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I'm Brian Bashore, Professional walleye angler and owner of The Walleye Guys Guide service. I am here to reel you in with captivating stories, expert tips, and interviews with some of the biggest names in the fishing community. So, sit back, relax, and let the drag scream!
Brian Bashore (00:00)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning into another episode of real talk fishing with no limits today We are wrapping up the NWT season gonna go back and talk about the championship and our fantasy picks from the championship So once again joined by the co -host here, mr. John Bala and mr. Drake heard how we doing gentlemen
Drake Herd (00:20)
great, just getting back in the swing of things.
John Balla (00:25)
Yeah, feeling good. mean, the season's over. That went by fast. It seems like we're just talking about Lake Erie.
Brian Bashore (00:31)
What are we gonna talk about next right? It's you know, it's we are approaching fall over getting in one of the best times of best fishing seasons of the entire year if you can find time between the football and the hunting and Just you know, I don't hopefully we get a winter like last where where we didn't really have one We got a fish till through December because that was awesome, but we'll get right down Nine months or you're right Yep Yeah, I mean ice fishing is alright, but winter can it can
Drake Herd (00:50)
Yeah, we need nine months of fall is what we need instead of like two and a half, three, then we'd be set.
Yep. Go over there.
Brian Bashore (01:01)
It can, it can move on. know you don't want too much of that Drake. You sell a lot of fin gear stuff for the ice guys. We need a couple months of winter, right? A little hard water is good. It's good for the bed. It's good for the industry. We all need a little break. We need to get those boats stuck in their garage and everybody's spouses I'm sure are glad to have them home for a while. But if my, as a fisherman's walleye widow who's upstairs would probably say, yeah, I short lived though. It's so are we like, we're glad you're home and it doesn't take long. It's like, isn't it time to go again somewhere?
Drake Herd (01:06)
Yep. Yeah. Yep.
Yes, yes. Like when are you leaving next?
Brian Bashore (01:31)
We're we're annoying man when we're stuck at home and we got we don't have a whole lot to do so but We were just talking about the Tom when University just came out So that should give some people things to do Over these winter months to study up on the forward -facing sonar as John and I were talking about earlier looking at the top ten from the angular to the year And it was the top ten that I would pick is the top ten forward -facing sonar guys And that's exactly how it played out. So we'll get into that minute
Drake Herd (01:37)
yep. Yep.
Brian Bashore (02:00)
Drake, you were there, you fished it, you made it. How did it go? Tell us about the Lake Huron fishing, the pre -fish and every little good and bad about it.
Drake Herd (02:10)
Yeah, mean, going out there, mean, we kind of looked at like historic stuff and whatnot. So we figured we needed to shoot for that 25 pound range. And I mean, that's just what we had to shoot for. That's what it was going to be. And come to find out there was literally one bag, Tom's on the last day that was even close to that. It was crazy.
Brian Bashore (02:30)
Only two, two total bags, two or three bags over 20 pounds period. Two right? 23 and 21 or something. Okay. Yep.
Drake Herd (02:37)
too. Yeah. And see, I would have and we'll get into that. But like we found some fish down on the thumb, like down a ways. And they were all like two to three pounders, three and a quarter pounders. And we're like, 17 pounds isn't going to do you anything. Like it won't do you any good. So we kind of like rode those fish off and we just kept searching and searching, you know, and we found like
I would say before we got that big Northwest wind, whatever it was, the third day of pre -fishing, like guys were catching nice, like four to six pound fish in Alpina and North, I will say. And even a little bit south of Alpina, but basically that range, Alpina North, I think guys had really good bites going that they're kind of confident in. And then the water, know, was 70, 71 degrees and
Then we got the northwest wind at about 75 miles an hour. that like, I just remember looking at like the water temp thing. I'm like, we need to screenshot this. And then you screenshotted the next one. And it was like, we're in trouble. And then literally you went out the next day and the water in some areas was 15, 16 degrees colder. Like it was crazy. And those fish were like gone, gone. And I'm sure some of them just, and that's a big theory where they go, you know.
Brian Bashore (03:40)
gone.
Drake Herd (04:04)
Do they lay on the bottom? Do they go out deep? know, who knows where they go. If you could ever solve that problem, I think you'd be a happy camper, you know, with these tournaments. But that's when we kind of went into scramble mode, but we weren't exactly like nervous about it. We still found some water out deep, you know, in that 60 to 70 feet. And as the tournament went on, these guys just kept moving while.
They were out into a hundred, a hundred and fifty, a hundred and sixty, a hundred and seventy feet of water by the end of the tournament. They just kept jumping until they found that warm water. And that's one of the things where I struggle with the Great Lakes. Like I think like I thought those fish, it's only a degree or two water temperature difference. You know, once it's down there, well, they knew that those fish would just keep jumping. And I should have realized that. And those guys were fishing them out deep and I caught some out deep, but I was still
Fishing shallow, I mean, we caught some nice fish in the weeds. had Dylan Neusbaum was around me and a few others that were in the top 10. just couldn't get them to bite. It was just one of those things where it's like, God dang, you're close, but you're still off. But that's where you go into this thing and you don't know how big you need. We talked, you need...
25 pounds, well, if you'd have had that, you would have blew everyone out by a long shot. You know, it's crazy. And so like Kevin went down to the spot on the thumb and he, the second day, and he's like, dude, we caught like 30 to 40 fish. Like we had 17 and a half pounds or 18 pounds. Well, if we would have did that all three days, we would have been way up there. And we just didn't think that was enough.
You know, it was just one of those things. So I think we overlooked that a little bit that we needed bigger weight and we should have reflected more on that. I don't know. That's just kind of what I'm thinking. I don't know.
Brian Bashore (06:06)
Yeah, it only took 58 pounds and 10 ounces. So we were all in the mid upper seventies on our prediction. So, we didn't need the tiebreaker anyway, but yeah, way off. were literally almost 20, 20 pounds off.
Drake Herd (06:12)
Yeah!
And I knew once that Northwest winds hit, we should have known better. We still thought they would have been above 20 pound bags, but you didn't even need, it's just crazy that you didn't even need that. It's just one of those things.
Brian Bashore (06:35)
1718 would have been real good shape top ten
Drake Herd (06:37)
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I don't know, what did, I mean, you were there, Bala, did many guys say, what did they kind of say about it or not much after the tournament or?
