Speaker 1: He's like, I told you it's a lose, which seems
Speaker 1: appropriate because if you buy this, you're gonna lose. We
Speaker 1: only shrimp boil and ported directly from Palermo. I'm so
Speaker 1: sorry to get you all excited chain pickerel, but it
Speaker 1: turns out Pennsylvanians still don't really like you. You cannot
Speaker 1: fish into bad past. Good morning, degenerate anglers. Welcome to Bent,
Speaker 1: the fishing podcast that's only interested in gas money trips
Speaker 1: because it can't afford to pay full charter rate. I'm
Speaker 1: Joe Surmelli a Miles Nulty, and as a former guy,
Speaker 1: I resent that intro that you do. But you rode
Speaker 1: there was no gas money. It would have been a
Speaker 1: lunch money trip for you. No. No, we still had
Speaker 1: to drive to the river. There was gas involved, and
Speaker 1: you're forgetting about paying for shuttles. Shuttles, shuttle shuttle money.
Speaker 1: I throw you some shuttle money. It's not I hated.
Speaker 1: I always hated that. Oh you guys just river goods.
Speaker 1: You don't have any overhead anyway, moving on, so there's
Speaker 1: no rowing your shelves involved. But I did get away
Speaker 1: for a long weekend with the family recently, which was
Speaker 1: nice on some hikes up in the mountains, did some
Speaker 1: small creek fishing, which I love, uh, And it was, man,
Speaker 1: it was just gorgeous. The cotton woods were all like
Speaker 1: lit up yellow, and it was like that water that's
Speaker 1: so cold it almost feels like it's hot, like it
Speaker 1: burns your feet, you know, And and tying a little
Speaker 1: brick streams and the brookies were brookies were like full
Speaker 1: on fall colors. To man, they were just glowing with
Speaker 1: the white rim fins and the black line gums you know,
Speaker 1: you know how they get this time of year. And
Speaker 1: and I mean they were brookies, so they ate everything
Speaker 1: we threw at them. It was just I was gonna
Speaker 1: say the best thing about a wild brookies it'll eat anything.
Speaker 1: Adams doesn't make any difference. No, I literally was changing
Speaker 1: changing it up, just to see what will they eat
Speaker 1: this too, Like I found this thing I found at
Speaker 1: the bottom of the bag. Will ate that. It was great.
Speaker 1: But I gotta say, for as great as the week,
Speaker 1: it was, and we had a blast, you know what
Speaker 1: sucked coffee? Ah, yeah, No, we were staying in this
Speaker 1: cheap little airbnb and we forgot to bring our own
Speaker 1: coffee and it was one of those moments where my
Speaker 1: wife and I, like, we looked at each other and
Speaker 1: we never thought of ourselves as coffee snob people, but
Speaker 1: we had this realization that we have become them, and
Speaker 1: that we've just gotten totally spoiled because every day we
Speaker 1: get up and we drink Black Rifle coffee. And as
Speaker 1: much as we didn't want to come home from the trip,
Speaker 1: we both genuinely missed waking up to like an excellent
Speaker 1: cup of brew. That was that was the one good
Speaker 1: thing about coming home. I'll concure with that. And maybe
Speaker 1: I am a coffee snob. Now. I never thought i'd
Speaker 1: say that, But my house, just like this podcast, runs
Speaker 1: on Black Rifle coffee, and aside from the fact that
Speaker 1: they make a damn fine blend, they also have a
Speaker 1: coffee club that you can join. Just sign up and
Speaker 1: the coffee legs shows up at your front door. Man,
Speaker 1: it's freaking magic, magic, very very subscription boxes. You know,
Speaker 1: you never have to worry about waking up to a
Speaker 1: house full of screaming kids, sometimes with a mild hangover
Speaker 1: to boot and uh, realizing other ship we're out of coffee,
Speaker 1: because it's just always there, you know, it's beautiful. It is,
Speaker 1: it is, it is kind of magical. I like what
Speaker 1: you said that and not that, but Black Rifle supports
Speaker 1: the wild and firefighters who were out on the front
Speaker 1: lines battling those unprecedented fires of ridge across the West
Speaker 1: this year. So their company you can feel good about
Speaker 1: giving your money to in addition to having good product,
Speaker 1: which I was like, So, go to Black Rifle Coffee
Speaker 1: dot com slash meat Eater to get set up with
Speaker 1: your own coffee subscription. If you use a promo code
Speaker 1: meat Eater at checkout, they will give you an additional
Speaker 1: off first order. I just gotta throw this out there.
Speaker 1: Man here at Bent we uh definitely need to throw
Speaker 1: a shout out to the women and men sweating their
Speaker 1: respective genitalia off and literally putting their bodies in front
Speaker 1: of walls of fire, which I can't imagine, because like
Speaker 1: I feel heroic after mowing the lawn on a hot day,
Speaker 1: you know, like sit down and survey the property and
Speaker 1: I'm like I did some some real ship here today.
Speaker 1: But you know, like one thing to note about those firefighters,
Speaker 1: They're not only out there saving homes and businesses right there,
Speaker 1: also protecting watersheds, so in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, they've
Speaker 1: saved some critical salmon and steelhead spawning grounds in the process,
Speaker 1: and we greatly appreciate their work and sacrifice. Speaking of
Speaker 1: spawning grounds, word has at the famed Salmon River in Plaska,
Speaker 1: New York is now roid raging with kings salmon teaming
Speaker 1: with mud sharks as I like to call them, which
Speaker 1: means the sleepy hamlet is once again overrun with jabrones
Speaker 1: from NYC, in Philly and Jersey and Boston, places where
Speaker 1: all my friends live. They're just out there slinging lead gobbs,
Speaker 1: the yarn for a giant, tired fish that are rotting
Speaker 1: from the inside out. Personally, I avoid salmon season like
Speaker 1: the plague. I don't I don't go for the salmon run.
Speaker 1: I just wait for the steelhead to show up a
Speaker 1: little later. But um, I know many of you can't
Speaker 1: wait to be one of the fifty people flexing around
Speaker 1: a fifty ft long hole. So this week our friend
Speaker 1: ray Leota has the skinny on what's happening up there.
Speaker 1: And yes we do mean that ray Leota, who quit
Speaker 1: smoking using chants and then replace that addiction with salmon fishing. Hey,
Speaker 1: how are you doing? This is Ray at ray Leota's
Speaker 1: Bait and Tackle in Pulaska in New York, calling in
Speaker 1: this week's salmon fishing report. Based on what customers and
Speaker 1: a few trusted sources are telling me, the salmon are
Speaker 1: generally being assholes right now. They don't want to eat
Speaker 1: nothing but fancy flies presented on those long rods the
Speaker 1: kids hold like a Louisville slugger with two hands. You
Speaker 1: stow the group I'm talking about out there waving that
Speaker 1: ship around like ballet dancers. Spay casting I think they
Speaker 1: call it. Anyway. Word on the street is if you
Speaker 1: drift an egg sack past these sam and they're like
Speaker 1: you spay me. You bounce a piece of yarn right
Speaker 1: off their nose and they're like you spay me. I'm
Speaker 1: just with you. We all know that fly fishing is ship.
Speaker 1: Last week a kid got too close to me waving
Speaker 1: one of those rods around at the muskrat hole, and
Speaker 1: let's just say he can barely hold the call button
Speaker 1: next to his I see you, bed let alone a
Speaker 1: fly pole. The kings have been running strong, but the
Speaker 1: silvers are slow to start. Those big bastard Kings, though,
Speaker 1: haven't been able to resist a wat of kitchen sponge
Speaker 1: soaked in raylio to this famous salmon sauce only available
Speaker 1: here at the shop. I got Nikki and some kid
Speaker 1: named Wayne or Dwayne or whatever something cooking up more
Speaker 1: than sauce in the back. Right now. We use only
Speaker 1: shrimp oil imported directly from Palermo, and Nikki slices the
Speaker 1: velveta soa thin it melts instantly. The crowds have been
Speaker 1: so out of control. I've been sending little Jimmy Bennelli
Speaker 1: out in the middle of the night to lock up
Speaker 1: a hole for me and the guys. He just sits
Speaker 1: there until sun up. In his fisherman show up, he
Speaker 1: gently explains why it would be a good idea for
Speaker 1: them to fish elsewhere. He's a good kid, and it's
Speaker 1: been working out real well. Two weeks ago, during the
Speaker 1: first big push of the Kings, I showed up at
Speaker 1: the Lower Clay Pool at one pm after a few
Speaker 1: deliveries and breakfast with Karen, and there was nobody there,
Speaker 1: not one angler. I was like, oh, Jimmy, you sort
Speaker 1: a bit. You did it that afternoon it was like
Speaker 1: we were the Kings of the River. We landed forty
Speaker 1: seven salmon on yarn and pom poms dipped in sauce
Speaker 1: before Tommy went home to get his spinner box so
Speaker 1: we could start snagging them in the assholes, just for fun. Anyway,
Speaker 1: I'll check in with you is next week, and remember, Radiots,
Speaker 1: Bait and Tackle is here to serve us seven during
Speaker 1: salmon season. If the shop is closed, beat my pager
Speaker 1: and we can arrange a delivery off your tackle needs
Speaker 1: to one of our many off site drop locations. I
Speaker 1: had no idea that Ray got into the tackle business.
