April 9, 2025 • 40 mins
3x Redcrest Winner, Dustin Connell, shares his opinions on the negativity in bass fishing, his take on the "no information rules," and being a first time father.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On this episode of Lines in Times. He's won Redcrest
three times. With Major League Fishing, it's their biggest championship
of the year. Each one is worth three hundred thousand dollars.
We're going to speak to Dustin Connell. Dustin has been
fishing since he was a little kid. He's also a
big outdoorsman, and we're going to get into the controversies
(00:21):
that surround bass fishing in general, Ford facing Sonar disqualifications,
information rule. But we're also going to talk about the
success that he's had as a hunter. We'll talk about
the success that he's had as a first time dad
of a one year old. That's all coming up, but
first I wanted to ask you this. When you had
the platform and when you had the attention of everybody,
(00:46):
you talked about your displeasure of how people treated Easton,
Father Gill of the Beast Master Classic and Ford Facing Sonar.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know, I've been doing this for nine years. This
is my not year fishing professionally and super blessed to
be to do this. And I've seen the progression of
the sport. I've seen how things have what they came
from and how they are now and there's just a
lot of negativity right now, just in a lot of
different ways. And I guess you could kind of relate
(01:14):
this to the honting industry as well. You know, I
know there's a lot of scuttle but if that's a word,
I don't know, go to Webster's. But a lot of
scuttle butt about cell cameras, ye know, and so I
follow a lot in the industry, but this kind of
(01:34):
relates to that as well. But you know, I'm up
there and I had a great week on what Gunnersville.
Appreciate everybody coming out, but I'm up there on stage
and I'm sitting there thinking, and it really was weighing
on me. Man. It weighed on me all last week
and two weeks ago and lately, man, it's just been
(01:55):
so toxic and there's been such a polarized view about,
you know, our sport. And uh, when that kid won,
you know, Ethan, I keep referring him as a kid.
He's a he's a man, okay, but he's a young,
aspiring fisherman that has just grew up dreaming of this moment.
(02:17):
So he goes and he wins the Classic, and you know,
he had a really bad instance where he had a
brain I don't know what happened. I don't know the details,
but he's an yeah, yes, he had a very bad scare.
And I followed that and I'm like, oh my gosh,
it's terrible, you know. And so anyway, long story short,
(02:40):
he goes and he wins the bast Master Classic. I
have fished one of them before. It's a special event.
It's a dream event for anybody to just get there
and then much less win it. So he wins the tournament,
and man, they were going in on him like hard,
saying terrible things.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Though you wouldn't catch anything without this, And and I
can just tell you, out of one hundred comments, a
m or negative and I'm like, I hate seeing that.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Uh, there's all there's so much negativity in this world. People. Uh,
people need to do better. So I never thought that
I would have to be the I would have to
carry the torch for positivity in this world. I never like,
(03:33):
why do we have to have someone to carry the
torch for positive stuff. I'm not saying someone has to
agree about something, but my goodness, let's not tear somebody down.
Let's uh, let's be positive let's let him have his moment, man,
and like for just the terrible things that people were saying,
they should be a shamed, point blank period in my opinion,
(03:56):
and let him have his moment. Just congratulate him, or
if you don't want to, don't. And I just felt
very strongly about that. It really aggravates me, Like, come on, guys,
you know.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
We had an opportunity to watch you compete, and you
obviously competing in the MLF and Easton competing in bass Master.
The two leagues have decided to do things just a
little bit differently. Neither one of them want to get
rid of forward facing sonar. I don't think it's going
to go anywhere, but MLF has decided to do it
period by period, which bass Master doesn't have periods. But
(04:31):
do you like the way that MLF has positioned their
tournaments with saying you can use it, but you can
choose when you want to use it, and then you're
not allowed to use it after that?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, you know right. Whenever we first came up with
that decision, I was for it to begin with. I
was because I think that we need some diversity there
and you know, fishing not keeping mine I'm thirty five,
but I said this earlier on an interview. Like, dude,
I remember when blackberries were around. I played Nintendo, not
(05:07):
Nintendo sixty four. I was playing Super Mario Man and
a Super Mario and like I didn't really come up,
Like I had my first iPhone when I was like
twenty years old, you know. Like so I remember throwing
a shaky head down the bank, and like things have
(05:28):
just changed. You know, there's fourteen year old kids out
here now that are that's all they've ever known, So
like I can't dash them and I cannot Like things
have just progressed. We're on a phone right now and
I'm looking at you through my phone, So I understand
the progression of technology, and I'm you have to embrace it,
you know.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But when was it hard for you to to understand
Ford facing sonar or were you pretty quick to adapt?
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I mean you're known as one of the best now, Yeah,
I saw.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
This happening in twenty nineteen. I seen it and I
went okay, and I was one of the first ones
to really benefit. I mean, I truly feel like I
I don't know. I mean, I've won a ton of
tournaments using that technology, and I've adapted to it and
I've learned it. But whenever MLF, whenever they decided to
(06:25):
go with that route, I said, Okay, this will be
a big difference in the I guess you say, the
flow of the game and the speed of it, and
you're gonna have to change it up because two thirty
of your season you're going to be fishing without it
and we're going back to our roots. And I did
support it. I thought it was a great idea. I
(06:46):
think you get to see a lot more different diverse things,
throwing crank baits, throwing jerk based, flipping the bank again,
because there is times where that technique suspended fish will
dominate point blank period. But now you can only get
to do it one period and then you've got to
go and go grind and but yeah, it was a great,
(07:07):
great decision.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
When you started in twenty nineteen with Ford facing sonar.
Fast forward to twenty twenty five, What have you learned
and how different are the fish reacting to when it
first came out? I do you do you think maybe
I'll simplify that. Do you think the fish are getting
a little getting used to the pressure now Ford facing
(07:31):
sonar to where it's not as easy as everybody thinks.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
On Yeah, oh, I'll tell you this years ago. I'm
not years ago, shoot five four years ago, before ford
facing sonar really hit the mainstream. I made a living
fishing offshore on the Cousta River. That's what I did.
I ran around. I fish brush piles, I fish rock piles.
(07:56):
I knew isolated stumps, and I would pull up and
throw a jerk bait. I would pan over there. I'm
not even paying over there. I would literally get my
head in extension. I would be seventy five to eighty
feet away from a brush pile and I would throw
a jerk bait over there, and I could get those
fish to bite no more. They won't buy no more.
(08:17):
You have to make the right exact cast on them
because people have pressured these fish throughout all the season. Now,
and I'll be honest, I might be wrong on this,
but our tournaments now are one period off shore and
then there are two periods on the bank because you
can't catch them without it off shore. Now it's super hard.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So do you think that the pressure that a lot
of guys thought shallow bass had and then all of
a sudden everybody starts going off shore, that pressure is
now pushed out to that that the fish upshallow aren't
feeling nearly the pressure.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
One hundred percent. Yeah, there's probably there's probably grass mats
on Way Lake that I hadn't seen a swim jig
in a long time. And keep in mind, we pressured
them suckers for thirty years. It's really a blessing that
we gave him a little bit of a break.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I've been laughing because I've you know, I'll give you
and everybody else maybe a reset, people that have been
listening to this podcast for a while. I started fishing
five years ago. I was I'm from Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.
It is a great bass fishery, heavy hitters in MLF.
They're going to be there this year. And I wanted
(09:30):
to fish so much when I was a kid, but
I didn't know anybody that knew how to fish.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
My dad wasn't an out doorsman.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
He always encouraged me to find people that had the
same interests I did to really get into it, but
I couldn't find anybody knew how to fish. I knew
plenty of people that wanted to hunt when I was little,
but no fishing. I moved to Lake Lanier and then
I started fishing five years ago. And when I got
into it, boy, I got into it. I went and
bought a phoenix, I got humming birds, I got a garmin,
(09:59):
I got everything that you needed to fish those big
spot of bass.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
On Lake Lanear.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
But I even I've noticed, just from the short time
that I've been fishing, it's all about pressure. It doesn't
matter the method that you use. If you're using ford
facing sonar over a brushpile of this thirty feet deep
and those fish are seeing that lure, all they're seeing
is that lure. They may not have seen it for
the last year and a half, but now they're seeing it,
(10:25):
so you're catching them. Well, if they see that every day,
it's no different than you going to a two foot
area of grass and throwing a swim jig around. They're
just seeing that same swim jig. And you've probably noticed this.
