk first.

Brian Bashore (35:14.277)
I

Brian Bashore (35:21.509)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (35:31.237)
I say a big deal. It's like mayflies and I actually prefer a mayfly hatch where I guide a lot because I have it figured out in a sense of what you have to do to get them, you know, when the mayflies hatch. It's different everywhere you go, obviously. but LY's at reaction baits, you know, clearly the rip and wrap and stuff like that's gone, but also get away from where all the bait is. Right. And, you know, and if they're, if they're alive, that's fine. It's just the ones that die. It appeared to be the problem. Cause then you have all this low hanging fruit.

Drake Herd (35:45.312)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (36:00.197)
And they're gorgon and they're full, but you know, you'll get them on a reaction bait and that place is big and there's, you know, the mud fish are already in there. You just have so many options, so much structure, East shore, West shore, North, South mud. But like I said, Drake, we go, we go hunting before we do any fishing and somebody always figures them out. And I think, I think reaction baits, jerk baits, stuff like that. I think there'll be a good solid weed bite probably going that gets overlooked and there may not be a lot of L wives in there.

Drake Herd (36:14.656)
Yeah

Brian Bashore (36:27.909)
I don't know a ton about the L Y except, you know, when we have them back in Nebraska at McConaughey and it's when they spawn, it's not, it's not a huge issue there. Like it is Green Bay. So, but it sounds like there's a record number of them, whatever that means too. I don't know.

Drake Herd (36:43.712)
Yeah, and that's where I don't know I look at like yeah, it's gonna be a pain in the ass but at the same time like we got to go fishing and and there's got to be areas where you can get away from them or You know, they just moved and those fish are still hungry, you know, whatever it might be There's there's options there where like you said that it's a huge area, you know that we can fish so Am I worried about yeah a little bit but at the same time there's always fish biting somewhere. You just get a

figure out when and where and kind of what baits and stuff, you know.

Brian Bashore (37:15.941)
I used to hate it when it was a tough bite, but I'd say the last four or five years, I love a tough bite because it's tough for everybody. And then, and when you get on something, obviously it helps your confidence. You know, everybody's meeting, right? We're all talking and it sucks. It sucks. That's all you hear. It's all here. Then everybody comes in with monster bags. Like, that was horrible. Obviously, you know, so you take everything with a grain of salt, but there's times when I'm on them.

Drake Herd (37:20.8)
Yeah. Yeah.

Drake Herd (37:31.328)
Yeah. Yeah.

It would be funny if we had like a number or something above our head like of confidence like 50 you're really confident one you're not and actually like tell the truth because and a lot of guys like I think there's enough now that are like I Wouldn't say they trust you enough like they'll tell you if they're on them or not because they know you're not gonna move in on them or whatever but it's interesting to listen to people because a lot of times yeah, the words tough will now look

Brian Bashore (37:42.497)
Right. Yeah.

Drake Herd (38:05.664)
Pre -fishing everyone will say it's tough and they're still crushing them. Like they don't miss stuff. I've learned that like we still need to go out there and fish, you know?

Brian Bashore (38:13.317)
Yeah. And it's, you know, the same, the theory of is it's tough, but you call one here, one there. Well, you don't, you're not beating it up. And now when you go there and you're like, I'm going to camp out here and all of a sudden one turns into 20, you know, and you're like, I had no idea this spot was so good. Well, you only gave it 30 minutes, you know, each day or one day or two days. So.

Drake Herd (38:21.024)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (38:29.376)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, your sample.

John Balla (38:32.597)
So what are your mindsets going in about, you know, like weights? Are you going to probably cast versus troll? Are you going to try to find a milk run of spots? Are you going to try to find a big area that you're going to stay on or.

Drake Herd (38:44.576)
Thanks for watching!

Brian Bashore (38:47.141)
The problem with Green Bay is your spots can be 30 miles apart. And, you know, it obviously depends on if it's windy, cause it gets a little blow there. You're not, you can't go very fast. You know, I don't, I mean, 15 mile an hour wind is like, if it's coming out of the right direction, you're only going 30 mile an hour in your boat. Probably I've gone 20 and broken windshield and that stuff before. So it just depends. And then once you kind of commit to the East side, you're pretty much there. There's more than enough.

Drake Herd (38:50.016)
Yeah. Yeah.

Drake Herd (39:14.752)
Mm -hmm.

John Balla (39:15.445)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (39:17.253)
spots up and down it, but you got to come, you got to come back over. But there's also a lot of places, probably some bites that are pretty close. So I think, you know, like everyone, you're going to, you want to try to find something close if you got to fill that last spot with anything. but there can be, there can be some big fish in the mud and whatever. I think, I think you're going to need seven, eight pounders, you know, to compete.

John Balla (39:38.965)
to win?

John Balla (39:43.349)
You think you need six, seven, or eight pounders.

Brian Bashore (39:45.957)
Mm -hmm.

John Balla (39:47.829)
Drake?

Drake Herd (39:48.16)
See, all right.

It's gonna be so cluster. I would say no because don't you need like 17 or 18 normally with five fish to compete? Like 17 or 18 pounds cash is a check almost.

John Balla (40:01.205)
Well, what's...

Brian Bashore (40:01.509)
Not anymore. Not in scoping days. It will be one scoping. All top ten will be scoping. With the exception of maybe, sprinkling somebody else pulling crawler harnesses if the current things line up right. My trolling rods aren't coming out of the truck.

Drake Herd (40:03.136)
Yeah

Drake Herd (40:18.645)
I took my kicker off yesterday, so I did, I did, and I put two Minn Kota Raptors on. Like, I'm not gonna lie. Like, I'm like, I can use this. Yeah, yeah, and so I'm like, I'm not gonna troll cranks, but if I troll spinners, I'll just use my trolling motor. Like, that's just what I'll do. But I'm more worried about slowing my ass down when I'm drifting to be able to cast, you know?

John Balla (40:18.901)
Huh.

Brian Bashore (40:20.965)
You are all in!

John Balla (40:23.957)
Hahaha!

Brian Bashore (40:25.413)
Yeah, well, if you're spinners, you just need your trolling motor pole spinners anyway, but...

Brian Bashore (40:40.757)
Right. Yep.

