WEBVTT - Ep. 22: Microfishing for Pelagic Triplefin 0:00:01.880 --> 0:00:03.960 And I'm like, other than being in shape and cut 0:00:03.960 --> 0:00:06.440 and having the staminate the paddle far enough out to 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:09.879 catch selfish on a kayak, we're basically the same person hunting. 0:00:10.400 --> 0:00:12.000 Let's be If this is what you're gonna use, you 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:14.200 might as well just grab like the towel bar out 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.560 of your bathroom and tape a real to it. You 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.720 have not honed your micro phishing skills and therefore will 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.439 not survive. It feels like they're trying to drag out 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.920 the sound of the plastics slowly sliding from his nostril 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:35.360 cavity at the Good Morning Degenerate Anglers. Welcome to Bend, 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.279 the podcast that swears this is the year it's going 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.680 to finally, once and for all, perfectly organize all its 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:44.640 tackle and keep it that way so it's not constantly 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:48.239 buying hook swivels and soft plastics it knows it already 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:51.360 has but can't find the night before a trip. How 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:55.440 do you like that one? I'm Joe Surmelis, and I 0:00:55.560 --> 0:01:00.200 don't believe in New Year's resolutions, but if I had one, 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:03.320 it would be something along those lines about organizing tackle, 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.320 because because that's something I know I do, Because yeah, 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.880 I reorganized my tackle at least twice a year. It's 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:16.000 this weird like zen therapeutic thing. For me. It's and 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.720 it's especially true for fly boxes. There is something about 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:24.000 a perfectly organized fly box that satisfies me and and 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.280 brings me, brings me some inner peace. I don't know 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:29.479 why I could not agree more like it, but it's 0:01:29.560 --> 0:01:31.479 so rare that minor organized like I have to take 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:33.600 a picture for social media because I'm like, Wow, that 0:01:33.640 --> 0:01:36.679 only happens once a year. Because I do. I reorganize 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.120 in a spring and like the streamer box say, we'll 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:42.600 get all nice, nice before the first warm season streamer trip. 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.800 But by now, like and I mean like right now 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:48.720 now in winter, my ship is chaos. But I'm one 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:51.400 of those people, like I gotta say I know where 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.800 everything is, at least in the general sense of like 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:58.400 what region of the garage, what should be in? Yeah, 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.200 what quadrant? It's in that quadrant? Um. But the only 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:03.720 time I go nuts is when I jump into a 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:06.880 curveball program, I e. Like, I get invited on a 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.480 random musky trip, you know, because I don't do that often. 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.920 So finding and organizing all the musky laws and leaders 0:02:12.919 --> 0:02:15.639 that I have scattered about would take effort, but no, 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:17.840 it totally. It does feel good in the spring when 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:21.680 everything is perfectly in place. Yeah, yeah, I can relate 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:23.919 to to much of what you're saying, and I feel 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:27.280 like I feel like maybe I was misleading with my statements. 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:30.840 So let me clarify. My ship is not organized, not 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.280 by any stretch of the imagination, in any sort of 0:02:34.400 --> 0:02:39.400 functional sense. Like unlike you, I can't usually find what 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.200 I need among the precarious stacks of gear that are 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.400 just lining my garage. I don't do well with that. 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:50.320 What I'm talking about is the the small and useless 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:55.560 act of organizing and reorganizing individual boxes. There's something a battle, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:57.840 not the war. It's like battle, not the war, like that. 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:00.360 I can that. That feels like something I can handle, 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.720 and so like I will, I'll take all the lures 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:06.000 or flies out and just kind of reorganize according to 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.799 some system that I decided makes more sense this year, 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:14.919 Like last year, I decided that all the various prince 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.640 nymphs that I have, like all the different kind of 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:20.680 prince nymps that I have, deserved their own box instead 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.000 of being them. I've seen them, I've seen you do 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.520 have a lot of those. Yeah, yeah, again guiding out 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:27.359 here you kind of have to write, And they used 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.600 to just be lumped in with all the small stone flies. 