Certain baits worked for a while. The chatter bait replaced
the spinner bait for a lot of people. Well now
the spinner bait's starting to come back. Is why fish
(10:45):
i'n't been seeing it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Sure, and that kind of goes to the hunting side
of things as well. Dude. I'm just telling you nature
will find a way to adapt. It is amazing how
how smart they are. If you go in on a
place for years, we go out there and if you're
in a state that could bait, you're out there carrying
(11:09):
a corn bag out there every day. When they do.
When you blow that deer out two times, he's gone bye.
Now he knows they're smart in this fish of the
same way. You cannot just roll up and fish the
same place every day. They go and get pressured, and
we're seeing a lot of pressure. Now. There's more people
on the water now than ever, which is great. These
suckers are hard to catch.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Each lake that you've won, you falla Laylake, Gunnersville, all
in Alabama. I don't have this stigma of you, but
I think there's some people that would say, well, Dustin's
conell is really good, but he's only good in Alabama.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Hey, I'll tell you this. What's funny about that is
is uh, I've won tournaments in Minnesota, Relax, New York.
My first tournament was in Mississippi, raw was born at
and that was pre forward facing Sonar. But like I've
been fortunate to win tournaments in a lot of places,
(12:07):
but I do have a soft spot for the sate Alabama.
I don't know what it is, but I I guess
it's just me being comfortable around here. I didn't even know,
like you followed that well. They just announced that tournament
whenever it went down, like three or four days beforehand
when we went to Ufalla. But I do love the
sad Alabama. I wish I had every red crest in Alabama.
That's the gold. That'd be so freaking awesome. Just keep
(12:31):
coming here.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
What is it about Alabama? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I don't know, man, I I'm gonna be honest. I
just think that it's being comfortable. Like, hey, I'm I'm
a couple hours down the road. Let's freaking go. I'm excited,
you know. And I got a one year old little boy.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Now, and happy birthday to him, by the way.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Thank you, thank you. Yeah, And we enjoyed that yesterday.
We're gonna have a little party for him this Saturday.
But just being comfortable and around the house. I'm two
and a half hours from Gunnersville, I'm two hours from
you Fall, and knowing I'm that close to the house,
is just kind of a little peace comes over me.
It's a little different when you're twenty hours away and
you're like, dude, I'm in foreign territory. I don't know
(13:16):
nothing about this lake at all. So and those are
the biggest events of our our tour. That's the tournament
you want to win. I've telled everybody you can finish second, third, fourth,
Nobody cares straight up, you got to win it, and
you better bring it too, because these guys are amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Let's go over some of the stats that everybody looks
at with Red Crest multi day. I mean, you're out
there fishing for four days. First two days, Dustin Connell
is not in the top ten. What the hell is
you went on with Dustin Connell? Where's Jacob Wheeler? Where
all these guys? Although you and I talked briefly, you're
gaming the situation a little bit, and I can appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, that was so the first day of that tournament,
I'm running up. If you're familiar with let Gunnersville guys like,
you'll run up and you'll get to South Saudi and
then you'll go to North Saudi. Well, we went lines
in on the first day at seven fifth, seven forty five. Well,
(14:24):
I break the mouth of South Saudi and I'm lines in,
and I'm like, all right, and this is one of
them situations that I'll say, you touched on four faces sonar.
I use active target too, it's phenomenal. But I'm lines
in and I'm like, I'm trying to gauge how this
tournament's gonna go down. I don't really know how what
(14:47):
they're going to catch. Do I need seventy pounds a day?
Do I need thirty pounds a day? Do it? I
don't know. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna
stop in here. We're lines in. Let me use my
fore face sonar period and just kind of gauge things
because I had a few areas that I had some
big bikes in and I caught them on a crush
seedy janitor, just flipping it out there, you know, wacky
(15:09):
rig And the first period I caught six or seven fish,
caught one scorble terrible. I said, I said, packing all,
put it on the trailer. I went bye bye. So
I said I'm out. I said, screw this, I'm gone.
(15:31):
So I ran forty miles, So keep in mind, forty
miles I'm running up there. I waste another forty five
minutes of the next period running. I finally get up
to where I really had some confidence up that river,
and I catch them, and I says, the day I
catch like twenty five pounds or whatever. But I'm ten
or eleven pounds, twelve pounds back out of the cut,
(15:52):
and I'm like, all right, I'm going up there all
day next tomorrow and I'm gonna go catch them.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Why'd you make that decision then.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Because I just knew the pace at how things were going,
Like thirty six pounds was in the cut, and I'm like, dude,
if i'd have just ran up there off the bit,
I would have caught forty something pounds, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Was it less pressure up there. You didn't see as
many guys competing up there.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No one was there. There was halfway up the river.
I seen Wesley when I pulled up on a place,
and I'm like, god amn mighty, I ain't seen a
boat in forty miles almost And I look over at
Wesley and I'm like, what's he got? He's got forty
six pounds and I'm like, dang it. So the tournament developed.
(16:41):
Every day developed. Even after that first period that I
didn't catch them, I learned I ain't using four faces
on all the rest of this tournament. I'm done. I
learned that I was actually on a really good bite
up there, considering the conditions of the lake, and I
went full in for that. There was no doubt I
(17:01):
was not turning back. So luckily I falveaged the day
up there on day one. I went up there on
day two, caught fifty six pounds, made it to the
knockout realm, and then the rest was history.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Why'd you make the decision on the final day to
go all the way to the knicker jack Damn.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
That's a very interesting you follow this, this is amazing,
This is a that's a very interesting question. Now.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Was it only because you knew the weather was changing?
You knew that the spawning fish weren't going to act
the way that they've been acting for the last couple
of days, And you were like, well, i'll get movement
in the water. I can get up against some heavy,
big structure. I mean that damn is massive, and you
knew there was going to be more heat up there.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I knew that it was cloudy, it was rainy, and
from the day prior, during the knockout realm this is
on Saturday, I knew that in those low light conditions
they were going to be chewing because that morning before
I pulled up on the same place and I started
(18:13):
smashing them on a mooch minnow and I said, dude,
there's way more fish up here than what I thought,
because when it was sunny, they wouldn't bite in that good.
And when it every day it got sonny and they
would kind of lay off, and I'm like, dude, this
place stinks. They were there all along, It's just I
needed the conditions. I checked the weather and I said, dude,
(18:36):
it's gonna be raining, crappy weather, cloudy, and they're going
to be chewing at that damn. So I opted to
chop it all the way. I never shut down until
I got to the concrete. And I'm telling you my
second cast I called her three and a half, and
I started bombing them. It was so good and it
(18:56):
was all condition based. It was just a perfect storm.
The guys down the lake was it gonna be able
to saltfish? And I was up there and they were
freaking chewing.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
I knew for a fact when I saw the conditions,
I was like, this has got Dustin Connell written all
over it, because I don't think I've seen a.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Tournament where you're not in a rain suit.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
For whatever reason, I feel like you're always dressed for
it to be overcast, windy, blowing about thirty and rain.
I've never seen you in your jersey. I don't think
in a tournament like you're always wearing a rain suit.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When it's bad weather and I'm up the river and
they're biting, That's what That's what I loved. I love
the weather, worst weather possible. And I was I was
a long way from everybody, dude, I was seventy miles
and it takes a bold like it took a lot
of guts to make that run, because there's a lot
of things that can go wrong.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You know, how many times did you second guess that
decision in the morning like that, now by the time
you ran, I'm talking about before you even hit the
gas pedal, before you push that throttle.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
How many times did you say, man, I don't know
if I should do this.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I ran the first morning, I was running past all
of the locals. I was running past all of the
guys that were in our tournament, and I'm turning my
back on every bath in the lake, and I'm like,
I don't know about this. It's intimidating doing that and
then knowing I still got forty or fifty miles a run.
(20:22):
I'm like, when you get about three quarters away up there,
it starts getting kind of like, dang, oh god, this
is this is a long way from reality. Like there
ain't no back, there ain't no other plans. It's either
your going or you're not. And it there. It questioned
me a couple of times. I was sitting there questioning myself.
