WEBVTT - Ep. 213: The Return of the Latvian Eagle 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:13.320 This is Me Eat podcast coming at you shirtless, severely 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:18.599 bug bitten in my case, underwear listening podcast. You Can't 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:22.680 predict anything presented by on X. Hunt creators are the 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:26.479 most comprehensive digital mapping system for hunters. Download the Hunt 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:29.600 app from the iTunes or Google play store. Nor where 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:38.080 you stand with on X. Okay, yanni, Uh, since you're 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:45.040 not like the you know you're not a co host anymore, Um, 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.640 because your eyes gone. What I want to do is 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:49.360 go back to the thing we used to do when 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:51.440 you were kind of up and comer. You can just 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:55.280 call me a very experienced guest. Yeah, very seasoned guest. 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.560 Well i'd like you to do is um do like 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:01.880 we do where like if I have a heart attack, 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:05.240 but here like I because around the ice. Okay, let's 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.760 do that. All of a sudden, Um, the ice beneath 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:13.640 me shattered and I vanished from sight, and the current 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.080 carried me under the good ice and there was no 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:22.039 possible way out for me. We're just like and here 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.319 you are. You all of a sudden realized that, um, 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:27.640 you need to introl the show. I gotta jump in, 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:31.120 you gotta jump in. Carry the flag. So let's hear it, 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.240 so like like, you gotta set everything up right, you 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:40.679 gotta make listeners feel like they're here. Morning, folks. I'm 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:44.000 glad you can join us today on Hunting and Fishing 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.880 with Yanni. Steve's gone, he floated underneath the ice. That's 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:51.280 what you're gonna call the show now, Yeah, Hunting and 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.480 Fishing with Yannie, Like, yeah, Jimmy Miller came up with 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.360 that years ago. He's what do they call that? A 0:01:58.680 --> 0:02:04.120 voyeur something? No warriors when you get your jolly's off 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.480 of what someone else is doing. Well, what do you 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.760 call when you can see into the future? Clairvoyant? Clairvoyant? Oh, 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:14.640 I just figured with a name like that, he was 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:19.960 some kind of marketing whiz somewhere jim Miller. Where the 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.720 story we tell about Jimmy Miller which told me to 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.440 be sharing many times that Jimmy Miller wants found a 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.320 buck all tangled up in the twine used to bind 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:33.519 hay bales, and he freed it and then the buck 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:42.239 kicked his as. Yeah. So anyways, today on Hunting and 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:47.280 Fishing with Johnnie, I'm joined by my friends Rody Henderson, Hello, 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:52.840 Ryan Callahan, Miles and Nolty and Phil the podcast engineer 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:58.560 Taylor he um, should we have a little moment, you know, 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.160 of silence for it for Steve at least the toast. 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.120 I would, I would. I would really like uh to 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:10.000 do that kind of thing people do when um, when 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:16.399 everybody shares a word. Oh, just go around and everybody 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.519 says sharing memory or something. That would be that would 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:23.519 be it would be great. Yeah. Yeah, Well, being is 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:26.360 how I'm more into the logistics of things. I think 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:29.400 we gotta figure out how we'd tell the fam and 0:03:29.440 --> 0:03:32.120 then also figure out if we're just gonna keep borrowing 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.560 and stuff like he's still here, just divvy it up 0:03:34.560 --> 0:03:38.000 and take it, or divvy it up and take it. Yeah, um, 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:46.119 I'll start uh yeah, but also generous. We fish out 0:03:46.120 --> 0:03:49.240 of the day, well at least until the bite slows down. 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.920 He would want Yeah, he would want that. He'd give 0:03:52.960 --> 0:03:55.920 you the shirt off his back. I learned something. So 0:03:56.080 --> 0:04:01.320 we're here ice fishing and bows in Montana. It's uh, 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.040 super sunny out, so bright and sunny out that we 0:04:04.080 --> 0:04:08.040 decided to erect a nice eskimo. What's this? What's this 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:12.520 pop up thing called the fat fish? Yeah, just like 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:16.560 it's like a like I don't remember the numbers. It's 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:19.240 like you wouldn't fit this thing in a trailer part. 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.880 It's a very get a double wide lot. Well, Cal 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.279 and I lived in it for a few days. It 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:29.440 was very comfortable. Tell me about that. We just came 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.760 back last week. We went on a little high mountain 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.200 ice fishing trip, chasing around bourbon and brick trout and 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.880 whatever else we could find, and we we just put 0:04:40.920 --> 0:04:42.719 the tent up and slept in it. It's big, it's 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.560 insulated head tons of room for gear cots. If you 0:04:46.680 --> 0:04:49.480 just heard Brody do a very faint um, think that 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:58.720 it was, but Brody does. Um. Oh, that's because when 0:04:58.760 --> 0:05:02.240 you're guiding and someone it's you gotta be quiet. Oh 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:06.839 you can't be like, oh you can. That's that's that's it. 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:13.080 Never mind. Um go on, Yeah, I'm still on the ice. 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.280 You're still under the ice? How where where do you want? 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.800 I wasn't prepared for this. This is you're about done. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.800 I'm busting up through the ice. Okay, Hey, Steve, I'm 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:32.000 real quick. You're still not biting real quick? Um. A trifecta, well, okay, 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:36.560 there's a trifecta. Finger stories. It just came in oh oh, 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:40.920 something about people getting their fingers chopped off all the time. Um. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:43.920 The inspired a guy go on Instagram. I just put 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:46.000 it up. It'll be old now, so screw by the 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.839 time you hear to scroll way ass down. Uh, you'll 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:50.840 see a great picture. A guy to send us a 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.560 picture of UM snagged his old man so hard on 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:57.160 a bad cast with a big saltwater fly. He snagged 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:00.320 him so hard, did he? Uh? He bust it off 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:04.359 forty pound tip on the on the forward stroke, and 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.520 it was a great picture of half his old man's 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:10.080 face with his giant hood just an inch below his eye. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:15.960 I posted on Instagram at Stephen Ronella. But a trifecta 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.800 good finger stories came in. Guy wrote in uh oh, 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.960 that might be the fish of the day there. My 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.960 father is an electrician and was wearing his gold wedding 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.479 band at work. That's a good conductor. Um. You know 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:35.560 when people like to do things about like how we 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.520 won World War two, like we couldn't have won World 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:41.400 War two without beaute Montana. Yeah, because yeah, well you 0:06:41.480 --> 0:06:44.880 stole my thing. Well, there's a version that we couldn't 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.800 have won World War two without the hydro electric Damns 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:57.240 on the Columbia because smelting aluminum um requires so much electricity, 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.719 requires so much energy, that we were able to out 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:06.559 our the crowds. Mhm. Still calling him the crowds. Huh yeah, 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:12.120 for another generation. I might have my children's children retire 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:15.960 the anger, you know, my kids, when my kids have kids, 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.080 I'm gonna have him go to Yanni solds this party 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.920 and chop into the log their anger at the Germans 0:07:23.960 --> 0:07:29.160 having fired upon their great great grandfather. And it'll be 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:32.960 gone after and then the family um, the family animosity 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.160 towards the German army, we'll be over. Uh. They shot 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.840 a hole right through my dad's rain Poncho Brody scared 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:42.040 ship out of them. I get it. I got it. 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:48.560 And I could tell you some more horrible stories. Uh. 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:51.880 He made me lose, betraying thought things that won the war. 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:56.360 Oh yeah. There's an argument that our hydro electric projects 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:59.960 along the Columbia UM I don't know where it is articulated, 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.040 was like we were able to produce aircraft and at 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.640 such like an astonishing rate because we had such an 0:08:05.640 --> 0:08:09.840 ample supply of electricity from hydro electric projects. I'm not 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:11.440 telling you this is a fact. I'm telling you this 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:14.400 the theory I heard another one Cal explained the one 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:21.880 you were given. Well, uh, beaut was uh producing more 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:24.320 copper than any other place in the world at that time. 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.840 And and are all of our a bunch of stuff 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.840 for fitting out chips and everything else, but also brass 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:37.440 for shell casings. And I heard wiring that like the 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:42.640 Manhattan Project, all that stuff was gold wiring. Oh wow, Um, 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.920 there's a great there's a guy. Uh, Ed, there's a 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:47.600 right if everyone to read a story about all this. 0:08:47.800 --> 0:08:53.480 Ed Dobbs has a long article about beaute in the 0:08:53.640 --> 0:08:58.640 in the metal mining and butte called pennies from hell. Um. 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:01.959 It's a good explanation of what we're talking about anyhow. 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:04.760 But why was I talking about that? Though? Somehow I'm 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:07.240 figuring this power plant or the damn has to do 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.679 with someone losing a finger. Oh it does. God, thing 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:12.800 I was saying that gold is a good conductor is 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:14.280 what I was trying to get at, because about the 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:18.280 Manhattan Project and how they use gold wiring. So guy, 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.160 his old man's an electrician, he's got his gold wedding 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.520 ring on it. Work does all makes sense? Now? He 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:27.280 got to energize wire in contact with his wedding band 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:29.920 on one side and the ground wire on the other side. 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:34.199 Melted the wedding band into his finger and had to 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:39.960 have it surgically removed. Now he just has the scar 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.199 ring and doesn't need to wear a wedding ring anymore. 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:52.800 He's scarred into like marriage. Uh, scarred into marriage, scarred 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.160 out of marriage. I mean you see guys do their 0:09:55.320 --> 0:10:00.480 gals tattoo the ring on similar concept? Another guy? Uh right, 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:07.680 so north Uh, same guy? So the man, the man 0:10:08.720 --> 0:10:15.320 that did this to his finger. Okay, he gets in 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.760 his head to make a jewelry box for his wife 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:24.079 for Mother's Day using some locally sourced Russian olive from 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:28.520 along the Yellowstone River. M hmm, that's cool. Probably some 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:34.120 squirrels around there too, loses the whole damn finger on 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.920 the router couldn't find the finger in A week later, 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:41.959 they found it stuck to a window in the shop. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:49.560 WHOA last place you looked? Last place she looked? Um? Right? Oh, 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:53.400 go ahead. Oh. I was making a bunch of foe 0:10:54.480 --> 0:11:00.959 sighting for the first light Trade show booth, and I 0:11:01.040 --> 0:11:03.000 had to drive it all down to Salt Lake City 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:04.960 and and was on a real tight schedule, and I 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:07.360 had to go came up a little short, so I 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.240 swung by the wood shop that I was borrowing and 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:14.280 was zipping. You know, I was basically making veneers, right, 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:19.160 which just take the fancy looking face off aboard and 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:21.720 cut it real thin. And then you just take that 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.160 so it's not structural or anything, it's just ornamental. Um 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:30.360 and and put my thumb right into the end of 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.360 the blade on the table saw. But you still have it, 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.920 still have it. But I'll tell you, um, immediate recognition 0:11:37.920 --> 0:11:41.360 of the whole situation, right Kelly might explain to people 0:11:41.360 --> 0:11:45.160 how you're fishing and why effectively. Yeah, no, I give up. 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:47.920 You're right. That's why earlier I thought you were wrong. 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:54.400 You didn't invent this, But I just dropped his fish 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:58.360 as the whole explain your explain your approach, cal Then 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.200 I got one letter, the last of our trifecta finger story. 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:05.600 So the the approach is basically just using the rod 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.800 and real dead um, dole out enough line and keep 0:12:08.840 --> 0:12:11.480 the line organized and out of the way, and then 0:12:11.520 --> 0:12:13.800 I just hold onto the mono filament and jake with 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:21.160 my fingertip. Um. I'm over here just doing it like 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:26.320 the old timers with the pole. But the reason being 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.240 is like, I'm just not a good I don't have 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.240 the feel that you Midwest folks do for perch. Yeah, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.040 I can see that. Uh. Here's the final one, final 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:39.240 finger story. I like this couple. It's a couple and 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:44.679 for Valentine's weekend, they're going wolf Fund okay and uh 0:12:44.960 --> 0:12:49.600 a little Valentine's trip. But as they're loading up the uh. 0:12:49.640 --> 0:12:53.520 As they're loading up aside by side into an enclosed trailer, 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:59.280 the dad has the mom guiding the winch line. Oh right. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:04.040 At the first knockle oh, he says, happy Valentine's Day? 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.320 Do you remember that one forever? Uh, Here's what I've 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:09.760 been wanting talk about for a long time. A guy 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.120 from in the U. S. Marines. This is this is 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:13.960 like you pay. Like most of stuff we talked about, 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:17.440 you just ignore, but don't ignore this. The guy in 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:22.319 the marine says he's watching our show Meat Eater on Netflix, 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:28.520 and he notices that when I am scanning my surroundings, 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:34.560 I scan left to right, which is true. And he's 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:38.360 not talking about through binoculars. He's just talking. He just 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.640 walked up onto a little rise and he stopped you 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:46.199 take a look around. He said that we get used 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:48.480 to this because in our culture, not all culture like 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:50.520 Jap In Japan, like you start at the back of 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.160 what we'd call like the back of the book and 0:13:52.240 --> 0:14:00.200 read it right the wrong way. Um here right we read. