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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)
Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to another episode of reel talk fishing with no limits brought to you by Seaguar high performance braid, seven reels and clean cut cutting boards today. This is going to be kind of short, kind of sweet, but we are approaching that time here. It's summertime and there's a few things we need to talk about as we roll into the extreme boating season. As you can see, I'm in my camper coming at you from the guide house this summer, the camper.
It's a Friday and I have watched a plethora of people roll in to the lake, which means it's gonna get busy And it should be and that's a good thing. So but just a few things to touch on For all of you voters and everybody that's just ready to go We just got through Memorial weekend and unfortunately had some gloomy weather. So the lake wasn't super busy But it's nice now and it's gonna get busy so we touch on a little bit of boating etiquette
As a guide, I'm on the water almost every day all summer long and I see it all good and bad. So a couple of things just to help everybody out out there. And a lot of it, I think is just guys just, they just don't know. Right. I get it. You only fish a few times a year on the weekends, holiday, a lot of, you know, out of staters, um, you know, just fun fishermen. Awesome. That's the whole point. Get out there, have fun.
And by all means, I'm no saint and I'm probably guilty of most of these myself as well. But I think we need to touch on a few things. So, and probably a lot of you are listening, just need a reminder. You're probably pretty aware and pretty good at this stuff, but passing on to those out there that aren't share this with them. So they get a little bit of a better understanding. It's going to make your life, my life. And hopefully there is a little better on the water. You see this all over. You see this happen in bass fishing tournaments.
coverage, you'll see a Karen, right. Getting on the bass guy. Cause he's pitching the dock, but guess what? He can pitch that dock all he wants. ⁓ it's public waters. It's everybody's right. But we just need to share it and respect each other's space. and you know, I'm kind of what they got going on out there and it's they're just fish, man. They're just fish. So with that being said, just first thing, let's start at the boat ramp. When you see people struggling and it's inevitable, you're going to see somebody struggling.
Don't laugh. Don't get your phone out and record it as comical as that is sometimes help them go give them a little guidance. You know, obviously if you're on the water waiting to get out, it's a little tough. Um, but if you're on the shore waiting to get in, the more you help them, the sooner they're going to get that boat launched and out of the way. And the sooner you can get on the water and get to doing your business. However, those of you that are launching a boat, maybe it's your first time. Maybe you're just.
a little naive to kind of how things work, but there are most likely places to pull over to get your boat ready before you back it down the ramp to launch it. When you back, when you take up that space to back your boat down, to get it ready to launch, put in the water. Now is not the time to go grab your cooler, to go grab your floaties and everything else and start loading the boat. Pull over, get that all ready. You should have zero straps, the plug in.
ready to dump it in. You know, leave the front strap on if it's a steep ramp, I get it. Or you got a roller trailer, maybe leave them all on. ⁓ But be you know, 90 % 98, I have 98 % ready to dump that thing in the water. So when you roll it up, boom, you back in unload that thing. You know, if you're like me, official, you know, by yourself a lot, you need to tie that, you know, that boat up, you're to take that slip up a little longer. And then you know, go park your truck and come back. If you have somebody with you to
Dumping in for you and then you can float around and pick them up at the dock or a courtesy dock. That's great But that's not always the case and that's perfectly fine ⁓ You know just tie it up park the truck and come back Don't go to your truck make phone calls sit there and while everybody else is waiting to get in But have that boat ready to go when you when you're ready as you back up to the dock ⁓ There's gonna be a line of trucks and you know, whatever behind you don't get upset if they go around you and they're ready because if they're ready they're ready and
And if you're not, you're not. So I think it's perfectly fine to go around someone who's, know, just wave at them and be like, Hey, I'm cool. And they should be like, yep, I'm going to need five more minutes. Or maybe they got to go make a bathroom break, whatever the case is. Don't take up that space. Let them get in, let them get out. And vice versa. If they're having a hard time, you know, a lot of time they're they're learning, right? You know, the guy or gal is trying to back that truck up and having a little hard time. Just kind of help them out and be like, you're good left, right, you know, whatever the case is. Get that backed up to get that boat out of there.
