Speaker 1: If you're in a boat ram and he pulls in
Speaker 1: with salt life all over his stuff, like he's probably
Speaker 1: the one that's gonna put his truck in the water.
Speaker 1: You spine this dinghis we're gonna accept for coin, and
Speaker 1: there are two options. They actually retrofitted pool cues like
Speaker 1: real pool cues, with real seats and guides to use
Speaker 1: his musky rods. Did you get it on a jail?
Speaker 1: But no, you cannot adopt a Will's captish. Good morning,
Speaker 1: degenerate anglers, Welcome to Bend, the fishing show that buys
Speaker 1: daiki hooks from the wish app Because really, do we
Speaker 1: seem like the kind of guys who can afford dach
Speaker 1: hooks at the fly shop? No, come on, I'm Joe
Speaker 1: sph Melli and I'm Miles Nulty. All right, So, a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago we made a joke at the expense
Speaker 1: of rent a cops, and I had no idea how
Speaker 1: sensitive a subject we were touching on. So to all
Speaker 1: the private secure aty professionals out there who took offense,
Speaker 1: please accept our heartfelt hope that you can find your
Speaker 1: senses of humor a little trivia effect for you. I
Speaker 1: used to work as a retail security guard. Yes, I
Speaker 1: was once a rent a cop. And even though I
Speaker 1: was very very bad at that job, because I could
Speaker 1: not have cared less how many beastie boys cedeeds disappeared
Speaker 1: to the jam sport backpacks, I've earned the right to
Speaker 1: make rent a cop jokes. If you're daily grind evolves
Speaker 1: sitting in a tiny little box handing out vendor badges
Speaker 1: and making regular patrols around the sales floor looking for
Speaker 1: people to profile, you can absorb a little good natured
Speaker 1: ship talk. It's weird, but I could picture you in
Speaker 1: that role in your younger days, like just not giving
Speaker 1: a shit about anything, year old ponytail halfway down my back.
Speaker 1: It was a job. In general, though, I will say, um,
Speaker 1: I think people's like waning lack of ability to make
Speaker 1: fun of themselves. It's just a growing global problem, like
Speaker 1: just in all facets, like we have people. You know,
Speaker 1: I make fun of myself constantly wondering, like wondering how
Speaker 1: I've gotten this FEI in life. But yeah, man, I'm
Speaker 1: with that. If you're a mall security guard or toll
Speaker 1: booth operator, that the kid that rounds up the golf
Speaker 1: balls at the driving range, you know, a fishing industry professional.
Speaker 1: Three words that do not belong together, like do yourself
Speaker 1: a favorite, laugh at yourself. It's okay, nothing bad is
Speaker 1: gonna happen. You might enjoy it. So no, we're all
Speaker 1: ridiculous apologies, but it's kind of like a sorry, not sorry.
Speaker 1: You know, we make fun of ourselves all the time,
Speaker 1: and for good reason, we deserve it. Uh. That said,
Speaker 1: I do have empathy for security guards like that. Truthfully,
Speaker 1: that is the most boring job I've ever had. And
Speaker 1: and to make things worse, break room coffee is terrible.
Speaker 1: It is. It is absolutely nothing like the black Rifle
Speaker 1: coffee that I'm currently enjoying. I'm a medium rose kind
Speaker 1: of guy, and their coffee saves variety is exactly what
Speaker 1: I need right now. So it's not just a clever name. Lately,
Speaker 1: the mrs and I have been hot on their Jest
Speaker 1: Black And tell you what, I'm not really a black
Speaker 1: coffee drinker. You know, I'm the weenie that fills half
Speaker 1: the mug with the Snickers flavored coffee. Mate. First, you know, Uh,
Speaker 1: it's just me, I'm just me being me. But the
Speaker 1: Jest Black is truly perfect drank jet black, and a
Speaker 1: little reminder that this podcast is entirely fueled by Black
Speaker 1: Rifle Coffee. Black Rifle Coffee Club keeps members fully stocked
Speaker 1: with premium fresh beans delivered right to their doors, and
Speaker 1: they support all the folks who support US military veterans,
Speaker 1: first responders, firefighters, and healthcare workers. So you can feel
Speaker 1: good about giving them your hard earned money. Head on
Speaker 1: over to Black Rifle Coffee dot com backslash meat Eater
Speaker 1: and they will take care of all your coffee needs.
Speaker 1: Use the code meat Eater a checkout and they'll even
Speaker 1: hook you up with your order. Yeah, and that coffee
Speaker 1: has also been fueling hours of cold calling and emailing
Speaker 1: Miles and I have been doing lately to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: talent agencies and man, you just trying to trying to
Speaker 1: coun our way into getting some some new fresh guests
Speaker 1: on this show, whose whose voices may sound more familiar,
Speaker 1: like we hang out with fishy people, but we're like,
Speaker 1: you know who who would resonate with the masses beyond
Speaker 1: the fish world. It's not easy. It's not easy. No,
Speaker 1: And and let's be clear, the operative word there is
Speaker 1: con Yeah. Anyway, somehow it worked kind of I don't
Speaker 1: know how to put this. We don't have an actual
Speaker 1: fishing report for you this week because I mean, all right, look,
Speaker 1: we got Brad Pitt to record something for us, and
Speaker 1: we're not really in a position to tell bread Pitt
Speaker 1: what to do. We didn't even get to talk to Brad.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't let us speak to Brad um not that
Speaker 1: I I mean, you know, that's that's fine, but this
Speaker 1: all went through his people. He's got people, so instead
Speaker 1: of a fishing report, we got h I don't know
Speaker 1: what do you what do you call this? I don't
Speaker 1: really know what I'm what I'm really introduce thing, except
Speaker 1: I'll just say here's Brad Pitt, ladies and gentlemen on
Speaker 1: the Bent podcast. You go ahead and enjoy this one. Hey, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: hi Brad here. So someone asked me to do this
Speaker 1: podcast and I was like, but bow, what's the podcast?
Speaker 1: And also who the hell are these guys? But when
Speaker 1: I found out it was about fishing, right, I was like,
Speaker 1: can I share my words? And they were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you can do whatever you want to do. So I'm
Speaker 1: really into fishing poetry, not so much fishing or poetry,
Speaker 1: but fishing poetry, you know, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So yeah, here are some poems that I wrote. Chasing
Speaker 1: Eternal Rises, pain, elation, euphoria, desperation, the rusted pull tab
Speaker 1: from a candid metaphorical kombucha, The smell of summer in
Speaker 1: the streets of New Delhi, A half a pack of Winston's.
Speaker 1: Two girls you swear you've met before, but you can't
Speaker 1: remember if it was at Luke's or Owen's. Winter and Toledo.
Speaker 1: A tape measure your dad let you bar and you
Speaker 1: never gave back, sage brush fig palm trees at a
Speaker 1: t g I Friday's warez bottom misstake fries, A moped
Speaker 1: that will take you anywhere you want to go if
Speaker 1: you have the free map. Fear of garden sprinklers. Your
Speaker 1: therapist hasn't been able to resolve something kind of like
Speaker 1: a small carry on bag, only larger trout. Thank you.
Speaker 1: This next one was inspired by some min you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: complicated relationships, hanging out with Guy Richie and Madonna in
Speaker 1: the UK, filming snatch sucker fish, who are you calling
Speaker 1: sucker Fish? Broadcast bowners, spreading seed, subterminal lips, blowing botox bubbles,
Speaker 1: criminal car casting, contentious characters past that roach. Did you
Speaker 1: get it on a jayhook? No? No, we cannot adopt
Speaker 1: a welles catfish. They need to swim free, look like me.
Speaker 1: That was it? Uh so, yeah, I humbly thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. Never forget the words of the Immortal Fluid.
Speaker 1: They were here, and then they were going to go there,
Speaker 1: and then they went. I gotta say that that first
Speaker 1: poem wasn't bad. You think so? You think that was good?
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I don't know. I dig poetry when
Speaker 1: it's well done. You know, I can get down with
Speaker 1: some of that, like free association imagery he had going
Speaker 1: on there. In fact, you know what, I think we
Speaker 1: should do more poetry on the show. Maybe we should
Speaker 1: start a segment called Poems that Don't Suck? Can it?