John Balla (40:43.349)
Okay, so having said that, where are you guys? I mean, what are your plans? Are you plans that go for the win, go for a top 30, keep yourself in the points race on her top 50? Like, you know.

Brian Bashore (40:57.125)
I think we're always going for the win, but come day two, that gives you, there's a new perspective. But, you know.

John Balla (41:02.101)
Yeah, depending on how day one goes for sure.

Drake Herd (41:02.485)
Yeah. Yeah. but I don't know. I like, I personally like fishing Green Bay. I mean, I've done while they're in the past. So like, I have a little bit of confidence there, but I've never, I don't think I've ever been there in June and I could be corrected if I'm wrong, but so that'll be, that makes me a little nervous, but at the same time, like I have confidence in what we're hopefully going to figure out and, and, we'll kind of go from there.

Brian Bashore (41:22.437)
Mm -hmm.

Drake Herd (41:29.429)
That being said, I get nervous when people say we need eight, nine pound fish. Those are big fish. I mean, if you think about it, a lot of people don't catch that many in a summer, two summers, and we gotta catch six of them in two days. So, I don't know. That's where, again, I probably get a five to six.

Brian Bashore (41:38.213)
They are.

Brian Bashore (41:47.365)
Six of them in two days.

Brian Bashore (41:53.797)
famous.

Drake Herd (41:56.501)
pounder like I'm probably gonna throw it in and then hope for two bigger ones like I don't know we'll see you know I don't know I don't know

Brian Bashore (41:57.541)
Alright.

John Balla (42:04.277)
So we had that we had that tipping point fish at Red Wing. Where's the what's the tipping point fish at Green Bay? Four pounds, five and at five, four and a half, three and a half, five.

Brian Bashore (42:14.981)
Probably four.

Drake Herd (42:17.141)
No, see, I'm gonna go bigger than Red Wing. I will say that. I'll say like a 25. Yeah, I would say a 25 is gonna be the real question mark where I'll really debate that or not. And we'll have to see what time of the day it is and everything else. But I do think we're gonna need bigger weights, but I don't know. It's gonna be interesting because...

Brian Bashore (42:23.429)
25.

Drake Herd (42:44.277)
What is it with five fish? How many was you know John like do you have any stats like what it was to cash a check at all?

John Balla (42:51.477)
yeah, yeah. So that's what I was getting to. So, so here's the interesting part. You know, we talked about limits, right? What do you think the average two day limits for all the eight events? We've had eight events on the Bay and Green Bay. Now that includes Sturgeon Bay, Marinette, Bay to Nock, you know, Ocano, eight events. How many two day limits for those average after eight events are caught? How many guys kept a two day limit?

Brian Bashore (43:16.741)
50%. 50%. Mm -hmm.

Drake Herd (43:20.085)
50? No, like 15.

John Balla (43:24.565)
14 guys. 14 guys average a two -day limit on Green Bay after eight events.

Brian Bashore (43:31.205)
That don't surprise me. Green Bay is not a fish, let's say it's a fish factory, it's a big fish factory, but you just don't catch a lot of fish. You can get on it one day and the next day you can catch two.

John Balla (43:39.381)

14, the highest, the most ever was 24 two -day limits in 2022.

Drake Herd (43:47.029)
When was that?

John Balla (43:50.805)
That was July 12th and 13th and the lowest was six in 2013 in July when Corey won that first one. So the most ever was 24 and what you'll see is mostly on day one, guys will catch, you know, there might be 30 or 35 guys that might catch them, but they don't get them on day two. They don't get them on day two.

Drake Herd (43:59.925)
Yeah.

Okay.

Brian Bashore (44:11.077)
No, it's tough to do it two days and then night what's throwing that off a little bit is that blow? That memorial day that tournament that one day and he had like 50 zeros

John Balla (44:19.125)
It's, it's, it's honestly only, it's only thrown it off a little bit because they, that year they had, that year in 2021, that was the, or I'm sorry, 20. Yeah. 2021 there were, I don't have any limits around here. There weren't that many. I'm looking at the sheet right now. There weren't.

Brian Bashore (44:29.765)
COVID out of Sturgeon Bay.

Drake Herd (44:37.973)
I had four I had four for like 24 or 25 or something like that

Brian Bashore (44:39.909)
No, I had a limit and there wasn't very many. Woodkey, Shakerac, I mean my limit was eight pounds, so.

John Balla (44:47.189)
Yeah, I think there was.

There were like seven, eight, I count, I'm counting off hand, I think there are eight limits, eight limits. Yeah, eight limits. So, here, let me, let me, let's, well, do you guys wanna kind of predict some weights before I show you what the averages have been?

Brian Bashore (44:55.813)
Randy Shakerwoodkey

Drake Herd (44:55.893)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (45:05.813)
No, no, I gotta act smart a little bit. Let's just look at these averages first, cause then I'll act smart.

John Balla (45:10.837)
All right, let me get, well, and hey, to answer you, Drake, you average actually 32nd place in all the events you fished on the Bay.

Drake Herd (45:18.805)
Okay, it's not terrible, not great.

John Balla (45:20.725)
no, it's not terrible at all. So.

Brian Bashore (45:23.333)
Yeah, 25 eight and a half pounds 25 pound bag. So yeah, it may only take 22 pounds a day.

John Balla (45:28.405)
So here is, yeah, it's still, this will be interesting. I mean, this will give me, so I'm going to, what I want to do is show you like the averages from the eight events, first place, 10th place, 20th and 30th. Cause I'm guessing there's probably going to be 130 or so, you know, there was 120 or 117 at Red Wing. There's probably, there was 81 guys that have fished two events so far. There's going to drop out a few. There was 36 locals in Red Wing. I'm going to guess 50 for Green Bay.

Drake Herd (45:42.581)
Yeah, that's right, right? Yeah.

Brian Bashore (45:58.277)
I don't know. I think 113 has been the number like last seems like last few years.

John Balla (46:03.509)
So, but yeah, 40 or 50. So we'll probably be in that 115 to 125 if I had to guess, you know, three fish might scare some guys up, but also might encourage some guys say, I can go catch three giants, you know. So this'll be, this'll, let's see, I'll show my screen, select the tab, the shared, no, select the window, this one. These are, let me know when you can see it.

