Ryan Armstrong Won the Kissimmee Chain In MLF

Ryan Armstrong took home the win on the Kissimmee Chain in Florida. Over three days he sacked some massive bags! He shared what worked and what he looked for.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's get right into it. So I'm Spencer,
that's Daniel, that's Ryan. We're gonna be talking a lot
about fishing to day. Ryan Armstrong won the MLF event
on Kassimi Chain. You focused a lot of your time
on Tiger. How many days you actually get to practice
while you were down there, so.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
We get three official days of practice for every event.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
So while you were kind of scanning around because you
look at the Kassimi Chain, Daniel was actually from Florida,
so he knows quite a bit about the body of
the water.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
But it's wild in Florida. You have like a lake.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Here connected with the canal and then you have a
big body of water. You were telling me, like you're
run in the morning to try to get to the
winning fish was over an hour.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
Yeah, it was at least an hour, and a lot
of that dependent on the locking, but the locking went
really smoothly. And but yeah, it's probably been about an hour.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
To where I was fishing.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I laughed because I hear some of that stuff, like
it took me an hour to get to where I
was going, How do you even find those fish?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
You know what I mean? Like to spend that kind
of time to get to a place.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
Yeah, so it definitely takes a lot of work. So
I practiced from sunrise to sunset. I was probably the
first person at the ramp about every morning and one
of the last to leave at night every night. And
you're spending you know, depends on what time of the
year you're fishing, but you know, as the time goes on,
you may fish sixteen hours a day because the days
get longer, you know, daylight hours. So I think we

(01:25):
were around probably twelve hours of legal light at the.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Cassimi Chain event.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
And so a lot of the times, though, you plan
that by truck as opposed to running, you know, if
you want to focus on, like in this case, the
Cassimi area as opposed to the Toho area instead of
going through that as on the boat. So you may
travel by truck and then launch at appropriate ramp, so
it takes you less time to travel during practice and

(01:49):
kind of plan that out.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
So that's kind of what I did.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
I used Tchenol's ramp in practice and then and then
focus down in that Cassimi area for the most part.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So I want to kind of figure out a little
bit about who you are, you know, you and I
know each other because we actually fish Gunnersville together in
a Toyota series, which was really interesting too.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
We'll get into that a little bit. But Ryan Armstrong,
where did your passion and enjoyment of fishing come from?

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Man?

Speaker 4 (02:18):
I think I liked fishing from the time I can
even remember anything. So we have a little kid, I
would fish farm ponds and anytime I could, you know,
see a body of water, I wanted to ride and
I wanted to go fish. And I really didn't have
necessarily a lot of people that really fished in my
family necessarily, And I don't know really where it came from.

(02:40):
It was just kind of a natural instinct for me
to want to fish and growing up and you know,
southern Illinois there's not a lot of good fishing and
it's not a fishing community. But for whatever reason, I
always liked the outdoors. I liked a deer hunt. You know,
nobody deer hunted that I really was in my family
to be on.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, then how did you get into fishing because you
would have to have, like, there has to be somebody
that either got you a rod or showed you.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, so I had I had some I had some
friends and some farmers or whatever and whatever they had
farm pond. So if I could get a family member,
my mom or whoever to take me to a farm pond,
drop me off, I'm gonna fish. Like that's where I'm
gonna be this afternoon. You know. I had playing basketball,
doing something, some sport, something outdoors. So I I was

(03:28):
very very into the outdoors and and and athletics as
a child.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
And and uh.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
But my great uncle Jerry, he uh, he definitely fished.
And but I wasn't real close to him when I
was really young, but as I got older, I definitely
spent some more time with him, and he loved to fish.
He would, you know, fish anywhere as far as our
local area, or go down to Florida a lot in
the winters and he would fish down in Florida. I

(03:55):
unfortunately didn't get to spend much time with him down
in Florida. But I don't know, maybe maybe I got
it through his gene.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
He's my great uncle, so I don't know. There's not
a lot of people in my family that like to fish.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
Though.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
It's interesting you bring that up, because you know, Daniel,
you and I talked about this last time we were
sitting in the studio. My uncle is the one who
got me interested in the outdoors. But I didn't pick
up a fishing pole really until I lived in Georgia
as an adult. I grew up on an incredible bass lake.
But I didn't have somebody like my dad didn't fish,
my mom didn't fish. I didn't know anybody in my

(04:27):
community to fish. But I would go to this tackle shop.
I bought a storm wiggle wart and I just asked
the guy one day.

Speaker 3 (04:33):
I was like, what are they biting? And he goes, Oh,
it's this exact color. This is it.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
I showed it to Daniel the other day. That thing's
never even touched the water. It basically probably should have
I should with a ton of money. Yeah, I should
have left it in the box. But the guy was like,
it's four ninety nine.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I bought it.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
But then when I moved to Georgia, I started getting
around people who liked to fish, And I feel like.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
That's the connection.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
When he goes to Florida and fish, this is your
great uncle. You never got the opportunity to go.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Why not? Like what what was holding you back from
being able to go?

