WEBVTT - Ep. 36: Peanut Bunker And Foosball 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:09.119 Well, you know what, bass pro. I've breed fish since 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:11.799 I was nine years old. You can kiss my exper tip. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:14.360 All of a sudden, just like seventy or eighty year 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.360 old lady comes around the corner with her fist cocked 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:20.680 back all the way to Japan. Fresh amber, Greece is 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.919 described as having a marine fecal odor. If you don't 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.560 how to check your freaking line right away, I know 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:34.080 we're gonna be doing some softcore stuff. Good morning, degenerate anglers, 0:00:34.120 --> 0:00:36.760 and welcome to Bent the Fishing Podcast. That just got 0:00:36.760 --> 0:00:38.680 a couple of stripers, will be bringing in for dinner. 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.639 Won't be long and otherwise haven't seen anything yet. I'm 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:47.960 Joe Surmelli Ah, and that was a solid, solidly obscure 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:51.600 as well Jaws reference. They're well done, my friend. I 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:53.080 don't know, I don't know where you're going with it, 0:00:53.120 --> 0:00:55.040 but it was it was great. I liked that good. Well, 0:00:55.040 --> 0:00:56.800 it's it's actually one of my favorite lines in the 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.160 whole movie, and it slips past many radars. It's like 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.240 a it's a quiet sleeper, but but it's not taking 0:01:02.240 --> 0:01:04.680 a shark fishing. I'm actually using that to take a 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:10.600 striper fishing today. Stripers. Yes. Uh, if i'm you already 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:14.040 took us, you already took us Mahi fishing in Jersey 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.120 this week. Settle down there, guy, bring it down a notch. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.200 I do hope, seriously, I hope everyone listening has already 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:24.360 watched episode one of B Side Fishing on Meteor's YouTube channel. 0:01:24.600 --> 0:01:28.319 If not, go watch it. It's amazing, you're missing out. Yeah, 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:30.280 but of course you guys watched. Of course they did. Man, 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:32.480 I hope furse they watched it. These are my people. 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.959 Uh seriously, though, huge thanks to everyone who did tune 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.200 in to B Side Fishing this week, and if you didn't, 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:40.600 per chance, just go find it as soon as you're 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.720 done listening to Ben. Okay, I appreciate it, and I 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:45.200 gotta say it feels good to be back in front 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:47.680 of a camera while holding a fishing rod and also 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:50.920 editing video again. I get to cut B side, which 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:52.440 is super fun and I'm proud of it and I 0:01:52.480 --> 0:01:54.880 love doing that. No, you should be. It's it's it's 0:01:55.040 --> 0:01:58.320 very very well done. And uh, it's it's taken. Let's 0:01:58.320 --> 0:01:59.640 take a little longer than we want to do to 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:02.680 get you bringing another show out, but it's here. Everyone 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:06.280 can just settle down and got it happened. I promised 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:10.880 it would. And I gotta say, striperfishient seems like a 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.280 fitting theme for this week, considered the B sides all 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:17.200 about like scenes. It's all about like fishing scenes, and 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:20.240 fishing culture is more than the specific fish. And I'm 0:02:20.360 --> 0:02:22.640 I'm fascinated by the stripers scene. I don't know as 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.120 much about it firsthand as I would like, partially because 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.440 and I'm ashamed of this, I've never caught one, but 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.639 I'm I'm interested like it. It has my attention now. 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:33.360 I I know you haven't caught one, but you know 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.080 that's okay, And hopefully I'll be the one to change 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:39.239 that lack of stripers for you at some point. Well together, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:41.680 But I think one of the reasons we get along 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.680 so well is that we both have a deep appreciation 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:47.880 of of sort of niche fishing scenes and cultures, even 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.519 if we don't have much experience within them. Right I 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:54.120 I have literally fish for West Coast steelhead one time 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.919 in my life for about three hours and I caught nothing. 0:02:57.240 --> 0:02:59.560 But I'm I'm still very intrigued by the West Coast 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:01.600 steel Sea and and the people in it. You know, 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:04.400 very very much. So what we're doing this week, which 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:06.360 we haven't really done before, is going all in on 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:08.960 an entire scene. And it's not about the fish. It's 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.359 about a fishing culture. And the striper scene is very 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.639 near and dear to me because that's that's when I 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:16.079 do happen to be a part of. Well, I mean, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:17.880 did you like write a book about it or something? 0:03:18.000 --> 0:03:20.679 I mean, it seems like sort of like something you 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:23.720 might have some familiarity with, sort of sort of. I 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:25.960 wrote The Complete Guide to Surf Casting, and I joked 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:27.880 that I did that when I was twelve, Like it 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.160 feels that long ago now, like it was so many 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.760 years ago. Um. However, I'll go on record and say 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.640 that what the publisher that book wanted was a one 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:39.280 oh one style book. So it looks at surf casting 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.480 in a very broad view and and touches on a 0:03:42.520 --> 0:03:45.440 lot more than striper's. But I lay no claim now, 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:47.440 nor have I ever laid claim to being some kind 0:03:47.440 --> 0:03:51.160 of stripers surf sharpie or like the hardest of the hardcore, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.160 because I'm not. But I I surf fished my ass 0:03:54.200 --> 0:03:57.880 off for many years, and you know, did rub elbows 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:00.200 with a bunch of guys that I can it are 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.480 the Greats, one of which basically prompted the entire theme 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:06.720 of this show. That's true, just so you guys get 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.760 a window into how this all works. Like we have 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:11.520 a conversation and they're like, hey, we should make a 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.240 show around that. And yes, in this particular case, I 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:16.640 got to sit in on that conversation and and I 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:19.360 kind of felt like the geeky science kids showing up 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.080 for basketball practice. But I learned a lot. Like I 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:25.320 wasn't on the inner circle there, but I was fascinated him. