Tonight we have the pleasure of having expert coangler Matt Tinsman joining us as our guest speaker. He has vast experience in the Illini and Great Lake divisions and will share his tips and techniques in this master coangling class!
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All right. Having some technical difficulties. Let me know if you can hear me, guys. Can you guys hear me? I had some problems with my earbuds here. I had to reboot here. They say they’re working. Can you guys hear me? Oh, okay. Good, good, good, good. Now, let’s see here. Matt Tinsman should be joining us soon. Um maybe he’s having some technical difficulties too here. Hey, anybody got any tournament updates to uh talk about? Um I didn’t have any tournaments, but uh myself and Bass and STL did a little mystery lake uh challenge this weekend and we had an epic top water day. You saw my post on that. That’s going to be an awesome video. I can’t wait to get to edit it, but it won’t be after the the fourth vacation here. I know I hope everyone’s taking a little vacation off and joined the family kicking back here. And uh for that means too, it’s going to extend through Monday like I a lot of people. So next Monday we will not be doing a live stream. Let me check on Mr. Tinsman here. Uh Brad, you out there. Brad was traveling down to um somewhere in Tennessee. It was happening in Old Hickory, I think. Usually takes a few minutes to get people here. I I just texted Matt. Um, hey Eric, you also fished a USA uh bastion on Saturday, I believe. How’d you guys uh end up in that one? Did you check? Hey Jim, how’s it going? Good to see you, Mr. Big Bass Jones. 12. Okay. How How’d you guys do? What’d you catch for for how many pounds here? And what won the tournament here? How tight was it? Jim, you’d been doing any fishing, any practicing uh anywhere or just kicking back? Any uh any tournaments down there on Kentucky Barkley? I think you do a Barkley division uh USA bassin or something, don’t you? Wow. Three fish limit. Yeah, because of summer and 151 and 35 pounders. Oh, man. That’s impressive. That is impressive, my friends. Okay, got number four for this week. Anybody else got any uh weekend tournament updates to share with the crew? [Music] I know Dustin tunes in a lot, too. Hey, Dustin. He’s been having some uh issues trying to get uh get testing working. Trying to find them schools. Yeah, them offshore schools out on the ledges and main river channels and stuff. Yeah. on a Kentucky Lake Jim or or Barkley. I wonder how it’s recuperating from all the tournaments, but I guess they have tournaments all the time here. Lot of bass in the Tennessee River on the big lake. Yeah. Okay, cool. Cool. Yeah. Uh I’m going to be hopping in uh the LBL. I got myself a a voter link here. So, I’ll be going down and doing that. That’ll be a week from Saturday on the 12th. Um total incentive is like, you know, the the the Berkeley uh gift pack here. You know, you’re basically breaking even with some fishing gear. We get a fishing reel, too. We’ll get it’ll be tournament number four there and it’ll be tournament number four down at Ren Lake on the Alii on on the 19th here. Trying to get more than consolation points once again here. Um, fishing with Eric here gave me a little more confidence. In fact, I’m I was so sore. I’m glad I had a chiropractor visit today. I had I had to have her work on my top water muscles over here. They were sore. There’s Oh, yeah. At least a tournament a weekend. Sometimes two or more. Oh, for sure. It’s unbelievable how many tournaments they they can kick out on that lake here. [Music] Oh, you are. Hey, may maybe I’ll draw you. We got a bunch bunch bunch of familiar names on the crew here that’ll be fishing that LBL here. Awesome. Awesome. Hopping in it. Um I’m not sure if they put it up on the website here. Um last July, they made it a a three bass limit for everybody thing here. Do you know if they’re going to do that for Boers this time or they they’d probably do that when they have July tournaments. Let’s see who else we got on. You have should have someone else on there. Brad, you there. Still not hearing from Matt here. I know. He said his uh his computer was broken and asked me if he could do it on his cell phone. I said, “Yeah, just have some lighting and have some power here. Maybe he’s got some last minute uh glitches here. We’ll give them We’ll wait around a little while longer here.” Uh any other midsummer topics you guys want to hit here? We got a Well, like I said here, we’ll take uh next Monday off for the holiday. Um and then the next Monday after that will be kind of a Ren Lake uh preview here. Um, I’m not sure who my guest is going to be here. I got a couple feelers out trying to get some some new people in the mix here. We’ll see. If not, you know, we’ll have some familiar faces. Hopefully that uh, you know, the lake has mellowed out here and is doing well. I didn’t look at USA bassins here, but hopefully you’ll be fishing better. I know the last uh, last year July or was it J? No, no, it was June 30th in July on Shelby. Yeah, it was right before the holiday. Um, we were on Rend and it was a it was a pretty tough bite that day from what I remember. Uh, just a FYI here. In fact, I just got a a tackle house order for Father’s Day. I I had a gift card. I was restocking up on some various things and and then I saw in my mailbox today. Um I guess I had missed it maybe from last week. They got a bunch of bargain bins going on. $20 bins, $10 bins. I found some $40 JDM kind of glide baits, swim baits, wake baits. Um like half price in there. And you know, a couple things here and there. Um, you know, some of the $5 bin is just a dollar or two off, but hey, you know what? Pays for shipping, pays for tax here. And, uh, then there was another coupon code. You know, you can’t use it on the bargain bin items, but I got another coupon in the email today here. I was kind of looking ahead here. I was trying to do a little stock up for uh, Kentucky Lake uh, and uh, Ren Lake coming up. got myself uh I’ve used traditional Carolina rigs here. I actually bought a bought a few uh tungsten uh Carolina weight weights here. Um they say you can feel better. Well, you can feel better if you don’t lose them and get snagged because they’re expensive, but I figure, you know, for for a tournament, you know, it’s it’s it’s maybe worth a few extra bucks. Hey James, what kind of weight you you throw on your Carolina rigs? I know you throw pretty pretty heavy ones. Kim Kim was talking half ounce. I had some half ouncesers before and you know they’re okay for like a regular lake, but you know, river current or Kentucky Lake deeper and or current here. Um I got some 3/4 ounce weights. I was thinking one might be a little kind of too heavy, but but you know, combined with having a, you know, a longer rod, wanting to get more out of the cast here. 3/4 to one. Yeah, I I just got a few 3/4ers. I figured that was pretty good. What um what makes you um you know, kind of change from 3/4 to to one? What drives you there? Okay. Not hearing from Matt. current and depth. Yeah. Yep. Totally. Totally what I was thinking. Totally what I was thinking. Yeah. Last year, was it last year? Uh, last year were we down at Paduka on the Tennessee or was that the year before? No, that was last year. Um, yeah, they were put they were dumping water out of the the Kentucky Dam here. And um, we’re down there in a Tennessee down from Paduka here. Boy, that current was coming really strong. Um, I had to double up on some weights. I didn’t have a heavy enough weight. It was really, really ripping if you were close to the main channel there, which we happen to be fishing because of course that’s where the summer fish, you know, were. Oh, you know, yeah, seems to be a little bit of a light crowd, too, here. I bet a lot of people are on holiday, leaving for holiday. I know I work today. I’m just working tomorrow. I’m taking I’m taking Wednesday and Thursday off. I talked to Eric. I know he’s doing that, too. Maybe a lot of people are doing that here. Yeah, if I don’t hear from uh I just sent me another text here. Maybe something got crossed in the ethers here. Um maybe we’ll just call it early night if we can’t hear from them soon here. You guys got something you really want to hit or talk about? Anything ad hoc you guys want want to talk about today? Sorry about the the confusion here. Yeah, didn’t no not hearing back from him yet. Well, at least you got Friday off. Yeah, you got a tournament this weekend, James. Just take it easy with the family. Good for you. Yeah, me neither. It’ll just be a little little pleasure fishing with my son-in-law and grandkids and stuff like that. All right, four people. Who else is on? Just want to say hi. How you doing? You had a great boater for that one. Which one? Oh, there’s a new feature here. Let’s