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I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to this episode of Real Talk Fishin' with No Limits. We're doing things a little different this time as you can clearly see. It's not just me and somebody else on the other end of this computer. We are live, not live, but we are live. We're barely alive after this week of practice. We're out here at Lake Erie for the first stop of the National Walleye Tour going up
We're trying to do one of these at each tournament when we can. It's tough. It's busy weeks, a lot of work and getting this old guy to sit down for hours. It's like her cat. So anywho, but yeah, that's it. Thanks for tuning in. You're gonna want to watch. So obviously you all know, and if you don't know, even living underneath the rock, I got Hall of Famer Ted Takasaki sitting right here. MWC's.
Individual from the team, one of the individuals from the team of the year. We got Sam Capelli and my longtime travel partner and friend, Randy Hummel with Randy Riggs over there. Uh, we're just going to get in. We're going to tell you a little bit about the week, a little bit about tournaments coming up, but you probably want to know a little bit about Ted. Ted's got a lot of stories. And if we let them talk, tell one of them, we might be here for a long time. So we'll keep some of those brief. Uh, but, uh, a little bit about yourselves, uh, Sam, what, what?
Brian Bashore (02:23.734)
You know, we got a lot of new listeners, a lot of people tuning in, learning about wildlife fishing, you know, but they don't know a lot of the wildlife pros. And you've been doing this stuff for a long time on the NWC level, NWC level, like your wildlife trail, all that stuff. Where you from? You got family, what do you do when you're not fishing? So I got a full-time job. I work for the Department of Corrections, prison system for the state of Ohio. My wife and I have been married 30 years this July.
And we got three kids, they're all grown up. So it's just my wife and I at home with the two dogs. I've been fishing tournaments a long time, started off on the local circuits, starting at 12 foot boat, just kept working my way up. As I started learning and cashing more checks, I got newer, bigger boats. And then in 2017, I was lucky enough to win the national championship, won two new Rangers and that. Then I started fishing.
Little bit MWC and teamed up with Ted and Jared a couple years ago for the National Walleye Tour. Cash a couple checks doing that and Ted and I became really good friends and I'm here with these guys now. We got a great team this year and it's gonna be a good tournament for us, I think, on Lake Erie to kick off the season. I feel very confident about it.
Randy, what's Randy's story? Well, I'm from Southern Minnesota, born in Windom, Minnesota. I live in Windom, Minnesota. I went to school in Jackson, Minnesota. I grew up fishing Spirit Lake, Okoboji. We got a cabin on Big Spirit. I used to, I started off fishing. I used to watch a lot of bass fishing and stuff like that growing up. And my grandma.
had a cabin on Big Spirit. I used to go every summer to the cabin and started off in a paddle boat. And I went from a paddle boat, eventually went into a row boat, and then I eventually got a 16 foot boat. And then when I decided to go pro, I got a Ranger boat. I started, did two years of coangler in 2011 and 2012.
Brian Bashore (04:50.214)
It was FLW at the time. And then in 2013 I decided to jump in as a pro. You were the youngest touring pro at that time. At one time, yeah. Which what, were you like 20? 23. I'm at 23. Randy's the kid in the group. With three little kids at home. Yeah. Them kids are all gone. Ted's kids are all gone. Mine are not quite gone.
Brian Bashore (05:19.234)
Theodore, you got a long story because you got a little bit more age on you than the rest of us. A little bit. Not much. Anyway, I was born in California. We knew you were with that hair. Born in California, moved to Central Illinois when I was in second grade. Went to the University of Illinois with an engineering degree. Met a good friend of mine, John Campbell.
He's really the one who got me started in the fishing. My dad took me fishing when I was younger, but mostly caught bluegills and bullheads. But we, John Campbell and I started going crappie fishing in Kentucky. And then his mom grew up near Lake Okebogee, Iowa in Spencer. And so that's where...
I caught my first walleye was actually out of college at about 20 years old. In fact, the first walleye we caught, we both looked at each other and said, what is this? And chances, I think it's a walleye. I said, I think it's a walleye too. So we didn't even know we caught my first walleye ever. So that was interesting. And I...
We actually hired a guy by the name of Jim McDonald at the Great Lakes of Iowa. This is Okebogy and Spirit Lake. So there's a whole series of lakes there in the northwest corner of Iowa. And so we hired a couple of guides just to take us fishing and learn a little bit more about walleye fishing. And so we did that and Perry Parks and...
White Oaks Bait Shop and went there like all the time. And then we started taking these fishing classes from a guy by the name of Spence Petros. He was the editor of Fishing Facts Magazine. And he became, you know, I used to carry his slide projector in the class and carry it out and pass out all his handouts. And I mean, we took the same class.
Brian Bashore (07:34.706)
uh seven nights every Wednesday every Wednesday night for seven weeks in a row for seven years in a row the same class the same slides the same everything but it took me seven years to learn it you know but it was really good it was a great class I mean learn we learn about structure fishing and species of fish and all different species in addition to walleye and uh so
After that, decided we better learn, you know, figure out how to catch walleyes. So we went to Canada a couple times and, you know, you catch a lot of walleyes in Canada. So I'm thinking I'm pretty good at that. So we decided to start fishing tournaments. And there was a tournament that came right by the Chicago area out of the Illinois river. And so we decided to enter that tournament. And that year, Chicago got like five years, five.
five inches of rain and it pretty much turned the Illinois River in the chocolate belt. You know, so a little bit like here this week. I kind of like that very close and oh except there was a cow floating down the river. I didn't see any cows, you know, like here. Not yet. So so anyway, so it was a I mean it was a tough tournament. You know, we were we got we but we tied for 11th place.
