Bassmaster Elite Pro Robert Gee

Tigs: All right. Welcome to Tigs Bits. We are visiting with Bassmaster Elite Series rookie, Mr. Robert G. We're going to dive into his story from how he first fell in love with bass fishing all the way up until today when he is fishing at the highest level in tournament fishing. And of course it's not going to be fishing in 2024 if we didn't discuss forward facing sonar as well.

So. I'm Giddy. This is going to be a fun show. Look, if you're not following us on social media, go give us a follow. We're on Tik TOK, YouTube, Facebook, X rumble, Instagram, and even threads. We post on there pretty much daily and having a blast interacting with you guys. So look, don't forget that we also have merch and you can get that at Tigsbits.

com. Just search for search under merch and, uh, go help us out. Have had a few folks lately pick up a little bit of that merch. So, uh, a much, much appreciated. Y'all, uh, y'all go check it out. But before we jump in with Robert, let me welcome back as always my esteemed co host, Mr. Blossie, the one man posse.

What is happening, brother? Chad. Are you coming to us live from Props again?

Blasi: Absolutely, I am. Absolutely, I am. And sorry, we're having some technical difficulties here at Props, uh, studios here today. Like the internet's a little bit slow. So we're going to do our best to hang in there as long as we can, hopefully the whole time in the log.

Auto correct at some point better than my auto correct on my phone, which is absolutely killing me these days when I send text But uh, no, man, it's it's good to be here we are here I actually got a good little uh, They went through a full process with me from tip to tail on how they brew beer here and I can't wait I'm gonna do something one day where we're gonna get with the master brewer here ben Yeah, he's gonna walk us through this whole process.

It's so like, so cool dude. Like to watch them do all the stuff that they do here. So I, I got a little insight on that earlier today as I was setting up. So, can't wait to do that. But glad to be back here from Props Brewery. It is, uh, trivia night here. This is the final round of trivia for the season. And so they, they, they keep tabs throughout the year with your team and tonight.

There's teams battling for the championship. So we've got a championship trivia going

Tigs: on here tonight at props big, big night at props, big night, big night. What, uh, what team, what, what place is your team in Blasey? Because I know you have one fielded. I do. Yeah.

Blasi: So I've worked with the team back here off of my left shoulder here.

So this is a fish on that's our team. And so, We're sitting third in the standings for the season. And, um, you know, we're, we're kind of struggling tonight. I helped him out with the first round. And so it's, it's, it's, it's a little tough. It's a little tough. I missed a couple of, uh, national parks. I missed a couple of country songs and like who the artist was.

I couldn't believe it, but. Little Texas. I just forgot about Little Texas. I couldn't think of them. A couple of other ones, you know, like one or two, but we're okay. We're still in striking distance. They're, they're taking a break now. And so they'll, they'll come back. I think my team's going

Tigs: to finish strong.

I believe in them. I believe in you more importantly. And, uh, I think you're, y'all will be, you'll be just fine. But speaking of fish on without any further ado, we do need to bring in our guests. I'm so pumped for this. I can't wait to tell this, to tell the story of how this is even happening. It's an honor to have him on Bassmaster elite pro.

Mr. Robert G Robert. Oh,

Robert Gee: yes, sir, ma'am.

Tigs: Yes, sir, man. Thank you for coming on. It is quite the honor, uh, man. I've been talking to Robert. He's just getting back from the Bassmaster classic. We're gonna definitely be talking a little bit about that. I've got to hear what his experience was. Blasey, are you familiar with, I mean, I know, you know, the Bassmaster Classic, but are you familiar with how big that expo is that they have every year?

For me? Yeah,

Blasi: you. I'm no, sorry, you're breaking up a little bit. I am not familiar with that expo and how big it is, but I, yeah, let's. Introduce me, but I am not, I am a

Tigs: neophyte when it comes to that. Perfect. That's a perfect place to start then. Uh, yeah, we will, uh, we'll definitely, well, let's just start there, man.

Let's talk a little bit about that. And then I want us to dive into kind of where you all, where you got started with this whole journey. But yeah, give us a little recap on the Bassmaster Classic and what all you did while you were there, man. So it was, uh,

Robert Gee: so I just got to work the expo the whole time. I didn't get to fish any at all.

So the lake, Grand Lake it was on was an hour and 40 minutes from Tulsa, so I never even saw the lake while I was there, but that Bassmaster Classic Expo is literally the biggest fishing expo for the public every year. Like they're, every fishing company in the country has a booth set up there in the, in a convention center and they, um, they have products there for sale for, For all of the fans of Bassmaster and everything like that.

So basically what I was doing was I was there at my various sponsors booth, Yamaha, P Line, GSM, which is Yamamoto Bates, Big Bite, Bill Lewis. I was there working, signing autographs and stuff like that. Meeting the fans. Just, it was a great time. It was my first time working one of those. I've been a fan of the sport for a long time.

So I've got to go and experience that from a fan side, but this was my first year working it. So that was really cool.

Tigs: Dude. It's always just, I have more fun going to the expo than the, than the actual weigh in and all, which is fun. I love all of that, but you get to talk to all the pros. You get to talk to folks like you, you know, and run into everybody.

See demos, see the latest. equipment, just all of that stuff,

Robert Gee: man. It's the latest and greatest is always there. So, and like, I'm still, I'm still a fan of the sport and I, I've walked around and got some new things that are coming out and it's been a

Tigs: little geeked out a little bit while you were there.

How could you not? How could you not? Have you, uh, have you ever fished Grand Lake? Have you ever fished? I have not. It seems like it was, seems like it was tough.

Robert Gee: Yeah, it did. Uh, I was expecting it to be a little bit better cause I've had a lot of friends that's fished there and it seemed, it just seemed like it was a little bit off this, the week we were there, which has been how the classics have gone the past couple of years, but,

Tigs: um,

Robert Gee: I've fished a few lakes in Oklahoma and it's, it's usually a good state, a lot of three and three plus pounders.

But I was surprised that it was kind of tough, but the wind didn't really help help out It was the wind was blowing real bad the whole whole time. I was there So

Tigs: that's really what's tougher to fish when it's like that that makes it makes it super tough makes it super tough Well, we'll we'll kind of circle back to that.

I want to go What got you into this? Like, where did this begin for Robert G? First of all, let me let me before we jump into that. I have to say this is how how Robert is, how we met, how he and I met was, uh, I was at Toledo Ben and we've talked about this on on our Bassmaster elite. We kind of did a recap show and all that stuff.

But I'm at Toledo Ben. Robert had pulled up and he's in the top 10 doing well. I think it was day 10. Day three, two or two, day two. And, uh, he comes in, he had a sack. I'd been watching him. So I was just standing there to see what he was going to pull out of his live. Well, I knew where to go. I mean, I'm from there.

So, uh, I'm standing there, I'm going, I'm going to

Blasi: interrupt you. Is this the guy? That you started talking like his mom started

Tigs: talking to you. Yes. Okay. Keep going. Okay.

Blasi: Robert, I didn't even know this. He told me the story. He was so excited. He was so giddy. It was like, you know, beside himself, like a kid in a candy store, but continue, continue

Tigs: on.

All right. I was, it's, it's so awesome. And I love your mom, miss joy. So, so I'm standing there watching, uh, watching. Pull up and I hear this little voice like, I'm going to stand behind you. So my son can't see me. And I went, okay, that's fine. Who's your son? And she started pointing at him. And I went, okay, yeah, well, hey, I went, oh, okay, well, he's had him a good day today.

That's why I'm standing here. I want to see what he pulls out. And, uh, and so we just, we, we just hit it off and started visiting and, And then just kept, I was still over there doing something else. We ran into, ran into her again and then Ended up talking to Robert and she thanks to her. That's why he's on here.

True full disclosure She's like, yes, he will come on your podcast and with okay You don't have a choice now. Okay, mama.

Robert Gee: She's never met a

Tigs: stranger. I believe that and I didn't Because you know as you know being up there, there's no cell service or it's Comes, it goes, it's spotty. So, and I wasn't able to watch a lot of live.

I was able to watch some, but I didn't see the way in because I was there, but apparently during the way in that they had her on the first day, your mom was going, cutting up and they, everybody, yeah, she's not, everybody knows who your mom is on the tour. There's no doubt. That's a good thing.

Blasi: That's awesome.

That's so, that's, that's actually

Tigs: super cool. Well, I love, I love it. The, I mean, That's the number one driver in this sport. And I think you would agree that if you don't have a family, your family behind you, if they're not with you, then you can't do it. You just can't do it. Whether it be if you're married, your, your wife, your kids, your mom, your dad, your parents, and, and you seem to really have that support system in place, man.

No doubt.

Robert Gee: I can't thank them enough. They've always, they've always wanted me to, uh, chase my dreams and, and And I am, so they've never, uh, said anything bad about it. And they've always, always supported me like that.

Tigs: Yeah. They didn't kind of ever make you like that's a pipe dream, man. Like, you know, of course you want to be a professional bass fisherman, everybody does, but you got to live it.

You're here. You are, I mean, you're doing it. So where, where did this start? Where did this whole journey begin, man?

Robert Gee: So it all began when I was around like two years old. Um, So I've always grown up around the lake and everything. And my, my grandparents have my grandparents and my parents have a lake house side by side in the mountains of North Carolina.

