He Wasn't Supposed to Survive. Now He Fishes Professionally. | Hunter Baughman

At nine months old, Hunter Baughman's parents were told he had a zero percent chance of surviving bacterial meningitis. He's now closing out his sixth season on the National Professional Fishing League.

He barely mentions any of that here.

Jason talks with Hunter about the work instead — six-day tournament weeks, three daughters under six riding along, Sunday morning church service at the boat ramp, and the 2022 season that nearly ended his career before a win in Missouri bought him another year.

Also in this one: why he'd rather fish the hardest tournament on the schedule, the livewell rule he uses to reset after a bad hour, and why the sponsors from outside the fishing industry are the ones he brags on.

Find Hunter at hunterfishes.com, or @hunter_baughman_fishing on Instagram and TikTok.

Follow the Mosaic Minds Podcast wherever you listen.

Transcript

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1:01

Hunter. Tell us a little bit about what you're currently doing. Hey Jason, thanks for having me on. I so I am in the end of year six fishing NPFL, which is National Professional Fishing League. man, and then of course I fish like fifty, fifty-five tournaments at home when I'm when I'm back here in Arkansas where I with my wife and three daughters under six. I've got a five, a three, and a six month old. Have to really think about this, they're everywhere. But I mean that's that's basically me in a nutshell. I've lived in Arkansas my whole life. I'm country boy, love to hunt and fish. I'll be forty in a three or four weeks, tournament fish since I was twelve or thirteen. seriously tournament fish since I was out of high school. And very blessed to have been able to make it my career for the last six years. This has been some years ago, but being a you know, from the Arkansas, the Razorbacks there, I know I was at the FLW Forrest Wood Cup about 10 years-ish ago there in Hot Springs, I believe. Right. And there was a lake out there that we drove over, is is Ouachita. Am butching that up? Ouachita. Okay, okay. Ouachita. Yes, sir. That's an Indiana pronunciation. Then I I butched that up. So bear with me there. So that's I don't know. Well the people that live here can't even spell it, so you know, we're good. Yeah, the the Ouachita is kinda how it's spelled or or whatnot. But that's some good stuff there. So tell us a little bit about specifically that circuit that you're on and maybe mention let's mention a few random tour stops that you've had this year just to educate the audience on kind of the the lakes you're fishing, kind of the lay of the land of what you've experienced this year. Yeah, so the NPFL it it's fairly new. Com I you know, when you look at its the other the other tours out there like Bassmaster and MLF, it's a lot newer than those two leagues. we've been around for six years, so I've been there since the very first event. Nice. it is a very small knit ran organization which is really neat. I mean the owners are there to back your truck in the water and stuff. as far as where we've traveled, man, like this year, we've done two on the Coosa River in Alabama. Haven't think about this. We did one at St. Lawrence in New York, one at Harris Chain in Florida. We did one at Millwood in Texas, Arkansas, which was supposed to be at Wright Patman. The water levels were unsafe, so we actually got moved to Arkansas, just right up the road from where we were gonna be. And then we actually had our last ones coming up in two or three weeks. It was supposed to be back in New York and for several crazy reasons. It had been moved to Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas. So I fished five years begging them to come to Arkansas, and then we got two reschedules in Arkansas in one year. So that that's where we've been this year. I've seen places I'd have never got to see without doing this. my kids have seen places. My wife and kids travel with me. They've they've got to see more than most adults I've ever seen, you know, so but we've been as far north and west as Wisconsin and far southeast as Florida and northeast as New York. Gotta give a shout out to my traveling partner. His name's Rodney Bolte. He lived right on the Coosa River. And if I'm not mistaken, he said that there's magnum spots in there. Is that is that my understanding? there is for sure. Logan Martin, we were at Logan Martin this year. Actually been there once the last three years each year. It's definitely got Lay, we were at Lay this year, it's got some, but it's got such a good largemouth population that you just you don't see those spots at Lay like you do on some of the other lakes. Let's talk a little bit about your home state. So the Lord blessed ya. Possibly I I don't know. I'm just guessing. Maybe inclement weather, maybe scheduling. that's why it got rescheduled. But let's talk your home lakes. So talk to me a little bit about the two lakes that the tournaments were in. And then I also want you to try to address with me is that added pressure for you? Cause I've always heard that it's not as easy as saying that's my home lake or that's my home state. Sometimes you know too many spots about that. So speak maybe on both of those topics. to the best of your Right. ability. So for the local level, neither would be home. But for a national level, when you come to Arkansas I'm