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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 (00:00.174)
Welcome back to another episode of Reel Talk Fishing with No Limits brought to you by Seaguar High Performance Braids. Seven reels created by St. Croix and Ruffles and Skittles Clean Cutting Station. This cutting board is phenomenal. I had to use mine two days ago, yesterday as a matter of fact, I think it was, because the fish cleaning stations in South Dakota are closed for the season as it is getting cold. It's time to clean those fish on the tailgates, those pheasants, whatever it is you got going on. These things are fun.
Check them out at cut cutting stations at rufflinkennels.com. We are heading over to Wisconsin today. Had a little gap here. Had a get Tom went on there after that championship right away that I was out of town for a tournament for in the big 10 tournaments. Cock with phenomenal tournament. Um, we're going to Wisconsin. We're talking to NWT pro, MWC pro, Danny plows. Danny's got a
Hell of story fishes with his mom on the MWC circuit and she is a hammer and they do awesome. You always see them at the top of that leaderboard over there. do good. Um, just, it's a super, super cool story of fishing with his dad growing up and his dad doing tournaments and then now fishing with his mom and he's in the team circuit stuff. And then talk about his 2020, 25, end of the T season. And then what we got coming up in 2026 on tour. Um, just a lot of great things. Danny's a good dude, a hell of a fisherman. So we're to break some things down.
Talking to Danny, you want to stay tuned for that. And I want to give a quick shout out to another good stick. One of the best fishermen out there. Great dude. Good friend. Just blessed Bill called this guy a fishing friend. Great guy. Congratulations to Mr. Jason Sheard-Kerrett. Just got his letter of the mail and ducking him into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. So shout out Jason. Kudos. Couldn't happen to a better guy. Earned it. Period.
20, 30 plus years of fishing tournament circuits, working the whole, working the professional England game. It's what he does and he's good. He's a legend at it. Very, very excited and happy for him. So congrats to Jason on that outstanding accomplishment. We look forward to your induction ceremonies and all that coming in the spring. I'm sure we'll see that on a show. So if you're not, go check it out. Give Jason a hand over there on his Facebook page. You may heard of his younger brother, Jace, your character.
Brian Bashore (02:19.296)
he does pretty darn well on the Bassmasters Tour. So nonetheless, shout out, congrats Jason. Just wanted to get that out there and time to listen in. We're going to go chat with Mr. Danny Ploutz.
Brian Bashore (00:01.636)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of real talk fish. It was no limits today. We're talking to NWT pro mercury pro and act me with all those products they got coming out at you over there, which I'm sure he's going to talk to us about a little bit today. Mr. daddy plouts, daddy congrats on a good NWT finish this year. How are things going over there?
Danny Plautz (00:22.274)
Well, things are going good. You know, the fishing season is winding down and just getting ready for hunting season. Just waiting for these cooler temperatures to come.
Brian Bashore (00:32.526)
Yeah, we finally got a little bit of cold cooler temps and I, mowed today and I hope it's the last time I have to mow for the season. So I tried to the mower out of gas. just, know, we, we hope and pray. think we have lows in the forties now, but it has been unseasonably warm, kind of extending a lot of things. You still been getting on the water a little bit, or are you just strictly getting into hunt mode now?
Danny Plautz (00:38.702)
You
Danny Plautz (00:52.91)
It's been hunting mode right after the NWT championship. We ended up going out west to Idaho doing some elk hunting and got back from there and then it was straight for work and now it's time to get the kids out in the woods and and do a little bit deer hunting and hopefully get my dogs out do some pheasant hunting this fall and winter.
Brian Bashore (01:14.754)
Yeah, it's how was the Elka? Where'd you go? You're Idaho, said?
Danny Plautz (01:18.284)
Yep, we went to Idaho. is our eighth year doing it. We went out with archery equipment and we're just going to do it as long as my dad is able to walk up and down the mountains. And so it's just a big family ordeal. My two brothers, my brother-in-law, my uncle, my dad, and we just head out there in a drop camp and, you know, we chase elk for about seven days.
Brian Bashore (01:39.812)
Chasing those big Roosevelts out there, aren't you?
Danny Plautz (01:42.294)
Now, these are rocky ones. were up in, we're in Idaho, we're in, let's see here, we're just an hour south of Jackson Hole. but we see, we had our opportunities, been in ALC every single day. So we look forward to it every year. So it's a lot of fun.
Brian Bashore (01:44.58)
Are they?
Brian Bashore (01:57.124)
Oh yeah, that, uh, hunting camp in general is good time. can't even imagine elk camp with your uncle, your dad. mean, that, that's gotta be a good time. Definitely memories being made. And I mean, you've been doing that your whole outdoor career, fishing with your mom, fishing with your dad. I mean, you got, we're going to get into that because people need to hear those stories. So that's, that's cool stuff. I'm always interested, you know, looking at those MWCs, you know, back there and like.
Danny Plautz (02:15.66)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (02:23.398)
yeah. yeah. Yep. Yep. There's daddy fishing with his mom, you know, or, know, how they do it. It's always in it always up there. But, before we get it, let's just go back a little bit. Tell those new listeners who maybe don't know who daddy plouts is, or they're just, you know, getting into the fishing and they're kind of figuring out who all of us are in the wall. word a little bit. What are you doing? You're not fishing. What do you, you know, kind of how'd you get to where you are today?
Danny Plautz (02:46.988)
Yeah, so I've been fishing. This was my 20, let's see, or 24th complete season fishing on a full circuit. Started way back when, when I was 19, right out of high school. And it wasn't by chance. My dad's been doing it since the late eighties. He's one of the original that...
started fishing the MWCs and then the PWTs, RCLs, FLWs, WTs. So, you know, I was, I was born into it. It's in my blood. And yeah, so we've been fishing tournaments for quite some time now. Then, then on the off-sea or when I'm not fishing tournaments, we do, my dad owns and operates a commercial janitorial service in Milwaukee.
And so he's been doing that for 52, 53 years. So I run the show there now. He's kind of, walked away from it the last four years. and, he put his time in, I told him it's time for him to enjoy, all the hard work that he's done with, with the business and, spend some time in the woods. he, so him and my mom live up in Northern Wisconsin. So.
Yeah, so I run the show, the day to day operations and yeah, that keeps me on my toes.
Brian Bashore (04:08.333)
Someone's got to keep us clean, man. That's, that's, that's not easy work neither. I said, that's, you know, those are like number two jobs for the number one guy. Right. That's how that works.
Danny Plautz (04:11.042)
Yeah, no it's not.
Danny Plautz (04:19.558)
100 % and yeah, nobody likes to clean their own buildings or their offices or their bathrooms. So somebody's gotta do it and yep, I'm the guy. Oh, that is, that's a true statement right there.
Brian Bashore (04:23.876)
All
Brian Bashore (04:27.684)
And it's you're going to have job security forever because it's a messy place, We're world's messy place, brother. You're going to have plenty to pick up after. So what.
Danny Plautz (04:35.81)
Yep, yep, yep. So yeah, it's been, yep, between fishing and running business, I'm always doing something.
Brian Bashore (04:44.996)
It's a family business. It's the family business of the janitorial. It's the family business of fishing tournaments. Like you said, your dad's been doing this forever. Your mom's no stranger to it. You grew up at it. And you see that a lot in these families. Shakir, it's, know, Parsons. A lot of these guys have come from, come from that. And they just continued it on and on. And it usually, you know, it breeds the, some of the best anglers out there, like yourself, the guys that are, you can hop. Maybe it's not, some of us aren't the biggest household names, but.
I mean, you're up there every time you, you, you fish one of these services that are up there and eventually they're like, man, I keep hearing this guy, know, from wherever he has been doing it since he was 19 years old or whatever, you know, we made it, we don't win a lot of championships, but we're, we could be in that top 10, which is harder than anything is it being consistent in this industry. So, I mean, and you have proven that over the years what, uh, and WT you've done this, you did this full season, made the championship. think, you get like 15th, 16th in there or something?
Danny Plautz (05:24.162)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (05:31.693)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (05:43.072)
I got 14th on that in the chamber.
Brian Bashore (05:44.388)
14th. with the one day or so that was interesting to say the least, it was, but right. Yeah. We all knew going into it, probably got to have a blow day. So I imagine, you know, everybody kind of swung forward on day one a little bit. Um, we had Tom on here when obviously won the championship and talked about a lot, but you know, there were some, those household names that didn't make the championship. So it wasn't, it wasn't easy. think a lot of guys thought, we're going to have numbers are down. It's going to be that much easier.
Danny Plautz (05:47.031)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (05:51.176)
It was very interesting. It was very interesting that outcome of that.
Brian Bashore (06:14.412)
It's not, just, there's some damn good sticks fishing the circuit right now.
Danny Plautz (06:19.266)
There really is. was, you know, I started off with a bang, had a really good start to the season and that kind of coasted me through the year. Ended up tearing my bicep off my right arm on the first day of practice on the Mississippi river. And so I fished that whole, the whole rest of the season in a sling, in a brace and very limited. so like Alpino was tough. Lake Erie was a
You know, it was, it was a grind out there, not a grind as far as catching fish because we caught an absolute boatload of fish out there, but the just being able to move around the boat and then, um, like I needed to be 100 % ready to rock and roll for the championship. And so, yeah, it was a grinder of a year. And, um, you know, um, yeah, two really good finishes in the beginning of the season. And, it kind of just, uh, it got me through there, but yeah, there was some good sticks out there.
And I was kind of shocked at some of the pros that didn't make the championship. And then I just, I just got lucky and, you know, the competition's, you know, it's strong and got lucky and did well, made the championship, which was my number one goal. And, yeah, went out there and to Marinette.
Brian Bashore (07:33.252)
Scoping with an arm in a sling. That's a, that ain't easy, man. got tennis elbow or fisherman's elbow from scoping so much that Green Bay last year I had to switch arms, but I was working on switching arms and I went and got a shot in it right before I went and then it was good. But I was like, this is horrible. You're going to hook it. Granted Green Bay, didn't hardly hook in any fish last year. So it wasn't that big a deal, but it was like, I got to have to rip in these six, eight, nine, 10 pounders with bouts that handed. It was to the point where I'd set the hook right arm.
Danny Plautz (07:37.198)
you
Danny Plautz (07:45.006)
Thanks.
Danny Plautz (07:55.566)
Yeah, yeah.
Brian Bashore (08:02.7)
And I would drop the rod, you know, I can't imagine having it in a sling.