Speaker 4 (05:07):
I think that he did that more whenever, uh so whenever.
When I was younger, he would do that. And then
as he got older, he quit going down to Florida
and doing that, and he kind of he got remarried
and spent more of his time up around our local area.
I did get to go down with him down on
the Crystal River and we fished for red fish, But

(05:28):
you know, as far as like him actually going to
the camps and with his fishing buddies a largemouth bass
fishing like he had used to do, by the time
I got old enough and closer to him, he had
quit doing that by then, So I guess that's the reason.
But you know, we would we would jump around local
little ponds, like I said, because in central or southern Illinois,

(05:49):
I mean, especially in my area, you you would have
to go to an actual what maybe you could call
an actual lake would be maybe Shelbyville, but I mean
that's a that's a solid hour and a half drive
for me even, or like a rin lake down in
southern Illinois, and and you know, I just don't live
very close to anything that's an actual, true lake. One

(06:14):
lake that I actually learned a lot about fishing. It's
called Newton Lake. It's a power plant lake and Jasper County.
It's seventeen hundred acres. It's actually been raided in the
top one hundred bass lakes in the country by bass
Master Magazine and different outlets, and it it's very diverse.
It's kind of like a small Kentucky lake is the

(06:34):
way I look at it. So you can get bit
a lot of different ways. It's a healthy lake and
it has some biggins and so I've learned so much
different fishing techniques on that lake as as I, you know,
got more and more into fishing, so as I was,
you know, old enough and financially stable enough to just
go do go, do those the kind of things.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
But it's a it's a really good lake over there
at for sure.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Where did the passion for tournament fishing come in?

Speaker 4 (07:03):
Uh, Tournament fishing came from probably my athletics man, because
I'm an I'm a very competitive person that just wants
to compete against people as opposed to it's kind.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Of hard to get motivated to go have fun and fish.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
It's got to be a purpose behind it, and the
purpose behind it is to win. When in order to win,
you have to fish a tournament, so you can't really
win just having fun, right, There's no there's no there's
no competitive drive.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
That's how I feel about marathons, Like, why would anybody
just actively go out and run when there's nothing at
the end. But if they're going to give you a medal,
I'm like, well then maybe I'll run. Yeah, but I
don't want to run. I don't want to run like
a five k or anything. Yeah, unless there's an opportunity
to get something.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
So competition, right, So, growing up, if it had a ball,
I probably did it. I mean, whether it be whatever,
it doesn't matter. I'm playing it. I'm probably playing it.
I love athletics, I love competing. But you know, whenever
reality hits you in the face that you're not seven
foot tall and you can't run a four flat forty, uh,
you gotta you gotta go fishing because you're like, you

(08:06):
ain't going to the NBA or the MLB or whatever.
You know, it's not happening, right, So you and that's
probably with a lot of people that in the outdoors
that they grow up and then you know, they find
that outlet in fishing or deer hunting. Or something that
they can do at a high level. But maybe their
genetic gene pool didn't allow them to play in the NBA,

(08:27):
but you know, they played varsity basketball or whatever.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
You know.

Speaker 4 (08:31):
But this this is, you know, fishing is kind of
an outlet for those type of people that that have
that competitive drive.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
And and it's in the community you learn.

Speaker 4 (08:41):
You know, you you wind up meeting people and and
having that same camaraderie that you might have on a
basketball team or whatever. You know, even though it's an
individual sport, you know, even but you can also fish
team trails, which you know makes it a team sport.
So I don't know, it's the diverse, and it's all
about that competitive drive and and I certainly have that.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
When did you get your first basketball? What was your
first event you ever fished?

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Oh huh man, I remember, so I would say there
was like a sixteen foot tracker, I want to say, right,
and uh it was. I think we talked the guy
down to like six hundred bucks and uh he even

(09:28):
he even threw in uh some gas and and some
some tackle and whatever.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, this guy this happened.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
This guy was, uh, this guy was actually I think
he probably had a little bit of money maybe, and
and he, uh, he realized that we really wanted to
go fish, right, so I think he was being nice
and hooking us up. And he he even gave us
a nine to nine mercury and that's that is true
for free. And we we hooked that murder up onto

(10:01):
that thing and we went and fished like little local
club stuff. And uh, you know, looking back at it,
like how small.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Of a deal that was?

Speaker 4 (10:12):
That really turned that drive of tournament fishing, because I'm
talking about fishing like a couple of hundred acre club stuff,
right Like, but you thought it was the best Master Classic.
I mean, you took it for real, like you're gonna win, right,
and it means a lot to you. But looking back,
it's like, uh, I guess that probably really did it

(10:33):
right there, you know, whenever you entered that first little
club tournament and and you you you pre practice for
it and you're rigging and you're taking it for real
and you want to win, and then it's like, okay,
you know what, you know I did, I did good
in this tournament or whatever, and these guys are you know,
you're fishing against older people and whatever.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
And then you.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
Were like, well, I wonder what I could do if
I went to this other club and fishing bigger lake
or whatever, and you go do that.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
So you learned so much from those tournaments though.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Yeah, yeah, you can club ones.

Speaker 3 (11:04):
And I honestly think they're harder to win.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
It's not easy because you're fishing against locals and they
got you know, maybe when you come in as a
you know whatever, twenty twenty year old or whatever, I mean,
whatever your situation might be. You go in there and
you might be fishing against fifty year olds and they've
been fishing those bodies of water for thirty years, decades, whatever,
and they know everything there is to know about it.
And then you come in with a totally different mindset,

(11:29):
like all their stuff is history and there's there's you know,
they kind of tend to become set in their ways,
and you come in with a completely open mind, completely
different outlook, and you go in there and also you're
pretty motivated and you wind up doing well. I remember
the first time I did stuff out to like a
bigger club stuff, I got paid and I had never
been to that lake of my life, and I was

(11:51):
doing like Google Earth and like looking and this, that
and the other, and I got paid, and it's like, man,
I think.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
That I think I think I liked it. I think
I think I like this. You know.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
I mean it was probably like fifty bucks or something,
but you know it's like still, it's not the point.
The money is not the point. It's the fact that
you love it and that you think that you can
do it, and so you keep taking it further and
you you jump into like a memorial or open a

(12:26):
local thing whatever. There's a local team trail in our areas.
So I started fishing it, and uh, I want Angler
of the Year. And I fished it again, and I
want Angler the Year again, and I was.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
Like, you know what, I was like. I was like,
I'm gonna do some other stuff.

