Speaker 1: Which in Finnish actually translates to mud tropical stomp. Steve Austen,
Speaker 1: that would have been bad as yo, bro, I'll bring
Speaker 1: the case of Miller. You got the asparagus? Like, why? Who?
Speaker 1: Why is there asparagus and fishing? I just feel bad
Speaker 1: for the fish because it already lost most of its
Speaker 1: dignity getting caught by this dude and blind drunk. Good morning,
Speaker 1: degenerate anglers, welcome to Bent the Fishing Podcast. That can't
Speaker 1: even feign mild enthusiasm anymore when you hand off your
Speaker 1: phone and make a scroll through thirty five frames of
Speaker 1: your p B large mouth. I'm Joe Surmelli A Miles
Speaker 1: NULDI and and just wait a second, was that that
Speaker 1: PB thing? Was that just for Stephen Hella's benefit, because
Speaker 1: you know that's a pet pe of his right, you know,
Speaker 1: he kind of hates that. No, No, I actually had
Speaker 1: no idea he had a problem with the acronym PB.
Speaker 1: He's the boss, so I probably should have known that,
Speaker 1: but I don't know. I didn't. It never really bothered me.
Speaker 1: But just what bothers me is having to pretend I
Speaker 1: want to see tons of photos of it on your phone.
Speaker 1: This this right here, This, right here is why I
Speaker 1: don't go to barbecues with a bunch of people I
Speaker 1: don't know. Hold up, that's there's a legitimate bright side
Speaker 1: for the past ten months, because an barbecue is going
Speaker 1: down right like and and now these days when I
Speaker 1: run into people right as opposed to sometimes in the past,
Speaker 1: they don't just start handing me their phone to show
Speaker 1: off picks. Ever since, ever since that run on lisol wipes,
Speaker 1: that kind of that behavior just sort of shut down.
Speaker 1: You don't know, I'm not trying to be a dick,
Speaker 1: like I'm not, but I don't totally get it either, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: you caught a big fish. I'm honestly happy for you,
Speaker 1: Like legitimately, I'm happy for you. But unless the photos
Speaker 1: that you're showing me, like unless they're super unique in
Speaker 1: some way, or or you're using them to illustrate a
Speaker 1: point in a really good story that you're telling me,
Speaker 1: I just don't care. I don't I'm sorry. Okay, listen
Speaker 1: before I retort with a steaming cup of counter argument
Speaker 1: on what you're saying right now, just a quick friendly
Speaker 1: the reminder that the band podcast is fueled by Black
Speaker 1: Rifle coffee. If you like coffee and fishing, head on
Speaker 1: over to Black Rifle Coffee dot com back slash mediator
Speaker 1: to sign up for their coffee subscription service, then use
Speaker 1: the code mediator at checkout to take off your order.
Speaker 1: Plug done. Back to your little rant here, are you
Speaker 1: hating on gripp and grins in general or just when
Speaker 1: people show them to you uninvited? I'm confused? Uh, I
Speaker 1: guess it's a little both, if I'm being honest, all right, Like,
Speaker 1: I have a complicated relationship with gripping grids, right, and
Speaker 1: it's changed, it has changed over time. At this moment,
Speaker 1: like at this moment in time, I I can't believe
Speaker 1: what it says. I kind of think about them the
Speaker 1: same way I think about dick picks. All right, I
Speaker 1: have no problem. I have no problem with people taking
Speaker 1: all the grip and grins they want for themselves or
Speaker 1: loved ones or posterity or whatever. Would you superimpose the
Speaker 1: word dick picking that statement, like you, I have no
Speaker 1: problem how many dick yourself. This is all intentional, and
Speaker 1: if someone asks to see your grip and grins, then
Speaker 1: by all means share. But like I think, maybe we
Speaker 1: need to rethink this practice of just showing our grip
Speaker 1: and grins to people who have expressed no desire to
Speaker 1: see them. That's what I think. Yeah, but what you
Speaker 1: to find at the end there is social media and
Speaker 1: we and we know you don't like social media. And
Speaker 1: while I don't want to be subjected to random phone scrolling,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I you know, I feel beholding the
Speaker 1: social media to some degree, you know, and the Okay, look,
Speaker 1: you're right, I don't love social media. But here's where
Speaker 1: your analogy breaks down from me, right, because social media
Speaker 1: is it's voluntary. I can unfollow you if if I
Speaker 1: find your gripping and grinning like two egregious or or
Speaker 1: better yet, I can choose not to go on social
Speaker 1: media at all. Right, you're right, You're right, But I also, man, you,
Speaker 1: I think you're kind of not being realistic about this
Speaker 1: because just because you don't love hero shots, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really change the fact that big fish turn heads, right,
Speaker 1: Like our business is kind of about turning heads with
Speaker 1: big fish at times. Right, So I I get tired
Speaker 1: of both looking at and taking grip and grins. But
Speaker 1: like it's that or a close up, neither of which
Speaker 1: are original. And the gripping grins get way more attention
Speaker 1: and look like so I get annoyed with it too.
Speaker 1: I get annoyed with myself because I pose the exact
Speaker 1: same way in every grip and grin, whether it's shot
Speaker 1: by someone else or via the camera timer. And I
Speaker 1: hate myself for it. And I want to be creative
Speaker 1: and do something different. But after all these years, like
Speaker 1: my muscle memory goes right to rifle pose, I just
Speaker 1: go up, how just come out, just come up? And
Speaker 1: that's and that and that's my problem, you know. But
Speaker 1: my point is that you're not being realistic. And you're
Speaker 1: also forgetting about captains and guides, which is ironic considering
Speaker 1: you were once both of those. We had we it
Speaker 1: overlook that. And and they make money showing showing gripping grins, dude,
Speaker 1: like they do have more value than dick picks in
Speaker 1: my opinion, though maybe someone makes money off those two.
Speaker 1: I don't know. So yeah, all right, yeah, okay, look
Speaker 1: the Dick peck analogy, Uh maybe it's a little flowed.
Speaker 1: Maybe I went too far with that. I'll give you that.
Speaker 1: And man, like, just to clear this up, I take
Speaker 1: and I post gripp and grins Okay, Like I do
Speaker 1: understand that my my grape is my grape. Really, I
Speaker 1: think lies in the handing off the phone deal that
Speaker 1: we were talking about, like the being forced to see it.
Speaker 1: But to your point, like, let me get back to
Speaker 1: your point on on on guides and captains. I I
Speaker 1: struggle with that when I was guiding, Like I I
Speaker 1: actually hated gripping grins way more when I was a guide,
Speaker 1: I think than I do now, because I feel like
Speaker 1: they set people up for disappointment, right, Like all anyone
Speaker 1: sees on social media or anywhere in fishing media at all,
Speaker 1: really are these just huge giant fish? And so they
Speaker 1: show up, they show up to their day guided fishing,
Speaker 1: and their their expectations are dictated by Instagram accounts instead
Speaker 1: of reality. And let's just be let's just be honest.
Speaker 1: If you if you think your first day of trout
Speaker 1: fishing for the season is going to look like the
Speaker 1: fly Lord's page, you're setting yourself up for disappointment and
Speaker 1: it just makes for a terrible trip from the guide,
Speaker 1: for the client, for anybody. Look, all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: get off by soapbox and and be done with this.
Speaker 1: I think I think we've reached some sort of conclusion.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't know. I don't know, but I think
Speaker 1: we need to move on to the fishing report. And
Speaker 1: this particular contributor does not care at all about this debate. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he isn't posting anything to promote himself because his guiding
Speaker 1: business is not what you would call legal. That is correct.
Speaker 1: You won't see picks of down the Road Darren anywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, how we just bleeped his last name. He's
Speaker 1: so under the radar because he's got warrants out or something.
Speaker 1: But we're still gonna kick it over to our favorite
Speaker 1: South Louisiana Black Ops charter captain who's trying to keep
Speaker 1: himself moving forward despite the seemingly endless streams of hurricanes
Speaker 1: this season. Hey, y'all, it's down the Road Darren with
Speaker 1: the South Louisiana Fishing Report. Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 1: was that hilacious hurricane season. We had so many storms.
Speaker 1: They went through the whole alphabet with names and started
Speaker 1: picking some kind of weird Greek sound of names. They
Speaker 1: should have named them after the WWF rats. It was
Speaker 1: like Hurricane Hulk Hogan and Tropical Storm Steve Austin that
Speaker 1: would have been badass. My damn trailer got all torn
Speaker 1: up during hurricanes A to last month, so I'm currently
Speaker 1: shocked up in a tent and max old Lady Shantell's backyard.
Speaker 1: It's a less than ideal situation, but it's got it's perks.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I come home with a case of bush heavies
Speaker 1: and if I give her a few, she lets me
Speaker 1: use her microwave to warm up a can of ravioli. Anyways,
Speaker 1: the hurricanes did mess some things up, but the fishing
Speaker 1: is better than ever. The specle trout of gorging themselves
Speaker 1: on shrimp right now, and if you can find a
Speaker 1: good falling tide, you can catch a nice mess of fish.
Speaker 1: Head down the four Horse Lake when the tide's ripping,
Speaker 1: and toss some plastics anywhere you see your buy you
Speaker 1: emptying into the lake, that trot will be stacked up.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a boat parade, So try to stay
Speaker 1: at two cast distance away from other boats. Some people
Speaker 1: got no respect these days, and they come up right
Speaker 1: next to you. My little pot in the Austin been
Speaker 1: going out to the lake front in the Wallans and
Speaker 1: throwing a cast net for shrimp. I went with him
Speaker 1: one night. Before we could finish a bottle of Taka vodka,
Speaker 1: we had already filled the ice chests up with shrimp.
Speaker 1: Chantel was pretty happy balled them shrimp the next day.