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.640 We do a lot of uh, left or right. He's 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.040 saying that in the Marine Corps, they are taught to 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:13.000 scan right to left. Does it make stuff jump out? 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.360 Because it makes things jump out. I've been doing it. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.679 It is not the same like because you're so used 0:14:18.679 --> 0:14:21.880 to going and just moving too fast, you go to 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.280 like I just started looking out my window because I 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.200 scanned the hill behind my house all the time, and 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.240 I scanned it left or right, and I started doing 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.040 it right left. It's a different experience, man, you experience 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.240 everything differently trying to look right to left. I think 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:36.760 it's a guy. I need to do both ways because 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.480 it's different, Like your eye hits different ship going right 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:45.240 to left. It's a good tip, hot tip. Last last story, 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.560 the finger losing stories. Lad to you if people who 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.000 regular listeners have been following UM lead you a lot 0:14:53.080 --> 0:14:59.080 of nipple losing stories. Uh nipple ripping? Is anybody actually 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:04.680 lost in this guy did feeding a horse. Oh as 0:15:04.720 --> 0:15:07.720 a kid holding a bunch of hay for a horse. 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:15.760 The horse got a gro and irritated took the nipple off. 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:21.480 That's terrible. I'll bounce for my mom's horse. Bit right 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.240 through my jeans. One time, he says he gets fans. 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:27.880 Get everything back. It's a guy telling us about his 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.400 buddy that has happened to him. But he says he 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:35.440 gets fanom nipple syndrome now and he gets within a 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:39.440 hundred feet of a horse and his good nipple starts 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:46.760 to twitch. You think of that, I'm gonna close out 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:53.240 a horse coming. I'm gonna how do you know? I'm 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.400 gonna close out this round with what I think might 0:15:55.400 --> 0:16:00.480 be a bogus finger losing story. Guy. The guy says 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:02.360 they used to always sneak into us to a swimming 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.040 pool they weren't supposed to swim into, and one day 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:06.920 they get busted, so they run out of the pool 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:09.440 and jump the fence and his buddy loses his finger 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.000 jumping the fence. Then later they go back to find 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.240 it and check this out. This is I have a 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:18.440 hard time believing this is why we might be tied 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.800 up and finger losing stories because it might be that 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:23.800 it's just entered the bullshit, he says, they go back 0:16:23.840 --> 0:16:32.560 and find a different finger. I mean, is they're like, yeah, dude, 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:34.200 what do you do? Then? Do you be like, well, 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:38.480 put it anyway? It's a finger. That's what I've got. 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.320 Cal uh a woman sent Have you seen this box 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.760 that we just got in the mail? We got a 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.720 box full of a bunch of kinds of baby hand 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:54.480 sanitizing wipes and ziplock bags that are marked one says 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:57.800 Ryan and one says Steve. And it was at uh 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:03.200 watcher of the show remarking on how filthy we seem 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:07.080 to be all the time and our filthy food handling techniques, 0:17:07.160 --> 0:17:12.200 and thought that we would uh be wise to start 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:17.040 carrying these labeled bags full of these wipes, thank you, 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.840 you know, which got me thinking. I had a note 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:21.440 for a long time to talk about a thing like 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:23.840 we used what a lot a lot of wet wipes 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.879 uh in in in place of toilet paper in addition 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:32.760 to toilet paper backpacking, and um, I made a note 0:17:32.760 --> 0:17:35.800 to talk about this when you get a cold morning 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.320 and you got a frozen one? Yeah, how much that? 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:41.919 What I like to do is I take to have 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:47.159 frozen one out and I actually tuck it against my 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:51.160 skin on my shoulder up. That's the first thing I do. 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.399 Then I pulled my pants down and you know, no, 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.439 you gotta you gotta think ahead. Then I had that 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:03.600 sucker and it is wet and warm. That's a hot tip, man, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:09.200 That's better than scanning all that left it right. I'm 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:14.719 not not a traditional uh baby wipe you user, you know, 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:20.719 you know it's I always get disgrunt told with extra 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.040 stuff and what is extra stuff? And what's just like, yeah, 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:27.240 but what about extra stuff on your butt? Well? Uh, 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.840 Miles and nys uh. Like that last ice fishing trip, 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:34.639 I was having a bit of what they call monkey 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.920 butt your jap ass, Yeah, a lot of a lot 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:39.880 of later like, I don't like calling it monkey butt, 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.919 but um but hold on now, Well you might not 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:44.639 be talking about two different things, but I feel like 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:49.280 monkey chap has this to do more with like the 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:52.879 the outer meat in the chaffing and then where your 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:57.320 butt cheeks. But it can happen from having a poopy bottom, 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:02.160 I think, and not to me, but I've heard from 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:05.200 reliable people. Well, even if it's not that, I feel 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:08.600 like the solution, though, clarify, is to get get again, 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.600 talk about what the problem is exactly. Oh, just like 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:17.000 a chap butt cheeks where they rubbed cheeks. We're talking cheeks. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:21.560 because it's a friction sitch here. Spinster is fine. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.600 I think people's spinsters have anything to do with chaps, 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:27.919 but I think, oh, but sometimes I've had an irritated 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:32.600 spinster from I'm sorry, how are you think the word 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:37.440 you're looking at we're talking about hold his heroes. It's 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:45.760 like talking to the who's the guy Colonel Clake? The 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.960 way it's a tough one. I'm gonna take a shot 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:56.000 at it. Uh, spin spinters, there's no season. I just 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.880 call it one of my orfic So. We had wickedly 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.520 lower temperatures, right, and um, all we know is like 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:08.600 in Town, the one night hit thirty six below in Town. 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:10.280 I think we had a bit of an inversion so 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:12.200 it was warmer. But also we had a bottle of 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:16.600 bourbon freeze up there, so that's when you know you're fishing. Yeah, 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.919 the bourbon freezes, and I've never seen that happen. We 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:21.920 woke up in the morning and the bottle was frozen 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:24.800 solid and I did a little extra research on that, 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.959 and it seems like most folks agree that, um, somewhere 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.520 in that negative fourteen a negative eighteen range is what 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.760 it takes to freeze a bottle of eight proof whiskey. 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:41.359 I said bourbon first, but you know whiskey anyway. Um, 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:43.879 So I went out to one of our ice fishing 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.760 holes that we hadn't been using and just punched a 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:50.560 hole through that and gave myself a good, good cleaning 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:56.680 out there on the ice and really totally fine, even 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.400 at you know whatever, negative four teen to eighteen to twenty, 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:05.560 it's totally fine, like, and I didn't walk away from 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.320 that being like, man, I wish I had baby wipes. Yeah, 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.200 I'm with you, baby wipes spring up, but there's a 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.520 disposal issue, yes, with baby wipes. And what I like 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:18.800 is I like these single use wet ones. Granted I 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:21.840 don't use them every time, the single use wet ones, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.840 because what I'll do is I just do like though, uh, 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:30.240 it's just a light touch up, a light check, a 0:21:30.320 --> 0:21:33.760 quick check at the end with a wet wipe. Then 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.000 I just tuck it back into its little baggy. Okay, 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:40.040 got you? But or you can dry it out if 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:41.200 you got time, you dry it out in the sun 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.200 and you can burn it. Yeah. I don't have any babies, 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:46.119 cal I think if you had a couple of laying around, 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:49.120 you'd use the wet wipes. I'm gonna advocate for wet 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.960 wipes beyond just just the be hole though. Like when 0:21:52.000 --> 0:21:54.760 I was when we were guiding a wilderness cab in 0:21:54.800 --> 0:21:58.840 Alaska and you didn't get to bathe very often, Like 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:00.600 taking one of those the end of the day and 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:04.560 just kind of hitting up the necessary areas with a 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.359 quick once over really kept you going and kept you 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:09.679 fresh enough for like however long you had to be 0:22:09.680 --> 0:22:11.280 out there. It was. It was kind of a lifesaver. 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:13.399 You ever see the giant ones called like shower in 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:18.760 a bag, it's an ample. It's like an ample sized 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:21.679 wet white for doing a wipe down at night. You 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:24.640 feel good sometimes you know, it's amazing, like you need 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:34.800 nicely done, nice man. That's the howie Jake, uh yep, yep, 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.159 y honest tell everybody about about your People have been 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:39.800 asking like how you got kind of like equit being 0:22:39.840 --> 0:22:42.600 on the show and everything. You threw that one back too. 0:22:42.640 --> 0:22:47.960 I thought that was a big one that's a fat perch. 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:50.760 Uh yeah, there, we haven't pulled one out of the ice. 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:53.280 It isn't a big pregnant female. You know. They're a 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:56.760 free cast spawner. Oh they are. I thought they did so. 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:00.520 No nests. No, they like to go off wind points 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:09.280 and stuff, and free cast spawn Let's try to blue 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:14.840 bluegill being a bluegill being a nest spawner, bed spawner. 0:23:15.160 --> 0:23:19.800 Let's try to keep eggs eggs and see if we 0:23:19.840 --> 0:23:23.280 can't cure them. Have you ever done that? We fry them, 0:23:23.359 --> 0:23:25.359 but you know I've fried him and I've poached him. 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:28.280 I have not tried curing perch eggs yet. Well it's 0:23:28.440 --> 0:23:32.680 very simple to do so it wouldn't take but minutes 0:23:32.680 --> 0:23:35.000 to try it. So Miles, you're actually being humane over 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:38.080 there and and dispatching your fish. That is what I do. 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:40.920 I know not everybody agrees, but I don't think you 0:23:40.920 --> 0:23:42.760 can disagree with it. I think it'd be more like 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:46.520 whether you take the time every time. I think I 0:23:46.560 --> 0:23:51.800 think that's a better way of putting it. Uh yeah, Like, 0:23:51.920 --> 0:23:54.040 let's say a big thing grab. We talked about four, 0:23:54.080 --> 0:23:57.280 but big thing grabs you brooties on big thing nice 0:23:57.320 --> 0:24:00.159 perch a big thing, grabs you and drags you under water, 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:04.840 has no intention of letting you go. Would you rather 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:08.800 it drove a big spike through your head or the 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:13.960 wait until you uh, you know, died. I'll take the 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:20.959 spike through the head. Yeah, you've been gone a lot, mum. 0:24:21.040 --> 0:24:22.679 Can you tell people what you've been like? The project 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:26.399 we've been working on. We've been working on project called 0:24:26.440 --> 0:24:33.000 the tentatively called the fur Hat Ice Fish Tour. Is 0:24:33.040 --> 0:24:35.760 there to keep hearing that there might be a different title, 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:38.800 I like, there's no. I don't think who did you 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:42.480 hear that from? Miles was involved in one of the conversations. 0:24:42.600 --> 0:24:44.040 What do you guys think about calling it? No? No No, No, 0:24:44.200 --> 0:24:47.000 it's it's just that we're kind of separating out some 0:24:47.040 --> 0:24:49.800 episodes into the tour part, coming to the local part. 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:52.560 It's gonna be fur hat ice fishing, no questions. The 0:24:52.600 --> 0:24:55.000 ones that I worked on hat, yeah, the ones that 0:24:55.040 --> 0:24:57.400 we went on were you know, when we were traveling 0:24:57.400 --> 0:24:59.679 around that's the fur hat ice Tour. Yeah. Because I 0:24:59.720 --> 0:25:01.920 made it a point to packground not only my for 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:06.840 beaver fur hat, but also Steve's dad's uh coon skin 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:10.879 fur hat, and then Steve's beaver fur hat and uh 0:25:11.200 --> 0:25:13.760 a lot of the guests that we uh speared and 0:25:13.920 --> 0:25:18.040 fished with for him. We're quite excited about it. And listen, man, 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:23.359 those hats are no jo, They're amazing. Dude, Cal warm 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:28.960 a f cal and I I slept. I was told 0:25:28.960 --> 0:25:33.280 on Instagram that I moved farther away from being a 0:25:33.280 --> 0:25:37.320 boomer by using a F in my post the other day. Yeah. 0:25:37.359 --> 0:25:41.440 I guess that's like a real hip thing to do, anyhoy. 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:43.879 Uh So yeah, so Miles and I Miles have been 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:48.480 producing this content and we took a couple of videographers 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:51.359 with us. I want to right now formally put to 0:25:51.480 --> 0:25:53.920 rest any notion of this not being the fur hat 0:25:53.920 --> 0:26:02.880 ice tour. Okay, chief creative officer speaking, um and uh yeah. 0:26:02.960 --> 0:26:08.280 We went to uh Minnesota first and we fished unnamed 0:26:08.400 --> 0:26:12.240 or speared and unnamed lake very the very very first 0:26:12.240 --> 0:26:14.920 thing with Mark Norquist. Not that it's unnamed. You just 0:26:14.920 --> 0:26:17.440 don't want to get into it. Yeah, it has a name. 0:26:17.520 --> 0:26:19.720 It has a name, but he asked us to keep it. 0:26:20.280 --> 0:26:23.119 I got you keep his spot quiet. And uh we 0:26:23.240 --> 0:26:28.480 spirit some pike and some whitefish. Uh. And then Chef 0:26:28.560 --> 0:26:33.479 Lucas Leaf Uh cooked us up some delicious whitefish cakes 0:26:33.720 --> 0:26:38.919 and uh what else some fried pike. It was really good, delicious. 0:26:39.440 --> 0:26:42.240 You know, years ago we did some white fish spearing 0:26:43.520 --> 0:26:48.080 on Whitefish Bay. Hm. You know on the record the 0:26:48.119 --> 0:26:52.120 Adaman Fitzgerald, he says how they would have made Whitefish 0:26:52.119 --> 0:26:58.240 Bay had they put fifty more What does Gordon say? 0:26:58.560 --> 0:27:02.600 Does he say fifteen more miles hinder? The searchers all 0:27:02.680 --> 0:27:06.000 say they'd have made white Fish Bay if they'd put 0:27:06.040 --> 0:27:10.359 fifteen more miles behind her? Yeah, that sounds anyways in 0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:16.120 that bay? What what what happened with your fish? Uh? 0:27:16.320 --> 0:27:19.320 And the spirit at bay? And uh? Did you guys 0:27:19.359 --> 0:27:22.679 line the bottom with anything for for visibility? No? Because 0:27:22.720 --> 0:27:25.159 it turns out that and and everywhere we have speared 0:27:25.320 --> 0:27:27.920 as had the same rule. You can't really do that. 0:27:28.119 --> 0:27:30.840 You can't lay down anything that you can't retrieve it's 0:27:30.960 --> 0:27:35.399 organic matter. That's a good rule. Because we were just 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:38.080 kind of like younger and not didn't really think things 0:27:38.080 --> 0:27:44.280 through as much. We would sliced potatoes very thin, Yeah, 0:27:44.600 --> 0:27:48.360 and then drop sliced potatoes down the whole to where 0:27:48.400 --> 0:27:51.320 you got a nice white bed on the floor wild 0:27:51.720 --> 0:27:53.600 so you can see the fish pass over it because 0:27:53.600 --> 0:27:57.120 it was deep, murky water and you'd have those taters 0:27:57.119 --> 0:28:00.480 down there. But what's funny about it is there a current. 