So when I was two years old, it was when I first caught my first fish. Um, I don't really even really remember it. I just have pictures to document it on the dock down there with crickets catching like crappie and bluegill. And just from there, I've always loved fishing. Every time we went over there in the summertime.

And I stayed with my grandparents a lot growing up just because they lived over there on the lake. My grandpa was a big outdoorsman. He, uh, he was a big fisherman, hunter, cone hunter, the whole nine yards. Um, so I always grew up in the woods with him and he would take me fishing. And every Saturday growing up when, from about five years old, To when I was really getting into like bass fishing competitively, I would go fishing with them on Saturdays, um, just for anything that bite with live bait, like minnows, night crawlers, we have night fish with night crawlers for walleye, just, just getting bit was the thing, like, we're going to go catch fish to have a fish fry, you know?

Like that was, that's really what got me into it was just catching them and catching them to eat, you know? Yeah, that's right. And, uh, I really didn't get into like the competitive scene till I got, like, I started getting the bass bug when I was, when I was like that in 10 years old range, because I've caught a few really big bass, like by accident, honestly.

And it was just awesome to reel them in and seeing them jump. And that was just where it started from there and started specifically going for when I was like probably 12. And from that 12 to 16, I was just consumed by like watching Bass Master on Sundays and everything like that. And that's when YouTube started going and Bass Master putting their old tournament videos on YouTube and just watching those, just really getting the fundamentals of bass fishing down.

And I would just go to my neighborhood ponds and sneak on the golf courses and fish the ponds before I get kicked out. And just with my buddies here in Knoxville and a lot of good memories doing that and, um, So we had a boat growing up like an old glass stream, like a 1990s glass stream boat with like a 115 Johnson.

And that was my boat growing up as well as a little John boat I would take out because it didn't have a 10 horsepower and I could go by myself on the way. But um, That's where I've kind of, I've always been around boats and fishing out at like making my own decisions where I was going to fish. Right.

Yeah. But, uh, when I got 16, I was really wanting to fish a tournament because I never had before. Like I never, nobody had ever taken me. So first tournament I ever entered was me and my buddy. He was also 16 and, uh, we had, I would fish out of that. Um, at the time we had, we, we upgraded a little bit. We had a 2003 Triton.

18 footer with the 150 Yamaha on it and I mean, I was 16 years old, just barely could drive a truck.

Tigs: And, uh, that was a, that was a major upgrade by the way, from the first boat, major upgrade.

Robert Gee: And, um, I mean, I didn't have, but I did have graphs with maps at the time. That was the only. Really the only thing, I mean, I had 2d and side scan.

It was the first HDS Lowrance sevens that came out, the gin ones. And I didn't know how to use them. I was 16. Like, I mean, I, I knew the pros had them and I knew I needed to learn, but I was basically bank beating at the time, flipping and cranking, because that's a big thing where I was cranking. So that first year of tournament fishing, we joined the club and fished every Tuesday and Thursday night.

Uh, we didn't ever, we never won any tournaments that year because we were still learning and Yeah, like all the old men had all their honey holes and . We, we placed a few times, got, I think our highest finish that year was second, which, which it was so fun just getting money at the end of the tournament.

And

Tigs: that's really what, yeah, it was. When you're 16 years old and you're going against those sticks Mm-Hmm. and you're competing, it pisses them off, dude. Sure. I had that, I had some experiences like that when I was, you know. Or in my, in my late teens, early twenties. And they, they were some guys that just like, they, they didn't want to help you for sure.

And, and they, they, they, you were on your own, you didn't get any help. And then back in those days we would draw team tournaments and, you know, you would draw their co angler. I never got put on fish. I can tell you that. Still to this

Robert Gee: day, like I can, I can say I've always like all the club tournaments growing up.

I always fished with someone that was my, around my age. So it wasn't like a fished with fish tournaments with like a mentor or anybody. It was all self taught knowledge. Yeah. Yeah. Trial and error, if that makes sense.

Tigs: Yeah. So you know,

Robert Gee: yeah, at the time when I was 16, like fishing in high school, I know high school was a huge deal.

High school fishing is a really huge deal right now. And it's so big and it's awesome for the sport growing it. But I never fished a like sanctioned high school tournament. I started my basketball at my high school, but I was, I played sports in high school, so I never really, I was a big baseball player.

So that was, that's all I did in the spring. I never, I never had the time to face those high school tournaments because I was playing ball.

Tigs: You were offered scholarship and what was that? Golf? He played baseball. Oh, baseball.

Blasi: Sorry. I couldn't hear you. It got a little

Tigs: loud in here. We

Robert Gee: had not going to try to brag, but we were like the best team in the state.

Our coaches, the most winning is high school baseball coach in the country, in the state ever. He's has like 12 state championships. And, uh, I got

Tigs: to, or did you play catcher? Oh, you catch her. Okay. I can see you doing something there. Yep. Yeah.

Robert Gee: Actually. I got to play with a few MLB All Stars in high school, which

Tigs: was pretty cool.

Like who? Name drop them. Come on. So

Robert Gee: I caught, uh, I don't know if you know him, but he's the opening day starter for the Braves, Spencer Strider. I was his

Tigs: catcher. Heck yeah! What? I was his catcher in high school. Holy cow, man. That's insane. So,

Robert Gee: yeah, he's one of my good buddies and we graduated together and everything like that.

Wow. I played baseball with him growing up from when we were like 10 years old to when we graduated. It's just crazy to

Tigs: see. That hand still stings, doesn't it?

Robert Gee: Thinking about Yeah, he definitely broke my hand a few times. Oh yeah, he was, he was throwing 9 6 97 in high school.

Tigs: Isn't that crazy? Holy cow. I would say that he probably didn't give up a whole lot of hits.

And y'all won those, those games, ? Oh yeah, he did.

Robert Gee: He was, uh, I don't think he lost one in high school to be honest. Um, probably

Tigs: not. That's insane. Those cats that end up like that, they generally don't. That's amazing. Uh, he's done well. That's really cool, man. Not

Robert Gee: a lot of people know that about me, but so yeah, I had baseball offers because I mean, the heights thing though, I'm only five, seven.

So that kind of, uh, the D one school really didn't want to come after me. Cause I didn't have the, you know, the height they were wanting. I didn't fit their category,

Tigs: but

Blasi: I bet you could throw them out a second off

Tigs: your knee. Couldn't you? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I had

Robert Gee: a good arm and

Tigs: I got on FaceLive. Why would that matter though, really?

At the day, you're catching and you're hitting. I don't know. I

Robert Gee: guess, I guess I didn't hit enough home runs for like D1, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't have the pop that they needed. But, so I got D2 and uh, Juco offers, but at the time I had the bass bug, like the fishing tournament scene, like I was fishing tournaments already.

And, um, I knew a guy from my high school that was on the fishing team at Tennessee. And I was, and I, starting that year, I was like, I really want to just go to Tennessee and fish on the fishing team. So, and I'd been watching the college fishing thing for a few years. And I know like Jordan Lee and those guys fishing in college at Auburn.

So I was really looking to either go into Auburn or Tennessee. If I didn't play baseball in college just to go to be on the fishing team since I didn't have the opportunity to go to like a small school that gave scholarships for fishing because I knew I could get go there and be on the team without getting a scholarship, but I could compete against them.

I'd be a walk

Tigs: on. Right, right.

Robert Gee: Well, ended up choosing Tennessee to go fish there because it was close to home and I could go take my boat out every evening and go fish, like fish the local tournaments and. Just get better at fishing because I had a lot to learn. I didn't fish those high school tournaments because of baseball.

So, and that's really when it went from zero to 100 in my bass fishing, um, this kind of deal, uh, that's when I started fishing every day and learning. everything. Um, that's when I started learning how to ledge fish and trust my electronics once I got to college because it was real big back then. It was side scan and finding schools offshore.

And I learned how to do that on an 18 foot Triton with HDS seven gen ones and just seeing the advancements that we've had today in the electronics is just crazy. From yeah, remember looking at those screens to now, but how long

Tigs: ago was that was in today?

Robert Gee: 2017 2018. Okay,

Tigs: isn't that crazy?

Blasi: Just in like you're talking about like a you know, seven year time span six seven year time span What's happened?

Tigs: But anyway, I just thought I mean, it's crazy. It's literally and we'll get it back. We're gonna get into we're gonna get into technology here in a little bit but it is Night and day, it's almost the equivalent now of what you're out five, six, seven years ago is dang near like a flasher was in the 70s compared to a black and white 2D scan in the 90s.

Like it's that kind of a leap, but in a five year span, it's nuts. But, uh, but yeah, so you, you did, you didn't fish high school, then you go on and you go into college and you, and you go to, go to Tennessee. Yeah. And start to fish that that is that is a question. Um, What are some of the schools? Cause I know that some of the guys, I've got a kid here in my neighborhood, uh, who, who had questions of how do you become an elite, uh, an elite angler?

I know that your path kind of started there in college. How, uh, I mean, what is some advice that you can give to some kids out there that are wanting to do that? Shout out Hayden Wallace. Um, what is some advice that you could give to kids that are wanting to go in What do they need to do? What are some schools where they potentially could get some full rides?

I know Auburn is one of the ones that's pumped out a lot of, a lot of these pro anglers that are out there these days.