Danny Plautz (08:07.53)
It was tough. mean, it was, I tried it with my left hand and it was just, I was, I was asked backwards for me. You know, I couldn't do it. set the hook and then I my co anglers, you know, reeling it in. I'm like, here, set the hook. You know, like, you know, I did my best, you know, to catch them, like in Green Bay, I did my best to catch my, my fish and, and, was able to do it, but it was, it was quite the experience this season. So I'm looking forward to going back next year when it, when I'm healthy.
Brian Bashore (08:13.226)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (08:32.855)
That is definitely some diversity over Cape and, know, paid out. made it in there. You know, it's, it's interesting. You had a good couple of finishes and, know, then you can kind of finish maybe even mediocre, you know, middle of the pack and you can still make the championship. And, reality, you can't ever zero. I mean, you're just not going to make it against these guys. Even, it just doesn't matter. If you zero nowadays, you're not making the championship period. But you could still find yourself in a top 10 of AOI and never have cashed check.
Danny Plautz (09:02.968)
Correct? Yep.
Brian Bashore (09:03.736)
By being very consistent. I tell people the rule number one, you got to bring five fish in.
Danny Plautz (09:09.654)
Yep. And that was my goal, know, like Alpina, I stumbled on day two. And so I only came in with three fish and I thought my season was over done with right then and there because I knew how important it is with the caliber of fishermen that we are competing against. If you don't bring your five to the table every single day, you are going to be left behind. And I was fearful that I wasn't going to make the championship and
You know, and yeah, it's very important. You know, that was my goal is to get a five fish each and every day during competition and see where that put me, you know, at the end of the year at the standings. So I was, I was a little nervous after Alpina that I'm not going to lie.
Brian Bashore (09:52.02)
You can, you can make it in without it. It would surprise people to see how many people actually bring a five fish limit in all season long. It's very seldom does it happen. I mean, Snyder had a run going for a few years. I did it one year, Shakurik and I did it and they were the only two and Hummel fell one short in the championship. And I was like, you know, and that was the goal was just bringing five and then, you know, if you, if you just bring in five.
I'll see with the caliber of sticks. just can't be five, 15 inches nowadays. You can go find a little honey hole, but you need to have those when you only have 40 need to go get that extra pound before you come in. Cause that's going to that those points come down to it at the end of the year. You're like, man, I'm 41st and I didn't make it. And you look back, you're like, it was a half a pound. You know, that kept you out. It.
Danny Plautz (10:37.462)
Yep. Yep. It's crazy how that shakes up at the end of the year.
Brian Bashore (10:43.716)
It is, and it's always, we're all calculating that you're like, get to, you want to get to that position when you go to that fourth tournament where you're like, I just have to show them, a fish. If I weigh one fish, I'm good. mean, you know, obviously that's not the goal, but it's the goal. It's the first goal in that tournament. Let me get into the championship and get my one. And then I'm going to go, go ahead and, you know, I'm going to bang out four more here and then punch my ticket. Um, it's always a good feeling. soon as you put that first one in the boat on tournament four.
Danny Plautz (11:09.038)
A hundred percent. Yeah. It was kind of like, like it was, it happened to me this year, you know, just like, you know, Alpina wasn't quite sure, what the AOI points were going to look like after that event. And then, John Ballas sent out all the reports and stuff like that. And I was able to calculate everything out. And then, I was like, yep, I only need to catch one fish out of Neary and we're gonna stay on. So I kind of, you know, swung forward out there to try to, try to do well. And cause I knew I just needed to catch a couple.
Brian Bashore (11:36.772)
It's a good place to only have to catch one fish. Right. If I can keep it down to maybe 40 today, it'll be, minor, you know, but thank God for ball, you know, staying on the ball and keeping everybody up to speed with all that, getting those results out way faster than, you know, the NWT gets them out. So guys can calculate this. There's no questions. Everybody knows the ball of stats are pretty much spot on and pretty cool. does that. so you, you, you're fishing.
Danny Plautz (11:39.15)
Yes, correct, yep.
Danny Plautz (11:45.646)
Yup.
Danny Plautz (12:00.118)
yeah, yep, very good song.
Brian Bashore (12:05.678)
full year in WT this year. You did a full season I think you did last year too didn't you?
Danny Plautz (12:09.934)
Last year I did not, had some equipment issues that didn't allow me to fish the last event.
Brian Bashore (12:13.72)
Okay.
They did some MWCs, done MWCs for a long time, right? And even though I think you've jumped in a couple A's.
Danny Plautz (12:20.942)
Yep. I've been doing MWCs since I've been doing the MWCs, I believe, since the mid to late nineties, um, with my dad's body. And then I started fishing with my mom and the MWCs. Um, I believe it was right around like 1999 or 2000. I started fishing with her.
Brian Bashore (12:38.584)
And how many years did you, your mom do that for? mean, I, every year I saw it's spring Valley, right? It was always jumping. Mr. Mrs. Plout's I'm like, it's not. It's his mom and it's his son and mom.
Danny Plautz (12:41.216)
every single year.
Danny Plautz (12:50.974)
Yep. Yep. So we, we fished, um, there was a couple years where we fished, uh, um, a handful of tournaments to qualify for the championship. Like when I knew that championships were going to somewhere fun and then we had to, you know, and then my mom could get away with, um, with the payroll that she does, uh, for the business. And so looking at her, her schedule, looking at that, there was a couple of years where we fished, um, like three or four events to, um, we ended up like second place for team of the year, one year.
and top 10 for the championship. So we had a, we have a good run and my mom said she's never getting up that side of the boat. They're gonna have to, she's, I'm gonna have to drink her out of there for one of my kids to come in there. But yeah, she says that's her spot and, nobody's taking it. So.
Brian Bashore (13:39.092)
she's got to do it as long as you're going to sign her up.
Danny Plautz (13:42.063)
100 % like honestly, like I wouldn't be surprised in the next couple of weeks that she calls me up like, hey, when can we sign up for Spring Valley? I'm like, mom, we can't use your sign up until January. She's like, as soon as the registration opens, she goes, we need to get signed up right away. So she tries to be the first person signed up for Spring Valley for the year. So I look forward to it every year.
Brian Bashore (13:58.084)
That is cool.
Brian Bashore (14:02.222)
She's a, she's a That, know, you always hear the father, son stories and what have you and stuff. And I think you got to be the only team out there that's, know, it's mother, son story. It's just, it's fricking awesome. And you, it is not like she's not competing. Mom's a hammer, man. She's getting it done out there.
Danny Plautz (14:21.034)
She really, she is, she hates trolling. She will not troll like three ways. She will not do it and she'll do it and she'll just sit there in the boat and just pout the whole time we're doing it because like if the jig bites not working and I'm like, all right, conditions are bad. We need to, we need to troll, even though I know that we need to troll and that's how we're going to do well. And she's like, I'm only doing this because I want to cash a check. And I'm like, she goes, I'd rather have a jig stick in my hand. then, you know, and she's, she sits there in the back of the boat and
Brian Bashore (14:44.622)
Right.
Yep.
Danny Plautz (14:51.094)
she'll pound away on a jig stick like nobody's business. she'll make a lot of, she'll make a run at it with a lot of guys that could sit in the back of that boat when it's 30 degrees out and she doesn't wear gloves and she just sitting back there just plugging away all day long.
Brian Bashore (15:06.894)
You gotta be tough to fish that Spring Valley tournament in March.
Danny Plautz (15:10.497)
It is brutal. I mean, the last few years it's been cold running heaters underneath our boats just to keep our lithium batteries charging. then, and my mom, just refuses to wear gloves when it's cold out. Me, I'm bundled up front. got my heated vest on and, know, yeah.
Brian Bashore (15:15.641)
Yep.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (15:24.761)
Yeah.
Yeah, he had at least some fake fingerless gloves. Mom, come on. She is intense. That's awesome. I, woman have to build a heart. me that jig and ride my hand, but she's competitive as hell. And knows that you know, water's murky or whatever it is we need three way or we need to put some cranks down there to compete. And it's, it's maybe it isn't what I want to do, but I want to win. So I'm to do what I have to do. You had her up on the light scope yet?
Danny Plautz (15:30.094)
Yeah, exactly.
Danny Plautz (15:47.394)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (15:52.566)
Yep, exactly. She's a good school about it. Was it?
Brian Bashore (15:57.292)
Have you had her up there on the live scope yet?
Danny Plautz (15:59.625)
I had her out live scoping, ice fishing. I haven't had her in the boat doing it. ice fishing a couple of years ago, I introduced that to her. We did some perching up on a bagel and, she really enjoyed that. trying to teach my dad live scope, you know, that's, that's another, that's next level. But, I just, yeah, I just haven't had the opportunity to get her out on a boat, you know, on a really nice.
Brian Bashore (16:19.96)
Yeah.
Danny Plautz (16:28.312)
fun bite, even on our lake in Northern Wisconsin. I take the life school out there, but she's usually doing something with the grandkids or something like that where I only get a short amount of time to go fishing. And she just not able to get out there and do it. So, I'm sure she'll, she would love it. That's for sure.
Brian Bashore (16:46.564)
you will.
You will, but you want to introduce them on those places where it's, they're suspended fish or, know, or not where there's the Mississippi river where it's just loaded, you know, or, they're always like on the bottom. It's tough to decipher the walleyes from the sheep head and you know, you want to make it.
Danny Plautz (17:03.21)
Yes, yes, that's correct. Like something like Green Bay, Lake Erie, know, those, those bites are so much fun. You want to introduce somebody that's, you know, wants to get into live scoping. You just can't go to, you can go to a lake and figure it out, but you're gonna, you're gonna, it's gonna take you a little bit. But yeah, it's, yeah. So you get out to those areas where, you know, you know, you're gonna see fish, you're gonna see them off the bottom, three, four five feet off the bottom. And it makes it a lot easier to introduce that live scoping to them.
Brian Bashore (17:18.884)
It's going to take you a lot bit.
Brian Bashore (17:32.196)
Yeah, it's so much easier. Identify your fish, track your bait. I mean, I'm Mellus and Clark. This lake is loaded with catfish and sheep, you know, drum. And then it's trying to be like, there's a walleye, but can I get it to him before one of these other 10 species eat this bait? it's just, yeah, it's challenged. People are like, well, how can you, you know, scope these? And you're like, you tried to throw out what you think is the right kind of fish, but it doesn't get to it half the time. It's just, it's just tricky. Next year's schedule setting up.