see how this works. Show comments on stage beta. Oh, that’s a paid for feature. Okay. Yeah, it’s going to be crazy when the pleasure boers get out there. In fact, it’s probably going to be crazy by about 11. Get your practice in early. Get it get on at Yeah. daylight and get off early. Good plan. Especially during the the heat of the summer here. It’s going to be pretty pretty toasty out there this weekend, too. I hear, you know, I did look at the forecast by us. Are you going to get rains down there, James? Let’s see here. No, kind of central Illinois is uh the fourth was going to be 90° and sunny. Saturday is going to be 91 and Sunday sunny. Sunday 35% chance of rain and 90. Monday 50% chance of rain and 91. Tuesday 87 and 60% chance. I got soaked Saturday. Yeah, but it probably felt good cuz it’s so darn hot. Huh? Oh no. I got a low battery on the phone. Okay. All right, we got Jim and Eric. Who else we got online there? You want to say hey? Just say hey to everybody. Hey, Jimmy and Eric, any of you guys want to want to pop online and talk fishing for a little bit or do you guys just want to call it a night? I I’ll leave it to you. I’m always I’m always willing to talk. I think we’re going to have to rebook Matt here. Something’s Something’s gone wrong. Oh, the 30 mph winds. Oh, yeah. It gets rough and nasty out there. All right, Jim. I’ll send you a link. Oh, my page says 8. Oh, Dustin just told me my page said 8:30. I didn’t mean to say that. Oh, crap. Oh man. Huh? I always do 7:30. Oh man. Oh, you mean my um my YouTube? Oh, man. Let me check that out. live English master class [Music] descriptions des Oh, in the description I fumble fingered. Oh man, that sucks. Oh, maybe it was a time zone thing. Shoot. In it, Dustin in the description. Um I Yeah, when I go to my YouTube page now, it just it’s it’s live. It’s not showing a time, but and I can’t see the details. Oh, maybe edit in advance. Let’s see here. No, it doesn’t doesn’t say a time here where I can see this here. Um, yeah, it won’t let me in to even see it here, I guess, because I’m probably live on StreamYard here. Oh, I goofed up here. Okay. What’s your go-to bait on Rend? Rend’s kind of for the most part traditional power fishing. So, uh, crankbaits, jigs, spinner baits, uh, worms, Texas rig plastics, you know, pretty pretty traditional shallow, usually pretty pretty dirty, pretty hot, especially in July. Yeah, Dustin’s telling me I I blew it and I put Did you guys see it’s at 8:32, not 7:30? I I goofed up and I found I messed up. I messed up. I wonder if Matt’s going to think he’s going to join at 8:30 and was planning for that. Oh, I hope I didn’t screw up. Well, I’m only human. I tell you what, I got a good excuse, though. Eric and I were fishing all day on Sunday and we caught so many fish. I was so tired I wasn’t seeing straight. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. H I wonder if I can get another page up and see it this way. Okay. I don’t see a time in a description on the on the YouTube thing. H loading my Gmail up and then we’ll be ready. Okay, Jim. Cool. Cool. I’ll I’ll be waiting for you. I’m trying to figure out what I maybe did wrong here. Be right with you, folks. Jim will be with us in a minute. Okay, my StreamYard says 7:30 p.m. Unless somehow And some unless somehow that does the wrong that did the wrong time zone. Today it’s 7:30 p.m. CDT. No, Streamyards got it right. Hm. Yeah. Oh, here’s Jim. All right. Hey, Jim. Thanks for always being waiting in wings is the is the ultimate backup. You know, being a boater, you got to know you you need a backup on everything, right? Because Yeah. Yeah.
Stuff breaks all the time. Sometimes five or six backups. Yeah. What what’s your most horrific uh loss of equipment or backup story on a boat? Total curveball. What’s What was that again?
Um what’s your most horrific story about, you know, when something was broke on the boat boat or you had multiple failures, just a a a nightmare boating experience where backups either helped or didn’t help. Matter of fact, Saturday, uh, I was in such a big hurry to get another bait on the hook that a fish had stripped off and raised a center rod lock, was in there digging around, went to slam my back down so I could jump back up on the front and a rod had scooted over and I broke it. I’ve done that once, too. Same thing. Same thing. and found a really good school of fish. I mean, as Jacob Wheeler and Jake Lawrence would say, a sneaky spot and caught two shortfish, caught the keeper, and was up there. And here comes a boat barreling right through on top of where I was casting.
Oh. Uh-huh.
And then five minutes later, it started raining, I thought. And then it only lasted about five minutes. So, I went looking to see where they might have went and uh I seen a few for few more fish up on top, threw in there, and I turned around and that storm was on top of me. I mean, I was still three miles from the boat ramp. I was fishing at USA Bassin, but I was more out there just kind of looking to see if I can find the the schools more than anything. Yeah. And uh
but I got points for me and the guy new guy that’s fishing to hopefully because uh Danville starts started this Sunday and that’s why I was saying I could fish Saturday and Sunday just about every weekend cuz
What do you mean by a Danville USA bassin or in Danville’s a USA bassin and they fisher Huh?
On Lake Decater, where are they fishing?
No, Kentucky Lake out of Danville Ramp.
Oh, Danville, Kentucky. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, Danville on uh Kentucky Lake. They fish on Sundays. That way they they can also fish wherever they want on Saturday or if there’s an open, they don’t, you know, counter dick with, you know, any other tournaments. So yeah,
all their tournaments is always on Sunday. So I could have fished uh CNO Barkley on Saturday. But this was the last Paris Landing uh USA Bassin on Saturday. So it’s like I’m going to go be over there anyways. I might as well stick 60 bucks in just in case.
Yeah. Yeah. In case you hit them. Yeah. Uhhuh. Yeah. Cuz cuz I did that one time before went out there and prefished while there was a a USA bassing went on and I had enough weight to win it and it’s like man I should have got into it. Don’t you hate that one time you don’t pull the pin? Yeah. Yeah. But I’m learning more and more. They’re on Kentucky Lake. It’s it’s being a bear. I mean, especially trying to find where fish might be that not is not a community hole because I already know where three or four that I usually fish, but I have to be one of the first ones there because if not, there’ll be 15 boats come through there later. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The last uh Toyota I was down there, the guy’s talking about, well, I caught them off of the community hole right out there from Paris everyone knows about. And I saw some people go, I don’t know about it. What’s he talking about? You know about that spot. Community hall among the people who are really in the know. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. And and and if you fish a place long enough when you go by, you start seeing where everybody, you know. Yeah.
Keeps on stopping.
I mean, you can you can see that on Ren. If you just you’d be in one cove and then you can see where the hot spots are because that’s where the boats come in. They fish a little stretch and then they leave and five minutes later here comes another boat.
Yep.
Then they leave and another 10 minutes later here comes another boat. So
yeah. Or or you just can’t get on it because by the time you look around it’s empty. There’s already somebody headed forward or people almost yelling each other, hey I I was fishing got a fish ahead.
Yeah. Yeah. hole buzzards.
Yeah. Yeah. So,
so looking at using using your electronics to find those schools. Yeah. I mean, you know, more more and more that’s a that’s a finer part of the sport now with the advancements in electronics and with the tougher fishing conditions for a multitude of reasons. Uh less fish, different patterns, more people fishing, more tournaments, more pressure. Um, and uh, it’s it’s tough to get good with those electronics. I I I’ve the places that I’ve actually fished that are ledges accidentally on them. I mean, we seen it on the map and one’s got a road bed going across the top of it and depending on the water depth, like right now it’s got 8 foot on top. It’s got an old road bed, an old rock road bed on top of it. And then it’s got shell on top of in there, too. So, um, me and Micah was happen to be fishing. Was like, “Well, they’re not on the points.” He says, “Let’s go over there and fish that old road bed.” Well, we was the boat was sitting in 20 ft of water and we was casting, you know, up there. So, we was dragging most of the top before the drop off,
you know, before the actual ledge. Yeah.
