0:06

Screw the trout. I'm gonna put a handful of him

0:08

on my cream and weet what I want

0:10

as the only buffa hat I've

0:13

never seen. Nobody cast a rod as bad as

0:15

you. They'll keep your phone dry, but

0:17

nobody will be able to hear you. Good

0:22

morning, degenerate anglers, and welcome to Bent

0:24

the Fishing podcast. Where we call it a scene.

0:26

I call it disaster down here. The kids

0:28

grow up faster. I'm Joseph Mellie,

0:31

a mild and uh.

0:33

And to everyone who caught that song, reference

0:36

round of applause and a round of drinks

0:38

on me if I had at the bar. Yes,

0:41

I'm assuming I'm gonna say not many people

0:43

did catch it, but that's okay. We'll explain. We'll

0:45

explain. That was a tip of the hat to the band Operation

0:48

Ivy, who inspired our new

0:50

band theme music. And we want to know what you guys

0:52

think. Do you think we love it?

0:55

Yeah, we love it. I think it's fantastic.

0:57

I would listen to that song anytime.

1:00

But yes, it's weird

1:02

man, the way that like are the timing of our

1:04

song change happened because

1:06

there was that there was that whole subject

1:08

of the discussion that came up in social media

1:11

recently and

1:13

and so like, just so you guys known, because you're

1:15

not all following this. Somebody and I

1:17

can't remember who was. Some listener asked

1:19

if if he's the only one that rocks out to the

1:21

Bent theme song in the car, And

1:24

we're really happy that people like

1:26

it. But the truth is, like when

1:28

we were putting this show together initially, when we first

1:30

started, we just had to grab

1:33

something that sort of fit on the stock

1:35

music website. It wasn't what we had in mind, but like, that'll

1:37

work and we didn't hate it, but it was it was

1:39

just not exactly what we had in mind. So

1:41

we've been we've been talking about an itching

1:44

to try and get something written uniquely

1:47

for us, and we finally

1:49

got it done. So that's the new song. Things

1:51

that media or tend to like come together real fast and

1:53

literally it was like, we need a song. Are you cool

1:55

with this? Do you like this? Like? Yeah, I like it too, and we

1:57

just went with it. So yeah, that's that's where they

2:00

original theme came from. Um, but the

2:02

studio band we worked with for the new theme is

2:04

actually from Philly, represent East

2:06

Side, and we got to give a shout out to Hayden Samic,

2:09

who works behind the scenes with Phil

2:11

on our show. He's the one that set up the band

2:13

orchestrated the whole thing, and we

2:15

had a meeting with him and we were like, yeah, just

2:18

make it sound kind of like this. Yeah,

2:26

and I think they nailed it. Oh, they totally

2:28

nailed it. It was like I said,

2:31

I would listen to that song anytime.

2:33

And we're pumped because, I mean,

2:35

the truth is that you already know this, but Joe

2:37

and I are huge Op Ivy fans, And

2:39

for those who were unfamiliar, Operation

2:42

Ivy is a historically significant band of the

2:45

punk scene. They just kind of they just kind

2:47

of appeared in the late nineties,

2:49

made one badass album, and then

2:52

vanished. It was just like boom,

2:54

here it is Mike Drop and they're out.

2:56

But their their legacy, Like for a band

2:58

that only had one album, their legacy

3:01

has endured amazingly. Like

3:03

I'm guessing some of you have heard of Rancid. Well,

3:06

Tim Armstrong, the legendary

3:08

frontman, was the guitarist in Operation

3:10

Ivy, and Matt Freeman, Rancid's bass

3:13

player and also one of the best bass players

3:15

ever, was also an ap ivy.

3:17

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And while those two dudes

3:19

went on to be like punk hall of

3:21

fame people like they got a punk rock hall

3:24

of Fame status op Ivyes

3:26

frontman Jesse Michael's

3:28

Jes went on to become a lunatic. That's

3:32

that's harsh, but seriously, that's

3:34

not wrong. You're not wrong. The dude went off

3:36

the deep end. And even if you have no interest

3:38

whatsoever in his music, do yourself

3:40

a favor and look up the Jesse Michael's

3:43

Thrash Metal blog on YouTube, because

3:45

because I can't help myself, here's a little

3:47

clip montage. What I like doing

3:50

is lying in a bathtub, taking

3:52

a ship and calling it

3:55

self spa treatment. Now

4:00

record, I'm like, piss

4:02

on my severed head. I'm

4:04

not kidding, Okay, I

4:07

like funk I

4:11

I will admit even being an operation. I have a fan.

4:13

I had no idea that existed until you were like,

4:15

hey, dude, have you seen this? Like, no, who's

4:18

seen that? I think

4:20

it's just proof that like that,

4:23

to me is proof of what's wrong with with the

4:25

whole punk scene, because that's what happens to

4:27

like a true punk when

4:29

they grow up, not nothing good

4:31

if you're like really like a true punk, like

4:35

you shouldn't survive into your thirties because

4:37

because you wind up there and that's

4:39

fair. Yeah, that's hard. Like I

4:41

was never a real punk because like that didn't happen to

4:43

me. And I think, like when I listened to those or

4:45

I watched those, I think I think Michael's

4:48

is both clinically depressed and completely

4:50

straight edge. But if

4:52

he wasn't, I'd suggest he could probably use

4:54

a drink like, hey man, it's

4:58

a whiskey and talk about it. I

5:00

don't know, but on that subject,

5:02

I think we need to move off of punk rock and uh

5:05

and and think more about drinking. And let's let's

5:07

get into that's my bar. Yeah, let's

5:09

do that, and everyone will be shocked to hear um

5:11

probably that we're headed back to Wisconsin. And

5:14

I always knew, yeah, I always need the state

5:16

punched above their weight when it came to fishing and drinking.

5:19

But until we started doing this show, I had no idea

5:21

the extent to which Scotty's dominate the

5:24

fishing bar scene. Fishing bars

5:26

are like a goddamn institution

5:28

there, uh for those of you who

5:31

are who are not super enthralled by like our

5:33

eighties punk conversation. How about

5:35

what we're gonna We'll stick to that era, but let's switch

5:37

it up. We'll switch up the details. Perhaps

5:39

you were more in the pac Man frogger, nutthugger

5:41

shorts and sweat bands, best

5:44

God Damn bartender from

5:47

Tim buck To to Portland, Maine, the

5:50

Portland argument. For that matter, you'll

5:53

remember that the goal of our That's

5:55

My Bar segment is to pay respect

5:57

to those most important cultural

6:00

institutions great

6:02

fishing bars, respect, mad

6:05

respect, and we

6:07

we will we will never achieve our goal of properly

6:09

documenting all the great watery

6:11

watering holes worldwide without

6:13

your help. You are critical in this, and you know you've

6:17

got a favorite fishing bar or ten. Perhaps

6:20

take some time and pay homage to those hallowed

6:22

places and send us what you come up

6:24

with. Please, Yes,

6:26

we we we we get some good ones. This week's

6:28

submission comes from Mike Whittlinger,

6:32

and and he wrote something so compelling.

6:35

We're not even gonna mess with it, like we're not even

6:37

going to interfere. We can't know, We're

6:39

just we're just gonna read Mike's

6:42

owed to his favorite childhood

6:44

fishing place. It's it's that good where

6:46

it stands alone, and that's rare. I gotta say

6:49

props to Mike and uh and we begin.

6:52

Being from Wisconsin, the bar talk

6:54

makes me want to both wet a line and my whistle.

6:57

I'd like to recommend one of my favorite scannie

6:59

bars of all times. It might just

7:01

be more of a memory than a real place

7:03

at this point, but I'll submit it here

7:05

for your reading pleasure. I started

7:08

fishing around age two. My

7:10

parents would take me to Pioneer Lake in northern

7:12

Wisconsin. Directly across

7:14

from the boat launch area was the coolest

7:16

bar I could ever imagine. After

7:19

long days of fishing, evening hours were

7:21

generally spend at the bar. Enter

7:23

Maple View Resort a ka

7:26

Oshitsky's Polish retreat.

