I think
it's a different one.
Obviously, yeah.
Right.
I give you that.
Let's work back.
.
. .
There's another one.
Pictures.
Really?
Here you go.
It's right on the bottom.
Right below the dam, around
the dam at the lower
delt.
There's a friend on the river where
he goes.
So are all these created?
Colored pencils.
They're all original.
I draw right on the wood.
I don't do copies or prints.
Thank you.
We are
I don't think it'll work for this
one anymore.
You ever had a Kansas City barbecue?
Too sweet.
You think so? Yeah, I'm from Texas.
Oh, OK.
Never mind then.
Never mind. Too sweet, yeah.
It's good, but too sweet.
Yeah.
Yeah, any of this dangerous stuff.
.
. .
.
It's actually a pretty good wide
shot for the video.
It would be cool if we can get on
top of this thing.
Yeah, right.
I mean, it was weird that there was
nothing in the shell.
It was all, all all
the things went into the water, then
they were all in the ground.
I grew a hat.
You saw a lot of food.
Yeah.
Boy, I mean, it's
just like, I've never seen the ass
that I've never seen.
Yeah, I feel like if you mark your
spot, you can probably come back and
dissolve it.
I'm just going to divide it and
dissolve the other side.
Fancy.
And try to do some production
value.
Yeah.
Do they know you're coming?
Yep. OK.
Otherwise, I'll shoot him a text.
Nope, we're all good.
Okay, great.
A big lake, literally
an hour and a half into the bush,
gravel roads, we carried the boats
down to the boaters.
It shows us the end of the lake,
and then the host
would take a picture of us and put
it up on their website.
So we were all, like that group,
like game up is always the...
Who are these guys?
The fish we caught here.
I'll be doing it more often.
Oh, wow.
Are you still?
We're bringing it back to you.
Anyway, I just, I don't want to,
you know, get your thing, but I just
wanted to let you know that that's a
heavy one.
Thank you very much.
He's on now.
Oh, he's not, he beat you.
He beat you!
Good afternoon Wisconsin Fishing
Expo attendees and better
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Thank you very much.
You can let go of it though.
I just want to see the eye I can't.
Thank you.
I don't know,
I didn't see that.
Thank you.
What are you?
How are ya?
You can see it on the lower right,
the lower left corner.
That's glass through the door here.
We put it on top of the door.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Basically, it says crappie baby.
So, alright.
Crappie, crappi baby.
I'll catch you later.
I'll switch it out when I'm
done. Sit over there.
I don't like that.
And that way you know.
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Yeah, hold it, hold.
Yeah.
It was so funny when
I, uh, today smiled last night very,
uh gave myself a feel about what it
is now.
Thank you everyone.
Oh, they just are so beautiful.
And, uh...
Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Our wildlife fisheries collapsed,
and actually I testified in natural
resources board Tuesday.
I'm an aquatic fish biologist,
and my last
job for the DNR was 40 years
ago at the schooner hatchery.
And I'm a Leopold guy, so
I'm always thinking how
things are connected.
So,
as I just told this guy, 2000.
You guys are all registered.
In the late 90s, the Bureau
of Fish Management did a study
on, it's
called in-printing, so
fish go back to where they're born.
It's called spawning site modality.
They go back two to
that, but they never considered it.
Well, can I send you one
bit of information?
I should say, back in the 30s
and 40s, they had a regulation that
says if you take walleyes out
of the lake, you have
to return 10% as
a sacrifice, they never did it.
And the walleyess were put out from
all that investment are
all females and all sterile
females.
So we put 30 million in
and they compete with our native
walleyees in northern Wisconsin and
it just crashed.
So he's got evidence of
all the walleys.
Oh, yeah, it's on your sheet.
Is it in there?
On the back of that sheet.
We're in the heart of Viteless
County, in the hearts of the
original range of walleyes.
And everything's going...
So, how do you...
One of those hatching jars, two of
those hatching jars, we can hatch
out 400,000 walleye.
And guess what?
We're getting them from Native
Americans.
Okay, they're Take him out of the
lake? No, let me.
If you spot them, we're going to be
out there, we are going to put them
in this hatching jar.
See you then.
They'll cannibalize each other.
They swim up. They go in that blue
tank.
We take them after about the time
they're absorbed in their yolk sac.
We put them in the thermocline
habitat.
Deep water habitat where the sea
flanked it.
Are like full of sensitive, so they
say.
During the day,
during the night,
to improve
our fisheries.
And I found a study
done by, this
is
a study done by the
two top research files
of the two states.
So Greg Sass is on it.
Is that it? Can we interview him?
Oh, you have it?
Is he hearing?
No, I hear him.
Oh, okay, yeah, Casconalla, yeah.
I fished there a thousand times.
Well, we'll be here all week.
So, in
looking through his studies,
I found out that...
So they were looking for why
the walleyes were on.
I can hear you over there.
You can take this.
And then I'll just wield it.
Because we're going to show the
monster wall ending.
We actually brought that in.
Yeah, this thing is a tank.
And what's so cool is
we knew when we netted this.
I really wanted a 34-incher.
But we knew we neted this, that this
was our biggest fish.
And then got a ton of pictures,
went up to Door County, got
certified at a certified scale.
We saw it push 13
pounds for a summertime fish.
Unbelievable. So what we use this
too is to teach kids the parts of
the fish, you know, so that they can
come up and touch it.
