Gitcha Blaster video fix here:

Well:

What else can you say? Won just his 2nd Elite ever. From the weigh stage Fisher called out KVD for fishing "slow" and yelled to Hackney, "King Kong BEAT Godzilla!" 😆 Alright just messin' but that is really dang impressive. Here's how he did it.

Going in and practice

> "I felt really good after practice. I had a really, really good practice. I knew going into it if my fish would stay I had a shot to win...and they all kinda left [in the tournament].

> "I had [largemouths] staged up back in some muddier pockets [in 0-3']. Shallow docks, shallow laydowns, I caught 'em swimming a jig – all that good fun stuff...that bite kinda just disappeared.

> "I don't know if people caught 'em and put pressure on them, or if the fish just moved back out because they realized it's a little bit too early to be getting ready."

Tournament

> "[Day 1] I started off the morning really slow. I think most of my fish left during the night before.... I don't know where they went. They weren't there, I wasn't seeing them, I wasn't getting the bites.

> "I tried to force [it] all of day 1 mostly. I moved back out a little bit later in the day and caught a lot of my fish in the mouth of the pocket I was catching them in.

> "I picked up on that. The 2nd day I ran back into the deep end of the pocket again...for 3-4 hours that morning I just had a struggle bus. I moved to a marina and...that's where all the big largemouth went to. I couldn't catch them but I was seeing them.

> "I think there was a lot of pressure in that marina. ...those largemouth were big, 4-5 lbers – they didn't get that big being dumb.

> "They were suspended dead flat underneath this giant marina. I had to throw over cables, pontoon boats, walkways just to try to get to them to force them to bite. I ended up catching 1, almost a 2-lber.

> "I made a move toward the main lake – I was just covering water with the trolling motor, going in and around points, humps, rocks...looking for staging spots....

> "I went in this one section of a creek, right in the mouth of it. There were some rockpiles...super-shallow, like 2' deep rockpiles, and I could see them with my eyeballs swimming around.

> "I was just picking them off 1 by 1, and that's how I caught the majority of my fish the end of the 2nd day and all of the 3rd day.

> "I would just go down the bank trolling. It was a pretty good-sized pocket and they were just all in there on the points on super-shallow rock.

> "They were pretty dumb. I'd just cast in there, it would land on their head and they'd swim up and eat it. I tried to lead some of 'em but it was so hard to be accurate with the little bait I was throwing.

> "Day 4 was the same area but it was so cloudy and had rained, a lot of the fish moved out to the 8-9' deep range. So I couldn't sight-fish 'em but I could still see them.

> "They went from shallow rockpiles to stumps, twigs, brushpiles, stuff like that. Still the same area, they just moved out a little bit. I had to put a little bit heavier nail weight in [the bait] and make it sink."

Baits

> 13-14mm round fuzzy baits (gp) with a #5 VMC RedLine Treble Hook and 1/32-oz VMC Nail Weight, 16-lb braid to 12-lb Sufix Advance Fluoro, 7' 4" ML 13 Fishing Myth Spin Rod.

> Why the treble hook: "It just keeps spotted bass pinned a little bit better. Their mouths are so small, and some were nipping at the bait. So the treble hook just helped your hookup ratio.

> "I had to reaction-catch some of 'em. Like sneak it up to them and almost hit them in their tail with it – like spawning-style fish – to make 'em loop around on it and react to it.

> "They were just extremely smart. The water was so clear."

> Days 1-2 he also Scoped a 4.25 Rapala CrushCity Freeloader. He said he tried to get the spots to eat a Neko-rigged worm but they wouldn't do it.

Electronics

He used Garmin LiveScope with a Garmin 1643 unit, said he doesn't mess with the settings much and keeps the amber color palette.

> "I used my Humminbird [Lakemaster] mapping to pinpoint every little indention in the bank or ditch that I could find. A lot of these rockpiles are in little tiny bellies off a saddle on a point or a saddle on an island. It helped me locate these rockpiles a little quicker."

Shoutouts

> "Shoutout to my family, my mom, dad, girlfriend, all of them for being there."

More: Spotted bass lakes

> "I love spotted bass lakes. That's right up my alley. I live like 20 minutes from Smith Lake, so I've been chasing spots my whole life.

