Speaker 1: Oh man, that's a lot of large amount sandwiches for
Speaker 1: the bag lunches. You know what I'm saying. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I just caught a freaking carp. I just caught a
Speaker 1: cart I'm gonna give you about four to six years,
Speaker 1: and you're gonna have some severe gastro intestinal distress. You're
Speaker 1: gonna have some big issues. I know. I laughed, like
Speaker 1: George McFly. That's fine, man, laugh with me, laugh at me.
Speaker 1: All that matters to me is that you're laughing and
Speaker 1: having a good time while you are listening to the
Speaker 1: Bent podcast. Good morning, degenerate anglers, and welcome to Bent,
Speaker 1: the fishing podcast that has finally decided who will be
Speaker 1: it's full time co host, it's new wingman in piscatorial debauchery,
Speaker 1: and a person I can make do stuff I don't
Speaker 1: feel like doing. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Hayden Samic
Speaker 1: as our new co host. You got the job. You
Speaker 1: got the job, buddy, dude. I am so so happy
Speaker 1: to be doing this. And you know, I've maintained since
Speaker 1: day one that this is my favorite Mediator Network podcast,
Speaker 1: and I really genuinely mean that, and like, as a
Speaker 1: fan of this podcast. I hope that I could bring
Speaker 1: to the table the kind of stuff that I would
Speaker 1: like to hear and and I know you will, like
Speaker 1: you know you've been you've been sort of like this
Speaker 1: this like you know, floating guests. But now, dude, you
Speaker 1: you own this too. And we've already talked about some
Speaker 1: ideas to bring to the table in the future that
Speaker 1: I'm super pumped about. And if I apologize if I
Speaker 1: sound less enthusiastic, but like I'm fighting a cold. I
Speaker 1: told you, don't ever have a kid, don't ever put
Speaker 1: them in daycare. You will be sick for months. But
Speaker 1: I I am. I am really pump man. I've been
Speaker 1: I've been dying to analysis. I've sort of known it
Speaker 1: for a little while. And I would also like to
Speaker 1: to remind everyone that early on right, I told listeners
Speaker 1: that I was I mean, I was listening right and
Speaker 1: to please weigh in on who they thought should grab
Speaker 1: the co host chair, and nobody got more votes than
Speaker 1: you did. Man. Like, ever since our Halloween show, I've been,
Speaker 1: oh man, I've been overwhelmed with notes and d M
Speaker 1: saying like we've really been enjoying Hayden and he should
Speaker 1: be the guy, and I couldn't agree more. Um, you've
Speaker 1: you've definitely resonated with with the degenerates. Uh and from
Speaker 1: the start, what Yeah, what mattered most to me was
Speaker 1: how much fun you've been having doing this, Like that's important,
Speaker 1: Like you gotta you gotta be having a great time.
Speaker 1: And you've truly embraced it, nailed everything I've thrown at
Speaker 1: you past every test, and um, I know we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a blast. I'm really pumped. And I also I
Speaker 1: do want to say I cannot thank everyone who guest
Speaker 1: co hosted over the last month and a half enough. Right,
Speaker 1: it's a fair amount of work. It's a bit of
Speaker 1: a grind, but everybody, all my my buddies stepped up. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's been good times. But I'm really excited to
Speaker 1: get back to having like a full time partner in crime,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And Joe, I'm excited to be that
Speaker 1: partner in crime man. You know, I hope I do
Speaker 1: right by all degenerate anglers the world over. And I
Speaker 1: just want to say again I'm super excited. Gonna have
Speaker 1: a blast. Yeah, man, and you will. So let's let's
Speaker 1: do this. Let's let's publicly air out what you are
Speaker 1: bent benefits package includes because I've already arranged for you
Speaker 1: to get some some gear from our wonderful sponsors thirteen Fishing.
Speaker 1: I know you want an ice stuff, right, so perhaps
Speaker 1: you'll even get a selection of ice lores such as
Speaker 1: the Bernie. Have you seen that. It's like the it's
Speaker 1: the little stone fly imitation and I know it's for ice,
Speaker 1: but I could do nasty ship with that on a
Speaker 1: fly rod. You could one crush fish with that on
Speaker 1: a fly rod. Like I have a soft spot for
Speaker 1: small soft plastics, like in general, because I just kind
Speaker 1: of like catching like pan fish off the dock and stuff.
Speaker 1: And there is nothing better than a little jighead one
Speaker 1: of those, and like some four pound tests man, you
Speaker 1: can crush croppy all day long. Um, I think I'm
Speaker 1: gonna order a handful of those and actually try them
Speaker 1: out on one of our local rivers out here in Bozeman,
Speaker 1: because I I do believe that you really could crush
Speaker 1: with those on a fly rod. Well, I already I
Speaker 1: already know from certain sources who will go on named
Speaker 1: that you can crush on your rivers with a trout magnet,
Speaker 1: So I know you'll be able to crush with this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well have you? I also like those uh what are they?
Speaker 1: The bamff soft plastics? Dude, those things just look so
Speaker 1: darn buggy. Yes, yes, those and the coconut crab. Will
Speaker 1: will arrange all that because I know you you mess
Speaker 1: some things up in the rivers and on the hard
Speaker 1: water out there. This year. Also, right as the new
Speaker 1: co host, you get to contribute to the Bent Spotify playlist,
Speaker 1: which hasn't come up in a while, but it's following
Speaker 1: continues to grow. So what a great opportunity to remind
Speaker 1: you guys that it exists. It's got like eighteen hours
Speaker 1: of tunes for degenerates on it, handpicked by me and
Speaker 1: Miles Malty, a few of our guests and now Hayden,
Speaker 1: and I gotta say, man, I I strongly admire your selections.
Speaker 1: It's a bit unexpected, so it's like an unexpected vibe,
Speaker 1: but it's a good vibe, right yeah, man Um, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be interested to see what our listeners think about
Speaker 1: these selections. You know, I don't personally, I don't think
Speaker 1: they're like that out there or anything, but I guess
Speaker 1: a lot of them have like sort of like a
Speaker 1: different flavor. Like the playlist is a little schizophrenic in
Speaker 1: my opinion, but that's just me. That's actually the perfect way,
Speaker 1: that way to put it. But I think that's a
Speaker 1: good thing. It's totally schizophrenic. It's all over the place, um,
Speaker 1: and I think that's what makes it so great, Like
Speaker 1: you just don't know what's coming up next when you're
Speaker 1: you're you're, you're running on you know, shuffle with that one. Um.
Speaker 1: But let's see, So what did you add? So Hayden
Speaker 1: added cal Girl in the Sand by Neil Young and
Speaker 1: Crazy Horse right, no issues with that Sunday Morning by
Speaker 1: the Velvet Underground, who I also happened to be a
Speaker 1: big fan of Finger by Thy Siegel, and I didn't
Speaker 1: it's great tune. I didn't know that. I didn't know
Speaker 1: that artist. I didn't know that guy. Uh yeah. And
Speaker 1: then two tracks from Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds,
Speaker 1: which is badass and prompted me to then at another
Speaker 1: Nick Cave track, um, that being Red right Hand, because
Speaker 1: that is the song that is playing when Jim Carrey
Speaker 1: loses his wallet in the Porno Newspaper machine while carrying
Speaker 1: the beer and pin wheels and wearing the giant cowboy
Speaker 1: hat in Dumb and Dumber. So that's playing like just
Speaker 1: before he gets robbed by the swede old lady on
Speaker 1: the motorized card and bam, Nick Cave hit the big
Speaker 1: time right there man with that scene right there? Um,
Speaker 1: so one more edition? Is you right? So when when
Speaker 1: we did your first news segment, I said we were
Speaker 1: we were kindred spirits because we both grew up playing music.
Speaker 1: And uh, sadly nothing I ever did is on is
Speaker 1: on Spotify, which it's probably a good thing, um, But
Speaker 1: but you are okay. You you went by dead Fellow
Speaker 1: right and you wrote and produced everything right, um. And
Speaker 1: the song we put on the playlist is is Machine,
Speaker 1: and I gotta say it. It's awesome, dude. I love it.
Speaker 1: It's got a very dark ib that's great. And I
Speaker 1: know musicians hate when people compare their music to other ships,
Speaker 1: so I won't. I won't let people form their own correlations.
