You're listening to The Edge, everything bass fishing. Coming to you worldwide from MegaWear CueGuard Studios. What is going on Bass Edge Nation? Welcome back. This is the March 1 edition of Bass Edge Radio. Man, we are taping this. We got a lot of things to talk about, but we're going to tape. We're taping this on a late Thursday evening after day one of the Elite Series at Fork. But man, so many. tournament topics to cover. We're really excited about this episode of Bass Edge Radio. I think you're going to learn a lot, things that have been going on in the past. I hope you enjoyed last episode with Drew Gill. What a great show. If you haven't heard it, go back, listen to Drew. Doing a lot of teaching. We're doing a lot of breakdown of forward-facing sonar, if that interests you. It's a great program, talking a lot about sonar You know, just skills and techniques you need to utilize to be better at that particular, you know, new technology here in the biz. But, man, excited to have the man back. Here he comes. Hella Bass in the house. What's up, Rich? What's going on, Kurt? I'm good, man. How you been doing? Good to be back to hang out with the Bass Edge crew. Hey, do you need a name? You need like a like, you know, like the MFers or the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got Bass Edge Nation. We got the nation. OK, Bass Edge Nation. There you go. I can do that. I'm ready to be back with the Bass Edge Nation. We are here. Hey, man, I got I got to let you know, I jumped into the hella bass fantasy fishing. So that was very cool. I had a good showing at Toledo Bend, just so you know. I was like 120-ish in your rankings, which, man, you've got a lot of people jumping in on that. How many subscribers do you have in the fantasy fishing there on Bassmaster.com? Beat hella bass. Yeah, there's like 800 and some. Definitely the largest private group. Congratulations on that, man. That's very, very cool. Before we get too deep into this episode, we've got lots to talk about. I've got to give thanks, as always, to MegaWear. MegaWear just makes some fantastic products. If you haven't seen all the products they make, go to MegaWear.com. One of my favorite products, Rich, have you ever seen these Megawar products? They're really cool. I love the FlexStep. It gets me in and out of my boat so easy when I'm working on tackle. That is the key. It's not really, you know, the getting in and out of the trailer from boat. You can utilize it for that, and it works great. But there's so many manufacturers. When you get out of the boat, you remember you still got a Diet Dew or a sandwich in your cooler, and you don't want to crawl all the way back in. You can step on the step and still reach the cooler. Absolutely. Or get into a compartment or get your rain jacket out without climbing in and out or something like that. That's that's the ticket right there. So shout out to Megaware, obviously keel guards protecting your boat from grinding salt, abrasive boat ramps and concrete and rocks and all just protecting your keel from anything out there. keelguard.com. Just awesome product. Thank them for bringing Bass Edge Radio to the world. To the world. Our hottest, Rich, by the way, if you look at our chartography, which kind of shows where your podcast is listened to. We've been number one in Uzbekistan for several weeks, by the way. I just want to let you know that. It's a key demographic over there in Uzbekistan. Yeah. Whoever's listening in Uzbekistan, thank you very much. And odd facts, I have been to Tashkent, Uzbekistan. We won't go deep into that. What we're going to go deep into is bass fishing. Right, Rich? Absolutely. All right, let's do it, man. Let's first talk about, I got to bring this up. The Rayburn event, when we were filming or taping our last episode, we kind of brought up the Rayburn Toyota event. Colby Miller crushes the field by 11 plus pounds. Congratulations to Colby Miller taking the Sam Rayburn Toyota Invitational. But Rich, I got to ask you, did you see E-Bear, Dakota E-Bear? Dude is just off the charts, right? I mean, he fishes the MLF Invitational. I'm pretty sure he had a top 10 on Rayburn MLF Invitational. At least the top 25. I know he made the cut. He cruises over to Ouachita for the Bassmaster EQ event number two, which we covered last episode. Jeremiah Kendi won that event, but just misses the top 10. Nonetheless, another check. Dakota races back to Rayburn for this MLF Toyota Series. Cracks a top 10. What is up with this dude? It's nutty. And is he going to be at West Point cashing a check again this week? I do not know. I don't know if he's doing all the invitationals or just some of them. I'm not sure, so. I'm not sure either. I would bet that he may be, and he'll be one to watch if he is. We will definitely get into events that are coming up this week for sure. One other take here, Sam Rayburn, Colby Miller, pocketed $73,000 plus the $35,000 Phoenix bonus, which is almost what you win on an Invitational at the Toyota. Isn't it like $80,000 plus $35,000? Yes, $80,000 plus $35,000 if you're running the Phoenix. Don't sleep on the Toyota, guys. Yeah, don't sleep. For the entry fee... Per event, plus the championship, it is by far the most economical, if there is such a thing, the best trail to fish for your money back in the entire bass fishing universe at this moment. Especially at the top end. Yeah. Yeah, especially at the top. And chances to win big money, especially with the championship. Championship pays 200K going out this year at Wheeler Lake later on this fall. So very cool event. Great point, Rich. Glad you brought that up. I got to give a shout out to my folks over at Bass Angler Magazine, Mark Lesane, firing off a brand new West Coast series. And the first event went down last week on Lake Shasta. None other than Greg Gutierrez, who's just kind of getting back into the game of bass fishing. He lost his wife, so prayers to Greg in that. But getting back into bass fishing, Greg Gutierrez fished the Elite Series for several years. Been a true hammer in NorCal for many, many years. Congratulations to Greg coming from 11th grade. to win the event on the last day. It's a three-day event. So very cool. Congratulations, Greg Gutierrez and Mark Lesaint. Congratulations on kicking off the inaugural Bass Angler Magazine event over there. Yeah, Greg was one of the original elites, right? Yeah. Greg started in 2006. I believe he qualified through the when they had Western Opens. Yes. So, yeah, he is the OG Elite Series guy. That's how I met Greg being one of those crazy anglers. He actually had a couple of good events on Amistad in those early days, I feel like. He did, and he had a great event at Clear Lake, of course. Year two of the Elite Series, we went out west, and Greg had a phenomenal event at Clear Lake, almost won the event. I know that he was challenging Skeet Reese for the win, and then... You know, Kennedy came out of nowhere to just whack him on the big HUD the last couple days once he dialed in the swim bait deal. But that's how Greg was catching him on a big Osprey, if anybody remembers back in the day. So, great little piece of trivia right there. Um... Let's see. Jumping into the next event that just concluded last week, Bassmaster Elite Series stop number one, Toledo Bend. Rich, the old school guys struggled at Toledo. Big time. That's putting it mildly. I think everybody saw this warming trend. I think Bassmaster saw the warming trend. A lot of these veteran anglers... the old adage wanted to have my fish coming to me, but they didn't come fast enough. And the hack knees and the Christie's spinner bait and chatter baited and flipped. And they just nothing but buck bass. They, they got blindsided by the anglers that were catching those staging fish at the mouths and, you know, using front facing sonar and picking them off coming in. I heard Colby Krieger had 20 pounds the first day site fishing, but then couldn't back it up. So, I mean, there was some fish up, but they just weren't coming fast enough to keep up with, The lingering outside bigs. And then obviously the social media outcry over the weekend about, you know, this is boring. But then Bassmaster publishes an Instagram little pictorial yesterday. It's like, biggest event ever. More views, more social views. So I don't know. Yeah, yeah. And I did notice a lot of people, and maybe there is some truth to this, they call it the Milliken effect. Yeah. Ben Milliken made the top 10 there. And so that could have, you know, Milliken's got, you know, 500,000 plus YouTube subscribers, huge fan base. You know, that's