Really good for the live scopers. you're in on all next year, great time to bring mom along for Sakakwea, Green Bay, Bay to Nock, Lake Erie. You're going to be living on the front of that boat.
Danny Plautz (18:11.758)
Yep. And she, we're going to be living in front of the boat. love it. I'm the schedule. I'm so excited for next year's schedule, but yeah, I get my mom, you know, it'd be great. My mom came up to Marinette this year for the championship. My dad and her came up camping. They stayed at a park right on the river. And, you know, my mom loves camping. She loves just hanging there. She just loves being there. She loves seeing all the guys that she sees, you know, at the MWC events and stuff like that. So she just loves.
hanging out and being in that environment. I wasn't able to get her out in a boat while she was there, but I'm hoping with Escanaba or Ocana or wherever, whatever those places are that we're going to, I'm sure she's going to bring her camper along and probably camp out for that whole week. And hopefully I can get her out on the boat, both my parents and you know, in fact, you get them on a boat and get them live scoping and just doing that. That would be fun.
Brian Bashore (18:50.798)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (19:06.264)
Yeah, that'll be a blast. Pray for the good weather. Obviously we want some semi calm conditions. Another great way to learn it is when it's nice out. But as you know, we got to fish in everything and you just got to figure it out to get dialed in. So when it's rough, come times, you don't want to go fishing, go fishing and practice trying to keep that thing on a fish tree. You know, as well as I, everybody probably listening by now at boat control is the most crucial aspect of that, of the whole life scope game, really.
Danny Plautz (19:15.405)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (19:34.191)
100 % correct. It's it's, you know, I get a lot of people, you know, and you, you read all those keyboard warriors out there that say, you know, live scope is, you know, ruining the system, this net, you know, I love live scope. I mean, I'm new to it. I'm not as good as, you know, some like Tom is, or, like, Dewey.
Brian Bashore (19:41.762)
Yeah.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (19:49.699)
It is fun.
Danny Plautz (19:58.639)
Max Wilson, Isaac Lockidge, you know, those guys, you know, I'm not at that level yet, but I know, you know, this year proved to that, you know, I can, I can compete with these guys with it and I'm learning something each and every day with it. But you get those guys that say that it's rune fishing. I think it made walleye fishing exciting again. I think it really, you know, it brought something new to the table for us and, and I, and it's, it's enjoyable. And,
You know, so I'm excited for this season. It'll be, I'll learn something every single day that I'm sitting on the front of the boat or even trolling. mean, there's going be times you're going to need, still need to be versatile. don't care what anybody says. You still need to be versatile. And so yeah, I'm looking forward to it. This schedule will create opportunities no matter what your strong suits are, whether it's trolling, live scoping, whatever, this schedule is going to fit for everybody. And it's going to be a lot of fun.
Brian Bashore (20:56.824)
Yeah, it is. And, and scoping is exactly as little, there's not as much noise in a walleye world as there's bass anti as against it. And, know, we need to shut it down. It's ruining. Like I said, it's fun. It's a little spark. this fishery fishing style may be needed. wall anglers traditionally trolling bottom bouncers. mean, a ton of us have been pitching and, you know, jigs and doing a lot of these kinds of things for years, you know, but it's on side image. I see him over there and I'm casting over there. Then under this whole.
watching it take place stuff or we've always identified the suspended walleyes and, know, and have trolled over them or slip-bobbered them. mean, like the bass guys kind of missed all those fishermen. think the walleye guys were well aware of the suspended walleyes, but being able to cast a jig and 40 feet of water and present and put it in their face 15 feet down. That's a whole new concept. And that's, that's open it up doors and obviously new baits and methods. And it is fun. It's fun when it works. It's frustrating to hell when it doesn't.
Danny Plautz (21:52.511)
yeah, you do. You hear about the guys saying that it will ruin it, but I would have loved to have one of those guys that say that it's ruining our, our fisheries out on the championship this year and Marinette four or five foot waves. When you're looking at 20 to 30 fish on your screen and you're getting three or four of them that are chasing. And by the time you know, you look down and it's already two hours you spent on this school and you haven't had a bite and you sit in here, you know, it's, it's you against that.
that fish and you're trying to coach them into biting. You're trying to throw everything you got in your boat at them. And by the time you know it, it's game over and it's time to head back in. But it's not easy. mean, I can speak for a lot of guys that are at this championship and there was a lot of chase, a lot of fish that were chasing. Everybody's seen a lot of fish. There's a lot of fish out there and you just could not get them to bite anything. It didn't matter.
So it's not as easy, know, at some points it's easy, but at some points it can be quite difficult. You can make a grown man cry in a quick hurry.
Brian Bashore (22:56.932)
Patience, you got to be very patient and it is, you know, it's one fish per every hour and a half or whatever. You only need five and you're looking and I tell people I'm like, yeah, we only caught six or seven today. I could have caught 20. We just don't throw at those other fish because we didn't want them. They're not going to do any good. know, so you're able to, know, especially fisheries that got an average like Green Bay or areas got, got the bigger fish where you're like, I don't, I can stay away from these certain areas where I know I'm catching 15, 18. I want these three, five, six, you know, obviously bigger fish and.
Danny Plautz (23:04.994)
We like
Brian Bashore (23:27.246)
Some guys are coming like, yeah, we caught a ton of fish. They I'm like, all right, but we beat you by six, seven pounds. only got six fish today, but like, cause that's all you're throwing at, you know, you're, not making a lot of cash.
Danny Plautz (23:36.959)
Yep. Well, in an area this year, you know, that place is so incredible. I don't care what anybody says, Dunkirk, that was some of the most fun bite that I've ever been on in my life, hands down. you know, trolling, can catch the fish, you can catch a fish trolling, you go through a hundred fish trolling, but you're not getting to those, you know, those two and three pound fish were just absolutely piranhas. You know, a bait got within 20, 30 feet of them and they were, they were just, it was,
Brian Bashore (24:03.972)
There.
Danny Plautz (24:06.84)
Vapor trails.
Brian Bashore (24:07.172)
You let the light lure out, you click the light counter, boop, grab the rod up, board went back.
Danny Plautz (24:10.85)
Dumb, yeah. So, and then you get the live scope in and you can see these giant pods of fish and then you can pick and choose and you can get in there and if you get chasers, you just start cranking as fast as you can. And then you can get that bait right into those fish that you need to catch to be competitive out there, especially when you're dealing with those giant pods of walleyes. I mean, it was pretty incredible. So.
You know, you might have to go through like a pot of fish trolling like three, four or five times just to weed through those smaller fish. And by the time you're done doing that on a mile, mile and a half troll, you know, your day's pretty much done with. you got to be efficient out there in that short amount of time. And, and it was just a lot of fun.
Brian Bashore (24:45.601)
Right.
Brian Bashore (24:57.028)
Yeah, it's always a good problem when you're having a real, real fast or move it to get it away from fish biting it. Cause you're like, no, not that one, not that one, you know, throw it back out there quick. it's almost like you need the coangular. You throw over here to chum all the fish away. Okay. And then hopefully the big one doesn't move and I can go get him.
Danny Plautz (25:15.29)
100 % and yeah, the co-englers, see, what I've learned, you you hear a lot of things about the co-englers and stuff like that. You know, having to sit in the back of the boat all I am as a warm man, you know, back there or a net man and not in my boat. My boat, have two forward facing sonars, Lowrance one and I have Garmin sitting right in front of my boat. My co-englers side by side with me and we work as a team and...
And it just was efficient that way for me in my boat. And then my co-workers were like, what? You want me to be up here with you? like, yeah, you and I are gonna be standing shoulder to shoulder. We're gonna work these schools as a team.
Brian Bashore (25:55.395)
What one to them you miss your Cassie follows you right up, you know
Danny Plautz (26:00.367)
100%. And then, so like when you got your, when we have our toy motors at eight, nine, 10 speed and we're covering water, I'm scanning the front half and then he's scanning the right side or whatever side I have that other portable unit on. And he's just scanning away and then he says, there's some fish and I'll lock down and I'll let him make the first cast. And then I'll try to nose up, know, square up on those fish just in case he misses. And we're right back at there working as a team.
Brian Bashore (26:28.192)
It's, it's, I think I see a lot more people doing it, but buddy John and I did that at the NTC. just one scope on the front and it just alternated cast. cause I mean, you think you're on it and then it drops or his swan. You're like, Nope. Or you threw your crawler off or whatever. So, but having another bait or a different bait to follow that right back up, you know, and next guy throw it out there. So obviously trickier, trickier for the person not on the foot pedal, but try to keep you and everything aligned. Cause so much is muscle memory.
Danny Plautz (26:54.478)
100 %
Brian Bashore (26:54.712)
I mean, don't even look up sometimes you just cast throw, you know, and, and, and retrieve it, but even having to pull up there when the guy's in the back of the boat and you're up the front and you're whipping that thing all over it, it's really not doing them any good back there at all.
Danny Plautz (27:06.926)
They're really not. No, it's not doing them any good back there. They're not learning anything. You know, it just it's frustrating for them. And I see that, you know, when like when my dad's in a boat with me or I have a buddy in the back of the boat and he just like, yeah, this is this is impossible. So I'm like, move up here and let's let's do this as a team. It makes life a lot easier and more enjoyable for the day.
Brian Bashore (27:30.66)
Yep. Yeah. You gotta, mean, every body of water is going to present, know, a little bit of different, you know, technique to where maybe a guy in the back dragging a bouncer or two is going to work or rigging a chub or something like that. But while on those suspended bites, like you're going to be looking at a lot of next year, it ain't going to, it's not going to help you in the back. Get those codes up front. So if you're listening to codes, you're not yes, that man, word man, you can call yourself whatever, but just like daddy, you're going to be sitting on the front of a lot of guys boats. think doing the same one, two.
you know, as a team type approach.
Danny Plautz (28:01.91)
Yep, and then with the LiveScope, it's been such an adjustment the last couple of years with it being introduced into our, into the walleye world. And I think the guys that adapt, adapt with the changes and then work as a team are gonna be more efficient in their day. And you're gonna see those guys at the top of the leaderboard regularly when they start putting the program together.
Brian Bashore (28:28.866)
Yep. I concur. think you are, are spot on with that for sure. What, so we talked a little bit, we got 2026 schedule coming up, Lake Erie, Moe Bridge, Lake Oahe, Baytanoak, Green Bay, Okana, and then Championships Kakauya. All great fisheries, all got big fish. party fishing rules in North Dakota, Kakauya. I don't know what, we don't know what they're to do with Baytanoak.