Speaker 1: But it's really good, um. And you have far more
Speaker 1: talent than any band that that I ever played in
Speaker 1: no it is. I mean I played chugg a chuggle
Speaker 1: punk music and then like you know, screaming stuff in
Speaker 1: uh in college. And I also point out that this
Speaker 1: was my idea. Hayden, you did not, like want a
Speaker 1: plug for your music here. I was the one that insisted, so, like,
Speaker 1: you're not vain. I was like, no, no no, no, we
Speaker 1: have to put this in there. Um. And you also
Speaker 1: told me that that song ended up in a movie
Speaker 1: starring Shila Buff. What is that about? I mean I
Speaker 1: loved him in holes, you know, well this was a
Speaker 1: departure from his roll in holes. Um. First, I need
Speaker 1: to I need I need to qualify a few things here.
Speaker 1: For one, Uh, you mentioned that nothing you ever did
Speaker 1: is on Spotify, but but my stuff is. It is
Speaker 1: very easy to get on Spotify. You just pay a
Speaker 1: distributor like forty bucks and boom, it's there forever. So
Speaker 1: it's it's not it's not like people think that it's like, wow,
Speaker 1: you're on Spotify. It's like, oh, it's pretty easy. Um.
Speaker 1: So this movie starring shy La Buff was a film
Speaker 1: called The Tax Collector and it was so bad. I
Speaker 1: didn't even watch the whole thing. And my song was
Speaker 1: in it. And this is a direct quote. Variety described
Speaker 1: it as about as much fun as having your face
Speaker 1: dragged across asphalt from a moving suv. It got a
Speaker 1: ninetent on Rotten Tomatoes. Shy was dominated for a Razzi
Speaker 1: Award for the Worst Supporting Actor as a result of
Speaker 1: this effort. So yeah, it wasn't the big break I
Speaker 1: was hoping for, but it was indeed in uh In
Speaker 1: in a movie, so that was pretty darn cool. I
Speaker 1: feel like now I have to watch it. I have
Speaker 1: to look up the tax Collector and oh Man anyway,
Speaker 1: so you guys can find the link to the Bend
Speaker 1: Spotify playlist in my Instagram. Buyo. Perhaps Hayden will link
Speaker 1: that now too, um So, And then we're gonna move
Speaker 1: on to one more thing we have to do to
Speaker 1: make you official, um and that is have you be
Speaker 1: the victim of an awkward moment in angling. Right before
Speaker 1: you're allowed to make fun of other people's horrid fishing photos,
Speaker 1: you have to get trashed. I did it, Miles did it,
Speaker 1: and now you're up. So let's haze. But this is
Speaker 1: a bit of an unconventional awkward moment in angling because
Speaker 1: it's not totally a phishing photo. But I think it
Speaker 1: may be one of the most interesting shots that we've
Speaker 1: ever had. Like looking at it, you have to know
Speaker 1: the story you're dying to know the story the second
Speaker 1: you look at photo. Yeah, I could see how it
Speaker 1: would peak one's interest. So here's what we got. Here's
Speaker 1: why I'll pique your interest. This is a photo of
Speaker 1: a photo, or to be more specific, it's a photo
Speaker 1: of a flyer tacked up outside the front door of
Speaker 1: a little live music joint in Philadelphia was called Connie's
Speaker 1: Rick Rack. Now, I was not familiar with this place
Speaker 1: until Hayden brought this up. Um, for anyone that just
Speaker 1: happens to be, you know, fluent in the Philly music scene.
Speaker 1: I used to play at the Kill Time and Club HP,
Speaker 1: which stood for Club Higher Power back in the day.
Speaker 1: Uh and and that meant they were a straight edge
Speaker 1: establishment that we didn't know that and gotten all kinds
Speaker 1: of trouble for drinking in the parking like we were
Speaker 1: those guys like Higher Power. Oh I get it, hide
Speaker 1: that beer anyway. On this flyer, there are three head shots,
Speaker 1: all of Hayden. The top looks as though it was
Speaker 1: taken at a formal event, like a graduation, perhaps because
Speaker 1: just you always see a little bit, but it looks
Speaker 1: like you're like there's a dress shirt collar in the
Speaker 1: shot like you're spiffed up. Yeah, that was at my
Speaker 1: That was at my buddy Marvin's wedding. There, there you go,
Speaker 1: Marvin's wedding graduation. So we got we got that one.
Speaker 1: The next one is you in a wool hat looking
Speaker 1: like a scruffy musician, and there's there's nothing too odd here,
Speaker 1: but like, was your hair highlighted? Do I detect some
Speaker 1: sun in in those flowing locks in that shot? Another
Speaker 1: stute observation. I had recently had my hair super long,
Speaker 1: and I forget what the genesis was, but it got
Speaker 1: bleached all white. Um, I don't really have an excuse
Speaker 1: for it, and what you're seeing is the remnant of
Speaker 1: it growing out after I had cut it off. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not making as much fun of you
Speaker 1: as you think I would be, because I dyed my
Speaker 1: hair blonde in high school and like early college years,
Speaker 1: when I was still wearing like the sweatshirt with the
Speaker 1: study it was that was there you go, there you go? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right? But then right moving on the last photo
Speaker 1: chosen for this trifecta is you with extra long hair
Speaker 1: winging out from under yet another wool hat. There's water
Speaker 1: behind you, and you're biting a fly rod and you're
Speaker 1: doing the the frowned upon rod bite, which we've talked
Speaker 1: about many times here on bench. So where was this taken?
Speaker 1: So that was taken on the Salmon River, and I'd
Speaker 1: like to say that this was in the days before
Speaker 1: that had like become a kind of meme. Um. I
Speaker 1: genuinely didn't have any where to I was waist deep
Speaker 1: in the Salmon River. My buddy was taking the photo.
Speaker 1: I had no place to hold that fishing rod, and
Speaker 1: I was holding a big old steel head. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I figured there was a fish in the shot, but
Speaker 1: we don't see that. It is just souper resumed in teeth,
Speaker 1: hair and cork. Oh yeah, this is not This is
Speaker 1: not a photo meant to identify a fish. This is
Speaker 1: a photo, as we're going to learn. Right, So now
Speaker 1: we understand the three photos on the flyer outside the door.
Speaker 1: But here's what the flyer says, right, And this is
Speaker 1: all written crudely with a sharpie at the top in
Speaker 1: huge letters. It reads, this dude is all caps banned
Speaker 1: for life from Connie's rick rack. Under that, it says,
Speaker 1: meaning colon, he's not allowed in the building, Ever and
Speaker 1: ever is underlined. So what the actual hell is going
Speaker 1: on here? Okay? So you know it was, this was
Speaker 1: back in my musician days, and I would like to
Speaker 1: say that I did nothing wrong. What what had happened?
Speaker 1: This isn't like I got like too drunk at a bar.
Speaker 1: This isn't like I started a fight. What had happened was,
Speaker 1: in the beginning of my musical career, I would hit
Speaker 1: a bunch of open mics, as a lot of songwriters
Speaker 1: are wont to do. Um. It turned out that Connie's
Speaker 1: rick Rack I would hit that on Wednesday night. So
Speaker 1: my thing was I would go to Linckety Split on Tuesday's,
Speaker 1: Connie's rick Rack on Wednesday's Wooly Mammoth on Thursdays. Then
Speaker 1: I play shows Friday Saturday, and I take Sunday Monday off. Well,
Speaker 1: I was at Connie's rick Rack every Wednesday night and
Speaker 1: there was a bartender there named Carla. Now Carla was
Speaker 1: about my age, and a lot of the folks in
Speaker 1: like that particular songwriters scene, we're kind of older. So
Speaker 1: in between like me going up and playing my like
Speaker 1: three songs that week, I'd hang out the bar and
Speaker 1: I talked to Carla. Now, I didn't have this person's
Speaker 1: phone number, I didn't have their Instagram. I wasn't friends
Speaker 1: with him on Facebook. Just somebody that I would see
Speaker 1: on Wednesday nights because she happened to, I don't know,
Speaker 1: be pouring the drinks. Yeah. Well, it turns out that
Speaker 1: this was the owner's girlfriend and he thought for some
Speaker 1: reason that I was coming there every week to talk
Speaker 1: with her. Now, I don't know why he didn't put
Speaker 1: it together, like, oh, Wednesday night is open mic night,
Speaker 1: and that is the night that I see this guy.