got to help viewership. Because Ben was just outside of the top 10 cut on day two or day three. I don't remember which one it was. I believe it was day two. And the live mix chat on YouTube was just screaming, where's the camera for Ben Milliken? Yeah. That's so awesome. Guys, guys got a great following, huge fan base, done a wonderful job, uh, building a brand. So congratulations to him. Um, forward facing sonar. Obviously we talked about, you talked about fish that were still outside, dominated the event and housing Creek. If you weren't in housing, um, I'm not saying you weren't catching them. There were some, you know, Robert G had a great event, and Milliken caught him the last day outside of Housen. But there was a lot of bass caught in Housen Creek, and eight of the top ten were clustered in there with many, many more that made the cut to Saturday in that top 50. So that creek was just putting them out. Yeah, absolutely. I think from what I understand, there's a fair amount of grass in that region of Toledo Bend, so that kind of adds up. My specific kind of, I don't know, maybe a little detailed note, eight Bassmaster elite qualifiers, the rookies this year, made checks. Eight of nine. Pretty frickin' good. Yeah, and I guess Garrett was the only one that didn't, John Garrett, but he was still like 62nd or 65th, so he still actually got a $2,500 check. He still got one of the baby checks. Right. but yeah eight and I think those eight it wasn't like they snuck in they were all in the like top 35 30s I mean like most of those were most of those eight were in the top 25 and two or three were in the top 10 yeah milliken gee and mckinney were all in the top 10 right Yes, I believe that is correct. I have my top ten list right here. I think some of those guys fell out a little bit. But top ten in that was, of course, winning it, Fujita. Second place, Walters, Schlapper. Robert G., as you mentioned, fourth place. Ben Milliken, fifth place. So those were the two EQs that made the top ten. And Gore was 11th, right? Yes. So the point being, phenomenal by the new anglers. You would used to see a rookie class come in and kind of struggle. Most of them finish, you know, outside of the cut. for a lot of year one. Maybe two or three checks cashed through year one would be good for a rookie angler. But with the new technology and the new way of life in bass fishing, these young cats, killing it. Killing it. Yeah. All right. I talked a little bit about this last week on one of my shows. I think we are going to see a lot of some of people's favorite veterans going to get displaced. I mean, I'm not saying I'm happy about it, but I think it's the reality is the people, the anglers that come through the EQ to make it through that nine tournament qualifier are going to be tournament tested and be ready at a level that they're going to be around. And I think we could literally see a 50% turnover in the Elite Series in the next five years. I think it's a great point. Very good point. I think we'll see a lot of movement. Behind the scenes, there are some grumblings of anglers that are not excited to even compete. with forward-facing sonar in the mix. I think that if it just continues to take over and there's no regulation, you might see some people that say, hey, man, I'm just not enjoying my time with this process anymore, and I'll just let somebody else take my spot. There's potentially some... you know, movement like that moving forward, you know, going forward into 2025. We'll just have to kind of wait and see. It's definitely interesting. You know, we're going to talk a little bit more about Fork coming up, but even Greg Hackney on stage at Lake Fork today in the first day of the event, we'll talk about weights and how crazy it was, but Greg was just like, Man, I don't know. I got to do something different. So there's some frustration there with some guys that have been around for a long time. And not just internally, but they're not pissed. They're just like, damn, what's going on? There's, I mean, I mean, there's plenty of guys like Matt Herron, Caleb Cufall, several others been very vocal on their Instagram and Facebook's publishing videos about and comments about this and frustration. So we'll see. It's interesting. You got two groups. Let's talk about a video, you know, just one more dive into this that I saw from Chris Zaldain over on, I think it's the Zaldangerous podcast. Chris went through and kind of broke down several of the anglers' graph setups. as they came through check. So this is kind of the first time we're seeing some of the graph setups for the Elite Series now that there has been no regulation and this is becoming such a popular way, this new technology. Check this out. Here's a boat of a good friend of mine and this boat was on that video. This is Brian Schmidt's boat. Man, he is set up head to toe. with four units on the console to look at forward-facing sonar from the left and to the right, have his mapping and 2D as well, and also, you know, side scan, ready to view all that while he's idling around. Then he's got three units on the front. So, you know, we're seeing these exceptional... investments in these units. Tyler Williams also, he's an EQ angler from Maine, had four units on the console and three units on the bow. You had the opposite. Saw Brian New, four units on the bow and three units at the console. It doesn't mean that we're going to catch fish all the time if we have all that stuff, though, does it, Rich? Yeah, I think we're seeing... It's not a straight correlation. Just because you have the more graphs and the more inches and the more transducers is not necessarily translating. For some, it is. For some, it's not. There's guys that are catching them with four screens and two transducers, and there's guys that are catching them with all the screens, and there's guys that have all the technology that are not so far blowing everybody's doors off. We'll need more data, but there's definitely not a direct correlation at this point. Absolutely agree. More data is going to be the key, and maybe we'll see. Has Bass finally, you know, just kind of let this morph into, you know, some sense of ridiculousness to what these anglers feel like they need to do to be competitive and get more information through this new technology? We'll see how that breaks down, but... Let's move on. We got another event that, well, let me just say congratulations to Koya Fujita. Absolutely. Kind of sad that my neighbor, Pat Schlapper, didn't take home his first elite win, but yeah, hats off to Koya for the win. Pat had a great event, though. Very consistent. Just had that rough fourth day. And Koya had a rough third day. There were some chances there for all the guys that were in that top five heading into the finals. Last thing I want to say about Toledo is... Do you think we would have seen a century mark or even close to it without this technology? Where would this have gone? What do you feel like the weights would have been? What do you feel like a winning weight would have been without the new way? High 70s, 78 pounds, something like that, right? Like 18, 17 to 18, 19 a day. Somebody would have had a, I'm sure there would have been some low 20s, maybe a mid-20s bag, but then they would have caught 14, then they would have caught 19, right? That's what I think. And it still would have been a solid tournament. But then like even the check, right? I don't remember what the check weight was. It was right around 33 pounds, I think, to make day two. That probably would have been like 27 without forward facing. Yeah. I totally agree. In my mind, I was like 80 pounds max. So we're freaking like eye to eye on that, man. That's pretty cool. Very interesting. Okay, let's move on to the MLF Bass Pro Tour. Jacob Wheeler raises trophy number seven on the Bass Pro Tour. Fishing down at Lake Santee Cooper in South Carolina. Cold event. It's a shallow water fishery. You might not have thought forward-facing sonar would have played too big, and it didn't for a lot of anglers. But Wheeler takes it by managing a few areas, utilizing forward-facing sonar in a mid-depth range situation. Yeah. I even heard a little interview where he basically started going into those popular creeks and areas and bays and said there was too many boats. I can't out-compete. I'm going to try to manage some lesser areas to have them to myself. Right. And did it to perfection. Rojas was in there. Rojas was... You know, one four or five pound bite away in the final minutes, but couldn't. The other thing that was cool, I actually caught the