That's why you can see everything's
like quadriple taped.
It's not as pretty as it could be,
but it's protected,
you know, because kids like to come
up, and touch the fin,
or feel the scales,
or look at their eyes, or teeth.
I mean, look at those teeth, huh?
So this This
is incredible because This
is the first time I'm ever gonna
show it at a walleye seminar
for adults, because they'll
know what it's like.
Kids, well, it's a fish,
you know? They don't know it's huge
fish, but everybody in that
seminar over there, they're gonna
know that this is,
you know, this is something that
needs to be on the wall.
So, and you know I was so lucky
to have somebody mount this.
You know, they donated it.
And to make it 360,
made the container.
So this thing has traveled so
far.
This is, I think I caught this
probably eight years ago.
And you know, it's nothing like
showing it to people versus just
sitting on the mantle.
So that's what's so cool
about it.
Look at that walleye, and
that's what we're hoping when kids
come to our fishing clinics that
they're all excited the minute that
truck drives into their school and
they're ready to listen,
you know?
Go ahead and do what you do,
but...
So how did all this start?
How did this all start?
I think it all started because I
love fishing, but
I worked at Thriving Financial,
which is up in Appleton, and
they're a big fraternal-based
company.
And I was doing stuff with
Harbor House and
Habitat for Humanity.
And I was working with Harbor House
Habitat for Humanity, and I
said, maybe I should
do something for fishing.
So I started doing something for
phishing, and then I was like,
I think we can do more.
So then I just started doing
fishing clinics, you know,
for thriving.
And because we had a great volunteer
base, so I started doin'
that, and then
it was like well, we need to do a
little more.
And we started out small, so
from 2007 to 2015,
we did it out of our own basement.
So we had some sponsors that
gave us product,
and we just started that
way.
And finally, we said, we're so big,
we gotta have liability insurance
and everything, and 2015,
Learn to Fish with Us was born.
And it took a lot of time in
coming up with the name, you
know, because everybody's like, That
should be great curse fishing or...
Something like that and I was like.
The way we're gonna make this happen
is we're going to do it through us,
donors, volunteers,
and that's us.
And so that's how the Learn to Fish
with Us got there.
And the number two, people are like,
why the number 2 versus
2? I was like, I want to be
different.
You know, so that that's
what happened.
And then what we did is we just
slowly built the program.
I put a foundation in there,
and then we listen to people's
feedback.
That's what got us to, you
know, our educational aids here.
Which hopefully...
Help to point out, you know,
the different fish and
a nice color representation
so that we can actually talk about
the stripes or the eyes and
you know Wisconsin DNR has these
fish ID cards which are awesome and
they're like yeah use it and
you, know that's what got
us to doing that And then
we said,
We got to teach them about bait.
How do you hook the bait?
So took representations of all
the different bait, kept it in our
format.
Then we said, you know what?
Another important task
is knots.
So then we went out and taught
knots.
And what's impressive is
kids are really visual
based. I mean, when we
had this banner one time that we
were really busy with casting.
Kids were picking up
the hooks that we have
right here. And we'd have these
hooks and these ropes here.
They'd actually pick this up, and
they'd use the diagram and actually
do it on their own.
So we didn't have to be present,
which was awesome.
So then we said, this is just
something great to add.
Because I would always show them how
to do it, but a lot of kids
could pick up this way.
And a lot people ask, how
did we to the curriculum of,
you know, like back-air bass.
This is back air bass, so
what's really cool is we can catch
fish at tomorrow's seminar and
that's what a lot of kids will do
because we're going to teach them
how to cast safely and accurately
and
then they're going have fish on the
back. So we actually go to a
lot events where this is it and
we're in a farm field.
We have a blue tarp out there to
look like water and they're actually
catching fish and you'll hear them,
got another one and all of
a sudden you see these kids come
running. What's going on here?
They know that some fishing is going
on, but we're in a farm field.
And they learn that they can
actually catch this.
So what's really cool with this
is
we can teach kids of all ages.
So we have little rods, we have big
rods, but what we're
going to do is teach them tomorrow
how to look behind them,
how to cast over their shoulder, ten
o'clock, two o' clock, and they're
going to learn how straight it is.
Then they're going to learn that by
using their rod tip, they can move
the fish to the right or to the
left.
And hopefully, they're gonna feel
a bite, and they're
actually gonna catch.
Well, what does this seem to be?
Ah, it looks like they caught a
perch.
So hopefully, you're gonna learn all
these skills.
And the reason knots and
casting is so important
is because these are skills
that families need.
These are skills that the parents
need the kids to learn rather
quickly. So that it's
not a job for them.
That is probably the biggest thing
out of it.
But that's how we've slowly
built our curriculum.
We talk about crank baits and
bait, but the
one thing about our seminar is
everything is here.
We talk abut crank bait, they get
to see it.
They get to know
why is this gonna go down
deep or why is it gonna be shallow?
They're gonna smell it.
They're going to go, this bag
has been open for a whole
year, and they're going realize
why we use artificial bag,
because when we open this and have
them smell test it, they're
gonna go, Pee-ew!
And they're go realize this.
I still remember, I was at a sports
show, I remember opening this
bag for the very first time,
and a kid went in there and he
grabbed it.
And I remember the parents seeing me
later that night at the sport show
and saying.
My son still stinks.
You know, and that's it, you know,
kids get so excited.