fairly you know, I'm as about as home as anybody for a lot of But so Millwood where we went in April was it's it's basically Texarkana, right? It's twenty miles from Texas, Texarkana. it I it's three hours from my house. I'm I was there some. I've actually wanted Mr. Bass of Arkansas there. Had some other good events there, but it's not somewhere I'd had a ton of experience. But it's extremely hard to get around on and I was looking forward to going because of that because I do know how to get around and everyone else like we didn't know we were going there till like two weeks before we went,'cause it was close enough that everybody kept their or a lot of people kept their lodging, you know, where they were at. so it was all off limits for us. So I knew that would be a bonus for me going there, you know, and having experience getting around navigating the lake. There's five billion stumps in it. you know, I didn't it didn't go like I wanted. I was the top twenty after day one, which with that crew, I mean the top twenty, I'm I'm happy to be in the top twenty, I promise. dumped some fish the next two days, had a rough day three. Didn't go like I wanted to. Dardanelle I do have substantially more time on. I'm I'm really excited for that. I guess to back up and finish with Millwood. I didn't really feel any extra pressure. I was just excited to be somewhere I'd seen versus still even though I'm on year six I'm pretty green still in a lot of these places unless unless we've in the last six years, you know. Dardanelle I have spent a lot of time on. I'm I'm still an hour and a half from the ramp, but that's not too far. It's somewhere I fish regularly every year. I I'm excited for that. I don't I'm sure there is some pressure. There's gotta be. I have we can be on the water up till twenty-eight days out or thirty, whatever, a month, whatever that date is. I put in my time. Like it may not pay off, I may not catch a fish, but I put in my time and I think the preparation has offset some nerves. Because I truly did put in my time there before it went I I spent when we came home from New York, we had about 16 or 17 days before Dardanelle went off limits. And I spent about half of those at Dard now. So I am looking forward for that reason. It's it's fishing pretty tough. It's actually fishing as good as I ever remember it fishing all year long. Now it's summertime. We've lost all of our current. The water's like 93 degrees. Wow. and it's really tough. And it's probably will continue to get tougher as this beginning of a fall transition starts in the next couple of weeks. here in Arkansas we really don't see a lot of fall transition by October, but they just get really funky in that, you know, September time frame. so, you know, it'll make it tough. I think that may give a little bit of an advantage, but also I read the roster. I see who I fish against. I see the weights they bring in every day everywhere we go. It's unbelievable. So, you know. No off days on the big tour there. So I want to ask you a question that kind of merges the mosaic. So to explain to you what that means to you for the first time and also to maybe your fans that haven't listened to you before. We're gonna merge a few quick topics here and you're gonna kind of tell me. So I don't want you to I I know how the game works a a little bit on a on a very minor level. I don't want you to give me specific baits that you use for obvious reasons, but I'm gonna give you some generals. So Preferred fishing style deeper shallows. shallow. Shallow. Ar Arkansas River is where I learned how to catch a fish, so I do like fishing shallow. What what other region actually combines maybe that style of fishing, like throw out a random lake and a random state that may fish similar to that to that style or or or that lake? man, and there's there's a bunch of but the first one that pops in my head that I've been to, and it lo you it'll blow your mind, but Saginaw Bay in Michigan. Like I know the smallmouth are with there Okay. That's random. Okay. and they're prevalent. But but the the largemouth habitat at Saginaw with all the grass, like it it will be Dardanelle's not Guntersville type grass, but there's a lot of grass, a lot of shallow vegetation in fish, and it it does it's similar. I'm trying to think just off the top of my head another one. Though the Coosa River lakes are fairly similar. We just don't have that spotted bass. We have the spotted bass, but they're like twelve to fifteen inches long. They're little. Right on. Now do you do you prefer to fish in a slug fest or do you want to sock it out for where ounces is a huge difference? Would you rather it be a tough a really tough bite or do you just like to slug it out with with the with the top bags? What do you prefer? no, I I want the toughest tournament. I mean it's sometimes that you eat that and you have a really bad tournament real easily doing that, but the tougher the better. Every tournament that I've really done well has been a grind. I'd have to agree with that too. my my buddy that I travel with always makes fun of me because I complain about the river. But I'm telling you, man, you hit one river fish for two and a half, three pounds, and that makes up for some sometimes, believe it or not, a three pound fish can weigh what three three line squeakers touch. So I can I I can appreciate that. I I I like to swing for big weights, but