Robert Gee: So a lot of the smaller NAIA private schools, they, they, um, their fishing team is scholarship sport at their school. So they have their own coach and. Their own money they get allocated from the university to give scholarships for them to come and fish so that and but that's basically Kind of got to get recruited from high school do well in the high school tournament you and your partner And that's how you get into the to the scholarship realm of college fishing.

I chose to do it the The hard way, which was the Walkon way. So I went to a SEC, like all the SEC schools, big division one schools, they don't recognize the fishing team as a real scholarship sport.

Tigs: Like a, a sanctioned, it's a

Robert Gee: club sport similar to like the hockey teams down south. Yeah. So it's similar on that realm.

So they, they give you like $2,000 a year and that's, and you gotta raise your money yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So that really helped me with the, uh. Professional fishing side, because for the past, for the five years, I was in college, our team had to get our own sponsors and make our own relationships and sponsors.

Oh, you learn how to

Tigs: hustle

Blasi: from like an early, yeah. Like from the get gate. Yeah. Yeah. That's just right.

Tigs: That's

Robert Gee: kind of like a division one school like that. It's, it's really good training grounds to go straight into the opens like that, because you don't have a coach telling you where to go or what to do and a coach getting you there.

The sponsors that your team needs and everything like that. So you've got to fund yourself to get to the tournaments and then learn how to fish those lakes without any knowledge. Just by just by research you on

Tigs: your own. Yeah. I mean, that, that's going to make you a heck of an angler because you are getting that feedback from your other teammates, you know, I would think y'all are kind of, y'all are all hanging out together, staying in the same place.

You're going to be chatting, talking. You're all really trying to get better. All of you are trying to get better in that environment. It's just going to make you a better fisherman. You're going to learn a lot of stuff because I don't think you can do it. If you don't do it by trial by fire, you're out there.

Do you

Blasi: were basically a pro fisherman when you went into college? I mean, basically what you're saying, you know what I mean? You're out there grinding. You're out there trying to get your own sponsorship. You're trying to do everything on your own, right?

Robert Gee: Yes, I would compare it to like a so you know how baseball has like single a triple or double a triple a like college fishing nowadays, especially if you go to like a division one school where they don't, they don't like fund your program.

It's like a single a professional fishing league because I mean, we fished probably Right. 10 to 15 tournaments a year, which we're all out of state at bodies of water. We had never even been to or seen huge lakes like Toledo. And we went to Toledo, been in college and Sam Rayburn and huge lakes like that.

Like Florida, I fished anywhere from Florida, New York, Michigan, uh, Wisconsin,

Tigs: Oklahoma, Texas. A lot of those same places that the elite series are the opens that same, you know, lakes, which, I mean, I think that's a brilliant strategy to take the college kids and spread the everyone out. You have to fish.

You, you learn how to fish in the South. You learn how to fish up North. You learn how to fish all these different types of fisheries. It's just going to make you a better fisherman. I think that's what we're seeing now. The proof is in the pudding. It's you guys. I mean, look at the pass master elite rookie class this year.

I think they're what they're nine or 10 of you guys that are rookies. They're all hammers, all of ya, and, I mean, it's gonna be a dogfight to see who, who, uh, who wins Angler of the Year, Rookie of the Year, just in that. It's gonna be crazy because they're all hammers, but it's a product of a lot of you young guys coming up in that system and in that environment, that training ground.

It's made y'all as good as you are. today, wouldn't you agree?

Robert Gee: Oh yeah, that is the only reason I'm on the elite series. It was the college series fishing, going and fishing all those tournaments and learning, um, just how to break down different bodies of water and just seeing all these different types of fisheries that weren't similar.

Like if I would have just tried to fish all the BFLs and local tournaments at home, I wouldn't have learned an eighth of what I'd learned fishing in college going all over the place. Fishing these different lakes that I'd never seen, didn't know anything about. And it's kind of crazy. Like this year on the elites, our schedule came out, we had a college tournament while in my five years of college fishing there, I think we have nine events, seven of the nine I'd had a college terminal.

Oh, wow.

Tigs: So it's not like that's awesome, dude. That's all. Yes. Yeah.

Blasi: So you had, familiarity, even though you were there and you got to go in and practice, you knew that place already because you've been there and

Tigs: you know

Robert Gee: a little bit about it. So it's like not like I'm walking into somewhere that's completely new.

So that's that's a cool thing about college. Like most of the places we've I've been in on the pro circuit, like whether it be the opens last year for the elites this year, I've majority like over 80 percent of the places I've been to before. Fish very close and nearby to it. So I know a little bit what could go wrong.

Right.

Tigs: And that's, that's gotta give you some kind of a sense of, of just ease your mind a little bit, because you know where to stay most likely at some of these places you've kind of, you've already gone there that that would take the nerves out of that part, the travel. I mean we we hadn't even got to all of that.

It's amazing What you guys have to go through to joke. I mean on paper. It sounds amazing I want to be a professional bass fisherman. I go out and chase these little green fish all day I go to the weigh ins weigh them and then I Go on to the next gig. Yeah, it ain't that easy at all at all. It's a lot of,

Robert Gee: yeah, basically a truck

Tigs: driver, truck driver, rock show.

I mean, it is in a sense of rock show. Once it goes, there's all of that stuff. It's what it looked like. It to lead a bit paid to

Blasi: travel and you fish for free. That's right, but that's about the same thing, ain't it?

Tigs: Yes. Yeah, exactly. It's

Blasi: exactly right. Hey, Rob, I got a question for you that I'm gonna throw you off a little bit.

So, I'm curious, like, dude, this is still, like, you're jumping into an event, like, this is, like, this is a competition, brother, you know what I mean, like, I don't care what level that, whatever you're doing, I don't care if it's football, baseball, basketball, you're about to jump into a competition, when you get into that, like, What do you do to get hyped up?

Is there something you do to get hyped up? Or is there something you do just to chill out? Music wise, do you have music? Do you have a routine there that you do? Like you want to listen to something to get your mind right? How do you get yourself level to jump into that event?

Robert Gee: So, um, yeah fishing is similar to like more of a baseball kind of strategy you have to play in your head.

Like football, like playing football you always like to get jacked up and like Real amped up listening to loud music. I can rock her wrapped and like ready to go bang my head against the wall, you know, kind of efficient as more of a, like, you have to be extremely calm and, um, just have a clear mind, like really calm and just not the nerves can't get to you because you gotta, gotta be just very, I don't listen to any Mozart or anything like that, but I just kind of try to listen to some, uh, Like either country or like more mellow stuff just to just to breathe real slow And so I can take everything in while I'm running down the lake He's kind of kind of have to slow everything down or you can get real Real spun out if you get going too fast

Blasi: Yeah, that makes perfect sense so you're actually so let me ask you this so that on that question You're on the water.

Are you listening to something to kind of channel yourself to get yourself into like a chill position? So you're not, again, you're not panicking. You're not like getting too excited. Like you're, are you doing that as you're heading out? Are you listening to music?

Robert Gee: Um, sometimes, but most of the time, no, I'm just kinda, I kinda like to be more like with nature, you know what I mean?

Like no music, just kind of letting. Hearing the birds singing and just taking in the morning like the Sunrise and everything like that just kind of try to be one with nature. No, I get

Blasi: it. That makes sense So I grew

Tigs: up on

Blasi: And I was in golf to me would be like very because I fished a bunch growing up too Very very similar right and it's just about getting yourself into an even space and like a really calm space so you go out there and You know, nothing takes you into a different, you know, like, let's just stay chill, let's stay calm, like no matter what happens,

Tigs: let's get this thing going, that's it, let's stay

Blasi: clear.

So it's not like, again, football, you're trying to take somebody's head off or, you know, baseball, you know, bouncing around the room or anything. So yeah, that, that, that's awesome. That's super cool. Yes, sir. I would love

Tigs: another beer.

Robert Gee: Yeah, I'll just try to stay calm and

Tigs: I mean, that's really that, that's what you have to do.

I wondered, that was one of the questions I had is if you had a, had any rituals or anything like that, that you do before. I always listened whenever I was fishing, I listened to Metallica's of wolf and man. on the way to the lake. And then that got me jacked and I spun out in every tournament I ever fished.

There were two reels at once,

Blasi: weren't you too? It's like,

Tigs: exactly. Exactly. It did obviously didn't work out for me, Robert. Here we are. I have a podcast. You became

Blasi: like

Tigs: a podcast legend. Exactly. Yeah. In my own mind, maybe. That's awesome. But yeah, so, so fishing that college career, you do that and then, then you fish the Bassmaster Opens.

You, did you, you made it just last year, didn't you? Or when did you, when did, and then you fished the Opens last year as well. Wow. That was the first year you fished the opens too, right?

Robert Gee: Yes. My last year in college, they have a deal in the Bassmaster college trail, where if you finish in the top 10 in angler of the year in the college trail, you get an automatic entry to the opens.

Where that means like you get to enter into the opens and get guaranteed a spot before the, uh, signups even are released to the public. And it's always a big deal. Like the signups for the Bassmaster Opens and College series like that, like it's, they're hard to get into. Like you have to be sitting there on your computer refreshing the page, the sign up as soon as they open it or you're not gonna get in.

