Jacob Wheeler is the youngest angler ever to win the All American and the Forrest Wood Cup. He also won the first two Elite Series events he fished. But that was just the start. To date he has won 14 tour level events and he has won 4 out of the last 5 Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year titles and he is only 35 years old.
But it has not always been easy. At one point in his childhood his family literally lost their home. But through that adversity Wheeler learned his endless motivation and tireless work ethic.
This week, he joins the podcast and talks about all that plus the future of pro fishing, confidence, career mistakes, building a brand, rookie scars, real life, raw emotion and turning haters into motivators by literally drinking your haters words for breakfast?
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He is the youngest All-American champion in history. He is the youngest to ever win the Forrest Wood Cup. He won the first two Bassmaster Elite Series events. He fished. He now competes in the Bass Pro Tour and he’s been, well, nothing short of dominant 14 tour level victories and four out of the last five angler of the year titles. Jacob Wheeler joins me this week. I know my I’m Bob Cobb for the bass master. Welcome to Mercer. Welcome one. Welcome, all friends, family, freeloaders, fishing freaks. And of course, you my jumpers. Happy hump day to all of you. And welcome in to the Awkwardly Honest Fishing podcast that goes by my last name, which is Mercer. This is the 241st edition of the Mercer Podcast, and I hope wherever you’re watching or listening from the life is treating you well. In my part of the world. Nate. It’s cold. It is. It’s it’s officially here. I’ve tried to avoid it for as long as possible, but it’s winter. I mean, there’s snow everywhere. Lakes are freezing a bit. It’s officially winter. And as I said, I’ve. I’ve tried to avoid it, but but it’s here. I mean, it’s December 3rd and it’s supposed to be winter, I guess. But I tried to avoid it. I mean, I swam all the way up till November 24th, which now seen Lakes Freeze. Makes me wonder or realize the I was either really tough to be swimming two weeks ago or I’m an absolute idiot. Maybe a combination of both. That’s up to you guys. I’m sure you’ll let me know in the comments, which I am, but I’m thankful that I was able to push it as long as possible. And, and I look forward to this time of year. I mean, Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, and, you know, there’s there’s lots to be thankful for. And one of the things that I’m very thankful for is that you once again chose to tune into this particular podcast. There is Lord knows there is a lot of lot of podcasts out there, and I’m thankful that you chose to tune in to this show each and every week. And, if it’s your first time here. Welcome. We do this every single Wednesday. Hope to see you again. This is going to be a fun podcast. Hard to believe this is a podcast that has been four years in the making. It’s been four years since Wheeler has been on this podcast. And, in that time we where he’s continued to add to his trophy mantle and, we have some really unique topics that we talk about. And despite the title of this show, you’re about to I think we revealed one of the most positive, amazing ways to deal with hate. Because I hate to break it to you, but in today’s world, if you do anything, you’re going to get haters and you can’t change them. It’s all how you deal with them that keeps you sane. And Jacob Wheeler, and more specifically, his wife, may have figured out one of the best ways to deal with them because Wheeler literally drinks haters for breakfast. I get it, it’s a clickbaity title. I had to get you here somehow, but trust me, stick with it. This is very, very positive. Speaking of which, I hope that this episode specifically shows something to the fishing world because we are living in a very blessed and amazing time when it comes to fishing content. But the weird thing is, we’re also living in one of the most divisive times there is where people are against people for the way they choose to fish, where people are against one league, against the other. If you like one league, you, you, you have to like you have to dislike the other one, right? Wrong. Shouldn’t be that way. I mean, we should be thankful for what we get to see. I mean, we are living in the greatest time for fishing content in the history of the sport. You’re literally being force fed fishing content every week. It doesn’t matter what you want to watch, whether it’s you’re a fan of the elite series, whether you’re a fan of the bass Pro or whether you’re a fan of the Npfl, whether you’re a fan of other leagues, there’s a team league coming up. There’s just a lot of content and you’re able to absorb it, and it is a wonderful, wonderful time. But weirdly enough, the you got so many people trying to tear things down. I recently heard a quote and it it really struck a chord with me. And it is simple. Don’t blow out other people’s candles to make your seem brighter. And in today’s world, not just the fishing world, but in today’s world in general, there’s a lot of people blowing out candles just to make their seem brighter. It’s a tough way to live life. And it’s my challenge to you guys. To kind of think about that next time. It’s my challenge to fellow podcast to think about that next time. Don’t blow candles to make your seem brighter. Now, I honestly think if you really think about that, and if you really think about different situations that you react to. Are you blowing out people’s candles just to make yours brighter? Let’s stop doing that. All right, I’m done with my motivational moment for the week. I hope it’s motivated some of you. If not, this yes will probably motivate some of you because he is one of the most motivated, driven anglers that’s ever picked up a rod. And what we’re seeing him accomplish is truly amazing. So get your popcorn ready, pour your beverage of choice, put the AirPods in because you’re going for a walk. However you choose to consume this podcast, buckle up because this is a good one with the one and only Jacob Wheeler. Jacob Wheeler we did this before. Yeah, I had a really bad back at the time. Couldn’t even stay seated. If you remember, I was full pro from Premiere and Pray mantis. Is that the name of the beast I’m trying to describe? Just trying to get comfortable. And we said, hey, we’ll do this again soon. It’s been freaking four years. It’s been a minivan. It has been too long. I know, I’m I’m hoping your back’s doing a little bit better. House. Oh, a lot better. Yeah, a lot better. Good. Not bad. If it gets bad now, I’ll be like, It’s Wheeler. Wheeler’s the problem. But, yeah, it’s it’s it’s doing good. And you are as well. Things have gone, from pretty good for you. My spin. Good man, I, I, yeah, I just it’s been it’s been a little crazy, you know, obviously put one foot in front of the other and you just don’t. You don’t really try to spin. I got to the point where I feel like I don’t try to. To look at what I sort of try to look ahead. You don’t look behind yourself. You don’t really. You try to just sort of focus on what your next challenge is, whether you do good or bad, and you just try to keep pushing. So it’s been been a lot of fun. I mean, it has been it’s been crazy, obviously catching a lot of fish and, and but it’s, it’s also there’s a lot of different things growing family and, and it’s it’s been it’s been a heck of a ride. That’s a tough balance in every sport. You see it. And I remember an interview years ago, with a bunch of older golf pros talking about Tiger Woods. And they all said that, like the the answer was, we’ll see what happens when he has a life around him. Like when all you can focus on is golf or fishing. It’s a lot easier. I would imagine 100% is. I think it’s it’s so interesting to me because I look up to a lot of people in this sport, and I’ve talked to several veterans and I’ve asked them like, what is the one regret you have? Like as in your career? And one in particular, I won’t mention his name, but he said, no, I spent enough time with my kids when they’re young and I’m like, dang, man. Like, it’s a challenge. It’s a very hard thing to go through when you because as you sort of continue to do things and you grow and you mature in life and you have a life and you’re trying to spend time with your family and your kids and making sure that you’re, you’re you’re pouring into them just as much as yourself. You want to be selfish as well, but then you also have people that are depending on you, from the partnership side of things. And you have more time there. It’s, it’s a, it’s a very fine juggle. And, it’s not something that’s that’s easy. It’s not something that I feel like I’m done better now. But it’s it’s definitely takes time and it’s, and it’s something that it’s, it’s a struggle as well because you know, that you have a job to do, but then it’s like, what’s too much time to dedicate to that job in which too little. And then you just you’re trying to play it and juggle it perfect. It is strictly a juggling match, and you’re hoping that you hold on to each, you know, thing that comes down. And there’s not two things that pop into your hand at the same 2 or 3 things that happen, your hand at the same time. And you, you know, you lose it all. So I think to me it’s I enjoy it. But I also understand that, like, you know, when I put Hudsons for Olivia’s six, she’ll be seven in January. I know I won’t have them this age the whole time. So it’s like, gosh, I mean, it definitely makes you think a little bit differently. Yeah. And it flies past like, you know, it’s so quick and it’s so it’s weird. It’s like life should be the opposite. Like you should you should have kids when you’re older, when you’re able to just kind of. But I mean, that’s also the balance. And like I think that’s what life’s you’re supposed to try and figure out the balance. And here’s the truth. I don’t think it matters what you do for a living as a parent. You’re going to at times feel like you failed. Like that’s just part of parenting. Like it’s it’s, it’s an even it’s the greatest thing. And it also it’ll put some pressure on you, but you’re so right from the one problem going, sorry, the only problem go on with like later, like later in life is just the fact of you not having enough energy. Like, I don’t know if I could take on Hudson and Olivia when I’m like 60 years old, I’d be like, no for that, because I feel like I lose. Yeah, yeah, well, these are all good things to have. I mean, you are living. You’re living the life you dreamed of when you were a kid, aren’t you? Yeah. I mean, I, I, I think that I would have never thought. I mean, I’m probably living a life that I would have never thought was realistic, like, that I could have gotten to this point. I think my, my dream was to be a professional boxing, or never thought I would be in a position than I am right now. Like, ever. Like I just think that you just, I it’s hard to explain because you I don’t I still don’t take it. I don’t spend a lot of time like, looking back and trying to analyze everything, like, oh, man, how awesome this or that was. You know, you’re just trying to climb and continue to push and continue to sort of look at your, look at your events and try to do well and, and go to the next one and sort of focus on that one and just, you know, take a step by step. And so I think it’s, I think, you know, are times you know, you get to the point where you try to overthink it as well. But, right now it’s it’s crazy to think if I was 16 years old looking at where I’m at now, I don’t know if I would ever thought that was realistic or possible to be in the position I am. So I’m thankful, obviously. But, it’s I it’s crazy sort of how it’s all got to this point. How old are you now? 35. So what did what did a 16 year old Jacob Wheeler, what was your what did you think you’d be when you were 35, like in your head when you dreamed of me in my 30s? What did you think you would be? I don’t know, because there was point in time in my life like going growing up. I was like, I just I remember, like in, like 2017. I grew up in a family that we didn’t have a whole lot. And, in 20, in 2000, a we had couldn’t make the house payment, our house got kicked out of our house and all this stuff was going down. And I just remember that at that point in time, I’m like, man, I just hope one day I can make enough money where I’m just able to be able to, to afford a nice house, a house and pay for it, take care of it. And so there was moments like, so you don’t really know, like I remember thinking that and I’m like, man, if I could be a professional by saying or do it and you don’t even know what what professional boxing was make. It’s not about what you make. It’s about enjoying your life and being able to do all these things. And so like to me, it wasn’t necessarily about making money. It was I think, of course, of my big thing was definitely to be able to eventually, you know, to own your own house, have a place, of course, like those things. But I then in the same thing was like just trying to to get to where you’re having a good time as well. I think there was a combination of both. So I, I don’t know if there was like a set thing, but I knew I was I always wanted to be a professional bass angler. I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t even know how much money they made. I just knew that was sort of where I wanted to be at. And so it sort of evolved from there. So you were actually homeless at one point, like what you guys left, like, where did you live? So