If you're standing on the dock waiting for somebody to grab that boat when it comes in and hang on to it for a minute so they're not banging it up against the dock, help them get in and out. You know, everybody's kind of got their own situation and their own thing going. We've all seen it. There's people out there that are just a little bit nuts. Just not very good at this stuff. Some that think they really are. They're really not. but just, you know, be kind, help them. It's going to make everything better for everybody. It's going to make a smooth process. We just had a league night on Tuesday and I have never seen boats get
unloaded or excuse me, loaded to leave at a, we fish five to nine and everybody came in at nine, eight 55 to nine. And it was the smoothest, slickest process I've ever seen guys just backing trucks up, boats and out of there and pulling them to the park a lot and doing our thing. And it just kind of caught my eye as I was the one backing the truck up. We took Scott's boat and just looked around how fast and efficient every one of these guys was. No, they all fish a lot and they do it a lot, but it was just.
Everybody waited and it just bam, bam, bam. And it was constantly like three or four trucks pulling out at the same time. As soon as they pulled out new ones pulled in and I swear it didn't take five minutes to, you know, the pull 20 boats out of the water. was super, super fast. So that's, know, that's kind of it for the boat dock stuff. ⁓ so as a guy, we kind of see it all and we get a little bit more attention and that's understandable when you got your boat wrapped or people just know who you are.
I get it. You're from out of state. You know, we're up here on the Missouri river at Lewis Clark, Laking, South Dakota, lot of Nebraska, a lot of Iowa, a Minnesota folks come over obviously earlier in the year when their seasons are closed up. You know, they get real, real heavy up in Chamberlain and that's great. Bring it non-residents come here. Let's go fishing. We will gladly take you out. Book a trip at the walleyeguys.com. ⁓ but if you want to be that guy that just wants to follow us around, try and figure it out. Good luck. My boat goes about 70.
Um, I'm gonna guess yours may not necessarily, and we will probably leave you in the dust. Um, we have some things we do when that situation happens, but we're on a system where there is no hiding and there really is no secrets in fishing anymore. Um, and that's fine. Uh, you know, we give out, they do a lot of fishing ports. We had to back those off last year due to a lot of not respecting some boundaries and privacy of paying individuals.
And I'm talking, I get it. This is all our own water. We all got to share it, but when I can stick my rod tip out and poke you in the eyeball, you're a little too close. Um, and you're ruining these people's day and that's not cool. So we did not feed you any more information. stopped posting pictures on Facebook. We stopped giving all the local places and radio shows, fishing reports, because it's kind of like, you know, a few bad apples ruin it for everybody. And that's exactly what happened this year. We're off to a good start. It's getting busy. Fishing is getting good.
⁓ it's inevitable it'll happen and we'll just deal with that as it, as it goes. It's just kind of part of the business and the beasts, but.
You know, and if you I get it, you're going to see some boats. You've never been somewhere you want to get to those fish and figure it out as fast as possible. Maybe you did some research for you showed up. Feel free to call or send an email. We'll put you on them. Go to all that guys. Not come fishing reports. There's some, you know, general information out there that's going to help you ⁓ to a point. Like I said last year, we had to stop that because there's just that's it. Tired of helping you if you're going to abuse it. So but once again, Ron, a system where.
You can't hide, so it doesn't take long to kind of figure out where a bite is because there's 12 boats here, 10 boats there. Doesn't always mean they're catching them. You get a lot of a guy shows up, you know, goes out real early, hits a spot, next guy's going sees a boat. He just goes there. No idea if there's fish or not. The next thing within by 730, there's eight boats there. And, you know, lo and behold, there's no fish, but they don't know. You all got really good electronics, most likely on your boat and they work. And if they say there's no fish, there's no fish. So use your electronics and don't.