John Balla (06:50)
Yeah, mean, unfortunately, you know, with, know, including us talking about it, you know, and his history on Lake Huron, it's always been in that 25 over the last four or five years anyway, you don't see a lot of 30 pound bags or you don't just don't see them. that 24 to 27 has been the average for the last four or five years. So I think, you know, we were guilty of thinking it was going to be higher. think probably everybody going into it was looking at the same data we were looking at. So they're probably, you know, and.
You know, when, you know, I don't know when you started thinking that 25 is just a way out of reach. Maybe I need to lower max, but if you guys even did, maybe you kept thinking someone's going to get 25, you know, I don't know. And that kind of can start messing with you, but no. what afterwards, I mean, we couldn't talk obviously during the tournaments and everything, but afterwards, you know, yeah, it was up North. was some guys getting some better fish, but the wind blew and it changed water temps down South.
Drake Herd (07:37)
Yeah, right.
John Balla (07:48)
like the nursery down there, tons of three pounders, three and a halfs. I heard that several times after like, wow, we didn't think that was gonna do us any good. The thumb historically has held a lot of big fish. When you mentioned that in beginning of your recap, yeah, that whole thumb area, depending on the wind can be really, really good.
Drake Herd (07:57)
Yeah.
The one thing that I think kind of hurt that area and, I, I wouldn't have thought it going in is that bass tournament, that NPFL bass tournament was there. And a lot of those guys were fishing humps, and points and fingers, the same that we would have fished walleyes. That's where they were fishing smallies. And I think any big fish that were really there by the time those guys got done and then we started pre -fishing, like they had just been pushed off.
of some of those areas and I know we didn't hit all of them, but you went over there like my first day of pre -fishing. I went over there and I figured, you know, I'm going to crack a big bag over there and this is where I'm going to go. Well, I got over there and I didn't, I maybe saw two other walleye boats. I think I saw a Hoyer and Nussbaum, but I bet you I saw 30 of those bass boats that were fishing at MPFL and I'm like, boy, this isn't good that all these guys are fishing a lot of the rock humps and fingers. Like it just.
those fish feel it and they push off or do their own thing. So I think that was one thing that I picked up on right away. It's like, this might not be as good down here as we thought.
John Balla (09:17)
Did you run down there day one at all? Did anybody run down to the thumb on day one?
Drake Herd (09:22)
None of us. We all went north. Yeah.
John Balla (09:23)
Yeah. So I was working, I was visiting some bunch of dairies and a bunch of customers I've got in the thumb. And I went up to, I went up to Port Austin and I walked that whole finger all about, and there was no wind, like none. But by the time I finished the day up and got to the weigh -in, it was blowing like crazy up there or halfway decent up there. So there was literally like no wind on that point. You know, it just got worse as you progressed, progressively moved up.
Drake Herd (09:48)
Yeah.
John Balla (09:51)
into Michigan and, you know, upper Lake Huron. But yeah, we heard, you know, I had heard that there was some weed fish that were caught during pre -fish and stuff. And that was kind of going to be the consistent place to go if you really needed them. So I think they had told me some, like, you know, a lot of guys during practice were just looking for some good weed beds that were halfway decent, half, halfway close and navigable because he had to kind of pick spots. Now,
Drake Herd (10:12)
Yeah.
John Balla (10:19)
To hear Tom Wynn say that he went down south was pretty interesting. I mean, how he said he was noticing more bait was moving south. That's pretty high level stuff there. Like to understand that these fish are moving and he's going to where they're moving, which is they are going in at lower Bay. So that was a pretty high level move. thought on his part, when I heard that and I don't understand, like, how did some of these guys figure out this deep stuff? Were there salmon guys out there fishing and then catching salmon? Like what was.
Drake Herd (10:35)
Yeah, yeah.
John Balla (10:49)
Were there just boats out there, guys? mean, it's huge.
Drake Herd (10:51)
So like
Brian Bashore (10:53)
suspended, what is that suspended smelt or what out there?
Drake Herd (10:55)
Yeah, you would see yes. And then absolutely. And like you hear me talk about those depths, like Kevin McCoy, I mean, he's been there, done that. Like they used to troll out in that stuff. goes, they used to troll hot and tots was the lure out there. And that's how they used to get fish. So like, I think guys once that cold front kind of pushed all the warm water out off the shore, I think most of them, or I shouldn't say I'm
John Balla (10:56)
Yes.
Drake Herd (11:23)
Some of them are smart enough to then say, all right, the warm water is now, you know, three to five miles off of shore. So that's where they started to look. It's crazy though. Like you would go out there and you would just search and there's not huge schools. Like there's just one every so often. And if you got like two or three together, you know, you're going to catch one because they were going to fight for it. Like it was just one of those things where they were hungry. So I think.
The fact that those guys just kept moving out though, didn't pick up on that. Pre -fishing we caught some in like 70 to 80 feet. And granted when I say that, we're still only fishing 20 to 30 feet down. We're in the top half. During the second, first day of the tournament, we ended up shifting out to 100 feet. Well by the end of that second day of the tournament, some of those guys were out in 150, 170 feet. And I'm like.
There's no way those fish are out there, but they just kept going and they ended up still catching them out there. Whereas I was too stubborn and went to like 110, 115 and I should have just kept going. But it's so hard, know, when you're like, you have limited time because one, you have a south wind. So like, it was awesome driving up. It took you an hour to get up there to go 30 miles, like no big deal.
Well, it literally took you two hours to two hours and 15 minutes to get back every day. So you only had a limited time to fish. So I don't know. It's impressive what those guys can do. And like I said, and I said it in my one interview in my video before the tournament, like these guys are so good and they adapt and whoever is going to adapt, like they're going to do it. And that's where it's it's just impressive how fast these guys can find these fish and get them dialed in.
Brian Bashore (13:10)
Sound like Thomas pretty confident going to day two and that's obviously where you want to be when the fish are coming to you. That's the whole, always are always trying to stay, stay ahead of them and sound like he got them decent and went, it's just going to get better. And it did. So, or after day two and it was day three.
Drake Herd (13:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, and I think there is a lot of fish in the system. I mean, it's just a matter of what you wanted to pick. Like everyone's like, you guys didn't catch that many. Well, we could have went and caught smaller fish. You know, if we wanted to, we still had to kind of go for a little bit. I mean, and that's what it is, you know, so.
Brian Bashore (13:45)
Yeah, Great Lake people anticipate just a lot of big fish, but that's not always the case.
Drake Herd (13:50)
Yeah, we found that out. And it's just crazy because I look at the Michigan Walleye Tour, those guys, they crack them good. So we all kept thinking, we need big, we need big. Well, come to find out, not so much. We got it shoved in our face.