so we, ended up running a place. My dad was in Texas trying to work. And mom was home with us, so we, Yeah, we we just had we had moved out and we’d found a place we could rent ultimately, that we could afford. And it just, you know, during that housing crisis time frame, it was crazy. And it just financially wasn’t, you know, we were, you know, family was in over their heads and and so it came to a point where we had, had to sort of you swallow your pride and you move on and you figure it out in life. And I think that, sometimes you you realize in life that you don’t, you the adversity is sort of part of the story, like you, you and I so like to now, like one thing sort of go haywire and your batteries die or, you know, you mess up a prop or whatever, it’s you just realize to pivot and make, you know, make an adjustment to where you’re able to have a, you know, a positive, positive day or good day. So like cup half full. So I think it’s actually some of those things in my life have made it towards a lot easier to, oh, that’s not that bad. You know, like yeah. It’s just you know what I’m saying. Like it sort of it. Oh okay. Well I get that figured out or there’s always a way as always, if there’s always a will, there’s a way. I think that’s sort of always how I looked at it. Do you think that’s where your work ethic comes from? Like does it almost come from fear, for lack of a better word of, because that’s a reality like to a lot. No, no, no doubt what you went through is not. Yeah. That I mean did and there’s a lot worse than that obviously, but 100% to a lot of people that’s just it’s not even really a reality. They don’t think of it really happening to them. But you’ve been through stuff like that. It does your work ethic, is it fueled by fear and a bit in a way, do you think? I think early on, my career probably wasn’t a way to lose. You’re more more worried about not achieving, like not not being able to live like everything to be taken care of than it probably was then. Then more than just trying to make money or doing anything else, I think it was tough because it first you start off and you’re a little naive early on to like, I mean, younger Jacob, I’m like, I’m not necessarily thinking like, I mean, there’s there’s definitely fear and like, oh man. Like I don’t want to go and put myself in a position like that or do that again right in my life. So I think there was definitely I think as you get it, instilled portions of that definitely is like, you know, you still have that because, you know, as a, as a core memories in your life, you don’t you realize like, okay. Yeah. Like I don’t want to get back in that position, but I think it sort of changes as you get older to like me. You’re always have a piece of that. Yeah, but it’s not. But, you know, it just sort of a part of it is a part of you. So you just sort of like, continue to push. I think the work ethic definitely does that. But then I also I, I’m, I’m very competitive. So I think that a lot of it comes from that as well. Just being that I want to lose. Right. And which nobody does. But the work definitely helps you not lose as much. Yeah. Have you always been that competitive that way. Like is it just a fishing thing or do you remember being a little kid and being super competitive? I’ve always been very competitive. I’ve always been motivated. I think that like for me, it’s just take some time to, like, you get you get beat enough you want, you want to win, you taste a victory, you win. You know, whatever. I, you know, you win a football game or a baseball game or you do this, you do that. And it’s like, you know, it’s you get the taste of that victory and you’re like, oh my gosh. So I want to do I want to do that all the time. But obviously it doesn’t happen all the time like that. But I’ve always been competitive. I mean, even with the guys on tour, I’m constantly we’re playing around, messing around, you know, it’s it it’s it, you know, we but we’re always competing, you know, we were always competing. Your buddy. You’re playing cards, you’re playing cornhole. It doesn’t matter what it is. There’s always competition. But I’ve always sort of had that. But I think it’s also as you sort of compete against some of the best and you continue to push and you start to see anglers do their thing and you have a lot of respect in that way. You start to realize, like, all right, you got to put work in to ultimately do well. And there’s a fine line of putting too much, just putting work into like just work. And then there’s like like, I mean, you’re just sort of like wasting your time in some way and then figuring out like your time and like when you can actually put extra work in that could benefit you. So it’s like a fine line. It’s a fine line. So were you wasting time working at and appointing your career like to say that? Do you look back at certain times and be like, I overworked here. So it early on and early on in my career and it’s more so time in the water is what I’m. And you’re not it’s not any one time that I would say I overworked because what’ll happen is like, are you talking like, pre practice and preparing and stuff? Like when you’re younger and you’re in, you have like, you’re just so locked into the sport which a lot of young anglers are that in that position right now. You go and you pre practice you go prep you prepare as much as you possibly can. And so what ends up happening a lot of times things change. And some of them is pre practicing. You know going for a week’s time on a body of water would change and then you would still be locked into some of those preconceived ideas that you had of what they were doing a month ago. And, and so I had to learn like, not how I process information, what works for me. Like there’s there’s anglers out there on tour that like, my buddy at the fellow does not like to go pre practice at all. He’s like, I’m I don’t want to see it. I want to see it fresh when I get there, drop the in the water and go. And you know he puts a ton of time on the work. He puts a time, ton of time into to researching and prepping and all those things. And that works for him. When he gets there. He sort of has his system of what he does. So I think it takes time to sort of figure out what works best for you and your own mind to process the information. And I think that overdoing it, at one point in time, I think my career probably hurt me, but it ended up also those pre practicing trips, because we tend to go to a lot of the places that we, you know, go back to those places you might have gone there in April in your tournaments in May, and then all of a sudden there’s a tournament in April. They’re like wait a second, I caught him doing this. That’s going to be a deal in three years, you know. So it’s it’s sort of a double edged sword. I mean, you can you could die by the sword in the scenario of that tournament. But then ultimately, long term, if you have enough of that mental capacity, be like, all right, that’s not working now and be able to just check it off the list and go, then it can be super beneficial long term in your career while you have the time dealing with that specific scenario that you brought up, you know, like pre practice in April and then a tournament a few years later is in April. All that information that you catalog throughout your career and the catalog gets bigger every single year, every single day. Do you catalog it in any way outside of your head, or is it all in there? Like, do you physically keep a catalog of any of that? Like what? Where does that information go? So a lot of it’s just sort of like waypoint management, right? So I think that helps me the most is because I waypoint like a lot of things, like I spend a lot of time away pointing things like stomp sticks, rock, whatever it is. Right. And so what it helps is like when I have say, I have 8000 waypoints on a lake, right? And it could be like a lot of stuff. I’m just sort of not even looking at like it just stuff like, that might be good for a certain time of year. I waypoint it for a time of year, right, specifically. And so I know by the depth zone, I know by the contour, I know by the, the, the icon, what it is. Okay. That’s a stamp. That’s rock. That’s this, that’s that, that’s what that’s timber. This is this. And so it’s able. So I’m, I’m running down the lake or I’m looking like, say I put all those waypoints in into my, into my graph. And I’m like because a lot of it just came from graphing those areas. Now grass is different of course, because it changes every year, but then you’re able to sort of tap on that waypoint like, oh yeah, I remember I caught him off that place when I originally found it was April the 12th. Water temperature was 74 degrees. You see all that stuff right there on waypoint. So it gives you that and you have the icon and you have so like that’s something that’s helped me be a little bit more efficient. I do write a few things down but nothing crazy. I’ll even just voice, you know, audio, some stuff of like, hey, you know, I got done with this tournament, I saw this, this is what happened. The tide was doing x, y, z. I got my butt kicked because of this. It’s where I can go back and think of that next time. Like, hey, tidal water. Like something that I learn I’ll never forget. But I think that’s so ingrained in your mind because you live. It’s like when you live your job, which a lot of us do, it just becomes a part of you. It just becomes something that you’re like, okay, I’ll like the more times you have bad tournaments, the those are the moments you remember the most and the things that you made a mistake on, and you tend not to do those nearly as much again. Now it could be. So I think that’s that’s sort of how I’ve always used, you know, what I have but and just different for each, for each person. I want you to make a captain’s log video for next year. And if you never produce it, but think of how awesome it would be if you literally just made a voice memo every day when you get off the water and it can be whatever it can be like, today sucked today, but if you took those and they can be 10s, they can be a minute, they can be ten minutes if you want them. But you took those, cut those all together. I think it would be imaginable. School and and if it’s not, you don’t ever have to release it. But I think that, in time, I actually think the value of it will just continue to increase. That would be very interesting. I mean, I every time I get off the water, that would be really cool just because, like, you’re just speaking so real to yourself at that moment, like, wow. Yeah. We didn’t catch crap today. Down by 20 pounds to make the cut. I don’t know how we’re going to make a I’m thinking we’re going to do x, y, z tomorrow. This didn’t work. We’ll check back in tomorrow. Click, you know, I mean, that’s how it is. And thinking, even if you don’t release it, if you keep it, think of how valuable those when you say, okay, I’ve got this waypoint from April from four years ago, and now I’m fishing here in April to go back and be like, oh, let’s look at the April files over the year, like the, let me come out. No, you’re right, you’re right. Now, you’re not wrong because you need more stuff to do in your life. Yeah, exactly. Like I’m trying to add, I, we just talked about how I’m trying to juggle all this stuff, you know? But, hey, why not? I mean, that’s not as hard to do that, but we we have a lot of windshield time, so that ends up working out pretty well if you just turn it on your guy. Well, you’ve had a pretty successful career. You’ve, always been confident. Which comes first? Success or confidence? I think the confidence side of it, I think it’s important because you just. You just got to sort of. I think a lot of that was naive, being a little naive as well. Like, you don’t realize how fortunate you are, right? Like when you’re getting into a position, you want to be confident that. Absolutely. It’s a very important part of it. But it’s it’s a very hard thing to when you’re young, especially if you’re confident not to be perceived as cockiness. So there’s a very fine line there in it and it, but it definitely helps you because you if you’re confident typically and I what you know was when I was young, you have a lot of self-worth and self-belief in yourself to make something happen. Right. So you’re you’re trusting everything that you’re doing is the right decision. You’re not second guessing yourself as much. You’re just running and you’re going in, you’re processing information, and you’re trusting that that decision is the best decision you possibly can make. Period. In the story where if you’re not confident, you tend to second guess yourself a lot, you tend to have, you know, like, oh, man, I should be over here, I should be doing this, I should be doing that. And I think a lot of that just that confidence helps you just trust your gut feelings. And I think that you hear that all the time is like trusting your instincts and instinctual, instincts really. Like that’s important part of a fishing tournament because you just you have to be like, okay. Like, one of my favorite things in the tournament, in any tournament is just to go, like, I’ll run and I’ll shut down and I’ll have like a game plan, but I’ll be like, man, that that’s not working in the first hour and be like, go run off and just fish something completely different just because I can like and it’s fun to, like, challenge yourself to figure it out. Like, okay, boom, that looks right. That’s right. You get a bite and you go with that. You’re like, or you just fall back and assume like, well, that didn’t work. Let’s keep, you