7:30

That's being mostly Polish. That's

7:32

great. Well, that was sort

7:35

of their name. They sold T shirts

7:37

that read Oshitskys, but I think their surname

7:39

was actually O Sicky. Of course,

7:42

I had the Oshitsky's T shirt and

7:44

as a preteen, wore it proudly every

7:46

chance I got. Picture

7:49

the early eighties, nut hugger

7:51

shorts, sweatbands,

7:53

back when Dad's had hair and lots

7:55

of it. All The photos from the fish

7:58

cleaning station, which is with in a

8:00

stone throw of the bar, of course, seemed

8:02

to contain sons, father's

8:05

marl borrows, blats, and

8:08

plenty of forty plus in species

8:10

for the wall or table. To a six

8:12

year old fishing freak kid like me, it

8:15

was the ultimate bar. Every

8:18

wall held fish, huge

8:20

glass encase musky mounts in various

8:22

wheaty or woody habitats, monster

8:25

walleye, four pound perch fish

8:28

as far as my eyes could see, and I swear

8:30

every one of those mounts were world records.

8:33

From my youthful yet extensive experience,

8:35

those muskies most certainly wayed a hundred pounds

8:38

each, and the wall eyes at least half

8:40

that. To top it off, at the end

8:42

of that beautiful fish rainbow held the world's

8:44

best cherry cokes, always with extra

8:46

grenadine, and two real

8:49

Marischino cherries if you ask nicely.

8:52

They also had pac Man Frogger,

8:55

other video games of pool table

8:57

or two, and hummingbird feeders. Out

9:00

side the massive windows overlooking

9:02

the picturesque lake side. These

9:04

windows were artfully sprinkled with

9:06

a handful of fake bullet hole stickers.

9:09

The veracity of the holes in question and

9:11

how they got there left my six year

9:13

old self in a constant state of wonder.

9:16

The video games didn't fascinate me nearly

9:18

as much as fishing, and whenever I could pull

9:20

a buddy away from plinking quarters to go fishing

9:23

from the resort dock, that's what we do.

9:25

The most memorable night was late dark,

9:29

breezy, freezing cold, with

9:31

a constant drizzle, and we were just hammering

9:34

fish on the end of the dock, two kids

9:36

roughly six and eight years old, supervised

9:39

in quotes. He put that in quote, supervised

9:41

through that legendary bar window

9:44

from a dry, warm, alcohol laden

9:46

short distance away.

9:49

Drenched and chattering, we were lip

9:51

ripping fourteen inch perch left and

9:53

right from the end of that bar dock. No

9:56

ship or no ship skis

9:58

should I say? Writing this

10:00

has reminded me that I really need to make it back

10:02

there and pay my respects either to

10:04

a bar well done or a memory

10:07

well embellished, hopefully both.

10:10

That was pure poetry. I

10:12

mean, that was like poetic perfection.

10:15

Mike, let us know how it goes when you finally

10:18

do make that pilgrimage back and I hope

10:20

it's exactly as you remembered

10:22

it, and do his favor. Send photos, and

10:24

all of you out there listening take a cue

10:27

from Mike and send us your bar nominations.

10:29

If they're half as good as that one, they

10:31

will probably get our attention. I've

10:35

never been to that bar, but I feel like I

10:37

have. Yeah, much like Mike,

10:40

I accompanied my pops to many

10:42

a Wisconsin drinking establishment after days

10:44

on the water, and and that story, like that

10:46

email that he sent, it just got

10:48

me thinking about those days, which

10:51

then got me thinking about what we used to

10:53

call our fishing equipment when I was a kid. Yeah,

10:55

you've been thinking about this a lot. In fact, Miles is going

10:57

to delve into a touchy subject among

11:00

anglers in today's weekly

11:02

Word. Webster's Dictionary

11:05

defines fish as

11:09

I once worked with a guy who proudly identified

11:12

as a North Carolina redneck. We'll

11:14

call him Chris. Let

11:16

me be clear, Chris was neither dumb

11:18

nor uneducated. He was the kind of

11:20

person who could frame up a wall, repair a hull, and

11:23

rebuild a Chevy short block with the same set

11:25

of rudimentary tools. He never

11:27

once met a vehicle he couldn't pilot, from

11:29

sport fishers to yachts, to jet boats

11:31

to super cubs to G four's. If

11:34

it swam, crawled, flapped, or ran,

11:36

he could find it, catch it, and kill

11:38

it. I can't say I always

11:41

liked Chris. His skills were only overshadowed

11:43

by his ego, but he earned my respect. When

11:46

no one else was around, we'd sometimes share

11:48

beers in a quiet conversation. In

11:50

those moments, his drawls seemed

11:52

to dissipate, and he'd admit to a love

11:54

of books and language when

11:57

anyone else was an earshot. Though he

11:59

mispernoun its words and mangled grammatical

12:01

phrasings, his language became intentionally

12:04

crude and exactingly imprecise.

12:07

I actually once heard him yell at a client

12:09

I never seen nobody cast a rod

12:11

as bad as you, and that exchange

12:14

hit on the one semantic line

12:16

in the sand that he could not

12:18

stand here violated. If

12:21

anyone called a fishing rod a pole in his

12:23

presence, he would set upon them as

12:25

if they had just insulted the good name of his maternal

12:27

grandmother, which is apparently a big thing

12:29

in the South. More than once I

12:31

overheard him exclaim, you grow beans

12:33

on poles to fish with rods.

12:37

Here in the US, the terms rod and pole are sometimes

12:40

used interchangeably, and as far as

12:42

official American Dictionary definitions

12:44

are concerned, their equivalent. But

12:47

few topics inspire as much polarization and

12:49

fishing culture as the rod versus pole

12:51

debate. What you call

12:53

that long cylindrical thing used

12:55

to deliver bait and wrangle fish says a lot

12:58

about how you identify as an angler. Such

13:00

semantic sensitivity might seem

13:03

unnecessarily divisive. Who

13:05

gives a ship what you call the thing you fish with? We

13:08

argue enough about fishing style or species.

13:11

Do we really need another point of contention? Well?

13:13

No, but like it or not, Fishing

13:16

is what linguists referred to as a discourse

13:18

community or an insulated network

13:21

of people who come together around a shared set

13:23

of goals, and we judge who

13:25

is in and who is out

13:28

based on the language they use. When

13:30

I was a kid, we had poles. My

13:32

dad had poles. My uncle's always had the

13:34

best polls. I was usually saving

13:37

up my money for a new pole. In fact,

13:39

the first nice pole ever bought myself was branded

13:41

the Berkeley power pole. Back before hydraulic

13:44

shallow water anchors were a thing. But

13:46

when I get older and more serious

13:48

about fishing, I started reading fishing books

13:50

and magazines and hanging around tackle shops,

13:53

and I noticed that the real sticks they

13:56

didn't use poles, they

13:58

used rods. As I

14:00

started working my way into the fishing industry,

14:02

I figured out the calling a rod a pole

14:05

at the boat ramp was kind of like calling

14:07

a deck aboard at the skate park. In

14:10

his classic novella, Norman McLean

14:12

wrote, always it was to

14:15

be called a rod if someone called

14:17

it a pole, my father looked at him as

14:19

a sergeant in the United States Marines

14:21

would look at a recruit who had just called

14:24

a rifle a gun. And

14:26

though McLean was describing a scene from

14:28

the thirties, the same attitude

14:30

holds in contemporary angling circles.

14:32

A quick search through online fishing

14:34

forums will produce a slew of comments

14:37

like I cringe

14:39

when I hear someone referred to a fly rod, spinning

14:41

rod, or casting rod as a pole

14:44

or fishing rod

14:46

is what fishermen use. A fishing

14:49

pole is what rednecks and country bumpkins

14:51

use. In that last quote,

14:54

you can hear that the two different terms also

14:56

carry a connotation of social class

14:58

and standing. The

15:01

language policing comes off as obnoxious

15:03

and snooty. Rods and poles are

15:06

completely separate tools,

15:08

and their differences have absolutely

15:10

nothing to do with superiority or

15:13

class warfare. The distinction

15:15

between the two comes from our angling obsessed buddies

15:18

across the pond. In England, if

15:20

it's got guides and a reel,

15:23

it's a rod, But if

15:25

it's a long stick with a line attached to the

15:27

end, it's a pole. Here

15:30

in the States, cane poles used to

15:32

be common tools, but very few

15:34

people fish with them anymore. Just about everybody

15:37

I know uses rods with reels.