Like, a lot of people don't know about that. Like you gotta be right there when it signups open.

Tigs: It's like, like getting tailored swift tickets.

Robert Gee: Yes, exactly. It's very similar. Yeah. So when I got that, I was like, I have to do this because, because in college I've drove to tournaments practice for three days, not knowing if I would be even in the tournament because I was on the wait

Tigs: list, you know?

Oh wow, man. So I was like,

Robert Gee: I know that's, that's happened in college series. So it's definitely going to happen in the opens. So I have automatic entry. I have to do this now because. They give the top 25 and points every year in the open automatic entry for the next year to come. So I was like, I got to do this.

I got to find some sponsors to help me pay for this because this is what, like, this is my shot to getting the foot in the, my foot in the door. And it just, I mean, going into it, I was giving myself three or four years to give it a try to try to make the elites and lo and behold, nine tournaments later, I qualified.

It's amazing. And I was on nobody's radar. Like nobody would have expected me, but it

Tigs: happened. Thank you. The quiet assassin. I love it, dude. People know who you are now, brother. I mean,

Blasi: it's actually, that's so badass. Really? It really

Tigs: is.

Blasi: You know what I mean? Like that's, that's, that's everything. Like you go out there, you do your work, you know, you didn't listen to anybody else.

And like, if you, cause you had listened to everybody else. You, you, yeah, they were all decided up and left a long time ago. Right. But you listen to yourself. You knew what you were about and you went out there and you got it done, dude, here you are

Tigs: today. So. Bet on yourself. I think Old brother. Yeah. Bet on yourself, man.

Yes you did. Yeah. and that, uh, there's no, there's nothing that is better. That's, that's the, that's America man. That's the true story of what, what people love to hear. Oh, that you knows everything to dos and, and yes, you did. And you took a gamble on yourself. And, and it's pay, it's paying off big time. And it, it's, it's incredible to see.

It really is. Uh, what would you say? I mean, what would you say is probably been your hardest obstacle that you faced through college and before now jumping into the elites were too early in the elite thing to really know what your obstacle, what, what that is at this point, but what would you say so far in your career of fishing has been the hardest, most difficult thing that you've had to go through?

Robert Gee: Um, I would say last year, like going from college, like being in college to try to tell all these companies, like, try to just get my foot in the door with sponsors. Like, I didn't know, I didn't know anybody to like really call them, you know, but I, uh, I was fortunate enough to end up getting, My entry fees paid for for the opens and a little gas money.

So that, but that was, it was pretty difficult. I didn't end up getting all that till like the week before I left to my first open. So that would, that was the hardest part, but then it just kind of unfolded from there. And

Tigs: that's fantastic.

Robert Gee: But, but yeah, like my first couple of payments I paid for to, to get like sign up for the opens last year was literally the money I'd been winning in like the, Tuesday and Thursday night or out here on Fort Loudon Lake.

Okay, that's that's basically what I was doing in college just to to have money on the side is just fishing from March the 1st to October the 15th, you know, in every weeknight tournament locally and putting my money in the fruit jar after that. You know what I mean? To try to fish the opens after I got out of college.

I mean, that's what I was doing.

Tigs: Wow. Fishing every day. That's what you got to do to get good. I mean, you know, you pay it, paying those, paying those dues, dude. Yeah.

Robert Gee: From like 2019 to 2023, I probably fished for five days out of the seven days of the week, even if I went after class for two hours, that, that was my goal is just.

At least go out there and try to learn something or just get bit today. You know what I mean? Right, exactly. I keep my instincts sharp and just be dialed in. Stay dialed in, dude, I totally get it. Which is, it's harder now, once you're a pro, you gotta go to all these events, uh,

Tigs: like the classes a lot. Well, there's a lot of distractions.

I would think you're not just head down going from lake to lake and fishing. You have other obligations now that you have to fulfill with your sponsors and you know, all of that stuff. It's a business. I mean, you know this, but it's all a business. Every part of it. Oh yeah, absolutely. The fishing is probably the easiest part of the whole, not, it's not easy, but like, that's probably the time.

That's when you let go a little bit. Now I'm just fishing. Now I'm just fishing.

Robert Gee: Okay. That's the most relaxing part.

Tigs: And that's the whole name of the game. That's what's amazing about that is that that's the most relaxing part of it. And yet it's the whole, it's the show.

Blasi: It's the question though. It's like you do this for a living.

Like when you're out there, I know you're competing and I know it's like, it's grind and it's like getting cast in and it's all this. But I'm just curious. Do you still enjoy, do you still enjoy yourself when you're, do you feel like you're fishing, like, you know what I mean? Or do you feel like you're just out there like a machine trying to do this and trying to get reps in, like, or do you actually still enjoy the action of fishing?

I'm

Tigs: just curious.

Robert Gee: Um, yeah, I still enjoy like catching it like that. That will never get old.

Tigs: Catching never gets old. Catching never gets old.

Robert Gee: That's the thing that I'm addicted to. You know what I mean? Yeah. So yes, but like exactly going out there. But I go some type most of the time to like these new lakes we're going to and just scan for three days and not make a cast.

Just to try to find, like break down the air that that's a little, that's not that fun. You know what I mean? But it's just something you gotta do to be, yeah, to be able to compete against these guys that's fished these lakes for 30

Tigs: years. Yeah. I think that's a good, that's a good segue into. Talking about what happened whenever you fished your first Bassmaster Elite Tournament on Toledo Bend, you know, how, how did you come to Toledo Bend and find those fish that basically that, that, that you found?

And I have some clips, I'm going to show some clips of, of some of the amazing footage of his, of his fish catches and what they showed on, on BassLive in the moment live from Toledo. They had his live scope screen. We can see him catch. He's fishing. We're gonna get him to walk us through that, but I want to go back.

So your first event, your first pro Bassmaster Elite event is at my home lake of Toledo Bend. And, uh, and, and I was pumped to finally get to go up there, be around the, the Bassmaster again, since it's been a, been a few years since they've been in Louisiana. And, um, so. So I get up there and all of that fun stuff.

You guys had been on the lake for a few days practicing. When you come to Toledo bend, what is your, how do you break that lake down? Where do you begin to go? And then how do you. Narrow it down to where you found your fish because I know exactly where you were fishing in some of those areas. It's, you know, I could, I could watch it.

How'd you find those fish? Because that is not where tournaments are usually won. Yeah. Where you, where you were catching them.

Robert Gee: So basically I came there in 2023 for the open we had. And, uh, I'd never been to Toledo before that. Like we had the college tournament there, but I hadn't. a big exam that week, so I couldn't go when we were going to go there in college, so I never got to experience it.

And we had more days of practice down there in the opens. So, and that lake is huge. Like everybody had told me like, Oh, it's a huge, it's a big lake. Like don't get spun out. Like kind of keep yourself within one little area and break that part down. Yeah. But in practice last year, I was all over the place.

Like

Tigs: ran it from top

Robert Gee: to bottom. Just running around like crazy, burning gas, and that's one thing I realized this year, what I can't, what I can't do is just running all over the place and fishing new areas because that lake, to me, it seems like there's like sections that fish can put fish completely different.

Tigs: And it's

Robert Gee: like five lakes into one. And like some of the creeks are like a Different lake

Tigs: and, uh, their own deal. So

Robert Gee: from last year, my seven days at Toledo Bend, I, I felt like I knew, like the section I liked the best. So when I came back for pre-practice in January, that's the only pla it was during that real bad cold storm.

Okay. And uh, the wind was blowing like crazy and it was like 24 degrees every day. You know what I mean? that, does it sound like I never got to really. I never really got to run around the lake. So I would always have to put in, put in the creeks just so I didn't get blown away or sink the boat.

Tigs: Exactly.

And, uh,

Robert Gee: so I found fish around like the creeks and basically what I was doing was what I was doing at home. Like just looking like this, how I was catching the sea. I was looking for that because we were catching them pretty good here in Tennessee doing that. Yeah. I was, I was just trying to find like bait ball fish like that.

And when I was there in January, like we'd had the tournament there in January, it would have been unbelievable because the schools I saw like the schools of fish I saw swimming that week was unbelievable. Like you would see like trains of bait that would go on for a quarter of a mile, just solid bait, and then you would see probably 50 to a hundred bass tight in a school.

Swimming through it like, like tuna, bluefin or yellowfin tuna. Just destroying this bait underwater on LiveScope. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. And these fish were all like four to six pounds. It was, it was incredible. Like every day you go out there, you'd catch 24 to 28 pounds. And I really wish we could have went and I wish I turn it would have been in January because it was truly

Tigs: unbelievable.

Holy cow. You're paying off then, right? Yeah, I

Robert Gee: knew that's what I needed to find when I, or hopefully that would still be going on when I come back, when I came back. And, um, so I started just, I was like, this is what I, like, I've seen the fish in pre practice to come back. And if I can find them somewhere doing this, when I come back.

I'll have a shot to like win, you know what I mean? Right. And in practice, when I came back in February, it was, uh, it was, they were a lot harder to find. And like some of my good areas, like where I caught them, where they showed on Bassmaster, where I was starting every day in that Creek, that was where I found one of the biggest schools and pre practice.