Speaker 1: She would have let me sleep on the couch that
Speaker 1: night if I hadn't got into an argument with her
Speaker 1: neighbor after my pit bull bit his laboratory retriever. Red
Speaker 1: fish are stacking up too, and you can find them
Speaker 1: all over the place right now. Get this, I saw
Speaker 1: a dude fly fishing for red fish the other day.
Speaker 1: That poor dude kept waving his own back and fourth
Speaker 1: and back and forth. I can't believe somebody will go
Speaker 1: through that much trouble when all you gotta do is
Speaker 1: toss out a dead shrimp under a popping cord and
Speaker 1: let the fish come to you, poor sucker. So that's
Speaker 1: the report for the fall fishing down here in South Louisiana.
Speaker 1: I still got some days available if you want to
Speaker 1: go fishing this fall. The damn mayor in New Orleans
Speaker 1: canceled Marty Guard this year due to the phony coronavirus,
Speaker 1: and I normally make a lot of money that time
Speaker 1: of year, so I gotta book as many under the
Speaker 1: table charter trips as I can. I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: my mama a new dryer for Christmas, and I may
Speaker 1: or may not have promised my boy Joey Campo i'd
Speaker 1: buy a jet ski. Anyways, I'll see y'all next time.
Speaker 1: I'll at me. So listen, all our stupid bsing aside.
Speaker 1: South Louisiana and much of the Gulf Coast is really
Speaker 1: coming out of what was a brutal, brutal hurricane season.
Speaker 1: And while while we know that's just kind of the
Speaker 1: way of life down there, life in the cone as
Speaker 1: they say, um, you know, people are dealing with some
Speaker 1: serious ship and trying to put the pieces back together.
Speaker 1: And I think it's just a good time, a good
Speaker 1: jumping up point to remind you guys that now is
Speaker 1: the perfect time to book a fishing trip. If you've
Speaker 1: been down there, you know the fishing is outstanding. That's
Speaker 1: so good. I mean, you spent more time than I
Speaker 1: but it's it's it's amazing. And even for those of
Speaker 1: you who aren't traveling right now, which I know a
Speaker 1: lot of you aren't, this is a great opportunity to
Speaker 1: put down a deposit with the quality captain and you
Speaker 1: can use that when you are traveling again, right, It'll
Speaker 1: it'll really help out some folks for scrambling, and it
Speaker 1: will give you something to look forward to, which is
Speaker 1: also beneficial. Absolutely, And we get hit up all the
Speaker 1: time by listeners looking for for captain recommendations, and we're
Speaker 1: always happy to help in that arena. Uh So, if
Speaker 1: you need a recommendation for a captain or guide in
Speaker 1: that area, hit us up. We'll be happy to point
Speaker 1: you in the right direction. I've spent so much time
Speaker 1: down there, I miss it dearly and my heart really
Speaker 1: does break for all my buds down that way after
Speaker 1: this cane season. Likewise, Yeah, and uh and since we're
Speaker 1: we're talking about traveling to fish, I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a good time to jump on over to fin Clips,
Speaker 1: the segment where we tell you everything you never wanted
Speaker 1: to know about fish you may or may not have
Speaker 1: heard of. And this week, Joe's diving into the details
Speaker 1: on a mythical whitefish that only lives in the Far North.
Speaker 1: She fish have been called the tarpin of the North,
Speaker 1: not only because they jump and pull like tarpin, but
Speaker 1: because they kind of look like them too. They've got
Speaker 1: dime sized, bright silver scales and a strong, extended lower
Speaker 1: jaw that, when unhinged, can suck up prey with a
Speaker 1: forceful vacuum, just like those poons. But tarpin are kind
Speaker 1: of sort of big gass herring. She fish, on the
Speaker 1: other hand, are members of the whitefish family. Matter of fact,
Speaker 1: they're the biggest member of the white fish family in
Speaker 1: North America, and I have been enamored with them since
Speaker 1: I was six years old. That was the year someone
Speaker 1: gave me a North American Fishing Club book all about
Speaker 1: the freshwater species in you guessed it in North America,
Speaker 1: because that's kind of their thing. But they're in the
Speaker 1: first few pages was a photo of a gent mean
Speaker 1: mugging on a pristine river with a sheaf fish. The book, however,
Speaker 1: said they were primarily known as in canoe, which translates
Speaker 1: into unknown fish and was coined by early French explorers,
Speaker 1: and the sheafish is native range. Per that book, where
Speaker 1: every species featured that little map of North America shaded
Speaker 1: to show you where said fish lived, she fish only
Speaker 1: lived way up at the tippy top of Alaska and Canada,
Speaker 1: and this made little me even more intrigued by them.
Speaker 1: According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, today,
Speaker 1: she fish are most abundant in the kuska, Quim and
Speaker 1: Yukon River drainages, though there are a few other populations
Speaker 1: here and there in drips and drabs throughout Alaska, some
Speaker 1: of which over winter in brackish estuaries, technically making shea
Speaker 1: fish a nadromus, even though not all of them will
Speaker 1: end up in briny water. In fact, she fish don't
Speaker 1: really seem to follow any set plans. Many populations winter
Speaker 1: in the low ends of rivers within deltas and bays,
Speaker 1: than travel thousands of miles upstream in summer to spawn
Speaker 1: an eat. Meanwhile, other populations stand one place year round
Speaker 1: or migrate within a relatively small area. While long runners
Speaker 1: and homebodies are genetically identical, it is important to note
Speaker 1: that if you want to catch a true behemoth, like
Speaker 1: a fifty plus pounder, you're going to want to target
Speaker 1: the ones that winner closer to the coasts and make
Speaker 1: those monster runs in and around the coastal city of
Speaker 1: Seliwick just above the Arctic Circle in the northwest Arctic Borrow.
Speaker 1: As an example, sixty pounders are caught with relative frequency.
Speaker 1: Just you know, dress warm and if you insist on
Speaker 1: a Wendy's baconator after you fish, you won't find one
Speaker 1: there now. A rare trade of the shea fish is
Speaker 1: their rapid growth rate. Usually fish that live in icy
Speaker 1: cold water grows slowly, but inland fish can reach sixteen
Speaker 1: inches by the age of two and fourteen pounds by
Speaker 1: age eight. Meanwhile, while the coastal fish grow slower than
Speaker 1: the inland fish, they can get much bigger, and studies
Speaker 1: have shown that they live much longer than inland fish,
Speaker 1: up to twenty years to be exact. Historically, she fish
Speaker 1: usefulness didn't really go beyond feeding the natives and their dogs,
Speaker 1: but their appeal as a target is growing year over
Speaker 1: year among anglers. Alaska Locals target them with everything from
Speaker 1: live bait to lures, and they even get some big
Speaker 1: uns through the ice. Though their popularity is rising with
Speaker 1: the flybros in particular. And that's the segue I'll use
Speaker 1: to get us to Fairbanks, Alaska. In July nineteen, where
Speaker 1: I was doing some pike fishing on Minto Flats with
Speaker 1: my bud, Trevor Smith, I honestly didn't even realize I
Speaker 1: was in she fish territory until Trevor brought up that
Speaker 1: a client had lucked into one on a spoon this
Speaker 1: season before. He'd been guiding the area for a few
Speaker 1: years and it was the only one he'd ever seen.
Speaker 1: And I lit up, but was quickly extinguished when Trevor
Speaker 1: told me they were ghosts, man wanderers, very hard to pattern.
Speaker 1: Here in one spot one day and gone the next.
Speaker 1: Yet the next day, while fishing a confluence of two
Speaker 1: creeks high about ship my pants when what I thought
Speaker 1: was a big pike rolled over and revealed those silvery
Speaker 1: sheat fish flanks. Trevor, she had his pants. My friend
Speaker 1: John Frasier, who was along for the ride, ship his
Speaker 1: pants and with soiled trousers. We all reveled in disbelief
Speaker 1: at our amazing fortune. We went two for five on
Speaker 1: she fish over all on the fly in that same
Speaker 1: spot during the next hour and the next day, just
Speaker 1: as Trevor predicted, the ravenous school was gone. It was
Speaker 1: a fleeting glimpse, but still it allowed me to finally
Speaker 1: close that chapter of the North American Fishing Club book
Speaker 1: I've been drooling over for thirty one years. I am
Speaker 1: legitimately jealous that you've caught a sheep fish. I'll also
Speaker 1: say you definitely deserve that one more than I do,
Speaker 1: because I have not been dreaming about them since I
Speaker 1: was six. I don't know how like that's amazing, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think I even realized they existed tells in
Speaker 1: my twenties. But still they just look like such a
Speaker 1: cool fish. I hope I get to catch one one
Speaker 1: day off. It's super cool and and very strong, and
Speaker 1: it's um If anybody here fishes in the southeast, it's
Speaker 1: a very snook like eat and the water got They've
Speaker 1: got like snoop like looking mouths, don't they do they?
Speaker 1: You know, people call them tarp in to the north
Speaker 1: that I see the similarities there and looks for sure,
Speaker 1: But if you really look at their head, I thought
Speaker 1: it was very snook like jaws right. And the water
Speaker 1: where we were fishing when this creak came in was murky,
Speaker 1: and it was you could just barely track your fly
Speaker 1: a few inches under the surface, and these things would
Speaker 1: ghost up out of the mark and just just suck
Speaker 1: it in and go ballistic. And I have no wall
Speaker 1: space left in my tiny home office, which is the
Speaker 1: only room in the house that is allowed to have
Speaker 1: fish mounts hanging in it. But if I did my
Speaker 1: god like that, I'd commissioned a new wood carving or replican.
Speaker 1: So badass, oh so jealous. You have clearly you clearly
Speaker 1: bested me this week in terms of life fishing goals.
