May 2, 2025 • 42 mins
Marshall Stamps started his social media influencer campaign as a way to prove people wrong. For years, he would catch big bags of bass and that caused people to question him. Now, he's sponsored, has hundred of thousands of followers and staying humble and rooted.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Another episode of Lines and Times on the iHeartRadio Network
is going on right now. Thank you everybody who clicks
like and subscribe follows along. We try to bring you
the most formative people that we find, especially in hunting
and fishing. Marshall, do you do any hunting or are
you just a fisherman mainly fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I mean, I'm not opposed to it, but I mainly
only have public land to go to, and that's a
train wreck.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That's like the biggest problem with hunting is the fact
that you can hardly find land to go to. You
got to know a property owner and get out there.
Also joining me as Daniel Vasquez. He was a top
ten co angler for the bass Master Opens until they
shuttered the program. The man bought a house in Alabama
and then found out that the program was not happening.
(00:47):
So congrats on moving from Florida up to Alabama to
find out that info. Dana.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah, we're here though. We love Alabama, so it's all good.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
This has been a really cool situation for you moving
up here and then finding out all about these Alabama
lakes completely different than what you're used to fishing.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Yeah, it's really it's been really fun. Catching spot of
bass every day has been a blast and trying to
find out a little bit more about these Southern large
mouth But Marshall and I were just talking about some
shoal bass. I'm really interested to hear something about that.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I'm never finding those on rivers. You're not going to
find those in most of the lakes here.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, they're only native to the Flint the Chattahoochee and
they have been introduced with the olk Moulgi. They're not
native there. But if you take a shoal bass put
it in a lake, it'll die. It has to have
flowing water to survive.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And that's one of the biggest problems is a lot
of these lakes. And I say problem, it's not really
a problem. But one of the biggest reasons why they
can't live is we have dams at the top and
the bottom of all these river systems which came out
in the sixties for them to conserve water and also
systematically move water throughout the country. Can you imagine what
(01:53):
flooding would be like in the South had we not
put these dams in place in the sixties.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Right, do you think there'd still be water that through
these rivers, though.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I think there'd be water. But that's actually a really
interesting point. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, that's that's the thing in the sixties.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So what was happening in the sixties where they made
that decision, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
But if you look at all these dams, they're old.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, like well, I mean there's pros and cons because
now we have so much concrete and asphalt and all
the all the drains are routed to the rivers. So
I mean the river does get a lot of dumpage
from areas that would hold water, like marshes and places.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Have you guys ever seen those maps where it shows
all the waterways in the United States. It's insane how
much water is inside the continental units. Oh yeah, I mean,
if it does have to flow from somewhere, I would
assume that we draw enough water out of Canada to
make that happen. But then you look at the West
and it doesn't really seem like the West has a
(02:51):
lot of water, and there's some of the biggest waterways.
Well maybe maybe Canada's just holding onto all the water
and they just don't want to give up any of it.
I mentioned his name was Marshall, A lot of people
know you as Georgia bass Master on social media. When
did that all start for you?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh? About five years ago. It was just a thing
where my friend was like, hey, why don't you start filming,
you know, and I bought a GoPro and was just
using my iPhone just to kind of capture my catches,
not to start a YouTube channel or to be a
social media influencer. It was just mainly just to document
big fish catches and then kind of just caught on
from there.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Did it start out on YouTube or were you one
of these guys that jumped on TikTok real quick and
ran with that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I started out on YouTube. I was pretty late
on the TikTok game, but still early enough to where
the growth was still there. It's not like it is anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
But so when you started out on YouTube, your whole
idea was I'm just going to document me going out
and fishing. I mean, yeah, did that feel kind of
douchey where your buddy was like, hey, start filming yourself
and put these catches up, or where you kind of like,
all right, I'll jump in.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, I mean it was mainly just to prove the
point because I was catching like third thirty two pound
bags on a lot of lakes near my area, and
everybody's like, you didn't catch those fish.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So they were calling you out, so you wanted to
back it up and show right, no, I'm actually doing that.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, I wanted to film it, and like, especially when
you'd catch and release, you'd take a photo of five
seven pounders and everybody's like, that's the same fish, and
I'm like, I'm gonna upload the footage.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So, yeah, you're an influencer, Marshall. Who influences you? Who
do you watch?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well? I have? I have a couple of unpopular guys.
I really I really love Millican to death. As many
people hate that guy.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Why do they hate Millican?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I think just because he catches big fish and he
uses life scope. They just hate his guts. But I
learn a lot from watching that guy's videos. I'll try
some of the tips he puts out and it works
for me.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So have you met him?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I've never met him?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
No? Would you? Would you? Fanboy? If you did? No,
because you'd be like, keep it cool, I stay cool.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I got he knows Marshall.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah. I got to hang out with Bill Dance, like
four different times, so like that was my biggest icon ever.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
What was it? What was it like the first time
you met Bill Dance?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
That was the biggest fanboy moment in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So what happened?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I was? It was the bass Master Classic twenty twenty two,
I believe.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And I won in the one in Tennessee. Yeah, in Knoxville, Yes,
oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And I didn't even know he was going to be
I was at a sponsored lunch before the Classic and
they didn't even tell me he was going to be there,
and They're like, oh, by the way, Bill Dance is here,
And I was like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Was that the lunch where they had the Tennessee hats
out and he had signed them?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So I got to sit down and like literally sit
next to Bill at lunch talk to him for like
two hours. We talked about everything under the sun, fishing.
He was telling me all his crazy fishing stories. And
then every time I've ever seen him after that since
twenty twenty two, he'll recognized me and say hey, So,
like I feel like if I can meet Bill Dance
(05:51):
and be on that level, that I can pretty much
meet anybody and not fanboy.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What was your standout story for meeting Bill Dance? What
do you remember the most.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That guy is? He goes one hundred miles an hour.
He's eighty seven or eighty eight years old, and he's
still fishing almost every single day of his life.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Isn't insane that he's never won a bass Master Classic?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's crazy?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And he is by far the most well known name
in fishing. Has to be over over his career, right,
So he goes so much, like so hard, so fast,
to eighty eight miles an hour. You're just like, damn man,
how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah? I mean he does not take a break at all.
I don't know how he does it as old as
he is.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So those are the two big influences or are their others?
Your dad's obviously one?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean surprisingly, you'd probably be a shock. I
don't watch a lot of fishing stuff, but I mean
those are.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
May who wants to take work home.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, those are mainly the guys I watch when I watch,
you know, fishing related whips.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So in your fishing career, who are the people that
truly influence you? He asks you, like who you watch
now and all that kind of stuff? But where did
your influence come from.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Oh, Like I said, it was definitely Bill Dance. We
had a Spinner bay a to Z on VHS and
I'd watched that thing. Fords and burn tape out. Oh yeah,
I had the ABC's of worm Fishing and all his tapes.
I mean I watched everything when I was a kid.
So that was probably my biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Where did you go with the whole Rolling Martin thing
when he kind of became the king?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I was never really big into watching rolling For some reason,
he just never resonated with me. I think I was
more of the goofy kid, and like seeing Bill Dance
fall off his boat all the time, that's.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
It, right, Like it's the bloopers of Bill Dance.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It's it's You're more relatable than just seeing somebody.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They gets so serious.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
He's just like lighthearted and he's having fun, and like,
that's what I want to do when I fish, Like,
I just want to have fun and go catch fish.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I'm excited to see where you go, man, because honestly,
I've always appreciated what you've been doing for the fishing community.
You and I have become friends over the last couple
of years, and I think you're reaching an audience that
has been underserved. You know. It's it's the guys who,
just like you talked about, they don't have the one
hundred thousand dollars bass boat. They can't spend sixty thousand
(08:14):
dollars on electronics. They can't always be out at the
lake and afford a ramp fee for them. The biggest
thing is if I get my kid out to a
bank and I get them a beat up rod and
reel like you and your dad were buying a flea markets.
I just want them to know and have an idea
what they can do. I introduced my nephews to your
channel by saying, hey, look when Uncle Spence isn't up there,
(08:37):
I want you to still have that fire and passion
for fishing. This is a good guy to watch because
you're already doing the legwork. So thank you for doing that,
you Marshall Georgia bass Master. You can find them all
over social media. This is lines and times we want
you to click like and subscribe At the bottom. You
know how were who was that guy in California, Daniel
that went out and made like a crazy name for
(09:00):
himself filming big bass catches and then it came out
that he was cheating.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, he was snagging him, right, hes Mike Long, Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
He's like, you know, everybody was like this guy catches
giants and he brings him in. But he was doing
it well and effective, but an unauthorized method. So you
were worried that people were trying to like kind of
smear your name at different lakes for not being able
to catch the fish that you catch.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, mainly that was part of it.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I love that. That to me is a reason why
somebody should get on social media is to be able
to kind of clear your name. So you get on YouTube,
you start showing these catches, then you see other platforms
kind of pop up. Covid was happening. If you said,
it was five years ago, so everything was kind of
shut down, but the only thing we could do was
hunting fish.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Did you immediately think like, oh, I can make this
into a business deal or when did that snap with
you where you're like, wow, this could actually work.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, I, like I said, I never had intentions of
ever you know, making it big in this industry. And
I told my wife, I said, if all I ever
get out of uploading videos is a free pack of baits,
I'll be happy. And it's like, boy, was I wrong.
Because companies nowadays emphasize so much on the social media aspect.