Brian Bashore (14:04)
But still a 25 pound bag on a coaling system isn't what you expect for a Great Lake nonetheless. mean, we had bigger bags at Sakakawe and bigger bags in the Mississippi River almost with one fish over 20. So, and you go in there again next year, I believe in July. So you think those fish that you had up North were moving South or those resident moving or just hanging in there? I don't know. They disappeared, right?
Drake Herd (14:15)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Dude, I would love to know. It's one of those things. It was my first time being to that area. Like I said, it's at Sault Ste. Marie and down in Saginaw Bay. I would assume there's some resident. mean, there's always resident fish in Alpena and stuff. It's just a small, Thunder Bay is just a small Saginaw. So I'm assuming there's resident ones there. And that's where, mean, some of those guys were catching even bigger ones than we were.
you know, six pounders, seven pounders. it was like, so you hear that and you're like, well, you know, we got to stay on it. But then, you know, they, they had the same issue where they just, they are gone. And there's no, it's, you feel so helpless at times because like, Chase is like, Drake, I caught like, I don't know, five over five pounds in like seven casts or something. And he goes, they're just, they're, they're thick. And I, and I'm like, did you go back? And he goes, yeah, we, sent Tom Kemos up there the next day. And Tom was like,
I can't even mark a fish or like see one, what, you know, they're just gone and there's, just can't do anything about it. You just got to try to relocate them.
Brian Bashore (15:36)
Which is hard to do when you have very limited fishing time and you probably had limited practice fishing time because it blew about every day on you, right? Which if people don't know, Huron's basically wide open and a 10 mile an hour wind is, you're probably not even able to run wide open because the rollers are just too big to keep you in the water.
Drake Herd (15:40)
Yeah. Blue. Yeah. Yeah. Nah.
It's Yeah. So I don't know. It's one of those ones where I mean, I learned a ton. I like, I can't complain about it. And that's the one thing that I'm happy about is that I learned a ton to hopefully come back, you know, to Alpina and can actually make a run at the next one. You know, it's, one of those things where you, you hope you picked up enough pointers and
stuff of just being out there and getting your butt kicked that you can come back and do some damage the next time.
John Balla (16:19)
There might be some similarities you can transfer over to Green Bay too. mean, honestly, especially some of that open water stuff and those cold water temperature changes and the fish moving and the fish migrating because at Saginaw, they do start migrating to that lower Bay because they all start staging out in front of that river. The river's down there.
Drake Herd (16:23)
Yeah.
John Balla (16:37)
Yeah, most of those fish are migratory fish. They used to hang around the charities all the time, but then the forage kind of changed and things kind of changed up and now they kind of go out in the abyss mostly and then they start coming back. Probably those fish along that shoreline mix of some resident and some migratory.
Drake Herd (16:48)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (16:53)
Yeah. Was there much going on around charity Island? It's the only place I ever lost a miles or I got a seven, eight pounder out there, but that was about it.
Drake Herd (16:58)
You know, there was some, I wouldn't say there was, it was on the islands. It was more out in the open water in the mud, you know, like to the West, some to the South and to the North. Like it wasn't on charities more so. and you did hear, you know, you'd run into the random salmon captains. Like I caught this one on 400 feet of copper and 300 feet of water. And I'm like, like, good for you. know, like, what, like I can't do that. You know, it's just one of those things, you know, so,
Brian Bashore (17:17)
All right.
I
Drake Herd (17:26)
you know that they're just kind of roaming out there and it was just a matter if you could get on the right pod in school and do your damage.
John Balla (17:32)
I mean, I was at the weigh -in both days and Escoto is a nice town. mean, people are nice and everybody. I guess it just lacked a lot of the pop and circumstance I would attribute a championship to. There weren't a lot of signage out in front for people to even know how to find the weigh -in, which I was a little bit disappointed in that. The crowds are pretty sparse. A lot of the anglers and lot of some of their families stuck around.
Brian Bashore (17:46)
Kinda what I heard.
John Balla (17:59)
But I mean, the venue seemed nice, the weigh -in seemed halfway decent. But again, they had a couple hiccups, but it sure would be nice, I think, as a fan to see that in an area where you can get a couple hundred people there showing up at the weigh -in. At least four or 500 people there just showing up at the weigh -in. But again, it was a nice town, people are nice, they welcomed everybody.
Drake Herd (18:15)
Yeah.
John Balla (18:24)
I just think they're limited just by the sheer population that surrounded that within a couple hours. mean, Saginaw was an hour and a half or hour and 20 minutes away or whatever. And I think that's the closest town. So large town.
Drake Herd (18:28)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (18:31)
I hope.
Drake Herd (18:35)
Yeah. Yeah. Right. No, I think that's too. mean, I mean, you look at like Otter Tail had a huge attendance. Dunkirk, I thought Dunkirk did a great job. mean, they had the whole, there was a ton of people there, you know. So it's just one of those things where, you know, you hope them more, but they struggled with it a little bit for sure.
Brian Bashore (18:42)
Mm -hmm.
John Balla (18:54)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (18:55)
your Marinette next year at a green Bay. And the last time we had a championship Marinette, I recall that one as I was like, wow, they showed up. I mean, there was a reporter in the parking lot every day when you came in at practice and almost every day, the front page of their local newspaper had Ted Takasaki. Some, know, Keith, somebody was on it. They interviewed him and had him and everybody in town knew what was going on. That town is full of digital billboards. So it was easy to put stuff up, but we had some, think we had like two or three blow days that one year. So everybody's going out to.
John Balla (19:02)
Yeah.
Drake Herd (19:05)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What was going on? Yeah.
Brian Bashore (19:22)
The restaurants for breakfast and everybody knew what was going on. And I've been in other places where they're like, what's going on? You know, the, gas station by the boat ramp attendant says what's going on when there's 150 boats lined up outside and you're like, really? You don't know what's going on.
Drake Herd (19:32)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (19:35)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's nice to see at a championship. It is. mean, I'm not complaining and picking on anybody. It's just, I think population density has a lot to do with it, really.
Brian Bashore (19:46)
I heard the same. You had a media day that was built in for a good cause. it? How'd that go? Was there absolutely any media or was this another half day of practice?
Drake Herd (19:54)
No, Yeah, I wish we could have fished a couple more hours. We all kind of honestly sat around in the parking lot and just kind of BS till 1 32 o 'clock and yeah. sorry, sorry, sorry. Yeah, so I, you know, I don't know what exactly they had planned, but we just we didn't do it, you know, so.
