Shoot I forgot to shout out the YETI GoBox for the turkey day sales – sorry, meant to. I have the 30 size – they sent it to me, no promises made, they are not asking or paying me to post this. So far it's YETI bulletproof. I keep ratchet straps, bungees, tools, etc in it in the back of the truck.

As we all know, Bryan has hammer toe, hammer hand, hammer brain – he's a hammer! Seems like every year has a Thrift moment, and this year it was when he won the Thrift Family College Fund Charity Tourney, aka the MLF Redcrest Champeenship on Lake Norman, NC, his home lake. 😁

You might not know it but he also finished 8th in the Bass Pro Tour points, pretty dang good and in fact he said it might have been his best year yet. Gonna dig in there a little, her we go:

1. How do you feel your year went after winning Redcrest Championship?

> "I feel like it went pretty good. It seemed kinda like a normal year for me. It's rare anymore for me to put together an exceptional year for some reason. I always have a couple hiccups in there. Seems like the last 4-5 years I have a couple top 10s but a couple missed cuts mixed in."

Foller-up: Why do you think that is?

> "It's hard to be on fish in every tournament all year long. That's why AOY is such a coveted title. Very few people can accomplish that, have a season where everything goes perfect.

> "It always seems like there's 1-2 events I can't get dialed in...everyone makes it look easy and for some reason it doesn't work out."

2. This was the first year on the BPT [he started in 2020] that you didn't have any finishes in the 50s or 60s. Is that getting used to the BPT format or was it the change to 5 fish this year?

> "I think it was probably a little bit of both. If had to lean one way it was the change the to 5 fish because you don't have to fish with quite a fast and furious pace. That's probably the difference-maker....

> "With the every fish counts format, you gotta think long and hard to even change locations because everybody else is putting fish on the board [as you're moving].

> "After fishing every fish counts and going to 5, I almost hate to say it but [5 fish] seemed easier actually."

3. One of your 2 worst finishes (Cherokee/Douglas, 49th) was right after Redcrest and the 2nd-worst was at Cayuga, NY (43rd). What happened in those 2?

> "I don't know if I could put my finger on any one thing.

> "At Cherokee/Douglas I wasn't getting a lot of bites. I know a lot of guys weren't either. The 1st day I didn't catch a limit – only 4 scoreables the first day. I almost climbed out of it the 2nd day.

> "At Cayuga I was trying to forego the smallmouths. I was getting so many bites. I figured I'd cycle through [keepers and eventually get big ones]. The 1st day it was 3-lber after 3-lber. I was pretty much almost last after the 1st day.

> "The 2nd day I ran to the very other end of the lake – I'd never been there in my life – and caught 25 lbs of largemouths. The 1st day was largemouths too.

> "Both of those [finishes] were just one of those deals where I just didn't get on a hot stretch...where it was going down for bigger fish – where the majority of bigger fish were at. I just feel like I practiced wrong for those 2 events."

4. What do you think about this whole forward-facing sonar deal?

> "I mean it is what it is. I think it's here to stay.... I know some guys are getting up in arms about it [on] social media...but to me it's one of those things that unless states start regulating it, there's really no grounds for a tournament to regulate it

> "Look at the Alabama rig when it came out – everyone thought it would be the death of bass fishing. Every tournament organization jumped on the bandwagon to ban it. Now it's barely even a player.

> "I feel like with FFS, anglers will get better, fishing will [change]...kinda the evolution of the sport."

5. You won with the brand new at the time ChatterBait and had some good finishes with it before everyone else got onto it. Even though FFS isn't a bait, do you think the fish will adjust to it in a similar way?

> "I think they will for sure. Anytime you put pressure on something, it'll adapt to alleviate that pressure."

Bonus Q: There's all kinds of names for a Damiki rig now. What do you call it? 🤣

> "A Damiki rig. [Laughs] I've been with Damiki since 2008 as my title sponsor, and they're the originators of it [which is why] you've got a technique named after a company."