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:32.160 But I was like, no, no, I've got enough. They 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:34.040 deserve their own box. So I pulled them all out 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.240 and reorganized everything. And will that help me find my 0:03:38.360 --> 0:03:41.640 prince nymps or catch more fish? Absolutely not. I already 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.560 knew where they were. But still I got a sense 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.240 of joy out of it. Yeah, it was not useful, 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:49.880 but it was joyful. See. I don't own enough nymps 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.720 to organize them beyond the one standard size fly box 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:54.640 that I have for nymphs, you know what I mean. 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:56.960 Like if I broke them down further, we'd have like 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:00.960 separate thimbles or something like that. Of nimp anyway, but 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.520 I I've got no problem with New Year's resolutions, Okay, 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.880 just to get back to the to the opening point there. 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.320 But if I make one, I won't tell anybody about it, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.559 Like I have a problem with public posting of resolutions, 0:04:14.560 --> 0:04:17.120 Like if you're gonna do it, just shut up and 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.000 do it for yourself, you know what I mean? Like 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:21.280 maybe and I could be a jerk here and get 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.040 flak for this. I don't know, but I never got that. 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.000 Like one week smoke free, you know, four people are like, awesome, job, bro, 0:04:27.200 --> 0:04:29.159 keep it up. But then if any of those people 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.160 see you burning a heat or a week later outside 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.479 the launcher mat, now, like they just know you have 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.240 no follow through? So why make that public? You know, 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:43.159 what's the doubt? I think that's the point. I think 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:45.800 that's the point. I think like that's for people who 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:49.680 need the social pressure to keep an agreement with themselves. 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:53.920 And sure, great, I don't. I don't, I don't. I'm 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:55.520 with you, man, I don't. I don't want other people 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.960 judging me for choices I made about my own self 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.800 and health or whatever. And like, this whole conversation just 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:04.719 has me thinking about last episode when we were talking 0:05:04.720 --> 0:05:06.479 about how how New Years kind of gets you down, 0:05:06.720 --> 0:05:09.200 and I've actually been thinking about that and I and 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.880 and wondering why it doesn't bump me out quite as much. 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.960 And I think there a couple answers, like one we 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.279 have skiing out here, which makes the winter nicer, and 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:22.400 that might be part of it. But the real answer, 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.599 the thing that I've been thinking about is it's super 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:28.760 deep and like mind blowing all right, are you? Are 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:31.560 you ready for this? Do tell lay it on me. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:46.720 The days are getting longer. For dumb and obvious as 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:49.880 that sounds, because it does. I think. I think we 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.240 sometimes forget the whole point of having winter holidays are 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.200 to keep us from losing our minds during the darkest 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.680 days of the winter. And we made it. Those days 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.520 are oh her, Yeah, from now until June, every day 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:06.679 is gonna get just a little longer, just a little brighter, 0:06:06.760 --> 0:06:08.599 except for you know, if you happen to be a 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.000 listener in the Southern hemisphere, I feel like I feel 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:13.240 like you guys get really screwed on this whole deal. 0:06:13.680 --> 0:06:16.000 All the winter holidays happened in the middle of your summer, 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:17.840 and then what do you have to get you through 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.440 the dark cold days of June. Yeah? I never thought 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:24.560 about that International Day for the Fight against Illegal, unreported 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.479 and Unregulated Fishing. That's not a real thing. International Day 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:33.360 of Yoga, World Seafarer Day. All those are actual U 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:38.440 N recognized holidays. For the record, I looked it up anyway. Uh. 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.719 For those of us who live in the top half 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:45.359 the globe, congratulations we survived the darkest days of the 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.840 darkest year in recent memory. You know, Amen to that, 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:51.240 Amen to that. I like, I like where your head 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.919 is out. Let's turn the page on this sun, bitch. 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:56.839 And from the view out of my social media feed, 0:06:57.320 --> 0:06:59.400 it looks like many of you are way ahead of us. 