I was like, dude, but this is our tournament. This
(20:45):
is the tournament to win. I said, look, high high risk,
high rewards, let's go.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So you threw caution into the wind, obviously paid out
on day four. You mentioned earlier that your son just
turned a year old. How has he changed your life
professionally and personally?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It gives you a totally different perspective on life. I
know that sounds cliche. You hear that a lot, but
it really does. And I've just realized that life is
so much bigger than these than these fish. It just
his dude, straight up, so much bigger. Just seeing him
smile and seeing him grow up, and like, that's what
(21:27):
that's what it's about. I mean, dude, I love these tournaments,
I love Lake Gunnersville, and I love that trophy. But
whether I did good or bad, dude, it was his
first birthday this weekend. That's all that matters.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Now.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I just want to I do this for him and
my family. Now straight up used to be just strictly
for me. I want to go out there, and man,
I want to catch him for me, I ain't worried
about me no more. I want to do this for him.
So it meant a lot just doing that. That was cool.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
What's worse losing a six pound large mouth or taking
care of a bloe out of a baby in the
back seat of the.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Car blow out by by far, When it's blown out
and it's uh everywhere and it's all over your hands,
it gets real. Buddy, I done did it. I donet
did it a bunch of times, and I'm like, oh God.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
And when it happens when you're alone, because you can't
pass it off to Vic, you can't go somebody's got
to take.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Care of this. No, I can't do that. And I
made a bad decision one time. One time he had
a little chaff. He had a little diaper rash. It's
pretty bad. We're putting that boodros on there, and I
just I put some on there and I said, man,
I'm gonna let you air out. So I'll let tree
and air out. You know, I've let him run around
without a diaper. Terrible decision. Pooped all on the cow,
(22:49):
pooped on me. Don't do that.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
It's like that Dumb and Dumber movie.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Poo everywhere in that dumb and dumber movie.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh yeah, yeah, when he has the U, when he
has Are you a dumb and dumber fan, Dustin?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Man, he gets that ax lax in the Yeah. That's
always a bad that's always a bad move.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That was trending on the couch.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
You know, I've always I've always appreciated your career when
it came to fishing. And you know you started out
as a kid fishing U the Cusa River. I've heard
this from a lot of guys. Fishing the Cousa River
is hard to take that style to any other lake.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
So hard man. So I told aut Dfo before this
tournament started, we were in the Bass Pro shops in
Huntsville and I told him. I was like, man, I
went to Nika Jack and I went to this and
I caught some fish like like above Nika Jack damn
like on Nika Jack. And I just told him, I said, man,
(23:55):
I really want because he loves fishing rivers as well.
And now I started thinking, I'm like, dude, I have
not been able in nine years to sit below a
dam and fish current and that style of fishing. In
nine years, I've not been able to utilize that Indian
I'm like, dang. Maybe one day and then Aunt told me,
he said, well, you got a chance here, you can
do it here. I said, yes, seventy miles away, I
(24:17):
probably finished dead last, I won the tournament. Do it.
And I'm like, golyy, So I've been able to do
that one time. Fishing on the Coast River is so unique.
You got running water and you don't have that everywhere.
You don't have spotty bass everywhere, and it's totally different,
and it's a big adjustment.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
The style of tournament fishing has changed over the last
couple of years. I mean, you have one tournament trail
the bas Elites, where guys are getting dequeued left and right.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Now they're finally holding up to some of the rules
that they have in place.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
When you heard about Scott Martin and him getting disqualified
for a second time in the season and then electing
to leave the Elites, what were your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Oh, I could go in on this one too. Let
me say this. I know Scott personally, great guy, great guy.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I'm forman bass master classic. I got to see how
he fishes up close and personal.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
And you know what's crazy about Scott is a lot
of people think Scott's kind of fake, but no, that's
his personality. He's always amped up like that. He's a
great guy. And I fully support Scott in any decision
he makes. Man I do and uh, but I will
say this and then nobody seems to remember this. Let's
let's backtrack for thirty years. Thirty years it was a
(25:46):
free for all on information. Thirty years. There was a
lot of guys and I'm not saying that. Don't don't
get me wrong when I say this that their careers
were made on information because they are Hella fishermen my heroes,
Bud they had the kind of the Buddy system kind
of deal going on. Hey man, we got a terminal
Alabyn River. What do you think is gonna be going on?
(26:07):
Where you're thinking I need to check? Oh man, right,
you need to be in Jackson Lake. You need to
be over here, you know. So it was so easy
and just one little baby conversation for like two minutes
could help somebody out so much. For thirty years, it
was a free for all. And now we've implemented that
in twenty eighteen where he did no information, which I
do agree on that, but I could see where it's
(26:30):
kind of hard to cut that off immediately, and I
think it. You know, Scott kind of got in a
little issue at an honest mistake down at Oklachovie because
the last thing he wants to do is get messed up.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
You know, nobody wants that, especially in your homelater.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, but I just feel like, man, sometimes that stuff
can get taken too far and out of context. I
don't think that there's many guys and don't there probably
is that just blatantly don't care about rules, and Scott's
got so much to lose, man, that dude. He is
(27:10):
one of the most successful anglers with partners, and I mean,
my dude is a legend and his dad is he
don't want to stain his reputation. I think it was
an honest mistake in my opinion. I don't know the
background of it, but I do think there's a lot
of eyes and a lot of hate out there. And
you got to walk a straight line. And when I
mean squeaky clean, there ain't no skipping, no corners. You
(27:34):
you might be underneath the rules, but you still you
got to make sure that you don't give nobody no
ammunition to try to catch you doing anything, not even
legally and in the gray area.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Would you rather have the information of no rules or
have it go back to pre twenty eighteen where you
could get info.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I like no information rule. I dot the.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Pro level, the BPT and the elites, and even the opens,
because I feel like the Opens is kind of like,
you know, minor league fishing for the bass master elites.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
You know what's funny about this? And I'm probably gonna
catch them slack. I'm sure somebody will get on here
and say something.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Nobody listens to this podcast, so you're.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Fine well, I'll tell you. What's funny about it is
is they implementing a rule for the bassmaster opens as
well that no information on it. And what their narrative
was was, these guys are getting information on the ten Lakes.
We fish a lot. So if you get information on Gunnersville,
(28:39):
you get information on Okachobe, let's say, Champlain, Saint Lawrence, River,
Sam Ravern, and Toledo. Well, you know the rest of
your career, you're gonna fish there a lot because they're
just world famous lakes. We're gonna go to them lakes.
And they were claiming that they were getting information beforehand,
and at the end of the day, dude, it don't matter.
You can get information this whole to catch other people's bass.
(29:01):
It's hard to go and hunt somebody else's deer if
you don't really know exactly what that deer is doing.
Hey man, he's coming in here, blah blah blah. But
it's just hard to duplicate what someone tells you and
it can lead you down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
What are some of those subtleties, Like if you told
me a waypoint, let's say it was way up the river,
isolated rock patch, you might be in fifteen foot of water.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
You say, there's fish there? Is it? Bold positioning is it?
Line size is it? The weight? Is it? How you
let that soft plastic drift.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
So I've had this happen locally on like like Jordans.
I've had guys contact me and like my best friend,
for example, Corey. I'll tell Corey, say, listen, you need
to run in a new lake. You need to stop
on these three places. Okay, you're gonna go in there.
You're gonna fish these for a little bit. It's gonna suck,
probably for the first hour. Just know that if you
(29:56):
want to go swimming jig, you can go do that early,
but at first hour it's gonna kind of suck. But
you need to go in there and make your presence
and on them. Get settled in. When the sun comes up,
it's probably gonna start. They're gonna bite between eight and
nine thirty. Stay in there, run that stuff alter night
between them. Catch you's two here, catch a couple here.
(30:17):
You'll have eighteen pounds. Then you need to go and
flip the rest of the day. I call him at
about ten thirty. Dude, it just wasn't happening in there.
I'm all the way up river.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
I'm like, dude, I literally just gave you the dang
blueprint to win, and you're up the river throwing a
shaky head on a rock bank.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Don't call me back.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
I had to happen with a friend of mine. I
was fishing Old Hickory. I've never been to Old Hickory
And I said to a buddy of mine, you ever
fished out there? And he's like, yeah, man, I got
one Spintz dynamite. You can go up there and catch
fifteen twenty pounds of bass easy in the first hour.