Brian Bashore (46:15.813)
Yeah, teaser in five.

Drake Herd (46:27.573)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (46:29.861)
Yep, it's there.

John Balla (46:31.509)
So this is just simple. Bay of Green Bay, eight events. The average weight to win it. And 10th place, 20th place, 30th place. Pretty self -explanatory. What's the average fish? So now if we turn this into a little bit more data, I'm going to try and isolate this a little bit more. So again, so these are those averages that we were just seeing. 744, blah, blah. Over six days.

Drake Herd (46:41.845)
Yep.

Brian Bashore (46:50.661)
yeah.

John Balla (46:59.957)
I'm sorry, two days, six fish. This is kind of what the averages play out. This is 27 a day. This is 15 a day. This is 12 and a half, and this is 11. But you know, we started talking about this. Five fish in my mind, it lowers the average because a lot of guys will catch.

Drake Herd (47:13.141)
Thanks.

John Balla (47:25.813)
One or two or even maybe three big ones a 30 a 29 maybe a 27 and then they'll fill it out with some 25s Even if you look at some of the green bay walleye series aim events These are two guys that get to launch the boat wherever they want. There aren't that many times There's been some occasions where guys caught like five 29s or 29 and a halfs and now you got to remember this When they mark down a 29 and a half or a 30 incher You can sometimes get that fish to touch a 29 and three quarters and then you get the 30 inch, right?

Drake Herd (47:47.957)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (47:50.597)
rounded up.

Brian Bashore (47:55.365)
Yep. Yep.

John Balla (47:56.085)
So, so, and then the equation is I figured out it's between 16 and 18 % heavier for those fish. So you've got to take off almost 18 % of those weights that you see. So in my mind, I'm thinking, all right, I'm thinking in my mind, these averages for three fish have to go up just.

Drake Herd (48:17.909)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (48:19.877)
So just for reference, an AIM 30 -inch is 11 .33 pounds.

John Balla (48:24.277)
Exactly. And that's not going to be 11 .33 pounds in the Bay right now. I don't think it's just, it's not. So now if, so here's what I did taking the highest average out of all the eight events in first for 10th, for 20th and for 30. So this is saying, all right, I'm going to take the best that's ever been on a five fish tournament and see what those averages equal there. We got, we got eight, you know, for first 20th is five and a quarter.

Drake Herd (48:51.189)
With five fish, right? With five fish, right?

John Balla (48:52.981)
And historically, five pounders do you a lot of good at Green Bay. I mean, look at this. A five and a quarter pound average gets you in 20th, and that's the best it's ever been. So you equate this, what's that? With five fish. So now you put this into three and you're talking 48 for first place. That's six, eight pounders. Six of them. That means.

Brian Bashore (49:08.165)
That's five.

John Balla (49:21.461)
You know, I don't know if you guys saw any of the history of the battle on the Bay Sheboygan Walley Club. You guys, they used to have three fish tournaments and every once in a while it would, and these are two guys that really, really know the Bay well. They're fishing together. Something there's been like a 27. There might've even been a 28 pound for three fish, but most of the time it was between 24 and 26 to win it for one day event. And that was, that was not catch record release. That was weight tournament.

Drake Herd (49:26.485)
Mm -hmm.

Brian Bashore (49:30.053)
yeah.

Drake Herd (49:33.973)
Yeah.

John Balla (49:52.693)
So I don't know, to me, I would tend to lean more in this category, this 48, 37, that's 18 and a half a day. That's some six, six pounders. That's still a darn good tournament on country bay. Six, six and a quarters, think about that.

Drake Herd (50:02.581)
Yeah. Yeah. Like.

And that's when these guys get to keep like, haven't we always been able to keep five or seven, I mean seven or whatever? Six? Yeah, so we get one.

Brian Bashore (50:18.469)
Six, six. Yep.

John Balla (50:21.909)
Yeah, so that's the other thing I want to talk about, right? So in practice, you guys are going to go out for 8 to 10 hours a day. And at the end of the day, you go, my best three were 25 pounds. I think guys have to be honest with themselves in practice and be like, all right, we're keeping track and we're saying to ourselves, we've got to be honest. This fish that I catch at this time, am I going to keep it or not? And by the end of the day, I need to be honest and say, what would my weight have been if I'm honest with myself on where and when I caught these fish?

Drake Herd (50:44.487)
Yep.

John Balla (50:52.213)
That's how guys are going to come up with an accurate, I think, an accurate interpretation of their practice and what that's going to mean for the tournament. So I'm, I'm in the ballpark of, I think it's going to be in this 48, somewhere around there, 48 to 50, maybe I might even give it a, maybe a two pound window, you know, 36 to 38 for 10th, 31 to 33 for 20th. That would be insanely good. I think.

And then 30th, you know, you start, the weights will start getting a little bit tighter 30th, 40th and 50th, cause there are a lot of, you know, three and a half to five pounders in the Bay. They're just R. So I don't know. That's kind of where I'm at. I do think, you know, if first place isn't 48 to 50, it might be a little higher, but I think second, third, where I normally take, if you take day one and double it, third or fourth place usually wins it.

Drake Herd (51:21.287)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (51:49.607)
Yeah. Yeah.

John Balla (51:50.837)
over the course of the NWT. So I would think second or third is going to be right there. First might be an anomaly where someone just really just whacks them. You know, one of these locals that might know because again, we got to talk about this, which we talked about at Red Wing. When you get 40, 35, 40 locals that have no points in the race, they have no skin in the game that try to make a championship. They can take risks. They can catch a nine and an eight and throw back a five, throw back a six, throw back a five. They're saying I'm trying to win 95 ,000. I don't care about points.

Drake Herd (51:59.493)
Yeah.

John Balla (52:20.66)
And it might happen. There are only three of them now. It might happen for him because if you look historically, some of the bigger bags and some of these tournaments, there's usually been two bigger bag, bigger fish out of the five fish limits. When Hoyer won it, he had that 30, he had a 29 and then he had like 20 and two 27s and he had 80 pounds. That was the most, that was in May, you know, fish were shallow. The AOIs weren't in yet. So, I don't know. That's what I think. I think the averages that I showed you at 7 .5.