Out of 200 teams, there was a 10 people, 10 teams that caught fish and the rest of us all didn't catch a fish. So I was tied for 11. I got six with the other 80 boats. Yeah. I mean, it literally, there was not hardly any fish caught at that tournament. So that was mud bowl one. Then, you know, so then I decided.
We decided that Johnny and I decided to fish one more, another tournament that year. We went to Lake Muskegon in Michigan. And that's a real clear water lake, you know, it's a, there's a little channel that connects to Lake Michigan. Real deep, clear, a lot of structure. We actually caught a couple fish during practice, but we didn't catch any fish during the tournament. So we were tied for like 30th.
Brian Bashore (10:00.01)
out of 200 jeans. There was like 170 zeros. So, you know, our first tournament season, my first tournament season wasn't very good, I'd have to say. Most people would probably quit because, you know, it was tough. But, you know, we figured, well, it's tough. Let's try the whole circuit next year. So we went and got, went into the next circuit.
And we actually qualified for the championship. We got third place in the championship itself. It was out at the Mississippi River at Dubuque. And the interesting thing about that tournament is that my dad passed away the day before the first day of the tournament. And so I had to make arrangements with my mom. And so...
I called Johnny and said, hey, I don't think I can make the first day. He said, don't worry. He went down there and he had been pretty efficient. And, uh, he said, Hey, I can, I can catch a limit for the team by myself.
And so I said, all right, I'll come the second day. And so he went out the first day. He caught a limit, a two man, well, I mean, a team limit of 10 walleyes in Mississippi, but they only allowed him to weigh in five since there was only one person in the boat, right?
So he caught 10 for the team. We wait, he weighed five. I came there the next day. We caught 10 next day. Actually, I think it was, it was a bigger limit, but anyway, so we caught a limit the second day, caught a limit the third day, or actually got tougher the third day and ended up in third place, like 14 ounces out of first. So, you know, one.
Brian Bashore (11:58.07)
You know, five more fish. You would have had it. Probably had it. That's the way that it goes. You know, so that was my second year and then, um, started fishing the PWT and won the championship in Bismarck. That was a pretty exciting 6,000 fans in the stands and driving the boats around. And that, all of that kind of got me really revved up about tournament fishing. So today after, uh,
Geez, my first turnabout was...
Brian Bashore (12:31.002)
80, 82 I think. I don't even remember. Randy wasn't even born. Not even close. 82. So anyway, it's been a long time. It's great to be here and working with you guys. That's really the whole, the best part about tournament fishing is the camaraderie and the people that you work with. And
you know, compete against and everybody's, it's like it's just a, it's a big family. So it is, you brought, you touched on a couple of things, maybe think back in the day, you took classes to learn the fundamentals of walleye fishing, structure, currents, everything. Behavior. Yeah. Behavior, fish behavior, studied it. Nowadays. And the whole discussion is obviously the forward facing sonar stuff, but the learning curve for
these up and comers, these new young guys, YouTube, this type of stuff, all the information's out there, they don't have to go to those classes. And I took Angling 101 at the University of Nebraska when I took fisheries and wildlife management classes because I needed a credit hour. What the hell, take a fishing class. Needless to say, it was pretty easy. But nobody, universities have a bunch of stuff now for these kids, but what do you think?
How do you feel about this whole evolution of stuff? You know, and a lot of these guys are bypassing a lot of the fundamentals of fishing because they can just scope them and just find them and throw at them. Good, bad? Anybody? I think technology is great. You know, I worked for Hilo Packard Company for 18 years, so I sold technology and, you know, let's put it this way, it's not gonna stop. So you either learn it or you quit. Right.
Yeah, I don't know. I think that was my biggest weakness was my electronics, my forward-facing sonar. And I've been trying for the last couple of years to get better at that.
Brian Bashore (14:29.782)
But, you know, when I started tournament fishing, I wanted to be versatile. I wanted to learn how to jig fish, you know, vibey fish, blade baits, pull spinners, pull crankbaits, pull leadcore. I wanted to learn how to do it all. And that's why I fished a lot of, like, inland lake stuff to learn how to pull leadcore, jig. Then I went to Lake Erie, learned how to pull dip seas, wire, copper, all that stuff. Because I wanted to be well-rounded, so I'm able to compete. I mean, because we fish rivers, we fish lakes, we fish Great Lakes, so you got to have everything.
and you got to know how to use it. So, I don't have anything against forward facing sonar. To me it's just another tool that you use to win. Like I said, that's my weakest part is forward facing sonar. I think I can catch a fish, but I just got to figure that out. I'm going to get better. I'm going to keep trying to use it.
You got a Lawrence, we got a Tauris. We got a Brems. Yep. Yeah. You know, I mean, you know, you always say that, you know, you can't teach an old dog new tricks and I either you learn new tricks or I quit. Or are you saying you're an old dog? I am an old dog. Am I just going to the corner and that in the kennel and kennel up? Yep. It's a tool in the toolbox and you're exactly right. You better progress with it.