unfortunately, you know, three fish limit in the circuit that I fish, you know, you gotta kinda taper back a little bit. What would you rather fish? Would you rather fish beginning of the year or the end of the year? Like I like this time of year. I've always done well in the fall for whatever reason. On a lot of the videos that I've seen, you always have that bright personality to you. I'm judging you favorably. I think you've got a jovial personality. You like to laugh. You don't take yourself too serious. Let's be honest, man. You're on one of the biggest stages you can possibly get. educate me here a little bit. I'm gonna say one twenty-five anglers. Is that about right? Or am I a little off on that number, maybe? That that's it's more like one fifteen this year. One point five Okay. is our top end. Okay. So, you know, you're you're one you know, you're very elite in that. You know, you're the you're the top percentage that you can be there. But talk to me a little bit about the privilege that you've had to travel the country and God's country, you know, fishing the tournaments and kind of traveling around and talk to us a little bit about how you keep that jovial sense of, you know, hey, I'm gonna kick butt today, but I'm also gonna have a good attitude. I'm always gonna have a smile on my face.'Cause that's what I've picked up in the research that I've done leading up to this podcast tonight. So if you've if you've seen much of of my page, you know, I'm my my faith comes first in my life, in everything. It's faith and then my family and then fishing. And I am just so tickled that God has allowed me to have a career in the fishing industry that provides for my family for six years now, and hopefully for a long time to come. And it you know, I know I look at the results, like I'm not goofy, I know that I don't have the best results of some of these guys out here. but we make it, we get by, we have our good tournaments from time to time. and God always provides when maybe, you know, you you don't know how you're gonna make it. in twenty very short story. In twenty twenty two I I really didn't know that I would fish the next year for the NPFL because it times were tough. I didn't make a check all year. And the last multi-day tournament of the year I fished for the Toyota Series in Missouri and I won it. And you know that that definitely set me up where I could go fish another year. so he pro he provides. You know, he provides when you don't think there's a way. And I'm j I'm just I tell I get to go speak at churches and schools and a lot of different things. And I tell him, you know, like I've given my life to him and he's been able to provide me with a way to tell people about Jesus and catch fish and make a living doing. And it's I mean a nutshell, that's it. I'll be careful with how I use the term, but I'm still going to use the generic term of fishers of men. I know there's a circuit there. We're not trying to confuse our audience here, but you're literally you're literally showing that testimony in front of in front of the fishing audience, in front of whoever you run into. And what I found to be very unique through the fishing shows that I've been into, certain people will have prayer and worship there on a Sunday morning before the show or convention even's open at 8 30 in the morning. So speak to me a little bit about Let me live vicariously through you. You know, you make it to the final day. Or let's let's just say it doesn't even have to be a final day. It could be, you know, a practice beforehand. Talk to me about the good spirit and the nature that you have with the guys. maybe if you don't mind, maybe mention a friend or two of yours if you don't mind. If you'd like to. If it if you want to keep that personal, that's fine too. But just talk to the audience a little bit about how kind of that tournament structure, you know, away from the actual waters and and the weights that you fish. Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, it man, these guys, you know, this is not an open league that people can jump in. When they jump in they do it for the entire year, you know, and those guys become buddies. You know, you travel across the country with you catch you catch you get paid with you don't catch with you break down with They carry carry you in, you carry them in when they break down. And you know, like Ryan Satterfield is one that we travel with. travel with Travis Jewell for a few tournaments this year. as well, but we say Ryan and his wife travel and they've got a young daughter as well, so all of our family hits it off. Man, they're your family on the road, you know, like they're they're the ones you have your core, couple more guys that I bounce, you know, information off of and we we really lean on each other to break these down. and then we we have our we have our church service too that we do on Sunday morning, the first morning of practice that man, it it's been about twenty to twenty five guys every event this year. Absolutely voluntary, you know, but that's I try to get us a speaker for every one of those and we have that that, you know, group event it before we take off. Of course we all want to beat each other when we put our boat in the water, but but but Course, of course. you're pulling for your buddy too. And I and I sit on stage at the last one in New York. my buddy Jason Burrows pulled up to me the last afternoon