know, going on the long list of things I need to do. So I, comments is an important part of it, though. It definitely is. And it helps you. It does help. It helps to be confident, but it definitely it takes it’s a fine line and you have to be successful to keep it, because you can show up as confident you can be the most confident person ever. But if the success doesn’t eventually happen, the confidence will get crushed. So they’re just like they have to feed off each other. I would agree I would agree, but I think there’s some people in this sport that I look at and I’m like, I don’t know how you’re so confident. Like there’s some perceived scenarios of like, I mean, they just never stopped by their confidence. This is like, am I okay? Did you feel the need to hide confidence in this sport? The sport? I’ll let you answer it and I’ll give you my thoughts. No, I, I maybe a little bit, because you do have to be very careful. Like, I mean, I think early on I probably showed my hand too much right. Sometimes. So like, which would be perceived as cockiness. Especially as a younger angler coming into the sport, you tend to day in and day out. The anglers that are very confident and very outspoken are the anglers that typically, they’re not as guarded and quiet and they’re just sort of they give enough ammunition to the older guard to pick and choose some things that maybe they don’t like. Right. So you have to do you do you have to be careful to be humble and realize that you’re coming into something that’s, that’s that, you know, you’re you should be grateful to be there, of course. But also, you don’t want to step on their toes, your peers. And I think there’s times in my career that I did that. And so I had to deal. I had to learn that what you could and you couldn’t say and how you had to be, respectful in the right and the right way to do that. Right. It’s not bowing down to your peers, but it’s just and, you know, the veteran of the sport. But it’s it’s also just taking the time and understanding, hey, they were here before you and taking that and taking note and understanding like, hey, so it’s great. It’s a fine line to be in that, that that arrogance can, can come across and people can started to jump on that. Today’s high tech fishing world can be a real pain in the neck, especially if you’re running the wrong mount. Be down outdoors. They bring the graph to you, and they support this podcast and care enough about you to make this short ad read. Check out be done outdoors. Now back to the show. Do you think this sport is tougher in that regard than some others? You know, baseball, football, stick and ball for sports. It feels like you want the rookie to be like, I’m here to win championships. Yes, I think it also and I wonder because like our sport’s the closest to golf, right. Like when you think about it. Right. Individual sport I’m sure a little bit of that goes on in golf as well. Like when you have this rookie that comes out just absolutely killing it. You just don’t hear about it, right? You don’t hear about it as much. I’m sure I mean, in, in in any other sport like baseball, basketball, football, you’re on a team. So you want the rookie to absolutely crush it if you’re on his team, right? Like heck yeah. Let’s do that. I mean, of course, maybe then other than maybe the, the star point guard, that’s that guy’s going to lose his job because of this star rookie. That’s coming up, and he’s going to be gone in three years. You know, other than that guy. Right. So I think that that’s the tough part about it is because it is individual. Like everybody’s out there for their own interests. And when they see something like that, I think it’s just different. Right? It’s just a little bit different. And I think that that’s why there is a little bit of like I mean, I don’t know, not everybody. It seems like if you’re very if you can play it tight to the vest as a younger angler and be super humble and, and you can be confident inside. But like if you don’t, if you don’t go out and set like, you know, you’re not very crazy outgoing and all these things and you just say all this, you know, random stuff, you’re going to be in a better position than from your peers perspective, right? From the veteran’s perspective on you than if you were just blurt important things out. Yeah, it if you look at your beginning to your career, I mean, you were the youngest to win the forest with cop like you, but you were an anomaly at your time. I mean, you were still the young angler was still an anomaly. Like it was an especially a young angler having success there was young anglers that came and had some success. But but to win championships to to do some of the things that you did early in your career, you were an anomaly. That’s not the case today. Youth victories is not, an anomaly. Hey, where do you think? Why do you think we’re seeing what’s happening in the sport with youth anglers? And why is it happening now, in your opinion? I think the biggest thing is you hear, like, the learning curve is so much quicker. And I remember hearing that when I was young, like, oh, man, learning curve so much easier in this day and age because back in the day, you used to just had to wait for a Bassmaster magazine or, you know, a fishing magazine or a seminar to go to the boat show and learn something about it. And now, like, I think the biggest thing, there’s three things, of course, high school and college fishing, which I was the front end of that. I fished the Bassmaster Junior Bassmaster Championship down in white on on Norman when they had the classic like talk one on Wiley, when I was 13 or 14 years old. So I was like, that was the junior. It wasn’t high school quite then. It was just sort of junior program. Right. And then from there, like it turned into a high school fishing and college fishing then all there’s just money in college fishing, and then all this stuff’s going down and all these anglers. I think there’s a combination of college fishing. It’s getting to where it’s at. And then you have all these college teams running around fishing these big tournaments on big bodies of water and understanding and dissecting these bodies of water together. Right. So like, oh, man, they’re up here, they’re doing this or this is what’s going on. People sharing and learning off and feeding off each other. That was huge. And I think that’s probably one of the biggest things. And then you sort of come in with live coverage of the sport and YouTube back in the day. I always give Kevin so much crap because I’m like, Kevin, you literally had a hemorrhaging on the Tennessee River for ten years, ten years, and you had it to where you could literally put in your back pocket, catch a couple on a six XD and then tell me and talk about that for your show and win the tournament. That’s non-existent. You literally, if you catch a bass on a bait that sneaky anymore on live which every day like, yeah, you know if you’re catching them most of the time you have a camera in your boat, it’s done with, it’s over. Like if every college kid has those on order and is literally playing with them on their local body of water right now, and it happens in a drop of a hat. And so you just like it’s different in this day and age. Like you can’t like your edges only last for so long because everybody sees and they, they, a lot of time they try to get out there and figure out whatever you might have figured out or whatever somebody else had figured out, and you sort of got on it. So it’s just it’s just different in this day and age. I think those younger anglers pick that stuff up so much quicker, because now it’s not everything’s a lot, a little bit. Oh, there’s a lot there’s not as many secrets anymore. I used to have like things in the back pocket of like understanding locations and why they get on places better than others, like Tennessee River offshore bass fishing, for instance, like they used to be places that they group up at. No, I half them. There wouldn’t be boats on because they didn’t understand what they were getting on right now. Oh, now those places are community holes. That was just five years ago. So you just gotta figure out and mappings gotten better. So there’s all these things that sort of played into it. But I think a lot of that then you forced you adding forward facing sonar as well. That is a big part of it because when you add forward in and you add, these younger anglers that are working their butts off and they’re trying to figure out the sport. Now, you add all this information and all the extra all the time on the water, and then you now you learn like four years ago, catching frogs offshore was crazy. Right now it’s like, oh, it’s just you catch a frog after, you know, in ten feet of water, which just blows your mind that bass do that for spawners or all these things that now, three years ago was not even nobody even talked about it. Now it’s just the norm. So it’s changed so fast. And I think that that’s and roundabout way. I mean, all of those factors played into why the youth is so good this day and age. So and I don’t know if this can be honestly answered, but I’m going to ask you, is it was it easier to break in the sport in your time or today? It I think, I don’t know, because I think the talent level is harder today than it was when I started. Right. But but it’s different because it’s not the same. It’s not always the same. It’s always changing. I, it was a little bit different because I’ll give you this. The sport changed in a lot of ways with social media and where everything used to be. You work your way up through the ranks and you get to the top level one. If you catch them, the organization is going to be promoting you, the organizations giving you the the time and the spotlight. And now all of a sudden, you become a household name in a brand, right? That was the the way it was for 20 years, from probably the 90s through the 2000, probably 2000 and even teens, 12, 13, 14 time frame you when, you know, all of a sudden you’re one of the main guys, you win a couple tournaments, you’re always in the top ten, you have cameras in your bag, people are watching nonstop. You build this brand, and now all of a sudden partners come to you because, hey, look, we have this guy who does a great job on camera. Bada bing, bada boom. There you go. You have a sponsorship. Now it’s a little bit different because now you you have to your, your job is part angler, part time social influencer. And building this brand and this partnership, this platform. And if you don’t have that, you can’t live just on, just on the the side of like winning. You can, but you can’t make it to the true level that a lot of people want to get to without having a little bit of both. Right? Yeah. And so it’s a little bit different world. So I’m saying it’s if you can I think it’s hard on both sides no matter what. But I think it’s it’s harder I’ll say this. It’s harder to make it this day and age with very little money. Like, I don’t think I could have made it, Jacob either. In the past, when I was growing up, just borrowing boats and get on the trail and fishing baffles and just sleeping in my truck, I don’t think I could make it in this day and age. In the tournament bass fishing world is what I’m saying. Like, I think it’s it’s tough because you’re sort of if you don’t have the resources in some ways you’re a little bit you’re more limited now than than it was back in the day. How so? Like, I mean, I hear that all the time, but I’m like, so, so boats have got more expensive trucks that got more expensive, like, is that is it is it just that simple? No. I mean, I think it’s a combination of like again, like if you didn’t go to college and you didn’t have your school paying for your travel, you’re way behind instantly right off the rip, right? You’re you’re way behind. Then all of a sudden, if you chose like if you go from high school straight into tournament fishing and then you have so you say you go to fish Toyotas and bass opens. Right? I’ll just say that and you try that for two years. You can distinguish all your funds and all your your free time and you’re done. So where the college side of it gives those anglers an opportunity to do it and you have a better group of English now I mean, to where I also think when you have I don’t I’m not saying you can’t make it at all, but it’s harder now because I don’t think I think you have to have a complete understanding. Like you can make it off of just sheer instinctual talent. I felt like in the past, I think DC and I’ve talked about this a lot or a decent amount, and I don’t know if it would be as, I don’t know if we could have made it in this day and age, I mean, with what we had. Right? You just sort of trying to figure it out. And if all the stars aligned, you can make it happen. But it was just it’s a lot tougher now because the talent pool and the consistency of anglers, they just consistently the way they catch them, it’s just different. Right. And I think that that sort of coupled with having lithium batteries and having better like all that stuff and, you know, better equipment and having better, Ford and you’d be able to use it for a period or whatever. I think it’s tougher to do all of those things and figure that out with limited funds. And that’s what I was saying. It’s a little bit more difficult now than it was now. I think things are sort of pulling it back now a little bit. But, I think just sort of figuring out how it does seem to be. It does. It would be tough. It’d be a tough scenario. Yeah. It’s it’s weird because I’ve spent a lot of time looking at it because you look at it’s harder for a young