I mean, I was lucky in June to
actually make it on a magazine cover
in 2019.
And I bring this because the
other thing that we need to teach
the kids is goals.
And I want to express as a kid,
I said, I want it to catch this fish
or I wanna catch thisfish and I
wanna get it bigger.
And I said as I got to be an adult,
I was a guide, so I was in magazines
all the time.
To make the cover is so
difficult and I said that's a goal
and then finally when I made
the cover my final
goal is to make it
into the National Freshwater Fishing
Hall of Fame so
that is a you know that is something
I think it's going to take time to
submit you know a request in that
but it's just proving that
you're here to help the
sport out and you know and that's
what I really love doing,
I mean.
I'm trying to look through some
other stuff that we got in here and,
oh my God, talk about
a prop.
The whole reason we have this big
hook is just to show them what
that piece is and
that if they know what the name is
and what is so cool is
kids come to multiple clinics
and they'll go, that's a
barb. I remember you telling me
that. And then I'll ask the simple
question, are there any barbs
in the crowd?
And nobody will answer unless it's
grandma.
Grandma will say, yeah,
I'm Barb.
But no kids are
named Barb.
But we also talk about how
that Barb is very important in
catching fish, in that it'll hook
and keep a fish on.
But how important that is, that if
it goes into your skin,
it isn't coming out.
And so we think about
it. One thing that's
very impressive, you know,
tomorrow.
Is gonna be our 500th
fishing program.
So tomorrow is like, wow, pretty
special day.
But we don't always take all
the kids fishing.
You know, our main purpose is to
educate them so that they can
continue on, provide equipment.
Tomorrow's fishing basic seminar,
each, the first 75 youth are
actually gonna get a fishing combo.
So they're gonna have the tool
that really is needed to continue on
fishing. And the other big thing
is
they're gonna have our fish and
education book.
I mean, this book talks
about fish, it talks about all
the casting we do,
and it's fun.
And what that's gonna allow
them to do is put this in their
tackle box so that
they know.
And we got our website on
the back.
Our website contains over
150 educational videos,
so that is gonna allow to continue
on tomorrow
at 2 p.m.
We're actually shooting our next
seminar that's called Beyond the
Basics.
So all the kids that came in here
for the last 13 years,
they could be teenagers, they could
20 years old.
And what we're going to do tomorrow
is teach them about jigging,
trolling,
and really build upon their skills
that they're going to learn.
And so that's what's so cool about
it. I mean, you know, we've gone
from, this is
still my first original flash cards.
I keep it in here because I never
know if something happens to our
banners, but all
our equipment has just
been based on and our
biggest thing that we talk about is
safety.
It's hard to believe, I see
a lot of kids out there with no
sunglasses and sunglasses
are just so vital.
It's vital in protecting our
eyes from the sun.
When we're near water, we're
getting double the sun, but
it's also vital in and rise
from hooks.
Rod tips, stuff like that,
especially all my volunteers.
So we make sure we
call them safety glasses.
So where do
boat shows or fishing
expos like this fit into the whole
ecosystem of fishing?
What part of that cycle
is this?
I think sports shows
allow people to get together.
You know, they get together, they're
able to see the different product,
you know. So if somebody's thinking
about ordering a rod,
they can go to three different rod
manufacturers here and find out what
do they want.
Can't do that on the internet.
I mean, you can see what it looks
like, but you know, when you're
going and buying a nice rod,
you want the feel.
I mean right now I'm actually
testing an ice fishing combo.
You know, and that's the reason I
was out. Hence, when I lost my
phone, was I was testing
ice fishing combo.
And I mean, being out there and
testing that stuff, I mean
the first time I tested it, you
know, I learned more stuff the next
time I went out and had a fish on.
So I think that's how it
is.
I think, you know having families
go out with their kids and be
able to see stuff like this, see the
booth, see the professional
anglers, you know.
Either if they're new to fishing,
it gives them an opportunity to see
more about fishing.
But if they are into fishing,
they could meet a role model that
says, hey, you know, I wanna
be him.
And then what he can do is help
them say, what's the road plan?
And that's what I really love.
I spent a lot of time with high
school fishing teams
into helping us out do this.
So that gives them leadership
experience.
But also to show them
that, hey, there's a lot of stuff
out there. We try to talk about
how do you get into fishing?
How do you work with manufacturers
and let them know that,
hey, it's
fun.
I mean, when you get to talk fishing
for your job, how cool is
that? I was an IT guy.
I love what I'm doing now.
And there's so many, I mean fishing
has so many opportunities.
You can be sales, marketing.
Field testing,
selling boats. I mean, there's just
so much out there for fishing in
Wisconsin.
When I went to the Caribbean a
couple of weeks ago, that's the
reason I got this tan, I was
thinking about getting back and ice
fishing or open water fishing.
I mean, we're so close right now,
everything opening up.
I mean Green Bay's open,
Winniconte's open.
Wisconsin Dells is open.
So, you know, that one little
bit of warmup really, really
changed the ice, as you can see from
Battle of Bagel, you now.
Talk to me a little bit about
passing on knowledge to kids because
this is, there's a lot of
hunting especially, but a fishing
as well where there's danger if
it doesn't, if the kids don't pick
up on it then there's, from a parent
or a relative it can be difficult to
go out and learn on their own.