Brian Bashore (20:08)
Slide over Drake, we're missing half your face in the camera view here. Okay.
Drake Herd (20:22)
That's where I don't know. I'm hoping and that's why I was kind of bummed. Like I didn't fish the third day so I couldn't even use my live streaming stuff. You know, I'd love to show the public more, but we're so restricted on some of this stuff where they, if they'd loosen it up a little bit, it would be awesome. You know, but I don't know.
Brian Bashore (20:37)
Well, unfortunately, media day only works when the media knows about it. I didn't, don't know, John's kind of on the media side of things. So I didn't get it personally saying, attend here or to do this. so you can write it in the rules or whatever it is, but if you don't tell anybody about it, it really doesn't matter. But it sounds like the population sparse and there wasn't much around there anyway. So there may not have been anybody. And it just is what it is. So you guys are self created all your stuff and Cardenas did enough interviews to create the buzz.
Drake Herd (20:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yep. Yep.
John Balla (21:06)
He did a, Robert does a great job for the circuit. really, really does. stepped that, he stepped that up a lot. Kudos to him for all his time and effort that he puts into it. mean, getting up early, you know, he, called him and talked to him. He had to go to like the local restaurant just to get wifi to upload all of his stuff. couldn't get it at his hotel. He couldn't get it anywhere. So he was, I think he got a Dairy Queen password to one day, which he didn't complain about. but then he got.
Drake Herd (21:29)
Yeah, yeah, he was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brian Bashore (21:29)
It's a constant battle. He's got that T -Mobile thing and I got it out too on my camper, but it still isn't enough to load a video. You got to have a lot better signal.
Drake Herd (21:34)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (21:36)
Right. Right. Right. So he does, kudos, shout out to Robert Cardenas. If anyone's, you know, go follow him on social media. does such a fantastic job with his media coverage, his interviews, getting to the anglers. You know, he, did all 41 anglers leading up to the championship. did a bio and a little intro to them. So that's really, really cool. And that just helps everybody get a little bit of a, you know, pat on the back for making the championship and then getting their name out there.
It helps their social media, it helps their cause, it helps them get some more sponsors and promotions.
Brian Bashore (22:09)
Yeah. The angle profiles are great. That's there's there's you have more fans out there than you may realize. And I think that's a lot of them want to know what does Drake do when he's not fishing? What is what your family, kids, businesses, jobs, and some of us just fish, but there's a lot more to every wallangler out there than just fishing.
Drake Herd (22:09)
And that's
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And I'm blaming half of my sucking. I lost my fin gear hat like pre -fishing this one and I didn't have a backup one. So then I had to wear a different one and then I sucked. But it was literally in my mind like, God, I just lost my hat and now I'm in trouble and I should never have thought about it.
Brian Bashore (22:45)
I was going to make a point and say, I blame your sucking that you're not dressed like John and I and all our St. Croix apparel. We need to get you a hat and t -shirt so you can join the club. Yeah, he's got his ass going.
Drake Herd (22:50)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there you go. Yeah.
John Balla (22:52)
He's got an apple, I'm good with that. So where's the AOI hat?
Drake Herd (22:59)
that that's hanging on the trophy. Like some of that stuff, there's just staying there. Yeah.
John Balla (23:02)
Is it? Okay.
Brian Bashore (23:02)
I had that at the the Sioux last year. We had like what a two hour fog delay or something that first morning. We're finally going and I and your windshield is getting I have so I don't have bubbles. I got a windshield and I had to look up and I tried to clean it and you're flying down the river so you don't let off and whatever. Well, I looked up and there goes my hat. Well, this dome is pretty shiny.
Drake Herd (23:08)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (23:25)
And my head got fried. didn't have a spare hat and a bow. And, I, my dirty had a hood on it. Fortunately I had that up, you know, for the most part, but it was like, I can't, I can't back off the throttle and go get it. It's just, it's gone. And it was my favorite hat.
Drake Herd (23:25)
Yup. Right, that's I know.
Yeah, no, I couldn't either. It was gone. The only thing that I thought I had going, like I lost my hat, my other finger, this literally hat at Green Bay. So I've lost two this year, but at Green Bay, I lost it the first day and I whacked them. So I'm like, well, maybe I got that going for me. I lost the second one. I'll whack them again. Nah, that didn't happen. I just suck.
Brian Bashore (23:54)
I put an extra hat in my boat and I think it was that Red Wing this year Hummel pulled up He's like hey you got a hat I had to give it to Randy so I don't have an extra hat. Same with sunglasses. but Always be prepared John you got some stats So we got Gratts of John or Tom Wynn for winning it with 58 pounds 10 ounces. I think it was And then 180 obviously got the angle of the year and we'll cover that stuff in a little bit John you got some
Drake Herd (24:00)
yeah yeah yeah what do do yeah
John Balla (24:07)
funny.
Brian Bashore (24:21)
numbers or stats or any info on how all that worked out and why we were off by 20 pounds.
John Balla (24:27)
Yeah. I mean, I'll blow through them pretty quick. mean, yeah, Tom, we didn't finally want to turn him in. He had a couple of second places. won 132 ,000, which is the most ever. that's his first NWT victory in his fourth season in only 19 events. Second was Evan Rosemore from North Branch, Minnesota. think this is his first year doing it full time. He cashed check for 23 ,000 and then Jake Lapine.
A very well -liked veteran pro from Oshkosh took a third place finish. had a great, he made it a final day and then had a great 16 -10 and win seven.
Drake Herd (25:03)
See, that's where it makes you sick too is because I got Rosemore is like, I don't know, quarter mile that way and Lapine is like a quarter mile outside of me. And I'm just like, God, they're catching them. know, like I just wasn't on it. But anyway, sorry, go ahead.
John Balla (25:16)
No, it's okay. And Tom Wynn said he used a three eighths ounce black jig with night crawlers using four facing sonar. It's the 17th time in 52 events that jigs have been used to win. Top tens, guys, I only keep track of guys that are fishing like 26 or more.
Brian Bashore (25:17)
Usually that works.
It'd be nice if you had the jig and crawler because we're the Wiggly Worm tournament circuit now, because that's really what we're all using. It's a jig and a nightcrawler dangling in the face.
John Balla (25:41)
Yeah, it's true. Yeah.