Speaker 1: I will, I'll give you that. But uh, let's see
Speaker 1: if I can make up some ground, maybe even even
Speaker 1: the score a little bit in fish news. That escalated quickly.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's do a little housekeeping here, shall we
Speaker 1: before we throw down the news gauntlet. Um, we don't
Speaker 1: have much for you this week other than and then
Speaker 1: a holiday message of sorts. Um. That is to say,
Speaker 1: we know Christmas is next Friday, but Bent Bent doesn't
Speaker 1: have off for Christmas. So uh no, In case you
Speaker 1: were wondering, Yes, we will be dropping the show next week.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, we're calling it something along the lines
Speaker 1: of the Bent Christmas extravaganzas special, spectacular, something like that.
Speaker 1: We haven't quite figured it out yet, but spectacularly special
Speaker 1: for sure. Yes, move over being Crosby and the twenty
Speaker 1: four hour you log on TV make way for for
Speaker 1: this bullshit. But we did have a ton of fun
Speaker 1: putting it together. And listen, while we don't expect everyone
Speaker 1: to tune in on Christmas Day because you know it's
Speaker 1: Christmas Day, just letting you guys know it's coming, and
Speaker 1: if you catch it later after Chris is perhaps it
Speaker 1: will extend the good tidings for you or something like that.
Speaker 1: To steal a line from from Scrooged, you'll love it.
Speaker 1: Couldn't help myself, couldn't help myself there, all right, My
Speaker 1: my housekeeping this week is also kind of Christmas Eve,
Speaker 1: but it's it's it is simultaneously a bit of shameless
Speaker 1: self promotion, and that's not something I'm usually comfortable doing.
Speaker 1: But there's a chance you might still need a Christmas gift,
Speaker 1: and if you order like right now, it might actually
Speaker 1: get delivered. Now there's a chance you might get in time.
Speaker 1: The powers to be have asked me to inform you
Speaker 1: of a book title that is now available at the
Speaker 1: Mediator website and nowhere else. This is not a new book.
Speaker 1: In fact, it's it's more than a decade old. But
Speaker 1: it's one that I have a soft spot for because
Speaker 1: I wrote it. The book is called The Alaska Chronicles,
Speaker 1: an unwashed look at life, work and fly fishing. And
Speaker 1: if you've ever wondered what it's actually like to work
Speaker 1: as a fishing guy at a remote wilderness camp, uh,
Speaker 1: this book will answer all your questions. And if you're
Speaker 1: thinking about becoming one, don't read the book, or definitely
Speaker 1: do read the book. Liked the truth? Is this? The
Speaker 1: narrative in that is so honest that I had to
Speaker 1: change all the names of everybody in the book and
Speaker 1: obscure the location. And despite all that, my former employers
Speaker 1: still tried to sue me and the publisher over the book,
Speaker 1: but he failed and his loss can be your game.
Speaker 1: So this is the second and final printing of the
Speaker 1: Elastic Chronicles and all remaining copies can only be found
Speaker 1: at our website. So if you need a Christmas gift,
Speaker 1: go check that one out. There, you go Miles book.
Speaker 1: Check it out, and while you're there, grab a mediator
Speaker 1: fishing sticker, because we already know that the cost of
Speaker 1: a single sticker, when it's the same as the cost
Speaker 1: of the shipping, is prohibitive to you buying a single sticker.
Speaker 1: Some of you have reached out, we know, but you're
Speaker 1: gonna be there buying Miles book anyway, tack one on. Okay,
Speaker 1: so let's get to news. Um. As most of you
Speaker 1: know by now, this is a competition. Miles and I
Speaker 1: do not know which news stories the other dude has found.
Speaker 1: And at the end of it, our engineer, beautiful Phil,
Speaker 1: he's a beautiful man. He's gonna weigh in and declare
Speaker 1: a news winner and and make one of our our
Speaker 1: holidays brighter. And it is your week to lead off, sir,
Speaker 1: so that it is all right. My first story comes
Speaker 1: from the ICE's Journal of Marine Science by way of
Speaker 1: Coastal Review Online, and they dug into a study recently
Speaker 1: conducted on popular fish species off the Carolina coast. One
Speaker 1: of the ways the biologists monitor fish populations is through tagging. Right,
Speaker 1: They catch fish, put tags in them, release those fish,
Speaker 1: and then see if and where they pop up again.
Speaker 1: And this is uh, this is one area where anglers
Speaker 1: actually can participate in meaningful citizen science. Right If if
Speaker 1: you catch a tag fish, whether you harvest it or
Speaker 1: you release it, man just report it, full up your
Speaker 1: local manage an agency. It's not hard to do, and
Speaker 1: it really matters. It's something we can all participate in
Speaker 1: to help keep track of and manage our fisheries, and
Speaker 1: it's it's really really helpful that actually does make a difference.
Speaker 1: So anyway, these agencies collect all these data about different
Speaker 1: fish species, both from their own capturing release and from
Speaker 1: recreational and commercial fishermen reporting tagg fish. The authors of
Speaker 1: this new study that I read looked at tagging information
Speaker 1: on several different sport fish from recent years, and they
Speaker 1: reinterpreted those data through a statistical modeling method that I
Speaker 1: do not understand, and they came up with some yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah statistics, and I it's like magic anyway, but they
Speaker 1: came up with some interesting conclusions that I do feel
Speaker 1: like I can speak about a little bit. The big
Speaker 1: takeaway is this fish are getting caught and released far
Speaker 1: more than had been previously thought, up to seven times
Speaker 1: for an individual fish, and that has some pretty significant
Speaker 1: implications for how we look at tagging studies. So first,
Speaker 1: here's the bad news. This might mean that we're overestimating
Speaker 1: fish stocks. Fisheries managers use information on tagged fish to
Speaker 1: estimate how many of a certain kind of fish live
Speaker 1: in a certain area. Right, So the managers know that
Speaker 1: X number of red grouper are tagged in a particular
Speaker 1: area in a given season, and that why number of
Speaker 1: those tag grouper are caught and reported. They then make
Speaker 1: guesses about how the whole population is doing based on
Speaker 1: assumptions about fishing practices, angler efficiency, and beliefs about fish mortality. Well,
Speaker 1: this new study seems to be showing that some of
Speaker 1: those assumptions might be wrong. Over the past few decades,
Speaker 1: catch and release has become a lot more prevalent, but
Speaker 1: the methods that are used to interpret population data haven't
Speaker 1: necessarily caught up with that trend. So managers might be
Speaker 1: assuming that a higher percentage of fish are being kept
Speaker 1: than actually are, and that might make them guess that
Speaker 1: the overall populations are higher than they actually are. All right, So,
Speaker 1: so there's the bad news. But here's the good news.
Speaker 1: It seems like released fish survive at a higher rate
Speaker 1: than previously thought, at least the ones that make it
Speaker 1: through their first interaction with hook and line. According to
Speaker 1: Dr Jeffrey Bucknell, one of the researchers who worked on
Speaker 1: the study, quote, the proportion of released fish that survived
Speaker 1: appears to go up after the first release. Bucknell went
Speaker 1: on to explain this is counterintuitive. We expected that the
Speaker 1: effects of capture, including hooking, handling, and pressure related trauma
Speaker 1: would be sort of cumulative, and that fish are more
Speaker 1: likely to die after perhaps the third release compared to
Speaker 1: the second. But that's not what they found. It seems
Speaker 1: like fish that survived being hooked and tossed back once
Speaker 1: have a better than average chance of surviving that encounter again.
Speaker 1: And here's where I'm gonna get totally unscientific and make
Speaker 1: a guess about why that is. My guess would be
Speaker 1: that this is an example of catching and release fishing
Speaker 1: influencing natural selection, and that we as anglers are impacting
Speaker 1: the dynamics of the species that we fish for. The
Speaker 1: individuals that are not fit enough or adapted well enough
Speaker 1: to survive catching, release fishing, or dying the first time
Speaker 1: they get caught, and the ones that can handle that
Speaker 1: trauma are surviving and going on to get caught again,
Speaker 1: as well as maybe passing those traits onto future generations.
Speaker 1: So we might be pushing natural selection to favor fish
Speaker 1: that can survive catch and release over and over again.
Speaker 1: That was a very long limb that I just stepped onto.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna gonna admit that I'm pretty sure I'm gonna
Speaker 1: hear from some of our listeners who actually are biologists
Speaker 1: telling me that I took that line of thinking way
Speaker 1: past what the actual data can support. I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: I was listening to going, man, this makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense, and had to remind myself that, like Miles,
Speaker 1: is just kind of making this part up right now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that wasn't in the story. Nope, nope, And and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna welcome all those future emails that tell me how
Speaker 1: wrong I am. But lucky for me, this is a
Speaker 1: fishing podcast and not a peer review journal, so I
Speaker 1: can do exactly exactly. But just to sum this all
Speaker 1: up again, mixed news on this study because it might
Speaker 1: mean that that our fish stocks are actually smaller than
Speaker 1: we think, but the catch and release fishing might also
Speaker 1: have less detrimental impact than we thought. I got a
Speaker 1: stress though, that it's a pretty small sample size this
Speaker 1: This focused on four species of fishing one geographical area
Speaker 1: of off Carolina coast, so I'm not trying to draw
Speaker 1: too large a conclusion off of it. But I found
Speaker 1: it pretty damn interesting, I gotta admit, Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: had I had heard something about this and I think
Speaker 1: another one was black sea bass was a part of
Speaker 1: this black red grouper. And yeah, I mean that that's
Speaker 1: sort of the only thing like that side of it
Speaker 1: is interesting and uplifting that we might actually be toughening
Speaker 1: our fish up because we care more about them and
Speaker 1: let more of them go. Right. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: get beat up on the playground once. Next time dude
Speaker 1: comes after you, now you're gonna start swinging back. But again,
Speaker 1: like you said, like looking at the sample size and
Speaker 1: these types of fish, these are already in my opinion,
Speaker 1: at least some pretty hardy wreck and reef dwellers. That's
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like group bres are tough ass, hearty
Speaker 1: ass fish. So if we could, if we get down
Speaker 1: the line, like does this tie in or lead to
Speaker 1: like um, tougher brown trout, tougher rainbow trout, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? It could I mean if if if
Speaker 1: your theory, which again is just the theory. Now now
Speaker 1: we're like we're expanding on the part of it that
Speaker 1: was like not the science, but not at all. I
Speaker 1: I just can't help I can't help myself because it
Speaker 1: would just seem like if it worked there in that small,
Speaker 1: that small group. You know, why wouldn't it work elsewhere?