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.680 I heard, I'm glad you were there. It was fun. Yeah, 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.120 and we're gonna share. We're gonna share an abridged version 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:33.760 of that discussion in our Smooth Moves segment where we 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:37.360 let guides and captain's talk about dumb or otherwise hilarious 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.120 things that their clients have done. And this one it's 0:04:40.120 --> 0:04:42.760 a little longer than normal, but so is last week's. 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.120 So I mean, we're just just we're playing around with 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:46.760 these We're trying to give these stories a little more 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:48.320 room to breathe and see how that works and let 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.120 us know what you think. I should also preface this 0:04:51.160 --> 0:04:54.400 by saying I personally know what it takes to like 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.880 heard and wrangle and babysit anglers when you're just standing 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:02.599 in a river. And I cannot imagine having to guide people, 0:05:02.640 --> 0:05:06.960 like especially rookies, in the places and situations that Bill 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:18.760 Wetzel goes. Why why so joining us today on smooth moves? Uh, 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:22.200 somewhat of a legend in my area, Bill Wetzel is 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.880 here with us. And Bill, you are like the dude 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.880 in the Northeast surf scene. Are you not, like kind 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.279 of like the Godfather? Would you call yourself the Godfather? No, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:34.640 I'm just a fisherman. I've been doing it a long time, 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:37.840 you know, just a fisherman like anybody else. You know, 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.159 my my talk is my home like anybody else. I 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:45.800 just know more than everybody else exactly. But I mean 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:47.680 be that as may you're you're the guy behind surf 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.560 Rat's ball. I mean, you know, everybody whose surf fishes 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.080 from Massachusetts, New Jersey knows who you are and why 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:56.120 I'm so excited to have you on because we've had 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.720 so many different kinds of guides offshore, fly guides on, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.720 some with moves. But I mean, you people pay you 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.400 to take them surf fishing, and like not on a 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:09.440 quiet beach somewhere, like you are the guy who will 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.560 take people to fame spots like the Montalk Rocks big 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:15.640 league surf fishing, where you're swimming out to rocks in 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:19.920 the dark, crashing surf, dangerous situations. So I figure you 0:06:20.200 --> 0:06:22.200 had to have seen some shit in doing that for 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.080 how long has been twenty two years? You told me 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:27.320 something like that, twenty two years and you believe people 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.040 freaking pay me for this? I do you know? I'm 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.240 yelling at him, I'm screaming at him, get off the rock, 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:40.320 get on the rock, and they yeah, well, And so 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.520 I have to ask because I've I've I've played this game. 0:06:42.560 --> 0:06:45.640 I grew up around here, Like you know, how do 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:49.040 you vet somebody who who who comes to you and 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.200 is looking to be guided, like knowing what they're gonna 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.880 get into? Is there like sort of a process for like, yeah, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:55.800 this guy can probably hang this guy. I don't want 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.520 anything to do with what what do you do? Well? 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:00.760 You know, the phone rang, so like if you get 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.680 somebody's booking, the phone rings, and the first thing I 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.720 asked them how long you've been fishing? And then I'm like, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.080 how's your agility? How old are you? You know? All 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.640 those questions and they're like, oh you know, um, I'm like, 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:14.840 and then if you want to book a trophy trip, 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.920 my standard question is can you stand on a rock 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.320 about a hundred fifty yards out into the water in 0:07:20.360 --> 0:07:22.200 the middle of the night with a thirty knight wind 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.040 coming in your face six ft sets pounding on you. 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:28.440 And if your answer is no, then you can't do 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:30.600 a trophy trip, but you can do a regular trip, 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:33.880 you know, so you know, and then and then I'll ask, 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.480 I'll ask. You know, the equipment questions are big. You know, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:39.560 what kind of equipment do you have? What kind of 0:07:39.600 --> 0:07:42.760 line do you have? Uh? I don't know. Let me go, 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:45.120 let me go check my line. If you got to 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.360 check your freaking line right away, I know that you 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.240 know you're we're gonna be doing some soft core stuff, 0:07:52.360 --> 0:07:54.040 you know what I mean, We're not gonna be out 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.040 on the freaking rocks. Most likely, I will push your 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:00.360 ass hard if if if I feel that you're capable, 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:02.800 I will push your ask even at my age, I 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:04.880 will still push your eggs even if you're twenty two 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:07.600 years old. This sounds more like a personal training session 0:08:07.760 --> 0:08:11.800 than a fishing trip. That's like, that's what I'm here. 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.160 I got speaking of this, I got a quick story 0:08:14.160 --> 0:08:16.280 if you want to hear, that's what you're here for. 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:19.560 So I just I just thought, it just popped in 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.680 my mind. So I used to take this guy out. 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:23.800 He was from France all the time. He's a good guy. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:26.720 Loved him. It booked me several times. This is many, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.000 many years ago. I was forty three at the time 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.320 now in fifty six. So one night we had a 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:36.040 northeastern rolling and it was blowing like I don't know, 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.320 like get forty five knots here and you know, pissing 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:42.840 rain New Moon. It's like one o'clock in the morning, 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:45.199 and we're getting ready and I don't know, if you're 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.920 familiar with the south side of Montalk, yeah, yeah, So 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:51.880 we're going into the south side and not mont Talk 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:55.760 with like a forty five not northeast winds huge. The 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:58.320 water is like, you know, I don't know, like six 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:02.560 to seven ft, you know. And uh, we're getting ready 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.319 and he goes, hey, Bill, how old are you? I 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:11.559 got three forty three. That's both I can't believe you're 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:13.440 like an old man. He was like in his twenty 0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:18.000 I'm like, oh yeah, mother. I was like, I'm gonna 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.319 show you how old I am tonight. I didn't say that, 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.880 but in my head, I just like snapped, Man, I 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.440 freaking snapped, and I took him out, and uh, you know, 0:09:28.600 --> 0:09:31.000 I'm gonna be I'm gonna I said to myself, I'm 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:33.960 gonna be aggressive as I possibly can. I'm gonna do 0:09:34.040 --> 0:09:38.600 exactly what I would do personally. So we start walking out. 0:09:38.760 --> 0:09:40.600 I can tell he's behind me. He's like, you sure 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.280 this is all right? Bill? You gotta realize it's it's 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:46.240 in the middle of night. It's a new moon. So 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.079 on top of the rain, it's pissing rain, on the 0:09:49.200 --> 0:09:51.959 top of the big northeast winds in the big water 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:55.320 it's completely black because it's the new moon on top 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.680 of it all, you know, so you can't see anything. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.240 He's going, Billy's sure about this. I'm like, yeah, can 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:03.880 get your ass out here. We're going. So and we 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.960 get halfway out. We're about fifty sixty yards out and 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:12.720 there's peanut bunker everywhere. Man, Peanut bunker getting washed off 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.200 the reef into the deeper water. And I'm just like 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:19.280 bugging and that just like pushed me even harder. So 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.959 I'm like, so I just kept going and going and going. 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:25.680 I see him behind me, and this is the same 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.319 damn spot on the northeaster. I almost lost the customer. 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:34.000 So uh so we were out there and we didn't 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.960 we we're not getting ship. And I'm like screaming, you know, 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:39.240 through the fruit, through the roar and everything. I can't 0:10:39.240 --> 0:10:41.640 believe we're not catching I just can't believe it. This 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:45.199 is like, I don't know, like mid October, and we 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:47.839 were out there in the surf, I guess for an 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:50.480 hour and a half or so. You know, we walked back, 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.280 we started walking back. I'm like, all right, next spot, 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:55.000 we're gonna go on the south side again. We're gonna 0:10:55.000 --> 0:10:58.480 walk about a mile in He's hour and a half. Dude, 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.880 He's like, I'm done, man, I'm exhausted. Oh yeah, I 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:08.240 dropped him off. I went fishing. You know, I don't know, 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:10.199 you know, I don't know if he booked me after 0:11:10.240 --> 0:11:12.680 that night again. You know, I mean we were he 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:14.880 always booked me. He was good. I mean, we were 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:17.360 booking like, I don't know, seven or eight trips a 0:11:17.440 --> 0:11:19.400 year with him. I think he'd moved though. I think 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.600 he went to France or something. Really nice. Guy, Did 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.079 you catch anything when you went back out by yourself? No, 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.480 I walked. I walked. I walked about a mile and 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.240 a half mile and a half I went way back in, 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.640 and I'm like, oh, man, it's the perfect conditions, you know. 0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.440 I went to a really risky spot, especially in that 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.679 uh and with my waiters in a wet suit, and uh, 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.040 I didn't catch anything that whole night. Man, It's bait 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.640 everywhere too. I still you know those kind of nights 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.880 haunt you, man. Yeah, yeah, I thought that was gonna 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:54.240 go another way. I gotta admit, I thought it was 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:55.640 gonna be like you dropped him off and then you 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.480 went out and just wailed on him. Well, I've done 0:11:58.520 --> 0:12:04.560 that too. Does that happen often, even if it's not 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:06.640 bad blood in the beginning, Like, do you just take 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.240 guys out frequently at night and who are just like 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:11.720 I can't do this? I mean, does it happen if yeah? 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.640 Oh yeah, yeah, So like I'll take I'll take a 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:16.920 guy out and we'll get out in the rocks, and 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:19.439 the first thing I tell him, especially if I know, 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.160 you know, they're not they might not be capable, and 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:24.960 it's their first time. I mean, you got to realize 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:28.080 it's like eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock, one o'clock in the morning, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:30.680 and I've already Usually with a guy like that, I've 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.360 already went through the steps and went through the easy stuff, 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:35.800 and now it's time to get out in the rocks 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:37.920 to you know. And I'll say, you know, if you 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:40.280 get out there and you can't do it, you know, 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:43.000 just let me know. We can go somewhere else. I 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.840 always tell them if you're uncomfortable, and they'll say, Bill, 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:52.960 I'm uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable. I'm just let let a couple 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:55.800 of waves hit you, you know, And if they fall down, 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:58.000 it's a good thing. If they like get knocked off 0:12:58.000 --> 0:12:59.760 their rock and fall down, as long as they don't 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.640 get hurt, it's a good thing because now you're wet, 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:05.160 and you know, you know what it feels like. I mean, 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:07.360 that's part of my talking. You can get freaking knocked 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:09.160 down and once in a while you gonna get hurt. 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.160 Not often, hopefully. We've talked about wet suiting and rock 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.440 hopping on this show, and this is a very foreign 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.960 world to Miles. So like, now that you're hearing this, 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.160 like you like, do you still want to do this? 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:23.080 You want to do this? And this is this sounds 0:13:23.080 --> 0:13:27.360 like it's exactly up my alley. I'm I'm all about it, man. 0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.960 I've I've almost killed myself over way smaller fish than that. 