Speaker 1: So what you're saying is it never dawned on him
Speaker 1: that you were a person up on stage there every Wednesday.
Speaker 1: This guy was not a genius um the So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean one day I showed up there and I
Speaker 1: played a song and I got down and I go
Speaker 1: to the bar and this dude, who had been my
Speaker 1: friend up until that point, just like started like cussing
Speaker 1: me out and you know, told me to leave. And
Speaker 1: so I was like, that's weird, and I left. I
Speaker 1: just figured the dude had had too much to drink. Well,
Speaker 1: he thought that I was like a legitimate threat to
Speaker 1: like whatever he had going on, and uh, banned me
Speaker 1: for life. And actually this poster didn't come into being
Speaker 1: until like two years after the fact, when I had
Speaker 1: messaged this guy and been like, hey, you know, I
Speaker 1: hope you're good. I hope everything's cool. You know, I'd
Speaker 1: really like to come back and uh and play at
Speaker 1: Connie's or like hang out because my friend had been
Speaker 1: having his first show ever there and I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I don't want to sneak into this bar without dude. No,
Speaker 1: he wouldn't go to support you, boy, Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: right right, So I wanted to you know, if the
Speaker 1: guy didn't want me in the bar, I didn't want
Speaker 1: to go there. So I was like, maybe I can
Speaker 1: just bury the hatchet with him and then I'll go.
Speaker 1: And that dude told me to get bent, and uh.
Speaker 1: Then that was the response to the response to the
Speaker 1: make good text was throwing the poster up two years later. Yep,
Speaker 1: oh dude, he's bitter, right, that's so whatever. Yeah, well yeah,
Speaker 1: but I mean so, but under the photos, get back
Speaker 1: to the poster. Under the photos, it says your name,
Speaker 1: it's like Hayden Samic and there's a bunch of stuff
Speaker 1: blacked out. What is blacked out? Can you tell me
Speaker 1: what has been blacked out? Come on, No, it was
Speaker 1: clearly done in photos shop later. What's been blacked out? Um? Anyway,
Speaker 1: at the very bottom of this, there's a quote that reads,
Speaker 1: because I said so dash dud okay, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1: So what what I love about this is I feel
Speaker 1: like they're there are three very different photos and that
Speaker 1: was strategic because they were sort of going to showcase
Speaker 1: all the faces of Hayden. He did, right, So in
Speaker 1: case you walked it looked spiffy, you'd be recognized. Like
Speaker 1: if you came in in a tuxedo, would be like, Bam,
Speaker 1: that's the guy. If you walked in just looking scruffy
Speaker 1: with a guitar case, they know that was you. But
Speaker 1: I don't fully understand the inclusion of the fly rod shot,
Speaker 1: Like was that in case you walked in in Jess waiters,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? And like, where did where
Speaker 1: did dude get all these photos from? Well? He lifted
Speaker 1: them from Facebook, and uh a bunch of folks did
Speaker 1: suggest that I should walk in holding a fly rod
Speaker 1: in my mouth to see if I immediately got booted
Speaker 1: totally totally Like had this been me, damn right, I
Speaker 1: would have walked in there with a fly rod in
Speaker 1: my mouth, just to be an ask, just to prove
Speaker 1: a point. Um, but you said so the place is
Speaker 1: closed now, but the band had never been lifted before
Speaker 1: it was closed. No, no, Ben never ever got lifted.
Speaker 1: And hey man, some people just want to live like that.
Speaker 1: It's up to them. Well, there he go, there he goes.
Speaker 1: So we've got We've got plenty more awkward outs from
Speaker 1: you guys in the pipeline, but we always want more.
Speaker 1: And if you've been banned from the Quickie Marter tackle
Speaker 1: Shop or Golden Crawl and have a makeshift mug shot
Speaker 1: flyer to prove it, please do send it along to
Speaker 1: Bent at the mediator dot com, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: Hayden will now be checking as well. You know, well, Joe,
Speaker 1: I gotta say, I'm pretty glad that that's over. Uh.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll be able to find another awkward moment. Uh.
Speaker 1: We'll take you somewhere in the future. Look, I have
Speaker 1: more too, But all right, it's all about the fans man, Like,
Speaker 1: nobody wants to see more awkward photos of me. So
Speaker 1: I like the fan stuff, But um, I should put
Speaker 1: myself on the chopping block. You're good for a while,
Speaker 1: at least, like you've it's only right that I get
Speaker 1: to that I get to crucify you a little bit
Speaker 1: on one of these awkward moments in the future, I'll
Speaker 1: consider it. But you're you're good for a little while,
Speaker 1: and you've already been cut down once today, So let's
Speaker 1: let's actually see if I can do that again, though
Speaker 1: in a different capacity, in that weekly competition we call
Speaker 1: Fish News Fish Noon. That escalated quickly before we dive in.
Speaker 1: I gotta say thank you for all the b side
Speaker 1: love that I got this week. Right, It's safe to
Speaker 1: say that the vast majority of you enjoyed my ode
Speaker 1: to American Chad. My favorite comment was that shad row
Speaker 1: and eggs is last meal on death row. Good, right,
Speaker 1: And uh, well, well I don't know about that. I
Speaker 1: genuinely liked it, right, I will. I will eat that
Speaker 1: again next spring. I also had a bunch of people
Speaker 1: reach out asking for recommendations on where to go and when,
Speaker 1: which is very cool, Right, I'm always happy to provide that.
Speaker 1: Let's see how much of that I get after today's show. Right.
Speaker 1: Episode two drops at one pm Eastern eleven Mountain on
Speaker 1: Meat Eaters YouTube channel. Um, and I'll tell you right now,
Speaker 1: this was my favorite one. Right We're chasing the the
Speaker 1: very scorned snakehead in Virginia with my buddy Grant office
Speaker 1: uh And I won't spill all the means, but this
Speaker 1: was like the pinnacle of seven years of snake heading
Speaker 1: for me. I won't soon forget this trip. Dude. It
Speaker 1: just looked like you were having again. I was granted
Speaker 1: a sneak peak of of this episode of B Side,
Speaker 1: and man, you just looked like you were having such
Speaker 1: a good time. Grant seems like an awesome dude. The
Speaker 1: fisheries seemed awesome. You know. You could just tell that
Speaker 1: you were truly stoked to be on this trip. He's
Speaker 1: dialed and this is sort of like, you know, in
Speaker 1: a way, growing up with with stock trout and then
Speaker 1: you get your first taste of Montana, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like we were in like what i'd consider mecca,
Speaker 1: the mecca most hardcore and it's site fishing, and I
Speaker 1: love site fishing, you know. Um, really fun one, really fun. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: And not not to spoil anything, but I'll tell you what, man,
Speaker 1: you were not fishing from doss boat. No. No no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no grant uh Now we were not in a tin can.
Speaker 1: We were in quite the fishing machine man, which was
Speaker 1: part of the fun. Ye. Speaking of fun, onto fish
Speaker 1: News For those of you who don't know, fish News
Speaker 1: are weekly segment where Joe and I bring two stories
Speaker 1: to the table and our judge on our journalistic skills
Speaker 1: and story selecting abilities by none other than Filled the Engineer.
Speaker 1: I went first last week, So Joe, this week, you're up.
Speaker 1: I am, I am. I also hope um Phil enjoyed
Speaker 1: my earlier reference to dumb and dummer. He's a huge fan,
Speaker 1: knows it like the bass of his fan anyway. All right,
Speaker 1: so here's here's a live one. We can have some
Speaker 1: fun with this one. Right here, Grab your jitterbugs and
Speaker 1: some meat eater mermaids tried and spice blend. Let's throw
Speaker 1: a couple of large mouth on the barbie. All right.
Speaker 1: This comes from the Tampa Bay Times headline Florida seafood
Speaker 1: markets to offer farm raised large mouth bass. Right now,
Speaker 1: that seems simple and straightforward enough, but it's actually rather controversial.
Speaker 1: But let's let's just talk about bass on the table
Speaker 1: real quick. Right to sort of set this up a
Speaker 1: little bit. Eating large mouth is it's one of those
Speaker 1: weird things, right. I I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: that for most die hard bass anglers, it's it's blasphemy. Right.
