Pro Fisherman Pays No Entry Fees | Fishing 2 Pro Tours

all right all right 2025 you know hadn't got used to saying that yet but it is 2025 seems ridiculous that uh we're that many years in now but uh Elite series starting up soon mpfl starting up soon and we are very very fortunate this year that we do not have to pay entry fees this past year I think I paid $80,000 in entry fees or really really close to it I mean within a couple thousand of 80,000 and this year I won angler the year in the npfl so we have no entry fees and then the Elite Series entry fees got changed now we only have to pay $10,000 in entry fees for the Bassmaster Elites so pretty fortunate pretty happy about that you know the payouts did go down a little bit on the elites as far as the raw number but it doesn't really change because if you take out your $5,000 entry fee 50th Place actually gets $500 more so we'll take that but anyways we're going to kind of go through the tourament I'm going to give a brief c cap or recap or or prediction of how I think the tournament is going to be won number one we're starting with a bfl tournament on one of my small little local lakes we got a bfl February the 1st on Lake Martin and Link is excited about that one his hands are up he's celebrating already he thinks he thinks dad's going to win that one so hope he's right you know I haven't won a tournament on Lake Martin in a while and I fished a bunch of big ones over there but it it's been tough I've had some good finishes I've came in second like three times in the past year in 80 plus boat tournaments but have not won so bfl February 1st I think it's going to be a straight up junk fishing at least in my boat a little bit of forace sonar a little bit of dock skipping a little bit of cranking a little bit of flipping a little bit of wrecking a tractor off the table like Link's doing right now so February 1st bfl that's going to start the season off as far as big tournaments then from there we go to St John's river for the first bass master Elite Series you know we've kicked it off there I think we've kicked it off there every single time except for one since I've been on the elites did we not go there this year it was only one I think yeah we didn't kick it off there this year do we have we had a year we didn't go at all yeah where we go we went okobi and S the year I W we did not go to St John's no but we did go there twice just didn't start there remember cuz we went there in the uh oh no it was supposed to be npfl and Elite but the npfl canell or whatever yeah but like in 2023 did we go there we didn't go there that the year we went o yeah yeah yeah okay so now we're going to St John's river to start the season off just like bass has done so many times you know the the thing about that tournament is the road map is laid out like we know exactly what's going to win there it's going to be a mix of Ford face and sonar really really shallow to isolated pads isolated docks isolated wood that's going to be a factor but there's also going to be the standard just blind fishing punching mats skipping docks going in the springs and sight fishing all that's going to play but I do think people are going to implement the forward face and sonar shallow and it's going to be probably how it's won because uh you can just see how many fish are in an area and you figure out exactly where they're sitting so I would expect perspective picking off some of them spawners and then shallow forward facing to be kind of the predominant patterns there from there we go down to Lake okachobee you know okobe is a lot different Lake now there's a lot more dirty water which means there's a lot less clean water in the bass and every single fish likes to stack up in that clean water so the last two tournaments have been okobe been pretty dominated forace sonar this time of the year I think it's going to be more the same as far as that goes going to be some shallow perspective I'm sorry for interrupting go ahead the haters in the comments are going to say something cuz I interrupt put your woman in her place yeah what so sorry um speak up so I can hear you is there not restrictions on four facing sonar this year you get to have one transducer oh so no restrictions really okay and 55 in of screen which is a 16 for scoping and then 3 13s is what I'm using yeah he wants he wants some restrictions he don't like restrictions I promise you that anyways the last couple tours been there have been Domin forward face sonar whether it be locking through somewhere fishing a discharge or prospective mode on bedding bass so I think it's going to be more the same as far as that goes there's still going to be some traditional fishing we saw Steve Kennedy catch Giants on a frog I caught some really good ones on a frog I think it's going to be some of that type of stuff and flipping but you just it's hard to beat it whenever you can find the concentration of bass and you can manage them better cuz you can see them and stay on top of them so we going to St John's okobe and never going home and going to the first npfl event on Santi Cooper March the 6 you know I've had mixed results on Santi I've had some really good ones had some