at St. Lawrence and I had I I was having a good tournament and a bad day. you know, I'd had two good eighteen pound days. I was in pretty good shape. I was in the upper thirties. That day I had fourteen pounds with a one pounder and had a couple hours of check in and whatever reason he pulled up, I don't know, 'cause normally we'd honk and wave and keep going. And he pulled up, asked how it was doing, and I told him, he said, Man, I got a spot, you need to go check on the way to weigh in. And I pulled in on this spot and caught a four and a half pounder and pulled and made, you know, got paid because of that fish. So we definitely have each other's backs, you know. That's awesome just to see and hear that. So talk to me a little bit about I'm gonna let you take this any direction. I'm gonna stay very neutral in what I'm about to ask you. Talk to the audience about overcoming adversity while on the water. You can take that any direction you want to take. You can make that personal. You can make it all about fishing. talk to me a little bit about overcoming adversity. When you're struggling, when you're grinding, when you're not feeling like traveling, I'm gonna be brutally honest to the audience. be in in a little bit different circuit let's just keep that out of the equation. But you know, that second day of fishing, if I'm even blessed to only have done that a few times in my life, that second day of fishing, man, I'm icing my shoulder on day three and talk to me a little bit about the structure of how many days you could fish if you make it to the final day, but also talk to me back up a week or whatever that time frame is because I know you got to do some pre fishing in there and things. Talk to me a little bit about how that looks for your tournament preparation and overcoming adversity. So yeah, for sure. So we do three days of practice. and then some events have an off day, some don't. And then we do three tournament days with no cuts. So everybody fishes. So you're gonna fish six days. And you know, the tournament days, NPFL structure, the way they take off'cause we do we pull our boats through the way in. so our our check ins are a lot more staggered than say a BFL, right? Because you're checking in, you're walking up there, they can keep moving. When your loading boats going through, you need more time between flights. So man, you know, if your last flight on one of the NPFL days, you may have a ten, ten and a half hour day. I mean you've got a pretty long day. But those practice days are typically when it starts to break daylight, we're in the water, and it can be twenty degrees, it can be a hundred and twenty degrees. When it starts to get dark enough you can't see we're all on the trailer. And those days, you know, range from twelve hours around here a lot of times. But when you go way north, man, that's like a fifteen or sixteen hour day. that's where the family really comes in, having the girls with us. You know, Ryan's wife and my wife making sure that food is on the table and we roll in from practice day, we go in, we eat, I hug my girls, I play with them for a few minutes, get in the shower and go to bed and do it again the next day. Man, I'll be honest, you're exhausted. By the end of day three of practice, or at least I am, and I love the fish and and it's it's a tiring deal. I love the off days, and when you don't have the off days, then you gotta figure out at the end of day three when you're gonna rig tackle before the tournament starts the next morning, you know. I do think the off day can sometimes throw you off, but because you have a day break, I feel like the more you fish, the more you're on a roll. but you you really get pretty used to it. I I don't the lack of sleep I feel pretty bad 'cause I'm man, like I said, I'm about to be forty. I didn't feel it ten years ago. I feel it now, but Exactly. But the actual physical part of it I don't really feel until it's a hundred and something degrees every day. Then you're just exhausted. but I you know it's I'm pretty you know, I can go out here if I go by myself and fish locally just for a fun day, man, it can be ten, eleven, twelve hours later before I even realize what's going on. I mean it's it's pretty common to fish ten to twelve hours in a day for me. So the actual physical part isn't too bad. The mental side is where so much is, man, and adversity and that can go so many ways on that. You lose a fish, you don't know what to do. I can tell you with no cuts the worst day to put your boat in the water is on day three when you're in ninth place and you have to go fishing Yeah. Thirty seven pound bag to get in the top yeah, and you know there's no way you can catch enough to make a check. Like you can be Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. like you can be as positive as you want, but you the guy leading's caught twenty pounds a day and you need twenty nine to make a check, and you're like, Golly man, this It's terrible. but you know, you you suffer through those days. bluntly as I can put it, any every job in the world that everybody does, whatever their career is, some days suck. And that's just how it is with fishing. It's you know, I like I said I'm fortunate for it could be I could have to come home and go to work five days a week when I'm but the I I'm I'm able to make it the career and I'm happy. I'm happy. Man, what was that? I heard a saying the