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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 (00:01.358)
Hey folks, welcome back to another episode of real talk fishing with no limits brought to you by CR high performance braids, seven reels created by St. Croix rides and roughland kennels clean cut cutting station. Take one with me everywhere I go. Hey, we are getting, this is it before the next, for the first national wildlife tour event kicks off here in just a matter of a few days. We're going to sit down with Mr. Jake Kahe and talk.
about eerie a little bit. Some the NWT changes that are coming up for 2027 and his take on it. And of course, know, a little forward facing, so in our discussion about the Bassmaster Classic and why do we got to hate on these people so much? And a whole bunch of good stuff. We just going to be joking around with Jake. So just spent the weekend with him at a sports show, moving some boats.
Great guy. Jake finished third in the AOI race last year. It's probably one of the hottest up and comers over the last three years. He's just been on a burner. Great dude. A hell of a fisherman. So we're going to get a little bit of Jake's take. So stay tuned. Jake, hi, coming right up.
Brian Bashore (00:01.548)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning into an episode of real talk fish with no limits today. We are kind of sit back. I want to call this joking with Jake. We've got to chill out with Mr. Jay, the hammer and talk a little fish in. And by the time all you listeners are viewers watching this, this is our last one right before the first NWT out of Lake Erie. So we might cover down on that. So how we doing Jake busy Dano storms moving through fun life.
Jake Caughey (00:08.224)
Yeah, no, it's been a busy day with work and stuff like that. I never call myself a pro fisherman. I'm a full-time
part-time agronomist I would like to have like everyone would agree with me on you fish way more than you work but unfortunately it's the other way around so if I do suck at in which I have sucked for quite a while it is pretty nice when the bank account doesn't get affected by my bad times
Brian Bashore (00:39.554)
Right.
Brian Bashore (00:57.822)
It's always good to have a fallback, right? I always tell people, when do you make the transition? I'm like, when they're fishing job replaces your job job income. And for most people that's that usually never happened. So that's when you want to make the switch.
Jake Caughey (01:15.359)
Yeah, I don't guide or anything like that. So it'll be probably a while before I need to worry about my coming after my regular work income.
Brian Bashore (01:25.336)
Hello guy, you finished third in the AOI race last year. That's pretty damn close.
Jake Caughey (01:32.125)
Yeah, I mean, there wasn't for that day, we got or whatever. And it was real, super competitive last year. was kind of looking at it. was like, man, any other year, think I might've might've got that sucker, but it, you know, that's just the level of competition that the NWT has right now. I would say the top 25, 25 or 30 anglers in the end up either the toughest that you find anywhere. So.
Just being up there and I guess giving them a run for their money or finishing towards the top. There was a definite win for us last year, but we're still shooting for that number one spot.
Brian Bashore (02:10.734)
Yeah, unfortunately, second through 40th pays the same, but it doesn't look as good on your resume when you can say, I'm third. I'm so close. And I think we're just maybe 10 points from second. And then I think Dewey had a little, about a 20 something point lead on everybody there, but you're right. It is the best of the best. got changes coming forward in the circuit that are going to show this as being the best of the best, the elite, elite tour thing setting up before we get into that. What have you been up to? What's been going on this off season?
Jake Caughey (02:15.177)
Right?
Brian Bashore (02:39.042)
Busy boat getting rigged, ready to roll.
Jake Caughey (02:42.012)
Yeah, you know, just been a crazy off season. I have had a lot of things. It's my second year at a new job. So that's been crazy, but busy is good in the agronomy world. New house. I'm an uncle now. I have a little niece. So that's been cool. But yeah, it's been both just going to be done tomorrow.
Brian Bashore (03:03.918)
Woohoo!
Jake Caughey (03:11.676)
and then we're going to wrap it and rig it and hopefully be heading to Lake Erie when practice starts. it should be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Everybody who knows me knows my life is pretty much all gas, no brakes. So nothing new.
Brian Bashore (03:29.736)
We still got to call you the candy man. We've got the candy shop wrap going on again
Jake Caughey (03:33.565)
No, we don't this year. Yeah, it was a pretty iconic wrap for the candy shop. Unfortunately, they bought some land and they got a bunch of stuff going on at the candy shop. Going super good there for them, super happy. And they were a great supporter last year and still are my fishing. But this year we have a new title sponsor. So I'm sure some people will be disappointed about that.
Brian Bashore (03:34.968)
No?
Brian Bashore (03:38.306)
Yeah was.
Jake Caughey (04:02.033)
crap about the candy shop and stuff. No, they were great. We have a new title sponsor this year, so excited to have Highway 3 Marine, a sponsor who's been with me for a really, really long time, ever since basically I started. yeah, I think Doug was actually one of the first people ever to give me a little money for tournament fishing. So it was pretty cool to be able to have an opportunity to have Highway 3 be the title sponsor this year. I grew up with Erickson family.
taking me up to the cabin fishing and all that kind of stuff. they kind of gave me the bug a little bit more than I already had. So it's going to be a good year. I can't wait for the boat wrap to be done.
Brian Bashore (04:43.35)
That's awesome. I'm sure it'll look awesome. And that's, that's loyalty. So you stick with these brands, we stick with them. They stick with us that it all, you know, it, ain't easy getting, I mean, it's a sponsorship and approach staff, all that we talked about this over the weekend. So many people kind of are confused and don't understand how it works, but I will just tell you that getting fine monetary stuff from somebody is not easy. Like you said, there's businesses, they got to make business decisions and you got to justify it and make sense. mean.
There's obviously the good old boys and buddies that, you know, there's stuff on their buddies, you know, boat or what have you, but it's a, mean, you got that rap on there now. And I, and I know for a fact, you were at the boat show this week working for him. it's, it, it all comes to do.
Jake Caughey (05:24.273)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, it's it's one of those things. I think in any business relationship, kind of fishing sponsorship or race cars or whatever, you know, both both parties need to see the advantage having that, you know, investment pay off for him. So I mean, there's a lot of people who I think would love to give give me the fish and stuff like that. But
Is that the smartest money that you use your business funding towards? Sometimes yes. No, I totally get it because I run my fishing like a business. I love tournament fishing. I'm a super competitive guy, to not go broke doing it, need to run. Sometimes there's tough conversations that we have, but I mean,
You leave a good impression on people and never leave like a sour taste in someone's mouth. Usually it turns out pretty good.
Brian Bashore (06:22.54)
Yeah, this, it's a small, but yet large industry. You always tell people don't burn bridges, buddy. You know, the guy you're working with today may move to another company. It's very, very likely. And may bring you with them, you know, or may not or whatever the case is, but, then you may be switching whatever, for whatever reason, a lot of times it's, it's all relationships. And when these people leave companies and go to other companies or retire, you kind of got to start over sometimes within that business to keep that, that level there. So it's a, it's challenging.
Jake Caughey (06:28.879)
Right.
Jake Caughey (06:52.506)
Yeah, no, it's just one of those things. treat people how you want to be treated. And at the end of the day, it'll work out for you. think, you know, lot of guys you see in the industry that have really came a long way kind of have some of those same core sponsors that they had their whole entire life. And it's a relationship based thing, obviously. I mean, I'm in the sales, you know, industry and whatnot too. So the better relationships you have, I think, I think it's just better for everybody in the end.
Brian Bashore (07:21.226)
Yep, for sure. Sorry. You keep hearing me slurping folks. I'm drinking some coffee because I picked up the crud at the sports show we were at this weekend. Or I mean, I, I thought I was going to be immune to everything after the Mexican seafood dinner we had on Friday night.