How do you think that's gonna play in Lake Erie? I mean, I've played with it this week and jigged up a few fish. I think everybody's maybe jigged up one or tried. I talked to some guys and what do you think? How's this thing gonna shake out? You're gonna win at trolling, we're gonna win at jigging. You think those guys are in the game? It's tough, we had a super windy ass week, so that made pretty, if you can't keep your transducer and trolling motor in the water, it's pretty hard to use.
Yeah, I mean, to me, fishing a national walleye tour, you know, you're going to have a co angler.
Brian Bashore (16:24.61)
You never know if that coangler could jig. So I always, I look at it like I got four rods in the water all the time if I'm trolling. Those rods are in the water 80% of the time. When you're jig fishing, I mean you're picking out a fish and throwing to it. And what's your code going? Unless you have active target on the back of the boat or something. And you don't know if he knows how to use it and how to jig for him. So to me, I always, I think covering water here, especially in the mud,
I think trolling is going to be one trolling and because you're covering more water and finding you know finding the fish The problem I see with Forty-Facents owner on Lake Erie's there's so many fish in this lake There's two million walleye even if you pick out a big fish there Are you gonna be able to get your bait to that fish before a five-pounder grabs it? Yeah, and right now they're moving fast
You try it this week? I have not. Yeah, you didn't turn it on. No. Cold rain is really controlling. Yeah, I'm not up on the poor place in Solonar yet. Boss is calling. I think she is. She probably is. Deandora, what the hell are you doing? It's Jared. Should I take it? We'll call him back. We'll call you back. All right.
the
Brian Bashore (18:08.766)
I want to get you in trouble, but I want to know more about the Little Big Brothers Little Sisters program. Well, yeah, you know, I mean, every fraternity has got big brothers and little sisters, and I was part of a fraternity, and I happened to be the Little Sister Chairman for two semesters. It was a great job. I mean, you know, we recruited my buddies, John Campbell and Mark Pavlitt.
They recruited all the girls that come to the parties and I put the parties together and everybody, I mean, all I was looking to do was just to make sure everybody was having a good time. They were the marketing guru for the third day. They could post their planning the parties, getting it all going. They were like the biggest shindigs on campus. No, I wasn't the biggest on campus, but it was pretty good. It was pretty good. It was pretty good, he said. It was good.
We're doing this whole traveling thing. We're out here at Erie. We've been fishing all week. Weather's kind of sucked, to say the least, right? Wendy, we've had one good day. Slake Erie. Slake Erie, we got here. Right, we didn't get on the water until Saturday afternoon, which I think is in consensus with most people, because Friday was brutal, probably got us to 50 or whatever, almost.
It's not normal, which is why I'm here, Sam. This is pretty dirty. I mean, I've seen it dirty, but this is dirty. Yeah, we had a lot of rain. So, you know, you're getting a lot of rain up in Canada. So those rivers are washing in and you're getting rain. Here, you know, in Ohio, and it's all the rivers are flooding out and pumping all that mud out. Then you get a big wind, it's mixing it all up. So I think the key is just finding clean water. And one of the things that I wish I would have done was go check the weather, really.
because there's always clean water out there and I know there's fish there. And, you know, I wish I would have went and checked it. But, you know, my thing tomorrow, of course I'm going to be pulling bandits. Most of our fish have been coming way up in the water column.
Brian Bashore (20:07.562)
You know, like we're fishing fish that are 15 suspended, five to 15 feet down and 30 feet of water or so. But the key is just finding clean water. If you can find clean water with fishing, of course, then I think you're gonna do well. And I think the advantage is, you know, the local guys kind of know where the water cleans up the fastest. And, you know, so.
You know, I got a couple ideas. That's why I've been telling you guys to fish around the reefs because there's a lot of rock in there, a lot of zebra mussels. And I think that stuff just filters that water and cleans it up a lot quicker.
You know, I fish outside the reefs. I don't fish on top of them. I'm not looking to catch the males. I'm out there looking for the pre-spawned females, which are very slim right now. It's kind of late for them. But I'm just looking for those females out there staging in that deeper water. Early in the year when the spawn is really good, most of the charters are on the reef catching all the males. But you very seldom ever catch a female, a pre-spawned female on the reefs, because they're out there waiting
to drop their eggs. They come into the reef, I don't know if they're there four, six, eight hours or what, they drop their eggs and they get out of there. But they don't want to come in and get harassed by the mills bumping them and stuff trying to knock their eggs out until they're ready to drop them. So those big females sit out there in that deep water suspended and
Back in the day, everybody said you couldn't catch them. You could catch them because all they do is swim and eat, man. They spawn once a year, right? So, I mean, it's a pretty simple life. For a fish, you have two things. Eat, reproduce. Nope. I just try not to overthink things. I try to like...
Brian Bashore (21:53.866)
You know, we're going out of Port Clinton. I don't want to make a big run because I've been fishing Lake Erie my whole life and I know what could happen with these winds. And that's why I try to fish close. I try to stay close. The more my lines are in the water, the better chance that I got to catch, you know, that I could catch a 10 pounder. This is Lake Erie. You never know when you're going to get a 10 or 12 pounder. It can happen anytime. Or when the wind is going to pick up after you went 30, 40 miles and now you got a two and a half hour drive back. It doesn't take much, as we've seen it. It blew like hell today. It rained a half inch, just a few hours ago.