> "Every [spotted bass] lake is a little different. At Smith, most of your big spots live on docks. A lot of them live on 100-200' deep docks...they swim right under the floats. You can almost see them with your eyeballs.

> "On Lake Martin the bigger ones were holding on shallow rockpiles. I don't know if it's because there's a lot of stripe in that place, running 'em off and making them live shallow there.

> "But it's 2 different fisheries. Spots have a mind of their own. They do what they want to do. Day by day they're different [so you have to fish for them] with an open mind."

Always a good sign when someone can fish lights out AND has a sense of humor! Here we go:

1. Are you disappointed it took this long to win your first Elite event? 😆

> "Nah I can't complain. I'd have liked to win the first one, that would've been pretty nice. But I'll take the second one and not complain and just get on with my life."

[Lol love it!]

2. Did Easton advise you to do what he did – bomb the first one and then go out and win? 😁

> "I mean, after I looked at it I was like, Dang I kinda did exactly what Easton did. Didn't do worth a dang in the first one then come back blazin', ready to fight somebody."

> "I mean, I'll take it."

3. Did your dad ever encourage you to skip school and fish instead?

> "Sometimes. If I had good grades he'd let me skip school and go fishing.

> "I remember back in the day I'd go practice with him for his tournaments [and] I'd be mad at the world that I had to go back to school the next day and not fish with him again."

4. How did you end up on the Rapala pro staff?

> "Actually my good friend Gerald Swindle got me in touch with them. He told [Rapala pro staff Nostradamus/Midas] Dan Quinn, 'You might need to watch out for this kid, he might be something special.

> "Long story short, a year or 2 goes by, Dan reaches out...and now that's like one of the best relationships I've got in the industry."

[That's a different guy named Gerald Swindle by the way...hahaha KIDDING!]

5. What's your tournament-morning breakfast?

> "Man I don't even eat. A can of Velos and a Red Bull."

_____

Fisher might have more horsepower to start a day than a Merc 250! 😆

I told my kids, "Everything in moderation." They're probably thinkin', Right dad except for baits, shotguns, guitars, etc. 🤣 Ya can't have too much Bible either mang!

Did not get Emil Wagner (3rd) yet.

2nd: Brock Mosley

> 1/8-oz Z-Man EVO Tungsten ChatterBait (electric shad) with a 4" Yamamoto Zako (clear shad), 17-lb P-Line 100% Fluoro, Ark Gravity Reel (6.4), 7' 6" MH Ark Invoker Rod.

> "I caught most of my fish the final 2 days on it. I was keying on the shallow long flats...had to be long and very shallow, a long tapering flat.

> "The fish were pulling up to spawn...on anything they could find, from laydowns to rock to docks, even truck tires."

> "The 1st day my fish came on 4 different baits...old-fashioned junk fishing: a [Bill Lewis] ATV 1.5 Squarebill (Rayburn red), a 3/8-oz Buckeye Lures Thump Jig (gp) with a Yamamoto Flappin Hog (gp), and a couple came on a 3/8-oz homemade spinnerbait, chart/white with an orange kicker blade."

4th: Easton Fothergill

> Strike King Baby Z-Too (grey glimmer) on a 1/4-oz head with a Ryugi Inset Keeper, 16-lb Xbraid to 15.5-lb Xbraid V12 Fluoro, Lew's Custom Lite Reel (300), 6' 10" M Lew's LFS Spin Rod.

> "In ditches 35-70' deep in mornings."

> 6" Strike King Final Copy Swimbait (pearl), 20-lb fluoro, Lew's Hypermag Reel (8.3), 7' 2" H Lew's Signature Series Rod.

> "In the back half of pockets, searching for the last deep water available."

5th: Joey Cifuentes

> Neko rig: He used 2 "fuzz balls" as he called ie'm, a Hideup Coike and I think a Yamamoto Uni (watermelon red), 1/0 Berkley Fusion19 Wide Gap Wacky Hook, 1/16-oz nail weight, 10-lb Berkley Forward "Braid" to a prototype 8-lb Berkley fluoro line, Abu Garcia Zenon LTX Spin Reel (3000), 7' ML Fenwick Elite Spin Rod.