We got fish and
it’s always been a my go-to spot. Every time I fish, I go there first because it’s always good for one or two fish and it could be good for 26, you know, 26 pounds. Wow. Yeah. I
mean, Micah’s best we’ve done off of that in a 50 yard stretch was 20. It was 24 almost 25 pounds. That’s a big hole.
But but it helps when you when the first fish you catch is a seven and a half. You ain’t talking Shelbyville now.
No, no, no.
And I don’t think you’re talking Randy either.
No, it’s it’s it’s on Kentucky Lake. But
yeah. Yeah.
Um but I’ve been using trying to get a hold of these. Well, I kind of knew the electronics before, but when you get out of the, you know, haven’t done it for 5 years and then you come back, then everything is newer, brighter, better. And it’s it’s a new learning curve to me. And I’m just now finally getting to do where I can identify stuff with my side scan and down scan and that forward facing sonar. I mean, I can see stuff out there, but I couldn’t tell you if it was bass or whatever. I don’t use it when I’m fishing ledges besides to see if there’s any stumps or any brush pile that I might, you know, see. Right. Right. Yeah. A lot of fine tuning in that down scan and side scan. And you know, when you’re you’re running down the lake, I mean, I don’t have a high-speed sensor. So, my downcan side scan is only good to about 7 miles an hour, but I was just reading an article from the technological angler, uh, the guy from Hummingbird. He does a lot of stuff up in Minneapolis and, you know, that area, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
But, um, you can see the images better at about one and a half miles an hour as opposed to seven. So, you know, if you’re it’s almost like um you’re trying to scan an area, you can go five or six, but if you see something interesting, you got to slow down or turn around and and and bring it down and really look at that display. Yeah. I when I’m scanning and uh I’ve learned since I’ve only got one unit at the console, I usually have my map down or 2D and then my side scan.
Yeah. Um but I’m only going anywhere between two to four mile an hour.
Yeah. Yeah. And it all depends pushing me,
you know, if the wind’s pushing me or if the current is, you know, if I’m going with the current is usually the upper speed. But if I really want to
see something I like, I turn around and go the opposite direction. That way I can kind of slow down and my eyes ain’t as good as they used to be. So I got to really get up on that 12 inch to
Yeah.
see. But
yeah, me too. In fact, I had to have I had to pull these out the other day. I hate pulling these out. Yeah, cuz I’m supposed to wear bif focals, but the only reason why I need the bif focals is because my eyes are good. I can read without my glasses, but when I put them on for my to see far away, I can’t see close up. So that’s the reason why usually when I’m scanning I take my glasses off and I’m sitting there like this and then hopefully I don’t have to see far ahead when I’m looking up ahead because I can’t see.
Yeah.
You know, but yeah. Uh I was I was contemplating on whether to fish the LBL or go up and preish Ren.
Oh, like Eric was asking. Yeah, we were talking about that too. And it was like it doesn’t matter whether I go up there and pre fish or not. I end up usually junk fishing anyway. So, cuz I’ve never I’ve never gotten on a pattern really a good pattern. Now, I might be able to find, you know, find something that I know I could probably go catch a couple fish with, but something to where I feel comfortable enough to go and catch five that’s going to win, I haven’t felt that. Now, on Shelbyville, I felt that, but it just
them fish moved and I could not find them.
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, uh yeah, you got big bass at Shelbyville last time.
Yeah. Um, that’s got to feel good. Uh,
yeah, I got my first piece of hardware.
Oh, that’s your first piece of hardware. Oh, my brother was waiting for his, but he he was in fifth until there was three voters left and one guy sneaked them out by an ounce.
Yeah,
congratulations. Yeah, thank you. That was a first with the the BFL. Um, you know, of course back in the day fishing uh the club tournaments and some of the opens I’ve got hardware, but uh that’s the first recently. So, and USA Bassin unless depending on who’s who’s the tournament director, they don’t give hardware out. But that was Brad. I wonder why he wasn’t on. He was texting here. So, uh, how’ how’d you catch that good boy? If you mind, uh, talking about it. How did it feel? Did you do you know
he Well, it was one of them that he really I mean, that’s the first bite that I’ve had in a really long time that he just I mean, he wanted it. I mean, he smacked it. I set the hook and immediately told Kim I said it’s a good one and then he he wouldn’t come
that catfish doubt or that mus musky had that headshake you kind of know right away but big bass and and and a bigger catfish you know they just start pulling both of them like all
and that’s what he did and when I kind I was kind of like wait a minute he’s not wanting to come up and where I was fishing There could have been some cats in there. And finally, it’s come up and when he jumped um about 7 ft from the boat, Kim goes, “Holy smokes. I don’t know if I can net that one and pull it in. It’s too big.” And uh I finally got it up there and she netted it and she goes, “That’s that’s six. That’s over six.” Because her husband had just got one on Thursday that weighed like six and a quart, you know. And she goes, “And it’s bigger than that.” And I said, “I’m not sure.” I said, “That’s close to six.” And I put it on my scales and it said 595. And I was like, “Well, my scales could be a little bit off.” So, I was like, “It’s a good fish.”
Oh, yeah.
I said, “But I just not sure if it’s going to be big enough to get big bass because there’s been too many, you know, six pounders um between the USA bass and that over in Shelbyville.” And it was like, but I was really wanting them two or three others to come in there, but my spots where I’d had, you know, there wasn’t big schools, but I’d had
like four or five bass that was hanging around off on the end of the points and stuff.
And I thought, yes, they’re going to be somewhere around that point
come Saturday morning, we’re going to be good.
Yeah. And we pulled up to that first one and warped it really good and then worked around where it comes up towards the bank and she caught hers and probably a foot of water.
Wow.
And it’s like, “Okay, so they’re up on top.” So we fished the top, nothing. Went to the next point and I caught my first keeper on top of the point in about two foot of water. So, we fished the top of that and then I went deep, you know, and and finally I said, “Well, there’s another point, but I’ve never been able to get on it because there’s always boat there.”
And we pulled up there and there was
and I was actually where that really Well, you seen us. There’s a point, matter of fact, there was a boat on there when you went by. Mhm. I’d went up there and I said, “Hey, are you fishing the point or are you fishing the whole thing?” He says, “Well, we’ve been fishing the whole point, but we’re going to stay out here.” And I said, “Well, can I go in and fish closer to the the bank?” And he goes, “Yeah, go ahead.” Because on that point and about halfway there’s a little saddle. It comes up. It goes from about five feet and then goes down to about seven in between the bank and where he was at. So I went up there,
fished there to the bank and nothing. And I was like, well, which go over there to that point? There ain’t nobody there. And as we was pulling up, there was another boat that was wanting to come up there.
He turned and uh he he was sniffing that big boy out, too. Yeah. I don’t know. You know, it was just luck cuz I I caught him on my favorite uh bait that I like to throw on the Carolina rig and that’s that man’s worm. Yeah.
Um jelly worm. And man, when he hit, I mean, he wanted it. And I knew that if it wasn’t a catfish, it was a good one. Oh, yeah.
It worked out. Um, but just trying to keep up with them fish. I don’t know where everybody caught them, but I heard them, you know, people said they had to change up and went shallow. So, I don’t know. Yeah, my guy was a scope and cover. some, you know, not really shallow, but some medium,
some deep, some, well, maybe a little shallow here and there. I mean, you know, you’re out on a point. There’s some stuff out there. You throw up a couple times here and there, but yeah, we started out, you know, we started out on a on a deep area. He goes, I can’t believe no one’s there. We’re going to stop there. You know, and I’m like, you know, people used to always be here, but I haven’t seen people there for a couple of years. It’s kind of weird how patterns move like that. And then there’s
some spots like you say that
um
during a tournament at Shelbyville there’s always someone on them and sometimes people just get up there and there’s a couple spots I’m like
that will be busy all day because there’s I I see people they go there and they will spend the first four hours there. Uh when we was fishing where where you seen us on that point over there once that first boat finally left, I bet there was probably nine other boats that came in there and stopped on that and fished at while we was still fishing around that that point. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. So, so, uh, what what what did you land up with there and what what place did you get? 20 22nd, I think.