Drake Herd (52:20.837)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (52:35.717)
Yeah.

John Balla (52:50.293)
I think you kind of kind of bump that up because you're reducing it down to three fish and there'll be some guys that know exactly how to catch those big ones.

Brian Bashore (52:58.277)
So you think 48 pounds to win it? Is that what you're saying?

John Balla (53:01.685)
I think 48 to 50 that's 24 to 25 a day. Those are three eight pounders a day. That's a six eight pounders. Now those you could have a couple of tens mixed in with some sixes, but you know, there aren't that many tournaments that guys are catching three nines two days in a row. They're just aren't when you know, you want to run up the big beta knock 70 something miles and try to go get those by yourself and fish against nobody else. Maybe.

Brian Bashore (53:04.965)
Bye.

Drake Herd (53:09.957)
Now.

Brian Bashore (53:10.277)
Smart. Yeah. Yeah.

Drake Herd (53:15.621)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (53:21.317)
No.

Brian Bashore (53:21.445)
No, not at Green Bay. I don't ever...

Brian Bashore (53:29.189)
Somebody will.

John Balla (53:31.573)
If you can get there.

Drake Herd (53:33.123)
Yeah, it's all the way. That's where, okay, my honest opinion was like seven pounds, like if I got 20 to 21 pounds a day, I'm gonna be happy as shit. That was honestly what I was thinking. Like, that's still a big bag of fish. Like, if you think about it, like that's impressive, you know? And so I'm just, I don't know. And I know Eric wants us to go for like 24 to 26.

Brian Bashore (53:33.861)
Yeah, yeah.

John Balla (53:42.421)
my god, I think you'll -

Brian Bashore (53:42.645)
yeah.

Brian Bashore (53:48.421)
Yeah, it is.

Drake Herd (54:00.195)
He thinks that's what we're going to need, which is kind of right in what you're thinking, but I'm like, realistically, like if I get, you know, between six and seven pounders, they're going in the live well and the first three that go in there, go in there. You know?

John Balla (54:12.629)
Drake, just to let you know, 21 a day, so 42 pounds in the last tournament would have put you in 13th. 21 pounds in that day one event would have put you in 13th.

Drake Herd (54:21.827)
Yeah. Yeah. So.

Brian Bashore (54:25.093)
Yeah, I've only had a 22 or 23 pound bag ever.

John Balla (54:30.261)
Well, they're there. Listen, they're not that many. Like if you look at the drop off, like, well, look at, look what I showed you. The drop off between.

Drake Herd (54:31.427)
No. Yeah. Yeah. There's a huge drop. That's why you need like 17 or 18. We always think it's bigger on Green Bay and it's not. It's like 17 or 18 and you're on the bubble.

Brian Bashore (54:36.101)
Yeah, it drops quick.

Brian Bashore (54:46.437)
It's gonna be freaking huge, it's a cock -a -weed, you see the damn aim?

John Balla (54:50.837)
The best ever guys, the best ever 30th place finish in a five fish event was 46 pounds. That's 23 a day. That was the best ever. The lowest was 33 for 30th place. That's five three and a quarter pounders two days in a row. That's 10 fish, 3 .3 pounds to get 30th place.

Drake Herd (54:51.811)
Yeah, but they get to fish all day.

Brian Bashore (54:53.989)
I don't.

Drake Herd (55:01.187)
Yeah, so that's a person. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (55:15.621)
The green bays, if you can find that school of 20, 60, 30 inches, I mean, it can happen fast when you find a school and they're not the little dogs. They mixed in there. When you find those big fish, you are on the big fish. You can make it if you're pulling spinners or cranking boom, making you can be, it can be done real fast. And it's the same with scope. And it's just a matter of what you want to keep. But obviously if you hit that pod, you're going to be, then you're going to get a little pickier all sudden. If you could see them.

Drake Herd (55:21.216)
No. No. No.

Brian Bashore (55:45.317)
Right, if you're scoping, but once again, how long are they going to be there? How long are they going to bite? No, but that's why we do it.

Drake Herd (55:49.344)
Well, I was right. Trust me. It was me, Eric, and Kevin that were weaving in between and these guys were pulling boards in between us. And that's just what we were doing, you know, it was just one of those things.

John Balla (55:50.773)
Eric McCloyde took a fifth place scoping in 2022 in front of a bunch of guys trolling.

Brian Bashore (56:00.453)
Yeah, that's when you guys were catching them high one

John Balla (56:06.453)
Right.

John Balla (56:10.229)
Yeah, Kevin took ninth, Eric took fifth, and Drake, you were in what, like?

Drake Herd (56:12.032)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (56:15.648)
Third or fourth, fourth I think, right? Or aren't I? Yeah. Yeah.

John Balla (56:17.749)
Yeah, you're in fourth. my God. So you have three top 10 guys casting. There you go.

Brian Bashore (56:21.061)
Look, he was looking down the list for you, Drake. And then he looked at the top five. He was like, Drake's down here somewhere. I didn't even go to that one.

Drake Herd (56:22.72)
Yeah, I know, like what the hell? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

John Balla (56:25.909)
No, I'm looking at the wrong one. I was looking at the wrong one.

Brian Bashore (56:29.829)
I was sitting in 13th for AOI that year. I didn't even go to that tournament. Randy's boat broke. I didn't want to go to Dunkirk, frickin' New York. So I said, let somebody else have the spot and I'm out.

Drake Herd (56:38.208)
Yeah.

but yeah, that's where we were casting in front of all these guys pulling planter boards in front of us. But that was like, it hadn't happened yet. And we got onto it and Eric won the aim tournament the weekend before. And I'm like, God, no, I can't even like, we didn't want to show anyone. So we literally went out of bounds where you couldn't fish to like practice it. Like to that we're casting that open water fish because it was so new to us. And me and Kevin wrenched on them in university Bay, like right above university Bay.

out of bounds because there's no boats around. We just wrenched out. It's like, well, we can't even go down there, you know? Yeah. But then come tournament day, we just went where all those big fish were and all the guys were trolling and caught them casting.

John Balla (57:12.853)
That's so awesome.