Speaker 1: Can it be a high coup? I see? I like
Speaker 1: high coups. It's just like short and sweet, takes two
Speaker 1: seconds to read. I don't have to get lost in that,
Speaker 1: you know. Uh? And just you saying that for the
Speaker 1: kids paying attention. I fear that's a that's called foreshadowing.
Speaker 1: So if we do end up aaring more poetry, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna assume some listeners will love it, while others absolutely
Speaker 1: hate it and send us, you know, yet another slew
Speaker 1: of emails asking us to never do that again. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll see, I'd end up reading some Shell Silverstein. You know.
Speaker 1: Saddest thing I Alveray did see was a woodpecker pack
Speaker 1: under a plastic tree, looked at me and friends says
Speaker 1: he thinks and as sweet as he used to be.
Speaker 1: That's That's about where poetry stops for me. Man. Oh,
Speaker 1: Shell Silverstein was a genius, That's all I'm gonna say.
Speaker 1: And and I'll also admit the poetry is polarizing. Either
Speaker 1: you enjoy it or you just completely hate the whole
Speaker 1: idea of it. And for those of you in the
Speaker 1: latter camp, I blame your high school English teachers. But
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stick with the theme of polarized opinions here.
Speaker 1: It's time for fin clips, where we tell you everything
Speaker 1: you never wanted to know about a fish you may
Speaker 1: or may not have heard of. This week, Joe is
Speaker 1: gonna deep dive into a trout subspecies about which anglers
Speaker 1: are staunchly divided. Say the word tiger trout to a
Speaker 1: devout trout angler, and you often get one of two responses.
Speaker 1: Said angler is often enthralled by tiger trout, considering them
Speaker 1: a rare prize, if not somewhat of a badge of honor,
Speaker 1: to have plucked a tiger or two from local waters
Speaker 1: over the course of their fishing careers. Or you get
Speaker 1: disdain because it's believed that tigers are simply frankenstein hatcher
Speaker 1: recreations that don't really belong anywhere, and they're so ravenous
Speaker 1: and dumb that it takes no skill whatsoever to catch one.
Speaker 1: Both of these responses are fair and at least partial
Speaker 1: the accurate. A tiger trout is a hybrid. It's a
Speaker 1: cross between a brook trout and a brown trout, and
Speaker 1: the result of this genetic mashup is a fish with
Speaker 1: a deep brown or olive e back, fiery orange belly,
Speaker 1: and a body full of swirling gold striation marks that
Speaker 1: you guessed it look kind of like tiger stripes. And
Speaker 1: like all hybrids, including the tiger muskie, tiger trout are sterile.
Speaker 1: Many states include tigers in their trout stocking programs, as
Speaker 1: creating them in a hatchery is relatively easy. Now. According
Speaker 1: to my research, brown trout have eighty chromosomes and brook
Speaker 1: trout have eighty four. So in the process of tiger making,
Speaker 1: brown trout eggs are fertilized with brook trout mill and
Speaker 1: then heat shocked, which causes the creation of an extra
Speaker 1: set of chromosomes, thus increasing the survival rate of that
Speaker 1: batch of tigers from five percent all the way up
Speaker 1: to The final result is a trout that grows more
Speaker 1: quickly than other species, tends to be more aggressive than
Speaker 1: other species, and is generally heartier and more tolerant of
Speaker 1: environmental factors that regular old brooks, browns, and rainbows might
Speaker 1: not dig. So much that hardiness I've actually witnessed with
Speaker 1: my own eyes right. I live right on the Lower
Speaker 1: Delaware River, which creates the border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Speaker 1: And while the upper reaches of this river, nearly three
Speaker 1: miles away, provide some of the best wild brown trout
Speaker 1: fishing in the country, the vast majority of the Delaware
Speaker 1: is far too warm to support trout. However, there are
Speaker 1: countless stock streams that drain into the main stem along
Speaker 1: those three hundred miles, so it's not super rare for
Speaker 1: a lucky smallmouth shad or striper angler to pull the
Speaker 1: occasional wayward trout from the low end, and guess what
Speaker 1: of the time when they do, it's a tiger. I've
Speaker 1: seen reports of tigers caught as far south as Philadelphia
Speaker 1: in the sludgy, cargo ship laden tidal water, which tells me, yeah,
Speaker 1: tigers are tougher than your average trout. While the vast
Speaker 1: majority of tiger trout the people catch ended up wherever
Speaker 1: they caught them because of this big science experiment, tiger
Speaker 1: trout do occur naturally in the wild, though it is
Speaker 1: incredibly rare, and since at least from what I gather,
Speaker 1: it mostly happens in small streams, you're not likely to
Speaker 1: stumble into a twenty pound thirteen announced tiger trout like
Speaker 1: Peter Friedland did on Lake Michigan in to claim the
Speaker 1: i g F a world record. In fact, I have
Speaker 1: a distinct recollection of a frame tiger trout photo hanging
Speaker 1: in a tiny fly shop on Slate Run in north
Speaker 1: central PA. It was only about six inches long, cradled
Speaker 1: lovingly in a pair of cupped hands, and the owner
Speaker 1: told me it's the only wild tiger he'd ever seen
Speaker 1: or heard of in all his years fishing. This famed
Speaker 1: wild trout stream. If, per chance, you happen to be
Speaker 1: one of those trout fishermen that make it a life
Speaker 1: goal to catch as many species of wild trout as possible,
Speaker 1: you can increase your odds of scratching off wild tiger
Speaker 1: trout by heading to Wisconsin. According to the innerwebs and
Speaker 1: I quote Whiskson currently has no stocking program for tiger trout,
Speaker 1: but the hybrids show up naturally in the States small streams,
Speaker 1: in particular in the Driftless area. As brook trout populations
Speaker 1: have rebounded, incidences of tiger trout have improved from exceedingly
Speaker 1: rare too a bit better than rare. Now. As for
Speaker 1: their i'll eat anything that moves aggression, I've personally never
Speaker 1: witnessed that, though I've also never fished any lakes or
Speaker 1: rivers with an abundance of tigers. However, on my wall
Speaker 1: there's a beautiful wood carving of a fat twenty inch
Speaker 1: tiger with its full colors blazing, and to date it
Speaker 1: is the only trout I've ever had eat a mouse
Speaker 1: fly in broad daylight on my beloved Upper Delaware River. Now,
Speaker 1: maybe that was because I just paid like the perfect
Speaker 1: presentation man, or maybe it was the only trout in
Speaker 1: the run dumb and aggressive enough to make that move
Speaker 1: before nightfall. Frankly, I don't care. It was a fabulous take,
Speaker 1: akin to a great white smashing the seal. So I
Speaker 1: sit squarely in the tigers are super cool camp, and
Speaker 1: that mouse eater is definitely one of my most memorable catches.
Speaker 1: Still never caught a tiger trout show. I know why, right,
Speaker 1: Because you fish for wild trout and wild places like you,
Speaker 1: you don't view catching a giant orange rainbow trout that
Speaker 1: ten people are bombarding spinners and eggs and ship as
Speaker 1: like a rite of trout fishing passage. You know, nobody
Speaker 1: needs to supplement that Montana waters with freaks of nature
Speaker 1: to make people feel like they're trout stamp money is
Speaker 1: being west. But you don't even have a trout stamp.
Speaker 1: You know what a trout stamp? You know what a
Speaker 1: trout stamps. I know what a trout stamp is. I
Speaker 1: have purchased them elsewhere. But you know, like despite all
Speaker 1: of that, like it's not like I'm stuck up about it.
Speaker 1: I know that there's this holier than though attitude about
Speaker 1: wild trout, not wild trout, and I just don't buy
Speaker 1: into all that. I have no beef with palomino trout
Speaker 1: or tiger trout or any other weird fish at all. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't hold myself above it of those kinds of fishing.
