Ep. 126: Chase Collins of CMC Fishing on Kayak Tournaments, Glide Baits & Freshwater Bass

Guest: Chase Collins (CMC Fishing)

Hosts: El Charly, Luke Dean (Bait Slingers / Artemis Charters)

Chase Collins fishes kayak tournaments across Ohio and Michigan — rivers, lakes, creeks — chasing smallmouth, largemouth, and whatever else will bite. Episode 126, recorded live on April 21, 2026, is a genuine cross-country fishing exchange: what kayak fishing looks like when you’re multi-species and tournament-focused, and what SoCal inshore anglers and freshwater anglers actually have in common once you get past the salt line.

In This Episode

• Kayak tournament strategy — build a limit with confidence baits first, then and only then break out the glide
• Bladed jig trailer selection — why Chase runs a Spunk Shad over a paddle tail, and how color changes by water clarity
• Glide bait entry point — back-to-back casts on a spawning bed pulled the male and the female. What finally got him committed to the bait
• Frog fishing setup — 7’3″ medium-heavy extra-fast, 50–60 lb braid, Booya Pad Crasher. Why braid is non-negotiable in grass
• River smallmouth vs. calico bass — both live in current, both stay lean, both fight mean. The parallel is real
• Tournament ID card mistake — Chase lost a podium finish when the identifier card wasn’t fully in frame. Same thing happened at Spotty Bowl. Rules are rules
• Day at the Docks recap — Luke ran into someone at the event who’d been at Bahia de los Angeles the same weekend as the Baja trip, including the broken-down boat at the ramp

Build Your Limit First

Chase’s tournament approach is straightforward: confidence baits until five fish are in the livewell, then go big or go home. The glide rod doesn’t come out until the limit is locked. That’s not timid fishing — it’s resource management. In a timed tournament on a kayak where you can’t cover water the way a power boat can, burning an hour on a bait you’re still learning costs you. Get your fish, then experiment.

He applied the same logic to a recent river tournament when the upstream section he wanted wasn’t reachable against the current. He loaded the kayak back in the truck, drove to a new access point with an hour and twenty minutes left, anchored down, and caught his limit bang bang bang. Adaptability within a plan.

Why Your Trailer Kills the Blade

Chase runs a Spunk Shad — a Missiles Baits and Hog Farmer collab — on bladed jigs almost exclusively. The reasoning maps exactly onto what Gary Reyes and Mike Stembridge covered in Ep. 124: a paddle tail acts as an anchor on the back end, dampening blade action and slowing zero-to-kick. A minnow-taper trailer like the Spunk Shad flows with the jig instead of fighting it, and on the pause the tail flutters freely rather than holding the position.

Color is the main variable he adjusts, not profile. Black and blue in dirty water — it reads as a silhouette and stands out in stained conditions more than chartreuse or white. Green pumpkin in clear water. Fire craw (red/orange) in Ohio springtime mud. The trailer color and the jig color change together.

Committing to the Glide

Chase’s first glide fish came after months of his buddies telling him to get into it. He finally went out with one rod, a bag of glides, and nothing else. First cast on a laydown, twitch twitch — male off the bed. Waited for his buddy to come down for pictures, made another cast on the same laydown, twitch twitch — female off the bed. Back to back.

His point is the same one Luke and Daniel are circling: you won’t find the cadence by picking the glide up between other casts. You have to commit a session to it. That’s true whether you’re fishing smallmouth on an Ohio river or calico in the kelp.

Why This Episode Matters

This episode is useful precisely because it’s not a SoCal episode. Chase’s tournament approach — build a limit with confidence baits, then go big — is a framework that translates to any timed fishery, inshore or fresh. The bladed jig trailer conversation lands the same conclusions as the Ep. 124 calico discussion: paddle tails anchor the blade, knife-style trailers flow with it. Two anglers, two coasts, same result.

If you’ve been sitting on a glide bait you haven’t committed to, this is the episode that might finally push you off the fence. Chase’s advice is simple — bring one rod, fish one bait for a full session, and find the cadence. For more on bladed jig setup and trailer selection for SoCal inshore bass, the bladed jig guide is a natural follow-up.

Watch the full episode on the Time On The Water YouTube channel. New episodes every Tuesday at 6 PM.