John Balla (57:22.293)
Yep. So even then, right, you guys whacked them and it was still, you had Drake, you had 60 pounds and so six pound average and you took fourth. So think about that. Right. I mean, it's probably gonna, you probably need to bump it up a little bit or go drop a little bit. If you have a six pound average, because it's three fish only. Cause what were your three, do you remember your three biggest each day?

Drake Herd (57:28.222)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (57:33.822)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (57:44.062)
Yeah, I want to say I had like a seven and two eights like each day and then I had like a you know, whatever three four or four or five something like that, you know, so I always had three. Yeah, three big ones and I would. Yeah. And that bite was nerve wracking because it didn't happen until like the major was at eleven thirty and at eleven you wouldn't have a fish yet.

Brian Bashore (57:58.149)
No, it's j -july, right?

John Balla (58:01.077)
July 12th and 13th.

Drake Herd (58:11.454)
And then all of a sudden it'd be like a light switch and I was done early both days, first time ever. By one o 'clock I was done. Like it's just like a light switch went off and they just started biting everything.

Brian Bashore (58:19.525)
Yeah, it did. It was called the moon. It went whoop go. I'm under underfoot.

Drake Herd (58:22.462)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

John Balla (58:25.493)
I mean, first place was 73 .4, half of that weight, 37 pounds, was 24th. That's how fast I dropped.

Drake Herd (58:34.43)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (58:34.693)
That's typical Green Bay. If that mud bite isn't going, then it's tough for people just to fill those, you know, those slots sometimes, or when you're not on nothing, you know, you can always go down there and crank or pull bouncers or whatever and get maybe three or fours. And I mean, there's five, six, seven, eight pounders in there too. They're just five feet below the surface where nobody's looking sometimes. So there are going to be some slip bobbers in my boat for this one.

Drake Herd (58:43.867)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

John Balla (58:59.477)
There's gonna be a lot of guys doing that. The scoping is gonna be amazing. I think it's fun, you know, cause it's target, it's a target rich environment when you find the right one. So, you know, it's, but it's gonna be come down to getting the right bites in the right order. Cause you know, I mean, you catch a 25 and a half inches your first fish.

Drake Herd (59:07.835)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (59:12.357)
putting that fin gear to work baby. It's gonna happen.

Drake Herd (59:15.131)
Hahaha!

Drake Herd (59:21.019)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (59:22.437)
At eight o 'clock, that's where practice comes in. You know, it's like, these are cookie cutters, you know, but then again.

Drake Herd (59:26.043)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, but that's where I honestly think if like I said, I honestly going in, if I could shoot for 20 pounds, like I'm going to be happy. And if I do better than that, that's awesome. If I suck, I'll be in a little bit of trouble, but we'll figure it out.

Brian Bashore (59:44.133)
You get a little room to play, so...

Drake Herd (59:46.491)
Yeah, a little bit, not much, but yeah, yeah, so.

Brian Bashore (59:49.381)
I mean, that's still six and a half pound fish. It's a good fish. It's a good wildlife. So.

Drake Herd (59:52.571)
Yeah.

John Balla (59:53.589)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (59:57.221)
I think it'll be 20 would be 20 would be good. Like I said, 24 might, might win it. There'll be still be some 20 ridiculous bag coming day one, but Green Bay, it's not easy to do two days in a row. I would say that's one of the more difficult places to put it back to back.

Drake Herd (01:00:08.475)
No. Yep.

John Balla (01:00:12.213)
No, when I looked at, let's see, some of these, let's see, one Wiesner, let's see, where is this?

Drake Herd (01:00:19.993)
Reasoner had like four fish or I mean eight fish or something like that

John Balla (01:00:27.317)
Yeah, I mean it was.

Drake Herd (01:00:31.129)
Thank you.

Brian Bashore (01:00:36.709)
We better get to getting into the fantasy aspect of it here. We've been on here for about an hour if I want to get this out to people tonight. That's a lot of stuff. We kind of covered all that. You already kind of covered down on where we're all sitting on points. Let's cover that real quick. Do you have that top 40 in front of you there, John?

John Balla (01:00:36.885)
well.

John Balla (01:00:42.197)
All right, yep.

John Balla (01:00:56.309)
I do. First place, Hunter Niddy with 393 points. He's averaging a fifth place finish. 10th place is averaging a 22nd place finish. 20th place is averaging a 45th place. 30th is averaging a 52nd place finish. And the last qualifying spot, 40th place, is averaging a 62nd place, right in line with basically the last couple years it's been. So.

Drake Herd (01:01:07.545)
Yeah.

John Balla (01:01:22.293)
It'll drop probably down to 59th like it did. A lot of it depends on how many guys will fish the third event and the fourth event.

Brian Bashore (01:01:29.349)
Yeah and then obviously keeping fish are going to be a little bit more conservative possibly for a few on here that are already in that top 40 just to stay there and not drop out by not getting their fish or whatever the case. And then Takakua who's on that cusp and who makes the trip and not. So that can change it.

Drake Herd (01:01:37.304)
Yeah.

John Balla (01:01:49.397)
We'll lose quite a few guys for that, if the ones that don't have a shot versus driving it, whatever, 14 hours to get there, 12 hours. It happens every year for the last event.

Brian Bashore (01:01:59.877)
Yep, I could be in last place. I ain't missing Sakaquia. But it's not 14 hours neither. It's like 9.

John Balla (01:02:02.773)
There you go, right.

No, so this is right in line. Obviously, hundred nitty's having a great year. Eric McCoy is on his heels and second will Papenfoos, Dwayne Gelm, Dylan Nussbaum are run out the top five. you know, we'll have a better idea that who's going to have a run at the end of the year after this event. they'll.

Drake Herd (01:02:17.559)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:02:26.181)
Yep, yep, this kind of breaks, separates it pretty big right here.

John Balla (01:02:30.773)
Well, they'll have to be pretty much within a certain amount of points. And I don't want to say it because I don't want to discourage anyone, but some of the data shows it. I mean, Drake came back that one year at 20. I think I forget how many points down you were on that. We talked about that. Yeah. Yep. Yep. So, and with only 40 guys, you can't be that much further out than that because that means everybody in front of you has almost finished in the bottom 10.