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:36.880 So it's the best man brother. Well, but hopefully, I 0:13:36.920 --> 0:13:38.680 don't know, you'll get you'll get some calls from this 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:42.160 show from Iowa and Ohio and they'll be they'll be 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.280 racing out for you to yell at them. I would 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:47.040 be great. I think we have a lot of massacrests 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:50.240 that listen to the show. It would be I don't 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:53.559 really yell at them. I just I'm yelling. You know, 0:13:54.400 --> 0:13:57.440 it's always it's always windy, there's always serf. I'm just yelling. 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.679 So so here's another one. Here's another quite for you man. 0:14:00.840 --> 0:14:03.000 Like you know, in a guide game, so often you 0:14:03.000 --> 0:14:05.600 know it's the guy's job to untangle your nuts and 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:07.719 tie on your ship and this that and the other thing. 0:14:07.720 --> 0:14:09.560 But when you're putting a guy on a rock here 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.840 and you're not and you're not like right next to 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:16.720 the dude, how does that work? Like what if dude, 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:20.960 fires went off, and it's like, screw no, man. I 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.720 mean that that. You know, the older I get, the 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.560 harder it gets, you know. I mean sometimes I've taken 0:14:28.560 --> 0:14:31.400 out two guys and I have one guy on this 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.440 rock and and one guy on that rock, and I'm 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:36.960 in this I call guide rock all the time, because 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.040 I get the shittiest rockets, you know, like that big 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:41.800 and I got both feet on it, and I'm like 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:46.360 in my fifties, you know, and uh, you know, the 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.800 one guy have his freaking he's all tangled up or 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:53.120 he snagged on something, and and so then I have 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:55.640 to get down off my rock in the surf, you know, 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:59.680 way out in big water or light water, whatever it is, 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.920 and go untangle that guy. And meanwhile I got the 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:06.040 guy on my right hand. Oh bill, Bill, I got 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.680 on a fish or oh my god, I got a not. 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:10.960 Now I've got two guys. I'm going back and forth 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.760 in the surf between the two guys. Now, I know 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:16.200 I look like I'm a fat guy and couldn't do that, 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:19.160 but I trust to trust me. When I'm in the surf, 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:26.400 I'm a different person. Man. I hope you guys found 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.120 that as entertaining as we did. And while we don't 0:15:29.120 --> 0:15:32.280 normally plug websites on this show, if you're one of 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:36.440 those masochists and you want the real Montalk surf experience, 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.160 surf Rat's ball dot com, that's where you'll find Bill 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.480 and not just to book them, because the guy is 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.560 also just a wealth of surf casting info. And and 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.120 let me stress, what you're booking here is truly an experience, right, 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:50.960 I know, like we say that about a lot of booking, 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:56.040 book your experience, experience. It's an experience. Strong chance you 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:58.400 will catch some bass with Bill one way or the other. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.040 But like you, you book that for the whole show, 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:04.400 not just the fish. You know what I mean. I 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:07.280 mean it seems like you book it the test yourself. 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:11.080 Can I can I hang with this guy? I want to? 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:13.960 I'll it seems like my kind of jam, to be honest, 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:15.920 And I can see you doing this. Yeah. Like part 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:17.360 of the reason I say that is I imagined that 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:21.640 whole late night rock hopping is a pretty solitary game. 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:24.720 Like it's It's very different from packing a boat with 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.680 buddies or setting up next to each other in a run. 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:29.600 And I do like the social aspect of fishing. But 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:33.240 to me, there's something about that solitary, really driven type 0:16:33.280 --> 0:16:36.160 of fishing that that attracts me. Yes, and you and 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.160 you're absolutely right, which is what makes Bills seeing you know, 0:16:39.240 --> 0:16:42.360 his gig kind of unique because really it's not a 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:44.920 social thing. You know, on the beach in the middle 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:46.960 of the day, with the truck out there and your buddies. 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.520 That's one thing that the dot the drilled down kick 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.280 out to a rock stand on a rock Um, it's 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.160 not a social thing at all. You might show up 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.720 with a buddy, but you might not see him again 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.840 until you're both back at the truck hours later. You 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.360 like hardcore surf fishing in Montauk and Block Island. It's 0:17:03.360 --> 0:17:06.080 a very me against nature kind of deal. But Bill 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:08.960 has has somehow made it work as a guide gig 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:10.520 and like for a long time, like he's been doing 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:13.000 this a long time though I don't imagine he's getting 0:17:13.000 --> 0:17:15.240 like a lot of corporate bookings, you know what I mean, 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.439 Like where the entire the entire I T staff shows 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:20.720 up to fish with Bill. You know a thing you 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.760 can do do The entire I T staff might show up, 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:25.919 but only half of them would still be around like 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:28.320 when you dragged shovel on into the bar at the 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.880 end of it, like you might have Psnutrician there. That's Darwinism, 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.800 isn't it. Survival of the fittest? You know, need to 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:36.840 we needed you need to scale down your I T. 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.160 Department a little bit, you know what I mean with Bill, 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:41.560 But speaking to bars, we are going to stay in 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:44.120 Montalk for just a little bit longer and we're gonna 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:47.560 scope out where many of the striperman in what is 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:50.520 arguably the officiest town in the Northeast go for SuDS. 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.800 Also keeping up with storytelling here, uh, this week's that's 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:57.399 my Bar nomination and background is being brought to us 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.600 by none other than Bent correspondent Captain Zach hammer Miller. 