Speaker 1: Well, you know, like when the eggs rot a little
Speaker 1: bit and get discolored in the water. Dead egg. I'm like,
Speaker 1: get out of here with that ship a dead egg,
Speaker 1: kidney pellet fly. If you have fifty six stripers on hand,
Speaker 1: why are you eating a possum? Anglers could get at
Speaker 1: least three lures out of one straw, And I mean
Speaker 1: straws are essentially free. Right, you can walk into McDonald's
Speaker 1: goll gonna do a straw, right, jeez, Joe, what beat decent?
Speaker 1: Good morning, general anglers, and welcome to Bent, the fishing
Speaker 1: podcast that's been standing on this rock since four am
Speaker 1: so we can show off its fishing prowess by beating
Speaker 1: up on a bunch of fresh pellet heads. I'm Joe Surmelie,
Speaker 1: and I'm hating Samacuh. You gotta love that forty year
Speaker 1: old guy like just gunning sticks and like we're Oh,
Speaker 1: I don't think people are gonna know what that means,
Speaker 1: smoking sticks, burning heaters. I knew what you meant, and
Speaker 1: I know that guy, Yeah, just issuing a good old
Speaker 1: fashioned stocker beat down in front of like dozens of
Speaker 1: like father and son teams trying to have a bonding
Speaker 1: moment to put a couple on the stringer, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like, yeah, man, like and look and
Speaker 1: teach their own right. That's how guys, that's I grew
Speaker 1: up in that scene, right. I know that guy well.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it just feels good to rattle a chain stringer, hey,
Speaker 1: and you know, just and you know what, sometimes that
Speaker 1: guy'll bring you up onto his rock if you're a
Speaker 1: little kid, and he'll show you how to throw the
Speaker 1: meal worm, and he'll let you just wail on the
Speaker 1: stockers from he'll give you. He'll give you a Marlborough
Speaker 1: light it up anyway. Look, I I I know that
Speaker 1: that nowadays, at least, you're all about those Native cuddies
Speaker 1: and graylings and all that other cool ship you guys
Speaker 1: got going on out there. But I also know that
Speaker 1: you've got a a a soft spot for for opening
Speaker 1: day stocky bashing. Because you're from out here. You can't
Speaker 1: lie to me. I know that's part of you. You
Speaker 1: are as an angler. You're right, you're right. So then
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you, man, when was the last time
Speaker 1: you actually did the whole opening day thing? Alright? Uh,
Speaker 1: confession time it wasn't. I don't think it was opening day.
Speaker 1: But okay, okay, so back in the right when everything
Speaker 1: was real weird, um, and they were doing all that
Speaker 1: kind of I don't know if they did this in
Speaker 1: like Jersey or whatever, but at least in Pennsylvania they
Speaker 1: did these like discreet stocking hits. Like p A wasn't
Speaker 1: putting out a schedule. They were just like, this season
Speaker 1: is opened, We're going to be stocking things quietly, so
Speaker 1: we don't have a ton of people converging on like
Speaker 1: this one body of water. And they were trying to
Speaker 1: stem the tide of Rona at the time. They didn't
Speaker 1: want you to get it on the Stoker stream. Yeah yeah, um.
Speaker 1: So I was holed up in that cabin in the
Speaker 1: Pocono and stuff talked about before and there was this
Speaker 1: one trout stream that I had done an opening day
Speaker 1: thing on wait wait wait wait wait back with like
Speaker 1: my dad and my brother and my uncle, my cousins.
Speaker 1: So anyway, uh on the opener or or or I
Speaker 1: guess just after it probably realistically it's probably a little
Speaker 1: bit after it. But I hit the stream. I looked
Speaker 1: down from the bridge and it is loaded, just totally
Speaker 1: totally loaded. And what do you think The first thing,
Speaker 1: uh that I noticed is a big old palomino, big
Speaker 1: old golden, A big old golden. Yeah, man, that's what
Speaker 1: they're good for. You see one, it's like, well, if
Speaker 1: he's there, there's eighty more right underneath them. Now, okay,
Speaker 1: So two things about me. One, I've never been the
Speaker 1: lucky little boy to catch a golden trout on opening day.
Speaker 1: Never have I been the bell of the ball. Another
Speaker 1: thing about me, despite being a thirty year old man,
Speaker 1: sometimes I act like a child. And for whatever reason,
Speaker 1: I saw that fish, and I was like your mine,
Speaker 1: because that's what you think when you see one. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. It's like you have to catch it. You
Speaker 1: have to catch it. It's so obnoxious anyway, So I
Speaker 1: went down there. I drifted a pheasant tail right in
Speaker 1: front of that fish. Bam, first cast you you would
Speaker 1: have thought I caught a wild steelhead. I was embarrassingly excited,
Speaker 1: particularly coupled with the fact that I had to stream
Speaker 1: all to myself. It was this weird thing where they
Speaker 1: had effectively recreated the experience that we all go after
Speaker 1: when we're like fishing stockers, that being a wild trout
Speaker 1: stream with plentiful fish except they had this one just ridiculous,
Speaker 1: uh like mutant trout. At the end of my line. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I was so unbelievably stoked. I did an evil laugh,
Speaker 1: and I think I sent it to you. But I
Speaker 1: even bought the fish home, like the greasy, dirty stocky
Speaker 1: basher I am. I had my then girlfriend take a picture.
Speaker 1: Um it's me in a in a sims onesie holding
Speaker 1: that fish in a kitchen, and it's horrible, but it's
Speaker 1: also one of my favorite pictures. I'm pretty sure I
Speaker 1: sent that to you in miles. I know, yeah, I
Speaker 1: I remember I used it without your permission, thanking you
Speaker 1: for helping with with our theme music a long time ago,
Speaker 1: and you were upset, you were mad anyway, I can
Speaker 1: I can bash shut up? I can you were mad.
Speaker 1: I know I wasn't. Look I can back up what
Speaker 1: you're saying, though, because not that long ago, I was
Speaker 1: on a float on a river loaded with wild brown trout,
Speaker 1: that is what I was there for, And we came
Speaker 1: across this giant, dumpy like twenty six inch palomino like
Speaker 1: holding there in this seam, and like I wasted forty
Speaker 1: minutes of a perfectly good wild brown trout float because
Speaker 1: I'm like, we're catching this thing, man, we're catching it.
Speaker 1: And it's funny you said it eight right away. There's
Speaker 1: a there's a golden secret for all you guys out there.
Speaker 1: I have found that you either get him on the
Speaker 1: first cast or he's done that. It's it's one and done,
Speaker 1: because I think they're just more wary. They know they
Speaker 1: can be seen. So I think they just get harassed
Speaker 1: into oblivion. Man. I remember when I first caught that trout.
Speaker 1: I sent a picture of my dad and I said,
Speaker 1: it has got to be tough being a golden trout. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: so so that's my embarrassing man. Child opening day story.
Speaker 1: Now you have young kids, and I'd imagine a way
Speaker 1: less like I don't know, um whereas I'm being childish,
Speaker 1: I imagine you have an Opening Day's story more appropriately childish,
Speaker 1: like childlike wonder Well. To be honest, I've I've I've
Speaker 1: yet to take my kids out on Opening I have.
Speaker 1: I I have not done an Opening Day God, since
Speaker 1: maybe I was I was in college. I kinda got
Speaker 1: over that, Like I didn't, But I don't take my
Speaker 1: kids on Opening Day because they're they're too little at
Speaker 1: this point to appreciate it, but also like why take
Speaker 1: them out in the middle of the ship show, right,
Speaker 1: So I usually wait a week or two before I
Speaker 1: take my kids trout fishing. Um. I'll try to tell
Speaker 1: this one quickly, but the dad's out there will understand this.
Speaker 1: Last last um last spring, I took my daughter out
Speaker 1: and we got into some trout. We had the stream
Speaker 1: all to ourselves, and she was she was doing great
Speaker 1: catching these rainbows, and I'm sliding each one on a stringer. Well, uh,
Speaker 1: at some point I like went to go catch one
Speaker 1: myself and left her just playing with the stringer, right,
Speaker 1: And I remember this very this very same thing happening
Speaker 1: to me when I was little. She she comes over
Speaker 1: and we're talking and not and I look turned around
Speaker 1: and I'm like, where's the stringer And she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: I thought I stuck it in the dirt deep enough.
Speaker 1: And I was like, well, like, first of all, like
Speaker 1: I care about these stockers, like I care about eating.
Speaker 1: Then I'm like, well, there goes all our trout. I
Speaker 1: don't know, And like it was in the middle of
Speaker 1: this deep hole, in this in this raging spring water,
Speaker 1: and I was I was so bummed because then she
Speaker 1: was so bummed because we were going to eat those.
Speaker 1: And then I noticed like the tip of the stringer
Speaker 1: literally clinging to the edge of a lady in like
Speaker 1: water over my head and like my little six year
Speaker 1: old daughter is like handing me sticks and I'm like
Speaker 1: trying not to go in above my waiters and ship
Speaker 1: and damn it, I got it. I saved the day.