Speaker 4 (12:45):
And I remember in uh, I think maybe around twenty nineteen.
It was like August, and I don't think I had
finished out of like maybe the top three and any
tournament in the entire year since the spring, and I
had one, I think maybe eleven or twelve tournaments at
that point that year. It was I was on fire,
and I was like, I'm gonna go fish with BFL right,

(13:07):
So I went to Shelbyville and I practiced for three
days and I got a top ten my first event
as a BFL, and.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I was like, man, I was like, this is it.
I'm done. I'm fishing.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
So twenty nineteen is where really your tournament?

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Like, No, I had fished.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
I had fished probably like I said, club and let's
go back to that sixteen foot tracker. So we're gonna
be probably more along the lines of like two thousand
and five, right, two thousand and five, somewhere in there.
So I wound up having a sun and so it

(13:45):
kind of changed my life a little bit, obviously, whenever
you have a kid in two thousand and eight and
and honestly it kind of changed my life because in
twenty ten he got diagnosed with brain cancer and so
it it really.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Changed my life.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
And we, uh we moved down to Saint Jude's in Memphis, Tennessee,
and uh that was a two year ordeal, and so
it really changes it. You know, Obviously fishing didn't mean
anything anymore. It got put on the back burner. I'm
self employed and I'm running a business and I'm trying
to keep everything going and rocking.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
And rolling and and being down there.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Three hundred and sixty five days of years. My goal
to be down there.

Speaker 4 (14:21):
With him and and uh, but still keep the business
going and all that, and and I was successful at that,
and he wound up beating brain cancer.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
And uh.

Speaker 4 (14:31):
I kept the business going and ran it for several
more years and then wound up selling it and expanded
into real estate.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
So, uh, the real estate.

Speaker 4 (14:40):
Gives you more time to spend with your family, which
was what I learned from the whole brain cancer ordeal.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
How long was your son at Saint Jude.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
So we were there for about Uh, well, I'm gonna say,
on and off for two years.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
He has to go back yearly for scans or is
he good?

Speaker 2 (14:57):
Yeah, So we went.

Speaker 4 (14:58):
Uh we went there every three months, and then we
transition to every six months, and then we transition to
once a year.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
So that's what we do now. We go once a year.

Speaker 4 (15:07):
So he's been So he has been cancer free since
I'm gonna say March of twenty twelve.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
That's awesome.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
And he was diagnosed in September of twenty ten, so
he had measure a little blastoma. And like I said,
he's cancer free and has been cancer free now for
whatever it is thirteen years or whatever.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
And and so anyway.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
That was a huge chang though.

Speaker 2 (15:32):
So that was a huge thing that definitely changes you, Spencer.
How does it change you?

Speaker 4 (15:39):
It changes you to have a new lease on life
that how fragile it is, how much it can take
away at soon. It doesn't matter what you who you are,
what race you are, what your economic status is, what
your age is, nothing matters. It can take you away
in a heartbeat. So it puts a little bit different
value on life, puts it a little.

Speaker 2 (15:59):
Bit different value you on family.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Uh, time with family, family and my my, my time.
My occupation at that time when I was self employed
was very demanding with time, and I, uh, I wanted
to start transitioning out of it, and and I was
already doing some real estate and and wound up selling
that company and then really going much deeper into investing

(16:22):
into some more real estate and doing long term rentals
is what we do. And we also do some house
flipping and things like that. And but anyway, it takes
time to recover from dealing with all of that because
your focus is that it's not fishing, it's not deer hunting,
it's not anything it's that.

Speaker 2 (16:42):
So but as time goes on, you're able.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
To start back to normal life and you're you're not living,
you know, in Memphis and all of that. So so
in twenty fourteen, I bought a UH, a little aluminum
boat that is a UH twenty five horsepower because Newton

(17:06):
is a horse horsepower restricted lake of twenty five horsepower.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
So he was like, you know what, I was like, I'm.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
Gonna start getting back into fishing and and go over
there and.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
Really focus a lot on that.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
And so I went over there, and I started fishing
quite a bit at Newton and UH and UH and
then around you know, other areas and whatever and and
and then a couple of years later, whenever I started,
I started in on the UH, the the upper level stuff.
And I bought a UH I think it was a

(17:37):
ninety seven bass Cat Jaguar and UH. I love that
boat and had it for several years and and and
then I transitioned into a a bas Cat Lynx and
UH and and and now we're in a bas Cat
Puma and and I'm I'm part of bass Cat's staff
and and deal with Dupa Marine over by Saint Louis

(17:58):
and Mani and Rob and stuff and all them at
Basque Cat. They've really helped a lot of that transition
and made some things happen for me that probably otherwise
wouldn't have happened. And so I'm proud to run a
Basque Cat and I'm proud to represent Dupa Marine And
and here we are.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
How much does your son play into your drive to
be competitive?

Speaker 2 (18:23):
You gotta take opportunity of life.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
I mean, life's a gifts, so so you, uh, if
you shouldn't take it for granted, that's for sure, because
this this is a gift. And and negativity there's no
room for it. Positivity is huge, and and trying to
appreciate things and the relationships that you make, and and

(18:46):
it just puts more value on life because you know,
a lot of people don't learn that though you know,
and it may be necessarily their fault, but people don't
go through something like that, so you don't learn the
value of life and and how how how much of
a blessing it is, and how many opportunities can be
if you just you know, push yourself in a positive direction.