Drake Herd (25:41)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
John Balla (25:45)
So that was Jake's second top 10 surprisingly. I thought he would have more. Dylan Nussbaum had his seventh top 10. Max has had his 10th. Kent Anderson, his seventh. Justin Schneider, that was his fourth. And of note, Hunter Nitti had his, he finished ninth at his fourth top 10 of the year, tying a record held by Drake Hurd, 2021, and John Hoyer in 2023. So.
Drake Herd (26:07)
You
John Balla (26:10)
You three guys, Drake, are the only three since expanding to five tournaments that have had four top tens in a single season. That's pretty amazing stuff. Tom Wynn, that was his seventh top ten in only 19 events, which is pretty impressive. How about limits? This was surprising for Saginaw Bay and like you said, all fish you were catching in practice and everybody on your team, There were...
Brian Bashore (26:18)
soup.
Drake Herd (26:35)
Yeah.
John Balla (26:37)
22 caught a five fish limit on day one, 24 on day two, and then total, there were only 16 anglers or 39 % that caught a five fish limit on both days. That's crazy. 16 out of 41 guys caught 10 fish after two days. And you can call.
Drake Herd (26:50)
Yeah. It, yeah, like, it's just, and I, it's just, you, I mean, 2020 is hindsight, but you just wish that you could go back and like, I should have just went down south and whacked on three pounders to three and a halfs all day just to try to get to like 17 or 18. And you didn't think that was enough. It would have been awesome.
Brian Bashore (26:53)
And you could call so it wasn't throwing fish back. It was just didn't catch him.
John Balla (26:58)
Crazy.
No, and I'll get to that in a second here. No guys cashing checks. I don't need to go into that, but of note is Dylan Nussbaum. He broke the late great David Anderson streak and Eric McCoy streak a seven in a row. Dylan Nussbaum has cashed eight checks in a row across two seasons and nine of his last 10, which is just incredible. He's on a hot streak. He's on a heater as they call it. So since going to five events in 21,
Drake Herd (27:39)
Yep.
Andy's got a bun in the oven even too, so that'll... Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (27:45)
Yeah, right? Yeah, you're not dead at the championship. They're collecting it. Good for him. Since going to five events in 2021, no angler had cast a check in every event until this year, which is crazy to me. When I record three anglers accomplish that feat, Tom Winn, Dylan Newsbob, and Will Papenfus all cast a check in all five events this year. It's never happened before. And three of them do it the same year. And three in one year. Yep.
Drake Herd (28:08)
and three of them in one year. That's crazy.
John Balla (28:11)
And on top and behind Dylan Nussbaum's eight checks in row, Tom Lynn has seven, Will Papenfuss has six. So those guys are gonna try and chase down Dylan in that record. Angle of the Year, there was a tie. 180 eventually won the tiebreaker for Angle of the Year, but 180 and Tom Lynn tied for AOI points with 957 points, which is a record. But the tiebreaker is...
The total weight after the four qualifying events, so they take the total weight that were caught in the four tournaments leading up to the championship. And 180 had, I think seven or eight more pounds, something like that. And that was a tiebreaker. And that was his first AOI, England year title and only second year on tour. But, know, kudos to Tom Winn for tying him with those points. I mean, it's just incredible for those two record setting years.
Drake Herd (29:00)
Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (29:03)
Championship was a 56th event. think I talked about this last time. There's only six Anglers that have fished all 52. I call them the Ironmen. Kenny Anderson, Mark Quartz, Jacob Bell, Dusty Minkie, Chase Parsons, and Jason Chakurit. So kudos to those guys. Their dedication, their loyalty, time away from home, you know, their commitment to the sport. That's a pretty amazing stat, I think. All 52.
Brian Bashore (29:28)
just to make them and not like have a wedding or something come up or boat issues. Yeah.
Drake Herd (29:30)
Yeah, yep, or anything. Yep. Yep. Yep.
John Balla (29:30)
And make the championship, Brian, too, right? Yeah. So average, average fish was 3 .15 pounds. If you weighed a two day limit of 10 for 31 .5, you would have finished in 12th. So you just missed making the top 10. But that would have been worth 189 AOI points and $6 ,500. And cashing up, this is the stat that I love, catching a limit of the average weight fish per event. So.
After every event, there's an average weight per fish. If you'd caught a limit of those in every event, you would have finished in 10th place in AOI and won $14 ,000 for the year. Pretty incredible. The one year you would have won AOI. So I think the worst has been like maybe 10th, 11th or 12th, something like that. So you're going to be in the top 11 or 12 just by catching the average size for each tournament. Well, let's see. That's nothing really. Yeah. Tom, Tom went in the weights at the event's biggest bag.
Drake Herd (30:09)
Heh. Yep.
John Balla (30:28)
Brian, had kind of alluded to it earlier, 23 -12 was the biggest bag of the tournament.
So yeah, all those weights that we were expecting 24, 25 pounds, they just weren't there. There were two bags over 20 and that was it. So yeah, I think that's about all I got.
Drake Herd (30:46)
Yeah, gosh. It's crazy. I mean, I keep saying it, but it's just like, I just think it would have been so different had we had not gotten that Northwest wind. would have just, it would have been a different tournament, but what do you do? Live and learn, boys, live and learn.
John Balla (31:01)
Yeah, I mean, who knew a 3 .3 pound average of 10 of those you'd have made to cut?
Drake Herd (31:06)
Yeah. we, and like I said, Kevin went down there and got his 17 some odd pounds. Like we could have went down there and did that. There was probably 500 fish on that place. Like it was every cast. was fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (31:16)
You would have been it.
You all would have been in. You all would have made the cut. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (31:24)
Yeah, I would have had a hard time not going to fish the fun fish. I've been like, this sucks. I'm just going to go fun fish. And then he would have came in like, crap, paid out. You but you're playing to win. You're there to win.
Drake Herd (31:28)
I don't know.
Yeah. I know.
John Balla (31:34)
Well, yeah, I mean, again, if we talked about it, if it's in your head, like we were guilty of it. We kind of planted the seed that 25 pounds was going to be the deal, you know? And again, everyone else had the same idea.
Brian Bashore (31:40)
yeah, were... one pound off.
And it's such a big area with 40 boats are spread out. So you're not even seeing other people. So then you're really like, what the hell am I missing? I'm, I'm, I'm way off. I'm missing something. Cause normally it's like, there's shell Island, right? There's 40 boats over here. There are boats here. I mean, there's just times you're like, all right, I'm, I'm in the, the area or I'm onto something. If you're catching them and you know, everybody else as well. But when you just don't see anybody all week, you're like, man, I'm. That's fine. If you're on them, you know, if you're on what you that 25 pound bag, then you're like, this is great.