15:41

Certain folks in the UK who target especially

15:43

spooky carp will tell you that casting

15:45

a line, even a lightly weighted

15:48

one, makes too much disturbance on

15:50

the water. They proudly use

15:52

poles, some of them up to thirty

15:54

ft long, to delicately

15:56

dap their baits in front of finicky

15:58

rubber lips. So, if you want

16:00

to get technical about it, that's

16:03

the difference between rods

16:05

and poles. I

16:07

use the term rod to describe my fishing implements

16:10

because it's accurate and it avoids

16:12

annoying rebuttals, but I

16:14

don't actually care that much. I

16:17

will say that it's pretty damn funny to

16:19

walk into a fly shop and ask where they keep

16:21

their fly poles, so long as you're not hoping to

16:23

get good customer service. And speaking of

16:25

the fly folks, tankara

16:27

became the hot new thing in certain fly

16:30

fishing circles about a decade ago. If

16:32

you're not familiar, tin car is a stripped

16:34

down form of fly fishing without a reel.

16:36

The fly line attaches directly to

16:38

the tip of the rod I mean

16:41

pole, And to be honest,

16:43

tankara would actually be fun if

16:46

not for the people who love it. Tin Carra

16:48

seems to attract the most holier than the uputty

16:50

folks I've ever met in fishing. They proselytize

16:53

harder than Jehovah's witnesses and Latter day Saints

16:55

combined. But here's the part that I

16:57

love. Every tin car

16:59

in enthusiast I've ever met proudly

17:02

refers to their equipment

17:05

as rods, but technically

17:08

they're wrong. So all

17:11

you tank car people out there, I hate

17:13

to break it to you, but you fish

17:15

with poles, well

17:20

done, man, And this ring is so true

17:22

for me. Like when I was little, my gramps always

17:24

said, grab your fishing poles, that's

17:26

what they were. But now if someone refers

17:28

to rod as a pole, I instantly labeled them a

17:30

google, like you're a googan. Just

17:33

maybe a little harsh, but at least,

17:35

look, you've clarified the terms, right like

17:37

there is now clarification, which means everyone

17:40

that calls a rod a pole is now officially

17:42

wrong. Like that is wrong. It's no longer

17:44

tomato tomato, You're just

17:46

wrong. So there

17:49

you go, the judginess of the fishing community

17:51

about about the terminology right there. Use

17:54

it. That's what we're here for, is to educate you guys.

17:56

And now that we've gotten that out of the way, we can

17:58

move on to clarifying what's how opening in fishing's

18:01

current events. It's time for fish news.

18:04

Fish news that

18:09

escalated quickly. So that

18:11

little story I did about using golden rod

18:13

golflies for trout bait, remember

18:15

that last week that that resonated,

18:18

right, I've gotten quite a few notes

18:20

about that, ranging from just

18:23

like, hey, my pap Paul taught me about

18:25

this years ago, to thanks for spilling the

18:27

beans on my secret bait. You jack Wagon.

18:30

Um,

18:31

I'm not. I'm not that surprised

18:33

because I figured more people were going to be in tune with that than

18:35

me. I had no idea, But I think my

18:38

favorite came from Tom Nezick.

18:40

He sent us an email and he says it is good,

18:43

right. He says it's um. His brother

18:45

Steve isn't much of a rotten real angler,

18:48

but he's just generally big into the nature,

18:50

you know what I mean, and apparently foraging. And

18:52

he sent along a video of his bro hunting

18:55

down golden rod gall lava to eat.

18:57

And I watched this, and I gotta say,

19:00

he almost made it sound appetizing

19:02

and delicious. There's no almost. He

19:04

made it sound incredibly appetizing

19:06

and delicious. I don't know if I believe him, but

19:09

that's how he made it sound. He describes

19:11

them as having a sugary taste similar to maple

19:13

syrup mixed with banana, and they

19:16

crunch as if they contain crystallized sugar.

19:18

And I said, hell, I'm

19:21

gonna put a handful of him my cream of wheat. You

19:23

know what I'm saying. They should be right next to the wet walnuts

19:25

at Baskin Robbins but yeah,

19:28

apparently Golden Rod Golf good stuff. Tom,

19:30

thanks for sending that. Um it was both

19:32

amusing and informative. So that's what I got for shoutouts

19:35

this week. I just got a quick one. Uh.

19:37

Andrew Peterson wrote in basically

19:40

saying because last week we talked about Toby's

19:43

Tavern and our That's My Bar segment and

19:45

and he appreciated the shout out for Toby's

19:48

Tavern, but he doesn't think we gave it enough credit as

19:50

a fishing bar because it is located,

19:54

he claims, within eyesight

19:56

of some exceptional, exceptional

19:58

pipe fishing water. So uh,

20:01

apparently we we didn't. Again, I've never been

20:03

to Toby's Tavern, but now I have yet another reason

20:05

to go because he claims

20:07

that the fishing there is incredible in addition

20:10

to the drinking. So you know, yet

20:12

another point in favor of Toby's Tavern

20:14

as a fantastic fishing bar. Toby's

20:16

Tavern, pike and beers and um

20:20

Lion mounts having sex, good place. Okay,

20:23

well, okay, so let's move on to the real news. Now. Remember

20:25

this is a competition. As always,

20:27

Miles and I do not know what stories the

20:29

other guys bringing to the table, and at the end

20:32

of it, our official punk rock DJ

20:34

and audio engineer Phil will

20:37

weigh in on who is the news winner. I

20:39

do not have the floor to open. That

20:41

goes to you, sir. It's

20:43

true. I'm gonna sidebar

20:46

for a second, and I would love to know Phil's

20:48

favorite punk band. Oh,

20:51

you've been called out. You just called him

20:53

out as the punk DJ, So I'm just curious.

20:57

Well, that's true. Don't say m x p X

20:59

or we won't like you as much anymore. Sounds

21:01

true, all right? Getting

21:04

into the goods here. This

21:06

story is is a follow up

21:09

to an article that Spencer new Hearth published

21:11

on the Mediator website a couple of years ago. Spencer

21:14

does a fact checker series that you should

21:16

check out because he runs down myths

21:19

and legends and and the stories

21:21

that you know, the culture of of of fishing

21:24

and hunting has a bunch of of of

21:26

things that we take as gospel and that we pass

21:28

among each other that aren't necessarily true

21:31

at all. Some of them are some are complete

21:33

bullshit. And so when when

21:35

Spencer was a kid, he asked

21:37

his dad why they had stocked

21:39

so many damn bullheads

21:42

in their family farm pond, and

21:44

his father's response was that they hadn't why

21:46

why would they do that, and

21:48

he went on to tell Spencer that ducks were to

21:50

blame in doing

21:53

so. Spencer's dad passed along a popular

21:55

yarn that fish eggs stick

21:58

to duck feet and water

22:00

foul spread those eggs far and wide,

22:03

and many years later, as an adult journalist,

22:05

Spencer decided he was going to dig into that theory

22:07

because it seemed like it might be questionable.

22:11

Yeah. I mean, for the record, I've heard that my

22:13

whole life. I've heard that a million times. That's

22:15

how fish places yeah duck

22:17

feet on on a yeah duck feet. So

22:19

he started doing some research and he quickly identified some

22:21

some some issues with this idea,

22:24

including the fact that most fish

22:26

eggs are just barely adhesive

22:29

enough to to delicately bind

22:31

to aquatic vegetation, which would

22:34

make it kind of hard for them to remain

22:36

stuck to a duck's feet during

22:38

takeoff in flight yeah,

22:41

like coming out of the water at altitude yeah.

22:45

And another like the chances

22:48

of fish eggs surviving

22:50

a high speed water landing on

22:52

a duck's feet are pretty slim,

22:55

right, So those are those are two strikes against

22:57

this and and to quote Spencer's

23:00

article, he said, this duck

23:02

transfer theory seems to unravel

23:05

under scrutiny. However,

23:08

a couple of listeners recently sent

23:10

me a link to a Smithsonian

23:13

magazine article that might

23:15

force Spencer to reconsider his conclusions.