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:02.400 And I'm seeing lots of picks, uh, you guys getting 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.280 out and having fun. And many of those picks have 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.479 involved big coats and little rods. But maybe some of 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.040 you dreamers out there you have the coat like, you've 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:13.880 figured out the coat part, but just need the perfect 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:17.120 little rod to begin your hard water pursuits. Don't worry, 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.240 Miles found a super sweet Internet score for you in 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:23.120 this week's sail bin. Why did you put the hand 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:25.040 to pave? You don't know what I'm getting, man, You 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.360 didn't have to be so hurtful with me so angry today. 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:33.000 In the saale bin we find a very simple offering. 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:38.760 Whoever posted this particular gem on East Idaho Craigslist is 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.360 not a person of many words. It's not someone that 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.440 I would call verbose. They are into the whole brevity thing. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:49.960 The title is simple ice fishing poles, That's all it says. 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.160 There's a lot of things about this that are simple, 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:57.760 very simple, all right. Look, I am not an expert 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.720 on ice fishing. I enjoy ice fishing, have some ice 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.640 gear I get out when I can. I've worked on 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:07.080 some ice fishing shows. I like grilling brods, drinking beer, 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:08.680 and fishing through holes in the ice as much as 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.440 the next guy. But I do not claim like solid 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:15.200 expertise there. It's just something I do. Yep, I'm right 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:16.600 there with you. I love it, but I don't have 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:18.920 all the gear I mooch off somebody else. Yep, yep. 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.440 I mean, I feel like I know stuff, but I 0:08:21.480 --> 0:08:23.520 know enough to know that I'm not the guy who 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.760 knows it all. But when I look at this post 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.400 even I know that something doesn't seem right, Because while 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:33.720 I might not be the most experienced ice angler on 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.560 the planet, I do know the difference between an ice 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.880 fishing rod and a fly fishing rod. And what I 0:08:40.000 --> 0:08:43.040 see pictured in the two photos on this post are 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:47.000 just the bottom sections of two very very crappy fly 0:08:47.160 --> 0:08:51.280 rods with two very very crappy fly reels. All right, 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.280 just so, for context, picture the bottom section of a 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.200 four piece fly rod, the really thick part. Now, picture 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.719 that with a couple of snake guides attached and a 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:03.719 tip top glued to the end of it, and you've 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.760 got it. That's that is what is being sold. You 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:08.880 can't zoom in enough on the photo. Like even the 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:12.839 tip guides. Something looks weird about those, like they were 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:16.199 like a repurposed something else that was glued on the end. 0:09:17.080 --> 0:09:19.880 I mean, who there's there's a lot of creativity here, 0:09:19.880 --> 0:09:23.040 which I respect, but the I think, I think there's 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.679 there's one major problem, right because so as far as 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.360 I understand it, ice rods have two sort of basic 0:09:29.440 --> 0:09:32.560 essential qualities. One is that they're short, so that you 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.240 can jig over a hole without sitting six ft away 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:38.520 from that hole. That makes sense, and these these spent 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:41.720 that bill. They are short, you could do that. But 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:43.720 the other thing that I expect from an ice rod 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:46.320 is that it will be sensitive and have a pretty 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.400 soft tip, because you need to be able to detect 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.040 a light strike and set the hook and fight a 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.920 fish up through the ice without breaking pretty late line. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.520 And that's where this this particular innovation I think falls 0:09:58.559 --> 0:10:01.280 short in that respect. Yeah, it reminds me of a 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:04.120 quote I believe that Gary Loomis once said, I can 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.240 build you a rod that will never break, you just 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:11.680 won't want to fish with it exactly. I mean, let's 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.240 be if this is what you're gonna use, you might 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.360 as well just grab like the towel bar out of 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:17.760 your bathroom and tape a reel to it like that. 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.319 That would essentually perform the same function as either. It 0:10:20.320 --> 0:10:22.800 wouldn't look as cool, but it would do the same thing. 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:28.960 So all right, I respect the repurposing here, right. I mean, 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.720 you got some old fly rods sitting around you don't 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:33.920 know what to do with them. Like, I got an 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:35.920 idea maybe I could, maybe I could turn it into 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.600 an ice rod. But it didn't work. It clearly didn't work, 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:41.760 And now someone's trying to sell that bad idea. Yeah, 0:10:41.800 --> 0:10:46.200 I gotta say that ten dollars for both, and if 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.400 you needed a couple of cheap o reels to knock 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:50.960 around with, that's the deal of the century for sure, 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:54.800 for sure, And and honestly not even that at that 0:10:54.840 --> 0:10:57.680 price for ten bucks for both, I would consider buying 0:10:57.720 --> 0:11:00.520 this set just to see the looks on my friends 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:02.840 faces when I like rolled into the ice shack and 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:06.400 pulled out these rods and started jigging with them like that. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:08.720 That would be worth ten bucks for me just to 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:11.920 see that reaction, like, what the hell is that my 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:15.080 new ice rod? Do you like it? So the part 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:17.760 that gets me is like, what do you do with 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:20.560 this when you're in eighty feet of water jigging for 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:22.560 giant lakers? Like you're just gonna be standing there front 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:24.599 and there's no quick release on a fly reel, so 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:33.400 you're just gonna be sending a minutes to get it 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.080 down the depth. That's the major. So I can forgive 0:11:37.160 --> 0:11:39.800 the half a fly rod, but like stick a couple 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:41.920 of spinning reels on there. You know, it's just this 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:44.480 is not functional. It didn't work. You're trying to trying 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:46.320 to sell us your mistakes, which again, good on you, 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.120 and at least it's cheap. So uh that one man. 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:51.560 I got a lot of laughs out of that. Whoever 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.840 posted that in East Idaho, thank you. If you come 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.400 across any online fishing gems for sale, just let us 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:00.679 know send us a link to vent at the meat 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:02.960 eater dot com. You all been doing a great job 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.400 sending us those submissions, and we do appreciate them and 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.439 we look forward to the next ones that you come 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:11.480 up with. So that's true. We have been getting a 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:13.960 lot of good sale bin submissions lately. Several of you 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.880 out there send us a link to someone in Minnesota 0:12:16.920 --> 0:12:20.400 who's converting old beer taps into ice fishing rods, and 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:22.760 while we didn't quite think that one had the legs 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.640 for its own segment, we it definitely deserves an honorable mention. 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.360 It's a good one. The only thing in that one 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.439 that we can expand on. I particularly like the fact 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:34.760 that their price not according to the quality of the rod, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.360 blank or like the action or anything, but the price 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:41.120 is according to how rare the beer tap is. Like 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:43.880 the standard bud heavy tap goes for sixty bucks, but 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.199 if you want the limited edition bush like corn Cob tap, 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:51.320 that's gonna cost you a hondo. Yeah, I mean, I 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:53.080 think the rods are all just broken off ands of 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.880 ugly sticks, so like there's no one's not carbon you know, 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.599 priorities do priority. Someone also sent me one that was 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.200 a set of matching beer tap rods, and I believe 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.760 all the taps had little Montreal Canadians goalie masks on, 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:10.200 you know, the whole set, And I'm sure I'm sure 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:13.520 it was molson um. Anyhow, when the people are out 0:13:13.520 --> 0:13:16.240 there using beer tap rods or normal rods. I have 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.240 been seeing some stunner lake trout pictures lately, and I'm jealous, 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:21.959 got to say, because lake trot are one of those 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:24.400 fish that I rarely get to mess with him, but 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:28.359 I love them and find them so fascinating me too. Definitely, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.520 I feel like a total dumbass when it comes to 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.800 fishing for lake trout because actually I've only ever caught 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.960 them by accident. I've never really know, I've never targeted 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:41.080 lake trout, but I know, like I know enough to 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.200 know that the people who really get after them have 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.880 it down to like a science. There's that dude to 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.679 the guy Grant Gully who took Steve out on the 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.080 last season of the Dots Boat And I've I've gotten 0:13:52.080 --> 0:13:54.680 a no Grant a little bit. And that guy he's 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.720 got the Laker game dialed. He just got it figured out. Yeah, 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:00.319 for sure, No dude. One of the cool things I 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:02.520 ever did was I targeted them on the Ice and 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:07.200 Colorado with legendary guy Bernie Keith. Awesome dude, And he 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:09.320 said in the beginning, He's like, you want to catch 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.120 a lot or you want to catch giants. And I 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:14.560 went with the ladder and in two days on the 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:16.560 ice at Lake Grand but we only hit five fish 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:21.119 where they were all overt on giant tuna size soft plastics. 