Drake Herd (01:02:30.775)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:02:38.231)
Yep.

Drake Herd (01:02:45.015)
Yeah, 23 or something like that. Yeah.

John Balla (01:02:58.325)
you to move and you have to almost win or take top three for you to make up that many points. So yeah that's starting to play out. 81 guys fishing two is really good for the circuit though. That's a great number.

Drake Herd (01:03:05.751)
Thank you.

Brian Bashore (01:03:10.917)
Yeah it is. Yep, I know Takasaki won't make any more. He had some stuff come up so that'll drop to 80 and I'm sure there's probably a few other but still at this point 80 something is good. It used to only be around 60 so it's good.

Drake Herd (01:03:14.999)
Thank you.

Drake Herd (01:03:19.798)
Yeah.

John Balla (01:03:24.437)
It'll probably end in the 60s somewhere, high 60s, low 70s. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:03:26.885)
Right. Well, while we're on points, let's get into the fantasy fishing aspect of it and go through our picks for this upcoming tournament. And before we get into this tournament, we got to recap Red Wings points. So we made a couple of rule changes here since we're gonna let John have a mole again, because he picked a bunch of people that didn't fish a tournament. So therefore he was at the extreme bottom of the barrel. So we kind of modified it to the 81 or 80 guys that we are pretty confident will be there.

John Balla (01:03:38.517)
Ha ha ha ha.

Drake Herd (01:03:47.317)
Thank you.

Brian Bashore (01:03:55.845)
So we gave John a mole again and let him go down the standing list, which is exactly what he was getting. He stated this and that was who he was going to pick who should finish according to the stats. And John finished with 207 points. So lower points is good. Basically we took the place they finished and that was how many points and then added up those five finishes. So John had two seven Drake came in last with 213 points. So just barely.

Drake Herd (01:04:09.397)
Thank you.

Drake Herd (01:04:19.317)
you did, you did.

Brian Bashore (01:04:23.205)
there and I put a little whooping on them with 165 points. I did in my my lineup was myself Randy Umel. I think Randy was 68 so he was my last or my worst basically finished out of everybody Dewey finished 13th King 32nd and at a hundred nitty who finished in seventh and myself who was I got 43rd.

John Balla (01:04:27.401)
That's awesome.

John Balla (01:04:47.829)
Yeah, that's good. Really good.

Brian Bashore (01:04:52.389)
So.

John Balla (01:04:53.141)
I think if we do Green Bay, we do one at a time. One fangler per guy at a time, it's at all five.

Brian Bashore (01:04:58.789)
Alright, go ahead. I got mine listed. Anybody? You got yours? Go for it. Who you picking, John?

John Balla (01:05:04.597)
Yeah, I'll start. Eric McCoy.

Drake Herd (01:05:05.106)
Go.

Drake Herd (01:05:09.714)
Wait, can we pick, can I pick Eric too then? Okay. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

John Balla (01:05:13.077)
yeah, but instead of each one of us doing all five of their picks, let's go one at a time.

Brian Bashore (01:05:13.22)
Yeah, you pick yourself.

Yep. Do we all have Eric? He's on my list. So, all right, everybody's got Eric.

Drake Herd (01:05:20.53)
Yeah, yeah, okay, we all have air.

Brian Bashore (01:05:25.893)
Alright, back to you John. We all picked Eric. I picked me because I have to do better than 35th.

John Balla (01:05:28.661)
no, no, you get to go first now.

John Balla (01:05:35.797)
Look at you again!

Brian Bashore (01:05:38.213)
I'm telling you, pressure to perform. You've got to have confidence. You've got to go in and win it. You should always have yourself. I get it. There's other guys.

Drake Herd (01:05:45.106)
Okay, I'm going sprinkles.

Drake Herd (01:05:51.666)
I think he's gonna either get onto a trolling bite or something. He's just good out there, plain and simple. Yep, dialed in, hopefully.

John Balla (01:05:51.669)
Alright.

Brian Bashore (01:05:56.709)
Yeah, Ernie's bought a place out there and he's, he's, he's. Yep. All right, John.

John Balla (01:06:02.837)
I'm going Dewey. He just won another derby over the weekend. I mean, so.

Drake Herd (01:06:07.954)
Yeah, I saw that. It's like, I had some time with my wife and we jumped in and then voila, he won. Just like that. Like, unbelievable.

Brian Bashore (01:06:08.389)
Yep.

Brian Bashore (01:06:13.765)
Yup, right down his home water.

John Balla (01:06:16.149)
The Denny Palmer Memorial out there in Oahe, yeah. So, all right, Drake, you go first, I think, now.

Brian Bashore (01:06:21.637)
Drake, you go first. Yep.

Drake Herd (01:06:22.79)
Who else did I have here?

I've got sorry. Yeah, sorry. I was looking at my list. I got. Yeah, no, I'm going to I'll be the OK, I'll say my name, but I'm not third. I want to be fifth. You can say my name, Drake. I'll pick myself. That's fine.

Brian Bashore (01:06:31.789)
I know, I was saying Drake was on your list.

John Balla (01:06:45.877)
Alright, I'm going Tom Wynn.

Brian Bashore (01:06:49.221)
We have all been seamlessed.

Drake Herd (01:06:51.408)
Well, fine, I'll just pick someone different just because.

Brian Bashore (01:06:55.525)
Alright, you got Tom win. I have Tom win as well.

John Balla (01:07:01.781)
I think it's my turn again to start. I'll go, I'll go Hoyer.

Brian Bashore (01:07:09.861)
I'll go sprinkles.

Drake Herd (01:07:14.576)
I'm going Pap and Foose. He's kind of on it right now and he's got a lot of confidence in what he's doing. He's getting married soon so he's screwed after that. So, my uncle will get it in while he can.

Brian Bashore (01:07:24.453)
Yep, yep.

Brian Bashore (01:07:28.645)
Hope Ivy didn't hear that.

Drake Herd (01:07:30.512)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a four.

Brian Bashore (01:07:34.821)
It's it's it happens that is so we're back to me first. I have wookie

John Balla (01:07:41.365)
he's not a touring guy.

