Alright I'm starting to put together my once-ish a year end of season "issues issue." Because bass fishing is one big family, and you know families always have issues! 😆

If you have an issue with something in bass fishing – FFS, mega-tournaments, a tourney organization, polys, DNRs, Steve Bowman 😁 – whatever it might be, love to hear your THINKING. Meaning please give me me your logic and/or experience, don't just gripe.

If you're up for sharing, please email me back with it. Shorter is better and everything will be anonymous.

Other than that, I talked to James Overstreet last week. Been a while and I'm real glad to say he's doing great. The AR Bass Mafia really rallied around him, which is no surprise but great nonetheless.

A member of that mafia – Bassmaster writer Steve "Ain't" Wright – recently got inducted into the AR Sportswriters and Sportscasters Hall of Fame. He's a gifted scribbler (and recovered curmudgeon 😁) so I'm glad to see it. Don't get a big head Wright!

Gitcha Blaster video fix here:

How long's it been since Drew won? Seem like a little bit? Nah – he won the Gville Bass Pro Tour in Jan and the Harris Chain Pro Circuit in Feb = $325K in winnings for those 2 wins plus last weekend. Not too dang bad!

That's 2 more wins than he had in 2025 and 1 more than he had when he showed up on the natty scene: 2024.

Drew obviously has distinguished himself as one of the best "new guys" on the tours, and ain't shy about sharing what he knows and learns, which is great. Here's how he mowed 'em down this time. He won it by 10 lbs with 75-03 with a dirty 30 on the final day: 31-13...which is a palindrome. 😁

Going in and practice

> "...obviously it's no points. And when you're going to tournament with no points involved...there's no reason to go for anything other than winning.

> "...after 3 days of practice, I really did not feel like I was on anything that was great. I was around some fish but...in the very best-case scenario, I could patchwork it together to catch about 60 lbs...."

He said he practiced 2 days on Toho and 1 on Kissimmee, and chose Toho:

> "...I spent all day [on Kissimmee] and I caught 3 fish. They were good ones, but I only caught 3. It would be dumb to just go down there on a whim. I had...a way to catch a pretty solid bag our of the peppergrass on Toho.

> "I had 3 stretches...I wanted to fish...3 stretches and a brushpile. I thought [the pile] was gonna be incredible...when I found it, there were about a dozen on it, all over 5. I thought I was going to play a big role for me [but] they were never on it in the tournament."

Tournament

Day 1

> "I was was boat #1. ...I started on that random brushpile. ...there was one 4-lber on it...and I couldn't get the 4-lber to bite. So it was kind of a rough 1st hour of the Scope period for me.

> "...I went from that pile to just kind of piddling around in that general area...because I'd seen a couple big ones floating around in practice. Never saw any. So I ended up running down to the community stretch...which at the time, there was no community there. It was just Levi Thibodeau [5th] and Ryan Lachniet [6th]....

> "...it was the next-closest stretch to that pile that I fished. I...poke around [and catch] almost 21 lbs out of that stretch.

> "When I caught my last 4, I had fish that were all over 3. That 2nd [next-closest] stretch was...in my mind a little bit because I really didn't spend any time there in practice. I got a couple bites, but it wasn't great. But I felt like there was something there.

> "I caught a 2 and 3.25 there to end the 1st day [everything came on a dropshot].

> "The areas that were key on Toho...you had to have peppergrass, clean bottom, and you had to have a lot of life around – it had to be 6-8'. Shallower than that, you didn't have enough clean bottom. And deeper than that, you didn't have a lot of life.

> "So that 6-8 zone, you had some clean bottom, but you also had a lot of light. And that was just kind of the magic zone that week.

> "That peppergrass was the deal. The hydrilla...overall it wasn't that great. That offshore peppergrass in the midsection of Toho was the juice."

He said the community hole – his 1st spot – was more like a community zone:

> "It was about...1/4 of a mile wide by close to a mile long...it was a pretty big swath. ...8 people were actively fishing that zone at one time in the tournament, out of 40 boats. That's 20% of the field."

Day 2

> "...I started in that community [zone]...but it was really crowded. The voices in my head were already starting to talk and...I really wanted to go spend more time in that 2nd area. I felt like there's something there.

> "But in the first 5 minutes I caught a 6-11 on a dropshot. I caught a 3 and I caught another little one, then I went on a little dry spell for about 40 minutes. I'm not liking how this is going. I only need to catch 2 more, and I know it's about an hour left in my Scope period, but I know I can catch at least 2 more in that other area.