Speaker 1: It seems like a really poor choice. You know, the
Speaker 1: impression I get it's it's it's one of many businesses
Speaker 1: he's into. I think I bumped into him up there
Speaker 1: at the river House, but only on the nights when
Speaker 1: they got to reveal parm special. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: he's a good guy. It's really it's a good d
Speaker 1: It's almost enough, almost enough to make me want to
Speaker 1: go there and fish, but not quite. I gotta say, though, dude,
Speaker 1: I am I'm genuinely surprised that he was willing to
Speaker 1: give us a report. I mean, considering that we ripped
Speaker 1: off one of his lines and we use it in
Speaker 1: a segment intro all the time, like we just steal
Speaker 1: his stuff. And he's like, it's fine, I'll work with
Speaker 1: those guys anyway. But speaking of which, I I do
Speaker 1: believe that it is time for that segment. Why it
Speaker 1: is that time again for probably my favorite segment that
Speaker 1: we have at Smooth Moves, where we call up guides
Speaker 1: and captains and mates and pretty much anybody who is
Speaker 1: dependent on taking people fishing to make their living, and
Speaker 1: we get them to tell us ridiculous stories about things
Speaker 1: the clients have done. And today we are talking with
Speaker 1: my good, good friend Steve Daly, who is the only
Speaker 1: Tasmanian guiding for trout in Arkansas that I know of. Steve,
Speaker 1: what's going on? Man? Well, you'd be right for the
Speaker 1: first time, wouldn't he, Buddy, there's the first up for everything. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm good, I'm good. It's it's it's nice to hear
Speaker 1: your voice. Even though we don't get to hang out
Speaker 1: that much anymore, do us a favorite? Man? Tell us
Speaker 1: the Smooth Moves you got we're looking forward to this?
Speaker 1: What what? What? What's your story? Well, you know I
Speaker 1: got in the White River and bus. You guys have
Speaker 1: been to our area on our water chasing big fish,
Speaker 1: and probably about the customers we have come in want
Speaker 1: a big trophy trout at about the customers can actually
Speaker 1: physically and mentally get it done. And and for those
Speaker 1: of you who don't know, the White River does grow
Speaker 1: freakishly large brown trap. It just does. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of them, but they're incredibly hard to catch too.
Speaker 1: Like you need more than just you need a skill set,
Speaker 1: you need attitude, you need luck, you need weather, you
Speaker 1: need the right guide, and everything's got to come together,
Speaker 1: and even then you can dick it up. Okay, so
Speaker 1: knows I know that have this customer, Sherman. I'll keep
Speaker 1: his very secret. Sherman. Sherman comes to visit and sermon,
Speaker 1: can fish right. Serpent's got it all, He's got good
Speaker 1: skill set, good guy to hang out in the boat with,
Speaker 1: prepared to put in the work. He does it all.
Speaker 1: And we have this trip lined up and the weather
Speaker 1: conditions were looking really honest. He's like, man, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I can come and fish in the rain.
Speaker 1: I'm like half day, give me a half day. In
Speaker 1: the morning, the water looks good, everything is lining up
Speaker 1: and we get out there and like everything's just coming together.
Speaker 1: It's got that whole gosthic low cloud. You know how
Speaker 1: old of the basket bills howling off in the hills.
Speaker 1: The water is really greasy, you know that as porters.
Speaker 1: Lucky Porter says, it's greasy water and the fish are
Speaker 1: biting and he's put ten brown trout in the boat
Speaker 1: from and we're doing we're doing a six mile float.
Speaker 1: It's on right. We haven't got a big one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that's really sick that the fact that isn't
Speaker 1: a big fish. We're looking for a two ft and
Speaker 1: we came unbuttoned on one and we've got to the
Speaker 1: last bank and we're like four yards in the ramp
Speaker 1: and we know we're coming out. It's like, man, I
Speaker 1: think we can get one here. This ledge is just
Speaker 1: the ledges just covered tied on one of my flies.
Speaker 1: Let's just roll down here and Sherman's are left in
Speaker 1: I don't on that bank. He's fishing behind me in
Speaker 1: the driftboat and he puts the fly up onto the ledge,
Speaker 1: gives it one strip off, and this behaviors just comes up.
Speaker 1: And if you it's that pretty pretty eat right, fish
Speaker 1: mouth opens inhales. The whole six inch fly, yes, six inches,
Speaker 1: just takes the whole thing. It's gone. It looks tiny
Speaker 1: going to this more and it sucks into the corner
Speaker 1: of the mouse and I'm just like, oh god, it's
Speaker 1: it's right. I'm seeing I'm already seeing the front page
Speaker 1: of fly Fish in the magazine. It's gonna be on
Speaker 1: Flying Fish, it's gonna be on the drake. I'm going
Speaker 1: to be I'm going to be holding it to okay
Speaker 1: in this vision. But I haven't said anything right because
Speaker 1: I know it's all good, and Sherman has been so
Speaker 1: good all morning. Right, this is meant to happen. And
Speaker 1: you can remember he's sitting here behind me fighting this fish,
Speaker 1: and I've looked over my shoulder and this fish has
Speaker 1: come back and it's just rolled next to the boat
Speaker 1: and has rolled sideways. So we've seen the forward to
Speaker 1: the fish, and I've seen at least a foot of fish. Okay,
Speaker 1: so that's like a girl. That's a fifteen pound fish
Speaker 1: right next to the boat. Tired, and I reached down,
Speaker 1: I grabbed the net and I stood up and I
Speaker 1: remember thinking in my head, I'm going to say, Sherman,
Speaker 1: next time around, we've got this fish, he's going in
Speaker 1: And I heard those fateful words, Steve. What do I do?
Speaker 1: What I do? I jerk it in the boat. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to process this ship. It's like Jesus, is this
Speaker 1: is this like bass fishing stuff is not connecting. And
Speaker 1: I watched his leap sorry his right hand is lefty
Speaker 1: right hand for each up on the rod and grabbed
Speaker 1: the blank. And at this point I'm like, I'm like,
Speaker 1: all I can say is no, no, And he has
Speaker 1: he's tried it. And let me tell you, a gentleman,
Speaker 1: I can assure you you can pole jerk. You cannot
Speaker 1: pull jerk a fifteen pound fish into a boat on
Speaker 1: fifteen bound pairs. Oh no, that was it. And I
Speaker 1: didn't even get a caim of away. It's on the
Speaker 1: bottom minute it's blow. Oh no, that's that's It was
Speaker 1: such a magical story when you were just talking about
Speaker 1: to eat, because I was thinking, every big brown I
Speaker 1: ever have come after my fly happens when I pile
Speaker 1: cast and ships wrapped around my legs. Like it's never
Speaker 1: on the perfect cast where he's like he's going to
Speaker 1: eat that one. Sometimes the fishing. God's reached down and
Speaker 1: put a little light on your forehead and that was
Speaker 1: our moment and apparently burned out right at the end
Speaker 1: game for this guy. Oh dude, I've spoken it was
Speaker 1: numerous psychologists try and figure this ship out. How does
Speaker 1: this never happen again? So and I've heard the first
Speaker 1: thing I've heard from Sherman because I just can't speak.
Speaker 1: I can't even look at the guy right He's broken
Speaker 1: off the fish of a lifetime, so I can't look
Speaker 1: at him. And I just hear the one word of
Speaker 1: fall later and starting with f just ringing off the
Speaker 1: heels of the im sacks because he said it, and
Speaker 1: then he turned him and he said, this is about
Speaker 1: five minutes later. I've got my head out of my
Speaker 1: Anti said, Steve shipped my pants, didn't I? I said,
Speaker 1: I cannot tell a lie. It was all over So
Speaker 1: sad I christ As Dally and his fellow azzies would
Speaker 1: say that story was gutting. Gutting, I'm gonna start using
Speaker 1: that word. I wasn't even there and I'm still gutted.
Speaker 1: That's one of my favorite Commonwealth phrases. I am gutted.
Speaker 1: And just for the record, I've I have known Steve
Speaker 1: Daly for a long time, and I will vouch right
Speaker 1: here and now for the fact that he is more
Speaker 1: likely to underestimate the size of a fish than overestimated.