end of that a little bit because they were going live after Bassmaster on Sunday, I think. And with like 13 minutes left, Wheeler was up by like four pounds, five pounds. It wasn't much, right? It was one bite. And he puts on the boat and runs like six, seven minutes and goes somewhere and catches a fish. Like he is not scared. He is fishing to win. There are other anglers out there that are fishing not to lose. And Wheeler is absolutely fishing to win every single event. Yeah. Couldn't agree more. The guy, you know, don't know what you think about him. Don't care, honestly. The guy could catch bass straight up. I don't care if somebody gave you – you would probably agree with me, Rich, right? Somebody gives you the 10 best waypoints they have on the Mississippi River, and you've got your 10 best waypoints, right? that doesn't correlate into victory that much, right? I mean, you still got to figure it out, you know, dissect the scenario. And I'm not saying he got waypoints. I'm just saying from a broad perspective, right? There's no way that there's not this level of consistency without talent and work. And absolutely. Absolutely. It's, it's, it's unbelievable. Got to give a shout out and, and let everybody know, uh, before we get deeper into this podcast feature angler spotlight coming up in this show after Rich and I break it down. All these tournaments that have been going on. Justin Lucas is going to be with us here in just a few minutes. And Justin's going to talk about his Santee Cooper event. He weighed six fish for 42 pounds, six ounces in the knockout round. He was in second place going into the championship round, which, of course, Rich Day won. Zero the weights. Zero the weights. So he didn't get to keep that. But his best five... And Justin says his best fishing day ever. His best five was 37 pounds, three ounces. We're going to talk with Justin, break his day down, listen to his, his, uh, you know, thought process throughout the event there at Santee Cooper. Um, why he thinks, you know, maybe he struggled on the championship day, but really wanted to dial in the, uh, phenomenal knockout round that he had. So stay tuned after this, uh, This break here in a few minutes, we're going to break that, break this down with Justin Lucas and our feature angler spotlight. Justin was a bit nervous about that tournament. So I'd like to hear, ask him about that. He was, he had trepidation. He was not familiar with Santee Cooper and this was one that he was worried about. So I'm interested for you to find out, like, how did he take, you know, turn that into a really good tournament? Absolutely. I will definitely ask him that. It's a great question, Rich. What else did you think about, Santee? You had worldwide James Watson. Watson made the top 10, made the championship. I was super happy for him. You mentioned some fishing from Dylan Hayes. I saw people loved Dylan Hayes on camera, breaking down what he was doing and how he was doing it. Yeah. Bladed jig 101. Like, I mean, there was a lot of guys throwing bladed jigs in the qualifying rounds, but nobody did it as good as Dylan Hayes. And he was putting out big numbers and calling his shots. Didn't quite translate. I mean, it worked okay in the knockout round, but then in the final round, it kind of faded a little bit, but I think people enjoyed that for sure. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Breaking it down, of course, Wheeler taking his seventh trophy. Dean Rojas finished second place. Jesse Wiggins third. Matt Becker, if you watch Matt Becker before the event, he doesn't think he's going to catch a bass. Matt finishes fourth. Dylan Hayes, as Rich mentioned, breaking it down with the vibrating jig, finishes fifth. Casey Ashley, the local. Here's another name you haven't heard too much in championship rounds lately. Dave LaFebra. Dave LaFiebre knocks out a seventh place. Cole Floyd had some huge days. He's a flipper. That's what he does. He loves to do. He finished eighth place. Of course, James Watson, as we mentioned, ninth. And then Justin Lucas had a rough final day, which you do not carry over your weights. He finished in tenth place in that event. So I thought Santee was fun. I thought it was great. But I was still surprised. forward-facing sonar utilized pretty heavily in that event. I mean, it was definitely a more dynamic viewing experience than Toledo Bend for both BPT and Elites, right? BPT and Elites, both Toledo Bend was 90% hanging minnows and 10% jerkbaits. That's pretty much it. And this, we saw, you know, flipping, we saw moving baits, we saw some forward-facing sonar, but in a little bit more target-oriented situations. right? They were, I don't believe it was more like chasing roaming fish. It was more like picking off isolated stumps, isolated trees, brush piles, things like that is ultimately Jacob Wheeler was leveraging, but I'm guessing even some of these guys, like I couldn't really see what Dean Rojas was doing the final day, but I'm guessing he was using front facing sonar to like target those stumps that you could see under the water. Couldn't see visually under the water and making, I think he was throwing a Senko making super precise, you know, hitting those stumps multiple times. So, I mean, It played quite a bit, but it wasn't dominant. And it made for a more interesting event for I think a lot of viewers. Completely agree. Completely agreed. All right, before we run out here into a break, man, let's – you got West Point starts tomorrow, which is Friday, for the MLF Invitationals. Looks like it's going to be a freaking brutal event. Grumblings. People are just – Yeah, a lot of grumblings. Grumblings. Dude, I'm going back to hanging minnow. Chalk one up for Rich. That was classic, dude. Hey, the hanging minnow. Okay, I'm sorry. I've got to get back focused. So West Point Lake looks like it's tough. I think you're going to see a couple of 18-, 20-pound bags, but it's not going to be sustainable over a three-day event. I think you're going to see 45 to 48 pounds probably become victorious in that tournament. Most guys are going to be tough. It's been muddy. You hear, like you say, grumblings about West Point. I think, sounds like there's a lot of other fish, like there's a lot of biomass of stripers, white bass, things like that, that make it very difficult to pick out bass just cruising around. Sounds like it's got to be more target oriented. You got to have bass setting up on stumps and brush piles and things like that to increase your odds of catching a largemouth or a spot over, you know, a white bass or a striper or something like that. And also making some of that difficult is low water situation there. So there's not a lot of cover in the water on the bank. So guys are having to find some outside stuff, as you mentioned. Man, let's talk a couple of minutes about Fork today. Lake Fork Bassmaster Elite Series Day 1 concluded today. 14 bags over 30 pounds. Yeah, and plenty more sniffing 30 pounds, right? What? Oh, my God, it was unbelievable. 50th place to cut weight right now at Lake Fork is 21-11. Brian Schmidt, which we just talked about just a minute ago, great friend of mine, in 51st with 21-10. What? And Justin Lucas's amazing bag would be good enough for third on day one here. Yes. Yes, it would. Which is still pretty stout. Right. Third in that weight field is freaking unbelievable. So it's a little early. Does anybody scare Paul Elias this week? Oh, dang. Great question. 132.8. 