Drake Herd (31:52)
No. Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (31:54)
Right.
Drake Herd (31:59)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
This is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (32:17)
But most times you're like, I'm, I'm lost. Apparently I'm missing it. I'm missing it. And then sometimes you're not.
John Balla (32:23)
But I'm guessing by Wednesday at that media day when everybody was talking, everyone's expectation dropped a lot, I would think. I wasn't there, Drake, so I don't know if you guys did.
Drake Herd (32:31)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I think a lot of us did. You don't know if they're telling the truth, but the one that I talked to Austin, the local, and he's like, Drake, you know, I should have like picked up on him more, but he's like, if they get 20 pounds, I'm going to be impressed. And I'm like, really? And he goes, I kid you not. And I'm like, all right. You know, like I should have just been like, all right, I need to go down south and get 17 pounds, 15 and just see.
But I'm like, no, I'm gonna go up there. I'm gonna get my five bites and yeah, no, exactly. that's where like, there's always some of that, but like some of these guys, I mean, they just, they'll tell you the truth. I mean, a lot of them have respect for you and you have respect for them. So you can just tell them straight up like, yep, I'm on them or yep, I'm not. Yeah, yeah.
Brian Bashore (33:04)
Cause they're notorious for not pulling your leg. So, right. There's game and chip going on.
Yeah, you and I do that and it's pretty I think there's more of that where I just like yeah I'm getting them, you know six seven pounders and or you're like, man, it just sucks. You're like, yep sure does
Drake Herd (33:28)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
John Balla (33:33)
But at the same time, you gotta have confidence in yourself to say, how can our whole team not be on this? Or the guys that we're talking to, how can we all be missing this? There's just no way. And even if there's one outlier, one guy that's catching them, so what? There's other nine spots in the top 10 that you're fighting for then. Who cares?
Drake Herd (33:40)
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Yep, 100%. And that's what Kevin brought up. He's like, someone's gonna whack 25 to 28, whatever, know, whatever, it's gonna happen and we'll be fine, you know? Well, God, we shoulda known. But I mean, it's just, it's what it is. You should just go with your gut. I mean, we're a good enough fisherman now where it's just like, all right, if your whole team isn't like catching them, crushing them, like, all right, we need to, just this is what it is.
John Balla (34:00)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (34:04)
Yes, always go with the gut.
John Balla (34:13)
So Drake, any couple minutes on your whole season as a whole, any comments you want to make on that? Anything, you know, like how do you feel about it? Anything you might've changed differently or, know, anything like that?
Drake Herd (34:23)
no, the one that really bothered me, I would say would be Redwing. Like I like fishing Redwing and I struggled there just to keep my fish pin, and get that big one both days. that's the one that really kind of bummed me out. I would think, other than that, like I really can't complain that much. you know, Sakaka we are was. Yeah. Like I, I can't,
John Balla (34:47)
13th AOI.
Drake Herd (34:52)
So, I mean, it was good. I was close a couple times. Like, Eerie, I was spot or two out of the money. And it's just that Red Wing one was the one that really just kind of bothered me over the whole thing. But it's all part of it. Like, I had fun. I liked seeing the guys and the stuff. And we'll see what happens next. I think so. We haven't talked about it at all. We kind of just went home. think Kevin's thinking about Florida and Eric's.
John Balla (35:11)
Everybody back on board for next year?
Drake Herd (35:22)
fishing on Green Bay. He got back the next day and he's like, I gotta go fishing. And well, he went out and just whacked like, I don't know, five over 30 inches on the Bay. And I'm just like, what the heck, you know? He's like, I needed some redemption, you know? So, I don't know. I think we will be, I mean, we're excited. I really like those guys and stuff and we'll go from there, you know? So.
John Balla (35:36)
You're in.
Brian Bashore (35:36)
Yep.
We'll see, I'm sure there'll be some new rules and things come out by January before signups. There's things in the works. They did an Angular survey. they take any information from that. but I think we can all anticipate a few things to change. And I think they'll all be for, for the better, for the most part. They're going to have to be. So yes, keep your fingers crossed. If you, if you look at it.
Drake Herd (35:48)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%.
Yeah, yeah, we hope. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (36:13)
We already touched on it, but you see an MLF, Bass, who else? PFL all made to Ford facing. So on our changes, adjustments, band, complete band, NFL, Bass to restricted one transducer on the motor, limited amount of screens. I think you can still use it at every tournament though, right? It's just limited restricted. And then MLF is doing like one.
Drake Herd (36:19)
NPFL. Yeah.
One. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (36:41)
Knockout round or one round or something. Yeah, it's super confusing some some systems know about one round is gonna have it One of the one of the three rounds you'll be allowed to use it at whichever round you choose So then you got to have a special cover or what have you on it? So Obviously, there's a lot of uproar and it's been nothing but the discussion and the topic all year But as we just said earlier you take which people outside looking in are like here's probably your best top ten guys on it But they were the one through ten and angle of the race. That's it there
Drake Herd (36:41)
There's this confusing, yeah, yeah.
Brian Bashore (37:10)
They're right there pretty much in every tournament outside of Mississippi River was one using it. You got never never before has somebody cashed all the checks. He had three guys cash checks. All those three guys are holding that board faces on our guru box. Obviously, I mean, by end of the season, mean, 90 % of the guys are living on, you know, the front of that boats here at the screen and which way they have to be. I don't think we'll do anything.
Make any adjustments with it and I don't personally care either way You've been on it for a while and you're good at it and Eric is I think you guys have been getting Kevin on board But it's more and more either embrace it and get with it because if you don't it's like it's a dollar There's never been just here's a group of guys that you can say are gonna do awesome You know sprinkle was there years back and you know where but it's not a group now It's a group of guys you can say these guys are all gonna be in the top 20 and you could
Drake Herd (37:47)
Yeah. Yeah. More and more.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (38:09)
pretty well say that all year.
John Balla (38:10)
I mean, look at our fantasy fishing picks, right?
Drake Herd (38:12)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (38:13)
Yeah. And we all, we try to get some outlier every time and it never worked. So that outlier never worked. Yeah, they never worked.
John Balla (38:18)
They outline. They outline, all right?
Drake Herd (38:18)
wait, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We can just end the podcast now. We don't need to talk about that stuff.
Brian Bashore (38:28)
Yeah, we are we gonna break that net right now. So I was about to go there our fantasy fishing picks John is the big winner he had a good hundred point lead going into this one on us and he Carried that over and it kept him in first place is mr. John ball with 503 points. He had picked Who did he have?