So you don't even know what you're getting into until you get out there tomorrow. It's almost, you know, you got to drive around and find it, right? See if it's clean. But you know, making a big run is one thing. Um, but making a big run where you're going to go maybe to Avon point to fish. That's a hell of a run from, uh, port Clinton. You get there and it's muddy. Then what do you do? So making a run to the weather buoy where that water is out in the open and it's always clean. That's something, you know, that I would chance, but, um,
I don't know, I'm staying close, fishing the reefs, try to keep my lines in the water and that's it. We've had pretty much clear skies the last few days and sunny, so the Zoom Earth app works great. You get the satellite images of the water and you can see where the muddy stuff has moved and what have you. We don't get one a day because it's cloudy. So you're really, tomorrow is, like I said, I gotta go, I'm gonna have to drive and see what it is when I get there and maybe I have to turn around. But we have, looks like decent weather tomorrow, at least on the day one to.
to cruise around in the morning? I kind of like it that it's cloudy and you can't get a satellite image for us because the guys are going to take the game, we'll make the run. They get there, the water's going to be muddy, it could be muddy. So if you stay around and try to fish clean water, when you guys know where to get clean water, you guys got a couple spots that are pretty clean and stuff. And you know,
If this tournament was a couple weeks ago, I would say 37 to 40 pounds. That's what it would take a day to win. But right now I'm thinking 32 to 33 pounds a day. There's not a lot of pre-spawn fish left out there. That makes a pretty big difference. It's going to be a game of ounces and you know, you catch a lot of 24, 25, 26 and fish, you've got to weigh every one of them. You got to make every ounce count. Yeah. Length. It's nice judge, but it really is irrelevant.
Brian Bashore (24:13.674)
We weigh the five heaviest fish, not the longest. This isn't a game of inches. It's a game of ounces. You went East today. What water is always kind of to me, it's typically cleaner out there, but. For the route you go obviously anywhere. Yeah. I went out in front of a million today and, uh, it was not clean. Long ways out. Well, you do have a couple of rivers dumping in, I guess, all the way long. That, um,
But we, we fished it anyway and caught a few fish in it. Um, but I mean, most years that I've been here, usually what happens is, uh, the water gets dirty and the fish are in the dirty water, but then you can't get them to bite and me personally, I think this year you can get them to bite. Well, it's warmer. I mean, we've got 50, 52, 49 and 52 water temp in some of that stuff. And I think.
I always thought 50 is kind of that magic number. Right. If you're going to switch to crawlers, that's a good time. And then, and I've had best luck in the afternoon. Once that dirty shit heated up, those fish tend to fire up a little bit more. But I think if that water was typical mid forties, probably this time of year, that ain't happening. I don't think you're going to get them.
In the mud. Is that what you tend to see Sammy? Money in the water, do they get real tough? Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, when it's muddy, you know it's really hard to catch them. And you know, like you said about familiar with you went out there is pretty muddy. You went way out. Usually at mudlines about two or three miles offshore.
But we just had severe storms come through here. They went right down the coast, right down the shore of Lake Erie, all the way to Youngstown, which is 120 miles from here. And we got dumped on, ton of rain. So what's going to happen to these rivers? These rivers are going to be pumping out. You got the Huron River, you got the Vermilion River, then you get down to Lorraine, you got the Black River. Then up towards the west of here, you got the Maumee, dumping water.
Brian Bashore (26:12.152)
So just going to make things worse. And the problem, the only thing I'm unfair of, I think I could find clean water out there. But right now the Miami's dumping all that water in. The Detroit River's dumped in, and we're going to have a west wind. A west wind's going to make that dirty water move even quicker. Quicker, yep. When Lake St. Clair gets muddy, it takes four hours for the Detroit River to be trashed all over the Lake Erie, right? Yeah, so they can't even drive the boats to the Detroit River.
Right, the Detroit River's probably gonna be muddy. I mean, so... That river's tough to catch fish with, it's muddy too. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I mean you'd have to go through the hand line. Everything is, because it's cold. Cold water and mud is like the worst absolute formula for all that fishing. Anyway, cold and muddy. Cold and clear, no problem. We're muddy and really hot. Do you think all that wind, you know what I mean? The wind that we have, it's not only just creates this mud.
But I think it kind of like, it's like a toilet bowl. It just churns up the water and the walleyes get all, they get moved all over the place, scattered all over the place. And then it takes them a little while to congregate.
get settled in a routine. Yeah, I mean, it's not just the mud is what I'm saying. Yeah, it does scatter them and stuff like that. But I mean, you're still market fish. Right. Okay. But they can't see the bait. So what do you use? You put some Procure on it or some kind of set. I mean, guys do that. Good idea, probably in this muddy waters, what he was talking about. Put, you know, running spinners, it's warm enough for that. Or just taking a chunk of crawler.