So what place does this have in
terms of kids that may not have a
guardian who takes them out
regularly but they can still get
into it if they have that interest?
That's, that's where I love schools.
You know, like, so March
7th, I'm gonna be in five different
schools. I'm going to be teaching
third graders.
You know? You know really all on the
East shore of Bagel.
We're going all the way from
South to North along the Bagel
coast.
And when we go to schools,
teachers have told me,
I had so many students that
said, I never knew nothing about
fishing and that.
They learned it that day and
they want to go forward.
And then what we do is we stress,
if your uncle fishes, if your
grandfather fishes,
if your friend fishes, ask
them to take you.
I mean, personally for me,
I don't ever want my boat to only be
me in it. I want others to be with
me. And I take some of the
neighbor's kids and stuff like that
with me because I want to give them
the opportunity.
You know, and that's why it's like,
when I go into schools, I don't feel
bad. You know there's some kids,
they're not interested.
I totally understand that.
But if we can get the kids
that even have a hopeful thought,
and then they can come and attend
some of our fishing programs.
So like for Learn to Fish with
us, we'll host fishing programs with
the Cub Scouts.
But when we do that, we
let people know that anybody
that's in that area.
Come and join us.
We're specifically thrown for
scouts, but we're going to teach
you. You're going have the same
right that the Cub Scouts do because
we need to make it public.
We just had somebody call
up and said, hey, I need to get my
kids to come to your event
because I
need help in teaching them.
And not only that, I want to learn
it. And that's why for
Fish and Basics, what I'm promoting
my clinic through social
media.
I want them to feel because
sometimes they'll really emphasize
youth, families,
but it's anybody that wants to
learn the fishing.
We got a lot of retired people out
here and it's like they could
have time for a hobby and
fishing is perfect.
Not only that,
a lot my volunteers are probably
mid-70s, so I
think what Learn to Fish with Us is
doing is it's also giving them
an opportunity to give back
and know that,
hey. We're all on here to help
each other out.
So give me a little of your
background, how
you got into fishing.
Was it a relative, friend, family?
And then this documentary is
about walleye.
So I want to get your opinion of
where walleye fits in the
fish hierarchy.
Oh yeah, I got memories
of all that and that that's what's
so cool. So I actually
started fishing when I was 10 years
old and I'm
not quite sure where I got it.
I know my parents may have taken me
once or twice and maybe that got
me into it, but it
was my buddy Don Brom.
Hard to believe I haven't seen that
guy in, you know,
probably 40 years
and I still remember his name.
But we fished from when we were
10 till I think till we
were 23.
And you know, girls didn't really
mean much. Fishing meant a lot more.
Our driver's license even meant more
because now we could explore more
water. But I remember when
we were 16, I had a
gremlin and a
12 foot boat.
And somehow with foam pads, we were
to get that boat on top of the
gremlin, put the motor inside
the back hatchback.
And we went to Lake Michigan.
We went to Lake Winnebago.
And we learned fishing.
I fished for carp most of the time
when I was a kid. So that's why
people wonder, why is there a
carp on your banner?
It's because that is the best
fighting fish when you can't catch a
lot of other fish or you're limited.
I remember when I 21,
22, a buddy
took me up north.
It was up on the rainbow florge.
And he's like,
we're going fishing for walleye
today. And I was like, okay,
so when you feel this tick,
tick, tick, what we're gonna do
is we're going to be patient and
then we're are gonna set the hook.
And I'm like, I don't get it.
Why am I not setting the hook the
minute I feel tick, tick,
and that was it.
That's how I got introduced to
walleye and I travel all
around. I mean, I fished
professionally. I went to Devils
Lake, Illinois, Michigan,
Minnesota, and I love chasing
walleye.
I really learned how I
live on Lake Winnebago.
So to me,
it's a walleye factory.
I mean, we've had our good days, we
had our bad days, but last year,
last year was one of the best
seasons. Usually July, August,
we start transferring over to fish
perch on Winnebao, but
fishing was so good, we fished
walleyes the whole year and
just caught a lot of fish.
And you know, and that's why, you
know we got people that like to
share, We've got people that don't
like to share.
You know and today you're
going to learn so much because
even during summer
I was fishing most of the time
between four to eight feet of water
and people would think you'd be
fishing deeper and I've
just learned so many different
methods. We're going learn
forward facing methods we
use to catch fish.
We're gonna see how we cast our jig
out, how it falls and you see a
fish follow and you catch a splendid
fish.
And that's why I'm so intrigued with
the walleye and that's the reason my
truck has a walleye.
I fish for everything, but
getting that big walleye,
I mean getting when we got that 33
incher. My mission was I'm
not mounting another walleye until
it's 34 inches.
Now I'm starting to wonder
if there is a 34 incher walleye
because I go up
to Green Bay and I
mean I fish up there for
10 days. Do we live in a
tent? We take the boat out every day
and we're out there fishing and
looking for that fish.
And we cover a lot of water and
it seems like there's
so many more 30-inch
fish but we used to catch a lot a
32-inch fish so you
know you're just learning that.
The other cool thing about Lake
Winnebago walleye is
they have a trawler.
So they go out there
for many many weeks trawling.
And picking out specific parts
in the lake to trawl so
that we can understand the forage,
we can the fish in there.
So to live on a lake
where there's that much data
is incredible.
And that's why I make sure that I'm
always participating, helping them
out.