Danny Plautz (28:30.797)
Yeah.
Danny Plautz (28:43.436)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (28:55.62)
Green Bay yet, if we're to split that, it's going to be Michigan or Wisconsin waters only. That's, know, what I would assume they would do, but we have no idea. Lord knows what the NTV is ever going to do sometimes. So that we're not fishing the same fishery basically in, you know, in back to back places, but we have slots up there in Bay to Nock, I believe. I'm not sure what it is, like two over 22 or 23 or something.
Danny Plautz (29:07.532)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (29:19.318)
Yep, to over 23 and the address have to be under 23.
Brian Bashore (29:22.914)
Under the show, right? So, cause that's as you go out of Little Bay, think, right. And then into Bay, but the Little Bay is so when you're coming through with something with a slot, you got to meet that fishery slot. So ideally it would just be a Michigan waters tournament and then Wisconsin, you know, for the Green Bay thing.
Danny Plautz (29:26.134)
Yep, yep.
Danny Plautz (29:36.942)
Yeah, that would be nice to I would love to see they have boundaries in our circuit. It'd be nice to have some regulations on that. But we'll see what they come up with for next season.
Brian Bashore (29:40.676)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (29:48.473)
Yeah. If I was the host city, I would require it with the contract. So I don't have people stay in an Escanaba launching out of Ocana. I'm like, no, the whole point is we're hosting you. We're giving you some money to put this on in our community. You need to fish in our community and stay here.
Danny Plautz (29:52.91)
100%.
Danny Plautz (30:05.998)
I totally agree. then, you know, I heard a lot of a lot of people talking about, you know, the size, bodies of water that we're going to this year. And I don't, I don't, I don't mind it. I just, you know, they're, they're worried about blow days, you know, you know, the inclement weathers, you know, that's where the NWT or somebody needs to put in blow days for these events, because the community wants us there for more than just one day. You know, if we get a day,
They want us to spend another day like honestly, a Marinette that was that was something else. I was talking to even with the manager at the hotel that I was staying at and he's, I'm like, yep, we're, done. I got to check out this morning. And he's like, what? You know, like I thought you're going to be here for a couple of days. I'm like, that tournament's over the, yeah, that's what I thought. And then, and so they were concerned with, you know, like, Hey, you know, we're the host hotel.
Brian Bashore (30:54.068)
So did I, right?
Danny Plautz (31:04.514)
You know, they should put in a blow day so that, you know, we're bringing more money and we're spending more money at the restaurants, the bait stores, the hotel and things like that. You know, the community wants us to, they want us to, to be there the whole duration of the time. And that was silly.
Brian Bashore (31:10.115)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (31:19.509)
yet.
That was silly as being polite. It's the championship nonetheless. You got to have it. You got to have one built in. I get it. It's already a three day tournament. We've been there. We've done this before. Everybody fished, you know, that last day with two blow days. And I get it. You're not going to have blow day after blow day after blow day. Eventually it's like, got to, everybody's got to go home. We got to get back. 95 % of the wall hangers on tour have other jobs. So we get back and I know that happened years ago at that championship. They was candle that had, he's like, I got to go.
Danny Plautz (31:25.313)
Yes!
Danny Plautz (31:46.306)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (31:51.557)
I, know, and I'm like, if we get one more day, I got to go too. got, got trips coming up. We got to get out of here, you know, and we're able to make it go, but great lakes. You got lucky here on got lucky at Dunkirk. I mean, really wind can be a factor pretty much anywhere you go. It seems like except to Mississippi river. I think it's pretty much always fun. And then we had it on the Detroit river a years ago. So one place where like wind won't be a factor. It was a factor because was blowing against the Kurt and made it just kind of a disaster. So we had a blow day there, which I didn't think was ever going to happen.
And it did. So it's possible anywhere you go, but yeah, mixing a blow day or something that nonetheless for a championship, you got to have it for the championship at least.
Danny Plautz (32:26.946)
You gotta do that.
100 % yeah, and in boundaries, you gotta have boundaries. mean, we've had, in the PWT we had boundaries and it worked out just fine. You you figured out that area and like you said, we are gonna be in that community. We're gonna be spending our time there and instead of driving all the way around to, you know, Door County or something like that, Surgeon Bay and you're spending all your practice over there instead of being in Marinette, you know.
Brian Bashore (32:34.573)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (32:50.936)
Right.
Brian Bashore (32:54.914)
Yep. had, so we had an Angler meeting a couple of years ago, Devils Lake at the championship and it basically, and then we said, been some surveys and those questions were asked, they're asked in the room. So I know that 99 % of the room raised their hand and said, yes, put boundaries on it. They said, Green Bay 30 miles. It's good enough. You know, it's a big body of water. And when it's this, you know, many miles across and up, it's like that's fine. We're all having to fish same area. So it's, it's fine. It's a good playing field.
Danny Plautz (33:14.765)
Good.
Brian Bashore (33:23.662)
You know, they're worried about the guides. If you have a boundary, the guiding guide outside that boundary on those such big bodies of water, you know, and then it was time off water for, you know, maybe two weeks, which you didn't have that at the championship this year, but they had it last year, which is weird. Why are we, if we're to have this rule, why did we just kind of pick and choose when we have it? You know, and I heard rumors say, the so-and-so fish is this tournament there head to head there. I'm like, it doesn't matter. I knew the schedule and the rules are the rules. You're going to have to pick and choose.
Danny Plautz (33:36.654)
Yes, it is.
Danny Plautz (33:53.039)
in 100 % correct. mean, I'm okay with having off limits or off, you know, periods on bodies of water, especially championships or in fact, you know, or having a limited practice. I, you know, I'm cool with that. I mean, I got limited practice compared to everybody else because I got to run a business. So it's, that'd be cool if they had a limited practice off periods.
Brian Bashore (34:04.398)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (34:15.492)
And those were things we all voted for as well. have 99 % of the room said, yes, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or whatever. was Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. It was four days, like four, four and a half days at the most. And that was it. And the problem is even the guys that fish more than that at practice are like, well, that's because you allow me to force my hand. My wife will be happier because I'm going to stay home a couple of days longer. But if you tell me I call it fishy days, great. And I'd rather you do that.
I'm going to go a couple, three extra days early because maybe they don't have nothing going on or like just because I can. So.
Danny Plautz (34:52.182)
Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Well, something's got to change. Something's got to change to help our industry out, especially.
Brian Bashore (35:02.924)
I mean, like you said, the live scope in the wallet world, it's a good thing in a sense, right? It's, it's, I fishing is fun again, we're bringing it back. It was never not fun, you know, but you can still troll. Like you said, you got to be super diverse trolling. There's going to be a handful of people pulling cranks and running them off for playing a boards out there. Like you're catching, four rods versus the one or two rods, right? Cause you're going to catch big fish. And we've seen it last time there, there was the day one leader was trolling.
You know, and then Ryan buddy was right up there. Those guys that went east and bunch of them, they're all cranking and they did, they did real well. Um, you know, and then you got to get to Oahe. There's got to, you know, that's May I've never fished up that way in May. So I I don't really know what to expect. Um, there's a lot of big fish up there, but I guarantee there's going to be some people cranking lead. There's got to be some shallow jig pitching plastics and, and crawlers or minnows, what have you. And then there's going to obviously be, you know, plenty of scoping around, I don't, I don't know if there'll be.
So many suspended fish at that time.
Danny Plautz (36:02.382)
Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it'll probably be shallow bite. I've never fished up there that time of year. And you know, we've always run either Cast Lake or I mean, I'm not cast. We are up in Sharp and then we were, you know, other parts of that reservoir, you know, earlier in the year. And yeah, never been up to mole bridge yet. I'm looking forward to that. That would be fun.
Brian Bashore (36:10.646)
Right. Sharp.
Brian Bashore (36:21.538)
Yeah, it's always June or July or something when they go there or even, you know, into the fall and then those fish are in the trees and you got a little go super deep and there's always some fish shallow. So May would be, it'd be interesting. Beta knock, I've never actually been there. I just keep driving by it go, man, I want to go fish there. It's the home of the giant. So you've probably been there plenty of times.
Danny Plautz (36:40.502)
Yeah, I've been there a handful of times.
Brian Bashore (36:42.712)
And that's pretty cool fishery from what I understand.
Danny Plautz (36:44.726)
it's gorgeous up there. love the Escanaba community. Like that town, that area is just like a lot like Marinette. It's just gorgeous, gorgeous fishing. The scenery is awesome. And yeah, there's some there's some nice fish up there. It'll be a fun, fun event. I know that we're going there in June and everybody's worried about the ALYs. But I think we're gonna be far enough north where I don't think we will have too much effect on that. But who knows what spring brings? Who knows what
Brian Bashore (37:01.826)
their life.
Danny Plautz (37:13.154)
weather nature's been playing out for weather, we'll be able to catch fish up there when we get up.
Brian Bashore (37:13.293)
Right.
Brian Bashore (37:18.326)
Hey, it's just another challenge that throws at us. So, I mean, last time that was a problem in Green Bay, everybody went to Escanaba and they still didn't catch a lot of fish, but when you can catch one 10 pounder, goes a long ways. So, I mean, there's definitely some big fish.
Danny Plautz (37:25.266)
Uh-huh.
Danny Plautz (37:30.924)
Yep. Well, I think when the MWC went there this year, in June, I believe it was, or somebody went there. Yeah. And then Nate, mean, sounded like it was a pretty good bite.
Brian Bashore (37:34.68)
Yeah, thanks. Yeah. Yeah. I think. Yep.
Brian Bashore (37:42.437)
Yep. Yeah. I think it'll be just fine. Like I said, and it is super cool country. I haven't, I don't know. I stayed in Escanaba pretty cool little town Marin. That's a great host city. I mean, they go all out. Um, know, great place for a championship in Ocana. I mean, those are fishing towns, man. They, Mo bridge every time you've ever got out of Mo bridge. mean, it's South Dakota shows up, not just in the anglers participating, but the crowds are some of the biggest crowds.
You got the entire CVB tourism fire department, you know, making breakfast or rules meeting dinners there with all their side-by-sides hauling guys from South Dakota. got to park a half mile from the boat ramp sometimes. So it's they're hauling everybody back down to their boats or parking your trucks for you. I mean, they are, they get it. This it's it's big deal for them. And he's cause these are pretty small towns, you know, out here that are on the river, like in pigstown real small, or even the mole bridge area. They're like, yeah, bring it, bring it here.
