Just wanted to take a brief moment to give you guys a little idea how we do it here at paddle and fin podcast. We use the anchor dot f m-- recording platform super easy distributes our podcast too many many different platforms. There's creation tools to allowed you to record and edit podcast right from your phone or a computer check out anchor dot f m orDownload the free anchor app to get started. Welcome. Welcome to paddle and fin the real down segment brought to you by Michigan Ohio kayak Anglers today. We have Zach soulier. Who's on the board of my oh, how you doing today? Zak? Not too bad about you. I'm doing good. Alongside of us. Here is a co-host John Graves. How you doing John? I'm doing great guys, man. Just I'm happy to be alive after this weekend. Yeah, you had a crazy weekend fishing the Buddy bass tournament and the paddle and fin tournament with me didn't see out. Water though, but now it was hot and I suffered some heat exhaustion. That was a that was a rough one for me. Yeah. It was my teammate did well. Yeah, I heard he did real well his first tournament ever that's all I act so he's probably hooked now and he he's very hooked. He's very hooked. You know, he's a lot like a lot of us, you know, you can't pull you love to bass fish and you know, you you're good at it, but you know, No, you can't pull 20 grand on a bass boat. And do you feel like you're kind of like stuck, you know, so you try these co-angler positions out and we try to get your spot and these big, you know bass tournaments and stuff like that. You're like, you know, it's a hard draw to make that but all of a sudden you can get a plastic molded kayak and go out and compete for some pretty good money for what you got to put in it and Just the moment. I put him in the pro angler 14 and put him out the day before in the pond right out of here in the house since first time he ever brought a fish up netted the fish. In fact, I got the video on my Facebook page. It's funny because he just he's so natural at it sets the hook. He sets down he grabs the I mean, it's I always struggle with that yak. That Yaki ernet. The one that has the brace there and I always always struggle with that thing a little bit. His arms just slip right down on it. Like it was just like he's been doing it his whole life. He grabs the fish. He sets it down because all that wasn't wasn't as hard as I thought it was and then the next day just did as well as he did. I was just so he's definitely hook. In fact the next day he was asking. Okay, how much do I got to put in these kayaks? And I said, well that's that's a whole other story there. So, you know, but you will definitely be seeing Dawson Thompson out there fishing out. Kayak the name remember then so yeah, my weekend went pretty good. We did the paddle on fin tournament. There was probably about 14 15 guys out there. I placed fifth in the individual and me and Chris Andersen got first place. Yeah. Yeah, you guys were crushing it. It was fun man. You're on fire account Lake out there man. I know I don't get it. Yeah, you're must you got you got something. So, you know, what was it? What were you doing black and blue jigs, right? Right the same your go-to. Yep. I'm throwing it into cover and structure all my bites were early morning. It kind of died out until about 1 o'clock, right? So yeah, let's get into this stuff with Zach here. He's on the board of my oh and how long you been doing them? Are there actually just started this year? I would say we voted on the board tired and Rich. Both approached me maybe about a month and a half ago. Actually the board we had talked about it prior but up until about a month and a half ago. It was just kind of a more of a hey we may do this kind of thing and he called me and said hey, we're going to give this a go. We want you to be part of it. So I was I was more than happy to get on with those guys and help them out in any way possible and so far. It's that's the board board came together real nice. You know, we got a few real good guys on that board really good fisherman, and it's nice to not only be able to make decisions with these guys, but just to talk to him, you know pick their brain about what they do and you know, here's some of the different different stories especially being Central the northern Michigan and hearing from guys that are down in Ohio. And yeah, I don't I don't get the fish down that way quite often but hearing some of the stories that makes me want to yeah, it's pretty good fishing down this way. So it's not it's not Michigan but it's still pretty good. No other I know Jason rickets is on the board for you guys and jeered McComas, right? Yeah. Li's Ricketts myself and then Rich and Todd Rich Peterson and Todd Patrick that that's the five board members that we have. Okay. Yeah. I met Jarrod this weekend. He's real cool guy. We camped at Callan linked either in the of course me and John both know Jason pretty well. We're good friends with them. So what's your guys responsibilities? Um, a lot of it just comes to if there's the decisions to be made within the group. We actually just had our tournament at Fletcher's pain this weekend and there was a discrepancy over the big bass of the tournament. It was a mouth open deduction on a fish that would have been the big bass of the day and it came down to a board decision on how far we all thought the mouth was open and you know, and that's that's kind of where it's tough for myself, you know. Being one of the competitors in the tournament I didn't do as well as I wanted to do this weekend. I probably placed 11th. I believe after two great days of pre-fishing. I