catastrophically bad days like I've had some catastrophically bad days but they ended up being some decent tournaments you know that one's March the 6th it could be full-blown spawn or it could be basically nun spawn and just kind of depends on the weather and the water color and the water level and stuff like that I think it's going to be there's going to be sight fishing happening almost certainly unless we have some kind of a really weird weather condition but I think the most of the fish will be pre-spawn and be relatively power fishing you know Santi gets a lot of pressure and the fish go to the obvious cover so basically whenever you fish Lakes where the fish don't live on the cover but they pull up to the cover you can straight power fish when the fish seem to live on the cover which they they do there they live on the brush they live on the deeper cypress trees they some of them live on the shallow cypess trees they just like to live there you really have to finesse them because they get fish for all year on that cover it's not like fresh fish are pulling up even though more fish do pull up to the shallower ones sometimes and that's whenever you can really catch them but I think you got to finesse them a lot more there you just it's always seemed to be the case there so March 6 Santi Cooper I think a lot of pre-spawning I'm going to be catching them I hope on an UNT tackle Apex swim jig that's going to be my number one choice to catch them on there and I hope it works out so from there Bassmaster Classic is next unfortunately I was one fish away from making the Bassmaster Classic so we didn't make it you know so that's okay we've uh We've made it before and we'll make it again and we've not made it before and we'll probably hopefully never not make it again but that's just how it goes you know it's a competitive environment there's a lot of really really good fishmen and there's not that many spots going to the classic so we didn't make it next we've got a local Trails classic and I'm not even in it yet I've only fished one of the tournaments and you got to be in like the top 60% of the field I've only fished one of the tournaments so I need to fish a couple more of those to make the classic so hopefully we do then we're going to one another Elite that I have never been to before we're going to the Pasqua tank river in North Carolina I believe so that's going to be a title fishery with a super mild tide swing I think the tide tide swing there is like inches like 2 or 3 Ines I don't think it's much at all so going to be pretty consistent I think it's going to be a pretty much a spawn to post spawn type of a deal I don't think there's going to be a ton of fish steel spawning a ton of the population steel spawn there'll probably still be enough steel spawning to do well but I don't think it's going to be the majority of the population tidal Fisheries they seem to spawn a little earlier than everywhere else in the area so there going to be post spawn you're going to see you know scoping Cypress knees scoping individual pieces of cover scoping docks you're going to see them you know blind fishing some of the same types of cover I think it's going to be a lot of just shallow water tidle fishing type of stuff and I've had good results on tidle lakes I've had bad results on Title Lake so we or tidle river so we'll see how that one goes I know there's some options there to make some really really long runs and if it was going to be probably hotter which I would love to be fishing tidle rivers in like June July August I don't care like I love fishing tidle rivers whenever it's really really hot if it was gonna be hotter I'd be a lot more likely to make a really really long run but with it not being that hot you know I think I'll just probably have to just fish around pretty close and try to maximize my fishing time but that's just because I've got a little couple techniques I like doing whenever it's really really hot and don't think it's going to be in play yet but anyways after that npfl on Norman and Norman is a clear water lots of spot bass and I will lay y'all odds 20 to1 that is not one Ford face and sonar in the npfl it's not going to be one Ford face sonar that one won't be it's going to be one shallow water fishing most likely it could be one deep water fishing but I don't really think that that's going to be as easy nowadays back in the day it was easier to catch them off the bank now it's a lot harder to catch them off the bank because they've got so much pressure it's a super small window to actually make those fish bite and we're seeing that all over the country you got to be very very accurate and really COA these fish into biting so npfl on Norman I'm expecting some bed fishing I'm expecting some swimbait bites you know bigger swimbait bites maybe some gliders some stuff like that but who knows we'll just kind of see how that one plays out Norman never been there that's the I think that's the second one on the list I've never been to and we've got a few on the list this year that I've never been to we've got four on the list I've never been to so Pascal tank never been to Norman never been to following that up with the April 24th Elite at