Speaker 1: I saved the day. Yeah, they said. A little part
Speaker 1: of me was like if we don't get them, then
Speaker 1: I don't have to eat those. But we did and
Speaker 1: we cooked them and she enjoyed it, so it was good. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean like that's it's kind of funny, like the
Speaker 1: arc that you go through with Opening Day and when
Speaker 1: when you're a kid, you just want to participate. Then
Speaker 1: when you get a little bit older and you kind
Speaker 1: of recognize what's going on, you kind of want to
Speaker 1: get like secluded, and you really just it's just your
Speaker 1: first cracking fish and you've been waiting for it. Then
Speaker 1: you get to the point where you're like, dude, I'm
Speaker 1: not messing with Opening Day. I just like don't want
Speaker 1: to do this at all. And then you get to
Speaker 1: the point where you're like I want to see that
Speaker 1: ship show. I want to see a little blood. I say,
Speaker 1: I'm not ready for the ship show, But my kids
Speaker 1: have made me fall in love with trout fisheries I
Speaker 1: gave up on years ago places I loved when I
Speaker 1: was little that I'm like, I'm over that joint. All
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you see them with new eyes, and
Speaker 1: it's been really fun. You know well, I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1: That's infinitely more charming than my story. Anyway. One of
Speaker 1: the cool things about fishing for stockers is that, like
Speaker 1: you have license to do all the things many of
Speaker 1: you don't admit you do when you're targeting wild trout,
Speaker 1: I bombarding the same hole for hours. Within line spinners,
Speaker 1: Joe and I have both talked about, like our favorite
Speaker 1: inline spinners on Ben You know yours was a MEPs
Speaker 1: right or Panther Martin Panther Martin. Mine was a Swiss wing.
Speaker 1: But today on our Maker segment, we're going to learn
Speaker 1: about a handcrafted inline or some handcrafted in lines. Uh
Speaker 1: part in the pun with a twisty we're doing our
Speaker 1: tool times salute. So joining us for Makers today kind
Speaker 1: of tied into our our little opening opening day theme.
Speaker 1: Um you know, as we mentioned opening day, trout wherever
Speaker 1: you fish for trout, inline spinners, right, everybody loves a
Speaker 1: good in line spinner. And it just so happened that
Speaker 1: we have a listener fan, Evan Moso, who now I
Speaker 1: have not Evan, welcome. First of all, it's great to
Speaker 1: have you here. Um, and I have not used your
Speaker 1: products yet, but I think if you look at loremaking
Speaker 1: in general these days, a lot of people are doing handboards,
Speaker 1: soft plastics and swim baits and things like that. Yet
Speaker 1: you are Spinex Designs. You are going all in on
Speaker 1: on custom in lines. That's one of the big things
Speaker 1: that you do. Um. So I'm just so everybody knows, man,
Speaker 1: you're from the Pacific Northwest. Correct, that's right. Yeah, small
Speaker 1: little town in Oregon. Okay. So like what's home order
Speaker 1: for you? Man? Like, what did you grow up doing
Speaker 1: out there? I imagine the salmon and steel game? Yeah,
Speaker 1: So like growing up, I didn't do a lot of
Speaker 1: salmon and steel head fishing because I just didn't have
Speaker 1: too much family that did that in my area. But
Speaker 1: I did a lot of trout fishing on my own.
Speaker 1: I could get out and do that, and I just
Speaker 1: got really hooked on trout fishing. That's like what I
Speaker 1: that's what's in my heart. I love to fish or
Speaker 1: c run rainbow trout, especially so because we get a
Speaker 1: big return of those, you know, not big big by
Speaker 1: any means these days, but we still get a good
Speaker 1: wave of those coming up when sometimes when the salmon
Speaker 1: come up and sometimes when the steelhead come up, and
Speaker 1: those fish they are very aggressive and they hit a
Speaker 1: spinner very hard. No, dude, that's fat. No, I don't know, Heyden,
Speaker 1: do you know anything about that? Like, I know, I've
Speaker 1: heard of c run cuddies out there right like in
Speaker 1: the sound, but the c runs so these are smaller
Speaker 1: c run rainbows. Yeah, I'm sorry, sorry, they may be
Speaker 1: sorry I misspoke. They are cutthroat trout my bed. Okay,
Speaker 1: there we are. Were I was messed up there a
Speaker 1: little bit. No, no, no, it's certainly fine, man, because
Speaker 1: I've actually always wanted to do that. I've seen a
Speaker 1: lot of videos of guys fly casting and stuff waiting
Speaker 1: in in the sound there. Um, so that's cool, man.
Speaker 1: So how long have you been making How long have
Speaker 1: you been in the custom tackle game? Well, I started
Speaker 1: out about two and a half years ago. I did
Speaker 1: it for a year for my own I just wanted
Speaker 1: to make some new spinners up because the spin is
Speaker 1: that I had before they wouldn't get out for a
Speaker 1: good cast and they wouldn't sink to the strike zone
Speaker 1: quickly enough for my liking. So I wanted to do
Speaker 1: a little bit of tinkering. And I've always liked to
Speaker 1: tinker on things, and I just fell in love with
Speaker 1: making some spinners especially I'm a spinner guy at heart,
Speaker 1: like I said, and I just love to get that
Speaker 1: straight connection with the fish because they just dump your
Speaker 1: raw tip over and it's just like an awesome fight. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, well, along along those lines, I think you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things we've talked about elsewhere in this
Speaker 1: podcast is that you know a lot of guys associate
Speaker 1: inline spinners with sort of that small stream trout deal um.
Speaker 1: But you say you're a spinner guy, therefore you know
Speaker 1: as I know that you know, bigger inlines will catch
Speaker 1: bigger fish. I just think it's it's hard for some
Speaker 1: guys to adopt that necessarily is like a big fish lure.
Speaker 1: But you, I'm sure see that differently. Obviously you've leaned
Speaker 1: on them pretty hard, agreed. Yeah, So it's all about
Speaker 1: the fisherman that you make it for, because like everyone's different, Joe.
Speaker 1: And uh so if you're fishing for like salmon on
Speaker 1: the sy Uselaugh, because that's what I fish for a lot,
Speaker 1: or on the side slot, especially because that's in my
Speaker 1: home area. That's closest river for me. I like to
Speaker 1: fish for salmon, especially with like a half ounce to
Speaker 1: a three quarters ound spinner, because it's gonna get deeper
Speaker 1: and the strikes own quicker, and normally at that time
Speaker 1: of the year, the river will be up a little
Speaker 1: bit more, so you're gonna want to get where the
Speaker 1: fish are at, right, So you're gonna want a little
Speaker 1: bit bigger presentation. And sometimes the bigger presentation will scare
Speaker 1: away the smaller fish and you'll only be fishing for
Speaker 1: bigger fish. So that's a good plus side. So when
Speaker 1: when you make these like heavier spinners, are you like
Speaker 1: messing around with like different alloys? Like, correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, Joe, But like a lot of the traditional
Speaker 1: spinners are made of brass, Yeah, brass or like Panto
Speaker 1: Martins are lead bodies. Yeah, do you ever mess around
Speaker 1: with like tungsten or anything like that. Well, I'm just
Speaker 1: getting into this new workshop. I actually just expanded, and
Speaker 1: I actually rented a quite a bigger shop than what
Speaker 1: I had before, which is good. And I have a
Speaker 1: whole lead pouring station set up to where I could
Speaker 1: start pouring lead. But there is other metals like tungsten
Speaker 1: and bith smith and in a few other metals that
Speaker 1: I can start playing with with spinner bodies. So I'm curious. Uh,
Speaker 1: spinners tend to be regional, right, Like I grew up,
Speaker 1: everybody out here is a Swiss swing or a Panther
Speaker 1: Martin guy vibrats. I mean that's that's a West Coast deal,
Speaker 1: Like Vibracts started out there, right, Is that like the
Speaker 1: spinner you you leaned on as a kid. I'm just curious. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the one I used a lot, along with the
Speaker 1: rooster tail too, because the rooster tail seemed to have
Speaker 1: the weight to get on the cast and sink, but
Speaker 1: the Vibracts had a lot more action, and like the
Speaker 1: blade just turns a lot different. So I kind of
Speaker 1: tried to make a culmination of those two spinners together
Speaker 1: and try to have a good version of that. Well,
Speaker 1: It's funny you say that about the vibrats, because I
Speaker 1: always look at that, like I'll have a few of
Speaker 1: those for bigger water when I need to get down more.
Speaker 1: They're always the heavy spinner, Like that's never been my
Speaker 1: choice for like pocket water trout fishing, but I always
Speaker 1: assume that that came them that you know, Northwest and
Speaker 1: Alaska idea of having to cover big water for bigger fish.
Speaker 1: And I see a lot of those elements in what
Speaker 1: you're making, Like looking at your lures, I mean you
Speaker 1: make some pretty heavy duty stuff with some some pretty
Speaker 1: different variants. Like I see a lot of bodies with uh,
Speaker 1: like a hoochie, Like a hoochie squid over them. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, like what's sort of the fun and the experimentation,
Speaker 1: Like what are what are some of the things that
Speaker 1: you're trying to do different to create maybe presentations that
Speaker 1: you can't get out of a big box spinner. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of differences that in my spinners compared
Speaker 1: to like uh, different spinner makers or just gear makers
Speaker 1: in general. I try to get a lot of feedback
Speaker 1: from anglers like you and Hayden, just to see what
Speaker 1: you guys like a little different on your spinners, and
Speaker 1: then I get a common agreement of that, and then
Speaker 1: I'll put that on a spinner design, and I'll put
Speaker 1: that to a few friends and they'll do some testing
Speaker 1: and from there will kind of modify it if it
Speaker 1: needs any I just really like to use spinners. That's
Speaker 1: what I do. Mainly. I do other things with fishing methods,
Speaker 1: but merely I like to give a different presentation with
Speaker 1: the hoochie because salmon they really react a lot better
Speaker 1: with something with an eyeball on it, like a little
Speaker 1: white with some black on there. That interesting. It gets
Speaker 1: their instincts kind of like, oh, what's this the predatory instincts,
Speaker 1: And if it's on their lateral line, it has a
Speaker 1: good chance of catching a fish for you. But some
Speaker 1: honest American R and D right there, man, It's interesting
Speaker 1: what you're saying because a lot of people I think
Speaker 1: when you're looking at smaller spinners, um, you know, I
Speaker 1: feel the same way about some streamers. It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I threw this gold panther Martin and the fish ate it.