Use other boats, not a, mean, we're all guilty. I always show up somewhere. Never been. We were like, maybe there's a bite over there. There's 20 boats fishing. Sure. Go check it out. And maybe it is the hotspot, but I will tell you, if you get away from those, or at least further outside of those packs, you will get bigger fish, more fish most likely, but definitely bigger fish. Um, but you know, after just have good time and if there's room, just that's cool. Go to those pods, those community holes, whatever it may be. Uh, but just give everybody a little space and courteous talk to the boats, you know, when they're coming at you.
where you're trolling or, you know, pulling bouncers, whatever the case may be, you know, just let them know I'm going left, right inside outside. If these guys are there before you kind of stay out of their path. If they're working on the inside of a break, you have the maps that's, know, let them have it unless they're like, Hey, I'll go around you or whatever. Um, you know, kind of last, last guy to show up and you kind of get the last, you know, little spot until the guys roll out and you can work your way in. So space, give them, give everybody space.
If I can just flip my jig, just an underhand toss and I can land in your boat, you're too close. Okay. Now get it. can whip those suckers out there few hundred feet and hit somebody. Okay. That's you're more than far enough at that case, but give them space. And I did a lot last year where I could just flip my jig and I could land in your boat. don't know how many trolling motors I just went and tipped them or ran it right across the front of their boat and kind of like
Give me a little heads up. Like you're a little close. And if I can do that, you just drove over the fish that I was fishing at a client at about rip somebody's butt because they did it to him. And I was like, I got it. I'll be the, you know, the rude one here. However, they were the ones, you know, being rude. I swear to you, I could literally reach my rods out of my boat several times and poke people in the face. They were that close. ⁓ if an angler, you, whoever it is, is fishing between, you know,
the bank if they're casting to the bank maybe it's a piece of structure don't drive your boat between them and the bank that's most likely really shallow and you just ruined everything that they're gonna do okay stay on the outsides go on the outsides head to the deep water get away let them have it come back around and then go ahead of them wherever they're not at but you know before they get somewhere after somewhere they've already been go out and around don't go between the boat and the bank now
And if the boat's out 200 yards from the bank, obviously you can go through there. But I'm talking guys that are casting up to the bank. A lot of places have some mid-lake structure where there is no bank, but it's obvious, you know, maybe they got bobbers out or whatever. They're fishing rock piles or little humps or old road beds. Just just give them space. Go around those. Try not to drive directly over what it is they're fishing. You know, especially this early kind of spring, you know, we're still into even into June. We're going to still be a lot of shallow water fishing and those fish are going to scatter and just be out of there.
And you ruined it for them, you know, and they're probably going to go ahead and find you later in the day and they could possibly ruin it for you. just it's common sense type stuff, but I take a lot of this for granted that not everybody does this or is aware of it or just kind of is out there just enjoying themselves and not really paying attention to everything that's going on. and don't even realize they're doing it. So.
We got static there, uh, speed. So I get it. A boat hauls. all want to go fast. And I honestly, I rather you fly by me a full throttle. Then five, 10 miles an hour. So we have a unique situation here on this reservoir where we fish what's called the shoes, which are just like, there's like four little tiny channels. It's not very wide. Um, and some guys get it and some guys don't. And either way I said, it's always going to piss somebody off, but
It's two or three boats wide for the most part. And when you get off those troughs, which are not deep, these are two to eight foot. You're into one or two foot and you're stuck. So I honestly, if you see me there, fly by me full throttle, 50 feet away. Go don't come. Don't back off it. When you are plowing through scanning or doing whatever it is, you're making a massive wake and you're pushing everything out, especially in the shallow water. You're making a mess.
Get that boat on plane and fly by, you know, the rest of the boats and get if you're, what we'll do is go upstream and then drift down or some guys will troll up. You're trolling up. No problem. You're good to go. Just keep on trolling right by. But if you're going to make your drift and then you want to fly back up, fly back up, get on plane and zip it up there and then come off quick and turn around and do your thing. Cause that's going to make a very minimal, I'm going to, there's not a whole lot of wake when I'm going 60, but if you're going 30 and you're just plowing through or you come up to a boat.