132.8. Which is 34 pounds a day. So there are technically... three guys on pace on a pace heavier than that right now I think somebody does I say yes I say yes you asked me earlier before the show uh over under on uh century belts um what we we didn't really come to an agreement or disagreement what what do you think about that right i I kind of asked that in my fantasy fishing predictor column. And I think I said, I think at least seven at that time before seeing, you know, obviously that was like Monday that I recorded that. I think everybody in the top 10 is going to have it unless this warming trend actually freaks the fish out and causes them to get weird. But if people think this is going to get better, it could be really silly. So I think potentially there are people that will be on pace after three days to to get a century, but they won't make the top 10 because it might take 80 pounds to make the top 10. They're going to be people with 75 to 79 pounds that don't make the top 10 and don't have a chance. We might see somebody crack up. I mean, like Taku Ito is on track to have 100 pounds on day three. Yes, yeah. It's going to be a fun one to watch. Tune in. If you haven't, you're probably going to be watching this on Saturday, which is day three of the event, maybe Sunday. Make sure you check it out. Go back, check out the Lake Fork event. Maybe hit pause on the podcast and go look at it right now and then come back to us because it's – it's, it's, it's kind of ludicrous, right? I mean, we haven't seen this. Yeah. We haven't seen this since 2007 at, at Falcon, which you mentioned when, when Paul Elias broke, broke the all time weight record. So. And will the Bassmaster day one live continue to be a curse? Cause nobody's caught him on day one. Yes. It's because the, well, I don't want, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if it's bad luck. They're picking the wrong. It's interesting. Like, Day two through four should be wild at Lake Fork on Bassmaster Live. It's going to be a rodeo. It's going to be fun to watch. Shout out to old school guy Keith Combs caught him today. He had 31 inches. Good for Keith. Here we go, man. We're going to close up this segment. Rich, thank you again for coming back to break down the latest tournament action. We hope to see you again here in another episode or or so here in the next, you know, two or three weeks. There's going to continue to be lots to talk about still, you know, obviously after this fork event and then many West Point event, and then many, many other events coming up over the next couple of weeks. It's just a wild fishing time right now with endless amounts of content to check out. So keep checking it out, Rich. Thanks again. Any final thoughts for this episode for the, for the Bass Edge Nation? So I think enjoy everybody watching. Love to hear some feedback down in the comments. Let us know, Kurt and I, what you like, what you don't want to see more of, and we'll try to bring it to you. Absolutely. It sounds great. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Go ahead and click that button. You don't want to miss another episode of Bass Edge Radio. And at the same time, make sure that you go ahead and hit a comment below. Let us know what you think. We're going to roll in Justin, Lucas, Feature, Angler, Spotlight coming up next. Rich, thanks again. Y'all don't go away. Stay tuned. It's going to be an exciting episode. Dude, I'm really interested to see what Justin's going to say. Y'all stay tuned. We're going to be right back with more Passage Radio. You know the importance of protecting your investments, so choose the protection the pros pick. Grinding sand, abrasive rocks, and concrete ramps are no match for our patented technology. The MegaWear KeelGuard is made tough and made to stick. Install it yourself in less than an hour, providing the most dependable, most trusted protection for your boat, guaranteed for life. Insist on the original KeelGuard the pros have picked for 25 years. 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So I was happy to see you reach out the other day and happy to be here, dude. Man, I reached out. I saw what went down at the last event at Santee Cooper. Of course, stop number two of the MLF Bass Pro Tour went at Santee Cooper. Jacob Wheeler took the win, but man, Justin Lucas made some big-time noise in the knockout round. And I thought Bass Edge Nation needs to know what went down with Justin Lucas. How did this all develop? Because I think there's a lot of really great learning aspects here that, you know, Justin will hopefully share with us in this episode. But, dude, so you went through the... First two rounds and qualified for the knockout round. We'll talk about that a little bit. But really what we're here to highlight is the knockout round day one. You had six fish for 42-6. Man, you posted this scorecard right here on your Instagram. Look at these weights, man. Break that down for us. Yeah, I had to get a picture of that, first of all, right? That'd be like shooting a course record at a golf course and not taking a picture of your scorecard. You got to get a picture of that thing. Absolutely. Look at the times on that. So a 5-3 at 945 and 8-4, 9-57, 7-7, 10-0-4. I mean, dude, did you have time to recover from the shakes after the 8-4? It was nutty there for a minute, dude, when – Let's see, about 10, 10, 14, you know, you can see what the scorecard up there. At 10, 14, I remember my guy saying, well, you know, at 9, 44, I was in last place or tied for it. And at 10, 14, he said, well, you're in the lead. You got four fish for 26 something. And I remember looking back going, are you serious? You know, and he's like, yeah, dude, you got, you know, he started reading them off. I'm like, That's insane. So we had a little bit of we had a 15 minute break and just me kind of moving around on the trolling motor. No one I'm in the lead. I'm not in a hurry at this point anymore. So I kind of was taking my time getting up to the next spot. We had a 15 minute break. He said lines in and it felt like within five minutes I catch a seven pound even. Yeah, there it is right there. 1051 is 70. So the only reason there's a big break between 1013 and 1051 is because you had a 15 minute period break between, what was that? I guess period one and period two, right? Yeah. And I trolling motored about 200 yards when I got that last one. I just followed this ridge all the way up to where I knew that there was another brush pile I wanted to throw on. but being in the lead and not having to feel rushed anymore, I wanted to take my time getting up there just to see if there was something I had missed. So it was incredible, dude. It was an insane hour, you know, or hour and 15 minutes, whatever that was. I still looking back, I'm like, God, that went by like, you know, it's all blur, but also at the same time, like that was insane. So at that point I catch that seven after the break, I know I'm good to make the cut. At least I feel really good about it. And I practice for hours, dude. Hours, hours, hours. Idling around looking for every little brush pile I can find in 12 to 18 feet of water. That's what I was keying on there. Which is wildly deep at Santee, right? Yeah. So here's... I'll finish that story and then we can go back to that. I only get bored basically of idling because I'm like, I've found everything. I feel like within two miles in this zone of the lake. So I stand up, make a cast on a fresh pile and catch an 815. That was the two o'clock fish, 815 at two o'clock. It was really cool because I also told him, I was like, dude, I kind of don't want to catch another one when I have five for 33, whatever, 33, seven. Cause I'm like, yeah, I want people to know, you know, that this was like, this was a quality day. And I said, if I catch a two pounder, it's going to mess my average up. So I was like, I don't want to do that. And I, I step up, you know, and make one, a couple more casts and catch an eight 15 and a bump that total to 37, three, which, my previous best was 35, four at Lake Fork where the elites are at as we speak, you know, and, uh, man, they, they're crushing them there. And I, I crushed them there back in the day, 11 years ago, 35, four. I'm like, I don't know if I'll ever beat that in the tournament, but to catch 37, three, man, pretty special. So going back, um, you know, you say that you say it's deep for Santee, but this is how important it it's really important for pre-practicing guys that are listening and to understand how important it is to see places, not just like, you know, I guess ahead of time, more than just a couple of days ahead of time, because what had happened and transpired was I went there to pre-practice a month before, maybe about 35 days before, it goes off limits 30 days before. So the water was clear, it was in December and it was cleaner than I thought. I was expecting swamp, right? I was expecting dirtier water, Santee Cooper, all shallow, blah, blah, blah. But with the water clarity I saw, I'm like, okay, well, there's obviously going to be some fish. You know, when you can see two or three feet, there's going to be fish that are using deeper depths. And on the bottom lake, you could actually see like four or five feet. So I just kind of make my rounds in practice, just looking around, you know, and I did catch a couple of threes on the bottom lake. And I caught a seven and a half pounder on the upper lake out of a brush pile and 15 feet of water. So keep in mind, this is back in December. Well, they have a ton of rain leading up to our event and we get there and I'm excited to go to the bottom lake because of how clear the water was. It just, you know, that's what I'm