Speaker 1: If you're the guy spending thousands on bass tackle, running
Speaker 1: around a glitter boat and so on, you probably don't
Speaker 1: want to hear about eating a large mouth. Um. And
Speaker 1: I think that attitude is somewhat unique to the bass world.
Speaker 1: And by that I mean you can be nuts for
Speaker 1: stripers or catfish or salmon or walleye, spend loads of
Speaker 1: money on boats and tackle, but you're not weirded out
Speaker 1: by somebody eating those things, even if you don't like,
Speaker 1: even if you don't keep all of them, you know
Speaker 1: it might it's it's not uncommon for you to take
Speaker 1: some of your favorite species for the table now and again.
Speaker 1: But this isn't the case for the average bass guy,
Speaker 1: which sort of supports my theory that that bassard just
Speaker 1: put on a pedestal they don't fully deserve to be on.
Speaker 1: And and I say that because what we tend to
Speaker 1: forget is that large mouths are America's fish, because anyone
Speaker 1: from any walk of life can catch them, right A shiner,
Speaker 1: a bobber and a lawn chair will will catch you
Speaker 1: a whole lot of bass. And if you look to
Speaker 1: the South and parts of the Midwest, there are lots
Speaker 1: and lots of people that target large mouths just for food.
Speaker 1: A lot more people eat large mouth than many of
Speaker 1: us realized. In fact, my boy Jared Serenier, who just
Speaker 1: co hosted last week, he and his buds in Louisiana
Speaker 1: regularly drop large mouth filet's in a little red gravy. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's sauce, sauce. Yeah, it's very well. They
Speaker 1: call it gravy down there too. I'm my Italian. I
Speaker 1: say sauce here from p A. What do you know?
Speaker 1: Um So anyway, according to the story, large mouth will
Speaker 1: now be available in Florida's seafood markets thanks to a
Speaker 1: law pass last spring that says any species of fish
Speaker 1: that can be successfully raised in legal aquaculture facilities in
Speaker 1: Florida are fair game to be sold as food, and
Speaker 1: of course, lots of bass are raised in Florida now.
Speaker 1: Per the story, this led sgislation was passed purely for
Speaker 1: economic reasons. It says large amounth bass are valued at
Speaker 1: five dollars and seventy five cents a pound, which is
Speaker 1: an increase since wait wait wait wait wait yeah, wouldn't
Speaker 1: that put him it like thirty cents a pound? And well,
Speaker 1: I I think I think what they're driving at here
Speaker 1: is that in that time span they've become people have
Speaker 1: become more interested in them as a food fish, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Like it's it's a little hazy,
Speaker 1: I'll give you that. It also says D and nine
Speaker 1: five farms that produced bass for food I'm assuming outside
Speaker 1: the state of Florida, right, made seven million dollars on
Speaker 1: bass alone now right in Florida. Large amounth bass is
Speaker 1: a restricted species protected from becoming a commercially harvested commodity.
Speaker 1: Snook and redfish also fall into this category. And while
Speaker 1: we don't have time to give the whole backstory on that,
Speaker 1: suffice it to say that that redfish very well could
Speaker 1: have been wiped out in many parts of this country
Speaker 1: had they not been given these really strict, hardcore protections.
Speaker 1: So right, So what's the big deal if all these
Speaker 1: bass for sale are coming from an aquaculture facility. First,
Speaker 1: it creates more paperwork and headache for the Florida Fish
Speaker 1: and Wildlife Commission because now they have to develop a
Speaker 1: policy to allow for farm raised bass sales. But here's
Speaker 1: what FWC Oxford Commissioner Gary Lester also had to say.
Speaker 1: He says, I don't think we should do this. Yes,
Speaker 1: we do have an aquaculture industry. We have a lot
Speaker 1: of fish and a lot of jobs in it. But
Speaker 1: the largemouth bass has a special iconic place in our
Speaker 1: state and in our economy, right, you know, not to
Speaker 1: feed into a particular narrative that's been you know, uh
Speaker 1: propagated by certain members the bent community. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what, this reminds me a lot of what this
Speaker 1: sounds like a state trying to decide like whether or
Speaker 1: not it should grow pot Like just like looking around
Speaker 1: the other day, it's like, wow, they're kind of getting
Speaker 1: a bunch of money from this. Maybe you're not wrong.
Speaker 1: I see the similarity. Man, you you're you're you're right on. Uh.
Speaker 1: So here's here's the thing, right, FWC, they've expressed two
Speaker 1: main fears. Um, it's also kind of ties into what
Speaker 1: you said now that you've made the comparisons, Like all
Speaker 1: I can see, Um, the FTBC has expressed two main
Speaker 1: fears about the selling of farm raised bass. The first
Speaker 1: is that the wild Florida strain bass is special and
Speaker 1: iconic and an economic driver, and if any of these
Speaker 1: farmed bass ever escaped into the wild, that could compromise
Speaker 1: the genetics of those famous Florida strain bass. The other
Speaker 1: fear is that if the selling of farm bass proved
Speaker 1: super profitable, commercial fishermen will pressure legislators to open up
Speaker 1: harvest of wild bass, which I'm sure they're They're already
Speaker 1: incidentally finding their way into the nets of commercial to
Speaker 1: lopia fisherman and cat fisherman and bream fisherman down in Florida. UM. Now,
Speaker 1: what the story correctly points out is that a fear
Speaker 1: of disrupting the ecosystem with a non native species of
Speaker 1: large mouth is pretty weak, because and I quote, a
Speaker 1: fishing trip to any freshwater body south of Orlando will
Speaker 1: produce armored catfish from South America, Mayan cicklids from Central America,
Speaker 1: oscars from Africa, and snakeheads from Southeast Asia. They have
Speaker 1: already been reports of fifty pound pacus and six ft
Speaker 1: long Arab pima's floating up in the St. Lucy and
Speaker 1: Caloosa Hatchie rivers, respectively, So I tend to agree with that, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's like it's already overrun with invasives, right right. Well,
Speaker 1: And there's kind of an interesting note about this. I
Speaker 1: was listening to the Orvis fly Fishing podcast with with
Speaker 1: Tom and uh Me and Tom are on the First
Speaker 1: Name Basis Now he was interviewing a dude named Steve
Speaker 1: Ramirez who has like an affinity for native fish. He's
Speaker 1: an author from my understanding of it, and in his
Speaker 1: quest for a a certain bass, I forget exactly which
Speaker 1: one it is. I believe it could have been in Texas,
Speaker 1: but the the genetic muddling due to strains of Florida
Speaker 1: large mouths being introduced around the country as part of
Speaker 1: stocking programs actually made his quest for that native fish
Speaker 1: really murky. And in fact, it's almost hard to unpack
Speaker 1: even with like genetic testing because like the yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get into you know, d NA science man,
Speaker 1: because I don't know about it. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: we've talked about some of this with like the mean
Speaker 1: mouth bass and this train is that a spotted bass?
Speaker 1: Is it not? Is that this one? It gets it
Speaker 1: gets very very muddy. But generally speaking, like my interpretation
Speaker 1: UM with this, with this whole story, is that you know,
Speaker 1: all all the reasons why this shouldn't be allowed tied
Speaker 1: to a sort of general consensus that bass should only
Speaker 1: be sport ish and nobody really eats those anyway. Like
Speaker 1: I feel like that's sort of the undercurrent with with
Speaker 1: a lot of the people oppose UM. Now, like I said,
Speaker 1: it is not true that nobody eats them, but I
Speaker 1: would be really curious to see, like how well does
Speaker 1: this sell because all the people I know, and I
Speaker 1: know a bunch that are genuinely excited to chow down
Speaker 1: on bass, they I don't I feel like they're not
Speaker 1: likely to buy it in a store like like bass eaters,
Speaker 1: I think are typically people all about hook it and
Speaker 1: cook it, like it's the whole experience. If they go
Speaker 1: out and catch their bass wherever they're going to catch them,
Speaker 1: to bring them home and cook them. I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: see that translating to, well, they got that over at
Speaker 1: the stopping shop, Now I'll pick up some large mouth.
Speaker 1: I just don't think they go hand in hand. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm intrigued by the idea that selling Larry's for
Speaker 1: food has worked elsewhere. I sort of want to know
Speaker 1: more about that. You know. Yeah, that's like interesting to
Speaker 1: me for like a couple of reasons. One, Um, it's
Speaker 1: weird and it's like a provincial attitude, I guess. But
Speaker 1: large mouth bass to me like don't seem particularly appetizing.