Speaker 1: So I believe every word. Yeah, I mean, I know
Speaker 1: Steve only by reputation. I've never met him, but I've
Speaker 1: been hearing about him for years, and I will say
Speaker 1: that man just knows how to tell a good fishing
Speaker 1: story and not not everybody can do that. So I
Speaker 1: vote for bringing him back on the regular second that,
Speaker 1: and there are only two votes here, so I think
Speaker 1: he's coming back whether he wants to or not. And
Speaker 1: the guy, he's just a storyteller, like period, full stop. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I imagine that's part of what makes him a good guy,
Speaker 1: because if the fishing sucks, you better be able to
Speaker 1: tell a good story. People aren't coming back. I've listened
Speaker 1: to that dude tell stories about cricket matches and been
Speaker 1: completely enthralled, even though I do not understand a single
Speaker 1: thing about the sport of cricket, like nothing at all.
Speaker 1: It's like baseball with flat bats and knickers. I think
Speaker 1: you have to wear knickers. I don't. I don't really
Speaker 1: know dude, I'm not in a much of anything British.
Speaker 1: I don't get cricket or rugby, riverkeepers, parliamentary government, why
Speaker 1: people think Oasis was so great? Me wrong? But I
Speaker 1: do know that our word for this week does have
Speaker 1: something to do with the Brits, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to steal your thunder, so I'll let Miles take it
Speaker 1: from here with the weekly word. Webster's Dictionary defines fish
Speaker 1: as this week's word is angling, as in another word
Speaker 1: for fishing, as in while angling for halibit, the angler
Speaker 1: had an unfortunate encounter with a harbor seal and is
Speaker 1: now missing a few digits. Those of us who write
Speaker 1: about fishing, like Joe and I, find angling a useful term.
Speaker 1: It offers an alternative to fishing or fisherman, which is
Speaker 1: nice for a couple of reasons. One, writers get sick
Speaker 1: of using the same word over and over again, and
Speaker 1: two the term angler's gender neutral, as is fishing, and
Speaker 1: as you're about to learn, it has been for a
Speaker 1: very long time. But where do we get angling? Is
Speaker 1: it actually a synonym for fishing? And would you believe
Speaker 1: its origin is entwined with the beginnings of the English language.
Speaker 1: To answer that, I have to go back a very
Speaker 1: long way, like the fifth century way, back to the
Speaker 1: Anglo Saxons, you know, the Germanic people's who colonized the
Speaker 1: British Isles after the Fall of Rome and invented English.
Speaker 1: This language I'm speaking right now. Well, the Anglo part
Speaker 1: of their name comes from the Angles tribe, whose original homeland,
Speaker 1: which they called a was a peninsula in Denmark with
Speaker 1: a vague hook shape to it if you really squint hard.
Speaker 1: The Angles were fishing people, and they carried their language
Speaker 1: and culture with them when they migrated west. Quick recap.
Speaker 1: English comes from the root Anglo, which got its name
Speaker 1: from the tribe Angles, who were named for a fish hook. So,
Speaker 1: in a weird way, are very language is rooted in fishing.
Speaker 1: By the time English became an actual language several hundred
Speaker 1: years later, the word angle referred to any curved object
Speaker 1: that could be used to hook a fish. The earliest
Speaker 1: known written work about fishing, titled Treatise on Fishing with
Speaker 1: an Angle, published in four is often attributed to a
Speaker 1: badass hunting and fishing nun, Dame Julianna Burners. The book
Speaker 1: details how to make rods lines hooks and lures, and
Speaker 1: even delves into concepts of ethics, private land, and conservation.
Speaker 1: Some historians disagree about whether Burner's actually penned that work
Speaker 1: or if she even existed, but no one has a
Speaker 1: better answer, so we're just sticking with the badass nun
Speaker 1: writing the first how to book on fishing. Anyway. My
Speaker 1: point is in that title, Treatise on Fishing with an Angle,
Speaker 1: the noun angle stands in for fish hook, somewhat confusingly,
Speaker 1: In that same book, Burners also uses angle in the
Speaker 1: geometric sense. She spends a whole lot of time talking
Speaker 1: about the importance of the angle of rod to line
Speaker 1: for effectively casting and hooking fish. Though that word choice
Speaker 1: may have muddied her meaning a bit, it also might
Speaker 1: have helped transition the noun angle as in fish hook,
Speaker 1: into the verb to angle. Over the next couple of centuries,
Speaker 1: the language evolved as languages do, and angling became a
Speaker 1: well established term. By the time Isaac Walton published his
Speaker 1: iconic book The Complete Angler in se angling was just
Speaker 1: a common term for fishing, and it stayed that way
Speaker 1: ever since. So that pretty much covers where the term
Speaker 1: came from, and if you think about it. You can
Speaker 1: see that angling and fishing they're not exactly the same thing.
Speaker 1: An angler fishes with an angle or hook. A fisherman
Speaker 1: just catches fish. Noodling for catfish doesn't count as angling.
Speaker 1: Neither does throwing a cast net, flinging a spear, setting
Speaker 1: a fish trap, or gathering shellfish. But all of those
Speaker 1: are fascinating in skillful ways of trying to capture fish.
Speaker 1: What I'm trying to say is, by that definition, I'd
Speaker 1: rather be known as a fisherman than an angler. But
Speaker 1: it still doesn't solve the problem of what to call
Speaker 1: badass women who are good at all types of fishing.
Speaker 1: I'm stuck on this one because I really appreciate specific
Speaker 1: and accurate language. I think we need to come up
Speaker 1: with a new word that describes all people who like
Speaker 1: to pursue fish in all possible ways. But I don't
Speaker 1: have it yet. Fishers, fish, people, awqua lungs. I really
Speaker 1: don't know, but I want to know what you think.
Speaker 1: Let's figure this out together. Maybe we can come up
Speaker 1: with a new word and have it catch on. Hey,
Speaker 1: what the hell was that man got a little carried away?
Speaker 1: That was some rambling Russell Crowe beautiful mind ship. I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't know if any part of that was true,
Speaker 1: but I respected I guess either way, um, it's weird.
Speaker 1: And either way, you spent way too much time researching
Speaker 1: the roots of that word. Or you're more creative than
Speaker 1: I thought. It's one or the other. I don't know,
Speaker 1: both actually both. I will say though, that I like
Speaker 1: the idea of coining a new gender neutral term to
Speaker 1: replace fisherman. If we actually ever pulled that off, we'd
Speaker 1: have to report on ourselves for fish News. But that's
Speaker 1: not happening this week. Fish News that escalated quickly, So
Speaker 1: welcome to fish News, the part of the show where
Speaker 1: we queue you guys into all kinds of recent fishing
Speaker 1: and fish related happenings out there in the world. For
Speaker 1: those of you who have not been following along, this
Speaker 1: is a competition, and a serious one at that very serious.
Speaker 1: Friendly reminded that Miles and I do not know which
Speaker 1: news stories the other dude is bringing to the table,
Speaker 1: and our magical engineer Phil at the end of each
Speaker 1: news segment ways in to declare one of us a
Speaker 1: victor and one of us a complete and total loser.
Speaker 1: Last week, that was me so um, maybe I'll maybe
Speaker 1: I'll bring it this week. We'll see. But before we
Speaker 1: actually get to the news, Miles, I do believe you.
Speaker 1: You have a few comments. You want to make a
Speaker 1: about some some some tools you have to you have
Speaker 1: tool issues. Based on last episode, well, I may have
Speaker 1: have technically one fish news. Last week. I also kind
Speaker 1: of proved myself to be a loser. So I told
Speaker 1: the story of a musky angler who freed to fish
Speaker 1: in Wisconsin from a diving ring using bolt cutters, and
Speaker 1: and in doing so, I made a snide comment wondering, well,
Speaker 1: who carries bolt cutters on their boat? Apparently the answer
Speaker 1: is serious musky anglers. Listener Jeff von Holtam writes Musky
Speaker 1: anglers routinely carry bolt cutters in order to cut hooks
Speaker 1: during a difficult release. Jeff goes on to say, you
Speaker 1: try cutting in eight oh four x strong mustad with
Speaker 1: a side cutter, you will struggle. So thanks for keeping
Speaker 1: me honest there, Jeff, And uh and calling it out
Speaker 1: when I screwed it up. Anytime we screw stuff up,
Speaker 1: we want to hear from and I gotta jump in
Speaker 1: and say that I deserve it to be called out.
Speaker 1: As a dang guest for that one too, because listen,
Speaker 1: people like when you're recording this stuff in the heat
Speaker 1: of the moment, like how many times we get down
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, I said some clearly idiotic stuff.
Speaker 1: I've posted videos of people using bolt cutters on muski
Speaker 1: boats to cut musky hooks out of themselves. I freaking
Speaker 1: knew that too, and it was just nowhere in my brain.
Speaker 1: And then I just went to the default make fun
Speaker 1: of of dirty people from Jersey like me. So I
Speaker 1: I failed there too. Um, you know, we all fail sometimes.