always comfortable doing just from where I grew up and everything. Um, so I go down there to the bottom lake, I launch and Bobby Lane and I, we traveled together and Chris too, but me and Bobby launched down there and he's like, ma'am, was the water this dirty? Well, there was a little tournament going on where we launched. I'm like, no, man, it's gotta be the, all their boats, you know, stir the water. Stir up the shallow water. Yeah. I'm like, there's no way it's, you know, it was so clear a month ago. There's no way. Well, I get out there to the lake and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is not good. You know, I literally make a big circle. It's like a mini Okeechobee, that bottom lake. But I make a big circle around this lake. And I'm like, the water clarity is the same everywhere. And it's trash. Like you can see two inches in the water. So man, I immediately put it back on the trailer. I've never put my boat faster on a trailer in practice than I did then. It took me 45 minutes to get it back on the trailer. And now I had seen enough down there. So I go up, you know, I was fishing Potato Creek, Waibu. That's where I did most of my damage. And that was where I saw the cleaner water also, you know, on the Northern, like it wasn't as clean as the South, but that's where I caught a seven and a half pounder out of a brush pile was in Waibu Creek. And so I mark a couple more brush piles, you know, and whatever. And I get up there the first day of practice still. And it's the first thing I check because I'm just like, I just want to see the water clarity. I want to see if there's anything in some of these piles I marked and there's nothing there. The water was really dirty up there too. But as the week went on, that water was cleaning up like just, you know, a half an inch a day. And by the time I finally, you know, got to the knockout round and end up catching fish out there on these brush piles, because like you talked about the first couple of days, I caught them all shallower. You know, I caught them under docks the first day, little brush piles by docks. The second day, I actually caught them on some stumps and just a little hard like gravel spot I found in two feet of water in the back of a creek. But anyway, that water is clearing up just day by day, just enough. And I remember I busted like twenty nine something for my best five on my second day. And I go to start there on the on the knockout round. And that was the shallow stuff, right? On the shallow stuff. Yeah. So I was catching these fish on a coal shad and a frit side. And they were big ones, dude. I remember I caught one right at six, a couple two and a halves, whatever. And then we had a break. And I'm like, I'm about to jack them up here in a minute when he lets me out of the gate here. So the second period started and I catch a 6'9", a 6'2", and a 7'15". And I'm like, dude, I'm in. This is money. I'm in. And anyway, I go to start there in the knockout round. and I'm throwing and it's colder it's post frontal that day we had clouds and wind it was perfect for a shallow bite um but on the knockout round day it was post front colder bluebird skies and I get in there I'm like I don't need to throw the swim bait because conditions do not even call for it so I make a few casts with it put it down I pick up the fritz side you know it's a little tiny crankbait I'm like if I'm gonna catch them in here it's gonna be on this and throw it around and all I get are just a couple bumps, like nothing that would eat it, just a bump. And instantly in my mind, I'm like, man, their attitude has changed back in here today. This is not, I'm gonna die back here if I try and stay here and force where I got 29 pounds a day before. Uh, so I just, that's, that's the difference. The weekend anglers sometimes will die on that stuff. Right. And you, you have enough experience to number one notice. Okay. It's, it's not a swim bait style day. Okay. This, this Fritz side isn't working like it did in practice. And you make these adjustments quickly based on understanding the conditions and your previous experience. Right. Yeah. Man, I've got sucked in. I've been doing this 15 years now. I've been sucked in so many times where I didn't quit early enough and it really screws you. So in my mind now, I'm like, I'm kind of ready to quit. Today's a new day. I have no expectations from the day before. It's a great learning experience for the listeners, for sure, because I think they stick with it too much. Yeah, man, for sure. Actually, quick story. When I won the California Delta years ago, where I expected to catch them the very first day of the tournament, this is when it really started to change for me. I remember running there the first morning into Sherman Island, And the wind was blowing off the river and it was blowing dirty water into where I had shaken off 15 fish. I saw how dirty the water was. I didn't even put the trolling motor down. I just moved. And even after having all those bites, no one else around. it just wasn't right. And I'm like, I'm going to win this tournament. We had to run really far in that tournament. If you remember, it was like, I don't recall. I was, I was with you somewhere in that wake pack. I was with you in Sacramento and everybody had to run about two hours. We had, I don't know what, maybe four hours a day. Yeah. So I knew I'm like, man, if I sit here and waste an hour trying to force these fish to bite, when the conditions aren't the same as they were when I got bit, this is going to waste an hour of precious fishing time. So I pulled the plug. I didn't even make a cast. It didn't even put the trolling motor down. But anyway, so back to that is I pulled the plug, you know, quick adjustment, Santee. Yep. Yeah. Pull the plug on the knockout round. And I go to that brush pile. I'm like, I don't, I don't need to go hit more shallow stuff. If I'm hitting my best shallow stuff, And it's not panning out for me. And this is a totally different area. It wasn't cypress trees and stuff like a lot of the guys were fishing. This is more creek based, deeper water, docks, that kind of stuff, a little bit cleaner water. But I instantly just went deep. And the first place I went was that brush pile I found a month and a half ago or whatever, where I caught a seven pounder, seven and a half pounder. And there was nothing there in practice. But as that water had been cleaning up, you know, a half an inch a day, those fish repositioned out there and they got staged back up, you know, and in my mind the whole time, I'm like, man, it's still pre-spawn. It's pre-spawn 55, 56, 57 degree water. That doesn't mean they're all going to the bank. That means they're going to stage, you know, right out there in that 10 to 20 foot zone. And really when the brush piles, you know, if the brush piles in 15 feet, the top of it, is really, you know, in 10 feet. So if you can see even a foot, that's not that deep, really, when you think about it. And, man, it was just the mother load. It was unbelievable how easy it was that day. And, you know, they hadn't been pressured. They had just shown up. Everything was perfect. And that's what still blows my mind, dude, is I got so ghosted the next day by these fish, and I have no idea why. I still don't. because conditions pretty much stayed the same. Like, it just didn't happen. So let's talk about that day when you roll up to the brush pile, you throw down the trolling motor, you're looking at your forward-facing sonar, I assume. Yeah. Do you see 5, 6, 7, 8, 12 blobs out there just marinating? Like three or four in each pile, you know. Yeah, yeah. pretty easily, pretty quick, pretty obvious and catch one out of each little spot and definitely did not overfish them or catch too many or any, I mean, I only got six and I only did it as, as you saw in the time for like an hour and a half, you know, or whatever. And, uh, man, so I, yeah, you talk about fired up to get out there the next day. I'm going to, I was, I was thinking, I'm already in my mind. I'm like, I could have caught 40 pounds today. I know I could have caught 40, but it doesn't matter. You saved them all. You get to go back out there tomorrow. You're going to win this tournament. That was my mindset. Just so the listeners know, the reason he saved them was because the weights are zeroed for championship day. Justin knew that he had this knockout round licked and he was going to move on to the championship day. He's basically saving what he needs left, you know, these fish and this area for potential W on Sunday, championship doubt. Yeah, that's exactly