Speaker 1: But I guess you could already say that nobody's seeing
Speaker 1: much evidence of that on on trout streams or anything either,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like, but it it's also
Speaker 1: not counted, So how do you know? I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's only count in certain places, right, And
Speaker 1: I know of one study and this is just one
Speaker 1: study that was done years ago on yellowstone cutthroat trout
Speaker 1: in the Yellowstone River, and they found that a lot
Speaker 1: of those fish actually got caught up to seven times
Speaker 1: a year because cutthroat not that smart and it's enforced
Speaker 1: catching lease fishing for Yellowstone cutthroat on that stretch of river.
Speaker 1: You can't keep them. So I think I'm not I'm
Speaker 1: not making that leap over there, but I am going
Speaker 1: to say that that some people have found in some
Speaker 1: studies that they're surviving and getting caught more often than
Speaker 1: we may have thought. Yeah. Yeah, it's fascinating. And the
Speaker 1: only other thing I'll add to that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: because you had mentioned like, hey, people, you know, if
Speaker 1: you catch a tag fish, do the right call it in?
Speaker 1: Like is there for? To me, it's like a badge
Speaker 1: of honor. And I've only ever caught one tag fish
Speaker 1: in my life and it was a striper and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, there was the tag right
Speaker 1: And I didn't keep that fish. I didn't even take
Speaker 1: the tag off, but I recorded everything real quick and
Speaker 1: like I couldn't wait to call. I was like, where
Speaker 1: has this fish been? I'm just dying to know how
Speaker 1: far did you go? And then they were like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we tagged it yesterday and I was like, oh damn it.
Speaker 1: I've got a couple of tag fish. And now since
Speaker 1: you've always got your phone with you, it's super easy.
Speaker 1: You just take a picture of the tag and like
Speaker 1: the write anything down. So simple. Um. Yeah, I actually
Speaker 1: caught one of those Yellowstone cut throat in the Yellowstone
Speaker 1: System one time and reported that and I was not
Speaker 1: the first person to catch it that season. And then
Speaker 1: a bone fish and hoii those are my two tag fish. Excellent, excellent. Well,
Speaker 1: here's what I'll say if if if you're interested in
Speaker 1: catching the same fish multiple times, maybe, um, in order
Speaker 1: to do that, you know, it's you have to think
Speaker 1: outside the box in terms of the baits you give it,
Speaker 1: because maybe it's senior ship too many times. So that's
Speaker 1: my that's my segue into this very what I think.
Speaker 1: It's a very fun little ditty that I found on
Speaker 1: the website of Ohio's Country Journal, and the headline is
Speaker 1: simply odd fishing baits, which is not a good headline.
Speaker 1: Great story though, and it's by Dan Armitage and up
Speaker 1: front right, it gives you a little background on the
Speaker 1: app fish Brain, which I'm sure some of you are
Speaker 1: familiar with, um, but in case you're not, this is
Speaker 1: right from the story. Fish Brain is said to be
Speaker 1: the world's most popular mobile app and social network for
Speaker 1: people who enjoy angling. The free to use app, with
Speaker 1: more than ten million users worldwide, helps create the best
Speaker 1: possible fishing experience by providing everyone, whether beginner or pro,
Speaker 1: with the tools, insights, and support to enjoy the world's
Speaker 1: most popular sport. UM. I'm certainly familiar with it, but
Speaker 1: I'm also not on it, so to be honest, I
Speaker 1: can't really speak too much to the inner workings of
Speaker 1: it because I'm not there. I will say I know
Speaker 1: some people that love it. I know a whole lot
Speaker 1: of people who despise fish Brain because they say it's
Speaker 1: there's no greater spot burn tool on the planet. But
Speaker 1: for the purpose of this story, that's that's neither here
Speaker 1: nor there, right. Fish Brain recently called on that huge
Speaker 1: user base to tell them the weirdest bait they ever
Speaker 1: used and what they caught with it, and apparently they
Speaker 1: got such a huge response that they were able to
Speaker 1: whittle it down to the top five categories of unconventional baits,
Speaker 1: which are candy, meat, chips and crackers, fruits and plants
Speaker 1: and leaves, and finally fast food. Okay, so now those
Speaker 1: categories are not overly surprising in and of themselves, but
Speaker 1: the story pulled some user quotes within all those categories,
Speaker 1: and I have I'm gonna read some of my faiths.
Speaker 1: Note that I'm excluding the candy category because, as you
Speaker 1: might get, that was all just gummy worms. Like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: gummy worms. I would I would assume it was all marshmallows. No, well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure marshmallows fell into candy. I'm sure that was
Speaker 1: part of it. But the quotes they pulled for the story,
Speaker 1: none of them were marshmallow. They were all gummy bears,
Speaker 1: gummy worms and stuff. So here's one from the meat group.
Speaker 1: I've been catching catfish in the lake in my neighborhood
Speaker 1: with Sam's Club corn beef lunch meat that's from Brectal
Speaker 1: fishing family in Florida. That one I found oddly specific,
Speaker 1: like boar's head. Corn beef only catches the litlans. You
Speaker 1: gotta have the Sam's Club. Okay. From the chips and
Speaker 1: crackers category, barbecue flavored ruffles caught me some little brookies
Speaker 1: and cutthroat. I dub Angling from Alberta, Canada said, um,
Speaker 1: I mean that sounds like wild brookies to me. I
Speaker 1: sprinkled some chips out there. They'll come eat um balsamic
Speaker 1: vinegar triskets for carp Matt Buell in New Mexico. That's
Speaker 1: a waste. Those are too delicious. They are, my friends,
Speaker 1: my favorite trisket right there. You can't use that for
Speaker 1: the carp bait we got. My dad once caught a
Speaker 1: blue fish on Derrito's that's from a dude and Western
Speaker 1: Mass and that's a blitz scenario. That's just one of
Speaker 1: those scenarios where they're frothing the water and hit anything
Speaker 1: that moves right, and we got one. I've seen someone
Speaker 1: catch snapper on asparagus in Florida. Why was that on
Speaker 1: your boat? Yo, bro, I'll bring the case of Miller.
Speaker 1: You got the asparagus? Like why? Who? Why is there asparagus?
Speaker 1: And fishing? And lastly, I was in Key West not
Speaker 1: too long ago and caught Atlantic Spanish mackerel on a
Speaker 1: Wendy Spicy chicken sandwich. The whole sandwich. Well, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: assume it's another Blitz scenario, right, and it's pieces of
Speaker 1: the sandwich. I think it's funnier to think of a
Speaker 1: Spanish mac eating an entire Wendy sandwich. Um, but I
Speaker 1: thought this was fun. And if you break it down though,
Speaker 1: right as I've already hinted at all, these scenarios aren't
Speaker 1: really that impressive because like brookies and blue gills eating
Speaker 1: French fries and like fired up salty fish, they will
Speaker 1: take a shot at anything they think is food or
Speaker 1: that moves right. In certain cases I've seen it. Maybe.
Speaker 1: I once fed a whole tomato and two soggy ham
Speaker 1: sandwiches and the cooler from the day before to a
Speaker 1: school of ravenous anita in Louisiana. Just like whatever slapped
Speaker 1: the water, it got eight catfish. There was a lot
Speaker 1: of catfish stuff in there, of course, like you know,
Speaker 1: they're kind of vacuum cleaners, but I doubt there were
Speaker 1: entries like I caught at muskie walking the through wired
Speaker 1: subway Italian b n t over a weed top, like
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, um exactly. So I think
Speaker 1: it's I think it's it's cool and funny to to
Speaker 1: sort of hear some of these things people wait in with.
Speaker 1: But it also got me thinking, like, what's the weirdest
Speaker 1: bait I ever used? And I would have to say,
Speaker 1: for me, it's it's play though, which I'm betting some
Speaker 1: people submitted. It just didn't fit in one of those categories.
Speaker 1: And dude, it's been a long time. But if you
Speaker 1: think about it, it's essentially power bait minus the scent. Right,
Speaker 1: it's totally bald ugradable, comes in any color you want,
Speaker 1: and you bawl that up and you have ever real
Speaker 1: nice little stocker trout bait. And I can't say that
Speaker 1: it out fished real eggs or power bait, but it
Speaker 1: did work. So that would be my contribution to weirdest bait.
Speaker 1: Uh Man, I don't I don't have a really weird
Speaker 1: one off the top of my head. The catfish one
Speaker 1: made me think when I was a kid, we used
Speaker 1: to fish a lake for channel cats and we would
Speaker 1: use beef heart because it was cheap. Right, beef heart
Speaker 1: was way cheaper than that lunch meets expensive, like beef
Speaker 1: heart for next to nothing. So definitely used a lot
Speaker 1: of that. And I remember one time, much later in life,
Speaker 1: I was on a fish and trip at this this
Speaker 1: beautiful trout stream in the middle of this this gorgeous
Speaker 1: area in uh In, Argentina, of all places that I
Speaker 1: got lucky enough to go to. But it got hit
Speaker 1: pretty hard and we were getting our teeth kicked in.
Speaker 1: We we caught a handful of fish, but we didn't
Speaker 1: hardly catch anything. And we're just finishing up lunch at
Speaker 1: the spot and the guy's like, hey, watch this, and
Speaker 1: he starts frisbeeing out chunks of bread into the current,
Speaker 1: and these giant trout just start boiling everywhere. And I couldn't.
Speaker 1: I could not convince those fish to eat anything I
Speaker 1: threw at them. But man, you whip a chunk of
Speaker 1: bread out there and get a good dead drift and
Speaker 1: they would nail it. Oh man, did that in the
Speaker 1: experience a little bit little you had to look at
Speaker 1: those fish differently after that a little bit. Yeah, kind
Speaker 1: of messed things up for but I had a great time.