angler to stand out. Like when you did what you did, you stood out right away because you were an anomaly. Well, now, if you’re 20 years old and you in a big tournament, people are like, yeah, another 20 year old, like you could literally catch him as old school as you want. And the world is not going to perceive that. That’s how you are. You know what I mean? It just it is I, I don’t I always find those things are unfair. Like, I know you’re a sports fan of a bunch of different sports and that and I am as well. But when you hear people say, compare this quarterback to this quarterback, or compare Michael Jordan to LeBron and your time, is your time like either a Would Michael Jordan be great in today’s NBA? Many people think he he’d be I mean I think the answer is yes to yeah he be good. Yeah yeah be great. But we’ll never know. We’ll never know because he you know would LeBron have done what he did in Jordan I mean it’s just it is what it is. Speaking of other sports you’ve won four out of the last five angler of the year titles right. Is that my stats correct. Yeah. Yeah. Are you are you freaking dynasty bro? I don’t know about that. Yeah, I know this is one of those moments when you’re hiding confidence. I believe. Yeah. I just leave that alone. I just. I’ll pass. Pass. Okay. No, I know, I know, I feel like, you know, I mean, it’s obviously been a crazy run, right? You know, it’s been crazy. I, I look at my wife every time, and I’m like, like, when is it going to end? Meaning, like, you just don’t know. Like it’s like you just don’t know when those there’s every great time in your life, a period of time sort of has it has an ending. Right. And you’re going to be like, all right, you transition to something else. And so it’s like, wait, it is it for real? Like you’re like you look at it, you’re like, oh my gosh. Like for like I don’t even think about it. But you know, it does. It does put a lot used a lot of time into that. You put a lot of time into those things to make it work. So I think as long as my wife is and the kids are good with it and I’m able to travel around and still spend time with them, I think you got it. You got to go for it. You got to try to go to number five and you keep pushing yourself. But I don’t know. I think there’s you trying to challenge yourself every year. Of course I always want to win angler the year. But like, you try to sort of set your parameters of what you want to win and what you want to focus on, and it’s a lot easier to focus on trying to win one single tournament than it is to try to focus on trying to win a full year and, you know, angler of the year. It’s a lot more time consuming. So I even asked my wife last year, I’m like, hey, look, I asked her because she knows the dedication that goes into it. I’m like, hey, do you watch like three tournaments in which, you know, really focus on angler of the year? And typically I don’t until later on in the year, like probably, you know, probably for for a tournament fit tournament, when you start to get the middle of the season, you’re like, it’s looking like like we can make it happen. I was like, do you think we should try to push to win? You know, again, like and she knows the commitment levels of like what I mean like I mean like go in prepare for a week on, you know, Saint Laurent River and miss a week of vacation with the family and stuff like that. And she’s like, yeah, you got to win. I’m like, all right. So like, it’s not that easy, but it’s it’s a, it’s a team effort of figuring out of like, do you really want to lose that time? Right. Do you is it worth it. Is it not like figuring that out? So long story short has been fine. But, I definitely I’m looking forward to the next season and next year, which is going to be here in the next, whatever year or next month or so. But it takes a lot into it all. All right. I’ll ask you that question. In the different tents. Your Colts I mean they they got Indiana Jones things is things are looking pretty special there. Let’s say they win four out of the next five Super Bowls. Would they be a dynasty? Yes, they would be. They would they would be. I ha. How do you feel about your Colts? I’m worried about it. I’m worried about him, actually, I am, I like, I think there’s a little I’m a little bit worried about them. I think they’re okay. I think they have to have some things like go right and, like losing to Mahomes. That whole scenario, like, you can’t like, I mean, the Chiefs are tough. I know, I know, I know they’re always got the the will to win. But you got it. You got to close some games out. So they got to have things go the right way. I don’t know. There’s I don’t know if they have that that killer instinct. You know, there’s certain teams that you sort of see and it’s all about the New York, the Giants, like back in the day, like where they had towards it. They weren’t the best team. And then all of a sudden they got their stuff together and then all of a sudden they get they’d be like 500 to make the playoffs and then they’d win the Super Bowl like, and they, they peaked at the right time. I’m a little bit worried that the Colts are peaking. They peaked at the wrong time and it could hurt them. Now if they can get their stuff together and focus, I think you lose that confidence right as well, like you have. If they had a tough start to the year and they start winning a whole bunch, you start winning towards the final end of the season. You build your confidence up and you’re going into the playoffs like heck yeah. We’ll see. I don’t know. I mean, how how are you feeling about your Chiefs, before this year’s over? I mean, here’s what I’m feeling. It doesn’t take long to get spoiled, like, I’ll tell you that, because when they won their first Super Bowl, like in the modern era, I was like, they won one. While I’m like, dude, they suck forever. And then when Saint Patrick came along and, you know, it’s just been wonderful, but but it’s amazing how quick you get spoiled because already you’re like, are you? There’s I mean, people are saying fire in the red people. It’s nuts what? People say it like sports crazy. It’s it makes me feel sane for some of the stuff you read about our sport, because maybe it just means our sports kind of making it, because now we’re talked about just like other sports, you know? But, I, I feel like if they get in the playoffs, anything can happen because they are the Chiefs and he has pedigree homes, but they got a lot of pieces that are they got a lot of injuries. They got a lot of pieces that are missing. I think you’re seeing the the the cost of a victory in a professional sport like in the NFL when you when they come and rape and pillage your team, whether it’s your coaches and players and people get paid and and you’re seeing kind of if they don’t do anything this year. What I’m saying is, I think I’m okay with that because it’s so, well, number one, you have to be okay. Because what it’s what what they’ve lived. But I also feel like it’s kind of a I mean, they’ve had a low draft pick for a very long time, you know. Yeah, you got to and I and I look at other dynasties like the Patriots and stuff like that and I, I would say, you know, chiefs got a long way to go to be the Patriots. But but they’re definitely have the opportunity to do that. Absolutely. There’s lulls. There’s peaks and valleys I think that’s they’ve also played like 80 extra weeks football in the last six years than any team like that all takes. It’s I don’t know but I like it better when they win. That’s what I will tell you so much better. It’s it’s I hear from more people now though. It’s weird. Like when they were winning, like, you know, after a win, my phone would be so quiet. And now my phone is very busy on a Sunday afternoon. It’s a little late. I people people don’t like the winners. They just want to. They don’t want to. They don’t want to enjoy that I know. Yeah, yeah, it’s tough. I feel like we’ll see. We’ll see how it, we’ll see I, I they got that. Are they still like right there on the playoff edge. Yeah. They make it out. Yeah. They get they got a they got a win out basically. Now to to and and they still might not get in there. But that it can happen. They’ve got a I mean it’s not going to be easy. I don’t think any of their games are easy this year. But know their lines very depleted. I’m very concerned about that. But, like, I mean, nobody wants to listen. It’s kind of like you, Jacob. Like, if you have a tough season next year, nobody’s going to listen to you be like, it ain’t easy being Jake. No. You know, like, cry me a river, please. Wow, wow. Yeah, I agree, I, I was, I was definitely like a closet Colts fan for about four years. They’re just like. Anthony Richardson come on man. Like really like you. He is moments of greatness. Like. Yeah. Where he looked like he was. But now that wasn’t a huge fan of Anthony Richardson in Florida. So like, it wasn’t like he too impressed me there that my show was like. And I love college football too. Like I love college football. I watch it all the time. Like I love it. And so I wasn’t really super impressed with that. And then I saw the whole I mean, I was actually really surprised. I mean, Danny Dimes, I mean, doing this thing, which I was really it’s crazy. I mean, obviously have a great team with Jonathan Taylor and all that, but if they can just get that, killer instinct, I think that’s obviously which I think it’s a learn trait. I don’t know if it’s a learned trait because I you would you say that’s a learn trait like a killer instinct? Do you think it just instinctual, or do you think a team sort of learns that like from like, do you think the Chiefs always had that or just sort of you develop it with your group? You know, I’m saying because, like, it’s a group, it’s like a I think you develop it, I and I do too. I think what the Chiefs have is what any team with a great quarterback has. I think that people way underestimate the value of every guy in that room, looking over and looking at that guy and being like, we’re good. And I think that that’s what the Patriots had for years. Yeah, everybody in that room looked over and never thought, man, I wish I had their quarterback. Like they, they they knew they had the guy. And that comes through like if if the Colts go on a run at the tail end of the season and they win those type of games, that team will believe we got the guy. Dream of destiny. You know Jim Irsay passed away. We’re going to win. You know like there’s so much has to happen though. Those are the things that have to happen. Like if you have that and you feel that that it does the energy you feed off the quarterback and you feed off the defense and you feed off everybody. And if you have that vibe, like even with the Giants scenario with against the Patriots right back in the day like you know they you believe and it’s like almost you believe. And if you believe that you have a better chance of winning. But but in the Giants situation I believe it comes from two areas. It comes from saying we got the guy or the other part of it that it comes from is nobody thinks we can do this. They’re all again and that’s the last two weeks of media of people saying, you can’t do it. You can’t do it. Like it’s not a question of who’s going to win, it’s how much they’re going to win. By I mean, they were playing an undefeated team. Right. And have you I mean, you have dealt with some hate through your career has hurt number one. Why do you think that’s happened? I think a lot of it just comes again. I think there’s a, you know, several things that in your early on in your career, you make stupid decisions or you think that ultimately, like, I can remember being on the water for that Bass Fest event, fishing a $10,000 tournament? I could talk you, like, got so much hate for that, right? I was like, young. I’m like, now, in this day and age, in my 30 years old. Am I ever do that now? Because I don’t want to be out there, you know, while another professional tournament trail is fishing their tournament to negatively impact those people. Right. But there’s things like that that I would have taken back, that you think back and you’re like, I probably shouldn’t have done that. And if you give, I think even from the standpoint of like there is a time where I could just like that, hey, or the negativity, I would be like, all right, you know, there be you have little you little game. I enjoy a little bit of, rivalry if you will, from and I and I’ve always play little game I like not games but like things of like that would fire me up, right. And motivate me. And if the more that I got poked, the harder that I would work. And so I would make little scenarios where it’s like, I if I cut somebody off and they were pissed off about it. I mean, I shouldn’t have done that. Like, I remember this, Lucas. I cut him off at the same launcher, which it didn’t. It wasn’t like something that we were it was just sort of like, hey, we had like 20 minutes, but I did it. And I’m like, yeah, I probably should have done that. And I was like, dang! We were like, now we’re, we’re friends. And and I would like to call his friends anyway. But like, it is like we talk about that, you know, it’s funny, but it was like for years Lucas and I did not, couldn’t stand each other, you know, it was like, I can’t, you know, but it’s just I do think early on in my career, I would make decisions that you just you could have eased up a little bit, right? You could have thought about it a little bit, you know, a little bit more. And I and I think that that tends when you do that several times in a few times. And you make especially on the veteran anglers, they