Okay seriously – How do you rig and fish it?

> "It's pretty simple. I use a Damiki Rig Jighead with a 3" Damiki Armor Shad. That's pretty much all there is to it.

> "The bait hasn't changed with the influence of FFS, but the technique has. When Damiki first brought it to the public's attention, it was on 2D sonar – like what Gussy was talking about, moping...dropping it to fish right under the boat.

> "Now with FFS we're still employing the Damiki rig, but we're casting to fish out in front of the boat that might be suspended in the water column vs fishing it straight down."

More on his Damiki rig:

> Jighead – "I tend to lean more toward the 1/8 and 1/4. I go to 3/8 if I'm making long casts and the fish are down in 25'+. If fish are within 15' of the surface I'll throw 1/8, 15-25' I'll throw 1/4, and deeper than that I'll throw the 3/8."

> Armor Shad – "Everybody's got their favorite colors. I tend to lean to 'PB silver,' 'baby bass,' 'TN shad' and 'pearl white.' It's a water color deal and how active the fish are. If they're willing to chase it farther, I'll go with 'pearl white' because they can see it a little farther away. It's a little more opaque. In a clear water finicky-fish situation, I do like I do with everything else – like a jerkbait: I want a bait they can't see. I feel like when they're on it, they have to bite it or get out of the way."

He fishes it on his signature 7' M Fitzgerald Dropshot/Ned Spin Rod, 8-12 lb P-Line Spin-X Braid and 7- or 9-lb P-Line Spin-X Fluoro Leader ("it's a very small diameter and ties a great knot").

Should mention that he has a new signature Fitzgerald Rod, the 7' 1" H Skipping Special XL:

> "We already had a skipping rod when we first debuted my signature series – this one is just a little bigger, a little longer, for little-bit bigger baits and it plays for taller guys a bit better. It's the same action and the same power, and the cool thing about the action is you have a fairly soft tip where you can load that tip up and make good skip cast."

The original is a 6' 9" H and he says both have a longer handle for 2 hands on the rod to get that skip velocity.

Shout out to BassFan for having each Bass Pro Tour guy's finishes (here's Bryan's), unlike the MLF website...unless I've been been missing it for years?

- MLFer Jacob Wall talkin' fishing the mope/Damiki/whatever you call it with FFS. More innerestin' stuff:

> "It's a technique that I've done best in that 12-25' zone, and even at those depths you need to stay back from the fish. At a minimum I want to be 60' away from them. If you get any closer, your odds of catching them go way down.

> "I want to be back 80, 90 or even 100' from the fish and still have enough room to cast beyond them and get the bait to those fish.

> "The whole technique is about boat positioning, casting accuracy and keeping your transducer in the right position at all times. If you lose track of your bait or fish, you lose a big opportunity to get them to bite."

Couple quick takes:

1. Needing to be that far away from the fish wasn't always the case and still isn't in less-pressured lakes. So the feesh are learnin'.

2. This might explain why that other Jacob W has been liking Lowrance ActiveTarget over the better-resolution Garmin LiveScope. I mean, he said he can see his bait out farther with ActiveTarget and maybe this is why that's so important.

On the other hand, Jordan Lee just posted a FB vid where he says he can see his FG knot on his ActiveTarget...not sure if he's messin'?

- Fletch Shryock talkin' about the pros BUT might as well be talkin' every dang feeshn trip! 🤣 Don't know 'bout you, but it's usually way better in my head than how it turns out! Full quote from Mr Full Dang Throttle himself:

> "...I try to avoid getting caught up with the schedule and where we're going because you always tend to think about that too much. I always hate to pick a favorite lake on the schedule or have one circled because I feel it falls into my wheelhouse. It's never going to be as good as you make it out to be in your head. Instead, I'm trying to be more well-rounded as an angler to catch them in any situation next year."

Prayer warriors, please pray for Fletch – he's having back surgery today. ✝️🙏