You know, like Tommy Schmeiler, she used to do up in Dunkirk, you know, put a little chunk of color on the back hook or the middle hook. It's just a little bit of scent, a little bit of me that might trigger a bite. But for me, the only way I could get fish in dark air, in muddy water is to run dark colors. And back in the day, I'm like, why don't I run something real bright? But the dark colors kind of make a shadow in the water. And that's what they, that's what they see. They see that shadow. I told those co-engagers the same thing today. The dark colors excel.
Brian Bashore (28:20.944)
and muddy water for that bigger silhouette. I mean obviously the bandit charger with the glow sticks or generator. Yeah and bright obviously works too but yeah I agree I like the dark colors and the dirty water. I can catch a lot but...
I have before. It's not here. So the other thing we do in dirty water too is just speed up. Just try to get a reaction, but in your cover more water. But, you know, you get something with them by like, you know, one point two by a fish. They might just look at it or something. But when it's went by and bounce, they're going to snap at it like a dog. And a lot of time you'll catch them on that. You get more of a vibration putting off that till they can feel it. They find it. You're afraid of fishing dirty waters.
How fast you talking? 2.3, 2.4, well over 2 miles an hour. Just a couple, I haven't tried it yet because I've been fishing clear water. I've been running like 1.6, but I'm going like 2.4. But if you, if we're stuck in muddy water, you got two choices. Figure it out or go to the weather buoy. Take a gamble. But I'm telling you right now, there will be some bags coming out of the water.
and I didn't hear that, I didn't talk to anybody. The only reason I didn't really push the issue about us going there, I was afraid it would win. That's about a 40 mile run. And you know, I watched him. It was wide open too. Right, I mean.
It looks all right tomorrow, but still even a 10-50 mile an hour wind is going to slow you down considerably Out of the north northwest like few comets. Yeah, if you get a northwest 25 and you're fishing in three fives I mean think about northwest wind going to weather for you. You got a quarter in the whole way You're going to be hit the side of you know, your port side On your windshield. It's going to be a miserable ride No matter what boat you're in Yeah, that does not sound fun
Brian Bashore (30:13.418)
I was just going to say the same thing. A lot of this week wasn't fun. Slake Erie, man. It's looking forward to getting on the Mississippi river where the wind's not that much of an issue and you can do some different stuff, but it's Walla capital, it's Walla Haven, there's a hell of a lot of fish and when things land right, it's a good time, but if you're coming to Lake Erie, make sure you got three, five, seven day trip plan. Cause you're probably not going to get out every day. They said pretty good weather, you know, with the early spring and March and some of April, but never felt sternum. The tournament comes down.
Mother Nature, come right along and said, let me challenge you, but that's where the playing field is even. Nobody can control the weather. Nobody knows what the mud's doing right now.
You know, it's that's tournament fishing in general's who can adapt and make the changes on the fly Sure to adapt to that situation that you may have a plan and we all know it you throw that plan out the window in the First five minutes of the tournament because you're like None of that's gonna work or that spots not gonna work and you're starting from scratch But that's where the classes and the educational part so why we do it man figure it out, you know, it's a challenge I mean, that's the challenge the worst tournaments ever had are the ones I learned the most then
out what you did wrong. The ones you win, everything was perfect, right? You win them. So what did you learn? You learn what is awesome and losing sucks, right? But I mean, you can go fish a ditch pickle tournament anytime and work the bank, no matter what the weather or what the color of the water is, and maybe you'll get them, maybe you won't. All are little different beasts. Tournaments in general, you've been fishing, we've all been doing this stuff for a long time, you a real long time.
What do you see as it's all going in the walleye world, in the walleye tournament circuits, and good and bad, we've got National Walleye Tour, MWC, like we've got a lot of local stuff, a ton of local, there's more tournament circuits than ever, more or less. But what does Teddy feel that the future of walleye, professional walleye fishing looks like? I think there's always going to be a place for walleye tournaments. Everybody, you know, in the light.
Brian Bashore (32:20.598)
and that may be not everybody, but a lot of people like the competition. They like, you know, their opportunity to compete against other great anglers and I think it'll continue. I mean as long as we have great organizations that are willing to take a chance on the walleye fishing, like Outdoor Teamworks and Cabela's, I think it's a great opportunity for them to
educate, help us educate and bring up more walleye anglers. I mean that's the only way it's going to grow is to get more walleye anglers into the competitive game of walleye fishing. So I believe in it. It's the only way that you know I've been able to make a great living out of it and I think it's going to continue to go. You fished the glory days, you mentioned the Bismarck, 6,000 people in the stands.
Can we get back to that? Is that even an option? These, I mean, Bass is doing it, right? The classic, and there's 10,000 people in the stands, and it's a big show. We get, in this case, that would get turned out last year. I don't know, a few hundred, 500 people, maybe, in the crowd there, which is huge. Well, I think the difference today is that we have technology. It's just like the one we're communicating with a lot of people, and you have the opportunity to communicate actually with.
more people than would sit in a big stadium. I mean, the only difference between a big stadium and social media or the computer screen is just the vibration that you get, with thousands of people in one big auditorium. It's no different than watching a basketball game.
live or watching a basketball game on television. So I think that, you know, there's room for both. I certainly hope that the NWT goes to live arena type of walleye tournaments. I think when that happens, then I think if we can fill a stadium with a few thousand people, I think that's a good start.