You might even stay there and get twenty five if
you're lucky lucky. And I said, where is? He shows
me a dot. Literally, I run all the way up there,
(31:04):
and it's it's a decision.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Like you made with Gunnersville.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Man.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
I'm running seventy five miles one way, and I got
all the way up there and I didn't get a
single bite. So then I gotta leave at some point
to get back down and try to salvage my day.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
My buddy calls.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
And he goes what happened, said, I didn't get a bike,
didn't get a bite, And he's like, how long did
you stay up there? I said, I was up there
for maybe two hours, and he goes, yeah, that's tough.
He goes up the next week in the tournament, same
exact spot.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Wax him.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yep, oh it happens. I mean it's easy to do.
You get laid down a rabbit hole. But for me,
I've just kind of noticed doing this. Man, you got
to do your own deal. Straight up, there's gonna come
a point during that day, whether it's a one day
tournament or just a fishing trip, you're going to have
to go and make a decision on the water by yourself.
(32:00):
And like, this is another one in things if I so,
if I show up, I keep relating back to deer hunting,
but uh, we like that here. I really enjoy going like, Okay,
don't get me wrong on this, Hell, I may do
it this year. I like going to an outfitter because
I don't have nobody to go hunting, Like I don't
(32:20):
have land. Not everybody has leases and whatnot. So let's
say I go to Illinois Connection and Illinois and they've
got freaking twenty thousand and eight. I like the idea of, like, hey,
put me on a big deer. You know, hey, there's
a big deer out here. He's doing this, and be
looking for this deer. But I also love well, I
(32:40):
do have a lease in Illinois. I love doing it
on my own. I love going out there and saying
running my cameras. I love pattering and the deer. I
like showing up at the right time, checking the wind,
knowing what's standing I need to be in and then
whenever it all comes together and it happens, that's the
most satisfying thing. So when you do it on your own,
(33:01):
it's like I then can hang my hat. But if
I had somebody say, hey, pull up on these dots
and catch them right here, and you're going to win,
and then when I go in, it's like, yeah, that's cool.
I won the tournament. The ultimate goal is done. But
it's like, dude, when you find them and you make
(33:21):
them bite, that's the puzzle. I love it.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You remember the first bass you ever caught, the one
that you did on your own. You went out to
a body of water and you threw it a specific thing.
You were working, a worm or whatever you were throwing.
You knew exactly what you were and it was all
you because I just got to experience that with my
twelve year old nephew, Hudson. He threw a wacky worm
that I set up for him, but I put him
(33:45):
on the boat and he could throw her every once
and he goes, Uncle Spence, why would any fish bite
a wacky worm? It looks so dumb. And minutes later
he caught his first one and a half pound Logan
Martin spot of bass.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's so cool. And I got to have that.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Experience where I was like, I'm seeing, I'm seeing what
it was like when I call my first fish through
a different lens, and it's gonna be the same when
you watch your son do it for the first time.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's so cool. Yeah. I remember a real quick story Clanton, Alabama.
I was Goose Pond Park. I know everybody don't know that,
but there's a bridge right there underneath thirty one. Right
underneath that thirty one bridge, there used to be a
big hole rut there and there was grass around the edges.
(34:32):
And I remember I was with my brother. I had
a cream it was a cream worm, old school cream worm,
green pumpkin worm. I had it on a Texas rig
with just a little two over hook and I asked James,
I said, my brother. I was like, how do I
know when he buys it? He said, you'll fill that line,
go drink, and it just starts getting hit. Well, I
(34:55):
saw that sucker, I heard of that grass, and I
felt it and it went duke like a catfish bite.
And I picked up and my line was just moving.
So I just set the hug and I remember it
was like a two pound wars now. I still remember
that to this day.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Hudson was telling me Uncle Spence, I'm hug on a
log and he lifts up and I saw his line, y'all,
and I went, I don't think trees move when they're
in the water. Go ahead and set that huck perfectly
right in the top lip. You would have thought he
was battling jaws when he pulled that thing.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Into the boat.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Oh yeah, now he's fucked.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
It was such a great moment.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
Daniel question, Yeah, Dustin, I want to know when at
Red Crest, back to Red Crest, when you found those
fish up there, how hard was it for you to
keep it from Jacob and Adrian and Mark or do
you guys talk about it or were you keeping a
hush hush because I watched your video and when you
guys were on your boat, and it seems like everybody
(35:48):
was having their own conversations when then their own YouTube
channels and their recording guys.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
So we cannot disclose an exact location and where we're fishing.
But I mean, you could say up the river. I mean, heck,
for that matter, you can probably say Brown's Creek. I mean,
Browns Creek's five miles long, you know. But like a
generic location, let's say, hey, they're biting mid river. You
(36:14):
cannot say they're bidying at the dam. You can't say
they're biting on this tree, you know. But they kind
of knew that I was really wanting to go up
the river. I never told them where I was at.
I didn't tell him I was at the dam or
thirty miles up or what. But Jacob actually practiced up
there a day and a half, and he kind of
(36:37):
had the same mindset, because Jacob Man, so he's one
of the most smart fishermen I've ever seen in my life.
He's unreal. But he was up there in practice, and
he knew that I was up there, and I, like,
I said, that tournament developed along the way. I told
him that I had some bikes up the way that
(36:58):
I really like it up there, but I don't I
don't know if I can win up there. Well, they
knew I was up that way catching them, they didn't
really know the potential of it. I didn't really know
the potential until the knockout round. And then when I
came in from the knockout round, everybody sat down. They
were like, You're gonna win, ain't you? And I went,
(37:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
I went, I went, dude, I can see it happening now.
And they were like, we got you to win. There
ain't no doubt. They said, it's gonna between you and Westley, guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And it was when they announced that you won Redcrest.
What initial thought went through your mind?
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Oh? Just the how it all went down. I mean, dude,
you don't understand the emotions that come through your head
when you're thinking of I first thought of the last
two tournaments that I had, because I had train wrecks
or tournaments just terrible, look lost, fish didn't get on much.
(38:02):
And then I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, dude, and
I say this with humility. I just pulled one of
the most epic stunts out in a tournament ever.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Rabbit ont of the hat.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So cool, such a badass wind. It was awesome just
being able to run seventy miles get a turn your
back on everything history in the past, because I'd never
seen that place before. I go up there, I catch
a twenty five pound trifecta bag, five pounds wargs mouth,
(38:38):
five pound small mouth, four pound spotty bass, and I'm like,
this will go down in the history books of how
cool of a wind this is. And then I look
around and there's nobody there. It's freaking sprinkling rain, and
like I noticed things on the water and it was
just so calm and peaceful up there, and I was like,
(39:00):
this is the coolest win ever. And that was going
through my mind. I was like, I cannot believe I
just pulled this so far, Fitch stun Off.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Is that the greatest tournament win of your life? Awesome?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
That's Cools con joined us on lines and times this morning.
We appreciate you. Congratulations. The man has nine hundred thousand
dollars in redcress money over the last couple of years,
and he is he's a father of one year old son.
He's a devoted husband to Victoria. He's just a great
(39:38):
man of God and awesome to be on the show
with us today. Dude, I appreciate the hack Outia. It's
awesome that you were able to jump on with us
today and add so many good insights. You know, I
think you've definitely won a couple of fans for life.
And I've been a fan of yours for a while,
and I look forward to the day where I see
you out on the Kusa River because I know that's
the one tournament we're all finished second, so.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You'll see me out there a lot. I fish out
there a lot. I mean, I'm over here. I'm looking
at my boat right now, and I'm like, dude, it's
seventy degrees. I got to go, but I got to
clean this house up and catch up for my little boy.
I'm gonna get to that. But I appreciate you guys
having me and hopefully again we'll talk soon.
On this episode of Lines in Times. He's won Redcrest
three times. With Major League Fishing, it's their biggest championship
of the year. Each one is worth three hundred thousand dollars.