(19:07):
That's my kind of my motto. I don't care if
it's the smallest baby stuff you could possibly imagine, the
smallest percentage that you could possibly imagine, but moving a
positive direction every day.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
I think I think an interesting parallel to all that
is kind of what you and I talked about, Daniel.
You know, you start out fishing, you're you were in
a family unit, but then your parents got separated, your
mom moves clear across the country, so you're kind of
bouncing back and forth. Fishing is the one thing where
if you have a big life change, whether your child

(19:37):
is diagnosed with cancer or you're going through a product
of divorce and you're trying to figure out your way,
fishing is one of the best things that you can do.
You can just go down to a bank, clear your head,
cast the line, you get that bite, and you get
that rush of adrenaline. I don't care if it's a
one pounder or ten pounder, it doesn't matter. It fires
you up.

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yep, yep. It's that pullback, man, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
It's that split second you fishing, detecting the bite and
setting the hook. I mean, there's that there's something about
that one second. It's not about all the other stuff.
It's that one second.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Yeah, you can just be free for a second.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
It's something about it. I don't know what it is.
It's like pulling back on a giant buck. What is
there about that? It does something for me. I don't
know what it is, but it does something for me.
And it's the same thing of that one split second
moment of a bite.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
It's like Daniel, when you set the hook on a fish.
Because I watch you do it, we'll go through your mind.

Speaker 5 (20:37):
Uh, that's that's the worst part. That's the worst part.
I hate that part, you really. I mean, I like
sitting the hook on, fishing everything, but during the tournament,
it's the landing part that, especially with a big one,
I don't I don't like the way that makes me feel.
I like catching them obviously, but the amount of stress
that goes through your mind when you're trying to land

(20:58):
a big fish when there's you know, how stake tournament,
you know, it's it's it's stressful.

Speaker 3 (21:02):
It's not is that like the pressure side of like
I have to get.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
This in yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah, And but
then you know, obviously it's fun and there's but it's
there's a lot of anxiety behind it.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
When you lose one then what happens. I mean, that's
I mean, I don't try not to spin out.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
I guess that's about it.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
I played baseball at a pretty high level, and I
was always under the impression. I think this actually helps
out a lot in fishing. Is if you make a mistake,
if you have an error, you got to just wipe
it clean and get right back at it. Like you
can't think about that error that you just made. You
got to go for the next one. So if you
lose one, you're not going to get that fish back

(21:43):
unless you go back half or or after it.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Yeah, it goes back to positivity. If you lose one
that you know was the right one. You can either
look at it as like devastating, oh my gosh, I'm
never going to recover, or you can be like, you
know what, like I just did something right. I just
not got the big bite. I just got that big bite.

(22:06):
I'm doing the right thing. I'm going to generate some
more big bites. It's better than me and clueless and
not getting a big bite. So it clues you in like, Okay,
you know I can generate that big bite. I know
I kind of know what they're doing. Now you know
what I mean, And so I'm going to go generate
some more big bites because I know, I think I
know what to do. So you know, the next one,
I'm gonna do everything in my power to put it

(22:27):
in the boat.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
You know.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
I mean there's no there's no science behind exactly like
you can guarantee I'm gonna put it in the boat.
But it's just part of fishing. But at least you
know you're doing what it takes in order to generate
the right bite. So I mean that's the positive way
of looking at it.

Speaker 5 (22:43):
Yeah, I want to know how you keep the momentum going. Man,
how do you do it? Do you feel like you
have a good momentum coming into the.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
Next event or yeah, I'm kind of a momentum person historically,
so yeah, I think it can go well. I I
have a a lot of faith in myself. I have
a really good work ethic. I do a lot of preparation.

(23:10):
I feel like I do my homework. Yeah, I mean,
it's fishing, but I'm gonna go attack. I'm on attack
mode and I fully plan on you know, and and
doing everything I need and to do necessary to compete
at a high level against these guys, and it's not
easy because.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Everybody's really, really good, they really are.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
You fish against these guys and the invitationals all stack
them up against anybody in the country.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
You think the invitationals are better than the opens as
far as level of competitiveness, And there's a reason why
I'm asking that question. I want your opinion, Daniel, I
want yours.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
Still, Oh man, I don't want to sound a certain
I don't want to.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Sound straight up with you.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
I've had guys who are best Master elites, yeah, who
tell me that even the top fifty in mL AB
in the BPT Tour couldn't handle the top fifty in
bass Master Elites.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
So across the board, I would say, absolutely the invitationals
are stouter, stouter, stouter, Okay, for sure, stat But I'm
not going to say the top the top whatever against
the other top whatever is better because you can take
guys in the bass Master Opens and take those those guys.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Let's let let's just.

Speaker 4 (24:29):
Line twenty of them up, okay, and then let's take
the invitationals and line twenty of them up, and I'm
going to say those those twenty are better than those twenty.
Absolutely not not but across the board from the field, absolutely,
I would say that.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
I mean, there's no doubt.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Here's something that I thought about the other day because
you and I were talking about the rule changes. I mean,
this has obviously been a big thing in fishing.

Speaker 1 (24:50):
Yeah, take us through the Kassimi chain day by day.

Speaker 3 (24:54):
It's a three day tournament.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's a three day tournament. Yep.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
Day one, you're allowed to use live scope, forward facing
son three sixty yep.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
But day two what happens?

Speaker 4 (25:03):
So on day two there is no three sixty, there's
no ford facing sonar. So you get locked up, you
get lock boxes put on your cables or high visibility orange.
Everybody sees that you are not using any form of
forward facing or three sixty sonar. So you have to
just actually fish.

Speaker 3 (25:23):
And that's gonna be the way it is for the
rest of the season, right.

Speaker 1 (25:26):
It's not just because you guys are in Florida and
shallow water in the whole deal.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
So you can use ford facing sonar on day one
and day three, but obviously in order to make Day
three championship day, you're gonna have to fish an entire
day without it.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
That's why I was asking, like, where the level of
competition is, is the MLF making changes to really showcase
who is the most well rounded.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
Because they haven't done that in bass Master, right, Daniel, No, No,
they haven't.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
So in bass Master you're allowed to use ford facing sonar.
I think there's limitations on the transducer, and it's.