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.000 And to fight fish like that on a tiny rod 0:14:24.080 --> 0:14:27.320 like scream and drag, it was insane. It was insane. 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:29.000 And you know, but of course, seeing where I live, 0:14:29.040 --> 0:14:31.320 I also have a soft spot for Great Lakes fish too, 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:33.720 because they're one of the few fisheries that we've been 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.440 able to successfully recover after we've you know, pretty much 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.640 damn near wipe them out. So um, I go up 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:41.720 to the Great Lakes to fly fish for them. Though 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.640 I do understand most guys troll their lakers, but I 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:50.680 hate trolling all yeah, And and I'm not a trolling guy. 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:52.800 Like if I never go on another bill fish trip again, 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.040 that'll that'll be fine with me. Um. And in fact, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.000 in today's weekly word, Miles is gonna tell you what 0:14:59.080 --> 0:15:03.880 lake trout and old fish have in common. Webster's Dictionary 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:11.320 defines fish as this week's word is pelagic. No not 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:14.040 the apparel brand voted most likely to instigate a bar 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.080 fight in the Fort Lauderdale Airport chilies. Polagic comes from 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:23.320 the ancient Greek word pelagicos, meaning sea. For the purposes 0:15:23.320 --> 0:15:26.360 of US anglers, the term usually references the pelagic zone 0:15:26.840 --> 0:15:30.320 and pelagic fish. The pelagic zone describes the part of 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:32.960 a body of water outside the tidal influence of a 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.800 shoreline and not near any sort of bottom structure. Polagic 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.920 fish or fish that live at least part of the 0:15:38.920 --> 0:15:43.560 time in that open water. We're talking tuna, billfish, mahi, mackerel, sharks, 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.280 raise lake trout. Yeah, freshwater fish can be polagic too, 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:49.360 if they live in a big enough lake, as well 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:52.120 as the massive schools of bait fish on which those 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.720 species feed herring, whiting, anchovy, jellyfish, flying fish, stard eining, smelt, 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.280 and lots of others. Still. Other popular fish my great 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:04.760 between the polagic and coastal zones, like Jack's barracuda, redfish, 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.280 and salmon point is. Many of our favorite targets are 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.360 at least partially pelagic. So if you liked fish, you 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:15.480 might associate the term with abundance, big fish, bloody decks, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.080 and full coolers, But the truth of the pelagic zone 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:23.080 is very different. Polagic actually describes the vast nothingness of 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:26.680 open water, one of the most sterile and least hospitable 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.080 places on the planet. Polagic fish only make up eleven 0:16:30.080 --> 0:16:32.760 percent of the total fish species, though they live in 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.440 the largest aquatic habitat on Earth. And here's the thing 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:38.800 that a lot of us don't know. The pelagic zone 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:41.800 is actually broken up into five different categories. Because open 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.760 water isn't just broad, it's also usually deep. One of 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:48.800 the anglers talk about the pelagic zone, we're usually just 0:16:48.840 --> 0:16:53.320 referencing the surface layer, the epic pelagic zone, which generally 0:16:53.320 --> 0:16:56.400 extends down about six hundred and fifty feet depending on 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.760 the clarity of the water. That's where the vast majority 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.200 of sunlight, oxygen, energy, nutrients, and organisms are found, and 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.800 not surprisingly, it's also where most of the fish live. 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:07.120 But the polagic zone goes a hell of a lot 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:10.359 deeper than that. Below the epipolagic zone you find the 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.720 messo polagic zone, Meso being the Greek word for middle. 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.160 This area goes down to about thirty three hundred feet 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.880 and is also known as the twilight zone because even 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:23.160 though light does penetrate down that far, it's pretty diffuse. 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.919 There's not enough sunlight at these depths for photosynthesis, so 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:30.960 no plankton. Quite a few fish species do live down here, 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:33.639 but they come up into shallow water to feed at 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:37.040 night and hide in the depths during the day. Below this, 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.520 you hit the bath up polagic zone from the Greek 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:44.399 word bathist meaning deep. This extends from feet down to 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.840 thirteen thousand feet, and it's also called the darker midnight 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:52.240 zone because duh, no light reaches down here. This is 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:54.920 the zone where those creepy deep water fish that create 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:58.840 their own bioluminescence and have ultra black light absorbing skin live. 