We're going to speak to Dustin Connell. Dustin has been
fishing since he was a little kid. He's also a
big outdoorsman, and we're going to get into the controversies
(00:21):
that surround bass fishing in general, Ford facing Sonar disqualifications,
information rule. But we're also going to talk about the
success that he's had as a hunter. We'll talk about
the success that he's had as a first time dad
of a one year old. That's all coming up, but
first I wanted to ask you this. When you had
the platform and when you had the attention of everybody,
(00:46):
you talked about your displeasure of how people treated Easton,
Father Gill of the Beast Master Classic and Ford Facing Sonar.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know, I've been doing this for nine years. This
is my not year fishing professionally and super blessed to
be to do this. And I've seen the progression of
the sport. I've seen how things have what they came
from and how they are now and there's just a
lot of negativity right now, just in a lot of
different ways. And I guess you could kind of relate
(01:14):
this to the honting industry as well. You know, I
know there's a lot of scuttle but if that's a word,
I don't know, go to Webster's. But a lot of
scuttle butt about cell cameras, ye know, and so I
follow a lot in the industry, but this kind of
(01:34):
relates to that as well. But you know, I'm up
there and I had a great week on what Gunnersville.
Appreciate everybody coming out, but I'm up there on stage
and I'm sitting there thinking, and it really was weighing
on me. Man. It weighed on me all last week
and two weeks ago and lately, man, it's just been
(01:55):
so toxic and there's been such a polarized view about,
you know, our sport. And uh, when that kid won,
you know, Ethan, I keep referring him as a kid.
He's a he's a man, okay, but he's a young,
aspiring fisherman that has just grew up dreaming of this moment.
(02:17):
So he goes and he wins the Classic, and you know,
he had a really bad instance where he had a
brain I don't know what happened. I don't know the details,
but he's an yeah, yes, he had a very bad scare.
And I followed that and I'm like, oh my gosh,
it's terrible, you know. And so anyway, long story short,
(02:40):
he goes and he wins the bast Master Classic. I
have fished one of them before. It's a special event.
It's a dream event for anybody to just get there
and then much less win it. So he wins the tournament,
and man, they were going in on him like hard,
saying terrible things.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Though you wouldn't catch anything without this, And and I
can just tell you, out of one hundred comments, a
m or negative and I'm like, I hate seeing that.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Uh, there's all there's so much negativity in this world. People. Uh,
people need to do better. So I never thought that
I would have to be the I would have to
carry the torch for positivity in this world. I never like,
(03:33):
why do we have to have someone to carry the
torch for positive stuff. I'm not saying someone has to
agree about something, but my goodness, let's not tear somebody down.
Let's uh, let's be positive let's let him have his moment, man,
and like for just the terrible things that people were saying,
they should be a shamed, point blank period in my opinion,
(03:56):
and let him have his moment. Just congratulate him, or
if you don't want to, don't. And I just felt
very strongly about that. It really aggravates me, Like, come on, guys,
you know.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
We had an opportunity to watch you compete, and you
obviously competing in the MLF and Easton competing in bass Master.
The two leagues have decided to do things just a
little bit differently. Neither one of them want to get
rid of forward facing sonar. I don't think it's going
to go anywhere, but MLF has decided to do it
period by period, which bass Master doesn't have periods. But
(04:31):
do you like the way that MLF has positioned their
tournaments with saying you can use it, but you can
choose when you want to use it, and then you're
not allowed to use it after that?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, you know right. Whenever we first came up with
that decision, I was for it to begin with. I
was because I think that we need some diversity there
and you know, fishing not keeping mine I'm thirty five,
but I said this earlier on an interview. Like, dude,
I remember when blackberries were around. I played Nintendo, not
(05:07):
Nintendo sixty four. I was playing Super Mario Man and
a Super Mario and like I didn't really come up,
Like I had my first iPhone when I was like
twenty years old, you know. Like so I remember throwing
a shaky head down the bank, and like things have
(05:28):
just changed. You know, there's fourteen year old kids out
here now that are that's all they've ever known, So
like I can't dash them and I cannot Like things
have just progressed. We're on a phone right now and
I'm looking at you through my phone, So I understand
the progression of technology, and I'm you have to embrace it,
you know.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But when was it hard for you to to understand
Ford facing sonar or were you pretty quick to adapt?
Speaker 4 (05:55):
I mean you're known as one of the best now, Yeah,
I saw.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
This happening in twenty nineteen. I seen it and I
went okay, and I was one of the first ones
to really benefit. I mean, I truly feel like I
I don't know. I mean, I've won a ton of
tournaments using that technology, and I've adapted to it and
I've learned it. But whenever MLF, whenever they decided to
(06:25):
go with that route, I said, Okay, this will be
a big difference in the I guess you say, the
flow of the game and the speed of it, and
you're gonna have to change it up because two thirty
of your season you're going to be fishing without it
and we're going back to our roots. And I did
support it. I thought it was a great idea. I
(06:46):
think you get to see a lot more different diverse things,
throwing crank baits, throwing jerk based, flipping the bank again,
because there is times where that technique suspended fish will
dominate point blank period. But now you can only get
to do it one period and then you've got to
go and go grind and but yeah, it was a great,
(07:07):
great decision.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
When you started in twenty nineteen with Ford facing sonar.
Fast forward to twenty twenty five, What have you learned
and how different are the fish reacting to when it
first came out? I do you do you think maybe
I'll simplify that. Do you think the fish are getting
a little getting used to the pressure now Ford facing
(07:31):
sonar to where it's not as easy as everybody thinks.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
On Yeah, oh, I'll tell you this years ago. I'm
not years ago, shoot five four years ago, before ford
facing sonar really hit the mainstream. I made a living
fishing offshore on the Cousta River. That's what I did.
I ran around. I fish brush piles, I fish rock piles.
(07:56):
I knew isolated stumps, and I would pull up and
throw a jerk bait. I would pan over there. I'm
not even paying over there. I would literally get my
head in extension. I would be seventy five to eighty
feet away from a brush pile and I would throw
a jerk bait over there, and I could get those
fish to bite no more. They won't buy no more.
(08:17):
You have to make the right exact cast on them
because people have pressured these fish throughout all the season. Now,
and I'll be honest, I might be wrong on this,
but our tournaments now are one period off shore and
then there are two periods on the bank because you
can't catch them without it off shore. Now it's super hard.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
So do you think that the pressure that a lot
of guys thought shallow bass had and then all of
a sudden everybody starts going off shore, that pressure is
now pushed out to that that the fish upshallow aren't
feeling nearly the pressure.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
One hundred percent. Yeah, there's probably there's probably grass mats
on Way Lake that I hadn't seen a swim jig
in a long time. And keep in mind, we pressured
them suckers for thirty years. It's really a blessing that
we gave him a little bit of a break.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
I've been laughing because I've you know, I'll give you
and everybody else maybe a reset, people that have been
listening to this podcast for a while. I started fishing
five years ago. I was I'm from Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia.
It is a great bass fishery, heavy hitters in MLF.
They're going to be there this year. And I wanted
(09:30):
to fish so much when I was a kid, but
I didn't know anybody that knew how to fish.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
My dad wasn't an out doorsman.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
He always encouraged me to find people that had the
same interests I did to really get into it, but
I couldn't find anybody knew how to fish. I knew
plenty of people that wanted to hunt when I was little,
but no fishing. I moved to Lake Lanier and then
I started fishing five years ago. And when I got
into it, boy, I got into it. I went and
bought a phoenix, I got humming birds, I got a garmin,
(09:59):
I got everything that you needed to fish those big
spot of bass.
Speaker 4 (10:03):
On Lake Lanear.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
But I even I've noticed, just from the short time
that I've been fishing, it's all about pressure. It doesn't
matter the method that you use. If you're using ford
facing sonar over a brushpile of this thirty feet deep
and those fish are seeing that lure, all they're seeing
is that lure. They may not have seen it for
the last year and a half, but now they're seeing it,
(10:25):
so you're catching them. Well, if they see that every day,
it's no different than you going to a two foot
area of grass and throwing a swim jig around. They're
just seeing that same swim jig. And you've probably noticed this.
Certain baits worked for a while. The chatter bait replaced
the spinner bait for a lot of people. Well now
the spinner bait's starting to come back. Is why fish
(10:45):
i'n't been seeing it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Sure, and that kind of goes to the hunting side
of things as well. Dude. I'm just telling you nature
will find a way to adapt. It is amazing how
how smart they are. If you go in on a
place for years, we go out there and if you're
in a state that could bait, you're out there carrying
(11:09):
a corn bag out there every day. When they do.
When you blow that deer out two times, he's gone bye.