Danny Plautz (38:31.466)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (38:38.134)
stay here and we're going to do everything we can to support you. And they, they, they show up.
Danny Plautz (38:42.388)
Picson was incredible a couple of years ago. I could not believe the people that showed up for that. That parking lot was stuffed full of spectators and it was, it was sight. It was pretty awesome sight to see there. That was, that was incredible.
Brian Bashore (38:44.515)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (38:57.262)
Yeah, don't, nothing has come close to touching that ever with in the NWT's time, anyone I've been at, there's never been a, turn out like that good tournament. you know, we had the NTC was there this year. I don't know they expected the same thing. It wasn't remotely close. I would say a 16th of the size of the crowd, but a lot of them just didn't know about it. No.
Danny Plautz (39:17.779)
really? Wow.
Danny Plautz (39:22.542)
Do you think the circuits are just failing as far as advertising in those communities? Like when we roll into town and I mean, like back in the PWT days, you'd roll into like, you just roll into Bismarck for a championship and there are sign on every block or like even Houghton Michigan when the championships and we had those qualifiers out there in the PWT, you roll into town and they're just banners everywhere promoting and
Brian Bashore (39:28.372)
horrible.
Danny Plautz (39:50.947)
mean, some of the biggest crowds that we've seen in the PWT days is when those communities in the PWT were advertising when we came to town. And I think they're missing a vote on that.
Brian Bashore (40:03.652)
Yeah, I think that they are probably expecting the community to do a bunch of it. Some of these communities don't know, you know, if maybe they're new to it. know when it came to Chamberlain a few years back, they had no idea. know, I mean, they got overlooked and it was out of pigstown. Then it got switched to Chamberlain. I got on the phone, made some calls and explained it and they were like, Oh yeah, come here. We're all in, you know, and then they all, and then so the second time they came, were.
They're more at it, but they do it on a pretty small scale locally. I'm like, which is good because that's who you want to show up, you know, for all the weigh-ins and stuff. But I think it's, you know, amongst all the anglers, you know, their social posts and whatever else is really where that message is at. I mean, that's up to the NWT or the federation, whoever's in charge of communicating those contracts, you know, with those communities on, you know, giving them some tools and some resources. I know when I was, you know, editing the magazine that someone was coming to town, I reached out and said, Hey, I'm going to.
We're going to do an article, blah, blah. We're going to put this magazine is going to come out a month before it's going to promote the tournament, but they're just, isn't those magazines anymore. There isn't, just takes somebody who gets it on both sides. think like some of those communities had people there, know, doubles like Susie gets it. going to doubles like that. Everybody knows, but I remember waiting to at Erie. I think we're going out of the Sandusky.
Danny Plautz (41:05.495)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (41:27.172)
And the logs were in the boat ramp one morning or whatever, right? So we're backed up the highways, like backed up to the interstate. I mean, the point where you just walked out of your truck on the road and I walked in and got coffee and just let it sit out there and run. And the lady was like, what's going on? There's like 150 some boats in this tournament. And she is literally two blocks from the boat ramp. And she was like, what's going on here this morning? I'm like, you don't even know. I mean, there's been guys in here all week long.
Danny Plautz (41:28.846)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (41:54.469)
Every day feeling up their boats and buying back crawlers or whatever. And now there's, you know, 200 dudes coming in, getting coffee and rolls while they're waiting for this thing to move. And it's like, how do you, how do you not know? Of course, then she's like, Oh, you need to go by the lighthouse and do this and go there. Like, for the input, but how do you, how do you not know?
Danny Plautz (42:14.87)
I don't get it. It happened in Spring Valley too, when the MWT came to Spring Valley. I mean, I've known, I know Spring Valley very well. I fished at Illinois River a boatload of times. And then I went into a bar to have dinner one day. then there was a bunch of locals in there like, Hey, what are you doing? You know, where are from? And I'm like, I'm here fishing MWT on the Illinois River. They looked at each other like, we had no idea that there was even an event in here. I thought the MWC was this past week. I'm like, no, this is the
The big guys, are, these are the big guys are like, we had no idea that you guys were even in town. And I was like, really? I'm like, no, interesting.
Brian Bashore (42:44.932)
All right.
Brian Bashore (42:52.694)
And see, so is it the federation? Cause that's the same organization that runs the MWC, but they know the MWC is coming every year. I mean, it's kind of a staple at this point. yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't know who to blame for this. I would probably blame it on all parties, probably a little bit. I think the anglers in general, we all just need to do a little better job of promoting it ourselves, you know, way out in front. I always tell them, you know, what drives me nuts is when we show up these tournaments and the communities are all in the mayor's there.
Danny Plautz (43:01.685)
Yeah, yeah.
Danny Plautz (43:12.728)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (43:20.58)
gives a little thanks for coming to our community or the CVB person or whatever. And that's awesome. And they get their little two minute commercial on the, you know, the televised show, but they hand you a bag of goodies at the rules meeting with coupons or all the places to go. You're like, great. I'm leaving in two days. This would have been nice to have all week because now I don't have time to do any of this. Right.
Danny Plautz (43:43.662)
100 % correct. They like when you sign up for that tournament, they've got some goodies, you know, send it to you. Yes.
Brian Bashore (43:48.961)
Email it out, email it out. We have technology people shoot this email from these chambers say, Hey, here's our whole list. do it a damn screenshot. People can print it off themselves and cut the coupons out if they need to be, or give them QR codes. isn't we're in the 21st century folks. This is all pretty damn simple, you know, but give it weeks, weeks, weeks, maybe months in advance, especially if they're hotels lodging. When people are like, I don't know where to stay. Yes, they have the host hotel listed, but it may be full and there's two or three other.
Danny Plautz (44:06.378)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (44:18.616)
But, or the CVB info and people will just be like, I'll call them and see what they say. You know, if the information is given to us, the anglers versus having to look it up, they're more likely to just look at the stuff that's given to them versus Google and they're trying to find whatever.
Danny Plautz (44:35.086)
100 % like when you get your confirmation letter from the NWT. Okay, now you got another attachment that you can print off. And there's everything you need to know about the community and what they're offering. And then you can plan because at that point, now you're planning your lodging, you're planning, you know, where the boat ramps are, you know, and you're doing your pre turn and planning at that point. So yeah, maybe send out something during your confirmation.
Brian Bashore (45:00.248)
I mean, that, I mean, the confirmation is still a couple of weeks out. So I would say that's like the, latest you want to be, but there's no reason it should be a PDF, like the rules and everything else that comes in that boom. Here's everything you need to know about the community that, that they're telling us, or they want you to know. I mean, if it's people don't participate, then that that's on those communities, but it's just one more click of a button. mean.
Danny Plautz (45:17.198)
Yeah.
Danny Plautz (45:24.014)
It really is.
Brian Bashore (45:25.284)
Everything is work, I guess, and I know the world we live in, a of people just don't seem to want to work too hard at it. Uh, but that's, I don't run the tournament. So we all have a lot of ways to make things better. Everything costs money, but I understand that. And that does take time and someone's got to create this and do that. But if I'm on the chamber or the tourism side of it, it's done. I give you a completed product when it goes to NWT and whoever's emailing the stuff out and saying, here it is our community invested all this money into it.
CVB tourism department put this program or whatever, this flyer together. There you go. Now it's on you guys to distribute it. And if you're not giving me all your Angular's emails and we'll take care of it ourselves.
Danny Plautz (46:02.157)
Perfect.
Yeah, that's way to get exposure and get people involved in our sport.
Brian Bashore (46:18.148)
Right. And mean, and invalidate that investment, those communities that are making, there's a lot of, a lot of chatter of why you guys go here. Why don't you go to Minnesota? Why don't you go here, here, blah, blah. Why are we going to the Coquia for the championship for when it's a giant reservoir and we only have 40 boats, you know, coming. So does the community kind of, it's an extra day tournament, hopefully. Granted quite a few of the guys will stick around for that third day you'll have a good turnout, probably just a good to turn out if it was a hundred boats as far as.
you know, crowd participation, cause they show up there. It's a great community and that end of the lake that time of year will be, will be fine. There'll be fish from wherever you want to go. You're going to be able to catch them. I do feel like they missed out on opportunity to get the numbers up because the numbers are really not good this year. You want that 125 average to get that championship payouts to make everything more beneficial to people. You don't want to get a 10th place check for 3,500 bucks. That's, that's no good, but that's happening, you know,
or 11th place, 12th place. Uh, so when you're, I mean, Erie's a good one to start out, always gets, always gets good numbers. MoBridge should probably get pretty good numbers. Will we hit? I don't, we'll probably just average around the hundred again. I don't, you know, hope, probably not, you know, hopefully not in the eighties, like it was this year. Um, just cause there's schedules better, a little more excitement, the timing this year fell out a lot of holidays and stuff like that. So I think the upcoming one looks better.
Danny Plautz (47:17.783)
Yep, that's correct.
Danny Plautz (47:29.72)
Probably.
Danny Plautz (47:44.099)
I think that hurt a lot of guys too this year was everything falling on the holidays. know, you know, my wife knowing that, you know, I'm a, I fish tournaments and she knows what I do. You know, it just part of the game, but you know, lot of these guys that have families and things like that, made it pretty tough. know, yeah, like my wife, she wasn't happy with some of the tournaments when we had to leave like 4th of July.
Brian Bashore (48:09.77)
Easter, first one was.
Danny Plautz (48:11.116)
Yeah, yeah, and then just missing family stuff. You know, it's a sacrifice that we have to do, but a little bit better planning would be helpful on our end. you might, and then you might get into.
Brian Bashore (48:23.108)
And I get it. I explained this in a different podcast, how that whole, that whole process is done with the walleye federation and Bass Pro. So if you're all wondering, listen to that. kind of breaks it, breaks it down a little bit, but it still goes back to just, we could do a little work. do a little better planning. We can make this all happen for everybody.
Danny Plautz (48:44.736)
Yeah. And I know that there's a lot of local tournaments that a lot of people fish, you know, outside of the NWT, MWC, things like that, that, you know, you're always going have your conflicts. You know, you have, you know, you got the Lake Erie walleye tour that, you know, that's, that's really strong. You have the Michigan walleye tour. That's, that's really strong. So you're going to have conflicts there, but yeah, just working with everybody and just being mindful.