But when I went back, they were a lot smaller, but it still allowed me to catch a limit early every day and get my confidence up going into the day. So the fish were a lot more scattered out when we went back and, uh, I really, they were kind of more in single group, like either two fish here or like just one single, but they would be in an area, if that makes sense.

They were getting ready to go up there and spawn for the most part. Right. And, um, that's kind of how I figured it out. Like everywhere I was fishing was leading into where they would spawn and I was just staying. I was staying in between those places from the main lake to where they would go spawn. And I was just intercepting him.

So kind of like

Tigs: they're kind of staging area for sure. Yeah. And so they'll stay. What happens with a bass like that? Once they do their thing, they come back out. They're in Rome. Mm-Hmm. . Um, and then they get back kind of once the fall. It's, I mean, they're just following the bait, I would think. You find the bait and, you know, find the fish.

I guess it's really more the bait leaves the back of those coves once the water starts to warm up, and then the fish are just, they're gonna follow, follow the bait. So they go back out, makes them, and basically why do they bunch up so much in the winter when it gets cold? Why do you think that is?

Robert Gee: Basically because of the, the, like the lakes always have a drawdown in the wintertime and it takes those fish that love to be up in the bushes and on the lay downs, like those lay downs are out of the water most of the time. So they come out and suck out to the middle of the drains and everything like that.

And they just like to, they like to go out there and chase bait because I don't know, in the fall time of the year, you're going down the bank, throwing a spinner bait, like, And you see them out in the middle of the pocket blowing up on shad and you throw a spook over there and catch them. It's basically the same fish that are blowing up on those bait on top that are just sunk down in the water column.

And they just fall, and they just, those, that bait swims through the pocket, attracts all the bait that's living on the bank, and they just follow them and go out to the main lake. That's where they kind of live is just feeding in the wintertime. That's their winter haunt. And then it kind of all evolves from there.

The water starts warming back up. They they're pushing to the, the baits pushing to the warmer water. And it's just coming, they're going out and then coming back in, in the springtime. So that's, that's really, that was kind of my game plan. Yeah. And I got to capitalize on the single fish that were just roaming out there.

Yeah. Never

Tigs: really got around those big schools that I'd seen in January. Let's look at a couple of these clips. These are from Bassmaster. Uh, let's watch two of these. Both of these went viral because Really? And I told you this there at the lake that day, what was funny is that he didn't know how viral these things had gone.

I was like, no, dude, he knew. He was like, yeah, I heard they were kind of blowing up. I went, no, man, they're blowing up like they're really blowing up. Like, because

Blasi: what kind of blowing up,

Tigs: going up, blowing up good. So check this video out. This is one of the first videos, uh, really that I've ever seen in professional bass fishing.

Where it was just because you can see the live scope that he had in his boat is in the is in the feed of the broadcast feed. Check this out, Blasey. Yeah, I don't believe you've seen this. A lot of our leaders in this tournament said Those fish will actually, the bass, you see his bait going down right there, you notice how that bass is above the school of bait?

Robert Gee: Got him, got him, got him,

Blasi: got him. I did see this, this was, this was

Tigs: Rob, I didn't know this. This was fantastic. This is really, really bizarre. On this lake, a lot of the leaders have said, the fish will actually

Robert Gee: suspend above the bait, and rest, and then go down

Tigs: into the bait. There are a lot of places we've been to, there are a lot of people who know this, they're below the bait.

And we'll come up through it. That is not the case here on Toledo. A lot of those fish suspend above the pods of bait, the blankets of bait.

Robert Gee: These things are pretty funny. They, uh, swim straight to the boat. Because they're very curious creatures. They, uh,

Tigs: Oh damn, that was Bob

Blasi: that did that. I saw that. I was looking at that and this whole, you know, all this scope stuff.

And I was looking, I was like, man, not only are you seeing them like y'all are like now redefining what you thought fish should be doing in that moment. And it's like, that's you, dude. I did not know that that was you. Yeah. Brantley shared that with me. And I was like, I watched that over and over again, thinking that is so

Tigs: cool.

It's unbelievable. And then what, watch, watch this one. This was from the next day. It's a horse. A very good scenario.

Robert Gee: Wow,

Tigs: that was you running in the whole time, huh? Yeah. That's crazy. I feel like I'm in,

Blasi: I feel like I'm back in the calf lab looking at like different,

Tigs: like seriously, it's the same type of

Blasi: imaging that you have to look at, you don't know what you're looking at, you don't know what you're seeing, but you,

Tigs: you exactly,

Robert Gee: look at that, that's crazy.

Ocean ponies. Ocean ponies. I heard Daryl Gleason, somebody call him that, here one Dom Dom. That's what they are, ocean ponies, they swim out here like sharks in the ocean. Ocean ponies. That's what I'm talking about, I came back, I came back to where I've been, I've been out in the bigs. They're here. They're here.

I don't, I don't come in here until evening, Tom. They're here

Tigs: now. Big Rob,

Blasi: just dropping it on them. I mean, that's, that's who you are. That's what you do,

Tigs: ain't it? That's right. That's exactly

Blasi: who he is. Come on, you need to bow your neck a little bit more. You need to take, seriously, you need to look at yourself and be like, you know, I mean, I know I'm a damn, damn fish catching pimp.

It's exactly who

Tigs: I am, you know, that's who you are, dude, that's what you do,

Blasi: you catch fish, you're a fish catching pimp,

Tigs: dude, he does it, he does it, but man, that's, that's one of the coolest things to, to, to be able to watch how, and it wasn't, those are, those are the two highlights, fish catches, but that on that actual live, and you can go back on Bassmaster, search Toledo Bend, I believe that was day two.

Yeah, that was day two. Uh, one and two. Go back and watch those. Robert put on a class of how to fish with LiveScope, how it works. He walked you through everything, what he was doing, the line, the rod, the technique. I mean, I know you didn't give all of it away, but you gave a lot of it away. I mean, and I think that's part of what, what some folks are maybe, Maybe upset about in the fishing world a little bit and not you, but that that this is now out the genie is out of the bottle.

The rabbit is out of the hat. You can catch fish with this. You're educating

Blasi: people. Educators like don't hate him. He's just showing you how to do something. You know, that's exactly

Tigs: right. That's

Robert Gee: why I wanted to show it because it's super cool and awesome. And I love doing it. And there's been so much hate around it that like, Everybody's always saying like, Oh, it's so boring to watch.

Everybody's just looking at the back of their heads and they're just looking at their screens. But if you have the screen on and I'm walking through what's going on, it's really cool to watch. And I love watching like, I love watch, like whenever the MLF was at Toledo band, they were doing that a lot. I loved it because they were catching giant.

And, uh, I just thought

Tigs: it'd be cool to get the screen on. It's really cool. It's the way it should be. What? Why? I mean, I think if you're going to have it on bass lab, all these boats, as you know, like, okay, what, how much, how much is, how much, uh, did you spend on electronics on your rig? How, what is your setup?

How many screens do you have on your boat? I

Robert Gee: have, uh, five screens on my boat. Damn .

Tigs: Yeah. Which you have to though if you're fishing in the right house.

Blasi: I get it. Dude. He's a pro fisherman though. You got two. That's just, I was thinking he was gonna say three . I don't know why. But anyway,

Tigs: go ahead. Three up front.

Have three up front. Yeah. .

Blasi: I have no screens when I go Pompano fishing. But

Tigs: anyway, continue. You need to, you need to invest

Blasi: in that. Oh, I would love to. If if I could find a way to do that, I

Tigs: would do it. Oh yeah. Tell us about your screen. Yes. So yes, yes, yes. So if I was

Robert Gee: just. So we'll say this if I was paying for it, I would only have two up there one with my with my Like mapping and 2d sonar and then one for strictly live scope like I would definitely have that on there and the other ones for hummingbird 360, which I'm one of the hummingbird Minn Kota guys, so I'm blessed with the opportunity to run another screen with With the

Tigs: Yeah So, so do you, you're using everything, you're using the mapping, you're using, you're using 360 and you're using forward facing sonar.

I mean, so you're, and are, do you still use 2d at all?

Robert Gee: That's how I found those fish out there is running in those creeks and everything. And just when I saw the, in my in hole transducer. So.

Tigs: Okay, so we're just sitting back in the back with your main 2D screen. It shoots a beam

Robert Gee: through my boat hull while I'm running and keeps track of the depth.

But you can also see, like, where the bait is. Like, whenever you go over bait with your in hull, you can see it a little bit. Whenever I would see that, I would turn around, put my LiveScope down. And scope around for miles and miles until I ran into areas with concentration of fish and just marked them like that.

Tigs: It's just so something that I'm not used to fishing, but I would love to do it. I'm all, I'm all about it. Yeah. It's just a totally different deal. You're kind of hunting in a sense. You're, you're hunting more than you are really fishing. And, but to be able to stop watch, you know,

Robert Gee: uh, yeah, it's kind of like a, It's like whenever traditionally the only the best thing I can compare it to that we used to do is bed fish.

So yeah, yeah, you're hunting down the like people that love to bed fish. What they do is they put the troll motor on high and go in all these pockets and spawning flats and everything like that and just hunt around until they see one on a bed. That's pretty much, that's pretty much what I'm doing, but they're not on the bed.