Jake Caughey (07:33.955)
Yeah. Yeah. was good. I'm not going to lie. I got introduced to crawdads when I was helping a buddy race modified Mississippi one year and the crawdad trailer pulled right up next to it at the races. And I'm like, what are these crawdads? And they threw a few pounds over and we devoured it. So I looking for a place to take the dealer that we were with down at the Sioux Falls show for a supper on Friday night.
And wonder if they have crawdads in Sioux Falls. Sure enough, new Mexican seafood restaurant opened up kind of by your house because you said you never even been to the place before, so it must be pretty new. And yeah, they didn't miss on the crawdads. They nailed that one. So those things were awesome. I I had them all over my face and shirt and jeans and everything. It was definitely worth it.
Brian Bashore (08:32.814)
I mean, five pounds of it, was hard not to have it all over everything. But the man devoured it. You, won. If there was a wall to put them on, it's like eating the, old, the 49 or whatever, I think. Right. So you, earned it.
Jake Caughey (08:44.496)
Yeah, the calories were a little over the benchmark that you could probably say. It was all
Brian Bashore (08:52.728)
But yeah, there's a testament to you putting your pedal to the metal all the time. Trust me. watched Jake eat it. And if I still have any photos, I'll put one in here somewhere on an overlay. Cause it was, and they were good. All I had some shrimp. was phenomenal. I can't remember the name of the place, but like I it's like a half mile from my house and I don't even know what was there. But when you hear Mexican seafood and then the title, that's kind of like when I got to go stand at a sports show all next to this, that's pretty risky.
Certainly not before, not before a tournament.
Jake Caughey (09:20.794)
Yeah.
Yeah, you kind of got to watch. You got to watch it a little bit. I guess I was maybe thrown caution to the wind. I've that guy before. I that is what it is. It turned out all right and I made her through the whole sports show the next day and actually the next night too, because I couldn't leave because of the storm. So we we went to Carnival the next night. I was pretty old Brazil. So.
Brian Bashore (09:28.814)
Yeah, you were.
Brian Bashore (09:46.007)
woo.
Yeah, you cut no corners coming, coming down here to see who falls for that show. You're gonna, you're probably good for a few days and you skipped lunch. think so.
Jake Caughey (09:52.993)
yeah. Yep.
Right, right.
Brian Bashore (09:59.732)
Awesome. It was fun. was good show. did it. We've had storms rolling through the kind of Midwest who falls here a little bit of Minnesota, North Dakota. I think it's passing rest. The next forecast looks great. I'm off fishing for the next five days. Can't wait. And as soon as you get that boat back, I imagine you're going to go dip it in that you probably thaw or you should be. I imagine after this weekend, you'll have plenty of open water unless you got to go hit the river to test it out.
Jake Caughey (10:23.803)
Yeah, well it needs to get wrapped and that's going to happen next week. It needs to get rigged too. So hopefully that's going to happen at the end of next week. So I'm hoping by the week before I leave for you during that week, maybe run in somewhere and make sure everything talks. And you never want to anywhere, especially Lake Erie, where it isn't water tested and has been turned on.
Brian Bashore (10:48.449)
Right.
Jake Caughey (10:49.498)
Talks and batteries are all hooked up right now shorts or whatever so it It's a process now. We put so much stuff on our boats. I actually raced home here today Everybody's putting power brakes on their boat and if everybody's jumping off a cliff well guess I'm So Power brakes got delivered to a different address. So I was like, that's great. Just what I you know empty house so I
Brian Bashore (10:56.578)
Yeah it is.
Brian Bashore (11:07.394)
Alright.
Jake Caughey (11:18.851)
grab those and yeah I guess if my life is all gas and no brakes that'll be the first set of brakes I've been using in a while so we'll try them.
Brian Bashore (11:25.998)
I mean, it's the year for them. think having all those accessories on that back are going to come in play. We're fishing a lot of big water, obviously Erie and Baytanoak and Green Bay and Oahu and Sakakawea are no slouches. They're rivers, but those are about some of the biggest rivers we're going to ever fish.
Jake Caughey (11:44.098)
Yeah, some of the biggest waves in my life on Oahu. mean, was down a couple years back for the casino championship pre-fishing and there was a downdraft thunderstorm where it's just like insane, hellacious winds. And it was coming up south, which everybody knows the current, you know, when the wind's blowing into the current, nasty. That was some of the craziest stuff I've seen. Yeah, everything's big water this year, but I think a lot of the tournaments are going to be, you know, forward facing sonar scoping tournaments.
If there's just a little, even one fish, you know, that those breaks make a difference on or something like that. One thing that you add to your boat that makes a difference. Man, I can pay for itself if it gashes you a check, gashes you a check and it can pay for itself real quick. So, uh, we're, getting better. Our program's getting more dialed in, but I, you know, if there's a little bit to improve, I don't want to be there improving.
Brian Bashore (12:37.464)
Take it. It's all legal. Take the edge. Right. I mean, you're seeing it. just finished up the bass master classic and the noise is all over the place. Right. can't heaven forbid. We don't harp on forward facing sonar and we can't move on past that, but a young buck wins and he's using a scope that everybody used to scope. I mean, all but maybe two or three English are scoping. There's
Jake Caughey (12:40.995)
Right.
Jake Caughey (13:01.625)
Yeah, it's just frustrating the level of people that are just butt-hurt on fishing. You know, it doesn't matter if it's scope, if it's something else, if they don't like something about someone. There's just so much negativity out there and that's not gonna help anybody. mean, whether it's a tournament angler bashing on other tournament anglers or...
Brian Bashore (13:11.842)
Yeah, the negativity is horrible.
Jake Caughey (13:27.735)
You know, a fan bashing on a tournament angler. Like if you want better coverage of the sport, if you want, you know, bigger stages, more crowds, all that, none of that, none of the bashing is going to help anybody. I think we've all been guilty of it too. I'm definitely not a saint. You know, everybody's complained every now and then cause that's what we do. We're walleye fishermen. I honestly think that everybody talks about bass guys being babies. think walleye guys are probably bigger babies than bass guys. Walleye tournament guys, I should say.
It, uh, you know, if, if everyone's just a little bit more positive, like just 10 or 20 % more positive than they normally are just with like fishing in general or in a social media. Yeah. I think it'd be a lot different to be honest, because that's pretty sad watching a guy, you know, like Dylan not crack a giant bag. Um, and you know, his brother just won the collegiate champion champ and stuff like that. And then the first thing like grown men.
can do are complain about how he had forward facing sonar, blah, blah. He wouldn't have done it. It's like, pretty sure that cat's done plenty of stuff without forward facing sonar in the boat too, so.
Brian Bashore (14:31.374)
All right.
Brian Bashore (14:39.808)
Yeah, there's one take on it is Ford facing Sonar didn't win that guy the tournament. You know it as well as, you know, I, and I mean, I got, I don't know. How old are you?
Jake Caughey (14:46.944)
Mm-mm.
Jake Caughey (14:54.103)
34.
Brian Bashore (14:55.182)
34th I am 48 a few extra years there. got on you, but most of us in that 45 to 50 something plus are slower to the game. It's hands down. You see it in the bass. mean, what's not 20 22 20 and trade McKinney gets second. And I mean, you had, they're almost all 20, 22 Ethan father gear. It's yes, they're young and they're good with it, but they didn't, I mean, it's all it's been around a while and they've probably had it. And since, you know,
Jake Caughey (15:08.84)
yep.