Speaker 4 (25:57):
A totally different thing because whenever you allow it, you
know at the opens level, and they can use it
every single day. What it boils down to is the
people that are going to prevail is going to be
totally different than the people that prevail without it. It's
simple as that. There's really no arguing about that. So
there's gonna be a deal where people are going to

(26:20):
decide where they want to fish because of that.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
So, I mean, it gets a strategy, It gets really
it gets real into.

Speaker 5 (26:26):
How many people are in the invitationals right now.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
So we have one hundred and fifty man roster that
is not quite full, but yeah, one hundred and fifty.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
I think it's two hundred and thirty in the open.

Speaker 5 (26:38):
Yeah, that's a big difference right there, even because there's
two hundred and thirty people in the open. So, I mean,
I guess you're common about it being a little stouter,
probably just numbers wise, it's probably correct.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
Well, and you have so many people from you know,
the VPT and and you know probably even some Elite
Series guys that used to be in the Elite Series,
and you have so many older FLW twour.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Guys, and then you have the young the young crowd
as well.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
That it's i mean, they're they're absolutely unbelievable with the box.
I mean whenever they put that forward vision zoner on there.
And things have changed so much over the last you know,
forty years whatever, five years in fishing that we could
sit here and talk about this for hours of of
how much the industry has changed. As far as the

(27:27):
names that you see. You're going to go back and
look and you know, twenty eighteen and look at you know,
top whatever angle wise, and then you're gonna look at it,
you know now, and you're not you're not even gonna
recognize people because they're they're so young and and they're there,
but that because they've worked so hard at that scope game.
And then that the other guys you know, maybe dismissed

(27:50):
it or felt like that they you know, well, I'm
so good at what I do that, I'm gonna be
able to compete, and I'll tell you it takes a
special tournament. It for if Ford facing sonars allowed the
entire tournament, it takes a very special situation for you
to come out, not necessarily even on top, but in

(28:14):
a top twenty or a top ten.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Without using it.

Speaker 4 (28:17):
Without using it, it's so unbelievably dominant that But.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
That's why I think it's so interesting because now you
have such a split when it comes to the professional ranks.
You know this question was posed to me on social
media not too long ago, but what do you believe
creates a professional angler?

Speaker 2 (28:35):
Like?

Speaker 1 (28:35):
What are the characteristics that make somebody be able to
say I'm a pro fisherman. I've always believed that you
have to be on the Bass Master Elites, or you've
got to be in the BPT. You have to qualify
in order to get there, and then from there you
got to be able to generate money to be able
to feed yourself for me to consider you a full professional.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
I mean you need to fish nationally and you probably
should have qualif to be there, which is the case
on to a certain extent on the BPT when they started,
but on the elite.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Like the.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
NPFL for me is high stakes gambling, like you pay
to play. And even the NPFL has changed the makeup
of what professional tournaments look like because you have a
lot of guys who are BPT, you have a lot
of guys that are bass elites, and they're looking at
it as a way to go in there and you know,
probably jackpot a little bit, to be honest, because when

(29:31):
the NPFL first started, you didn't have that many pros
in there. Now every year it seems like you're getting
more and a lot of them are doing the dual
tournament trail. It's not just while I used to be
an elite, so now I'm over here now. No, they're
still elites for sure. They go over and fish. There's
still BPT and they come over and fish.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well.

Speaker 4 (29:48):
I think some of the guys that still fish professionally,
that are joining that league and fishing that league have
kind of portrayed it as therapy because they can go
there and fish the way they used to fish and
not worry about that kid looking at that box and
oh my gosh, I got to go look at that box.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
I mean think it's just that I think it's I
think it's the riggers of being on tournament trails, Like, look,
you're on the BPT or you're a bas lead. They
ask a lot of you, I mean a lot. It's
not as easy as just signing your name, going to
a tournament, blasting off at six, wrapping up by two
or three, and going home. Like You've got media requests,
you've got photo shoots, you've got sponsors that you're held

(30:30):
in too. I mean there's a lot that go I've
had plenty of guys tell me like the level of
angler appreciation over here compared to overhears completely different. But
the MPFL they're trying to get their feet going, like
they're trying to build the foundation. So a lot of
guys are like, I can fish a high level, big
money tournament but not have all the other extracurricular stuff

(30:53):
that I got to worry about.

Speaker 4 (30:55):
I'm not going to dismiss what you're saying, but I
I assure you that they want to go fish a
tournament where they know that they do.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
Not have to worry about that.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Guys, sure, looking at that screen, because that's what it's about,
I assure you.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
But is that the only thing I mean, I think
there's plenty of other reasons as to why the MPFL
is so attractive to current anglers and former pros.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
Well, if you're on the BPT though and the elites,
I think you're banned from fishing either organization.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Crew No no, no, yeah, still fishing. And the MPFL
has gotten to the point now where even though you
don't qualify for it, you kind of have to be invited.
When it first came out, it was do you have
five thousand dollars? Do you want to get in? Like
you got to pay for all the tournaments. So then
guys would and I mean I had friends of mine

(31:41):
call me just regular anglers. Most of the did Toyota
Series and maybe that was the highest level that they did,
and their thought, Ryan was, I can go see if
I can hang with.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Some big dogs.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
But you know how many of them big dogs started
coming out of other kennels to be able to come down.
Now you look at the top fifty of the NPFL roster,
there's at least forty guys that are bas.

Speaker 3 (32:04):
Elites or BPT in there. It's great. I mean it's
grown immensely.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yeah, and look who they are. They're generally older guys.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
I mean, you have Buddy Gross's doing both. Matt Herron
just left the bas Elites and he's heading over to
the MPFL. There's there's a lot to be said for
those organizations that are running the tournaments. But what what
do you consider a pro like? What would make you
a pro angler?