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:03.160 We're just gonna kind of stay out of this one 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:06.560 and just let him throw down because this joint holds 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:11.400 a special place in his heart. Best God damn Bartender 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:16.000 from Tim buck to to Portland's Maine Portland argument for 0:18:16.040 --> 0:18:19.880 that matter, This is Captain Zach the hammer Miller throw 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:22.399 down fishing charters, And I am here to tell you 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:25.520 if you were ever fortunate enough to roll through mont 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:27.840 Talk a k a. The surf fishing capital of the 0:18:27.840 --> 0:18:30.080 world that you have to stop at one of the 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.840 best bars I've ever been to in my life called 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.240 Liar Saloon. It has everything you want in a little 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.040 crappy dive bar at the end of the earth. It 0:18:39.200 --> 0:18:42.040 has a jukebox you could still play Pantera on a 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:45.840 foosball table that sometimes eats your coins, and some rickety 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.960 bar stools, and some very very scary bartenders. For instance, 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.040 the first time I was going to Liars, it was 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.240 about two am, and we were stumbling up from our 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:58.119 motel just down the street, and we heard it was 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:00.560 the only place that was open in town. And as 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:02.840 we made our way through this giant dirt parking lot, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.480 there was a bunch of people on this wooden ramp 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:07.840 that leads up to the bar, and they were outside 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:10.480 smoking and having a drink and just hanging out. And 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.920 when we made it halfway up the ramp, all of 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.720 a sudden, this dude comes flying out of the door, 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:19.280 hits the railing and falls down, and I'm like, holy 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.879 sh it, what is going on here? So the dude 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:24.160 gets up, and all of a sudden, this like seventy 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:26.879 or eighty year old lady comes around the corner with 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.879 her fist cocked back all the way to Japan, saying 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.919 I'll give you another one if you come back here again. 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.480 The kid keeps talking his ship, and the lady punched 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.960 him square in the freaking face again. It was absolutely unbelievable, 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.800 And from then on, every time I'm up there, they 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.080 could have all my money, they could have all my time, 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.520 they could have all my lies, they could their foosball 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.160 table could eat all my coins, and their jukebox could 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.199 take all my tokens for Pantera? What else do you 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.040 want in a place that looks like it's better situated 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.400 with Mark Wahlberg sitting at a bar in the perfect storm, then, 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:06.560 liars salut, I feel like that was if b Arthur 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:11.240 had a role in Roadhouse. That's how it would have 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:16.360 gone down. Yeah, man, I want to drink there. I 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:18.520 you can't make that kind of stuff up. I want 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:20.080 to go. I want to drink there, and I want 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:22.240 to go with Zack. Yeah you should. I mean he 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:24.880 only drinks bush lattes, so I don't know if they 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:26.760 serve that, but that that's yeah. But you're right, it's 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:29.159 like it's like Roadhouse meats Golden Girls. Um, and of 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.280 course I've been there and it's a super cool spot 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.960 for sure, very iconic and very different from the wine 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:37.000 bars and like tapas restaurants in the nearby Hampton's Like 0:20:37.080 --> 0:20:39.919 it's it's a cool spot. I'll just assume there's some 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.600 level of exaggeration in that story because it's just that 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:47.679 one probably, um, But it's based mostly on facts. So anyway, 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:49.840 speaking of facts, we're about to throw some at you 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:58.000 in this week's much anticipated fish News. Fish News that 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.480 escalated quickly. Hey, so you know we already told you 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.200 how pumped we are about b Side Fishing having finally 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.919 dropped this week. But up if yeah, if you're a 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:10.280 fan of episode one, and I hope you were, um, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:13.400 and you don't, as in, do not feel like waiting 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:15.960 for the other episodes to roll out over the course 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.760 of the next month, we can actually give you a 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:23.240 secret code to watch them all right now, So grab 0:21:23.240 --> 0:21:27.840 a pencil and a post it note. The code is up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, 0:21:28.280 --> 0:21:32.879 be a start, of course, I'm kidding. That's that's just 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:34.880 the code to get an instant thirty Lives and Contra 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:38.040 on Nintendo. But you already knew that assume you knew that. 0:21:38.480 --> 0:21:41.760 Of course I did, except except you forgot the select 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:47.720 button select. So even if that was the code, it 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:51.359 wouldn't have worked worked at all. But we we actually 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.160 do have a secret code that absolutely will work. Uh. 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:59.040 Mediator just launched a newsletter called Fishing Weekly with Joe 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:02.280 Surmillian crew. I guess I'm in the crew. And if 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:04.560 you signed up for it, if you guys sign up 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:06.480 for it, we will send you a link to watch 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:10.679 every single season one episode of B side Fishing right 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:13.199 this minute, right now. You get them all. Yep, you 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:14.960 are you are the main guy in the crew, and 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:17.600 that is all correct. Uh. And look, not only will 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.560 signing up for our newsletter keep you plugged into all 0:22:20.600 --> 0:22:23.560 the cool new fishing ship we're doing a Mediator um, 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.440 but you can consider this like a friendly email directly 0:22:26.480 --> 0:22:28.960 from me, your buddy Joe. See, I'm gonna say, I'm 0:22:28.960 --> 0:22:31.080 gonna say dumb ship and write dumb ship. That will 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:33.159 entice you to look at all the cool stuff that 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:35.399 we're doing. There might even be there might even be 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:39.000 like a degenerate corner of sorts where I recommend some tunage, 0:22:39.400 --> 0:22:42.399 some jams, maybe tell you what I think you should 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:44.760 be listening to if you want us to think you're 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:46.920 cooler than we already think you are. So that's another 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:49.560 thing it's gonna do. There. There'll be music. Joe is 0:22:49.560 --> 0:22:53.359 also gonna be pointing out all sorts of dumb, weird, 0:22:53.480 --> 0:22:56.000 non phishing related ship he finds on the Internet, which 0:22:56.040 --> 0:22:58.120 I get on a regular basis, So now it's it's 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:00.040 not just me. I'm always like if you watch that 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:02.560 and you're like, no yet, I'm very busy. I haven't 0:23:02.560 --> 0:23:06.000 seen that, So they'll be the weird Joe ship. Plus, 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:07.879 you know, we're just gonna use this as a space 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:09.560 to keep you guys up to date on all the 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:12.679 fishing content we're making, from new shows, two episodes of 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:16.000 the podcast, to feature articles, all the good stuff, right, 0:23:16.000 --> 0:23:18.600 and all these gyms are gonna be exclusive to Fishing Weekly. 