Now he knows they're smart in this fish of the
same way. You cannot just roll up and fish the
same place every day. They go and get pressured, and
we're seeing a lot of pressure. Now. There's more people
on the water now than ever, which is great. These
suckers are hard to catch.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Each lake that you've won, you falla Laylake, Gunnersville, all
in Alabama. I don't have this stigma of you, but
I think there's some people that would say, well, Dustin's
conell is really good, but he's only good in Alabama.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Hey, I'll tell you this. What's funny about that is
is uh, I've won tournaments in Minnesota, Relax, New York.
My first tournament was in Mississippi, raw was born at
and that was pre forward facing Sonar. But like I've
been fortunate to win tournaments in a lot of places,
(12:07):
but I do have a soft spot for the sate Alabama.
I don't know what it is, but I I guess
it's just me being comfortable around here. I didn't even know,
like you followed that well. They just announced that tournament
whenever it went down, like three or four days beforehand
when we went to Ufalla. But I do love the
sad Alabama. I wish I had every red crest in Alabama.
That's the gold. That'd be so freaking awesome. Just keep
(12:31):
coming here.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
What is it about Alabama? Do you think?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I don't know, man, I I'm gonna be honest. I
just think that it's being comfortable. Like, hey, I'm I'm
a couple hours down the road. Let's freaking go. I'm excited,
you know. And I got a one year old little boy.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
Now, and happy birthday to him, by the way.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Thank you, thank you. Yeah, And we enjoyed that yesterday.
We're gonna have a little party for him this Saturday.
But just being comfortable and around the house. I'm two
and a half hours from Gunnersville, I'm two hours from
you Fall, and knowing I'm that close to the house,
is just kind of a little peace comes over me.
It's a little different when you're twenty hours away and
you're like, dude, I'm in foreign territory. I don't know
(13:16):
nothing about this lake at all. So and those are
the biggest events of our our tour. That's the tournament
you want to win. I've telled everybody you can finish second, third, fourth,
Nobody cares straight up, you got to win it, and
you better bring it too, because these guys are amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Let's go over some of the stats that everybody looks
at with Red Crest multi day. I mean, you're out
there fishing for four days. First two days, Dustin Connell
is not in the top ten. What the hell is
you went on with Dustin Connell? Where's Jacob Wheeler? Where
all these guys? Although you and I talked briefly, you're
gaming the situation a little bit, and I can appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, that was so the first day of that tournament,
I'm running up. If you're familiar with let Gunnersville guys like,
you'll run up and you'll get to South Saudi and
then you'll go to North Saudi. Well, we went lines
in on the first day at seven fifth, seven forty five. Well,
(14:24):
I break the mouth of South Saudi and I'm lines in,
and I'm like, all right, and this is one of
them situations that I'll say, you touched on four faces sonar.
I use active target too, it's phenomenal. But I'm lines
in and I'm like, I'm trying to gauge how this
tournament's gonna go down. I don't really know how what
(14:47):
they're going to catch. Do I need seventy pounds a day?
Do I need thirty pounds a day? Do it? I
don't know. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna
stop in here. We're lines in. Let me use my
fore face sonar period and just kind of gauge things
because I had a few areas that I had some
big bikes in and I caught them on a crush
seedy janitor, just flipping it out there, you know, wacky
(15:09):
rig And the first period I caught six or seven fish,
caught one scorble terrible. I said, I said, packing all,
put it on the trailer. I went bye bye. So
I said I'm out. I said, screw this, I'm gone.
(15:31):
So I ran forty miles, So keep in mind, forty
miles I'm running up there. I waste another forty five
minutes of the next period running. I finally get up
to where I really had some confidence up that river,
and I catch them, and I says, the day I
catch like twenty five pounds or whatever. But I'm ten
or eleven pounds, twelve pounds back out of the cut,
(15:52):
and I'm like, all right, I'm going up there all
day next tomorrow and I'm gonna go catch them.
Speaker 4 (15:56):
Why'd you make that decision then.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Because I just knew the pace at how things were going,
Like thirty six pounds was in the cut, and I'm like, dude,
if i'd have just ran up there off the bit,
I would have caught forty something pounds, no doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Was it less pressure up there. You didn't see as
many guys competing up there.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
No one was there. There was halfway up the river.
I seen Wesley when I pulled up on a place,
and I'm like, god amn mighty, I ain't seen a
boat in forty miles almost And I look over at
Wesley and I'm like, what's he got? He's got forty
six pounds and I'm like, dang it. So the tournament developed.
(16:41):
Every day developed. Even after that first period that I
didn't catch them, I learned I ain't using four faces
on all the rest of this tournament. I'm done. I
learned that I was actually on a really good bite
up there, considering the conditions of the lake, and I
went full in for that. There was no doubt I
(17:01):
was not turning back. So luckily I falveaged the day
up there on day one. I went up there on
day two, caught fifty six pounds, made it to the
knockout realm, and then the rest was history.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Why'd you make the decision on the final day to
go all the way to the knicker jack Damn.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
That's a very interesting you follow this, this is amazing,
This is a that's a very interesting question. Now.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Was it only because you knew the weather was changing?
You knew that the spawning fish weren't going to act
the way that they've been acting for the last couple
of days, And you were like, well, i'll get movement
in the water. I can get up against some heavy,
big structure. I mean that damn is massive, and you
knew there was going to be more heat up there.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I knew that it was cloudy, it was rainy, and
from the day prior, during the knockout realm this is
on Saturday, I knew that in those low light conditions
they were going to be chewing because that morning before
I pulled up on the same place and I started
(18:13):
smashing them on a mooch minnow and I said, dude,
there's way more fish up here than what I thought,
because when it was sunny, they wouldn't bite in that good.
And when it every day it got sonny and they
would kind of lay off, and I'm like, dude, this
place stinks. They were there all along, It's just I
needed the conditions. I checked the weather and I said, dude,
(18:36):
it's gonna be raining, crappy weather, cloudy, and they're going
to be chewing at that damn. So I opted to
chop it all the way. I never shut down until
I got to the concrete. And I'm telling you my
second cast I called her three and a half, and
I started bombing them. It was so good and it
(18:56):
was all condition based. It was just a perfect storm.
The guys down the lake was it gonna be able
to saltfish? And I was up there and they were
freaking chewing.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
I knew for a fact when I saw the conditions,
I was like, this has got Dustin Connell written all
over it, because I don't think I've seen a.
Speaker 4 (19:10):
Tournament where you're not in a rain suit.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
For whatever reason, I feel like you're always dressed for
it to be overcast, windy, blowing about thirty and rain.
I've never seen you in your jersey. I don't think
in a tournament like you're always wearing a rain suit.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
When it's bad weather and I'm up the river and
they're biting, That's what That's what I loved. I love
the weather, worst weather possible. And I was I was
a long way from everybody, dude, I was seventy miles
and it takes a bold like it took a lot
of guts to make that run, because there's a lot
of things that can go wrong.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
You know, how many times did you second guess that
decision in the morning like that, now by the time
you ran, I'm talking about before you even hit the
gas pedal, before you push that throttle.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
How many times did you say, man, I don't know
if I should do this.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
I ran the first morning, I was running past all
of the locals. I was running past all of the
guys that were in our tournament, and I'm turning my
back on every bath in the lake, and I'm like,
I don't know about this. It's intimidating doing that and
then knowing I still got forty or fifty miles a run.
(20:22):
I'm like, when you get about three quarters away up there,
it starts getting kind of like, dang, oh god, this
is this is a long way from reality. Like there
ain't no back, there ain't no other plans. It's either
your going or you're not. And it there. It questioned
me a couple of times. I was sitting there questioning myself.
I was like, dude, but this is our tournament. This
(20:45):
is the tournament to win. I said, look, high high risk,
high rewards, let's go.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
So you threw caution into the wind, obviously paid out
on day four. You mentioned earlier that your son just
turned a year old. How has he changed your life
professionally and personally?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
It gives you a totally different perspective on life. I
know that sounds cliche. You hear that a lot, but
it really does. And I've just realized that life is
so much bigger than these than these fish. It just
his dude, straight up, so much bigger. Just seeing him
smile and seeing him grow up, and like, that's what
(21:27):
that's what it's about. I mean, dude, I love these tournaments,
I love Lake Gunnersville, and I love that trophy. But
whether I did good or bad, dude, it was his
first birthday this weekend. That's all that matters.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Now.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I just want to I do this for him and
my family. Now straight up used to be just strictly
for me. I want to go out there, and man,
I want to catch him for me, I ain't worried
about me no more. I want to do this for him.