They're actively

Tigs: chasing. They're just out in open water. That's right. Yep. We had, uh, we had time. They still have their own free will. Yeah. They, we had, they can choose whether they died or not. That's true. I just think it's so

Blasi: cool. It's like, it's, it's such a simple philosophy, really. Like, you know what I mean?

Like, it's just a simple. It's a slight shift. It's a major shift, but it's a slight shift. It's like, no, I'm just looking at them out here. I'm, y'all been looking

Tigs: at them for years right here. I'm looking at them over here. It's

Blasi: not that big of a deal. Like when I first heard of this Brantley, like, cause I'm just, uh, like again, outside looking in, I was like, I don't know.

It looks a little light. Cheating and this and all like it's really not dude. It's just freaking like it's just the next level of fishing

Tigs: You know, it's just the next advancement of technology It went from a paper graph to a flasher to 2d sonar black and white to Color 2D sonar to mapping to side imaging to 360 to forward facing sonar.

It's just the next look at you.

Blasi: I mean, unbelievable. Just laid it out

Tigs: so we can play it out. I really love to fish. I love bass fish. Yeah, it is my passion. Really covering it and just talking about it. I'm I'm better at talking about it.

Blasi: I know he's so he's so giddy. It's so funny. I just show up and I just have like some more personal questions and I'm like, Oh, Brantley's just so all over this.

He's over there. Just, just absolutely. Oh yeah. Taking it in his skin. Like I just need to show

Tigs: up. So many questions I have and won't even get to a quarter of them that I haven't. But it's okay. Yeah. I mean, that's

Blasi: okay. Going for like 50 something minutes. It's

Tigs: like, it's dang near an hour. There's

Blasi: so much here and Rob, hey, I appreciate the hell out of you because I'm like, I grew up bass fishing and like brim fishing, like just in ponds and you know, like on some rivers and you know, lakes a little bit, but I wasn't like major into it.

And Brantley, I met him and he was more into it than I was. And we were talking, he was, you know, give me different rigs and this. I was like, man, you really thought about this more than I ever thought about it. And I live on the beach now. So I do more surf fishing and I love surf fishing now, but. That's more passive fishing than active fishing.

You know what I mean? So, but I still love fishing. Fishing's phenomenal. So anytime I get to hear this, this is two weeks in a row now. We've had people and bass fishing. Dude, this kind of got me fired up. I really wanna start, like I wanna get for sure. I kinda get, I kind of want to engage and my buddy, uh, from Geneva, Todd Moat, he's a friend of mine.

His son fishes on the high school bass fishing team. He's got a heck of a

Tigs: setup there. Oh, that's the pit. That's the guy that you was sending the picture? Yeah, that's He does. He has a rig. He's ready. He's got the scope, everything. They were gunville and like,

Blasi: yeah, he had a house down here at the beach and he made a min on it and he just invested back in Geneva and fresh water fishing.

So they have a phenomenal setup there. And he's sending me all this stuff and Brantley sent me this stuff and I'm talking to you and like. It's got me excited about

Tigs: bass fishing. You know, March turned into our, the Tigs bets podcast turned into bass fishing in March as it should, as it will do next year.

It's prime time, baby. It's prime time for bass fishing. We had, uh, we had Tyler Stewart on last week, uh, MLF pro. I don't know if you know, Tyler. Uh, but he won.

Robert Gee: Yeah, I saw his big win. Yeah, he was a college. I'm pretty sure he was a college gap

Tigs: a little bit. He was he he started in the college deal and He and his buddy kind of kind of interesting here in your story.

Very similar He's just an mlf instead of basf Yeah, I

Blasi: like to I say kid like because i'm old like i'm i'm 50. So I use that term like loosely. Okay, so

Tigs: but yeah They are kids. They are kind of kids Uh, it's so weird to say but they're

Blasi: damn pros, you know, they're they're they're damn pro

Tigs: Absolutely. Yes.

Absolutely. Who, who are, speaking of pros, all right, so who are the guys that you, who were your heroes, who were your guys growing up, who, who inspired you to, to be where you're at?

Robert Gee: So I'd say, I mean, I, I like a lot, like, especially lately in the last like seven, eight years with all the people transitioning to YouTube and like get to see more of their backgrounds and stuff, but.

I would have to say probably I like, I really like Ott DeFoe since he's, he lives around me from Knoxville, Knoxville area. And we've kind of had, had the same fishing styles

Tigs: or

Robert Gee: I guess people don't think I fish like him since Toledo Bend happened, but I fish like

Tigs: Ott DeFoe. Okay. Most. Well, that's good.

That's when the fish are doing. Scrap them. You're a scrappy

Robert Gee: fisherman. Yeah. I'm a scrappy junk fisherman. Yeah. But, um, And I love Brian thrift. Um, that's, that's, that's who I try to style myself after is, um, the running gun kind of, um, kind of deal, like finding 150 spots and running them all in a day, just playing the odds of like, if I run all these, that 10 or 20 of these are, I'm going to catch fish out of, yeah,

Tigs: you run into some, yeah.

Yeah. Finding

Robert Gee: those little brush piles and sticks like that and running that, making them like. Five cast places. I really like doing that. And, uh, then just a bunch of other guys that, that are the offshore fish, like in the college guys, like Jordan Lee really looked up to him growing up. Cause he went, made it through the college series and everything like that.

And back to back classic, but basically all like all of the younger guys and stuff like that, like ought to foe Brian thrift, Jordan Lee, Justin Adkins on the MLF side. And

Tigs: Those guys that I mean, that's a good group of guys to want to to follow after for sure. They've all been extremely successful That's awesome.

That's awesome, man. And Yep. Yep. Yep. He's super he's a stick That's good, man. Uh, have you? Dude, I I love that cat. Yeah, I really do. I don't know him or anything, but he seems like he's just a good old Like what you see is what you get Out. Oh, yeah, he just a good dude, too You know and like jacob wheeler,

Robert Gee: too.

I forgot to leave him out. He's

Tigs: the best in the world Yeah, yeah, we can't leave jacob wheeler out Patrick

Robert Gee: walters those guys. Yeah. Yeah,

Tigs: man. It's so awesome right now because When that split first happened a few years back, you know, and a lot, cause to me BASS has always been the premier league of professional bass fishing.

I'm not knocking anything whatsoever. I do believe that MLF and now I do believe that it is its own awesome, amazing deal as well. But when that split happened, It was like, Oh man, some of my favorite, a lot of my favorite fishermen are leaving BASS and they're going over there. I didn't know how I was going to feel about it.

I was just going to give it a give it a chance. But at the time, I'm like, Oh, this is going to be bad for BASS. I don't know if they'll be able to survive this and like naive thinking really. But also knowing at that time, this is well before you their relationship with ESPN and I just heard rumblings and stuff like that.

So I knew it wasn't the, wasn't the best. And then that happened. I'm like, Oh man, but I'll tell you what, they had those changes. They've moved over and different stuff and they flat out. I they are back at the I don't know if they ever really left but it was questionable for a second But they're at the very top once again all of the the crop of fishermen yourself included That are in there now It's the best in the world.

There's no doubt man. There's no doubt. I just wish we could get to a point of where There was like the top 10 angler of the year point standing at the end of the year You In B. A. S. S. In the top 10 points standing in M. L. F. And we have a Super Bowl, a true so recall of bass fishing between the top 20 guys.

I mean, I think that we're in a world that one day that could potentially happen. I would love for that to happen. Yeah, I would too. That would be sick. Wouldn't that be sick, dude? And then you have the one true world champion. No doubt. I mean, I'd be fine, but I don't, you know, BASS probably would always want the Bassmaster Classic to be the crown jewel.

I think you could just use the Bassmaster Classic as that format somehow. And I, but I don't know, I don't know. That's something down the road. It's almost

Blasi: like, it feels like it's all right. So this is my ignorance right here when it comes to bass fishing. Cause as I grew up, like, like the Bassmaster Classic and you know what I mean, BASS, that was the ultimate elite to me in my mind was just like the PGA tour.

Yeah, you got live gold, you got PGA Tour. So is that what's happening now in bass fishing?

Robert Gee: Okay. I feel like it

Tigs: was. Yeah. Yeah. It's a perfect analogy.

Robert Gee: That's the best analogy.

Tigs: You gotta find a way to

Blasi: put those things together. Together and, you know, going back to waste like way back the day with the A FL and the NFC, you know what I mean?

Like, let's, let's get this, let's get this together, dude. Let's get the best in the world. Compete against each other at some point. You can have all this stuff throughout the year, but at the end of the day, let's, let's find a way to have the best of the best compete against each

Tigs: other. Period. Did it would be so yeah.

In

Robert Gee: one tournament.

Tigs: That'd be cool. Dude. It would be so awesome. I think one day it happened, maybe six bits. Classics.

Blasi: Yeah, I think about that. I

Tigs: mean, really, like we're just, why not? I'm all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we got to go. We need to start hustling up some sponsors to get those guys. And it ain't going to be cheap.

Blasi: We've had two of the best come in here in the last two weeks. It's true. Like,

Tigs: why can't we make this happen? You know? So

Robert Gee: I'm pretty sure they used to do that. The PAA, the professional anglers association. Yeah. I don't know if they, What happened to that? I wish they would come back.

Tigs: I do too. I mean, I think it would be a great way to just settle everything, you know, cause I like both, I mean, I love the MLF and I love BASS.