They're even they're telling all the pros like, you got
(10:17):
to have a TikTok, you got to have YouTube channel.
You guys have to be posting content because just being
a fisherman is just not cutting it anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Has that changed for you? Like when you meet some pros,
do they look at social media influencers in a really
negative way?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh? A lot of them really hate it because a
lot of these social media guys are getting more out
of their paycheck and then more contracts than they're getting,
so they have Some of them are jumping on the
train and hopping along with it. But some of the
old school guys that just don't want to do it,
they don't like it.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
We've had some really good guys that have jumped on here,
Like we had Dustin Knell and not too long ago,
and his social media game is really strong. I think
he did the same thing. He started out on YouTube
and was just kind of putting up his catches there,
and you know, he was obviously already trying to be
a pro tournament guy. Which is interesting about you, Marshall,
because you're not really a tournament dude. You just like
to go out and fish, right, But you'll do kayak
(11:15):
fishing and jump into some tournaments anyway. Yeah, why kayaks
compared to being on a boat.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Well, I really got into kayaks to really you know,
it's more entry level, more people can afford it. A
large majority of my audience, you know, can't afford a
kayak or a fish out of a kayak. Not everybody
has the money for a seventy thousand dollars boat. So
when you can have something that resonates with your viewers,
you get a lot more engagement and just more people
(11:43):
can afford the thirty five hundred dollars price range. And
that's an expensive kayak, but even a four hundred dollars kayak,
And it really gets you places where bass boats can't go.
I mean, your access to places is unlimited. I can
put in anywhere and fish anybody of water I want.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Do you feel like that's He's an actual big reason
why you're catching some of the fish that you catch
is the pressure is low on them because boats can't
get where you go. Oh you were just talking about
a shoal bass that you caught in the Flint River.
It was five point.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Two yeah, five pounds two ounces.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
How many times do you think that fish has been caught?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Probably never, maybe once or twice. It's life. I mean
that fish is probably really old. That's that's about equivalent
to catching up ten or twelve pound largemouth at least with.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
A shoal bass. Sure, right, because you know the shoal bass,
they've got to have cooler water, they have to have
constant current, and the bait I'm sure is not really
readily available for them. Do you think the bait really
hangs up in some of those rocks, like there's a
good amount of bait up there. Do you feel like
it's kinda.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
They love crawlfish, They love helgrimites that they eat on
helgrimites a lot, but they eat shad, minnows and everything,
especially when they start getting bigger. Theyn't eat anything that
comes near them.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
But that's what I'm saying. I feel like some of
the river fish are a little more like feast or
famine kind of deal. Like, yeah, bait gets up in there.
But if you look at a lake and you go
buy a pocket guys are like, oh, that pocket's loaded
full of bait. When you have constant water moving, bait
doesn't want to have to stay in the current like.
They want to get away from it just as much
(13:24):
as a predator does, so it's probably moving by them
at a quicker rate. I would just think that if
I was a fish, I would have less opportunity to
strike something fast moving by me compared to being in
a lake and being able to get underneath, get the
bait into a ball, and then bust it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, you're probably right on that, which makes them a
little more aggressive because they have to be really fast
and really good at their job.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Right, and you can trick them a lot easier too.
I feel like that would be kind of the key
is if you're throwing a real like a swim bait
or something like that, it looks like a real fish
compared to sometimes spinner baits come by really slow and
those guys will just pick them off. But fish purely reactionary.
I mean, they're looking for one big bite and that's
what they want, right, That's cool. I mean show bass
(14:11):
would be a really fun thing to go after because
they're the size of some of those Kentucky strain spotted
bass like Lanier has, but they hit like small mouth,
so they're like a dump truck hit.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And anything in the river fights harder anyways, because they,
you know, survive in the current their entire life.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
How hard is it for you to fish a river
when you have a lot of rocks, a lot of structure,
a lot of branches, trees, roots, you have a lot
of natural stuff, plus you have current moving. How fast
do you kind of have to work those fish?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Oh? It's it's extremely hard, which also means it's extremely
unpressured because not everybody wants to do that. But a
lot of times you have to put an anchor out
or wade fished, you know, tether your kayak to you.
And when you know a spot, especially when you know
what show bass are looking for, you can really work
a spot good. Or you can just float on downstream
and kind of hit some spots until you find an
(15:05):
area where fish are really hold them.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Are you having to like upgrade your line to make
it a bigger pound test or do you really find
that you finesse it a lot more.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I have some buddies that'll throw eight pound test. I
personally don't throw anything under twelve in the river, and
that's that's my finesse setup. But most everything's fifteen seventeen.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Explain the logic behind that. So they'll throw eight pound,
you want to go twelve, and you seem to be
a little more successful.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I just don't want them to break off those big
shoul bass are so strong and they'll you know, these
rocks are sharp. Your line will get frayed. They'll go
right up under a rock. And I would just rather
prefer to maybe miss have a couple less fish bite
if they see it, than to have one break me off.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Daniel, you fished a lot on Okuchobee, heavy grass, heavy vegetation.
We talk about finesse. How would you finesse something on
Okachobe compared to other lakes that you fished.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Uh, that's a good question. Okachobe. Okachobe's kind of weird.
Okuchobe's kind of one of those places where you can
power finesse. If that kind of makes sense, you can
kind of instead of you know, the traditional person will
go eight to twelve pound test on their floral carbon
leader let's say on a spinning rod, throwing a senko
and Florida just in Florida in general, and Okachobe's and
(16:25):
stuff like that. You can get away with like a
seventeen pound leader instead, so you can still have the
castability of the senko.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
But the idea of doing a drop shot.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But the idea, yeah, drop shot, I mean guys, some
guys do it, but you just the majority of guys
are are not doing.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The How like, how how would somebody be able to
drop shot a place like Okuchobe.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
So it's when you're drop shotting, they make these little
tiny rigs and I think they're called power shots or
VMC makes one, and essentially what it is is just
a heavier punching rig but a drop shot. So it
falls through and it's just pretty much a drop It's
like it's like a power power drop shot pretty much.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
It's like a heavy dround test.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I mean normally some guy drop shot and you're doing
like eight pound.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yeah, some guys will put it straight on braid with
like a flipping hook and stuff like that. So it's
a it's a whole entire different, you know, thing on
its own.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
That's what's so wild about fishing these different lakes in
different topography, in different structure, is you can go to
one place like I don't know how different is on
the Flint River, but on the Kusa River you can
pretty much get away with twelve pound test on almost everything.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And there are guys where I fished with a buddy
of mine Abt. We were fishing grass on Neely and
he was throwing flooracarbon and I'm like, why are you
doing that? And he goes, I never throw braid, and
I'm like, really, because dude, I don't. And look he
caught fish and he was able to get him out
of the grass. But it was almost better that he
(17:56):
was doing it that way because they're so used to
seeing sixty five pounds braid and fifty pound braid and
some guys will drop it down to the twenties. How
important do you feel dropping line size matters for catching fish?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Marshall, Like you said, it all depends on the lake,
the water clarity. I have certain lakes where you can
throw straight braid on everything you want to, and then
other lakes you better have a leader on there. So
it all depends on the water clarity and how pressure
these fish are and how much you know how much
they're seeing.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
One of the things that stood out with Marshall over
the last year, was you basically got attacked by somebody
when you were out on a public waterway. Was that
the Flint River? It was all right, so he's out
on the Flint River. For people that don't know, this
guy came up to you and basically said, you're fishing
a restricted part of the Flint River because it's owned
(18:54):
by a private property owner. We all know that water
is completely legal to be in. But you didn't stop there.
You just didn't take that as a negative altercation. You
were trying to figure out like, well, what's the reality right,
because if that's true, then fine, you know you have
your area. But if it's not true, that guy's just
(19:14):
been bullying people out of there. Where did that end up?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Well? I'd encourage everybody listening to look up Senate Bill
one point fifteen and U basically.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now to Georgia State Senate bill.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It's a Georgia State Senate bill. It could be coming
to any state near you if anybody wants to follow it.
But basically what it says is if the owner can
prove that they own property up under the river bed,
then you still can't float and fish it even though
you're not touching the bottom, which everyone everyone for years
always thought as long as you don't step out of
(19:44):
the kayak, er step out of the boat, you can fish.
But now with this new bill, it's you know, they're
trying to get it to where you still you can't
fish at all.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So where did it come from?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Well?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Is that bill new or was it introduced recently?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It's it's pretty new the land on from what I
was told are Buddy Buddy with Brian Kemp, they had
a behind the doors closed meetings, signed some bills into
law that a lot of people didn't know about. So
it's a pretty newer bill in the past like.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Two years that area that you were fishing. Is that
like a honey hoole kind of deal?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It is, because, I mean, another cool thing about shoal bass.
Biologists have tagged them and they'll swim one hundred and
fifty miles from the mouth of Lake Blackshear all the
way to spawn up at those shoals on the Flint
River fifty miles. They'll swim one hundred and fifty miles,
almost like a trout. They'll spawn, they'll drop their eggs
and they'll swim right back down river. So this guy,
(20:39):
where he's owning all this property is just like the
spawning honey hole ground.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
What's relationship with this guy now?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I haven't talked to him since, but I've been on
the river a few times. I've been trying to run
back into him. I haven't seen him. The neighbors across
the road from him, they have told me not to
fish kind of more nicely.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
But yeah, because this guy came at you in a
pretty right, pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And he grabbed my kayak and basically held me hostage
right there and told me I couldn't fish.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So what happened that day when he held your kayak?