0:28:01.720 --> 0:28:06.160 So you guys have some dude outside the hut drill 0:28:06.240 --> 0:28:08.680 a hole and the current would vary. So some guy 0:28:08.720 --> 0:28:11.199 outside the hut would drill a hole and fired down 0:28:11.280 --> 0:28:15.040 the potato slice and you yell out like a little 0:28:15.040 --> 0:28:18.560 farther and they gotta go and drill another hole and 0:28:18.640 --> 0:28:21.440 drop tato slice and you're staring down your hole and 0:28:21.480 --> 0:28:22.960 try to see that if also when he's out on 0:28:23.040 --> 0:28:26.440 bull's eye, it's like live ammo. You know. Then you 0:28:26.520 --> 0:28:30.119 start firing in tat slices because they're they're bombing in 0:28:30.200 --> 0:28:33.680 at the right spot. But my brother Danny, he really 0:28:33.720 --> 0:28:36.800 kind of pioneered this for our group of friends. And 0:28:37.000 --> 0:28:39.840 uh but man, you'd fish all you well, you like 0:28:39.920 --> 0:28:42.360 drinking fish all day to get a handful of these fish. 0:28:42.440 --> 0:28:44.560 But man, was it fun. And then you're shandy. You 0:28:44.600 --> 0:28:46.360 had to have your name on your shane. Remember one 0:28:46.440 --> 0:28:48.959 year they had their name on the shanty. But this 0:28:49.040 --> 0:28:52.680 thing froze in like wood and it throws into a degree. 0:28:52.720 --> 0:28:55.320 You weren't getting it off, so they tried to just 0:28:55.440 --> 0:28:58.120 leave it begin being young and dumb, they tried to 0:28:58.160 --> 0:29:00.280 just leave it, and then they got a note us 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:04.040 like get your shanny, and they came out and had 0:29:04.080 --> 0:29:05.800 to burn that son of a bit out of the ice. 0:29:06.600 --> 0:29:09.160 There was no getting it out of the ice, which 0:29:09.240 --> 0:29:13.280 is also illegal most places. So I wonder if there's 0:29:13.360 --> 0:29:17.280 like a middle ground there where you could be like, well, 0:29:17.600 --> 0:29:20.000 I put a bunch of pontoons. I fixed a bunch 0:29:20.040 --> 0:29:22.440 of pontoons to the shannon and tied it to the beach, 0:29:23.880 --> 0:29:27.680 waiting for it to float. All right, So I'm sorry, guys, No, 0:29:28.200 --> 0:29:31.400 that was a good divergence. And I've never I've never 0:29:31.480 --> 0:29:35.600 done I mean, I've done open water ocean spear fishing before, 0:29:36.040 --> 0:29:39.760 but I've never done ice spearing before. The difference being 0:29:39.800 --> 0:29:42.080 that you're throwing a spear through a hole in the ice. Yeah, 0:29:42.120 --> 0:29:43.680 it's really but it's a it's a hell of a 0:29:43.680 --> 0:29:45.320 lot of fun. I didn't know how I was gonna 0:29:45.320 --> 0:29:47.000 feel about it. You know, there's a lot of sitting 0:29:47.000 --> 0:29:49.760 and waiting, and I didn't know how that was gonna go. 0:29:49.800 --> 0:29:51.840 But man, I I don't know about you, Johnny, but 0:29:51.840 --> 0:29:54.120 I thought that was that was great. I'm gonna have 0:29:54.280 --> 0:29:58.440 like a final wrap up thought comparing general ice fishing, 0:29:58.480 --> 0:30:00.840 like what we're doing now to spe Oh no, I 0:30:00.840 --> 0:30:03.280 haven't got it. You haven't even started yet. I know 0:30:03.320 --> 0:30:04.920 I have a lot to go through. Because you want 0:30:04.960 --> 0:30:09.240 to talk about the sturgeon. Yeah, so, uh yeah, we 0:30:09.400 --> 0:30:12.120 speared there and then we went over to Lake Winning 0:30:12.160 --> 0:30:15.240 Bank explained the process. You want to get deep here. 0:30:15.600 --> 0:30:17.600 I wanted to. I want you to tell people about 0:30:17.920 --> 0:30:21.719 because you've engaged in three kinds of spearing, northern spearing, 0:30:22.240 --> 0:30:26.000 white fish spearing, sturgeon sparing. True, but the white fish 0:30:26.240 --> 0:30:28.720 and the northern sparing was through the same hole. And no, 0:30:28.960 --> 0:30:32.720 but they're not drawn to the same thing they are. Yes, 0:30:32.800 --> 0:30:35.080 we were using the same decoys. Oh, you know, we 0:30:35.160 --> 0:30:40.320 used to use the lure men. Sorry, In amongst the 0:30:40.360 --> 0:30:46.800 tator slices, we're a lot of boiled the smallest macaroni 0:30:46.880 --> 0:30:51.640 you could find boiled. And you felt like that was 0:30:51.720 --> 0:30:57.840 chilling him. You do I feel like it eating the macaroni? Yes, 0:30:58.560 --> 0:31:00.600 I bet they were taking them for a little grubs 0:31:01.880 --> 0:31:04.840 that look just like CM knows in and he's picked 0:31:04.840 --> 0:31:08.360 the macaroni that landed off target and watch him and 0:31:08.400 --> 0:31:10.160 the son's bitches to be down there eating maxi. So 0:31:10.240 --> 0:31:12.280 why were you were you spearing him because that was 0:31:12.320 --> 0:31:14.480 the only legal method of take Why weren't you fishing 0:31:14.480 --> 0:31:20.640 with macaroni? Uh? These were a species of whitefish called 0:31:20.760 --> 0:31:28.760 monominee and they have a they have a mouth that 0:31:28.840 --> 0:31:32.760 would make like the pupil of your eye look big too. 0:31:35.240 --> 0:31:36.800 But they would go down and kind of it's just 0:31:36.840 --> 0:31:42.720 like very hard to hook. Uh. And it was deep 0:31:42.760 --> 0:31:44.440 and you didn't throw the spear. It was a very 0:31:44.480 --> 0:31:49.280 heavy weighted spear with very fine needles, many needles, probably 0:31:49.320 --> 0:31:51.840 like twenty needles across. We used to make our own. 0:31:52.400 --> 0:31:56.280 We made some of her own. Uh. And it wasn't 0:31:56.320 --> 0:31:58.720 like a fan blade that you could propel that you 0:31:58.720 --> 0:32:01.800 couldn't like you know that white Some of those white 0:32:01.800 --> 0:32:05.360 fish spears have like a what's the word I'm looking 0:32:05.360 --> 0:32:07.440 for plane, like the even plane them like you could 0:32:07.440 --> 0:32:09.720 shoot off at an angle. This you would have to 0:32:09.760 --> 0:32:12.920 hold over it directly over the fish eyeball down it 0:32:13.280 --> 0:32:15.320 and just open your fingers and let it fall. And 0:32:15.320 --> 0:32:17.800 it was waited like you take a pipe and fill 0:32:17.880 --> 0:32:19.640 the pipe of lead, and out of that pipe with 0:32:19.680 --> 0:32:23.400 all these needles and drop it on them them the 0:32:23.400 --> 0:32:26.880 bottom but small little fish, but there's no way they'd 0:32:26.880 --> 0:32:30.760 come into the same lure you'd use for a northern. 0:32:30.840 --> 0:32:33.000 So you're picking up fishing taters at the same time 0:32:33.320 --> 0:32:38.320 fishing taters. It's funny you mentioned that because you're right 0:32:38.360 --> 0:32:41.040 now and then you would get a tater. You could 0:32:41.080 --> 0:32:43.959 get a tater on your thing. I'm like, I'm like 0:32:44.000 --> 0:32:47.360 a poser. Danny and and our friend Matt Rolls were 0:32:47.920 --> 0:32:50.240 they were like the guys that they pioneered it. I 0:32:50.320 --> 0:32:53.200 just would go up and visit them and and I'd 0:32:53.200 --> 0:32:56.200 go out there and you know, basically be like mooching 0:32:56.200 --> 0:32:59.200 off them, like their ship, their spot there, no how 0:32:59.560 --> 0:33:04.080 and I'd be it sounds fun right, Yeah, we wanted 0:33:04.080 --> 0:33:07.400 to do that. Like I said, when we were spearing 0:33:07.440 --> 0:33:10.480 for the pike and whitefish, were not allowed to put 0:33:10.480 --> 0:33:13.600 anything down that you couldn't retrieve, and the water was 0:33:13.640 --> 0:33:18.320 pretty clear. We were only spearing probably five six ft 0:33:18.720 --> 0:33:21.600 right um where you could really see the whole bottom, 0:33:21.600 --> 0:33:25.280 which was sweet because when the perch came in. Of 0:33:25.320 --> 0:33:27.320 course they did that when we didn't have a rod ready, 0:33:27.360 --> 0:33:29.000 and then the next day we had a rod ready, 0:33:29.000 --> 0:33:31.360 the perch didn't come in, but you could just sit 0:33:31.360 --> 0:33:33.760 there and watch them hanging out doing their thing, and 0:33:34.280 --> 0:33:38.719 you know it's nice you just watching watching the the 0:33:38.760 --> 0:33:42.280 plant life down there moving around the current. When you're 0:33:42.280 --> 0:33:44.480 just staring into a hole that where there's no bottom, 0:33:44.680 --> 0:33:46.920 it's a little bit tougher. You know, it doesn't have 0:33:47.040 --> 0:33:49.800 quite have that slow TV field because you're you're fishing 0:33:49.880 --> 0:33:53.520 northeast in such deep water slow I mean sorry, shallow 0:33:53.760 --> 0:33:55.840 where we could see the bottom very well, so we 0:33:55.880 --> 0:33:59.760 didn't need staring into a hole with no bottom. Well 0:33:59.760 --> 0:34:03.320 that comes later. That that's the sturgeon. Can you do it? 0:34:03.360 --> 0:34:05.920 Can you discuss this form in a way that it's outlined, 0:34:07.600 --> 0:34:10.880 like what the how we moved through the tour? Is 0:34:10.880 --> 0:34:14.640 that what you're asking? No, I want to outline by fish, 0:34:15.000 --> 0:34:21.319 So picture like Roman numeral one, yeah, and under that 0:34:21.440 --> 0:34:24.719 is what I'm also like fishing, so I might not 0:34:24.840 --> 0:34:26.880 miss something. But what are we on right now? We're 0:34:26.920 --> 0:34:29.720 still on pike and whitefish at the at the first stop. Okay, 0:34:29.760 --> 0:34:32.239 But but I don't want to talk about them in 0:34:32.280 --> 0:34:34.879 the same way. But well it's hard not to because 0:34:34.920 --> 0:34:37.799 we were doing the exact same thing. One would just 0:34:37.800 --> 0:34:41.000 show up or the other one. We literally changed nothing, 0:34:41.200 --> 0:34:44.040 nothing same speeds, same decoy, same whole, same everything I 0:34:44.120 --> 0:34:50.839 do it. Um. Yeah, so well, if you really want 0:34:50.840 --> 0:34:52.759 to start a step one, we went out there, we 0:34:52.880 --> 0:34:57.760 drilled a hole. We drilled, drilled, and then peeked down 0:34:57.800 --> 0:35:00.680 into that hole with the jacket over are our heads 0:35:00.880 --> 0:35:03.600 to check for clarity and for depth. And when Mark 0:35:03.680 --> 0:35:06.279 felt like we had both of those nails, and what 0:35:06.320 --> 0:35:10.279 did he like? Uh again that you know? I think 0:35:10.600 --> 0:35:12.800 he was looking at five to six ft of depth 0:35:13.320 --> 0:35:15.480 and looking for just good clarity so that we could 0:35:15.480 --> 0:35:18.319 see fish coming through and a hole in the weeds 0:35:18.160 --> 0:35:20.200 that were looking And you want, you want to have 0:35:20.239 --> 0:35:22.799 a sandy spot in the weeds that you can look at, 0:35:24.520 --> 0:35:29.840 um for visibility. Yeah, not that you couldn't clear some 0:35:29.840 --> 0:35:31.960 some plant matter out of the way once you drilled 0:35:32.000 --> 0:35:34.200 your spirit hole. But then it would, you know, muck 0:35:34.280 --> 0:35:36.200 it all up. It would take a while to settle out. 0:35:36.320 --> 0:35:39.239 So it's better just to find a hole for better visibility. 0:35:39.320 --> 0:35:42.480 I'm realizing how much I missed you just hear you 0:35:42.560 --> 0:35:48.600 explain this. Um. Oh thanks, that's nice. Um. Then we 0:35:48.760 --> 0:35:50.840 drilled I think six holes kind of like what we 0:35:50.960 --> 0:35:53.120 have here right in front of us. UM in a 0:35:53.480 --> 0:35:58.400 rough three by four ft um pattern and then connected 0:35:58.400 --> 0:36:03.160 those drilled holes by using a hand powered saw that 0:36:03.239 --> 0:36:07.400 was specifically made for um cutting ice. Is it like 0:36:07.440 --> 0:36:09.839 my ice saw? I don't know if I've seen your saw, 0:36:10.239 --> 0:36:14.040 but like a you know, solid three foot blade folding folds. 0:36:14.400 --> 0:36:17.360 Was it blue blade? Yeah? It was to have a 0:36:17.400 --> 0:36:22.440 pin that. Yeah. You know, we used two different manual now, 0:36:22.560 --> 0:36:25.360 one of them was that blue one. And the teeth 0:36:25.480 --> 0:36:28.600 the teeth very far apart on it. Yeah, yeah, it 0:36:28.680 --> 0:36:31.640 cuts surprisingly well. I was, I was shut out. I 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:33.719 bought one for beaver trapping, but just never used it. 0:36:34.239 --> 0:36:37.000 I used the acts and stuff. So we cut a 0:36:37.040 --> 0:36:41.560 hole and here we removed I say here because later 0:36:41.680 --> 0:36:43.880 when we did some surgeons fishing, we also cut a 0:36:43.920 --> 0:36:46.800 hole and we did something different with the ice um 0:36:46.880 --> 0:36:50.200 that we cut there, but here we removed it, put 0:36:50.239 --> 0:36:52.239 screws in it and pull it out. You know, it 0:36:52.400 --> 0:36:55.680 kind of broke apart. And so uh, he just had 0:36:55.719 --> 0:36:59.600 these giant tongs, giant metal tongs that you could grab 0:36:59.640 --> 0:37:02.680 these big chunks with and yank yank them out ice tonks. Yeah, 0:37:03.520 --> 0:37:06.799 and uh it works pretty slick. And I think it's 0:37:06.800 --> 0:37:09.279 additive when I tell you little things that I think of. 0:37:11.280 --> 0:37:14.160 I think that it's uh, it's just part of the deal. 0:37:14.760 --> 0:37:18.319 And my sister in law's ranch they still have they 0:37:18.360 --> 0:37:21.279 have a pond that was made for their ranch. Is 0:37:21.360 --> 0:37:24.279 some old ass ranch. Yeah, I've walked across that. They 0:37:24.320 --> 0:37:26.759 still have a pond called the ice pond, and they 0:37:26.760 --> 0:37:30.480 still have the ice house. That's awesome next to the pond. 0:37:30.560 --> 0:37:32.560 And the pond was made for the purpose of like 0:37:32.680 --> 0:37:35.680 it would freeze, you would cut ice and drag it 0:37:35.680 --> 0:37:39.000 into the ice house for the summer. That's really still 0:37:39.000 --> 0:37:43.520 sitting there. That's amazing. Go on, Um, So we remove 0:37:43.640 --> 0:37:48.080 the ice and then we set up a dark house. 0:37:48.320 --> 0:37:51.040 Very important when you're spearing that the inside of your 0:37:51.280 --> 0:37:57.560 shelter is black dark. It's colored dark. Yeah, I mean 0:37:58.320 --> 0:38:00.800 not all of them are, but I thinking helps because 0:38:00.840 --> 0:38:04.799 what you're trying to do is limit the reflection, any 0:38:04.800 --> 0:38:07.279 sort of reflection onto that open piece of water that 0:38:07.320 --> 0:38:10.480 you've just created. So you also throw snow all around 0:38:10.560 --> 0:38:13.480 the edges so you're not letting in any you know, 0:38:13.640 --> 0:38:16.080 light coming. The only light you want is the stuff 0:38:16.120 --> 0:38:20.840 that's going through the ice outside of your shanty or 0:38:21.280 --> 0:38:23.560 pop up tent and then coming up through the hole. 0:38:23.800 --> 0:38:28.680 I just thought of something. Tell me. Uh, this guy 0:38:28.800 --> 0:38:31.719 rode in and his body had his fish finder down, 0:38:31.760 --> 0:38:35.399 and the guy was fiddling around his own hole next 0:38:35.440 --> 0:38:39.560 to him, and his body's like, sees something, you can't 0:38:39.560 --> 0:38:42.920 tell what it is. When he sees something dropping m hm, 0:38:43.600 --> 0:38:45.120 and they think it's like a fish. They can't tell 0:38:45.120 --> 0:38:46.640 what the fish is doing, like the fishes at the 0:38:46.680 --> 0:38:50.360 surface but drop down. And later the other guy realizes 0:38:50.400 --> 0:38:57.120 his phone was gone, the heat on on his flash 0:38:57.200 --> 0:39:02.960 er he'd watched. The guys were go on, I'm done. 0:39:03.000 --> 0:39:05.520 I'm I'm just gonna keep my thoughts. That's too bad. 0:39:05.640 --> 0:39:11.399 We don't believe you. I'll make a bet. No I woke. 0:39:11.560 --> 0:39:16.880 It's so annoying. Gone. Um. So there we were inside 0:39:16.880 --> 0:39:21.399 of our blacked out I sent miles were using an 0:39:21.880 --> 0:39:24.720 Eskimo I sent similar to this one. Weren't we exactly 0:39:24.760 --> 0:39:26.680 like this one? One time I was out ice fishing. 0:39:26.800 --> 0:39:31.160 I'm joking and uh, I'm trying to think. Well, oh yeah, 0:39:31.160 --> 0:39:34.120 so the decoys, the decoys are a huge part of spearing, 0:39:34.640 --> 0:39:39.960 and Mark had decoys from maybe even as a grandfather, 0:39:41.360 --> 0:39:43.239 from grandpa, and just like they hit it in a 0:39:43.320 --> 0:39:49.120 really cool old school briefcase. Yeah, the briefcase was a hundred. 0:39:49.000 --> 0:39:51.400 The briefcase was as cool as the decoys that were inside, 0:39:51.800 --> 0:39:54.520 Like a legit briefcase. Yeah, yeah, like you know how 0:39:54.560 --> 0:39:57.000 it is. It's like random briefcase laying around nobody's using. 0:39:57.120 --> 0:40:00.759 Let's put the decoys in there, and so it was 0:40:00.800 --> 0:40:02.480 handed down. I think he said that he had he 0:40:02.480 --> 0:40:04.160 had a sort of share it with his brothers, but 0:40:04.200 --> 0:40:07.120 he he was the keeper of the briefcase. Pretty funny. Yeah, 0:40:07.480 --> 0:40:10.080 I just dug a briefcase out of the dumpster there 0:40:10.120 --> 0:40:13.160 at my condo complex. I don't know what I'm gonna 0:40:13.160 --> 0:40:14.520 do with it. I just didn't feel like it should 0:40:14.520 --> 0:40:17.439 have got thrown away someone else. You found Cal's story. 0:40:17.440 --> 0:40:20.239 I want everybody to know. This is something Cal thought of, 0:40:20.360 --> 0:40:23.440 not me, but it got me thinking about what he 0:40:23.520 --> 0:40:28.759 was already telling me yesterday. Go ahead, Kel, I don't 0:40:28.800 --> 0:40:30.959 know what you're going on, but I found two pairs 0:40:30.960 --> 0:40:33.600 of boots in there too, what I'm talking about, And 0:40:33.800 --> 0:40:36.319 I didn't feel like either one of one brand spanking new, 0:40:37.000 --> 0:40:42.640 the other one spanking new ditch diggers. Yeah yeah, irrigation boots. 0:40:42.680 --> 0:40:45.919 And then the other set is like a nice pair 0:40:45.920 --> 0:40:47.600 of ropers that just need a little bit of love, 0:40:47.680 --> 0:40:50.560 but the souls like leather soles and totally in good shape. 0:40:50.600 --> 0:40:52.520 So then Cal's got to go hunting around for a home. 0:40:52.520 --> 0:40:54.399 And those the ropers that you left at my house, 0:40:54.520 --> 0:40:56.440 those are the ropers I left at your house. Yes, 0:40:56.640 --> 0:40:59.319 what a mystery. I've been asking everybody, and he's like, 0:41:00.000 --> 0:41:01.680 what are you talking about? Like, yeah, there's a pair 0:41:01.680 --> 0:41:04.880 of boots out there with heels on him, laces done. 0:41:05.160 --> 0:41:07.919 Nobody knew, Well, I asked, I asked your wife if 0:41:08.120 --> 0:41:11.600 if she, I was like, I don't want to leave 0:41:11.680 --> 0:41:13.759 these with you. If they just turn into something that 0:41:13.880 --> 0:41:19.080 then you have to go take the goodwill, right. But yeah, anyway, 0:41:19.120 --> 0:41:22.600 I got this neighbor who keeps like, if you want, 0:41:23.000 --> 0:41:25.799 there's a government building right next door that's got a 0:41:25.880 --> 0:41:31.120 recycling dumpster for cardboard. And this dude like just the 0:41:31.160 --> 0:41:33.800 amount of cardboard that is in the dumpster like clogs 0:41:33.880 --> 0:41:37.759 the whole dumpster with cardboard that is totally recyclable, which 0:41:38.000 --> 0:41:40.160 ticks me off. And then he's always throwing away brand 0:41:40.160 --> 0:41:43.960 new stuff. So I'm always every time it makes me 0:41:44.000 --> 0:41:46.040 not want to go to the trash is every time 0:41:46.040 --> 0:41:48.600 I go to the dumpster, I'm climbing in the damn thing, 0:41:48.920 --> 0:42:10.479 pulling stuff out, saving the world cattle. Yeah go and 0:42:10.600 --> 0:42:14.000 uh yeah. The decoy with the pike and the white fish. 0:42:14.520 --> 0:42:20.040 We had a decoy stick which had line just between 0:42:20.040 --> 0:42:22.200 like two small nails that were pounded into the stick. 0:42:22.280 --> 0:42:24.360 Line wrapped around it, so you could just length of 0:42:24.440 --> 0:42:27.719 the line down your decoy and one guy if you 0:42:27.920 --> 0:42:30.560 if your spear with two guys, one guy sits there 0:42:30.560 --> 0:42:34.400 and and uh works the decoy stick. And the decoys 0:42:34.480 --> 0:42:37.400 have fins on them that aren't there just for looks, 0:42:37.400 --> 0:42:40.040 but actually you can tweak them. They're usually like alluminum, 0:42:40.080 --> 0:42:42.799 so you can adjust them, and how how much the 0:42:42.840 --> 0:42:46.440 decoy um sort of planes out, and how wide of 0:42:46.480 --> 0:42:48.799 a circle it makes when you drop it, so you 0:42:48.840 --> 0:42:52.160 can sort of, you know, jake it fast, jake it slow, 0:42:52.360 --> 0:42:55.000 and then just let it glide. And some of them, 0:42:55.000 --> 0:42:56.600 if you bring to the top of the hole, they'll 0:42:56.640 --> 0:43:00.720 glide for I don't know, ten seconds before it quits moving. 0:43:01.280 --> 0:43:03.640 Were these guys not into the Are they not into 0:43:03.680 --> 0:43:07.560 that little real there's a real you hang from your know, 0:43:07.719 --> 0:43:09.640 some guys will do the pulley system. None of the 0:43:09.680 --> 0:43:12.920 people we were with did they go direct Rod yeah, 0:43:13.000 --> 0:43:15.040 I mean it's pretty. It's not even calling a rod 0:43:15.239 --> 0:43:18.040 is not it's a stick jiggin pole. It's just like 0:43:18.120 --> 0:43:20.439 a stick you pick up off the ground, a couple 0:43:20.440 --> 0:43:22.840 of nails pound. It looks more like Harry Potter's wand 0:43:22.880 --> 0:43:25.200 than a fish and pole. Do you guys get the impression? Though? 