So Angela was one of the fish
biologists and this year my
goal is to be on a boat for
the spawn.
You know, and just being around all
these big girls, taking care of
them. And just learning about it
because you know a lot of people
say oh he's a professional angler
I'm an angler educator that
is my mission taking all
this data all these
techniques that I learn and sharing
it to the public and hoping to
make them a better angler or
being better educated on
you know why are there regulations
for walleyes you know and stuff like
that I mean I
really love that Wisconsin went to a
three fish bay women across.
You know I fished Wisconsin River
a lot for walleyes and
once they put that slot in it
was so cool to see bigger fish
being caught.
And just imagine a youth
being on that one nice
jig and all of a sudden I
got one and then really it's
a bigger fish than they've ever seen
because it was you know more
protected.
So a lot of people have different
philosophies there.
Three walleyes, if you go with two
people at six walleyEs, that's
enough to eat.
It's a good meal, right?
Well, that's it.
And so another
big aspect, too, to walleye fishing
is cleaning your catch.
So a great way to
clean your catch is to bleed your
fish.
So make sure all the blood's out.
So then when you're actually
fileting them, they're actually
pearl white.
And then another important thing
is taking out that mud vein.
Wide bone is making sure that's
out, because now you got
a beautiful piece of meat to
eat. And trust me,
I love eating fish.
I mean, that is the one thing that's
so cool about hunting or fishing
is that you're able to
take, I
don't know, I'll call them an
animal, a fish, an animal.
But you're to take it out of their
environment and put it in your
freezer and eat it, you know?
That is what's so cold,
you now?
So I know when kids usually start
fishing, it's usually for panfish
or carp or something simple and
easy and the little bites a little
easier for kids.
But do you see that twinkle in their
eye when they start to think, talk
about walleye or do they even
understand at that age that
they have what you're really looking
for is the wall, that kind of thing.
When they can know that it's
a game fish.
I mean, you know, and that's it.
You know, we got our game fish on
this side.
We got our pan fish on there.
But, you now, when they get
to see, like, the walleye
and the sauger, I mean we
got a fish that looks the same.
And that's what tomorrow at Fish
and Basics, we're gonna be walking
around with the walleyes.
Because we're going to want them to
see the teeth that a walleye has.
I mean most of the time we're always
talking about The
teeth, they aren't gonna hurt you.
Well, if you put your fingers in a
walleye, we're also gonna teach them
what a gill plate is because
we don't want them finding that out
wrong because that will slice
you pretty easily.
But their eyes, their
eyes glow.
I mean, we'll talk about
how a wall eye can
see like we do right now at
midnight. They take what little
light there is and...
There's a lot of light right now
because we're in a full moon cycle
so those fish can easily see what's
going on and not only
that, the fight that
walleye has.
A lot of people don't know that if
you do catch a fish and you're
looking into that water and that
fish is bulldogging here and there
and you look at it you can
actually see the white tip on
the bottom of the tail.
Who would think that?
I mean you would think the white
tips right on the bottom But we can
see that.
And, you know,
I'm constantly learning new
techniques.
I mean, I remember a
couple years ago, I'm fishing this
small lake up north, and I'm
thinking of fishing smallmouth.
So I cast this
rig in here.
I'm trying to think what it
is.
I gotta go look at my slide.
I mean it's just hard to believe.
There's so many options, but
what the heck is
it?
But I cast this rig out there, and
it's typically for bass, and what do
I pull in?
A walleye.
So now I just added a new
technique to
my fishing.
And the other thing is
walleyes hang out all
over the place.
Walleyes can be deep.
They can be shallow.
Last year, I thought I was bass
fishing using a Ned rig.
And what happens?
I pull on this big walleye,
I pull in walleyEs that are hanging
out under the piers.
You know, typically...
That wouldn't be a spot that I'd
look for, but you know, and that's
it.
Don't be the youth that walks up
to me and says, hey, Captain Greg,
I know everything about fishing.
Because we will never know.
We get smarter,
fish get smarter.
And that's what's so cool about
fishing, you just, you never
know what's going to happen.
You never know, what's on the other
end of that line.
You hope it's the Bay Walleye,
but sometimes it could be the big
sheep head.
All right, we'll let you get
finished setting up here.
Thank you.
We'll keep the mic on for now.
Are all going to sit right down
in here.
You know the ones that can get away
and parents let them because
you know the pictures that we've had
passed from the sports show where
they're all sitting here that way
they can all see it and and
that's what's so cool with all these
schools now they're giving us their
gym so everybody can sit bleacher
style because you know some
of these kids sitting on the ground
and I could tell you holy man I
don't know if I get back out
Yeah, that's really it and we're
almost all set.
You got to just get my rides out
here.
Can be interesting.
I think that's what it is.
Yeah, we got, we actually got
a carrying case.
That fishes have been wrapped
around, it's just got to go.
At a time because,
hey, this is what it looks like in
people's boats too.
I mean, yeah, we use rod socks
there.
Here we just threw them
together.
We transport them in a
container.
But we'll, you know, some of our
events, we actually work with kids
that are four years old.
And last year in Milwaukee,
we took them fishing and it was
like, yeah, this is not gonna be fun
in here. This is,
we don't want that.
That's gotta get edited out.
Because I always tell kids, do not
use your teeth.
I'm lucky my eyesight is still
pretty good. All my buddies are
like, huh, how do you see that?