Speaker 1: Would it have also eaten the silver one with the
Speaker 1: orange tail? Did it really matter? But then I look
Speaker 1: at a lot of your work, and there's so much
Speaker 1: detail with eyes and different tones and different um like
Speaker 1: prism tape and things like that. Uh, So clearly you've
Speaker 1: noticed that that that does make a difference. It's not
Speaker 1: just about vibration in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 1: All those little nuances do matter. Yeah. Correct. I was
Speaker 1: just talking with a friend of mine that he lives
Speaker 1: up in Alaska and he fishes for a lot of
Speaker 1: gray ling. I was just talking to him yesterday and
Speaker 1: he said, he, uh, throw everything in his tackle box
Speaker 1: at these fish and they wouldn't bite. But he had
Speaker 1: a some thread and a little fly tying hook and
Speaker 1: he kind of tied up a black nymph and he
Speaker 1: casted it out there and he was hooking the fish.
Speaker 1: But he was using all these other different spinners and jigs.
Speaker 1: So it's it's really what the fish are targeting at
Speaker 1: that moment. So let me ask you about another element
Speaker 1: of your design that I've noticed. Um, do you have
Speaker 1: a lot of you have a lot of spinners with
Speaker 1: single hooks, and you have a lot of spinners with
Speaker 1: trouble hooks. As far as that single hook design, is
Speaker 1: that just to be like complying with regulations out there,
Speaker 1: or like, do you see any advantage between like, you know,
Speaker 1: a single hook in relation to a trouble hook or
Speaker 1: vice versa. So with that definitely, So it's all about
Speaker 1: the fishermen in two points of that aspect. If they
Speaker 1: are fishing for food, they'll normally want a trouble hook
Speaker 1: because as it will get a good grasp on the fish,
Speaker 1: and a single hook they'll definitely let you. You could
Speaker 1: bounce your spinner a little bit more off the bottom
Speaker 1: without getting hung up because you only have one point
Speaker 1: in contact like a side wash hook. And uh, that's
Speaker 1: that's really good too, because the sidewah shook will get
Speaker 1: them right in the corner of the mouth. The trouble
Speaker 1: hook it could be a little more fatal. If you're
Speaker 1: fishing a wild only stream, you don't really want to
Speaker 1: do that. You're gonna be fishing barbedless single hooks. But
Speaker 1: trouble hooks they really go good for if you're trying
Speaker 1: to catch some fish to eat. But single hooks, I've
Speaker 1: I used them a lot just for regulation compliance because
Speaker 1: some areas in Michigan you can only have like uh,
Speaker 1: don't quote me exactly, but like an eighth inch or
Speaker 1: three quarters inch from the shaft of the hook over
Speaker 1: to the tip. So there's definitely a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: areas of that aspect. I need to make sure the
Speaker 1: customer has the right hook so they don't get in trouble.
Speaker 1: There's a there's something else to be said for that too,
Speaker 1: I mean compliance aside. If you sort of look at
Speaker 1: people have asked me before, like oh, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: how come they don't use trouble hooks on trolling lures,
Speaker 1: Like wouldn't that wouldn't that make more sense? And if
Speaker 1: you look at similar things like the tuna popping game,
Speaker 1: most guys you'll see they take those big, heavy troubles
Speaker 1: off and put on two singles because there's some argument
Speaker 1: to the idea that one heavier gauge hook planted really well,
Speaker 1: uh you know, is also a stronger connection than one
Speaker 1: of three small trouble stuck somewhere in the fish. So
Speaker 1: I actually do know some guys that will even make
Speaker 1: the effort to change out their rooster tails and panthers
Speaker 1: small stuff for small streams. Um some of it for
Speaker 1: you know, conservation because they're releasing the fish. But also
Speaker 1: there there is a case for one hook planet well
Speaker 1: is stronger than you know, kind of a half as
Speaker 1: planted trouble. Oh. I've definitely heard that before because I've
Speaker 1: also heard that since you if you had a big
Speaker 1: trouble hook on the end of the lure and you're
Speaker 1: hooked up on a nice steel head and it's thrashing around,
Speaker 1: Actually the weight of the lure can push back and
Speaker 1: dislodge the trouble hook. That's why single hook is good
Speaker 1: because it will normally go through their guilt plate right
Speaker 1: on their mouth near their mouth right And it's funny man,
Speaker 1: Like you know, if you want to say, like treble
Speaker 1: hooks are like more like a lot of folks use
Speaker 1: trouble hooks on their spinners and you know, I mean
Speaker 1: crank bits and everything, because it's like, oh, you got
Speaker 1: a better chance of like a hook up. But there
Speaker 1: is just something that looks so much fishier about a
Speaker 1: spinner with a single hook on it. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is. It just like looks like a fish
Speaker 1: catching tool. It's worth it's worth making that that that
Speaker 1: swap man, you'd be surprised at how well they work.
Speaker 1: So I know, I know, you know, I are you
Speaker 1: doing this full time? Having like, is this your full
Speaker 1: time gig or is this a side project for you?
Speaker 1: This is definitely taking up a majority of my life
Speaker 1: and I can't complain in that aspect, but I do
Speaker 1: some other things here and there. I didn't fully answer
Speaker 1: the question though. It's taking up the majority of your life.
Speaker 1: But is it the full time gig? Is that what
Speaker 1: you're driving for? Yeah, it's definitely my full time gig,
Speaker 1: and I just want to keep working towards that and
Speaker 1: grow the business. I kind of I kind of look
Speaker 1: at what you're doing, like, sort of I imagine you
Speaker 1: probably have a good local following now, Like there are
Speaker 1: guys in your area who are like I throw spin
Speaker 1: X and that's it's sort of how like you see
Speaker 1: that with shad dart makers and things in other places. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely have my people and I appreciate them a lot. Sure,
Speaker 1: of course. And you make a lot of this bigger stuff.
Speaker 1: But do you also still make like the tiny stream
Speaker 1: stuff or you just mostly focused on the salmon and
Speaker 1: steel stuff for now? Oh, anything you want to catch
Speaker 1: a fish with that has a hook, I could definitely
Speaker 1: make you up something for that application. That is no problem.
Speaker 1: I make a lot of stuff to where. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I love trout fishing, so I'll do a couple one
Speaker 1: eighth pounds or one sixteenthound spinners, some really small presentations
Speaker 1: for some small stream fishing. I do anything you guys want,
Speaker 1: and uh do it a quality way. Well, it was
Speaker 1: it was great to have an inline maker on man,
Speaker 1: it was a nice change up right now. If somebody, uh,
Speaker 1: if somebody wanted to be one of those folks you're
Speaker 1: making things for in the right way, where would they
Speaker 1: find you? Well? On Facebook, spin x designs tackle it's
Speaker 1: pretty simple, Instagram, Spinex Designs it's without the tackle. And
Speaker 1: if you wanted to go to the website and kind
Speaker 1: of check out a few things I make spin X
Speaker 1: Designs dot net. That's my website and my phone numbers
Speaker 1: right there on the bottom footer. So if you want
Speaker 1: to reach out, feel free. And if you're east side,
Speaker 1: there's probably some things you can buy off there that
Speaker 1: will make you the East Coast ringer because nobody else
Speaker 1: is going to have those. They're just gonna be throwing
Speaker 1: the same Swiss wings and Panther Martin's. So I would
Speaker 1: you know, I feel like inline spinners in general get
Speaker 1: sort of roped into this category of being too simplistic
Speaker 1: and sort of like a small fish lure. Like I'm
Speaker 1: all about them on pocket water and small streams, but
Speaker 1: if I'm floating a big river, right, I feel like
Speaker 1: if I'm not doing something more active, like working a
Speaker 1: big jerk bait, I'm not targeting the big fish. And
Speaker 1: I know that's just not the case like inlines in general,
Speaker 1: and all fisheries are very powerful. It's just like a
Speaker 1: mental thing. Yeah, man, you know, inline spinners are like
Speaker 1: the first things that really introduced me to the artificial game.
Speaker 1: Like it was the first thing I remember throwing consistently
Speaker 1: that wasn't a worm. And it's also the first thing
Speaker 1: that really made me evaluate my gear um in that
Speaker 1: if you're using like too heavy of a rod, right,
Speaker 1: you can't feel you can't feel any of the flutter
Speaker 1: that blade. And if you're using to light of a rod,
Speaker 1: it's it's just like kind of like a difficult thing
Speaker 1: to fish with, you know. Right, So Joe, as a
Speaker 1: as a spinner junkie, yourself, what is your perfect rod
Speaker 1: for throwing spinners? And tell me because I'm sure third
Speaker 1: Team makes it. Ah, Yeah, that would be the omen
Speaker 1: Fishing Trout pan Fish series. I like the five foot
Speaker 1: six inch light, which is a little bit stiffer than
Speaker 1: the Ultra light. I like a short rod for throwing spinners,
Speaker 1: jigs and stuff. Longer rod, um, it's great for that.
Speaker 1: Another thing I'll say to you, like, I remember growing up,
Speaker 1: my dad would always insist on putting a spinner on
Speaker 1: with a snap swivel like line snap swivel, then spinner
Speaker 1: because he's like, I don't want to twist my line
Speaker 1: all up. And I always hated that. I'm like, you're
Speaker 1: adding too much hardware to this anyway, Yeah, yeah, it
Speaker 1: made it look like the spinner had braces. The other
Speaker 1: thing about that, man, is when you're casting out those spinners.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you ever had this. Maybe you're
Speaker 1: using more high end spinners than I was, but I
Speaker 1: always felt like I didn't get a ton of spin
Speaker 1: on the blade. And then what I realized is I
Speaker 1: was getting plenty of spin on the blade. It was
Speaker 1: just my rod was inappropriately heavy, and so I couldn't
Speaker 1: feel like that little flutter on on the on the
Speaker 1: way back. So again, man, that is why the right
Speaker 1: rod for your spinner is crucial. Kind of ties into
Speaker 1: what we talked about last week with with you know,
Speaker 1: putting verse driving you know, yeah, anyway, Omen five six.