Speaker 2 (32:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
There's a clear difference in and fishing and open as
opposed to qualifying for fishing on a national stage. There's
a clear difference between an open at seventeen hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
Entry fee or whatever it's a it's right.

Speaker 4 (32:48):
At seventeen hundred dollars as opposed to the invitationals at
fifty five hundred dollars.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
But take money out of it.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
I still think the invitationals in the opens are on
pretty even playing ground because you're both trying to qualify
to get to the next big level.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
And it's different though in the MLF because the qualifying
round for the invitationals would be the Toyotas, which the Toyotas,
in my opinion, would be the equivalent to bat So
the bass Masters opens.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
You see what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
That's interesting. I mean, I get with the money.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
For sure, it's an open to an open, and it's
seventeen hundred dollars to seventeen hundred dollars, so there certainly
is a difference.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
So then what's the invitationals in your mind? Are you
guys like.

Speaker 4 (33:32):
The FLW two in my mind? And the BPT is
something that got created that never.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Existed, spun off of what what they ultimately saw out
of the invitationals way.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
And I think it's the way to look at it.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
Yeah, I mean they created the BPT as the new
top tier, and then you had.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
A lot of the FLW two guys.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
There you are at the tackle Warehouse Invitationals, you know,
and that, and that's where we're at with that.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Let's get into the Kissimi chain because obviously you were
the champion there. You took home eighty thousand dollars. You've
had a lot of killer video. The clips have been
really good. We have to talk about your dancing feet,
we can do that. I don't know where that comes from.
You strike me as the type of kid that when
you played Super Mario, if you hit jump and Mario jumped,
then you would jump at the same exact time. Yeah, man,

(34:23):
you get excited when you set the huck, And what's
not to be excited about when you have twenty nine
pounds on day one?

Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, you block out, I think, right.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
So it goes back to what I was talking about earlier,
that split second and when you get a bite, that's
when something happens inside of you and you almost black out,
and you are doing whatever it takes to get that
fish in the boat. So I've thought about this ever since,
cause I really didn't even necessarily know that I did

(34:51):
this until I've went back and watched some GoPro stuff
from like years perrior and I actually made a post
about this. I think it was at Kentucky Lake last year.
I had small Mouth jumping and I jumped, and I
made a post that said when they jump, I jump,
and so so I got a theory though, Man, I
thought about this, right, So I'm being kind of funny,
but listen, whenever they jump, what happens. Whenever you jump,

(35:14):
your line goes up higher, your rod tip goes up higher.
It keeps more attension on them. So that's my story.
That's that's my story, and I'm being funny about this,
but maybe it's physics, right, you know, maybe in my mind,
I'm doing everything to keep that tight, and it's just
doing everything in my power to keep that keep that
slack out of the line. But it's it is kind
of funny to watch and I actually don't even realize

(35:36):
I'm doing it when I do it. But but yeah,
I know that they were talking about that on Live
and talking about the Texas two step or something they
were talking about, So so I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (35:44):
I'm good.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
When did you realize in that tournament that you had
it in the bag?

Speaker 4 (35:54):
So whenever I was pre practice or not pre practicing
but official practicing, I went in that area and I
started making a few pitches around and my rod had
the biggest bites that you could possibly imagine. And I
did not set the hook, and I knew they were
big though, so I had felt other big bites.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
So you never once checked a fish in that area.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
I did not wow, I did not know.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
I knew what was happening because I had felt those
same bites and other areas of Kassimi and I did
set the hook and they were they were definitely quality,
big quality bites. There's a clear difference between a five
to eight pound fish as opposed to a two and
a half pound fish, especially when you're fishing in two
and a half foot of water on you know, hard

(36:41):
bottom with a heavy weight and whenever they bite that thing,
I mean with sixty pound braid and an eight foot
extra heavy rod, I mean you're basically fishing with a
broomstick with rope. So there's one hundred percent positive feedback, right,
So whenever they bite, there's a massive difference.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Right.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
So from catching and setting the hook on other fish
throughout the system, I knew what those bites feel like,
and the difference was with that area there was a
massive concentration of those bites as opposed to just getting
a big bite and then maybe not getting another big
bite until you know, you may not even get another
big bite for four hours and it might be a

(37:22):
mile away. Well, there's not much rhyme or rhythm to that.
This was a concentrated area of big bites. And so
I found that the morning of day two.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Of practice, and.

Speaker 4 (37:38):
I left it and I went all around the whole
entire area within literally miles of that in kind of
a circle area of that area, and I had one
other decent bite, and so I took a step back.
It was, you know it was it was probably early afternoon,

(37:58):
late morning, around noon or whatever. And I sat back,
I got me a little something to eat, got me
a drink, I spot locked down, and I just looked
at the whole area, and I thought about what had
happened that morning, and I said, every single fish is
cooking there, obviously, not every fish obviously, but there is
a massive population of fish that is going there.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Do you think they were gonna reload on day two?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah? I did, I really did, because.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
So that would be my biggest fear in Florida because
you caught thirty pounds day one, twenty nine to seven
or whatever it was.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Yeah, it was twenty nine to twelve.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
So how do you so if you catch thirty pounds
of bass, how you know they're gonna reload?

Speaker 4 (38:37):
So this is the way I looked at it. Most
of my big bites came on the outside of that
where they were entering right, not up in it, not
on the inside. They were coming on the outside. And
anybody that's fish Florida knows what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
These fish are black. They're very very dark. They're very
very black.

Speaker 4 (38:57):
My fish, Jody White actually looked at my fish that
weigh in and he.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Was like, dude, your fish are like white.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
And I looked at him and smiled and I said,
I don't know, buddy, I said, they're coming man, those fish.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
So they were hanging deep offshore.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
Oh I think so for sure. Yep, yep.