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:01.119 Check out fish News from a few weeks ago for 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:04.520 more details on these strange, of it fascinating adaptations. This 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:08.399 zone is pretty damn inhospitable, at least from a terrestrial perspective. 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.800 Aside from being completely dark, it's also cold, low and 0:18:11.840 --> 0:18:15.560 oxygen and high end salinity and pressure. Fish down here 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:18.879 survived either by eating the remains of shallower water fish 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:22.560 that die and sink, or by eating each other. Next, 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.280 you hit the abysso pelagic zone from the Greek abyssos 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:30.159 meaning bottomless. This goes from thirteen thousand feet down to 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:32.959 nearly twenty thou feet and is where many of the 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.639 deepest oceans bottom out, but in certain places, like the 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.200 Mariana Trench, the ocean goes to an even deeper zone, 0:18:40.760 --> 0:18:45.439 the Hado pelagic zone, sometimes called the underworld, since Hado 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.160 comes from Hades, the Greek god of the dead. We're 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.320 talking about depths down to thirty six thousand feet, and honestly, 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.480 we don't really know what lives in that zone because 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.120 we can't get there. For me, like lots of other anglers, 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.200 I think the word pelagic hundres up images of early 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:04.960 morning offshore runs, sinking the horizon, blow ups in the 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:09.399 bubble trail, trolling lines, popping off outriggers, scrambling shouts of 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:13.800 fish on long, sweaty stints, and a fighting harness, prismatic 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.000 flashes through blue water, and if you're lucky, a well 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:20.440 placed gaffer tag followed by high fives and cold beer. 0:19:21.320 --> 0:19:24.520 It's a word that we've appropriated to describe a particular 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:29.199 kind of fishing, big targets in open water, but the 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:32.639 actual definition of pelagic doesn't fit that fantasy very well. 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.679 It's a place of scarcity, a massive watery desert that 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:39.840 includes the least comfortable parts of this planet. I don't 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.640 exactly know what all this says about fishing culture. Maybe 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.480 it reflects our optimism, our confidence that we can find 0:19:45.480 --> 0:19:48.919 the haystack needles that are pelagic fish. Maybe it just 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:52.000 shows that we don't actually understand the English language all 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.960 that well. Or maybe it speaks to the kind of 0:19:55.040 --> 0:19:58.200 native intelligence common among our kind. I know a lot 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:00.639 of anglers who barely passed by all G class by 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.000 sitting tall behind the smart kids, but can recite exactly 0:20:04.040 --> 0:20:08.800 which Booey's, Feds, sea mounts and rex hold particular fish 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:14.800 in any given conditions. The one thing you got wrong, 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:18.560 I believe Hank Parker fished the Hato Polegic zone, uh 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:22.320 well over a dozen years ago with flying lures spider wire. Yeah, 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:23.879 it was all about the spider wire. It was right 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:25.960 when spider wire came out, and it was like, you 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:27.959 want to hit the Hato Polegic Zone with you know, 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.480 spider wire. I think you're gonna need lead core for that. 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:34.200 Yeah kidding, But don't on what you said there. That's 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.720 pretty much how I got through some of my science classes, dude, 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:38.800 Like I was. I was never bold enough to blatantly 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.199 cheat on the test, but I damn shure cop had 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.480 some homework. I also somehow ended up an ap bio 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:47.240 one year, and what I did in that situation was 0:20:47.320 --> 0:20:52.679 just simply fail. I did not. I intentionally did not 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:54.760 sign up for ap bio because I knew that if 0:20:54.760 --> 0:20:57.560 I had, I would have either failed or cheated. I 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.040 don't know why I did it. I really don't know. 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:03.120 It was a patch. But unfortunately for us, there are 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:06.120 no notes to steal or shoulders to peek over, because 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.439 it's just the two of us going mono amano in 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:19.040 fish news, fish news. That escalated quickly. All right, so 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:21.160 before we kick in the news, I do have one 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.040 fan shout out this week, um, and that's going to 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.520 Tyler Berman, who emailed us and the subject line of 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:32.840 that email was dude snorted as Senko and I followed 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:35.680