23:18

Turns out, though the idea of waterfowl

23:20

transporting fish eggs on their feet is far fetched,

23:22

ducks maybe smuggling fish eggs

23:25

in a different way. The

23:27

Smithsonian article described a study

23:29

published in the Proceedings of the National Academy

23:31

of Sciences last summer titled Experimental

23:34

evidence of dispersal of invasive

23:37

cyprinted eggs inside migratory

23:39

waterfowl. Note the word inside

23:42

the Smithsonian article has a catchier

23:44

title, Fish eggs can survive

23:47

a journey through both ends of a duck. Ha

23:49

ha, I knew poop. I knew

23:51

there was some poop poop

23:54

issue. The researchers in Hungary

23:57

fed five hundred fertilized

23:59

common and Prussian carp eggs

24:02

to eight mallards and waited

24:04

for the eggs to uh to re emerge

24:07

in plastic trays placed below the duck's

24:09

enclosure. In total, eighteen

24:12

individual eggs passed

24:14

through the duck's digestive tracks, and

24:16

three of those eighteen went on

24:19

to successfully hatch into baby

24:21

carpon interesting to

24:23

Prussian carpon one common carp meaning

24:26

that point zero zero

24:29

six percent of the carp eggs consumed

24:31

by mallard ducks in this study remained viable

24:33

after journeying from one end

24:35

of the bird to the other. Let

24:42

me wings journey a distance

24:45

best. That number may seem

24:47

insignificant. I mean, with that low

24:49

of a survival rate, how could duck

24:51

poop possibly be a factor in spreading fish

24:54

populations? So we gotta put this in context, and to

24:56

do that we gotta do a little math. There

24:58

are about twelve million

25:01

mallards in North America alone. They're also

25:03

quite common in Europe and Asia, and

25:05

mallards love fish

25:07

eggs. According to the lead author of

25:09

the study, quote, if mallards

25:11

find these spawning areas, they will go there

25:14

and eat the eggs until they can't

25:16

move. So if

25:18

you assume just ten million birds

25:21

consume a thousand fish eggs every

25:23

year, that would equate

25:26

to sixty million fertilized

25:29

fish eggs popping out in mallard

25:31

poop annually. Since mallards

25:34

often travel up to fifteen miles a day,

25:37

the opportunity for dispersal could be

25:39

significant. Now, all

25:41

that said, the studies very preliminary,

25:43

small sample shoes, and it actually brings up

25:45

a lot of follow up questions. Right, Like, the next

25:48

thing the research team plans to look at is

25:50

they're gonna they're gonna repeat the same experiment with

25:52

other types of fish eggs to see if

25:54

if this survival trade is unique to carp because

25:56

that would really matter. Uh, And

25:58

they don't talk about this in the article, But what I want to

26:00

know is I want to know if fish eggs can

26:02

survive a trip through other bird guts. Right,

26:05

Yeah, they're twelve million millards, but they're like more

26:08

than forty million ducks in North America, a lot

26:10

of the meat fish eggs. Sure, so

26:12

there's still a lot to learn here. But

26:14

it actually seems possible that the

26:17

old yarn about ducks transporting

26:19

fish eggs had some truth to it.

26:21

It's just that the old timers got the mechanism

26:23

wrong. Sure. I mean, what pops into

26:25

my head is Canada geese because

26:28

around here, I mean, we got some ducks. There's ducks got

26:31

ducks in Jersey, But I mean I see more Canada

26:33

geese than than Mallard's on a lot

26:35

of the lakes and streams and things around here, So

26:38

I would point to them as a culprit. I have

26:40

to imagine they eat certain amount of fish eggs

26:42

too, and they're everywhere. I don't know. I

26:45

would imagine so too, but I don't know that.

26:47

That's what I'm saying, Like, there could be a lot

26:49

of potential vectors for

26:51

dispersal with with waterfowl,

26:54

sure, and we just don't know. So this

26:56

is a fascinating one for

26:58

a lot of reasons, not the least of which

27:00

being there. I have long been all these

27:03

questions like how did these fish get here? You know those

27:05

those spots You're like, wow, sure

27:08

perch get into this lake? I don't know, And

27:10

we always blame bucket biology and that

27:12

could be it, but it might actually be birds.

27:15

Yeah. Now. Interestingly,

27:17

though, at least around here, it's always seems

27:19

to be tied to warm water species, like the

27:23

duck connection comes up with carp

27:26

or a catfish or bass,

27:28

but like I've never like I've

27:30

never heard of that happening with trout. You know what, I mean,

27:32

so exactly

27:35

that's what I'm saying. So I also think it's fascinating

27:37

because it's obviously only going to be certain kinds

27:40

of fish. They have to have a certain hardiness because

27:43

dude, those there has to be acid

27:46

in those stories. I mean, that's pretty impressive

27:48

to make it through that, you know. So

27:51

I'll be curious to see if if other fish can

27:53

make it through there. And I think you're right, it's gonna be warm water species.

27:56

If there's another one that would work with my money would be

27:58

on pike because those bastards are everywhere

28:00

and you can't kill them. Yes,

28:02

that that is true. So I don't I don't have

28:04

a great transition other than to say we've

28:07

sort of busted a myth there and we'll

28:09

we'll bust uh somewhere here with this little

28:11

story. So as a media person, I always

28:13

admire when a news story

28:15

is presented in an interesting way, right, So

28:17

I have to give props to the UK's Guardian

28:20

for this one. And we've we've featured other stories

28:22

in the past about the seafood industry pulling fast

28:24

ones right, either by renaming

28:26

fish to make them sound more appealing or just straight

28:28

up serving you different species

28:31

than what's on the menu. But this

28:33

has apparently gotten so rampant, particularly

28:35

in Europe, but also in the US that The Guardian

28:37

ran a story called could you Spot the

28:39

Fake? And turned it into a quiz

28:42

And naturally I aced it,

28:45

but painted

28:49

naturally I aced it um

28:51

if I was only that good in in algebra one,

28:54

but it it painted a really great picture

28:56

of some of the most common fakes, which

28:58

again occur here and there. Um.

29:01

And when you answered, you'd get this little pop

29:04

up with with more details that I thought

29:06

were pretty good. So it was actually very

29:08

interesting. And the first question,

29:10

um, it would just say this

29:12

is often sold as red snapper?

29:14

What is it really? And it's a picture of a telopia

29:17

And then you have a multiple choice dropped down like what fish

29:19

is this? And when you click, the tilapia tells

29:21

you red snapper is an extremely popular

29:23

reef fish that has been over fished to the point that stocks

29:26

are now extremely low in most of its

29:28

habitats. It's cheaper common substitute

29:31

is tilapia. Right now, what they're

29:33

doing with this quiz is posing

29:35

the question of whether you would

29:37

know the difference if it was served

29:40

to you in a restaurant, and

29:42

I feel like for that one, I would I

29:45

I would know, I

29:47

would know that I was at least eating a freshwater

29:49

fish, not a salt water fish.

29:52

Um. And there's

29:54

a bunch of these that'stually, it's a really fun quiz.

29:56

It's it's a very good time, and I'm not going to go through

29:58

all of them, but um, one

30:01

of the more interesting ones to me was,

30:03

you ordered delicious grouper, but what

30:05

is the common substitute? There's a photo of

30:07

a catfish right, and

30:10

when you click on catfish, it says the

30:12

Nassau grouper is critically endangered species

30:14

from the Caribbean, while the dusky grouper

30:16

is threatened in the Mediterranean. See In both

30:18

cases, something else entirely is

30:21

sold in their place. And this one hits for me

30:23

because, again, like you and I can look at

30:25

this with an angler's eye, this quiz is for just the

30:27

consumer of seafood. But with an angler's eye,

30:30

I would never order grouper

30:32

anywhere, and I've known not to do that

30:34

for years. I've only ever eaten

30:36

grouper I caught because just in the

30:38

U s alone, the seasons

30:40

and the limits are so wonky that I never

30:42

trust grouper on a menu

30:45

like it's in It's in every restaurant in the Keys, and people

30:47

just assume, oh, we're in Florida and

30:49

there's grouper here. Well that's

30:51

true, but there's a strong chance that

30:53

you're you're eating frozen grouper from

30:56

the last time the season was open, or you're

30:58

eating something else entirely, and they assume

31:00

the tourists don't know, which most of them probably

31:02

don't. I don't know if that substitute

31:04

happens here, but I thought that was fascinating. The Guardian

31:06

was saying the most common substitute for grouper

31:09

on a menu around the world as catfish. So that's

31:11

two times did not know that, right, that's

31:13

two times already red snapper and grouper,

31:16

two fish that are known to be delicious. That

31:18

they're saying the most common substitutes are

31:20

freshwater farm raised

31:22

fish. Man, I feel like

31:24

the texture of those are so different.