Brian Bashore (34:34.034)
Yeah, the live streaming of just everything in general, we can live stream second day of the tournaments, but I don't get any sales service out of here, or anything happening. But it's, yeah, I mean, it's better sometimes to watch on TV. We don't have that, but Cardenas is doing all he can, but he's a one man show running the social media side of it. So some of these other podcasts, a lot of it talked and it's that they would love it. You know, if we live stream like MLS, but I don't know.
people may not know is that's a lot of money to set that up. I mean, that's a multi-million dollar production with bass and stuff. We're not remotely close to that right now. It's create your own stuff. I think Greg Heard is gonna try to live stream his. Well, we'll see. It would be cool. Give a sense. I think that we might be misunderstanding the
opportunity that we do have. You know, I mean, you can downplay it, just say that, you know, hey, we're, we're walleye anglers, but I think there's a lot of walleye anglers out there. And if you can just get them more interested and more excited about the sport of walleye fishing, I think then the sport will continue to grow. And I think that's, that's the most important thing is.
We need to get more people into it, into the game of walleye fishing and having these leagues and team tournaments and having at least a national walleye tour to be able to educate and excite people about walleye fishing. I think that's the biggest, that's the most important thing.
Yeah, we definitely are missing. There's a hell of a lot of wall hangers out there. And wall hangers are some tackle buying fools. So somebody would ask that, I bet it's five to one, as much gear and stuff as all our guys buy versus like the bass guys. Crankbaits, trolling, jigging. I mean, your truck is got a lot of stuff. Don't go robbing Teddy's truck now, but you know, and most every one of us do. And it's not cheap. So there's a lot of gear being sold for.
Brian Bashore (36:48.278)
that much tackle companies move that much there's obviously gotta be a hell of a lot of walleye. Even our boats are a lot more expensive. We run bigger motors, kicker motors. More electronics. I mean there's four boats in the driveway and that's probably a lot too. Ice boats. You can't really compare bass and walleye anglers really. I mean it's just two different sports, two different species of fish and you know.
No, we're not. It's a billion dollar industry and we're a few hundred million dollar industry. And just to be a million and a billion is a hell of a lot. A whole lot. Oh, yeah. A lot lot.
So there's a, you know, and it's just, yeah, it's a different world. But I think the wall anglers are very versatile. They're definitely different. And also the sort of Midwest, upper, you know, Great Lake Northern. But look, we got wall anglers that are whooping butt on the, in the basketball. And Wiesner and Adam Rasmund just finished second in the basketball classic. J. Secure is, I just want to call him a walleye guy because his dad, he grew up, you know, with it, but he's clearly a bass guy and doing really well there. So.
We're versatile anglers and bring a lot to a lot of those guys fish that sturgeon Bay, uh, sprinkle and court and those guys and they do, they do well on that sturgeon Bay, that bass open. So there's a place for me to watch out for wall anglers, no matter where you're at. We think Brandy, where are we going with this tournament world advancing or how do we grow it? And we've got 10 co anglers, eight.
There's a handful of people behind the screen that are that have traveled all of them for their first time and got in for all four way of a huge demand. Sounds like 140 something, you know, code was signed up for all of these or 135 or something like that. So obviously it's working. And that's not like half of us. It's been a great, there's no doubt that the pro co format has really, uh,
Brian Bashore (38:45.27)
put a shot in the arm in competitive walleye fishing. I mean, it's exciting to see. To have that many co-s, or partners, that wanna learn more, and we're able to take them.
I think it's great. It's great. And if I had that opportunity when I first started, I would have jumped at it. Sure. It was a great opportunity to learn. I think there was somewhere between like five and ten coves from last year that are now fishing the pro side. Right. At least in this tournament. Sure. Which is exactly how it's supposed to work. So all you guys sitting out back there that travel longer, that's why they're here, to learn and...
Not always some of them aren't they're just like that's just checking it out, learning some other tournaments and things but.
So I'm inspired to have that goal to move up to the next level. I think it's nice having the Co's traveling with us and stuff like that so they could get, you know, see it all. You know, see what we do at night and how we're rigging our boats and retying stuff and, you know, just sitting around talking and, you know, having our meetings, looking at maps. And so they get the full experience, I think. And I think it gives them a little bit more drive that they, you know, they want to be part of that. Sure. I hope so. I think some are like, oh, this is more work than I thought. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (40:07.253)
Yeah, it is great. We got a good group of guys that are honestly done. It helps old guys like us when they're a little bit younger, some of them. They really help us out. Get help out here. Especially you.
I know I can't, I can't hear and I can't see and I can't walk. You even remember driving from South Dakota to here? No. Randy, what, where do you think we're going? What do we, what can we do to make this grow? I don't know. Um, yeah, I would say, I mean, the, that, I mean, we want to get, dive into that Ford facing sonar stuff really does worry me. Um,
There's nothing wrong with the technology in fishing, but there is a problem with guys seeing people using that forward-facing sonar and then you calling yourself their pro with knowledge. I've heard from people saying, oh, they use that forward-facing sonar on ice fishing or something and they want to tell you how good they are at fishing. But in the walleye world...