Brian Bashore (15:24.376)
But what they have that guys like me didn't have, you may have had some of this is college circuits, high school circuits, you know, the technology of the information there. Right. I mean, I used to wait for the inter-fisher magazine to show up or the outdoor life. That's where you got it. Or from your Saturday morning, build and Hank Parker TV shows, you know, these guys have what we took 20, 30 years. can consume all that in months because it's there.
Jake Caughey (15:44.257)
Yep.
Jake Caughey (15:52.472)
Yeah, another huge thing in the fishing industry now to be able to learn and curve YouTube, honestly, and I know some my DIY home projects here, you know, you can be a pro at anything and real quick, I have a YouTuber, I try to be a pro. no, so that's but I look at it as getting good with Ford facing sonar was like this.
Francis Case tournament, we were out of Pixtown down there. I just went a little early and I was like, you know what, like I'm getting really kicked by this stuff. Like I'm just going to kind of focus these like next three days, like no matter what I'm doing and I don't feel confident. I'll go back to, know, trolling trees, pulling bottom monsters, know, pitching, whatever. And that's really clicked. After that, it just, you know, I,
I got better with it. I wouldn't say like it was like, my gosh, I'm so proficient with it because there's a lot of things that come into it. Boat control, lure selection, rod selection, line selection. There's so many things that are a factor in being, you know, whatever situation you're in, like there's different setups I use for all kinds of different situations, lakes, you name it. And it just took a lot of time. And so like whenever I hear people talking about forward-facing sonar and all that.
Apparently if it's so easy, I'll just take mine off my boat and put it on yours and you'll just start winning if that's the case. that's that's the argument.
Brian Bashore (17:24.593)
Yeah. Yeah. There's so much. I mean, I like I'd sat the second half of last year out and that's all I did. I thought I felt pretty confident the year before, but still laying back on those old traditional methods when it wasn't getting it. then, I mean, and then spending so much time on the last year, that was just a thousand of hours of just going, you just, got to be committed to it. like I said, you have confidence is the number one thing.
I always give that up. Tom Wayne is so good because he has so much confidence that he's got two rods and a box of jigs and that's, that's it. I'm going to make this work. Right. So in boat control is huge.
Jake Caughey (17:58.101)
and yeah, don't get on like it'll burn you too. Like there's, there's an event on Sakaka. We had a fish last year for the game championship and, I think we, we had a decent day the day before in practice and we were like, the bite is definitely off. Something is definitely not right. however, you know, we're pretty good at this. Let's grind it out. We'll get our fish. Okay. Practice only practice for one day.
Brian Bashore (18:03.489)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Caughey (18:27.923)
out, but we, we went out and had five pounds and we three little rats and, and it's like, Hey, if you're not, you know, fit, like everyone's was throwing a jig crawler probably. And I actually won the tournament. We're not. And more, more power to them. They had forward facing sonar. I had forward facing sonar. I got my butt kicked. It is what it is. Cause you know, I was very confident in throwing, throwing certain baits and those baits.
Brian Bashore (18:39.758)
I'm
Jake Caughey (18:56.938)
You know what? It's tough. I'll just grind it out. And sometimes it works. But that day it didn't. You know, the day after it, we're great. Had the biggest bag of tournament. you know, didn't win because the guys who figured it out figured out a different program. And kudos to them. I mean, it's stuff like that that, you know, you don't see all these ads, people talking and whatnot. So.
Brian Bashore (19:24.814)
I mean, it's the name of the game, figure it out and it, it, it adjusts. Cause you got a great program. You go out next day you're like, this isn't working, you know, and it's just, it's making those adjustments on the fly, whether it's different locations, presentation, whatever it is. And typically the person who does that figures, figures it out. Wins.
Jake Caughey (19:44.484)
Yeah. No, that was definitely on me for being too stubborn too. And I think it was learning experience. I can't switch up and be afraid to, you know, go to plan B, plan C, stuff like that. Yeah, probably a good learning experience, something I'm going to take with down the road. know, I'm an efficient guy who makes the adjustments during the day. They're not the guy on them, you know, better than everybody. But the guys who make the adjustments during the tournament. So.
Brian Bashore (20:10.232)
For sure. So they got, you guys always bad, the young, it's the young guns are coming up as these young guys have all this tech, skill and the scope. let's say, but you look back Paul Nick's young guy got in as from the nation. mean, KBD, all these other older gentlemen, they were all young too at once. And, side image came out in three 60 or I mean, Larry Nixon fish with the flasher. And he's like, I was the best guy on the green box at the time. And I won a lot of tournaments because of it.
It's no different. They've just progressed out and most, a lot of them have retired and, and moved on. So I think, but the evolution of the technologies is faster than any of us have seen before. And we can't keep up with it no matter. I mean, what I think the bigger things are coming is when they realized how to use AI into a lot of this stuff, which we know electronic companies are already mixing that in, but just in general, it's, it's ahead of us. I mean, I think it's.
People that are complaining about it now, they're going to get a lot more to complain about going forward if they just accept it.
Jake Caughey (21:13.411)
Well, I mean, technology is fun. Yeah, it's dangerous in some aspects. I would make the argument, I'm very guilty of this, but social media takes a lot of my time up and stuff like that, sitting on your phone, scrolling Facebook, looking at Marketplace, you name it. But I just...
Brian Bashore (21:19.758)
Alright.
Jake Caughey (21:35.839)
Technology is fun for the most part. I I love to go out fishing. I love to look at lakes that I haven't fished or lakes I wanted to try and just be like, wow, I never knew these fish were in here. And no one probably ever would because there's some pelagic basin fish, whatever. It's just so fun. And the reason you're seeing all the young guys in it is because they figured it out and they're having a ton of fun too.
I have people that I went to high school with that last five, six years, they're fishing more than they ever have. And they message me on Facebook or text me, call me and ask questions about it. And I was like, no, no way in hell would I have thought these guys ever would want to be fishing someday. And now they're like, Hey, yeah, I'm getting a life scope and I got a boat and they all, man, I just having a blast. And so it's, it's, it's crazy to see how many more anglers get into it because of that too. And it's not going to take away the old ways to fish.
They're not going away. We have warrior event up on Lake of the woods this year and they made the rule for the dealer tournament. We had to leave our forward facing sonar at home or we couldn't, something like that, couldn't capped with it, I think. And so we trolled, and trolled leadcore. And I think we probably caught like 70 fish that day just trolling lead. And yeah, it was fun. You you miss it every now and then.
Brian Bashore (22:59.33)
Yep, yeah, for sure, Larry.
Brian Bashore (23:03.938)
there's Chris Saldae has got to go look at a folks out day podcast. And he had a sports therapist come in and break some things down and, you know, trait set it up. Cause Chris was like, I'm struggling. I'm sucking. know how to scope. can scope. pretty good at it, but I'm not doing good in tournaments. And I was, I'm falling in kind of the same place. He was it's confident, good at it, but you still have an old mindset and I think you can abandon it a little bit, you know, cause
younger guys, not so much. They're just like, that's so confident. Like I know this works. I know it works and I'm there now. I get it. I know it works. You got to be living on this thing. But like you said, it can bite you at the butt too. know, just thousands of hours staring at that screen, figuring out understanding fish behavior and what have you. But the therapist looked and said, well, what are you trying to do? He's like, well, I'm trying to win. What are all the winners doing? Well, he's like, well, they're, they're, they're whooping my ass and live scoping.
Now bass is modified at the old 50 50 or whatever. She's like, then why don't you? It's like.