just could not find them on Saturday, but it's tough when you know, you're you're fishing against these guys that you have to give a deduction to but having a five-person board it allows, you know, No, my vote to not so much be the deciding factor and it was it was a decision that we all made that the fish there had to be a deduction made to it and Steven Galloway ended up posting the big fish with 19 believe it was 19 the half inches, so he ended up taking home about a hundred and seventy-five bucks just for catching one fish. Nice. That's awesome. He also took home. Paychecks. Wow, that's okay. Yeah, I what was his name again? Steven Galloway, that's right. I added him on Facebook. And I'm gonna try to keep adding everybody that goes through the turtles are some pretty familiar with everybody. Yeah, he's he's a great steak. He you know, he's one of those guys that I heard somewhere. I don't remember where but he's one of those guys he carries that clicker on his kayak and marks every time he catches a fish and I believe last year. He only had over a thousand fish caught what he did. You know, we always give him a hard time about his kayak is always a mess. But you when you fish as hard as that guy does there's a reason his kayak is a mess because he doesn't have time to clean it off because he's going and going and it shows I mean he every tournament he's in the top, you know, so he's a great guy. I mean, he's a pretty quiet guy. So, you know, he's not not Wonder want to talk a lot but when you can get them talking it's nice to actually We get to talk to him sounds like a guy we know down here in Southwest Ohio. And that right John. Yeah Kurt Busch Kurt Smith told Toby pro angler and yeah, thanks krazee. All that. That kayak has more experience fishing than I do. Yeah. I'm in want to Curt Smith old ones now, it's incredible the one that he won. National championship and I'm fishing out of now. That's amazing. That's all let's say you guys are bad. But yeah, I bought it off a rich Peterson right after I came back from Nationals there and I've been fishing out of that now for what going on for months now and I love that thing. I know and that you know, it's got Kurt Smith DNA all over it. Did it come with like a Spider-Man like a wet naps pack? Package, he always put those in there and then there was no one's like soft. Lure Plastics coming out of the transducer Mountain stuff at the bottom of the Holy bath open where he left some of his, you know, But yeah, he's very open to discussion, but he's he'll hold tight to his secrets and what makes it click for him, you know, and you know, you get to that level a guy like me. I'm just a farm and this is what I do and this is where I got it and that's how I did it. But you know, I'm learning, you know, some of those things went to hold a little closer. Everybody knows I throw the net rate that's it looks good, babe. It came out at Nationals that I threw the net rigged the entire time. So every time I catch a big fish anymore, it's like oh that was probably the network wasn't it? And maybe it's a good bait. I'm known to throw the ChatterBait. So everybody around here's call me ChatterBait Brad now. Yeah. Just putting it right there. So it was Zack. Let me let me ask you something Zach if I could because I'm going to be heading I'm I'm heading out for am to I cast okay, I'm specifically looking for a finesse Rod to throw the Ned ring. What should I be looking for? Um, you know, as far as rods go, I typically stick to the lose rods. I love the feel that they have. I've been throwing my finesse baits with a pretty much a lighter action the lose. What is it? I want to say it's the it's the Mach 1 I believe okay the cast early casting rod. Or just the the spinning rod and I mean, I I just I love the feel that that Rod has, you know, I've tried other ones. I've even tried some like almost like ultra light just to see if I can get a little more feel right. I just never really had as good of good of feel as I do with the the lose mock ones knows that like a medium. It's a the one that I got. I actually talked the guy at the store and the switching the the rod out with another one. I ended up getting a medium light. So it has a little more lip to it. I was contemplating. I'm just getting the medium but there was a medium-weight one right there, but it had a different real on it or no. That one was just sitting on the shelf. It didn't have a real on it and I asked the guy I'm like, can I just swap the rod with this? Make it a combo. He said yeah, that's that's cool. So, yeah, he was cool about it. You definitely you definitely need one of those more sensitive than lighter rods for that because those bass don't always Hammer the Ned rig they don't lie pick it up. So yeah. Well, that's especially when your bed fishing. That's that's a tough one. I love throwing the net rig when I'm bed fishing and that actually got me third place in one of my tournaments this year was up at Green Lake or duck and Green Lake. I found 75 beds one day and then went back. I can tournament day and I just I just cruised around right on top of the beds and through and Ned Reagan and that fish would barely touch it. And if you didn't set that hook in that one one and a half seconds at the most that fish was gone. So that's awesome. What other tournaments do you fish or tournament Trails? So I did a couple of the Michigan kayak Trail the MKT this season over on the west side of the state. And fish the northern Michigan kayak Trail, which is a lot of breaks, you know, like the name says they're all nor Northern Lakes. We've done Lake st. Helens ducking