other day, I think on Bassmaster. Earn it's a privilege. Golly. Let me think about that. I'll come back. But it's anyway, it's you're there, you're doing what you want to do, you're doing what you love, you take the bad days in stride, you take the lost fish in stride, and you embrace it when it's a good day. I mean, in my world, you know, I'm not afraid to tell you, you know, sometimes a fish will be worth a few hundred dollars. You know, you could be looking at tens of thousands of dollars. So, I'm gonna go a little mosaic on you and and I already know this answer. You're not snapping poles and throwing in the water and making a fool out of yourself. I've seen seen enough of you that you don't do that type of stuff, but how do you kind of hold that inside when you know you might miss a fish that's worth five thousand dollars and you were kind of needing that? Talk to me a little bit about how your maybe your spiritual outlook kind of plays in with maybe the camera's rolling on you or or or talk a little bit about that. That's kind of an outside looking in type question. Yeah, for sure. And man, I'll be the first to tell myself I had a meltdown one time in the boat, not in the NPF but a years ago at a regional for an AVA and I lost it. I broke a rod three times on a tree. And I've never had that meltdown since. And I was like, Man, you're stupid. Why are you you know, why are you that upset over it? But it just mentally all mounts, you know, and and to lose a fish to you know, our bottom check's like eight thousand dollars. So to lose a fish that you know was eight thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars. I f I don't know if it's fortunate or unfortunate, but I've never lost a fish that was a hundred thousand. You know, like I've never been in the position where I had the one bite hooked and could have won, but I've also never lost that bite. but to to lose hurts really bad. Man, you you just VanDam was the best ever that you could watch when he was doing you know, when he was still fishing alive because man, he would lose one and like never miss a beat and make another throw and it's just He knew if he got a five pound bite, that means he was doing the right thing, he can get another five pound bite. Now that's easy to say. Let it happen and see where you're at, you know, and and you know, sometimes it's it's as easy as going, dad gum, you know, and then starting over. Just take a breath and go fishing. Because what's in the past, you can't change it. So I one thing I do when I catch a big one, like one, it's a a difference maker. When I get a hold of it and put it in a live well and I start fishing, I think to myself, Man, you can't take that one away from that one's going to the way in. Regardless how the rest of the day goes, that fish is gonna go across stage. I like that. I like that. And I I've always told myself that because it's like, Man, you start the day and you say, I need a five pounder and you catch a six pounder, it's going across the stage. Regardless how like bad the rest of the day is, that one's going across the stage. So You can't do anything to get rid of that fish once it's in a live well short of it like, you know, jumping out when you open it. And when you lose, you can't do anything to catch that fish. It's gone. You just gotta figure out the next step to get another body. So I can't always say I'm the smartest fisherman in the world. And that's just kind of laughing at myself, not taking myself too seriously. Cause as a co-angler, I gotta be real brutally honest with you, man. My first two years, everything was about money and traveling. Now don't get me wrong, I am competitive and and and I don't show that a lot, but I am gonna tell you I'm there to compete all day long. Yeah. You know, I wake up at, you know, midnight, drive an hour to my buddy's house. We're on the road by two AM for most tournaments. Here's the question I have for you. When you're going into a bait shop and I like to crankbait fish, so I'm not here to ask for any secrets or anything, but as a crankbait fisherman, I'm hard headed. I'll buy two or three of that bait because they're ten, twelve dollars a piece. Give me a quantity number of your favorite bait, not what your favorite bait is, a quantity number of how many you would buy if you know that that bait's the Now, we're not gonna talk soft plastics because you know you can buy a hundred soft plastics and it doesn't really cost you anything. Just Just be very general in your answer for me there. But what type of quantity are you buying if you really think you got the you got the heat? If you've got a lot of confidence in it, if it's a hard bait, I'm probably gonna have at least five of them. If it's something like a jig that's fairly disposable, jigs like one of my go-to deals, I may have a hundred of those. There you go. yeah, and I mean, but of course, I'm also maybe 700 miles from the house when I need one. Like I need to be able to get my truck and get another one too, you know. but yeah, I definitely and you know, confidence catches fish. So if you've got a bait you're confident with, you're gonna catch more fish. My only choice language happens when it's the classic I come with two or three and I lose two or three and it's one o'clock and I'm catching them on it. That last one that you lose. I'm not proud to tell you this, but I've been y used to I won't say what words, but