Speaker 1: So getting back to opening day for a second, let
Speaker 1: me ask you this, Uh, is there anything you considered
Speaker 1: a good omen Uh? Did you have any like do
Speaker 1: you did you any like opening day sort of rituals
Speaker 1: when you were a kid? Um A little bit right, So,
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people talk about like, you know,
Speaker 1: getting getting bait and all their stuff the night before.
Speaker 1: We never did that the night before. But the trip
Speaker 1: to the tackle shop would usually be within a week
Speaker 1: of opening day, and you know, the tackle shop would
Speaker 1: be buzzing their other guys in there buying their salmon eggs,
Speaker 1: and that was always just cool. But as for opening
Speaker 1: day proper um, you know, that was typically I'd go out.
Speaker 1: It would be me, my dad and my grandfather and
Speaker 1: we would you know, get up early for the for
Speaker 1: the eight am start time over in Jersey and you'd
Speaker 1: be out there all morning and and most opening days,
Speaker 1: at some point we would break for lunch and we
Speaker 1: go back to my grandparents house. So like a weird
Speaker 1: thing that that sticks in my head is like you
Speaker 1: smell like worm dirt, and hopefully some trout, and then
Speaker 1: like it was always a bologny sandwich. Like we would
Speaker 1: sit at my grandparents table and you'd tell you my
Speaker 1: grandma what we caught, and you would eat a bologny sandwich,
Speaker 1: and my dad would fall asleep in a chair and
Speaker 1: like hopefully he would still be in the mood to
Speaker 1: go back out for the afternoon, because I was I
Speaker 1: would always want to go somewhere different in the afternoon,
Speaker 1: and depending on the weather and everything, sometimes it would work,
Speaker 1: sometimes it wouldn't. But I remember that very finely. Man.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things that's it's kind of inconsequential.
Speaker 1: It's just like lunch at your your grandma's. But um,
Speaker 1: that was our opening day, you know. Yeah, how about you, man,
Speaker 1: any any rituals tied to day of or or or
Speaker 1: time before opening day? Yeah. So when I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I used to spend the night before the opener drawing
Speaker 1: all of these you know, depth charts where I thought
Speaker 1: the fish were going to be in relation to the bottom,
Speaker 1: which is basically well it's it's what it's what I
Speaker 1: saw in like in fishermen. Right. Um, what I didn't
Speaker 1: realize at the time was that most of those illustrations
Speaker 1: were in relation to some sort of like technique like
Speaker 1: drop shotting on an underwater hump uh, whereas my maps
Speaker 1: were much less helpful, not having an accompanying article. They
Speaker 1: were always just pictures of a hole with a big
Speaker 1: fish in the d keep his part in small fish
Speaker 1: in the shallower parts, but might not always looked at
Speaker 1: them and pretended to consider them as if they were
Speaker 1: going to influence his strategy or something. So that's great, dude.
Speaker 1: I hope you saved some of them, and your dad
Speaker 1: saved some of them. I wish had been saved. Um.
Speaker 1: And hey man, dude, if that if that helped your
Speaker 1: confidence with that little bit of strategy, that's great. Speaking
Speaker 1: of strategy, how about this, I've been plotting my own
Speaker 1: strategy for defeating you in this week's competition that we
Speaker 1: call fish News. Fish News. That escalated quickly. Hey, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to give a quick shout out to the
Speaker 1: dozen or so listeners that came to my defense following
Speaker 1: last week's very bloody smooth Moves. I said that I
Speaker 1: believed mother rabbits ate their young sometimes, and the response
Speaker 1: that I got from from Hayden and Company, here was
Speaker 1: that I was being a weirdo, But damn it, I
Speaker 1: was right. Okay, I'm not morbid or crazy. Several people
Speaker 1: wrote in, man, that's a I am, but but I
Speaker 1: am right in this case. They're like, no, it's a
Speaker 1: real thing. Look, and it's called neo natal cannibalism um.
Speaker 1: And it can occur if a baby is sick or week,
Speaker 1: or if the mother is stressed by fear that a
Speaker 1: sick or week baby will heighten the likelihood of a
Speaker 1: predator homing in on the whole fam. Isn't that a
Speaker 1: nice story for the kids. It goes much deeper than that,
Speaker 1: but that is the gift. It's a real thing. I
Speaker 1: did not make that up. So thank you everyone. And
Speaker 1: in a less morbid shout out, I want to give
Speaker 1: a shout out to the twelve dozen or so cops
Speaker 1: who all like wrote in, like, you know, you have
Speaker 1: a lot more a lot more police listening than you
Speaker 1: than you might think, So I'm going to be careful
Speaker 1: of what I say. I am. I am fine with that. Say.
Speaker 1: I told you the police listened to the bens and
Speaker 1: did the fishing. That's great. We we love you guys.
Speaker 1: That's good. I'm really happy to hear. What what are
Speaker 1: those cards called p BA cards? I don't know if
Speaker 1: they work anymore. We should have one of these officers
Speaker 1: right in and be like, I would love to know
Speaker 1: do because when I was a kid, my dad always
Speaker 1: had PBA cards, which is the Policeman's Benevolent Association, and
Speaker 1: that was always like you just slipped it under your
Speaker 1: driver's license if you got pulled over for a ticket,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that got you off, and sometimes they just
Speaker 1: took the card and gave you the ticket anyway. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I don't even know if that's the thing anymore.
Speaker 1: I'd love to know. What would anybody even honor that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And and if it is a thing, you can write
Speaker 1: into a bent at the meat Eater dot com and
Speaker 1: I will give you my nailing address and you can
Speaker 1: send any ten of them. Yeah, there you go. That
Speaker 1: that should last you a week or two anyway. All right,
Speaker 1: So let's get on with it. We'll we'll hit conservation
Speaker 1: minutes here real quick. Here's what I've got. A conservation
Speaker 1: group in Canada is begging for a rule change regarding
Speaker 1: Atlantic salmon, saying that catch and release angling needs to
Speaker 1: be banned. Entirely in Newfoundland, particularly when the water is
Speaker 1: above eighteen degrees celsius, which is sixty four point four
Speaker 1: degrees fahrenheit. UH, citing the study conducted by an angling
Speaker 1: group that above those tempts, even with the use of
Speaker 1: rubber mesh nets and cotton release gloves and all those
Speaker 1: those things, um, once you get above those temperatures, even
Speaker 1: those things created sores and and detrimental injuries to the fish. Now,
Speaker 1: Atlantic salmon are already at risk and much of their
Speaker 1: historic range and non existent in other parts of their
Speaker 1: historic range. But a call for a ban on catch
Speaker 1: and release during the summer months is going to be
Speaker 1: pretty hard to get by all the lodges and guides
Speaker 1: and outfitters that still rely on them to make money.
Speaker 1: So interesting debate, there's some air of of stryper debate
Speaker 1: on the second. I gotta ask you the it says
Speaker 1: saying that catching release angling needs to be banned entirely,
Speaker 1: particularly with the water when the water is above eighteen
Speaker 1: degrees celsius. Are you saying that they want to ban
Speaker 1: catching release fishing for Atlantic salmon outright or only when
Speaker 1: it exceeds these temperatures? Well, I think this group wants
Speaker 1: them to be outright, but they're saying at minimum, once
Speaker 1: the water gets above that temperature, it should absolutely be
Speaker 1: be bad like that. I mean I feel like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we and we have we have similar things. I
Speaker 1: mean to see that about trout right seventy degrees, Like
Speaker 1: if you're if you really want to conserve trout, you
Speaker 1: don't fight him in the summertime if the water is
Speaker 1: above seventy or whatever the number is. Same thing with muskie.
Speaker 1: Can we do it? Can we do a short story time?
Speaker 1: I got kind of a funny story about it. Go ahead. Well, Uh,
Speaker 1: when I was first like getting really seriously into fly fish,
Speaker 1: and one of my buddies on the West Branch invite
Speaker 1: me up to Uh you're when I say really seriously,
Speaker 1: I mean, like professionally seriously about the first time I'd
Speaker 1: ever been like included with the big dogs. And uh,
Speaker 1: we were staying on the east branch but fishing the
Speaker 1: West branch. But you could go out in the daytime
Speaker 1: and you know, do the uh do a little wade
Speaker 1: trip on the on the east there. So he was
Speaker 1: out with a boat full of clients and I'm just
Speaker 1: hanging around the camp and I'm like, oh shit, I'll
Speaker 1: go I'll go catch some fish. I didn't really understand
Speaker 1: why we weren't. Well, the east branch isn't a tailwater
Speaker 1: the same as the west branches. Nope. Uh, And I
Speaker 1: didn't realize it. But now again, we had been fishing
Speaker 1: there like the week before, so like these aren't I
Speaker 1: wasn't like fishing in like seventy eighty degree water or
Speaker 1: like something like that. I was fishing in like sixty
Speaker 1: seven sixty eight degree water. And uh, he comes down,
Speaker 1: sees me, goes, hey man, we can't be fishing back
Speaker 1: there right now. We uh you know, is it? Is
Speaker 1: it a legal thing? No, it's not. Yeah. Well I
Speaker 1: I was too inexperienced know that this might be the
Speaker 1: case in this particular body water. So anyway, he comes
Speaker 1: down and say, hey man, we can't be fishing out there.
Speaker 1: We can't be fishing out there. Really lays into me
Speaker 1: and like understandably. So I told him understood, We got
Speaker 1: out of the water, etcetera. And about like ten minutes later,
Speaker 1: he kind of looks at me out of the corner
Speaker 1: of his eye he goes, I bet you was real good, though,
Speaker 1: wasn't it. Yeah, well, dude, it's like summertime muskies. Man, Like,
Speaker 1: you can catch some muskies in the summer around here,
Speaker 1: but in certain places Dude, that what degrees in the
Speaker 1: summer that it's no buy now you know what I mean? Yep?