Speaker 1: I'm down to do that. The problem is that there
Speaker 1: are just too many species and not enough time. There
Speaker 1: are so many interesting fish out there that I just
Speaker 1: I just want to harass for my own entertainment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a constant problem. And like I could travel to
Speaker 1: chase new fish, or I could stay local and you know,
Speaker 1: spend less time on the road. Um. But the thing is, man,
Speaker 1: it's like we're just lucky to have options, and you
Speaker 1: have options to listeners. You could get your fish news
Speaker 1: from anywhere, but you choose to get it here at
Speaker 1: the number one source for fish news. And we appreciate
Speaker 1: that fish news that escalated quickly. Okay, so before we
Speaker 1: get in the news, this has kind of become our
Speaker 1: space for housekeeping. And uh, I think Myles and I
Speaker 1: have to say thank you to you guys, because due
Speaker 1: to your overwhelming supporting the awkward fishing photos Arena, we
Speaker 1: will not have to make fun of our own fishing
Speaker 1: photos for a good long while. We were worried what
Speaker 1: we started that out like just gonna be us making
Speaker 1: fun of each other in perpetuity. But no, you have
Speaker 1: given us a gold mine. Yes, and and and in
Speaker 1: collecting these and looking through the milk has been shot
Speaker 1: out of noses. Okay, And we love you guys for that,
Speaker 1: and just wanted to give you guys a heads up.
Speaker 1: It's starting. In just a few episodes down the road,
Speaker 1: we will press on with awkward moments in angling, fueled
Speaker 1: entirely by you guys. Okay. So now the big question, though,
Speaker 1: is is which one of you will be fan victim
Speaker 1: number one? And unfortunately, right now it's just too early
Speaker 1: to call it. We don't know. It's just too close,
Speaker 1: as we're apparently waiting on a few photos to come
Speaker 1: in from a handful of you that said you had
Speaker 1: shots incorporating full frontal nudity, friends crying hysterically in teletubby costumes.
Speaker 1: So we appreciate your patients. Just a few episodes down
Speaker 1: the road, we'll have our first fan winner selected. So
Speaker 1: that's housekeeping for this week. Anyway, onto the real news,
Speaker 1: and remember this is a competition. Miles and I do
Speaker 1: not know which news stories the other guy is bringing
Speaker 1: to the table um and at the end, our bent
Speaker 1: Pole analyst and audio engineer Phil will declare a winner
Speaker 1: in the race for fish News domination. The floor the
Speaker 1: podium is now going to Miles. I'm the leadoff man
Speaker 1: and uh and yep, I'm going I'm going full on
Speaker 1: fish geek here and the first one. Just just see
Speaker 1: where it gets me. But that's that's what I was feeling.
Speaker 1: And I know there there there are some salmon and
Speaker 1: steel head junkies listening to this and right now, as
Speaker 1: our our good buddy Scatch Johnson would say, they're in
Speaker 1: the depths of the Jones. I hope everybody's faring pretty well.
Speaker 1: As we get through. We should check him. We should
Speaker 1: check in with him because he said should be the
Speaker 1: wetta make sure he's still okay. I think he went
Speaker 1: up and smoke um, but we'll find him somewhere. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go full on Left Coast and Adremus with
Speaker 1: this story. First, I'm gonna give a little context for
Speaker 1: everybody who wasn't fully versed with the migration habits of
Speaker 1: Pacific Salman. It's steelhead of rainbow trout that migraine out
Speaker 1: of their natal rivers as smalt and live their adult
Speaker 1: lives in the Pacific Ocean, where they get way bigger
Speaker 1: and stronger than your your standard river rainbow. And that's
Speaker 1: why people love to fish for him so much. They
Speaker 1: return to spawn in those rivers and and sometimes take
Speaker 1: months swimming up hundreds of miles against the current to
Speaker 1: reach their spawning grounds. Right, so most people know that,
Speaker 1: but fewer people are aware that steelhead don't all migrate
Speaker 1: at the same time. There are two distinct runs of steelhead.
Speaker 1: One enters freshwater in the summer and one in winter.
Speaker 1: Steelhead are not the only salmon id with this dual
Speaker 1: migration pattern. Chinook also known as king salmon, do the
Speaker 1: same thing, with a spring run and a fall run
Speaker 1: in certain watersheds now back in biologists were able to
Speaker 1: isolate a genetic difference between the two populations of both
Speaker 1: steelhead and kings of variation in two genes, just two
Speaker 1: genes that determines of a fish migrates early or late.
Speaker 1: But they couldn't exactly figure out what the as genes did,
Speaker 1: all right, So they got like these two genes determined
Speaker 1: when you migrate, but they don't know why got it?
Speaker 1: Their hypothesis was that it had something to do with
Speaker 1: with metabolism or sexual maturation, because early runs are generally
Speaker 1: smaller and less sexually mature, while later runs are are
Speaker 1: usually much bigger and more mature. So now there's this
Speaker 1: new study that just came out focused exclusively on kings
Speaker 1: and and just recently published in the journal Science. But
Speaker 1: it totally disputes that hypothesis. This study found that those
Speaker 1: genes have nothing to do with body size or maturity.
Speaker 1: It seems like the only reason that early and late
Speaker 1: run fish look so different is just purely timing. The
Speaker 1: fish that stay in the ocean longer chowing and all
Speaker 1: the food just get bigger. It's that say, they probably
Speaker 1: have slightly different food sources, like, yeah, so it's it's
Speaker 1: just those variables. Yeah, this is what they're learning. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1: And this doesn't seem like much of an aha moment, right,
Speaker 1: It's like kind of a disappointment, And it's actually a
Speaker 1: really big disappointment for for some factions of the steelhead
Speaker 1: and salmon conservation community. While wild salmon and steelhead in
Speaker 1: general aren't doing that well, early run fish are declining
Speaker 1: much more dramatically than late run fish, and that's true
Speaker 1: for both kings and steelhead. Early run fish spend more
Speaker 1: time in rivers and tend to spawn higher upstream in
Speaker 1: the river systems. The more time that these fish spending rivers,
Speaker 1: the more vulnerable they are. They have to expend more energy,
Speaker 1: they have to get past more dams, avoid all those
Speaker 1: hordes of jerk off anglers like us, they've gotta deal
Speaker 1: with fluctuations in water levels and temperature, and beyond that,
Speaker 1: Damn's block some of those early run fish from reaching
Speaker 1: their traditional spawning grounds. So now they're hybridizing with late
Speaker 1: run fish and and that could be further contributing to
Speaker 1: their decline. So there's there's this little study right there's like, well,
Speaker 1: we figured out it's not what we thought it was,
Speaker 1: and that might be interesting to biologists, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like it's going to help accomplish what some anglers
Speaker 1: have been hoping for, and that's to provide concrete evidence
Speaker 1: to advocate for managing summer and winter runs differently under
Speaker 1: federal law. There have been these these these certain factions
Speaker 1: that have been pushing for years to categorize both spring
Speaker 1: chinook and summer steelhead as endangered and they were kind
Speaker 1: of hoping that this might be the thing that helped
Speaker 1: get it there. But it doesn't look like this exact
Speaker 1: study is going to move that over the line. Depending
Speaker 1: on your perspective, you could think that's good or bad,
Speaker 1: you know. Every time. Again, Man, I can't stress enough
Speaker 1: like I am, I'm I'm not very well versed in
Speaker 1: this scene. I've only dabbled in it um but the
Speaker 1: complexities of the whole thing, like there's so much working
Speaker 1: against those fisheries. It is just one thing after another
Speaker 1: after another. And I've never fully understood that whole spring
Speaker 1: run far run thing because even though all those fish
Speaker 1: in the Great Lakes are fake, we'll just will just
Speaker 1: call it what it is. There's really no spring runs here,
Speaker 1: and it it all times out really, really well. So
Speaker 1: I guess you know what I'm really driving at is
Speaker 1: that as manufactured is what I know of steel heading
Speaker 1: is at least you can sort of count on it.