Jake Caughey (24:04.723)
Yeah
Brian Bashore (24:11.574)
I know, I know I'm supposed to, you know, but I have a hard, you know, time I'm good at it. She's like, your company shows do it. Are you, are you fish? Now this is different obviously than the weekend guide, a tournament guy or something, you know, in the situation it's like, what is your goal for fish and tournaments? Okay. You, want to win or you're there to make money and what have you. What's, what does it take to do that? And he, without a hesitation was like, I have scope. You know, I got to, if you hate scoping, you're hoping they say, or something like that. Right. And you can look back.
Jake Caughey (24:40.243)
Pretty much.
Brian Bashore (24:40.462)
And a lot of our tournaments that they've, you know, nowadays, I think, you know, there's been some big bags and other things and Mississippi rivers, one of those anomalies and sharp was that way that got kind of thrown into the mix when Scopin wasn't, you know, the determining factor or the number one way to win. But that's it. said, if you're, know, do the other things when you're at practice or fishing fun or doing whatever you're doing or shooting a show when your tournament fish. this, if this is what you have to do to compete, then this is what you have to do to compete, quit fighting it.
Jake Caughey (25:10.727)
Yeah, a hundred percent. mean, love the Mississippi river last year because, historically for me, I have been absolutely terrible on the Mississippi river. And I always liked fishing it because I grew up in Brainerd, Minnesota and we have the Mississippi river, right? But it's a little different where we, but I was, I was right in town. So I was like, Mississippi river, know, this year at lacrosse.
Brian Bashore (25:16.622)
Mm-hmm.
Jake Caughey (25:38.418)
I was like, I'm making a point to do better on the Mississippi River, you know, and, and I did, I had a great practice and missed a check by one spot there. And for me, that was a win. Cause the last time I was at the Mississippi River, think I was like 84th or something. So, but I really enjoyed that. And at Sharp, it was like, you could kind of do both. And I knew I was like, you know what? I don't know this place well enough. And I didn't have a
consistent enough bite to fish up in the river where it was, I mean, I guess kind of one. And I had to make the big long run because I had to scope. So I went down and ran way south and scoped and I was comfortable with that and whatever. yeah, there's a lot of different, if I was a better river fisherman or, you know, better up in that area, I wouldn't have had to make the long run. You kind of got to just know your, but yeah, I
I enjoy all kinds of it. Like I'd love to go back Mississippi River and some of those. It just throws a whole different ball game in the reading water, current teams, water, you know, levels. I thought it was super fun. Now that I'm starting to dial it in a little bit more once I'm dialed in or anything by any means, but it's always intriguing.
Brian Bashore (26:56.55)
We got to be, I had this little discussion on the last one with Shakerick about wall anglers really being, and you're seeing these Midwest guys in the Bass Fork or like Jay and some of those and Ethan Foddiger doing really well, Gus, can eat because they're super diverse due to where we live. And you kind of have to be, cause we got big reservoirs, fast rivers, great lakes, know, versus Texas or Tennessee. mean, they got rivers obviously, but we just have so many more strong seasonal pattern shifts.
And just so many different types of body of water, from dirty to clean, to great lakes. And I think you see that with a lot with the wall anglers, Minnesota, Dakota guys, Wisconsin guys are pretty diverse. Then you get the guys from out East that are always on the great lakes coming up West to the rivers and kind of struggle sometimes and vice versa. Cause they understand that current, you know, versus the river current and what have you. But I think overall, I mean, and Jason said, he's like, well, they are harder to catch period.
Jake Caughey (27:31.013)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (27:51.875)
bastard you see that's just all the Jason just threw that out there I'm like I'm not gonna argue with him but diversity we got to be a very diverse Agra whether that's scoping you know here I know Eric's like I didn't even put the trolling rods I didn't even bring him I left him at home they'll be in my truck but I'm not gonna put them in the boat until it don't need me you know
Jake Caughey (28:11.693)
Yeah, I mean, I'm not totally on that ball game yet because I like I learned a hard lesson at Green Bay when I got all I ran 96 miles one way on the second tournament of 15th and second day of the tournament. I ran 96 miles one way just for my life scope screen to not work. I was running one of them MVTs at the Yeah.
Brian Bashore (28:24.568)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (28:36.912)
either run was a little rough for around the way. we to go pretty much the second day. And I learned that probably should have been prepared for a backup plan. I didn't cash a check. I dropped down to like 40th or whatever. so yeah, I'm always thinking in the back of my head now, what if something happened? A little hard on something and it breaks, whatever. And I need to have a backup plan. Probably have some trolling rods with.
Brian Bashore (28:58.83)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (29:06.67)
And now we have so many scopes on our boats too that it's like, man, I just use the back one or.
Brian Bashore (29:11.438)
All right, can switch one over quick.
Jake Caughey (29:13.713)
Yeah, so it's a little different now. But yeah, definitely in the back of my mind all the time now when it comes to that because like you can't ever guarantee something's gonna work 100 % every time, especially when crashing through big water like we are, especially this year with water where we're fishing. So yeah, I'll probably have some trolling rods with all these bandits that you needed to have.
Brian Bashore (29:27.854)
right?
Brian Bashore (29:40.962)
Right.
Jake Caughey (29:42.352)
So probably bring them with and look at.
Brian Bashore (29:44.667)
It's hard to go to Lake area and not put an offshore board out. I mean, I love watching them babies go back and big boy barbers get pulled down. So it's.
Jake Caughey (29:52.08)
100%. I like it too. I think if I don't, you know, don't use my band or something, I'm just going to hang him on the Christmas tree is like a big, you know, fishing Christmas tree someday. guy puts half of them work bandits and now we don't even use them anymore.
Brian Bashore (30:03.99)
Right?
Brian Bashore (30:09.832)
Yep. Yeah, they sure, they sure like their, their pretty colors out there. Must have had a phone call or something.
Jake Caughey (30:16.521)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (30:20.038)
Yeah, I did. Sorry. That was actually Chuck from Warrior. I'm sure he's calling to chew my butt one or more. I'm gonna go grab that boat. So. Hi, come get your boat so.
Brian Bashore (30:26.419)
Come get this boat, come get this boat.
All right. So we're talking about, Erie, we got, what are you fishing this year besides NWT? Let's cover that first.
Jake Caughey (30:36.946)
I haven't really decided yet. I guess we did qualify me and my buddy Booney. He's one of my good tournament partners, him and my buddy Jared. They're like my two attorney guys. Booney and I qualified for the AIM National Championship over on the Castle Rock Fluidge, I believe there in Wisconsin. So we are going to do that and that should be super fun. There hasn't been a tournament on there for like...
or 25 years or something. yeah, looking forward to that. And then I haven't decided. kind of, I liked doing the AIM North Dakota last year. I mean, only got to fish a couple because of schedules, but we qualified for the championship. That was pretty fun. However, I see the MWC this year. You can qualify for the World Walleye this year if you fish three events, I believe. And that's on the Devil's Lake. Got a sweet time of the year as well.
Brian Bashore (31:06.574)
That looks cool.
Brian Bashore (31:26.136)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (31:33.644)
Yup.
Jake Caughey (31:35.348)
It's in the Warrior Tournament and then I fish a couple around home to end the year and stuff. So yeah, I can about, there's always tournaments where I'm like, gosh, I got an open weekend and you know, not too much going on. Work's kind of winding down. Okay, let's go like try to fish. So it, yeah, I got the bug bad. It's not going away anytime soon. Yeah, it's just one of them things. You you're thinking about it all the time.
Brian Bashore (31:59.279)
Yes, you do.