And that's it, tomorrow we're going
to teach them an
easy knot that they can tie quick
but then we're gonna tell them that
if they really fish for big fish,
we're going to tell them how to do
the polymer knot which is so
important.
So we're
We're gonna teach them spin casting
and we're gonna to teach them
spinning and just
let them know if they're starting
fishing.
My poor little fish probably broke.
So those are all rubbers,
so sometimes what they'll
do is they finally break, you
know, where the rubber actually gets
through them.
Yeah, most time we just go and get a
new fish.
What's really cool is when we give
them to kids that are like two years
old, they're like fish, fish,
you know, and it's so cool for them
to see that, so.
Boy, this is where
you appreciate the sunlight
out there.
And this is what we're going to test
this one right away.
We're going put it through there,
because look at how many times
that's been re-tied.
We're going to teach them to twist
it seven or eight times.
Then we're going talk about how
we're going to go through the
loop.
Unfortunately here, the loop is.
And then typically we'd wet it, you
know, before we do that.
So, and what's so funny is I
remember to one year I told kids
about, you now, wetting it
and thinking we're
not gonna do that because this is
how we use a rope and a big hook.
Well, they would actually spit on
it. And I was like, well, I guess
we're now using that anymore.
That's what's so cool about kids,
too.
Hard to remember back being a third
grader, but to
see how they
can pick up stuff so quick.
And not only that, the imagination
they have.
So that's why I love working with
third graders.
Well, it looks like we're actually
all set up here.
Now I can go get excited,
because I get to talk to grown-ups
about walleye fishing.
And that's it.
When you've been doing kids fishing
clinics for all these years,
people are like, well, can you teach
adults?
But it's like...
Sunday. Sunday, Monday, brother.
Oh, so sorry.
Do you?
Yeah, yeah, I'm in front of the mic
the whole time.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'll have to use their
wireless.
You're not studying for the podium,
are you?
No, I'm going to be walking around
talking and showing them what I'm
using.
What the heck is this?
This is leading controller.
Oh here we go, okay
That's the benefit of being here for
all these years. You've learned how
to use all the.
Seminars covering every body of
water. I actually have a four
o'clock one Mississippi
River techniques and
circuits I come up with that work
about everywhere.
So if you're in the seminars then I
think we pretty much got it covered.
So I want to thank Greg and Karen.
We can't forget her because
you know what I'll say.
I mean we got to, she's kind of the
brains of the family.
Okay
But she works hard,
and you can do with your kids,
you both do.
And hats off to you guys,
because future Hall of Famer, and
he needs to be there for educating
the amount of kids that he's,
him and Karen have educated here.
So I'm going to let it get going,
don't want to hold him back.
Okay.
Okay, well, you know, I
shared a lot of knowledge, you know,
some of you knew, you
know, basically, I call
myself an angler educator.
So I do a lot through social
media.
I create a lot of video content
and share it, you know.
Most of the time you won't see me
posting pictures like this on the
internet. Most of the time, it's
going to be, what's that bait?
How did we catch it, you know, and
show you that?
The other big thing is, most of the
time, if I am showing you a new
lure that I really like, I'm going
to show you us
catching fish that are coming from
the water to the boat and
not just putting hooks in the mouth,
you know, so.
You know, right here, you know,
that's this walleye, which
is right here.
So this guy is actually 33
and a quarter.
13.12.
It did not come from Lake Winnebago.
So the biggest fish that
we caught on Lake Winnibego are,
we caught two that were 29
and a half. I mean, Winnebego, we're
just not going to always get the
biggest fish, but we're going to
get...
Quite a few fish and I can tell you
last year was probably one
of the best years we had all year
long. July, August,
which typically late winter bagel,
they slow down, they were feeding.
And other things we're going to talk
about is most of the
fish that I caught last year were
all caught in under 8 feet
of water.
Most of the time I fished between 4
and 8 feet water.
We, I think maybe hit the mud once.
The big thing about shallow
fish is they're consistent.
So let's, oh,
I'm gonna have to, I'll just do
this.
Okay, electronics
and the role they play.
Electronics play, you
know, a key role in my stuff.
But 2D sonar.
Why do we have 2D Sonar?
When we're talking my scope, side
imaging. The reason we have 2D Sonyr
is I can go 30
miles an hour and
I can mark fish,
especially when we're out in the
mud.
You can't do that with side imaging,
you cannot do it with forward-facing
sonar, so you know
that's how I do it.
The only thing I don't like about it
is it only gives me a
small piece of life.
That screen where
I would really love to see a live of
everything, but it does give you
history.
The other thing is you got GPS,
so you either got maps.
I mean maps are a big thing.
I was a guy that
You should see all the paper maps in
my basement. You should all the
fishing logs when I fish
professionally for a while in the
basement.
Because I love opening it up.
I love learning what did I do,
especially if I go into another
body.
So one thing I would say,
if you guys really wanna learn a
body of water, keep fish
logs.
Write the date, where you're
at. What the weather was,
what was the water temp?
Usually I talk to kids about this,
but what the water temperature is
because that's the most consistent
thing on getting back to that hot
bike. But what did you catch it
on? And that's going to make you
a lot better angler.
Side imaging.
What I love about side imaging is it
can tell me what's around me.
When I go out to lakes,
especially if I'm learning a new
lake, I'll go inside image it.
With my little bowing.