Drake Herd (01:07:41.52)
That doesn't - no, you can't choose Woodkey.

Brian Bashore (01:07:41.861)
damn, you're right. He's not son of a gun. Come back to me. That doesn't count. All right. I'll go hunter then I'll go nitty instead of wood.

Drake Herd (01:07:47.056)
Yeah, that doesn't count because we'd all have them on our list. Let's be honest.

John Balla (01:07:49.365)
Alright, I'll go pap and foos.

John Balla (01:07:55.253)
Okay.

Brian Bashore (01:07:58.757)
And you got, you're going pappin' foos, John?

John Balla (01:08:00.885)
Yep, it's got three top tens in a row.

Brian Bashore (01:08:04.549)
Yes.

I'm literally the worst one on my list, so I just have no doubt about it. John's got a pretty solid list. Drake, who's your last one?

Drake Herd (01:08:19.471)
I'll go max. Max is usually pretty good out there.

John Balla (01:08:23.253)
Very good. So I can run down really quick. I won't show you this, but I'll run down. Dwayne's got, he's only fished two, but he's averaged a fourth place. Corey averages a seventh place on all the times he's fished it. So eight times. Tom Wynn's got, he's only fished it twice. He's averaged in a 23rd. Here's someone that I probably should have taken. Keith Kavaya has averaged a 23rd place.

Brian Bashore (01:08:23.301)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:08:27.045)
I couldn't pull the trigger.

Drake Herd (01:08:33.134)
That's impressive.

Brian Bashore (01:08:37.573)
Yeah, yeah, he's...

Drake Herd (01:08:42.51)
shit, I didn't even think, excuse my language. Yeah, that's a good one.

John Balla (01:08:52.469)
Keith would be my dark horse on this one, honestly.

Drake Herd (01:08:56.142)
Yeah, yeah, that is actually a good one.

John Balla (01:08:59.765)
Eric McCoy is averages 24th in two events. Shakurit, 25th in eight of them. Kortz, 25th in eight of them. And Hoyer's averaged, actually Jim Carroll's averaged 29th. And John Hoyer's averaged a 30th place, believe it or not.

Brian Bashore (01:09:04.933)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:09:16.773)
Those guys all have a zero mixed in. That's what got them.

John Balla (01:09:18.677)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And Max is average at 34th place, but he's, you know, obviously he's got some really good finishes. Last time he was there, he had a big, huge second day, I think 40 something pounds by Wiesner up there. So yeah, those are all really good picks.

Drake Herd (01:09:27.918)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:09:29.813)
All right, I got myself, Springle, Eric, Tom, Niddy. John's got Eric, Dewey, Tom, Winn, Hoyer, Poppin' Foos. Drake's got Eric McCoy, Springle, Poppin' Foos, Max, and himself Drake. There you go. There's the all -star lineup. These will be where we got a lot of the same guys, so this will be pretty tight. It's really gonna come down to you or I, Drake, right?

Drake Herd (01:09:44.558)
Thank you.

Drake Herd (01:09:50.572)
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna... This'll be, it'll be interesting. We might have to make some more rules here, but it's gonna be some decisions that'll be made. It'll, it's gonna be interesting to see what guys come up with, I think. Whether they have ice in their, you're gonna have ice in your veins like all year long is what you're gonna need. Like that's what it's gonna come down to.

Brian Bashore (01:10:15.301)
It's Kakao will be a little better. We get five fish and the place is fishing. Well, that means the aim Eric just won the name championship out there. And those conversions are obviously you had to subtract, you know, quite a fair amount from that. And they hit it at a, just a really, you know, really good time. So typically it's taken 20, 40, some upper 40 pounds to win a two day tournament there with eight fish weighing in your five. Now we're just five for five.

Drake Herd (01:10:25.835)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:10:30.251)
Perfect time.

Brian Bashore (01:10:42.661)
I don't think I mean it's 80 pounds when they aim thing. I think that was that's a bit of a reach for 1st August, but you're going to catch him so.

John Balla (01:10:51.925)
Yeah, I'm pretty much stuck with, I mean, nothing, nothing crazy here. It was pretty much live scopers. I mean, I'm doing the same thing on the bass elites and I'm doing pretty well on the bass elite, just picking up them, but live scopers. And honestly, if you look at my list, almost every one of these guys, well, yeah, they're all, I think full -time fishermen. So they've got plenty of time. They'll be practicing for 10 days. Who knows how many days it's, you know, these aren't.

Drake Herd (01:10:53.451)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:11:14.699)
Yeah.

John Balla (01:11:18.708)
These aren't really like challenging picks for a guy to pick actually, because they got tons of time. They're really good at live scope and they're on the momentum. Fishermen. Once you get fishy, you kind of stay fishy for awhile. You know, it's.

Brian Bashore (01:11:22.021)
No, it's -

Drake Herd (01:11:31.818)
Yeah, it's a you're 100 % correct. I mean you just get on a roll and you can't do anything wrong and you're just feeling it. I mean you just get on a roll and you can't do anything wrong and and yeah and that's.

Brian Bashore (01:11:41.701)
Confidence if you don't if you don't have confidence in this just write a check and stay home because that's all you're just donating That's why it keeps telling me got to pick yourself man. You got it to show that There's a reality going. Yeah. I hope I just cash check or finish, you know, hey, I'd be tickled pink with a top ten in green bay I'd be happy with that tickle peak with a frickin check at Green Bay for once, you know But my goal is to finish 35th or better, you know, just the reality go you want to win?

Drake Herd (01:11:46.825)
Yep, 100%. Yeah.

Yep. Yeah.

Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:12:01.129)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:12:05.385)
But that's where, I mean, like you wonder though if like you need to change your mentality and just have more confidence in what you're doing. Like there's times where I really get down on myself a lot and I don't really talk to much about people with this, but like that's where Eric and Kevin are just like level. And they don't matter if they're stroking the shit out of them or they're sucking, they're just, they're level. And then when they get their opportunities, they capitalize on them. You know, you just, that's what you got to do.

And so like I'm trying to get better about not getting down on myself if it doesn't go right right away. Cause you know, you can battle all day long. You know, it's just one of those things.

Brian Bashore (01:12:44.005)
We are our own worst enemy is ourself.