Jake Caughey (32:05.427)
You wake up, you're thinking about it. You go to bed, you're thinking about it. You're dreaming, you're thinking about it. yeah, and you know what? The more tournaments that you fish, the better you're going to be at the tournament, Angler. That's a proven fact. I'm the poster child for that because I had my first couple of years. And holy cow, 2016 through the middle of 2018 were pretty rough.
Brian Bashore (32:15.394)
the better gear.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (32:23.33)
Yes you are.
Jake Caughey (32:33.053)
pretty rough on the Jay Cotty fishing bank account. So we did a lot of losing and not a lot of winning. But you know what? Got a lot better. Learned. you're not learning, changing stuff up, then you're probably not going to get any better. But if you're willing to learn and be open about it, definitely get better.
Brian Bashore (32:50.2)
Right.
Brian Bashore (32:54.478)
Well, you were on, we had you on this podcast while back in Yankee did 20, 24 tournaments. know, you were talking about that season before. And I think it's since then you've been, would say the fastest rising NWT guy over the last three or four seasons from just another angler, like half of the field write-offs that try and maybe doing good sometimes then getting those 80th and 50th and 60th to where I'm in my fancy fishing league app.
I got Jake, I'm like, I got a guy and now you're obviously running with a group of just some scoping hammers out there and sticks that know what they're doing, which which doesn't hurt by all means. you've got it.
Jake Caughey (33:33.755)
Yeah, yeah, it's been a super good last three years. I can't begin to even think like three years ago that we'd have what we've accomplished done. And yeah, last year at the championship, I was going solo and teamed up with three of my buddies, Hunter Nittie and Will Papafos and Isaac Lockich. And so we kind of made that the team this year. And holy cow.
Brian Bashore (34:02.914)
Watch out everybody, watch out.
Jake Caughey (34:03.698)
Yeah, super knowledgeable wallets. Those boys are a little crazy. I just went from, you know, I traveled with the best guys who mentored me and basically were my brothers and dad, know, like father figures to me and stuff. Kurt Hanson and Chris Walker, they've done nothing but help me out and be super kind to me and show me ropes while I fish in.
Brian Bashore (34:09.859)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (34:22.108)
go Gary, yep.
Jake Caughey (34:32.082)
And I was always the youngest one on the team there by quite a bit. So I was always like a child. And now flipping over to this new team here, holy cow. I'm like, I got gray hair. And I'm like four years old. I'm only a couple of years older than Isaac. But man, I'm like eight years older than Hunt. it's a little, I don't know if I'm going be able to hang. I might need to get a life alert or something here pretty soon.
Brian Bashore (34:36.652)
Now you're the old man.
Brian Bashore (34:51.828)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (35:01.134)
Uh, yeah, could, those guys are wild, but like I said, it's a wealth of knowledge. know what they're doing. Isaac's Hunter. mean, uh, two years ago, angler of the year wheels, this steady will consistent is all I'll get out. And I would probably the most chill out of that entire group. I imagine. So, you know,
Jake Caughey (35:17.431)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, super chill and Hunter is a man. If you think I'm all gas, no breaks. That guy's like freaking nitro fuel or something. and Isaac is super, super intelligent and he's been on water for, you know, more than anybody, probably probably one of the hottest wall anglers in the country right now, I would say, if not the hottest. So he had a, he had a crazy year last year. People were like, yeah, man, you had a great year. Like it's crazy insane year. I'm like, dude, I wasn't even the
Brian Bashore (35:25.368)
Yes.
Brian Bashore (35:29.868)
Yep, he's sharp.
Jake Caughey (35:46.833)
I wasn't even the hottest angler in a Warrior 2090 last year. yeah, that's been it. I'm looking forward to it. And like I said, you know, you have guys like that you can learn from too. I learned from guys who have done it for very long time with Kurt and Gary and Whack. And now I'm looking to learn from guys who are super skilled and knowledgeable. You know, they're on the water all the time too. And it's going to be fun.
Brian Bashore (35:50.313)
Real? Yeah.
Brian Bashore (36:11.81)
But you've been, you're passing some of that knowledge down though, too. I mean, the tables turn, you know, every which way and it, it pays to surround yourself in anything in life, just with some good people, know, successful people, in our case, good fishermen, you know, and just, and it makes the traveling so much better when you got some good news to be with. So.
Jake Caughey (36:26.479)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (36:31.601)
Yeah, it makes it a lot of fun. honestly, like fishing's good and like, yeah, when, when we've had a couple of few years that have been great here, it's been great. You know, you're making a little bit of cash to put away and stuff like that. That's been fun. But if I wasn't having fun doing it, there's no way that I would put this much time and effort into it. Um, people think, you know, it's tournament season. You just go start tournament fishing and stuff. This is a year-round deal. I mean, it's your own deal with sponsors and, uh, sponsor.
Brian Bashore (36:49.59)
All
Jake Caughey (37:00.398)
requirements and you know requirements. It's a year round deal. It requires planning. It requires just all kinds of stuff that you don't see other than just showing up to efficient. Most of us out there are trying to balance life with another job families. It's lot of stuff and so like that's why you see a lot of guys who don't have families, kids, stuff like that. You know up there.
up killing it. like, for example, like looking guys like Bill Shimoda, yes, you know, family, kids, business, all that kind of stuff. And that guy's still very, very competitive and has been for a long time, like lot of respect there for that. It's just it's just hard to do it with all kinds of, you know, other. Well, I mean, you're a guide. mean, every time you leave the water, that's that's
Brian Bashore (37:52.248)
distractions. It's distractions going on.
Jake Caughey (38:00.272)
It's not like Ryan's Guide Service is paying you vacations to reach out. I mean, you know it. There's a lot of guys who up a lot of money to go fish and stuff. And if it wasn't for that, I guarantee that a lot of people would be hanging her up real quick.
Brian Bashore (38:05.72)
Right.
Brian Bashore (38:15.488)
Yep. Yep. Nope. love the, you know, we had an age as a competitive athlete, the athlete no longer functions very well, but still fish. So there's the, it's the, that's, that's the trick is, is to go fishing. know, Jay security guy talked about that a little bit because he was a big baseball guy and it's just physically efficient, still pretty damn brutal on you. I'll tell you that, especially, mean, I've always been a jig and casting guy, now standing scoping all day and these big waters we're going to, you better have some balance.
Jake Caughey (38:25.987)
Hahaha
Jake Caughey (38:37.496)
Jake Caughey (38:45.168)
Yeah, know that I started counting my calories here at the start of the year to get back into fishing. People laughed at me. I'm like, seriously, when you've somewhere for a week and all you're doing is rocking the whole time and whatnot, your joints, you feel it at the end of the week, especially if you're not wearing good tennis shoes or whatever. It's a real thing. I would like to say, I would like to think
Brian Bashore (38:45.934)
need some core.
Brian Bashore (38:54.028)
It's a thing, man.
Jake Caughey (39:11.401)
competitive athlete, but I think the athlete part isn't quite there.
Brian Bashore (39:17.07)
The competitive is I'm a, I'm a no shoe guy when it's warm enough out. like to build a, to fill the motor and, and I don't know. I'm just got monkey feet or something like that, but, not now it's too cold. We're, all, we're all shoes or boots more or less right now. Cause it's, it's a little, little chilly.
Jake Caughey (39:23.179)
boy.
Jake Caughey (39:28.247)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (39:32.846)
I have feeling we're going to be bundled up. I just know it.
Brian Bashore (39:39.916)
Yeah. Yeah. I'll be sporting the cold step gear on and, I don't know. I'll have the layer, the ice layer inside with me, but hopefully I don't have to have that sucker zipped in. So I've been to the area early April and it was 70 and flat, calm and beautiful. Been there mid April and you had that ice layer on.