And all I'll do is I'll leave the
rods out and I'll go inside
image.
Because I'm going to learn the
structure. I'm gonna learn anything
and everything that's out there.
And it allows me to distinguish
what I'm looking at.
Life sonar.
We're going to show you a video that
you're going to see us catching a
fish. And you know, my buddy Cody
is actually catching a
But we're able,
with Lye Sawner, we can tell how
big the fish is.
Most of the time we can easily tell
what type the fish is,
but we're also going to know how are
they reacting to what we're
presenting to them.
And the one thing to
note, if you're going
by a Lye Scope, it
is not going to be plug-and-play.
You're going to have to fine-tune
it. And when you go through all the
menus on Lysco,
you're gonna find out that there's a
lot of menus to look at.
But once you get that tuned right,
and trust me, there's so many
YouTube videos out there,
what I recommend is go and try
different people's settings.
And eventually, you're to find a
setting or you're going to find the
color that really helps you out.
Okay, I
know a lot of you guys might be
really experienced,
but I can tell you for
a very long time, I did not
know this.
You know, we understand when we're
pinging, and when we talk
about Lyscope, Lys
scope does a lot of pinging.
Fish can feel that pinging
so sometimes when you're fishing
shallow water, you don't
want Lysol.
You can find them, then
you want to turn it off so the
pinging isn't going on from the
transducer, which is putting
vibrations in the water.
And the biggest thing that I, you
know, when you ping, it goes
down, hits the fish, and comes up.
That's why you get a hook.
It gets the fish.
At the front point then
it comes up then it goes back to
the tail point.
But the biggest thing that I'm
trying to teach you here for
one is understanding transducer
cone.
So when I'm vertical jigging
I don't need forward facing I'd
either be down or I'd actually
be just with the 2d
transducers shooting down and
if I'm fishing vertical
I'm going to select the 20 degree
angle because I only care what's
exactly underneath me when I'm
fishing.
If not, if you want a bigger cone
angle, a lot of your graphs are
going to give you...
Multiple conicals to slack from.
So you could go into the 60.
The main thing in this picture is
you see how small that mark is
on the top?
You see how big this is?
I want you guys to understand that
those are the same size
fish potentially.
They are not smaller.
The reason they look smaller in your
graph is because the pinion
hits the fish and sends it right
back up. So it's very quick.
Where the pinging going
down takes the
time for the pining to come back.
So that's why it looks bigger.
So I can tell you when I was
younger, I always thought those were
smaller fish, but they're not.
And we're going to show you how
we can really successfully
catch suspended fish
by jigging.
This is why I love side imaging.
I can tell you if there's boulders.
I can't tell you it's pebbles.
True, trying to mark fish
in side imaging is difficult
in the rocks.
But if you're in sand,
you can easily.
What you're going to see in sand is
it's going to look all like this,
but you're gonna see white marks.
And like when I go up in Green Bay
and fish, just
use site imaging because I can
mortar through pretty quick and
I can determine if there's a group
of fish and most of the time like
when I'm looking in the sand and I
find fish I'm looking for at least
six seven fish I'm not going to fish
one or two fish I want multiple
fish but the
other thing that's going to help you
with site imaging is
I love setting up on the edge of
weeds So now
I don't even have to get close to
the weeds. I can just side image
from the boat, know that those
weeds are 30 feet over and fish
them.
So that's how side
imaging plays a great part.
The other thing is, what it's
going to do is, you see how I have
70 set on both sides?
Usually I'll shoot 70 feet out.
This is nice because this is from my
tiller boat, so typically what
I have to do with my tillers boat is
raise my motor up a little bit so
that I can see both sides like this.
So a lot has to do where your
transducer is.
If it's in the middle of the boat,
most of the time you're going to be
pretty good with shooting.
If it is off to one side, you're
probably going to have to lift up
your motors a little so you can
shoot. But when I'm doing this,
most the time I leave the rods at
home. Because
I see fish on there, I'm going to
want to fish them, instead of really
going out there and learning the
lake.
So, that's how
I love using site imaging.
Okay, so this is my buddy, Cody
Sober. If you guys are on social
media, you'll see that he's
always doing videos, and he is
so good at his content.
So what I want to do is show you
here how we're
identifying fish.
I want show you how we are catching
a fish that's suspended.
And, you know, just watch all that,
you know.
See where that head is facing down
and they're just kind of floating in
that water column?
More than likely it's going to be a
wall and that's exactly what
this one is doing.
That's actually what we actually saw
yesterday ice fishing we could
actually yesterday was a little
different we actually saw their head
and were facing up when we were
jigging them but you know to
see all that information there
is incredible and
you know and how we're getting some
of that detail is is really
getting those options set correctly
um this year i'm going to be
you know clean power You guys
hear about clean power?
Making sure that our graphs
have the power straight from that
battery to that graph.
So my new boat is going to have
clean power at the bolt bow and
also at the console.
That's going to help.
And then the other thing is we're
going to be using a 16 volt battery.
16 volt has higher voltage,
which is going help hopefully
pick up that
jig a lot easier.
Because, you know, there, that
was just a jig.
You know, when you're using a search
baits a little bigger, you have a
little more profile to find.
But catching suspended fish like
that and seeing how they react.
It's incredible.
Fresh Eureka,
the Wolf River,
Nina has a run up it.
But we're fishing really all the
rivers that have current.