You know, he's going this way and you're flying this way and then you come off plane to go slow by him. You just, that was, that's the worst thing you can do. Just go by him because now you went, mm, boat sunk, massive wave wake. And then you say, I'll be a nice and I'm slowing down by them. You just made the waves 10 times greater than what they would have been if you just flew by him. And you're going to be close in that situation. Most places obviously get further away if you can 50 feet, a little close, but in our situation, 50 feet is 50 feet zip by.
Obviously if you're on a, but just in general, if you're on the lake or whatever the case is, obviously get way further than 50 feet, just kind of, you know, get on planet and go by him at a reasonable speed, but not slow to where you're plowing. lot of guys you want to drive around and scan and get it, you know, and you, you know, when we go five miles an hour or so for your size scan. And that's fine. Five is pretty minimal, but 30 or, you know, or 15 to 20 is.
You're plowing and you're just making it. You might also be a wakeboard boat or get the surfboard out and drag behind it. Cause you're doing more damage than good. Um, so that's a lot of people probably don't understand that or see it. Um, they see me doing it. Probably the customer that guy's flying by me or my other guides or whatever. Trust me, you don't want us to come off plane and a DB 21 or six 21, one of these, one of these big boats and come off and move. Cause then I'm and we got a lot of little boats fishing up here. I'm talking 14, 16 foot boats. can, you're going to get wet.
You know, you don't get knocked out of the boat, so a screws and by it is, you know, at a high, you know, a good speed with the boat, barely in the water is going to create a way smaller weight.
So it is something to think about.
Yeah, man. think that was already it. I covered all my little notes already. Boat docks help each other out. Don't drive between the shoreline and the anglers. Give them space. Like I said, a quick little pitch or a flip of a jig. Or cats and crankbait. If I can hit your boat, you're too close. ⁓ You know, if a person is on anchor, spot lock or anchor mode, they have the right away. So understand that. I people ask you like, will you keep moving? I'm like, I haven't moved in 30 minutes, man. I'm on spot lock. You're moving and you're moving right at me.
And when you're the moving vessel, you do not have the right away. The anchor anchored vessel does so get out of their way. I get it. We don't have ropes and stuff hanging off. So it's hard to tell. ⁓ You know, and it's you may not know what the person's doing from a ways out when you're coming flying up to them and they realize, ⁓ crap, they're casting, ⁓ you know, way over here. didn't I didn't know that. It's OK. I mean, we're going to make mistakes. Feel free to sit back and be like, hey, sorry, man. I didn't know you're over there. You know, my bad.
but just slow down and give yourself some space. The best thing to do. It's like Tom did in the league night there and I was pulling and say, Hey, do you mind if I fish here? I'm like, yeah, of course you want the spot to yourself, but you bet man. More than welcome. Come on in. Right. There's plenty of fish to go around. There are spots that are on spots. had this Mississippi river. you know, I pulled up day one to making said, Hey, we cool. If I, know, over here and he's like, yep, just don't go here on this side. All right. Good to go, man. No problem. I think there was a lot of that, you know, JJ had guys coming up on him and once he, somebody left and.
The old, asked, Hey, is it cool if I come over here? You can say whatever you want to say. And that guy can do really whatever he wants to do, but it's going to go a long ways. If you just throw them up, you know, Hey man, or guy, gal, whatever the case is. Do you mind if I fish, you know, over here or have you fished? had a local on the Mississippi come up and wanted to fish spot. just did. said, are you bass fishing? Said, Nope. Cause I was casting crank bait. So I'm sheep head fishing. Apparently I said, Nope, knock yourself out. Go right around me. And he went right up there and made a few cast and.
He realized why I wasn't there no more. didn't catch nothing left, but that's it. That stuff goes a long ways. Just, man, and if you screw up, Hey, sorry. Didn't mean, didn't mean that my bad. We all do it. I do it. ⁓ just move on. Okay. Be considerate of others, give them some space. follow that's what I was getting on one more little note.