Brian Bashore (49:11.236)
Yeah, they're always worried about the permits. And I'm like, I've gotten a few permits and that's a really, I can get a South Dakota fishing permit in probably about two minutes. It takes me online. It'll take, you got to have it in 30 days prior to your event at the minimum. and I know Kurt, you can't submit them until November 1st for the following year. I know Kurt does the governor's cup at like 12,01 AM to make sure he gets, gotta get that, you know, that date, type thing, but it's, it's.
Fill out a couple of boxes, click a couple of buttons and, and, that's that. So you can add that blow day. And now I get it. You know, they're based off their travel and, whoever's running the tournaments next year, I don't know, it will be the same organization or not. Um, but I'm sure they had a lot of insight on that schedule based on where they got to be and how much time it takes to get to where you got to go and what have you. But you also got to think about the anglers because your other schedule and your other businesses aren't our issue.
Danny Plautz (50:09.976)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (50:10.306)
I mean, the bottom line is that's really not our problem. Our problem is this and we're putting a ton of money into this. And so this needs to work. And if it doesn't, because you have these other things, then somebody else either needs to do it or something's got to, something's got to go. Somebody's got to cut something somewhere because we, we have, I mean, your $2,000 entry, you got another couple thousand and fuel and lodging and food and there's enormous amount of tackle we buy. So.
Danny Plautz (50:28.364)
Yep, correct.
Danny Plautz (50:39.278)
Yep, a lot of expenses. It's so much fun.
Brian Bashore (50:42.732)
What can we do to make this walleye fish into this tournament circuit? Not just in the empty, just in general, it's not like we're beating up on them, but I would say that it's, it's a great circuit. it's not, it's fish it. If you don't even don't like it, don't fish it. If you want to just deal with stuff, it's only laying out there that's supposed to be on this level. We would all like to see it be on that level. I think the anglers themselves can, we can push it there. We can put it there.
Danny Plautz (51:09.358)
And a hundred percent, I, you know, I, I would think a lot of us, anglers have a lot to, to, to blame ourselves for, you know, where this is going because, know, we, we talk about, um, what we want, what we want to see, but yet the anglers don't have each other's back when something comes up and, uh, we're first to take them down. And, uh, when you start getting negative about certain things, um, it's the anglers right away, you know, that it's.
I think, I think we got to do better professionally. Not just in the, in the tournament world, but also in fishing general, when it comes to the different websites where the forums where you're having conversations, you know, you have people that are just asking for, for like, Hey, I'm just moving over to green Bay, the green Bay area. What kind of bite, where should I look for, for starting off learning about green Bay? And then you got people in there just absolutely just.
Brian Bashore (51:49.945)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (52:06.69)
you know, just no business with, you know, just tearing somebody down for, they're asking a simple question. I think as anglers, as sportsmen, we can do a better job and it just will be better for everybody in general, helping each other out.
Brian Bashore (52:07.854)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (52:13.07)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (52:23.908)
No doubt. You've seen the hunting world kind of tear itself down. I mean, you're a hunter. You've seen that on those shows, shows and forums and the fishing world kind of does it. It's so much bigger. So maybe it's not as impactful as a smaller group like the hunting world, but you're exactly right. We're, sometimes our own worst enemies and we need to, we can complain, we can bitch about the circuit and the rules or how things happen. But I said, if you don't like it, don't fish it. It's that simple. If you're going to fish it, be all in and promote it.
Danny Plautz (52:30.061)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (52:53.636)
And, and, tell people where you're going, what it's about. Talk to Tom Wayne about it. He's, know, we're going to talk to Jeff or the federation, whoever's in charge, try to allow us to, you know, let's live stream our first day and our second day. And I'm going to get Starlink. I Drake's got it. I'm pretty, you know, looking forward to next year. And I get it. We don't want to live stream day one because people will watch it and they'll whatever. I'm like, that's great. Everybody that saw me there day one will see that other boats there on day two that weren't there day one.
Danny Plautz (52:53.646)
you're 100 % correct.
Brian Bashore (53:23.276)
If they choose to do that, they want to be that person. I'm like, I don't care. Come on over, tie up if that's what you think you need to do. Okay. So bass has the rule where you can't watch and basically you can't touch your phone after the tournament. Cause there's no way you're not going to see something. in the walleye world doesn't, doesn't have that. And that's fine. I personally don't care in terms like I don't care neither because if it's live stream on day one and there's no boat around me and all day too, there's 20 of them. They'll know those other 19 people are watching that live stream last night.
you know, we're mixing up and I don't, think we got a pretty solid group of, you know, 50, 60 guys. And I don't, I don't think you need to really worry about.
Danny Plautz (53:59.755)
You're 100 % correct. Livestream would be absolutely fantastic for our sport. And I think that's what's missing. A big part of like in just in the tournament aspect of it, I think we're missing the boat on the live streaming. You know, back in the day when head to head was during COVID. I mean, I'm guilty as it I mean, don't tell my dad, but yeah, I had my laptop right there. I was watching the whole entire day while I was supposed to be working but
Brian Bashore (54:25.454)
Yeah.
Danny Plautz (54:27.758)
And then you can look and you can see everybody that was watching that stuff. And they were really into it. Yeah, there was not a whole lot going on in COVID, but I still think you can get to those levels having live stream now.
Brian Bashore (54:42.052)
that that's where I say it's, it's going to be on the anglers to do it. You're going to have to pay for it, provide it, do it yourself. It, the people probably don't, I got a friend, it's a cameraman for bass. We'll probably have them on here. Sometimes Jake Lutandras. That's a lot of money. It's like literally over a hundred thousand dollars per camera per day for bass to live stream in those books. So you're never going to see the walleye world doing what they're doing. But if Tom Wynn did some on his, on his YouTube page, you know, and
Some of us have tried and have plans and Starlink is really the only way to do it to not drop signal and you still may lose it. But then not being able to reconnect is kind of shady because really you don't even need to be on your phone to do this stuff anymore. So, I get it. That's the idea is you're not on your phone. So, but it's going to be on us to provide those platforms to help, to help grow this, to help, you know, and as a professional angler, you benefit, the NWT is going to benefit from it greatly.
Danny Plautz (55:29.718)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (55:41.46)
then you and your sponsors are. mean, that's what you're doing. That's what we're here for.
Danny Plautz (55:46.447)
You're 100 % correct on that is, you know, sometimes you might not have the greatest tournament. So you're not going to get that coverage when you get off on the water with the NWT. You're not going to see your sponsors are not going to see you. You know, you're there, you know, your family's not going to see you, you know, might not cross the stage or you might not make the show. But yet at live streaming will help you big time with your promotions and just teaching somebody. And people are going to take notice of it. And, you know, only good things can come.
from it.
Brian Bashore (56:17.38)
Yeah. I would say they're like, what if you suck? I'm like, well, then everybody learned what not to do. It's that simple, right? Don't go do what that guy was doing. Cause it didn't really work out today. And you as a English like, yep, I'm not going to do that again. So there's, all, learn lessons every day in tournament fishing, good or bad.
Danny Plautz (56:22.478)
.
Danny Plautz (56:29.966)
the
Danny Plautz (56:34.614)
Yep, that's correct. yeah, good or bad, you are learning and yeah, sometimes there are tough lessons to learn, but you won't make those mistakes twice.
Brian Bashore (56:46.252)
Yeah. And there's not a tournament fisherman out there that hasn't had those days. They've all zeroed or whatever, they have mechanical failures or equipment failures or whatever the case is. mean, but there's also times where can just shut the live stream down because it's the whole world's falling apart and nothing's good is going to come out of this today. We'll recap later, but people want to see that. yeah.
Danny Plautz (57:04.76)
But you get to see the true emotion of the anglers on while they're competing during the day. know, nobody's perfect. Yeah. You're going to have some cussing. You might have some rods, you know, snapping over their knees, but you get to see that. And that's what people need to see. You know, you got, you it's not all, you know, sunshine and roses all day long. You know, you get to see the big bags that everybody brings in the pictures and stuff like that. But how did they get there? You know, the secrets are not there. You know, nobody's telling like information stuff as far as what they're doing. You're going to see.
everything all day long exactly how they're utilizing their equipment and it can just make everybody a better angler.
Brian Bashore (57:42.501)
Yep. Yep. No doubt. And we need to be a little more transparent as anglers that they used to be. And now it's, it's the immediate gratification of the information. It's old news. If you don't do an interview or talk to that tournament winner within a couple of days, it's all right. By the time the next tournament rolls around, who won the last one? Nobody even remembers. You do if you want it, obviously. And we all know who did, but the general public's like, Oh, we're off to the newest thing. So breaking it down and they've done a little bit better job. I know Cardenas to be getting snappens and photos of the winning baits and.
Danny Plautz (58:01.742)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (58:11.428)
And stuff like that, but you don't, we don't have journalists anymore. We don't have the man. don't have people there interviewing and asking questions. think most of the guys would be 80, 90 % probably pretty transparent. Like, yeah, I'm using this because they're getting it. The Dewey Helms and stuff are getting more sponsored, more involved and getting better at that to where, yes, I'm using my rap love, my crush city, you know, mooch minnow or whatever, or my jigging rap or my Z man jerk shad. That's what the people want to know. Right. And.
All those Berkeley guys were using the crawler crawler. You're to see a ton of this stuff coming out next year. The finisher, know, these, things work. They all think it's just the jig and crawler tournament. And well, that works pretty damn good too. What jig you using? Why using that jig?
Danny Plautz (58:54.286)
Exactly. Yeah. It's just information. And then when you're selling their products, people are going to buy it. And then it just helps you out in the long run.
Brian Bashore (59:02.756)
mean, you and I buy what we see the other pros using because, I didn't have that. didn't, couldn't get them on that, but I had the wrong size or color. So I got to go get 10 of those now because sprinkle said Chrome finisher was the thing. And that's the only one I didn't have. So I hear him. Yeah, exactly. I go straight to the websites, Berkeley. God dang it. They, those come out yet. need those. Uh, but what they don't see, like you said, the true emotion, if you can live stream this stuff, they see is coming. They see a little live takeoff video and they see the way in.