Speaker 1: It was still a lot of fun, but it was
Speaker 1: it was also pretty frustrating. I just say, I just say,
Speaker 1: before you move on, if if anybody else out there
Speaker 1: has has used some really weird bait ship hit us up,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear about it. Absolutely shot you out.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I guess the only connection I have
Speaker 1: from that story to mind things that don't belong in
Speaker 1: places where they end up is as close as I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get. Wasn't that a sesame streets segment? One of
Speaker 1: the one of these things just doesn't belong here like
Speaker 1: the other do some counting to one terrible story? All right?
Speaker 1: My My next story was spurred by an email we
Speaker 1: got from listener Katherine Williamson. She caught my attention, but
Speaker 1: you know, also kind of on me out. She wrote.
Speaker 1: I was walking back to my car and taking a
Speaker 1: fishing break. I stopped a little doc a favorite and
Speaker 1: popular fishing spot, when something on the far bank caught
Speaker 1: my eye. At first, I thought I was seeing a
Speaker 1: dead branch hanging from a tree. When I looked closer,
Speaker 1: I realized one it was an owl hanging by its wing,
Speaker 1: and two it was alive. Oh yeah, So the owl
Speaker 1: was entangled in fishing line that was attached to a
Speaker 1: crank bait that someone had broken off and said tree.
Speaker 1: But Katherine, you know, being the person that she is,
Speaker 1: clearly was upset and went out there and tried to
Speaker 1: free the owl. And she couldn't get it out on
Speaker 1: her own. She just wasn't tall enough. I don't I
Speaker 1: don't exactly know, but she couldn't get it out. So
Speaker 1: I love this part. She marched into a nearby subdivision
Speaker 1: and just started enlisting the help of strangers, like, hey,
Speaker 1: come on, we gotta we gotta help this owl, which
Speaker 1: is fantastic. With the help of few other people, they
Speaker 1: eventually freed the Eastern Screech owl and they called animal
Speaker 1: control Sadly, there's no happy ending here. The wings the
Speaker 1: owl's wing was badly broken and it had to be euthanized. Now,
Speaker 1: Catherine sent us this story hoping we would get the
Speaker 1: word out about fishing line left and trees being problematic
Speaker 1: for birds. Now, this is a sad story, but one
Speaker 1: dead owl is not a problem. Make right. The thing is,
Speaker 1: I've actually seen this myself more than once. It seems
Speaker 1: like just about every year when I'm floating some of
Speaker 1: the rivers around here during high water, I come across
Speaker 1: a bird or two that they got wrapped up in
Speaker 1: fishing line that's attached to a bus set off rig
Speaker 1: that's that's in the willows, and it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: sort of a dramatic scene, right you see their lifeless
Speaker 1: bodies skipping on the surface and the current, and yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of a bummer. And especially when it's
Speaker 1: a it's a Western tanager, which I have seen, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the prettiest birds around, and that they're
Speaker 1: always in those willows that time of year, right, so
Speaker 1: they're they're they're susceptible to it. It's still, again anecdotal,
Speaker 1: not necessarily tragic or indicative of any kind of a
Speaker 1: large scale problem. So I started doing a little to research,
Speaker 1: and there's a ton of information about marine birds and
Speaker 1: fishing gear, especially commercial fishing gear, but there's not much
Speaker 1: about freshwater species and recreational fishing gear. So I dug
Speaker 1: around for quite a while and eventually I found a
Speaker 1: paper published in the Proceedings of the California Academy of
Speaker 1: Science in October of this year, and it seemed like
Speaker 1: it was looking at exactly this problem, right. This paper
Speaker 1: started by taking a news story from earlier this year
Speaker 1: about an oriole that had died in a similar fashion
Speaker 1: to Katherine's owl, and like it made local news and
Speaker 1: got a bunch of attention, and then this paper was
Speaker 1: trying to figure out how big a problem this really is? Right,
Speaker 1: So I'm like, oh, yeah, I found it. So here
Speaker 1: here's an exerpt from the paper's abstract to give you
Speaker 1: sense of what it was talking about. Literature, databases, and
Speaker 1: the Internet were searched for other reported cases of injury
Speaker 1: and mortality to birds from recreational fishing line. Several compilations
Speaker 1: of bird entanglement records have appeared in recent decades. However,
Speaker 1: these concerned marine environments, and most entanglements involved commercial fishing gear,
Speaker 1: whereas the present paper focuses on recreational fishing gear, mostly
Speaker 1: in freshwater and inland environments. Sweet, right, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: gonna answer my question. I thought I thought I gotta
Speaker 1: figure out Well I was wrong, And I'm gonna save
Speaker 1: you all ten pages of reading and just sum it
Speaker 1: up this way. Birds die from lots of different natural
Speaker 1: and human cause factors. Sometimes they get to angle in
Speaker 1: fishing line. No one knows how widespread problem this is
Speaker 1: because no one is cataloging these events. Little little little
Speaker 1: anticlimactic right, I got another thought here before each time
Speaker 1: in I want to say that that despite all that
Speaker 1: and the inconclusive nature and the how disappointed I wasn't
Speaker 1: that paper, this is something we can affect as a
Speaker 1: fishing community by simply taking the time and effort not
Speaker 1: to leave gear in trees. Maybe you can afford to
Speaker 1: buy a new knockoff rapple of crayfish pattern crank bait,
Speaker 1: and good for you, you really made it, But maybe
Speaker 1: the cost of the bay it shouldn't be the only
Speaker 1: factor in deciding if you wade into the creek and
Speaker 1: the treat of the lure. When stories about cute and
Speaker 1: pretty birds getting caught in fishing line and hanging themselves
Speaker 1: hit national news, which they do, it makes all of
Speaker 1: us look bad, and it paints fishing in an unnecessarily
Speaker 1: destructive light, regardless of how widespread this problem actually is.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to close with one more quick personal story.
Speaker 1: Years ago, I was guiding a couple and they were
Speaker 1: just trying to figure out if fishing was something they
Speaker 1: were gonna do, Like they weren't into it yet, but
Speaker 1: they were. They were thinking about it. They were fishing curious.
Speaker 1: Midway through the day, we saw a red wing blackbird
Speaker 1: fluttering erratically way up in the top of this this
Speaker 1: Russian olive tree, and we went over to check it out.
Speaker 1: The bird was tangled in some leader that was attached
Speaker 1: to a big white streamer. I climbed the tree and
Speaker 1: I freed the bird, which flew away strongly I think
Speaker 1: was okay, and I retreated the lure. Those clients went
Speaker 1: on to fish with me for a decade, like they
Speaker 1: got into it after that, And I'm not saying that
Speaker 1: was why, but it definitely they had a very positive
Speaker 1: experience that first shot, and they never forgot free in
Speaker 1: that bird. A Additionally, I later went on to catch
Speaker 1: a two foot brown trout on that exact same streamer
Speaker 1: that I had plucked from the tree. And so my
Speaker 1: point is, Karma, take the time to pull the gear
Speaker 1: on the trees, whether it's yours or not. You might
Speaker 1: save a bird, You might save fishing from bad press.
Speaker 1: And you might score a sweet new lure, so just
Speaker 1: go ahead and do it. Yeah, I mean you basically
Speaker 1: hit on it birds aside, Like we shouldn't have to
Speaker 1: tell you just to pick up your ship and don't
Speaker 1: leave anything out there for for any reason. And I
Speaker 1: can honestly say, man, I have never encountered a bird
Speaker 1: wrapped in fishing line anywhere, but it it is. It
Speaker 1: is interesting to me because like a stock image of
Speaker 1: East Coast fishing in many places is like a power
Speaker 1: line just wrapped in fishing line, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like that's like a stock like it's It's just there
Speaker 1: are places that I fish now that I fished recently
Speaker 1: where you know, we're out there in a boat, but
Speaker 1: you have guys that hit it on the bank. And
Speaker 1: I mean we could just go tree to tree to tree,
Speaker 1: and we do and we get all kinds of free
Speaker 1: new lawres and things like that. So I'm very cognizant
Speaker 1: of that. I try to leave nothing in trees, nothing behind. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, the only time it gets you is when
Speaker 1: you're you're fishing on shore, casting across a river or
Speaker 1: something you can't cross. It sort of is what it is,
Speaker 1: you know, I've just never seen it, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: birds out here get wrapped up probably more often birds
Speaker 1: out there, because this is a ship a little more
Speaker 1: line and tree. And I'm not talking about some seven
Speaker 1: X I'm talking about like forty pound snagging mono, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So yeah, yeah, I I don't
Speaker 1: have a defendi events on how often this happens. It
Speaker 1: happens enough that I've seen it. It happens enough that
Speaker 1: it hits national news from time to time. Are there
Speaker 1: cases where you're not gonna be able to get it back? Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, far side of the river, or if you're
Speaker 1: in really swift current in a boat and you can't stop, Like,
Speaker 1: I get it, it happens. I'm not demonizing anybody who's
Speaker 1: ever done this before. I'm just saying like, if you
Speaker 1: can make the effort, try and get it out, and
Speaker 1: if you see one that isn't yours that you can get,
Speaker 1: go get it. It's pretty simple. Or also, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe learn how to cast better, Like how many people
Speaker 1: have you seen like overthrow on eight casts in a row.