John Balla (38:50)
What was it, a dollar each?
Drake Herd (38:52)
Yeah, I'll pay you at the next one.
Brian Bashore (38:53)
I have a different sheet of paper that had it written on there so I don't remember who you had but you had 73 points I had 98 and Drake had 99 which gave Drake so I got second place at 640 points Drake with 671 finished last so I'm not last for once
Drake Herd (38:57)
Yeah.
Good thing I didn't,
John Balla (39:13)
What was my total?
Brian Bashore (39:14)
But John beat us by over 100 points. that was 503. Yeah. Then 640 and 671. So it's a whooping. That's a whooping. That's like one in Angler of the Year, and then it's like 50th.
Drake Herd (39:17)
Five something he said. What was your total? was it? Oof. Yeah, that's a...
Yeah. We're never going to live this. Yeah. Yeah. We're never going to live this one down like he handed it to us. Let's be honest here.
Brian Bashore (39:35)
Now, so...
John Balla (39:36)
Yeah, I got some bragging rights for a while.
Drake Herd (39:39)
Wah.
Brian Bashore (39:39)
So the people, if you ever have watched Moneyball, the movie, this John's the Moneyball of fishing. Stats don't lie. Maybe pay a little attention to those folks. They're not just numbers, right? We can fish in it with the spreadsheet now. So.
Drake Herd (39:47)
Yep, he just knows every time.
John Balla (39:55)
There are, there are, it's crazy. It's, mean, the numbers, like I said, I talked to other about finding the average weight fish per tournament. You can kind of almost get it now from almost any event. If you do a little research and say, okay, this is kind of what I'm going to need. I'm going to need above this. You know, I think Hoyer and some of these guys talk about that. They talk about catch rate and they talk about the fish size. like, okay, what am I going to need? And they, that's what they, that's how they categorize their spots. Like this is what I'm going to need. Okay. I'm not going there. I'm not bothering them.
catching enough of those. Yeah, there's an eight I caught, but there's not enough of them. I'm going to go for the fives because just about you guys both know you got too much experience, you know, fours and five pounders on any walleye tournament. It's a really good weight. If you, know, no matter what, fours and fives are good. So yeah. and you know, consistency wins, I think, over time there's like you said, there's always outliers and anomalies, but, you know,
Drake Herd (40:41)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (40:49)
Totally.
John Balla (40:55)
consistency and now guys are shooting for they they're shooting for wins because they're seeing the winning fish they're seeing enough of them so they're like okay this is what I'm going after
Drake Herd (41:04)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (41:09)
The limits were a big issue this year that made that put a lot more luck into play. You still had to make tough decisions and find them. I mean, this is definitely not all luck, but coming into right order, nobody will argue that. I think you're in everybody's profiles or do you believe in luck? They're all like, yeah, kind of need needed a little bit this year. So.
Drake Herd (41:26)
a little bit.
John Balla (41:27)
Yeah. What I want to explain to listeners is what Brian's saying is, is the restricted limits that were put on this year were like, yeah, the restricted limits were tough. It was hard on anglers. It was no question. And you know, if you could have unlimited culling or at least have seven or eight fish in your box, weigh your best five. It changes everything.
Drake Herd (41:46)
it's drastic. It's huge.
Brian Bashore (41:47)
Big time. Well then that was a question on our Angular survey was catch photo and release. Will they ever go to that? I don't know. There's a lot of places moving to it, but that makes it a completely different game.
John Balla (41:58)
Well, what are your guys' thoughts on that?
Drake Herd (42:02)
I mean, I like, I like it. Don't get me wrong, but like, still like the Wayne. Like I love Wayne in big fish and like there's a skill that comes into it. Like we're weighing every single one of these fish to where I can get two more ounces going 10 miles that way versus seven miles that way. They're an ounce or two lighter. Like there's some of that that I mean, I love that part of it, you know, like, am I worried about fisheries? Like, yeah, absolutely. We need to worry about the future and what's going on, but
It's one of those things where I just, like the weight thing, you know? I don't know.
Brian Bashore (42:38)
I like, I've used the apps. talked about this and I think it it's great for certain situations. These smaller tournaments, clubs, locals, where you don't have a way system or people or personnel that have good experience in handling the fish. Or if you're in places like South Dakota or even North Dakota where it's kill tournaments from June 1st to September, no matter what you're killing the fish, even though they are alive as hell and you're liable and you can throw them back. So fortunately it's cock we have, they got the permit to allow that. I think they could get that a lot of places they would just ask for it. It's just like putting in for.
Drake Herd (42:40)
Yeah.
Thanks.
Brian Bashore (43:07)
calling permits because we don't allow it, but bass sure gets one when it comes to South Dakota because they ask. and it's very simple. takes about five minutes to fill out the form, but on such a national level, they know how to handle the fish better. got, know, we still this cock wheezing. They released a lot of fish, a lot of them, you know, didn't live. It was, it was August. It's, it's hot. but these boats have pretty good live wells nowadays and everybody's got G juice and whatever in there and ice and
Drake Herd (43:11)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (43:37)
For most, my fish are very alive. matter where they lie by the time you walk 300 yards up the, through the boat ramp and up and put it in the hot water in the tank sometimes, maybe not, but,
Drake Herd (43:47)
I shoved a lot, we use a ton of G -juice at Huron. Yeah, like it's crazy, it's like cocaine for them and it's just, you can tell, yeah, like they just get wired, you know, so. We try to do our best, I don't know.
Brian Bashore (43:50)
Yeah, works, man.
Yeah, so I say it's liquid cocaine for the fish.
Yeah. So I don't, I don't, I don't think you'll see the NWT do it, but maybe there are situations if like the NTC coming to South Dakota next year in June might be a good time to do it. Cause that's 300 boats. If it's full on a fishery, that's super not good. This your Francis cases. There's a tournament like a weeks ago and I think they're like two fish caught or something. mean, it's the locals ain't digging all these big terms coming there right now because the fisheries went down the crapper since we were there basically.
I don't know if that is anything that's pretty healthy place if you ask me, but I know it's been a little, little trickier in a chamber in the last couple of springs too, but a lot of that's, you know, based off weather. There's a lot of fish in it. So a lot of it's just people doing the same thing, expecting the same results.
Drake Herd (44:32)
Right. Right.
John Balla (44:46)
Yeah, I don't think a tournament impacts a fishery negatively like locals do. There's no way. I mean, you know, you bring in a few hundred guys that catch a couple of fish and they're not keeping them. I mean, they're trying to release as many as they possibly can.