right. And I've been telling everybody, I feel like I, you know, I feel like I get ghosted by my wife or my best friend where I see that they read the text message and didn't write me back. You know, that's how I felt the next day when I went out there, man, because after what I saw, I would have bet everything in the world, you know, I would have at least caught four or five fish, like never in my mind that I once expect to only catch one, especially after conditions pretty much just stayed the same. It got a little bit colder, but it wasn't, it wasn't that much different. And so I don't have an answer and I don't have any regrets about it either. You know, go from having this, my best day ever to one fish. And I look back and I'm like, I drove home that night. I was I was so bad. I drove home seven and a half hours that night. But the whole way home, I'm like, dude, I would. There's nothing I would have done differently. So I was over it by the time I got home. And now I just wonder, like, what happened? But I'm not mad. I'm not mad at myself because I also committed to that area. Dude, Santee is a scary place if you've never been there. It's dangerous to run around. It's not easy to run around. Tear something off real fast. So you just go like, oh, I'm just going to go fish new water today and land on them on Santee. Like it takes time to dial things in, get everything figured out, figure out your way in and out of where you're going. So for me who had never been there, I was all in on this area and I felt like I had everything dialed in to make it happen, but it just wasn't meant to be that day. Yep, yep. Well, and just so everybody knows, Justin finished 10th place in the tournament after they zeroed his knockout weight. And he caught a good one, the 4.8, but that was the one that was there. Smaller than all the other ones. That's why he felt like his wife or, you know, some – You know, nobody texted him after he knew they read the message. So it was kind of crazy. Let's break down how you caught those fish. You know, you drop the troller. You make this adjustment from shallow. They're not eating the crankbait, not cooperating as they had when you made the knockout round. Yeah. You quickly make this adjustment, which we talked about, you know, an experienced deal. You saw the conditions. You had a gut feeling. I've got to change. You went to this brush pile. You saw the fish there. How do you initially start to, you know, kind of attack the process? Is it just, you know, I've got this one lure or bait that's always successful this time of thing? Do you go back to what you saw in practice? Yeah, let me grab it. Okay, yeah, yeah. We'd love to see it. Love to see it. Because I think a lot of times, just so the listeners know, that it's interesting how anglers with experience like Justin will either lean on something in the past or make another slight adjustment based on conditions that day. So let's see what he threw. Justin, what do you got there? Sure. So this is a max cent, vertically max cent, flat nose jerk shot. And typically when you're seeing these guys, uh, Damiki rigging, hover strolling, whatever you want to call it, it's typically, I would say most of the time, 75, 80% of the time, it's the smaller baits, right? Like three inch, three and a half inch baits. Um, and then those work really well, but I opted for something bigger because of that water clarity, like we talked about. Right. So if the water had been a lot cleaner. uh I would have considered scaling down to something really small but I knew that you know one thing I've learned playing with forward-facing sonar over the years is first thing you have to do is get that fish's attention right they have to see that bait and then they can start you know tracking that bait and deciding whether they're going to eat the bait or not so I went with something a little bit bigger than you know you're typically seeing guys do and this is a five inch bait um and of course it's kind of a whitish color it's a I think they call it blue pearl hologram something like that it's kind of that milky white you know and uh it just looked really good in that water clarity to me um you know white probably would have worked but I like a little bit of flake and stuff in there and then the one thing I do uh on this that's really helping and I don't know if you can see it there or not but I've been tying a loop knot on this on on this technique anytime that I'm using it and what that allows me to do let's see if you guys can kind of see yeah there I can see it better now yeah we just zoomed in a little bit so what's cool about that loop knot is the bait is all your knot will never if you tie a regular knot with this sometimes that knot will get on the back side of the head towards the eye of the hook and so you're shaking the bait but you're not is kind of coming around to the side it changes the action of the bait and I just don't like the fact of like you know if you're setting the hook pulling that thing like and it's not aimed right at you So this allows the bait, I think it gives it better action, to be honest with you. And it also just always allows it to be really free and in the same exact spot at all times. We do this a lot with a hair jig out here on the Tennessee River, throwing a loop knot with it. And so any of those type of baits that you're really like kind of following, you know, on forward facing sonar and stuff, if that knot can get on the backside of there, I highly recommend tying a loop knot instead. But definitely, and dude, they're strong. People are like, people have tried to tell me loop knots aren't strong. I'm like, I don't know what loop knot you're tying, but I got 37 pounds on this one. So this one, this one's pretty strong right here, you know. I used to go to a loop knot in a situation where I was throwing a walking bait. Yeah. I would remove the split ring. Yeah. Obviously the split ring does a lot of great things if you're tying direct to the split ring and tying a firm knot onto the split ring. Right. If you take it off and tie a loop knot, it really allows that much more action to the lure to create, especially if you put a feather on the back of a walking bait because it needs so much more waggle because the feather creates drag. So kind of sounds a little bit similar to what this loop knot is giving you on the jig head here with the MaxScent Minnow. Well, and it's like, just like you said, it frees that bait up, right? Like it doesn't matter if it's a top water or whatever, but instead of having that direct contact to it, you're freeing the bait up and man, obviously everybody's doing this. The fish are getting pressured with it. So in my mind, if it's going to allow me to, for my bait, every single cast to look as natural as possible and not one time, because you got to think if I threw on those fish one time, Sometimes you only get one chance, right? Like those fish are set up and you get one chance. You throw out there and your knot's on the backside of your eye or something. And it's just not the perfect action. If you draw those fish out, they see it, they come, but not one of them commit. It's going to take them a while to get repositioned and set back up. And you just screwed up a perfect opportunity right there to catch. So for me, the cool thing about that is like I can tie it on. I know any time I pick it up that day, that thing's ready to go and it's going to have perfect action. Now we're seeing a lot of forward facing sonar over deep water. What a lot of people are calling floating fish, right? You're catching fish in this scenario where they're associated with a piece of cover. How do you choose your, are you just using a standard open hook jig head? And also how do you choose the size of your jig head? Is it based on the size of your bait that you're choosing at the time, you know, for conditions or how do you make those adjustments for different scenarios? So my thought process on choosing the weight size is what can I get to them comfortably? Like, I don't want to wait forever, but what can I get to them comfortably? What can I cast well? Because if you go too light, you're not going to be able to cast it far enough because these fish feel the pressure now, right? So I want to be able to reach them at 70, 80 feet, somewhere in there. But I also don't want the bait sinking like a rock. I want to be able to, you know, hover it, um, above their heads, shake, doing that shaking technique. Um, and also make it look the most natural as possible. So I was going back and forth between an eighth ounce and a three 