So as guys, come out there days, we put the boat in the water and there's boats sitting out there floating around, waiting for us to leave so they can follow us to a spot. ⁓ it's got that instance where he had three guys with handheld radio scattered all over the lake, trying to figure out where he was going in the morning. Then we go up with the shoes. People want to try to follow you in a certain aspects to get the trails. I'll just tell you right now, the hummingbird Lake master chip, has the trails follow them. It's, pretty simple. So, to a point and we're not even running 20 miles up or just talking to West end of the lake.
If you get a bird, you get the Lake master in there. You got the routes, just follow them. So I highlight my shallow depths and then I can see the gaps and I just hit the gaps and then I auto chart live them every year. And then, and then there you go. You're all set up, but we have followed a lot. We'll have clients and then they'll have their buddies try to follow us throughout the day and always tell them, now, you know, and some guys are asking some guys will charge to a follow up. Okay. There's a big group. I only have room for three or four of you, but you have your own boat. Yeah, that's fine. You can follow.
What you're learning in the boat is, you know, is paramount to what the guy's following. They may not catch nothing and you'll catch them. And I, and I get it. You're going to hire a guy your first day out on your three day trip, do it all time. I recommend it. ⁓ sadly, we're to go show you spots, show you what techniques are way to catch fish. And then we just ask them, Hey, I'm going to be out here again tomorrow. I got another group just like you today. They're paying customers. Please just give us our space. You know, cause now I showed you all this, these spots and they're always
pretty much big enough for several boats anyway, but just give us a little space. Okay. Um, more often not they're out there and they're kind of working those same areas. Coincidentally, they're just not having as much luck because there's a little tricks and there's a reason people hire guides. So, um, but these people are paying good money, give them their space, let them enjoy their day. We're going to give you space. You can enjoy your day. Happy to talk to you on the water.
help you out. Yes, we're on and we're catching a few here. It's a good day. You know, try this slow down, speed up. We'll gladly share all that information. We want everybody to catch fish and enjoy their time out there and be safe. It's pretty simple, man. Fishing is fun. So you need to have fun. It's not a combat sport. We don't need to be out there fighting over, you know, whatever the case is. It does suck when you got a spot on spot and you roll out in the morning, somebody sitting on it. Well, come back later. He's he or she is going to be gone sooner or later. And those fish may not have been there in the morning.
You know, and they'll show up in the afternoon. It's just kind of the way it is. You're booking trips. I always tell people go for the weekdays because this lake gets chaotic. So to the recreational boaters that make this lake chaotic. Awesome. That's what the lake is for. It's the lake life. It's fun. It's jet skis. It's sailboats. It's wakeboard boats. It is tubing and it's this is a zoo and we fish on the further west end to stay away from it all summer. And it's good fishing, but there's great fishing on the east end.
Just can't fish it because of boat traffic. Now, most of that doesn't get too heavy until afternoon after like two o'clock or so when it's sun's out and it's the heat of the day. And by then we're kind of wrapping up anyway. Jet skis, you don't need to drive circles around our boats. There's nothing cool about it. There's not a fishing guy, angler out there that enjoys that and thinks, oh neat, look at that jet ski. I want to watch him go circles around my boat. I get it. If I'm flying down the lake and you want to go jump over my wake or whatever, I care less, but we're fishing.
You don't need to drive circles around us with. Nope, it's not cool. You're you're not impressing anybody. It's actually quite the opposite. So and for you, those in kayaks, especially on this lake, awesome kayaks are cool. When you launch your kayak at one of the two major boat ramps here and you're piddling around that, understand that boats are coming in and out of that and they're going to be coming in probably pretty fast and then they're going to come off plane and make a big wake.
That's not their problem. There's a lake behind the dam just for kayaks where we can't go with our big motors. Okay. Electric motors only. So if you're going to go out here and be on the shorelines and what have you on a weekend, you obviously need to have your life jacket on, but just be prepared because that's there's a place for the kayaks and this is probably not it. Uh, today is a flat calm, beautiful day. I've seen the kayak way out in middle of nowhere. That's good. Good to go. It wasn't too busy. They were probably fine.