Think we gotta have a little bit more time with the Ford FACES and Sonar and see how it ends up. I don't know. I'm not very good at predicting the future, so I don't know. None of us would be here if we were. We'd be in Florida on our yachts doing something else. Maybe we'd probably still be here and be like, whatever. It's not a cheap gig, so people are comfortable like that.
Yeah, the learning curve of it, and that's what a lot of talk in the bass world is, is these new young guys coming in don't know how to do anything, and if that thing breaks down they're hoes, but it hasn't quite been the case. Some of them have proven plenty well that the learning curve in general for them, because of the information, we used to have to wait for the Interferior Magazine to come out, the New Outdoor Live, or Saturday morning to watch Bill Bantz, or Al Linder, or whatever, and now that's...
Brian Bashore (42:08.37)
Now they can get on YouTube and see what the bite is right now. Unlike Erie and, and go out and do it. I just dumped a bunch of information for him. Now they know when they come here, that stuff wasn't there. It was, you know, if you had to wait months to get it and read it and retain it, now you're in your boat going, what did he say? Looking it up, watching it. Let's try this. So, I mean, that's awesome. That's technology and that's, that's good.
I think it's moving faster and faster than ever before. But a tournament like this, when we got a big blow, muddy water, rain, all this stuff, I think it benefits us because we didn't grow up with the Ford fish and so on. We had to go and figure out where these fish go. When I first started fishing tournaments, it was 20 degrees out. I'm blowing out of the north, 20 mile an hour, and it's just a bad day of fish. And I come to scale with one fish, and I'm like, yeah, it was just a bad day of fish.
come in with five and say they caught 30 fish a day. And you're like, all right. There's always active fish somewhere. You just got to find them. You can't give up, but you got to know where to look. And even if you're the best on, for instance, sonar, a tournament like this, if you don't know where to go to look for those fish, then that technology is not going to do you any good. That's a big body of water. Yeah. That it is. Fish is small, but it's big. It's tough on a big body of water. River.
rivers, those fish move fast as hell. I mean, they're moving here because you still got a lot of current Great Lakes a lot of people probably don't understand or realize that as much, but the Great Lakes have current. A lot of current in certain spots. And if you can figure that out, that makes you 10 times better understanding that. Direction, we talked about earlier, what direction do you troll and coming in at different angles and maybe that goes with jigging as well.
I mean, like we were talking earlier today about which direction you need to control. You go with the waves.
Brian Bashore (44:07.014)
I always try to quarter them where my boards are running equal on each side. That's how I usually know I got the current right. You ever see where your, you know, one side's pulling really good and the other side you can't figure it out. It's just drawing back or slowing down. Just isn't pulling right and you're not catching any fish on that side. You just got to sometimes just angle it a different way. Play with that until your boards are running equal and you'll start picking them up. Or that side's catching on fish and you know I got to slow the hell down. It's the same way we turn or figure eight or whatever it is, right?
outside and you get no you got to speed up catch them on the inside slow down I mean that's why we do that that's why we're always trolling like that see like I mean an old dog can learn new tricks I didn't know I didn't know that problem why'd you bring that up I might use that I mean think about it though you make a left turn and right side of the board well no I know that it's the it's the troughs
with the current knowing that you're running it right. I mean, it's like Gary, so all the waters, everybody thinks that currents go on east, but if you get a big blow up, Canada or a flood, and all that water's dumping in, it's gonna change the current. Same thing over here, all these rivers dumping in are gonna change the current. And the islands. Right. So trolling with the waves, you might be going like 2.2.
and then going against them, you might have to go for them out or vice versa. That's why a lot of guys use, what's those? Fishhawks. What is it? Fishhawks. Yeah, fishhawks. A little speed indicator. You'd be amazed dropping that down 30 feet where your baits are or whatever. You know, it might be you might be throwing three on the surface and it might be one point two down there. Right. So that does help out a lot. Oh, boy. More equipment if you don't have one. Way behind on that one.
But I just think we have to have a lot more knowledge than like a bass fisherman. I mean, bass fishermen, they all use live bait. All they do is cast really. Us, we troll, we leg core wire, we slip by bird, we pitch jigs and weeds with leeches and we do it all. Yeah, the discussion of live bait hasn't came up yet, but I foresee that someday. You know, being a...
Brian Bashore (46:19.762)
a play or going away or who knows but it's a staple. Yeah, I hope they don't go away with live bait. No, we don't want to open that can of worms. Well, you got to keep that traditional. You think of walleye, you think of leeches. You know, jigging a leech, you know. I think that you can't have this bass guys versus walleye guys kind of thing. You know what I mean? Everybody's fishermen are fishermen women. And, you know, we're all trying to figure out what these fish do.
The bass, they're just as difficult to catch at times as well. And the skills that some of these bass anglers have, I mean, our physical skills. I mean, to be able to take a jig and put it in a cup 60 feet or 40 feet or whatever it is away, I mean, they have skills where they have to place their baits perfectly. And no different than when we're trolling, we got to place our baits.
where the fish are and I think everybody stand up. Right? I mean, I love the jig but it wears you out. I mean, you've got four foot rollers, five foot rollers coming at you. Not as windy down south always but they...
They get into it. And they travel a lot more than we do. Yeah, nine tournaments, a lot of travel. And it's, you're not home. New York to California to Florida. You go from one tournament to the next tournament. You are not home for months. And our family's all sacrificed enough because we're gone a week here and home for a few weeks and then off the Red Wing for another week and home for a couple weeks in Green Bay.