Speaker 1: To now have to worry about all these different runs
Speaker 1: and and what's mixing like, I don't know. Man, to me,
Speaker 1: it's just head spinning. And God bless all the guys
Speaker 1: who are who are into this, because to to follow
Speaker 1: along and have to play in this sort of orchestra
Speaker 1: of what is not turning out very well. I feel
Speaker 1: for those guys to have such a passion for a
Speaker 1: fish that that's it's just getting more and more difficult
Speaker 1: to catch. Yeah, I mean, it makes sense that you
Speaker 1: guys would only have one run. That the systems aren't
Speaker 1: that long. You're talking about fish over here that my
Speaker 1: grade so much further hundreds and hundreds of miles sometimes
Speaker 1: the summer unfish go before they reach spawning ground. So
Speaker 1: so it again theoretically makes sense that they would have
Speaker 1: to enter the systems early to make it to where
Speaker 1: they need to get to, Yeah, in order to pull
Speaker 1: that off in time. Right, So I find all of
Speaker 1: that fascinating just because it's fascinating. But the difficulty of
Speaker 1: trying to manage the same fish as two different populations
Speaker 1: and explain that to all the people who need to
Speaker 1: understand it in order to make that happen, that's really hard, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's where the complexity of this comes into. Like you're
Speaker 1: managing steelhead, right, Well, no, but there are two different
Speaker 1: kinds of steelhead, and like you end up kind of
Speaker 1: seeming just like a wonkish idiot. And and because at
Speaker 1: the base layer level, people just like, are we saving
Speaker 1: the steelhead or not? What are we doing here? Right? Right?
Speaker 1: That that is the cut and dry answer, and then
Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong. And I don't really know
Speaker 1: how this factor is in. But now we have wild
Speaker 1: spring run, wild fall run, and then there's hatchery fish
Speaker 1: all mixed in with this two which are all the
Speaker 1: whole owned things a whole other thing. But here's I'm
Speaker 1: gonna end this point because I don't want to stay
Speaker 1: too long on this. That everything suggests that if we
Speaker 1: create the opportunity for these fish to spawn, they'll come
Speaker 1: back just fine. They're they're amazing, the resilient fish. Like
Speaker 1: if you give them the chance to do their thing,
Speaker 1: they're gonna do it and they'll be all right. We
Speaker 1: just need to like stop putting things in their way
Speaker 1: and and and not to get off on it. But
Speaker 1: just in your opinion, as you're more into this scene,
Speaker 1: is that an achievable thing this day and age, with
Speaker 1: all the dam is it achievable? It's achievable. But I
Speaker 1: don't know if if we're going to do what we
Speaker 1: have to do to get there. I don't know if
Speaker 1: there's the political will to do it, but we we
Speaker 1: can do it. We're not past the tipping point yet,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if there's a political will to
Speaker 1: do what has to be done. As with all things,
Speaker 1: we love hearing your opinions, so weigh in on it.
Speaker 1: Where you guys think we are on the West coast
Speaker 1: with steel Uh, you know, I will definitely no matter
Speaker 1: how much how much you guys struggle. Um, I call
Speaker 1: you guys a tribe the same way I call the
Speaker 1: east Side Steelhead dudes a tribe. And you know it's
Speaker 1: a it's a bad segue, but but tribalism is really
Speaker 1: the only thing I have to connect to my next
Speaker 1: story here, So we'll go from Steelhead tribes to a
Speaker 1: tribe that, um, I really can't stand kind of sort of.
Speaker 1: So I have a question for you. Do you know
Speaker 1: what salt life is? Oh? Yeah, see you do believe it?
Speaker 1: You know you see those stickers on cars in Montana
Speaker 1: like thing out here too great? They were, Okay they
Speaker 1: we're gonna be on the same page here, okay, So uh,
Speaker 1: for those you who don't know what that is, salt
Speaker 1: life is the epitome of a term people just love
Speaker 1: to throw around these days that being lifestyle brand. I
Speaker 1: hate hate lifestyle brand, and because it just means you
Speaker 1: don't make anything particularly useful or innovative. You just slap
Speaker 1: a logo on all kinds of cheap ship and sell
Speaker 1: it for more money sunglasses and stickers and stuff. It's
Speaker 1: just like the new word for an apparel brand. Anyway,
Speaker 1: Salt Life sort of got out ahead of all that, okay,
Speaker 1: and they kicked off that brand long before all the
Speaker 1: other brands chasing their tail and success. And I've been
Speaker 1: told by numerous people in the know over the years
Speaker 1: that a huge chunk of Salt Life's business is just stickers. Okay,
Speaker 1: didn't make anything else they do, but okay, So if
Speaker 1: I pissed anybody off by saying this, I apologize, but
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell it like it is. Salt Life stickers
Speaker 1: have sold so well and gotten so endy and are
Speaker 1: available in so many places that that what's kind of
Speaker 1: happened is they've almost become a mark of posers and
Speaker 1: not legit people who actually live the Salt life. Because
Speaker 1: if you really do live the Salt life, like you
Speaker 1: don't need to tell you're not gonna put a sticker
Speaker 1: on the truck that said salt Like, yeah, like, if
Speaker 1: you run ten charters a week and don't sleep and
Speaker 1: smell like clams all the time, like, you don't need
Speaker 1: that sticker. Okay, that that is just that is just
Speaker 1: your life. So basically nowadays, least out here, and I
Speaker 1: know in Florida, if you're a boat ram and dude
Speaker 1: pulls in with salt life all over his stuff, like,
Speaker 1: he's probably the one that's gonna put his truck in
Speaker 1: the water. You know, that's where it's become. For the record,
Speaker 1: I love a good sticker, Okay, I really do. But
Speaker 1: I think what happened there is when you can buy
Speaker 1: him in gas stations and souvenir stores and every tackle
Speaker 1: shop and maybe some walmarts, it's just hard to feel
Speaker 1: like you're wrapping something cool and niche anymore. And and
Speaker 1: like you said, I've seen those stickers in Ohio, Buffalo, Tennessee.
Speaker 1: It's like really so so okay, now here's where things
Speaker 1: are gonna get weird. So where is all this going?
Speaker 1: Why am I setting all this up? Here comes the night,
Speaker 1: Here comes the m night. Shamalan twist. Okay, I'm reading
Speaker 1: from a New York Post article here. A co founder
Speaker 1: of a popular Florida clothing brand has been charged with
Speaker 1: manslaughter and gun possession and the death of an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old woman found shot at a South Florida hotel.
Speaker 1: Michael Troy Huddo, fifty four, who co founded Salt Life
Speaker 1: Apparel in Jacksonville Beach with three friends in two thousand three,
Speaker 1: was arrested at a Jacksonville hospital. Why they added this,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but while wearing hospital scrubs and skid
Speaker 1: proof socks. Okay, so detail, but they put it in
Speaker 1: there right. So it says officers responded to the facility
Speaker 1: following the welfare check on Laura Grace Duncan at the
Speaker 1: Hilton Ocean Front Resort and Singer Island near Palm Beach,
Speaker 1: where the eighteen year old was found dead from a
Speaker 1: gunshot wound, and according to the story, she'd been missing
Speaker 1: since October twenty six. Now, to be clear, there's nothing
Speaker 1: funny about this, like that that is a that is
Speaker 1: a tragedy. But the story actually says it was Huddo
Speaker 1: who coined the term salt Life, and while he was
Speaker 1: one of the original founders, Huddo had not been part
Speaker 1: of the business since. Why because that was the year
Speaker 1: he and his original partners sold it for forty million dollars.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Bobs. So like you had it all, bro,
Speaker 1: You made a goofy little catchphrase and some stickers and
Speaker 1: cashed in forty million dollars. Like what is wrong with you?
Speaker 1: Like that's the dream? And then and then you're like
Speaker 1: you're gonna commit manslaughter? So I mean again, like it's
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know how many of my friends
Speaker 1: sent me this link. They were like, dude, have you
Speaker 1: seen this? And it's like the Salt Life guy and
Speaker 1: I sent you. I mean, his mug shot is epic,
Speaker 1: like he looks like like a complete like like luned,
Speaker 1: like you'd see the dude slinging shrimp at a bait
Speaker 1: bar and outside Fort Myers. No, it's it's it's I mean,
Speaker 1: if you think of the archetype of Florida man, that's
Speaker 1: the photo. That's what it looks like. To me. It's
Speaker 1: it's it's sort of like that Nick Nulty mug shot, Yes,
Speaker 1: but transposed into a Florida man. I don't know, subscribe it.