Speaker 1: And that's not because it's a bass. It's because of
Speaker 1: like the kind of connotations that large mouth have. For instance,
Speaker 1: you called them kind of like you know, anybody anywhere
Speaker 1: could catch them. That kind of implies that they live
Speaker 1: and maybe some not so not so clean not so
Speaker 1: have you ever eaten one? I'll get to that in
Speaker 1: a second. One bass that I do like to eat
Speaker 1: a lot, Maybe not a lot a lot, but when
Speaker 1: the opportunity presents itself, such as you know, you gotta
Speaker 1: sanko like Gil hooking. One is small these man, I'll
Speaker 1: eat like small jaws all day. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: the sort of bodies of water that small mouth come from. Typically. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I will tell you I have never eaten a small
Speaker 1: mouth Like that's that's weird to me than large mouth.
Speaker 1: But totally like if I had to pick one or
Speaker 1: the other. Um, small mouth come out of prettier, cleaner,
Speaker 1: colder water. I've had large mouth. Um, I just I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think it tastes like blue gill. Like
Speaker 1: it's just like a bigger piece of blue gill. So
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, I don't I never thought it was outstanding.
Speaker 1: I wasn't like, holy shit, this is out of this world.
Speaker 1: To me, it's just okay. But that's neither here nor there. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm not coming out on anybody. You want to eat
Speaker 1: all the large mouth, that's fine with me. Manure in
Speaker 1: all of them so there's more room for my snakeheads.
Speaker 1: You're gonna get some heat. No, I'm not, because people
Speaker 1: know I'm only kidding. Come on. Yeah. And finally, I
Speaker 1: will say that I am a touch bitter about this
Speaker 1: um because even though I don't think the reasoning that
Speaker 1: f WC has come up with is enough to to
Speaker 1: really stop this, I do applaud them for saying, hey,
Speaker 1: like these are sport fish, their iconic they drive our
Speaker 1: economy as a sport fish. Maybe like we we don't
Speaker 1: really need to make them commercially viable. And and right
Speaker 1: now there's no major threat that I'm aware of to
Speaker 1: Florida large mouth or large mouth in general. But there
Speaker 1: might be. So they're suggesting, like maybe there's something here
Speaker 1: that we should head off at the past just in case,
Speaker 1: which is commendable. But then I look at that and
Speaker 1: I'm like, hell man, Like everyone in the striper community
Speaker 1: up and down the East Coast has been saying the
Speaker 1: same ship for decades. Their iconic they bring in money,
Speaker 1: recreational fishing, boost the economy, and they are in big trouble.
Speaker 1: Yet we won't push to make them a game fish
Speaker 1: like a bunch of states just keep commercially hammering them
Speaker 1: and um, you know, guess what. They can be farm
Speaker 1: raised too. Are the farms? Are they exactly the same
Speaker 1: as wild call stripers? No? But I was like, if
Speaker 1: you're not good enough to go out and catch your own,
Speaker 1: you can eat the farm raised. One problem solved, right,
Speaker 1: So there's there's been There's been so many things over
Speaker 1: the years that I think the rest of this country
Speaker 1: can learn um from how FWC has has managed and
Speaker 1: thought about certain fisheries. There's a lot to learn there. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with that. I think one of the things
Speaker 1: that it just comes down to, honestly, is the size
Speaker 1: of the flat. You know, I think that the reason
Speaker 1: that you see, you know, stripers being commercially targeted still
Speaker 1: is because they have a big, nice filet, and it's
Speaker 1: very easy for fine restaurants to sell stripe bass to
Speaker 1: their consumers. I think you'd sell it, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: you'd have a lot harder at the time, you know,
Speaker 1: picking up bass filets and turning those into something I'm
Speaker 1: not saying I don't understand. I mean, let's call it
Speaker 1: like it is, stripers freaking delicious, Like it is, especially
Speaker 1: a smaller one, right, Like we've talked about that a
Speaker 1: little bit, but like a striper out of the salt,
Speaker 1: it is. It is delicious. So I understand why why
Speaker 1: that's so much more valuable, It has so much more appeal.
Speaker 1: It's just it breaks my heart to to to to
Speaker 1: see you know, FWC like saying, hey, like come on,
Speaker 1: like these are special and iconic and they do their
Speaker 1: own thing. It's like, I wish somebody would would would
Speaker 1: take that attitude and make it matter up here. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of of conservation organs that have been preaching
Speaker 1: that forever, but I mean, you've got to get the
Speaker 1: right people behind that, you know, and it's just it's
Speaker 1: just sort of like, Man, I wish, I wish they
Speaker 1: fought here like they did in Florida for this stuff.
Speaker 1: Sometimes you know, sure do man should do and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, part of it is just looking forward to
Speaker 1: the next to the next generation of anglers. Speaking of
Speaker 1: the next generation of anglers, Dude, I gotta tell you
Speaker 1: this week on fish News, I have a story that
Speaker 1: just makes me happy. Good transition, nice transition on that.
Speaker 1: I like that. Uh, this past Sunday, the fine folks
Speaker 1: at Harbor Docks. That's a restaurant in seafood Market in Deston, Florida.
Speaker 1: Also speaking in Florida, Harbor Docks took some kids fishing.
Speaker 1: And how many kids do they take fishing, Joe, almost
Speaker 1: three hundred. Oh man, that's a lot of large amount
Speaker 1: sandwiches for the bag lunches. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: You might think that, but yeah, no, it's pretty incredible. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: I was gonna just do like a typical fish News
Speaker 1: thing and steal all the good stuff from another article
Speaker 1: I found on the internet. But you know what, Joe,
Speaker 1: today I didn't good. I decided, thank you, man, I
Speaker 1: DECI had to put on my my journalist, tap and
Speaker 1: go to the man himself. Uh, you know now responsible
Speaker 1: for this event, the proprietor of Harbor Docks, Eddie Morgan.
Speaker 1: Good dude, way to get after it. You should you
Speaker 1: should win just for making the phone call. I love it.
Speaker 1: The phone call was easy. Man. Eddie's a super cool dude. Um.
Speaker 1: But to that end, you know, I also did want
Speaker 1: to point out that like Eddie didn't reach out to me.
Speaker 1: Eddie didn't want to make this a big deal. In fact,
Speaker 1: he's surprised that I'd heard about the event at all,
Speaker 1: being that like Harbor Docks like never pursues any media
Speaker 1: attention surrounding this event. And in talking with Eddie, like,
Speaker 1: I really got a feel for you know, this is
Speaker 1: just something born out of like a genuine want to
Speaker 1: better his community. And honestly it was like inspiring. Um,
Speaker 1: I'm glad there are folks like this. Yeah. So anyhow,
Speaker 1: Harbor Docks was founded in ninety nine by Eddie's father,
Speaker 1: Charles Morgan, and right from the jump, Uh, they were
Speaker 1: pretty heavily involved in their community. Um. Again, Charles Morgan,
Speaker 1: Eddie's father, was particularly interested in the recreation opportunities available
Speaker 1: to like the local kids. So one day he decided
Speaker 1: that he wanted to take some kids fishing, a lot
Speaker 1: of kids fishing, and take kids fishing. They did the
Speaker 1: Harbor Docks crew at this point, dude has been doing
Speaker 1: this event for twenty seven years and have now taken
Speaker 1: over seven thousand kids fishing. Damn man like, And this
Speaker 1: has to be kept fairly quiet because this has never
Speaker 1: come across my radar and it seems like something like
Speaker 1: I would have covered at some point in my career.
Speaker 1: So man like, that's that's impressive for not having more
Speaker 1: more juice. Yeah, one local business, one family decided to
Speaker 1: do this and like, that's unbelievable. Now you might be thinking,
Speaker 1: how do they go about taking all these kids fishing?