Green Lake, which is up by Traverse City next weekend. We have the Saginaw Bay tournament. And then I think there's one more tournament and then their championship for the year is going to be on Burton mullet lake. So that's going to be a good one though. That's a very high. I populated Smallmouth Lake both store and mullet has just Monster Smallmouth in there. What was that? Second one, you said I got the Michigan the northern Michigan trail. What was the other one? Yeah the so there was the Michigan kayak Trail, which is MKT and then the northern Michigan kayak Trail. And then the other ones that I fish are I've fished cats in the past. I unfortunately none of the dates lined up this year for me to fish any of their tournaments. I did the whole be Pass open this year and then and then my always been kind of my, you know, my more more loyal one. Unfortunately two or three minutes though this year one got canceled and one lined up on a day that I could not attend. I've only finished two of their tournament so far, but I do plan on fishing the last two as well. Yeah, it's this segment we're doing we're trying to get more familiar with the tournament trails in our region specifically mid res Midwest region. So I'm glad I asked you that because I haven't heard of the northern Michigan trails and there's a couple of smaller ones as well. There's a trail up in Alpena. That's just Old the Alpena kayak Anglers Association, I think and they got some good guys up. There. They do some good Lakes. They're just they're a smaller Club, you know, and I think that's going to be the biggest thing with the the future of this sport is, you know, getting you know up until last year. Nobody really wanted to bring tournaments to Northern Michigan and you know now now we're doing an entire city and that Last one that I did up there the top three guys had all over 90 inches, you know, so, you know, there are good Lakes up there and you know even Fletcher's Pond even though it didn't produce. Over 90 inches both of my days of pre-fishing. I caught 90 inches plus the second talk about that place. You know, the first day was just unbelievable. I had fish after fish that were just big my Smalls were and I mean II told a lot of people what I caught and I didn't tell them every fish because I kind of wanted to keep At the secret and you know, I think I told a lot of people I only caught mid-80s. I'm on Friday even Friday. I put up over 90 inches and I just I went out Saturday and you know, I had a I had a plan A A Plan B. And that's about as far as I got and Saturday morning. I woke up and just did not feel confident in plan a because I looked out and my plan a was actually spot fishing. I am Thursday. I went out and I saw a fish swimming through the weed beds and I was throwing a jig in or a Ned rig, which I was using the green pumpkin goby and I was throwing that in they were just hammering it and I looked out and I saw there was already a little bit of a chop at five o'clock in the morning and I knew plan a was out. I started heading out to plan B and I saw three boats already sitting in my plan B. So I resorted to a makeshift plan C and lost three good fish to bite to it were my own fault and one that just did not want to take a picture and then no actually it was It was kind of weird. Jeff Bader told me this exact thing happened to him at the Hobie bass open. And and it was I saw it happening as into him as a happened to me. It jumped it landed on the front of my kayak the hook fell out of its mouth and it laid there for a second and it stopped in the water. And so I I set my ride down and tried to dive to the front of the kayak the whole town and there was no keeping that fish. After that though. I was fortunate enough to still put up 78 inches. And I really didn't start catching fish until almost noon. I think the biggest thing that happened out there was the two days of pre-fishing. It was in the 80s like mid to high 80s and then come tournament day. It was low 70s and overcast and that bite just changed a lot. Yeah, you know the two prior days. I was you know fish were swimming from every direction to hit those losers tournament day for me. It was just I had to I had to get that bait right in front of that fish for him to take it. So that's crazy man Zach. It's almost like a is the rent up there in Michigan pretty cheap because I just looked up on Wikipedia. And how many lakes are in that state. Wow, you know, there are a lot and And there are some beautiful Waters here. And you know, I'm fortunate enough to I live right on Saginaw Bay Saginaw Bay. I believe was just voted the number 8 bass fishing area. I don't know if that's in the state or you know, if that's the best master like Countrywide kind of thing, but Saginaw Bay holds some beautiful bass and it's very Under fish. Up here while I are what everybody targets and you go out and meet somebody you're going for Bass and they kind of look at you like you you don't know what you're doing. Where are you for supposed to and I found some and they're there it's just You know a 4-mile paddle. Yeah, that's awesome. What's I'm always curious the water temperature difference between up there where you are and down here in Cincinnati. We're almost there almost 90 degree water gets hot. Wow. So when I was out at the today, I want to say it was I was picking up spots. I was picking up. 74 and then I was picking up spots that were you know, I'll shallow water. That was more like 78, but I know Fletcher's Pond even Northern Michigan was mid 70s. Wow, that's nice. Yeah. That is nice. Hey, you got a couch there at your house that I got. I got