Lake Hartwell so this is going to be I fished a npfl event there last year same time of the year Well a week later but relatively the same it was the tail end of everything tail end of the Herring spawn tail end of the Shad spawn tail end of the bass spawn and I think it's going to be very similar to that again this year you know it's going to be kind of one of those Hodge pody kind of a fishing I think it's going to be more bass on bed more Largemouth on bed but probably more Shad spawn going on more herring spawn going on so I think you're going to be able to fish however you want to fish there and probably do pretty well so kind of looking forward to that one I like fishing heart well because I really go all in on the large mouth I try to do everything in my power to weigh in a really big large mouth and hopefully we can do that this year so we we did it in the npfl caught two really big large mouth and hopefully we can do that one more time in the elite so from Heartwell we are going to Lake Fork May the 8th y'all heard me say this before I think Lake Fork is the worst tournament Lake in the country I do not enjoy going there at all I went there last year and I mean I did good I came in like 14th I caught a 33 lb bag I caught a 30 lb bag but you know it's just it fish is so small and it's so difficult to run around and just it's only 177,000 acres and it fishes so small that it's frustrating whenever there's 100 boats on there that are competitive but you know there's really really big ones in there and no matter where you are whenever you hook one of those big ones it's extremely fun to catch them so it's just not it's not really decision-making Lake because it's so ironed out what happens there and like the areas are so well known and the Anglers know it like it's like this year I pulled into a pocket this last year I pulled into a pocket and there was like 15 boats in this one pocket I caught a 4 and A2 pounder and then like everybody around me is just like Milling around the next day I start in a pocket well I left from there and go to another pocket and there's like 15 more boats in this pocket and I ran like 5 miles to another pocket that has some bass in it like 15 boats in that pocket so the areas that have a good population of bass just get overran and just beat down but that's how it goes you know that's just part of fishing and we got to deal with that on that one Lake Fork straight to Sabine River in late May or miday you know I've had good results on Sabine I like that one I like the title fishing I have been fortunate enough to find a good area both times we've been there and hopefully this year I can do that again because when you find the right area on Sabine like 35 checks come out of the same area it just it's happened both times I've been there one time I fished this one River and like 35 or 40 checks came out of the river and I just happened to be in there then another time this time I fished a different River and like 30 plus checks came out of there and I just happened to be in there so it just pretty fortunate that I've been in that area twice and hopefully we can find that area again cuz that's super important there so from there we go to npfl on Lake Douglas I've never been there that's number three that I've never been to we've got five this year I've never been to Lake Douglas I've never even I've never been to that lake at all so May 22nd through 24th I think they catch them really really good super deep there so I'm expecting Douglas to be you know deep cranking maybe Carolina rig big Shaky Head you know all that type of stuff out there on some of them long points some of the deep brush whatever the case may be whatever cover you decide to fish think those fish are going to be really really deep that time of year so I would expect that another one I've never been to June the 12th Elite Series at Lake 10 killer you know I've never been there never even done any research on it never even really seen the lake so that's going to be one that's completely unique I think tin killer has a decent population a small mouth and they've been exposed recently with the forace of sonar so I'm expecting June the 12th to be a lot of lot of Ford faing sonar he never play he never plays with that we filming he's got his noise maker going but he's oneyear old and he gets way whatever he wants you know so 10 killer I think it's going to be a lot of scoping a lot of brush maybe some dock fishing in June dock brush but you know I don't know much about that maybe there's a river we can run up maybe there's maybe you just have to get out there in the middle and scope around so we'll see how that goes the uh npfl you follow Oklahoma looks like they set up pretty shallow there a good chunk of the year but I think in June it's going to be a lot about that deeper brush those deeper points the Deep Rock piles stuff like that the npfl and you can't use scoping that one so it's going to be a lot of in my opinion dragging around and then middepth to deep cranking is is what I would anticipate for the npfl on eala Oklahoma straight from there the next one is July 9th St Lawrence River npfl I've never fished I fished St Lawrence River one time