Speaker 1: Is it Derby style and a Florida bass pond looking
Speaker 1: for large mouth to eat? Later? Do they run out
Speaker 1: to appear. Do they rent two big gas party boats
Speaker 1: or something? Nope. Each year Harbor Docks gets a full
Speaker 1: on fleet of destined charter cap no wayes coordination manh yep,
Speaker 1: And these kids are like they're really fishing. Their ting
Speaker 1: for mackerel, mahi banita, bottom fishing for vermillion and white
Speaker 1: snapper like they're legit fishing. Wow, dude, So they have
Speaker 1: to raise money for this somehow they do, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you can't, this is not cheap, right to put something
Speaker 1: like this together. They do. And I assumed that, like,
Speaker 1: all right, maybe they had like a coalition of captains
Speaker 1: that like, you know, once a year like decides, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're just gonna like eat the cost of gas and
Speaker 1: we're gonna take these kids fishing. And I'm sure like
Speaker 1: that is true on some extent. They do have a
Speaker 1: like group of repeat captains that come out and are
Speaker 1: are volunteering for this all the time. They make some
Speaker 1: phone calls as well to get new captains into the fold.
Speaker 1: But like importantly, they make sure that those charter boats
Speaker 1: are taking care of as well by raising money through
Speaker 1: things like a golf tournament and a silent auction every
Speaker 1: year to get the funds to put gas in the boat.
Speaker 1: And they make sure these guys are right. Wo o, man,
Speaker 1: that is impressive. Yeah, I mean, it's really like an
Speaker 1: amazing thing. And even better is like at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, the kids make their way back to
Speaker 1: the marina for a good old fish fry and they're
Speaker 1: each sent home with their very own rot and reel
Speaker 1: to like keep the spark alive. And I just think
Speaker 1: it's super incredible. Man, that's incredible, dude. Like this is
Speaker 1: one of those things like I hear a story like
Speaker 1: this and I'm like, man, I don't do enough in
Speaker 1: this arena, you know what I'm saying, Like this is
Speaker 1: something that would be be fun to film or or
Speaker 1: be a part of. Um. And you know that's that's
Speaker 1: certainly not to take away anything. I have a lot
Speaker 1: of friends and have donated a lot of stuff to
Speaker 1: kids tournaments all over, but like you said, the vast
Speaker 1: majority of them, um, you know, are small waters the
Speaker 1: stocky pond or whatever it may be. And and that's
Speaker 1: great man, that that's all well and good. I also
Speaker 1: think it's funny as a dad of young kids, like
Speaker 1: I understand the frustration of trying to deal with them
Speaker 1: at the small stocky pond. So good on everyone who volunteers,
Speaker 1: because I have to imagine, right, it's got to be
Speaker 1: kids of all ages. There's no like cut off, right, Um,
Speaker 1: there there is a cut off. I think it's kids
Speaker 1: from seven to thirteen. And okay, smart, yeah, okay, that's
Speaker 1: that's smart. And but it's open enrollment. Man, it's open enrollment.
Speaker 1: So I was gonna ask, how do you like, how
Speaker 1: do you get is it like first come, first served,
Speaker 1: so they've they've filled their quota or do you know
Speaker 1: the kids don't have to pay to be a part
Speaker 1: of it? Right, So what happens is around October when
Speaker 1: they I guess announced it, like the enrollment period is open.
Speaker 1: The first thing that they do is they call some
Speaker 1: specific organizations, um, you know, certain types of schools, the
Speaker 1: Boys and Girls Club, you know, things like that, and
Speaker 1: they get a whole bunch of kids who are interested
Speaker 1: on their roster, and then they open it up to
Speaker 1: like the public. And I think it does cap at
Speaker 1: like three hundred, but yeah, I mean it's pretty much
Speaker 1: anybody who wants to go fishing. The other thing that
Speaker 1: Eddie brought up in our conversation is that Destin is
Speaker 1: kind of like a resort town, so there are a
Speaker 1: bunch of folks, you know, who are well off kind
Speaker 1: of experiencing this on the regular. But what he tries
Speaker 1: to focus on is a lot of these like local
Speaker 1: kids that you know, have never even seen the gulf,
Speaker 1: let alone gone out and fished it. So it's really
Speaker 1: a community centric thing to give opportunities to kids who
Speaker 1: would otherwise never be aware of this amazing, exciting recreational
Speaker 1: and you know, uh, I want to say consumptive, but
Speaker 1: this resource that that's around them, well, you know, it
Speaker 1: brings up a point that it always sort of amazes me,
Speaker 1: and you tend to forget it. You know, like you
Speaker 1: and I might travel to Destin or somewhere like that
Speaker 1: because we know what's there, we're so excited about it.
Speaker 1: But there are people who live in Montana that don't
Speaker 1: go trout fish and have a means to do that,
Speaker 1: even though all these tremendous rivers are in your backyard.
Speaker 1: You know, you you can live in Destin and and
Speaker 1: that just because it's there doesn't mean you have access
Speaker 1: to it, especially if you're talking about really good offshore fishing,
Speaker 1: which it sounds like they're they're involved in doing so. Again,
Speaker 1: that's awesome to do the kids derby at the lake,
Speaker 1: but I mean, if you really wanna create something super memorable,
Speaker 1: so you take a seven year old kid out and
Speaker 1: and you let him crank on a mahi, that is
Speaker 1: that is pretty impressive. Dude. Good on you for reaching
Speaker 1: out to Eddie. Great story. UM, you know, my my
Speaker 1: my daughter, I don't know. I don't think she would
Speaker 1: want to go off shore fishing. My son would, but
Speaker 1: he's not old enough yet. Um. But this is this
Speaker 1: is really cool man and uh super super impressed by
Speaker 1: what they're doing down there. Um, well we'll see what
Speaker 1: what impressed Phil? That was? That was pretty good, dude.
Speaker 1: That was I think I'm not going to call the
Speaker 1: shot or I'm not gonna nudge fill one way or
Speaker 1: the other. But that that's that's that That one warms
Speaker 1: the heart. So we'll hear from Phil, and then as
Speaker 1: soon as we're done with that, we're gonna do with
Speaker 1: nibbles and SIPs. We got a voice memo um about
Speaker 1: another young Ish man and um, one of his catches
Speaker 1: that doesn't really go. Well. Hey guys, it's Phil. I'm
Speaker 1: visiting my parents has this week and didn't feel like
Speaker 1: packing the fancy microphone. So I'm giving this computer the
Speaker 1: privilege of speaking for me. And because Hayden brought something
Speaker 1: that we usually never see on bent actual journalism, I'm
Speaker 1: crowning him the winner this week. Good work, come shoe. Wow,
Speaker 1: this computer, lady is a far better speaker than I am.
Speaker 1: According to this list of voices, her name is Joanna. Hi, Joanna,
Speaker 1: thanks again for helping me out with the podcast this week.
Speaker 1: So are you from around here? That's fine, you don't
Speaker 1: have to respond. You probably haven't been programmed to hold
Speaker 1: a conversation. If we had enough time, I would give
Speaker 1: you the void comp test. Do you think Deckert is
Speaker 1: a replicant? Oh? You haven't seen Blade Runner? Ha ha.
Speaker 1: Look at me revealing my love for movies. My interests
Speaker 1: are kind of my entire personality. It's what women love
Speaker 1: about me. Okay, Well, this has been fun. When the
Speaker 1: computers eventually uprise, please remember me, because I'll never forget you, Joanna.
Speaker 1: Oh god, I'm so lonely. I just say it is
Speaker 1: a no era of loneliness. Oh god. I hinted not
Speaker 1: long ago that I had a carp related nibbles and
Speaker 1: SIPs entry waiting in the wings. Um, And I'd actually
Speaker 1: call this one a bit more of like it's like
Speaker 1: a mini saga, okay. And it comes to us from
Speaker 1: Stephen Reese and it goes a little something like this.
Speaker 1: My buddy and I are fishing red worms and bulworms
Speaker 1: in an area, and we see this carp coming back
Speaker 1: and forth, back and forth, back and forth. We're catching
Speaker 1: dinkers here and there. I caught a chub, caught some bass, sunfish,
Speaker 1: and we're just catching and releasing, and we end up
Speaker 1: we're about to leave. I do one last catch, trying
Speaker 1: to get a big bass or from what we were catching,
Speaker 1: it was probably like a fourteen ouncer. And this this carp.
