How To Lose Less Bass | Bassmaster Elite Series Kyle Welcher

For your hot topic of the day. Yeah. Give me five of the main reasons people lose fish. A couple things when using treble hooks people don't change their hook often enough and they don't understand exactly what treble hook is the best for every situation. So depending on the species, the type of bait, you know the time of year, all that type of stuff dictates exactly what hook you want to use. You know, it just, it varies a ton. So understanding treble hooks helps you land a lot more fish. Another thing is having the right rod for every single application. It doesn't matter if you're doing something super finesse, you need to have a finesse rod, it's got a lot of load to it. Or if you're doing something with a lot of power, then you want to have something that you can really set the hook hard and then still have a lot of load to it. Another thing is people are using the wrong line a lot of times. And I do this myself, you know, braid for the wrong techniques, fluorocarbon when you should use mono, mono when you should use fluorocarbon, all that type of stuff does affect your hook set and the hook penetration, all that type of stuff. Another one is paying attention to how the fish ate the bait. So a lot of times I feel like whenever I'm kind of just going through the motions and I get a bite, I lose that fish more often than I normally do because I'm not really paying attention. So I know if that fish bites a frog or whatever and he starts swimming left, I'm going to set the hook to the right. If he swims to the right, I'm going to set the hook either straight up or on my left shoulder to the left, which is a little uncomfortable for me, but you land them a lot when they're going that way. And if a fish is swimming straight at you, a lot of times the best thing you could do is just wait for a second and let them turn one way or another. It's a hard thing to pick up on, but when you're really keyed in, you can pick up on it. Another one is having the right gear ratio reel for the bait that you're using, because you'll get out of position too often if you're using the exact right ratio reel. So if you're throwing a vibrating jig or something on a super slow reel and that fish eats it and swims way off the bank really fast, a lot of times you'll get behind on that fish. But I'm not saying it's the wrong gear ratio to use in that exact scenario, it's just that that fish in particular, you couldn't catch up to it. So that happens sometimes also is using too slow of a reel or using too fast of a reel whenever certain types of things, you're reeling a buzzbait or something and your reel is too fast, those fish will come up and miss it. You'll have super short line or super, you know, like a lot of tension in your line. You'll blow that fish's mouth open a lot. So fine tuning the right gear ratio for every kind of situation is another way to land more fish. But you know, that's kind of a personal preference type of deal. I use faster gear ratios, but you have to understand when you're doing that, that sometimes you got to kind of pause and wait a second and kind of let that fish do something, make a move left or right before you set the hook. So that's probably my five things that I know for losing less fish. But I mean, I still lose some, you know, everybody still loses some. Next question. All right. The schedule's out. The schedule is out. Most excited. We got a pretty good schedule this year. We got started in Okeechobee, which should be good. I fished Okeechobee one time for a Toyota a long time ago. Well, three or four years ago, but it was pretty good then actually. Like it was, well, no, it was pretty bad then actually is what I meant to say. What it was like three foot low. I caught 14 pounds on day one. It was in third. So 14 pounds is not that good on that lake. But so that's going to be a cool one to go to. Never fished a big major tournament there besides that one. So that'll be fun. Dropped in power poles. The rest of the, then we go to Seminole. I fished Seminole two times. Both times were in October for a BFL regional and did terrible both times. Let's see. So I'm not, that was, that's been for a long time. My least favorite lake on the Chattahoochee. Maybe we'll change that though this year. This is a really good, really different time of year. It's going to be February. They're going to be biting. It's going to take some weight. Could definitely take a hundred pounds. It could also not, but it could take a hundred pounds. And from there we're going to, I think we got Murray next or we got Murray next. Where we got after Murray? Santee. Okay. So we got Murray. Then we got Santee. Both of those should be right in the middle of April. You know, some post-spawn stuff, some spawn stuff, some, you know, all kinds of bait deals going on around that time of year. So that'd be good. Some brush pile fish probably. And then we are going to Lay. I believe we're going to Lay next in Alabama. Again, probably my second least favorite lake on the, on the Coosa. But you know, there's got some big ones in there. May is just a really tough time of year. There is, it's not going to show out very much. It would really show out in February or March, but in May it's, it's going to be a really tough tournament. It's going to be, I mean bad. But after that, we're going to Sabine. Sabine, you catch a lot of fish. You don't catch a lot of big ones. You know, I did okay there last time. You know, eight pounds a day is a good bag there. Six pounds a day, that was very easy to do. And that's not a very good bag there. So, you know, we just kind of got to find an area where you can catch some pound and a halfers. As, as weird as that sounds for an elite series event, that's the truth. An area with some pound and a halfers is very, very key on the Sabine River. Then we got us a northern swing going. We got us Lake St. Clair. Went there my rookie year, had a super good practice my rookie year, then didn't make good adjustments during the tournaments. Had caught a decent bag on day two, had like 17 or 18 pounds on day two, but on day one only caught like 12 or 13 pounds. I did not make the correct adjustments on day one and that really, really, you know, bit me. I'm still mad about that one. I want some revenge there. Super good lake with the forward face sonar and everything this year. I'm sure it'll take over 20 pounds a day to get paid on St. Clair. It's just, it's just such a good place. You know, after that, we're going to, I think Champlain and then St. Lawrence River. Might have those two backwards. Champlain just been showing out. I mean, more 20 pound bags been weighed there over the past two years than I think ever before. The lake's just getting better. It's big. It's got a lot of places for them to hide. There's about a three pounder suspended under that next dock. This is the question of the day. Okay. Are you going to go all the way up to tie at Champlain and fish for largemouth? Yes, I am. Committed. Committed from right now. We're going to tie Condoroga if the water's up. We're going to fish for largemouth the whole time. St. Lawrence? St. Lawrence, we're going to run up the river and fish for largemouth. The whole time. The whole time. Committed right now. Committed on St. Lawrence to largemouth in the back ponds. Should be able to catch 14-15 pounds a day there. So least excited and most excited. Least excited is definitely late. That place is, God, in May that place is so bad. But most excited, the first two really, Okeechobee and Seminole. I don't know much about those, either one of those places, like at all. I don't know much about either one of them. So it's going to be a fresh slate. Going to be some big ones biting. Going to be pre-spawn and spawn on Okeechobee. Maybe some post-spawn too, but Seminole is going to be straight pre-spawn. Could be just phenomenal. So I'm really excited about those two, you know, like Okeechobee and Seminole for sure. How do you feel about not going to St. John's and Fork? Very good. Fork is, Fork is not good at all, but Fork has big fish. I hate to talk bad about a lake. Fork has big fish, one of the most healthy populations of fish I have ever seen in a lake of that size. Fork is not a big lake, but the amount of pressure it gets makes it a pretty poor tournament lake. And this is, maybe I shouldn't say that on video, but the amount of pressure it gets is a, makes it a bad tournament lake. The, if you're just gonna go over there and fun fish though, oh God, it's got so many big ones. When you put 90 anglers out there that know the deal, you just don't have anything to yourself. You know, you got to get lucky and catch a couple big ones. St. John's, obviously really good fishery also. We've just kept going there too early. We went to St. John's a better time of year. I think it would really show out, but that's how it goes. You know, I don't get to dictate the schedule. I don't get to pick it. St. John's, St. John's, I actually kind of like. I had two, I had a tough one there this, this year with my worst finish ever on the elites, but it's a good fishery, diverse fishery. You can really spread out. So, but I'm glad they're not on the schedule. I want to see some, some new places. I do want to catch a bad. I've been staring at it the whole time.