John Balla (01:12:44.049)
That's, that's Kavya's. I mean, that guy, I've never seen him riled up on anything. I mean, he just keeps going and he just, right. And then even in the bass world, the Brandon Polonyx, you know, KVD never got riled up. He, and he just kept going and kept going, kept going. Didn't matter. He lost a fish, shook it off. No big deal. He didn't break rods, throw rods around. He just kept whatever. It's fishing. You lose them. Happens. Good news is they're biting, you know.

Drake Herd (01:12:45.737)
Yep.

Drake Herd (01:12:49.865)
No.

Drake Herd (01:13:01.449)
Yep, just keep going.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:13:07.141)
Yep, I've been getting better at that, but I'm with you, Drake. You're halfway through the day. And I think bagel last year, I didn't have, I didn't box fish till one o 'clock and I weighed in at 230. You know, and it's just an even.

Drake Herd (01:13:16.969)
Yep, yep. You just gotta keep fishing. You gotta have confidence in what you're doing because that's like we keep braiding in our brains like that's half of it is confidence because you just gotta believe in what you're doing.

Brian Bashore (01:13:21.829)
Right.

Brian Bashore (01:13:26.789)
I'll give somebody's co anglers a little credit. My co angler on day one, he caught that 27. You know, I was like, Hey, they, you know, dude just trolled by out there a little deeper. I'm like, just throw out, just throw out. Bam. And that jig was full on way at the beginning of the catch when he caught it. And, but he was just all day. We'll get it. We're going to get them. I'm like, we're going to, they're here. I'm, we're on the fish. We just got to get them. I was like, they can fire any second, any second, any second, but you know, he's not looking at the clock. He's not.

Drake Herd (01:13:48.073)
Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:13:54.117)
Calling the lock master to see what the schedule is where you're thinking of all these other things, but he's, you know, he kept me positive and I'm like, all right, yep. Right on, man. Right on, man. Right on. But you'll get some that are just within five minutes. They're like, this sucks or they're doing something that they don't want to do. So they're like, well, you know, and they're out of it. I'm like, you're not helping the vibe in the boat. Anybody, you know,

Drake Herd (01:13:55.657)
Yeah. Yeah.

100%.

Drake Herd (01:14:06.345)
Yeah, sure, fuck. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

John Balla (01:14:14.869)
Bad mojo, we don't want it.

Brian Bashore (01:14:17.221)
No, because it can happen in 10 minutes. You could put 30 pounds in your boat just

John Balla (01:14:22.709)
You can be done fishing in 10 minutes and be back at the dock at 9 .15.

Drake Herd (01:14:24.973)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Brian Bashore (01:14:26.405)
Yeah, I mean, coffee and breakfast sounds good to me.

John Balla (01:14:31.797)
Right?

Brian Bashore (01:14:32.229)
Alrighty anything else guys just wrap this up. I'm gonna get this thing edited and aired real quick for everybody and and Yeah, all right. Those are some good pics. It's gonna be a fun one. Look forward to seeing out there Drake's just a few days I'm heading out Friday morning. It's just Randy and I for the rest of year Hey, so you guys need a couple couple more teammates? I think you're doing just fine. So we do got a good good travel

Drake Herd (01:14:37.129)
That's all I got.

Drake Herd (01:14:48.009)
Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:14:52.489)
I can't let you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We'll keep on it.

Brian Bashore (01:14:58.821)
Good travel of coasts. So all you guys following along, stay tuned for the next one. We're going to have the co anglers that are with us at, at green Bay on the podcast and let them tell you a little bit about some of their experiences this season. And we'll go from there. So thanks for tuning in and watching and listening to real talk fishing with no limits. I'm Brian Bechore joined with John Bala and Drake heard breaking down green Bay broke down red wing. Think we didn't break down. Speaking of breakdown, red wing.

Drake Herd (01:15:25.193)
Yep.

Brian Bashore (01:15:29.061)
Did you hear those guys went through the Vermillion River?

Drake Herd (01:15:30.601)
Yes, 100 % but okay time out here's sorry one last thing I I am fishing on pool three on my one spot where I can pick up fish I got two or three in the live well and all sudden here comes Tom Kemos Cory Springle Chase Parsons Tom win full bore They're gonna they're gonna go and they friggin sent it went around all the way up into some cattails

Brian Bashore (01:15:34.085)
Awesome. John doesn't know about this. It's pretty cool.

Brian Bashore (01:15:48.997)
See you Sparrow, Dumb Wind.

Drake Herd (01:15:58.697)
and made it back down. They beat everyone out of the lock by like a half hour. They said they had plenty of time. No one was around them. Yep.

Brian Bashore (01:16:05.381)
Yep, went through the Vermilion River because he was chasing and Corey were fishing right where I was and it didn't even register when I got there that they were already there fishing because I'm like, I pretty much flew by a lot of people coming to that lock and then I didn't until later. I'm like, you were already fishing when I got there.

Drake Herd (01:16:13.321)
Yeah. Yeah.

Drake Herd (01:16:20.713)
Yeah, so they flew north. The one funny thing is, is where we were keeping our boats was one of our buddies that lives on the Vermillion. And he's like, I was sitting there having breakfast and all of a sudden I heard a one and he's like, there are $400 ,000 boats just ripping down the Vermillion, like going. And I'm like, wow, that is impressive that they sent it.

John Balla (01:16:42.421)
Yeah, I've only

Brian Bashore (01:16:42.597)
Yeah, Chase said he's like, I'll never do that again. I'm like, well, at least you didn't break nothing. He goes, I did.

Drake Herd (01:16:44.617)
Nope, exactly.

John Balla (01:16:49.301)
I've only fished up to the railroad bridge from, you know, four going up, but not coming down from three.

Drake Herd (01:16:54.985)
Yeah, yeah. And I, like I said, I went over the K -Dike when the water was high, but that water was dropping. There's no way I was going back over that thing. Good luck. Have fun. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Brian Bashore (01:17:03.205)
don't even know where in the hell it's at. So that tells you how much time it takes. Yep. All right, Ebet, thanks guys. Thank all you for tuning in and we'll see you real soon. So stay safe and we'll see you on the water.