Speaker 1: And the only thing I could say about about his
Speaker 1: photo is that. Obviously some of that forty mill went
Speaker 1: to Veneers because his teeth are beauty. His teeth are beautiful.
Speaker 1: The rest of him he just looks super strung out.
Speaker 1: So that's a tragic tale. Dude's gonna get Salt Life
Speaker 1: in prison. But um, I just wanted to use that line.
Speaker 1: That whole setup was just for that line, wasn't it.
Speaker 1: It's possible I was either gonna do that or or
Speaker 1: or fifties assault life one or the other. Um I
Speaker 1: can't not, so again, like it's there's not There's not
Speaker 1: really a lot to expand on there other than like,
Speaker 1: holy shit, the Salt Life guy like quite possibly murdered somebody.
Speaker 1: That's terrible. I'm gonna rinse that taste out of all
Speaker 1: of our mouths right now because I just can't. I
Speaker 1: can't handle that, and I want to. I want to
Speaker 1: end on a high note. So I'm bringing I'm bringing
Speaker 1: something kind of happy and positive here to end this
Speaker 1: after like the horrible date rape manslaughter story. That's just anyway, Okay,
Speaker 1: So don't you feel bad for telling the story. Every
Speaker 1: life is part of the fishing community. I'm not giving
Speaker 1: you a hard time. I just can't like I have
Speaker 1: the from that guy. He's terrible, that's all. So I
Speaker 1: just want to I want to I want to move on.
Speaker 1: Uh So my last one is yet another Australian fish
Speaker 1: news entrance, because frankly, let's just be honest, the Aussie's
Speaker 1: punch way above their weight in terms of interesting fish stories.
Speaker 1: Maybe just in all stories, but certainly in fish stories.
Speaker 1: And the more I hear from them, the more I'm like,
Speaker 1: if I was ever going to leave this country, Australia
Speaker 1: is like got like they got some cool ship going on. Agreed,
Speaker 1: And I'll apologize to to our Aussie listeners because you've
Speaker 1: all probably heard this one, but for everyone else, just enjoy.
Speaker 1: So the headline I found in the Catherine Times reads
Speaker 1: fisherman fights off croc to reel in ten thousand dollar barra.
Speaker 1: I mean, how how can you not read that story? Okay,
Speaker 1: how can you avoid it? They're just there's so many
Speaker 1: layers there. I can't wait to hear how it's a
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollar barra. But before I get into the
Speaker 1: physics of the story, I need to explain the million
Speaker 1: dollar fish competition. So in two thousand fifteen, the Northern
Speaker 1: Territory of Australia started a program to encourage sport fishing
Speaker 1: participation in tourism. Barra mundy are one of the top
Speaker 1: sport fish in all of Australia and the fish for
Speaker 1: which the Northern Territory is best known. The other species
Speaker 1: that this area is known for perhaps infamous for our
Speaker 1: saltwater crocodiles. All right, so more on that later. Keep
Speaker 1: keep that in mind. I mean this goes back to
Speaker 1: that that video, maybe that viral video that gator coming
Speaker 1: out that crop coming out like dude, that made some rounds.
Speaker 1: So those things are huge and scary and they eat people. Yeah, yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: the million dollar Fish is a competition, is not a tournament.
Speaker 1: So it breaks down like this. At the start of
Speaker 1: the season, a set number of barramundy are captured, tagged
Speaker 1: and released across the five primary fishing regions of the
Speaker 1: Northern Territory. And there is a huge area. This is
Speaker 1: not just like your backyard. It's hundreds of miles, yes,
Speaker 1: hundreds of miles of water, I should say. The competition
Speaker 1: runs from the beginning of October through the end of
Speaker 1: March and anyone with the proper license can go out
Speaker 1: and try and catch one of these fish, there are
Speaker 1: different tags, and the different tags are worth different prizes.
Speaker 1: This year there are seven fish wearing million dollar tags,
Speaker 1: meaning if you catch a fish with one of those,
Speaker 1: you get a million bucks period. On top of that,
Speaker 1: on top of that, you couldn't do this here, like
Speaker 1: we kill each other over and all the fish will
Speaker 1: be dead. There are also a hundred fish out there
Speaker 1: worth ten grand each twenty charity fish that earned the
Speaker 1: angler bucks with additional charity and then five double tag
Speaker 1: bearra and on that. When the angler gets ten grand
Speaker 1: and they get to kick an additional five to a buddy,
Speaker 1: they know who's in need, which is you know, look wow.
Speaker 1: But and here's the thing. I'm probably just a cynical American,
Speaker 1: but I read this and I immediately assume there's there's
Speaker 1: some kind of seedy downside all this. It can't just
Speaker 1: be that up and up and and nice. And if
Speaker 1: there is, I wasn't able to find it, Like I
Speaker 1: I couldn't find it in the looking that I did.
Speaker 1: Seems like the tourism Bureau teamed up with a variety
Speaker 1: of sponsors to incentivize people to fish more. That's all
Speaker 1: there is to it. And I love it like I
Speaker 1: just I love the whole thing anyway. Brian Aaron's of
Speaker 1: Humpty Do Australia. I swear to god I didn't make
Speaker 1: that up. That's the town he's from. Was out fishing
Speaker 1: on October when he hooked a nice barra. As he
Speaker 1: was reeling it in, he noticed a six foot saltwater
Speaker 1: croc trailing his fish. He told The Times quote a
Speaker 1: croc seemed very interested in him and had a bit
Speaker 1: of a go at the fish. As I wound him in,
Speaker 1: I saw the croc on the surface chasing it Like
Speaker 1: I'm not sure, I'm not even pretending to do an accent,
Speaker 1: but like, how how flat and even of a quote?
Speaker 1: Is that? Right? So as he gets the fish close
Speaker 1: to the boat, Errand's sees the red tag indicating this
Speaker 1: just wasn't like a nice barra or any other nice
Speaker 1: bear he might want to catch the things. Yeah, and now,
Speaker 1: like the steakes have changed, I looked at a bunch
Speaker 1: of stories and there are no more details on exactly
Speaker 1: how he managed to get the fish into the boat
Speaker 1: all by himself without losing it or any digits to
Speaker 1: the croc. It just says like he was all by himself.
Speaker 1: He got it in and and the only quote I
Speaker 1: could find from Errand's about it simply said, quote, I
Speaker 1: was so excited when I saw the red tag, but
Speaker 1: trying to land it by myself was a bit of
Speaker 1: a challenge. I was glad I eventually got it in
Speaker 1: the boat, like a bit of a challenge. You got
Speaker 1: like a man eating crocodile coming straight at your boat
Speaker 1: as you're reeling this fishing, Like, oh, it was a
Speaker 1: bit of a challenge. It's all right, dude. To the Australians, man,
Speaker 1: they're just tougher than us. Sorry, how many it's on
Speaker 1: the news every week? Like alligator looked at me while
Speaker 1: I was railing in my lower big news in Florida.
Speaker 1: I ran away. They yeah, they ran away. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: It's different down there. I have no idea how how
Speaker 1: Brian Aaron's pulled that off. But he's now ten thousand
Speaker 1: bucks richer money, he says he's going to use to
Speaker 1: pay off the mortgage on his house, so good, good
Speaker 1: for him, good for him being responsible. If this was
Speaker 1: this was a competition here, some hill billy would win
Speaker 1: it and be like, I'm buying new Ranger and new
Speaker 1: boble home and like your house is collapsing, he's paying
Speaker 1: off his mortgage. That's terrific. Everything about this makes me
Speaker 1: feel like just just reinforces that Australia are are maybe
Speaker 1: more decent humans than we are. I don't know. That's
Speaker 1: that's terrific. And and oddly are our stories are actually
Speaker 1: a little bit linked here in a in a strange way.