We got most of July, almost like a month and a half in Skakua. Yeah, I see a lot of these basketball guys, they go longer, farther, more weeks. It's, it is grueling. I mean, anybody who thinks tournament.
Brian Bashore (48:17.55)
Tournament fishing in general is easy. It's long nights. Yeah, the road time is what, you know, driving to South Dakota or something, 16, 18 hours for me, saying, well, you guys did the drive this time, but after this tournament, you know, I'm going to take Saturday and Sunday and switch the boat over and work Monday and Tuesday and pull out Tuesday right after work, drive to South Dakota and fish in MWC. Come home, I'm home for a week, then I got the NTC, then we go to Red Wing.
It's gonna be a busy year for me. A lot of road hours. Gas went up about 60 cents yesterday, so. Yeah, right. That sucks. I was shocked when I went to the pump this morning. 315, 375. Yeah. Yup. And my boat was on E. It's not a team transport. Is that what we pay for gas in South Dakota? No, it was 318 yesterday morning, it was 375 last night.
Huh. Cause I did the same thing and filled up. Mine is $425. Yeah, ours is like three something, but that's Brandy and I, cause Brandy's a money guru and looked at stocks and when it oil didn't change, you know, it's been a few days, but whatever. It is what it is. You gotta have fuel to get home and gotta have fuel in the boat to get to the fish. So we just gotta win some money. So we can refill that bank account with the gas money. Not a chiefs man sport, but we all got good partners.
Lund, been with you for a long time. Right, Mercury. Mercury, who else? Who's Teddy, who's showing Teddy the love nowadays? JT Outdoors, Rods, and Humminbird Electronics. Man, Kota, they just came out with this new brushless Quest engine, motors, and man, that thing was spot on today. I mean, it lasted.
lot longer than I thought it was gonna, you know, I mean, I was running pretty hard today. Um, yeah, a little more power and a little less battery juice, right? Yeah, exactly. Um, this new sponsor, Lake Effect, uh, rattle paddles is swim bait, which I caught a few fish. You've got a few fish on the swim bait. And I was actually trolling them.
Brian Bashore (50:36.206)
And not cast it up. Are you gonna troll some tomorrow? I will troll I'll have at least one on my four lines So is there still two rods per person in WT? Yeah. Yeah No
And a lot of places, lakes with forward-face sonar, most guys are using one rod. So, I mean, last year was really set up good for that. And the guys that are excellent at it, excelled and did great. This series, or the schedule this year lays out a little different. Obviously trolling's a big factor in Lake Erie and probably for Lake Huron or Green Bay, can go either which way. And then the Mississippi's just, the Mississippi, you gotta bring everything you got.
you don't know what you're getting into, right? Which is why I like it. And the fact that it doesn't get too windy. The number one reason I like it. Older I get, the more fair weather I am, by all means. I think you could probably agree with that. Yeah. Give me some bluebird sunny days. So any thoughts, any closing thoughts? We'll wrap this up. Get out here and get some rest. We got a big day tomorrow. I gotta go on my.
The bat's blue, non-alcoholic is about empty. So, Sammy's wife found some good stuff here. I don't drink, but this is pretty good. It's not alcoholic, but it's pretty good. Yeah. Anything? Anybody got any closing thoughts? Anything to say? No, I had a good week. You know, it was the first time I fished with you guys and as a team and a lot of good co's. I mean, I had a good week. I had a lot of fun this week. You know, we just got to stay positive and don't give up, man. Tomorrow we just got to look for clean water and we'll make it happen.
Start off on a good note this day and start with a little bit of money. Put all of us in the top five or one of us win it and it's just a fish heart. Hopefully I can make a thumbnail for the YouTube video holding up the trophy or something. Or maybe a bunch of checks, whatever the case may be. But Randy's a no. Trophies, we need trophies. We need hardware. Hardware pays the bills by all means. But money's great but the hardware lasts a long time.
Brian Bashore (52:51.402)
Money goes right back into gas tanks so we can get home. And afford to go to the next one, really, right? Easy come, easy go. It's not too easy come by all means. All right, well, we will do this again in Red Wing. We got a nice big house. This is our little man cave here. It's pretty cool. We got, I can hear the whole frogs, man. I wonder how bad that's gonna be on here. They're freaking loud. It's got a big cusp of background.
We got a pool, we got a koi pond, which nobody has stuck a bait in there yet. I can't believe it. But hot tub, the pool's closed, which is probably good for the season. But yeah, big, this is an old school house, big room here, but, and uh,
Quite a few beds and bathrooms. So that's all part of it. We got a big place for Red Wing and O'Connell as well. So we'll try to do this again and let you know how it's going, what the tournament outlook looks like. You're gonna see this til after the tournament, so you'll probably know how all that panned out by then, because that happens in real time.
Like I say, so stay tuned for the next one and we'll just keep you up to date with it and it's just this good stuff. So Red Wing Minnesota will be the next one. Until then, there'll be some more podcasts dropping in between. So thanks for watching this episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits with Ted, Semmy, and Randy and myself. Stay cool and we'll see you on the water.