Speaker 1: Hopefully I will not fail today, though it is a
Speaker 1: little bit more possible, because the leadoff man in in
Speaker 1: any newsday tends to have a leg up and this
Speaker 1: week that is used, sir, it is it is, And
Speaker 1: hopefully I won't. I won't make an ass of myself
Speaker 1: this week. But we'll see plenty of opportunities for that happen,
Speaker 1: all right. So last week, the Army Corps of Engineers
Speaker 1: announced that they will open a public comment period for
Speaker 1: a fish farming pilot project proposed off the coast of
Speaker 1: Sara Sota, Florida. This comes after the e p A
Speaker 1: issued the Aquaculture developer, ocean Era, a wastewater discharge permit
Speaker 1: for the project on septemb Now, this is not the
Speaker 1: standard inshore net pen fish farm that we're all accustomed to,
Speaker 1: Dubbed the Valela I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing that right, Laila,
Speaker 1: something like that, Leyla Epsilon project. This is the latest
Speaker 1: outgrowth of ocean Eras development of open ocean aquaculture pens.
Speaker 1: For the past decade plus in Hawaii, ocean Era has
Speaker 1: been developing what they call aquapods, large copper alloy mesh
Speaker 1: orbs that can be deployed in the open ocean and
Speaker 1: house several thousand fish. The idea is that this could
Speaker 1: be a sustainable form of fish farming. Because the pens
Speaker 1: are an open ocean, tide and swell activity could theoretically
Speaker 1: disperse waste instead of concentrating it in bays and estuaries,
Speaker 1: which is what happens with traditional aquaculture. And uh, I
Speaker 1: gotta say, the engineering on these things is pretty mind blowing.
Speaker 1: So what they're talking about doing is is they're going
Speaker 1: to drop this pen forty five miles out to see
Speaker 1: in the Gulf of Mexico and leave it there for
Speaker 1: twelve to eighteen months to test it out. It would
Speaker 1: be secured with what they call a multi anchor swivel
Speaker 1: mooring system. The pen would be attached to three different
Speaker 1: three ton drag anchors by two insteel chain in about
Speaker 1: a hundred thirty ft of water. So most of the
Speaker 1: time the pen is just would be floating there on
Speaker 1: the ocean surface, but when a storm approaches, the flotation
Speaker 1: system can be flooded with water so that it sinks
Speaker 1: to the bottom, and the theory here is that the
Speaker 1: pen itself will be safer from wind and waves and
Speaker 1: surge in the middle of a storm. If it's down
Speaker 1: on the bottom, it's below everything. All of this, the
Speaker 1: whole thing is controlled remotely and just requires a one
Speaker 1: single weekly technician visit to refill the fish feeder and
Speaker 1: recharge the generator. Ocean Era claims that their previous tests
Speaker 1: of similar pens and hawii produced out standing fish while
Speaker 1: leaving no significant impact on ocean ecosystems, but local critics
Speaker 1: of this project are not buying it. They argue that
Speaker 1: the area is already struggling with massive red tides exacerbated
Speaker 1: by elevated levels of nitrogen and Phospherson. That's what I
Speaker 1: was thinking about. That part of the world is red
Speaker 1: tide central exactly, and and they're saying like these pens
Speaker 1: could add to the problem. Additionally, like any other aquaculture
Speaker 1: right the fish in these pens could carry infectious disease.
Speaker 1: And so if this kind of untested technology were to
Speaker 1: fail and the fish could escape, they might do harm
Speaker 1: to to local fish populations. As of right now, commercial
Speaker 1: fish farming in federal waters is prohibited. Ocean Era is
Speaker 1: working to secure EPA permits for this test, but for
Speaker 1: right now anyway, they can't go any further than that.
Speaker 1: A federal Court of Appeals held that offshore fish farming
Speaker 1: and federal waters cannot be permitted under current policy. That
Speaker 1: just happened in August, So large scale offshore fish farms
Speaker 1: remain illegal unless Congress passes new legislation. So why is
Speaker 1: ocean Era even bothering with all this research and testing
Speaker 1: if the scaling up of this technology is just not allowed, Well,
Speaker 1: because it might not be illegal for long. Senator Marco Rubio,
Speaker 1: the from Florida recently introduced the Advancing the Quality and
Speaker 1: Understanding of American Aquaculture Act, or the aqua for short.
Speaker 1: That was how many times out some aid in paperwork.
Speaker 1: I already forgot it. I just go BAA. If that passes,
Speaker 1: it would open up offshore federal waters to fish farms.
Speaker 1: And that follows a Trump administration executive order mandating an
Speaker 1: expansion of American aquaculture. All right, So that's a lot.
Speaker 1: I know. I just wanted to step in here at
Speaker 1: the end and say I'm not going to claim that
Speaker 1: this issue is simple, because it's not. We we know
Speaker 1: that current fish farming practices are detrimental to ecosystems and
Speaker 1: wildfish populations. We've seen that happen. We also know that
Speaker 1: global demand for fish and seafood isn't sustainable. We are
Speaker 1: we are literally fishing out the oceans right. So in theory,
Speaker 1: sustainable aquaculture like that offers a potential solution that the
Speaker 1: idea of sustainable aquaculture is is really attractive. If we
Speaker 1: can figure out how to raise fish on an industrial
Speaker 1: scale without destroying habitat, I mean, I'd be all four it.
Speaker 1: That'd be great. But I'm wary of fish farming in
Speaker 1: general because it has a terrible track record. And and
Speaker 1: you know, I gotta say, like I have to clear
Speaker 1: one thing up. I'm talking explicitly about fish, not mollusks
Speaker 1: or bivalves. Oyster farming scenes to be working pretty well,
Speaker 1: but you know, much like sulfide mining near sensitive watersheds,
Speaker 1: this strikes me as the wrong place to test this
Speaker 1: technology out, like you were saying earlier, Joe, like the
Speaker 1: of Mexico, that whole area is already dealing with a
Speaker 1: lot and adding more potential stress to that marine system.
Speaker 1: Just that just it seems really risky. It just does. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So this is one of those deals were on paper,
Speaker 1: it sounds like a good idea, but I mean, I
Speaker 1: have so many questions which you might not have the
Speaker 1: answers to. I mean, first and foremost, like what kind
Speaker 1: of fish are we raising in a in a copper
Speaker 1: bubble forty five miles offshore? So they've done it with
Speaker 1: a few different kinds of fish, the ones that they
Speaker 1: did in Hawaii or are compete it's a it's a
Speaker 1: type of fish that's out there, but the ones that
Speaker 1: they want to do in Florida test this out, or
Speaker 1: Jack's which kind of blewe Yeah, that's that's that classic
Speaker 1: fish that like one in fifty guys is like, oh
Speaker 1: are you talking about them? Kraval is delicious. I wish
Speaker 1: I could remember the exact but yeah, it goes exactly.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what. I actually just caught some almicos here
Speaker 1: in Jersey a couple of weekends ago. How about that? Um?
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like, you know, when when you're
Speaker 1: talking about farm salmon and things, a lot of times
Speaker 1: you have these farms and places where those fish don't
Speaker 1: naturally exist. Therefore, when something goes wrong, it's it's it's catastrophic, right,
Speaker 1: So I mean, if we're raising a fish that if
Speaker 1: hypothetically all got released forty five miles off shore, wouldn't
Speaker 1: make any difference anyway. I mean, I feel like that's
Speaker 1: that's a little safer in that regard, except for one thing. Right, Yes,
Speaker 1: they're native to that area, but they've been pumped full
Speaker 1: of all kinds of ambiotics and stuff, so them getting
Speaker 1: out could potentially there there could be a problem there.
Speaker 1: It's not like there's no risk. Yeah, and and and
Speaker 1: and for anybody you know this, this is like a
Speaker 1: new idea too. So Hawaii had a version of this,
Speaker 1: And I've only ever fished in southern California one time,
Speaker 1: but I don't want to get off on it. But
Speaker 1: I was so blown away once we got into Mexican waters.
Speaker 1: They weren't in US waters, just these miles of pens
Speaker 1: out in the open ocean, and I'm like, what is that?
Speaker 1: And they're like their tuna pends. They're full of blue
Speaker 1: fin tuna. And that was the first time I ever
Speaker 1: saw any sort of open ocean pen farm whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it. So it's it's I think the
Speaker 1: the the method here, uh is new, but I mean
Speaker 1: stuff like this to some degree has been done before. Um.
Speaker 1: I will say that if they put it out there,
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're a mahi fisherman, that's your spot.
Speaker 1: I mean, can you just imagine? Can you just imagine?
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the world's biggest what is it called
Speaker 1: a fit fabricated whatever they're they're illegal fat fat fish, Yeah,
Speaker 1: attracting device. So you know, um, I think it's an
Speaker 1: interesting idea. I get what they're saying to about the wastewater.
Speaker 1: That does make sense because a lot of these issues
Speaker 1: stem from the wastewater that that farms produced. So yeah,
Speaker 1: you have the tide naturally flushing out all the fish.