I, I, I'm, I want both leagues to succeed and do well because if that is the case, that means professional bass fishing is succeeding and there's still that, that, I mean, that's the biggest thing. Grow the sport. Grow the sport. Grow the sport. Classic is still

Robert Gee: the. Classic is still the Superbowl of bass fishing though.

Uh, yes. Like, this past weekend, just every time you sit down there on Championship Sunday and watch that. Watch that way in it. It'll about choke you up every time for the guy who, it,

Tigs: it will. I watched, uh, I mean, I just love it. There's, I don't think I've ever had a dry eye ever since I've been watching it to when there was somebody who won, but to see Justin Hamner's, Uh, wife and his little girl just throwing that confetti up and then getting in the boat.

And he was a complete wreck. Understandably. So I would be too. Have you seen it? Have you seen his interview post, uh, like, uh, Ronnie Moore interviewed him like backstage or whatever, I guess after with the trophy. I mean, it seemed like it was pretty fresh, like within 30 minutes, probably of wrapping up and going back there, dude, you'll cry because it's every, it's everything that I know you feel in your heart of why, of what are your whys and why you do it.

I love seeing somebody do it and accomplish that. Like you could just see the relief that comes over them that they can't believe it He probably still can't believe it and he probably won't for a long time I mean that would be tough because that's what we all dream of as a little kid that loved to fish I mean, that was my thing is I winning.

It is something I could never even really fathom or imagine going to it, making it that's attainable. You know, you can, you can attain that. But just to be there would be I mean, I would be content the first time I would be content with being there for sure. Second, second time. No, I'd be there to win. So I'm hoping what do you have to do?

What are you have to finish in the top 40 to qualify for?

Robert Gee: That's what I looked over and told my roommate that we were watching the weigh in at the in the arena. And I looked over at him, and we were I just looked at him and said, Yeah. Yeah, man, I got to get here next year. You know what I mean? That's my goal.

First goal. You see how he looked over and said, uh, I can't, that could be us like after he went, I said, Hey, my goal was just making it here first, buddy. You know what I mean?

Tigs: That's right. Heck yeah. That's right. You did.

Blasi: Yep.

Tigs: That's right. That's right. What do you, um, I mean, you've got the whole season. Let me see.

I've got where you go. You guys go next to Florida. Back to back to the Harris Harris chain. Well, yeah, that's where, uh, I talked to talk to you last week. It's where y'all had a had a practice there. Are you were able to how you thinking about that when you feeling pretty good going into it? Of course.

That's April 11th through 14th. I think the fish in Florida, most likely, have they spawned? Oh yeah, they seem to be

Robert Gee: there spawning whenever, yeah, when I was there. So, it most likely will be a post spawn event. But, I don't know, I haven't really, hopefully this time, every time I say it, past like five, six years, every time I go to Florida, I'm like, hopefully I figure out how to fish it a little bit better than last time.

Tigs: You know, I've heard Dude, I've heard a lot of anglers over the years in different interviews and stuff that I've watched make that exact comment I mean Florida is I've fished I've lived in and lived there where Blasey's at and and I would go and fish Lake Seminole Okay Dude, I love that lake. I mean, I caught some, I caught some heads on that sucker.

Yeah, the grass and all that. I just, it, it fished a lot like Toledo Bend, a whole lot. Yes, that's why I like it. It's more of rivers,

Robert Gee: more of a, like, it's a man made lake with a dam.

Tigs: That's exactly right.

Robert Gee: For the lakes that are natural lakes, those are the ones that, they kind of get on my nerves because the fish don't have They don't act right.

They're, they're a little bit, they're a different species and all the other bass I try to catch.

Tigs: All right. And it's because they truly are all Florida bass, aren't they? And those things can be ornery as all get out and just flat, not bite. Right. I mean, and you have, what's something that you've, have you noticed anything on LiveScope whenever you're fishing those kinds of fish, how they react?

Kind of like it, we, we learned on Toledo Ben and I don't know if you've seen this anywhere else. That those fish were like above the bait fish instead of below them. Do you see that set up anywhere else? Or is this something that we're kind of now discovering?

Robert Gee: So basically my, I guess, hypothesis or whatever for the fish being up above the bait at Toledo Bend when I was there, uh, a month ago was because they were about ready to spawn and they were sitting up higher in the water column, closer to the warmer water because of the sun to warm their eggs before they go and spawn.

Like they were warming their egg, they were warming up their eggs to go to go lay on the nest. But

Tigs: uh,

Blasi: do you know what's funny Rob? I'm not a fisherman. I mean, I'm, I'm a, I mean, I'm such a minor fisherman. That's the first thought that came to my mind when they showed that video. I was like, I just think the water's a little warmer up there and I think they're enjoying getting up there.

And like, I think it's a little bit, Just a better position for them. That's what I thought. Like I just, just from a like complete neophyte standpoint, like that was my thought. So I totally make it

Tigs: smart.

Robert Gee: Like when I was there in January, when the water was really cold, they weren't. I mean, some of them were up there just probably sunning around, but most of them, I could, the ones that were in the schools were down in the water column with the bait.

Interesting.

Tigs: Yeah. I'm glad.

Robert Gee: Once it gets closer to the pond, they get up. A lot of them start getting up way high like this time of year. They're real high in this water column Just just sowing their

Tigs: eggs makes sense. It totally makes sense. Are you do you use like, uh, do you use? 360 and what is the mode with live scope that these guys are starting like scott martin perspective mode How do you are you okay?

All right. I'm not i'm not a

Robert Gee: dialed perspective motor because I've always been a hummingbird 360 guy for the past three or four years because it was kind of like the live scope before live scope like right that's the thing the

Tigs: first really one yeah for sure

Robert Gee: the cool yeah like for for offshore fishermen that was really good and I've been on board with that thing so that that plays a big role in Florida that's that's that's that's Really, really the reason I still always have that on my boat is fishing grass for like when I'm fishing grass and in Florida and on like Guntersville and stuff like that.

Because it plays a huge role like finding the grass line, making casts, repeated casts, the grass like that or like a depression in the grass. We

Tigs: got us a dog member in the house. We do have a dog in the background. We do have a dog in the background. Yep. Never know what'll happen at props. Yeah. That's our buddies over

Blasi: there.

All trying to get in on the

Tigs: action here. I mean, you can't blame them. You can't blame them. Look, we'll start to kind of we'll start to dial this. We'll start to dial this in because we're going to visit with you again after the season wraps up. We'll have

Blasi: a good show, but I enjoy this so much for sure.

It's so like entertaining. I'm taking notes. A lot of times I'm looking away and looking down. I'm taking notes. I'm not, we'll

Tigs: get ready to get ready to take some good notes here because I want Robert to talk about his sponsors and what they do and how they and how they help you. Like so go give it a go.

So my title

Robert Gee: sponsor is a Enduro powder, Enduro power, lithium batteries. And it's really, that's the most crucial part of my boat, honestly, besides it's like my Yamaha motor and my Phoenix bass boat, getting me to places on the lake, it couldn't be, it couldn't, I couldn't go anywhere without my lithium batteries.

Those lithium batteries are so just. reliable and strong and powerful. Like I will go and fish a full practice day for 12, 14 hours, and they won't be even 50 percent dead when I come back in. It's truly incredible. Like, and I can, at Toledo Bend, I was on the trolling motor the whole time. And like, when I would come in, my trolling, my trolling motor batteries would literally be at like, 75%.

So I

Tigs: would only use that. Whoa. That's crazy. I've never, I've never fished a whole day on anybody of water and had that experience. Uh, that's

Blasi: like on a confidence on another level. You know what I mean? Like, you know, you just got after it and you got 75 percent left.

Tigs: How many batteries, how many batteries you running in that boat?

I

Robert Gee: mean, I run a full

Tigs: batteries. Okay.

Robert Gee: I run two for my electronics and cranking, and then two for my,

Tigs: uh, trolling motor. Okay. I run two

Robert Gee: 36 volt trolling motor batteries. Okay. Because the lithium batteries, you can have, um, 36 volt battery, and you just run those two in parallel. Oh, wow. And it's 100 amp hours of that.

And it's truly incredible having those. Like I've, I've ran those lithium batteries for trolling motor the past three years and I, I could never go back to AGM or lead acids because there's no drawdown in power. Like you could, you can be, you can be fishing, um, standing on a troll motor all day. And like, even if you do get it down to 10 percent left on the batteries.

It'll, you can still run your troll motor on 10. Oh wow. And it'll be a true 10 per, it's true. Back when I used to run lead acid, lead acids, when the troll motor would start to, or when the batteries would start to die, you could see the effects on your troll motor with the voltage loss. Yeah. And it would like, you would be on 10 and it would really only be like on three powered.