> "I went to the other zone and immediately caught a couple 2.5-lbers...and then I caught a 3 and then I caught a 7. And I said, 'Hold up, wait a minute.' You don't catch an offshore giant in FL for no reason. Generally, if you find one, you found at least a dozen of them. You just gotta figure out why that fish was there.

> "...I got a little bit deeper in that area, like 8'. I saw a great big giant one, pitched my dropshot...swam right over to it but didn't bite it. I threw an urchin at it multiple times – it did not bite it. I finally got it to bite on a big minnow.

> "I went alternating between the big minnow and urchin for the next 40 minutes...and that one was all I had for the rest of the period. I didn't get any more committals...I had another 2 that were over 6 get up on my bait and not eat it.

> "I was like, okay...this area's got some legs. ...I need to figure out how to make 'em bite because I won't see enough of them to justify throwing at 3 to only catch 1.

> "...I started to work my way out into the middle of the lake from the zone that I was in because I was like...maybe I just need to get a little bit deeper on them. When I got deeper, the bottom got really clean...a little pocket of clean bottom that was about 200-300 yards wide.

> "I saw a couple big ones...there's gonna be more big ones if I come back tomorrow.

> "The issue I had was I hadn't spent enough time there to figure out where the zone ended. I really like being able to put myself in a box, where I can give myself a real heavy focal point. [And in a FL tournament] where you've got dirty water [and] big fish, a lot of times you can retread your water a lot more often than you can other places.

> "So I was like, I'm gonna side scan. ...I scanned over this area where those fish were...a big swath of clean bottom [with] columns of peppergrass that are fairly contained.

> "I found one stretch, just outside of where I fished, and...pretty much had my zone. I knew where it started and where it stopped, and where it just kind of became endless grass.

> "...but after throwing at 3 big ones on day 2 and only catching 1 of them, I knew that my issue was not just going to be where do I fish. It's going to be, how do I fish for them? So I spent 3 hours doing tackle after day 2."

Day 3

He was 5 lbs behind going into day 3:

> "I'm just trying to strategize...if I need to treat this like bed-fishing and...lock in on a big one and approach it multiple times, I'm willing to do it.

> "[And] they switched up on that worm. Day 1 my worm bite percentage was literally 100%...and then for about the 1st hour of the Scope period on day 2...I knew something had changed.

> "...I knew I was going to have to make some pretty aggressive adjustments because that community hole had been getting ransacked. ...it felt a little sketchy to me on day 2...it just didn't feel right.

> "Day 3 I kind of tried to keep [his plans] low key because I didn't want to cause a shift or a change in everybody's game plan. So I was trying to go out as if it was business as usual, but...I was going to give it about an hour [of] no Scope [at the community zone] to stagger my time....

> "I threw a ChatterBait for about an hour [and caught a dink]. I just wanted to be present, to not draw any suspicion that maybe something else was going on...like maybe this area is dried up. 

> "You know that line in 'Avengers Endgame' where Thanos says he used the stones to destroy the stones? The community hole and all the people that were [fishing it and doing well]...eventually completely collapsed. 

> "I went to my other area, where they had not been biting an urchin.... I had up my 300 rods on the deck and I was prepared to throw all of them at every big one that I saw. I'll be danged if I didn't pick up the urchin [first for the first one he saw] and it actually acted right: I snapped it once and caught it – it was a 3.5 .

> "And I proceeded to get every single big one I saw [to bite that urchin] for the next 3 hours. I didn't land all of them – I lost like a 5.75 that would have given me like 33.

> "...it was absolutely pandemonium. I ended up catching 11 over 4, I think...it was just an absolute nuke fest for 3 hours [including a 7-09 and 7-11 back to back]."

Baits

> Urchin (large size, mostly scuppernong but also gp), 2 1/0 Owner Cover Shot HD Hooks, 3/32nd weight, 40-lb Seaguar TactX Braid to 24-lb Seaguar JDM Grand Max Fluoro Leader, Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Carbonlite Tech Reel (8.3), 7' 1" H F Phenix Recon Elite Rod.

> "... throw it out there and snap it every once in a while."

> The rig: "...hook in the front, the back hook with a split ring on it, hooked through the split ring. That's that's the way that I've been rigging it since the [2025] Toyota Championship...2 single hooks in line....

> "...it works really well when you're using it on Scope. It's not as great of a blind-rigging method because you've got to hit them pretty hard with those Cover Shot HD hooks. And when you're blind-fishing, sometimes you don't know you got a bite. One swims at you and you just never get it tight and you lose them.

> "And...with those heavy straight shanks, when you drill them, they don't come off very often. I lost one fish out of the 20 or 22 that I got to bite in that period.