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:22.160 It's like it's like the newsletter for the degenerate club 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.120 that we're all in and if you don't sign up, 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:28.320 you'll you'll be stuck listening to Yellow Card with Phil 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:35.040 behind the comic bookstore. And I'm sure anymore there's probably 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:39.400 a newsletter for that crowd too. Yeah, Phil going down 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.240 swinging on that, Phil, get that I'm not sorry, Phil, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:45.480 I got I got one more bit of housekeeping before 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:49.160 before we hit news. We we and I particularly got 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:52.040 a lot of feedback about the debate that Joe and 0:23:52.080 --> 0:23:54.119 I did over birding and if it's lame or not, 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:58.040 and a surprising number of you wrote in supportive birding 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:01.359 and to criticize my lad cluster ability to argue in 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.800 favor of its merits. Apparently I let a lot of 0:24:04.840 --> 0:24:08.520 people down there. Uh. I'm just gonna quote from one 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:11.320 of my personal favorite emails that we got came from 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:17.480 listener Katie Kilgis, and it was simply titled go birding assholes. Yeah, 0:24:17.520 --> 0:24:19.080 this is a good one. This is a good one. 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:23.160 Katie made some solid points, one of which being that 0:24:23.280 --> 0:24:26.240 I'm a dumbass because no one carries bird books anymore. 0:24:27.000 --> 0:24:30.800 They have apps for that because of course the du 0:24:31.760 --> 0:24:35.680 She recommended the Merlin bird i D which connects to Ebert, 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:39.080 which is an international online database. Katie went on to say, 0:24:39.200 --> 0:24:42.320 quote Ebert is used by scientists all over the world 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:46.359 to track migrants yearly from citizen scientists, one could argue 0:24:46.359 --> 0:24:49.719 Ebert is one of the greatest uses of citizen scientists 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:53.280 out there. Even kids can use it, get your head 0:24:53.680 --> 0:24:57.560 out of the water and look up just once in 0:24:57.600 --> 0:25:03.960 a while. It's lame, but so are people. And uh, 0:25:04.080 --> 0:25:06.000 can I get an amend for that one? For Katie 0:25:06.000 --> 0:25:08.439 on that one, hey, man, it was good. It was 0:25:08.520 --> 0:25:10.320 it was good. It was good. She I just want 0:25:10.320 --> 0:25:12.200 to point out that she ended with loved the podcast, 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:13.840 like it wasn't a total take. It's like you guys 0:25:13.880 --> 0:25:16.240 are kind of being MUCKs right now. I mean I think, 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:18.040 like I like what you're doing, but like that was 0:25:18.119 --> 0:25:22.800 that was Yeah, So no, I very much appreciated that. 0:25:23.119 --> 0:25:27.120 Um is that all your housekeeping? That's all you got? Okay, 0:25:27.200 --> 0:25:30.440 So we can move on to our news data base, 0:25:30.600 --> 0:25:32.800 see what we do there, and then, as always, remember 0:25:32.880 --> 0:25:35.159 this is a competition. Miles and I do not know 0:25:35.200 --> 0:25:37.119 which stories the other guy is bringing to the table. 0:25:37.160 --> 0:25:41.760 When we are done, Uh, Phil, our engineer will declare 0:25:41.960 --> 0:25:44.600 one of us a winner. You've already taken a shot 0:25:44.600 --> 0:25:46.560 at Phil today, but then I followed up and took 0:25:46.560 --> 0:25:49.040 another shot, so we're both kind of on like even 0:25:49.080 --> 0:25:53.119 the ground being in Phil's favor. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But 0:25:53.240 --> 0:25:55.440 you do get to lead off, so have at it, man, 0:25:55.680 --> 0:25:58.640 fire away. I'm gonna I'm gonna lead with a story 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:01.840 that's not exactly uplifting, because that's kind of my beat. 0:26:01.880 --> 0:26:05.119 I take the depressing ships, but it feels important, so 0:26:05.280 --> 0:26:08.720 here goes. On March, leaks were discovered in a holding 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:12.639 pool that contained about four hundred million gallons of wastewater 0:26:12.920 --> 0:26:17.000 from the Piney Point Phosphate plant in Manatee County, Florida. 0:26:17.440 --> 0:26:20.760 The league worsened over the following days, prompting fears of 0:26:20.840 --> 0:26:23.760 a containment wall collapse, which would have sent a twenty 0:26:23.800 --> 0:26:28.600 foot wall of water cascading through residential and commercial areas 0:26:28.680 --> 0:26:31.520 UH and been a real bad deal. More than three 0:26:31.600 --> 0:26:33.960 hundred homes were evacuated, as well as the first floor 0:26:33.960 --> 0:26:37.280 of the county jail as emergency cruise first tried to 0:26:37.280 --> 0:26:41.520 shore up the reservoir, and after that proved unsuccessful, rushed 0:26:41.560 --> 0:26:46.960 to discharge the wastewater Crews avoided the potential catastrophe of 0:26:47.000 --> 0:26:51.480 a breach reservoir and subsequent flooding. But now nearly three 0:26:51.960 --> 0:26:56.960 million gallons of wastewater have been flushed into Tampa Bay, 0:26:57.240 --> 0:26:59.560 and the obvious question on my mind is how's that 0:26:59.600 --> 0:27:02.800 gonna impact the marine ecosystem and the fishery and the 0:27:02.840 --> 0:27:07.240 fish of course, So the Florida Department of Environmental Protection 0:27:07.280 --> 0:27:11.959 has repeatedly said that the wastewater meets water quality marine 0:27:12.040 --> 0:27:17.600 standards for discharge except for elevated levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, 0:27:17.640 --> 0:27:20.199 and pneumonia. And when I talked to Chris Whitman, co 0:27:20.320 --> 0:27:23.200 founder of the Florida based nonprofit Captains for Clean Water, 0:27:23.400 --> 0:27:26.159 he told me, quote, that's like getting pulled over and 0:27:26.200 --> 0:27:28.480 telling the cop you were meeting the standards for legal 0:27:28.560 --> 0:27:31.879 driving except for being drunk, speeding, and having a suspended license. 0:27:34.320 --> 0:27:38.280 So far, no evidence of fish or manatee kills have 0:27:38.400 --> 0:27:41.159 been reported, but the danger from this particular kind of 0:27:41.200 --> 0:27:44.200 pollution emerges in the long term, right because we've we've 0:27:44.200 --> 0:27:46.400 done we talked about this for in past episodes. We've 0:27:46.440 --> 0:27:50.240 covered the impacts that elevated levels of nutrients like phosphorus 0:27:50.240 --> 0:27:53.640 and nitrogen are having on marine ecosystems, especially in Florida. 