plenty of room. You know, I being that I fished the baby predominantly that's part of the Great Lakes system. So you're always having water flow coming in and out. I've never noticed it higher than 79 in my touch 80 a couple times and I would assume that these smaller Lakes on especially when you get down towards the Fenton area. There are just there, huh? Hundreds of lakes down that way and they're all they're all 15 to 20 feet deep lakes. And I'm sure those Lakes are probably up in the 80s right now, but I know you know where I fish generally is never really above 80 degrees Yeah. That's awesome. Man. Right are Lower Lakes down here gear really hot really fast. You can set a hot dog in the water down here and five minutes late. It's good to go. Yeah, that's how we do it. If you guys get a lot of a lot of grass growth and everything like that. I'm assuming than two. Huh? Definitely a lot of a lot of farm runoff and are Ponder not ponds and lakes and everything to you. So it's not good. Yeah, and I don't mind paying fishing or you know, we'd been fishing but at the same time I would much rather fish that you know, 10 to 12-foot drop off that's got you know fish hanging right out on the drop-off area. Yeah. Um, all right, let's get back to the myo stuff. What's the tournament fees for the my Assurance? Myo, tournaments the tournament fees from IO are always if it's a mile specific event, which this year they did partner to with her but to other events with the kbf. So if it's a mile of specific event their $50 for the entry fee and then they're five. Hours, if you want to get into the big bass if it is a kbf event, which lake st. Clair this year was and then so is the East-West Harbor tournament that's coming up on the 27th of this month. That will be a $75 entry fee. And if you want to get into big bass you have to do that through the kbf big bass brawl, which is I believe an extra $25. Okay. Um, so that's That's all kind of handled more on the lines of kbf. But when it is Amaya specific event their $50 for an entry fee and $5 for big bass you guys ever get any pushback on the tournament piece. My not typically I know all their tournament series even some of the ones I fish are more than what my oh is actually Maya is The cheaper ones. Okay. Yeah, our tournaments down here pretty cheap. It seems like it is John. I think the most they get is like 35, right? Yeah. I mean it's they're pretty inexpensive, you know, $35 really at the most you toss it another 5 or 10 bucks for big bass. But yeah, yeah, not much all great Raffles the way I always look at it as if I don't have an extra 50 bucks laying around to fish a tournament. I probably shouldn't be fishing in any way. Yeah bucks would be going. Something else definitely. What's your guy's a payout structure? They pay out the top 10% It's rounded down. So like this last tournament Maya was a kbf partner. So we are able to if we reach 30 Anglers and a tournament we are able to give National Championship qualifier spots. So this last tournament, I believe there were a lot of say there were 4:37 participants in the tournament. So we paid three spots but we gave away for National Championship spots. So these spots are always rounded up and the payout is always rounded down just so that way we can you know, allow those top two or top three or whatever. It's going to be to get a little more money for what they did it John here. He qualified the first event of the year. Didn't even expect it. I wasn't maybe that's why I did it. You know, that's why I the year before I stressed out so much and but first tournament and had to Hopi pro angler 14 and it was the yak of the Covenant did it for ya? Yeah, and I mean, you know, I was the same way last year you talk to any like rich or tied. I finished angler of the year last year. I came in second by I want to say it was either a half inch or a quarter inch. Oh my we knew that the angler of the year was going to get a national championship spot being that it was meiosis first year everybody knew that the the top guy was going to go but we didn't know if more people were going to go. Luckily. I was in out, you know, it was enough for me to qualify last year and and I actually got the opportunity to you know, go down there and had a great tournament, you know, put three solid days together and just stayed on stayed on a good bite ended up bringing home 14th Place and she had yeah, I qualified for next year's at Nationals. And then I also qualified for the FLW kbf cup, which is coming up in August down in Arkansas. Yeah. That one is still up in the air right now. I plan on going to it. But $500 is a is a pretty hefty build of flip to take a week off of work. Yeah, it's going to be even more harder because your wife also just qualified to the in right I tuned in right? Yeah. Well, she qualified for Nationals so that Guntersville. Yeah. So now I already told her she's got to find her own house because now we're not friends. Now we're competing against each other through Nationals the top the top 20 or 40 qualified for 2020s Nationals and Guntersville. Yeah. I'm kind of new to this aren't ya when it was definitely A big stress relief and I actually do believe that it kind of hurt me a little bit to qualify already because I don't feel myself. Trying to grind it out as much, you know, if I'm in its own good point, you know, and I actually really enjoyed last year not knowing that I qualified until after my last event of the year because it made me fish hard. I you know, I spent till if checking was that a lines out was that too you better believe I had a line in until 159 where now, you