it's it's not Frank. I'll just leave it leave it at that, you know. But but point I'm making is, you know, it's that can be frustrating when you've got that color figured out or the bait that nobody else uses. Speak on this right here. Do you believe that there's value in using baits that maybe no one else on tour or the fish would never see, or are you s strictly a confidence guy? I I like confidence, but man, a bait nobody's seen. I mean, I think the urchin is showing us that. These guys Absolutely. these guys I fished against for the last three years have been throwing it and nobody knew it, you know. I mean it like they're good at keeping secrets and they did really good job at it and it's it's amazing how well it catches fish and it's not vulnerable and there's you know, any time a new bait comes out I think you catch So definitely the urchin has taught me to keep my mind a lot more open 'cause I did get tipped off in January and I bought some and then I got and I'm like, these are so dumb and I never threw I threw like one day for an hour and I didn't know what I was doing. I drug like a jig. And then I just put up and two months later I turn on Fox Sports and take South is catching like ninety five pounds in three days on it, you know. I'm like, Well, you're a dummy. But so definitely definitely a a bait or technique that fish not seen is huge. But you still gotta have confidence in it. I mean it's like the quick I threw it. I had it. Fish hadn't seen it. I watched on my graph, run up and look at it. But I didn't know how to work it. I didn't have the confidence to do the right thing and that's bad on me. I didn't go put more time in. But I didn't have the competence to do the right thing to get to bite and they obviously would've bit if I was doing the right thing. Hey, so let's be kind of basic here. You have an audience base. Let's pretend someone's watching Mosaic Minds and they're interested in fishing. I'm gonna have you break it down at an elementary level, maybe even a below a 100 level, right? Explain to the audience what an urchin style bait is. A ugly piece of plastic. it is There you go. I mean that it truly is what it is. It's a it's like a round blob with a bunch of octopus-looking legs sticking off of it. I mean that's there's not I can't say it looks like a crawfish or a rim because it doesn't. It doesn't look like anything. It looks like a dog toy is what it looks like. But that's what it is, man, and they rig them different ways and they work different ways. But I think the whole deal with it is when you jerk that sucker and it stops. And opens up, it there's no movement. Like it's dead still when it opens up. And that's I think that's what triggered the bike. All right, Hunter Baughman here, a professional fisherman that we have on talking a little bit. I'm gonna ask you a mosaic question or two, but we're gonna go non fishing if you wanna bear with me a little bit here. Being from Arkansas, is there any other sports that you really like, maybe professional sports or college sports, stepping away from the fishing realm? You know, funny enough, no. I mean we might watch a basketball game, a Razorbacks game, or a football game if it's a you know, like a playoff type situation. Man, I've never been I've never enjoyed watching many sports. I like probably basketball better than any of but I still don't watch much. no, I've just I've always been so blind, you know, blinders on on the hunting and fishing, I've just never cared a whole lot for everything else. Being in a Hoosier, I gotta give you this statistic because we're we you know, basketball's kind of a a a way of life here. My first court was a grass court on the back of a barn. But anyway, let's not let's not get muddied on the waters here. I do want to tell you this though. Arkansas is one of the best universities for the NIL money on the college athletic level. I don't know if you realize this, but Jerry Jones and the Walmart heirs and the CEO of Tyson Chicken, if I'm not mistaken, are all Razorback alumni. So their sports They are. teams actually benefit from that, which I think is great because now you have nicer stadiums, nicer, you know, uniforms that filters down in the communities at large. So I do want to tip my cap to that because anytime there's a lot of money flowing in and making it, you know, you have that. So talk to me about one professional accomplishment that you've had maybe in the circuit you have that you're most proud of. And then I've got a follow-up question of that after you kind of tackle that question for me. Yeah, definitely professional wise, fishing wise, it would it would have to be the the Toyota Series win. I mean that that kind of told me, hey, you can compete at a professional level, you know. That hands down on a lake I'd never seen, I put three days of practice in and be man, ar I mean, arguably the best guys on the lake, guys that got on the lake, guys that are team partners on the lake. That are I mean better than me on that lake. I just had her three really good, fortunate days. But that that would be my biggest compliment. Now I'm gonna give you some random statistics. So from the studying that I've done, an average tournament angler on a tournament day makes between 1,500 to depending on if you're a power fisherman or a slow fisherman. Okay, we have that. I think I'm also gonna establish with you though that you lose about 