Danny Plautz (59:16.382)
Fish USA loves me
Brian Bashore (59:33.477)
And you brought in five nice fish. didn't see the five hours where you didn't get a bite and you got those five fish in 10 minutes. You know, right. think Tom went on his last of the championship, his video cut out a couple hours and I was doing something in the morning. So I had it on and he didn't make a cast for like an hour or two. It just drove around. like, there's nothing here. You know, there's nothing worth throwing at. And then finally, you'll made a couple of casts and caught one. It's like, it's a patience, very, very much patient. You're like, well, it's boring. like, well, we're not.
Going fun fishing, fishing for the five, you know, best bites in there may only be five a day and there, there'd be days you get a lot more, but you're to see guys spin out. You're going to see them stay calm and cool.
Danny Plautz (01:00:14.638)
100 % I'd be fun though to watch you know a handful of guys that can do the live streaming stuff you know like And you got to get invest in all the equipment and stuff like that to get it done I haven't done it yet or even even looked into it, but I think it'd be cool to to have that and watch that live streaming stuff and and and actually see how a guy like Tom goes through about his day when it is a struggle or when he's doing you having success like that and
there's a lot to learn. It's just not much, you know, all about catching the fish. There's a lot that goes on in an eight-hour day in the boat.
Brian Bashore (01:00:49.838)
Yeah. Once you find a fish or even if you got it on your scope, that's kind of the easiest part of the whole process is, is making the cast and hooking the fish. If it wants to bite. Now, if they don't want to bite, it's a of a challenge, but it's everything that goes up to it and after it. And then it's all up here. Cause it is easy, easy. You've been doing this for a long time. It's easy to get spun out or things not go your way, or you drive 30 miles to your spot and the waters change muddy or just.
Danny Plautz (01:01:06.92)
Yep, that is correct.
Brian Bashore (01:01:19.158)
You're like, wow. All right. My whole, my whole plan for the whole day is this because your spots are so far apart, right? It's 30 miles back plus 10 to the new area. And now you've lost an hour, two hours of your day has already gone. haven't went a line.
Danny Plautz (01:01:32.751)
Yep, and honestly every first thing I usually tell my co-englers in the morning is like like if I can tell that they're bubbly and cheerful I'm like hey guys at some point today the the wheels on the bus are gonna come off I said you guys are gonna have to reel me in keep me positive it happens every single day to me I mean they they they rail
Brian Bashore (01:01:52.782)
That makes two of us.
Danny Plautz (01:01:55.639)
And I got to take a few minutes and I warn my co-englers every single day. You know, there's a point in time where I am going to derail and I just need you to really back in and say, we got to catch, one or two more fish or get on them and, and then I'll be back in the game. So what happens everybody.
Brian Bashore (01:02:11.716)
Yeah, you're preaching to the choir there. tell them before we take off, like, don't take nothing personal today. It's don't take nothing personal today. This is my job, you know, but then also I get that super high energy, optimistic guy. I'm like, good. We need that guy in the boat today. Cause it's, you know, it's going to be a tough day or even if it's not things just go south on you. you're like, guy just out here or whatever. You got to get that.
Danny Plautz (01:02:19.691)
Yeah
Danny Plautz (01:02:27.47)
you
Danny Plautz (01:02:31.566)
Thank
Brian Bashore (01:02:35.886)
PMAs window says right that positive middle attitude flip that switch and go he can do it. You're supposed to be in charge. You better do it too.
Danny Plautz (01:02:38.862)
Thank
Danny Plautz (01:02:43.086)
100%, I love guys like that. It just makes the day go by so much better. It goes by fast. then usually by the end of the day, they're your best friend and it's awesome.
Brian Bashore (01:02:51.928)
Yeah. When you're catching them, it's all good. mean, the mood in the boat changes instantly dramatically when things are going good. You're like, you've been fishing buddies for 20 years. When you're not, you're like, get out of my boat. don't, you're just, there's something's not right. It's just, it's not good.
Danny Plautz (01:03:07.086)
you
Danny Plautz (01:03:13.998)
Yeah, I hear you. happens. And honestly, it happens to everybody. It happens at every single tournament to everybody. I don't care what anybody says, it happens. And yeah, it's quite interesting those tournament days when it does happen.
Brian Bashore (01:03:19.716)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:03:30.454)
It does. Hey, don't be discouraged. Coanglers getting, getting our boats and, and B PMAs and optimistic and keep daddy and I on track. So there's other pros that like Tom, I know they're just calm and cool and good to go. I bring the humble good friend, Fisher partner. He's that way. He's just very chill. And, and that's good. I always say it's good travel partner because I'm not, I'm a little more eye strong and it's a good balance. You know, we could talk each other up and down at practice through things and, and real methodical, you know,
Danny Plautz (01:03:34.062)
Thank
you
Brian Bashore (01:03:59.653)
Each everybody's got their strengths and you kind of know and you work with a couple You know two or three other people to break down a body of water you go do those things So he can tell me he's catching something somewhere and I know exactly what he's doing because that's his strength And I'm like you're pulling crawler hearts. It's like yep Mike he's like, you're pitching a jig. I'm like, yep, you know, yep I'm in ten foot. You're in thirty foot. Yep. Okay, you know, you just you just know but then you're also alright Well that works there this works here, you know how it is. You can put that pattern together
Danny Plautz (01:04:08.045)
Yep.
Danny Plautz (01:04:18.007)
you
Hahaha
Danny Plautz (01:04:28.201)
Yep, correct.
Brian Bashore (01:04:30.208)
Awesome. Awesome work. can ramble on about this stuff all day. fun talking to talking to minutes with, with the, one of the best here. Daddy Plouts has been doing this for a long time. I love the story with your mom doing it. You had your dad's been out there getting after it. That's awesome. If you know, guys listening, follow along. If you guys get in that you got you planted on doing spring Valley again. Yeah. Mom's not going to let you say no. So
Danny Plautz (01:04:32.869)
yeah. We can write books.
Danny Plautz (01:04:50.542)
Oh, a hundred percent. That's not even up for discussion. No, no, no, no, no. Well, see now my son's 10 years old and now he's itching to fish a tournament with me because I fished one battle on the bay with my daughter. And so that's our thing is fishing that tournament. And now my son's so big into fishing right now. We got a little, we got a pond in our neighborhood.
Brian Bashore (01:04:58.579)
he's getting ready.
Danny Plautz (01:05:14.344)
And there's about 10 boys his age that just rip on their bikes and they just go fishing all day long on this pond. And then my son just after battle on the bay, goes, hey dad, when are you going to fish a tournament with me? Or when can I fish one with you? And I'm like, all right, game on. And so I got to try to find an event that will accommodate. And that little dude is one hell of a life scoper. just absolutely.
Brian Bashore (01:05:32.132)
Let's go buddy.
Danny Plautz (01:05:41.794)
just loves life scoping and him working like a shiver minnow or even just a purple hair jig. It's just like watching him like, God damn that, that dude's good.
Brian Bashore (01:05:50.329)
They just have it. Those, those 10, 16 year old kids, they just, they could just do that. I don't, it's not, I get it. I let's go thousands of hours and I get it. But then you see some, I buddy brought his kid in Florida who bass fishes and he's like 12 or something. Now I was like, go for it. I was like, I'll just get out your way. You got the foot control. Just have at it. He brought his own Bay caster. She's up there. I'm like, yeah, I'm just sat down in the back of the dad. I'm like, yeah, let him play. Why I go. He's got it. He's good to go. You know, I'm like it.
Danny Plautz (01:06:10.316)
Yeah.
Danny Plautz (01:06:19.138)
that it's awesome to see.
Brian Bashore (01:06:20.664)
They just they get it. They got it. I mean, it's probably because the video games, but it's not like we didn't have video games. I had a Nintendo and a Sega and hell, I even had a PlayStation. So, you know, but all they played was mad. So I don't know.
Danny Plautz (01:06:27.854)
That
Okay.
Danny Plautz (01:06:34.666)
But the cool thing is, watching those kids do that upfront is that they're learning, they're watching the fish, how they react to the baits. And then like, I know my kid rifles through a whole bunch of baits in his box or my box or whatever. And you know, and now it's become, you know, personal with for him as far as, know, I'm gonna catch that fish and just watching him do it. And then just, it's like, okay, yep, I see it. This is, this is gonna be good.
Brian Bashore (01:06:57.462)
He's a well, you said it earlier and your kid is just defined it. It's mono Emano. It's you versus the fish. And that's what I kind of go into every tournament going to assist me versus you. don't watch your own barber. Right? King would always say, and I don't care what the other guys are doing, how many they're me versus you one at a time.
Danny Plautz (01:07:15.502)
100 % correct. Yep. I love that. Yep. It's, and then you know what, even with live scope, know, a lot of people say it's like, Oh, it's taken away from our sport. But you know what? I feel like it kind of is leveling out the playing field a little bit. You know, some of that luck stuff, you know, those luck bites, those luck, you know, those luck tournaments, you know, it's kind of leveling the playing field for me personally, my, my perspective, I think it's leveling the playing field amongst the anglers with that technology. And it's kind of good, you know,
You're not getting that luck bite. know, it's, you know, you're actually seeing that face and you're catching it. Yep. Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:07:49.381)
You see it. Yeah, we all have, we all have it. I don't think there's anybody out there on tour that doesn't have one. So now you got to find them, but you all had the opportunity to find it and figure it out. You know, whatever versus how it used to be where it was blind casting. knew there was some fish and all of a your 18 inches turned to an eight pounder that was happened to be roaming through and you got, you know, lucky now granted say there's times of practice where you hit a pot of big fish. You went back and you caught them, you know, but.
Danny Plautz (01:08:09.41)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:08:18.564)
The slot tournaments when you get that one big one more often than not, you see it Lake Sharp, Robert Crowe, good Angler. Bam. We're hoping to see one eight pounder in the whole tournament. Guy busts his 21 pounds on day one. You know, and the blue is mine.
Danny Plautz (01:08:29.742)
Yep, yep. You know, yeah, it's it's just something else. know, yeah, there's always luck involved in these tournaments and you just roll up on their spot and they're there or they're not there or whatever, vice versa. There's still luck, but I feel like it's a leveled out pretty good. Not pretty good, but I think it's a, that luck factor is coming down.
Brian Bashore (01:08:31.416)
You know, I mean...
Brian Bashore (01:08:51.812)
Yeah, I agree. 100%. All right. We can wrap this thing up here. We've been going on for a while. What is, leave our listeners with one little nugget, some of Danny Plouton, maybe it's fishing tip for all the other sons out there to get your moms in a boat a little more often and bring in a winner. But what do you leave our listeners with a tip to help them on their angling career journey?