Jake Caughey (39:50.573)
Right.
Jake Caughey (39:57.197)
Yep, 100%. She'll be interested. It always is.
Brian Bashore (40:03.086)
Yeah, it's a, it's eerie. we'll, go down that road. We've got some big changes in debut moving forward. You read them. We discussed it a little bit and we'll discuss it. Our perspectives on it a little bit more for the viewer. Everybody wants to know what's your thoughts. Everybody see, what do you think? What do you think's going on with this? How do you feel about it? How do you feel about it? Top 55? I think we'll break this down for new listeners. Top 55 finish in NWT move on or have.
The opportunity to fish in the 2027 season. if you won previous anger of the year for, don't know what was that the past two or three years. You're you're in, which is Dewey Hunter. can't, I don't know who was before that. John, John, does like, so Dewey, John and Hunter. they basically, I think it was three years. can't remember top five NTCs, top 10 MWC is kind of the feeder unit.
Jake Caughey (40:39.956)
Something, yeah. curd maybe? yeah, yeah.
Brian Bashore (40:58.478)
Her system, I guess you would say, cause I mean, we don't have no other option. That's kind of all you can do. So we ended up with like 65 is 70, maybe anglers in the 2027 series.
Jake Caughey (41:03.64)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (41:09.834)
Yeah, I like it. mean, I think it gives you more of like, because right now I would say our tournament circuit is not a, how do I say this? It's not a pro circuit as a theory. It's not an elite. It opens for me. Because anybody, yes, you're fishing for big money. Yep. Big fee and there's a pro co style on the tournament side of things.
Brian Bashore (41:25.486)
delete.
Jake Caughey (41:39.212)
but you are sign up. So you need a feeder kind of deal like they're going to have with the MWC and then you're hopefully driving more sponsors and attention to, you know, that, that invite. That's basically everybody's deal. I think it's going to help boat numbers out this year, which is always good, but it, I don't know it. I like it because I like competition like the, I liked one top 40. didn't make
Championship for the first, you know, year or two when they went to the top 40. So I was always a gold at top 40 and now we've made it. It's been a lot better, but the, the top 55 thing, I think it's great. I do either needed to be a change. We're fresh and up while I fish in and, people can sit there and complain and, and, you know, I like this or like that and with this circuit, whatever. But, you know, there's effort there. They're, they're showing effort to try to make it better.
That's what we've all asked for. Is everything going to be perfect? Is everything you asked for going to happen? Probably not all the time. That's just life. But I think it'll be good deal and I'm looking forward to fishing it and hopefully try to that top 55 and see how it is after that. That's going to be the big teller year. After you make the top 55 and after we're talking about this top 55, now what's next?
Brian Bashore (42:54.382)
All right.
Jake Caughey (43:01.357)
are going to come from making the top 55 other than me going to my sponsor saying, I'm at the top.
Brian Bashore (43:07.022)
Right. And I a lot more money because I don't, I'm going to come out of guess that the entropy has got to go up a little bit, but who knows there? I there's a, could, there's 50 questions that are unknown and we won't know them. And like I've said before, I don't, I'm not concerned. I don't care. The goal is to make that top 55. The goal is to make that top 40 first and foremost. You're right. You achieve focus on that. You know, the other one, the other one comes and I would say it's, you know, 55, no problem. That's not easy.
Jake Caughey (43:23.607)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (43:33.353)
No, there's, you know, there's a lot of good anglers out there who, you know, hear all the, I'm running the tour this year and all that stuff. You know, you believe it when you see that there's a lot people committed for the year. yeah, there's a lot of young people out there like that are pretty, pretty solid. And, you know, it takes a lot of commitment to run the end of the Take number one, you know, you did a
show on this that I listened to when I was driving down the road about how much it to run the NWT and whatnot, you know, minus the championship, I kind of factored it to be about 20 grand and not a lot of 20, 21 year old kids have 20 grand laying around to go fish the end of, but there, there's a of, there's a lot of young anglers coming in here and, um, know, say what you want about how those, how certain anglers get money or the time or any.
Who cares? It is what it is. That's in every sport that you've ever seen racing, know, any baseball, hockey, you name it. You know, in fishing, the most dangerous people are the ones who have the most time on the water and have the least accounts or don't have, you know, that's their main job. Those are the most dangerous guys, whether it's they're out guiding all the time or whether they just like, you know, have a have a super, super nice bank account and can spend all that.
Brian Bashore (44:45.377)
Right.
Brian Bashore (44:58.968)
That's right.
Jake Caughey (45:00.47)
They're going figure it out and guys are. you know, there's, I'm telling you, there is some, there's some hammers coming that people don't know about yet. And, and yeah, it's, it's going to be competitive.
Brian Bashore (45:12.462)
And that's good. I, I'm the young guys, the bow and the other young North Dakota kid. And then there's a whole bunch we don't know about. I know we have some other Minnesota guys are coming in that have, fished one or two. That's awesome. The numbers are going to be big. It's going to make it competitive. You cream, you know, rises to the top, but I think the residual is these feeder circuit. You could call it an NTC's MWC type stuff. I think it makes those circuits stronger.
Those guys now have a bigger goal to compete to go fish their 20 or 40 vote world wildlife championship, but it made some changes there.
Wife's texting me trying to order some food. Yeah. Yeah. Grown has money gives credit, you know, that they have a bigger goal and not everybody. mean, a lot of them fish the MWC for a reason, right? It's limited. It's cheaper to get. It's a team circuit. You know, all these types of things may, may have no desire to go into it, there are going to be some and they're going to be pushing harder once. If they don't qualify this year, or if some of us have to come back through that way, you know, which is you earned it, right? You're really going to have to work.
Work your way up. It's kind of like the bass nation and the bass opens. Those are big and it's all kind of owned by one thing. We don't really have that. So we don't have an option, but I think it's good. It's like business and capitalism, you know, bring on another competitor. So you have to do better, right? And it's just going to make both of you better.
Jake Caughey (46:31.476)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (46:42.732)
going to make it more fun to watch, drive more money to work. I think everybody that wants live streaming and all that, that's a beautiful concept until you look at it. There's a lot of dreamers out there when it comes to So yeah, you can live stream all this, blah, blah, blah. That stuff is incredibly expensive. And that's going to happen.
have some kind of cutoff and we need to have more sponsors involved in it. And I think that's maybe, maybe a way to do it. And, so yeah, it's, I'm looking forward to the new changes and is everything perfect? want it never going to be that we're, we're, I'm looking forward to it. And I think it's to be good for the sport and good for the, you know, that's what we're trying to grow the sport and grow the art of tournament fishing, walleye tournament fishing, and it's only going to help everybody.
Brian Bashore (47:37.487)
Exactly. You had, like you mentioned, your buddies that you never expected to be fishing or now have scopes and boats and they're, and they're coming out. And now you have making this more elite, bring it down a little bit. The challenge with that. And what a lot of us had issue with is, is pay to play. I have so many people message, what does it, you know, what does it take to be a pro? I'm like, yeah, 2000 bucks in a boat. You're in. Does that mean you're a pro? No, but that means you're on the pro level, whether you're a pro or not, but that's it. You're in there. Some minimums on boater and boat size, what have you. But I'm like, that's it. You're in.
Jake Caughey (47:49.012)
Yup.