> "I'm starting to like braid to leader for an urchin because you can get that bait to respond really well with shorter rod movements [and] sensitivity when they bite it is a little bit better."

He caught all his fish the first 2 days with the dropshot except that 1 minnow fish:

> Dropshot: 7" Big Bite Baits Nekorama Worm (matte margarita), 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb Medium Wire Hook, 3/8-oz weight, 22-lb braid to 15-lb Seaguar JDM Grand Max Fluoro Leader, Johnny Morris CarbonLite Spin Reel (200), 7' 6" ML Phenix K2 Spin Rod.

> Why that color: "In FL I'm always a big proponent of purples and reds – colors that stand out in off-colored water. [That color] has good visibility in dark water.

> "They were biting [the dropshot] so good on day 1 and early on day 2, I'd literally pitch out in front of [fish], give it a little shake and they'd shoot right over and drill it.

> "It was very odd they switched up on it so hard. When they go to really biting something and [then] not bite...something has changed and you have to change with it. You can't just keep bashing your head against the wall and hoping that maybe they'll start biting it again...."

Electronics

For Scope he runs a Garmin 1643 and the LVS34 transducer:

> "Nothing too fancy. I run it tighter [in FL] and I fish fast. The best way to win FL tournaments – this is like duh, a no-brainer – is to catch giant ones...generate 2-4 bites over 5 lbs a day. There's a lot of competing trash fish there in that 2-4 lb category...."

The last time I was on Toho, I think like 5 years ago, Bobby Lane showed me that the peppergrass was the deal, but it was hard to find. Drew said that's no longer the case.

> "Whatever they do to manage the hydrilla in Toho, clearly the peppergrass is far more resilient. Because when they nuke the hydrilla, the peppergrass stays. And that midsection of Toho always has more peppergrass than anywhere else....

> "The primary offshore vegetation you could find in Toho last week was peppergrass... Not anywhere in the lake, in the bottom 2/3."

The right stuff

> "I didn't want a smooth, even taper of tall grass to shorter grass to shortest grass to nothing. I wanted really tall, defined clumps that had hard edges – like all the grass that was there was pretty much all the way to the surface. 

> "Most of [the clumps] were anywhere from the size of my front deck to maybe maybe 40' long, and most of them were kind of oval shapes.

> "...the fish that I was fishing for were primarily swimming between [the clumps], but you could occasionally catch one from the clumps.

> "I think a lot of areas where there's columns or clumps of grass, part of what makes those areas so good...is fish can see really well which...allows them to engage with food more often, which keeps them out from the grass for longer periods of time.

> "So they may live in that grass and they may revolve around that grass, but they spend more time outside of the grass because they can see so well from that grass."

He said the viz in the tannic water he was fishing was about 2'.

Alright last name Gill, he can see underwater, seems to know things about fish no one else does, rakes in the tournament 💰💰 – is it too much of a stretch to say he's maybe related to Aquaman?? 😁 Here's 5 with the human Gill.

1. Were you banking on doing all your damage in the FFS period or did it just work out that way?

> "I wasn't banking on it but...I was planning on catching most of [his weight that way]. But exclusively Scope? No...I thought I was gonna catch a couple meaningful fish...without Scope.

> "...I did that a couple times, but they didn't end up mattering because I caught my weight so heavily during my Scope time. A lot of the smaller...small- to medium-sized keepers just didn't play a role."

Follow-up: When you guys are on them and your Scope time is up, do you do you stay in the area and blind-cast around and hope to run into one? Or are you just going somewhere else? 

> "There's some situations where that that is a doable approach. Generally, the worse the water clarity and the more individualized the fish are, the less likely that works. The better the water clarity and the more group-oriented...the fish are, the more it works. ...this was one of those times where I wasn't gonna work."

Follow-up: Banking on the FFS period for most of your weight, is that typical for most tournaments or not?

> "For me, I definitely plan on doing my heaviest lifting when I've got Scope, the vast majority of the time.

> "Let me put it this way: My strong belief is on every fishery every time, if you catch more weight without Scope than you caught with Scope, there was something out there to find that you didn't.

> "Being able to see underwater is such a wildly powerful tool that...if being able to see underwater is not more helpful than it isn't, then I'm doing something wrong."

2. Do you think other people could have picked out those columns of peppergrass or is that a Drew Gill brain thing?

> "It's something that other people could figure out, and it was the same situation by [his] secondary area and the community area.

> "It just so happens that with only 40 anglers on the water that I was the only one finding that 2nd zone. So it wasn't a unique pattern. It was just an extra-special area to run that pattern."