Speaker 1: It's both fishing for money, um, though a very different
Speaker 1: different tackle on this. And I find this next story
Speaker 1: interesting because there's so much emphasis on invasive species these days, right,
Speaker 1: particularly like with snakeheads. Everybody wants those dead, right, And
Speaker 1: but one argument that snakehead lovers such as myself love
Speaker 1: to throw back is that in many cases, if the
Speaker 1: fish you want to save by killing all the snakeheads,
Speaker 1: I mean they're not native either, you know, established for
Speaker 1: a long time doesn't make them native. And let's be honest,
Speaker 1: large mouth, smallmouth, walleye, crop ease, they're all predators too,
Speaker 1: It's just that they weren't. You weren't around in the
Speaker 1: early days when they first got established to complain about
Speaker 1: the introduction hurting you know, true native chubbs or white
Speaker 1: fish or bofin or whatever was there, right, So you
Speaker 1: know what else is non native to this country and
Speaker 1: a hardcore predator are beloved brown trout, and the state
Speaker 1: of our Zona wants to see brown trout blood spilled
Speaker 1: so badly they're willing to pay anglers twenty five dollars
Speaker 1: a pop for every dead brownie that measures more than
Speaker 1: six inches in the Lee's Ferry stretch of the Colorado River.
Speaker 1: No way, so this is this is from a story
Speaker 1: in in the St. George News. Uh reading here. The
Speaker 1: National Park Service in Arizona Game and Fish Department are
Speaker 1: working with partners and seeking the public's help and addressing
Speaker 1: the threat of brown trout in the Colorado River. According
Speaker 1: to a joint press release, the National Park Service at
Speaker 1: Glen Canyon National Recreation Area will implement an incentivized harvest
Speaker 1: beginning November eleven. The pilot research program is intended to
Speaker 1: reduce the growing population of brown trout in the Colorado
Speaker 1: River below Glen Canyon Dam. The incentivized harvest will reward
Speaker 1: anglers twenty five smackers for each brown over six inches
Speaker 1: that is caught and removed from the river. Frankly, I'm
Speaker 1: surprised you didn't have this one, right, I didn't see
Speaker 1: that one. But I'm so excited about this story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so okay. So the brown trout population in Lee's Ferry,
Speaker 1: it says, has steadily increased since as adults. Brown trout
Speaker 1: primarily feed duh on other fish, potentially threatening downstream native species.
Speaker 1: Now it goes without saying, if you're a trout dude
Speaker 1: in this area, you're probably like bro River's chicking out
Speaker 1: some sick brownies, like this is paradise right. Likewise, if
Speaker 1: if you're a trout bum there or elsewhere, especially if
Speaker 1: you think your game is just so dialed, perhaps you're
Speaker 1: thinking about renting an airbnb out there for the next
Speaker 1: few months and raking in a cool you know, fift
Speaker 1: k flexing your streamer skills. You know what I mean, Ship,
Speaker 1: I might, I might pull an extended I might pull
Speaker 1: an extended leave from meat eat and get on this
Speaker 1: brown trout gold rush, you know what I mean. Anyway,
Speaker 1: to get back to the story, the gold of program
Speaker 1: is to determine if an incentivized harvest can help manage
Speaker 1: and reduce the number of brown trout in the Colorado
Speaker 1: River between Glen Cany, Damn and the mouth of the
Speaker 1: Pariah River. The initial research into the u SO of
Speaker 1: this tool is designed to last three to four years,
Speaker 1: at which time the program will be evaluated for its effectiveness.
Speaker 1: There is no limit on the number of brown trout
Speaker 1: that can be retained and turned in for reward within
Speaker 1: this program. And uh it links you to guidelines which
Speaker 1: are pretty simple. You basically just have to have a
Speaker 1: valid Arizona license. Uh, you do have to fish barbarous
Speaker 1: hooks because this part of the river, um, he's already
Speaker 1: a Blue ribbon section. And just to paint a clearer picture, okay,
Speaker 1: the abridge version of miles you might be able to
Speaker 1: add to this. This is more your neck of the woods.
Speaker 1: Prior to the Glen Canyon Dam being built in sixty three,
Speaker 1: this part of the river was muddy and pretty warm
Speaker 1: and only had native species like chubb minnows and pike
Speaker 1: minnows and such. Damn goes in water spilling over is
Speaker 1: cleaner and colder, and overtime this stretch is groomed into
Speaker 1: a blue ribbon wild rainbow trout fishery. So what's happening now,
Speaker 1: despite early shocking efforts to stop this, is that the
Speaker 1: browns and the trips downstream of this section are expanding
Speaker 1: in the Colorado River at a fast rate. Um Now,
Speaker 1: in most places right where you fish, there's harmony. Best
Speaker 1: rivers in the world have both species. But here our
Speaker 1: beloved browns are are being called out for being too bullish,
Speaker 1: too aggressive, and detriment to the ecosystem. And I just
Speaker 1: find this interesting and kind of like a hand to
Speaker 1: like the snakehead crew, because just this past summer there
Speaker 1: was a kerfuffle over snakeheads in the Upper Delaware River
Speaker 1: where I live. That everyone is now wheried is gonna
Speaker 1: kill all the brown trout? Ironic, is it not? But
Speaker 1: my biggest takeaway from this whole thing, like when you
Speaker 1: look at other invasives, it's like, hey, snakehead states, you
Speaker 1: want to pay me for you know, in every other
Speaker 1: frog truker twenty five bones per dead dragon. That dude
Speaker 1: that might make a dent in the population, that might
Speaker 1: actually flip some catch and release dudes and turn them
Speaker 1: into snake killers. Because way I see it, everyone generally
Speaker 1: loves a good brown trout, but Arizona is confident that
Speaker 1: despite that, folks will kill them for profit. So how
Speaker 1: many how many people out there hate snakeheads. You could
Speaker 1: probably offer half that price and people will jump. Here's
Speaker 1: what I said. I don't think it's gonna work. I
Speaker 1: hope it does, but on these really, you don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna work. They've been trying the same thing in
Speaker 1: Idaho for however many years, trying to get rid of
Speaker 1: the rainbows in the South Fork because okay, they're a
Speaker 1: major problem with the cutthroats there, and it has not worked.
Speaker 1: So I'm skeptical that it's gonna work in these fairy
Speaker 1: because it's similar like fly fishing culture fish there on
Speaker 1: the Colorado. Yeah, in this in this stretch they're talking about. No,
Speaker 1: I've floated the Grand Canyon and I've fished through there,
Speaker 1: and I think it's one of the coolest fisheries anywhere.
Speaker 1: But it's also completely screwed up, like the Damn's have
Speaker 1: messed it up. We've killed most native It was suckers, chubs,
Speaker 1: and pike minows. That's all it was there, and and
Speaker 1: we've pretty much gotten rid of all of them, but
Speaker 1: there are a few hanging on for dear life. Well,
Speaker 1: I still think it's interesting, and I hope it's just
Speaker 1: like that. It's just like the dig of like you know,
Speaker 1: these fish are killing Harvey took our rather fish. Dude,
Speaker 1: they're trying to kill some browns out there, and brown
Speaker 1: are like so American, but they're not over here German
Speaker 1: brown trout. So that's gonna be maybe a little little
Speaker 1: point to fight over. And uh, speaking of points to
Speaker 1: fight over, as soon as we hear from Phil On
Speaker 1: who has one news this week, our friend river Horse
Speaker 1: is going to come in for some sage Lee wisdom.
Speaker 1: He's gonna go down swinging. You might throw hands, You
Speaker 1: never know, you never know how it's gonna go. Listen.
Speaker 1: I haven't been on a plane for almost a year now,
Speaker 1: and Miles, when you were talking about Australia, that just
Speaker 1: really sounded great. I mean, I'd love to get on
Speaker 1: a trans Pacific flight, get cozy in a middle seat.
Speaker 1: I miss it, I really do. There four Miles, you're
Speaker 1: the winner this week again. Does my criteria make any sense? No?
Speaker 1: But you know what does make sense my lifestyle brand.
Speaker 1: For only thirty you can get your own own Audio
Speaker 1: Eternity sticker. That's right. It says Audio Eternity in comic sands,
Speaker 1: bright highlighter yellow text on a beige background. You can
Speaker 1: stick it wherever you want. It looks terrible, It just
Speaker 1: it looks hideous. Hey, now this is rehearse with some
Speaker 1: Sage Lee wisdom. Let's talk about the old desktop, the
Speaker 1: brawl on the playground. Yes, once, long ago, even this peaceful, angelic,
Speaker 1: poetry loving Texas tree hugger, fly fishing hippie had it out.