0:43:25.239 --> 0:43:30.560 The actual look of the decoy is a factor or 0:43:30.600 --> 0:43:33.560 is it just something about the size? I think for 0:43:33.640 --> 0:43:36.960 pike it matters, but for none of the others. My 0:43:37.880 --> 0:43:40.840 limited knowledge which is granted, very very small, but it 0:43:40.880 --> 0:43:43.040 seemed to me the pike we're going to be keyed 0:43:43.040 --> 0:43:45.040 into something because they were the only ones that we 0:43:45.040 --> 0:43:48.520 were spearing that are predatory fish. Yeah, and when they 0:43:48.560 --> 0:43:51.080 came in, some of them came in hot, you know, 0:43:51.280 --> 0:43:54.360 and like looking like they're gonna smash your decoy. I 0:43:54.360 --> 0:43:56.320 don't think we actually ever had one want to actually 0:43:56.360 --> 0:43:58.840 eat it, actually eat it. Okay, But well those guys 0:43:58.960 --> 0:44:01.600 like say, ah, this white and red decoy is not working. 0:44:01.640 --> 0:44:06.000 I'm gonna try the green and yellow one for sure. 0:44:06.600 --> 0:44:09.399 It ain't no use. It ain't no use. The red 0:44:09.440 --> 0:44:11.799 and white was actually the hot call was and is 0:44:11.840 --> 0:44:15.640 this stuff that we can look forward to on some footage, 0:44:15.719 --> 0:44:18.560 you're gonna see it, and then it's so far below 0:44:18.600 --> 0:44:20.880 the ice. Do you want to work that because you 0:44:20.880 --> 0:44:22.359 want to bring them up right, you want to bring 0:44:22.400 --> 0:44:26.200 him up into spear range. Well, the bottom was only 0:44:26.239 --> 0:44:29.840 six ft away, and I speared fish from the bottom 0:44:29.880 --> 0:44:33.680 all the way up to probably two ft below the surface. 0:44:34.440 --> 0:44:36.120 When we used to set tip ups, like if we're 0:44:36.120 --> 0:44:39.520 setting tip ups and tw water, we and this is 0:44:39.520 --> 0:44:42.960 in Michian where you can use live bait, h if 0:44:43.000 --> 0:44:45.840 you're in water, we would we would hang that suckermento 0:44:45.960 --> 0:44:48.520 six ft off the bottom, thinking that he just has 0:44:48.600 --> 0:44:50.279 better chance of seeing it from way the hell off 0:44:50.920 --> 0:44:52.960 rather than it being down high and long. You're like, 0:44:52.960 --> 0:44:56.160 you're imagine him cruising long on the bottom and seeing 0:44:56.160 --> 0:44:58.600 that black suckermento against the white ice. That was always 0:44:58.920 --> 0:45:01.520 the logic, right, Yeah. Then it might be that he's 0:45:01.560 --> 0:45:06.000 reluctant to then leave his little zone maybe, but that 0:45:06.080 --> 0:45:09.640 was a thinking I like that. Yeah, I will say 0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:13.560 I picked up one tip from my own mistake with 0:45:13.560 --> 0:45:16.520 with pike spearing, and uh, and that is when you 0:45:16.560 --> 0:45:18.759 see one coming in, because sometimes you can see him 0:45:18.760 --> 0:45:21.400 a ways away and the one of the only really 0:45:21.400 --> 0:45:23.759 what I think was really big pike that I saw 0:45:23.840 --> 0:45:25.839 coming in. I got a little too excited, spooked him 0:45:25.880 --> 0:45:28.600 and I was like bike guys pike and that things 0:45:28.719 --> 0:45:32.440 blew out. Yeah, he didn't even come to the hall spooked, 0:45:32.520 --> 0:45:38.359 like turned and blew out and coming from a ways 0:45:38.400 --> 0:45:42.239 because of electronics or because my naked eye. Because the 0:45:42.280 --> 0:45:44.319 whole salt. Right, So you got a three by four 0:45:44.360 --> 0:45:48.320 ft hole, and um, you could were your cal i 0:45:48.400 --> 0:45:50.719 sitting are sitting opposite of each other right now here 0:45:50.719 --> 0:45:52.000 in this hut. And so if we had a hole 0:45:52.040 --> 0:45:56.240 cut here underneath us, I could probably see well passed 0:45:56.320 --> 0:45:59.239 underneath your butt. Okay, especially if a fish was two 0:45:59.320 --> 0:46:00.879 or three ft below the ice and you could see 0:46:00.920 --> 0:46:03.160 the same thing underneath my butt. Did you take that 0:46:03.200 --> 0:46:05.319 saw and angle cut your edge so you get even 0:46:05.360 --> 0:46:09.760 better visibility? You know, we had a shallow ice there. Um, 0:46:09.800 --> 0:46:13.399 but in a later spearing story we do angle cut it. Yeah, 0:46:13.480 --> 0:46:15.799 that's a good trick. It's it's it's a good trick, 0:46:15.880 --> 0:46:19.759 but it's freaking creepy. When you're sitting there, it looks 0:46:22.239 --> 0:46:24.880 it looks like there's no ice. It's it's a trip. 0:46:25.719 --> 0:46:28.840 Uh yeah, so we uh jake, they will decoy around 0:46:29.040 --> 0:46:31.560 and uh. And the thing with decoys is is that 0:46:32.520 --> 0:46:34.840 you can have the one that looks like a fish, redhead, 0:46:34.880 --> 0:46:38.000 white body, chart, shrews, whatever. And then the next thing 0:46:38.080 --> 0:46:39.920 the guys like, yeah, but you know what my favorite 0:46:40.000 --> 0:46:43.280 is is this golf ball. And he's got a golf 0:46:43.320 --> 0:46:45.680 ball with an islet sticking out of it, and he 0:46:45.719 --> 0:46:48.759 ties that thing on and sits there, and after ten minutes, 0:46:48.760 --> 0:46:50.960 I'm like, I'm sorry, but let's go back to the 0:46:51.000 --> 0:46:55.799 fish with the redhead. Um. They got all kinds of 0:46:55.840 --> 0:46:58.239 stuff that they'll put down there, and it's illegal to 0:46:58.280 --> 0:47:01.080 hang a sucker down in there anymore. They changed the 0:47:01.160 --> 0:47:03.680 law in Minnesota. We just found this out that you 0:47:03.719 --> 0:47:06.320 can now we had at one point we had suckers 0:47:06.320 --> 0:47:09.799 on harnesses swimming around down there. Didn't do us any good, 0:47:09.880 --> 0:47:13.440 but we tried it. That rule has changed, did he 0:47:13.560 --> 0:47:16.440 do you remember when he said it changed in the 0:47:16.480 --> 0:47:18.319 last five years. I want to say, like like like 0:47:18.360 --> 0:47:21.160 a fourteen age sucker. No, we were fishing smaller than 0:47:21.239 --> 0:47:23.440 they were, more like four inch suckers. And when you 0:47:23.480 --> 0:47:26.200 say harness, it's like a set of hooks, right, You're 0:47:26.239 --> 0:47:29.080 not like a little handmade little chest harnesses for like 0:47:29.200 --> 0:47:31.480 seeing people with their dogs these days. No, it was 0:47:31.520 --> 0:47:34.560 not hooked. There were no hooks in that that fish 0:47:34.680 --> 0:47:39.000 at all. What purely harnessed? Can you guys explain why 0:47:39.200 --> 0:47:42.799 people would choose to spear rather like kind of as 0:47:42.840 --> 0:47:45.720 Steve earlier, but like why were why were you spearing 0:47:45.760 --> 0:47:48.359 instead of fishing? I think a lot of times it's 0:47:48.360 --> 0:47:51.600 way more productive. Well, that's my question. Why we're sitting 0:47:51.640 --> 0:47:53.399 here with gigs right now? You know, many paying fish, 0:47:53.400 --> 0:47:56.520 we'd have not many ship because they're down there staring 0:47:56.560 --> 0:47:58.280 at it. We don't have a camera down by guarante 0:47:58.360 --> 0:48:02.080 either down there staring at it. I think there are 0:48:02.080 --> 0:48:04.799 a couple of answers that question. One is a lot 0:48:04.880 --> 0:48:07.440 of people get into the historic nature of it, right. 0:48:07.480 --> 0:48:09.120 Spirit has been around for a long time. It's it's 0:48:09.120 --> 0:48:11.200 a tradition. You know, Mark, who we were experiing with, 0:48:11.280 --> 0:48:14.279 was taught by his grandfather, who was taught by who 0:48:14.280 --> 0:48:17.640 knows before him, and for him there's a sense of 0:48:17.680 --> 0:48:21.200 nostalgia and pride in continuing that tradition. So I think 0:48:21.239 --> 0:48:24.880 I think for some folks that's part of it. Um 0:48:24.920 --> 0:48:26.560 with the white fish and the pike, I don't know, man, 0:48:26.600 --> 0:48:29.520 I think we probably would have done better just standard fishing. 0:48:29.560 --> 0:48:32.400 But it's so much fun. It's so interactive and engaging 0:48:32.400 --> 0:48:34.600 because you're just looking into this hole and you can 0:48:34.640 --> 0:48:36.160 see him coming in. If you're not like me and 0:48:36.200 --> 0:48:38.080 get all excited and spooked fish, they actually come in 0:48:38.080 --> 0:48:40.759 and you can spire him. That to me was it's 0:48:40.760 --> 0:48:43.920 a different way of fishing, and I found it to 0:48:44.040 --> 0:48:47.560 be differently satisfying. And then we haven't got there yet. 0:48:47.640 --> 0:48:49.359 Yeahn he hasn't got there yet. But when you get 0:48:49.400 --> 0:48:51.600 to the sturgeon, you're not allowed to fish for them 0:48:51.600 --> 0:48:54.160 with line, So that's the only way that you can 0:48:54.160 --> 0:48:59.600 take one of those fish. Okay, briefcases out you're jigging 0:48:59.600 --> 0:49:01.440 the golf ball. You go back to the red and 0:49:01.440 --> 0:49:10.040 white fish. Um. Yeah. And then eventually, sorry Brodie, eventually 0:49:10.600 --> 0:49:12.279 I'm trying to think what the first fish was it 0:49:12.360 --> 0:49:13.959 came in. Was it a white fish or a pike? 0:49:17.239 --> 0:49:22.160 To remember. But it's tricky because you're you need to 0:49:22.160 --> 0:49:24.839 make sure you know there's other fish swimming around in 0:49:24.880 --> 0:49:28.000 these lakes that you can't spear, you know, and if 0:49:28.000 --> 0:49:31.399 he's at the bottom, you'll be like, Okay, you gotta 0:49:31.440 --> 0:49:33.439 know for sure what you're what you're throwing a spear act. 0:49:33.560 --> 0:49:36.720 There's no catching release, you know, with the old spirit 0:49:36.800 --> 0:49:40.440 giant barbs on it um. So either way, I don't 0:49:40.440 --> 0:49:43.200 I can't remember as a pike or or a white fish. 0:49:43.280 --> 0:49:46.239 But yeah, I got really lucky. I think I ended 0:49:46.280 --> 0:49:49.879 up spearing two of each and then I only missed one. 0:49:50.160 --> 0:49:52.520 I had a four out of five hit ratio over 0:49:52.600 --> 0:49:56.840 the course of two days. Yeah, big whitefish. Yeah, they're 0:49:56.840 --> 0:50:03.480 both like, uh, I don't know, it's the twenty three pounders. 0:50:03.480 --> 0:50:06.960 Maybe sounds a bitch. Really, Yeah, those are nice whitefish man, Yeah, 0:50:07.000 --> 0:50:09.480 for sure. Just so folks know, these are not Mountain whitefish. 0:50:09.480 --> 0:50:13.479 These are Great Lakes whitefish, Lake Superior whitefish, right, because 0:50:13.800 --> 0:50:16.600 they're like you call him like Lake white Wish and 0:50:16.640 --> 0:50:18.919 then people get confused. But yeah, lake whitefish. That should 0:50:18.920 --> 0:50:20.439 say Great Lakes because they're all over the damn place 0:50:20.600 --> 0:50:23.560 in Alaska. I think I think they're just Lake white Wish. Yeah, 0:50:23.560 --> 0:50:27.320 they're up here in Flathead Lake. But the ones not native. 0:50:27.440 --> 0:50:31.600 They call Lake Superior whitefish because there's both, right, there's 0:50:31.719 --> 0:50:35.279 mountain white fish and ye in those cays. So what 0:50:35.320 --> 0:50:38.000 happens Jonas, Now when you go to hawk the spear. 0:50:38.560 --> 0:50:42.200 Is it a jab? Is it like? Uh, like you're 0:50:42.239 --> 0:50:45.879 hawking it. It depends on what what your targets doing. 0:50:46.239 --> 0:50:48.440 Because if he just comes in and then he knows 0:50:48.440 --> 0:50:51.359 the dcoins just sitting there and like Miles said, they 0:50:51.360 --> 0:50:54.600 were spooky and so um, you're holding you know, you 0:50:54.640 --> 0:50:58.000 have your one prong of the spear just stuck in 0:50:58.160 --> 0:51:00.640 on the far side of the ice hole, and so 0:51:00.960 --> 0:51:03.160 when you see the fish comment, you just slowly grab 0:51:03.200 --> 0:51:04.880 it and kind of get it ready the head and 0:51:04.920 --> 0:51:07.239 the heads into the heads below the water so you 0:51:07.280 --> 0:51:11.520 don't get the refraction. Yeah, and uh yeah, if he 0:51:11.640 --> 0:51:13.640 just came in and sitting there looking at the decoy, 0:51:13.760 --> 0:51:15.520 you just slowly moved right on the top of him 0:51:15.520 --> 0:51:17.960 and you can just drop it. But we had other fish, 0:51:18.080 --> 0:51:20.120 like the white fish. Really whether or not they came 0:51:20.160 --> 0:51:22.560 to the decoy hard to say, but they're pretty much 0:51:22.560 --> 0:51:24.880 just swimming through the hole. So it's like, there he is, 0:51:25.280 --> 0:51:27.960 and you're gonna throw because you're you're almost having to 0:51:28.000 --> 0:51:29.839 lead him a little bit. So I might be right 0:51:29.960 --> 0:51:31.640 and that that that white fish doesn't give a shit 0:51:31.719 --> 0:51:35.000 about that big decoy. Absolutely, I saw nothing. I was 0:51:35.000 --> 0:51:36.400 trying to I was trying to like you saw me 0:51:36.440 --> 0:51:38.399 trying to like milk it out of your honest, but 0:51:38.400 --> 0:51:40.799 we it's hard to say. I don't think we know 0:51:40.960 --> 0:51:42.799 enough to know that. I never saw a white fish 0:51:42.840 --> 0:51:46.319 that was clearly locked into a decoy. But maybe they 0:51:46.400 --> 0:51:49.120 might have been somewhat interested here that that brought them 0:51:49.120 --> 0:51:53.399 to the general area. I don't know. Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, 0:51:53.400 --> 0:51:55.879 I have only speared for whitefish two days. So once 0:51:55.920 --> 0:51:57.839 I've got a hundred days under my belt, I'll give 0:51:57.880 --> 0:52:01.200 you a better answer. You know, I got you watching 0:52:01.239 --> 0:52:03.080 through the ice with a camera. You can lower big 0:52:03.120 --> 0:52:05.799 stuff down. Little teeny fish that have no they can't 0:52:05.800 --> 0:52:07.680 have any notion that they're gonna eat it, are still 0:52:07.719 --> 0:52:10.520 like what the hell's that? Can? They approach it like 0:52:10.640 --> 0:52:13.160 out of curiosity? They're not like zooming in. Did I 0:52:13.239 --> 0:52:14.560 come by and like what the hell is that? And 0:52:14.600 --> 0:52:19.879 then just swim off curiosity satisfied. That's something different. I mean, 0:52:20.000 --> 0:52:22.520 you know you're swimming around down there, everything looks more 0:52:22.600 --> 0:52:24.640 or less the same. You see something different, you're probably 0:52:24.680 --> 0:52:26.640 gonna check it out. I've been living in this pond 0:52:26.680 --> 0:52:32.799 for a year. I've never seen that. See. Um. The 0:52:32.840 --> 0:52:35.600 thing about the spearing, though, that. Uh, And this is 0:52:35.640 --> 0:52:39.120 true for both the sturgeon spearing and this white fishing pike, 0:52:39.320 --> 0:52:41.480 is that you really get this feeling much the same 0:52:41.520 --> 0:52:43.120 way you do when you're fishing through an eight inch 0:52:43.200 --> 0:52:45.600 hole and you look out on the expanse of a 0:52:45.680 --> 0:52:48.560 giant frozen lake and you're like, man, we're really hoping 0:52:48.600 --> 0:52:54.520 these fish swim through this twelve square feet you know, 0:52:54.840 --> 0:52:57.800 and not all that other stuff. So you're like, hundreds, 0:52:58.840 --> 0:53:02.240 why not have something down there that may attract a fish, 0:53:02.440 --> 0:53:07.239 you know? Yeah, yeah, but uh, yeah, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 0:53:07.680 --> 0:53:11.040 Thank you for any missing any like interesting details about 0:53:11.080 --> 0:53:13.960 the you know, one thing and that that was different 0:53:14.000 --> 0:53:17.400 than than what we did later was the the replacement 0:53:17.440 --> 0:53:19.560 of the ice back into the hole and then setting 0:53:19.640 --> 0:53:22.600 up all the sticks to freeze into the ice just 0:53:23.560 --> 0:53:29.000 from in there, which you know, seems super obvious, but 0:53:29.719 --> 0:53:31.239 I've never done it before, and I hadn't thought of 0:53:31.280 --> 0:53:32.960 that until we got out there and Mark started cutting 0:53:33.000 --> 0:53:36.319 brush on the way out. Yeah, where I grew up, 0:53:36.360 --> 0:53:39.520 you put your Christmas tree down in there, because then 0:53:39.520 --> 0:53:42.520 when the ice melts, and this is illegal, but then 0:53:42.520 --> 0:53:44.600 when the ice melts, depending where you are, when the 0:53:44.600 --> 0:53:46.560 ice melts, the tree falls in, and then it supposed 0:53:46.640 --> 0:53:49.480 it's great for croppies. Well, we used to. We had 0:53:49.560 --> 0:53:51.640 Christmas tree sunk and you would catch croppies in the 0:53:51.640 --> 0:53:55.359 spring off those Christmas trees. Yeah, this is a separate conversation. 0:53:55.400 --> 0:53:59.160 But the reason that became illegal is because a lot 0:53:59.200 --> 0:54:00.960 of d n R bowed just for going. This is 0:54:01.080 --> 0:54:03.640 changing the pH of the lakes in a really negative way. 0:54:03.640 --> 0:54:06.200 Everybody dunk in their Christmas trees. I'm not advocating. I'm 0:54:06.239 --> 0:54:10.359 just telling you when we were young, like in high 0:54:10.400 --> 0:54:17.080 school and whatnot. Uh, we lived divorced from any divorced 0:54:17.080 --> 0:54:22.920 from knowledge. Just people. Old people did stuff and then 0:54:22.920 --> 0:54:24.839 they told you to do it, or you just did 0:54:24.840 --> 0:54:27.080 it too, know that was what you did. Red squirrels 0:54:27.239 --> 0:54:30.960 eat the nuts off fox squirrels. It's just just what happened. 0:54:31.000 --> 0:54:38.040 It's just wait, how how things are. So it's not you. 0:54:38.760 --> 0:54:42.200 You put your tree out of the ice, damn it, 0:54:44.719 --> 0:54:48.600 and so does not do they're comie. When we were 0:54:48.640 --> 0:54:52.399 done with Mark and spearing pike and whitefish, Lucas made 0:54:52.480 --> 0:54:54.759 us some nice like I was saying saying earlier, some 0:54:54.760 --> 0:55:00.320 white fish cakes delicious. So he cooked and then formed 0:55:00.360 --> 0:55:03.560 his patty or formed his patty with raw fish. Raw fish? 0:55:03.840 --> 0:55:06.040 Huh yeah, how do you? How do he mince it 0:55:06.600 --> 0:55:09.799 hand mints? Right? No, he cooked him first and then 0:55:10.040 --> 0:55:12.640 cooked him just till they were flaking, and then made 0:55:12.640 --> 0:55:17.360 his patties and then quick fry very large chunky pieces 0:55:17.360 --> 0:55:19.680 of flesh in there. You know, it wasn't all super 0:55:19.719 --> 0:55:22.600 shredded like a crab cake. Almost. Oh yeah, very much, 0:55:22.719 --> 0:55:25.120 because I was I got a whole mass at karp 0:55:26.320 --> 0:55:29.879 and I was thinking about just running through. The highly 0:55:29.960 --> 0:55:33.000 recommend food processor works good because the bones when you 0:55:33.040 --> 0:55:36.239 food process it the bones, you're cutting the bones up 0:55:36.320 --> 0:55:38.799 enough or you don't need to worry about it. What 0:55:38.840 --> 0:55:41.000 my folks used to do with suckers is they didn't 0:55:41.080 --> 0:55:42.279 do this a lot, but they now and then do 0:55:42.320 --> 0:55:46.160 it is caught up the socker, not worry about the 0:55:46.160 --> 0:55:51.120 bones and pressure pressure can it. Yeah, pressure cooking in 0:55:51.200 --> 0:55:53.680 jars and then put the jars on the canning shelf. 0:55:54.440 --> 0:55:57.120 And then anytime you're just go and take that socker 0:55:57.160 --> 0:56:00.600 meat out and the bones would have dissolved, and then 0:56:00.640 --> 0:56:03.200 you make fish cakes with them. Got it? Because the 0:56:03.280 --> 0:56:05.480 pressure cooker just zap the bone, you're gonna have to 0:56:05.480 --> 0:56:08.240 shoot me a good fish. I mean, I can whip 0:56:08.320 --> 0:56:12.080 something up. But bomber recipe for going to have one 0:56:12.120 --> 0:56:15.440 up on the website very soon from Lucas Leaf. We 0:56:15.520 --> 0:56:17.960 got one coming. That's a tip. A hot tip on 0:56:18.040 --> 0:56:22.360 fish cakes is um just you can just cook your fish. 0:56:22.600 --> 0:56:25.839 Just bake the flame, let it cool, shred it up. 0:56:25.920 --> 0:56:29.799 It's picking bones is easier once it's cooked. Shread it up. 0:56:29.800 --> 0:56:32.240 Make a fish cake good used for leftover fish too. 0:56:32.680 --> 0:56:34.840 I got one other tip from Lucas on that that 0:56:34.920 --> 0:56:38.359 I really liked, and that was just frying batter, which 0:56:38.480 --> 0:56:44.719 was just cheese. It's put through a blender. Cheese. It's 0:56:44.719 --> 0:56:49.400 pancake mix. Crucial ease pancake mix that you still have 0:56:49.560 --> 0:56:55.280 to add egg and milk and whatever, maybe oil, whatever 0:56:55.280 --> 0:56:57.880 else goes into pancake mix. Not the stuff is just 0:56:57.880 --> 0:57:02.480 just add water. That very important to him and I 0:57:02.560 --> 0:57:04.839 tried it. It came out good. I tell you gotta 0:57:04.880 --> 0:57:07.919 have a good food processor blender for the cheese. It's 0:57:08.160 --> 0:57:10.520 because you've gotta get super fine. You gotta get just 0:57:10.560 --> 0:57:13.359 as fine as the pancake mix. Otherwise, you know, when 0:57:13.400 --> 0:57:15.640 you batter in it, you end up the big chunks 0:57:15.640 --> 0:57:18.080 come out first, and then you're just starting to work 0:57:18.080 --> 0:57:21.640 with a finer and finer mix. But yeah, tell me 0:57:21.680 --> 0:57:24.160 about tell me some more efficient delicious. We headed over 0:57:24.240 --> 0:57:35.200 to uh old Lake Winnebago, uh Milax, which means thousand Lakes, Mhma, 0:57:35.360 --> 0:57:44.520 thousand Lakes. I think, just oh, I'm sorry, Yeah, I 0:57:44.560 --> 0:57:50.840 got you now mile Ax, and uh I meant a 0:57:50.840 --> 0:57:55.520 lot of very kind Midwesterners. I mean, I learned a 0:57:55.560 --> 0:58:01.080 lot about hospitality and just politeness and um, but you're 0:58:01.120 --> 0:58:04.919 from the Midwest, I know. But growing up there, how 0:58:05.120 --> 0:58:08.160 how you can't you can't you can't. Yeah, you can't 0:58:08.360 --> 0:58:12.800 judge because yeah, you're that's your home place, and all 0:58:12.840 --> 0:58:15.480 you hear about is Southern hospitality. And I'm not gonna 0:58:15.560 --> 0:58:18.600 like really dog on Southerners. I think they're they're pretty hospitable. 