Do you call nine to one one or a game
warden or whoever?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
No, we were I was pre fishing for a kayak
tournament and I was just like, I'm going to post
this clip up because I thought it was crazy and
I wasn't expecting it to go viral or anything. But
within just a couple hours it was in the millions.
So then WSBTV Channel two got ahold of it, and
then they wanted to run a story on it. So
it really worked out better that way because it got
(21:37):
a lot of attention on what's going on.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, I was a little shocked. I mean, I lived
in Georgia before I moved to Alabama, and I've always
saw that Georgia is a really sportsman forward and sportsman's
first kind of state. And I've met Brian Kemp a
handful of times, and I know a lot of groups
that are involved. Actually, I've got a buddy of mine
who works for the DNR is pretty high up there.
(22:01):
I would be interested to see where this goes, because
it's it's disappointing to know that somebody would be able
to own a portion of water when that water's constantly
moving and you can't really lay claim to that. It's
weird that they're saying that has to do with the
bedrock underneath. Does that water fluctuate to where some parts
(22:22):
of the or sometimes of the year it's dry there.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
No, the river never runs dry. Obviously. The laws have
always stated that a normal water levels you're able to fish,
So I understand when people say.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, what it's a normal water level, though, Well, it's
just as long as it's water, basically.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I mean, I guess as long as it's water. But
I understand when the river floods, you shouldn't go on
somebody's property, which that's a whole different story, but it
just normal conditions. You should still be able to float
through there and fish.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, I don't I don't get how that would come
into play. I actually see it more where if that
portion of the river, even though water could come through,
let's say it's like a half inch, right, so it's
still flowing through, but it's not really fishable, you could
probably step across it in one easy pace. I could
see that more saying that's somebody's property, right, But if
(23:16):
the water's going and you have an actual barrier where
you're like, we're on water, there's no way you're on land.
I just don't know how a state would be able
to say yea to that.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, I mean the normal flow rate for that river
is about nine hundred to eleven hundred cubic feet per second,
so there's a pretty good large amount of you know,
volume of water coming through there.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Do you guys in the rivers have the same argument
that some of the fishermen have when it comes to lakes,
where they talk about different technologies or different reasons as
to why the bass populations are getting.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
So hurt personally, in my opinion, I haven't. I haven't
seen bass populations go down and the rivers yet. Like
I said, it's a lot less pressure.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Fish you catch look really healthy, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, they're always healthy. You never catch, you know, string
being fish in the river normally.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Daniel, you've seen these arguments on social media where you know,
you get these anglers and they're live. Scope is killing
the fish population and it's making our fish look bad
and everybody wants to look at one tournaments. There's too
much pressure. What would you say is the main reason
why some people think populations of fish are being hurt.
(24:28):
It's even tough to think about because I think the
three of us understand that bass populations across the United
Statestry not bad at all.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Bass population back it's probably two. Yeah, they're healthy. Yeah,
because people don't keep bass, that's it. And that's the
main thing behind it. It's always been promoted as a
catch and release fishery, so you know, and and some
lakes do really well because of it, and then some
lakes really struggle because of it. So but I'm really
curious about these shoal bass. I'm gonna have to go
try to catch me.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Because I like the I like ray Scott's methodology when
he started a bass mat and then they started doing
tournament fishing, and you know, at one point he was like, man,
if we keep taking seven to ten fish out for
every angler, we're going to deplete the resource. And he
probably had really forward thinking. But then when he decided
to go catch and release. If you guys heard the
story about what the DNR officer said, basically the commissioner
(25:19):
of the DNR I think it was in Alabama said
to him, you're taking those fish out of here, you're
not throwing them back, And ray Scott was like, watch us,
and he brought him back down, he put him back in.
That was like the defiant moment of catching release. But
the DNR official wasn't wrong. We don't take enough fish
out of these lakes. Do you see a lot of
(25:42):
guys fishing the river and they'll take like an actual
limit and go home.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Well, I'll tell you one thing we do that everyone's
pretty knowledgeable on is like invasive species in the river.
So like Alabama spotted bass I've been introducing to the flint.
They're not native to the Chattahoochee river. So they were
put in a bit.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Where are they cut coming from?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
People think they're fun to catch, so they stalk the
lakes full of them, like the old Georgia state record.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
So they'll catch them in Alabama, drive them across straight
lines and drop them into the floot. Right, So a
lot of people will it's like fish bootlegging.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I myself, I'll catch it all the time. I'll catch
a spotted bass and I'll chunk it up on the bank.
I mean, everybody does it, because they'll just absolutely take
over are state record. Small mouth that come out of
Lake Shattou. You can't virtually catch a small mouth out
of there. They're basically non existent because of the Alabama
spotted bass population.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
But you have guys on lakes all across the country.
You say the same thing about stripe bass. You know,
you introduce stripe bass and all of a sudden they
eat everything up. The lake I grew up on in Virginia,
Smith Mountain Lake, it is a striped bass fishery. But
they introduced f one strain largemouth about ten years ago,
and now they've got double digit largemouth in the lake. Right,
(26:56):
they don't have spotted bass kind of Thank God. I
love fishing for spotted bass because I was fishing on
Lake Lanear a lot. I think they're fun to catch,
but I only think they should be in certain lakes. Yeah,
each fish species.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Of water, each fish species has their own way that
they eat right and forage, So mixing to I mean,
a large amouth is vastly different than a striped bass,
even just in the way that they relate to structure,
the way that they live their life. So you know, naturally,
if you mix two different two fish species together that
(27:29):
had the same eating habits, the fishery is going to
be terrible.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Plus the bait that they're targeting in a lot of
these lakes that have healthy spotted bass or the blue
back hairing, and those are extremely pelgic, like they act
completely different than a threadfin shad or something like that.
I've seen guys go out with cast nets try to
catch bait and introduce them into other lakes or other
bodies of water. And I've seen people on social media go, man,
(27:54):
this lake would be so great if they introduce this
or if they put this bait in there, and it's like,
you don't understand. These lakes are awesome. Anyway for what
they're known for, and we kind of have to leave
them that way. So you're saying, everybody on the flint,
they catch a spot and it's up on the bank
and it's gone.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
They'll have designated days where, you know, fifty people will
go float and it's called a spotted bass clean up
day where everybody they'll keep a record of, Hey, how
many spots did you throw out of the river today?
They'll keep a record of it, because.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's a day you got to go over there. They'll
take you can go over there and catch some spots
on them of the bank and get a stroll bass
and be like I'm in heaven.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah. But like the native Chattahoochie bass, it's a particular
red a species we have in Georgia. They're almost extinct
because spotted bass and on the near you know, they
come down into the river. You virtually can't catch one
of those anyway.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And those Kentucky stream large or spot of bass, they're
insane compared to the Alabama spot of bass size wise.
I mean, they're all up and down the Chattahoochie River,
There's no doubt about that, because how could you control
the Chattahoochie with the fact that you've got so much,
you have so many people going for them on lanear
(29:04):
and that flows in through the Chattahoochee anyway. But they're massive.
I mean those spots are hell on wheels and they're
fun to catch.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Six pounders, seven pounders.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, it's incredible. I want to get back to the
social media thing because that's where your name comes up
the most. Like if we looked up and down tournaments,
you wouldn't see a lot of people going, oh, look
there's Marshall Georgia bass master competing in a tournament you
do with kayaks. But when it came to social media,
(29:37):
how has it changed your life?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Oh, it's greatly impacted it. I try to stay humble
and remember my roots because my dad and I would
always buy like broken rods from the salvage store and
fix them. So it used to be a seven foot
six rod and now it's a six foot two. And
we were buying used reels from the flea market, and
I never had a lot of good fishing gear, and
(30:01):
now you know, growing my social media, I've been sponsored
by some really good companies like Lose Lose, Strike King
and like It's really blessed me in the sense of,
you know, having nice equipment and rods that are actually
designed for the technique I'm using, like crank bait rods
and swim bait rods. I never had that. I've always
had an all purpose rod to throw everything on.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So every ride you had was a medium heavy.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Every single rod you're throwing finesse on medium heavy, top
water medium heavy. I mean it's so it's greatly changed
in like the way I'm able to fish now, and
like I have better equipment, better tools, I have electronics,
I have live scope, so I'm able to like utilize
all these things that I never really would have had
the chance to use.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
We'll stay on the social media thing for a minute.
I do want to divert and I want to talk
about the live scope. Since you're doing so much river fishing.
Are you using live scope in that application? Are you
only doing it when you're in a lake?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, don't. I don't really use live scappen the river.
Like I said, most of the places I'm fishing are
like two to three foot deep, and you my opinion,
you really need at least six foot to use live scope,
And I don't want to bring three thousand dollars worth
of electronics out on the river and bust up a
transducer on the rock.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
You think that's gonna change where live scopes are going
to be way more effective in shallow water than they
are right now.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'm sure in ten years time, with how the technology
is going, it's gonna be everywhere. You're gonna be able
to scope at a foot of water effectively.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
What do you think is going to change first, the
ability to see fish more clear in shallow water or
the image of the fish being more profound? I think both, Yeah,
I think both simultaneously. Or you think one's going to
catch a technology other.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
I think the technology is so advanced already that they'll
be able to have they'll integrate both.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I remember that fake video, that fake video that came
out on social media not too long ago, where they
were talking about this is the new LSV thirty eight,
and they showed like it looked like a legit fish
swimming around, and a lot of people were like, dude,
look how crazy this is. This is such an awesome
(32:14):
image that's coming out. It's not even close to coming
out yet, but if it does come out, what's the impact.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, have you seen the marlin guys, This is kind
of off top. So the way that these marlin, like
the million dollar Marlin tournaments, Yeah, the way that they're
winning now.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Is they have a huge live scope on their boat,
like on these huge.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Heads they've always had the saltwater train.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I know, but I'm talking huge.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It's like it's like an LVS like one forty or
something like that, and it periscopes down into the water.