3. I'm a big dan of "Drew-isms" so I'm gonna call one out: You said on the MLF site that at times you've done well in FL but you don't "overly love" it. Have you ever said that to a person? 😁

> "I would say that I probably have used that expression before. I obviously don't want to use terms of...bitterness, but there are people that we don't overly love sometimes, and that is an apt description for some individuals that we interact with."

[Dang good answer and a Christian one too! ✝️💪💪]

4. KVD used to get mad at the fish – and at other people on the water 😁 – but you seem to get mad at everyone who gives out 6-figure checks. Like if you don't get one, you get mad and go get one. Fair statement?

> "Yep, it's a FOMO thing. You start to forget.... I was thinking about this the other day – the last time I won was Feb...a 7-month drought. ...that's my 2nd-driest spell since first time I won.

> "So I was starting to get a little ancy. You know, you get tired of watching other people win.... You want it, and when you don't get it for a while, you really want it."

5. You posted a video on your IG about vacuum-sealing. So I am wondering what other common household item videos you'll do videos on and will it be a regular thing? 🤔😁

> "The reason I got that vacuum sealer primarily is so you can buy meat that's on sale at the grocery store and then freeze it. It costs a lot less.

> "On the horizon, I don't see any more upcoming household item cameos on my IG, but if the mood hits me....

> "I will say this one – ice packs. I bought Cool Packs and Freeze Packs at Bass Pro Shops a while back. Evidently Freeze Packs are a lot colder. They were actually turning my water bottles into slushies in my Nitro cooler. It was awesome.

> "That's my new hyperfixation – really cold ice packs because I hate the heat. Part of why I do not 'overly love' FL is the heat.

> "I can put 2 of those Freeze Packs in my cooler, buy just 1 bag of ice, and I made it through full days of 95 degrees, full sun, no wind and 1,000% humidity in FL – and my stuff stayed frigid all day long."

1. New limited edition Takahiro Omori nicotine pouches

Oops sorry it's line! 🤣

> Only 80 spools ...will be produced, each featuring Omori’s signature in gold.... All proceeds...are being donated to the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame.

Tak also told me that for 2027, since he'll officially be a Hall of Famer, he'll be changing his color scheme to gold and black. LOL I know he's reading this so just busting your chops Tak!

2. Jacob Wheeler says in the fall, fish the whole lake...

...because the shad are everywhere, not just in the creeks.

3. Luke Palmer wondering whether to get better at newer techniques

Or just continues to focus on power stuff. He also is in the bounce-house biz – who knew!

4. Justin Atkins' 2026 Skeeter FXR 20 for sale

All Birds/Minn Kota, Amped Outdoors Lithium.

5. Here's the top 10 in the final NPFL points

Someone beat Zack Birge! 🤯 Congrats to Killer Queen. Other than them, do you recognize any names?? 11-20th also are current or former tour pros. Looks to me like the NPFL is steadily becoming a deal to watch.

1. KJ "killer" Queen -- 1448

2. Zack "Capt America" Birge -- 1419

3. Greg "attack of the" Hackney -- 1369

4. Rooster "Greg" Vinson -- 1365

5. Derek "and the dominos" Lehtonen -- 1365

6. J-Pow, aka "Jacob Powroznik" -- 1363

7. "I'll buy that for a dolla" Bill Lowen -- 1346

8. B-Rock "or be square" Mosley -- 1339

9. Randall "the honey badger" Tharp -- 1333

10. Matt "shad" Herren -- 1331

6. Jason Burroughs frogged to win the Dardanelle, AR NPFL

> Burroughs found his main area in practice, a flat where he was fishing a bladed jig.... His secondary area was a lilypad field with a small channel or trail running through the middle....

> "...I knew I wanted to fish fast and trigger reaction bites and fish around [grass]. I was working the frog fast and the bladed jig. I went with the SPRO [Flappin] Frog, not a walking frog."

7. Peter T talks the Carolina rig for 90 minutes

On the Tom Redington pod. I haven't listened to it yet but I am gonna – it's gotta be gold!

8. Bassin' Hall of Fame mega-auction now open

The smallie trip with KVD AND ZONA is already at $6,600 – which is a bargain if you get 'em talking and bring fireworks. 🧨🤣 Some other deals that stood out to me (there's a bunch):

- 20-minute call with Jason Christie: Don't let him not talk! 😁

- North ID bass trip with Brandon Palaniuk: You'll be blindfolded from the hotel to the lake. 😆

- Fish Pickwick with Justin Atkins: No phones/waypoint marking allowed. 😁

- Fish FL with John Cox: You will only need your MaxScent General setup! 🤣

- Lake O’ the Pines trip with Brad Whatley: This might be the best trip on the list. 🤫

- How 'bout fishing with Will Davis on Lay Lake?? Will Sr will be there making sure Will Jr doesn't give up any of the 🧃!😆

- Paul "I am a herring" Marks on Lake Lanier?? Dang son! 👀

- Fish with T-Rex McKinney! 

