When did that take place, and kind of how did that come about?

Uh, so in, in 2025, the Bass Anglers on the Elite Series, uh, formed a group called the ABP that really was a, a conduit between the anglers as a whole and Bass Master and their, and their staff.

One of the big battles that, that we, we had to figure out was what are we gonna do with forward-facing sonar go- going forward? And the ABP at that time surveyed all of the anglers on every angle that we could think of to ask about forward-facing sonar concerning Bass Master Elite Series and Classic competitions.

Well, the results of that were very interesting because about two-thirds of the entire field wanted either no forward-facing sonar or for- forward-facing sonar restricted.

There was less than a third, I believe it was, of the field that wanted full forward-facing sonar in all events.

So we took all of this data a- and showed it to Bass Master and said, "Look, the anglers want restrictions." The absolute majority either want it banned or restricted.

And, and, and Bass Ma- I mean, it was ov- overwhelming.

Maybe that's kind of a part of this too, is that it kind of builds some hype for next year's schedule as well.

What's coming? What are you most excited about in moving forward in your fishing career or missile baits or what are you most excited about in the fishing industry?

Man, that's kind of a tough question.

You know, one of the things that I always get excited about every year is I keep a little schedule of the best of the elite series right here on my desk so that I basically look at it every day.

And I just think about, oh, we're going to Okeechobee and then Kissimmee and then Sabine and Fork and Seminole, Santee, Tin Tom.

Just go down the list, you know, and get I always get excited about everything.

the next year and the next season and how I'm going to compete.

What do I need? You know, how I'm going to rig my boat.

Do you pre-practice?

And so, so what we see there is sometimes we see, uh, uh innovations within a particular product that that you know we've fished for years and then we see some brand new stuff we'll get to that in a moment but this buzzwagon buzzbait is very interesting looking deal and and it comes with different blades including including pink which is like the rage right now is that the pink blade but tell us why the buzzwagon is different

That's right.

Yeah.

You know, I really wanted something that I couldn't find on the market.

There's a number of good buzz baits.

And I think at the time I felt like, you know, Greenfish was making it really, you know, they make a real good one.

Brazalo came out in the last couple of years and I was like, oh my gosh, that's really good.

It's basically kind of mimicking the dice, you know, bait that everybody is going nuts over and the urchin style bait, but it's a living rubber jig that you can change the weights on, but with a clip, explain this thing and how, how this came into your brain.

Give us a rundown of how you have been preparing for ICAST and, uh, what you are looking to accomplish this year.

I tell you, ICAST is very hectic for me because there's so much planning that goes into it.

'Cause we, we plan almost all year, and then, like, the, the couple weeks leading up to it immediately preceding ICAST are, are really kinda stressful because, uh, there's ...

I don't care what you do, there's always a bunch of last-minute things.

Like, one of the new products, we're just trying to get enough of them to actually be able to show.

Uh, one of the other new products we finally got in the color sample, so it was, like, a huge relief.

We have a, we have a number of releases, uh, coming this year at Missile Baits.

Can you touch on a little bit of, of how you've seen some of the positive, uh, evolution of ICAST and maybe some of the things that have changed that you aren't so happy about that you wish maybe would kinda revert to the way they used to be?

Now back to the show.

Uh, I would say all of the above have happened.

All, all of this, all of those situations have happened.

The biggest downfall from owning your own business is you don't get to fish as much in between the tournaments to put what you've learned or put what you've been told or what you've figured out or what you've gotten into use, you know, to whether that's g- you know, newer glide baits, the Koiki thing, the spike ball, like what hook you're using, LiveScope.

LiveScope was probably the biggest disadvantage from owning a bait company and not being able to spend that extra time on the water that, that we really needed to spend as pro anglers in order to, to level up and, and make sure that you're not on the backside of that trend.

Um, I feel like I've been, you know, one to two years behind on the forward-facing sonar talent that's out there.

Those guys, they get to go out there and spend, you know, 80 to 100 days a year more than I do on the water a- with the forward-facing sonar over the last, you know, four or five years.

I mean, they definitely seem interested in all of them, it's just like what ones will actually make them swallow it to the gullet.

Mm-hmm.

You see what comes up or seasonal movements on tidal rivers.

Listen to a couple, listen to a seminar or two.

Listen to somebody like Iaconelli with somebody like Ish Monroe.

Talk about tidal movement, you know, bass fishing on tidal rivers, seasonal seasonal movements.

That to me, that is like when you when you talk generalities like that and you're listening and trying to learn.

generalities, that makes going to these places way, way easier.

I need to think outside the