Danny Plautz (01:09:12.72)
let's see here. You know what? Let's think about a little nugget that we got here. You know, for me, it's not so much a nugget. It's like, let's introduce like these kids to the outdoors. know, like I have a neighborhood full of kids that are my son's age. And I was fortunate enough to be able to take a few of them out fishing.
You know what? And then it changed their whole perspective of fishing, the outdoors, and then just teaching them as, know, teaching them a little bit more about, you know, human, know, being a good human being and things like that. And then introducing new stuff to them. Just taking somebody new out fishing is, is I think is what we're missing, missing the boat on a lot of, a lot of opportunity missed there. And I like to take advantage of, you know, taking people out fishing that
don't get to go out. I've done it a handful of times this year already. Even in the cleaning industry, I have some customers that I've taken out fishing, not just because of business, but because their kid saw me fishing tournaments and he goes, I want to go fishing. And then the guy ended up buying everything that I had in my boat, know, live scope and the baits. I seen him at the
Brian Bashore (01:10:21.188)
Awesome. All right.
Brian Bashore (01:10:34.603)
yeah.
Danny Plautz (01:10:40.278)
one of the fishing expos and he bought a handful of rods. He went up to St. Croix, bought a bunch of rods on when they had their customer appreciation stuff going on. And so I think getting that next generation out is important and it brings a lot of joy. It'll bring a lot of joy once you get those youngsters out there or somebody new and that's what I got, I mean.
Brian Bashore (01:11:03.906)
It, it's, it impacts them in more ways than just catching a fish. It is not, mean, getting out, I mean, you hear so many stories. Steve Harvey was an eye cast. He's got a whole fishing foundation for youth. I didn't even know it existed. And it obviously it's pretty big. Steve Harvey, right? This guy's big name. it's cause he, cause I get saved him, kept him from getting into the gangs and all these things, you know, that from where they grew up and all the bad, he's like, kept me out of trouble. You know, I got somebody.
Danny Plautz (01:11:08.854)
You're a hundred percent. Yep.
Danny Plautz (01:11:22.744)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:11:33.701)
And then he had to be kids always to be on like, yes, get the kids started, get them young, get them going. I'm a guy that I do it every day, but I have more adults. A lot of times it's just reintroducing people. You know, a lot of kids grow up there in high school college, they get busy, you know, but later in life that they get back into it or your neighborhood has got a bunch of kids that maybe their parents don't fish. Right. So they're knocking on your door and, your son showing them how Nelson now you got a boatload every weekend that you have off. Cause you got to take the whole neighborhood fishing.
But eventually that kid's dad's going to be like, Hey, I want to tag along, you know, and learn some stuff and then just pass that on.
Danny Plautz (01:12:09.612)
Yeah, and it just takes all of us. If you impact one kid's life or one person's life, introducing them to the outdoors, it just makes our industry that much better and a brighter future for generations to come when you impact that one person.
Brian Bashore (01:12:29.43)
Right on. Couldn't have said it better. That is true. Change, change of life. Take someone fishing. It's it, it could do miracles people. Let me tell you and strengthen our industry, strengthen everything. We, all win, especially as tournament guys and sponsorships. all win. So tackle.
Danny Plautz (01:12:34.275)
Yeah.
Danny Plautz (01:12:46.636)
Yeah, well, guys like you and I, have the means to, we have the gear to do it. And it's really not that big of a hindrance to do that. It's, you know, just, going out there and just doing it.
Brian Bashore (01:12:58.668)
No, no, not at all. And, and if you're, if you're listening, if you've never been to an NWT event, which I'm going to assume these are going to continue to go on, why not have the kids fishing clinic on the final day weigh in. So show up at Bowbridge, Lake Erie, Maynardoc, Oconto at 4 PM on that Friday. And you're going to hand out some, you know, some, some fishing rods and reels, usually some t-shirts all donated by John Gilman, the great dude through the MPA.
There you go. There's the first, don't tell me the cost of entry is expensive when I give it to you. It's free. Like you said, you and I have the means. have the gear you need to come over. We'll let you use it, get it for you, buy it, whatever the case is, but little kids, anybody you're to get this free gear. You're on the lake. These pros are there. They're going to help you show you some tips, maybe rig it up or even go out and cast it line in the river quick for you leave. So
Danny Plautz (01:13:49.839)
100 % you know, and I could say that all of us are pretty, you know, approachable. So if you guys have questions, and there's no such thing as a dumb question, a dumb question is one that's not asked. You know, we just you know, and if you have a question about the fishery that we're on, you can come up and talk to us. I mean, I guarantee everybody there will be more than happy to say, this is what we're doing, you know, this is what you know, what's going on with the body of water, this is what you look for.
We just spent the whole week out on body of water and very approachable and signed autographs and tell you how we did it.
Brian Bashore (01:14:28.036)
Yeah, the whole autograph sign and stuff that's that's all new to the wall hangers. And it's pretty I think it was like, oh man, this kid wants my autograph. I'm a who am I? was like, yeah, you're a somebody. If you don't think you're somebody, go back and look at the photo of the kid standing by Sprinkles boat at Bigstown that Cardenas got.
Danny Plautz (01:14:43.094)
Yep, that was a great picture.
Brian Bashore (01:14:44.632)
Yeah, that is a phenomenal that that's it. That is, that should just be what it's on. Everybody's thing is this was you, this was me. We were all this kid at one time. I didn't never had that opportunity to stand by Sprinkles boat or anybody's like that, but you're just looking at it and just everything going through that kid's head. And that's what they look at all of us in those jerseys. They all think you're that guy. And you are, I had some extra Seaguar hats at sharp. So I had them and I think Horner had a Sharpie and I was like, two kids came up.
They had a card. think there was a card or something like a postcard somebody had and everybody was signing it. And I was like, here, him the hats and signed it. I'm like, you can, that just, everybody can sign the hat. You don't just have to be me. I'm like, go here, go bother John over here or go get that guy. I'm like, I pointed out a few, I'm like, go get him, go get him. know, but then Tim and his lairdies kids had those, they had those hats on. You know, I'm like, I'm like that. Oh yeah. They're smiling from here, running around rubbing it in their buddies faces. Like that guy gave us these Seaguar fishing hats, man.
Danny Plautz (01:15:31.372)
That's awesome. So much fun.
Danny Plautz (01:15:40.751)
Was South Dakota this year, I just want to bring out of South Dakota this year, there was a couple of kids that were running around like asking if we had any extra plastics, any baits that we could give them. And then they would wash your boat for you, you know, before we left town. I'm like, that is so cool. You know, it's so cool to see.
Brian Bashore (01:15:41.636)
Alright.
Brian Bashore (01:16:00.325)
I had a, uh, lacrosse. got off the water one day at practice and there was a father son and they were on the dock fishing and I was putting things away in the park and I only boat there. It's pretty late and they came over and they were parked kind of by me and his nine year old boy or something like that. You know, and I was like, get it? He's like, Oh, I had a couple of bites, you know, and they were throwing a spinner bait and I could tell he had a plastic on. like, can I just pointed his desk at them, bring the boy over here and reached in and I got piles and piles of Z man stuff and grabbed a couple of them like here.
You know, and threw them three or four things. like, here's what I caught him on today. Gave him some jerk shads and his dad's like, Oh wow. I'm like, that's cool, man. Don't worry about it. You know, just go out there, have fun, keep taking your kid out. They're on the right side of that dock cast over there next time. Cause I could see him on site, you know, but they go there all the time, but yeah, the kids just like this. And like I said, it didn't cost us nothing. It took you one minute and you know, we don't first time I probably even told that story. Cause you're not looking for the pat on the back or nothing, but you're just.
Danny Plautz (01:16:42.721)
You
Brian Bashore (01:16:54.86)
Other anglers that are listening, you got all this stuff out there. When you see these kids and new anglers, throw them a bone, throw them a t-shirt. Scarless is great at it. Had a box of hats in the back of his truck and would just be like, like a parade or something. You know, if kids came around them. So, you know, you guys get all that extra stuff, carry it with you and hand it out. Get rid of it. Doesn't do us any good sitting in the, in the garage. So.
Danny Plautz (01:17:03.036)
yeah.
Danny Plautz (01:17:09.912)
Yeah, that's...
Danny Plautz (01:17:15.884)
No, my wife just complains about it all sitting in the garage, know? Yeah, do something with it, because she's tripping over it every time she goes out to take out the garbage or something fun.
Brian Bashore (01:17:24.12)
We're, we're fishermen. We're, we're lure collectors and notorious pack rats. Cause we might need it. We might need it for this next tournament. Right. You got to bring everything with you, but you know what? Somebody who needs it is somebody who doesn't have it. It'll help them out. So, right. Thanks for tuning in folks. Thank you, Mr. Danny Plouts for joining us today and dropping some wisdom guys. Watch that spring Valley tournament results. You're going to see Danny and his mom up there at the top of the board. That's usually what ended in the March, I think. Right. It's cold, cold as hell.
Danny Plautz (01:17:28.878)
you
Danny Plautz (01:17:35.116)
Yep, correct.
Danny Plautz (01:17:52.814)
Yeah, it's like right in the middle of Mark somewhere. I've... Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:17:55.564)
middle into March, spring valley one. Fun, fun fishery. Been there one time, did all right. Wouldn't mind going back. Kind of like, I kind of liked that challenge. They liked the cold and the ice. That was a horrible time, but tournament days were all right. So it just, that is what it is, but that's, that's part of the experience. So, and that is what makes your mom one tough cookie for sure. So, so shout out to her. So you guys watch for the results there and looking forward to seeing you on tour next year.
Danny Plautz (01:18:14.213)
Yep, that's for sure.
Brian Bashore (01:18:22.692)
And I said, it's going to be good year. lot of big things coming good schedule, a lot of good sticks. You're to see some big bags. It's going to be fun. think the angles are all going to step up, make it a big show. We're going to, we're just going to take this control of this thing by ourselves and, and make it a big deal. Like it should be and, uh, catch a lot of fish. So once again, thank you, Mr. Plows and thank you all for tuning into this episode. Real talk fishing with no limits.
Danny Plautz (01:18:41.368)
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.
Brian Bashore (01:18:48.802)
We will be back soon. We're finally back on schedule. got a little bit off last month because we had to get the championship one in there right away, but we're back on schedule. So thanks for tuning in, stay safe folks, and we'll see you on the water.