> "I gave it a little shake – they bit on the bottom but most ate it on the fall.

> "I fished mainly shallow on secondary points. All my big ones came out of 5' or less."

6th: Chris Zaldain

> 5" Bass Mafia Unloaded Swimbait (blackback shad) on a 6/0 1/4-oz Googan Gold Weighted Dart Hook, 20-lb Seaguar InvizX Fluoro, Bates Hundo Reel (7:1), 7' 6" H TFO Resolve Rod.

> "I focused on stained water and largemouth on laydowns. I caught bigger than average spotted bass on accident while targeting the largemouth. 

> "You couldn't just make 1 cast parallel to the trunk of the laydown. You had to get on the bank and cast out towards the end of the laydown. They were hanging in the bushiest part of the laydown.

> "The bites were so incredibly vicious!"

If you knew a tourney was gonna go get won with FFSing, why would you power-fish? Because you hate FFS? Because you're stubborn?? Well, neither is true about these guys. So I wanted to ask 'em what was up. A few more deets:

Brock Qs

1. Why didn't you Scope 'em? You must have known that's probably how it would go down.

> "I Scoped the entire pracitce, and...I only caught 1 fish over 1.75 – 1 3-lb spot....

> "I started my day fishing brushpiles on day 1 – I caught a 3 and a 2 out of the same brushpile [but] for some reason something was telling me to go try shallow...."

[Those piles were shallow – 5-6'. He caught 1 on a Buckeye Balling Out Jig (gp) with a Yamamoto Flappin Hog (gp), and 1 on that Bill Lewis ATV 1.5 squarebill.]

> "I fished lot of that [shallow] stuff the last morning of practice for a little bit and never caught anything, but I had such a good start to the tournament I thought I'd go try it real quick...just started practicing. I got dialed in as the tournament went on."

2. Did the weather help your pattern?

> "The first 2 days it was sunny and slick, and the sun really helped warm the water up on those shallow flats. It had little bit of stain...all those ingredients were helping it warm up faster."

3. Why do you like that Tungsten EVO ChatterBait?

> "I started throwing it last fall. When I throw [that] 3/8-oz I kind of like it better. It runs better and has more vibration than a regular JackHammer.

> "The regular JackHammer in 3/8 I have to throw with a more limber-tip rod to feel all the action. [The 3/8-oz EVO Tungsten] I can throw on the same rod as the 1/2-oz....

> "...a 1/2-oz was all I threw, mainly because [he could feel it better]."

4. Do you consider yourself a guy who can grind out tough tournaments? [He won the 2023 Elite on the Sabine, the grinder water of all grinders.]

> "Hank Cherry [his good bud] calls me 'the best little-fish fisherman on tour.' And I still really don't know how to take that.

> "That's from where I grew up and the size of fish we have around home – and the mental side of it knowing that any swing of the bat can be a 3-4 lber and really set you apart."

He lives near Lake Okatibee, MS and the Tombigbee River.

Chris Qs

1. Even though these bass were smaller than say TX bass, is the retrieve (speed, etc) the same as if you're fishing a bigger swimbait for bigger fish?

> "Retrieve and presentation are exactly the same. Had to slow-roll it in 52-degree water. Just throwing the 5-inch instead of 6 and 7 inches. The 5-inch just catches 'big little fish.'"

2. You mentioned on day 4 that boat wakes made your bite it better. Did you ever think about making your own boat wakes to beat on the bank? Is that illegal or not cool or…? [Folks have done that in the past, doing donuts to fire up fish.]

> "Doing donuts crossed my mind several times throughout the tournament. But I decided not to as the weather reports called for wind. I just stayed hopeful but it never came.

> "Nothing replaces natural wind and current for big, smart bass to set up to feed."

Well, well, well. I started hearing stuff about how guys were not getting checks and guys who did get checks were not able to deposit them because of lack of funds. Then Scott Martin posted this video that has a bunch more info. Props to him for doing it – sounds like his family and marina might have lost more than most:

Sad deal that people do the scamming/lying thing man. Apparently law enforcement is now involved.

Some fishermen might have lost deposits of around $9K? I thought it was no entry fee so not sure what's up with that.

I now wonder whether this is the reason the guy I talked to – "Ethan Phillips," apparently not his real name – would not send me his photograph.