0:27:53.960 --> 0:27:58.600 They're contributing to massive algae blooms, habitat instruction, fish kills, 0:27:58.920 --> 0:28:03.640 and and red hides like what happened in the Tampa Bay. 0:28:03.680 --> 0:28:07.280 Water Keepers estimate that this spill dumped the equivalent of 0:28:07.400 --> 0:28:10.680 one hundred thousand bags of fertilizer into the bay, which 0:28:10.720 --> 0:28:15.760 is definitely not something this estuary needs. Tampa Bay, Tampa 0:28:15.840 --> 0:28:19.119 has actually been a relative success story over the past 0:28:19.200 --> 0:28:21.600 few decades in terms of dealing with nutrient loading. In 0:28:21.600 --> 0:28:24.800 the sixties and seventies, much of the bays marine habitat 0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:27.760 and seagratts were decimated by phosphate plants and sewage, but 0:28:27.960 --> 0:28:30.480 through a lot of work and a lot of money, 0:28:30.560 --> 0:28:34.440 more than forty acres of sea grass has been been rehabilitated, 0:28:34.720 --> 0:28:38.800 and this event threatens to undermine all that recovery. Unfortunately, 0:28:39.200 --> 0:28:40.720 we're just gonna have to kind of wait and see 0:28:40.760 --> 0:28:43.440 what happens with this situation. It's not like a we 0:28:43.440 --> 0:28:46.360 we can't exactly predict what's going to happen, and we 0:28:46.400 --> 0:28:48.240 will follow up with you as we need to. But 0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:50.640 this incident caused me to look into something I'd never 0:28:50.680 --> 0:28:54.040 even thought about before. Before this story broke, I gotta 0:28:54.040 --> 0:28:57.400 admit I didn't know anything at all about phosphate mining, 0:28:58.200 --> 0:29:01.040 and I certainly did not know that Central Florida is 0:29:01.120 --> 0:29:04.320 the phosphate capital of the world, producing one quarter of 0:29:04.320 --> 0:29:07.840 global supply. Oh I didn't know that either, right, No 0:29:07.920 --> 0:29:11.440 idea yeah, yeah, yeah, And like to be clear and fair, 0:29:11.560 --> 0:29:15.000 we need fertilizer. Like fertilizer is necessary if we're gonna 0:29:15.080 --> 0:29:17.720 you know, feed the world and all all the things 0:29:17.800 --> 0:29:21.720 we need to do for producing plants, all that important ship. 0:29:22.480 --> 0:29:26.920 But this industry has a problematic track record when it 0:29:26.920 --> 0:29:31.000 comes to environmental impacts. In Florida, the process of phosphate mining, 0:29:31.080 --> 0:29:33.720 this is way dumb down, but it goes something like this, 0:29:33.840 --> 0:29:37.160 extract or from the earth, treat it with phosphoric acid 0:29:37.400 --> 0:29:40.520 to extract the useful phosphate. You're then left with a 0:29:40.600 --> 0:29:45.400 whole lot of phosphogypsum, a radioactive waste product. And for 0:29:45.480 --> 0:29:48.800 every ton of the phosphate that you're hoping to get, 0:29:49.160 --> 0:29:54.920 you produce five tons of the phosphogypsum waste. You then 0:29:55.240 --> 0:29:59.680 pile that radioactive material into massive towers called jip stacks 0:29:59.760 --> 0:30:03.200 and cover them in water. The result is dozens of 0:30:03.360 --> 0:30:06.400 massive lagoons all over Florida full of radioactive water that 0:30:06.440 --> 0:30:09.040 also you know, happened to contain high nutrient loads and 0:30:09.200 --> 0:30:12.240 heavy metals just for the electric spice. Sure, sprinkle it 0:30:12.400 --> 0:30:15.800 in little there and it turns out And this is 0:30:15.880 --> 0:30:18.240 this is a part that wasn't very actively covered in 0:30:18.280 --> 0:30:20.520 a lot of the news. What happened to Piney Point 0:30:20.640 --> 0:30:23.000 was it was actually kind of a best case scenario. 0:30:23.840 --> 0:30:26.720 The pond that failed is one of three ponds on 0:30:26.840 --> 0:30:30.480 that site of of the defunct phosphate mind that went 0:30:30.520 --> 0:30:33.560 bankrupt in two thousand one. And that pond that failed 0:30:34.000 --> 0:30:36.720 is by far the least toxic of the three because 0:30:36.760 --> 0:30:41.360 it holds mostly seawater from a dredging project. If one 0:30:41.400 --> 0:30:43.760 of the other two ponds, which are full of jip 0:30:43.800 --> 0:30:46.720 stack waste, were to have failed, we'd be looking at 0:30:46.800 --> 0:30:50.280 a much more serious catastrophe. And just a couple of 0:30:50.320 --> 0:30:53.440 days ago, Governed the Santis announced a cleanup plan for 0:30:53.480 --> 0:30:56.800 Piney Point that could end up costing Florida taxpayers two 0:30:56.920 --> 0:31:01.640 hundred million dollars to to mitigate and put back together 0:31:01.720 --> 0:31:04.880 this mess left behind by industry. And that's just one 0:31:05.000 --> 0:31:07.920 of many similar sites all over the state. And I'm 0:31:07.920 --> 0:31:10.960 gonna close this segment with a with a statement put 0:31:10.960 --> 0:31:13.840 out by Captains for Clean Water because I very much 0:31:13.880 --> 0:31:17.800 respect those folks and the work they do their locals, Floridians, 0:31:18.080 --> 0:31:21.080 fishing guides who who just now work trying to protect 0:31:21.440 --> 0:31:23.680 the resources and the fisheries around their home state. They're 0:31:23.720 --> 0:31:26.520 they're just good people. Uh, and they know more about 0:31:26.560 --> 0:31:29.840 this than a podcast host in Montana. So here here's 0:31:29.840 --> 0:31:32.680 a quote from Chris Whitman to close it out. We 0:31:32.840 --> 0:31:37.240 need our state legislature to introduce meaningful policy that holds 0:31:37.280 --> 0:31:42.200 polluters accountable for environmental impacts like this. The Florida legislature 0:31:42.440 --> 0:31:48.240 has systematically dismantled regulations to serve and benefit special interests. 0:31:48.280 --> 0:31:52.080 These special interests, in this case phosphate mining, are profiting 0:31:52.120 --> 0:31:54.640 off of Florida's resources at the expense of our state, 0:31:54.720 --> 0:31:58.440 citizens and environment. They make their profits, exhaust the resource, 0:31:58.720 --> 0:32:01.560 and then leave the mess to ax pairs. We have 0:32:01.680 --> 0:32:05.640 to see new legislation that prevents special interests from continuing 0:32:05.920 --> 0:32:09.920 this kind of bad business that exploits our state and citizens. 0:32:11.520 --> 0:32:13.520 I mean, I agree with all that, dude, And this 0:32:13.600 --> 0:32:17.080 is like a it's a it's another terrible scenario. But 0:32:17.320 --> 0:32:19.360 isn't it sad to say, Like I I hear this 0:32:19.400 --> 0:32:21.400 story and I'm like, man, this is just so Florida. 0:32:21.520 --> 0:32:23.600 Like when I think of Florida over the last couple 0:32:23.600 --> 0:32:27.720 of decades, it's almost like, if it's not one thing, 0:32:27.880 --> 0:32:30.560 it's another like these poor guys are always just constantly 0:32:30.680 --> 0:32:35.520 fighting this battle YEP with with legislators and and just 0:32:36.040 --> 0:32:39.960 blind eyes being turned to just horrible shit happening to 0:32:40.040 --> 0:32:43.040 their ecosystems down there. And I had a long talk 0:32:43.080 --> 0:32:44.640 with Chris about this, and he made a lot of 0:32:44.680 --> 0:32:47.120 really great points that didn't make another story. But the 0:32:47.120 --> 0:32:50.120 thing he kept kept hitting on is it's not the 0:32:50.160 --> 0:32:53.720 industry's fault, Like, the industry is not breaking the law right, 0:32:54.080 --> 0:32:58.200 the legislature is not forcing them to be held accountable. 0:32:58.200 --> 0:33:00.960 They're just doing what they should, just doing good business. 0:33:01.720 --> 0:33:04.280 And it's it is, according to him, from his perspective, 0:33:04.400 --> 0:33:10.000 the responsibility of the legislature to enact laws that put 0:33:10.120 --> 0:33:12.240 these corporations in a situation where they have to be 0:33:12.280 --> 0:33:14.320 responsible for the forces them to do it the right 0:33:14.360 --> 0:33:17.320 way exactly. So, yeah, I know you're right. I get 0:33:17.320 --> 0:33:19.520 what you're saying. It's a tough spot because they're not 0:33:19.560 --> 0:33:23.720 breaking the law because the right law doesn't exist right essentially, 0:33:23.800 --> 0:33:27.000 that's what's happening. It's it's not that different from you know, 0:33:27.040 --> 0:33:28.920 the big fight that Captains for Clean Water has been 0:33:28.920 --> 0:33:31.320 part of is the sugar cane industry. And he made 0:33:31.320 --> 0:33:35.960 a lot of comparisons between sugarcane and yeah, exactly for sure. 0:33:36.040 --> 0:33:38.880 For sure. Well, um, I'm I'm certain we're gonna have 0:33:38.920 --> 0:33:41.120 some follow up on this May. We even have Chris 0:33:41.120 --> 0:33:44.040 on at some point to still still sort of a 0:33:44.040 --> 0:33:47.920 developing story. But since we're talking about laws and Florida, 0:33:48.040 --> 0:33:51.160 that is just could not be a better transition for me. 0:33:51.200 --> 0:33:53.080 We're gonna stay in Florida and we're gonna we're gonna 0:33:53.080 --> 0:33:55.520 stay talking about laws in a different way. I, on 0:33:55.560 --> 0:33:58.200 the other hand, I have good news. Okay, Um, while 0:33:58.240 --> 0:34:00.480 Florida residents we don't know what is going to happen 0:34:00.480 --> 0:34:03.400 to Tampa Bay, you can finally sleep soundly again because 0:34:03.440 --> 0:34:07.400 after nearly a year on the LAMB, fugitive Daniel Arman 0:34:07.480 --> 0:34:10.799 Dares has finally turned himself into authorities, and as we 0:34:10.880 --> 0:34:14.680 all know, thanks to them never ending news coverage, Arma 0:34:14.760 --> 0:34:17.239 Dares is the criminal mastermind wanted for diving into the 0:34:17.280 --> 0:34:20.200 tank at the Gulf Coast town Center bass Pro Shops 0:34:20.280 --> 0:34:25.799 in May. I can feel the sigh of relief being 0:34:25.920 --> 0:34:33.239 breathed around the country right now this this story. So 0:34:33.320 --> 0:34:36.040 according to this story, this is from news press dot Com. 0:34:36.120 --> 0:34:41.120 This incident occurred on May Arman Dares has said repeatedly 0:34:41.400 --> 0:34:43.520 this is this is this is what he says. It 0:34:43.680 --> 0:34:50.640 just kind of happened. Oh so that was the reasoning, 0:34:51.120 --> 0:34:53.719 as if to suggest the mood just struck him, and 0:34:53.760 --> 0:34:58.000 per the story, he uh swam across the huge tanks expanse, 0:34:58.080 --> 0:35:00.360 hauled himself out and then ran dripping way out of 0:35:00.360 --> 0:35:06.200 the store. Okay, So I really enjoyed this one by that, 0:35:06.680 --> 0:35:09.000 So it's just going to get better. So I think 0:35:09.080 --> 0:35:11.239 it's safe to say that the twenty eight year old 0:35:11.320 --> 0:35:14.080 armada Is thought this would just be like ha ha funny. 0:35:14.120 --> 0:35:17.280 But no, like the authorities wanted him and they weren't 0:35:17.320 --> 0:35:19.440 going to just like they weren't gonna let up, right, 0:35:19.480 --> 0:35:21.759 And he was quickly identified as the tank jumper on 0:35:21.760 --> 0:35:26.040 the Facebook page Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers and charged with trespassing. 