31:27

So do I. But again, you you you eat

31:29

a lot of fish, you catch a lot of fish, you clean a lot

31:31

of fish. If you're just you

31:33

know, my grandma and grandpa going

31:36

to uh lobster, you

31:38

probably don't know and Uh. The

31:40

last one that tickled me was this one.

31:43

White tuna is frequently on the menu,

31:45

yet it does not actually exist.

31:48

What is this fish that's used as

31:50

a stand in now in this this is a

31:52

case right of of of Chilean

31:55

sea bass style renaming because

31:57

fishermen no dan Well, there's there's no such

31:59

thing as a white tuna, And I've

32:01

always known white tuna is actually

32:04

a fish called an esclar, and their deep sea

32:06

dwellers oil black and ugly as hell.

32:08

They look kind of like deious. Oh

32:10

yeah, they look they look like a black king mackerel

32:13

kind of. But this story

32:15

also says it's it's it's it's usually

32:17

escalar, but sometimes white tuna on a menu is

32:19

butterfish. That's what I've heard it

32:22

called. Okay, that's the renaming i've

32:24

heard for esclartfish. Well,

32:26

yeah, but butterfish is also a real fish.

32:29

They're they're tiny bait fish that we buy

32:31

here for chum, Like you

32:33

buy a flat of them. They almost look like little pompano

32:36

silver pompano um. So

32:39

I didn't know that was a common a common

32:42

swap there. I always thought it was always esclar,

32:45

but I don't really care which one of those it

32:47

is, like, fake me out, don't

32:49

give a ship because it is, as you mentioned,

32:51

so buttery and delicious,

32:54

like it is. White tuna is my absolute

32:57

favorite sushi. I don't actually care

33:00

if it's butter fish or what like. It is just And

33:03

however, you also know that it's known as

33:05

the laxative of the sea. So you can't

33:07

you can't binge this a

33:10

couple of Yeah, he

33:12

had a couple of your sushi deluxe, but like, you can't.

33:15

You can't go all in um.

33:17

And I've actually been on the dock in Louisiana

33:19

several times, like mean

33:21

mugging taking photos with piles

33:23

of yellow fin tuna we caught and another

33:26

boat like with complete new but tourists

33:28

like that don't know what they're doing come back in and they're all

33:30

holding an escalar and I'm like, oh,

33:33

like I want, I wanted that, I want

33:35

the escalar. Want.

33:38

So if you can find it online

33:40

the Guardian quiz, could you spot

33:43

the differences. It's it's fun, it'll kill

33:45

a little time at work, um, but also interesting

33:47

because there's just so much shadiness. Yeah,

33:50

no doubt. Sticking

33:57

with salty species that people love um

34:00

permit are

34:03

of permit. Yeah, maybe

34:05

once or twice. And we're joking because

34:07

because these fish inspired this like level

34:10

of obsession and reverence among

34:13

certain anglers, that's I think it might

34:15

be unparalleled, except for maybe with bill fish.

34:18

The permit love is is is real,

34:21

yep, And there is some irony

34:24

and how much people love permit because technically

34:26

there there are subspecies of jack's,

34:29

and jack's are like the trash fish

34:32

of in shore angler. I mean they're not like, they're not

34:34

like saltwater hardhead catfish

34:36

level or dog fish. But outside

34:39

of the state of Hawaii, I don't I know very few

34:41

anglers who intentionally target jack's. Yeah,

34:44

and I have a comment here because

34:46

the same thing with permit. If you put a permit in deep

34:49

water and throw a chunk of crab at it,

34:51

it'll eat as quickly as a jack Kraval, as

34:53

dumb and fast as

34:56

it's right. It's all. It's situational. It's

34:59

situational. But despite

35:01

the fact that jack's are kind of considered easy

35:03

and stupid and and not that desirable,

35:06

they're big eyed, rubbery lip blacktail

35:08

cousins are a totally different story.

35:10

People just lose their minds over permit like

35:12

permit tattoos are a thing I

35:16

know, otherwise seemingly normal

35:19

individuals who have spent many

35:21

years and sums of money that

35:24

honestly far exceed my annual income

35:27

just trying to catch one single permit,

35:29

one, just one one,

35:31

which is it's crazy and

35:33

and we we might chalk this up as

35:35

an example of anglers arbitrarily

35:37

assigning value to one species of fish while

35:40

detegrating another similar fish. But as we

35:42

were alluding to earlier, there's some logic

35:44

to the permit mania, at least logic

35:46

by fishing standards. Unlike other

35:48

kinds of Jack's permit can be maddeningly

35:52

difficult to catch on artificial lures,

35:55

and that's part of the reason why flanglers go

35:57

nuts for these fish, because they feed in shallow

35:59

water, so it's site fishing, and they're they're hypercritical

36:02

of presentation. Speaking from experience,

36:04

however, if you drop alive crab

36:06

in front of one, it's probably

36:08

gonna get munched. YEP,

36:11

I don't care. You can set

36:13

that flyer out away and just drop

36:15

that live crab. It's gonna work. Um.

36:19

But because permit inspire such devotion,

36:21

they're they're very valuable to local economies

36:23

in the places where they can be found in significant

36:25

numbers. Dedicated permit lovers

36:28

save up all their spare time and money to travel

36:30

to places like Belize, Cuba,

36:32

where permit populations are high and less pressured.

36:35

But the original hub of permit

36:37

fishing is the Florida Keys, and

36:40

the Lower Keys is one of the only

36:43

places they're consistently targeted in

36:45

this country. For the past fifty

36:48

plus years, anglers have been

36:50

making annual pilgrimages to the southernmost

36:52

type of the continental US trying to fool

36:54

these blacktailed devils, and they

36:57

bring their check books and their credit cards with them.

36:59

The bite that value the

37:02

Keys permit fishery has been largely taken

37:04

for granted. Very little was definitively

37:07

known about their spawning habits. For example,

37:09

until the Bone Fish and tarp And Trust, a

37:12

fisheries conservation nonprofit, began an acoustic

37:14

tagging program in to

37:17

figure out exactly, when, where,

37:19

and how permit reproduce.

37:22

Results from that study indicated

37:24

that about seventy of

37:26

the permit that live in the Lower Keys congregate

37:29

in one small area to spawn.

37:32

Now, local anglers have

37:34

long known that Western Dry

37:36

Docks, located about ten miles south

37:38

of Qust, is a prime spot to find

37:41

huge schools of permit, mutton snapper,

37:43

yellowtail snapper, grouper,

37:46

and other fish in the late spring and early summer.

37:49

Many of those anglers were savvy

37:52

enough to know that massive groups

37:54

of fish congregating seasonally meant

37:56

that they're spawning yep,

37:59

right, and so some

38:02

chose to avoid the area during that time of

38:04

year, but others would chase

38:06

the high concentrations of fish. The

38:08

Florida angling community grew sharply divided

38:11

about the ethics of intentionally targeting

38:14

the spawners and and the area

38:16

became a flashpoint of conflict. Regardless

38:20

of personal opinion and since

38:22

morality, anglers who chose to fish

38:24

there during spawning season were completely

38:27

within their legal rights. That

38:29

changed this year when the Florida

38:31

Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

38:34

established a four month fishing

38:36

closure in a one mile area

38:39

around Western Dry Rocks, oh

38:43

In addition to the tagging study

38:45

that showed the majority of the area's permit

38:47

went there to reproduce, other studies

38:49

showed a dramatically

38:52

increased mortality for permit

38:54

and mutton snapper that were hooked and released

38:56

in that zone during spawning

38:59

season. To see, anglers aren't

39:01

the only ones who sometimes maybe

39:03

take advantage of large concentrations of

39:05

fish that are distracted by biological imperatives.