How many fish you have for how many pounds?
Two. I had two for almost eight pounds, I think. Seven. Seven something.
Yeah. Yeah. I couldn’t pick up any other ones. Yeah. It was tough on a bunch of people, you know. a bunch a bunch of people grouped up in that 10 11 a bunch of people there where you know you know my guy had you know he had like a 4 pounder like a three pounder and a bunch of two pounders really you know kind of the kind of smaller end of the mix right
yeah [Music] I felt really good I told Kim I said we’re gonna I’m gonna be throwing a Carolina rig Eric
what’s going on
hey sorry I didn’t see you there you didn’t come on right away I thought you were maybe not making the calling and I just look down and you’re there. Welcome to the show. Hey, congratulations, Brad. Brad was down at Old Hickory. He just jumped into heck of it. He’s uh he’s making the worldwide circular tour of getting that that fourth uh uh tournament gift bag, swag bag in every tournament possible. He’s going to be um what are you gonna be selling them on eBay out of eBay or out of the back of your truck at the next BFL? Surplus Berkeley gear. Congratulations. 10th place.
I I think you what he’s doing is he’s gathering up all them spinning reels for the uh fishing ren. [Laughter] Yeah. [Music] Oh, that’s great news. Brad Brad the Brad the hammer here. Okay. And I imagine was it the same stuff in the gift bag? We’re all going to get the same stuff basically. Huh. Yeah. That’s another reason why I jumped in LBL2. That’s the only reason why I did because if I knew I was going to be fishing as many as I had, I’d have weighed in them one or two fish that I had on the on the first one I fished, which would have been the second. And then I fished the third. Oh, you didn’t even You said you you didn’t even weigh in. Oh, yeah. You should have.
Uh because when I did the first one, a guy got a hold of me and says, “Hey, I really like to have a boater to link cuz I really want to fish it.” Okay. So, I linked up, fished it, and I thought, well, if I get, you know, maybe I’ll get lucky and find the fish and and be on them. Well, that’s when my co-angler uh caught his three. And I should have had five and probably would have had probably close to that 14 lbs in and that five fish, but I I just couldn’t keep uh fish hooked unless he was small on a Carolina rig that day. But my my boater um caught three and and uh got a check. So, and then this last this last one I fished, I was like, “Oh, I I can find some fish on them ledges. I can probably come up with three fish.” And again, I couldn’t keep them button. And I was really I was really worried on Shelbyville going in there because I knew that’s what I was going to be throwing was a Carolina rig. And I was like, man, I hope I keep them button on there because I was having a hard time. I don’t know why cuz I’m still using the same, you know, the same hooks, everything. But here lately, everything that I it’s bit, I’ve stuck. Yeah, probably maybe getting a little more aggressive now than they were earlier in the year, I bet, too.
Good job,
Eric. What’d you do this weekend? Uh, fished. Okay, let’s have a contest. How many hours did you fish this weekend, Eric? Probably 16. Eight a day.
James, how many hours did you fish this weekend?
I only fished eight. I got Sunday off. Now, this week be a different story. I think it’s time for I’m sorry. Go ahead, Eric.
Oh, I think it’s time for Brad to go boater. I think so, too. I’d like to draw him.
Yeah, exactly. Especially a fifth. A fifth on Dell, man. Yeah. Well, he he I think he said he had a guy fishing fishing shallower. Either I talked to him or was on on the show a few weeks ago. So, Eric, what did you do on Saturday? Where where’d you fish on Saturday?
Saturday we were at Concaid did USA Bass and the Concaid and they limited they did a three fish limit which whatever. I guess they thought it was going to be hot. It really didn’t get that hot till we were got done gone. They got us out of there at one o’clock. But uh I think we had three for 7.90 something and the winners had 15. It was like 15 12 11 10
and everybody was kind of stacked up eight, you know, eight, nine pounds.
How many boats?
25.
25.
You just hop in that one. Are you fishing that one this year?
No, we just just hopped in it. I’ve got a buddy that he was going to fish with his wife and it’s in USA Bassins and then with work she couldn’t do it and they’d already got their membership. So, we fished together a little bit before. So, I we just kind of hooked up and went uh went down there and did that one. He messaged me about doing Ren on the 12th, which will be the week before we’re we’re there. So, it’ be maybe an opportunity to preish it and we’ll see. Yeah, get a little time in. I mean, Ren is Ren is Ren. It for it’s pretty consistent in in the summer at least. You know, someone was asking earlier uh you know, about what baits on Ren and it’s kind of traditional shallow water summer power bait, you know. Yeah, I think can be
can be. That’s what they call it fishing, not cage. Uh, what’d you do on Sunday, Eric? I’m gonna tell we went to Ballwin and um I had to eat crow for uh
What do you mean? So, I’ve taken people there before and like and and Jeff did what everybody does and they at this time of year he had top water tied on and I told him go I was like you can throw it but I’m like I’ve never caught anything in here on top water like for whatever reason they just we’ve thrown it and they won’t hit it. And uh so we caught a few fish early and uh he stuck to that buzz bait for a little bit and winded up catching a couple. So, I tied it on. I threw it for a few minutes, but I have no confidence there. So, I put it back down and went back to my worm and uh we shot across the lake to this other bank and passed a couple guys and there was older gentleman and they uh the one guy in the front says they had caught a couple and he goes, “Yeah, he even caught one on a buzz bait talking about his guy in the back.” And I was like, “Yeah, so did he.” And I was like, “But I’ve never caught a fish on here on top water.” And the guy in the front of the boat said the same thing. He goes, “Yeah, me either. I’ve never caught one on top water in here.” So, and I just lost one on the buzz bait that they saw coming up. He he whacked it and, you know, didn’t have it.
Yeah, it was funny. So, then we got on this back bank and it was just something was right about it. It was raining a little bit. It was cloudy. There was just a little ripple on the water like it just looked like top water. I’m like, “All right, I’m gonna try to throw it again.” We went, we didn’t go very far, did we? And all a sudden,
it was like three and a half pounder. Went a little further, another three and a half pounder, and then it was just on. It just lights on.
Then you just got to watch the video for the rest of it. Yeah. Can’t tell you what else happened that day.
This video I’m going to have to cut eight hours down to four and I’m not sure if I’m going to get all the fish fishing events in. Yeah, you get all the on there.
And then I’m like, okay. He’s throwing a buzz bait in front of me. I’m like, whatever top water do I have? I just have my co-angler bag that I um packed for Shelbyville. I just threw it in the truck after last week here. And I’m like, oh, I I’ve got this uh you know, pencil popper. Okay. Yeah, that was amazing. I hope I really hope you got some of those blowups on video.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. They were going airborne after it. Like they were coming out of the water,
hitting it and it was neat. And then we had a I was telling him a story of a guy that was over there one time and he passed us. We were fishing on the bank and he passes and he said he was looking for the white bass and u he goes he was in a bait store somewhere and they told him, “Oh, just go out there and watch for them to be to start blowing up on top and then go over there and catch them.” And we told him, we’re like, “Well, I mean, good luck because we’ve never we’ve never seen them do that here, but they’re bigger there. They’re they’re big ones.” So, I told Jeff that I’m like, “I’ve just I’ve never seen the white bass do that.” And I kept looking for them on live scope and he’ll I don’t know if he got any of it, but I had a little minnow on and I kept throwing at stuff trying to catch one. And I caught the ball and Lake Gamut. I had catfish, crappie, drum, large mouth, like everything. And we had his family could have eaten catfish for the next two weeks.
Yeah,
they were good ones. That was
Oh, they’re really clean channel cats. Really clean. I usually because they’re not eating crap off the bottom. There’s so much shad here. They’re eating shad. They’re They’re eating caviar.
Yeah, the shad are just ridiculous. And then for whatever the reason that day, the bluegill were like out of control on a couple of the banks. which was weird. We didn’t catch a lot of bass when we ran into that thinking, you know what I mean?