It actually periscopes down into the water and they have
a big, huge TV.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And they fall.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
They'll find a marlin and they'll follow it until it
raises to a point where they can tease it. And
so they'll follow this thing on live scope for one
hundred and fifty miles until it finally to the point
where they can tease it in the water. Calum Then
they drop their teasers out as fast as they can.
Then they hook up with a million dollar marlin.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
How far down is this sing periscope?
Speaker 3 (33:08):
It's I think it goes to like one hundred and
fifty feet.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Really insane. Is it like a giant boom?
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah, it's like sixty five thousand dollars just for the transducer.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Holy shit, it's insane.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's the only time that I think that this could
that technology could get a little out of hand is
because before Ray Scott in the whole catch and release thing,
every time you caught a fish in a tournament, that
fish died. Like they didn't have, you know, sophisticated live
wealth systems. They didn't have ways to keep these fish alive. Legit,
(33:46):
just put them on stringers, brought them up. As the
benefit was most fishing tournaments turned into a fish fry
after so you had your family and friends, they all
came into the way, and then all of a sudden
you have the fish fry that changed with ketch and release.
Now we're doing more damage to lakes by not getting
some of the fish out. And the education side is
another part of it, Like what you were talking about
(34:06):
Marshall with the spotted bass day where you go down
and you catch them, you say how many you got?
That's an education thing, right, like you're also helping the
body of water, but you're also educating people on the
process to do it. That then has to catch up
with all this technology that's getting thrown out there to
where maybe we should start taking one and a half
pounders out and guys should know, like every fishing tournament
(34:30):
if you get one, or every time you go out
and fun fish with your friends, if you get one
of these or two of these or whatever, they decide,
they have to come out and you got to legit
stick to it. Do we think that'll happen?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Probably not. I mean, I myself am a big supporter
of maybe changing the length limits on keeping fish. I
always thought it's been backwards, like you can keep the
big ones, but you gotta throw the little ones back.
I just think there should be a slot limit, keep
them twelve to fourteen inches or something. Make it a
very low slot limit, but take as many of them
(35:03):
out as you can, but leave the big ones that
are going to reproduce and pass on genetics instead of
you know, now it's you can keep five seven pounders
a day if you won't need them.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
It's almost like how people manage deer herds, you know,
like you want to let your older ones get as
old as they possibly can before they can't reproduce anymore.
And then once they can't reproduce, that's when you ethnically
take them out.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
We've heard this from a million people. If it's brown,
it's down, let them go, let them grow. Everybody has
these things, but how many people actually stick to that
and the fishing community is a hard I mean, look,
I don't eat bass. Bass has never been a fish
where I'm like, oh, I can't wait to get into
a few. I've also seen some of the bass that
have been pulled out on the water, and I've seen
(35:52):
different things based on the water quality that they're in
where it's not appetizing. Yeah, you know, we caught that
one calffish, and God, I love fishing with Daniel, but
if we catch a trash fish, his hispanic side just
can't leave. It's like he's like, I'm gonna keep that
in the other life. So dude, we've we've caught some
(36:13):
cats and he's brought them home and I'll message him
after I'll go how to taste awful? Terrible? So I
don't know, Like, are you somebody that would eat bass? Marshall?
Is that, ma'am?
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I grew up poor man when you seat bass.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
All the time, So do you still do it?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
No? I don't eat large mouths personally, but spotted bass
are phenomenal. It tastes just like crappy.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
And you're pulling them out anyway, Oh yeah, trying.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You will love spotted bass if you ever tried.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Well, what is it about a spoder bass?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
It's just the cleaner, wider meat. It's just more flaky's.
I don't like a fish tasting fish. That's why I
like crappy and spotted bass tastes.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Just like, are you breading them or do you just.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I'll blacken them, I'll grill them, I'll put them in
the oven. Oh man, black and spotted bass. Oh boy,
that's good.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
But it sounds like it sounds like like the ones
that you would be catching. They're in better water quality
than you know akusa. Yeah, we hear stuff all the
time where it's like, dude, if you catch fish out
of the kusa, that thing's gonna get you sick just
looking at it, right, you know what I mean? Like it.
I still have yet to find a moment where I'm like, yeah,
that sounds really appealing and I can't wait to do that.
You made it sound pretty close. I mean you were
(37:19):
like ninety percent of.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
The way of getting me there, lipsmacking.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Maybe I maybe I do have to try, all right,
I want to get back to the social media side.
You start your YouTube, you start your social media platforms
five years ago. Your life is obviously changed because now
you have sponsorships and all that kind of stuff. How
do you stay humble with that kind of stuff? How
do you keep your roots?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I mean, my wife helps me with that. But like
I say, I always.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Do smacky in the head, like to get a little
too big.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
To get a little too big, She'll say it. You know,
you started from nothing, so but I'm pretty good about
you know, remembering where I came from. But it's like
I said, it's drastically changed, like having a little bit
of an income. It's like a side business now.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And you know, the coolest thing is weird when you
had to put it on your taxes for the first time.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Oh yeah, well you're late, damn. You know. You try
to write off everything. You know, you make nothing for
six years, you know what I'm saying. But uh, you know,
running into like the younger generation, Like I run into
like fifteen year old kids all the time that watch
my channel, and like they say, I helped them catch
a fish or I taught them some technique or something.
So like that's the biggest thing I get out of
(38:27):
it is really like running into like the next generation
that's not stuck on a PlayStation or Xbox and they're
actually like wanting to go out there and fish and
like get outside. What's your goal for the future, then, Oh,
that's that's my main goal. It's it's really to just educate,
especially like on these species that I that I target,
Like I do normally every year, I do like a
(38:48):
ten or twelve parts series on all the bass species
in Georgia and where to find them and what things
are invasive. And I teach people like how to catch bass,
hearing the spawn, post spawn, summer, all the months, and
I really just want to like educate and like make
a better generation of fishermen.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Are you thinking kind of like the show that a
lot of us grew up on, like Bill Dance Outdoors. Yeah,
and how Bill Dance is doing And think platform is
different because you have it on YouTube, right, that's just
where everybody's watching content now. Is that your goal like
kind of just be that guy you want to be
the voice for the generation of YouTube fishermen to come
(39:27):
up with her.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, I'd love that. And you know, like a lot
of YouTubers are just obviously drama gets the clicks and
you know, provoking people, and like, I really just want
to be the guy that is more like the Bill
Dance Stall. Yeah, that everybody can just sit down with
their family and watch.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
You know, how are you going to branch out of
just being just Georgia.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Well, I meant to say that at the beginning of
the podcast. I never called myself the Georgia bass Master.
It was more of an insult that everybody was calling me, like, oh,
here comes the bass Master, like make it money. So
I named my channel name though, and then about a
year or so into it, I asked everybody. I was like,
(40:08):
should I change my name to Fishing with Marshall because
you know everybody's you know, channel name something along those lines.
And they're like, it's too late, man, You've already made
it a brand. Like you're just gonna have to stick
with it. Everybody knows you as that now.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I think Georgia bass Master is fine for you to do.
My only worry is that it limits you to Georgia.
I think the only thing that you could truly do
is you can keep the name. You can keep that brand,
you can keep it going, but you got to go
on the road, like you've got to start going to
different fisheries and go up north to Saint Clair, go
to New York. Can you check out?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I usually go to the Saint Claire once a year.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Oh do you so? Are you putting a lot of
that stuff on your channel too?
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I am.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
See. That's brilliant because that's how you can now branch
out to other places. I think the one part in
the United States that's continuously left out of the conversation
and it needs to be brought back into the conversation
is guys fishing the California Delta because the fish that
they get out of there, they're pretty good, they're pretty
decent fish. But nobody in the East even talks about
(41:09):
what's happening out west. And then there's a lot of
places that just don't have water. So we got to
try to figure out how we can do that. Marshall,
I want to thank you for spending a couple minutes
with us. If you want to fall along with Marshall's story.
Georgia bass Master on every social media he certainly keeps
everybody up to day with what he's doing on the water.
(41:29):
I'm interested to see what's going to happen with that
Georgia State Senate bill over the next couple months. And
it was cool to hear about an influencer, what that
life is really like and how do sponsors react to
influencers compared to professional fishermen. If you like this episode,
I encourage you to listen to the others. You'll learn
(41:52):
something about the outdoors. This is Lines in Time. I'm
Spencer Graves. That's Daniel Vasquez. Click like and subscribe. We'll
see you guys soon.
Another episode of Lines and Times on the iHeartRadio Network
is going on right now. Thank you everybody who clicks
like and subscribe follows along. We try to bring you
the most formative people that we find, especially in hunting
and fishing. Marshall, do you do any hunting or are
you just a fisherman mainly fishing?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I mean, I'm not opposed to it, but I mainly
only have public land to go to, and that's a
train wreck.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
That's like the biggest problem with hunting is the fact
that you can hardly find land to go to. You
got to know a property owner and get out there.