Speaker 1: What do you got for conservation? Minute? All? Al right here,
Speaker 1: let me pull that up. Okay, So speaking of muskies, Uh,
Speaker 1: this week big news in West Virginia. On March nineteen,
Speaker 1: angler Luke King smashed the West of Virginia state muskie
Speaker 1: record with a with a hell of a fish measuring
Speaker 1: fifty five inches long. Yeah it's big fish, giant fish.
Speaker 1: Yeah and uh and weighing fifty one pounds so huge,
Speaker 1: quite the muscle lunge. Yeah. Anyhow, an important thing to
Speaker 1: note in the story is that the fish was put
Speaker 1: back into the water and swam away healthy. Huge props
Speaker 1: to the angler and the West Virginia d n R. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I called West Virginia DNA ARE and spoke to Mark Scott,
Speaker 1: assistant chief of Fish Management, who had this to say
Speaker 1: about the the catch and the release. Um. He said,
Speaker 1: Ultimately it's up to the angler if they want to
Speaker 1: kill illegally caught fish to have it certified at a
Speaker 1: later date. But muskie anglers in particular are very conscious
Speaker 1: about releasing their catch, and this one was released unharmed.
Speaker 1: The angler kept it in a large net and waited
Speaker 1: for biologists, and with cold water like we have at
Speaker 1: this time of year, this was called march. Uh, that
Speaker 1: wasn't an issue, he continues to say. And this goes to,
Speaker 1: you know, speak to the above and beyond effort that
Speaker 1: they went through in order to, you know, make sure
Speaker 1: this fish was released as healthily as possible. You can't
Speaker 1: plan to catch a state record fish, but our guys
Speaker 1: do their best to verify things on site as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible. During the week we can always get someone
Speaker 1: out to the angler, But on the weekends, as is
Speaker 1: the case with this fish, Um, it's much harder to
Speaker 1: get biologists out there. I don't like to call our
Speaker 1: biologist on Saturday morning and say, hey, you gotta get
Speaker 1: out there and verify this fish. But with a record
Speaker 1: like this, they're normally pretty willing to go out. Um.
Speaker 1: And then he he let me know that their biologists
Speaker 1: had pit tagged the fish, so if it's called again,
Speaker 1: they'll be able to identify it as the same fish.
Speaker 1: So uh, a little bit of conservation through catch and
Speaker 1: release angling man and uh a little yeah good on Luke.
Speaker 1: I I know I read a little bit about it,
Speaker 1: and I know like he was hardcore about making sure
Speaker 1: that fish went back and they got the pit tag in.
Speaker 1: So um win win there. All right, onto regular news.
Speaker 1: Remember this is a competition, and we'll we're still gonna
Speaker 1: call it one, even though I actually do know which
Speaker 1: story Hayden has brought to the ring this week. You'll
Speaker 1: hear more about that later. Uh. Still at the end,
Speaker 1: our audio engineer, Phil not Hayden, Phil as in Phil Taylor,
Speaker 1: will declare a winner. And it's my So, yeah, I
Speaker 1: know it happens, um, and I think it's a really
Speaker 1: fun story. I'm kind of pumped on it. Uh. And
Speaker 1: this comes to us from mash dot com, and it's
Speaker 1: about how one little change up to a product then
Speaker 1: the grand scheme of things should have zero bearing on anything,
Speaker 1: has made a specific cult of anglers irate. And that
Speaker 1: product of all things is the McDonald's drinking Strong. So
Speaker 1: before we get down to the nitty gritty of the issue,
Speaker 1: let's talk for just a minute here about Spanish mackerel
Speaker 1: um if you're not familiar with them or their behavior.
Speaker 1: They are relatively small fish, but very fast pelagic fish
Speaker 1: that that show up in casting range of the beach
Speaker 1: and piers with regularity in much of the South right.
Speaker 1: Spanish mackerel um, unlike some of their cousins, are are
Speaker 1: not really oily. They have a nice, clean white meat
Speaker 1: that I can tell you is excellent on the grill
Speaker 1: or as sashimi. Um. And when the Spanish max are around,
Speaker 1: they're usually very thick and aggressive. Um. They mostly feed
Speaker 1: on small bait fish and um. Spanish mackerel have a
Speaker 1: mean set of choppers and that is key here. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. You know, I haven't read this story, but
Speaker 1: as soon as he told me what item it was,
Speaker 1: I thought it was going to be something of this
Speaker 1: continue right, So because of those teeth, anglers have to
Speaker 1: tailor their lures and presentation, because if you just huck
Speaker 1: out a small jig or you know, a little metal
Speaker 1: on your standard leader, you're gonna get cut off over
Speaker 1: and over again. Strong chance right now. Because Spanish max
Speaker 1: are good, table, fair and abundant, they've also been a
Speaker 1: favorite target of anglers like on a budget, shall we say,
Speaker 1: like you don't need fancy gear to catch them, and
Speaker 1: you can you can catch a ton. The limits are high, um,
Speaker 1: and because people don't want to use all kinds of
Speaker 1: expensive lures, there's been a lot of ingenuity involved in
Speaker 1: creating cheap but effective lures. For Spanish max um as
Speaker 1: an example, considering these fish will slash it pretty much
Speaker 1: anything that moves and looks kind of like a tiny
Speaker 1: bait fish. Many guys lean on a simple piece of
Speaker 1: rubber tubing. It's just a few inches long and that
Speaker 1: slid over the end of their leader, and that leader
Speaker 1: has a trouble hook crim to the end, and the
Speaker 1: piece of tubing acts like a bite guard. But it's
Speaker 1: also just this redder orange, your colorful tubing that darts
Speaker 1: and wiggles just enough um when you reel to get
Speaker 1: bit and you can get four or five Spanish macro
Speaker 1: to one lure before it's shredded. And if you lose that,
Speaker 1: no big deal. Well guess what else works? And some
Speaker 1: anglers believe even better than the tubing that McDonald's drinking
Speaker 1: are gonna lose their mind when the styrofoam cups get banned.
Speaker 1: Right now. Per the story, the practice of turning McDonald's
Speaker 1: straws into Spanish macro lures dates back to the early eighties,
Speaker 1: when McDonald's was the dominant fast food chain in the country. Um.
Speaker 1: To add to the frugality of it, all anglers could
Speaker 1: get at least three lures out of one straw. And
Speaker 1: I mean straws are essentially free, right, you can walk
Speaker 1: into McDonald's straw right. Um. The article says that these
Speaker 1: straw lures originated around Pensacola, Florida, and it's something about
Speaker 1: the straw made these homemade maclures gurgle and move differently
Speaker 1: than similar tubing lures. The story even says, and this
Speaker 1: is what I think is so cool that the straw
Speaker 1: lures allegedly out fished other lures five to one. Now
Speaker 1: so great, right, allow made out of a straw catches fish.
Speaker 1: What's the big deal? But this story and some of
Speaker 1: the anglers quoted in it swear that no straw compares
Speaker 1: to the classic McDonald's white straw with the red and
Speaker 1: yellow stripe that we all remember from our earlier days. Um,
Speaker 1: it had to be that particular straw or it didn't work,
Speaker 1: which is why many in the Spanish macro game were
Speaker 1: pretty piste when Mickey D's ousted the iconic straw in
Speaker 1: favor of yellow and brown ones. And of course these
Speaker 1: days everybody's doing paper straws because straws are no good. Um.
Speaker 1: And here's a quote from the story, Uh what his
Speaker 1: weather or not? McDonald sympathized with the fisherman's plate the chain,
Speaker 1: didn't change the straw color back and instead suggested the
Speaker 1: Big Mac as an alternative to the straw. Um. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess what I'm saying is uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and I love this. If you're sitting on a pile
Speaker 1: of retro mcdonald'straws, you can totally hot them for good
Speaker 1: coin on the pencicle of Craigslist page. But it's the
Speaker 1: precision that resonates with me. It's like, it can't be
Speaker 1: an RB straw, can't be a Wendy straw, can't be
Speaker 1: a dairy queen straw. Like it has to be the McDonald's,
Speaker 1: which I would I would love to know more about that,
Speaker 1: Like why what is it the Spanish mackerel are seeing
Speaker 1: in that color combo? That was so good? Yeah? I
Speaker 1: don't know, man, I mean like, but that's like the
Speaker 1: classic thing about like I don't know kind of any
Speaker 1: like cult angler phenomenon, right, Like, the one thing that
Speaker 1: I think of immediately is like the wonder bread spoon,
Speaker 1: right like that that pattern, for like whatever reason, just
Speaker 1: the fish like universally. Um, I don't think that as
Speaker 1: much as we'd like to think that we we can
Speaker 1: plan out exactly what fish want to eat and come
Speaker 1: up with these like patterns that are just going to
Speaker 1: crush them. Um. Ultimately, the fish are fickle and don't
Speaker 1: really seem to have any logical sort of preferences. Man,
Speaker 1: it just happens. No, You're right, I guarantee if I
Speaker 1: made you that same Lauren took it up to a
Speaker 1: trout stream, I'd get a trout to eat that straw too. Um.
Speaker 1: And I've also you ever seen those things where those
Speaker 1: like Chinese or Japanese dudes take a drinking straw and
Speaker 1: like origami it and they end up with like the
Speaker 1: most realistic looking brine shrimp you've ever seen, and they
Speaker 1: used that to catch stuff off the rock. No, but
Speaker 1: that's amazing, it's pretty impressive. That's been floating around for
Speaker 1: a while. But I'm like, Damn, that looks like too
Speaker 1: much well, the well, the thing that it reminds me
Speaker 1: of the most, man is uh, you know people floss
Speaker 1: in salmon using styrofoam Uh, like pieces of a styrofoam
Speaker 1: coffee cup. You ever hear about that. Yeah, they'll be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I do. I remember that. I've alluded to him
Speaker 1: in the past. But the guy who taught me about
Speaker 1: fly fish and that bus driver that I had, man,
Speaker 1: I was like, what do you use for like your
Speaker 1: salmon flies? You know, because I was I was just
Speaker 1: fascinated upon hearing that you catch salmon on the east
Speaker 1: coast and I'm thinking like green butt, skunk, you know,
Speaker 1: like just like classic patterns like that. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: we don't use any of those. The best thing that
Speaker 1: we use styrofoam cup. It's like what yeah. But into
Speaker 1: the difference though, is flossing is flossed. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 1: you don't have to trick anything. I know that now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean now, I'm like, yeah, Tony, I bet you.