Which was kind of weird. But, uh,
I would see that on the side scan. I’m be like, “Oh man, there’s a huge bluegill bed over there.” Yeah. Um, but I think they were done spawning and maybe went out deep because you know, I mean, we had a they were nibbling on us a lot, but it wasn’t like, you know, there was tons of them. Yeah. We went through that pack of worms. It was
Yeah. Oh yeah.
So we got up to this point and we were kind of going down. I just happened to glance over towards the power plant where the intake is where they suck the water in. And uh I see something blowing up on top. And I was like, “Oh, it must be the it’s some catfish or the carp.” Because when we were coming down the one bank, there was carp kept jumping everywhere. Yeah. And I kept looking and then all of a sudden a big area boiled started boiling. I told Jeff, “Hold on.” And I get the troll motor on high real quick and he’s like, “What’s wrong?” And I’m like, “Just watch this way.” And we got out there. I mean, we drove almost into the middle of them blowing up around us. I hope he should have it on.
Oh yeah. It’ll be neat.
It’s, you know, I didn’t double check, but the video was running the whole day and I was looking right at him. I mean, there was like five or six pods of like at least a dozen dozen uh uh uh just whailing on the top water on Sh. Yeah. So, we sat out there for probably half hour, 20 minutes and caught them then went back to the bank and started catching them again. It was had a highlight reel at the end of the day. So,
Oh, yeah. Sounds like an extremely good day.
It was pretty good. Day that you’d like to have in a tournament.
Oh my god. I’m like going, no one’s going to believe this is Illinois. That’s the first thing. I bet we could call it Mystery Lake in Illinois and win lots of money on bets. Yeah. Yeah. Our best five probably would have went between 17 and 18 pounds, I would think. But the quantity was just unreal.
Oh, yeah. I was the two and a half pounders in there unlimited almost and they pull because I guess they got that current and it’s warm and them fish pull like the littleer ones pull harder than the big ones sometimes. But it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.
Yeah. Yeah. It’s a It’s a power plant deal. So you you know they got the warm water all year long so they can live and grow and eat all year long. Mhm. And they do. You’ll see. I mean, them fish are healthy. Like you don’t We were joking about it. The biggest one, looking at that picture though, its belly was kind of sucked in, but I guess it probably recently spawned. But
Oh, yeah.
But I told
Oh, yeah. James, I was going to ask you about your big guy. You know, any signs of just post spawn on that one or not or no. Clean. He almost looked like he hadn’t spawned yet, but it had. But I mean,
but he’d been eating.
He was gorging himself.
Oh, yes. Yes.
Yeah.
Cuz when I got him up, I hel hel held it up and went, “Holy smokes, look at that belly.” And how just how thick he was. Cuz I was really expecting them to be kind of not that solid. I was kind of figuring him, you know, be, you know, belly be a little bit skinny, but nah. Um, which really surprised me. So, it uh Yeah. Did you uh you don’t have to reveal anything because I know so last year I saw you you drew Jeff there and we s I saw you on the one point that’s got like the three
points that come out. No, that’s not where I caught it.
Okay. I did see you that day catch a keeper
on that. There was like five boats right there.
Yes,
we were back up in that other pocket a little further
on those on that point. But uh I seen you catch the one. We saw her in net edit and everything.
Yeah.
But u I was wondering if that was the big one. No, but
the big one came out there um right before you go into right across from three. I can tell you the co that caught the 610 caught his shallow on a lay down. Really? you you know and that’s the funny thing because where you was talking about on that one there’s one bank on one of them points when you get back here you’re in 20 foot water and probably ain’t 10 ft from the bank and there’s like seven or eight good trees that come down in that and I almost went back there and it’s like no because the fish that I’d seen and scanned and knew that they was bass were out on the points. And that’s the fish I just had in my mind. That’s the fish that I’m going after. I’m going to fish it kind of like Kentucky Lake. I seen them. I know they’re around there. I just got to entice them to bite. And that messed me up from going back there because I almost bet you you could have went back there and caught some off of them trees. Yeah. I I know multiple people that’s what they caught them off of.
Mhm. Yeah, yeah, Brad was talking about that, too. And my pre-ishing video, which I need to finish up tonight, or it’s going to be another week delayed here. Um, I I started out I got, you know, I didn’t have a real early start, but I was looking scanning the points like you, James, at first here, and I saw, okay, everything’s moved out here. There’s lots of bait. I mean, there was, you know, cats, bass, there was everything, you know, out there in creek channels and points. And I threw at him for a while and nothing. And I came in and you’ll see I had my black buzz bait out, my crankbait out, and you know, on laydowns of rock, I was I was catching, you know, a bunch of smaller ones, keepers, non-keepers, some keepers, you know, three pounder. Um, I just couldn’t get out to work deep. Now, you know, my live scope was broken. I had 360s. You know, it’s not, you know, it’s not live, but you see structure. You know, I’m not using that as an excuse. I’m just saying, you know, I think I would have been a little bit more effective with the with the scope, you know, being able to really line up on on the stump and the brush out, you know, out on the edges and stuff, you know, like you’re saying. And with me only getting out on Shelbyville that Friday before, and I hate I hate trying to see what anything is and try to catch a fish on Friday when I’m fishing on Saturday. Yeah.
And and that was probably another one of my mistakes because I was up there early enough on Thursday. If I’d have been on the water on Thursday, I’d probably went back there and fished at least one of them lay downs just to see
that. But on Friday, I was like, now I’ll end up and yeah,
after I’d already fished that and got out there, I seen a couple boats run in there. Um, but I didn’t keep that good of an eye on there whether they caught any off of them. But I would say they probably did because usually with that deep of a water next to it and that close, it’s too easy of them for them to move up and back down.
Oh, they love those areas.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And uh I just never did go up there and I should have while we was there first thing that morning. Do you think do you think Shelbyville fish is similar to Ren when it’s sunny? And you know what I’m talking about.
Yeah. Yes and no. Because even with it sunny, you can still catch them out deep. And I’ve never caught anything over three foot and ran. Of course, the lake’s only eight, so Well, yeah. I mean, what does deep mean in red? Nine feet and a half. And And that’s kind of funny because a guy that was looked at my buddy’s boat several years back, he crappie fishes on Ren and he knows Ren. And he told Larry, he goes, “When you think you’re shallow enough, go shallower.” Yeah.
He says, “Because you can’t get too shallow on on rent for B.”
Problem is so much shallow water.
Yes.
How do you narrow that down? I think you just have to find the right We’ll just tell them. You just have to find the right layowns. like they go for specific trees. If you see a bank with five or 10 laydowns, there’s going to be one tree that’s different
and they’re like that’s the tree.
You can almost skip the rest of those trees is what I’ve what I have personally found. Yeah. Um and I love fishing structure. I I mean the two things I love most is is either flipping or dragging that Carolina rig. But on Ren, I’ve never drugg a Carolina on Ren except for one time. And down there towards Dan, there’s a big island that’s out there and it’s about it’s got stumps, it’s got lay downs, and it’s got the deeper water around there. And I thought, “Oh man,
I thought I’m going to catch him.”
I fished that thing for four hours dragging a Carolina around it and threw a crankbait around there and never even got the first bite.
You’ll I’ve caught the I’ve caught those white bass there before. They’ll school up out there and then I see a lot of guys crappie fishing there
because off of those that there you get out there and on those ends there’s little brush piles. There’s I’ve thrown stuff in them, too. And you don’t you won’t get a large mouth out there. For some reason, they just don’t like it.
Yeah. So, um, every fish I’ve ever caught came, you know, extremely shallow. You know, even that day that you, you know, me and you fished them fish, that’s a steep bank, though. It it there was there was there was, you know, there was some deeper water out there, but where the fish were hitting, they was within that first couple of feet off the bank.
Yeah. For both of us.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I mean, Yeah. It’s a It’s a shallow loving strain of bass in that lake. Yep. So, I’m going to take my troll motor up about three in pulled up about three or four inches to where my forward facing sonar is completely out of the water and props underneath there and I’m going to go shallow. I’m either I’m either going to do what I normally do is either catch one or two or I’m going to blank like I did on the first one. So,
well, you know what you got to do? You got to pull a Keith Pochet and bring out your little jetboat or your little aluminum flatsider and go up into six inches of water where no one else can go. Catch 25 pounds on that lake.