Brian Bashore (44:59)
Well, when you can, that's what I'm saying. We have, there's so many the tournaments now that you can't, know, it's kill, Erie's killed tournaments. Erie's not really an issue or concern, but that's the direction of the DNR because we got, there's just too many of them. Go ahead and take them out. But the Dakotas are killed tournaments. You know, we don't go to places like on the, you know, the Iowa's off limits on the Mississippi, because they just say there's no tournaments allowed because we don't want them in the summer. But the live wheels have come a long way since a lot of these regulations were put in place in 1940.
Drake Herd (45:00)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
John Balla (45:03)
Yeah.
Drake Herd (45:08)
Yeah. They want you to take them. Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (45:27)
And these fish, especially in the Mississippi river. mean, those things, you can't even grab them out of your live well at the end of the day to get them in the bag. They're so angry. So.
Drake Herd (45:31)
Yep. Yep. Well, and that was even in like Sakaka, we looked at there was a lot of locals fishing while we were pre -fishing and like if they caught a 25, 26 incher, it was going in the live well. Like, and they're like, you're letting that thing go. I'm like, yeah, like, I don't know. What am I going to do with that? You know, so, but what do do?
Brian Bashore (45:42)
is in the box.
Yeah.
Yup.
It's their fish and we all pay the same price for the license and well, locals do versus non -resident, but yeah, it's your fish. It's your right. Do what you want to do with it. Those places, Missouri river is healthy. Mississippi river is healthy. Those fisheries, you're seeing a lot bigger waste, a lot bigger bags. So it's hard to argue that you're affecting these things because the technology is maybe helping you catch these bigger fish and bigger bags, but overall it looks like these places for the most part are pretty damn healthy. So.
John Balla (45:55)
That's right.
That's right.
Drake Herd (46:16)
Yeah.
John Balla (46:17)
I think the economic benefit to a community is far outweighs any of the negatives, personally.
Drake Herd (46:23)
Yep, absolutely.
Brian Bashore (46:23)
Yeah. Huge. it's frustrating when you hear about places like, the championship that didn't take full advantage of it. that you're there and it's only 40. So it's not a huge thing, but even Devils Lake did a survey with championship years ago. Of course we were different. think we had eighties over there and it was just under a half million, you know, that's in seven days. That's, that's huge for these small 10 ,000 to 20 ,000 people in communities.
Drake Herd (46:36)
Yeah. Yeah.
means.
John Balla (46:48)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (46:49)
That's what we come back.
Drake Herd (46:50)
Okay, I'll take my licking and I'll owe you guys, well more so John, a dollar the next time around.
Brian Bashore (47:01)
Yeah, we all own.
John Balla (47:02)
That was fun. I'm glad you came up with that, Brian. That was a lot of fun.
Drake Herd (47:05)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (47:06)
Well, we'll do it again. There's always next year. We'll, we'll bring these back, barred everything keeps on rocking and rolling and moving forward. John's always got his pulse on it. You know, whether we're in these tournaments or not, we're, we're, know what's happening. We were talking to the anglers that are participating and, when they're close by, like John was able to swing up to the weigh -ins and, and check things out. So, I'm going to try to get Jeff on here and we get the new rules out.
And have him kind of give explanations if there is, assuming there's new rules or changes, which there is every year on some sort. And maybe kind of get his take on those things. If he's able to get on here and give everybody that I get a lot of comments from the co podcast I did just by myself explaining it guys messaging. Hey, how do I. If you're listening, you want to be a coangler go to the NWT website. It's called the information you need to be a coangler, but feel free to send Drake guy or anybody a DM and, and we'll answer those questions that aren't listed on there, which are.
Drake Herd (47:58)
Mm -hmm. Yep.
Brian Bashore (48:02)
housing, lodging, travel, pre -fishing, know, stuff like that. There's always some pros looking for some, some travel partners out there. So we'll see. any closing thoughts gentlemen, 2024 is.
John Balla (48:19)
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity, Brian. It was awesome. I appreciate the invite on to the show and to be able to talk about what's going on and give some stats about what's happening in the wildlife world. It's a passion of mine. It's a passion of you guys. And it was fun to share it this year and go over all different bodies of water and kind of pay more attention to it than I even normally do. yeah, I appreciate. Yeah, all you let's know.
Brian Bashore (48:41)
That dollar on the line, he's focused, man. He was locked in. Two dollars, I guess, each owe you a buck.
Drake Herd (48:44)
You
John Balla (48:46)
I hate losing no matter what. don't care if it's a dollar or $10 ,000, I hate losing. But it was fun. I appreciate it. It's great to be able to give back to the sport that's been so good to many of us. Wally Fishing in general is just awesome. Anything we do to promote the anglers in the sport, I'm all on board. So yeah, thank you.
Drake Herd (48:50)
Yeah
Brian Bashore (48:50)
I hear ya, I hear ya.
It is.
Thank you. I think from all of us, walleye guys and walleye world, John, we all appreciate everything you've been doing for years and keeping track of these stats. And once again, John is not paid to do this. This is just from a good hearted, I give a damn guy. you know, which is a misconception. People see the report come out and yeah, he's, he's for hire. If somebody would love to pay him and sponsor that thing, he'd love to put your logo on top of that and, or within here, no problem. But,
Drake Herd (49:09)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, yep, yep, yep.
Brian Bashore (49:36)
Yeah, we, we appreciate everybody looks forward to that information coming out and that's something to look back on years and years and years and a lot of people just don't, don't think about it. And don't keep those records of those things. And thank God you locked a lot of that down before the move to new management and you had all that info and didn't get lost in a shuffle. So we appreciate it a ton. So Drake, good season looking forward to whoop it up on you next year. I didn't whoop on it up on you at all this year. So it's not a problem, but payback.
Drake Herd (49:58)
Thanks. Yep. Payback. Payback. Yep.
Brian Bashore (50:05)
Payback's coming and we'll, we'll just see how things go. hard ice is coming up hopefully about four or five months away, but, maybe we'll get, we'll get you back out here. We'll talk to some fin gear. you know, when we get around that, but that's a wrap guys. thanks for being on John and Drake and thank all of you for following along on these NWTs pre -tournaments and post -tournament podcast shows. they've been a blast and congrats to John for kicking Drake and Isaiah's in our fantasy.
Drake Herd (50:13)
Yep. Yep. There you go. Yep.
Brian Bashore (50:35)
So one last time we'll get that in there and that's it folks stay safe, and we'll see you on the water