Speaker 1: They just couldn't help but eat that styrofoam cup. Man,
Speaker 1: please enter your password. You have one unheard message. Hey
Speaker 1: hey midsunter from graphics. Um, I'm kind as hard as
Speaker 1: I can with this photo that you sent me to
Speaker 1: twicket for Instagram. Um, I can't make fish like any bigger.
Speaker 1: There's anohing all on a small fish, you know, just
Speaker 1: talking about how pretty of the colors are caption or
Speaker 1: something like that. But anyway, I just want to let
Speaker 1: him in. Uh take care like end of message, delete
Speaker 1: press seven, save deleted. Okay, So Joe, we both know
Speaker 1: what I picked. I know I do know what you
Speaker 1: picked because you saw it in the inbox and called
Speaker 1: Dibbs and DIBs means something to me, no matter how
Speaker 1: old you are. Dibbs as DIBs, you called Dibbs. You
Speaker 1: got it, Yea. Although I'm I'm a little upset, ok Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I learned at college that Dibbs was nothing
Speaker 1: but something. Uh your loser buddies did anyway. Uh, the
Speaker 1: really messed up part of this is that it was
Speaker 1: your buddy Jim Fee who covered it. Man. He couldn't.
Speaker 1: He could have let you know. Uh, he could have
Speaker 1: let you know before it came out, But old Jim
Speaker 1: Fee did your dirty man. Yeah, Jim's too busy catching
Speaker 1: monster large mouth on herring plugs right now to to
Speaker 1: let me know about what stories are coming out. I'll
Speaker 1: give him a pass. I'll see him. I'll see him
Speaker 1: in a few weeks. I'll give him studs. Very charitable you, Joe. Anyhow,
Speaker 1: thank you, Jim Joe. Do you want to do you
Speaker 1: want to tell our listeners the title of the news story?
Speaker 1: Or should I? No? Man, it's so good. I feel
Speaker 1: like I should least give you a chance to be
Speaker 1: part of it. You know, no, you own it now,
Speaker 1: but we we did. A lot of people forwarded this
Speaker 1: one along. So the story comes from a friend of Bent,
Speaker 1: Jimmy fee via on the water dot com. And this
Speaker 1: little chestnut is titled Possum eating striper poacher busted in
Speaker 1: New York, which is now forever my favorite headline. And dude,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like if I had to go to
Speaker 1: the pantheon of Bent news stories, it's this or the
Speaker 1: prostitutes on ice really see it? Because here's the thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a this is a good Did
Speaker 1: we have to do this story? It's it's it's we
Speaker 1: We couldn't not hit the story here. But I will
Speaker 1: say this, like to most people, the idea of a
Speaker 1: poacher that's eating a possum, it's pretty weird, but this
Speaker 1: is meat eater, Like, don't we have a new eating
Speaker 1: possum series coming out or something like? Isn't this is
Speaker 1: just the kind of thing that that you do around here?
Speaker 1: Is it really that weird? Yeah, Spencer is actually gonna
Speaker 1: eat a possum stuffed in a in a snake in
Speaker 1: a in the South. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, okay, okay, so
Speaker 1: media to proclivities aside. Here's what happened. Over the course
Speaker 1: of two days. Using night vision goggles, some conservation officers
Speaker 1: monitored a group of people catching a bunch of stripers
Speaker 1: out of season on the Hudson River in New York.
Speaker 1: When you have to say, it's like ground zero for
Speaker 1: this year, Like there are more bust on the Hudson River,
Speaker 1: I swear than anywhere else. Right, Anyway, when the when
Speaker 1: the officers approached the poachers and maneuver I'd like to
Speaker 1: dub the poach approach the uh. The poachers were all like,
Speaker 1: we don't have any stripers, and the officers were like,
Speaker 1: we have night vision goggles, We've we've been watching you.
Speaker 1: You definitely have stripers. And boy did they have stripers.
Speaker 1: Fifty six stripers in a Dr Seuss esque approach to
Speaker 1: hiding stripers. They hid them in a bad tag and
Speaker 1: under rocks, in some roots and under boots. Um it
Speaker 1: listened where they the boots wasn't in there. That was
Speaker 1: just for the rhyme scheme. But it did list like
Speaker 1: they were hiding them in rootballs, or hiding them onto rocks,
Speaker 1: They were hiding in bags, were hiding them in all
Speaker 1: sorts of these spots. Anyhow, Stripers are not all that
Speaker 1: these officers found. Oh No, per the headline, in a
Speaker 1: turn of events that brings me the maximum amount of
Speaker 1: joy any game offense possibly could. Uh, they found that
Speaker 1: one of the poachers was cooking up a possum which
Speaker 1: she had also punched in the parking lot in New York. Uh,
Speaker 1: we know that's illegal. I'm just saying, like, I don't
Speaker 1: what are the possum rules? Certain I think they're out
Speaker 1: of season anyhow. And I have to say, like I
Speaker 1: wonder if it was like Francis Malmon who was the
Speaker 1: poacher apprehended here, because the possum appears to be beautifully
Speaker 1: cooked over what's known in culinary parlans as a live fire,
Speaker 1: that being a grill great over over coals like the
Speaker 1: thing is golden brown and like it genuinely looks tasty.
Speaker 1: If I didn't know it was a possum, much less
Speaker 1: a possum shot in New York on the Hudson, I
Speaker 1: would have eaten it. Um anyway, Uh, not a lot
Speaker 1: of meat, but you wouldn't. Now you wouldn't now anyway,
Speaker 1: not a lot of meat on the bone there, so
Speaker 1: to speak. But come on, you had to. Oh, we
Speaker 1: we absolutely had to. Um. Yeah, I mean, how do
Speaker 1: you how do you leave that one alone? Because it
Speaker 1: is a terrific headline, but um, I mean the stripers
Speaker 1: is bad enough. I don't know the pot just I
Speaker 1: would try possum if it was like a country possum.
Speaker 1: Somebody's like, I I shot this. It was a problem
Speaker 1: on my farm. I mean, it's what it's like, It's
Speaker 1: what separate it's super rat, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like you're already worried about what the rats are into.
Speaker 1: What is that thing eating in that location? Uh? And
Speaker 1: I also they are just the creepiest animals dealt with
Speaker 1: some of my property, and they are just the creepiest
Speaker 1: app It's where you know, it's kind of what separates
Speaker 1: squab from like street pigeon, you know what I mean, sure, exactly,
Speaker 1: but it also makes me wonder. It's like, if if
Speaker 1: you all are that hungry you need to kill uh,
Speaker 1: fifty six stripers, you probably would have gotten the well,
Speaker 1: probably would have gotten away with more, just like round
Speaker 1: up the possums. Then, man, if that's what you want
Speaker 1: to eat, like you could get away with that easier.
Speaker 1: Most people, like yeah, would give less of a shit
Speaker 1: about that. I feel like, I mean, to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, man, I've never really thought about this, but
Speaker 1: if you have fifty six stripers on hand, why are
Speaker 1: you eating a possum? Why not just throw one of
Speaker 1: the stripers on the grill there. That's that sounds somebody
Speaker 1: somebody just forgot the tony satchery seasoning. That's why you
Speaker 1: know they only had you know, yeah, I mean, like
Speaker 1: I don't know, possum based itself. Yeah, yeah, Well the
Speaker 1: thing with the thing with like a possum, well, let's
Speaker 1: talk about bears real quick, man. When when you shoot
Speaker 1: a bear and you want to eat a bear, a
Speaker 1: lot of times how that bear will taste is very
Speaker 1: dependent on what they're eating. For instance, if you shoot
Speaker 1: a black bear in the fall, that has been eating
Speaker 1: all sorts of huckleberries, that is probably going to be
Speaker 1: a very tasty bear. If you shoot a spring bear
Speaker 1: in southeast Alaska that's been feeding on like rotting salmon carcasses, well,
Speaker 1: I guess not in spring, but okay, in autumn. If
Speaker 1: you shoot a a black bear in Alaska that's been
Speaker 1: like eating rotting salmon carcasses, that is not going to
Speaker 1: be a delicious bear. I would have to imagine that
Speaker 1: a possum, which presumably eats a bunch of trash, Yeah,
Speaker 1: feces of homeless people, things like that. Cheez Joe, what
Speaker 1: beat decent. I'm just saying it's an opportunistic feeder that
Speaker 1: is in a city environment. For all that is foul anyway, Okay, Uh,
Speaker 1: moving on, a mackerel eating straw are poacher's even possums? Uh,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hear from Phil and then we're gonna hear
Speaker 1: right out of it there, and we're gonna hear from
Speaker 1: Then we're gonna hear from Joe, who's going to tell
Speaker 1: us what the hell is on the end of his line.
Speaker 1: But I will say what it's gonna catch you is
Speaker 1: probably more delicious than possum and stripers, we're back to
Speaker 1: stock trout. The winner this week is Joe Surmelie. Joe,
Speaker 1: your story got me thinking about what we would all
Speaker 1: be attracted to if we were fish. I was thinking
Speaker 1: Hayden would be attracted to a dime bag in an
Speaker 1: off brand zip block. Joe, you would probably go for
Speaker 1: one of those bargain bin DVDs. It has like five
Speaker 1: full screen movies on one disc, but it would all
Speaker 1: be like eighties comedies that no one's thought of in
Speaker 1: about thirty eight years, and I would probably just go
Speaker 1: for a McDonald straw. Well, that's not loud enough. These days,
Speaker 1: there is no shortage of conventional lures that imitate terrestrial
Speaker 1: and aquatic insects. Now, I'm not talking about flies here,
Speaker 1: I'm talking about things meant to be cast on your
Speaker 1: trusty spinning rod. And for the most part, this is
Speaker 1: all thanks to major advances in the soft plastics realm.