Speaker 1: This is a story about why it always pays to
Speaker 1: keep your cool, and it's also about a giant cat
Speaker 1: who could open up an a one certified can of
Speaker 1: what pass It's called the Paw. In college up in
Speaker 1: the Midwest, we had a shitty band. It was mainly
Speaker 1: an excuse to rent a giant house, drink a ton
Speaker 1: of beer, and dream of groupies. There were a few
Speaker 1: inherited cats and dogs living with us, and the most
Speaker 1: infamous of them all was a feline named the Paw.
Speaker 1: He was roughly the size of a sheep unsheared. Whenever
Speaker 1: we put some grub into the food bowls, the Paw
Speaker 1: would start eating. If any other cat, dog, or human
Speaker 1: crossed the threshold into the kitchen, the Paw would raise
Speaker 1: his left mit into the air, hold it unwaveringly and
Speaker 1: wait until the fool backed the hell out of there
Speaker 1: lest the paw open up a jumbo can of war pass.
Speaker 1: This happened about once a month and never failed to
Speaker 1: whip us all into a frenzy. W of course, inspired
Speaker 1: more beer drinking and philosophizing. We wrote essays on the paw,
Speaker 1: put a frame black and white, eight by ten of
Speaker 1: them in the bathroom, and we all wish we were
Speaker 1: that definitive of a badass. We weren't. He was an
Speaker 1: unlikely hero, although we knew deep down that in real
Speaker 1: life we can't just go around beating the crap out
Speaker 1: of each other when we feel like it. Decades later,
Speaker 1: I found myself on a crowded jetty. I wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been there anywhere else with another fisherman even remotely around,
Speaker 1: except for the rumor that there had been a slew
Speaker 1: of forty pound redfish running it all month. I ambled
Speaker 1: down a quarter mile in partial shock at how jam
Speaker 1: packed in bizarre the whole scene was, but eventually found
Speaker 1: the last hundred yards is so empty the tin way
Speaker 1: was lined up. I pull out of Thermisis Salvadoran coffee,
Speaker 1: poured a warm slug into the screw top cup and
Speaker 1: begin finding a casting groove with a butter smooth line
Speaker 1: and a crab pattern. Then it all went to hell.
Speaker 1: What I thought was a seagull dive bombing the left
Speaker 1: side of my shoulder turned out to be a bait chucker,
Speaker 1: standing less than a couple of inches from my elbow,
Speaker 1: firing a grenade of a sinker with a dead shrimp
Speaker 1: attached to it for good measure. This is my spot,
Speaker 1: he said, grinning from ear to ear. I just lost
Speaker 1: a good one here day ago. We all have interfuses
Speaker 1: of differing lengths. I would offer that these are in
Speaker 1: direct correlation to what our temperature is at the very
Speaker 1: moment that ship hits the fan, for example, how about
Speaker 1: a flat tire? How we respond is inherently relative to
Speaker 1: that fuse. Are we already on thin ice? And laid
Speaker 1: his all to work out on the town for a
Speaker 1: heavy romantic evening. When the steering wheel begins to buck wildly,
Speaker 1: or maybe we've got seven bucks left in our bank account,
Speaker 1: or maybe seven dam making it either a gut shot, nutshot,
Speaker 1: or not even something we feel. I've read some million books,
Speaker 1: and early on I went wild for the nature loving
Speaker 1: pacifists from Emerson to the row and even Gandhi. These
Speaker 1: are my people. Regardless I've known there is a time
Speaker 1: and place to drop the hammer I've always known as
Speaker 1: silver back guerrilla is waiting in the wings of any
Speaker 1: red blooded soul. But what came out of my mouth
Speaker 1: surprised even me. You spineless dinghis We're gonna flip a coin,
Speaker 1: and there are two options. If you don't haul ass
Speaker 1: right now, I will raise you above my head and
Speaker 1: toss you into the water. For chum, I said, My
Speaker 1: friends are right over there, he countered, backing up. Great,
Speaker 1: that's more, Chum, I added. He bailed. I kept fishing
Speaker 1: for a while, but I felt so disappointed. The mojo
Speaker 1: was gone from the air, and I wasn't enjoying it
Speaker 1: a bit. Once that happens, it's the point in o return.
Speaker 1: You might as well roll out that man. I'd have
Speaker 1: to walk past my new body and his friends on
Speaker 1: the way out, and it would most likely be interesting.
Speaker 1: But to health it, let's dance, I thought. Having chased
Speaker 1: waves around the world for years to surf, I've seen
Speaker 1: the often brutal, dark side of territorialism. The strangest and
Speaker 1: most memorable was watching a surfer actually bite the fins
Speaker 1: off a non local surfboard, but where he held him
Speaker 1: under water while and sent him to the beach. This
Speaker 1: is roughly the equivalent of chewing through a graphite fly
Speaker 1: rod bone eppetite. We all know violence is both pathetic
Speaker 1: and comedic at its core. There is no place for
Speaker 1: it on the water. What can I say? My switch
Speaker 1: was flipped thanks to the perceived lack of etiquette that
Speaker 1: with more than a hundred yards of open space, this
Speaker 1: guy ran down and jacked in next to me. He
Speaker 1: didn't materialize until I had been there while whether it
Speaker 1: was his favorite spot or not. On the way past
Speaker 1: his friends on the jetty ready for more amusement, and
Speaker 1: looking them all in the eyes as I walked through,
Speaker 1: one of them spoke, our friend is a pot licker,
Speaker 1: he said, looking at the offender. Yes he is. I
Speaker 1: agreed and kept on going while they all aft. The
Speaker 1: tension was gone. I loaded the truck and drove three
Speaker 1: hours to a lonely and desolate stretch of river where
Speaker 1: I could get back to the reason I fish. But
Speaker 1: I thought about it for much of the way. I've
Speaker 1: certainly learned a few things about myself since that debacle
Speaker 1: years ago. Regardless of the pause, take no prisoner's example.
Speaker 1: In the end, we all know that anger is ugly
Speaker 1: no matter where it happens. And when it happens to
Speaker 1: a fisherman, the old adage always seems to ring true.
Speaker 1: An angry man can't catch fish. It's such a goofball
Speaker 1: situation like this, Lord forbid happens again, all act differently.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure. Probably there you have it. That's our
Speaker 1: sagely wisdom story time. If today's Kittykat tale had a
Speaker 1: DJ soundtrack, we might be listening to Let Love Rule,
Speaker 1: or even perhaps try a little tenderness. And what do
Speaker 1: you need to know from all of this? That this
Speaker 1: world needs us to take care of each other and
Speaker 1: be there for each other now more than ever. And
Speaker 1: if you ever want to be alone for some solitude
Speaker 1: and water, all you have to do is put your
Speaker 1: boots on the ground and head in deep to wilderness.
Speaker 1: It's out there for you. Oh did you feel that
Speaker 1: I just wrapped my arms around you and gave you
Speaker 1: a big old bear hug. I love you so much.
Speaker 1: Let's fish now. I know river Horse to be more
Speaker 1: of a lover than a fighter, but I think those
Speaker 1: dudes were wise to step off there. I think I
Speaker 1: think they made the right choice. For sure. Man, he's
Speaker 1: got he's got at David Carradine Yoda kind of vibe,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. He's one of those that
Speaker 1: you could just see. It takes a lot to push
Speaker 1: him to the edge, but God help you if you
Speaker 1: get him there and nudge him off of it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to see that. And here's what I love
Speaker 1: about the story that he told though, Like we've all
Speaker 1: been there, We've all found ourselves in an overcrowded fishing
Speaker 1: situation that just brings out the worst in us, and
Speaker 1: it ends up leading to some kind of confrontation, right
Speaker 1: and and no matter how that confrontation goes for me, anyway,
Speaker 1: my my fishing days ruined. I've never I've never had
Speaker 1: an altercation on the water and thought, well, I'm really
Speaker 1: glad that happened. I'm glad that's how my day went
Speaker 1: like that. It just it never goes that way. I'm
Speaker 1: always I'm always unhappy afterwards. I don't I don't think
Speaker 1: I've ever said I'm really glad that happened. But I
Speaker 1: I disagree slightly because around here like where I'm from
Speaker 1: the Northeast, if you let a confrontation ruin your day
Speaker 1: within certain circles and I'm talking to use surf guys
Speaker 1: and salmon guys, right, you have a lot of ruined days,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like Northeasterners are just schooled
Speaker 1: in the art of rising up the group, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like before you walk out onto a
Speaker 1: crowd of jetty or even like down south, like a
Speaker 1: pier in Florida, I know, the peer guys, some of
Speaker 1: those dudes you try and get a read on who's
Speaker 1: already out there, and you're often like, Okay, don't be
Speaker 1: near that guy, that guy or that guy. You've got
Speaker 1: to be a bit of a profiler, you know. That's roll.