0:58:19.120 --> 0:58:23.080 But I'm married into the South and I've really enjoyed 0:58:23.120 --> 0:58:26.640 the hospitality down there. But now, I mean we're living 0:58:26.640 --> 0:58:28.760 out west for two decades and then going back to 0:58:28.840 --> 0:58:33.480 Minnesota and Wisconsin blown away, Like I feel like they're 0:58:33.520 --> 0:58:38.920 people will actually invite you into their house a stranger 0:58:39.000 --> 0:58:41.400 and give you like a place to eat and sleep, 0:58:42.040 --> 0:58:44.560 like just very very nice. I just want to give 0:58:44.600 --> 0:58:47.320 a plug for the old Midwest. So yeah, we went 0:58:47.320 --> 0:58:49.760 over to Middle Axe and where the plan was to go. 0:58:50.160 --> 0:58:55.520 Whileye fishing with Mandy yer You know you're not supposed 0:58:55.560 --> 0:59:02.360 to generalize. It's bad to generalize negatively, but general shouldn't 0:59:02.400 --> 0:59:06.960 it be bad to generalize positively? I mean, no one 0:59:07.080 --> 0:59:09.080 people are gonna get less pissed about it. But your 0:59:09.080 --> 0:59:13.080 point is valid at generalized positively, I think it is. 0:59:14.160 --> 0:59:15.920 I mean, that just makes people feel good. The problem 0:59:15.920 --> 0:59:19.360 with generalizing negatively is that it makes people feel shitty. 0:59:20.360 --> 0:59:25.080 Where so we got Mandy Yerke generalizing super nice people. 0:59:25.080 --> 0:59:28.840 They're super nice people and Mandy Yorke was gonna take 0:59:29.120 --> 0:59:34.360 h take us fishing for Wally. Tell me about this individual, 0:59:34.360 --> 0:59:39.480 Mandy Yerke. Uh, Mandy is remember her actual title for 0:59:39.560 --> 0:59:49.680 the Minnesota DNR. She's like a habitat planning director. She 0:59:49.760 --> 0:59:53.840 basically works on on all all manner of habitat projects. 0:59:53.880 --> 0:59:56.120 And I think she even I mean like dumping Christmas 0:59:56.120 --> 1:00:00.440 trees in. I mean it could be. It could be 1:00:00.480 --> 1:00:04.080 like a brand new um even though it's not like 1:00:04.120 --> 1:00:06.680 what you think of while life habitat, but it's it's 1:00:06.760 --> 1:00:10.000 part of land that Minnesota and our manages. But she 1:00:10.080 --> 1:00:14.720 might work on a new campground one day, infrastructure, and 1:00:14.720 --> 1:00:17.440 then it could be you know, getting a piece of 1:00:17.520 --> 1:00:21.840 land is just gonna be used for um, grouse habitat 1:00:21.960 --> 1:00:26.480 or something. Right. That's sound about right. That good job explaining, Mandy. 1:00:26.560 --> 1:00:29.400 I hope I'm doing doing your justice here. And then 1:00:29.440 --> 1:00:33.120 on the side she is a very very busy angler, 1:00:33.480 --> 1:00:39.520 professional bass angler, and then a recreational angler of just 1:00:39.720 --> 1:00:43.480 about everything. Um. And that's just now She's got a 1:00:43.480 --> 1:00:45.520 great story. I can go on for a long time. 1:00:46.000 --> 1:00:49.480 Just very quickly. She grew up in a family that 1:00:49.600 --> 1:00:56.800 owned a fishing lodge on Devil's Lake in North Dakota, 1:00:57.040 --> 1:01:01.080 and Um, out of her whole family, she was cow. 1:01:01.320 --> 1:01:05.000 You got there an old boot, uh maybe edge of 1:01:05.040 --> 1:01:11.000 the whole something cal snagged up. Um. She had brothers 1:01:11.600 --> 1:01:14.400 and a sister. Nobody took to the hunting fishing like 1:01:14.520 --> 1:01:16.960 she did, and at a young age they knew that 1:01:17.000 --> 1:01:19.120 she liked it so much that her dad just started 1:01:19.200 --> 1:01:23.520 sending her off to other outfits to learn how to 1:01:23.560 --> 1:01:25.920 be a duck hunter or a duck hunting guy, how 1:01:25.960 --> 1:01:27.680 to be an elk hunter or an elk hunting guy, 1:01:27.720 --> 1:01:30.000 And so very early on in her childhood, she was 1:01:30.040 --> 1:01:34.080 getting shipped all over the place to basically learn any 1:01:34.120 --> 1:01:37.120 and all different kinds of hunting and fishing, but she 1:01:37.200 --> 1:01:40.960 never went the guiding route. Yeah, so after she got 1:01:41.040 --> 1:01:43.320 that dialed in, she she did some guide for a 1:01:43.320 --> 1:01:45.920 while and then I don't know really what took her 1:01:45.960 --> 1:01:48.080 out of it, but uh, like I said, now she 1:01:48.120 --> 1:01:53.479 works in Minnesota, DNR. It seems to be very happy. Ah. So, yeah, 1:01:53.480 --> 1:01:56.720 she took us out ice fishing on Malax and Milax 1:01:57.080 --> 1:02:02.320 is a giant. Oh missed him. I did too. That's weird. 1:02:04.160 --> 1:02:08.120 The school came in and I'm out of the game 1:02:08.240 --> 1:02:14.000 over here messing with my setup. Uh. It took out 1:02:14.000 --> 1:02:17.920 on milax. Relax is interesting because it's got a lot 1:02:18.440 --> 1:02:22.240 of controversy going on around their fishery. They have an 1:02:22.240 --> 1:02:25.880 excellent fishery, Like when it's when the fisher biting, which 1:02:25.920 --> 1:02:27.720 they really weren't when we were there, but when they 1:02:27.760 --> 1:02:32.240 were three days prior, they can catch trophy size. While 1:02:32.280 --> 1:02:37.840 I almost one after another, that's fair safe from my understanding. 1:02:37.880 --> 1:02:40.360 We never saw it firsthand. Yeah, we saw plenty of pictures. 1:02:42.880 --> 1:02:46.840 Maybe should be in the weeds. No, I had I 1:02:46.880 --> 1:02:55.080 had a legit um it's the tightest slot limit I've 1:02:55.120 --> 1:03:02.320 ever heard of. Three a two inch slot, right, Um, 1:03:02.440 --> 1:03:06.280 what is going on? And you can only keep one now. 1:03:06.400 --> 1:03:09.080 It obviously makes for a really good fishery, but a 1:03:09.120 --> 1:03:11.120 lot of people are bummed because not too long ago 1:03:11.200 --> 1:03:16.640 you could keep six that Yeah, okay, so tight slot 1:03:17.840 --> 1:03:21.200 for a fish that people are primarily going after for 1:03:21.240 --> 1:03:26.640 food after for the fighting. No, No, they like them 1:03:26.640 --> 1:03:29.640 because they're good in the grease. Yeah, it's so to 1:03:29.800 --> 1:03:32.560 only be able to catch one is Yeah, you know 1:03:33.120 --> 1:03:35.280 what percentage of fish that you're hauling out of the 1:03:35.280 --> 1:03:38.400 ice are hitting the slot? Well? For us zero zero 1:03:39.640 --> 1:03:42.280 it's tough to catch slot limit wall over there. And 1:03:42.280 --> 1:03:44.880 and I think that part of the reason we wanted 1:03:44.920 --> 1:03:46.959 to go there is that this isn't how they got 1:03:47.000 --> 1:03:50.000 to this place with such a tight slot and such 1:03:50.040 --> 1:03:55.000 a low harvest for recreational anglers. Is an interesting story 1:03:55.160 --> 1:03:58.680 and it's you know, Minnesota DNA are trying to keep 1:03:58.720 --> 1:04:02.680 the fishery really, really healthy, but at the same time 1:04:04.360 --> 1:04:07.240 keep a few people happy. It's a it's a they're 1:04:07.240 --> 1:04:11.520 on a tight rope over there. Yeah. At the same time, 1:04:12.040 --> 1:04:15.520 that lake it's changed for a lot of reasons. Um, 1:04:15.600 --> 1:04:19.160 it's become clearer than it used to be. And miles 1:04:19.200 --> 1:04:21.400 getting correct me here if i'm if I go straight 1:04:21.440 --> 1:04:25.960 with my knowledge and how ship works. But um, when 1:04:25.960 --> 1:04:29.160 the water is a little bit dirtier, and it used 1:04:29.160 --> 1:04:34.080 to be dirtier because of zebra muscles. No, well, but 1:04:34.120 --> 1:04:38.680 it was dirtier because it was actually uh, you know, 1:04:40.200 --> 1:04:44.360 not straight up sewage, but treated you know, human gray 1:04:44.440 --> 1:04:49.640 water going into the lake, which causes micronutrients. Stuff eats 1:04:49.640 --> 1:04:52.960 micro nutrients. The bigger stuff eats that. And while I 1:04:53.040 --> 1:04:56.360 like it cloudy, they they're like they're a low light predator. 1:04:57.440 --> 1:04:59.960 And yeah, zebra muscles cleaned it up. And the fat 1:05:00.200 --> 1:05:03.480 they said, no, you can't dump this water into these 1:05:03.560 --> 1:05:06.720 lakes anymore. Cleaned it up. Hurt the walleye fishery. But 1:05:07.320 --> 1:05:09.520 it's made for a great smallmouth fishery. It's made for 1:05:09.560 --> 1:05:17.760 a great pike fishery. Trophy muskie. It's got drum, trophy 1:05:17.840 --> 1:05:21.320 drum in there, talking like freshwater drum. Yeah. Obviously what 1:05:21.360 --> 1:05:26.280 they call sheep's head over there, call them gasper goose. 1:05:26.320 --> 1:05:30.560 In Texas, what are they call gasper goose? It's a 1:05:30.600 --> 1:05:34.320 Louisiana termine. Didn't missed on the eating on those, man, Yeah, 1:05:34.560 --> 1:05:38.080 weird texture, like flames, look like they should be so good. 1:05:38.960 --> 1:05:41.200 The first bite you're like, it's not that bad, but 1:05:41.400 --> 1:05:45.120 just like a third you ever cut the enthusiasm. Yeah, 1:05:45.160 --> 1:05:47.080 we get the rocks out. My kids got a handful. 1:05:47.120 --> 1:05:52.360 The one we got to uh this summer out of 1:05:53.080 --> 1:05:57.600 river here in Montana and they were excellent. The flesh 1:05:57.640 --> 1:06:01.440 is like eating cheese kurds. It's weeks when you bite. 1:06:01.440 --> 1:06:06.840 It's that dance dance squeaky cheese, squeak man. They I'm 1:06:06.920 --> 1:06:08.560 bummed to hear that, because I was like, boy, I 1:06:08.600 --> 1:06:14.520 am gonna come back here and target. The enthusiasm does 1:06:14.560 --> 1:06:18.720 not grow as you eat the fish. Then your little 1:06:18.800 --> 1:06:22.560 kenny eat mixed like pepsi and milk, and the first 1:06:22.480 --> 1:06:26.920 city like it's good, right, but you just couldn't you 1:06:26.960 --> 1:06:29.240 know whatever finished it. Talking to a guy who knows 1:06:29.280 --> 1:06:32.320 who's a commercial fisherman in the Midwest and harvest those. 1:06:32.640 --> 1:06:36.479 He claims that he can grade the drum filets based 1:06:36.480 --> 1:06:38.920 on color and that if you find the like the 1:06:38.960 --> 1:06:42.640 pearly white ones, he claims you can't tell the difference 1:06:42.640 --> 1:06:44.200 between those and perch. He will even sell them his 1:06:44.240 --> 1:06:47.360 perch filets. Do they have any yellow to him? Then 1:06:47.520 --> 1:06:50.440 they're really only good for the smokers. That's what this 1:06:50.480 --> 1:06:54.440 guy told me. Yeah. Interesting. I was just bummed by 1:06:54.440 --> 1:06:56.880 the like the physical makeup of that fish. You look 1:06:56.960 --> 1:06:58.800 like you're gonna get a load of meat off of 1:06:58.800 --> 1:07:05.280 that thing, low yield a lot ahead. You did a 1:07:05.280 --> 1:07:08.680 great job. We caught some walley with many Um she 1:07:08.760 --> 1:07:13.040 did most of the catching. I did watch and the 1:07:13.120 --> 1:07:15.920 very interesting that I've seen now they've done all this 1:07:15.960 --> 1:07:21.360 ice fishing is just between while I on different lakes, 1:07:21.920 --> 1:07:29.600 completely different techniques, completely different like jigging strategies. Um, Mandy's 1:07:29.680 --> 1:07:32.320 jig was see maybe you can describe this. Look at 1:07:32.360 --> 1:07:35.520 my hand in my rod tip. Yeah, the old pencil. 1:07:36.320 --> 1:07:39.600 I mean it's almost just like you're you just don't 1:07:39.600 --> 1:07:41.600 have a steady hand. You got the coffee. It's like 1:07:41.640 --> 1:07:45.000 your your hands just shaking. That's I thought you were 1:07:45.040 --> 1:07:47.560 just shaky. I thought you. I thought you're demonstrating the grip. 1:07:48.280 --> 1:07:50.640 No no, no, no, no no, just a shake. That's like, yeah, 1:07:50.680 --> 1:07:53.600 you're literally And but it was funny. Is that so 1:07:53.840 --> 1:07:59.680 we're using um hummingbird uh sonars that what you call 1:07:59.720 --> 1:08:04.240 that to eyes flasher, which it's not like a true 1:08:04.320 --> 1:08:06.720 vex lar flasher, because you're just you're watching like a 1:08:06.760 --> 1:08:11.200 graph like you would on your your regular fish finder. Um, 1:08:11.240 --> 1:08:14.200 but you can see your jake down there doing that 1:08:14.280 --> 1:08:16.320 little shake. When you're doing that to it and you 1:08:16.360 --> 1:08:18.240 don't want it. There's no that you're not lifting it 1:08:18.320 --> 1:08:20.800 an inch, two inches, six inches, there's none of that. 1:08:21.360 --> 1:08:28.960 It's just the shake. Good job, gal, go on, come 1:08:29.000 --> 1:08:39.120 over here. Um, so you're sitting, you're you're actually this 1:08:39.160 --> 1:08:41.880 is where ice fishing gets interesting. I wanna see what 1:08:41.920 --> 1:08:44.160 you guys all feel about it, because here we're not 1:08:44.200 --> 1:08:47.320 looking at a flasher. There's no camera down but would 1:08:47.360 --> 1:08:51.120 be too distracted. Yeah, okay, well there we're looking at 1:08:51.120 --> 1:08:53.880 a flasher. You're not really paying attention to the hole 1:08:53.920 --> 1:08:56.680 too much. You're pretty much just watching that graph, and 1:08:56.720 --> 1:09:00.200 all of a sudden, you're your Your bait depends on 1:09:00.240 --> 1:09:02.719 what colors you set up. Your bait's like a little 1:09:03.120 --> 1:09:06.280 squiggly blue line, and you're watching it shake around. Every 1:09:06.280 --> 1:09:07.800 now and then you lift it just to make sure 1:09:07.880 --> 1:09:10.040 that's what you're looking at. And the bottom is red, 1:09:10.720 --> 1:09:15.439 and every now and then again again a red line 1:09:16.360 --> 1:09:20.840 the size of a fat night crawler lifts up off, 1:09:21.080 --> 1:09:23.600 comes up out of the bottom, and that's what a 1:09:23.640 --> 1:09:26.400 wall I looks like. And it comes right underneath your 1:09:26.439 --> 1:09:29.200 little jiggly blue line and just kind of suspense right 1:09:29.280 --> 1:09:32.080 underneath it. At that point you start this sort of 1:09:32.200 --> 1:09:35.200 dance with that red line, your blue line with the 1:09:35.200 --> 1:09:37.439 red line, and it's you jake a little bit less. 1:09:37.520 --> 1:09:39.599 You stop, maybe for two or three seconds, and at 1:09:39.640 --> 1:09:42.040 this point you're waiting for the tug, but you might, 1:09:42.200 --> 1:09:44.040 you know, lift it up a little bit. The red 1:09:44.080 --> 1:09:46.320 line follows. Sometimes you get to take. If not, you 1:09:46.439 --> 1:09:49.280 drop it back down or the red line loses interest. 1:09:49.520 --> 1:09:51.599 And again red line is this wall I down there, 1:09:51.920 --> 1:09:54.200 loses interest, drops back down to the bottom. So you 1:09:54.280 --> 1:09:56.280 drop your bait back down and you're just trying to 1:09:56.320 --> 1:09:59.800 hold it, you know, inches from his nose. Just just 1:10:00.120 --> 1:10:02.759 eat me, eat me, eat me. And um, it seemed 1:10:02.800 --> 1:10:05.400 like I, like I said, I only caught maybe I 1:10:05.400 --> 1:10:07.960 don't know, three or four over the course of two days, 1:10:08.040 --> 1:10:11.639 maybe five. Um, it seemed like the bite I would 1:10:12.040 --> 1:10:14.439 jack jack jake, or shake, shake, shake, and I would 1:10:14.479 --> 1:10:16.839 just let it sit still. In three or four seconds 1:10:16.840 --> 1:10:19.960 into letting it said still, you'd feel a tug and 1:10:20.040 --> 1:10:22.519 you pull the walleye out, did not catch a single 1:10:22.520 --> 1:10:27.559 one in the slot. Manishing real hard for me, man 1:10:28.000 --> 1:10:30.800 real hard. Yeah. I think well, within the group, you know, 1:10:30.840 --> 1:10:34.519 we had some other people helping, and while we were manning, 1:10:34.560 --> 1:10:37.200 I were fishing, they'd be fishing off by themselves, and 1:10:37.200 --> 1:10:39.200 I think we end up catching a couple over the slot. 1:10:39.320 --> 1:10:41.879 Most of them were shy, most of them were eighteen 1:10:41.920 --> 1:10:46.800 to twenty inch type fish. Um and uh but no 1:10:46.920 --> 1:10:50.400 nothing in nothing in the slot. I mean we got 1:10:50.439 --> 1:10:56.479 him and then we got him at twenty four. Uh. 1:10:56.520 --> 1:10:58.600 And you know that's which makes sense. That's such a 1:10:58.600 --> 1:11:01.240 popular like so many people fishing. Any of those fish 1:11:01.240 --> 1:11:03.759 that are in the slot, they're coming home with people 1:11:03.800 --> 1:11:06.120 like you gotta think there's a lot of people who 1:11:06.120 --> 1:11:09.599 just avoid that lake, right, Like, well, I'm just just 1:11:09.720 --> 1:11:12.400 want to not mess with this trophy lake. And I'm 1:11:12.400 --> 1:11:14.440 not I'm not like I don't know enough to criticize. 1:11:14.439 --> 1:11:16.800 I'm not criticizing the management decision there. I'm just saying 1:11:16.840 --> 1:11:19.840 for me personally, like I view walleye as waal air 1:11:19.920 --> 1:11:25.360 for eating. That's why that's why that lake is an 1:11:25.360 --> 1:11:27.479 interesting story, right because it's not that far from the 1:11:27.479 --> 1:11:30.000 twin cities. Tons of people grew up walleye fishing there 1:11:30.040 --> 1:11:34.639 and taking tons of fish out, and the the fishery 1:11:34.680 --> 1:11:37.680 has changed, and more and more people are fishing it right, 1:11:37.800 --> 1:11:40.639 and they want to make sure that they've still got 1:11:40.640 --> 1:11:44.120 a walleye fish man so said, not being critical, No, no, 1:11:44.160 --> 1:11:45.599 I get it, I get it. But to me, it's 1:11:45.640 --> 1:11:47.040 it's not a sense of like whether or not you're 1:11:47.040 --> 1:11:50.720 being critical. It's it's that this, if you're looking it 1:11:50.880 --> 1:11:54.160 at the universe of fishing stories, that one, to me 1:11:54.439 --> 1:11:57.000 is worth checking out because of all the things, folks, 1:11:59.000 --> 1:12:01.160 all the things that different things that are having to balance. 1:12:01.200 --> 1:12:04.559 They are the different user groups, the amount of anger 1:12:04.600 --> 1:12:08.679 that exists in that community toward that slot. Yeah, people 1:12:08.720 --> 1:12:12.280 are up in arms, and well, you know it's not permanent, 1:12:12.479 --> 1:12:16.840 not necessarily. No, the fishery rebounds, oh man. But if 1:12:16.840 --> 1:12:20.360 folks could have the ability I'm saying in general, you 1:12:20.400 --> 1:12:24.600 go to these fisheries or hunt areas, if folks had 1:12:24.640 --> 1:12:28.280 the ability to look beyond what they're doing that day, 1:12:28.439 --> 1:12:31.320 the world would be a much different place. I mean, 1:12:31.920 --> 1:12:35.160 my gosh. And the other thing is funny, there is, yeah, 1:12:35.240 --> 1:12:37.760 the the walleye fishery, it's still great. It's not what 1:12:37.800 --> 1:12:39.760 it used to be. But people are piste off and 1:12:39.760 --> 1:12:41.760 they have one of the best, arguably the best small 1:12:41.800 --> 1:12:44.240 mouth fisher in the country now as a result of 1:12:44.240 --> 1:12:46.719 the changes to the water clarity there right like when 1:12:46.840 --> 1:12:49.080 when it was really turbid and the walies were kicking 1:12:49.120 --> 1:12:51.880 ass because they can outcompete everything else. Now you have 1:12:52.000 --> 1:12:56.240 much clearer fishery. Small Mouth there really really good. They're 1:12:56.240 --> 1:12:58.439 not an ice fishing fish on that lake, but in 1:12:58.479 --> 1:13:01.240 the summer they are. And pike are really really good. 1:13:01.240 --> 1:13:03.559 And they heard a number of people in the Midwest 1:13:03.560 --> 1:13:07.280 tell me that that is the best trophy muskie fishery around, 1:13:07.720 --> 1:13:11.519 hands down. Period. Like you want to get musky. It's 1:13:11.560 --> 1:13:17.799 like Green Bay or there. Just changes. It's just funny 1:13:17.800 --> 1:13:21.040 to complain about. You know. I'm so piste off about this. 1:13:21.320 --> 1:13:25.679 We have great small mouth and musky. Now I'd prefer 1:13:25.680 --> 1:13:27.599 to catch either one of those fishes, just like the 1:13:27.640 --> 1:13:30.920 pace of wildlife management is never going to meet the 1:13:30.960 --> 1:13:37.439 pace of expectations will be good. T shirt, Well, I 1:13:37.560 --> 1:13:39.640 tell you what, they have them not figured out that 1:13:39.760 --> 1:13:42.960 small mouth tastes almost as good as while I either. 1:13:43.160 --> 1:13:44.680 I brought that up to a lot of them. I'm like, 1:13:44.720 --> 1:13:47.240 why don't you guys just start frying small mouth? I mean, really, 1:13:47.280 --> 1:13:49.360 if you're gonna like put some bunch of batter and 1:13:49.439 --> 1:13:53.880 seasonings on it and then fry it, eat the small mouth. No, no, no, 1:13:53.920 --> 1:13:56.439 you know those are those are just for catching relates. 1:13:56.600 --> 1:13:59.920 I'm like, oh, well, maybe you guys will learn later. 