Also joining me as Daniel Vasquez. He was a top
ten co angler for the bass Master Opens until they
shuttered the program. The man bought a house in Alabama
and then found out that the program was not happening.
(00:47):
So congrats on moving from Florida up to Alabama to
find out that info. Dana.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Yeah, we're here though. We love Alabama, so it's all good.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
This has been a really cool situation for you moving
up here and then finding out all about these Alabama
lakes completely different than what you're used to fishing.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Yeah, it's really it's been really fun. Catching spot of
bass every day has been a blast and trying to
find out a little bit more about these Southern large
mouth But Marshall and I were just talking about some
shoal bass. I'm really interested to hear something about that.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I'm never finding those on rivers. You're not going to
find those in most of the lakes here.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, they're only native to the Flint the Chattahoochee and
they have been introduced with the olk Moulgi. They're not
native there. But if you take a shoal bass put
it in a lake, it'll die. It has to have
flowing water to survive.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And that's one of the biggest problems is a lot
of these lakes. And I say problem, it's not really
a problem. But one of the biggest reasons why they
can't live is we have dams at the top and
the bottom of all these river systems which came out
in the sixties for them to conserve water and also
systematically move water throughout the country. Can you imagine what
(01:53):
flooding would be like in the South had we not
put these dams in place in the sixties.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Right, do you think there'd still be water that through
these rivers, though.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I think there'd be water. But that's actually a really
interesting point. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yeah, that's that's the thing in the sixties.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So what was happening in the sixties where they made
that decision, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
But if you look at all these dams, they're old.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, like well, I mean there's pros and cons because
now we have so much concrete and asphalt and all
the all the drains are routed to the rivers. So
I mean the river does get a lot of dumpage
from areas that would hold water, like marshes and places.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Have you guys ever seen those maps where it shows
all the waterways in the United States. It's insane how
much water is inside the continental units. Oh yeah, I mean,
if it does have to flow from somewhere, I would
assume that we draw enough water out of Canada to
make that happen. But then you look at the West
and it doesn't really seem like the West has a
(02:51):
lot of water, and there's some of the biggest waterways.
Well maybe maybe Canada's just holding onto all the water
and they just don't want to give up any of it.
I mentioned his name was Marshall, A lot of people
know you as Georgia bass Master on social media. When
did that all start for you?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Oh? About five years ago. It was just a thing
where my friend was like, hey, why don't you start filming,
you know, and I bought a GoPro and was just
using my iPhone just to kind of capture my catches,
not to start a YouTube channel or to be a
social media influencer. It was just mainly just to document
big fish catches and then kind of just caught on
from there.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
Did it start out on YouTube or were you one
of these guys that jumped on TikTok real quick and
ran with that.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, I started out on YouTube. I was pretty late
on the TikTok game, but still early enough to where
the growth was still there. It's not like it is anymore.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
But so when you started out on YouTube, your whole
idea was I'm just going to document me going out
and fishing. I mean, yeah, did that feel kind of
douchey where your buddy was like, hey, start filming yourself
and put these catches up, or where you kind of like,
all right, I'll jump in.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, I mean it was mainly just to prove the
point because I was catching like third thirty two pound
bags on a lot of lakes near my area, and
everybody's like, you didn't catch those fish.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
So they were calling you out, so you wanted to
back it up and show right, no, I'm actually doing that.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, I wanted to film it, and like, especially when
you'd catch and release, you'd take a photo of five
seven pounders and everybody's like, that's the same fish, and
I'm like, I'm gonna upload the footage.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
So, yeah, you're an influencer, Marshall. Who influences you? Who
do you watch?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Well? I have? I have a couple of unpopular guys.
I really I really love Millican to death. As many
people hate that guy.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Why do they hate Millican?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
I think just because he catches big fish and he
uses life scope. They just hate his guts. But I
learn a lot from watching that guy's videos. I'll try
some of the tips he puts out and it works
for me.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
So have you met him?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I've never met him?
Speaker 1 (04:43):
No? Would you? Would you? Fanboy? If you did? No,
because you'd be like, keep it cool, I stay cool.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
I got he knows Marshall.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah. I got to hang out with Bill Dance, like
four different times, so like that was my biggest icon ever.
Speaker 1 (04:59):
What was it? What was it like the first time
you met Bill Dance?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
That was the biggest fanboy moment in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
So what happened?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
I was? It was the bass Master Classic twenty twenty two,
I believe.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
And I won in the one in Tennessee. Yeah, in Knoxville, Yes,
oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
And I didn't even know he was going to be
I was at a sponsored lunch before the Classic and
they didn't even tell me he was going to be there,
and They're like, oh, by the way, Bill Dance is here,
And I was like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Was that the lunch where they had the Tennessee hats
out and he had signed them?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
So I got to sit down and like literally sit
next to Bill at lunch talk to him for like
two hours. We talked about everything under the sun, fishing.
He was telling me all his crazy fishing stories. And
then every time I've ever seen him after that since
twenty twenty two, he'll recognized me and say hey, So,
like I feel like if I can meet Bill Dance
(05:51):
and be on that level, that I can pretty much
meet anybody and not fanboy.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
What was your standout story for meeting Bill Dance? What
do you remember the most.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
That guy is? He goes one hundred miles an hour.
He's eighty seven or eighty eight years old, and he's
still fishing almost every single day of his life.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Isn't insane that he's never won a bass Master Classic?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's crazy?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
And he is by far the most well known name
in fishing. Has to be over over his career, right,
So he goes so much, like so hard, so fast,
to eighty eight miles an hour. You're just like, damn man,
how do you do it?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah? I mean he does not take a break at all.
I don't know how he does it as old as
he is.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
So those are the two big influences or are their others?
Your dad's obviously one?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean surprisingly, you'd probably be a shock. I
don't watch a lot of fishing stuff, but I mean
those are.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
May who wants to take work home.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Yeah, those are mainly the guys I watch when I watch,
you know, fishing related whips.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
So in your fishing career, who are the people that
truly influence you? He asks you, like who you watch
now and all that kind of stuff? But where did
your influence come from.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Oh, Like I said, it was definitely Bill Dance. We
had a Spinner bay a to Z on VHS and
I'd watched that thing. Fords and burn tape out. Oh yeah,
I had the ABC's of worm Fishing and all his tapes.
I mean I watched everything when I was a kid.
So that was probably my biggest thing.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
Where did you go with the whole Rolling Martin thing
when he kind of became the king?
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I was never really big into watching rolling For some reason,
he just never resonated with me. I think I was
more of the goofy kid, and like seeing Bill Dance
fall off his boat all the time, that's.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
It, right, Like it's the bloopers of Bill Dance.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It's it's You're more relatable than just seeing somebody.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
They gets so serious.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
He's just like lighthearted and he's having fun, and like,
that's what I want to do when I fish, Like,
I just want to have fun and go catch fish.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So I'm excited to see where you go, man, because honestly,
I've always appreciated what you've been doing for the fishing community.
You and I have become friends over the last couple
of years, and I think you're reaching an audience that
has been underserved. You know. It's it's the guys who,
just like you talked about, they don't have the one
hundred thousand dollars bass boat. They can't spend sixty thousand
(08:14):
dollars on electronics. They can't always be out at the
lake and afford a ramp fee for them. The biggest
thing is if I get my kid out to a
bank and I get them a beat up rod and
reel like you and your dad were buying a flea markets.
I just want them to know and have an idea
what they can do. I introduced my nephews to your
channel by saying, hey, look when Uncle Spence isn't up there,
(08:37):
I want you to still have that fire and passion
for fishing. This is a good guy to watch because
you're already doing the legwork. So thank you for doing that,
you Marshall Georgia bass Master. You can find them all
over social media. This is lines and times we want
you to click like and subscribe At the bottom. You
know how were who was that guy in California, Daniel
that went out and made like a crazy name for
(09:00):
himself filming big bass catches and then it came out
that he was cheating.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Well, he was snagging him, right, hes Mike Long, Yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
He's like, you know, everybody was like this guy catches
giants and he brings him in. But he was doing
it well and effective, but an unauthorized method. So you
were worried that people were trying to like kind of
smear your name at different lakes for not being able
to catch the fish that you catch.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, mainly that was part of it.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I love that. That to me is a reason why
somebody should get on social media is to be able
to kind of clear your name. So you get on YouTube,
you start showing these catches, then you see other platforms
kind of pop up. Covid was happening. If you said,
it was five years ago, so everything was kind of
shut down, but the only thing we could do was
hunting fish.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Did you immediately think like, oh, I can make this
into a business deal or when did that snap with
you where you're like, wow, this could actually work.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Yeah, I, like I said, I never had intentions of
ever you know, making it big in this industry. And
I told my wife, I said, if all I ever
get out of uploading videos is a free pack of baits,
I'll be happy. And it's like, boy, was I wrong.
Because companies nowadays emphasize so much on the social media aspect.
They're even they're telling all the pros like, you got
(10:17):
to have a TikTok, you got to have YouTube channel.