Speaker 1: Ship it's it's I don't, I don't, I don't know,
Speaker 1: man Like, it's it's such a it's such a big
Speaker 1: picture thing. There's no right or wrong right now, there's
Speaker 1: the whole deal and and this like this one pen right,
Speaker 1: you're talking about like a pretty small scale thing. It's
Speaker 1: it's not this, it's not the test that's the issue.
Speaker 1: It's what it opens the door to on a bigger
Speaker 1: scale that's the thing that's potentially an issue. So I mean,
Speaker 1: I recommend everybody was out there who's concerned with this, like,
Speaker 1: do your own research, come to your own conclusions. The
Speaker 1: public comment period is not open yet for the Army
Speaker 1: Corps of Engineers, but it will be soon. And and
Speaker 1: contact them, let them know what you think, give them
Speaker 1: your thoughts, make your voice heard. Uh. And one of
Speaker 1: the things before we move on, Joe, I totally mispronounced
Speaker 1: a Hawaiian word in there, and all my my people
Speaker 1: will hate me is the name of that fish not
Speaker 1: compa Compachi. Okay, you've right it, You've righted your wrong
Speaker 1: this time. I will just tack on that. I feel
Speaker 1: bad for that one loan dude who ask to make
Speaker 1: the forty five mile run there and back. Once a
Speaker 1: week to to feed the fish. That's a terrible job
Speaker 1: since everything else is remote. But anyway, so well, i'll
Speaker 1: transition is here from growing them growing fa to slaughter
Speaker 1: in them in an interesting story here And and I
Speaker 1: feel like we've tried pretty hard to keep the covids
Speaker 1: out of our news because like who like we're all
Speaker 1: hearing it, right, But this one was just too juicy
Speaker 1: for for me to let it go. So this story
Speaker 1: comes to us from sky News headline coronavirus colon half
Speaker 1: a million sharks could be killed for vaccine. Experts warn
Speaker 1: I heard about this. I didn't dig into it, but
Speaker 1: this I heard about this, all right. This is one
Speaker 1: I was legitimately. I was worried that you were going
Speaker 1: to grab because I could see either one of us.
Speaker 1: This is this has to it for scept it sharks.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty you know, it's pretty much jo story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So from this story, half a million sharks could be
Speaker 1: killed for their natural oil to produce coronavirus vaccines. According
Speaker 1: to Conservationist, one ingredient used in some COVID nineteen vaccine
Speaker 1: candidates is squalling. Squaling squalling, I slip slappy samsonite we'll
Speaker 1: go squaling because I'm gonna say it a million times.
Speaker 1: Uh so whatever, uh And that which is a natural
Speaker 1: oil made in the liver of sharks. British pharmaceutical company
Speaker 1: Glaxo smith Klein currently uses sharks squaling in flu vaccine,
Speaker 1: and the company said it would manufacture a billion doses
Speaker 1: of this adjuvant for potential use in coronavirus vaccines in May. Now,
Speaker 1: according to this story, around three thousand sharks are needed
Speaker 1: to extract one ton of squalling, and Shark Allies, a
Speaker 1: California based group, suggests that if the world's population received
Speaker 1: one dose of a COVID nineteen vaccine containing the liver oil,
Speaker 1: to make that happen, around two hundred and fifty thousand
Speaker 1: sharks would need to be slaughtered, depending on the amount
Speaker 1: of squally used. Now, we're all following the news on COVID,
Speaker 1: how do you not? It's crammed down your throat. And
Speaker 1: what we're here, and at least from a lot of sources,
Speaker 1: is that if and when there is a vaccine, it's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be a double dos er. You know, you
Speaker 1: go back for your booster shot. So this story says
Speaker 1: if two doses are needed to immunize the global population,
Speaker 1: which is likely according to researchers, this would increase the
Speaker 1: shark death to half a million. Sharks would have to
Speaker 1: die to provide enough squalling for all those vaccines. Damn right.
Speaker 1: So um, this goes on to say, to avoid threatening
Speaker 1: shark populations, scientists are testing on alternative to squaling, a
Speaker 1: synthetic version made from fermented sugarcane, which which is cool now.
Speaker 1: According to estimates made by conservationists, around three million sharks
Speaker 1: are killed every year for squalling, which is also used
Speaker 1: apparently in cosmetics and machine oil, and there are fears
Speaker 1: that a sudden rise in demand for the liver oil
Speaker 1: could threaten populations and see more species become endangered, as
Speaker 1: many species rich in squalling, such as the gulper shark,
Speaker 1: are already vulnerable. Um. Sorry, gulper shark, I've never heard
Speaker 1: of you. I had to look that I don't. Then
Speaker 1: it's so. It's a member of the dog fish family. Uh,
Speaker 1: and apparently lives in very deep, murky water all around
Speaker 1: the world. Um, it's got like these weird green eyes.
Speaker 1: Gulp er shark. Never heard now of course? Right. This
Speaker 1: piece is illustrated with stock photos of Great whites and such,
Speaker 1: and I don't think anybody is hunting Great whites down
Speaker 1: for their squaling. But I gotta be totally honest, man,
Speaker 1: this is legitimately news to me. I was not hip
Speaker 1: to the use of any shark byproducts um in vaccines. However,
Speaker 1: I will say that sadly right, I feel like this
Speaker 1: is your classic COVID story that's just simply like not
Speaker 1: likely to make the impact certain people are hoping it will,
Speaker 1: you know, because like we're so beaten over the head
Speaker 1: of COVID numbers and vaccine news and now the President's
Speaker 1: got it and blah blah blah, and you don't have
Speaker 1: the same impact as those buried COVID stories like science
Speaker 1: confirms Yorkshire terriers most common carriers among dogs. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like there's so many bigger picture COVID things going
Speaker 1: around that I just don't know, you know, if this
Speaker 1: is going to have the impact. Um But to throw
Speaker 1: in a little Devil's advocate just to keep it unbiased.
Speaker 1: Unlike the real news, we keep it unbiased. Here. I
Speaker 1: found another story about this on echo watch dot com.
Speaker 1: And here are just a couple of interesting fact toys
Speaker 1: from that one. Squaling has been used in flu vaccine
Speaker 1: since Boston News reported and has a quote excellent safety
Speaker 1: record according to the c d C. And that was
Speaker 1: in the Miami Herald. It could also help reduce the
Speaker 1: amount of vaccine needed per person. Squaling, so you could
Speaker 1: have it can help there. And then in a popular
Speaker 1: online campaign, Shark Allies outlined the non shark alternatives for
Speaker 1: squaling already in existence. Plant based oils can be harvested
Speaker 1: from things like yeast, wheat, germ, sugarcane, and olive oil. Um.
Speaker 1: But the problem with these alternatives is that they are
Speaker 1: about thirty percent more expensive and harder to extract than
Speaker 1: shark based squaling. So if this is all accurate, right,
Speaker 1: this is a This is a dilly of a pickle, now,
Speaker 1: isn't it? Because you and I and everyone a mediator
Speaker 1: and everyone pretty much in the outdoor industry aligns themselves
Speaker 1: with conservation efforts. We've talked on this show before about
Speaker 1: how you and I agree with shark conservation in particular.
Speaker 1: But then, like, given the circumstances, I feel like most
Speaker 1: people's reaction to this story in this country right now
Speaker 1: would be like, hey, if killing a shipload of sharks,
Speaker 1: gets me a safer vaccine faster, and we get through
Speaker 1: this bullshit like just kill them like anything that we'll
Speaker 1: get us back to normalcy right now. So the organizations
Speaker 1: fighting against this and trying to push these synthetics, man,
Speaker 1: you've got a hard fight ahead of you right now,
Speaker 1: you know, especially because exactly exactly, it's not like it's
Speaker 1: not like we're gonna pause this process of developing and
Speaker 1: disseminating a vaccine so that we can have an argument
Speaker 1: about shark populations. Yeah, that's that's that's not gonna happen.