- Edwin Evers on Grand Lake: Leave your cuss-words at home or spend the day on the bank! 🤐

Alright I'm gonna stop there but there's a bunch of GREAT stuff and not just guide trips!

Reminder that this year's HOF class is being inducted this Thurs at the Springfield, MO Bass Pro Shops. I can't go but really wanted to. Do these on weekends HOF folks, dang!

9. iKon Boats offering co-angler FFS package

It's a muzzle + 3 cans of Vienna sausages + 2 packs of Senkos + an Ipad with a Netflix subscription. Kidding hahaha! 😁🤙

10. New Z-Man Forge Premium Alloy Flipping Weights

In the current bassin' world where tungsten has all but disappeared, Z-Man just came out with these:

> ...a specialized alloy that offers increased hardness and sensitivity...polished insert-free interior...each weight is finished with a durable matte paint finish [gp and black]....

More info here.

11. New Okuma Tournament Series "B" Rods designed for specific techniques

For example:

> The TCS-C-731MHb is a 7' 3" MH casting rod designed for all-purpose casting and spinnerbaits....

> For vibrating and bladed baits, the TCS-C-751Hb gives anglers a 7' 5" platform specifically designed around those presentations.

> Anglers working jerkbaits or lighter crankbaits can turn to the TCS-C-701Mb+, while the TCS-C-7111MHb is designed for deep cranking when fish remain positioned farther offshore.

Check the casting rods and spinning rods on TW. They are $160-$190 apiece.

12. SlotTech making 3D-printed inserts for tackleboxes

So you can store hard baits in various brands of boxes without them getting tangled up. Pretty dang great idea if they hold up and don't break the seal of the box, which I assume they do not. More on their Insta.

That's for a Plano Edge box (I think it's this 3700) but he makes 'em for other boxes too.

13. CA: Old scent relaunched

Called Legacy Strike 75, "a thick, cling-style fish attractant built on a 75-year-old trigger formula." They say, "One application runs 15–20 minutes of fishing before it needs a refresh."

14. Berkley has a new rewards system on its website

For purchases.

15. New FINS BFS Ultralight Braid

American-made 8-end braid. Their 12-lb = 2-lb mono diameter.

16. Electronics gal will be new CEO at Brunswick Corp

Interesting. Brunswick is a public company that has Merc, Navico/Lowrance, Lund, etc.

Executive chair/CEO David Foulkes is retiring at the end of the year, and Aine Denari is taking over. She is EVP and president of Navico Group, and Brunswick CTO (chief tech officer). Get ready for more tech!

Good Rickey Clunn tip: Let it be!

> One of the most overlooked tools in fishing is not a lure or a technique. It is silence. The pause.

> Predators are built to react to hesitation. An injured baitfish doesn’t move in perfect rhythm. It struggles, stalls, then moves again. That moment of vulnerability is what flips a switch in a fish’s brain.

> In difficult conditions, I lean heavily into presentations that allow the lure to hang, suspend or momentarily come alive without forward movement. The pause gives a fish time to decide – and often that is exactly what it needs.

> Many anglers pull a lure away right before the fish commits. Learning to trust the pause is learning to trust the fish.

He says that's why he likes Livingston Lures – that bait is emitting sexy sounds to the fish on the pause.

"I started off this tournament by dropping my truck keys in the water and my boat drifting away because my Power-Poles were not anchored to the bottom...I had to go swimming to get the boat."

- PA's Josh Kauffman talkin', who won the 2-day BFL on the Chesapeake by fishing normal/traditional:

> ...a swim-jig, bladed jig and Zoom Ultravibe Speed Worm in grass, a crankbait on points in the morning and a spinnerbait on day 2 when conditions got overcast and windy.

Check those cool orange highlights on the tail and dorsal on this Chattahoochee Bass! Wish I could get a good screenshot of the whole fish – you can see the short vid here, posted on IG by @damon._outdoors:

Fishers of Men Tournament Trail

Bass Chaplain podcasts

Contact Chris Wells the Bass Chaplain

All Bass No Bull podcast

Advanced Angler

StrayCasts crazy web show!

Champion Jigs

Trophy Bass Co.