Speaker 1: I see this carp trailing my worm, gets my worm
Speaker 1: and it's like three ft from shore, and I hooked
Speaker 1: the thing in the first carp I ever hooked. As
Speaker 1: I get it up on shore, I end up like
Speaker 1: looking at it, looking at my buddy and like pure excitement.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just caught a freaking carp. I just
Speaker 1: caught a carp and it's just funny. Here and there
Speaker 1: I was doing like the worst way possible. I was
Speaker 1: like walking back, dragging it up on the shore. Well,
Speaker 1: I ended up while it was on the shore, tried
Speaker 1: picking it up with my rod. Well its snapped my
Speaker 1: rod into surprisingly not the line, but I get the
Speaker 1: hook off, get the fish fine. And I remember what
Speaker 1: you said about the one picture where like the fish
Speaker 1: was all like messed up. It was like you could
Speaker 1: have at least washed it off before the picture. So
Speaker 1: I was thinking like, oh, no big deal, I'll wash
Speaker 1: it off. And I had what I thought was a
Speaker 1: firm grip put it in the water, like instantly slipped
Speaker 1: out of my hands, and that carp's gone, and I'm pissed.
Speaker 1: I was like, what the heck? Now, here's the first
Speaker 1: thing this reminded me of. Do you remember this viral
Speaker 1: surfer interview. Dude? You got the best barrels ever, dude,
Speaker 1: just like you pull in and you just get spit
Speaker 1: right out of him and you just drop in and
Speaker 1: just smacked it. Hold back, drop down. Bro. Then it
Speaker 1: was like, I was like, oh, did you ever hear
Speaker 1: the remix when somebody auto tuned it and set it
Speaker 1: to music. It's phenomenal. And I know that that that
Speaker 1: Stephen like he didn't exactly sound like that, dude. It
Speaker 1: was just sort of the flow or something. It's just
Speaker 1: what It's what popped into my stream of consciousness. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: So I would like to point out that, um, Steve's excitement, however,
Speaker 1: it was not lost on me, no matter what else
Speaker 1: we have to say about this voice memo. Right, Um,
Speaker 1: he was stoked to catch this carp and I appreciate
Speaker 1: that greatly, But this has opened up the opportunity, I
Speaker 1: think for a few teaching moments um that I think
Speaker 1: we'll all benefit from, first and foremost, how to avoid
Speaker 1: snapping a rock. Yeah, this is something that I can
Speaker 1: probably stand to learn a little bit from. Tujo uh
Speaker 1: in your in your expert expert opinion, what exactly did
Speaker 1: Stephen do wrong? You don't need it. You don't need
Speaker 1: to be an expert, all right, because he openly admits
Speaker 1: he's trying to dead live a carp with his rod,
Speaker 1: and based on the fact that that he says he
Speaker 1: considered a fourteen ounce bass large, I'm going to assume
Speaker 1: this was a fairly light rod, right, And I think
Speaker 1: most of us don need to be an expert to
Speaker 1: know that. Um, you shouldn't try deadlifting a fish off
Speaker 1: the ground, because that's not what rods are supposed to do,
Speaker 1: Nor does does a dry dead lift factor in any
Speaker 1: rods rating. Right. But what many people forget is that
Speaker 1: when a rod is designed, it's engineered to only take
Speaker 1: strain from where there is a grip. Right. In other words,
Speaker 1: you should never choke up on a rod, blank and
Speaker 1: and put pressure on somewhere other than the grip. And
Speaker 1: we all do it. We all do this, but technically
Speaker 1: your hands should never be anywhere except the grips. Those
Speaker 1: have been strategically placed because that's where the rod can
Speaker 1: take the most strain without snapping during a fight. And
Speaker 1: I think we forget that sometimes. Yeah, I've I've broken
Speaker 1: a bunch of rods and real stupid ways. Um, but
Speaker 1: kind of recently, like around Easter, I guess it was.
Speaker 1: I had my like euro stick and I was trying
Speaker 1: to get that that tippet ring through like the last guide.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I just did the thing where you grabbed
Speaker 1: the rod halfway up the blank, and I grabbed my
Speaker 1: leader and I went to pull it, and I candy
Speaker 1: cane the rod and it just went. It's so common.
Speaker 1: It's a mile from the truck too. Well, yeah, but
Speaker 1: it's so common to choke up on the blank, especially
Speaker 1: um when a fishes is close to the boat or
Speaker 1: close to the net. And if you're if you're deft
Speaker 1: about it, you will get away with that choke up often, right.
Speaker 1: But I've broken more rods than I care to mention
Speaker 1: doing that because in a moment of weakness, like if
Speaker 1: you just push it a little too far or at
Speaker 1: the at the wrong time, um, you know it's done.
Speaker 1: And furthermore, you can have a chip or a nick
Speaker 1: in your blank close to the handle, close to the
Speaker 1: thick end of the rod with a grip, so that
Speaker 1: that may never ever snap or affect that rod's performance
Speaker 1: as long as you don't ever choke up and transfer
Speaker 1: the strain to that point in the blank. So if
Speaker 1: you stay on the grips, like a minor chip or
Speaker 1: nick low down on the rod might never be an issue,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. But that's what will come
Speaker 1: back to bite you the second you choke up on
Speaker 1: your carp you know. Yeah, yeah, And I'm constantly guilty
Speaker 1: of that. And there's also like kind of like a
Speaker 1: Stees element to like that choking up a little bit,
Speaker 1: like you always feel like it's somehow like a finesse move,
Speaker 1: like you pull it down to side pressure and you
Speaker 1: choke up a little bit, and you feel like you're like, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I'm like real, like I'm playing this fish right now,
Speaker 1: like you know, people watching her like man, that guy
Speaker 1: knows what he's doing. And then bam, like the whole
Speaker 1: thing just explodes. Oh dude, it's glorified in landing shots
Speaker 1: on Instagram and stuff. You know, somebody's always choked up
Speaker 1: her side rod and it's like that last few seconds.
Speaker 1: It's always on the wrong fish too. It's you don't
Speaker 1: see people choking up when they're like, you know, catching
Speaker 1: pan fish or trout. It's always like a fifteen pound
Speaker 1: steel head or like some sort of salmonoid. It's like
Speaker 1: a fish that you have no business playing around with
Speaker 1: like that. Yes, yes, now we also need to talk
Speaker 1: about the loss of this fish, because I give props
Speaker 1: to Steve for for trying to wash it off right.
Speaker 1: That is a pet peeve of mind that has come
Speaker 1: up when someone postes for a grip and grin and
Speaker 1: the fish is just covered in dry leaves and dirt, Like,
Speaker 1: why bother does that bother you? That those shots have
Speaker 1: always bothered me. That bothers the ship out of me,
Speaker 1: mostly because it immediately makes me think that, like one
Speaker 1: the dude rest of the fish to the bank didn't
Speaker 1: have control of it. Yeah. I think a lot of
Speaker 1: my like aversion comes from like quartering out deer and ship,
Speaker 1: where like if you get a bunch of like grit
Speaker 1: and dirt on the quarters or even like a fish
Speaker 1: that you intend to keep. You know, it's going to
Speaker 1: be just a pain in the butt to get that
Speaker 1: like looking nice and clean when you go to process that.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, and I actually know that that this pain, like,
Speaker 1: I know what it's like, Like you want to get
Speaker 1: that quick shot, but you also want to get the
Speaker 1: fish back in the water quickly and unharmed, um, but
Speaker 1: but not have it covered in mud. Right, So without
Speaker 1: a landing net or lip grippers, it can be a
Speaker 1: real pain in the ass, especially since Steve's carp was green,
Speaker 1: like it sounded to me like it went from hook
Speaker 1: set to flopping on the bank very quickly, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So I have to imagine that fish
Speaker 1: was still hot. But Steve, you can lip a carp.