know even less even Last tournament last weekend when I realized that I had 78 inches in the top person had 85, you know when there was 10 minutes left in the day. I was just sitting back. I had my music on and just kind of one of those things that it's great that to go to Nationals. But at the same time get that we still have to you still got a fish and I think a lot of times once once that stress gets taken off of you. You kind of you get complacent with just okay, you know, I it's okay if I don't finish in the top three because I'm already qualified and I felt that way this year and I didn't like it. You know, I had to kind of get myself out of that funk a while back Zach. I'm really glad I heard you say that because I'm falling into that same category. you know last year when I was attempting to qualify for the kbf really not knowing Jack squat about kayak Bass Fishing, but I might as well aim high and so I just went nuts on that and I was out trying to learn as much as I possibly could get out and go everywhere I could and now that I've qualified in the first tournament of the season I have I've set back I have got complacent and who has if I'm Okay, April 2020 so far away, but guess what man so was I cast and it's happened in tomorrow? So I'm so glad to hear you say that because I think now I'm not going to fall victim to that I do right and I think the biggest thing with that was and I realized it early enough that I basically told myself like I'm not I'm not going to let myself just stop going to some tournaments and all that because I mean anybody on any day can come out and do do great. That's that's the glory of fishing. It's not always the same person. Yeah, you know a lot of the guys are always on the top of the leaderboard but there's always that one person that from somewhere in the back they catch fish and you know, I mean when I went when I went down to Nationals last year, I went down that was my Fourth year ever even fishing not only just kayak fishing but just fishing in general. I went down there with just the idea of hey, I just want to go down and catch catch a fish after the first day then my goal change to I want to catch a limit both days and then you know my second day. I was I was able to catch the probably the biggest fish I ever catch hopefully not but you know, I was able to catch Fish that one me $1,100 then going into the third day. I found myself sitting in 18th Place and it was just a surreal moment that you don't want to let go of and then at six o'clock in the morning. You just got to let go of it and say hey, I got a fish again and you know, it's all it is is its any time of any day? I mean I Greg Blanchard, I don't know if you guys have yeah, he was he is behind and me going into day three and he put together what was probably one of the best day threes I've seen and I believe he ended up second place, right? Yeah, um amazing days together and you know, that's all it takes, you know when you can get it you and you can get a bait and you can get a good a good bike going you just got to keep rolling on that. Do you feel about those three days of fishing in that tournament fishing and that's it was more mentally exhausting than anything, you know, so it was actually a pretty funny story. I know we had talked before about you know, Jenna fishing with me and we went down there together and we were out on we went to two Lakes prior to where I just said, okay. I don't really want to fish here one of them. We just didn't catch. Much and the other one was because there were a ton of snakes and a ton of alligators. And um, and I don't do that alligators and I don't like snakes either. So the third day of pre-fishing we went out on Caddo Lake and down in Texas, you know, we're not used to it here in Michigan, but they have both lanes and if you're in the boat Lane those bullets aren't slowing down for you and Jenna Jenna wasn't used to it and she was in one of the boat lanes and she started kind of getting Well stirred that the votes were flying pastor and she me and her kind of got into a little argument about it and you know, so she went and fished on her own and you know, so I kind of felt like I had to go, you know say sorry to her and you know went over and I don't know why I had been reading about how to fish in Texas and all that and you know bought all the lizards and the big baits and I finally on that day just said, you know what I'm going to go back to what I know from, Michigan. So I threw the Ned rig and put it right at the base of a cypress tree and I pulled out a 21 and three-quarter inch bags man. And and so right after that I was on my way over to apologize to Jenna and I told her hey go further away because this is my spot now, so we because I knew Where I wanted to be the first day of the tournament rolled around I went right to that spot and it was it was a 500-yard circle. It was just hitting the same cypress trees over and over. They just kept reloading and I was fortunate enough the first day. I think I had 84 inches on the first day 92 inches on the second day and I believe 86 on the third day. So and I threw the same through the same exact date all three days. I actually after day one. I was really running low on the yoga pants T RDS. So I called over to I think it was a Cabela's down there and asked them if they had any in the guy said they had two packages so they told me right. Well, here's my credit card number. So hold them on the counter for me and then you know those cypress trees down there when you're thrown a On weedless jig they claimed about 36 of them from me, and so I and I was also very fortunate