Well, I’m not saying that into the near future that I may be going to aluminum boat.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, those newer aluminums are getting rave reviews. Lighter. Every time you touch a dock, it ain’t $1,000 in your fiberglass. And even the bigger, even the 1920 foot aluminum boats, even though that they’re heavier than your regular johnboat, they can still get around in really extreme shallow water. Yeah. buddy of mine. Well, Micah, he’s got a 22 foot um catfish boat and he’s been up in foot of water just
Wow. Yeah. Like one of those sea arcs.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’ve seen a bunch of bunch of those now that being our marine took over 16 marine and whatever. They’re selling those and I see a lot of those out now. And I was like, how can a boat that big, that wide, that long, and that heavy still float in that shallow of water? And I get in a foot, foot and a half and I can’t get my trolling motor shallow enough and I’ve got to turn around.
Yeah. Yeah.
Are we taking off from the same or are we going back to South Sanduski? Oh, I don’t even know. Oh,
I registered today and I didn’t pay attention.
Yeah. Yeah. Look it up here.
You You know, I’m not real sure cuz I was looking at that cuz I was thinking, well, let’s see why you guys are looking at that up there. Yeah. Yeah. Brad said they were catching them on laydowns and tournament day one. Do something deeper. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the same thing happens like always. We talk about it. There was a lot of people practicing on Friday. It’s summertime. There’s a lot of pleasure people doing all kind of fishing. And there was uh there were there were more boats on Shelbyville. It started looking like Lake of the Ozarks by about 10:30 11. It was there were swells. There’s three four foot swells by 10:301. And it got worse as day went on.
It is.
I think everyone was cooped up because weather’s been so bad. All the pleasure boers haven’t been able to get out. That was the first really hot weekend and I it just went crazy. Says we’re taking out a gun.
Gun again. Yeah. Same.
Yeah. Same place.
Yeah. That ranch junk. It’s just No, that’s like so crammed right there. There’s no
Yeah. cheap basketball.
Yeah. Well, maybe they they don’t guarantee a 100 votes or whatnot. I mean, I don’t know who else is going to be at the other marina. Yeah. But, uh,
or maybe it’s because um, you know, someone was telling me here that the state of Illinois wanted like, you know, 10% of your proceeds if you took out of one of their ramps. So, they’re like, “Fine, we’ll go take off at another one and give them, you know, they’re 5%, they’ll be happy.”
Yeah.
You know,
I think that’s
like MLF is rolling in the dough. You know, they’re giving it all back to us, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The BPT is getting all of our money.
Yeah. The uh I think that’s why they don’t take out a sailboat is because of that. Yeah. [Music] But I just looked and I did gain four places. So, I’m up to
How How’d you do that? Oh, you caught a fish. Never mind. Yeah, I can’t I jump from 28th to 24th. Uh so if I if I can do get my norm get a couple of keepers on ren and then I’m going to be ready for Kentucky Lake. Oh yeah. I’ve never fished the on the north end practicing until about a week or two before the super tournament when we had it on there. I’ve already started
and I’m starting, you know, just in case, but I’ve already started down on this end. This weekend I’ll be taking off at 6880. So, I don’t know. We’re taking if we take out a Moors or Kentucky Dam. Either way, that’s only a 30 minute ride. You know, if if the water’s kind of choppy,
I could be down to 6880. So, yeah.
Are you going to do the regional? Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah. I was so upset and disappointed last year, but uh my health with my knee and my back, it was like I couldn’t even get in and out of my boat. And it was like, well, there ain’t no use to traveling that far.
Yeah, totally. Totally. Which I kind of wished I’d have went ahead, you know, could have made it, but then after kind of some of the stories and stuff, I’m I’m glad I stayed home.
Yeah,
good. It really was. Mission was good. If you found the regional this year,
huh?
Are you gonna go to the regional this year? I’m going.
Oh, he’s saying it. Well, it’s consolation prize. We have 60 points
and we’re in 62nd place. We’re only two places away from making the regional.
Now, now is it going to be like a normal because they said the top 60, but if you win, you’re in.
So, there’s going to be five people So is that
Yeah, they really it’s going to be up to 65 times two or 130 will be the match because two divisions this year
with being in 62 uh if you if uh you’re already in. Yep.
Because there’s been three winners. There’s been three winners. So that would that puts you at 62. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Okay. I see what you’re saying. Yeah.
Yeah. Well,
and there’ll be people that won’t go, so we’re gonna catch one at Ren.
Yeah,
Ren owes me. So, uh
Oh, I don’t need to cross my fingers. I’m going.
Yeah,
you you know I’ll throw. I already told you.
I know. Dan,
that’s it. Hm. Oh,
I’ll tell them I’m gonna throw a top water, a jig, and a some kind of moving spinner bait or a chatterbait.
You You know that when we was talking about it said I’ve been looking for that one and couldn’t find it.
Somebody put one in my boat. They did?
Yes. And then I found another one in my boat and it was the same color that you was throwing. H. A little one like that.
A little one just like it. Because I’ve looked. I have
No, I have two. They’re two different colors, but I got two.
Yeah. Good. I threw the one uh here about three weeks ago on Barkley cuz I mean I’ve never seen a shad spawn like that. I mean they was it looked like bunch of piranhas all whapping down the rock and I thought man perfect did it nothing threw a crankbait around there nothing so I took the side scan I went back around and started looking never seen anything but shad I’ve never seen and never caught
never caught a bass but I’ve never seen a shad spawn go that Crazy. Yeah. Last year um on maybe it was the U LBL second or third one um I was with um what’s his face? Dan Oh, famous
Dan Morehead.
Morehead. Yeah. and uh he went down to Barkley and he went a ways down Barkley and we pull into this this nice cove and we pull in and it’s just shad spawn. I’m like, “Oh my god, are we going to catch them?” Same thing. We did not catch a fish by that shad spawn. It was unbelievable. It was just like, “How can there be that many shad here? Are are the bass just full up on them already or or It was really weird.” Yeah. So, but I’ll h I’ll have it tied on at Ren though. I recommend it.
No secret lure. You know, you got to disclose after Ren. Then
you brought it up on the channel. You’re telling secrets. You got to disclose it after.
Okay. I’m going to be throwing
it to you. I thought it’s a little be throwing I’m gonna be throwing a Hank Cherry special. Hm.
He likes his jerk baits.
Exactly. Yeah.
That’s what That’s what I told Eric when we fished. I said, “Man, I ain’t caught anything in three days when I was down here and finally I went down at the dam and I thought I’m going to do a Hank Cherry.”
Started with that crankbait or that jerkbait. Boom. Caught one.
Went another little ways. Boom. Caught another one. Left and went up towards the north. Boom. Caught one about three and a half. I said, “I’m done.” and went back to the boat ramp and that’s what I started with on the next morning. Yeah.
That’s what I taught my keepers on.
Mhm.
Sweet. And that was in
That was about this time, too, wasn’t it?
Yes. Yeah. Last last year, Run Lake was like June 30th or so because I remember I was leaving right afterwards. It was right before the Fourth of July weekend. They kind of flip-flopped the tournaments this year. So it’s
that’ll be a little later, you know.
Yeah. The sky is gone.
20 days later.
Yeah. Yeah. It’ll be about should be the same. Yeah. I’ve never caught anything down by the dam.
Yeah. There ain’t nothing
that rent.
There’s There’s There’s no fish down there. But I am going to do something this year when I go there that I normally do, but I haven’t done. And I’m gonna fish that dam just like I used to fish the causeway at on Maton because it’s kind of the same way cuz it’s kind of slants out from the bank and then drops off taking a jig and go down through there. I might catch catfish but if there’s, you know, after going through there with that jerk bait, come back there with that jig. It’s more of a swim and hop instead of just letting it fall all the way down the bottom. But
yeah,
I’ve never I’ve never done that there. I don’t know if it’ll do any good. I’ve never seen anybody fish it like that. So, but I’m going to be jump fishing 101 again. That’s what Ren Lake seems to be what it’s famous for.