Speaker 1: And I'm not even arguing that it should. I'm in
Speaker 1: the same boat. It's like, on one hand, you want
Speaker 1: to be like, no, this is ridiculous, But on the
Speaker 1: other hand, look like, look what we're dealing with, this
Speaker 1: unprecedented pandemic. And at first, like I said, I I
Speaker 1: didn't even know that that was such a thing. Using
Speaker 1: shark liver oil as an additive to vaccines. Who no,
Speaker 1: I mean, there are all kinds of weird additives in
Speaker 1: vaccines and other injectables and medicines. Right Like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to go to too far around the rabbit hole,
Speaker 1: but the you know, the harvesting of of horseshoe crabs
Speaker 1: in order to produce basically every single fact, and damn
Speaker 1: near wiped him out. In certain places, we don't see
Speaker 1: horseshoes on the beach like we did when I was
Speaker 1: a kid. That's a good point. Yeah, so you know
Speaker 1: it's there. There's a long standing precedent for this, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately they're there are two forces that are just going
Speaker 1: to be stronger or maybe fortunately, I don't know. There
Speaker 1: are two forces are going to ultimately outweigh anything that
Speaker 1: has to do with shar shark conservation. One is public
Speaker 1: health and to our market forces. Right, if it's if
Speaker 1: it's cheaper and more effective to take it from the sharks,
Speaker 1: that's where it's gonna come from. So hopefully they keep
Speaker 1: it to the golfer sharks. Sorry golper SLOs, but you know,
Speaker 1: at least it's not makos or black tips on the flats,
Speaker 1: at least not yet. So if we can get if
Speaker 1: we can get through this with the golfer sharks, all
Speaker 1: the other sharks will be okay, my minus the shark
Speaker 1: finning and all that stuff, you know, for the next
Speaker 1: story I've got I'm I'm working through a little self
Speaker 1: loathing over over the second story I chose in general,
Speaker 1: bring it on good and and it is a far
Speaker 1: cry from from net pens or or shark killing or coronavirus. Anyway,
Speaker 1: my next story it's a far cry from being worthy
Speaker 1: of being in news. But well, and this was so
Speaker 1: like to call what I'm about to report on news
Speaker 1: really is stretching the bounds of anything remotely journalistic. But
Speaker 1: screw it, here goes. So you know that old axiom
Speaker 1: if you give a room full of monkeys typewriters in
Speaker 1: an infinite quantity of time, they would eventually produce the
Speaker 1: works of Shakespeare. Have you heard that? I have? So
Speaker 1: this story is kind of like that, except instead of
Speaker 1: monkeys with typewriters, there their fish in a tank, and
Speaker 1: instead of the words of Shakespeare, it's a terrible video game.
Speaker 1: A gamer in Japan who goes by the handle mutak
Speaker 1: Madu his pet beta fish that's so smooth, like perfect, dude.
Speaker 1: I took Japanese lessons as a kid, Come on, did
Speaker 1: you really as part of the curriculum? And yeah, grew
Speaker 1: up in Hawaii. Lots of Japanese, lots of other other languages,
Speaker 1: we had to speak. Uh anyway, So so this mutak
Speaker 1: Madu guy taught his pet beta fish how to play
Speaker 1: the video game Pokemon Sapphire. Kind of now, yeah, now
Speaker 1: these gamers like this. He did this as a stunt
Speaker 1: to attract people to his channel, which worked, but it
Speaker 1: produced some unintended results that are actually kind of interesting,
Speaker 1: at least to me anyway. So we take him out
Speaker 1: to gritted out his fish tank, and through a mechanism
Speaker 1: that I truly don't understand, he somehow connected it to
Speaker 1: his game Boy advance. When his two fighting fish named
Speaker 1: Maurice and Lala entered a certain part of the tank,
Speaker 1: they tripped a button on his game Boy, thereby allowing
Speaker 1: the fish to play the game and uh. The first
Speaker 1: interesting result of this experiment was proving that Pokemon Sapphire
Speaker 1: does not require any intellect at all. In fact, apparently
Speaker 1: one doesn't even need basic sentience because the fish were
Speaker 1: able to advance pretty far in the game. The second
Speaker 1: interesting result, however, is that these fish found a bug
Speaker 1: or a glitch in the coding that no one else
Speaker 1: has been able to find in the eighteen years that
Speaker 1: this game has existed. So this jumped out at me
Speaker 1: because my dad was a video game designer. And when
Speaker 1: I was yeah, really, dude, your dad's a video game designer.
Speaker 1: You speak jap. I'm learning so much about so many things,
Speaker 1: but I don't speak. I took some lessons when I
Speaker 1: was in elementary school. Maybe count to ten um. But yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, my friends and I were
Speaker 1: conscripted as beta testers. And basically what that means that
Speaker 1: we sat around for hours playing early versions of video games,
Speaker 1: looking for bugs or situations where the games didn't work
Speaker 1: like they were supposed to. This may sound like fun,
Speaker 1: but I was never very interested in video games, and
Speaker 1: I was never very good at them at all. So
Speaker 1: you know, like some kids disappoint their fathers because they're
Speaker 1: two into video games and too good at them, and
Speaker 1: I was the exact opposite. And it was so funny.
Speaker 1: Do I gotta cut in for one second? Because like
Speaker 1: every video game system I had growing up, my dad
Speaker 1: bought like for himself. Like, I played them a little bit,
Speaker 1: but I was never enthralled. I play my original Nintendo
Speaker 1: more now than I did when I got it. Like
Speaker 1: my dad beat Resident Evil in three days, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean? Anyway, we no I mean, like literally,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, there'd be situations where my
Speaker 1: dad would be like, hey, son, you want to go
Speaker 1: play some video games and be like, no, not really,
Speaker 1: you play side He's like not really. Anyway, My point
Speaker 1: back to what I was talking about there are My
Speaker 1: point is that thousands and thousands of hours go into
Speaker 1: beta testing video games before they even go to market.
Speaker 1: This game was released way back in two thousand two,
Speaker 1: so in addition to that, god knows how many hours
Speaker 1: of actual like gameplay time it had, and yet no
Speaker 1: one found this game crashing bug until Maurice and La
Speaker 1: La the Fighting Fish got a crack at it. I guess.
Speaker 1: I guess that's why they called them them beta fish, right,
Speaker 1: because they're so good at the beta testing bump. Dang uh. Well,
Speaker 1: so the first question I have, um, what is the
Speaker 1: COVID status in Japan? Has this poor man been in
Speaker 1: quarantine in his apartment in Japan since December? Because I
Speaker 1: mean I didn't look into that aspect of this. I
Speaker 1: just saw something pop up online the other day that
Speaker 1: was like, thirteen year old figures out nuclear fission or
Speaker 1: cold fusion in his garage. It's like, dude, if you
Speaker 1: have this much time to train beta fish to play
Speaker 1: Pokemon Cure cancer. Man. There's created, there's no trade, just
Speaker 1: like create a little grid system in their tank and
Speaker 1: when they swam in that area, it would push buttons
Speaker 1: and that would make the gameplay. It was. It was
Speaker 1: a total gimmick. And he this is again, that's why
Speaker 1: I used the monkeys with typewriters, making Shakespeare think, because
Speaker 1: give the fish enough time pushing random buttons and things happen.
Speaker 1: It's dude. It is funny though, because this man taught
Speaker 1: to fighting fish how to play a video game. And
Speaker 1: I'm in the basement now with a five year old
Speaker 1: like trying to explain why she's not killing the ducks
Speaker 1: and duck Hunt. I'm like, you have to look, you
Speaker 1: have to put that little thing on the tip of
Speaker 1: the gun on the duck. Don't just fire wild like
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't get my kid to consistently shoot
Speaker 1: ducks and duck Hunt. But this man has taught fish
Speaker 1: how to play a much more advanced game than duck Hunt.
Speaker 1: It sounds like that, yes, yes, oh well he has
Speaker 1: a lot of nothing to do. I will say that's
Speaker 1: that's he needs some other hobbies. Um, there's some great
Speaker 1: fishing in Japan. Can I can I suggest, well, record
Speaker 1: large mouth came out of there, But put your mask on,
Speaker 1: grab grab a leather swim bait and go down there
Speaker 1: and see what happens. Teat yourself to catch those. Uh,
Speaker 1: this man deserves a metal. I don't have one for him.
Speaker 1: But how about a pin? Okay, here comes my ridiculous
Speaker 1: be comes my ridiculous story. This is a goofy one.
Speaker 1: And I actually I debated it, but I just had
Speaker 1: to because I just laughed very hard. Um. And before
Speaker 1: I get into this story, a couple of things. So
Speaker 1: back in the day, and by back in the day,
Speaker 1: I mean like the fifties and sixties and such, some
Speaker 1: of you might be aware that many states used to
Speaker 1: issue a button as a fishing license. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about, right, Like they're they're collector's items now,
Speaker 1: Like if you get antique stores and flea markets see
Speaker 1: all these old pins, you know, ohio, um, and you
Speaker 1: know they're super collectible. But instead of a paper license,
Speaker 1: you'd get a sweet button to put on your fishing vest. Well,
Speaker 1: the state of Pennsylvania's still offers buttons. Of course, these
Speaker 1: days it's just a novelty. Um. You know, most people
Speaker 1: are just go with the paper license, but if you
Speaker 1: want to pony up an extra ten bucks, you can
Speaker 1: still get a collectible fishing license button. So there's that now.