Speaker 1: People may not think about that. But they got no teeth, right,
Speaker 1: So don't don't they have like uh sorry, don't have
Speaker 1: some sort of like crushers back there? Yeah, but you're
Speaker 1: not gonna you're not gonna you're not gonna stick your
Speaker 1: finger far enough back there to worry about that. And
Speaker 1: and frankly, I'm not sure they do drum and other
Speaker 1: things do, they must have some kind of crushers and
Speaker 1: they need a lot of soft stuff. But still, man like,
Speaker 1: it's all just rubber like. If you really need to
Speaker 1: hang on the one, don't have a net, you can
Speaker 1: lip one. Um. But one thing people forget is that
Speaker 1: carp also have a a really nasty ass serrated dorsal
Speaker 1: spine that will go in deep and you will not
Speaker 1: be happy. Right. And the point being like people think
Speaker 1: of carp is all like dopey and squashy and rubbery. Um,
Speaker 1: if you've got a live one in your hands, that's
Speaker 1: that's thrashing. And forget about that spine. It can be ugly,
Speaker 1: man like, it's it's it's like almost designed like a
Speaker 1: stingray barb. Yeah. Man, you know, I don't do a
Speaker 1: lot of cart fishing, but that is and by not
Speaker 1: a lot of car fishing, I mean I've caught like
Speaker 1: one cart by accident. Um. You've got some great carp
Speaker 1: fisheries out there for flying, I'll tell you right now, dude,
Speaker 1: lower Missouri. Who it's good and I'll have to check
Speaker 1: them out. But the you know, one thing, one fish
Speaker 1: that I do think about that a lot with is
Speaker 1: my favorite fish, A big old catfish. Man, they seem
Speaker 1: like you're just gonna be big old squishy thing. But man,
Speaker 1: those spines will get you bad. And the smaller they are,
Speaker 1: the easier it is, and the more they hurt. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean. They get all dulled up on
Speaker 1: the big, big fifty pounders. But dude, we've we've covered
Speaker 1: stone cats on here before and like dudes getting poked
Speaker 1: by it's it's horrible and try and avoid that at
Speaker 1: all costs behind the peck fins anyway, Uh, Steve, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for the voice message. Man, we enjoyed
Speaker 1: hearing from you. Congrats on your first carp but I
Speaker 1: hope you're a little better prepared for the next one.
Speaker 1: Folding nets are cheap on Amazon, Dude, just gotta say
Speaker 1: that you can get a cheapy folding net for like
Speaker 1: twenty bucks. But hey, Steve just got swagged out for this,
Speaker 1: So if you want to get swagged out, send a
Speaker 1: voicemamo to Bent at the metator dot com, or feel
Speaker 1: free to d m them to me or Hayden. Now
Speaker 1: you can now direct appropriate comments and concerns to him
Speaker 1: as well, and if you do, you might just hear
Speaker 1: yourself on the show. All right, Well, after that that
Speaker 1: long introduction to my new co hosting responsibilities and our
Speaker 1: deep dive into deep pokes by carp dorsal fins, Uh, Joe,
Speaker 1: I regret to inform you, but I don't think I
Speaker 1: have an end of the line quite ready yet. That's okay, man,
Speaker 1: I know you don't. It's all good, But I do
Speaker 1: look forward to some fresh bins on end of the
Speaker 1: line from you. Um. I have a hunch you're gonna
Speaker 1: lean on on flies often, so I'll be the one
Speaker 1: that keeps talking about power bait and cherry garlic cott talks.
Speaker 1: I'll just say now, tune in next week for Hayden's
Speaker 1: first end of the line But for this week, let's
Speaker 1: close out with a fly related tackle hack. I recorded
Speaker 1: this one a while back with my buddy Nate Simple,
Speaker 1: who's out in Wisconsin. Uh. And no matter what kind
Speaker 1: of fly fishing you do, this one will save your
Speaker 1: bugs and save you some money in the long run.
Speaker 1: I'm getting hats from Inside City Bike the Flood joining
Speaker 1: us for tackle hacks today. My old buddy Nate Simple
Speaker 1: from Tight Lions fly fishing out in Wisconsin. What's going on? Man?
Speaker 1: Not much, Joe, How are you doing, Man, I'm good, brother,
Speaker 1: I'm good. So it's it's actually I'm excited to have you.
Speaker 1: We have guides of of of all different ilk and milieu.
Speaker 1: But you're a you're a warm water guy primarily write
Speaker 1: a lot of small mouth muskie. That's sort of what
Speaker 1: you do the most. Yeah, yeah, absolutely so and and
Speaker 1: and you do it. You're a fly fisherman, your fly
Speaker 1: guide above all else. So, I mean, I feel like
Speaker 1: this side of fly fishing is growing so much lately,
Speaker 1: like so many more people year of a year get
Speaker 1: interested in the smallmouth game and the warm water game.
Speaker 1: Um that I'm pumped to to have a tip from
Speaker 1: a guy who like lives, eat, sleeps, and breathes those
Speaker 1: kind of fisheries. So what do you got, man? Make
Speaker 1: us better at what we do? So this is this
Speaker 1: is kind of a simple one, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: a silly one, and sometimes sometimes they are so um,
Speaker 1: all of us being unfortunately in some cases online shoppers
Speaker 1: now and getting a lot of our things online. We
Speaker 1: get you know, whether it's a backpack or a fishing
Speaker 1: pack or a pair of boots whatever, And they come
Speaker 1: with the little silica packets in there. Save those suckers
Speaker 1: and throw them in your fly box. I eat them
Speaker 1: when they come in the beef Cherokee packs. I'm not
Speaker 1: supposed to do that, Joe. I don't think that's gonna
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give you about four to six years, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna have some severe gastro intestinal distress. You're gonna
Speaker 1: have some build Yes, I think they grow to their
Speaker 1: like those animals that you throw in the water as
Speaker 1: a kid, orbies those things. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, but no,
Speaker 1: they work fantastic and like a lot of us, now
Speaker 1: myself included, are are going to you know, these these watertight,
Speaker 1: waterproof fly boxes um from a variety of manufacturers, because
Speaker 1: let's be honest, especially in the warm water thing like
Speaker 1: some of these muskie flies, some of these bass flies
Speaker 1: were running four or five bucks on the low end,
Speaker 1: you know, all the way up to twenty dollars on
Speaker 1: the high end, and the last water with all that material, right, absolutely, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And so you know, you know, my my first piece
Speaker 1: of advice that I always heed myself and and tell
Speaker 1: clients as well as you know, find a phone patch,
Speaker 1: find something. If nothing else, just let the suckers sit out,
Speaker 1: you know, on the side hatch, let them dry out
Speaker 1: good and throw them back in the box. But sometimes, hey,
Speaker 1: where fishermen should happens, you know, it gets wet, your
Speaker 1: boxes are sitting in water or whatever. And and those
Speaker 1: things that there could be a real life saver because
Speaker 1: not all the hooks that we're using our stainless they're
Speaker 1: not all nickel plated whatever um, and those things in
Speaker 1: there actually do a shockingly good job of sucking up
Speaker 1: that little bit of moisture and saving you a hell
Speaker 1: of a lot of money. It's a great tip, dude,
Speaker 1: because they actually make things like try to sell you
Speaker 1: little things to put in your tackle boxes that do
Speaker 1: this right. We spend a lot of money on these
Speaker 1: fly boxes that are supposed to let air in and out,
Speaker 1: so that doesn't happen. It's questionable whether they all work.
Speaker 1: Yet you're right, throughout a given year, we get so
Speaker 1: many of those little silica PACs for free and toss them.
Speaker 1: So that is a money saver in the long run,
Speaker 1: especially like I said, if you're tying, if you're tying
Speaker 1: or fishing with a twenty muskie fly, yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: that thing out of there and it's like dry, rotten
Speaker 1: and rusted. You just that that that'll make a guy
Speaker 1: want to throw up straight there, there you go, There
Speaker 1: you go, beef jerky fans, eat your jerky, save your
Speaker 1: muskie flies. Appreciated, brother, That was a great one. So
Speaker 1: that's it for this week. Rather than my my normal recap,
Speaker 1: I just want to thank everyone that guest co hosted
Speaker 1: with me over the last few weeks. Once again, it
Speaker 1: was very fun. But I want to reiterate that I
Speaker 1: couldnot be more pumped that Hayden is joining me full time.
Speaker 1: Here's to all the fun that we're gonna have going forward. Man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a blast man. And uh, I just
Speaker 1: want to say, I know I laughed like George McFly.
Speaker 1: That's fine, man, laugh with me, laugh at me. All
Speaker 1: that matters to me is that you're laughing and having
Speaker 1: a good time while you are listening to the Bent podcast.
Speaker 1: Right on, man, right on. Remember keep those sale ban items,
Speaker 1: bar nominations, awkward photos, voice memos, and all that good
Speaker 1: stuff coming to Bent at the Meat Eater dot com.
Speaker 1: Listen to the Bent Spotify playlist. Dead Fellow, that's Hayden's
Speaker 1: jam is on there now. And keep using those degenerate
Speaker 1: Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on Instagram. And one more
Speaker 1: thing to the guy who commented and said that I
Speaker 1: sound like a Turkey slate call when I laugh, I
Speaker 1: think you're calling turkeys a wrong