39:08

Sharks do the same, and

39:11

research showed that one third

39:14

of the fish released by anglers were getting

39:16

eaten by sharks. So

39:18

even if anglers weren't filling boxes,

39:20

even if they weren't keeping anything, if they're like, no, I

39:22

release everything, I'm not hurting these

39:25

fish, those numbers were still getting

39:27

decimated, whether they knew them or not, because one

39:29

third of the fish that they released, we're

39:31

getting t bombed. And

39:33

now the area is closed

39:36

to all fishing April

39:38

through July, and the decision,

39:41

it's kind of amazing to me. It's being applauded by

39:43

a whole host of different fishing and conservation

39:46

groups that include the Bone Fish and tarp and Trust,

39:49

Lower Keys Guides Association, i

39:51

g f A, Florida Keys Fishing Guides

39:53

Association, American Sport Fishing Association,

39:56

Coastal Conservation Association, Congressional

39:58

Sportsmen's Foundation, fly Fisher's

40:00

International, and Guy Harvey Ocean

40:03

Foundation. Only mentioned all those names. And

40:05

you know this because it is so rare to

40:08

get all those different organs to

40:10

agree on anything. It

40:13

is. They won't even hardly agree that they

40:15

all like to fish like it's it's barely

40:17

a thing that they agree on what

40:20

color the sky is on a given day.

40:22

To get them to come together and agree

40:24

on a piece of legislation and rule change, to

40:26

me, that signals a ringing endorsement

40:28

for this, And and with that many different people

40:30

on board, it's it's got to be sound, Oh

40:33

dude. I mean, look, you talked

40:35

to anyone who was

40:37

fishing the Keys in the seventies

40:40

or eighties, they'll tell you that

40:42

it pales in comparison. And

40:44

even though it's still a mecca, it's still amazing fishing,

40:47

generally speaking, it's nothing like it used

40:49

to be. So if these are

40:51

the kind of drastic measures that need to be taken

40:53

to preserve what's left of that old

40:56

school Florida Keys fishery,

40:58

to me, this move makes absolute sense. Now.

41:00

I'm sure there's a handful

41:03

of charter guys who are not so pleased.

41:06

Yeah, but and I mean

41:08

we were talking about it is drastic. It's a one mile

41:10

area that's closed to fishing for four months.

41:14

Is that drastic. I mean, it all depends on your perspective.

41:16

No, no, no, it's not. I

41:19

understand what you're saying. It's not like they closed the

41:21

entire gulf out of Qua. I get it. It's

41:23

like this one little area. But

41:25

at the same time, if you come out and say, hey,

41:28

this one mile area, how many people

41:30

are like, oh, that really makes me want

41:32

to fish that one mile area?

41:34

You know what I mean? Like you didn't. It's

41:36

kind of like if you knew you knew, and

41:38

and there's there's you know, what are you what

41:40

are you gonna do about that? But also, you

41:43

know, you tell me you can't fish in

41:45

this one mile for four months, I'm

41:47

like, what is happening in that one mile?

41:50

So, I mean there could be I hope they can.

41:52

They can police that, you know, or do to the

41:54

least that um.

41:56

But yeah, it's

41:58

funny people get so crazed over this fish. You've

42:00

told me you've had no problem catching them on the

42:03

fly. I wouldn't say no problem. I've

42:05

had better luck than most. Yeah, I've

42:07

I've only tried it on the fly a couple of times. But I'm

42:09

not eight up with them all the permit. I caught

42:11

it been on bait, and like I was saying that

42:14

they're so funny because if you do it in forty

42:16

ft of water on a wreck, it's like fishing

42:18

jack ravals like no problem, crab touches

42:21

down, it's when they get shallow. Um.

42:24

But did I think that's great? Man? And even though I'm

42:26

not part of that cult, I admire that obsession. I mean,

42:28

we're talking about dudes who refused to use glue on

42:30

their flies. Like they won't put a drop of

42:33

of cement or UV cure on a fly

42:36

because like, the fish are that

42:38

sensible. They could smell it a mile away

42:41

and they'll they'll turn right off of it. I don't have the patients.

42:43

I I did it a few times and missed

42:45

a few shots, and I'm like, I do only barracoutas around

42:48

can we do that? You know? But

42:50

did I think that's great? And I do think that's amazing

42:52

that all those organizations like you say it's rare that

42:55

they all come to get a degree on nothing.

42:57

Um that that says something to me. Yeah, And the

42:59

only transition I really have here for this one is that

43:01

you know, when you do get your shot and land your permit

43:04

on the fly, I will assume you'll want to take a

43:06

picture of it, okay, And this

43:08

is gonna be a giant free commercial for Apple,

43:11

but I don't care because it's a good P S

43:13

A. And and it's it's too good

43:15

not to pass along in my opinion.

43:17

Um And you know how like hooking

43:19

yourself is kind of a rite of

43:21

passage, you know what I mean? Like I always say, like, if you've

43:23

never had one in you pass the barb,

43:26

you're probably not fishing enough or maybe hard enough.

43:29

Um. And I also feel like losing a cell

43:31

phone in the drink is a similar rite of path It's like a

43:33

modern rite of passage. You know,

43:36

I don't I don't believe I have any close personal

43:38

angling buds that haven't sent me the I

43:40

got a new phone, lost all my contacts

43:43

text you know what I mean, like at

43:45

least one time. Uh. And I've

43:47

personally donated three phones over the years.

43:49

Anyway. I found this story on slash

43:52

gear dot com and it's about a woman

43:54

in Canada anti carrier

43:56

who dropped her iPhone eleven down

43:58

the hole while ice fishing on Westcasu

44:02

Lake in Saskatchewan in early one

44:04

Now most anglers, like me, as

44:06

an example, would have said, well there goes that, and

44:09

off to the Verizon store I

44:12

would go. But not Angie. Okay,

44:14

she was on a mission

44:16

to recover this phone, and

44:18

she made three separate

44:21

trips back to the lake over the

44:23

course of a month, loaded

44:25

down with augers and aqua view

44:27

cameras and the works, to

44:29

get this phone back. Right well,

44:32

about thirty days after she

44:34

dropped it, they finally located. Was like that. It had to

44:36

be like the Titanic, like the aqua view swept

44:38

over and you're like, there it is. They

44:41

found it and then spent two

44:43

hours using a magnet on a

44:45

string to get the iPhone

44:47

back and guess what, it works

44:49

perfectly, according to Angie

44:52

after a month under

44:54

the ice underwater. Okay,

44:56

now there's a p s A here, so just bear with

44:59

me. The iPhone eleven

45:01

is, in fact advertised by Apple is

45:03

being waterproof, but only to two meters

45:05

and only for thirty minutes. Like that's

45:07

like the max two ms. But this

45:10

this is the useful part. They actually

45:12

interviewed a tech expert

45:15

in the piece and and the phone was

45:17

down a little deeper than two meters, but he

45:19

said what likely saved it

45:22

was the stillness of the environment,

45:24

so it hit the bottom and laid

45:27

there undisturbed.

45:30

So I have to I have to ask one, was

45:32

there a case on this phone? No,

45:35

no case, no case, just

45:38

no case, just a protective cover, no case.

45:41

And this this tech expert said, if it was

45:44

summertime and you had boat

45:46

traffic or current or anything

45:48

like that, strong chance the gaskets

45:51

would have failed. So the point here that he

45:53

makes is if you drop your phone

45:55

in the drink, whether it's an iPhone eleven or

45:57

otherwise, if if

45:59

you can and try to retrieve it quickly

46:02

and as gently as possible,

46:04

like if you're knocking it and flipping

46:06

it along the bottom with a landing net trying

46:08

to get it, stronger chance

46:10

it will be toast. And even if you drop one

46:13

in like super shallow water on

46:15

the edge, he says, you know, pick it

46:17

up really slowly, really

46:19

gently, don't like violently snatch

46:22

it and grab it and like move it around

46:25

underwater, because the less it's

46:28

disturbed once it hits the drink,

46:30

the better shot of saving your phone.

46:33

So you're saying, fight your natural inclination,

46:35

which is to do

46:39

for you rip it out of the water. You

46:41

have a better shot of saving your ship if you

46:43

just gently pick it up and slowly

46:46

pull it out of the water. Interesting.