1:14:00.120 --> 1:14:02.960 I know that on the half shell gets tire something 1:14:02.960 --> 1:14:07.320 for folks, but that's man. You cook that thing on 1:14:07.400 --> 1:14:11.720 the trigger. Indirect heat is all it is. But with 1:14:11.760 --> 1:14:15.479 the skin on, scales on, skin on small mouth. Yeah, 1:14:15.560 --> 1:14:18.719 and that fat just bubbles up through the meat and 1:14:18.800 --> 1:14:23.320 you can take that hook your fingernail into that skin 1:14:23.800 --> 1:14:26.559 and just give it a little shake and that whole 1:14:26.720 --> 1:14:29.240 slides right off. The whole chunk of meat just slides 1:14:29.320 --> 1:14:32.519 onto whoever is played. Oh my gosh. It makes a 1:14:32.520 --> 1:14:35.400 guy like me who can't play anything, well, look a 1:14:35.439 --> 1:14:41.040 real guy, all right, jump into the sturge and Johnnie. Yeah, 1:14:41.160 --> 1:14:44.080 that's pretty much what we did with Mandy, right, try 1:14:44.120 --> 1:14:46.519 to try to catch while I and trying to understand 1:14:46.520 --> 1:14:51.840 what was going on in Molex. Yeah. So we left Minnesota, 1:14:52.360 --> 1:14:54.080 came home for a bit, then we went over to 1:14:54.200 --> 1:15:00.000 with Skans and and uh yeah, first thing we did 1:15:00.120 --> 1:15:04.000 was went to Lake Winnebago for the opener of sturgeon 1:15:04.040 --> 1:15:09.200 spearing season. Miles and I had applied for sturgeon spearing 1:15:09.720 --> 1:15:13.440 permits back in I don't know, sometime in the summer October, 1:15:13.640 --> 1:15:17.840 October October maybe, And if you apply, you get one. 1:15:18.000 --> 1:15:21.760 It's not like a draw thing. Now. Lake Winnebago is 1:15:21.840 --> 1:15:26.400 part of a chain of lakes that um, the what 1:15:26.479 --> 1:15:34.720 river that's oh Man Wolf River. Well, somebody comes the 1:15:34.760 --> 1:15:40.639 fox further on down you can correct us, um and uh, 1:15:40.760 --> 1:15:46.559 the upper Upper River Lakes have a permit, uh fishery 1:15:46.640 --> 1:15:50.519 there because as well get into your we've we had 1:15:50.520 --> 1:15:55.000 a spear, deeper, dirtier water. The Upper Upper River Lakes 1:15:55.040 --> 1:15:59.080 are clear and they're shallower and so there you're much 1:15:59.320 --> 1:16:02.479 like you just see you more sturgeon. To point to 1:16:02.720 --> 1:16:05.960 make it make sense, Lake Winnebago has about a five 1:16:05.960 --> 1:16:09.200 percent success right, the upper Lakes are closer to like 1:16:09.280 --> 1:16:14.720 fifty or sixty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, big time. It takes 1:16:14.760 --> 1:16:18.360 about seven years. Don't apply because Steve and I are 1:16:18.400 --> 1:16:21.320 starting to apply, um this year and we want to 1:16:21.320 --> 1:16:24.080 go and everybody messing us all up. Yeah, so don't apply. 1:16:24.320 --> 1:16:26.400 It's not that cool. I'm gonna make it sound cool, 1:16:26.479 --> 1:16:29.920 but it's not that cool. So, yeah, we hooked up 1:16:29.960 --> 1:16:35.200 with Jake Andrews his whole family. Uh and uh when 1:16:35.200 --> 1:16:38.920 I say his whole family then includes a bunch of cousins. Uh. 1:16:39.080 --> 1:16:43.160 They they make up for at least point five percent 1:16:43.160 --> 1:16:46.599 of sturgeon spears on Lake Winnebago. No, I'm kidding. It 1:16:46.640 --> 1:16:49.600 did seem like that though. Um. Yeah, and the and 1:16:49.600 --> 1:16:53.200 the Floyd family helped us out a whole bunch. And Uh, 1:16:53.439 --> 1:16:55.519 Jake is like the he's sort of the captain of 1:16:55.600 --> 1:16:58.640 their sturgeon spearing team, and he does a lot of 1:16:58.680 --> 1:17:02.760 the scouting, which I'll get into what that looks like, 1:17:03.280 --> 1:17:05.880 and he helps everybody get set up. Everybody else pretty 1:17:05.920 --> 1:17:09.680 much rolls in besides Buddy Brian. Bryan also is hardcore, 1:17:10.080 --> 1:17:12.000 but pretty much everybody else. I think we had seven 1:17:12.120 --> 1:17:14.519 or eight total shacks. Everybody else just rolls in for 1:17:14.800 --> 1:17:17.599 cut in day, which I'll explain a second, and then 1:17:17.760 --> 1:17:20.639 they fish for the season and then they're done. Jake's 1:17:20.640 --> 1:17:23.880 out there not year round, but once the ice comes 1:17:23.920 --> 1:17:27.799 he's thinking about surgeon, getting ready for for sturgeon spearing. 1:17:27.840 --> 1:17:31.600 Everybody just draws off his teeth. Yes, for sure. And 1:17:31.640 --> 1:17:34.719 he's very happy to be helping everybody out. He really 1:17:34.760 --> 1:17:37.559 carries that like he feels a lot of pride in 1:17:37.680 --> 1:17:41.960 anybody spearing Sturgeon from because he's put so much time 1:17:41.960 --> 1:17:45.639 and effort into it, and he feels a lot of pressure. Uh, 1:17:45.760 --> 1:17:48.160 Like the first day, he's like, as soon as someone 1:17:48.280 --> 1:17:51.240 just sees one and we can say yes, we're like 1:17:51.360 --> 1:17:54.160 we've chosen. Well, we're in a good spot. Somebody saw 1:17:54.240 --> 1:17:59.679 a surgeon. Pressure, he can relax a little bit. Um. 1:17:59.800 --> 1:18:02.200 So uh, yeah, we hook up with him. So prior 1:18:02.240 --> 1:18:06.479 to us sucking up with him, his scouting um and miles. 1:18:06.640 --> 1:18:08.519 You can tell Phil if we get if I get 1:18:08.520 --> 1:18:10.599 to too many details here, we're gonna cut this out. 1:18:11.000 --> 1:18:12.280 But a lot of a lot of people do this. 1:18:12.479 --> 1:18:16.719 They go out and they look, you're protecting his trade secrets. 1:18:17.720 --> 1:18:20.000 We there are certain things we can talk about and 1:18:20.040 --> 1:18:23.120 a few just a couple of things their trade secretar 1:18:23.160 --> 1:18:25.960 trade secrets. Yeah, so I think I think you got 1:18:25.960 --> 1:18:29.200 to start this. I'm sorry I interrupted. Yeah. Well, the 1:18:29.800 --> 1:18:32.559 first thing that they figure out is is it a 1:18:32.640 --> 1:18:36.080 shed or shad year? Yeah or not? Or not? Yeah? 1:18:36.360 --> 1:18:39.240 And well, there's a fish in there called the gizzard chad, 1:18:40.400 --> 1:18:44.320 which is a non native correct and it's at the 1:18:44.360 --> 1:18:47.599 northern end of its limits. So on a warm year 1:18:48.520 --> 1:18:51.320 they come up in there and they spawn and they 1:18:51.479 --> 1:18:57.040 do real well. Um, and they die off every year 1:18:57.120 --> 1:18:59.120 because the water just gets too cold for him right 1:18:59.200 --> 1:19:02.000 to get this massive shad die off a lot of years. 1:19:02.000 --> 1:19:04.360 If it's just too cold altogether, they just don't show 1:19:04.439 --> 1:19:06.960 up in that in that lake at all. Right, So 1:19:07.000 --> 1:19:10.120 if it is a shad year, all these shad um 1:19:10.439 --> 1:19:11.880 it tripped me up at first. I was like, well, 1:19:11.920 --> 1:19:13.560 hold on, how does a bottom feeder all of a 1:19:13.560 --> 1:19:16.600 sudden start eating on shad. Well, he's still eating on 1:19:16.640 --> 1:19:20.920 the bottom because he's just eating dead ones. So yeah, 1:19:21.080 --> 1:19:26.000 he never chased you never hear it Like we used 1:19:26.040 --> 1:19:28.880 to see those big shad die offs where I grew up, 1:19:29.280 --> 1:19:31.759 and all kinds of fish would get on the bottom 1:19:31.800 --> 1:19:35.280 and eat those things, catfish and all stuff. So if 1:19:35.320 --> 1:19:37.840 it isn't, if it is a shad here, then he's 1:19:37.880 --> 1:19:40.720 got his orbits endorsed guide head doing me a lot 1:19:40.800 --> 1:19:45.280 of good today. It's supposed to be doing me good 1:19:45.360 --> 1:19:52.320 if you're an endorsed guy. Um, So if it is 1:19:52.439 --> 1:19:56.519 a shad here they find the big beds shad and 1:19:57.000 --> 1:20:00.840 they're basically gonna spear over these shad beds because you 1:20:00.840 --> 1:20:03.880 can get a lot more protein out of a shad um. 1:20:03.920 --> 1:20:06.879 It probably takes I don't know, a hundred red worms, 1:20:07.280 --> 1:20:12.600 and a red worm is basically a chronomid larva, so 1:20:13.560 --> 1:20:16.240 I don't know. Maybe the biggest one was an inch long, 1:20:16.520 --> 1:20:21.400 maybe maybe half an inch more likely. And uh so 1:20:22.000 --> 1:20:23.880 this year it was not a shad year. So you 1:20:23.880 --> 1:20:26.960 gotta go out and find worm beds. Okay, worm beds 1:20:27.000 --> 1:20:29.920 are there there year after year, but like the the 1:20:30.000 --> 1:20:34.200 nucleus of the worm bed could change by fifty yards 1:20:34.200 --> 1:20:38.720 two hundred yards maybe fifty ft looking for density density exactly, 1:20:38.760 --> 1:20:42.000 so they got these. Jake had his own homemade contraption 1:20:42.320 --> 1:20:46.040 which basically looked like a coffee can wormometer with U 1:20:46.520 --> 1:20:51.200 with closing flaps at the bottom and uh, drill hole, 1:20:52.400 --> 1:20:55.200 drill two holes. You can you need a second hole later, 1:20:55.840 --> 1:20:59.400 drop your can down there and it's on a change. 1:20:59.520 --> 1:21:01.080 You can kind of hand the bottom with it just 1:21:01.120 --> 1:21:02.519 a little bit, and then on like the third or 1:21:02.520 --> 1:21:05.639 fourth pound, drop it in there and the old flaps 1:21:05.640 --> 1:21:09.679 are open and then you pull up the secondary chain 1:21:09.840 --> 1:21:13.560 which closes the flaps, and you basically have taken a 1:21:13.600 --> 1:21:19.120 substrate sample. This is great, man three. So what's an 1:21:19.200 --> 1:21:24.559 example of something you can't tell me? This is high level? 1:21:24.600 --> 1:21:26.439 This is like high test fishing. Yeah, but there's a 1:21:26.439 --> 1:21:28.960 lot of guys doing this, not a lot, but I 1:21:28.960 --> 1:21:30.840 think we asked and he thinks that maybe like ten 1:21:30.960 --> 1:21:34.080 ten of the surgeon spears are doing worms. And then 1:21:34.080 --> 1:21:37.160 he knows even more stuff you can't tell Yeah, and 1:21:37.360 --> 1:21:41.599 give me like like tell me pig latin. You gotta think, 1:21:41.720 --> 1:21:45.280 you gotta just think that this right here is a 1:21:45.360 --> 1:21:47.240 level that a lot of people would be like, yeah, 1:21:47.320 --> 1:21:48.760 I know of it. I don't want to deal with it, 1:21:49.560 --> 1:21:51.519 but it makes me curious about what is the thing 1:21:51.560 --> 1:21:56.040 he's doing? Absolutely pe in the hole? Did he take anything? 1:21:56.400 --> 1:22:01.280 Like yeah, yeah, we filmed so yeah, but like was 1:22:01.320 --> 1:22:04.439 the mud just crawling with those worms. We didn't actually 1:22:04.479 --> 1:22:08.520 get the film because he'd done all this this scouting beforehand, 1:22:08.640 --> 1:22:10.240 so when we filmed it, it was it was sort 1:22:10.280 --> 1:22:14.200 of like after the fact. We didn't get We didn't 1:22:14.400 --> 1:22:17.479 prove around until we got a real dense Yeah, but 1:22:17.520 --> 1:22:21.240 he'll basically run a grid pattern and then may and 1:22:21.280 --> 1:22:23.640 then draw it down on a piece of paper and 1:22:23.680 --> 1:22:27.160 then start writing numbers of per sample, you know, three worms, 1:22:27.560 --> 1:22:30.479 five worms, six worms, three worms, and then all of 1:22:30.479 --> 1:22:32.400 a sudden it gets to tent. I can't remember what 1:22:32.439 --> 1:22:35.679 his threshold of good was, but I think eight or more. 1:22:36.280 --> 1:22:38.559 And so then he'll go out from that point and 1:22:38.600 --> 1:22:41.840 sort of triangulate and be like, okay, right here, there 1:22:41.880 --> 1:22:44.559 are in these five holes around it, there are more 1:22:44.600 --> 1:22:48.320 worms per scoop than everything around it, So this must 1:22:48.360 --> 1:22:52.360 be the where the money shot is. That's pretty interesting. Yeah, 1:22:53.080 --> 1:22:57.120 it's like gold prospecting. Yeah for sure. Now other guys 1:22:57.200 --> 1:23:01.439 also will go out and and just literally sit in 1:23:01.479 --> 1:23:06.160 a shock watching a camera over a weren't better not 1:23:06.360 --> 1:23:10.479 waiting for a scusgeon scouting to go trail like running 1:23:10.479 --> 1:23:12.880 a trail camp. Yeah, but you can't. There's no like 1:23:12.960 --> 1:23:15.360 trail camp for under water, So you just sit there 1:23:16.760 --> 1:23:22.120 trail camera. Yeah. Um, And they like get onto one, 1:23:22.160 --> 1:23:25.559 like he's here, this is a zone. Well, I think again, 1:23:25.600 --> 1:23:29.160 you're looking for like consistency. No, you're not looking for 1:23:29.240 --> 1:23:32.000 one particular st an area. They like, yeah, you're like, okay, 1:23:32.120 --> 1:23:34.320 I was in this zone and I saw three today 1:23:34.400 --> 1:23:38.040 because this is a big gass lake, huge and the 1:23:38.080 --> 1:23:41.280 density of sturgeon is not very high. There's one surgeon 1:23:41.280 --> 1:23:45.080 for every four acres of lake. Yeah yeah, so let 1:23:45.120 --> 1:23:47.360 me just like put that into perspective when you're you're hoping, 1:23:48.160 --> 1:23:52.800 just put it a quarter sturgeon for acre. It was 1:23:52.840 --> 1:24:00.479 a very weird way. They're big fish or quarter one. Um. No, ship, 1:24:00.640 --> 1:24:04.400 this is great. It was very interesting, very interesting television program, 1:24:04.439 --> 1:24:16.360 I hope so so yeah, Jake had the spot picked out. 1:24:16.360 --> 1:24:18.840 Am I missing anything else? Oide of scouting? Not that 1:24:18.880 --> 1:24:21.800 we can talk about. God Man, would I like to 1:24:21.800 --> 1:24:28.599 know the secrets? Just teasing that out there? Yeah yeah, um, 1:24:28.640 --> 1:24:29.960 but he I think I think one of the things 1:24:30.000 --> 1:24:31.800 to mention is that it's not like he just goes 1:24:31.800 --> 1:24:34.360 out and samples once to go I'm good. He'll go 1:24:34.439 --> 1:24:38.760 out day after day before work and keep checking, like 1:24:38.880 --> 1:24:40.559 is his worm bed still here? Is this still the 1:24:40.600 --> 1:24:43.000 center for months? As long as he's got good ice 1:24:43.439 --> 1:24:45.439 up until opener. I'm gonna go out on a limb 1:24:45.720 --> 1:24:47.720 and he goes out in the dark man to do this, 1:24:47.800 --> 1:24:49.439 But I'm gonna go on a limb and suggest that 1:24:49.479 --> 1:24:55.360 this man is not a skier. This man does not ski, 1:24:55.760 --> 1:24:59.839 not in fun to act. This is a true outdoors 1:25:00.400 --> 1:25:02.920 he is a he is a I don't know what 1:25:03.000 --> 1:25:06.880 you call a guy that that runs a um sugar shack, 1:25:08.479 --> 1:25:12.439 a tapper, a tapper, tapper sapper. You can just throw 1:25:12.479 --> 1:25:16.000 it into the foraging bucket though, you know, Okay, so 1:25:16.080 --> 1:25:18.360 here you are, you got your worms down there, you 1:25:18.400 --> 1:25:22.759 know you're on the worms. Yeah, so you're not allowed 1:25:22.800 --> 1:25:29.120 to put a dark house spearing shanty. Now, these shanties 1:25:29.160 --> 1:25:33.479 are specifically built just for spearing sturgeon. You do not, 1:25:33.760 --> 1:25:35.960 I mean, I guess you could, but it sounded like 1:25:36.360 --> 1:25:38.639 these shanties are out for the two week sperience season 1:25:38.760 --> 1:25:41.400 and then they're back in your yard for the rest 1:25:41.439 --> 1:25:44.680 of the year by law. Yeah. Well again you could 1:25:44.760 --> 1:25:47.000 use you could go out there and jill holes and 1:25:47.040 --> 1:25:49.040 just ice fish through it. But I don't know why 1:25:49.080 --> 1:25:53.840 people must use different for that reason. But these are 1:25:53.960 --> 1:25:57.920 set up there, man, I forget the dimensions. He's got 1:25:58.960 --> 1:26:06.120 probably uh ten by six, twelve by six. I know 1:26:06.240 --> 1:26:08.120 that it was six wide. Yeah, I think I think 1:26:08.840 --> 1:26:11.640 they were all exactly same. It was right around there. 1:26:11.760 --> 1:26:14.599 They came in different shapes and they get into painting 1:26:14.640 --> 1:26:19.160 them you know, the classic one is um finishing like 1:26:19.240 --> 1:26:25.120 a in a sheet metal right riveted corners and then 1:26:25.160 --> 1:26:28.920 like a pretty plain two or three ft like spray 1:26:29.000 --> 1:26:33.120 painted or plasma cut sturgeon. And it's got to have 1:26:33.160 --> 1:26:36.559 your name and address on it. You know. There's what 1:26:36.640 --> 1:26:39.360 we saw one that looked like a Green Bay Packers helmet. 1:26:39.840 --> 1:26:43.960 We saw one that was painted as uh Pink Floyd 1:26:44.040 --> 1:26:51.920 Dark side of the Moon, so people get into it, 1:26:52.520 --> 1:26:56.040 uh that the Money's on. I feel like Money kind 1:26:56.040 --> 1:26:59.200 of ruined that album. I don't know if i'd say 1:26:59.360 --> 1:27:01.720 I go back for it. It was the radio hit 1:27:03.760 --> 1:27:07.120 um so that you can only put them out there 1:27:07.160 --> 1:27:09.080 the day before and the day before it is called 1:27:09.160 --> 1:27:11.920 cutting day because you're gonna cut in a giant hole 1:27:12.000 --> 1:27:14.720 in the ice. So we roll out there. Jake's like, 1:27:14.880 --> 1:27:18.679 I'm putting my shack right here on the money spot. 1:27:19.000 --> 1:27:23.080 You guys all make a horse shoe around me, and yeah, 1:27:23.720 --> 1:27:26.240 and I forget exactly what that was for. Maybe just 1:27:26.280 --> 1:27:29.240 the Wi Man, maybe luck, but how much maybe the 1:27:29.240 --> 1:27:32.000 way the worm bed was running. I can't remember how 1:27:32.080 --> 1:27:36.400 much of a between shacks. Yeah, what's you're spacing like? 1:27:36.640 --> 1:27:43.400 Probably fifty feet? Okay, you're not jumping, No, no, you 1:27:43.479 --> 1:27:45.640 got I mean there, you're not right on top of 1:27:45.680 --> 1:27:48.640 each other. Yeah, if someone if something happens in a 1:27:48.720 --> 1:27:51.600 nearby shack, you can hear him yelling. Could you have 1:27:51.800 --> 1:27:56.680 jumped down, swam over and popped up. That would be 1:27:56.760 --> 1:27:59.599 a great trick, would be a good way to get 1:27:59.680 --> 1:28:06.200 jab the spirit? Yeah, oh my goodness and die. Oh 1:28:06.479 --> 1:28:11.120 so yeah, we um cut in day. We all pull 1:28:11.160 --> 1:28:14.479 out there. That's not a legal thing though, Yeah, yeah, yeah, 1:28:14.479 --> 1:28:16.400 you can't. You can't cut in and set out till 1:28:16.400 --> 1:28:20.000 the day before. So everybody's out there on cutting day, everybody. 1:28:20.040 --> 1:28:24.720 But after the season it's okay. You said that you 1:28:24.720 --> 1:28:26.880 can hang out in your shanty after the season. You 1:28:26.920 --> 1:28:30.679 can't cut your big holes. You can't have spearing holes 1:28:31.320 --> 1:28:34.960 after the season or before. Oh okay, okay, I cut 1:28:35.000 --> 1:28:37.800 the day before the season opens is what we call 1:28:37.880 --> 1:28:40.679 cutting day. You can you can start setting up for spearing, 1:28:40.720 --> 1:28:44.599 but you can have a bole four season one season ends. 1:28:45.360 --> 1:28:48.720 I'm with you now, I understand. Um. Yeah. So it's 1:28:48.720 --> 1:28:51.960 like a mad flooded people and Jake to protect his spot. 1:28:52.400 --> 1:28:56.880 We actually didn't go out until late afternoon because people 1:28:56.920 --> 1:29:00.639 know what he looks like. Drives. He scouts. He knows 1:29:00.880 --> 1:29:04.040 they know this group, and he doesn't want He believes 1:29:04.040 --> 1:29:07.200 that the surgeon do react a little bit to activity, 1:29:07.360 --> 1:29:10.680 especially a lot of truck activity. Um. And so he 1:29:10.720 --> 1:29:13.720 wanted he liked a spot that was quiet. Like we 1:29:13.720 --> 1:29:15.680 only had a couple of other shanties outside of our 1:29:15.680 --> 1:29:19.080 group that were like within a couple hundred yards of us. 1:29:19.200 --> 1:29:24.080 There's plenty that were four or five yards away. Um. 1:29:24.120 --> 1:29:26.120 But he wanted a quiet spot. And so we waited 1:29:26.200 --> 1:29:28.599 until pretty late in the day to go and do 1:29:28.800 --> 1:29:31.800 the cut in. So we all these shanties are on 1:29:32.080 --> 1:29:38.519 um uh, their sleds basically runners. The ones we had 1:29:38.720 --> 1:29:43.360 weren't on runners. They were actually he had full suspension. 1:29:43.439 --> 1:29:45.280 But you have them on runners, you have them on wheels, 1:29:45.320 --> 1:29:47.559 you have on a full suspension. They're all people are 1:29:47.600 --> 1:29:51.080 dragging him out there in any way they can anyway 1:29:51.080 --> 1:29:52.720 they can get them out there, if you can move 1:29:52.760 --> 1:29:56.400 a shed or shanty or shack. And and a huge 1:29:56.520 --> 1:30:00.400 variance between the really really nice ones that are you know, 1:30:00.439 --> 1:30:02.920 hooked up on tongues and have a full suspension and 1:30:02.960 --> 1:30:05.080 the other ones that looked like someone just took their 1:30:05.080 --> 1:30:08.280 plastic gardenship and there's a guy low playing that actually 1:30:08.320 --> 1:30:12.800 makes the frame and the trailer that everybody builds their 1:30:12.840 --> 1:30:15.400 custom shacks on. And it's set up in such a 1:30:15.400 --> 1:30:18.640 way that you basically unhook a couple um pins and 1:30:18.680 --> 1:30:21.519 the tongue lifts up and that lets the shock fall 1:30:21.600 --> 1:30:25.760 down onto the ice um. So yeah, you kind of 1:30:25.840 --> 1:30:29.360 you mark your spot and where you want it and 1:30:29.520 --> 1:30:33.160 uh then he bust out of chainsaw and uh cut 1:30:33.200 --> 1:30:36.599 yourself a like I said, ours was probably the biggest 1:30:36.640 --> 1:30:38.559 hole because he has the biggest hole inside of his 1:30:38.640 --> 1:30:43.640 shanty and it was six by three maybe three and 1:30:43.680 --> 1:30:45.920 a half. You had to be able to jump over it, 1:30:46.160 --> 1:30:49.080 just big enough that when you go to jump over it, 1:30:49.240 --> 1:30:55.679 you're like, pay attention, dude, you don't you know, pass 1:30:55.760 --> 1:30:59.320 me the trail mix. And at the same time, you know, 1:31:00.720 --> 1:31:03.080 like you're like, where's the safety bar to hang onto 1:31:03.200 --> 1:31:08.760 as I cross this chasm? Oh, so you take a 1:31:08.840 --> 1:31:11.160 chainsaw and cut it, and like you said, you cut 1:31:11.240 --> 1:31:14.320 at an angle. It's it's funny because you think it 1:31:14.320 --> 1:31:17.080 would have to be steeper to get that effect that 1:31:17.120 --> 1:31:19.519 you were talking about where you can just see farther 1:31:19.680 --> 1:31:21.400 and there's not an edge of the edge of ice 1:31:21.400 --> 1:31:22.960 that you're looking at. But it wasn't that steep of 1:31:23.000 --> 1:31:26.360 an angle. I mean maybe I don't know fifteen degrees, 1:31:28.800 --> 1:31:33.240 and uh it's spooky because it's spooky for me because 1:31:33.320 --> 1:31:35.680 Jake cut the first two edges. I'm like, Okay, I 1:31:35.720 --> 1:31:39.479 get it. You have to hold the chainsaw opposite handed, 1:31:39.720 --> 1:31:42.080 which will work good for you being a lefty, so 1:31:42.160 --> 1:31:45.120 that you're always keeping your air intake. I don't. I 1:31:45.160 --> 1:31:49.439 don't hold us all that way up top rightow I 1:31:49.520 --> 1:31:52.240 throttle with my right hand. Okay, so it'd be opposite 1:31:52.280 --> 1:31:56.080 for you to but yeah, you hold it. I held 1:31:56.080 --> 1:31:58.720 it opposite so your air in takes up top so 1:31:58.800 --> 1:32:01.880 that and your blades always running bottom, so that because 1:32:01.880 --> 1:32:04.280 you're pushing a lot of water and you keep you 1:32:04.320 --> 1:32:07.519 want to keep your saw dry. Obviously the engine and 1:32:07.680 --> 1:32:11.280 uh so I'm cutting a second too. But to get 1:32:12.240 --> 1:32:14.120 to be able to cut and hold that the saw 1:32:14.200 --> 1:32:17.040 the proper way, I've got to be standing on the 1:32:17.120 --> 1:32:19.760 chunk that I'm cutting out of the ice for my 1:32:19.840 --> 1:32:27.240 last cut from runner. Yeah, and I think we're we're 1:32:27.360 --> 1:32:31.679 working with like eight minimum, I think up to fourteen 1:32:31.760 --> 1:32:34.880 inches of ice right in that zone. They had a 1:32:34.920 --> 1:32:38.360 really crappy year. A lot of people did not just 1:32:38.439 --> 1:32:41.920 add this in right now. Most years they have they 1:32:41.960 --> 1:32:45.120 sell about twelve thousand permits, they have ten thousand spears. 