So it meant a lot just doing that. That was cool.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
What's worse losing a six pound large mouth or taking
care of a bloe out of a baby in the
back seat of the.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Car blow out by by far, When it's blown out
and it's uh everywhere and it's all over your hands,
it gets real. Buddy, I done did it. I donet
did it a bunch of times, and I'm like, oh God.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
And when it happens when you're alone, because you can't
pass it off to Vic, you can't go somebody's got
to take.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Care of this. No, I can't do that. And I
made a bad decision one time. One time he had
a little chaff. He had a little diaper rash. It's
pretty bad. We're putting that boodros on there, and I
just I put some on there and I said, man,
I'm gonna let you air out. So I'll let tree
and air out. You know, I've let him run around
without a diaper. Terrible decision. Pooped all on the cow,
(22:49):
pooped on me. Don't do that.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
It's like that Dumb and Dumber movie.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Poo everywhere in that dumb and dumber movie.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh yeah, yeah, when he has the U, when he
has Are you a dumb and dumber fan, Dustin?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Man, he gets that ax lax in the Yeah. That's
always a bad that's always a bad move.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
That was trending on the couch.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
You know, I've always I've always appreciated your career when
it came to fishing. And you know you started out
as a kid fishing U the Cusa River. I've heard
this from a lot of guys. Fishing the Cousa River
is hard to take that style to any other lake.
Speaker 4 (23:31):
Is that true?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
So hard man. So I told aut Dfo before this
tournament started, we were in the Bass Pro shops in
Huntsville and I told him. I was like, man, I
went to Nika Jack and I went to this and
I caught some fish like like above Nika Jack damn
like on Nika Jack. And I just told him, I said, man,
(23:55):
I really want because he loves fishing rivers as well.
And now I started thinking, I'm like, dude, I have
not been able in nine years to sit below a
dam and fish current and that style of fishing. In
nine years, I've not been able to utilize that Indian
I'm like, dang. Maybe one day and then Aunt told me,
he said, well, you got a chance here, you can
do it here. I said, yes, seventy miles away, I
(24:17):
probably finished dead last, I won the tournament. Do it.
And I'm like, golyy, So I've been able to do
that one time. Fishing on the Coast River is so unique.
You got running water and you don't have that everywhere.
You don't have spotty bass everywhere, and it's totally different,
and it's a big adjustment.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
The style of tournament fishing has changed over the last
couple of years. I mean, you have one tournament trail
the bas Elites, where guys are getting dequeued left and right.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Now they're finally holding up to some of the rules
that they have in place.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
When you heard about Scott Martin and him getting disqualified
for a second time in the season and then electing
to leave the Elites, what were your thoughts.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Oh, I could go in on this one too. Let
me say this. I know Scott personally, great guy, great guy.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I'm forman bass master classic. I got to see how
he fishes up close and personal.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
And you know what's crazy about Scott is a lot
of people think Scott's kind of fake, but no, that's
his personality. He's always amped up like that. He's a
great guy. And I fully support Scott in any decision
he makes. Man I do and uh, but I will
say this and then nobody seems to remember this. Let's
let's backtrack for thirty years. Thirty years it was a
(25:46):
free for all on information. Thirty years. There was a
lot of guys and I'm not saying that. Don't don't
get me wrong when I say this that their careers
were made on information because they are Hella fishermen my heroes,
Bud they had the kind of the Buddy system kind
of deal going on. Hey man, we got a terminal
Alabyn River. What do you think is gonna be going on?
(26:07):
Where you're thinking I need to check? Oh man, right,
you need to be in Jackson Lake. You need to
be over here, you know. So it was so easy
and just one little baby conversation for like two minutes
could help somebody out so much. For thirty years, it
was a free for all. And now we've implemented that
in twenty eighteen where he did no information, which I
do agree on that, but I could see where it's
(26:30):
kind of hard to cut that off immediately, and I
think it. You know, Scott kind of got in a
little issue at an honest mistake down at Oklachovie because
the last thing he wants to do is get messed up.
Speaker 4 (26:44):
You know, nobody wants that, especially in your homelater.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Yeah, but I just feel like, man, sometimes that stuff
can get taken too far and out of context. I
don't think that there's many guys and don't there probably
is that just blatantly don't care about rules, and Scott's
got so much to lose, man, that dude. He is
(27:10):
one of the most successful anglers with partners, and I mean,
my dude is a legend and his dad is he
don't want to stain his reputation. I think it was
an honest mistake in my opinion. I don't know the
background of it, but I do think there's a lot
of eyes and a lot of hate out there. And
you got to walk a straight line. And when I
mean squeaky clean, there ain't no skipping, no corners. You
(27:34):
you might be underneath the rules, but you still you
got to make sure that you don't give nobody no
ammunition to try to catch you doing anything, not even
legally and in the gray area.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
Would you rather have the information of no rules or
have it go back to pre twenty eighteen where you
could get info.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I like no information rule. I dot the.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Pro level, the BPT and the elites, and even the opens,
because I feel like the Opens is kind of like,
you know, minor league fishing for the bass master elites.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
You know what's funny about this? And I'm probably gonna
catch them slack. I'm sure somebody will get on here
and say something.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Nobody listens to this podcast, so you're.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
Fine well, I'll tell you. What's funny about it is
is they implementing a rule for the bassmaster opens as
well that no information on it. And what their narrative
was was, these guys are getting information on the ten Lakes.
We fish a lot. So if you get information on Gunnersville,
(28:39):
you get information on Okachobe, let's say, Champlain, Saint Lawrence, River,
Sam Ravern, and Toledo. Well, you know the rest of
your career, you're gonna fish there a lot because they're
just world famous lakes. We're gonna go to them lakes.
And they were claiming that they were getting information beforehand,
and at the end of the day, dude, it don't matter.
You can get information this whole to catch other people's bass.
(29:01):
It's hard to go and hunt somebody else's deer if
you don't really know exactly what that deer is doing.
Hey man, he's coming in here, blah blah blah. But
it's just hard to duplicate what someone tells you and
it can lead you down a rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
What are some of those subtleties, Like if you told
me a waypoint, let's say it was way up the river,
isolated rock patch, you might be in fifteen foot of water.
Speaker 4 (29:22):
You say, there's fish there? Is it? Bold positioning is it?
Line size is it? The weight? Is it? How you
let that soft plastic drift.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
So I've had this happen locally on like like Jordans.
I've had guys contact me and like my best friend,
for example, Corey. I'll tell Corey, say, listen, you need
to run in a new lake. You need to stop
on these three places. Okay, you're gonna go in there.
You're gonna fish these for a little bit. It's gonna suck,
probably for the first hour. Just know that if you
(29:56):
want to go swimming jig, you can go do that early,
but at first hour it's gonna kind of suck. But
you need to go in there and make your presence
and on them. Get settled in. When the sun comes up,
it's probably gonna start. They're gonna bite between eight and
nine thirty. Stay in there, run that stuff alter night
between them. Catch you's two here, catch a couple here.
(30:17):
You'll have eighteen pounds. Then you need to go and
flip the rest of the day. I call him at
about ten thirty. Dude, it just wasn't happening in there.
I'm all the way up river.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
I'm like, dude, I literally just gave you the dang
blueprint to win, and you're up the river throwing a
shaky head on a rock bank.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
Don't call me back.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
I had to happen with a friend of mine. I
was fishing Old Hickory. I've never been to Old Hickory
And I said to a buddy of mine, you ever
fished out there? And he's like, yeah, man, I got
one Spintz dynamite. You can go up there and catch
fifteen twenty pounds of bass easy in the first hour.
You might even stay there and get twenty five if
you're lucky lucky. And I said, where is? He shows
me a dot. Literally, I run all the way up there,
(31:04):
and it's it's a decision.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
Like you made with Gunnersville.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Man.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
I'm running seventy five miles one way, and I got
all the way up there and I didn't get a
single bite. So then I gotta leave at some point
to get back down and try to salvage my day.
Speaker 4 (31:22):
My buddy calls.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
And he goes what happened, said, I didn't get a bike,
didn't get a bite, And he's like, how long did
you stay up there? I said, I was up there
for maybe two hours, and he goes, yeah, that's tough.