46:49

So I mean I I found that used for However,

46:51

I like, while I feel better about

46:54

inevitable sogginess now that I personally

46:56

have an iPhone eleven, I still

46:59

question just how you know quote

47:01

perfect Angie's phone really

47:03

is because I dunked my last iPhone,

47:05

which was an eight I believe, and

47:07

that was also supposed to have some level of resistance.

47:10

And while everything appeared fine and I

47:12

lost no data and and everything

47:14

worked, the camera lens, microphone

47:17

and speaker were shot like once

47:19

you get water behind that camera lens, there's

47:22

no going back, and like it was, it was completely

47:24

garbled. Um.

47:26

So you know, look, some people are very anti

47:29

Apple. In fact that I recently got in a heated debate

47:31

over this um with our friend Ross Robertson

47:33

and which he called me an ostrich with with my head

47:35

in the sand, because I shan't be swayed

47:38

off of Apple products. But this story

47:40

is a big checkbox for Apple for

47:42

anglers as as far as I'm concerned,

47:45

and uh, also for any of you saying as you

47:47

brought up. We'll just get a just get a case,

47:49

get a life proof case, right, remember life

47:51

proof? Oh of course I had. Here's

47:54

another p s A right, like,

47:57

they'll keep your phone dry, but nobody will

47:59

be able to hear you. Okay.

48:01

So that's exactly what my issue

48:04

was. I had to

48:06

take it out of the case to have a conversation,

48:09

and it's not easy to get him in and out of the case.

48:11

Okay. And I don't know if you had the same

48:13

experience, but when they first came

48:16

out, this is going back a long time now, when

48:18

they first hit the market, they were the bomb.

48:20

Like my first one lasted

48:23

the entire life in my phone, no problem. And I don't

48:25

know what happened. I don't know if they changed where they

48:27

manufactured or cut corners

48:29

or what. But like the next four that I had,

48:32

and I even would send some back for a free replacement,

48:34

like this one screwed up. I need another one, dude.

48:37

I got so tired of people that people

48:39

telling me they couldn't hear me, which irks me. Anytime

48:41

I want to call there like what I can't hear you? I just hang up

48:43

and I'm like, I'll call you back later. That drives me insane.

48:46

I literally ripped the last two life

48:48

proof cases off my phone and like threw them

48:50

in the closest trash receptacle. Couldn't

48:52

take it anymore. No, it protects

48:55

your phone, but it ceases to function as a phone.

48:58

So yeah, yeah, then you can't actually talk

49:00

to anybody, so little techy,

49:02

little little p s a there. Um,

49:05

you know. Hopefully we'll we'll see

49:07

what Phil thinks on this one. I also want to hear about

49:09

the punk band. And then as soon as we're done hearing from philm

49:11

we actually have a fishing report pre

49:14

spawn report pre

49:16

spawn from our bess pro buddy

49:18

on the tour Rant Stimpkins,

49:21

who um, probably can't afford an iPhone

49:23

eleven, but we'll see what he's got shaken

49:25

out there. Joe

49:30

SURMELI you kind of Trojan Horse

49:32

day tackle hack into that last news segment

49:34

and for that, hey, you're our winner,

49:38

my favorite punk band. I

49:40

have two answers for this one. The one I

49:42

think you're looking for. I'll call it my cb g B

49:44

answer is television love

49:47

television. Now. I am of the age,

49:49

and this is what I will call my warped Tour

49:51

answer. My embarrassing

49:54

answer. While you were smoking

49:56

cigarettes listening to Circle Jerks behind the

49:58

bait shop and I was behind the video

50:00

games store treating Yugo cards. Answer.

50:02

We're talking bands like Yellow Card, Jimmy

50:05

World Motion City Soundtrack, pop

50:07

punk Joe. That's what I liked.

50:09

I can feel you shivering from two time

50:12

zones away. I know you thought m

50:14

x p X was gonna be my lame answer. Jokes

50:17

on you. Listen. These

50:19

bands were unfairly maligned at the time as

50:21

just bait for fox emo preteens,

50:23

but they're pop songwriting sensibilities

50:25

and neck for melodies elevated them

50:27

above a lot of the bands of that early

50:30

two thousands generation. Yeah,

50:33

and everyone thought I was so cool after that Pokemon

50:35

segment a couple of weeks ago. Hey,

50:45

y'all, your favorite professional bass fisherman,

50:47

Ranch Stampkins here with a little update

50:49

from the tour. I'm sure you already

50:52

heard how close I came to placing in the Bass

50:54

Open event at Lewis Smith Like yesterday.

50:56

If it weren't for a run of bad luck, I'd have been

50:58

in the money for sure. But that's all right.

51:01

I'm fixing to give him a hell on Douglas and Tennessee.

51:03

This is gonna be my tour. I can feel

51:05

it well. Right now, I'm stuck

51:07

idling in the parking lot of a Flying j just

51:10

outside of Old east of Boga. What don't

51:12

you know it, I wiped my ass with the only buff I

51:14

had. What had happened was I bought some bull

51:16

peanuts off a feller, selling them out of the back

51:18

of a Chevy. They caught up to me on Highway

51:21

sixty five yesterday. I plumb

51:23

forgot about this no mass, no entry bullshit

51:25

at all these truck stops. About twenty

51:27

minutes ago, I gave my last five dollars

51:29

or some guy named Harlow and asked him

51:31

if he'd please run in and buy me one of them hot dogs.

51:34

I reckon he should be back any minute

51:36

now. Anyway, you ain't

51:38

here for my culinary advice. Y'all want

51:40

some juicy pre spawn advice, So listen

51:43

up. I noticed over on Lewis

51:45

they wasn't responding to nothing

51:47

I was throwing. I was in all

51:49

the right places, but even the customs

51:52

square bills with the blood crackle paint.

51:54

I traded my backup trolomotor battery

51:56

for what in doing Ship. I

51:59

knew right then there I was gonna have to pull out

52:01

the big guns. I tied on

52:03

my last four inch Yamamoto creature

52:06

and light blurpleo and slung it to the stumps

52:09

fish ate it before it ever touched down.

52:12

I threw that little one three in the well and

52:14

started feeling like I was finding my rhythm.

52:16

But I got a little too excited after feeling

52:19

that good old wiggle hung that bait up on the

52:21

very next cast. Of course, I went

52:23

in after it, but my trollomotor hit a

52:25

stop, bucked, and knocked the damn whole

52:27

rod out of my hands. Luckily one

52:30

of the older guys gave me a spare outfit

52:32

after wag in. It's missing a few

52:34

guys and the real sounds like rocks in a coffee

52:36

can. But it ain't nothing. A little w D forty

52:39

and some zip tize can't fix Ship.

52:41

I fished worse. I figured the guy did

52:43

it because when I'm on stage at the Classics someday,

52:46

he wants to tell his kids he helped me get there.

52:49

Hold on a second harl

52:54

ship An anyway,

52:57

I gotta scrape up enough cash to buy at least

52:59

three of bags of Yamamoto's and some of that Ozark

53:02

trail braade before I get to Douglas. So,

53:04

if any of y'all in the northern Alabama Tennessee

53:06

Ish area are looking for a pro to speak at y'all's

53:09

fishing club, shoot me at d M. Also,

53:11

if you're interested in buying a CB radio,

53:14

got a fence that needs a little mended, or

53:16

needs someone to mind your kids while they're on zoom

53:18

school all day, called Darrell over at

53:20

the Dollar General and leave a message for me. Otherwise

53:23

I'll holler at y'all again right after I cash that

53:25

fat and Douglas check. See you later. I

53:30

love Rance, dude, I really, and I wish

53:32

him all the best. He's got the heart kids

53:35

got moxie if you think about it, I

53:37

mean, Rance is kind of like the punk band that's

53:40

still hustling in the garage, you

53:42

know what I mean, booking gigs at the local VFW.

53:44

Like four people, Yeah, four

53:46

people exactly, and if nothing else, maybe, like

53:49

maybe they'll just inspire, just like one other

53:51

kid to follow his dreams of bass fishing

53:54

greatness. That's all it takes. No,

53:56

you're maybe

53:59

maybe I wouldn't Like I don't look at

54:01

Lance's life and be like, damn, that seems glamorous

54:03

to me. Like, even

54:06

if he made it big, I don't think he

54:08

would change much, you know, like like

54:10

maybe he'd he'd order the deluxe gas station

54:13

brewed right or no,

54:15

no, do you know what did he do? He'd pony up for the big

54:17

bag of jerky instead of the knockoffs.