Yep, it is.
Yep. But I told myself my goal this year was to be in the top 10 in the points at the end of the year. And then
could have weighed those fish in that would have been a big one. If I have could have weighed a fish on that first one.
Oh god.
I’ been I’d have been on track.
Yep. Yep. Yeah. Me too. Uh, but we’ll see. Ren will be Ren. At least James, did you see I finally made it down to Lake Lake Sarah? I didn’t do too well.
I I did and I watched the uh video. Now, that’s another lake that you can catch him largemouth schooling on. Now, used to back in the day, um they’ll be out there 20 or 30 feet off a point and you’d see them busted in the summertime. Uh, Ren, what I could see from your video, it doesn’t have the moss on top like it used to. Uh, I didn’t see any any moss or mats at Sarah, but there was there was grass and up to about, you know, five feet, six feet um in a couple areas where the water was a little cleaner. Yeah, that west end when you when you put in at that ramp,
right,
you would turn right.
Yeah, that’s where it was. It was up and to the right.
All All that on both sides used to be nothing but moss mats. Yeah. And you get about threequarters of the way down in towards where it ends. There’s an island out there. And or in that f and in that finger you’re talking
in that finger. If you would turn right and keep on going straight.
Yeah.
About 3/4 way back in the middle of it there’s there’s a big hump.
Mhm.
Now that hump had grass on it. Now, it never reached the the, you know, the top of the water that you could take a Carolina rig with a three-foot leader cast out there and let that be, you know, through that grass and catch them or um hop a worm in there and catch them. But that was back in the day. Who knows what it is now cuz everything’s changed. There probably ain’t as much lay downs in that that used to be. And I noticed that the grass mats wasn’t in there like they used to be because that’s if you wanted to throw of course top water back then is either uh was a throw a Texas rig weightless worm on top or you threw the moss boss. The moss boss. Okay. I don’t know what that is. What is the moss boss? Or was it
the old Johnson almost like a spoon that’s rounded up like that had one hook but it was made out of plastic. So when you threw it it was weighted enough to where
it landed,
but once you pulled it off that you do it, it sat there and
sink and it do this right there on the edge of that grass. So if they followed it out once you hit the end of that moss, you stopped it and watch that float down and they boom or they’d blow the top of it, you know, up through the moss. But yeah, the old moss boss that was the first really true I mean kind of like a frog or you know any really top water beside because you had chuggers that had treble hooks. You had the you know the jitter bug that had the trouble hook so you couldn’t fish none of that back then.
No. Yeah. What about frogs?
There was no frogs. Wow. back back in the 80s.
Back in the 80s, there wasn’t, you know, there wasn’t no frogs. I just kind of assumed it had been around here for a long time
because the uh the first plastic that was like that that’s kind of like a frog that came out was actually a mouse.
A mouse. Yeah, I bet
they called it a rat.
Oh, I remember someone that was.
Yeah, it was a rat. They called it a rat. Had the had the skirt coming off the back. It had the two hooks that come up in, you know, across the back, but it looked just like a mouse or a rat with the hook going through the nose just like a frog, right?
Then then later the frog came out. Wow. Wow. I have to look.
That’s really OG. Yeah. Yeah. And one of my best one that I used to love to throw on there, they don’t even make anymore. And it was made by Rebel. And it was a Pop R, but it was a solid rubber. And it had the the double hook that came out and went hooked on the top, you know, right over just like a mouse does. And it had a skirt on there. And it was completely r, you know, a solid rubber. So when you threw it out there, you could actually work across that moss and then once you hit it, then you just sit there and pop it. Or if you had grass that grew all the way up to where it just barely broke the top, you could throw that pop art in there and pop it through the weeds, which you can with the mouse now cuz I got a mouse pop art that’s just, you know, the the popping frog except for it was a pop art that was round, you know, and was probably about two and a half inches, maybe three inches long, maybe. Right. Right. I had one of them for years. Buddy of mine that passed away here a few years ago. I stalked to his wife and uh she told me that she still had all his fishing equipment down in there in the basement that when I came back up I could take it all. So I’m hoping that he still had a couple of them in there.
Yeah. Are you going to use them or you going to put them up on a in a cabinet?
Oh, I’ll put one up in the cabinet. But I got to I got to throw that one because especially around, you know, any kind of the you know, of course on Barkley and Kentucky Lake, you don’t have the grass. You have that kind of a we call them yellow flowers cuz they’ll come off the bank about, you know, seven or eight feet and that’s perfect because they won’t get hung up and you throw it in there and work it through where it’s spor. I’m not a big frog. I I I don’t cuz I don’t get around enough and I’m not a good enough skipper to skip them underneath, you know, the trees and stuff. Um I’ve got several. I just haven’t got anything on them. I’m a more of a Zara spook. Yep. Oh yeah. Or like Dustin was just reminding me, I saw at uh Bass Pro the other week. They got these uh zoo dogs or whatever,
kind of like it’s like a weedless spook, but I didn’t have it with me. It’s uh sitting in my boat doing no good when I’m out fishing and maybe need it.
Yeah. Yeah. Like Sarah, there was like seaw walls everywhere. Like you said, there was there there was rip wrap in some spots. Um, I didn’t go all the way on the north side. Was it shallow? Because I didn’t see anyone up there, but 85% of the people were fishing docks. It was like docks, docks, docks, docks, docks. And And there’s And if you would come out from the boat ramp and make a right there at the very end of it, like you’re going towards the dam, that last cove on the left, there’s another ramp back there. It used to be. I saw it on the map. Yeah. way down there by the dam. Yeah. Yeah. I I didn’t see it, but I saw it on the map.
But 90% of the docks are on that south side or the north side, I mean, of that lake.
Yeah.
In them coes. And there’s a lot of docks. There there was a lot of them. And most people were there, you know, a little, you know, some people out uh you know, by some rip wrap here or there. And then I I I didn’t find anything many real points. It’s just river channel and you know not much shallow here and there. Right.
I know that when you go towards the dam there’s on the right hand side there were there was couple of long points that came out. I think they’re washed down
and uh uh they used to be pretty good, but like I said,
there was a little cove down there I hit. That’s where I caught one and it had it had some better layowns and it it had a little point within the little cove where there was a lay down on and I thought it was going to be fantastic, but it was just full of crappie. It’s not all the way down over by the dam, but when you’re headed towards dam on that south bank where you said it was kind of shallow over there. Now, there is some main lake points that do come out. Now, how good they are now, I don’t know. Me and
Yeah, everything seemed to be just booming to the channel.
Yeah, me and uh Buddy keeps on saying, “Man, we wanted to go down there and fish Sarah just one time.” But up until a few years ago, there was no daily, no weekend. You either had to buy you had to buy the whole season. Oh, yeah. It was 25 bucks for three days or 75 bucks for the year. Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of places are doing stuff like that now.
Yeah. And before it was you bought the season and whether you fished it one day or
Yep. for, you know, all year. And that tune uh used to be that way, but it wasn’t really that bad. It was like $40 for the year.
Yeah.
Um
inflation, baby.
Yeah. Uh and I’ve heard good things about Matt Ton because it was a good lake and then it kind of kind of went down. But I guess it’s Well, I talked to Pat. He he doesn’t he used to run the Wednesday nighter and Saturday tournaments over there and he doesn’t anymore because he’s too busy. But I don’t know what it’s like now. I know a couple years ago when I was talking to Mike Black said that you know that four or five pounders were really common
on
Yeah. So it was
I mean Sarah Sarah first tournament of the year 25 pounds to win second tournament of the me minute of the year 9.32 to win the lowest winning bag in USA bassing history on Lake Sarah was tournament number two and the one the third one that I was at uh I didn’t see I didn’t know I didn’t see it listed they had like 27 boats they said it was one of their biggest turnouts I mean you know 600 acres that’s a lot of boats plus the pleasure boats And I think it was like, you know, another it was like uh 15 1413 or 141 1312 everybody bunched up after that kind of day and they had a weird slot limit too.