1:32:45.160 --> 1:32:47.320 This year they probably sold twelve tho permits because they 1:32:47.360 --> 1:32:51.840 have to be bought in October um and they only 1:32:51.880 --> 1:32:56.920 had five thousand spears usually five thousand shanties or no, sorry, 1:32:57.280 --> 1:33:01.000 five thousand shanties. Ten thousand spears this year or shanties. 1:33:01.360 --> 1:33:04.800 They figure about two spears per shanty. And it still 1:33:04.840 --> 1:33:07.400 seems like a lot. Yeah, it is, it is, but 1:33:07.560 --> 1:33:10.640 remember it's a huge lake, and that was because it 1:33:10.720 --> 1:33:13.320 was just not good. Yeah, so most people drag out 1:33:13.400 --> 1:33:17.240 with um trucks and the ice just wasn't of truck 1:33:17.360 --> 1:33:21.280 safety thickness, and so a lot of those people would 1:33:21.280 --> 1:33:23.559 either have to get like a TV or a side 1:33:23.640 --> 1:33:25.559 by side or a snowmobile. And if you don't have 1:33:25.640 --> 1:33:27.760 that equipment or your you know buddy doesn't have it, 1:33:27.800 --> 1:33:29.920 you're not gonna get to go out sturgeon fishing in 1:33:29.960 --> 1:33:36.120 the anthropo scene. Man, Yeah, spooky. So this chunk that 1:33:36.120 --> 1:33:39.280 you're cutting out, though, I realized it has enough buoyancy 1:33:39.680 --> 1:33:43.040 that a two pound man can stand on it and 1:33:43.200 --> 1:33:47.000 and cut the last corner and nothing's gonna happen. You're 1:33:47.040 --> 1:33:49.960 not gonna wildly coyote it down to the bottom of 1:33:50.000 --> 1:33:52.600 the lake all of a sudden. Yeah, it kind of 1:33:52.640 --> 1:33:56.160 bobs a little bit, but you're fine. Um. So once 1:33:56.160 --> 1:33:58.680 you kind keep when you got your rod on your 1:33:58.720 --> 1:34:00.840 leg like that, you keep thinking of getting hits. It 1:34:00.880 --> 1:34:03.320 really throws me off. I kind of watch everybody's I'll 1:34:03.320 --> 1:34:10.360 set it down. I'm gonna fish high in the water column. Ah. 1:34:10.600 --> 1:34:16.519 Then you take these giant UM's. Yeah, it's basically what 1:34:16.600 --> 1:34:21.960 twelve foot pole then using a fire they were They 1:34:21.960 --> 1:34:25.120 were actually like firefighting equipment poles. Yeah, with big hooks 1:34:25.120 --> 1:34:28.840 on hooks. It's got a hook and a spike. Oh 1:34:28.920 --> 1:34:35.320 that kind of yeah for poking. Yeah, kind of like holes. 1:34:35.360 --> 1:34:38.920 And so what they do because it's a big, big, 1:34:38.960 --> 1:34:41.320 gass chunk of ice, you can't just tong it and 1:34:41.360 --> 1:34:43.439 lift it out. And if you did, and by the 1:34:43.520 --> 1:34:45.599 end of a two week season, it'd be frozen solid, 1:34:46.000 --> 1:34:48.040 so you'd be caught. You'd be making you sort of 1:34:48.040 --> 1:34:51.200 have two dangers then, right, that's an open hole plus 1:34:51.200 --> 1:34:53.439 a giant chunk of ice that someone can run into 1:34:53.479 --> 1:34:56.519 and have issues with so they do what's called sinking 1:34:56.560 --> 1:34:59.000 the cake. They call that chunk of ice the cake, 1:34:59.080 --> 1:35:02.240 and they sink it. So all two or three guys 1:35:02.240 --> 1:35:05.360 are pushing down on it to get it below ice level, 1:35:05.720 --> 1:35:08.599 and then two guys get from one end and start 1:35:08.680 --> 1:35:11.760 pushing it underneath the ice. And then once that gets going, 1:35:12.080 --> 1:35:13.800 then the guys that we're pushing down all come to 1:35:13.840 --> 1:35:15.720 that end, and everybody pushes as hard as they can 1:35:15.760 --> 1:35:17.479 and try to get that one chunk of ice as 1:35:17.560 --> 1:35:21.000 far away from the whole as possible, just in case 1:35:21.120 --> 1:35:23.400 if you have a sturgeon that's near the surface, you 1:35:23.439 --> 1:35:25.960 don't want him to be coming towards your zone, your 1:35:26.000 --> 1:35:28.720 hole and then see that big chunk of ice and 1:35:28.760 --> 1:35:31.559 then cause him to veer away. I gotta avoid that. Yeah, 1:35:31.600 --> 1:35:33.840 so you're trying to get it away from you. Um, 1:35:34.520 --> 1:35:36.439 then you pull the trailer over the top of the hole, 1:35:37.120 --> 1:35:40.639 drop it down, shovel snow all around the edges again, 1:35:40.720 --> 1:35:42.920 get the light out, and you basically open a big 1:35:42.960 --> 1:35:45.800 hatch in the middle and there you are. So you're 1:35:45.800 --> 1:35:49.639 basically sitting on ap plywood floor that's carpeted real nice, 1:35:50.360 --> 1:35:53.400 and uh, you just got a hole in the ice 1:35:53.600 --> 1:35:55.719 that looks like you're not sitting on any ice because 1:35:55.760 --> 1:35:59.040 of the angle you cut in the ice. Um. Now 1:35:59.160 --> 1:36:06.160 we were bearing in like fifteen sixteen ft of water, 1:36:06.600 --> 1:36:08.600 which on a clear year you can see all the 1:36:08.600 --> 1:36:10.960 way to the bottom. But this year you can only 1:36:11.000 --> 1:36:15.120 see about twelve ft. So bottom feeders are gonna be 1:36:15.120 --> 1:36:16.960 on the bottom. How are you gonna see them in 1:36:17.000 --> 1:36:22.000 that depth? Taters, well start because you gotta be able 1:36:22.040 --> 1:36:24.800 to retrieve them if they If it's if it would 1:36:24.800 --> 1:36:26.880 have been just a little more clear, we all would 1:36:26.880 --> 1:36:33.000 have had down crosses made out of um vinyl uh 1:36:33.200 --> 1:36:36.720 soft material like ten inch soft it. They basically just 1:36:36.760 --> 1:36:39.920 make an X and then drop that thing down in 1:36:39.960 --> 1:36:42.080 the hole that's attached to the string so you can 1:36:42.160 --> 1:36:44.840 later retrieve it. And so you're looking at a X, 1:36:44.880 --> 1:36:47.000 and even if it's kind of murky, if you get 1:36:47.000 --> 1:36:49.439 a big white X down there, it would give you 1:36:49.520 --> 1:36:52.280 some reference. And then if you saw a giant black 1:36:52.320 --> 1:36:54.839 shadow go over it, you would throw at the shadow. 1:36:56.640 --> 1:37:00.280 Too murky for that. So instead we're running can risk 1:37:01.320 --> 1:37:05.599 and the same fish camera that everybody has. You basically 1:37:05.680 --> 1:37:10.920 run down hit on mine. You don't think so well? 1:37:10.960 --> 1:37:17.160 My rod was up and now it's yeah, could have 1:37:17.160 --> 1:37:25.880 been you guys are distracting. Um. So yeah, you run 1:37:25.880 --> 1:37:28.280 a you run a camera basically between your feet, if 1:37:28.280 --> 1:37:29.800 you're sitting in the middle of the hole, you run 1:37:29.800 --> 1:37:33.680 a camera straight between your feet, straight down and then 1:37:33.720 --> 1:37:37.160 it's maybe eighteen inches off the bottom and just pointed 1:37:37.200 --> 1:37:39.519 straight out in front of you. So you're looking at 1:37:39.560 --> 1:37:42.519 depending on the water clarity, you're looking at a cone 1:37:43.080 --> 1:37:46.960 that might be go out to six ft. For us, 1:37:47.000 --> 1:37:48.880 it was so dense that we were figured we were 1:37:48.920 --> 1:37:52.040 looking maybe three to four ft. That's all you could 1:37:52.080 --> 1:37:54.559 see is a cone that went out to three three 1:37:54.600 --> 1:37:56.479 or four ft in front of your camera. And you're 1:37:56.520 --> 1:37:59.559 supposed to spear the fish off of what you're seeing 1:37:59.560 --> 1:38:03.880 on the camera. Very very difficult. So Jake had a 1:38:03.880 --> 1:38:05.880 camera down between his feet, and then between the two 1:38:05.920 --> 1:38:09.120 cameras we had a decoy. They just hung from the ceiling. 1:38:09.439 --> 1:38:12.400 There was no jigging this one. It just was stagnant 1:38:12.439 --> 1:38:18.080 there static not doing anything. Um. Sturgeon decoys were even 1:38:18.120 --> 1:38:21.040 crazier than the pike and the whitefish decoys. We went 1:38:21.200 --> 1:38:27.439 up into a gal's uh attic who's been spearing for 1:38:27.720 --> 1:38:36.320 I don't know, seventy years bowling pins, uh Bart Simpson dolls, 1:38:37.320 --> 1:38:42.799 orange Um, traffic cones, things that did look like fish. 1:38:43.160 --> 1:38:46.600 Calendars were very popular for decades that like when it 1:38:46.640 --> 1:38:48.800 would come up to be during super being station, you 1:38:48.800 --> 1:38:53.320 couldn't find a calendar in any kitchens store, thrift store, nothing. 1:38:53.439 --> 1:38:56.720 Everybody want to drop down a calendar. The latest thing 1:38:56.760 --> 1:38:59.840 that's very popular is the white coffee mug. And then 1:39:00.000 --> 1:39:02.320 gotta choose if you wanted to coffee mug suspended or 1:39:02.320 --> 1:39:06.000 actually sitting in the muck at the bottom. So again, 1:39:06.120 --> 1:39:09.519 people go people go nuts on their decoys. Is doing 1:39:09.520 --> 1:39:12.479 a good job? Is It's like, you know, like in 1:39:12.560 --> 1:39:14.479 theory you're supposed to go on vacation and come back 1:39:14.520 --> 1:39:17.840 all like reinvigorated for work. It's like that's what happened 1:39:17.840 --> 1:39:20.840 to Yanni. Oh for sure, I felt it, just tearing 1:39:20.920 --> 1:39:23.880 it a new one on we haven't been gotten to 1:39:23.920 --> 1:39:28.240 the white fish and with Pat Durkin another I don't 1:39:28.240 --> 1:39:33.200 want to burn it all up right now? Um, so yeah, 1:39:33.240 --> 1:39:38.879 we picked a well we're still on cutting day cameras. 1:39:39.760 --> 1:39:42.200 No you're not. You're on the coffee mugs and whatnot. Yeah, 1:39:42.240 --> 1:39:44.559 well I'm telling you about the decoys they're using. But 1:39:44.640 --> 1:39:49.639 the camera deal. I think most people are just looking 1:39:49.640 --> 1:39:52.879 at their little six inch ten inch screen that's attached 1:39:52.920 --> 1:39:57.640 their camera. Right. Well, Jake's an electrician, pretty handy with 1:39:57.800 --> 1:40:02.639 that sort of ship, so he's got too big screens, yeah, 1:40:02.720 --> 1:40:07.280 two inches. So we're sat We sat across from each other, 1:40:07.640 --> 1:40:10.640 so my screen was directly behind his head and his 1:40:10.680 --> 1:40:12.920 screen was behind my head. So instead of staring kind 1:40:12.920 --> 1:40:15.000 of down at it with your net getting store and 1:40:15.040 --> 1:40:17.479 looking at a tenant screen, you can kind of chat 1:40:17.520 --> 1:40:19.160 with the guy at the same time you're looking on 1:40:19.200 --> 1:40:21.760 the screen behind his head, and they're thinking, man, this 1:40:21.800 --> 1:40:23.880 guy never breaks his gaze when he's talking to me, 1:40:24.800 --> 1:40:29.519 totally um, And that takes place of staring into the hole. Now, 1:40:29.520 --> 1:40:31.120 there is a chance that you could have one comes 1:40:31.160 --> 1:40:34.559 suspended through at ten ft or even six ft, and 1:40:34.520 --> 1:40:37.240 it has happened. We heard plenty of stories where the 1:40:37.280 --> 1:40:39.600 fish came through like his back rubbing the top of 1:40:39.640 --> 1:40:42.920 the ice, and like, you had to take this because 1:40:43.040 --> 1:40:47.280 our spears actually hung off of a they just had 1:40:47.600 --> 1:40:49.840 I think one side. He had an actual hook that 1:40:49.960 --> 1:40:53.120 was just barely it was bent open, so it just 1:40:53.160 --> 1:40:55.000 still had a little bit of a lip to hold 1:40:55.040 --> 1:40:58.479 the islet of the spear. Mine actually was just a 1:41:00.280 --> 1:41:02.360 just like a deck screw that was just at the 1:41:02.439 --> 1:41:04.280 right angle and that little lip of the deck screw 1:41:04.360 --> 1:41:06.920 was enough to hang it onto. Because we also heard 1:41:06.960 --> 1:41:09.559 some stories where people had the giant sitting there looking 1:41:09.560 --> 1:41:12.040 at their decoy and they couldn't get their spear off 1:41:12.080 --> 1:41:15.320 of their hook and then the fish ran swam off. 1:41:15.400 --> 1:41:19.719 You know, so you gotta be ready. It's gonna happen fast. Um. 1:41:19.880 --> 1:41:24.200 So yeah, you're sort of percent of time you're watching 1:41:24.200 --> 1:41:27.080 your screen one percent of time, and short glances you're 1:41:27.120 --> 1:41:29.679 just looking down. It was interesting too, is what Jake 1:41:29.720 --> 1:41:33.640 made clear to tell me about was that don't expect 1:41:33.680 --> 1:41:36.719 to see in this murky water. Don't expect to see 1:41:36.760 --> 1:41:40.599 a six ft sturgeon when he's down there at eight 1:41:40.600 --> 1:41:45.519 ten ft, it's gonna look like a football. But you're 1:41:45.560 --> 1:41:48.400 just seeing like the main part of the mass, and 1:41:48.439 --> 1:41:51.479 you just know that there's you know, there's three ft 1:41:51.479 --> 1:41:53.120 on either side of it or two ft on either 1:41:53.160 --> 1:41:55.160 side of the football. You know, you're just seeing the 1:41:55.160 --> 1:41:57.479 main mass because that's what's coming through. That's what your 1:41:58.000 --> 1:42:03.880 your eye can pick up. Um. So yeah, the heads 1:42:03.880 --> 1:42:11.000 of the spears, the spears are heavy. They they've come 1:42:11.080 --> 1:42:14.840 up with regulations because people were getting a little bit crazy. 1:42:14.920 --> 1:42:19.479 They're like, imagine like ad teen broad head for a turkey, 1:42:19.680 --> 1:42:22.599 which is like two big razor blades, like four intros 1:42:22.640 --> 1:42:25.120 to diameter. But they took that idea and took it 1:42:25.160 --> 1:42:27.240 to sturge and spearings. So they had these like two 1:42:27.280 --> 1:42:33.280 ft cross criss crossed, and so it's just like you're 1:42:33.320 --> 1:42:36.000 covering more service area. When you throw the spear right, 1:42:36.040 --> 1:42:39.000 you have a better chance to get a tie in him. 1:42:39.160 --> 1:42:43.479 Ours were I believe the limit was sixteen or eighteen. 1:42:43.760 --> 1:42:46.880 I think it was. Ours were a couple of inches 1:42:46.880 --> 1:42:49.559 shy of that. We probably had eight times we were 1:42:49.560 --> 1:42:56.880 working with um. The spearhead detaches from the handle, uh, 1:42:57.000 --> 1:42:59.160 so that you can fight the fish, you know, more 1:42:59.200 --> 1:43:00.920 easily because it again, you're not it's not like you 1:43:01.040 --> 1:43:04.320 just speared a five or ten pound pike. You not 1:43:04.439 --> 1:43:07.800 gotta fish that might be fifties sixty upwards, too close 1:43:07.840 --> 1:43:11.679 to two pounds you gotta Yeah, he's attached to a rope, 1:43:11.720 --> 1:43:14.400 So the rope's tied into the shanty. There might have 1:43:14.439 --> 1:43:18.240 been twenty feet of slack line. I think, you know 1:43:18.280 --> 1:43:22.880 between where it's tied off and where the in the spearhead. Um, 1:43:22.920 --> 1:43:26.439 and the times too are serious. They have um oh, 1:43:26.520 --> 1:43:30.920 what's a little toggle called flips out like a barb. Yeah, 1:43:30.920 --> 1:43:38.600 but it's like a harpoon. Yeah, I think it's in 1:43:38.760 --> 1:43:43.439 line and then when there's any back tension, it's out. 1:43:43.600 --> 1:43:46.000 It's out. And we saw a couple of them gets 1:43:46.000 --> 1:43:51.160 speared and it's like literally one time through a minimum 1:43:51.200 --> 1:43:54.040 of four inches of flesh and it's not coming That 1:43:54.080 --> 1:43:56.720 fish ain't coming off of their Plus the sturgeon is 1:43:56.880 --> 1:44:00.479 it's a that skin is like shark skin, so scale it. Yeah, 1:44:00.520 --> 1:44:04.479 it's not coming off of there. Um. So yeah, fast 1:44:04.479 --> 1:44:10.720 forward to opening morning. Uh, you get there maybe six thirty. 1:44:11.080 --> 1:44:13.880 You can't start spear until seven Surgeon spearing goes some 1:44:14.120 --> 1:44:20.800 seven am till one every single day. Everybody's inside a house. Yeah, 1:44:20.840 --> 1:44:23.519 well you can't have your spears inside the house. It 1:44:23.840 --> 1:44:27.080 always open like your your trap doors are open. Your 1:44:27.120 --> 1:44:29.639 spears have to be outside the house until seven am 1:44:29.720 --> 1:44:31.640 and then at one pm the spears had to go 1:44:31.680 --> 1:44:34.799 out while you're closing everything down. Once the hole is closed, 1:44:34.800 --> 1:44:39.000 the spears can come back in. You know. Um, you 1:44:39.120 --> 1:44:41.640 used to be able to spear twenty four hours a day, 1:44:41.880 --> 1:44:44.720 shine a spotlight down in there. Yeah, and they they 1:44:44.840 --> 1:44:48.839 that actually, um proved to be a little too effective. Um. 1:44:48.880 --> 1:44:52.839 They used to have these party tents like forty ft across. 1:44:52.920 --> 1:44:56.240 They would cut giant holes and the whole thing would 1:44:56.240 --> 1:45:01.040 be lined with dudes and spears, just eating, drinking and 1:45:01.080 --> 1:45:03.120 waiting for a sturgeon to come across. I mean a 1:45:03.400 --> 1:45:06.320 thing that you could swim across, you know, and just 1:45:06.600 --> 1:45:09.400 a giant ass tent. And um, they'd run them all 1:45:09.479 --> 1:45:13.479 night long, big big light in there. Ship sounds like 1:45:13.520 --> 1:45:17.960 a good time. Um. But uh yeah, so for me 1:45:18.400 --> 1:45:21.400 opening day, so yeah, basically it's seven, it's like, okay, 1:45:21.560 --> 1:45:25.800 spears in and then start watching the camera. Um. And 1:45:25.840 --> 1:45:30.120 I think it like the group started seeing some around nine. 1:45:30.200 --> 1:45:32.360 We might have had someone missed one at nine, and 1:45:32.400 --> 1:45:38.719 it wasn't long after maybe ten eleven. Am. Um, Jake's 1:45:38.800 --> 1:45:42.840 like he caught a fish on his flasher, so he 1:45:42.880 --> 1:45:44.840 was running a flasher just to be like, maybe it 1:45:44.920 --> 1:45:47.800 might give us a second heads up that a fish 1:45:47.840 --> 1:45:50.720 is coming here. But he's like, um, looks like a 1:45:50.720 --> 1:45:52.960 small fish. Looks like a small fish. And then all 1:45:52.960 --> 1:45:54.800 of a sudden, you know, he sees it on his screen. 1:45:54.840 --> 1:45:56.840 He's like, no, no no, what's there. Surge and Sturgeon like 1:45:56.880 --> 1:45:59.760 get ready, you know. So we all jump up and 1:46:00.640 --> 1:46:02.680 I'm looking at my screen. I can see so in 1:46:02.760 --> 1:46:04.840 my screen, I can see a decoy and then his 1:46:04.880 --> 1:46:07.559 camera behind it, and he's seeing the decoy in my 1:46:07.680 --> 1:46:10.720 camera in his screen, and it looks like the fish 1:46:10.880 --> 1:46:14.240 has come up and is basically angled and right at 1:46:14.280 --> 1:46:17.080 the decoy, and so I see that I kind of 1:46:17.080 --> 1:46:19.760 placed my spear like parallel with the line of the 1:46:19.800 --> 1:46:23.160 decoy going down. I look up again. He's still there. 1:46:23.880 --> 1:46:26.080 And at the same time Jake and I we weren't 1:46:26.120 --> 1:46:28.719 counting or anything. It just happened both of us throw spears, 1:46:29.400 --> 1:46:35.120 and uh, I think that we corralled him because I 1:46:35.200 --> 1:46:37.120 look back up of the screen and I just see 1:46:37.240 --> 1:46:41.799 the tail swimming straight away from I mean, I can't explain. 1:46:41.840 --> 1:46:44.840 It means like the decoy was there. I knew where 1:46:44.840 --> 1:46:46.719 the fish was on the right side of the decoy. 