54:28

I'm being like, dude, what do I know? Like that?

54:31

That probably is some kids dream you

54:34

never the truth is like you don't know

54:36

which people or bands or anglers

54:38

or whatever will turn out to be massively inspirational

54:41

and and influential until way

54:43

later, far into the future. And

54:46

that's actually the case with the with the

54:48

lure the Joe's covering this weekend

54:50

end. The line it rose to glory

54:53

made history without knowing it was making

54:55

it, and paved the way for countless

54:58

other great lures. But just

55:00

like you can still download up ivy music

55:02

on iTunes today, this lure

55:05

continues to have dedicated fans.

55:11

Well that's not allowed enough, Burt. You

55:17

can't escape swim bait culture

55:20

these days. It makes very little difference

55:22

what you target, because there's a swim bait. For that,

55:24

swim baits are loosely defined

55:26

class of fishing lures that imitate

55:29

fish, which doesn't really say much because

55:31

lots of lures that aren't considered swim baits

55:33

imitate fish. But what we can

55:35

all agree on is that swim baits like tacos

55:38

are available in harder, soft varieties,

55:40

and it's the soft ones that have really become

55:42

ubiquitous across all fisheries.

55:45

Chasing smallmouth tie on a little

55:47

three and a half inch k tex swing impact

55:50

Muskies go for the eight and a quarter inch defiant

55:52

trout cropp eas You say

55:54

the two and a half inch z man slim

55:57

swims have you covered? Regardless

55:59

of size, what all these soft plastics have in

56:01

common is a paddle tail or a modified

56:04

paddle tail that thumps away when you

56:06

reel, creating both action and

56:08

vibration. This style of bait

56:10

is so commonplace now that it's not even

56:12

really a thing worth talking about anymore. It's

56:15

it's been around so long that it's

56:17

hardly considered innovative. But how

56:19

did we get to a place where there are twenty

56:21

five or more varieties of soft plastic swim

56:23

bait at any given tackle shop. Most

56:26

people credit the California big bass

56:29

scene that bloomed in the nineties with kicking

56:31

off the swim bait craze, and that's not totally

56:33

inaccurate. The lower building pioneers

56:36

are that era may have created the demand

56:38

for big swim baits designed to catch

56:40

big gas fish, many of which

56:42

were super expensive in the early days, But

56:44

to say those lures lead to

56:46

smaller, cheaper, widely available swim

56:48

baits isn't totally true. Ask

56:51

any of those early swim bait makers what inspired

56:54

them, and many will point to Mr

56:56

Twister's sassy shad. With

56:59

so many soft plastic bait companies around

57:01

today, I think it's fair to say that Mr Twister

57:03

has kind of been sidelined. Yes,

57:05

we all know this company made the curly

57:08

tail grub is staple and fishing, and there's

57:10

a strong chance you still buy Mr

57:12

Twister grubs today. I mean, I certainly

57:15

do, but we're not exactly hearing

57:17

the prose praise their latest innovations

57:19

on the tournament trail. But what people might

57:21

not realize is that in the nineteen eighties,

57:23

Mr Twister was a tighten not just because

57:25

of the curly tail, but because when they

57:27

dropped the Sassy Shad, it

57:30

was revolutionary. The Sassy

57:32

Shad was really the first mass produced,

57:34

widely available paddle tail swim bait

57:36

to hit the market, and furthermore, Mr

57:39

Twister produced them in a wide range of colors

57:41

and sizes that appealed to everything from cropp

57:43

ease two large mouths to stripers.

57:46

All you had to do was stick one on a jighead,

57:48

cast and reel. They were also no more

57:51

expensive than any other soft plastics at

57:53

the time. Personally, I have a very

57:55

distinct recollection of buying a few packs

57:57

of small Sassy Shads as a young lad,

57:59

but not really catching a whole lot

58:01

on them. And maybe that's because I didn't give them

58:03

a fair shape, but it certainly didn't

58:05

feel like I was fishing something revolutionary

58:08

at the time. Strong chance that's

58:10

because while these lures were certainly pioneers,

58:13

they also had shortcomings. The plastic

58:15

Mr. Twister used was stiffer than modern

58:17

plastics, injection molding techniques

58:20

at that time didn't really allow for realistic

58:22

colors and patterns. You mostly had

58:24

solid or two tone options, perhaps with

58:27

some glitter mixed in. Lore historians

58:29

also point to a design flaw yes.

58:31

The Sassy Shad had a paddle tail, but compared

58:34

to modern paddles that tend to be large and

58:36

really really ramp up vibration, the

58:39

Sassy's tails were pretty small, making

58:41

its kick pale in comparison to present

58:44

day offerings. By the early nineties,

58:46

there were no shortage of Sassy Shad copycats

58:49

on the market, many with more effective tails.

58:51

Still, even then, most were

58:54

fairly rigid, limited in color, and

58:56

required an external jighead. It

58:58

wasn't until storm In reduced the Wild

59:00

Eyes Shad in the early two thousands,

59:03

complete with an internal jake head and snazzy

59:05

holographic finishes, that the paddle tail

59:07

craze really kicked in the high gear. Mr

59:10

Twister still produces the Sassy Shed,

59:12

which tells me they still must have devoted fans

59:14

in the freshwater scene. I just don't happen

59:16

to know any And while a Sassy Shad

59:19

or a Sassy Shad knockoff may not be

59:21

the first swim baite anyone's tying on for

59:23

snooker stripers, these days, they

59:25

have carved a niche in the saltwater scene,

59:27

particularly in the Northeast, for the countless

59:30

dudes trolling umbrella rigs that might

59:32

feature a dozen or more sassy shads,

59:34

that harder plastics stands up to all that

59:37

drag and water resistance far better than

59:39

new school plastic. And if a blue fish clamps

59:41

down on one of your shads, it might

59:43

not get cut in half. And if you need to replace

59:45

shads within your umbrella rig, you can do so

59:47

very cost effectively. I can't

59:50

honestly remember the last time I saw a

59:52

bag of large sassy shads

59:54

for sale in a Northeast tackle shop. In fact,

59:57

maybe I never did, because just like when I

59:59

was a kid, these baits are usually sold

1:00:01

individually, often displayed on the bottom

1:00:03

shelf, and repurpose tubs that once held

1:00:05

bulk cream, cheese or perhaps macaroni

1:00:08

salad. The only real difference is that instead

1:00:10

of being fifty cents a piece like they wear at Bayside

1:00:12

Bait and Tackle, Sir, I

1:00:15

reckon, they're pushing about three bucks a pop

1:00:17

these days. That's

1:00:23

all the time we have for this week. Remember, if

1:00:26

you're headed to the thrift store, keep an eye

1:00:28

out for an Ocean Sky's T shirt.

1:00:30

Grab all the op IV seven inches you

1:00:32

can find, but don't ask Jesse Michaels

1:00:35

to sign any of them. Purchase that hazy

1:00:37

zip block bag full of old school sheds if

1:00:39

you're feeling sassy, and if you're

1:00:41

looking for a lightly used CB radio,

1:00:44

we got a guy. We do. We got

1:00:46

that guy. And if you've got any questions, comments,

1:00:49

concerns, bar nominations, sabin items are

1:00:51

awkward photos to share. We're always on CBE

1:00:53

channel nineteen and my handle is jaz

1:00:55

Bone Coyote or just email all that stuff

1:00:58

to Bend at the meat eater dot com. We'll see it there

1:01:00

as well too, jas

1:01:03

Bone Kylote. I don't I don't have a

1:01:05

follow up to that. I don't want to get along, but I actually

1:01:08

got that off of a CBE handle generator

1:01:10

online. That is like my personal

1:01:13

Yeah, that's what I'm sticking with it. Uh,

1:01:15

don't forget those degenerative Angler and Bent

1:01:18

podcast hashtags on the Graham. We

1:01:20

are watching you at all times. Hopefully

1:01:23

those of you who liked rocking out in the car to our old

1:01:25

music are are digging the new jam,

1:01:27

or at least we hope you'll get used to it. Yes,

1:01:30

but remember eyes on the road. Don't give yourself

1:01:32

whiplash and Phil crank It Up Stop

1:02:00

at