Brian Bashore (48:07.246)
You know, now that, now that has gone away. So that makes those 60 something anglers more elite. Let's call it elite, right? They're locked in on that tour, whether it's for, you know, maybe a guaranteed two years or something like that, probably until they get, you know, booted out. If you're not, know, in that top whatever percent, if you're in the bottom 10%, however, that's going to work. We don't know, but that opens up sponsorship opportunities and the complaint from a lot of the touring pros that some of us that do this for a living or just commit to doing all four.
Jake Caughey (48:16.574)
No.
Brian Bashore (48:37.262)
Is being able to just jump in and fish a tournament on your local body of water, which is perfectly fine. Cause that's been allowed. But when those people are taking 30 to 50 % of the paychecks, it's, it's tough enough as it is, you know, and you're not able to roll that buddy forward and you're doing good, but I mean, it's hard to go to a Mississippi river and compete against somebody who lives on it and fishes it and knows all those sweet spots day after day.
Jake Caughey (48:51.058)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (49:02.123)
100%, even like, last year, that was same deal. mean, River, South Dakota, those guys are fish, that body of water, that time of year, every year their whole life probably. And you're all, that's what makes a pro.
Brian Bashore (49:22.498)
Yep.
Jake Caughey (49:28.106)
Super good is like the guys like the Tom wins and Dewey's and what and like they're literally always up there. It doesn't Sprangles stuff like that like they're super good ever whenever against whoever
Brian Bashore (49:41.934)
You're too modest, Jake. finished third. Anger of the year. You finished in third. You were always up there.
Jake Caughey (49:49.169)
Yeah, my mom was talking to me, be humble.
Brian Bashore (49:52.611)
No, not wrong with it. I'll say it for you because the damn it, the guy's good.
Jake Caughey (49:57.62)
Well, I'd to give those guys a run for their money at least if that's the deal. Because man, there was a while there I was like, am I ever going to catch a chicken this freaking deal or? So it, but yeah, and that's another thing too. It can go out as fast as it went north. you just kind of, and everyone will say that too in tournament fishing. It's good, it's good. And you're never going to forget that.
there's any feeling ever like winning a walleye tournament. It's the most unexplainable feeling ever. And it's like the highest of high. And then the lowest of lows are very more common than the highest of highs.
Brian Bashore (50:41.91)
Right. And you never forget those bad, bad losses. Those stick with you probably harder than some of those, you know, really good wins or great finishes.
Jake Caughey (50:50.313)
Yeah. I think, I think, uh, I think just barely missing a check or, or dumping a big whatever is way worse than just getting fricking killed. Like, uh, I'd just miss the whole program hundredth and set up, you know, 25th and you, you know, yeah, that could have put you in top five or whatever. mean, those ones, those ones hurt the worst.
Brian Bashore (50:56.728)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (51:16.934)
But I think it's how you rebound from a lot of that and rebound from honestly getting your butt kicked is what makes a tournament angle good.
Brian Bashore (51:24.27)
Yeah, there's no doubt and tournaments. Erie, we're just a couple of weeks away. We're just saying we'll air like the week before. What are you thinking? And what are you expecting for Erie? What do you think it's going to take? I have no idea. think 70 some pounds. think Hoarder went at last time where they were 70 something.
Jake Caughey (51:40.679)
Oof.
Jake Caughey (51:44.934)
Yeah, yep.
You know, I think it kind of depends on last time we were there was at the end of the spawn. there wasn't still getting pre-spawn fish. The guys who ran way, way, way east, obviously got pre-spawn fish. I just, it's tough to say. It's tough to say. Cause how far do you run? Do you run to the islands? you know, that West side is probably going to have more post-spawn fish if they're just getting done spawning in the river or whatever.
Yeah, I want to say it'll probably be, if they're pre-spawn, think it'll take over 40 pounds or close.
Brian Bashore (52:25.198)
So 69 pounds is what Hoyer won it last time we were there. But we were a couple of weeks later, I think.
Jake Caughey (52:29.734)
Yeah.
Yeah, like I think that like I just look at kind of what it was over on the East side last year. 31 to 33 would have got you like top five. And so I mean, there's always going to be someone who lands on a big pod one day and whoops them pretty good. I just think like a guy could do 35 pounds out there.
You know, if you, if you landed on the right ones in, in not super hard. Um, but it also depends on where you run into. know I pre-fished over kind of on that West side there last year, just for an A, but the fish were a lot lighter. So it depends where you run into, it depends where they're set up at. Uh, I don't know. I think I can touch 80 pounds. really do. So.
Brian Bashore (53:24.876)
Yeah, that pre-spawn is going to make definitely a big difference.
Brian Bashore (53:31.468)
And there seems to be a pretty good year class of that a little bit bigger than those five to sevens. think, you know, some of the guys are catching some eight and nines right
Jake Caughey (53:40.008)
Yeah. I mean, don't follow that stuff too much, but know last year when we were out eating a lot of those five and a half to six and a half pounds were kind of the ones that, you there, there was a very, very big population of them. And I would like to think a six and a half pound walleye full of eggs would probably be somewhere around, you know, eight-ish pounds in the spring. eating all spring and whatnot. I don't know. think there's, I think these guys can do 40.
I hope it's me, but you know, I'm sure.
Brian Bashore (54:10.382)
All right. That's a, it's definitely a good, good goal to shoot for, but it's Lake Erie. We, we know how it goes and it's early and it could be muddy and weather's going to play, you know, such a huge factor. We are coming off the West shore for the first time out of Monroe, Michigan, which is, so if you are into that reef can area, it's not too far to drive. So.
Jake Caughey (54:31.367)
30 some miles I think you'll be alright.
Brian Bashore (54:33.55)
Yeah, to the yeah, you got the islands and then but if you want to run east of the Lorraine area, which has proven to hold big fish, that's pretty it's pretty good job.
Jake Caughey (54:45.287)
Yeah, I know. I don't think you've ever seen a Warrior 2090. I'd like to think I can find them somewhere. You know? I, uh...
Brian Bashore (54:53.356)
Yeah, we all hope we all hope we can find him close and the Detroit River is just a short left turn and up, you know, I mean, there's been 100 pound bags out of the river before. I mean, it's been quite a few years, so.
Jake Caughey (55:03.782)
Some guy goes up there and spanks him hand line and says, no.
Brian Bashore (55:09.59)
Right. Yeah, that's that, that's where the local comes into play, right? He knows something and he's like, weather don't matter. I've got, I got this going and I'm only, I don't know what it is. 10 mile, 15 mile ride or something like that, maybe to get up in there. But if you love the river fish that there you go, you got the river. So it's going to be interesting. I think there's going to be a lot of baits and play your Berkeley pro. So you have got the arsenal Berkeley is kind of leading the way right now in these forward facing baits, man. You got.
Jake Caughey (55:21.914)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (55:26.873)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (55:37.428)
You're going have all these suckers tied up for this tournament.
Jake Caughey (55:41.113)
Yeah, Berkeley, I was lucky enough to, you know, work with those guys last year, again this year. And Matt, talk about next level on stuff. Dan and Kyle and Chris and the whole team there, they have stuff dialed in, that's for sure. I mean, look at the finisher. That's the new hottest walkout out there. obviously, I the Bassmaster Classic was one on a Berkeley.
Brian Bashore (56:08.494)
All right.
Jake Caughey (56:10.754)
I'm hoping to maybe get my hands on some of those pretty soon, but we'll see. But yeah, these guys are so invested in their job and making fishing baits. That's all they do. If you think you a lot because you're doing tournaments and all this stuff or guiding, these guys fish way more. They fish way more than us. They're so smart when it comes to designing stuff. And it's hilarious. I think about it like,
If I think of something, I guarantee that Dan or Kyle or, you know, the guy, you know, and, and so it's really cool. It's really cool. The stuff that they, they present to us to try and, and I'm super excited to be with Berkeley. something that looking back in the day, never would have, never would have thought, you know, a little kid watching TV shows in the morning and looking at all these.