that on going into day three. Mike mckinstry was down there with z-man, and I talked to him for a little while, and he I told him what I was doing and I was running low, and he helped he hooked me up with a couple of couple of bags of the Ned rigs so that way I had a couple for the third day. Thank you. Definitely appreciative of that so you touched a little bit on the I've always been one of those pretty superstitious people I grew up playing hockey my whole life and you got your teeth. Missing one over here and I got a couple of things but you know live the life of that Junior League Fighter for a little while and my parent doesn't eat them. I have never had but yes, so as far as Superstition goes for me. It's one of those I don't do a lot of it, but when I'm loading my truck at night, you know the night prior I To always do it the same way. If I don't do it the same way. I got to pull everything back out and start over again. And I think more of that is on the lines of I just don't want to forget stuff if I'm free if I'm free fishing and I find an outfit that I'm wearing. Well, I pre fish. I wear that on tournament day. Yeah. I went down to Nationals and I didn't change my clothes all three days. Shrieking I got this hat from yeah. It's been fire me down. You know, they didn't like the smell but I think the biggest mental thing anymore is actually the music has became a big one for me. This is a relaxing thing in the morning. And if any other pulls into a boat launch and here's what is it X going to give it to you by DF ever hear that the land. That's coming from my so. We'll have everything that they do. I know some guys, you know, they'll go pray before they go out for me. It's just I need to mentally prepare myself and that kind of just you know, it takes me back to my days of sitting in the locker room before a hockey game and nice, you know the kind of just focus on what I have to do and you know know that at the end of the day what's going to happen is going to come down to what I do and what the fish want and that's that's what I've always kind of learned about it. Jump your mysterious guy, dude. So kind of when you hear what your routine is. Well, you know, I if you know if it's a Saturday morning if it's a Saturday morning, there is a show called The Great Outdoors on WLW and it's with chip heart and I really love catching at on a Saturday morning. It's just the 30-minute programs and he's often talk. About the fishing in the southwest are Ohio area. So I like to listen to chip heart. I've been out of the music scene. I've been I played music and what's involved actually in the music business for a while as for a while and I don't have that music anymore anymore. I often do a podcast to do a podcast, you know, I'll be I'll be out, you know. No taking off on the kayak out there in the middle morning, which To Me is This Much special time of the bus National to see that see sun rise come up, but what a perfect day to do a podcast. So I've been burned a lot of those. I do like spending a little time in prayer and you know, because that to me being out on us and in the water like that is a really is God. Creation and to have that to have that have that have that just get my day started. That's where I'm at right now. That might I'm at right now and then to some other stuff there was some things I did running Iran with a lot of Native American and and so there's a lot of sage burning and stuff like that. So I don't know look out there someday and see some guys sayajin as kayak. I'm developing. I'm not sure what I'm looking for that good. It's probably the coolest thing that I've ever felt. And what was going on down there? Like I actually figured that that was what was going on that morning. I just felt like going out. I just had to kind of sit back and do it say a prayer to myself and I never actually met my grandpa when I was really young but he fished a ton and I never really got to know him and my dad has this weird thing where he thinks he can talk to ghosts and he told me that that day he had a conversation with my grandpa about what I was doing and that you know, and you know that he was proud of what I was doing and it touched me mainly because that morning that's kind of what I prayed for was, you know, that like all the people that have supported me and know that hey he's kayak fishing for a living hijo the even though it sounds like a joke that a lot of people, you know, we love it. And that's what we love to do. But you know Knowing that those people would be the ones that are proud of me and you know knowing that you know, he had that and then I felt that way it was just it was something else, you know, knowing that all that happened on the same day at the same time broccoli. Yeah, that's always cool and stuff like that happens stuff like that when you asked me that question Brad kind of stalled me for a second and I really had me thinking about something that transpired not long ago, and I if if if You dive deep into me. You'll probably find that. I'm not a real religious person, but I'm very spiritual person and my family's always been a family that went to church and my kids went through Catholic schools and a so been to my fair share of Baptist Church and Catholics churches and Native American sweat lodges. So I would just call myself swords of spiritual person, but the other not long ago, I was out. Fishing and fishing. I got a big hook set. It was a big fish and I started going. Oh, please God, please. God, please. God, please God, please leave. It started come out on me, man, please God come and Fish on this fish on and I thought to