have such a control of of what people believe and what they think. You become sort, you know, oh, this person, that’s why I did this or did that, right. So I think that’s yeah. Do you believe that part of your career has been fueled by that? Hey, 100%, how about that 100%? Like I, I always tell I always tell everybody all the time. I say, listen, listen, I this won one point in time that I will tell you this. Stop poking the bear. Just leave me alone because I, I know in my eye I will outwork you. I will, and I will beat you consistently. If you continue to poke me. Now that was back in the day. This is the mindset back in the day, right? Still, there’s a little bit of that in me. But now onto that level. It’s not like I don’t really it doesn’t matter to me as much anymore. Like I used to be, so much more intertwined to like, oh my gosh, you know, this or that or, you know, like so-and-so said this, I’m going to, you know, you focus all your energy on trying to win off of that. Now it’s a little bit you get you get your motivation off of different things. But that did definitely motivate the heck out of me back in the day. And I think that I definitely focused a lot of my energy on utilizing that as fuel, which benefited me more than anything. Yeah, Afco not only makes incredible outdoor clothing, but they care about anglers. With their 10% pledge, Afco and the Shed family donate at least 10% of the company’s profits to conservation and making fishing better. Now back to the shelf at the net. I don’t know if this is an urban myth or not, and I kind of hope it’s not an urban myth that it’s real. Do you have, like, in your house? Do you have haters comments printed out on something? My wife does. Yeah, that’s even better. That is even better. You have it. She has coffee cups. In the morning, she’ll pop up and there’ll be a coffee. I hate her comments in the day, but coffee cup? There’s. Yeah, there’s coffee cups with hater comments on them which she knows that it she knows it motivates me of course like okay. But I mean she’s she’s hilarious like that. She made a couple of shirts like, she made a couple, there was a guy that made, comment, like, who do you think’s gonna win this tournament? And then the guy’s like anyone but Wheeler, and she puts that on a coffee mug. But it sure made it. Sure. Anyone but we are just funny stuff. She’s hilarious, so I do. I do have a few. I think that’s a healthy way of dealing with thing. Like, to be honest. I mean, it’s a joke, it’s a whatever. But but it’s because I think that everybody says, that stuff doesn’t bother me. And I think it doesn’t to a certain extent, but it does to a certain extent to everybody, you know what I mean? Like, that’s when you were that 16 year old kid dreaming of fishing. That wasn’t part of it. You didn’t think that, hey, guess what I’ll do well here. No, but I’m going to have to deal with this now. Do you want to do isn’t even in the equation I. I definitely agree with that. But you just. But in that scenario, it’s like, look, you have to realize in life that you’re not like there’s people that aren’t a fan of me and they’re not a fan of Kevin, they’re not a fan of skeet. And I can’t like, that’s okay. That’s okay. It’s not you’re not here to be like, you’re not everybody’s cup of tea. Right. And that’s okay. Like and that’s and you just have to realize in life like I think when you’re younger you want everybody to like you in a way. Right? Of course. And I think that’s important even to this point. Like in your life, you tend to go down through there and you go through YouTube or something and you have a post, a video, and there’s one negative comment and you’re like, wait, what happened? Like you’re not looking at all. You did great. Real appreciate you did awesome. We’re really proud of you know, the one thing that grabs your attention is the negativity and some that’s trying to drag you down. So I think it’s easy to to get caught up with that 1% or 2% or less than or 5% and, and lock in on something and and it just it can negatively impact you as well. So it definitely like even like on YouTube, I’ve noticed that like back in the day I used to do that. I’m like, if I’m going to comment on a negative comment, I’m going to comment on every single positive come before I comment on a negative comment. It’s just not going to, you know, you just it’s not the way to do it. Yeah. And if we live in a weird world where there’s just that’s how some people get attention. Like, I just, I don’t think that’s fishing. I think that’s everything. Like, it doesn’t matter what business you look up, guess what somebody’s going to say. It is the worst thing. I don’t. I always laugh every year at the Super Bowl halftime show. It doesn’t really matter who the performer is. You could write the reviews for 50% of the world is going to say, that is the greatest performance ever in Super Bowl history, and 50% of the world are going to be like, I’m not watching the NFL anymore because of that halftime show. Like it’s more like it’s it’s it’s wild. It’s you look at on a larger scale, you realize that. I think it just we’re in our own world and the fishing and the fishing industry again a little bit more. And so you take it a little bit more personally where you got to just sort of be like, whatever. Yeah, yeah. It and it, and it feels like there isn’t a separation yet. Like in other sports, you have friends who play pro sports. I’ve buddies who have played pro sports. And they don’t listen to sports radio. They don’t listen to it. But in our world, it’s weird where it’s like, no, like I’ve had people say bad things about me on stuff and then ask me to quote on the bad things they said about me, like, there’s no. So it’s strange, it’s strange, it is weird, it is weird. I do agree with you. Yeah, it is different. Like because they don’t, they don’t worry about that stuff. They’re not sitting there like it is a different world and a national level sport. And that level of like basketball, football, it just is, is different. And you can’t you don’t have the time in the day. So it’s like, all right. And you know, you’re going to have somebody hating on that. Like, you know, and I think I do to be fair, I think it is still a issue though for a lot of people, like in even larger sports, like we’ll get like Justin Fields and the Jets like that. He’s come out to speed like speak on how hard mentally it’s been on him. Like, I don’t think anyone is safe from it, but yeah, you know what I’m saying? I think there’s always a mental side of it that you have to sort of figure it out for yourself. And it’s so easy to hear the the negativity and the hatred and people that are trying to pull you down and it and it’s it it is every it is in every sport, whether you decide to listen to it and to focus on it is up to you. Now there’s certain people like so like, I don’t I don’t think anybody’s safe from that. No, no it’s, it’s a, it’s a really I, I’m very concerned about the future and not just fishing but just kids growing up like. Yeah, you want to I mean, I think every kid growing up had insecurities and whatever, but now they’re like publicized and how many likes you get and how many, it’s just, it’s pretty gross. But, I think that I think that’s also a task on people like yourself. People, anybody that has any kind of audience to keep it out of the gutter, because that’s that’s the obvious place that everybody wants to go. I mean, it’s the easiest way to get traffic in anything. Easily. You just do a video of, like what my real thoughts, thoughts are on forward facing. So my real thoughts on on the youth taking over fishing. Like any clickbaity scenario like that, you go into it and you’re like and you talk negatively, you’re going to get clicks in that scenario and it but if you go like my top five favorite moments of the year, you’re like, okay, well I ask that one. You know what it is? It’s it’s just how it is, you know? And it it’s human nature to an extent. Yeah. Well, it’s probably my wife. She’s, she’s she’s probably on that, I don’t know, she’s watching all the cars, you know, the, the stuff too. But I mean, I just think that. Yeah, it’s, it is, it’s, it’s flawed in a way obviously this like and I and it’s everywhere though to be fair it’s like you watch it’s everywhere on you, you know, even YouTube or Facebook and Instagram, if you go and you look at something that’s like Lane Kiffin, you know, response to leaving. Oh Mr. LSU you know shut eye boom. It’s like all over the place. But it’s like it’s you know you got to even even I’ve seen it now like where I have like on the news like on news articles and stuff. So I have like Apple Plus or Apple whatever, News Plus or whatever on my phone. And I’m not in there like Clickbaity news titles. You won’t believe who died today in this scenario. 74 year old famous this and that. Everything’s clickbait. Yeah. To get you to click on it. It’s very interesting. I don’t think I, I don’t feel like it’s always been that way, but it’s even trending in that way on the news articles and things and, and you know, it’s like, why don’t you just say like, it’s just a maybe it’s just a way that our minds are trained now to be interested in, you have to intrigue. There is a hook, I get it, but it’s different. Yeah, it’s it’s everything. Every storm has a name. Every. You know what I mean? Like we had bad snowstorms growing up. We still have bad snowstorms at the time, but now they’re polar vortexes and all sorts of different strange things that they they get called. But it’s the world is clickbait, really. It’s, And I guess it probably happened from, you know, when everybody got a voice like the, you know, like things like Twitter, like mainstream news and different. I mean, but we I think that’s been pretty proof that it’s probably not legit. A lot of situations do. But they there was journalists at one time that would chase down a story. And then it became about speed. You know, the first person who can report on it is the truth. And it’s it’s just it’s wild. It’s it’s definitely evolved. Yeah. What do you think the greatest moment of your career is? Personally. I think that’s a tough one. I thought about, like, I thought about it, like, obviously, I think the fortunate Cup still like the highlight. I mean, the the All American. I’ve always said that I’m all American is probably the one that if I obviously without that win, I would never be able to fish professionally. So like I always put that is the most important win right. The biggest is just it’s just there’s each win and each like tournament has its own story, you know, which I enjoy just like it’s tough because like the all the reason why I love the Forest World Cup. Okay. I’m going to tell you I’m going to tell you that the reason why it’s not because it was half million dollars and it’s not because there was a championship was because of what happened prior to that. And so the year it was, 2012, my goal was to try to win rookie of the year. I was competing against Clint Davis and I were competing for rookie of the year. We’re on champagne the last term of the year, and I’m going to run a tie. So I’m running Ticonderoga. So I’m run down there on day one I catch a decent bag. I had a really good practice, had a decent bag on day one, but not great. And I, I remember getting a text the night before and it was 345 and I thought, I’m a -345. Okay, it’s fine. I’ll be back them to sort of. I even posted on social media that night. 345 I’m doing 345. Right. I come back in and I get there close to the ramp, and I got like 15 minutes or so. So I stopped by fish for five minutes, and I run back in 5 minutes or 10 minutes early. It was 330 I was doing I was doing it 330. So I was five minutes late. I got a 5 pound penalty and like 16 pounds. I ended up like having 11 pounds to 11 pounds on Champlain even back then was no bueno. It was not the deal. And so I automatically look at it. I’m like, there’s just I mean, to catch 20 pounds of Champlain, especially back then, was like anomaly, like 18, 19 giant bags. Right? So I remember getting off the water, just being heartbroken. Man. I just felt like I could just it didn’t happen. Like I messed it up. I had the opportunity and Quinn had 16 pounds two. So I’d have been like right there, neck and neck going into the final day. So I’m just like, man, this is gosh dang it. And I get to the ramp the next morning and everybody’s like, what’s up Wheeler? You got your watch this time. What’s up man. Like you’re already feeling like crap you know. And I’m like, I was really down in the dumps, you know, because I was in the top ten in points at that point in time. And I’m like, man, I had a great year. Everything’s going really good. And, you know, to have everybody sort of, you know, people were just where I remember, you know, few people that I made sure to get out there and, and kick you while you’re down. And I’m like it felt you know, as a rookie you take those really personally, right? You’re 21 years old. You’re out there and they’re just now oh come on man. And anyway next tournaments of course would cut. So I focused. This is really when I started to like when things go bad on the water, I focus my attention to the next tournament. Like I focus all my energy there. So I the the Fortunate Cup is the next tournament. I go take my buddy’s jet boat from Indiana and I’m like, I’m gonna run up the river. Everyone’s like, oh, spot a basket. Going to win the tournament, all this stuff. So I run up the river in a jet boat and practice and pre practice like a month earlier. And I go up there and I catch a whole bunch of spotter by and large back at home. It’s a