Speaker 1: The next thing. I love chain Pikeroll. I am all
Speaker 1: about the littlest member of the Esox family, and I
Speaker 1: have sung their praises for years and videos and written
Speaker 1: works and so forth, and I target them often. But
Speaker 1: for the most part, I think it's fair to say
Speaker 1: people find pickroll to just be a nuisance, right, especially
Speaker 1: bass guys, because chain Pickerell clip that wacky rig sinko
Speaker 1: off real quick right there, pain in the as. But
Speaker 1: to me, they are under appreciated underdogs. So imagine the
Speaker 1: twinge of the light I got when reading this headline
Speaker 1: on the website of Chester County p A my Chess
Speaker 1: code dot com. Voters select chain Pickerel design for pennsylvanias
Speaker 1: one collectible license button no way, And I thought, finally, finally,
Speaker 1: the lowly chain Pickerel is getting some respect, And I thought,
Speaker 1: geez a vote. There was a vote, which means enough
Speaker 1: people respect the chain Pickerel and p A that it's
Speaker 1: legions of fans trumped all the other options. How terrific,
Speaker 1: And here's what the story said. During an online poll
Speaker 1: held from September sevent a total of four and fifty
Speaker 1: three voters cast their ballots to choose between four different options.
Speaker 1: The fish skin design featuring the scales of a chain
Speaker 1: pickrel was the runaway winner, earning six hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: six votes, nearly fifty Good for you. That's isn't that terrific?
Speaker 1: And that's like if we had one out here, the
Speaker 1: equivalent would be if someone put the white fish on
Speaker 1: it instead of a trout. And I would be very
Speaker 1: happy if that were to happen. But wait, just because
Speaker 1: I was so proud right at that point in the story,
Speaker 1: I was so proud, and then I I read on
Speaker 1: and says A single color conservation green option was the
Speaker 1: second most popular choice votes. A classic red and white
Speaker 1: bobber design placed third with two. A design featuring a
Speaker 1: life jacket rounded out the field, collecting two votes. So
Speaker 1: to rehash that, the measly amount of people that voted
Speaker 1: had pickerel skin, green bobber, and life jacket to pick from,
Speaker 1: which means nearly of the barely voters went well, shit,
Speaker 1: at least that one's a fish. I'll go with the fish.
Speaker 1: You could have put it like the dull gray sides
Speaker 1: of a bow fin as an option, and it would
Speaker 1: have beat out life jacket. I mean, nobody wants to
Speaker 1: wear a life jacket, let alone sport a piece of
Speaker 1: flare with a life jacket. Look at life jacket button
Speaker 1: that I've got on my life jacket, and I just
Speaker 1: I thought that was comical. On the flip side, though,
Speaker 1: you know, at some point there's a discussion at p
Speaker 1: A Fish and Wildlife about pin options for that year,
Speaker 1: and and the boss is always like Brooker Brown Trout,
Speaker 1: you know, but there's a one dude like me, the intern,
Speaker 1: that's like, how about a Pickerel? And finally this year
Speaker 1: they were like, Timmy in the mail room has been
Speaker 1: saying pickerel for eight years now, can we just give
Speaker 1: it to it? I'm exactly But anyway, I'm so sorry
Speaker 1: to get you all excited, Chain Pickerell, but it turns
Speaker 1: out Pennsylvanians still don't really like you. Uh. The only
Speaker 1: reason you want is because you're an actual fish. I
Speaker 1: might have to buy the button just because will you
Speaker 1: buy me one too? And and you know what, if
Speaker 1: you're smart, you will also buy one fulfill the engineer,
Speaker 1: because he is the decider as to who will be
Speaker 1: the grand Champion winner this week. And as soon as
Speaker 1: Phil has has issued his his validation and his vanquishing,
Speaker 1: we will then move on to see what kind of
Speaker 1: tasty items we have found this week in the sale band.
Speaker 1: And I think we're going to take a dip in
Speaker 1: the sheer stupidity that we are. Joseph Mellie is the
Speaker 1: winner this week. Look, I surprised even myself. Normally I
Speaker 1: would gladly take a Pokemon story over a COVID story,
Speaker 1: but those shark vaccines are just too interesting to ignore.
Speaker 1: But don't worry, Miles, You're still the very best, like
Speaker 1: no one ever was. Why did you put the hand
Speaker 1: to pay? You don't know what I'm getting? Man? What
Speaker 1: you didn't have to be so hurtful with me, so angry? Okay?
Speaker 1: So to preface this item, which I found on offer up,
Speaker 1: it's a little complex, okay, but that's it. It might
Speaker 1: be the most fabulously stupid attempt at shady private online
Speaker 1: goods dealing I have ever seen. Right, So, the seller
Speaker 1: is located in Barrie, Texas, which is the middle of nowhere.
Speaker 1: And remember that because it's gonna make this funnier when
Speaker 1: when we get into the meat of what we're dealing
Speaker 1: with here, right, and I feel like I feel like
Speaker 1: I got a prevace before you dive in too much,
Speaker 1: Joe by saying that when you first brought this to me,
Speaker 1: I was totally confused and I didn't get it. So
Speaker 1: but now that I do get it, it's pretty ridiculous
Speaker 1: and it's pretty damn funny, and I cannot believe that
Speaker 1: this guy is trying to pull this off. Well, that's
Speaker 1: what makes this complex, because to just look at it
Speaker 1: face value, like if you if you're not if you
Speaker 1: don't have the inside track on this, you probably skip
Speaker 1: right over it. But but once we we divulge the crazy, right,
Speaker 1: you guys will understand. So the title of the post
Speaker 1: is lose fly reel. That's it, okay, and lose l
Speaker 1: e w apostrophees not oh so leeah lose As many
Speaker 1: of you know, uh, they are long time makers of
Speaker 1: conventional bass rods and reels, but they do not make
Speaker 1: fly reels. So I will do my best to explain
Speaker 1: this idiocy Okay, picture of fly reel loaded with line,
Speaker 1: but the real has no middle. There's nothing, nothing in
Speaker 1: the middle, so it essentially looks like a giant ball
Speaker 1: bearing with a real foot. Okay, there's there's nothing in
Speaker 1: the center. There's no drag nob, none of the usual
Speaker 1: support structure that tie a normal fly reel together. Um,
Speaker 1: and this struck me as odd. Even more so when
Speaker 1: I read this very short and sweet description brand new
Speaker 1: never used not cheap, will trade for a lose bait caster. So,
Speaker 1: in a very cryptic way, the title of the post
Speaker 1: is actually saying, will trade lose bait caster for this
Speaker 1: fly reel. Okay. So I'm looking at all the pictures
Speaker 1: trying to figure out what's going on here because something
Speaker 1: is not right. And then it hit me right. I
Speaker 1: do not use chewing tobacco, but a good friend of
Speaker 1: mine does, and a few years ago he presented me
Speaker 1: with a special edition tin of Grizzly long Cut. Now
Speaker 1: why did he do this? Because he knows I love
Speaker 1: fly fishing. And there is a very pretty trout on
Speaker 1: the actual tin, and that tin is nestled right in
Speaker 1: the center of a fake, non functional, decorative fly reel. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I raised to my closet to dig this this
Speaker 1: tin out to confirm my suspicion, and I was right
Speaker 1: on the money. You pop the tin of actual dip
Speaker 1: out of the fly reel and are left with what
Speaker 1: this momo is trying to trade for a lose bait caster.
Speaker 1: Uh On some level you gotta respect that hustle. I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's terrible. But no, there's there's hustle, and
Speaker 1: then there's like scam artists, and this is pure and simple.
Speaker 1: This is my best guess right, I will never know.
Speaker 1: Uh So back up, I reached out to the gentleman
Speaker 1: with a simple question what brand of fly reel is that?
Speaker 1: And oddly got no answer that never got back to me,
Speaker 1: which seems appropriate because if you buy this, you're gonna
Speaker 1: lose banger love that. This is my guess right. He
Speaker 1: needed a fresh tint of dip, and the one gas
Speaker 1: station in Barry, Texas was out of his regular grizzly
Speaker 1: long cut, which forced him to buy his favorite shawl
Speaker 1: in this commemorative fly fishing tin, So he choose the
Speaker 1: dip while bass Fishing realizes the tolerance in his Johnny
Speaker 1: Morris signature series Bait caster aren't as tight as they
Speaker 1: used to be, looks down at the now empty, useless
Speaker 1: fake fly fishing cradle and has his Aha moment. But
Speaker 1: do you think about this or hold on? Maybe I'm
Speaker 1: just being the least cynical. Maybe I've just given this
Speaker 1: guy's benefit of the doubt and I'm wrong. But maybe
Speaker 1: he knows so little about fly fishing or fly fishing reels.
Speaker 1: He was like, huh, so this is what a fly
Speaker 1: fishing real does. Huh, don't turn it. There's no function.
Speaker 1: It doesn't turn. It's got fake line on it. What
Speaker 1: do you do with that? Yeah? You're I know, I know,
Speaker 1: trying to give the benefit the data. I shouldn't. Here's
Speaker 1: the part that I want to know, right, what if
Speaker 1: somebody had actually bit on this, Like what if somebody
Speaker 1: was like, hey man, I gotta lose laying around and
Speaker 1: that's a real sweet looking fly real what would this
Speaker 1: dude have done, grabbed debait caster and ran like hell,
Speaker 1: how would the transaction have gone down? Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: good question. How are you gonna how are you going
Speaker 1: to do that? I don't know, because as soon as
Speaker 1: you you've actually held one in your hands, you own one.