Current is what's going to bring
these fish in and get
them moving up.
Shallow rocks.
We're going to fish rocks that are
two feet to four
feet.
Because those fish, there's a lot of
Lake Winnebago wall ice
that spawn.
There ain't a lot of green weeds
in Winnebago early,
but weeds draw bait,
bait draws walleye.
I mean, and, you know,
weeds, when we get to summer,
weeds are unbelievable.
You go and catch a fish in weeds
on Winnebego,
it goes ballistic.
It catches a lot walleyes.
A lot of people don't know, but...
A lot of them are always caught at
weed edges, and we'll show you some
of the weed edges that we fish.
Cane beds.
I mean, once those cane beds start
developing, which is, you know,
late May, June, a lot of fish
just love to crawl right in there,
and all you've got to do is pitch it
to the edge, and you'll catch plenty
of fish.
Here is a key.
So I live on Lake Winnebago
in a small bay near Menominee Park.
I'll be slowly
putting out of my bay, going out.
First thing I do, once
I get out to the main lake, I look
at the water color.
The water color is going to tell me
what am I going to do.
If there's any dirtiness to that
water color, I'm going to stay
in six feet of water or less.
If the color is
all right.
Or a little clearer, then I'm
going to start picking stuff that's
a little deeper.
And if it's crystal clear, even in
the deeper water, then yeah,
probably go over to mud.
But, know in summer, if that
water is dirty, if it's
windy, that won't help with
the light penetration and them
walleyes are going to be tight.
They're going to into the shores.
So if you are in the basin,
moving back into the rocks.
And most of the time, my baby...
The walleyes in the system they'll
start migrating up those rivers in
September, October so you know
get right back in those rivers and
you can fish the rivers.
It's got to be one in your spots
especially if you're coming anywhere
out of Oshkosh
this spot should be some place you
always try no matter if it's
spring, fall, or
even summer because if there's
current coming in here
those fish will be there.
The other thing to note about
that is you want to make sure with
the river, you don't really
want to fish the river when you have
an east wind because the east
wind will cut that current down
and then fish ain't going to be
hanging around there.
So you do not want to do that.
We got a silo bay so
that is that area
in that area along with
Pegasus Bay up there.
Those are excellent weed
fishing spots.
So, you know, that's where I really
like summer lakes.
Want to be a great angler?
Pick a spot where you like the
fish and learn it.
Graph it out really good,
learn the techniques, and learn when
those fish like to hit those spots
on it, because that's
what I did there.
Trust me, I love the upper lakes.
Oh, that is where we are going to go
next. Upper lakes.
Oh!
Believe it or not, the upper lakes,
Lake Butamore, that fishing is
just as... Guess what happens when
you have a rock pile with mud all
around it?
A lot of fish love to sit on there.
So, spring, spring we're
going to fish Sunset Point and
we're gonna fish Oakwood Point,
Leonard Point.
Great spots.
It's great spots for jigging, great
spots for slip bobbering.
Another great place to fish is
that's on Lake Boygan.
I mean there's reefs all over the
place and the way to go out there
learn it, side image
it. You'll find rocks here,
you'll find rock always here.
Going across this point is really
good. You're going to find rocks in
here and then
that spot right there.
I can tell you when I fish
tournaments and if I knew I was in
the upper lakes I would always
make a stop at the Wolf River
because there are so many
fish that lay and
stay, especially if there's a
current there.
If there's no current then just
move on.
But there There are so many
different spots that you can go
and catch fish on the Winnebago
system.
Okay we got our standard jigging
technique.
The one other thing that I really
like to talk about is
is just dragging a jig.
A lot of people will say hey
you know I'm always pumping a jig
believe it or not that's why I like
fishing with my wife she likes to
drag a jig so now I know if
they're not as aggressive
she's dragging a jig and she's
catching the fish and I'm not.
And that just shows you, you know,
by all these different techniques,
vertical jigging.
You know, I still remember,
even though it wasn't Lake
Winnebago, I remember last year when
I was on the Wisconsin River and we
were just wailing on the wallways.
And these guys came up and said,
hey, we caught five.
How many you caught?
We caught 70.
He goes, I seen you catching a lot
of fish. He's like, why were you
catching so many more fish than us?
It was called boat control.
We were vertical jigging in
the river, but vertical
jig, what vertical jig is I
use. It's either going to be live
bait or probably a Berkeley
flatworm, but all that's
doing is twitching like that.
I went up and fished a
lake up north and I thought I was on
smallmouth.
I thought I saw some smallmouth in
deeper water, so I went
and I changed my rig to a drop shot
and all of a sudden what was
my first fish?
A walleye!
Second fish a walleye.
So it was like by accident
I found out drop shotting is
a great technique and it's great for
everything small mouth pan
fish and
walleyes.
One thing you'll see here is I got
all my rods set up but I'm
I'm definitely a
braid line.
Braid lying.
To either a monoliter or
fluorocarbon liter and when
I'm up for a carbon liter I'm using
15-pound test I want to make
sure you know they ain't gonna see
it you know as long as it's pliable
you're gonna be fine but
that's really my setups
right there it
really for everything okay
let's
talk about the jigs I use.
So what I really like, that
beef, fish and jig
Let's get this pointer out here.
What's really nice about that jig is
it's like a tri-jig.
And what I like about it is I do
fish a lot of rocks on one of the...