1:46:46.840 --> 1:46:49.960 Both of us had spears on the right side, and 1:46:50.160 --> 1:46:53.200 it was either that. We also heard stories that, um, 1:46:53.240 --> 1:46:58.800 their head is so bony and you can deflate, so 1:46:58.800 --> 1:47:01.960 there's a chance we could have reflected the head, especially 1:47:02.000 --> 1:47:04.000 because he was right out of decoy, because I probably 1:47:04.080 --> 1:47:07.559 wasn't the heads eighteen inches long, and so I might 1:47:07.560 --> 1:47:10.719 have not been back far enough. But do you remember 1:47:10.760 --> 1:47:14.879 when remember in Guyana and we had that big catfish, 1:47:14.920 --> 1:47:17.880 that big banana catfish, and I cocked back with my 1:47:17.920 --> 1:47:20.880 bow and a fish arrow on there h and shot 1:47:20.920 --> 1:47:23.840 and everybody, oh, you missed, you missed, too missed. But 1:47:24.720 --> 1:47:28.200 it ricocheted off his head. A fish arrow out of 1:47:28.240 --> 1:47:33.200 a bow, no water, You aim for the head, not aim. 1:47:34.200 --> 1:47:36.840 I held it up to his head. I don't remember 1:47:36.920 --> 1:47:40.840 that a fish arrow, right, So there you go. It 1:47:40.880 --> 1:47:45.400 could happen, yea. And probably what five minutes after that, 1:47:46.000 --> 1:47:49.200 we had one swim under our shack and did a 1:47:49.280 --> 1:47:54.000 similar moment. And it's it's difficult to describe how hard 1:47:54.040 --> 1:47:56.920 it is to triangulate your position because I didn't have 1:47:56.960 --> 1:47:58.599 the big screen TVs. We just had a little ten 1:47:58.600 --> 1:48:01.920 inch Markham's. And I'm looking down at that going okay, 1:48:02.439 --> 1:48:06.080 that's what the screen says, there's the decoy should be here, 1:48:06.680 --> 1:48:09.120 and just hucking that thing and praying, and I thought 1:48:09.800 --> 1:48:12.240 I thought I nailed that first one. I was so 1:48:12.320 --> 1:48:14.799 excited because there was a bunch of tention on that line, 1:48:15.479 --> 1:48:17.320 and it was coming up kind of wiggling back and forth, 1:48:17.400 --> 1:48:19.160 like oh I got him, I got him, Bran, I 1:48:19.200 --> 1:48:21.960 got him. And what I had done was drilled three 1:48:22.000 --> 1:48:26.519 times through that soft it and it was just buried 1:48:26.520 --> 1:48:30.040 in that muck and started coming up and like I'm like, 1:48:30.080 --> 1:48:38.160 oh man, I got him. No, not even close. You 1:48:38.160 --> 1:48:43.960 can get one dislike him at home depot. It took 1:48:44.000 --> 1:48:46.360 me a good half an hour to dig those barbs 1:48:46.360 --> 1:48:48.160 out of that freaking soft it. Like I had to 1:48:48.200 --> 1:48:50.240 take the whole thing out of the shack and it 1:48:50.360 --> 1:48:54.599 took forever. So out of your out of your party. Yep. 1:48:54.800 --> 1:48:58.599 What was the hall too? Which is really really good 1:48:58.920 --> 1:49:02.840 because that weekend and I think that not weekend three days. 1:49:02.920 --> 1:49:06.360 We finished Saturday, Sunday, Monday speared and I think the 1:49:06.360 --> 1:49:11.439 whole leg produced around a hundred right, Yeah, I'd have 1:49:11.479 --> 1:49:13.600 to go back and look, I've been reading the reports 1:49:13.680 --> 1:49:15.559 as they come out daily through the whole season, so 1:49:15.680 --> 1:49:17.880 my my memories muddy to be, but I'm pretty sure 1:49:17.920 --> 1:49:20.880 it's right around a hundred and three days and that's 1:49:21.479 --> 1:49:26.559 five thousand spears and we got to fish. I think 1:49:26.600 --> 1:49:30.200 the Jake's homework pays off and we missed I mean 1:49:30.240 --> 1:49:34.280 I missed two. Yeah, you guys, we definitely had We 1:49:34.360 --> 1:49:38.000 definitely had some other opportunities in the group. Having not 1:49:38.080 --> 1:49:39.920 been there, I'm sitting there being like I would have 1:49:39.960 --> 1:49:49.200 gotten them all here somewhere. Something didn't imagine how good 1:49:49.240 --> 1:49:52.280 you would have done something. Something to mention is that 1:49:52.320 --> 1:49:56.200 the camera use is pretty controversial because of what we're explaining. 1:49:56.280 --> 1:50:01.600 Right you're basically chucking it into the darkness hoping to 1:50:01.640 --> 1:50:04.360 get a time in there. You don't know sometimes you 1:50:04.400 --> 1:50:07.040 know what's happening down there if you're hurting them at all. 1:50:07.720 --> 1:50:11.559 The DNR has surveyed the public like two or three 1:50:11.560 --> 1:50:14.880 times about it, and it's every time it's been a 1:50:15.000 --> 1:50:18.599 third are cool with it, a third don't give a ship, 1:50:19.080 --> 1:50:22.559 and a third, uh, don't aren't into it. So they're like, 1:50:23.240 --> 1:50:26.360 until right now, it's like kind of a social problem 1:50:26.400 --> 1:50:29.160 because there's just people sort of you know, fighting about 1:50:29.160 --> 1:50:30.880 whether they should be using or not. He's like, until 1:50:30.920 --> 1:50:34.559 it becomes a biological problem and it becomes too efficient, 1:50:35.000 --> 1:50:37.720 Like it's not our problem, what's your personal take on it? 1:50:37.800 --> 1:50:42.880 Can here you are king of the king of the universe. Um, 1:50:42.960 --> 1:50:46.920 even with the cameraman. It is hard. Yeah, so I'm 1:50:46.920 --> 1:50:50.400 gonna I'm gonna let it roll. Um. He spreads people 1:50:50.400 --> 1:50:53.200 out too, because listen, there were there's like the other 1:50:53.240 --> 1:50:57.000 side of the lake because of currents um and you know, 1:50:57.080 --> 1:50:59.599 less allergy bloom or whatever. There was plenty of people 1:50:59.640 --> 1:51:02.320 that we talk to that speared surgeon in eight feet 1:51:02.360 --> 1:51:04.160 of super clear water and they could see the bottom. 1:51:04.360 --> 1:51:06.680 So you could choose to go and do that. But 1:51:07.320 --> 1:51:09.840 Jake's series like, yeah, that's fine, you're gonna see the fish. 1:51:09.880 --> 1:51:12.360 But over there, I think that there's ten percent of 1:51:12.360 --> 1:51:16.120 the fish over there then where we were fishing more water. Yes, 1:51:16.439 --> 1:51:19.280 now it spreads people out. Did you bring me a 1:51:19.400 --> 1:51:24.120 container of the caviar? Yes, how we haven't handed it 1:51:24.160 --> 1:51:26.880 over to me. Oh you, I didn't bring you a 1:51:26.920 --> 1:51:30.920 personal little uh steve container. I brought home one court 1:51:31.120 --> 1:51:34.080 and it is in the office refrigerator, and Miles and 1:51:34.160 --> 1:51:37.040 I are planning on having basically an office little parties 1:51:37.280 --> 1:51:40.360 everybody can get in. There's so much that if you 1:51:40.400 --> 1:51:41.880 want to take some of home, you will be able 1:51:41.920 --> 1:51:46.800 to hou. We'll have some crackers. Yeah, you want to 1:51:46.880 --> 1:51:50.559 keep it simple. Are you got you got your ivory spoons? No, oh, 1:51:50.600 --> 1:51:52.760 I used to have a caviar spoon, man, when I 1:51:52.840 --> 1:51:54.960 was working on my first book. I had occasion when 1:51:54.960 --> 1:51:56.160 I was working on my first book to get a 1:51:56.200 --> 1:51:59.080 caviar spoon. But we want to be we had so 1:51:59.160 --> 1:52:01.080 much whitefish can vy are like great, like you know 1:52:01.120 --> 1:52:04.680 lake whitefish caviar. We're eating it on cool ranchedritos. I 1:52:04.680 --> 1:52:06.280 mean we couldn't get through it all. Man. It was 1:52:06.320 --> 1:52:09.080 a weird like salsa. Yeah, it was just like like 1:52:09.120 --> 1:52:12.000 a too many eggs. Man. Did you you make your 1:52:12.360 --> 1:52:16.120 your tasting spoon out of you know, something highly illegal? No, 1:52:16.320 --> 1:52:19.040 I didn't do that. I wish I would. Um, I 1:52:19.040 --> 1:52:21.439 can't remember how. But as part of the book, I 1:52:21.439 --> 1:52:23.960 can't remember why. But I did order a couple of 1:52:24.000 --> 1:52:28.040 caviar spoons. Not legal ones though, like you know, like 1:52:28.520 --> 1:52:33.559 abalone shell, ivory, mother of pearl and stuff. Yeah. Did 1:52:33.560 --> 1:52:35.320 you get robbed over there? Your bait get robbed? You? 1:52:35.600 --> 1:52:38.000 I still got half of it. I'm gonna let it roll. Yeah, 1:52:38.360 --> 1:52:39.800 it was a lot more to it, man, But you, 1:52:39.960 --> 1:52:43.559 like I said, phenomenal bit of hole like great job, 1:52:44.720 --> 1:52:51.000 good interesting day. Yeah, there's anything we need to wrap 1:52:51.040 --> 1:52:53.360 it up on. I mean we could the cultural part 1:52:53.520 --> 1:52:55.080 was awesome. Yeah, we do. You need to throw a 1:52:55.080 --> 1:52:58.640 shout out to Mary Lucia talking about the big you know, 1:52:58.800 --> 1:53:03.519 she's the decoy car. Remember the rhythmics kind of the videos. 1:53:03.800 --> 1:53:06.519 I don't remember the video well, like yeah, like Anie 1:53:06.600 --> 1:53:08.840 Lennox would be doing everything, but then that dude wold 1:53:08.800 --> 1:53:12.599 always be in the background. I feel like that's Miles, 1:53:12.640 --> 1:53:15.320 Like Yanni's like any Lennox and Miles is like that 1:53:15.400 --> 1:53:17.360 dude in the rhythmics. It was always being like in 1:53:17.360 --> 1:53:20.719 the background. Oh, I was listening to Train in Vain 1:53:21.000 --> 1:53:24.479 the other day. Is that season closed based on quota 1:53:24.600 --> 1:53:26.840 or just a date? Does it just stay open? And 1:53:27.760 --> 1:53:30.080 if you're looking at when does the Sturgeon season end, 1:53:30.760 --> 1:53:32.800 it ends in one of two ways. Okay, let me 1:53:32.880 --> 1:53:39.320 hit that. Uh, how so the season is two weeks? Yeah, 1:53:39.560 --> 1:53:42.880 let's say conditions are perfect and just people are just 1:53:43.000 --> 1:53:49.719 killing him NonStop. Is that a possibility? Yes, it does happen. Again, 1:53:49.760 --> 1:53:51.840 I can't remember the exact numbers, but I think we 1:53:51.960 --> 1:53:55.439 heard of seasons that were closed in four or five days. Oh, 1:53:55.640 --> 1:53:58.240 That's what I'm trying to ask. So they so the 1:53:58.280 --> 1:54:02.720 season doesn't necessarily run its course, it has every year 1:54:02.760 --> 1:54:05.080 for the past five years because the water clarity has 1:54:05.120 --> 1:54:07.760 been pretty bad the last five years, but before that 1:54:07.800 --> 1:54:11.120 they had consistent good years and the seasons were closing, 1:54:11.560 --> 1:54:13.240 you know, as soon as DNA would set a quote 1:54:13.280 --> 1:54:16.760 limit saying based on population, it is feasible for us 1:54:16.760 --> 1:54:20.000 to take this many without hurting the spawning. And it's 1:54:20.080 --> 1:54:23.400 male female quotas both, and the female quota is the 1:54:23.439 --> 1:54:25.920 one they're really looking at. When so many females are speared, 1:54:26.160 --> 1:54:30.080 it's over got you, got you. But the last four 1:54:30.160 --> 1:54:33.720 years it's run its course two weeks, sixteen days, sixteen 1:54:33.800 --> 1:54:36.400 days a sixteen day season. Yeah, yeah, I guess that 1:54:36.480 --> 1:54:40.480 makes it three weekends probably. So when you uh, they 1:54:40.520 --> 1:54:43.040 have way in and checking stations all over the lake, 1:54:43.680 --> 1:54:46.800 not on the lake, but these uh bars, they call 1:54:46.840 --> 1:54:51.720 them supper clubs. Um. We went to Jim and Linda's 1:54:52.040 --> 1:54:56.320 and right out there in Pipe, Wisconsin, and uh crowd 1:54:56.400 --> 1:54:59.440 gathers there every day right around one pm, because usually 1:54:59.440 --> 1:55:01.600 people wait all about one if they have a fish 1:55:01.640 --> 1:55:04.920 to go and go and check it in, and uh 1:55:05.160 --> 1:55:07.680 there's a pretty big crowd gathered there. You weigh it 1:55:07.800 --> 1:55:11.680 and then the dnr um cuts it open. Check see 1:55:11.680 --> 1:55:15.000 if it's a male or a female. They then scan it. 1:55:15.040 --> 1:55:17.440 They're looking for tags. If it's if the fish is 1:55:17.480 --> 1:55:20.920 tag if they can get some data off of it, um, 1:55:21.040 --> 1:55:23.400 and then that's it. I mean, I think they you 1:55:23.680 --> 1:55:28.040 give them some of your personal information and uh, you're 1:55:28.200 --> 1:55:30.440 ready to go, and it's It was fascinating to me 1:55:30.640 --> 1:55:35.080 because sturgeon spawn and I think it's generally a six 1:55:35.160 --> 1:55:39.000 year cycle. Okay, so a female will take six years, 1:55:39.000 --> 1:55:43.240 males are shorter. Female takes six years in between spawning runs. 1:55:43.440 --> 1:55:46.480 And they'll run up river to do that UM. But 1:55:46.720 --> 1:55:49.240 they'll they'll cut it open and just by looking at 1:55:49.320 --> 1:55:52.000 the color texture the eggs, they'll call it an F one, 1:55:52.120 --> 1:55:54.320 F two, F three, F four all the way up 1:55:54.320 --> 1:55:57.840 to six, depending on how developed those eggs are. And 1:55:57.840 --> 1:56:01.000 the F six everybody wants, right, those are the really 1:56:01.040 --> 1:56:04.800 really that's the best caviar um. But they had one 1:56:04.920 --> 1:56:06.760 fish that they had tagged. It was like one of 1:56:06.800 --> 1:56:08.840 the biggest ones. They were tagged up river when she 1:56:08.880 --> 1:56:11.640 had spawned and she was she she came in at 1:56:11.640 --> 1:56:14.840 like two pounds or something, and then the next year 1:56:14.880 --> 1:56:18.680 she got speared and she had shed like sixty pounds weight. 1:56:19.520 --> 1:56:22.720 Same fish same link, just between those cycles of spawning, 1:56:23.000 --> 1:56:25.080 how long it takes for those eggs developing, how much 1:56:25.120 --> 1:56:28.440 mass they have. Are most of these guys, I get 1:56:28.440 --> 1:56:30.840 the caviar by most of these guys, they're grilling it, 1:56:31.040 --> 1:56:35.480 frying it, cubing it up, and putting cocktail sauce on it. Man, 1:56:35.520 --> 1:56:37.680 I feel like a lot of people did not respect 1:56:37.680 --> 1:56:39.200 the meat of that fish enough. We heard a lot 1:56:39.200 --> 1:56:42.280 of people saying, oh, it's not very good. I thought 1:56:42.280 --> 1:56:45.080 it was fantastic. Everywhere we it's it's a fish that 1:56:45.160 --> 1:56:49.480 they love as much commerce conservation that's been done around it. 1:56:49.560 --> 1:56:52.440 They loved, kind of hate it because it's not like 1:56:52.520 --> 1:56:54.640 when you look at it, it's not the most appealing 1:56:54.680 --> 1:56:58.160 looking thing. It's kind of covered in a slimy mud. 1:56:58.600 --> 1:57:00.080 You know. The first thing everybody says, you guys, do 1:57:00.160 --> 1:57:02.040 sin as you get at home is pressure wash it, 1:57:02.200 --> 1:57:07.720 you know, before you start you know, fileting it or whatever. Um. 1:57:07.840 --> 1:57:10.880 So that was a little bit interesting because we didn't 1:57:10.880 --> 1:57:12.920 really find anybody that was like, oh, I can't wait 1:57:12.960 --> 1:57:14.880 to put some you know, hopefully I'll get some free 1:57:15.000 --> 1:57:18.400 from sturgeon meat from my freezer. But it was sturgeon meat, 1:57:18.480 --> 1:57:21.400 and I mean habitat destruction. But it was like commercial 1:57:21.640 --> 1:57:25.840 harvested knocked them down so bad. Yeah, but that was 1:57:25.840 --> 1:57:31.080 about all about the eggs there after. Yeah, Now we 1:57:31.160 --> 1:57:36.960 did get lucky and went over to our friend Chester 1:57:37.440 --> 1:57:43.440 and Ike and Fenton Floyd's parents house, and there they 1:57:43.560 --> 1:57:45.760 invited us over for dinner. And we said, you know, 1:57:45.920 --> 1:57:49.680 dinner sounds great, and since I could spired a sturgeon, 1:57:49.680 --> 1:57:52.200 it would be awesome if we could try some sturgeon. 1:57:52.240 --> 1:57:55.360 We really want to try some sturgeon meat. And um, 1:57:55.400 --> 1:57:57.240 a few a few people have said, oh, you guys 1:57:57.240 --> 1:57:59.480 are going over the Floyd's for dinner, lucky you you know, 1:58:00.720 --> 1:58:04.200 is it Peggy? Peggy real good cook? You know we're 1:58:04.200 --> 1:58:07.120 taking okay, well, you know yeah, typical Midwest mom, you know, 1:58:07.120 --> 1:58:08.840 don't probably throw it out and be some good cooking. 1:58:09.160 --> 1:58:12.440 Well we roll in there and she's prepared six courses 1:58:12.960 --> 1:58:14.880 that would go toe to toe with any of the 1:58:14.920 --> 1:58:19.160 six courses that I could prepare, like just solid. She 1:58:19.240 --> 1:58:24.160 had smoked some and then turned it into a dip. 1:58:25.080 --> 1:58:27.720 She had I don't know what she did with the meat, 1:58:27.760 --> 1:58:32.240 probably posted or something and turned some into fish cakes. Um. 1:58:32.400 --> 1:58:35.920 She did her plain fried piece over a little salad 1:58:35.960 --> 1:58:46.640 with a little vinaigrette. It was just like her name. Um, 1:58:46.680 --> 1:58:51.160 she's happily married. Um. But she did that one specifically, 1:58:51.240 --> 1:58:53.080 She's said. As for me, I just I don't know. 1:58:53.400 --> 1:58:58.480 She might be wondering. She did specifically so that, you, um, 1:58:58.640 --> 1:59:00.920 so that we could just taste the flesh. You know, 1:59:01.200 --> 1:59:03.800 it wasn't covered up with sauces in this, that and 1:59:03.880 --> 1:59:05.800 anything else. You know, I'm really gonna taste for it. 1:59:06.400 --> 1:59:10.680 Um what else was there? Oh, I gotta make curvefish 1:59:10.720 --> 1:59:12.720 curry more. You know, we've had it a couple of 1:59:12.720 --> 1:59:14.400 times over the years, and for some reason, I just 1:59:14.440 --> 1:59:17.520 don't do it at home. But she made fish curry, 1:59:17.720 --> 1:59:21.960 serve it over rice, real plain and simple and just awesome. 1:59:22.160 --> 1:59:28.000 So and then a a sturgeon schnitzel really with asparagus 1:59:28.040 --> 1:59:33.640 and hollandaise, Oh, buddies, like a double red carpet gold 1:59:33.720 --> 1:59:37.240 line man. Incredible And every one of those preparations. That 1:59:37.320 --> 1:59:42.360 fish was really very Uh you know, Steaky's go down 1:59:42.400 --> 1:59:45.800 to that supper club place and through a little sampler 1:59:45.880 --> 1:59:49.080 so people stop being dumbasses about their sturgeon meat. Well, 1:59:49.080 --> 1:59:51.200 I mean it's one of those things. And we talked 1:59:51.200 --> 1:59:53.440 about this all the time, right, It's how you take 1:59:53.480 --> 1:59:55.560 care of your game, is what it's gonna taste like. 1:59:55.600 --> 1:59:58.160 And a lot of the tradition there is you get 1:59:58.160 --> 2:00:00.800 your fish and you paraded her round the ice to 2:00:00.840 --> 2:00:04.440 every bar, like, look what I got. Yeah, it's cold out. 2:00:05.360 --> 2:00:10.040 It's probably still not the best way to handle your fish. Yeah, 2:00:10.120 --> 2:00:12.440 but when you get some beautiful blue fin tune, I 2:00:12.480 --> 2:00:15.880 doubt they No, they tend to probably get it on. 2:00:16.640 --> 2:00:18.960 Do you want to get that thing iced up real 2:00:19.080 --> 2:00:23.880 quick and away from the guts? Uh quick story she 2:00:23.960 --> 2:00:27.640 didn't turn into hot dish or cast role. That's the 2:00:27.680 --> 2:00:30.240 next day. I gotta I know a guy that, uh 2:00:30.280 --> 2:00:35.280 you know they're close relative the paddlefish. Um, I know guy, 2:00:35.280 --> 2:00:37.640 it caught a paddlefish and he was it was a 2:00:37.680 --> 2:00:41.800 giant and he wanted to get it officially weighed, and 2:00:41.840 --> 2:00:45.120 he wrapped it up in a uh what he gotta 2:00:45.160 --> 2:00:47.240 sleep He was camping, so you gotta sleep bag, dunked 2:00:47.280 --> 2:00:51.000 in the river, wrapped the paddlefish up. I heard this 2:00:51.080 --> 2:00:54.000 through the tax nevers. Tax nevers telling me a guy, 2:00:55.680 --> 2:00:57.560 a guy caught a paddlefish, wrapped it up in a 2:00:57.600 --> 2:01:01.560 wet sleeping bag. Drives to the hour to him because 2:01:01.560 --> 2:01:03.680 he wants it mounted, but he doesn't need the body, 2:01:04.760 --> 2:01:07.080 and he's gonna wait on it. But the textures doesn't 2:01:07.080 --> 2:01:10.040 need the body because they just use a fire glass form. 2:01:10.080 --> 2:01:14.600 He takes that paddlefish down to the river and the 2:01:14.720 --> 2:01:17.640 same river that came out of it takes down the river. 2:01:17.720 --> 2:01:21.480 Let's go on. It swims off, no ship. That's awesome 2:01:21.680 --> 2:01:25.440 driving around, driving around a guy's trucking a wet sleeping bad. 2:01:27.160 --> 2:01:29.520 I met you, the surgeon. Even with a couple of 2:01:29.520 --> 2:01:32.960 spear holes in their tail, they could probably go to 2:01:33.000 --> 2:01:37.240 a couple of bars and hang on a fish pole, 2:01:37.360 --> 2:01:39.800 for it's basically like a big buck pole. But they 2:01:39.800 --> 2:01:42.840 haven't met these bars for the surgeon and hang out 2:01:42.840 --> 2:01:44.960 there for a few hours, and he could probably release 2:01:45.000 --> 2:01:48.080 those things and they probably swim off too. I'm not 2:01:48.120 --> 2:01:51.320 saying that. I'm not saying it to contradict your observation. 2:01:51.400 --> 2:01:52.840 You have to take it care of it because, like JT. 2:01:53.000 --> 2:01:55.760 Van's aunt says, man, when you catch a fish and 2:01:56.120 --> 2:02:00.080 you treat it right towards the meal, you're sort of 2:02:00.160 --> 2:02:05.120 like setting there's like a spiritual quality to it. Yeah, 2:02:05.400 --> 2:02:08.120 you're setting a thing into motion, you know, that you 2:02:08.640 --> 2:02:11.920 haven't touched the fish. You gill it, you wash it. 2:02:11.920 --> 2:02:15.400 It's like you're you're, you're you're putting it on a path, 2:02:16.960 --> 2:02:20.640 a path of respect. Yeah, and you're you're conceiving of 2:02:20.680 --> 2:02:23.880 that fish as food from the get go, not just 2:02:24.440 --> 2:02:25.680 something to be proud of it and show off to 2:02:25.720 --> 2:02:28.680 your buddies while you get drunk. Which nothing. No, I'm 2:02:28.680 --> 2:02:30.520 not dogging that practice in any way. I've done that 2:02:30.520 --> 2:02:32.920 many many times. But with these fish, to me, it 2:02:33.000 --> 2:02:36.000 seemed like the culture, and who knows, will change, but 2:02:36.040 --> 2:02:39.160 the culture really was more about being excited about the 2:02:39.240 --> 2:02:44.760 catch more than being excited about the consumption. And I 2:02:44.800 --> 2:02:46.720 was skeptical. I mean, I don't know where you were, Yohnnie, 2:02:46.760 --> 2:02:49.840 but I've heard so many people were like, you can't 2:02:49.840 --> 2:02:59.480 eat them. I mean, we do talk about Biggin's. Everybody 2:02:59.520 --> 2:03:03.400 else got had any rods in their hands? Miles, Yeah, great. 2:03:03.440 --> 2:03:05.160 I know we didn't cover all of the fur head 2:03:05.200 --> 2:03:07.520 Ice tour adventures will be more in the future. You 2:03:07.560 --> 2:03:09.840 brought me some caviart will not necessarily me, but you 2:03:09.840 --> 2:03:14.360 brought some caviart that I'm gonna be able to partake of. Um. 2:03:14.360 --> 2:03:16.600 Good to have you back. Sure, you'll miss more of 2:03:16.640 --> 2:03:23.320 our shows. Thanks everybody. That song you were singing earlier, 2:03:24.360 --> 2:03:30.720 changes that saw a dog run by change uh fill 2:03:30.760 --> 2:03:33.440 the engineer. I assuming you enjoyed yourself. You didn't really 2:03:33.440 --> 2:03:35.600 say much. I'm just soaking it in. I don't have 2:03:35.760 --> 2:03:37.560 much to add, but I don't want to try some 2:03:37.600 --> 2:03:40.120 sturgeon though. Good job Phil, Thanks way to bring her 2:03:40.160 --> 2:04:01.400 home all right, Thanks everybody, see him se