myself right then and I why is it that we're always a time of need that were saying please God, please God in this Clairvoyance and it came over me at that point and says, Why don't you just why don't you just please God, please God just please him. Just don't we ask for him. Don't say please God help me. They just please God and that moment right there really really for me on that kayak and I happened to be in with the kayak fishing with crust gang out of Tennessee when this all went down when this all it was really kind of so when you asked me that question, it's so when you think about that moment. But I think about that's part of my ceremony is getting out there in my connection to a great spirit something much bigger than we are and given thanks to that. So it's developing that so more into that kind of stuff of really enjoying is a I don't care if I catch fish. I just want to please God make you happy with who I am and and what's going on with that, you know the sport and the friendship that I were building out then it and go and that's the greatest award average award. That's one of my favorite things about the official meeting all these guys and they just come to you guys for a while. So yeah, that's that's awesome man. Yeah, that's that's awesome, man. I don't even know how to figure me out. I don't know if you guys hear you guys here will try to power through it and try to pound through it. Well, I'm gonna ask you a few more things about my guys got cool future plans that you can discuss you can discuss those some stuff in the works right now. Nothing that can be released at the time. I actually had to call Todd before this to kind of ask him what I could say and what would get me in trouble. So for right now, Now our future plans are to send as many people the Nationals as we can and keep promoting the sport the way that it's meant to be, you know, fun friends, you know, just get people out on the water and get them learning the sport. That's awesome. We definitely have some big plan. We got some big plans in the making so stay tuned. Yeah. I'm real excited. And I know there's a lot of people down in Southwestern Ohio really excited about my also. Yeah. I want a caravan up there and get to fishing. Those Waters big time you want to same here. Nice. How many guys did you send to the national championship last year for payos last year? I believe it was 12. Yep. Yeah, it was 12 when and then out of the twelve three finished in the top 100 and then I don't know where the other two. I don't know where the other two guys ended up. And you know, like I said I ended up Up 14th and the other two top one hundreds were Todd War. He's and Steven Galloway. Okay, so easy. Oh, those are both two good guys. They both know what they're doing, you know, so it's it's definitely a good time though, you know, we all met down there kind of all shared a house and it was cool to have the have the guys there. We had the house. I was in made a lot of good friends, you know guys that you know, Ohio, I don't know if you know him George nimah And Clyde Ike's met both of them never really met him before ended up staying in the house with them stayed with Tate Schwab. His girlfriend Alyssa and CJ Welsh there, you know two great guys from Pennsylvania, you know, the list has awesome too. So we had a pretty cool house. Yo, very supportive and that's the whole thing about my o is when we We were down there. It didn't matter what house you were in there were always guys over at each other's houses talking to each other picking out baits for the next day, you know talking about strategy and all that and you know, I think the coolest part of the whole thing was, you know going into day three. No one where I was, you know, I had guys, you know, I had guys sitting out at a bonfire on Saturday or Friday. What was it Thursday? Yeah. I know Friday night, you know just Telling me. Hey, man, like you just go out there and do what you got to do, you know kind of helping me helping me with what you know, I was going through at that time. I was a nervous wreck and you know, these guys are sitting there after being my competition for two days. Now, they're just trying to be your friend and help you out and you know, hopefully they can all qualify because I'd love to send you know, another trip to Nationals with those guys and you know, and I think out of the five of them we all we all actually still have a face. Facebook group that we all talk to each other all the time and I used to keep those connections going. Well, if you have a new group of guys next year you have connections growing after next year. Yeah. Yeah, and it's meeting the new people and just learning what everybody what everybody's go twos are you know, I never asked anybody. Hey, what's your what's your go-to? But you always find out, you know, you know if somebody's Finesse guy, you know if somebody is a power guy, you know, and that's the thing is I like to say that I run a power finesse game. My favorite my favorite thing to do is to swim bait and Ed rig and you know, it's it works for me, but I know other people that absolutely hate the dead rig and you know what? Hey, that's that's fine. I don't ever I don't ever say hey the Ned rig is the only thing that catches fish because it's not I catch fish on other things. He's but for me Ned rig is my confidence bait and everybody knows that yeah, that's awesome man. So how would you use that as a swimbait? I'm curious typically like even this last tournament up here at Fletcher's. So what I'll do is if it's a real weedy area. Usually I'll throw it in I let it sit for about 10 