Brian Bashore (56:47.574)
Yep.
Brian Bashore (57:09.998)
All right.
Jake Caughey (57:10.341)
Keith Tobias, Parsons, know all those pros and I was on an email the other day and I looked at the email and I was like man there's a lot of dudes that are like Hall of Fame you know Hall of Famers on this email and I'm not one of them but there's a lot of man that's a that's pretty sweet you know and yeah it's fun to be able to work a lot with those guys and
Brian Bashore (57:28.822)
A little I made it moment.
Jake Caughey (57:37.318)
included on stuff. It's always fun and not to mention all super good dudes. I'm very grateful for that opportunity and look forward to the future.
Brian Bashore (57:50.826)
And you just, got to shoot the next bite show with the Hollywood Funny Mangler, Jason Scherz. Last year.
Jake Caughey (57:55.013)
Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, I got tied into doing a show with Shakira, know, even though he's a crappy Packers fan, you know, and they made me, you know, to buy something here. He's like, yeah, I got a suit for you, yada, yada, yada. And he ate that sucker and that thing is way too small. Like I've lost some weight in the past, you know, a couple of years. Like I was down 50 pounds at one point, you know, put a little bit back on, but.
I'm a lot lighter than I used to be and he gave me that suit and it looked like I was like the Pillsbury Doughboy and I don't know if that was a setup from Chase. think, know, because, you know, gave me a lot of shit about that. So I think it was kind of a setup now that I think about it because, know, I don't know. But yeah, he's like, yeah, here, try my hand. Oh yeah, try, I got it.
Brian Bashore (58:35.694)
That sounds like something Chase would do. Yeah, totally.
Jake Caughey (58:53.898)
And it's like large. And I'm like, dude, I was a 2X at one point. I'm happy to be an XL now. But this is a large. I can't even bend over in this thing. want to do. So it was super fun. Never would have thought Jason Shakir is one of the guys I looked up to when I started wall-hunting. mean, guys have always been like the coolest cat in the game. nothing rattles them. yeah, And it's like.
Brian Bashore (59:18.894)
Super chill, yeah.
Jake Caughey (59:23.896)
Great, now I'm shooting a show with him and I got to shoot a show with court for late commandos. So that was fun too. yeah, just super lucky and can't wait to, can't wait to watch that stuff and laugh about it some days.
Brian Bashore (59:39.086)
So there's a disclaimer, folks. He was set up when you watched that show with giving him the tiny rain suit.
Jake Caughey (59:42.981)
And I even I even kind of feel bad too because I bought I brought him to the Probably the best pizza joint on the planet Rafferty's pizza. He's like, neat tonight we're gonna go have Rafferty's pizza. This stuff is bomb, you know, everyone that's had Rafferty's that knows like juice and You know after that, you know, I don't I don't know if I really want to bring him back there after
Brian Bashore (59:54.797)
Yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:00:10.434)
He's getting Casey's pizza next time, isn't he? That's it.
Jake Caughey (01:00:12.452)
Yeah, it's almost like Tommy Boy, like fat man in a little suit, you know? Yeah. It's like I'm not built for warm weather. I don't really have sport mode. I'm always kind of in four low, so I don't really get the little suit type thing. I want a
Brian Bashore (01:00:15.928)
A little suit.
Brian Bashore (01:00:34.918)
there's, there's a whole bunch of that that goes out of this circuit folks. You may wake up and find a big stuff banana in your locker in the morning. go to grab your rods out or, real bananas nonetheless, but everybody's always jabbing a little bit here and there.
Jake Caughey (01:00:48.44)
I know that for sure it wasn't Chase's suit though. It was Shakira's because the legs were long. And since she was 5'2", the legs would have probably have something like that if it would have been Chase's. So I got it. Yeah.
Brian Bashore (01:01:01.774)
would have been just right.
Right on. funny, funny, funny folks. This is why we all fish in the camaraderie and the stories from all the stuff is, it's priceless. It's priceless stuff, but you got to get rolling. You got a boat to go get. You got just a busy, busy, I think you got a vacation coming up. Get that little bit of work on that tan before you got to cover it all up in those bibs again for Erie. So.
Jake Caughey (01:01:20.611)
Yeah.
Jake Caughey (01:01:26.018)
Yeah, I'm to get Tam through all that back that I got. Yeah, we're going give her a shot.
Brian Bashore (01:01:27.918)
Right. You want to leave our listeners with the little tidbit nugget to help them on their Anglin or tournament journey as they enter into the 2026 season.
Jake Caughey (01:01:40.868)
A little tidbit. I would probably say guys who are trying to really hone in the forward-facing sonar deal, yes, baits are super important. Rods are super important. Get something you're comfortable with. But one of the biggest factors that helped me with it was boat control. When you're boat control, I went to a cable drive motor, not saying you need, know, ultrasonic or whatever, you're comfortable with. But boat control.
helped me become more successful and when I I learned to have better boat control whether it was four or five footers or a flat calm that I started to get better. I think you can make a decent amount of hay in tournaments when it's rough scoping because not everybody can do that so the better you get to nasty day out it doesn't look like you want to go fishing maybe go out and practice on those days because when you get rough in the big stuff that are getting good in the big stuff when it's rough out you're
you're gonna finish towards the top a lot more.
Brian Bashore (01:02:38.126)
deadly.
Yeah, you're deadly in the calm stuff. I you can do it in the rough stuff.
Jake Caughey (01:02:44.193)
Yeah, it's if he so yeah, and my tip I guess that's I think it gets left out a lot when you talk about live scope is the bolt control aspect of it is super huge. So
Brian Bashore (01:02:57.262)
Yeah, I mean you heard it at the classic a lot for the announcers were saying, Hey, the wind's going to pick up and that's going to make it more challenging. These guys are going to be able to scope. It's been proven in the wallet world. You can still scope. I mean, here he last time we were there was brutal and I'm like, I'm going to draw. can't scope in this. I, and I couldn't, I wasn't good enough. And the scope was all one, you know, trovers did well. There was some top 10, like three or four in top 10, never still trolling. But we were one of scope and a lot of guys did. And it's like, nah, it can be done. It's no longer an excuse. So.
Jake Caughey (01:03:26.9)
All right.
Brian Bashore (01:03:27.562)
Nope. There you go folks. You heard it from one of the best on that scope for sure. And Jake says boat control and he is a hundred percent spot on. There is no doubt about it. So, all righty. We'll let you get going, get that boat, get it wrapped, get ready. is coming here fast folks. And we're going to be back after the NWT on Erie with we'll see who wins. Hopefully we can get the winner on here and we can discuss that a little bit more. And if not, somebody will be on here.
And we'll talk about it and how it went. And then we got Mo bridge following that up. So we'll try to stay on, on tune with some of that as, as well as we can get the other anglers on here and talk about it. But season's going to shape up. going to be a big one. think there's just going to be a lot to talk about after this first one with numbers and the vibe and where things are going and. Yeah, it's, it's all going to be great. So, all right, folks, thanks for tuning in and thank you, Jake, for joining us. thanks for tuning in for an episode of real talk fishing folks.
Jake Caughey (01:04:09.353)
Good.
Yep.
Brian Bashore (01:04:23.288)
Keep your lines tight and we'll see you on the water.