nice ones. And like that’s what I grew up doing. Fish in the backs of rivers and way up the rivers and creeks and stuff. So like I go end up doing exactly what I want to do. I put my time in, go out there and I end up winning the tournament. The after having the worst experience in my professional career to that point. And the biggest, the biggest, I mean, I would say like, you know, it just was it was a tough time to go into having one of the biggest highs in my career and winning the force would cap. And I think that that was just sort of like it taught me so much more about myself. It taught me a ton about, not dwelling on the negativity and focusing on something positive in life. And I think that that’s why it’s such an important win to me, because it I sort of took that and continue to push myself every tournament that I typically have a tough tournament, I typically have a pretty good tournament, the following one, because I’m just focusing all my energy. I just sort of like scrap it and I’ll learn from it. But I think that’s where I learned that. That’s where it sort of started at. So it feels like, know I’ve said this to you before personally, when we’ve talked like, I feel like that noise has motivated you so much in your life, like in whether it’s I mean, you’re literally now drinking hate for breakfast, things like stopping cups. But but, but, but the fact that you remember people making cracks about the watch and stuff like that. And I again, I think it’s weird in this sport we don’t talk about it, but that’s that’s the story. Like watch College GameDay, every single story is about so-and-so that overcame this and now they’re here. So and so. Somebody said, you can’t do it. And now they’re here. I mean, that okay, I, I agree, I agree. I think that those stories, the story behind the story is more important, right? Yeah, I agree, but I think there’s, there’s several people that are like that. You motivate yourself off of not having good tournaments. It’s not even I mean, I can remember several tournaments that I’ve had that happened like Lake Murray, one of my worst tournaments in the last ten years. Like Murray, I had a horrible tournament. I ended up like 75th out of 80 guys. And I’m like, I’m I didn’t talk to. I didn’t talk to anybody for like two weeks. I’m like, so, you know, but you just motivate yourself. I think you have to you have to like, those are the stories that make it all. It makes it real. It makes it. It makes it what it is. It makes it the sport. It is because you can channel, channel your energy and focus your and and create something and, and really achieve your goal. But like and not focus on the negativity. Like I always feel like I’m all cup, cup, half full kind of person. And I think that that’s something that you have a negative experience, you use that whether it’s somebody talking smack about you or whatever, and then you push. It pushes you to be better. So some of it you got to listen to. But then yeah, I, I do agree with you. Yeah. It’s so if that’s the truth, look out for today’s generation of young anglers because they’ve dealt with some stuff. Dude, they got, their coffee cups will be overrun. He’s going to be nine. I mean, I, I it’s crazy. I mean, I know it I’ve, you know, I’ve, I’ve been able to watch it from afar, you know, a little bit more now and I get it, I get to see it. And I’m like, gosh, man, I’m just fine to that group of anglers, to those young anglers. I think the biggest thing that. I it’s, it’s you just can’t give those you as a young angler, you can’t give those a group of people any ammunition. And you have to focus. You got to do your job, you gotta catch them. You got to do all those things. But just stay away from giving any ammunition like, just don’t. Their gunnery is, is is forward. Like, don’t give them any more ammo and you can and you’ll be fine. And I think that’s the biggest piece of advice that I can. And it’s not, you know, but who cares if it’s the way you talk or you’re, you know, but just try to stay away from anything that could give them that kind of the deal. You know? And I think that that’s it’s important because it can be spun into so many different ways, and you’re not in control of the narrative. As a young angler. You’re just not you don’t have the, you don’t have the brand. You don’t have, you don’t have the ear of the industry like the your peers. You’re the veterans of the sport do. And so you better be careful. And that’s something that I feel like is if I would have known way earlier, I wish somebody would have told me that, like, just don’t don’t do it. Don’t give them anything that they can spin into something. I think it would definitely would. That’s probably the biggest piece of advice. But in today’s world, I think that you don’t have I mean, dude, you look at and one of the coolest things that’s happened in the last year, in my opinion, and I had him on the show and talked about it, and I’ve talked about it as many times as possible. When DC won the Cup and then took his opportunity to talk about what was happening with East and Father Gil to the other, if it it’s that time of year where everyone’s going to put together greatest moments in bass fishing for the season. That’s right there, if you ask me. There’s some amazing moments that happen, but that will not make any lists. But it should be on so many lists. But if you look at Easton, he never gave him nothing like, dude, you put him in. That’s a good point. In any other sport, any other sport like that was an unfortunate scenario of what? Like where the sport like. Yeah. You know, that was an unfortunate scenario of where the sport was at and how it was in conflict. Right. That wasn’t east and that was not people I, I think Easton probably knows that too is it wasn’t in direct correlation to Easton. It just was the fact of where things are at. And it’s divided right? I think that’s just the thing. I think right now it’s just the tough part about it is like, yeah, I do understand what you’re saying. He did sort of in, in, in DC says like it’s not anybody’s fault to go out there and learn a technology, work your butt off. And, and when utilizing everything they’ve learned, like, who cares? Like what? What? Like, okay, fine. Where do you think that divide ends up? Do you think it always stays divided that way? I don’t I think that things are sort of on the right track. I and I and I, I really like where, you know, we’re starting to get to the point and, where things are sort of trying to even out and trying to figure it out. Right. I think we’re just sort of in uncharted territory, like nobody like like we talked about. Right. I think we’re getting there where you have a little bit of combination of everything. Right? And, as long as you’re diversity in the sport, I think it’s important. Having some old school, you know, tournaments where you’re flipping in a big stick, which it worked, played on both sides. I mean, played obviously at Tinker for you guys. It was really a shallow water battle. It played. Yeah. For us to hear Shane. But I think it’s just the diversity of like even when you have, some of those tournaments, it’s just good to see different things. I mean, as a tournament, as a bass fishing fan, I enjoy. I enjoy watching tournament content, but I don’t want to see the same thing. Right? I want to see ten guys doing the same thing when it means ten guys flipping. I don’t want to see that. I want to see diversity within that. And I think that sort of we’re on the right track. We’re in the steps of the right track. I don’t know if everybody, anybody knows what the perfect scenario is because the tough part is, is this in the sport of fishing over the last, whatever, five, 4 or 5 years, you have this big group of young anglers and all over, you know, that they’ve that have really they’re they’re putting a lot of time in their learning. They understand everything. And you have a group of older anglers as well. And it just it it’s the point where to me, it it’s, it’s just we don’t know where it’s ultimately going to end up. You have young anglers that are very driven by, by electronics, a lot of but not all of them. And then you have these older anglers that are like, well, we need, we want, we want this to be this way because they sort of see a benefit to them. If everything went back to the norm and there was no electronics, then they have the they get the opportunity to win or they feel like they’re gonna have a better chance to win. Right. So then you take this away here that you alienate all these young anglers. If you take it away, and then because you have all these youth and all these high school and college anglers have learned this technology, but time and but then all these, you know, so it’s it’s a very fine line of figuring out how to integrate it because if you take one, one side loses. Right? If you don’t sort of figure out an integration to make it all work. And I think that it’s and you lose and we can’t lose participants in the industry. We need young anglers. We need we need the veterans. We need everybody. So it’s a hard it’s a hard task. But I do think eventually it will it’ll level out. But but we’re getting towards now I think we’re starting to feel it out. And I don’t know if anybody’s got it perfect. Obviously in our format right now it’s really good on, you know, because we have periods and it’s easy with boat officials. I think it’s the best, obviously, but we have we have boat officials. So it’s we’re able to sort of do those things right now. I think that’s the perfect I think that’s the to me, that’s my like my favorite, of course. But the only time I really tell what what really needs to be the best, the best way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it all comes down to one thing and it’s respect. People need to start respecting each victories a victory, and there’s hiring like never in the history of the sport has been like, yeah, but he won actually. That being said, Rick Klein said that like when Flippen came out, there was people that were like, yeah, flipping is not a legit when you’re using techniques, you’re accessing fish that were never accessed before like it. So maybe we’re just seeing that now we have the internet, but but bottom line, they both need each other because guess what. Yeah the veterans don’t succeed without the youth, and youth don’t succeed without the veterans. Like they wouldn’t even be there. So they both need so hopefully we get to a point of respect. I think what’s happened for you guys with your periods worked great. That’s actually what I really wanted to do initially. Like, but and but I’m really saying that kind of excited to see this year with the do you ever it kind of every other tournament is going to be fun to to me because it it’s we’re going to get real answers like that’s what you want. I think you guys got real answers on how effective things were in certain situations. And and ultimately you I don’t want somebody winning an angler of the year pre forward facing sonar. You’d have guys who would do great in angler of the year. I always give Patrick Walters a hard time about it because he would come up north. He would be in the top two for angler the year. Come up north, get his head caved in with smallmouth tournaments and he’d lose angler of the year more. He spent weeks up there figuring out smallmouth and now obviously is very good at that. And I wouldn’t have wanted somebody to win angler of the year without knowing that they’re representing in a certain part of the country, you know, whether it’s North Florida or whatever. And I don’t want to see someone win angler of the year without being able to use all those different, you know what I mean? Like, I want to see you’re successful in every facet of the sport as a fan, but but I’m different because there’s some fans who do not want us. I mean, you’ll hear about it in the comments. Oh, I, I know, I know, I mean, I know, I know, but I bet again, I don’t know if. Yeah, I mean it’s just I will I think we’re on our way and I don’t know if anybody’s got it perfect. I know the MLF, I on the pro circuit side, they’re trying to do that. And we’ll see how that works out where they have three hours. And we’re going to see how that ends up working out. Right. So it’s like I think that’s the I if you can do it. I think that having a set amount of time in a day is the best way to do it, if it is possible, because I think it does limit what it also does from the viewership standpoint, is it gives you an understanding of what you can do with the technology. Right? And then you take it away and then you get to see something different. So like if I’m throwing a free loader and I’m catching him on a free loader out in the middle of the lake, and I do that for two hours now, like I don’t have that. I can’t do that. I’m not efficient enough to do that. This fish are way more pressure than they were in the past, where you just. So now I go to the bank and I’m skipping docks and I’m crank and I’m throwing a jerk bait. I’m just running around. You’re seeing a lot of diverse techniques throughout the whole tournament and what you can do. So I think there’s always the questions like what? What’s the best technique. All right. If I use it if I don’t use it. So you have the the best of both worlds. I but I but I think it’ll eventually get there. I do think that even like the you know one I it will be interesting to me is definitely with one on one off it’ll be it’ll definitely change some and you could change some things but it might not. I mean, the guys who work hard and put their time in, the only thing that I will say this and even