You know what I mean? Wow. Yeah. That'ss truly like the greatest thing I've put in my boat. Besides the live scope, honestly. Yeah. Game

Tigs: changer. The

Robert Gee: past three years, is that, is those lifting. Yeah, they are having good power to your graphs to clears everything up and yeah, Helps you find more fish and be able to fish more

Tigs: effectively Yeah, so that's who else is who else is out there getting you on the road and helping you out this season

Robert Gee: So yeah, I mentioned them to phoenix bass boats and yamaha outboards truly the best combination of boat and motor I've ever used and i'm truly grateful to be running that because it's a big water beast and super reliable Yamaha motor like whenever you go to the dock on the ocean all them boats out there have a Yamaha because they're going way out in the ocean and hopefully getting back and that's why they choose Yamaha but so it's truly just a peace of mind to have a Yamaha behind behind the boat this year and my Humminbird and Minn Kota graphs that they're uh they have the best mapping and side scan with the mega imaging by far And all the other graph companies right now, it's truly remarkable that the hummingbird Lake master mapping that they've got, um, they've went and mapped every, like, you can't hide anything like all these old, old honey holes people had.

They're all on the hummingbird Lake master. It's truly

Tigs: incredible. That sucker open to lead a band up. I can tell you that. Yeah. I can tell you that. It's lead opening on the bird. It's incredible. Thank you. KB E because he made that happen. You got

Blasi: like the ultimate, like, uh, combination of sponsorships there.

You know what I mean? And I don't, I'm not taking away from your fishing skills, but like, you have a great combo there. And I'm sure that makes you just, you know what I mean? Like that really, allows you to elevate to the highest level, you

Robert Gee: know, so it's, it's, it's truly incredible. And like, I'm also got on board with visit Knoxville, who's the local, um, like kind of calm the chamber of commerce to getting like big tournaments in Knoxville and

Tigs: the Bassmaster classic was there.

Yeah,

Robert Gee: exactly. So, yeah. So, and I, and I love Knoxville and Knoxville sporting sports, like UT Tennessee balls, of course. Yeah. Go balls. And,

Tigs: uh, go Tigers. It's, that's it. Yeah. .

Robert Gee: Yeah. Go Troja. Uh, and then I, my, I use P line, which is awesome. Strong line. Yep. And Oui Hooks with or Oui hooks. They're a Japanese hook company.

They're, they're come, they're on the come up. They're, they're sharpest and best hooks I've ever used for bass fishing and like they're treble hooks, or they're the best treble hooks I've ever used on any jerk bait or crank bait. Like I have not lost many at all on them things. They're incredible

Blasi: I wonder if they make us good circle hook because I love a good

Tigs: circle hook like for live bait fishing Yeah, you know, I

Blasi: mean like I fish on the coast.

I do a lot of surf fishing I'm a big like, you know, give it a nice circle hook here, you know, I mean, but Garbage, you know, I don't like to mess with those

Robert Gee: Raging talisman brutal is probably what you need.

Tigs: That's what

Blasi: I'm looking for. All right, I'm right there Oh my gosh. R Y U G

Robert Gee: I. Yeah. R Y U G I. P A L I S M A N.

Brutal. That would be probably a good one for the salt. A good circle

Tigs: hook for the salt. Got it written down. They got different

Robert Gee: sizes on there. But um, and then another sponsor I'm working with is a local electronics, Bass Boat Electronics. They're out at Knoxville. Okay. And they helped me get my boat dialed in.

Before the season starts with the rigging and all that. And they, they rig boats for everybody around here. And a lot of people come from Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, North Carolina, to get their boats rigged at their shops.

Tigs: Well, who are these

Robert Gee: people? Yeah. Bass boat electronics. They've got a website, electronics, you can call them up.

And if you're even Louisiana or Florida, you can go up there and get your boat rigged. So, and they've always got new electronics and stocks. If you ever need any.

Tigs: I was at a outdoor showing in Gonzales, Louisiana. It's right outside of Baton Rouge. Uh, last week, a couple of weekends ago. And I went by Cajun out, out, outdoors.

They have, yeah, they're, they sell boats. They had Phoenix, they sell Phoenix and Skeeter and they had Phoenix. And the guy saw me, I was just like, I stopped. I went, crap, I don't want the guy. I'm not buying a boat, dude. Don't even try, but I mean, but I'm, I looked at it, man, those Phoenix boats are unbelievable.

He knew I wasn't getting it. I started telling him I had a podcast. I actually told him you were coming on and he's like, oh, okay, okay. He started showing me the stuff and like the rigging in the back of those Phoenix boats, dude, they, they thought of, you know, Everything the ease of how to get to the batteries as little compartments.

It's slider. Oh my God, dude. It's unbelievable. What is involved in a bass in 2024 and what they, how they run it, the gauge cables, all that stuff, dude, there's no doubt. It's Phoenix is top of the line. That's what I get. If I was going on a boat right now, get anyone

Robert Gee: right now. Yeah. It's truly just the, the.

The speed and, um, just the handling and rough water. Like at Toledo Bend on day four, it was like blowing 20 plus out of the South. And I didn't spare a wave. I was just cruising back over the waves and just having that kind of a boat when you're fishing on the elites and all these big lakes, it's truly incredible.

And it just is a peace of mind and you can fish so much better when you have a boat like that, because it's just the best fish fishing platform I've ever fished off of. Yeah,

Tigs: no doubt. We got any other sponsors we need to give a shout out yet.

Robert Gee: McKee outdoors. They've been with me from my freshman year in college.

It's a, it's a tackle shop here in East Tennessee and the owner, me and him are really good friends. And he carries all the Shimano, G Loomis, all the JDM tackle. It's like the, one of the best tackle stores in the country by far. And he's one of my sponsors and great friend of mine. Thank you He has an online website and he's on Facebook.

So if y'all ever need anything, give him a call on Matt McKee. He he's got it. He's got one of the biggest tackle stores in the country. I'd say.

Tigs: Oh, heck yeah. Heck yeah. And if you're, if you're watching this or listening to this, look, look in the description below, I'm going to have links to, to these sponsors that, that Robert's telling us about too.

So you can easily go check these, go check these places out, man. Speaking of socials, uh, Robert, how, how can folks follow you? Where all are you active at on social media?

Robert Gee: So I'm on Instagram and Facebook, Robert G on Facebook and R G E E fishing on Instagram. And, uh, I'm also, I got a, I'm on YouTube right now.

Uh, I don't have, I don't have my own YouTube account, but. My bud, I travel with three other guys on the elite series and we kind of do a behind the scenes tournament vlog On logan park's fishing's youtube. So if y'all want to watch kind of how we go to these tournaments and stuff like that Go check it out

Tigs: How did this pass me by oh my gosh I know what i'm gonna do I don't ever get tired of being here I never get tired of bass fishing ever or watching.

Oh yeah. We're talking about it. I'm going to check it out. It's Aledo Benz on YouTube. Awesome. Okay. We got our

Robert Gee: camp. We got a cameraman that

Tigs: always

Robert Gee: follow us through practice and at the

Tigs: tournament, so it's good. Okay. Awesome, man. Awesome. Well, dude, I'm not gonna keep you. We've kept you an hour and a half.

We've gone a long time. I had a feeling my wife asked me before I jumped on. She said, how long you think it'll be? I was like, well, you know, we always shoot for an hour. We're talking fishing, honey. I kind of walked her through the, the, what I, what we're

Blasi: going to talk about forever. He he'll

Tigs: go forever.

Yeah, she said this is a two

Blasi: hour questions. I got to get in three. I mean, I knew that they're 75. It's just kind of the way it is, you

Tigs: know? Yeah, well, you'll still have them whenever he comes back. I won't talk as much. I'll try to

Blasi: shut up. Do you fish or one of these? I'm pretty sure you don't. What

Robert Gee: in the world is

Tigs: that?

Blasi: I know. Like, so this is what is that? That's that's next level fishing. Like, no, what this is, this is, uh, I built this today. I built this And this is a, so you got like a quarter inch screen. You got, you got a, uh, you know what,

Tigs: these are the Yeah. Pool noodles. Yeah,

Blasi: exactly. Pool noodle, . So it's a pool noodle.

It's exactly what it is. Built around a frame of A PBC. So I get out there in the and and, and the Gulf and I suck. And I got a go shrimp sucker, and I suck 'em out. Now I'm gonna have this tomorrow. I just built it today. I'll float it in and I'll shoot the sand in here. My ghost shrimp and just sit here and present themselves Oh on this thing of goodness right here And i'll just keep shooting them in there until I get all the ghost shrimp I need so we can get these Pompano that are running through here right now in the morning.

We're going me and my buddy ben If he's not hanging out with vladimir putin tonight, he's he's some kind of weird contractor with the government Military, he works in the middle of the night, but this is what we're going to use So I was going to ask you this. Did you know this was and that's

Tigs: what this is I mean, it's like, yeah, I figured it was some sort of hunting that's all about Yeah, that's what I thought at first.

Yeah. It's like you're sifting with like it's, you've been watching gold fever, hadn't you? Go, you

Blasi: are. You are sifting for gold and I put this in my pocket and I tether it off myself, so it just floats along with me. I'm sucking him Ghost shrimp.

Tigs: Makes sense makes sense makes perfect sense Well, perfect man, well look we're not gonna keep you any longer robert i'm gonna close this out hang around for a second and uh Thank y'all Dude, we can't thank you enough for coming on and uh, and and good luck for the rest of the season, man We go to just real quick go to harris Then st.

John's river lake murray wheeler lake lewis smith lake lake champlain You And the St. Lawrence River We got a long ways to go and a short time to get there brother, but you're gonna do it and we are gonna be watching so Thanks so much. And we uh, we will have you on later. Thank you, sir.

Robert Gee: Thank y'all very much