Speaker 3 (39:12):
They were the black gets the color.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
They were just showing up.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Oh, when they show up off the lake, they usually
have white bellies, just like their pre spawn.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Yea thing.

Speaker 4 (39:19):
They were clean, and they were white. They weren't real dark.
They weren't that black color. And I was catching them
on that outside. And the thing about it is is
that I didn't even expose the whole area when I
had twenty nine to twelve.

Speaker 2 (39:32):
And here's the other thing.

Speaker 4 (39:34):
I did not see a single person make a cast.
And I left at noon, so I caught basically all
that weight from about ten to noon in the morning.
So whenever I leave at noon in Florida, everyone knows
in the afternoon things start happening and the bike can
really pick up because that especially in that pre spawn
and that spawn, because that water's warming up, that sun

(39:56):
gets high, the days are getting longer.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Fish, you're already in shallow water.

Speaker 4 (40:01):
Yeah, fish are coming, the temperatures rise, things like that.
So this is what made me think that this is
gonna be okay, because I had didn't really expose a
whole lot of the inside or middle port. There was
things I could have done to really expose more of it, and.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
I did that outside and.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
I left it from noon till dark and all night
and day two. I really didn't push into those areas
that I had learned because I really didn't know a
lot about the area whenever I started on day one
because I'm I'm not jacking the fish and exposing the
fish and practice right, So I'm just kind of.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
Learning as I'm going. But I did spend some time
on my trolling.

Speaker 4 (40:42):
Motor whenever I realized there was a lot of big fish,
and I'm just kind of weaving around on my trolling motor,
zooming around seeing the way like these little ledges set ups,
and making sure there's enough water off the main ditch,
making sure I can even navigate my boat through list
because there was some shallow water. So I really, you know,
just trying to learn and be simply to be efficient
during tournament day, but as you actually go fish for them.

(41:02):
On day one, you start learning more about your area
and things start developing. So with me leaving them at noon,
I knew that there was going.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
To be more.

Speaker 4 (41:11):
I mean, I had twenty keeper bites, you know, on
on day one. So there was a lot of males
and they were peeing and the females were on the
outside coming. It started making a whole lot of sense,
and I started.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Learning a whole lot about it.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
So on day two, what I did was I started
a non productive area within eyesight of it, and around
ten is whenever I started making my push to where
I thought I'm going to generate those bigger bites. And
from ten to noon I did. I caught twenty two
and a half and I left at noon again. So

(41:48):
the key was me managing my area and and and
not seeing anybody else make a cast.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
And simply were I simply felt like all I was simply.

Speaker 4 (41:58):
Fishing in an area where they were going to and
I had it to myself, and I mean I was
I've done stuff like this in practices before at this level,
and I found stuff, and honestly I felt like I
could probably win. Before I've been in the top twenty,
I've been in the top ten at this level before
and after day one, and I really get dialed in
on something, but you just never know, Like on a

(42:22):
three day event, it's so much different than like a
BFL or you know, a club tournament or whatever. It's like, yeah,
you can go crack them one day, but on a
three day event, it's literally the most different animal that
you could possibly imagine if you've never done it, especially
against the talent that we fish against. So for it's
a hold. I knew to answer maybe your question. Halfway

(42:43):
through day two, I was so dialed in. There was
nothing going on in the whole entire world except for
me in that area. Literally knew nothing, cared about nothing.
I was dialed in on that area, and I was
getting to the point where I legitimately was calling my shots,
like I'm going to get a bike right here, that's

(43:03):
going to happen and I would get a bite and
and so I looked at the camera actually on day
two and I said my cameraman and I said, I
have won a lot of tournaments when I feel like
this it's happening. And I knew that I was I
was going to be very difficult to beat now.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
There was a little bit of controversy that came with
your tournament when there were a couple of people that
posted on social media that there was an issue in
the lock.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
I've never been to the Kissimi chain, so I don't
really know how it lays out, but I've been through
a few locks. How does a situation like that where
some people said that there was cutting in line and
all that kind of stuff, how do you jockey for
position during a competition where there's no real rule on that.
It's just more of an unwritten gentleman's agreement kind of
thing when you pull up.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
To a lock.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, I haven't seen any controversy about it. I haven't.
Nobody's told me anything about it.

Speaker 4 (43:58):
I basically pulled up to the I don't know which
day we're talking about, but I would pull up there,
and the lockmaster would be getting all of our registration
information and give you a number, and there's just a
bunch of people just basically hanging on because there's wind
and there's current and sure, you know, I mean just
bumping boats and everybody's just sitting there talking, hanging out.

(44:18):
And I don't know of any kind of controversy. I
got along with every single person there, and we sat
there and talked and heck, we were talking about deer
hunting and talking and inviting people to come over and
deer hunt on some of my area back in Illinois.
So from my standpoint, everything seemed to be perfectly fine.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
The competitive side, though, I mean, really, if there are
issues in locks, because you can pull up to a lock,
maybe they let four or five boats go through, that's
as big as it is. Or they have some locks
meaning fit fifteen to twenty boats, just depending on where
you're at.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
Yeah, and that was the case there.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Is it Is it more of like a gentleman's agreement
kind of thing or an unwritten rule, or is it
more like you just go when somebody tells you that
you got to go.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
I'd say it's a combination of both.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
Daniel, Yes, it's probably a combination of both.

Speaker 4 (45:11):
Agree with them because I'm sitting here thinking, it's not
like the lockmasters like boat one, two, Boat three, you
guys are there, you guys go over there.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
That that group of guys is next that that doesn't happen.
So who knows. I mean, there's there's you know, maybe
you get a chance.