where I think it’s gonna be interesting from the batch perspective is this. And I’ve always thought, I thought about this, you guys not having it in practice. You a lot of the young anglers have not dealt with the and to this point dealt with the mental battle of trying to make decisions when you’re down and not having the technology right. So you think you could spin out before, wait until that happens. And you had no like you’re just like, imagine going down a grass line and you throw a jerk bait down this grass line in practice. And you had you had four, but you can’t use in the tournament, which we can. All practice. You thought, you know, you had six of them foliage or bait out. You had a couple, you got caught one. Whatever. So, you know, there’s some fish down that area, right? So you can fish around, mill around, but you ain’t caught one down that grass line without it already not even knowing they’re there. So you to think, okay, there’s one bite. You go down through there, you know, in the tournament and you don’t know they’re following your little crankbait to make an adjustment. Now you leave, you go to the next spot, you don’t catch them. You go here. Now you run around like a mad man and it just changes it. Yeah, it’s it’ll be a mental, I’m it’ll be interesting to hear because that’s how it always has been. And it prior to back in the day. It’s going to be different. Yeah. It’s going to be it’s going to be different. It it. And I think that what people underestimate and you’ve probably dealt with this a little bit in the periods is just not having something that you used to having like the day, the, the adjustment to I mean, I used the example I used to back up my truck all the time. No problem. Okay. My boat, no problem. Well guess what? A year ago my backup camera went out for a month and I was four feet away from it. Every time I tried to back up, like, I’m like, how did I regress so quickly just by, you know what I mean? I agree, I think, but I, I agree it’s wild. Well, you get used to having those things, right? I mean, yeah, like with the text and everything else, it’s like you just you’re just so used to it, I think. I mean, even for me, I. Okay, that was how it was, like it took you like, this year. I, I was out there and I was just lining up on, like, triangulating on my spots, and I’m like, okay, there’s this tree, there’s that house, and the end of that house. That’s the cash, right? And you’re just like, I’m in 17th, you know, of course I still have GBS, but it’s still you’re getting your lineups in the way it sets up. And I just like it was like when I was 18 years old there, you know, again. And I’m like, you know, it’s just how it is. So there’s things that like, there were skills that I had to use this year that I never have had to use as much in the past five. Like I’m like, oh, shoot. Like that’s the I’m like, Scott Lock cask. Like I’m not even looking at my electronics. I’m like, spotlight. I know the cast. I know where it’s at. Like, there they are. Boom. Like it. It’s it’s fun. I mean it does it does make it different though. It does make it a little bit different. Yeah. I used to be very interesting. I’ve run a Yamaha outboard for over 30 years. It has got me home safe each and every time. If you enjoyed this podcast, remember Yamaha supports it and they care enough about you to make this ad read very short. Now back to the show. So what one tournament are you most looking forward to next year? I want to hear you. I want to hear your most what you’re looking forward to on on the schedule. I mean, secretly, I really wanted it to come out where the Saint Lawrence River was. No forward facing sonar because I just think, you know, the entire complexion of the tournament it evening. So we’d see a lot more visuals, like shallower stuff, but that didn’t work out that way. But, I’m probably the first one. Guntersville I think just because I think Guntersville is going to go from a tournament where everybody would have over 100 pounds in the top ten to it could be kind of grimy and it’s, you know, and they’re also going to have to deal with the mental power of two weeks before you guys were there and you guys were able to use it. So there could I mean, there’s there’s and I just think that there’s so much on that, like, I don’t think anybody should be judged from one event. Number one, you know what I mean? Like, I think if somebody doesn’t catch them or somebody does catch them, that fishing, you know what I mean? Like give it time. But I think that it’s going to be cool to just see just a different just see how everyone reacts to it and how like because I believe I mean, if you put and I think you’re no different than me, I think everybody listening is no different. I think if you put down a bunch of if you put down all the names on the list and we sat here and we put a check, but he’ll still catch him, oh, he might struggle, he’ll still catch. And we all have those beliefs. Yeah, but now it’s not going to be beliefs. Now we’re going to we’re going to find out and you’re going to, you’re going to and there’s pressure on everyone, the veterans included. Like it’s not like I agree because all of a sudden they’re like, yeah, I’ve been talking about this. It’s I got to deliver. Yeah. Here you go. Here you go. Ain’t funny. Yeah. The guys who catch him, these guys who catch them. But yeah, it’s going to it’s going to be different. That’s a good one though I am I am looking forward to seeing like how that one plays out and I am looking. But again you can’t you can’t just get your form opinion on one tournament either. Like you said, no. And that’s a diverse fishery as well. So it’s going to be it’s definitely going to be different. But I think that those guys will they’ll be good okay. They’ll they’ll be fine. We find that I think we’re just a few months away from a whole bunch of comments of people saying, why am I watching this? They’re not here. My buddy got 100 pounds. So yeah, like, dude, it’s gonna it. Somebody is going to be pissed off. Well, see I think and that’s why like for me, that’s why I love the fact of having it through one period. Right. Because then you, you’re able to be like, look, it is fishing this good with this specific day or not. Right. Or it’s not. And the best techniques are here. But I also love the fact that, like, you guys are there and a little bit warmer and hopefully, hypothetically speaking, hopefully it’s warmer. Hopefully we don’t know. And hopefully you guys get a whole bunch of rain and the water dirties up and it just makes it to where it’s a shallow water, you know, run around and and fishing. Deal. So like it just it’s such a you we just it’s up in the air. It just depends on how the how how everything plays out. Yeah. And it, it just, it just but that’s what’s fun about it I mean I think you know, maybe we’ll see. It’s just fishing after all. These people get so angry and it’s like, here’s the two things. Here’s my wishes for the new year. Let’s find respect and let’s get rid of division. And what I mean is respect other people’s victories. I think the way you fish or the way you don’t fish, like, I mean, that’s been everybody’s whole life. There’s been people win tournaments fishing in a different way than you enjoy fishing, but you still respect that victory. And and the division thing to me is just like, it’s just because you love fast doesn’t mean you have to hate MLF. Just because you love MLF doesn’t mean you have to hate bass, NPF or whatever. Because guess what? We live in a freaking world. Like dude, look at our lifetime. How quick this crap has come at. It’s like it. You’re not fought like when you first got in this sport, you couldn’t watch what you can watch. Like you can get drunk on fishing footage now, like there is. It’s just it’s everywhere. It’s endless, I agree, so I should be happy. Cup half full stop. Say New year resolution for everybody out there. Be a cup half for God of justice. Look at the positives. We have a lot of positive things. I do agree with you. Yeah that is well hopefully, hopefully that I think again I think it’s just sort of it’ll get there. It’s just like people have to just be patient. Patient. Right. Yeah. I’ve said that kind of about the forward facing sonar thing from the start, because there’s all these arguments about Npfl with no forward facing you guys when, you know, but the period in past when kind of every other and, you know, these guys made the right call. I guess what if all of a sudden one of those calls decides, like, if, if the world you decides all of a sudden, hey, no, forward facing sonar is the way to go, or periods of the way to go or every other is the way to go. Guess what? We’re all probably going to go there is. Yeah, you know what I mean. And and even if you don’t like, one of the things I hated that am I left it in the past and it was just for one year. But when you guys went back to five fish, I’m like, oh, you guys gave something different with every fish, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I agree. No, I agree, I agree, I think I, I agree but that’s like a minor you know, you get you get again. You just you just trying to figure it out and you’re like yeah I agree. No I don’t disagree with you on that. I don’t that’s that, that’s to me like I, I think that it’s just the point now where we’ll find out at all. It’ll all settle out and things will be like, oh, okay. This is a more clear image of what you know needs to happen or what looks right or what works for each turn them or does it? Whatever it is, right? Yeah, I don’t yeah. I don’t feel like it’s like it doesn’t have to be a negative. It’s like okay, well you enjoy. That’s great. That’s awesome. But it’s like we’ll figure it out. And but I think we’re on the right steps of figuring it out now. Yeah I think we’re in those. Right. Yeah. We’re we’re we’re making the right steps in the, in the any in the next year or two, we’ll have a really good understanding of where, where things are going to be at. Yeah. And the truth is some people are never going to be happy. And I think again, that’s the world we live in. Like I think if you look at I told the buddy the other day, the world’s just become so much less supportive. Like in the past, somebody would post, hey, I bought my new Phoenix. I bought my new icon, whatever it is. But today’s world feels the need to be like, are you kidding me? You bought an icon or you bought a phoenix? Let me tell you why I like my this better. Yeah. It’s just it’s it’s people. So what happens? Yeah, it really is. But I mean, really is I mean, yeah, it’s it’s all good. It’s okay. I mean, but, like, the thing is, is how what’s the percentage of that? You just focus on it and roll with it. You just have a habit time. Yeah. Yeah, I’ve kept it too long, but I’ve really enjoyed this conversation. Likewise. Absolutely. And they’ve always I always appreciate and appreciate you get a chance to talk with you. I don’t get to talk with you a whole lot. And I’ll get to see as much as I have in the past. So it’s always good to sort of get it, get a little time to catch up and chat with you, man. Yeah, let’s not make the next one every four years because, I mean, it’s it’s just been too long. Yeah, four years is a little bit much. But we can we can we can focus on it like, hey. Or even if you just call me every once in a while and just want to chat just how. Yeah, yeah, I make a captain’s log. I want wheelers log picks here. I mean, I’ll send you a couple other. Oh, gosh. Yes. And then I’ll send you my own log. I’ll start a log as well, which will be totally different. I’ll just talk about stuff. Dude had such horrible breath on the stage today. That, there is, no. Thanks for doing this. Merry Christmas, happy new year. And, it’s it’s awesome to see what you’re doing, Jacob. Appreciate it. Man. Really do. Thanks a lot, Dave. Awesome. Do I stay warm up there in the North Country? We’ll talk soon. Go, Chiefs I know I watch out. Did I lie to you? No, no, I mean, I, I think that was a very effective way to deal with haters. I mean, they’re going to happen. You may as well deal with them effectively. And I would say the wheelers have figured out a very effective way to do that. I thank Jacob for spend as much time as he did and being as kind of real open and honest as he was. And I hope you enjoyed that conversation, because I know I did, and here’s here’s my sick little wish. I mean, let’s be honest, statistically, Jacob Wheeler has already qualified for the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, so he’s going to be there at some point in the future. And when you are, I mean, they get you to donate him a pile of different things from your career. Let’s make sure at least one of those coffee cups is in the display because, I, I don’t know, I just think it would be a cool thing to have in your display. And, Yeah. That’s it. That’s all. Hope you guys have enjoyed this show. I want to remind you, everybody is fighting a battle just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. So call your friends, say hello to them. Be kind. Make the world a better place. And in turn, you’ll feel better. And simply by tuning in to this show, you’ve already made me feel better. So thank you very much for that. Make sure to like, comment, subscribe. Do all those things that help a stroke the algorithm. Tell your friends about this show. Let’s keep the grow going. Until next time. I thank you very much for tuning in. Enjoy being and as always. Hey Bob Cobb, why don’t you take it away? Thanks for watching. Please like, comment and subscribe. Because Bob Cobb of the Bass Masters told you to, you hear?