You guys have to be posting content because just being
a fisherman is just not cutting it anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Has that changed for you? Like when you meet some pros,
do they look at social media influencers in a really
negative way?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Oh? A lot of them really hate it because a
lot of these social media guys are getting more out
of their paycheck and then more contracts than they're getting,
so they have Some of them are jumping on the
train and hopping along with it. But some of the
old school guys that just don't want to do it,
they don't like it.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
We've had some really good guys that have jumped on here,
Like we had Dustin Knell and not too long ago,
and his social media game is really strong. I think
he did the same thing. He started out on YouTube
and was just kind of putting up his catches there,
and you know, he was obviously already trying to be
a pro tournament guy. Which is interesting about you, Marshall,
because you're not really a tournament dude. You just like
to go out and fish, right, But you'll do kayak
(11:15):
fishing and jump into some tournaments anyway. Yeah, why kayaks
compared to being on a boat.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Well, I really got into kayaks to really you know,
it's more entry level, more people can afford it. A
large majority of my audience, you know, can't afford a
kayak or a fish out of a kayak. Not everybody
has the money for a seventy thousand dollars boat. So
when you can have something that resonates with your viewers,
you get a lot more engagement and just more people
(11:43):
can afford the thirty five hundred dollars price range. And
that's an expensive kayak, but even a four hundred dollars kayak,
And it really gets you places where bass boats can't go.
I mean, your access to places is unlimited. I can
put in anywhere and fish anybody of water I want.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Do you feel like that's He's an actual big reason
why you're catching some of the fish that you catch
is the pressure is low on them because boats can't
get where you go. Oh you were just talking about
a shoal bass that you caught in the Flint River.
It was five point.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Two yeah, five pounds two ounces.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
How many times do you think that fish has been caught?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Probably never, maybe once or twice. It's life. I mean
that fish is probably really old. That's that's about equivalent
to catching up ten or twelve pound largemouth at least with.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
A shoal bass. Sure, right, because you know the shoal bass,
they've got to have cooler water, they have to have
constant current, and the bait I'm sure is not really
readily available for them. Do you think the bait really
hangs up in some of those rocks, like there's a
good amount of bait up there. Do you feel like
it's kinda.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
They love crawlfish, They love helgrimites that they eat on
helgrimites a lot, but they eat shad, minnows and everything,
especially when they start getting bigger. Theyn't eat anything that
comes near them.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
But that's what I'm saying. I feel like some of
the river fish are a little more like feast or
famine kind of deal. Like, yeah, bait gets up in there.
But if you look at a lake and you go
buy a pocket guys are like, oh, that pocket's loaded
full of bait. When you have constant water moving, bait
doesn't want to have to stay in the current like.
They want to get away from it just as much
(13:24):
as a predator does, so it's probably moving by them
at a quicker rate. I would just think that if
I was a fish, I would have less opportunity to
strike something fast moving by me compared to being in
a lake and being able to get underneath, get the
bait into a ball, and then bust it.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Yeah, you're probably right on that, which makes them a
little more aggressive because they have to be really fast
and really good at their job.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Right, and you can trick them a lot easier too.
I feel like that would be kind of the key
is if you're throwing a real like a swim bait
or something like that, it looks like a real fish
compared to sometimes spinner baits come by really slow and
those guys will just pick them off. But fish purely reactionary.
I mean, they're looking for one big bite and that's
what they want, right, That's cool. I mean show bass
(14:11):
would be a really fun thing to go after because
they're the size of some of those Kentucky strain spotted
bass like Lanier has, but they hit like small mouth,
so they're like a dump truck hit.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And anything in the river fights harder anyways, because they,
you know, survive in the current their entire life.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
How hard is it for you to fish a river
when you have a lot of rocks, a lot of structure,
a lot of branches, trees, roots, you have a lot
of natural stuff, plus you have current moving. How fast
do you kind of have to work those fish?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Oh? It's it's extremely hard, which also means it's extremely
unpressured because not everybody wants to do that. But a
lot of times you have to put an anchor out
or wade fished, you know, tether your kayak to you.
And when you know a spot, especially when you know
what show bass are looking for, you can really work
a spot good. Or you can just float on downstream
and kind of hit some spots until you find an
(15:05):
area where fish are really hold them.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Are you having to like upgrade your line to make
it a bigger pound test or do you really find
that you finesse it a lot more.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I have some buddies that'll throw eight pound test. I
personally don't throw anything under twelve in the river, and
that's that's my finesse setup. But most everything's fifteen seventeen.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Explain the logic behind that. So they'll throw eight pound,
you want to go twelve, and you seem to be
a little more successful.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
I just don't want them to break off those big
shoul bass are so strong and they'll you know, these
rocks are sharp. Your line will get frayed. They'll go
right up under a rock. And I would just rather
prefer to maybe miss have a couple less fish bite
if they see it, than to have one break me off.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Daniel, you fished a lot on Okuchobee, heavy grass, heavy vegetation.
We talk about finesse. How would you finesse something on
Okachobe compared to other lakes that you fished.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Uh, that's a good question. Okachobe. Okachobe's kind of weird.
Okuchobe's kind of one of those places where you can
power finesse. If that kind of makes sense, you can
kind of instead of you know, the traditional person will
go eight to twelve pound test on their floral carbon
leader let's say on a spinning rod, throwing a senko
and Florida just in Florida in general, and Okachobe's and
(16:25):
stuff like that. You can get away with like a
seventeen pound leader instead, so you can still have the
castability of the senko.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
But the idea of doing a drop shot.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
But the idea, yeah, drop shot, I mean guys, some
guys do it, but you just the majority of guys
are are not doing.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
The How like, how how would somebody be able to
drop shot a place like Okuchobe.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
So it's when you're drop shotting, they make these little
tiny rigs and I think they're called power shots or
VMC makes one, and essentially what it is is just
a heavier punching rig but a drop shot. So it
falls through and it's just pretty much a drop It's
like it's like a power power drop shot pretty much.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
It's like a heavy dround test.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I mean normally some guy drop shot and you're doing
like eight pound.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
Yeah, some guys will put it straight on braid with
like a flipping hook and stuff like that. So it's
a it's a whole entire different, you know, thing on
its own.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
That's what's so wild about fishing these different lakes in
different topography, in different structure, is you can go to
one place like I don't know how different is on
the Flint River, but on the Kusa River you can
pretty much get away with twelve pound test on almost everything.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
Yea.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And there are guys where I fished with a buddy
of mine Abt. We were fishing grass on Neely and
he was throwing flooracarbon and I'm like, why are you
doing that? And he goes, I never throw braid, and
I'm like, really, because dude, I don't. And look he
caught fish and he was able to get him out
of the grass. But it was almost better that he
(17:56):
was doing it that way because they're so used to
seeing sixty five pounds braid and fifty pound braid and
some guys will drop it down to the twenties. How
important do you feel dropping line size matters for catching fish?
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Marshall, Like you said, it all depends on the lake,
the water clarity. I have certain lakes where you can
throw straight braid on everything you want to, and then
other lakes you better have a leader on there. So
it all depends on the water clarity and how pressure
these fish are and how much you know how much
they're seeing.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
One of the things that stood out with Marshall over
the last year, was you basically got attacked by somebody
when you were out on a public waterway. Was that
the Flint River? It was all right, so he's out
on the Flint River. For people that don't know, this
guy came up to you and basically said, you're fishing
a restricted part of the Flint River because it's owned
(18:54):
by a private property owner. We all know that water
is completely legal to be in. But you didn't stop there.
You just didn't take that as a negative altercation. You
were trying to figure out like, well, what's the reality right,
because if that's true, then fine, you know you have
your area. But if it's not true, that guy's just
(19:14):
been bullying people out of there. Where did that end up?
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Well? I'd encourage everybody listening to look up Senate Bill
one point fifteen and U basically.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
Now to Georgia State Senate bill.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
It's a Georgia State Senate bill. It could be coming
to any state near you if anybody wants to follow it.
But basically what it says is if the owner can
prove that they own property up under the river bed,
then you still can't float and fish it even though
you're not touching the bottom, which everyone everyone for years
always thought as long as you don't step out of
(19:44):
the kayak, er step out of the boat, you can fish.
But now with this new bill, it's you know, they're
trying to get it to where you still you can't
fish at all.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
So where did it come from?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Well?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Is that bill new or was it introduced recently?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
It's it's pretty new the land on from what I
was told are Buddy Buddy with Brian Kemp, they had
a behind the doors closed meetings, signed some bills into
law that a lot of people didn't know about. So
it's a pretty newer bill in the past like.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Two years that area that you were fishing. Is that
like a honey hoole kind of deal?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
It is, because, I mean, another cool thing about shoal bass.
Biologists have tagged them and they'll swim one hundred and
fifty miles from the mouth of Lake Blackshear all the
way to spawn up at those shoals on the Flint
River fifty miles. They'll swim one hundred and fifty miles,
almost like a trout. They'll spawn, they'll drop their eggs
and they'll swim right back down river. So this guy,
(20:39):
where he's owning all this property is just like the
spawning honey hole ground.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
What's relationship with this guy now?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
I haven't talked to him since, but I've been on
the river a few times. I've been trying to run
back into him. I haven't seen him. The neighbors across
the road from him, they have told me not to
fish kind of more nicely.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
But yeah, because this guy came at you in a
pretty right, pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
And he grabbed my kayak and basically held me hostage
right there and told me I couldn't fish.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
So what happened that day when he held your kayak?
Do you call nine to one one or a game
warden or whoever?