Speaker 1: It's like, dude, your depth perception is that shitty, Like
Speaker 1: it can't be that shitty anyway, although from saving birds
Speaker 1: to saving stripe bess um, but not without issue. This
Speaker 1: one hits close to home. But I think this is
Speaker 1: a good because it drums up some debate. And this
Speaker 1: is I'm pulling my info here from the website of
Speaker 1: the Fisherman magazine East Coast mag I've been reading that
Speaker 1: since I was a little kid, um and from the
Speaker 1: story I'll just jump right in here. Approved in October nineteen,
Speaker 1: the change to the Atlantic Stripe Bass Interstate Fishery Management Plan,
Speaker 1: otherwise known as the f MP, implemented coastwide harvest reductions
Speaker 1: put in place in while also requiring the mandatory use
Speaker 1: of circle hooks when fishing with bait to reduce release
Speaker 1: mortality and recreational stripe bass fisheries. And as per this
Speaker 1: Fisheries Management Plan, states are required to implement circle hook
Speaker 1: requirements by January one. Okay, now, I'm gonna guess that
Speaker 1: I know how you feel about this, having talked to
Speaker 1: you about circle hooks, but maybe I'm wrong. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: well I'm gonna tell you how I feel. But but look,
Speaker 1: this is big news here, right, And to be clear,
Speaker 1: this is not a Jersey story. This is not a
Speaker 1: Massachusetts story. Every Atlantic state on that that has coastal
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's coastal, like the water touches the state.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying that has a stripe bass fishery.
Speaker 1: This applies to oh yeah totally. And while at the surface,
Speaker 1: right it seems like an automatic win and many anglers
Speaker 1: feel that it certainly is and this is very long overdo,
Speaker 1: but it's also kind of ruffling some feathers. So now,
Speaker 1: now personally, I'll get into my thoughts here. I I
Speaker 1: do actually think this is a good thing. But the
Speaker 1: way I'd put it as it pertains to my striper
Speaker 1: fishing um is I'll be able to work around its caveats,
Speaker 1: I think, and that will make more sense as as
Speaker 1: I continue, because the reality with this is it's just
Speaker 1: not as cut and dry as it seems on paper. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that's because natural baits play a much bigger role
Speaker 1: in striper fishing than than simply putting a chunk or
Speaker 1: an eel or a live mullet on a single hook
Speaker 1: and casting it out. You know, like it's really easy
Speaker 1: to think of it in terms of a piece of
Speaker 1: bait or a live bait on a hook. And now
Speaker 1: it goes. So this whole circle hooks deal was up
Speaker 1: for final debate this fall, and to give you an
Speaker 1: idea of what I mean, some states asked for exemptions
Speaker 1: for certain lures and methods. One of the more notable
Speaker 1: was tube and worm. Main asked for that to be exempt.
Speaker 1: And that's where you use these long rubber tubes with
Speaker 1: a treble hook on the back end, and that treble
Speaker 1: hook is tipped with a sand worm or blood worm.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's an old school method, been around a
Speaker 1: long time and it catches a lot of stripers. Massachusetts
Speaker 1: asked that it not applied to anyone fishing on four
Speaker 1: higher vessels. But ultimately all of this was shot down right,
Speaker 1: and this is from the story in the Fisherman. No
Speaker 1: exemptions were made for gear type or user group, and
Speaker 1: therefore this regulation includes shore bound private boat and anglers
Speaker 1: onboard for higher vessels coastwide with no gear and this
Speaker 1: is where things get sticky with no gear type exemptions allowed.
Speaker 1: The new circle hook requirement in place includes, but is
Speaker 1: not limited to, such angling techniques as tube and worm,
Speaker 1: ill skin rigs, rig deals, the addition of a pork rind, squid,
Speaker 1: et cetera, to a bucktail jig and yeah, right, and
Speaker 1: all other scenarios where a natural bait is added to
Speaker 1: an artificial lure when targeting stripe bass. That's huge, right,
Speaker 1: So that's what That's what I was talking about when
Speaker 1: I said I can work around it personally. Yes, tipping
Speaker 1: a bucktail with pork rinds or bait strips very common
Speaker 1: method here, right, But I'm not going to freak out
Speaker 1: personally about only being able to tip a bucktail with
Speaker 1: a soft plastic right. Again, just just me, not speaking
Speaker 1: for every striper angler on the coast. I don't troll
Speaker 1: tube and worm doesn't affect me. I don't fish rig deals.
Speaker 1: I can live without it. But I also fully understand
Speaker 1: why this would drive other dudes to madness. Like if
Speaker 1: those are your go to depending on where you are
Speaker 1: on the coast, and that's what you rely on to
Speaker 1: catch your fish, I get it. But here's where it
Speaker 1: gets personal. Okay, this is the interesting one, and I'm
Speaker 1: dying to hear what you have to say about this.
Speaker 1: The biggest question right now, particularly in Jersey and New York,
Speaker 1: is with snag hooks and this this affects me, right,
Speaker 1: So Man Hayden, which we call bunker. That's the primary
Speaker 1: food source of big stripers in our area, and we
Speaker 1: get a run of them in the spring and a
Speaker 1: run to them in the fall with the best. And
Speaker 1: keep in mind, these are big bait fish, right. A
Speaker 1: bunker can be twelve inches long. This is a big bait, uh.
Speaker 1: And one of the most common ways to use them
Speaker 1: is a method we call snagging drop. So you got
Speaker 1: all the bunker out there in a school, you fire
Speaker 1: off a big weighted treble hook into one sweep the rod,
Speaker 1: snag a bait, then you open the bail and now,
Speaker 1: because that trouble hooks waited your your bunker just falls
Speaker 1: right below the school, acting all wounded and yet and
Speaker 1: the stripers just eat it right and you know, two outsiders.
Speaker 1: It might sound a little barbaric, but it's it's super
Speaker 1: common here. Every shop sells snag rigs highly effective. But
Speaker 1: here's my dilemma. I don't really snagg and drop, and
Speaker 1: I never liked it for multiple reasons, one being like,
Speaker 1: I'm just not always looking for meat in the box
Speaker 1: when I striper fish, so I don't want a striper
Speaker 1: to inhale a giant trouble hook. But even more so,
Speaker 1: I've always been really particular about where a hook is
Speaker 1: in my bunker. Um, And when you snag, you don't
Speaker 1: know is it in the tail, is it in the gills?
Speaker 1: Will it be dead in a minute. So while I snag,
Speaker 1: I zip the bait back in, send it back out
Speaker 1: on a single hook pin right behind the dorsal fin.
Speaker 1: And that's just because I believe bass eat headfirst most
Speaker 1: of the time, and the hook pulls out of that
Speaker 1: soft meat, real easy um out. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: not snagging bunker right, you've got a cast at them,
Speaker 1: which is a whole other headache and not always very easy.
Speaker 1: And point blank, dude, I can't throw a cast net
Speaker 1: like that's something I never learned exactly right, So I
Speaker 1: never learned how to do that. But now right, technically,
Speaker 1: even though I am only snagging for the purpose of
Speaker 1: getting bait, I can't do it. Well. Wait, so in
Speaker 1: the time between the snagging or trial to the boat,
Speaker 1: that's a live bait out there, not on a circle hook.
Speaker 1: And hell yeah, like your bunker gets trashed while you're
Speaker 1: reeling in, even if you're burning it in. It happens
Speaker 1: all the time. And this has sparked a bunch of debate.
Speaker 1: But but you said, now you can't. We don't know, right,
Speaker 1: Snagging drop is like the outlier that has not really
Speaker 1: been addressed, is snagging drop out? Can I snag but
Speaker 1: not drop? And as far as I'm aware of what
Speaker 1: I can find, there is no official answer yet. But
Speaker 1: you know all other local methods decide for many guys
Speaker 1: like me, dude, If you ban bunkers snagging altogether, short
Speaker 1: of really dialing in my cast net game, which also
Speaker 1: I mean, then you also have to find bunker in
Speaker 1: a cast nettable scenario. Right. Short of all that, if they,
Speaker 1: if they, if it goes away, I can't really live
Speaker 1: bunker fish anymore, which is a really exciting way to fish,
Speaker 1: like as live bait fishing goes. That's a big gass
Speaker 1: bait and you know, like you feel the tailbeat pick
Speaker 1: up and they get wet. It's fun as shit. I
Speaker 1: love it dearly. Um, but there's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: gray area at the moment. And um, I'll just close
Speaker 1: out by saying, you know, it was pointed out to
Speaker 1: me by a buddy who actually works at the Fisherman
Speaker 1: that Virginia as an example, um they've they've had a
Speaker 1: law in the books for a long time that you
Speaker 1: can't snag any bait fish. So are we ultimately headed there?
Speaker 1: You know, don't know, maybe, but there's there's haziness for sure,
Speaker 1: you know, even though the big picture should be good.
Speaker 1: But as you hinted too earlier, there's also a lot
Speaker 1: of guys throwing out the whole like circle hooks, gut
Speaker 1: hooked more stripers than jay hooks, which is you know,
Speaker 1: it's a whole other debate. Yeah, we don't have time
Speaker 1: to get into the hook debate. You took this in
Speaker 1: a different direction. Um Man. I don't feel like I
Speaker 1: know enough to make an informed statement on any of this,
Speaker 1: except to say, anytime you start trying to put in
Speaker 1: regulations like this, you're gonna wind up having issues like
Speaker 1: the one you're talking about. Right. The whole idea behind
Speaker 1: them saying no exemptions was to clear up gray area,
Speaker 1: and yet gray area remains. And so I think I
Speaker 1: would say that I do not envy the folks trying
Speaker 1: to manage that fishery at all, because what a terrible,
Speaker 1: thankless job that is. And and also I don't know
Speaker 1: that I could come up with a better solution, right.