46 Comments
Huge fan of Wheelers! He is by far the best in todays game of bass fishing. Most people can't begin to understand his level of play. He is so well rounded and near the top in every facet of the game. It is a pleasure to watch him continue to raise the bar!
DUUUUUVVVVVAAAALLLLLL 💪🤣
Wheeler has matured into a solid dude. Not the same guy I met at Lake Cherokee several years ago. I’ve become a fan. The scary thing is he’s just now coming into his prime.
If you are an idiot, you have to be tough to survive
Lol
While i dont think JW cheats now, but in years past he was like a Roland and Scott Martin on steriods getting information. I know he'll deny it, but i know the guy he got the information from on the Pickwick super tournament 5 or 6 years ago. He literally got his winning spots from a guy, tore the wrap off his boat so when he was there with the guy nobody would see him. Then he goes out and wins the tournament and acts like he did it all himself. I also know hes failed multiple polygraph test at BPT and was secretly fined and it was swept under the table. With all that being said, he is 1 of the top 5 tournament anglers in the world right now, and definitely the absolute best at the BPT format. Id love to see Bassmaster and BPT work out the childish rivalry and figure out a way to have all the anglers able to fish against each other. I would love to know who actually is the best, but we dont know because the 2 trails are so different. I personally think Chris johnson, Tucker Smith, DC, Jay Pz, and Trey Mckinney are the best in the game, but theres no way to prove it.
Great show Dave, @ Saginaw this year Jacob showed the best example of "OK I'll SHOW YOU" motivation when Brent Ehrler refused to share water that Jacob clearly fished and established in previous days, this guy just said" ok Brent you own it" and put his head down and proceeded to outwork and outfish the field with what I believe is the best attitude/confidence balance ever displayed on live television!! Amazing angler !!!
Let’s gooooo!! Been waiting on this one. Love when Mercer and Wheels reconnect
Great show. I would to see a Super Bowl with BASS and MLF at the end of the year so both sides can come together one time a year
I met jacob a couple years ago at GTO in Guntersville and he couldn't have been nicer and you can tell just how much he loves what he does his passion for fishing is incredible
Great show. As a fan of fishing and all leagues please have more MLF.
Wheeler is so good for the sport but being a good guy and winning alot more then most cause people to hate.
He is bad ass. Why doesn't he fish the elite series or the west coast Won.
It's not winter until December 21st
man i wish he would come back to BASS amd finally claim that ultimate prize…………………
Another loss for the Chiefs and another win for the Patriots. Life is treating me very well David thank you for asking, brother.
Two of the great guys in bass fishing having a conversation!!
I have always appreciated Jacob’s openness to talking truthfully. I don’t like hearing him say “don’t give them ammunition”. He has always been himself, keep doing that and don’t let the haters win.
WOW, I’ve seen and watched Wheeler on the web, I’ve never meet him in person. But what a great guy. Very humble guy in this sport. I wish I had half of the knowledge about bass fishing as Jacob knows. There are many anglers I have got to meet, there is a few I would like to meet. I’m 50 years old I have a dream and a wish, it would mean the world to me if it ever came true. There is one Angler that has made a difference in my life I had the chance to meet him in a bass pro shop in Charlotte North Carolina. He came to Beech Springs Church to a banquet and spoke. He made a difference in my life that night. Mr Andy Montgomery he is a real guy, I would love for to show up one time and surprise me with a day of bass fishing. I’ve always learned dream big, you never know.
God bless you all Dave.
Yall should do a 5 minute football pickems every week. More respect knowing I could talk sports with him. Good vid.
Wheelers Wife Must have a XXL coffee mug with Trait Zaldain’s face on it lol…… She takes a shot at Jacobs credibility every time she gets a chance ! She brings shit up from 2O years ago ! She always makes a statement that her opinions are hers and not her husband’s lol….. She puts everyone’s candles out !!!! If BASS Limited past performance, Zaldain would probably be bumped from the Elites in 2 years ! She is very bad for the Sport !
Great show Dave ! Wheeler has such a positive and good outlook on the sport and life in general ! Go Chiefs !
Hoosiers or buckeyes
Also, I think about Big Ten championship, Hoosiers or buckeyes
Also, I think about Big Ten championship, Hoosiers or buckeyes😊
Wheeler said it it's a rich kids sport
Wheeler is the freaking man. Such a great outlook on everything and is super humble. I’d be unbearable to be around if I was that good.
The only explanation for Wheeler haters is flat out jealousy. Not only is he the best bass fisherman of his generation BY FAR, hes a nice person.
Don't get me wrong Wheeler is good ,but not that good! Real Pros win on their own ,by themselves not with help from other pros! Period! He works together with his rat pack!
Dave, I really appreciate how you conduct interviews like this, you have a "gift" for driving such an open, transparent, geniuine conversation, thanks for another great interview
I have tried so hard over the past several years to dislike Wheeler.😂 On the water I’m not a fan at all,but I truly feel like he’s a genuinely good guy. He’s just not my cup of tea. This episode made it even harder to not like the guy. Great show my friend! And hey,how long am I gonna have to wait for you to get Ehrler back on? We need a Velvick/Ehrler tandem episode. Make it happen!
Big fan. I watch all circuits Bass MLF’s and TNPFL. It’s all just fishing. I wish Bass and MLF would do a top 10 tournament together. The 10 in each for AOY go head to head Thank you Dave
Dave's last comments within this video pretty much sum-up, first, Jacob Wheeler's stellar career, up to this point; and second, how we (and Jacob Wheeler) should act in general, as well as how Jacob has acted in front of the public eye within his professional career, so far: Be positive. Be a gentleman. Try your best, and thus act like a winner.
There is no doubt in my mind that Jacob Wheeler will be the next KVD of his generation. I know both fishermens' biographies for their times. And I have witnessed B.A.S.S. and Kevin's career grow throughout my lifetime from their infancy, to present day. With the pro circuit changes, more money involved, more competition involved, younger competitors involved within an organized fishing sport at much younger ages (pre-high school through college). (And thus, Jacob's comment of getting a 'leg-up' with sponsorship 'the earlier, the better' rings true: For the truly talented anglers need to be sponsored to have a chance at cutting through the immense competition, that is posted in front of their possible career path, and this competitive environment makes sponsorship a necessity, these days.) It is a truly different pro fishing environment, unique to its own time in American professional sport, for both KVD and now Jacob Wheeler.
Yet both fishermen are similar in several ways. They both grew-up with a fishing pole in their hands, due primarily to a true, deep down love of the sport. And both KVD and Jacob have the 'killer instinct' to rise to the occasion and win, regardless of the obstacles (both natural and artificial) placed between them and winning a tournament. Both of their competitive spirits shine best during tournaments, where either was just a little behind, and they still win, for that is when KVD or Jacob 'turn-up the volume', and ultimately beat their competition. They've done it time and time again, throughout their careers. And now it is Jacob's time to shine and finish his professional record, especially and lately, on the MLF/BPT Tour.
Please, no more loser B.S., from any source. Sure, stress and pressure (from inside and outside of the race) can effect anyone. Yet negative attention doesn't really help anyone, but the misguided.
True "grace under pressure" shines brightest from the ones who don't sling bullshit, and let the statistics do the talking. And if that winner shows true gratitude and humility at the same time, from the inside, out, he is truly a gentleman.
As George S. Patton once said, "America loves a winner!". GO GET 'EM, JACOB WHEELER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alot of people lost interest in wheeler when everyone saw him cut in front of another fisherman.
Why is he not competing in the Elites? I would imagine a Classic trophy is much sweeter.
This man is a role model fisherman
Great episode Dave. Loved this one
Another great one Dave. Much respect for wheeler he’s simply the best in the game right now.
👍
That's one very successful dude.Good for him. love following him!!!🔥💪🏽
You can tell on here and also on Jacob’s channel the passion and knowledge he has which explains his success. Even on MDJ’s rate the bait he knows the history of just about every bait they bring up.
Wheeler is kool until he gets around the gooftroop, Connell and Daniels.
Any time the discussion is about affordability Draw Events never come up? Bryan Kerchal climbed to his Classic Win letting his draw opponents use their boat every day! Bryan did own a boat but it wasn’t suitable for fishing a big tournament. Leading up to his first Classic in 1993 he road at the Divisional, placed 3rd at the National Championship out of the supplied Ranger, last at the Classic out of the supplied Ranger. He fished the BASS Invitationals 93/94 and never used his boat in competition! He again road at the Divisional and Won the National Championship and Classic out of the supplied Ranger. After winning the Classic Bryan was given a Ranger boat and finished in the money at the GA Invitational, the only big tournament he ever fished from his own boat! That’s the last time I ever saw him, RIP.
Always good to hear from Wheeler, as a fellow Hoosier it’s cool to have the best in the game coming from the same place
Great interview Dave! This is the first real interview I have seen with Jacob and it was awesome, I thank you both!
I've been waiting for a podcast with Wheeler!!! Hate all you want the dudes a beast no matter what format!!!
We need DC next!!!