Yeah. Now you talking about 600 Lakers and you know it’s kind of a small I have fished several several tournaments on there with over a hundred boats
on Sarah. on Sarah. Wow. I can’t imagine. Well, everybody gets a dock and it’s like musical chairs. Oh, yeah. I mean, I look, you know, I think back and it’s like cuz that’s where I grew up and stuff. So, every tournament, you know, big open tournaments, you know, were 100 to 200 boats like uh uh Mil Creek. Wow.
Mil Creek isn’t that big. And the biggest tournament of my life that I’ve ever fished was on that lake and it was a lunker chasers open. They put one on every spring and they had 275 boats on there. And man, Larry’s looking back and says, you know, I don’t know how we done that because now when you get 50 boats on there, it’s like you turn around and everybody’s, you know, where everybody’s fishing. I said, “Can you imagine back in the day when we fishing it and had over 200 boats on this lake?” I I I you’d have to launch from like every boat launch and it would still be a long
And there was people that did and there was people that did because some of them would would put up at their what we’d call the the the west boat ramp, some of them put down there at the damn boat ramp,
which is on the the east side. And then they’d come out and then they would idle.
Yeah.
Down to the other one because you could That’s one of the lakes that you couldn’t run. It was idle only. No wake after, you know, when it was dark.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, guys. Well, it’s uh it’s uh well after 9. Probably should uh put a cap on it here. Let’s uh go around the horn, get some final thoughts. Thanks for uh jumping on at the last minute here having an engaging conversation here. Um remind everyone we will um well no live stream next Monday. It’ll be holiday week and I’ll I’ll be out so I won’t be able to do it here. Um and then uh we’ll uh we’ll kind of have a little bit of a Ren preview which we almost kind of hit today here but we can hit that again and see who the guest is. Uh James, what are your thoughts for the next couple of weeks? Uh, I think uh I’ll start with Kentucky Lake since since us three is going to be I know me, you and Brad’s going to be fishing it. I think uh it’s going to be good. Uh I think it’s going to be about 15 16 pounds to take it uh on the three fish limit. Um
yeah,
we’re just, you know, somebody’s going to know where them bigger fish are.
Yeah. Uh, and as far as rain goes, pick out pick out two or three rods and hit the bank and fish eight hours.
Yeah. Put your head down. [Laughter] And when you get tired of throwing one, pick up the next one. When you get tired of throwing that, put that one up. When you get tired of throwing the third one, sit down, drink you water.
Yeah.
And get back up and fish. Start fishing. catch a keeper, put the other poles away. Uh yeah, and you know, there’s going to be the guys that’s going to fish it. I think there’s going to be, you know, that that 13 12 probably about 12 to 13. Um I think people’s going to really been hitting it hard trying to figure out the fish. So
yeah.
Yeah.
And it’s a small lake. What you thinking, Eric? Uh I don’t know. It depends. I think water level is going to have a lot to do with it. It’s still up like three feet. You seen John saying they were in the bushes. I just looked at the water level and it’s still up three feet. They were Wow.
You know, so it’s still in the bushes. Like you could still catch them there, but if we don’t get rain, it’ll be down to normal pool and then there’s very few bushes
left in the water. So, uh, weather will be a big factor, too. If it’s if you got clouds, it’s a different lake than if the sun’s out. So,
yeah,
that’s gonna be the big deal with it, I think.
With the water up three feet, you gonna be able to get underneath the bridges.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
The interstate bridge. And Mhm. Yeah. I fished that first USA bassinet and it was still up probably maybe five feet and a guy got I watched a guy go under the one in S uh Sandusky. I wouldn’t do it because I didn’t want to
Yeah.
mess my stuff up, but he he went under it.
The one in D shallow pool back in the end.
Yeah. You couldn’t get under the one in uh Markham. I don’t Wait a minute. Um, maybe it’s not Markhamm. What’s the word? Me and Chris fish. No gun. You could get under the one. But that you could get under that when we fished it. Um, up through the through the bridge and to the left. That first there.
Oh, yeah.
Is that Markham?
No, that’s uh
No, Markham’s the one down by the dam. Yeah, Markham’s the one down by the dam. I understand. I If you go around and go underneath of that West Bank where you’re going up in there like you’re going to uh what are they called?
Jackie Cove.
Jackie branch. Yeah, I think that’s what it is. Jackie. Yeah. You couldn’t get under that one.
I tried another boat like two or three boats tried that day in that USA bass and you couldn’t get under it. Yeah. But I think you can now.
Yeah. Me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me me and Chris Fred I say fridge but me and Chris fished a uh Midwest tournament and water was up. We got underneath that bridge. You know how he done it? Because two weeks before that Randy Brock Blocket won a tournament by his
and fridge Chris. We got back here and fish for three hours. Never caught anything. And then we had to turn around and come back out. So the other thing the other thing that’s going to make it tough, you were talking about the pre-ishing. You’ll have everybody pre-ishing. Well, the weekend before you got the USA Bassin’s there.
Angler’s Choice is there also. I just looked.
Oh, what ramps are they taking out of?
Well, USA Bassin always takes out a sailboat. So I think Angller’s Choice takes out of Sanduski. But I I’ll have to go back and look. But yeah. Okay,
that’s good to know.
Yeah, you’re welcome. You’ll be racing everybody else. Shoot. Unless I got boat number one. Yeah, you you won’t make it day either one of them.
No,
true.
That Yeah, you know, sailboat will be all day. People be if you get people that don’t prefish it and don’t know it, they’ll go running in there because they think it’s I got three people that likes going in there. I fished it and never caught a fish.
No, I think they Now that bank right outside there leading to the bridge.
Yeah. Oh,
I caught them on that bank, but you won’t I’ve rarely ever caught anything inside of a sailboat like how they get out of there, I think. Yeah,
I did in day two of the super tournament when I was out of it and I was frustrated because I didn’t get a fish a few years ago. So on the way home I’m like I’m just going to go in there and I was flipping the back of the docks. I caught a three-pounder and a four pounder and went, “Okay, I can go home now.”
Oh no. Huh. But it’s, you know, it’s places you really couldn’t get at from being in a boat. I mean, I was in in in in back on the shore side of the docks. Yeah, it’s going to be interesting. Yeah.
Yeah. All right, everybody. Happy birthday, country. Everybody have a safe holiday. Have fun. Kick back. Kind of a, you know, mid year, midsummer break. uh for most fishing circuits, we’re we’re 3/4 2/3 3/4 done and we will in the next few weeks here. It’ll be basically super tournaments in the end of the year. And if you’re a USA bassing guy, I just noticed last year they got like fall and winter series down in southern Illinois on on those lake if you guys have ever done those. Yeah, we got a on Kentucky Lake of Barkley. There’s a spring or they start in the fall because fall starts the new year. So it goes fall, spring, summer or fall, winter, spring, and summer.
Yep. Yep.
Yeah. We’ll fish a couple of the table rock fall ones. Oh yeah.
Points. That’s points for next year. So, they don’t get very many boats. It’s easy points. Yeah. And what what in USA bassin?
Mhm. Yeah.
Yeah. They’ll only get about
Oh, they’ll do like uh like
October, November, and then like February, March or something like that.
No, they do them all five. They’ll do uh I think they do two October, two November, and a December.
Oh, wow.
Last year, the two November ones, they did a Saturday, Sunday,
so two different tournaments. So, it’s good for us. We go down and get two tournament for every little vacation at Table Rock and
Yeah.
fish a place where there’s actually fish. It’s kind of nice.
Yeah, it is. Yeah. So,
all right, everybody.
Have a good weekend and uh I’ll see you at Kentucky Lake and I’ll see you at Ren. Yeah. Yeah. All right, everybody. Hope to see you out on the road. Say hi to us. Have a happy, safe holiday. And whatever you do, keep your lines tight. Good night.