Terrible. Hate it that all those fishermen got scammed. They all just went into it with good faith, even though they all sorta thought it looked a little too good to be true. I also assumed the dude was a legit human – ugh sorry about that. Got used, feel slimy!

I did get a couple reddish flags when I interviewed that guy, but I've heard the same stuff (conceit/bragging) before from SOME (not all) people who decide to jump into bass fishing without knowing enough – like ESPN lol.

What's been going through my brain is Jesus speaking in Matthew 10:16

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

Seems like we all got the doves part right! Sometimes (for me) hard to be "wise as serpents" without also being cynical – or too cynical.

1. B.A.S.S. doing new Tues Night Live tourney on Table Rock

I like the idea! Team tourney with 8 guys: Drew Cook, Drew Benton, Bryan New and Kyle Welcher will be the "boaters," and Chris Johnston, Mike Iaconelli, Jason Christie and Kyle Patrick will be the nons. No mention of $$ for a win.

2. TX: Red and gold 'Traps won the Bill Lewis Rayburn tourney

Corey Rambo and Rusty Clark won the All 'Traps No Scopes Open on OG Rat-L-Traps. Word a few years ago was that gold was getting just as important as red and I guess that's still true!

Believe those colors were 'goldfire craw' and not sure what the other one is called but it looks like this:

Btw the next All 'Traps No Scopes Open is on Guntersville on Mar 1, $120 entry, $5K for 1st, deets here.

3. This 13+ was caught in a Fishers of Men tourney...

...on spinning gear with 10-lb line. 6" Rapala CrushCity Freeloader on a 1/4-oz jighead. Wrapped him around 2 stumps, first cast of the derb!

The FOM Tournament Trail is run by good (but very sketchy) people. 😁 Might also be one of the best nationwide sponsorship deals around.

4. Swimming Snake is being featured on Walmart

Andre is a pastor who came up with this deal that anyone can fish, even us! 😁 Good dude, glad to see folks are noticing.

5. Rapala CrushCity The Jerk now on TW

Canadian bait last year, now migrated to the US. 😁 So far just in 3.75.

6. VA's top waters for big smallmouths are...

7. Andrew Gritzbaugh is new Grundens CEO

Worked at MeatEater and most recently Grunt Style.

8. Yamaha FY '25 revenue about flat but income down

Revenue down 2%, operating income down 30%:

> The company cited tariffs among the reasons for the declines, noting that it has already paid $354.7 mil in tariffs in 2026 compared with $111.6 mil for all of 2025.

9. Aussie "bass" released for 1st time in south Aussie rez

Aussie bass are just like our bass except they swim upside down...okay not really. 😁 In fact the only thing they have in common with our bass is that Carl Jocumsen has caught 'em both! 😁

Headline of the Day

InventHelp Inventor Develops Protective Container for Fishing Lures

The fact that no one else thought of this before blows me away! 🤣 Okay I'm sure it's different than that makes it sound.

Brandon Palaniuk: Why re-spool before jerkbait fishing

Interesting quick deal from the Seaguar site:

> "I throw Tatsu [fluoro] for all of my jerkbaits, and it's usually 12-lb unless I'm using smaller [than standard jerkbaits].... I'll also sometimes use 15-lb for the bigger baits or when I'm trying to keep the bait up higher, like when fishing over grass.

> "[Tatsu's thin diameter] makes a huge difference in getting your bait down to the maximum diving depth.

> "The other thing I like is the suppleness of the line when you are working the bait – it doesn't coil as much, which can tend to pull the bait up some just because of the angle you are fishing. It's also why I always want a fresh line when I'm on a good jerkbait bite – because even a little bite of memory will get that springing effect that can affect your bait."

"Big bass like that feel like you're setting the hook into a big soft log for a few seconds and then the head-shakes start."

- TX guide Wendell Ramsey Sr talkin' 'bout big fish including his recent 13.76 taken from Hords Creek using an A-rig and FFS. Don't know about you but I've sunk a hook in plenty a soft log that didn't turn out to be a 13+! 🤣

Word is this is a 16-09 caught outta Eastman Lake, Cali by a bass-head named Damian Thou. No deets yet:

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