3,500 to 6,000 calories for a day of tournament angling. There's also some circuits, and speak on this if you'd like, but it I'll take it a different way. Some of the circuits actually give you what I'm gonna call a dietary bag to where it's literally this is how you hydrate, these are your electrolytes, these are your protein. Talk to talk to me about the mental grind because I'm a big guy. I mean, I got a gut on me. I'm not afraid to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't see how guys go an eight-hour day and they don't eat at all. But I will say this once you start eating, you want to eat, eat and eat, and eat, but at least talk to me about maybe the mental approach, not necessarily the food and the hydration that you do. But talk to me a little bit about the mental approach and how you take care of your body leading up to a tournament. So yeah, for sure. I mean, and I'm a big guy as well. And I but you know, most of the time if it's not blazing hot, I'll eat like packs of cheese and crackers, a couple of packs of those. sometimes when we're on the road we'll get you know, like the PB and J sandwiches and I'll eat some of those in the boat. Most of them I just try to stay hydrated. when it's super hot and really when you need to pay attention, and we don't have the as the NPFL as a whole, we don't do a whole lot of those tournaments 'cause we have the whole country to go to, right? When it's blazing hot we're up north or somewhere. Most not always, but most of the time. but I fish a lot of tournaments here when it's hot. Hot, hot, hot. And, you know, the biggest deal I start hydrating the night before. Like I tried to drink a Gatorade or two the night before. I tried to drink a thirty two ounce Gatorade before I ever see the boat ramp morning, you know. And then I I try to make myself drink something every thirty or forty minutes. And I'm I'm talking like the sure enough, like I fished last week two full days and you know, it was like temperature of a hundred and three, hundred and four without Of course. the heat index. Yeah, and and no wind and just it's hot. you definitely gotta hydrate and stay hydrated. Now I will say there's some interviews out there with Kyle Welcher and he doesn't go into it a lot, but I know he's one of that really focuses and talks about mental sharpness and what they eat and some guys are a lot more you know tuned into it than others but I think you just there comes a point in the day where you just kinda like zone out. And if that's because you need to eat something, you need something to get you jump started, whatever it is, man's I'll be honest on a tournament day you can't do it, but on a practice day that's 14, 15 hours long, there's probably a point in the day where I go park under a bridge Eat a couple of sandwiches, drink a drink, and play on my phone for fifteen minutes or twenty minutes. Yep. Yep. And just completely reset. And I think your decisions have to be good decisions and you have to be sharp with those decisions. And I you know, when my wife and I first started dating, that's why I tried to explain to her I because you I'd come off a tournament and we'd be trying to have a conversation and I'd just be trying to like come back to earth. You know, because it doesn't like the bills don't matter. The nothing matters. Nothing matters except for the next bite when I'm in the Like that's what matters. There's nothing else goes through my head. And it it's hard to come back out of that. Like you can't just snap your finger and you're back out of it, you know. So when you come off stage, like it takes a few minutes for me to kind of come back out and I told her I said it'd be similar to getting in a truck and driving a hundred and ten miles an hour for eighty miles or a hundred miles. And then climbing out of the truck and somebody trying to have a full conversation with you. Like for the last hundred miles, all you've thought about is exactly what you're doing and nothing else. Nothing else crossed your mind because you're trying to drive as hard and fast as you can go. And I mean, to me, that's what a a true tournament day should be. You should be putting in every ounce of effort you've got. And it's gonna take a little bit to kind of come back out of it when you get to the way in, you know, and kind of come back to real life. But whatever it takes to have that that pushing you to where you can do that for, you know, a a normal eight hour turn of day. What what do you need to do? If you need food, you need drink, you need energy drink, not saying it's all healthy, but whatever it, you know, whatever it takes for you to not lose focus for eight hours is what you need to be doing. Hundred percent agree. I'm gonna give you an opportunity here. it's pretty standard stuff here, but what sponsors or doesn't even have to be a sponsor. I'm gonna give you an open format to mention whoever you would like to mention that's had had a positive impact on your six years there in the circuit you're fishing. Man, you know what, every one of and if I name every one of I'm gonna miss one probably without reading it all. they you know what w it takes each and every one of to get me down the road. I I have to brag on Diaz Scrap Metal. They are my title sponsor. I it back in twenty two when I didn't think I was gonna get to fish in twenty three, even after I won the Toyota I wasn't positive. Times were tough. And