He goes up the next week in the tournament, same
exact spot.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
Wax him.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Yep, oh it happens. I mean it's easy to do.
You get laid down a rabbit hole. But for me,
I've just kind of noticed doing this. Man, you got
to do your own deal. Straight up, there's gonna come
a point during that day, whether it's a one day
tournament or just a fishing trip, you're going to have
to go and make a decision on the water by yourself.
(32:00):
And like, this is another one in things if I so,
if I show up, I keep relating back to deer hunting,
but uh, we like that here. I really enjoy going like, Okay,
don't get me wrong on this, Hell, I may do
it this year. I like going to an outfitter because
I don't have nobody to go hunting, Like I don't
(32:20):
have land. Not everybody has leases and whatnot. So let's
say I go to Illinois Connection and Illinois and they've
got freaking twenty thousand and eight. I like the idea of, like, hey,
put me on a big deer. You know, hey, there's
a big deer out here. He's doing this, and be
looking for this deer. But I also love well, I
(32:40):
do have a lease in Illinois. I love doing it
on my own. I love going out there and saying
running my cameras. I love pattering and the deer. I
like showing up at the right time, checking the wind,
knowing what's standing I need to be in and then
whenever it all comes together and it happens, that's the
most satisfying thing. So when you do it on your own,
(33:01):
it's like I then can hang my hat. But if
I had somebody say, hey, pull up on these dots
and catch them right here, and you're going to win,
and then when I go in, it's like, yeah, that's cool.
I won the tournament. The ultimate goal is done. But
it's like, dude, when you find them and you make
(33:21):
them bite, that's the puzzle. I love it.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
You remember the first bass you ever caught, the one
that you did on your own. You went out to
a body of water and you threw it a specific thing.
You were working, a worm or whatever you were throwing.
You knew exactly what you were and it was all
you because I just got to experience that with my
twelve year old nephew, Hudson. He threw a wacky worm
that I set up for him, but I put him
(33:45):
on the boat and he could throw her every once
and he goes, Uncle Spence, why would any fish bite
a wacky worm? It looks so dumb. And minutes later
he caught his first one and a half pound Logan
Martin spot of bass.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
That's so cool. And I got to have that.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
Experience where I was like, I'm seeing, I'm seeing what
it was like when I call my first fish through
a different lens, and it's gonna be the same when
you watch your son do it for the first time.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
That's so cool. Yeah. I remember a real quick story Clanton, Alabama.
I was Goose Pond Park. I know everybody don't know that,
but there's a bridge right there underneath thirty one. Right
underneath that thirty one bridge, there used to be a
big hole rut there and there was grass around the edges.
(34:32):
And I remember I was with my brother. I had
a cream it was a cream worm, old school cream worm,
green pumpkin worm. I had it on a Texas rig
with just a little two over hook and I asked James,
I said, my brother. I was like, how do I
know when he buys it? He said, you'll fill that line,
go drink, and it just starts getting hit. Well, I
(34:55):
saw that sucker, I heard of that grass, and I
felt it and it went duke like a catfish bite.
And I picked up and my line was just moving.
So I just set the hug and I remember it
was like a two pound wars now. I still remember
that to this day.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Hudson was telling me Uncle Spence, I'm hug on a
log and he lifts up and I saw his line, y'all,
and I went, I don't think trees move when they're
in the water. Go ahead and set that huck perfectly
right in the top lip. You would have thought he
was battling jaws when he pulled that thing.
Speaker 4 (35:23):
Into the boat.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Oh yeah, now he's fucked.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
It was such a great moment.
Speaker 5 (35:28):
Daniel question, Yeah, Dustin, I want to know when at
Red Crest, back to Red Crest, when you found those
fish up there, how hard was it for you to
keep it from Jacob and Adrian and Mark or do
you guys talk about it or were you keeping a
hush hush because I watched your video and when you
guys were on your boat, and it seems like everybody
(35:48):
was having their own conversations when then their own YouTube
channels and their recording guys.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
So we cannot disclose an exact location and where we're fishing.
But I mean, you could say up the river. I mean, heck,
for that matter, you can probably say Brown's Creek. I mean,
Browns Creek's five miles long, you know. But like a
generic location, let's say, hey, they're biting mid river. You
(36:14):
cannot say they're bidying at the dam. You can't say
they're biting on this tree, you know. But they kind
of knew that I was really wanting to go up
the river. I never told them where I was at.
I didn't tell him I was at the dam or
thirty miles up or what. But Jacob actually practiced up
there a day and a half, and he kind of
(36:37):
had the same mindset, because Jacob Man, so he's one
of the most smart fishermen I've ever seen in my life.
He's unreal. But he was up there in practice, and
he knew that I was up there, and I, like,
I said, that tournament developed along the way. I told
him that I had some bikes up the way that
(36:58):
I really like it up there, but I don't I
don't know if I can win up there. Well, they
knew I was up that way catching them, they didn't
really know the potential of it. I didn't really know
the potential until the knockout round. And then when I
came in from the knockout round, everybody sat down. They
were like, You're gonna win, ain't you? And I went,
(37:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
I went, I went, dude, I can see it happening now.
And they were like, we got you to win. There
ain't no doubt. They said, it's gonna between you and Westley, guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
And it was when they announced that you won Redcrest.
What initial thought went through your mind?
Speaker 2 (37:41):
Oh? Just the how it all went down. I mean, dude,
you don't understand the emotions that come through your head
when you're thinking of I first thought of the last
two tournaments that I had, because I had train wrecks
or tournaments just terrible, look lost, fish didn't get on much.
(38:02):
And then I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, dude, and
I say this with humility. I just pulled one of
the most epic stunts out in a tournament ever.
Speaker 4 (38:14):
Rabbit ont of the hat.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
So cool, such a badass wind. It was awesome just
being able to run seventy miles get a turn your
back on everything history in the past, because I'd never
seen that place before. I go up there, I catch
a twenty five pound trifecta bag, five pounds wargs mouth,
(38:38):
five pound small mouth, four pound spotty bass, and I'm like,
this will go down in the history books of how
cool of a wind this is. And then I look
around and there's nobody there. It's freaking sprinkling rain, and
like I noticed things on the water and it was
just so calm and peaceful up there, and I was like,
(39:00):
this is the coolest win ever. And that was going
through my mind. I was like, I cannot believe I
just pulled this so far, Fitch stun Off.
Speaker 4 (39:10):
Is that the greatest tournament win of your life? Awesome?
Speaker 1 (39:16):
That's Cools con joined us on lines and times this morning.
We appreciate you. Congratulations. The man has nine hundred thousand
dollars in redcress money over the last couple of years,
and he is he's a father of one year old son.
He's a devoted husband to Victoria. He's just a great
(39:38):
man of God and awesome to be on the show
with us today. Dude, I appreciate the hack Outia. It's
awesome that you were able to jump on with us
today and add so many good insights. You know, I
think you've definitely won a couple of fans for life.
And I've been a fan of yours for a while,
and I look forward to the day where I see
you out on the Kusa River because I know that's
the one tournament we're all finished second, so.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
You'll see me out there a lot. I fish out
there a lot. I mean, I'm over here. I'm looking
at my boat right now, and I'm like, dude, it's
seventy degrees. I got to go, but I got to
clean this house up and catch up for my little boy.
I'm gonna get to that. But I appreciate you guys
having me and hopefully again we'll talk soon.
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Decisions, Decisions
Welcome to "Decisions, Decisions," the podcast where boundaries are pushed, and conversations get candid! Join your favorite hosts, Mandii B and WeezyWTF, as they dive deep into the world of non-traditional relationships and explore the often-taboo topics surrounding dating, sex, and love. Every Monday, Mandii and Weezy invite you to unlearn the outdated narratives dictated by traditional patriarchal norms. With a blend of humor, vulnerability, and authenticity, they share their personal journeys navigating their 30s, tackling the complexities of modern relationships, and engaging in thought-provoking discussions that challenge societal expectations. From groundbreaking interviews with diverse guests to relatable stories that resonate with your experiences, "Decisions, Decisions" is your go-to source for open dialogue about what it truly means to love and connect in today's world. Get ready to reshape your understanding of relationships and embrace the freedom of authentic connections—tune in and join the conversation!