seconds. Typically if I'm fishing weeds and a fish doesn't take it in the first 10 seconds then Max just bouncing it. I'm pretty much jigging it across the weeds, but I'm trying to keep it off the bottom more kind of running it more like a pogo kind of thing and it works the fish. You know, the I think it's that whole the look of a an injured Bait fish, you know, they kind of have that like up and down and it's especially running. The bigger T. RDS is one of my favorite things to do with those is to swim date those nice. That's right. I started pulling it up and That's irritating enough for them to say, okay. I'm hungry now. That's awesome. I think we're running out of time here. We're at 53. Do you have any answers shout out or anything or would like to shout out? Yeah. I mean if I got it if I got some time I actually just picked up to this year actually all three of mine. I picked up this year Robo Hawk is they make lanyards for your holes you tools anything you want to keep it? To your kayak they're going to they got something to keep you for stretching lines angler apparel. They are a new company just starting out. They make a lot of their own Plastics. They're starting, you know their own clothing line and then the other one that's been probably my biggest supporter out of all of them and it's because it was my first one is Fireball outdoor products. They started a Jig company and their jigs in my opinion are there. Unmatched his custom colors that he does are just they're beautiful. Everything is hand tied and he Joe does some amazing work with that kind of stuff is amazing. Yeah. I love his colors. I work with Joe to help him come up with some colors and puts a lot of effort into his job. It's awesome. On on yeah, how's that frenzy jig workout? It's good. He's made a lot of modifications to it. It used to have a couple issues with the blades, but he's fix those and it's the same as a ChatterBait basically and I I run on the same as chatter Bates and I love them. Look at that sticks. You'll like the frenzy jig. I'm starting to get into The Jig game, so I might have to take up that all Well, he's definitely a good guy to get ahold of he knows knows what he's doing. Awesome. Well, you have something else John. No, I was saying I was going to ask the exact fit by chance. He was going to be like a store they'd be down there yesterday be down there any other sponsors? No, I don't think any of them are going to go all my sponsors are pretty much newer companies the way I see it the big guys already have their guys. I would rather I'd rather go for some of these small companies being somebody that you know, hey, I'm people know me but really I've only had one one good weekend. And you know, that was Nationals for me. I've had a couple tournaments here and there but you know, I'm know Eric's to Deke, you know, I know that he's a great angler and you know, I he's he knows everything there is to know about fishing and you can tell when you talk to him. Yeah, but you know and I would love to be that one day but for right now, I like to stick to the small companies that are just getting going and helping those guys out good stuff. Well John, you have a sponsor you want to shout out. Well, I'll be I'll be down with American tack or tomorrow. So I'll be with those guys tomorrow evening. We're going to try to drum up as many support as much supported I cast we can for the new fly-fishing accessory the MW 12 microwave guy. And then Thursday getting ready for the big flip off where all the big Champions or the the internet the pro fishermen are invited to come in and did that the flip off contest which has happened Thursday at 4 o'clock. So that's Booth 4026 there at icast and just big shout out to I you know American tackle and can't wait to meet the family down there heat the family down there. Yeah, man, our next episode can be awesome for it. It's going to be all about your icast experience and real excited about that. Do a live one. Yeah, we could do that. Killing and your wife out there you guys are doing it's fun to watch. I've seen your name. So it's nice to put a face to it. You look like an MMA fighter. You don't necessarily look like bass fish. We could look like somebody don't want to meet up in the Octagon, but it'll be a pleasure to meet you in purchasing her in person. I can't wait to get up to Michigan and do some fishing. All right. That's all you see how you guys doing? We do have a few sponsors a shout-out for the podcast here before we head out. I'll mention our website the letter N Finn. Tom you can send all of our questions to paddle the letter N thin gmail.com. We got a social media Instagram and all that stuff paddle and little and fin rot Town Paddlesports low honking kayak camera glasses, which I'll show you guys. They float him out. Throw him in the water that I just bought. - it's a great great to be partnered with you guys. Yeah, it's we're real excited for it really excited for it. And then the last thing Brian always wants us to mention is the Recycled Plastics program. If you guys have recycled Plastics, we'd like you guys to throw it in a box after each tournament with him all the use Plastics that the guys don't want. They typically throw away. Throw it a box and then ship it to ship its 360 Pinewood Drive. Camp Hill, PA 1 7 0 1 1 it goes to hammer lures and he uses that makes four Heroes on the water. Absolutely. Yeah, that's man. Well, I think that's all we have for this episode. Stay tuned for next week. We have
Sticks and Crankbait Johnny sit down and chat with Zack Soulliere. They talk Mi-Oh, tournament fishing. and just being on the water. 