Speaker 1: I just don't. I just don't find myself in those scenes.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's I just don't have enough exposure. I guess no,
Speaker 1: because you live in big sky country, and the whole
Speaker 1: idea is like big sky, big country, Like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of we can all go hang out and there's
Speaker 1: lots of room, but like we're we're just right up
Speaker 1: each other's ass here. No matter what you do, whether
Speaker 1: you're looking for fish or you know, a bar that's
Speaker 1: not crowded. We just right up each other's ass. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I said, you gotta be a profiler. And speaking of profiles,
Speaker 1: Miles is going to give us one in this week's
Speaker 1: end of the Line segment about a lore. And there
Speaker 1: are many of lors like this that it face value.
Speaker 1: You'd think that's that's an ugly, dumb lore like no
Speaker 1: way that catches fish, But this one has been catching
Speaker 1: muskies since before most of you were twinkle in your
Speaker 1: daddy's eye. Well that's not allowed enough, Burke. Seems like
Speaker 1: more and more anglers realize how addictive muskie fishing can
Speaker 1: be every year, which I support because the more people
Speaker 1: we have obsessing over muskies, the more voices we have
Speaker 1: calling out for robust management. Musky waters maybe more crowded
Speaker 1: than they used to be, but there are also more
Speaker 1: muskies than a generation ago. I'll take that trade off.
Speaker 1: The more people target muskies today, the zeal these fish
Speaker 1: inspire isn't new. In eight a guy by the name
Speaker 1: of Frank Suet came into this world, and before his
Speaker 1: death his name would become recognizable to just about every
Speaker 1: serious musky angler. Frank grew up in Antigo, a railroad
Speaker 1: town in north central Wisconsin. Frank's folks owned a tavern.
Speaker 1: The catter to railroad workers, and Frank made friends with
Speaker 1: many of them will work in the bar. In his
Speaker 1: early twenties, he started hitching rides north on the rail
Speaker 1: cars to fish Pelican Lake, and that's where he discovered
Speaker 1: muskie back Then, muskie fishing involved trolling live suckers. When
Speaker 1: a fish picked up the bait and angler would have
Speaker 1: to wait, sometimes more than a half hour before setting
Speaker 1: the hook. Frank was enamored with the fish, but unenthusiastic
Speaker 1: about the fishing, it was inefficient and kind of boring.
Speaker 1: In addition to working at his family tavern, Frank also
Speaker 1: owned a trout hatchery and spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: observing fish. As soon as a trout showed signs of weakness,
Speaker 1: bigger fish would take advantage of that weakness and go
Speaker 1: after that. Frank studied the body language of the fish
Speaker 1: that got attacked and learned the behavioral cues that triggered
Speaker 1: the predatory response. His takeaway was that a wounded fish
Speaker 1: would begin floating up towards the surface, but then erratically
Speaker 1: dive back down. A couple of feet before starting to
Speaker 1: float back up again. Frank figured a lure that dove
Speaker 1: and rose like a wounded trout might also interest muskies,
Speaker 1: and if he could hang three troubles off it, he
Speaker 1: could set the hook as soon as a fish struck,
Speaker 1: So he started carving chunks a cedar with a pen knife.
Speaker 1: On one of his early prototypes, his knife slipped, hacking
Speaker 1: off the tail. Frank, being the type to conjure opportunity
Speaker 1: from setback, experimented with riveting in a stainless steel tale,
Speaker 1: which ultimately became the signature attribute of his namesake bait,
Speaker 1: the suic Musky Thriller, arguably the first musky jerk bait.
Speaker 1: Frank started testing his new lure on Pelican Lakes sometime
Speaker 1: in the mid nineteen thirties. People sometimes call musky jerk
Speaker 1: bait rods pool cues as a joke, but back then
Speaker 1: they actually retrofitted pool cues like real pool cues, with
Speaker 1: real seats and guides to use his musky rods. The
Speaker 1: rigidity of those billiard sticks worked well for Frank's bait,
Speaker 1: and it showed immediate success. Legend has it that Frank
Speaker 1: caught thirty musky in thirty days, and the words started
Speaker 1: to spread about a secret lure. Not everyone was pleased, though,
Speaker 1: A group of locals got together and drafted a petition
Speaker 1: to the Wisconsin Conservation Department calling for him to be banned.
Speaker 1: It read, Gentlemen, we the undersigned hereby petition your honorable
Speaker 1: body and the Honorable Governor of the State of Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: to hereby issue in order to prohibit Frank suek of
Speaker 1: the City of Antigo, County of Langdale, State of Wisconsin,
Speaker 1: from fishing or taking fish in Pelican Lake, located in
Speaker 1: Oneida County, until such time whereby other fishermen are able
Speaker 1: to catch fish out of the above mentioned lake. We
Speaker 1: hereby do this in the interest of muskies at large.
Speaker 1: The petition was meant as a joke, but it's still
Speaker 1: garnered sixty signatures and at least one person took it seriously,
Speaker 1: vowing to refuse to pay his taxes until Frank was
Speaker 1: barred from fishing Pelican Lake. By this point, Frank had
Speaker 1: inherited his family's tavern in Antigo. He changed the name
Speaker 1: to Sue's Muskie Bar, and it became the nucleus for
Speaker 1: muskie culture in Wisconsin. Boast in the largest collection of
Speaker 1: musky heads and mounts in the world. The Suet Muski
Speaker 1: Thriller went into commercial production nearly eighty years later. Suet
Speaker 1: Lure Manufacturing still produces them. The company remains in the
Speaker 1: family and their lures are still made in Antigo, Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: Over the past couple of decades, musky lure design has
Speaker 1: come a very long way. You can find bits. There
Speaker 1: are a lot less work to fish in Sue's demand.
Speaker 1: Less skill, require far less maintenance and tuning, look more
Speaker 1: natural and realistic, and are more versatile. But I will
Speaker 1: never go musky fishing without a suwek in the boat,
Speaker 1: and I will rarely spend a full day chasing muskies
Speaker 1: without at least tying one on. So that's all we
Speaker 1: have you guys on this week's episode. But if this
Speaker 1: were a Sports Center Top Plays recap, you'd see Paul
Speaker 1: McClain scribbling mediocre poetry in a composition boat, a carved
Speaker 1: trout hanging on my wall. That's either a freak of
Speaker 1: nature or a freak of science. And our boy river
Speaker 1: Horse almost curve of stomping a bunch of dudes over
Speaker 1: a red fish spot. And for some reason we still
Speaker 1: get to call this a fishing podcast. If you want
Speaker 1: to hear more or less of any of these kinds
Speaker 1: of things, let us know. Send emails to Bent at
Speaker 1: the meat eater dot com and I promise that either
Speaker 1: Joe or I will read them and do our best
Speaker 1: to respond. Yep, give us a fishing report from your area,
Speaker 1: send us some photos. We love hearing from you guys.
Speaker 1: You know, and stay safe out there this week. If
Speaker 1: you're fishing the jetties or salmon river, wear cleats so
Speaker 1: you don't fall because it's cold out there now. Also
Speaker 1: wear breasts knuckles so you win. And if you're creeping
Speaker 1: around the woods fishing creeks, streams, lakes, or ponds, maybe
Speaker 1: consider wearing an orange hat, or just do what I
Speaker 1: do and sing grow Him at the top of your lungs.