Um, a lot of them hang around kind of the boat launch area. And I'm like, that's the wakeiest place to be hanging out. So, you know, get up kind of shallower and away from some, lot of the main traffic and you'll probably be fine or go to the, to the, uh, Lake Yankton here behind the dam where it's a kayak, you know, friendly system. So, um, but you, kayakers, you get it. You got some pretty Gucci kayaks out there now. Uh, I don't, I don't do it. So I don't know how well they take those waves. I see them and they, they all seem to be pretty good.
But I'm sure it's frustrating as hell when, you know, we come flying by and, and, you know, lot of times you can't even really see them with a lot of this boat traffic. So in this boat traffic is bad. And that is, that's what kind of concerns me more than anything is just seeing them. Cause there's some people that aren't paying a whole lot of attention. All right. We all seen the parties on the lake and what gets going on and accidents happen. So recreational boaters be more mindful of that when you go onto the West and you're beaching your boats and party. And that's fine.
You know, it doesn't happen till later in the afternoon. That's really, yeah, you're here. You're usually OK. You're doing some damage to the ecosystem there, but that is what it is. We can't tell you not to do it.
But they're probably as guilty, if not more than some of the other anglers getting too close and doing stuff or you're fishing on a spot and they literally come up in front of you and just beach their boat, jump out, start swimming and playing and doing whatever. actually watched a guy. A gentleman and I were fishing. My wife was with me and I think believe this is why I fish in a little area. This is a few years ago and I just blew my mind. A boat pontoon came up, asked how the fishing was. It was pretty good until the pontoon came up.
Went ahead a little ahead of us, anchored his boat, jumped out, dog, kids, everybody, ⁓ right over the little bit of structure we're fishing. It's unbelievable. So this guy kind of moved and got to use a trolling motor went around and two little girls swam over to his boat. So I thought, well, this guy must be their uncle or something. Hanging on the side of his boat while he was fishing. ⁓ mentioned they let go and then he came back around and I, it seemed weird and I hollered at said something to him and he's like, you know them and he's like,
No. So we all packed up and left. I'm like, really? You let your children just swim over to some stranger's boat and hang on the side of it while he's moving it with his trolling motor and fishing. ⁓ That ain't cool. So some of the stuff we see at all, man, it blows my mind. Don't be that guy. That's what I'm saying. So better than that, have fun. Be out there. Reach out if you got questions. You want to know what the bite is doing? Long as you respect.
Kind of everybody's fishing out there, not just, this isn't like guides bitching about whatever we get it. And it's open, it's public water. It's free rain. We're working. We don't come to your workplace and sit there and hound on you 10 feet away at your counter or whatever it is. It's the same thing. There's, you know, paying customers. We're paying the taxes, paying the sales tax, tourism taxes. We're bringing everything in the economy, helping fish and buying fishing. We want you to catch fish so we can help you catch fish. Let us know.
We will do our best and feel free to come up at the boat ramps, at the docks, at the bait shop, wherever afterwards, you know, or even sometimes they had a couple of conversations on the water day because we're in some tighter, you know, there was a community spot that was putting out some fish. So we even fished it. ⁓ Glad to help. Glad to help when we can help long as it is reciprocated.
That is about all I think guys, we got some good guests coming up. It's just a busy season. Everybody's got some tournaments going on. I got a lot of sponsor obligations, shooting some videos and things like that. So it's a little tough to get some people on. We have ICAST coming up in July, but there is a few, few guys in the queue that we're going to have some good shows coming up. So you're just going to get me on these hot topics and boating etiquette is the one as we roll into summer. Be safe.
Have fun out there and just be kind, be courteous to others on the water and we're all gonna have more fun. We're all gonna catch more fish. So that is a wrap. Thanks for tuning in to this little hot topic episode of Real Talk Fishing with No Limits. I'm Brian Beshore and stay safe and we will see you on the water.