Speaker 1: I think that taking away the exemptions was smart because
Speaker 1: otherwise it would be even an even bigger nightmare. But
Speaker 1: you still wind up with these very specific cases that
Speaker 1: have to be figured out. Yeah, and that's the problem,
Speaker 1: like it has to it has to blank everything. But
Speaker 1: there's these just these little sort of like pain in
Speaker 1: the assid things that you can't really overlook. Years ago
Speaker 1: bill fish tournaments, they said, if you're using natural bait
Speaker 1: like bally who, you had to use circles and remember
Speaker 1: a certain and if I'm not mistaken, that went away
Speaker 1: because guys were just like, I appreciate what you're doing,
Speaker 1: but like, we can't hook the billfish that way. You know,
Speaker 1: you're not gonna make a bucktail with a circle hook
Speaker 1: on it. So that's what I mean. It works with
Speaker 1: a bait live or dead on a hook cast out
Speaker 1: by itself. But there's so many other things that involved
Speaker 1: natural bait. We'll see what happens. Time will tell you know, yep,
Speaker 1: And and I hope you'll give us a report back
Speaker 1: once once you get through that season, once that you know,
Speaker 1: into next year. I don't see how it's going. But
Speaker 1: in the meantime, we're going to hear from our all
Speaker 1: knowing and all powerful filled the Engineer about who has
Speaker 1: emerged victorious this week. And after that, we're gonna head
Speaker 1: out onto the ice and relive a rather awkward moment
Speaker 1: involving a pike, a couple of dudes, and an unnecessary
Speaker 1: piece of equipment for giving me a new and exciting
Speaker 1: use for the seventeen jars of rock Hard Plato in
Speaker 1: my closet. Joe Surmeli, You're the winner this week. I
Speaker 1: am also holding a survey on the social media, so
Speaker 1: please visit my Instagram stories and let me know which
Speaker 1: snacks will make the least amount of mess in my
Speaker 1: bed sheets While I binge The Queen's Gambit on Netflix
Speaker 1: this Sunday, Why did you take a picture a lave?
Speaker 1: This week's awkward moment in angling comes to us from
Speaker 1: listener Mike Mancini and Mike. Mike actually sent a couple photos,
Speaker 1: but but one of them is not of himself. It's
Speaker 1: of his wife, and we're not totally sure that she
Speaker 1: gave her permission for him to send that in for
Speaker 1: us to roasted. So, dude, I'm glad you brought that
Speaker 1: up because in fairness. When we started this set, when
Speaker 1: we were like, if you have whacked out pictures of
Speaker 1: your friends, send them along too, actually asked them first,
Speaker 1: because that's that's like legal ship or something that we
Speaker 1: didn't think about when we said it, so lawyers. We're
Speaker 1: definitely not lawyers. But even though we're not using that
Speaker 1: that that other image, Mike, we do appreciate you sending
Speaker 1: it because we like options. The options are good, totally, totally.
Speaker 1: It is always good to have variety. In case you
Speaker 1: missed it, that's kind of our stick here on the day.
Speaker 1: It's a variety show. Whether you love or hate it,
Speaker 1: it'll be over in a minute and we'll be onto
Speaker 1: something else. Anyway. We chose this image for a few reasons. First,
Speaker 1: it's an ice fishing shot, and since we're heading into
Speaker 1: ice season at least maybe maybe depending on that. I
Speaker 1: keep hearing a lot about this Lanninia thing this year.
Speaker 1: Bust out, put away your mittens, bust out your shorts,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Um, we're trying to make sure that the
Speaker 1: hard water crowd is adequately represented because even though I
Speaker 1: think it's fair to say Miles and I aren't like
Speaker 1: ice masters, we we've We've spent plenty of time huddled
Speaker 1: over a hole on a frozen lake. I've been known
Speaker 1: to run full board for the close flags at least
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, maybe on occasion crack a beer
Speaker 1: out there. So I've definitely done that. I have. I
Speaker 1: will say this though, like and I've said it before,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna say it again. I think ice fishing
Speaker 1: is just often and too often portrayed as an excuse
Speaker 1: to drink. And I keep bringing this up because I
Speaker 1: I thought that before I started ice fishing. I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: that's just a reason to go, like drink whiskey and
Speaker 1: a shanty and pretend like you're doing something. But I
Speaker 1: was wrong, and and there's actually there's actually a lot
Speaker 1: to it. Ice fishing could be pretty technical, and I
Speaker 1: think if you're hammered, you're probably not gonna be fishing
Speaker 1: that well, you probably won't do all that well yeah, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I agree. But hold on though, because Mike's photo actually
Speaker 1: might suggest otherwise to the contrary of everything you just said.
Speaker 1: Because the second reason we picked this one is that
Speaker 1: Mike's holding a legitimately good fish. Man. You know, that's
Speaker 1: a solid Pike's a healthy, healthy pike. It is. It's
Speaker 1: a respectable pike, or at least it looks pretty respectable,
Speaker 1: but it's kind of hard to tell with all the
Speaker 1: hands covering up the body. Because here's the other thing.
Speaker 1: Here's where we go on a different track. Mike isn't
Speaker 1: the only one in this photo. He's not. He's not.
Speaker 1: He's got company. In fact, let me just set this up. So,
Speaker 1: so there's Mike on the ice, He's holding his nice fish.
Speaker 1: It's pretty normal, really, But then you see Mike's buddy
Speaker 1: shoulder to shoulder with him, also holding his fish, and
Speaker 1: like it's a nice pike, like we said, but we're
Speaker 1: not talking. This is like a three pound sturgeon that
Speaker 1: he's holding up no support from a buddy. He's capable
Speaker 1: of holding it on his own. Yeah, And Mike's Mike's
Speaker 1: got the thing like well in hand, like he's got
Speaker 1: a good grip on it, and his buddies not even
Speaker 1: really holding it in like a like a meaningful way.
Speaker 1: He's adding nothing to the hold of the fish. He's
Speaker 1: just kind of awkwardly. It's like fondling the tail, just
Speaker 1: covering up the tail. Really, and I'll just I'll just
Speaker 1: I'll just go for the punch. They're both grinning like
Speaker 1: complete idiots. Yeah, yeah, no other way to say that.
Speaker 1: And tell me it doesn't look like they're posing for
Speaker 1: a wedding photo. It does like it should be like
Speaker 1: the mandatory It's like the mandatory groom and best man
Speaker 1: bro hug shot after the ceremony. Yes, but I mean instead,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not really celebrating a major life moment.
Speaker 1: They're just holding what I'd say as a decent pike.
Speaker 1: Decent yeah, yeah, and like look to be fair to Mike,
Speaker 1: he explained all of this in his email. He addressed
Speaker 1: all that and and it's short, so I'll just read
Speaker 1: the whole thing. He wrote to us. This is my
Speaker 1: personal best Northern through the ice or otherwise. My buddy
Speaker 1: and I were deep and thought that standing shoulder to
Speaker 1: shoulder would help illustrate our majestic catch. Instead, we looked
Speaker 1: like a couple of nubs who drank way too much.
Speaker 1: And they do that is that is exactly right? And Joe,
Speaker 1: like to your earlier point, that does undermine my claim
Speaker 1: about drinking and ice fishing a little bit because they
Speaker 1: happen to pull this one off. Yes, but wait, there's more,
Speaker 1: because while his explanation there explains the goofy grins and
Speaker 1: awkward pozing, it fails to address there's just one thing
Speaker 1: about this photo that it actually caught our attention. We
Speaker 1: haven't even talked about the attention catcher yet he didn't
Speaker 1: talk about it, no, that being the freaking jaw spreader
Speaker 1: still lodged in the pike's mouth, all right, And I
Speaker 1: feel like for those of you don't know, a little clarification.
Speaker 1: A jaw spreader, it's like a it's a metal spring
Speaker 1: loaded device that that you used to hold open the
Speaker 1: mouths of large and toothy fish like pike and muskie.
Speaker 1: So you can like use that. It opens up the jaw,
Speaker 1: holds it open, and you can remove the hook without
Speaker 1: getting your fingers all messed up. Yes, and and look,
Speaker 1: it's a perfectly acceptable tool I have. I have one,
Speaker 1: and and the size of the fish they caught justifies
Speaker 1: the use of a jaw spreader. But but once once
Speaker 1: you take the hook out of the fish, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go ahead and say, it's generally customary to also remove
Speaker 1: the jaw spreader. And you're you're certainly gonna want to
Speaker 1: remove the jaw spreader before you take a hero shot,
Speaker 1: and it's similar. It reminds me very much of when
Speaker 1: you see that shot as somebody holding a fish horizontally,
Speaker 1: you know, with both hands supporting the stomach, but there's
Speaker 1: still a fish gripper or boga hanging off. I see
Speaker 1: it all the time, and I'm like, you ruined your ship,
Speaker 1: You just ruined that photo. Wh just take it off? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Would you take it off? Yeah? Yeah, it's like the
Speaker 1: pike version of that. That's that's a good analogy. And
Speaker 1: I I just feel bad for the fish, really, like
Speaker 1: that's what I think. I look at that and I
Speaker 1: feel bad for the fish because it already lost most
Speaker 1: of its dignity getting caught by this dude who's just
Speaker 1: blind drunk, I mean, just out of his mind drunk,
Speaker 1: but now caught by the drunk. Yeah, and but now
Speaker 1: on top of that, it's getting held up for like
Speaker 1: a group fetish photo biting down on the rough equivalent
Speaker 1: of a metal ball gag for fish, I mean, for it, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're it is truly debased. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: I hope that fish was released because it's clearly a
Speaker 1: mature female and exactly the kind of fish you want
Speaker 1: passing launch ginette X or or just put out of
Speaker 1: its misery after that that level of humiliation, so you know, well,
Speaker 1: you know, to be fair, that's really what this segment
Speaker 1: is all about. Humiliation. That's kind of what we're doing here.
Speaker 1: And to all of you out there, if you want
Speaker 1: the chance to experience your own humiliation through us, please
Speaker 1: send your awkward phishing photos. We we look forward to them.
Speaker 1: They truly are the highlights of our week. Sometimes Miles
Speaker 1: is saying true things. They really are the thing we
Speaker 1: look forward to most. Send those embarrassing fishing related photos
Speaker 1: to us at bent at the meme eater dot com. Please,
Speaker 1: all right, for the record, that segment is a perfect
Speaker 1: example of the kinds of grip and grin photos that
Speaker 1: I like, alright, the ones that don't take themselves seriously.