without Ford face to sonar had a pretty poor result and I had the bites they'll do really really well but I had poor results no forace soner on the St Lawrence River it's going to unlock a lot of patterns that I have learned over the years that have never been good enough to do them in Elite series events because of the Ford face of sonar so this year I think we're going to see a lot more shallow Smallmouth you probably see some top water Smallmouth now see a lot of hair jigs spy baits ChatterBait swim jigs all that type of stuff you'll see Largemouth come into play there's a lot of 17 to 19 lb bags of largemouth there and you'll definitely see that com into play in this tournament I've never fished for for large mouth there in a tournament so this may be the first time I ever get to fish for large mouth on the St Lawrence River kind of looking forward to that you know like I'm not mad at that at all so anyways that is that is an interesting one and we'll see how that one kind of goes August 7th Elite Series event Lake St Clair y'all know how that's going to go it's going to be mid depth to 20t deep scoping around looking for dots and throwing you just got to find the hot bait that week it'll be a drop shot it'll be you know a minnow it'll be some kind of a swimbait it'll be something that is the dominant bait that week for whatever reason every time we've been there there's been one bait that's just been super super hot I think it's going to be just like that again this year so from there Elite Series at Lacrosse Wisconsin you're going to see a good mix there I think you're going to see a lot of those those bass they like to live underneath the mats the large Mount D so I think you'll see a lot of frogging a lot of flipping a lot of swim jigging chatter baiting stuff like that but you will also see a lot of scoping on the wing dams for Smallmouth you'll see scoping sand s spots you'll see scoping you know isolated cover will it be Rock piles that are off the channel you wood whatever it is you'll see a good mix there of probably half and half scoping and Largemouth fishing probably 3/4 scoping I would say but anyways Elite lacrosse and then September 25th this is not one that I've ever called a small little local lake so we're just going to call it Logan Martin Lake in Alabama fish there this year in January fishing there next year in September so I would expect to be hot brutally hot and then it's going to be a grind but I love those types of tournaments I wish we were going to to a river that had a little bit more current but it'll be good I think it'll be it'll be terrible weights awful weights but it'll be good fishing for me and I just love those types of tournaments so that's the schedule for next year we've got a lot of stuff going we've got the npfl we've got the Elite Series we've got a bfl we got some other pot tournament Classics and it's going to be a fun year I'm just excited decided that there is a weight off my shoulders of these entry fees not that I really ever really felt the weight but it is pretty cool to say that I got $10,000 in entry fees and last year I had 80 so we'll take that all day so anyways leave me a comment down below which tournament are you the most excited about are you excited about the npfl schedule are you excited about the Elite Series schedule do you want to see the npfl every single tournament is going to be won without Ford face and sonar there will be no bass called on Ford face sonar all year long so are you excited about that are you not I think it's going to be refreshing but I did lean on forace owner a lot this year in that in that circuit so I think we'll be able to catch a couple without four face on our so you should clean up the rumors the allegations what's the allegations that you're for faing on our fisherman they'll clean themselves up if I catch them people watch the channel know I think yeah but not the newer people so yeah well I mean that's just what day we live in like it's 2024 25 everybody scoping now competing tournaments the old school viewers of the Channel I didn't grow up with it I qualified without it I finished a year on the elites without it that's some good results so I don't think we have to have scope to catch a bass but uh there's times where it's good that really um I had it the second year but I didn't understand it that good yet I understand that good now sometimes anyways them allegations will clean themselves up I believe appreciate it guys we'll see youall in the next video next video is going to be really really cool I actually tested sunline expensive fluorocarbon versus monofilament I tested it myself so I'm going to show you all the results to that there's been some Mis there's been some misconceptions salt strong posted a video and I'm not throwing shade at them at all but they posted a video where they tested fluorocarbon versus monofilament and the monofilament won the test I tested that like five or six times and I'll show y all the results so anyways that next video I'm excited about it to show y'all it because it's going to instill some confidence back so we'll see you on the next video link ma'am what you doing what you doing buddy give the camera a byebye