16 sounds that day, uh, or that hour and 15 minutes. Uh, there was a couple of the piles that were like in 12 feet, you know, and they come up four feet. So they were in eight feet. I'd pick up the eighth ounce on those because really for, you know, an eighth ounce bait to fall. Even, even with those fish in eight feet, I'm not letting it fall eight feet. I'm letting it fall like five or six. Cause you can't get it stuck in the brush, right? Or. And I want to keep, you know, if the fish, if I can see that far in the water and the fish to me, they can see about three or four times further than we can see is what it seems like. Um, not three or four times, three or four feet further. Right. So like if they can see a foot, they can, they can see three feet in my opinion. And so I could see the head of my trolling motor. I knew I could see about a foot. So I knew at that point too, like, I don't want to drop this bait right on the fish. Cause if you drop it right on them, a lot of times you scare them. You got to keep it right above their heads. And so that eighth ounce on those little bit shallower piles, if those fish were in eight feet on top of the pile, I would drop it five, six feet and then stop it. And that's where I would start shaking it and get those fish to draw out. You know, and if I missed them, A couple of times on, I remember a couple of casts I throw out there and I don't get their attention or, you know, they don't come towards it. And all that's doing in my mind is just telling me I didn't hit the right cast yet. Like I'm not the right angle. Yeah. Not the right angle where they were able to see it. Right. And so they have great eyesight, but they can't see, I don't think they can see behind them. You know, if you bring it past their tail or something like that, but you bring it up in this zone right in there. know if you can think about how big that is right that's not that big of a zone so to be able to do that you got to watch their attitude on the screen and if they start to follow it once at all they caught a glimpse of it and they saw it and if they're interested they're going to keep coming but if they don't show that turn and that you know first nudge coming up to it you didn't get their attention so it's worth repeated cast until you see some kind of react Sometimes it's them swimming away, but at least I saw something, right? I want to see some type of action or reaction out of the fish, you know, towards my bait. So are you generally trying to overcast the fish in this scenario? So your example was maybe you see a fish at 70 feet. Are you trying to overcast at 85, 90 and bring it over to 85? Yeah, because if you start casting too far, your window of where you're trying to hit is much harder to hit. So I try and cast it about five to 10 feet past them, you know, and then and then try and hit that little window. I mean, basically think about it like a basketball hoop, right? Yes. You're trying to bring your bait through that basketball hoop on a long cast. And if you don't get it in that hoop, you know, you don't get their attention. You don't have that chance. So. I think this is great, you know, obviously a great tutorial. I think a lot of people have a big misconception if they're throwing toward fish and they're not reacting, they're just not interested and they throw one time. And now it's, you know, from your experience, you're letting people know that, hey, look, it might take two, maybe three presentations to hit fish. the hoop right and it's not a big area or it might be just the right angle through through the the sector that the that the fish is holding to so yeah and also the precision of the casting right I mean it's it's not like uh I'm around it you need On it. You better be on it. You better be on it. It's a dinner plate that you want your food on for sure. Yes, absolutely. Very cool, man. This has been a great conversation. So now that we kind of dissected the magical day, you talked a little bit about, man, I don't know where they went. On that seven-hour drive home, you still thought, man, I'm not sure. And, you know, admittedly, you wouldn't have changed anything. You had six for 42, your best five of all time, five for 37-3. Hindsight now, you know, I think we're, what, five days post the event now. Do you think, you know, what is your thought process now? My thought process is it was not meant to be. I've been in that situation too many times. And dude, if it was meant to be, it would have happened. And I, you know, like I said, I was all in on that area. I didn't even have anything anywhere else. I had found multiple patterns, you know, in basically three creeks. And I knew my shallower patterns were done. The docks, my docks were done. Dean Rojas caught him on some docks, but it was a different section of the lake. Jacob Wheeler, you know, he ends up winning, catching some off his stumps and brush piles. Very similar. Yeah, different section of the lake. And so I really just think that the section of the lake I was fishing is, different lakes have this, where they... When they turn on, those sections are unbeatable. The biggest fish live there. But when they turn off, it's like a ghost town. It's like the Dead Sea. And I've seen that, you know, at other lakes before. And I really just think that's what happened to me. I don't feel like anybody else that day in those two, you know, where I was fishing really would have caught them any better than me. They might have caught maybe two or three. if they would have gone and fished docks all day, but I wasn't there to do that. You know, you're there for win. You were all in on trying to win. And it was like, I had this big plan in my head and, uh, God, I got you. Yeah, yeah. Come on back. Yeah, we broke up there for a second. I'm going to set a cue note real quick. I can edit that out. I still don't have your video quite yet. I lost the vid. You're still there though, right? Let me see if I remove... Were you there? Yeah, now we're back. I think it went grainy again. Crazy how the internet can work so good and then... It's like the fish. Sorry, dude. No, no. You're good. You're good. It's like the fish. They're there. The internet's great. What the hell? Where'd it go? All right. We're back, right? I don't know what's going on. Yeah. I don't know either. We'll just give it a couple seconds. I can set a cue note. I'm going to take you down. Then I'm going to add you back. Okay, there we go. All right. All right, we'll set another cue note. It looks like you're still frozen, though. Let's see if it will help at all. It's got me. Yeah, now you're good. Now you're good. Now you're froze. I can see you now. Hello. Gotcha. All right, cool. Okay. I can set a quick cue note. Let's show a couple of these fish real quick. I'm going to count. Well, you froze up again. There you go. Now we're back. Okay. You cool? Yep, I'm good. All right, all right. I'm going to set another quick Q note. We're almost done here. Man, this has been awesome. So hang tight one sec. I'm going to set a Q note. And in three, two, one. All right, we got a new position for Justin in the garage. We had a little hiccup there. Justin, I'm going to show some of these pics, man. Here's some of these awesome catches that you sent us from these fish that you caught at Santee. Man, just some absolute freaking tanks. Um, some of these fish came on, on the, uh, big day. Some of the fish came on some of the other qualifying days, but, uh, man, it just looks like Santee is fishing. Like it just looks like a lot of fun, dude. Shallow fishing. You can forward facing sonar or you can get up in the, in the thick of it and, uh, catch them shallow. What up? Dude, I don't know what is happening. That's all right. Here, I'm going to kick this one. I think if I kick this one, you're still good. Okay, yeah, there we go. You're all good, dude. All right, we'll set another quick cue note real quick. Okay. Three, two, one. Alright, we had a little internet fuzz, but we're back. Justin, man, I want to show a couple of these fish you caught there from Santee. Man, just some absolute tanks. I know some of these fish were caught in pre-knockout round, you know, some of the stuff that you did to get to the knockout round and to the championship, but... Man, it looked like Santee was just on fire. How much fun was it fishing there? Maybe this was one of those ones you caught knockout round. It looks like it was in that, maybe in that creek area. Yeah, that was the cloudy day. That was up shallow. The one before that, that real big one, that was that one right there. I think