Speaker 2 (21:14):
No, we were I was pre fishing for a kayak
tournament and I was just like, I'm going to post
this clip up because I thought it was crazy and
I wasn't expecting it to go viral or anything. But
within just a couple hours it was in the millions.
So then WSBTV Channel two got ahold of it, and
then they wanted to run a story on it. So
it really worked out better that way because it got
(21:37):
a lot of attention on what's going on.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, I was a little shocked. I mean, I lived
in Georgia before I moved to Alabama, and I've always
saw that Georgia is a really sportsman forward and sportsman's
first kind of state. And I've met Brian Kemp a
handful of times, and I know a lot of groups
that are involved. Actually, I've got a buddy of mine
who works for the DNR is pretty high up there.
(22:01):
I would be interested to see where this goes, because
it's it's disappointing to know that somebody would be able
to own a portion of water when that water's constantly
moving and you can't really lay claim to that. It's
weird that they're saying that has to do with the
bedrock underneath. Does that water fluctuate to where some parts
(22:22):
of the or sometimes of the year it's dry there.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
No, the river never runs dry. Obviously. The laws have
always stated that a normal water levels you're able to fish,
So I understand when people say.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Well, what it's a normal water level, though, Well, it's
just as long as it's water, basically.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
I mean, I guess as long as it's water. But
I understand when the river floods, you shouldn't go on
somebody's property, which that's a whole different story, but it
just normal conditions. You should still be able to float
through there and fish.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Yeah, I don't I don't get how that would come
into play. I actually see it more where if that
portion of the river, even though water could come through,
let's say it's like a half inch, right, so it's
still flowing through, but it's not really fishable, you could
probably step across it in one easy pace. I could
see that more saying that's somebody's property, right, But if
(23:16):
the water's going and you have an actual barrier where
you're like, we're on water, there's no way you're on land.
I just don't know how a state would be able
to say yea to that.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
Yeah, I mean the normal flow rate for that river
is about nine hundred to eleven hundred cubic feet per second,
so there's a pretty good large amount of you know,
volume of water coming through there.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Do you guys in the rivers have the same argument
that some of the fishermen have when it comes to lakes,
where they talk about different technologies or different reasons as
to why the bass populations are getting.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
So hurt personally, in my opinion, I haven't. I haven't
seen bass populations go down and the rivers yet. Like
I said, it's a lot less pressure.
Speaker 1 (23:59):
Fish you catch look really healthy, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, they're always healthy. You never catch, you know, string
being fish in the river normally.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Daniel, you've seen these arguments on social media where you know,
you get these anglers and they're live. Scope is killing
the fish population and it's making our fish look bad
and everybody wants to look at one tournaments. There's too
much pressure. What would you say is the main reason
why some people think populations of fish are being hurt.
(24:28):
It's even tough to think about because I think the
three of us understand that bass populations across the United
Statestry not bad at all.
Speaker 4 (24:36):
Bass population back it's probably two. Yeah, they're healthy. Yeah,
because people don't keep bass, that's it. And that's the
main thing behind it. It's always been promoted as a
catch and release fishery, so you know, and and some
lakes do really well because of it, and then some
lakes really struggle because of it. So but I'm really
curious about these shoal bass. I'm gonna have to go
try to catch me.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Because I like the I like ray Scott's methodology when
he started a bass mat and then they started doing
tournament fishing, and you know, at one point he was like, man,
if we keep taking seven to ten fish out for
every angler, we're going to deplete the resource. And he
probably had really forward thinking. But then when he decided
to go catch and release. If you guys heard the
story about what the DNR officer said, basically the commissioner
(25:19):
of the DNR I think it was in Alabama said
to him, you're taking those fish out of here, you're
not throwing them back, And ray Scott was like, watch us,
and he brought him back down, he put him back in.
That was like the defiant moment of catching release. But
the DNR official wasn't wrong. We don't take enough fish
out of these lakes. Do you see a lot of
(25:42):
guys fishing the river and they'll take like an actual
limit and go home.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Well, I'll tell you one thing we do that everyone's
pretty knowledgeable on is like invasive species in the river.
So like Alabama spotted bass I've been introducing to the flint.
They're not native to the Chattahoochee river. So they were
put in a bit.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Where are they cut coming from?
Speaker 2 (26:00):
People think they're fun to catch, so they stalk the
lakes full of them, like the old Georgia state record.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
So they'll catch them in Alabama, drive them across straight
lines and drop them into the floot. Right, So a
lot of people will it's like fish bootlegging.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
I myself, I'll catch it all the time. I'll catch
a spotted bass and I'll chunk it up on the bank.
I mean, everybody does it, because they'll just absolutely take
over are state record. Small mouth that come out of
Lake Shattou. You can't virtually catch a small mouth out
of there. They're basically non existent because of the Alabama
spotted bass population.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
But you have guys on lakes all across the country.
You say the same thing about stripe bass. You know,
you introduce stripe bass and all of a sudden they
eat everything up. The lake I grew up on in Virginia,
Smith Mountain Lake, it is a striped bass fishery. But
they introduced f one strain largemouth about ten years ago,
and now they've got double digit largemouth in the lake. Right,
(26:56):
they don't have spotted bass kind of Thank God. I
love fishing for spotted bass because I was fishing on
Lake Lanear a lot. I think they're fun to catch,
but I only think they should be in certain lakes. Yeah,
each fish species.
Speaker 4 (27:09):
Of water, each fish species has their own way that
they eat right and forage, So mixing to I mean,
a large amouth is vastly different than a striped bass,
even just in the way that they relate to structure,
the way that they live their life. So you know, naturally,
if you mix two different two fish species together that
(27:29):
had the same eating habits, the fishery is going to
be terrible.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Plus the bait that they're targeting in a lot of
these lakes that have healthy spotted bass or the blue
back hairing, and those are extremely pelgic, like they act
completely different than a threadfin shad or something like that.
I've seen guys go out with cast nets try to
catch bait and introduce them into other lakes or other
bodies of water. And I've seen people on social media go, man,
(27:54):
this lake would be so great if they introduce this
or if they put this bait in there, and it's like,
you don't understand. These lakes are awesome. Anyway for what
they're known for, and we kind of have to leave
them that way. So you're saying, everybody on the flint,
they catch a spot and it's up on the bank
and it's gone.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
They'll have designated days where, you know, fifty people will
go float and it's called a spotted bass clean up
day where everybody they'll keep a record of, Hey, how
many spots did you throw out of the river today?
They'll keep a record of it, because.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
That's a day you got to go over there. They'll
take you can go over there and catch some spots
on them of the bank and get a stroll bass
and be like I'm in heaven.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Yeah. But like the native Chattahoochie bass, it's a particular
red a species we have in Georgia. They're almost extinct
because spotted bass and on the near you know, they
come down into the river. You virtually can't catch one
of those anyway.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
And those Kentucky stream large or spot of bass, they're
insane compared to the Alabama spot of bass size wise.
I mean, they're all up and down the Chattahoochie River,
There's no doubt about that, because how could you control
the Chattahoochie with the fact that you've got so much,
you have so many people going for them on lanear
(29:04):
and that flows in through the Chattahoochee anyway. But they're massive.
I mean those spots are hell on wheels and they're
fun to catch.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Six pounders, seven pounders.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Yeah, it's incredible. I want to get back to the
social media thing because that's where your name comes up
the most. Like if we looked up and down tournaments,
you wouldn't see a lot of people going, oh, look
there's Marshall Georgia bass master competing in a tournament you
do with kayaks. But when it came to social media,
(29:37):
how has it changed your life?
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Oh, it's greatly impacted it. I try to stay humble
and remember my roots because my dad and I would
always buy like broken rods from the salvage store and
fix them. So it used to be a seven foot
six rod and now it's a six foot two. And
we were buying used reels from the flea market, and
I never had a lot of good fishing gear, and
(30:01):
now you know, growing my social media, I've been sponsored
by some really good companies like Lose Lose, Strike King
and like It's really blessed me in the sense of,
you know, having nice equipment and rods that are actually
designed for the technique I'm using, like crank bait rods
and swim bait rods. I never had that. I've always
had an all purpose rod to throw everything on.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
So every ride you had was a medium heavy.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Every single rod you're throwing finesse on medium heavy, top
water medium heavy. I mean it's so it's greatly changed
in like the way I'm able to fish now, and
like I have better equipment, better tools, I have electronics,
I have live scope, so I'm able to like utilize
all these things that I never really would have had
the chance to use.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
We'll stay on the social media thing for a minute.
I do want to divert and I want to talk
about the live scope. Since you're doing so much river fishing.
Are you using live scope in that application? Are you
only doing it when you're in a lake?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, don't. I don't really use live scappen the river.
Like I said, most of the places I'm fishing are
like two to three foot deep, and you my opinion,
you really need at least six foot to use live scope,
And I don't want to bring three thousand dollars worth
of electronics out on the river and bust up a
transducer on the rock.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
You think that's gonna change where live scopes are going
to be way more effective in shallow water than they
are right now.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
I'm sure in ten years time, with how the technology
is going, it's gonna be everywhere. You're gonna be able
to scope at a foot of water effectively.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
What do you think is going to change first, the
ability to see fish more clear in shallow water or
the image of the fish being more profound? I think both, Yeah,
I think both simultaneously. Or you think one's going to
catch a technology other.