Speaker 1: From fake maggots to rubber crickets to stretchy dragonflies, modern
Speaker 1: soft plastics have given us the ability to cast fish
Speaker 1: food imitations that we couldn't just ten or twenty years ago.
Speaker 1: Now it's not that fake bugs haven't existed for a
Speaker 1: long time, because they have. But if you compare say
Speaker 1: a rubber frog or even a worm from the seventies
Speaker 1: or eighties to those we have now, you can't deny
Speaker 1: that they just have more life. They're not stiff and
Speaker 1: rigid things molded around a hook. But while so many
Speaker 1: companies tried to push less than perfect rubber imitations for
Speaker 1: so many years, one company went all in on the
Speaker 1: buggy hardbeat. And I'm talking about rebel. We've discussed the
Speaker 1: rebel crickhopper in this segment before, and I've been fighting
Speaker 1: Instagram wars ever since because I said, I don't really
Speaker 1: like the rebel crickhopper. It's not that I've never caught
Speaker 1: fish on these tiny, popping and diving grasshopper cricket hybrid lures.
Speaker 1: It's just that it's never become a go to for me.
Speaker 1: I've never found a scenario where where that was the
Speaker 1: ringer above all else. But the crick hopper isn't the
Speaker 1: only for a rebel has ever taken into hard body bugs.
Speaker 1: And while I may not reach for that crickhopper very often,
Speaker 1: I will reach for their helgram might crank bait. Despite
Speaker 1: my best research efforts. I don't know exactly when the
Speaker 1: rebel helgram might hit shelves, but I know it's existed
Speaker 1: since at least the mid nineties because I had them
Speaker 1: as a kid. For those unfamiliar, the rebel helgra might
Speaker 1: is exactly what it sounds like, a tiny, hard plastic
Speaker 1: helgram might with little rubber legs and a tiny diving lip.
Speaker 1: They are available in one size and one size, on
Speaker 1: that being one and three quarter inches. They weigh a
Speaker 1: mere three thirty seconds of an ounce, which means they
Speaker 1: are meant to be fished on ultra light tackle, say
Speaker 1: two or four pound test. I bought my first rebel
Speaker 1: helgramite after an observation that is forever burned into my brain.
Speaker 1: I was twelve or thirteen and just had a successful
Speaker 1: day catching early may stock trout on my usual offerings
Speaker 1: of panther Martin's and meal worms. One of those trout
Speaker 1: was a nice seventeen inch rainbow, and when I gutted
Speaker 1: it in the river forehead and home, something looked odd
Speaker 1: about its stomach, so I slid it open and out
Speaker 1: popped a giant helgramite. Now, at the time I had
Speaker 1: no idea what the hell it was. I just knew
Speaker 1: it was weird and ugly and scared me a little.
Speaker 1: When I brought this up to the fellows at the
Speaker 1: local tackle joint, they of course knew right away, explaining
Speaker 1: that live ones aren't easy to get, but they are
Speaker 1: some of the most potent baits you can use in
Speaker 1: fresh water, especially for trout and smallmouths. Meantime, they said,
Speaker 1: maybe try this here, rebel helgra might. I did try it,
Speaker 1: and I didn't catch ship, and that's because I was
Speaker 1: casting and reeling it like a regular crankbait. But that's
Speaker 1: not how the rebel helgramite is designed to work. I
Speaker 1: actually learned this from something I read not long after
Speaker 1: in in Fisherman. These lures sink slowly, and the idea
Speaker 1: is to reel just fast enough to get the little
Speaker 1: might ticking and banging over the rocks on the bottom. Truthfully,
Speaker 1: the lord doesn't have a ton of action, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't need it. It just needs to look like a
Speaker 1: helgram might moving from one little hiding spot to another.
Speaker 1: Armed with this information, I lost about ten rebel helgram
Speaker 1: mites in the next two seasons, diligently banging them off
Speaker 1: the rocks and praying they didn't get stuck. I had
Speaker 1: about given up on the lore until I had a
Speaker 1: real eye opener. It was maybe two seasons after I
Speaker 1: caught that trout with the helgram might in its gut
Speaker 1: that I stuck an eighteen inch brown in a hole
Speaker 1: that did just been bombarded by other anglers. When I
Speaker 1: showed up at the river, they were four guys pumbling it.
Speaker 1: So I walked way downstream and on the way back
Speaker 1: they were gone. This was one of those deep, dark,
Speaker 1: mysterious bridge holes. So I figured I'd send something out
Speaker 1: that the pile of trout likely in it hadn't seen,
Speaker 1: and I braced myself for a snag like I often
Speaker 1: did with the Rebel helber mte. But on the second retrieve,
Speaker 1: that tiny mite came to a dead stop, and when
Speaker 1: I swung this time, it wasn't a rock. I've caught
Speaker 1: a bunch of trout on the Rebel Helgramtes since, but
Speaker 1: I've learned that for me, at least, it's a tool
Speaker 1: with a specific application as a replacement for spinners or
Speaker 1: small jerk baits. I don't really see the magic, but
Speaker 1: in those deep, slow holes it has pulled a rabbit
Speaker 1: out of the hat for me on numerous occasions. Is
Speaker 1: it really that stock trout key in on helgram mites
Speaker 1: with more ferocity? I don't know, Or is it just
Speaker 1: a very different presentation from percent of what these fish see.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure, but to this day it's rare
Speaker 1: for me to leave a good hole without bouncing that
Speaker 1: lore through at least three or four times. Still hoping
Speaker 1: I don't lose it now. As for the rebel bumblebee
Speaker 1: crank bait, I still haven't figured that one out. It
Speaker 1: does even less for me than the crick hopper, but
Speaker 1: I'll stand by and let the bumblebee fanatics tear me
Speaker 1: up in the bent inbox. So there you go. You
Speaker 1: now have a new lure that doesn't fall in the
Speaker 1: traditional opening day categories to throw for those pellet heads.
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. Well. The the the rebel helga
Speaker 1: might is definitely something I need to get in my
Speaker 1: arsenal as I as I broaden my conventional fishing horizons.
Speaker 1: But seeing that I'm both from p A and left
Speaker 1: to fly fish, we we we cannot have a more
Speaker 1: fitting question for the bent helpline UH this week to
Speaker 1: round out our opening day themed episode. What do you
Speaker 1: laughing at Martini? You're not an idiot, You're out of damlooning.
Speaker 1: Help all, you're a fisherman. What's your so today? On
Speaker 1: the bent Helpline Archery kid asks very succinctly, uh, top
Speaker 1: ten trout flies for Pennsylvania, And I put an asterix
Speaker 1: next to this, and I said, let's just have a
Speaker 1: conversation about our top ten trout flies in general, because
Speaker 1: you know, aside from like if you're fishing, like you know,
Speaker 1: if you try and bring your Hendrickson's out here, um like,
Speaker 1: Hendrickson's don't really exist, so like that's like kind of
Speaker 1: one of the few, um, I guess times where you
Speaker 1: can look at something and be like, maybe not maybe
Speaker 1: not applicable everywhere. But for the most part, I think
Speaker 1: flies are generally you know, if if a fly works here,
Speaker 1: it'll probably work over there. Everybody of water, every region
Speaker 1: has like little nuances, but in general, if we're talking
Speaker 1: about trout flies across the board, these ten that Joe
Speaker 1: and I are about to give you will work everywhere,
Speaker 1: and the work well, okay, well my five are mop fly,
Speaker 1: mop fly, mop fly, mop fly, at least for p
Speaker 1: a uh, you know you can if you want to
Speaker 1: scratch the wooly bugger and just get a salmon egg
Speaker 1: saying that works too. So I'm kidding, of course, Um,
Speaker 1: I do agree with what you said, barring barring a
Speaker 1: few caveats, like there there are some things that I
Speaker 1: think are critical out west, that salmon flies and ship Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: now I was I was because I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: I was gonna say stimmies. I was gonna say stimulated
Speaker 1: Like that is to me, you don't fish out west
Speaker 1: without some stimulators. Whereas that idea of just throwing something
Speaker 1: big and honking out there in the east and you're
Speaker 1: gonna get a fish to come up and eat it. No,
Speaker 1: I'm saying out here in the east, right, No, no, No,
Speaker 1: What I'm what I'm saying is like you can go
Speaker 1: out west in the middle of the summer and regardless
Speaker 1: of of the hatches a lot of times, right, if
Speaker 1: you present a stimmy, a big and these are these
Speaker 1: are big dry flies that represent a million things, right.
Speaker 1: They can be a stone fly, a grasshopper. It's just
Speaker 1: like a general imitation. Um, good chance you get a
Speaker 1: cutty or something to come up and sip that whereas
Speaker 1: out here on the East Coast, I think, Um, it's
Speaker 1: not that it's not that easy to do that there there,
Speaker 1: they're there. You're you're more inclined to catch dry fly
Speaker 1: fish on a specific hatch than just kind of blinding
Speaker 1: a stimulator around. But beyond a few things like that,
Speaker 1: um Man, I firmly believe, I'm trying to think what
Speaker 1: my five dude, I believe, like, if you have an
Speaker 1: atoms in a million different sizes, you have just covered
Speaker 1: pretty much every hatch on the planet everywhere, right and then.