that was... first or second one I caught in the knockout round where I started, you know, getting on fire there for a minute. So, so that was a, that was a straight bluebird day. There's a, that's probably another one that day. Yeah. Yeah. Totally different conditions, but there's like clouds, low pressure day. And that's why those shallow fish really fired that day. But that lake is incredible, man. I can't believe I've been fishing for 15 years now doing this and had never been on that lake until this year and I can't wait to go back. It's a special place. I hit it. I had a PB bag there. The first time I went to Santee, which was the elite series event where Preston Clark originally broke the all time rate where rep record site fishing. Then of course it was broken later on out in California by, uh, by, uh, Steve Kennedy on clear Lake. And then again, uh, not, not long after that by Paul Elias over at, uh, Lake Falcon. But, uh, yeah, just, uh, Just a lot of fun, man. Santee is a cool place. Very diverse. It's a bucket list place, man. If you're a diehard bass fisherman and, and you know, you've never been to Santee Cooper, you got to put it on your list and. would highly recommend march or april that's probably the best time to be there but man it's just a cool it's got that legendary feel you know like a kind of like a lake seminole a lake you follow alabama but but just unique in its own way so really cool place Well, Justin, man, I give you so much props for hanging with us here on Bass Edge Radio, breaking down your historic day, dude. 37-3, absolutely phenomenal. Obviously, with MLF, all fish count, so 6 for 42 and change. Just phenomenal, man. Any final words you have for the listeners here in this episode? No, I just appreciate you having me on, dude, and hopefully we don't have to wait too long to do it again. Yeah, man, just keep cracking them. We'll keep talking about it. It's always great to have you here on the show. Man, you guys stay tuned. Thanks again for Justin Lucas being here for this episode. But we're going to have some closing thoughts right here in the final segment of Bass Edge Radio right after this message. We'll be right back. Come on, man, let's roll. What the... To catch the fish, you need to be one with the fish. With PowerPool's shallow water anchors, you'll get the ultimate in precision, power, and control, so you can catch more fish. No face paint or phony fins necessary. Excessive shock and vibration are two leading causes for premature battery failure. Prolong the life of your batteries with the new MegaWear Battery Guard. The Battery Guard sits under your battery and absorbs excessive vibration and bounce, reducing G-shock by up to 80%. Great for boats or anywhere shock and vibration can damage a battery. The Battery Guard can easily be trimmed to fit virtually any custom shape or battery size. Save money by protecting your batteries. Spend more time on the water and less on maintenance. Find yours at MegaWear.com. Hey, hey, hey. Back at it. A little bit more Bass Edge Radio. Bass Edge Radio. Dude, Lucas breaking it down, man. So awesome to have him on the show. And also, huge shout out to Rich Lindgren, a.k.a. Hellebass, for breaking down the latest tournament stuff for us. But as always, I want to review a few key elements with Justin Lucas. If you listened to our last episode with Drew Gill, interestingly enough, Some parallels, man. These anglers that are really kicking it with forward-facing sonar, especially impressive with Justin Lucas, making the adjustment that he made, qualifying for the knockout round, fishing shallow, cranking, doing a couple different styles of techniques, and then noticing a change in conditions and having to alter his approach, His pre-practice played a huge role in him kind of knowing some areas and some high percentage spots to look for these fish offshore on that forward-facing sonar. And, dude, he made it happen. We've already discussed, but his huge bag played. personal best for justin lucas guy's been a long time 37-3 congrats to him and obviously six fish for the round 42 and change um but some of the keys were the loop knot we've seen this before justin talks about it again especially in this scenario and you would think maybe it wouldn't make such a huge difference in the shallow presentation but he mentions how important that is as well Although these brush piles, 15, 18, 11 feet, topping out 4, 5, 6 feet underneath the surface of the water, he's still using that lute knot. Very cool that he upsized his lure presentation where you see a lot of guys throwing smaller stuff. He upsized that presentation. he talked a lot about weights and how he likes to use his weight in what circumstance. So be sure to, you know, follow some of Justin's advice as far as, you know, how to put those pieces of the puzzle together to be successful. Then I think the We've talked about fundamentals of forward-facing sonar, having to hit the cone, understanding, you know, 9 out of 10 times, you better know exactly where it's at. But it's not only just hitting the cone. Justin talks how critical it is to also distance, understanding the distance. If you've got to hit 80 feet, you better be throwing it somewhere real close to 80. 83, 84, maybe 78, but you don't want to land on top of a fish. It feels like it spooks it, but there is a spot about the size of a basketball goal he mentions, especially in this scenario where it was a little bit less visibility, but there was an area that you had to hit to get these fish to react or any fish to react if you're on forward-facing sonar and how to get that fish to react and then read the That reaction. Is it positive? Is it negative? Did you just maybe have a bad angle? Fish slightly, you know, move toward the bait but didn't fully commit? And, you know, these are a lot of things that... folks are really talking about that are exceptional at forward-facing sonar that's giving the weekend angler a little bit better understanding of the technique within the technique, right? So really, really important and great to have Justin break that down for us, man. So cool. Appreciate him being on the show once again. Lots of upcoming events. Fork going on right now. We talked about that earlier with Rich Lindgren in the early half of the show, or I should say the first segment of the show. Man, just crazy weights going on at Lake Fork right now, and lots to learn there watching live the next couple days. It's going to be a fun show. But coming up next, Clear Lake MLF, March 1 through March 3. If you don't know, the Clear Lake MLF venue out in California is firing. And it's firing hard. So I think this is going to be a big weight event. Right here in my backyard, the NPFL Championship. The first ever NPFL Championship coming to Lake Amistad March 7th through March 9th. That's going to be a big event. You got an open back on Santee where Justin Lucas just cracked 37. Be great to see how these fish have progressed from You know, late February to early March, you know, that ladder between that 1st and 15th of March and where these fish have gone. Do they get some warm weather? Do the fish move up a little bit more? But the third stop of the Bassmaster Open is going to Santee March 7th through March 9th. Same dates, lots going on March 7th through March 9th. You got a Toyota series at Kentucky Lake going on. So that'll be interesting to watch. You know, how is Kentucky Lake progressing? Will it be a shallow water deal? Will it be a small mouth deal? We saw Toyota won there last year on spawning small mouth. How will that read up? And then of course, A big one. The Red Crest for MLF. That is their championship. $300,000 to the winner. That's going to be going down in Alabama March 1st. 14th through 17th so man we have the first half of march here is just going to be one two three four five pretty major events you know heavy regional or some national events going on in that time frame and then I believe Just shortly after Redclest is going to be the Bassmaster Classic. But we'll definitely have another episode here on Bass Edge Radio. Once again, big shout out to Justin Lucas. Thanks for being a part of this episode of Bass Edge Radio. Another big shout out to Rich Lindgren, a.k.a. Hella Bass. Thank you for being a part of this episode of Bass Edge. Thank you all for being listeners of Bass Edge Radio. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. Hit that like button. Comment below. Love to hear what y'all think. Man, we are done. Out of here for this March edition. We'll see you again right here on Bass Edge Radio.