Speaker 1: So you know better than I do. I've just looked
Speaker 1: at the photos. It's real hard to tell. But you're saying,
Speaker 1: as soon as I picked this up, I would go,
Speaker 1: but it's it's it's it's nothing. It's hollow aluminum. It's
Speaker 1: not it's it's it may as well be a paperweight.
Speaker 1: I mean, it says zero function. It's not a real
Speaker 1: it's a it's a freaking dip tin. And it's not
Speaker 1: even the tin, it's like the housing of the tin. Right.
Speaker 1: So to that end, because we know this one is
Speaker 1: a little bit more complicated and some of you might
Speaker 1: want a better understanding. Um, we put together a little
Speaker 1: product demo and we're posting that on me and Miles
Speaker 1: Instagram pages. So that's at Joe dot Smellie one three
Speaker 1: eight and at water Miles. Um, and we may or
Speaker 1: may shred this dipshit a little harder and said product video,
Speaker 1: So check that out. Okay, this may not be the
Speaker 1: only time that we post photos to our our our
Speaker 1: Instagram accounts to try and back these up, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you need a little visual help. Yea, So it's a
Speaker 1: little visual be ready for that, yes, and UH, as always,
Speaker 1: if you find something fishing related for sale online that
Speaker 1: you think we need to see to believe. Do keep
Speaker 1: shooting those links to us at bent at the meat
Speaker 1: eater dot com. We've been getting a bunch of great
Speaker 1: items from you guys. Keep them coming, thank you. We
Speaker 1: are almost out of time, but before we go, Joe
Speaker 1: has an end of the line segment that was like,
Speaker 1: honestly legitimately eye opening for me. No, seriously, man, Like
Speaker 1: I've I have long been familiar with with that lure,
Speaker 1: the one you're about telling about, but I had I
Speaker 1: had no idea about its right coast not so called following.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say aything else because I want to
Speaker 1: let you tell it. But you know, for those of
Speaker 1: you out there who are keyed into the East coast
Speaker 1: striper scene, this wi will probably come as no surprise.
Speaker 1: But for those who rarely fish east of the Mississippi,
Speaker 1: you guys, might you know, actually learn something from this
Speaker 1: podcast for once. Well, that's not loud enough. The musky
Speaker 1: Mania doc might just be the worst kept secret in
Speaker 1: striper fishing. But the funny thing is, to the uninitiated,
Speaker 1: nothing about it would suggest it has any sort of
Speaker 1: magical abilities. To the untrained eye, It's just an oversized spook,
Speaker 1: a massive version of the dog walkers that have been
Speaker 1: calling up green and brown bass the world over since
Speaker 1: Hank Parker was a boy. In fact, the nine inch
Speaker 1: dock looks downright goofy, and viewed from the underside, the
Speaker 1: slightly flared gills make it a dead ringer for a
Speaker 1: massive male member standing at full attention, which has prompted
Speaker 1: countless nicknames for the plug I need not get into,
Speaker 1: and endless jokes when you pull one out of your
Speaker 1: tackle bag. The joke, however, is on the nonbelievers. Unlike
Speaker 1: its little cousins that have internal bbes or perhaps a
Speaker 1: few little knockerballs, the doc has a setimental balls that
Speaker 1: would make a C d C blush. It produces a
Speaker 1: clack like no other top order, which is a key
Speaker 1: element to the dock's ability to call stripers, particularly big
Speaker 1: girls that chow whole adult bunker out of what you
Speaker 1: swear is a completely dead ocean. Legendary muskie angler Pete
Speaker 1: Man is the mastermind behind the dock, and while there
Speaker 1: has always been some crossover appeal between striper guys and
Speaker 1: musky dudes, when it comes to loures, without question, no
Speaker 1: musky lore has infiltrated the stripers scene this deeply since
Speaker 1: surfcasters in the nineteen forties and fifties latched onto the
Speaker 1: creek Chubb Pikey minnow Now. Details about who figured out
Speaker 1: the secret first are hazy and debated, but the dock
Speaker 1: first hit the striper scene in the early two thousands.
Speaker 1: What those early pioneers also figured out is that the
Speaker 1: money is the unpainted natural bone colored blank. Even though
Speaker 1: the dock is available in ten colors. I've never seen
Speaker 1: a Northeast salty guy hucking anything but the bone. And
Speaker 1: what Northeast anglers also learned in short order is that
Speaker 1: the split rings and bronze hooks that come stock on
Speaker 1: a dock we're pretty worthless in the brine, which has
Speaker 1: sparked years of debate, videos and articles on the best
Speaker 1: terminal tackle hooks and configuration for retrofitting these lures. Now,
Speaker 1: why you'd be hard pressed to find a striper guy
Speaker 1: around here that won't tell you the doc is deadly.
Speaker 1: They'll also I'll tell you the lore is a complete
Speaker 1: pain in the ass to fish. The most notable problem
Speaker 1: is that the hooks are space so far apart you
Speaker 1: tend to only get one of those troubles in a
Speaker 1: bass's mouth, which gives them leverage during the fight to twist,
Speaker 1: which can open the split rings. Just pull the hook
Speaker 1: or bend the hook out put it this way. Many
Speaker 1: big bass dreams have been shattered because of this flaw.
Speaker 1: The dock is also so big awkward an o fie
Speaker 1: that you need a fairly beefy rod to deliver it
Speaker 1: and to get it walking properly. You're gonna give your
Speaker 1: arms and shoulders a serious workout fishing it all day,
Speaker 1: I can tell you from personal experience sucks. The first
Speaker 1: time I ever saw this lor in action was in
Speaker 1: a video produced in Massachusetts where a dock with no
Speaker 1: hooks was being used to tease in big bass so
Speaker 1: fly anglers could hit them with a bait and switch.
Speaker 1: The first time I ever actually used one was in Montauk,
Speaker 1: New York, and we'd caught zero stripers all day despite
Speaker 1: prior conditions, And then finally my friend Craig can't tell
Speaker 1: Moo whipped out his dock and we motored tight to
Speaker 1: the beach and he said, if they don't eat this,
Speaker 1: this will at least let us know if there are
Speaker 1: any fish here, and we had ten blow ups and
Speaker 1: three connections within thirty minutes. This was only about five
Speaker 1: years ago, But even then Craig asked me to keep
Speaker 1: the dock on the download, to keep it a secret,
Speaker 1: because so potent was the ability of this lord to
Speaker 1: call in bass and trigger fish that seemingly we're not hungry.
Speaker 1: For many years, just the mention of a dock resulted
Speaker 1: in lambasting and cries of Doc Burn on social media.
Speaker 1: Now I've carried a dock with me ever since that trip,
Speaker 1: and I can't begin to count how many stripers it
Speaker 1: has made materialize out of the ether when all other
Speaker 1: methods failed. The heart pounding follows man. The toilet flush
Speaker 1: boils are all worth the need for icy hot because
Speaker 1: the beauty of that giant stiffy is that it's usually
Speaker 1: not a little rat striper that comes up to take
Speaker 1: that swing. Nowadays, you don't have to call the company
Speaker 1: to order unpainted blanks or strip all that fire tiger
Speaker 1: off your dock with about sander. Several outfitters sell bone
Speaker 1: docks pre fitted with tuna grade split rings and heavy
Speaker 1: gauge steel troubles, and as it often goes in this
Speaker 1: game there, even if you knock off docks out there. Now,
Speaker 1: the two originals I own have been slaying for years,
Speaker 1: and until I lose them, I'd prefer to just keep
Speaker 1: letting scrapes and scuffs from striper mouths accumulate because I
Speaker 1: like a lure with that broken in character. Well that's
Speaker 1: all we got for you this week. But just to recap,
Speaker 1: Henry Hill was actually put into the witness protection program
Speaker 1: in Pulaska, New York. Joe exploits his cousins for lure
Speaker 1: making materials, and Diptons make terrible fly reels, all at
Speaker 1: least partially cheerious statements. And hey, by the way, if
Speaker 1: you want a better understanding of how we managed to
Speaker 1: get Rayliota on this program, do yourselves a favor and
Speaker 1: allow at Paradinoia. That's p A r A D E
Speaker 1: n O I A on the Instagram. And while you're
Speaker 1: on your phone, fire an email at a bent at
Speaker 1: the Mediator dot com and tell us all about what
Speaker 1: we got wrong or what you like if you're feeling complimentary,
Speaker 1: or maybe just give us a fishing report. Either way,
Speaker 1: we love hearing from you, we do. And you know,
Speaker 1: if you're enjoying the show, Please leave us a review or,
Speaker 1: better yet, send this show to some of your fishing buddies.
Speaker 1: They will either thank you or cuss you out, so
Speaker 1: really you win either way, and until next week, thanks
Speaker 1: for listening and watch your angle.