Speaker 1: I love those that, my friend is one point we
Speaker 1: definitely agree on. Another thing we agree on is your
Speaker 1: choice for this week's end the line segment. In fact,
Speaker 1: when I think about iconic lures, this is one of
Speaker 1: the first that comes to mind. It's not loud enough
Speaker 1: bur This week I'm going to tell you about the
Speaker 1: Rappola original floating minnow, which you know might be a
Speaker 1: little too on the nose. It's kind of like the
Speaker 1: interview we did with Oliver and I a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago. One piece of tackle you cannot live without.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I really should have seen that one coming.
Speaker 1: Choosing to profile the best selling lure in the world
Speaker 1: in a segment about lures, bates and flies seems equally obvious.
Speaker 1: But just because most anglers know about this lure and
Speaker 1: have at least a few of them in their boxes
Speaker 1: doesn't mean they have the whole story, and trust me,
Speaker 1: it's a good one. First, let's clear up the pronunciation debate.
Speaker 1: Is it rapaula, rappola, repella? Technically none of those are correct.
Speaker 1: Rappila was named for its Finnish inventor, Lori Rapila. The
Speaker 1: Finnish word rap has a distinctly rolled R. But I
Speaker 1: wouldn't walk into your local tackle shop and ask them
Speaker 1: where they keep their Actually, I take that back. I
Speaker 1: do recommend you do that, but please be sure to
Speaker 1: record audio of the whole thing and send it to us.
Speaker 1: As far as the Rapple of Bait Company is concerned,
Speaker 1: you can pronounce it anyway you want. They don't really care.
Speaker 1: They sell twenty million lures annually and their products have
Speaker 1: got more I g F a world record fish than
Speaker 1: any others, so they have that going for him, which
Speaker 1: is nice. But the world's most popular lure has a
Speaker 1: surprisingly humble and unique origin, as does the name itself.
Speaker 1: Lori Rappola carved the first iteration of this bait in
Speaker 1: asi Kala, Finland, but Lori's family wasn't originally from there.
Speaker 1: They moved to that town when he was a young boy,
Speaker 1: and when they arrived, the local clergyman, who also functioned
Speaker 1: as the town's record keeper, failed to write down his
Speaker 1: family's actual surname, instead inscribing the name of the town
Speaker 1: from which they had emigrated, Rappola, which in Finnish actually
Speaker 1: translates to mud. Yeah. The inventor of the most popular
Speaker 1: lure in history was actually named mud. As a young man,
Speaker 1: Laurie was uneducated but enterprising. During the winter he worked
Speaker 1: as a lumberjack, and in the summer he worked as
Speaker 1: a farm hand and commercial fisherman on nearby Lake Paiana.
Speaker 1: He harvested whitefish, pike, and perch, but trout were the
Speaker 1: real prize. Three big trout would earn him more money
Speaker 1: than two weeks pay at a local factory. Lori primarily
Speaker 1: fish with trot lines and live minnows, an arduous and
Speaker 1: labor intensive way of fishing, especially since he fished out
Speaker 1: of a rowboat and would regularly row more than thirty
Speaker 1: miles a day. First, he had to catch all his bait,
Speaker 1: and then he was constantly baiting and rebaiting his hooks
Speaker 1: while also trying to keep meadows fresh and lively. Long
Speaker 1: before portable narrators were a thing, Laurie became convinced that
Speaker 1: a lure that effectively imitated wounded bait fish would be
Speaker 1: far more efficient, so he started designing. One story goes
Speaker 1: that his first few iterations didn't work, but Laurie just
Speaker 1: kept on experimenting. According to one source, Lorie consulted with
Speaker 1: a local hermit who lived on an island in the
Speaker 1: middle of Lake Paiana to help assess what was wrong
Speaker 1: with his early inventions. In ninety six, he completed a
Speaker 1: successful prototype for what would become nearly three decades later,
Speaker 1: the Rappela floating minnow. It was card from cork covered
Speaker 1: with foil from chocolate bar rappers tossed out by more
Speaker 1: wealthy neighbors and sealed with cast off photographic negatives that
Speaker 1: he melted over the lure. According to Laurie's sons, he
Speaker 1: trolled it without a rod, tying the line directly to
Speaker 1: his thumb to ensure that he wouldn't lose the precious lure,
Speaker 1: and it worked. Legend has it that Laurie started hauling
Speaker 1: in up to six hundred pounds of pike and trout
Speaker 1: a day on his new invention, and the timing was
Speaker 1: fortuitous because three years later war broke out across Europe
Speaker 1: and so did food shortages. Laurie kept his family fed
Speaker 1: with his new lure until the war came to Finland.
Speaker 1: Then Laurie left the fishing to his sons while he
Speaker 1: went off to defend his homeland. He fought in the
Speaker 1: Second World War for six years before returning to fishing
Speaker 1: and lure making. In the post war boom of economic
Speaker 1: prosperity that boosted much of the West, interest in recreational
Speaker 1: fishing began to grow. Anglers who came to fish Lake
Speaker 1: Paiana from around Europe heard about Lorie's amazing lures and
Speaker 1: began buying them off of him. Laurie's sons started apprenticing
Speaker 1: under their father, learning to carve and craft perfect imitations
Speaker 1: of his invention. One of Lourie's daughters meanwhile set to
Speaker 1: work designing and writing promotional copy and boxes to help
Speaker 1: sell the lures, and also keeping records to ensure that
Speaker 1: the family got paid, because, unlike her father, she had
Speaker 1: been able to attend school. The younger generation of Rappela's
Speaker 1: transformed their father's idea for maximizing his commercial harvest into
Speaker 1: a recreational fishing business, utilizing mechanization and turning his hand
Speaker 1: carved blueprint into a scaled production. Lori meanwhile maintained exacting
Speaker 1: standards for their products and insisted that every single lure
Speaker 1: be water tested to ensure it had the perfect wobbling
Speaker 1: action before being sold. In nineteen fifty two, the Winter
Speaker 1: Olympics were held in Helsinki, several American competitors were introduced
Speaker 1: to the rappill lure and brought some back with them
Speaker 1: to the US. Pretty soon rumors began to spread about
Speaker 1: this so called finlander plug. A Minneapolis based tackle rep
Speaker 1: named Ron Weber managed to track a few down at
Speaker 1: a bait shop in Duluth that was owned by Finnish immigrants.
Speaker 1: He was so impressed that he wrote Lorie directly, asking
Speaker 1: for five hundred units, which was nearly half of the
Speaker 1: annual production at that time. In nineteen sixty, Webber teamed
Speaker 1: up with sporting goods store owner Ray Ostrom to found Normark,
Speaker 1: the American company that would go on to distribute Rapilis
Speaker 1: across North America. Sales were slow for the first couple
Speaker 1: of years. Rapplers cost nearly two bucks, which was more
Speaker 1: than double the price of most lures in those days.
Speaker 1: But everything changed in nineteen sixty two when Marilyn Monroe
Speaker 1: graced the cover of Life magazine just after her untimely death.
Speaker 1: That issue sold millions of copies, more than Life had
Speaker 1: ever sold before, and it also just happened to include
Speaker 1: another article titled a lure fish Can't Pass Up. Two
Speaker 1: million orders came in after that article, ran far outstripping
Speaker 1: the available supply. The company has continued to grow and
Speaker 1: innovate ever since, becoming do you biquitous brand we know today.
Speaker 1: The Lorrie died in four His family continues to own
Speaker 1: and operate Rapila from their headquarters in Finland, and while
Speaker 1: much has changed since the Rapplers were hand carving their
Speaker 1: baits from their home near Lake Paiana. Loria's commitment to
Speaker 1: quality remains. Each lure is still individually tank tested before
Speaker 1: being packaged and sold. Now me, personally, I will always
Speaker 1: love raps. I've got muskie, pike, smallmouth, wiley pan fish,
Speaker 1: and god knows how many barracuda and jack's on them.
Speaker 1: But despite all those catches, rapplers will be forever synonymous
Speaker 1: with one single fish, and that's my first top water
Speaker 1: large mouth. I was fishing a glassy dusk with one
Speaker 1: of my uncles and he had me tie on an
Speaker 1: original floating minnow black and gold, the same colors as
Speaker 1: Lori's prototype, and he told me to cash it out
Speaker 1: and twitch it on the surface with long pauses in between.
Speaker 1: The colossal splat mayhem that followed may have helped set
Speaker 1: the trajectory of my entire life. It wasn't a big bass,
Speaker 1: maybe a couple of pounds, but the way to attack
Speaker 1: that floating, wiggling lure was unlike anything else I had
Speaker 1: ever experienced. All Right, if you were bidding on the
Speaker 1: auction items found in this week's abandoned storage unit, you'd
Speaker 1: have to choose between naming hurricanes after w w E wrestlers,
Speaker 1: what you can get when you cross a mountain whitefish
Speaker 1: with a tarp and wide jaw spreaders are not popular
Speaker 1: in the b DSM community, and the best use you've
Speaker 1: ever heard for the foil wrapper off a chocolate bar.
Speaker 1: Please please keep those emails coming to Bent at the
Speaker 1: meat eater dot com. We want your bar nominations, awkward photos,
Speaker 1: sale bin items, even your grip and grins, as long
Speaker 1: as they help tell a good story. Maybe just drop
Speaker 1: us a quick note let us know how you're doing
Speaker 1: or how the fishing is out your way. We appreciate
Speaker 1: hearing from each and every one of you, and even
Speaker 1: though we're not perfect, we do try to respond to
Speaker 1: as many emails and messages as we can. It's true,
Speaker 1: It's true. It's a It's like a little productive procrastination
Speaker 1: that I can do when I'm putting off real work,
Speaker 1: like trying to write podcast segments. True, reading those emails
Speaker 1: is a great way to not do actual work. Whatever
Speaker 1: it is you're doing this week to avoid your real job,
Speaker 1: we hope it involves fishing.