they stepped up and said, We got you And they've they've had my back ever since. He told me tell people about Jesus and I'll take care of you. And There you go. man, without them, this definitely wouldn't be possible. But you know, I've got in the fishing world Brazalo Custom Lures, Ark Rods, Mercury, Bass Cat. Just added Power-Pole. I hadn't even announced that yet, but Power-Pole. Man, I Zoom, Zoom Baits. And then what's really cool, the ones outside the fishing is those are the ones to me that's that's really neat. because the ones that are in the fishing industry are kinda expected to sponsor somebody in the fishing industry, right? Like that's their that's their deal. But the ones outside of it that they you know, they step up and and believe in you. Those to me those are really neat. Like that Diaz. actually this Strokers diesel automotive the shirt I've got on. they're one that stepped up this year. gosh, I got Cabot Tire Off Road. I know I'm missing one or two, but yeah, I mean it's you know those those that are outside the industry, those are the ones that really get bragged on to me because they're the ones that say, you know what, we're not in the fishing industry, but I think there's enough enough crossover that we can sell our product by advertising to the fishing industry. Yeah, so everybody gets a full play there. We'd really encourage you to go down if you want to mention any additional people there on the YouTube video and just kind of drop their names in there to give them a full play and kind of see that. So if if I want to learn more about you or I'm a fan of yours, give a couple of your social media tags or there's another word for it, but I'm gonna use the word tags. How do I find you online from a social media perspective? I guess would be another way to cue that up for you. So probably the easiest way you can find me is my website, which is Hunter Fishes at H-U-N-T-E-R-F-I-S-H-E-S dot com. And from there I've got all my socials on there. You can click and go to any of them. I only tell you to go that way because if you go to any of my socials, it doesn't matter which one, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, it's all Hunter Baughman Fishing. But then you gotta remember how I spell Baughman And then everybody forgets how to spell Baughman. So You'll go to hunterfishes.com, you know, and then from there you can you can kind of see what I'm doing. It's got a schedule, it's got a meet hunter deal. It's actually got a shop, I sell a few a few shirts. But then you can click on right there on the front page. I built the website, so it's probably not that great, but it's there. I know 'cause I built it. It's got all the social media links there. You can click and go to whichever your preferred social media is. I post on Instagram and Facebook. I try to every day. I don't get every day on there, but I try to. And then I post on TikTok and Instagram or on TikTok and YouTube maybe a time or two a week. So I'm I'm pretty active on all of If you send me a message, I see it. Even if my wife reads it first, she leaves it unread till I can read it. So yeah, I mean if somebody comments back on any of those pages, it's me. So I can attest to that 'cause that's how I got a hold of you and I was impressed that you responded back. So the mosaic send-off that I'm gonna give you is this. This interview right here was fun for me because I get to vicariously live through you because I'll never be on that level. you know, we can laugh and we all have our limitations. You know, I can't even back a boat in. So I'm that co angler that has to show up and fall on my own sword the other. you know, the night before and say, hey, you really don't want me backing your boat down. My limitation is just simply confidence. That's all it is. I live in a subdivision. I'm not renting a boat and and being packed in and and storing it somewhere I just not gonna do it. So that's why I fish all over the country and and do what I do. But the mosaic there is is you do a good job of combining family, faith, fishing, a good attitude, a good testimony. And I really like to see that you're able to overcome adversity. You're able to stay positive. You're able to be that good influence. I would say outside looking in, if I didn't know you and I was watching you for the first time, if I wanted to sponsor you or seek you out, there would be nothing that I see that doesn't check those boxes of those areas. And those are important to me because, you know, you're not cussing on one video, ranting and raving over here, running this guy down over here. And I'm not saying that happens, but I think I think you got a good attitude. You're wanting to win. And I kinda already know this answer. You wanna win with integrity and you want your buddies that you travel with to be good. Don't get me wrong, you wanna kick their butt so you can talk trash over the fire or or at the dinner after afterwards, but at the same time if you get X place, that's fine as long as you've done it the right way and and and done it the best of your ability. Agree with that? I hundred percent agree with that. This has been fun for me. I I wish you nothing but continued success. And this will be, you know, finishing up year six and into year seven. Just keep on chugging away at it. And it's been a pleasure speaking with you tonight, Hunter. Hey man, you as well. Thank you so much for having me on.