Speaker 1: And that's not entirely true, but it kind of is too,
Speaker 1: especially in low light in the evening. Okay, um, hair's here, nymph,
Speaker 1: uh hare's I like a hair's ere, Adams hair's ear,
Speaker 1: Prince nymph, wooly bugger and uh zonker Man, I mean
Speaker 1: you can catch if I had to chop one elk hair,
Speaker 1: cadis right. I think that's like if you've got Elk
Speaker 1: hairs and you've got Adams man, you are covered for
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff as long as you have been
Speaker 1: a bunch of different sizes. That's the thing with flies
Speaker 1: most of the time, if you're getting refused the size
Speaker 1: not the color exactly less. So with nymphs, I go,
Speaker 1: I go, size profile color. Those are like my order
Speaker 1: of like operations. If I'm trying to narrow something downright.
Speaker 1: Um So, my my top five are pheasant tail, pheasant tail,
Speaker 1: pheasant tail, pheasant tail fly. No, no, they're pheasant tail,
Speaker 1: Griffith's and that. Uh. I love a man. It's a dude.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just hate fishing him. I love him.
Speaker 1: I hate fishing him. Well, we'll get onto that, but
Speaker 1: compare it on a bunny leech and a rusty spinner.
Speaker 1: Those are my Those are my top five for trout. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: for sure. I also think you know it's funny because
Speaker 1: we're joking about mop flies and ship but without knowing
Speaker 1: like his m O. Because if he's fishing like Pine
Speaker 1: Creek during high Stoker season, the list we gave you
Speaker 1: is pretty much worthless in which case like mop fly,
Speaker 1: San Juan salmon egg. But like that's a very valid
Speaker 1: list too. So without knowing, if we're talking about wildfish,
Speaker 1: we should have done Stoker native and then the stock
Speaker 1: how close. I'll tell you. Well, I'll tell you I
Speaker 1: have a story tied to that. Years ago. I covered
Speaker 1: Um I hosted uh something for Field and Stream that
Speaker 1: was on TV called the Total Outdoorsman Challenge and there
Speaker 1: was a fly fishing part and I was like a
Speaker 1: commentator and uh, I need delicious down in Dogwood Canyon,
Speaker 1: um in Missouri, and you have all these like you know,
Speaker 1: these these dudes that think they're all hardcore, and I'm
Speaker 1: like going to each from them. I'm like, what pattern
Speaker 1: are you throwing on this beat? And they're like, uh,
Speaker 1: dead egg. I'm like, what's a dead egg? And it
Speaker 1: was a salmon fly that was just light brown. But
Speaker 1: they couldn't they just could not bring themselves to say pellets.
Speaker 1: So it's like, well, you know, like when the eggs
Speaker 1: rot a little bit and get discolored in water. Egg.
Speaker 1: I'm like, get out of here with that ship a
Speaker 1: dead egg? Kidding me? A pellet fly? Fly man. I
Speaker 1: remember when I was like when I was a kid. Um.
Speaker 1: It was on a creek out by your neck of
Speaker 1: the woods man, and there was this older guy who
Speaker 1: was just watching me stroggle and watching me stroggle and
Speaker 1: watching me struggle, and he goes, you want to catch
Speaker 1: some fish? I'm like, uh huh, yeah, definitely do. He goes, Okay,
Speaker 1: here tie this on. And I'm tying on this fly,
Speaker 1: and he's kind of like moving over by like the bank,
Speaker 1: and he's like kind of like reaching into the stuff,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of wondering what the hell he's doing,
Speaker 1: and uh, he goes you ready. I was like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: and he had a handful of like gravel, like really
Speaker 1: tiny gravel, like throws it out there. All this time
Speaker 1: he goes cast cast trout came right up and he
Speaker 1: thought he was Yeah, I thought he was throwing a
Speaker 1: bunch of pellots in. Um. Anyway, here, let's let's let's
Speaker 1: talk just like seriously about like these flies for a secondly.
Speaker 1: Probably I just want to go list real quickly and
Speaker 1: actually helped the fellow. Uh, pheasant tails are great, man. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm doing a in in the nearer. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's going to be at the time
Speaker 1: that this comes out or before or after it, but
Speaker 1: I'm doing a end of the line on on pheasant
Speaker 1: tail nymps because they are my absolute favorites. Very rarely
Speaker 1: will you see me nim fishing and that not be
Speaker 1: the first thing that I tie on. I just think
Speaker 1: it's like one of the best imitations that there ever was.
Speaker 1: I like a variety with like a CDC hackle. It's
Speaker 1: just a great buggy, all purpose nymph and it just
Speaker 1: works very well. Uh, Griffith snap. That's because I don't
Speaker 1: like tying midges. And if you don't know, Griffith snap
Speaker 1: is just a it's supposed to imitate, you know, a
Speaker 1: a midge like cluster. Yeah, it's a cluster. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: while all it is, it's really easy to tie, and
Speaker 1: you can and you can time on all sorts of
Speaker 1: like size I I typically have them in my box
Speaker 1: from about sixteen or and eighteen all the way down
Speaker 1: to like I've tied twenty six is before they're getting
Speaker 1: like negative note it doesn't actually exist. It's like a
Speaker 1: negative number, it's there. Yeah, And all it is is
Speaker 1: just peacock hurl wrapped around a hook and then you
Speaker 1: hackle the entire length of the hook with a a
Speaker 1: a grizzle hackle. Um. And that's why I do pretty
Speaker 1: much all my midge fishing with because it works well.
Speaker 1: I can tie a million of them real quick. And
Speaker 1: you know, when you're fish like a fly that small,
Speaker 1: you're liable to break off them more often, So like
Speaker 1: it saves me from just like being forever frustrated device
Speaker 1: and like lamenting that I just lost atoms on my backcast.
Speaker 1: I'll throw one more extra player out there. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw a nomination down for the freaking zug bug. Why
Speaker 1: does nobody talk about the zug bug? You know what?
Speaker 1: Zug bug is the spinner bait of the damn fly world.
Speaker 1: And I catch the ship out of trout, or used to,
Speaker 1: at least on zug bugs. I think it's because it's
Speaker 1: just like to me, it catches too many trout. That's
Speaker 1: the problem. It's like reeks of like the Old Guard, right,
Speaker 1: like reeks of like a fly made on a chalk
Speaker 1: stream in like you know, I'm sure that that is
Speaker 1: not where that comes from. Well, I was gonna say, man,
Speaker 1: you gotta watch what you say there, because I've I've
Speaker 1: edited some pieces and interviewed some folks who swear up
Speaker 1: and down that if you, if, if, if people today
Speaker 1: would just get their head around old Guard wet fly fishing,
Speaker 1: not nimp d wet fly fishing, you will smoke everybody
Speaker 1: on the river every single time. Hatch no hatch like you.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's one of the first days. One of
Speaker 1: the first days that I ever did truly great fly
Speaker 1: fishing was doing just that, was swinging a partridge soft tackle. Yep,
Speaker 1: and nobody doesn't. And I like, I've heard, I've heard
Speaker 1: the hype for years. Have I Have I gotten myself
Speaker 1: a set of partridge soft tackles? I have not, But
Speaker 1: you know, there's something to be said about old school. Yeah,
Speaker 1: moving on like a comparadn man, I think that works
Speaker 1: really well. I like how it sits so low in
Speaker 1: the water, it has like the right profile. They're easy
Speaker 1: to tie. You can bang out a bunch of them real,
Speaker 1: real quick. And uh, I've always had good luck on those,
Speaker 1: particularly when I've been like dealing with kind of selective fish.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, Are you going to break down every
Speaker 1: single one of your picks like this, Because I was
Speaker 1: just gonna tell dude, everything I said is in the
Speaker 1: Walmart starter kit. Just go and purchase that. They're all
Speaker 1: in there, Adams, the Elk Care, the Prince Nim Bunny
Speaker 1: leech is a good easy streamer and rusty spinners. If
Speaker 1: you want to get frustrated about eight thirty at night, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then tie on a mouse and catch a real one. Boom. Anyway, Um, dude,
Speaker 1: I know that's kind of all over the place, but
Speaker 1: but you actually think you're asking like a very simple question,
Speaker 1: and it's it's not really that easy to to to
Speaker 1: sum up, I'm joking about Walmart, but not too like truly.
Speaker 1: A lot of the things I brought up are in
Speaker 1: your classic like trout starter flies, and they're there for
Speaker 1: a reason. That's the stuff when I first started fly fishing,
Speaker 1: that's what I bought, the Wooly Bugger pack, and I
Speaker 1: caught plenty of fish on it. So, uh, don't overthink
Speaker 1: it too much. And I would say, don't get lost
Speaker 1: in you know, there's all Rainbow Warrior and the guns
Speaker 1: up about a gun slinger and all that go down.
Speaker 1: That go down, man, Yeah, exactly. Anyway, I hope that
Speaker 1: helped you a little bit. If we if we miss
Speaker 1: something for PA or elsewhere, if you guys are like,
Speaker 1: how could you not mention the insert fly name here?
Speaker 1: Let us know. And if you've got more questions that
Speaker 1: we can answer, please keep sending those two bent at
Speaker 1: the meat eater dot com. So that's it for this week.
Speaker 1: If you live squarely in the land of wild trout,
Speaker 1: sorry you had to suffer through that. But we're trying
Speaker 1: to teach you about a different culture here. Okay, man
Speaker 1: Stocker's count Yeah, and archery kid if reference to your birthday,
Speaker 1: you're almost thirty. Your your archery adult now. Anyway, keep
Speaker 1: using the Degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags. We really
Speaker 1: do love seeing what you guys are up to. Maybe
Speaker 1: an opening day stocky s fest, Yeah, that would be good.
Speaker 1: And hey, if you're a p A resident going to
Speaker 1: hit the opener tomorrow, Remember wearing studded boots makes it
Speaker 1: easier to kick children out of your favorite spot. It
Speaker 1: Flies are the easiest to tie, and to quote John Gearak,
Speaker 1: there are only two types of people on the river.
Speaker 1: Folks are fishing with any assholes