Speaker 4 (31:47):
I think the technology is so advanced already that they'll
be able to have they'll integrate both.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
I remember that fake video, that fake video that came
out on social media not too long ago, where they
were talking about this is the new LSV thirty eight,
and they showed like it looked like a legit fish
swimming around, and a lot of people were like, dude,
look how crazy this is. This is such an awesome
(32:14):
image that's coming out. It's not even close to coming
out yet, but if it does come out, what's the impact.
Speaker 4 (32:22):
Yeah, have you seen the marlin guys, This is kind
of off top. So the way that these marlin, like
the million dollar Marlin tournaments, Yeah, the way that they're
winning now.
Speaker 3 (32:31):
Is they have a huge live scope on their boat,
like on these huge.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Heads they've always had the saltwater train.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I know, but I'm talking huge.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
It's like it's like an LVS like one forty or
something like that, and it periscopes down into the water.
It actually periscopes down into the water and they have
a big, huge TV.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And they fall.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
They'll find a marlin and they'll follow it until it
raises to a point where they can tease it. And
so they'll follow this thing on live scope for one
hundred and fifty miles until it finally to the point
where they can tease it in the water. Calum Then
they drop their teasers out as fast as they can.
Then they hook up with a million dollar marlin.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
How far down is this sing periscope?
Speaker 3 (33:08):
It's I think it goes to like one hundred and
fifty feet.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Really insane. Is it like a giant boom?
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Yeah, it's like sixty five thousand dollars just for the transducer.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Holy shit, it's insane.
Speaker 3 (33:20):
It's insane.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
That's the only time that I think that this could
that technology could get a little out of hand is
because before Ray Scott in the whole catch and release thing,
every time you caught a fish in a tournament, that
fish died. Like they didn't have, you know, sophisticated live
wealth systems. They didn't have ways to keep these fish alive. Legit,
(33:46):
just put them on stringers, brought them up. As the
benefit was most fishing tournaments turned into a fish fry
after so you had your family and friends, they all
came into the way, and then all of a sudden
you have the fish fry that changed with ketch and release.
Now we're doing more damage to lakes by not getting
some of the fish out. And the education side is
another part of it, Like what you were talking about
(34:06):
Marshall with the spotted bass day where you go down
and you catch them, you say how many you got?
That's an education thing, right, like you're also helping the
body of water, but you're also educating people on the
process to do it. That then has to catch up
with all this technology that's getting thrown out there to
where maybe we should start taking one and a half
pounders out and guys should know, like every fishing tournament
(34:30):
if you get one, or every time you go out
and fun fish with your friends, if you get one
of these or two of these or whatever, they decide,
they have to come out and you got to legit
stick to it. Do we think that'll happen?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Probably not. I mean, I myself am a big supporter
of maybe changing the length limits on keeping fish. I
always thought it's been backwards, like you can keep the
big ones, but you gotta throw the little ones back.
I just think there should be a slot limit, keep
them twelve to fourteen inches or something. Make it a
very low slot limit, but take as many of them
(35:03):
out as you can, but leave the big ones that
are going to reproduce and pass on genetics instead of
you know, now it's you can keep five seven pounders
a day if you won't need them.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
It's almost like how people manage deer herds, you know,
like you want to let your older ones get as
old as they possibly can before they can't reproduce anymore.
And then once they can't reproduce, that's when you ethnically
take them out.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
We've heard this from a million people. If it's brown,
it's down, let them go, let them grow. Everybody has
these things, but how many people actually stick to that
and the fishing community is a hard I mean, look,
I don't eat bass. Bass has never been a fish
where I'm like, oh, I can't wait to get into
a few. I've also seen some of the bass that
have been pulled out on the water, and I've seen
(35:52):
different things based on the water quality that they're in
where it's not appetizing. Yeah, you know, we caught that
one calffish, and God, I love fishing with Daniel, but
if we catch a trash fish, his hispanic side just
can't leave. It's like he's like, I'm gonna keep that
in the other life. So dude, we've we've caught some
(36:13):
cats and he's brought them home and I'll message him
after I'll go how to taste awful? Terrible? So I
don't know, Like, are you somebody that would eat bass? Marshall?
Is that, ma'am?
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I grew up poor man when you seat bass.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
All the time, So do you still do it?
Speaker 2 (36:28):
No? I don't eat large mouths personally, but spotted bass
are phenomenal. It tastes just like crappy.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
And you're pulling them out anyway, Oh yeah, trying.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
You will love spotted bass if you ever tried.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Well, what is it about a spoder bass?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
It's just the cleaner, wider meat. It's just more flaky's.
I don't like a fish tasting fish. That's why I
like crappy and spotted bass tastes.
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Just like, are you breading them or do you just.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I'll blacken them, I'll grill them, I'll put them in
the oven. Oh man, black and spotted bass. Oh boy,
that's good.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
But it sounds like it sounds like like the ones
that you would be catching. They're in better water quality
than you know akusa. Yeah, we hear stuff all the
time where it's like, dude, if you catch fish out
of the kusa, that thing's gonna get you sick just
looking at it, right, you know what I mean? Like it.
I still have yet to find a moment where I'm like, yeah,
that sounds really appealing and I can't wait to do that.
You made it sound pretty close. I mean you were
(37:19):
like ninety percent of.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
The way of getting me there, lipsmacking.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
Maybe I maybe I do have to try, all right,
I want to get back to the social media side.
You start your YouTube, you start your social media platforms
five years ago. Your life is obviously changed because now
you have sponsorships and all that kind of stuff. How
do you stay humble with that kind of stuff? How
do you keep your roots?
Speaker 2 (37:40):
I mean, my wife helps me with that. But like
I say, I always.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
Do smacky in the head, like to get a little
too big.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
To get a little too big, She'll say it. You know,
you started from nothing, so but I'm pretty good about
you know, remembering where I came from. But it's like
I said, it's drastically changed, like having a little bit
of an income. It's like a side business now.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
And you know, the coolest thing is weird when you
had to put it on your taxes for the first time.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Oh yeah, well you're late, damn. You know. You try
to write off everything. You know, you make nothing for
six years, you know what I'm saying. But uh, you know,
running into like the younger generation, Like I run into
like fifteen year old kids all the time that watch
my channel, and like they say, I helped them catch
a fish or I taught them some technique or something.
So like that's the biggest thing I get out of
(38:27):
it is really like running into like the next generation
that's not stuck on a PlayStation or Xbox and they're
actually like wanting to go out there and fish and
like get outside. What's your goal for the future, then, Oh,
that's that's my main goal. It's it's really to just educate,
especially like on these species that I that I target,
Like I do normally every year, I do like a
(38:48):
ten or twelve parts series on all the bass species
in Georgia and where to find them and what things
are invasive. And I teach people like how to catch bass,
hearing the spawn, post spawn, summer, all the months, and
I really just want to like educate and like make
a better generation of fishermen.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Are you thinking kind of like the show that a
lot of us grew up on, like Bill Dance Outdoors. Yeah,
and how Bill Dance is doing And think platform is
different because you have it on YouTube, right, that's just
where everybody's watching content now. Is that your goal like
kind of just be that guy you want to be
the voice for the generation of YouTube fishermen to come
(39:27):
up with her.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Yeah, I'd love that. And you know, like a lot
of YouTubers are just obviously drama gets the clicks and
you know, provoking people, and like, I really just want
to be the guy that is more like the Bill
Dance Stall. Yeah, that everybody can just sit down with
their family and watch.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
You know, how are you going to branch out of
just being just Georgia.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Well, I meant to say that at the beginning of
the podcast. I never called myself the Georgia bass Master.
It was more of an insult that everybody was calling me, like, oh,
here comes the bass Master, like make it money. So
I named my channel name though, and then about a
year or so into it, I asked everybody. I was like,
(40:08):
should I change my name to Fishing with Marshall because
you know everybody's you know, channel name something along those lines.
And they're like, it's too late, man, You've already made
it a brand. Like you're just gonna have to stick
with it. Everybody knows you as that now.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
I think Georgia bass Master is fine for you to do.
My only worry is that it limits you to Georgia.
I think the only thing that you could truly do
is you can keep the name. You can keep that brand,
you can keep it going, but you got to go
on the road, like you've got to start going to
different fisheries and go up north to Saint Clair, go
to New York. Can you check out?
Speaker 2 (40:40):
I usually go to the Saint Claire once a year.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Oh do you so? Are you putting a lot of
that stuff on your channel too?
Speaker 2 (40:45):
I am.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
See. That's brilliant because that's how you can now branch
out to other places. I think the one part in
the United States that's continuously left out of the conversation
and it needs to be brought back into the conversation
is guys fishing the California Delta because the fish that
they get out of there, they're pretty good, they're pretty
decent fish. But nobody in the East even talks about
(41:09):
what's happening out west. And then there's a lot of
places that just don't have water. So we got to
try to figure out how we can do that. Marshall,
I want to thank you for spending a couple minutes
with us. If you want to fall along with Marshall's story.
Georgia bass Master on every social media he certainly keeps
everybody up to day with what he's doing on the water.
(41:29):
I'm interested to see what's going to happen with that
Georgia State Senate bill over the next couple months. And
it was cool to hear about an influencer, what that
life is really like and how do sponsors react to
influencers compared to professional fishermen. If you like this episode,
I encourage you to listen to the others. You'll learn
(41:52):
something about the outdoors. This is Lines in Time. I'm
Spencer Graves. That's Daniel Vasquez. Click like and subscribe. We'll
see you guys soon.
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