Speaker 4 (45:25):
There's maybe thirty boats sitting there, and and you know,
the winds pushing these people over here, The current's pushing
these people over there. These guys are just sitting there,
hanging out talking, not really paying attention. And you know,
I mean whenever they open the locks up, everybody's on
their trolling motor and you just start you just I mean,
you're just literally filtering in. And ultimately, me personally, I

(45:47):
would listen to the lockmaster and you know or whatever.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
So I'm the type of person where I just feel
like if you're in a competition, because to me, it's
no different than you passing somebody on the water. Like
a tournament recently and I passed seven boats on the
way down to a spot. Am I supposed to wait
for the boat in front of me to get to
wherever it's got to go?

Speaker 3 (46:08):
I don't think so. I mean, your your whole goal
is to get to your spot before everybody else, and
there's no rule quote unquote against it.

Speaker 5 (46:16):
Yeah, I mean there's some gentleman rules, I guess. You know,
like if a tournament leaders, you know, leading, and he's
been fishing a bank, obviously you don't pull up on it,
you know, or if a tournament leader, you know, has
a whole bunch of fish and he's coming back through
the lock, you know, and he needs to get through,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (46:32):
But in that case, you were good. You were leadings exactly.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
Yeah, I mean you were you.

Speaker 3 (46:37):
Were the heads on favor. I mean that's what I
People usually heed to the leader a little bit. It's
just like a gentleman's rule in in this sport.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
I don't know what day it was, but on day
one I was to the lock pretty early. Day two,
I was the leader by whatever five pounds and I
saw but and I don't expect anybody to be like, oh,
here comes the leader, like we're gonna let it.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Man.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
I don't expect any favors onsoever. But but the reality
the same token. I don't know of any controversy if you.

Speaker 1 (47:11):
If you handled day one right like you had just
under thirty pounds, everybody knows you're the leader. On day two,
you're still in a competitive thing. Because do they shorten
the field on day three or is everybody fish day three?

Speaker 2 (47:23):
No, So on day three a third of the field fishes.

Speaker 3 (47:25):
So there you go, they shortened the field.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
So if I saw you coming up and I knew
you were on a monster bag and I didn't have shit. Yeah,
then I'm gonna be like, dude, just go ahead, like
I know you're on something really good. Builds that relationship.
It have to be day two of anybody having controversy
because of the fact that jealousy creeps in.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
They didn't do shit.

Speaker 1 (47:45):
The day before, so now they're like, well, I'm gonna
try to stir up something because this guy's actually doing well.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
That's what it reads like to me.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
Yeah, I don't know, man, I get along with pretty
much everybody. I don't have any controversy in my life.
I heat out all that the activity, and and if
anybody had a problem with me, I guess they or whatever.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Get nobody said anything to me, So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Super proud of you. I love the fact that you
won eighty thousand. You did all on one rod, one reel,
one set of line, and one bait.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
I did yep, so I pretty much utilized one UH
Dobbins eight oh five rod, Shimano d C Currado eight
to five gear ratio with X plasma, sixty pound breid
An owner five at UH owner of jungle HD hook
I reaction innovation.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
Uh hematoma was really really key for me.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
Black and that black and blue and Florida hemotoma they
were they were definitely eating that. I definitely got some
key bites on some june bug stuff as well, but yeah,
I don't know, everything just really worked out. The key was,
like I said, I found an area where uh, fresh
females were coming, and I had it to myself, Well.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
You got so specific too, And I think that's the
true breakdown of really being on your shit is when
you can start picking out little things like I've heard
guys go oh, they're on the docks, and then you
start looking at the dock and you're like, no, it's
a dock with a big platform and a one slip,
or it's a dock that's got a pontoon in it.
I mean, I've had friends of mine breaking down even

(49:19):
further than that, What was it about that little area
because it seemed like you were only fishing about a
fifty yard stretch.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
So to get real detailed about it, I really planned
my practice for the tournament days, not the practice days.
And I know that might seem like, oh, yeah, you
can say that now, but I really did. On day
one of practice, I found a really really big concentration
of fish and they were very current related fish. So

(49:52):
as long as anything about to send me, you might
be able to figure that out. But they were very
current and there was a huge population of fish that
was very concentrated. I could get bit at will, but
I didn't have those giant bites. I never felt or
seen any of those giant bites. So the point of

(50:14):
the matter is is that it really keyed me in
on current right and the type of vegetation. So that
night after day one, we went back to the Airbnb
and I sat there on Google Earth and I was
just literally looking at like Contour Maps and Google Earth,
and I was looking where would current be with that vegetation,

(50:35):
and I found an area that had it. So I
went back down to hatching all I launched, I ran
back down in a kassemi. I made that run and
I just started fishing as soon as I got into
that area that morning. And then, like I told you,
I mean I started really generating some bites. So in
my opinion, and when I say practicing for the tournament

(50:55):
days we had experienced in Florida, some odd degree days,
sixty some odd degree nights. Naturally, here comes a tournament.
The night before it's forty one degrees. We have a
twenty degree night temperature drop, and in Florida that's not good.
So the current, I think kept fish more active. It

(51:18):
keeps those fish as opposed to being on like a
dead headed thing up in the back of a bay.
You know where you may be getting sunshine, but it
just now got forty one degree night. That water temperature
is going to drastically decrease. And you also have nothing
to keep those fish active in a biding mood because

(51:42):
Florida fish don't get in a bidy mood when it
gets cold. So I think that current kept those fish
in a biding mood. And maybe I'm wrong, Maybe I'm wrong,
but I assure you that in three days of practice,
the most concentration of that I found for myself was

(52:02):
current related.

Speaker 1 (52:03):
Ryan Armstrong, winner of the Kassimi Chain of Lakes for
Major League Fishing on the tackle Warehouse Invitational circuit.