0:35:26.080 --> 0:35:28.719 But instead of turning himself in, he just ducked the 0:35:28.760 --> 0:35:31.040 cops and blabbed on the internet about the whole thing. 0:35:31.239 --> 0:35:34.600 So here's a post armadar Is apparently put on the 0:35:34.640 --> 0:35:40.080 Facebook group Florida Boys with a Z Hunting and Fishing right. Also, 0:35:40.400 --> 0:35:44.520 this this post confirms uh, this incident was not his 0:35:44.600 --> 0:35:50.200 first dust up with the law. Okay, soccer expletive expletive. 0:35:50.360 --> 0:35:53.000 I'm tired of you looking for me like I'm some 0:35:53.200 --> 0:35:56.640 most wanted fugitive over a little tank dive ten question 0:35:56.680 --> 0:35:59.360 marks L O L. Come on now, well you know what, 0:35:59.520 --> 0:36:02.680 bess P. I've breed fish since I was nine years old. 0:36:02.719 --> 0:36:06.040 You can kiss my expletive about the three thousand dollar 0:36:06.200 --> 0:36:12.040 decontamination expletive. Yeah, I expletive expletive diving in. But who 0:36:12.080 --> 0:36:14.680 doesn't want to dive in that beautiful tank? And who 0:36:14.719 --> 0:36:17.759 has been blasted this hard and charged with felonies ten 0:36:17.880 --> 0:36:22.359 question marks? Since all since I came and read this, 0:36:22.840 --> 0:36:25.319 since all you authorities want to blast me like I'm 0:36:25.360 --> 0:36:29.319 some nasty criminal and offer awards, well, guess what, get 0:36:29.360 --> 0:36:32.399 to working even more because I'll turn myself in when 0:36:32.400 --> 0:36:34.279 I'm ready. You guys have put me out to be 0:36:34.320 --> 0:36:37.719 a drug dealing, robbing, aggravated battery in criminal. But guess what, 0:36:37.960 --> 0:36:43.000 I beat all those charges. So that's wrong. Expletive man, 0:36:43.120 --> 0:36:45.680 it is what it is. S mates. You guys are 0:36:45.680 --> 0:36:50.680 pathetic expletive expletive expletive expletive. This was printed in the 0:36:50.680 --> 0:36:55.480 news story. The whole, the whole, entire passage right, there, 0:36:55.719 --> 0:36:59.160 isn't that going? Well? Guess what? Arma Dares was arrested 0:36:59.160 --> 0:37:02.040 nearly two months later on the charges of trespassing. How 0:37:02.080 --> 0:37:04.760 did they finally get this guy? While the Sheriff's office 0:37:04.760 --> 0:37:07.080 received a call for service stating Armadares was on his 0:37:07.120 --> 0:37:10.160 way to the days in on South Cleveland Avenue threatening 0:37:10.200 --> 0:37:15.240 to shoot someone. He was he was at the motel 0:37:15.320 --> 0:37:17.880 the morning of July one, near a vehicle containing a 0:37:17.920 --> 0:37:21.000 pump action shotgun and more than two hundred rounds of ammunition, 0:37:21.440 --> 0:37:24.400 and charge with two counts of resisting arrest. Now, not surprisingly, 0:37:24.719 --> 0:37:28.280 he failed to peer in court twice in the months 0:37:28.280 --> 0:37:32.480 following his arrest, most recently in February and uh pulling 0:37:32.800 --> 0:37:36.320 another ace out of his deck. He moved to North Carolina, 0:37:36.360 --> 0:37:39.360 which could not extradite him back to Florida over bench Warrens. 0:37:39.360 --> 0:37:41.319 But I guess the heat was finally getting to be 0:37:41.360 --> 0:37:44.440 too much, because nearly a year after ruining what already 0:37:44.440 --> 0:37:46.680 sounded like a fairly shitty existence to swim with some 0:37:46.719 --> 0:37:49.719 bass and catfish, Armadaris is back in Florida and ready 0:37:49.760 --> 0:37:52.520 to face the music. He's gotten a lawyer. Likely, I'm 0:37:52.520 --> 0:37:54.440 just gonna say by way of a billboard on some 0:37:54.520 --> 0:37:57.319 Florida back road. And this is the only quote in 0:37:57.360 --> 0:37:59.200 the piece from his lawyer. Right, we hear from the 0:37:59.280 --> 0:38:02.839 lawyer one time and he just says, we will take 0:38:02.880 --> 0:38:07.239 care of these warrants. We'll probably just go in dot 0:38:07.280 --> 0:38:12.759 dot dot and figure it out from there. So they 0:38:12.800 --> 0:38:15.239 over under that meth is somehow playing a role in this. 0:38:16.640 --> 0:38:20.720 You know, it's there's no question it sounds very methy 0:38:20.760 --> 0:38:26.160 to me. I mean, better call Saul is all I 0:38:26.200 --> 0:38:30.799 can think for this dude, exactly exactly, so I will say, 0:38:31.040 --> 0:38:32.919 I mean, look, it sounds like dudes in all kinds 0:38:32.920 --> 0:38:35.120 of bad stuff. Like he's not like a nice dude, 0:38:35.440 --> 0:38:37.319 but there's also that little baby part of me that 0:38:37.520 --> 0:38:40.000 feels for him. It's like, Okay, I did a goofy thing. 0:38:40.120 --> 0:38:42.040 I jumped at a tank, and like you guys are 0:38:42.080 --> 0:38:44.160 really gonna like go this hard at me for that, 0:38:44.280 --> 0:38:48.560 But like, yeah, they did like to think that it's 0:38:48.600 --> 0:38:50.600 all the other things that are making them go hard 0:38:50.600 --> 0:38:54.160 at him. Maybe I'm wrong. Probably it's probably like, well 0:38:54.239 --> 0:38:57.279 he we we we already need to get him for 0:38:57.360 --> 0:39:00.520 these things, so like now we'll just had the tank. 0:39:00.560 --> 0:39:03.000 But he's making it sound like he's like an upstanding 0:39:03.000 --> 0:39:05.920 citizen except for this tank jump. Now that I'm saying this, 0:39:06.280 --> 0:39:09.839 it makes me think you don't cross bass pro man, 0:39:10.560 --> 0:39:13.320 Like if there is one entity in the fishing world 0:39:13.400 --> 0:39:17.680 that you can get but not not bass pro I 0:39:17.680 --> 0:39:21.399 mean now they're one and the same. So no, Like, 0:39:21.560 --> 0:39:25.960 if you're gonna if you're going to cause problems in 0:39:26.000 --> 0:39:28.520 the with anybody in the fishing industry, that's probably not 0:39:28.800 --> 0:39:31.960 the right way to go. They have the resources to 0:39:32.000 --> 0:39:34.640 get you. Well, yeah, they have plenty of money and like, 0:39:34.719 --> 0:39:37.680 yeah they're that is true. They're not a little mom 0:39:37.680 --> 0:39:40.400 and pop tackle shop. They have resources and a legal team. 0:39:40.760 --> 0:39:42.880 The one thing I do question though, like do you 0:39:42.920 --> 0:39:46.560 really need to decontaminate that entire fish tank over one 0:39:46.640 --> 0:39:48.759 dude's women in it? Like come on, Like that's like 0:39:48.760 --> 0:39:52.760 one of the like money like on how much methidle, 0:39:56.920 --> 0:40:00.440 how much melted down robotusin or whatever is now and tank? 0:40:01.200 --> 0:40:11.400 Oh yeah, so yeah, yeah, speaking of substances that are 0:40:11.400 --> 0:40:15.839 worth far more than they probably should be at street value. Joe, 0:40:15.880 --> 0:40:19.160 have you ever heard of Amber Grease? I actually do 0:40:19.280 --> 0:40:22.480 happen to know what Amber grease is? Yes? You do? 0:40:22.520 --> 0:40:24.480 You do? You want you want to you want to 0:40:24.480 --> 0:40:27.000 take this, I don't want to take it. I could 0:40:27.000 --> 0:40:28.719 tell you, I could tell the people what it is. 0:40:30.400 --> 0:40:32.759 To the best of my knowledge, it's giant gobs of 0:40:32.800 --> 0:40:37.520 like petrified solidified well vomit. That is worth shiploads of 0:40:37.560 --> 0:40:39.520 money if you know where to find it. And I 0:40:39.560 --> 0:40:41.560 know a guy. I don't know, but I know a guy, 0:40:41.960 --> 0:40:45.120 So that's straight That is straight upright. It is a 0:40:45.520 --> 0:40:50.360 dense waxy substance formed by the bile ducts in the 0:40:50.440 --> 0:40:55.040 intestines of sperm whales and sperm whales only not all 0:40:55.040 --> 0:40:59.239 whales just spurm. They didn't know that. And how about this? 0:40:59.440 --> 0:41:04.280 Giants guid beaks have been found within chunks of ambergrease, 0:41:04.360 --> 0:41:08.960 and the theory goes that the substance prevents sharp, undigestible 0:41:08.960 --> 0:41:11.759 objects like that from rupturing sperm whales and testines, right, 0:41:11.760 --> 0:41:14.799 because they eat cuttle fish and giant squid and they 0:41:14.800 --> 0:41:18.560 can't digest the beaks. So the theory is that the substance. 0:41:18.800 --> 0:41:20.799 They evolved the substance to kind of wrap up the 0:41:20.840 --> 0:41:24.440 sharp bits so it didn't come up from the inside out. Yeah, 0:41:24.760 --> 0:41:28.319 and sperm whales probably expel amber grease like they do 0:41:28.440 --> 0:41:32.040 fecal matter, but if the mass is too large, they 0:41:32.080 --> 0:41:35.120 may vomit it up instead, hence the whale vomit thing. 0:41:35.520 --> 0:41:37.759 But bile just disagree on this point. No one's really 0:41:37.800 --> 0:41:39.919 sure how it comes out or even if it comes 0:41:39.920 --> 0:41:46.960 out fresh. Ambergrease is described as having a marine fecal odor, 0:41:47.920 --> 0:41:52.719 but as it flops around smrine fecal But as it 0:41:52.760 --> 0:41:55.680 floats around in the ocean and ages, it takes on 0:41:55.719 --> 0:41:59.680 a sweet, earthy, musky scent, which is often compared to 0:41:59.760 --> 0:42:04.600 rub being alcohol without the chemical extringency. Smell good. What 0:42:04.680 --> 0:42:07.040 does marine feel like? I know what dead rotten fish 0:42:07.040 --> 0:42:09.440 smells like, and I know what dogshit smells like. I 0:42:09.480 --> 0:42:13.239 don't know what like marine ship smells like? Who who 0:42:13.320 --> 0:42:19.880 says that? Okay? Several sources uh. Chunkes of ambergris can 0:42:19.920 --> 0:42:22.440 float around for years before eventually watching up on shore, 0:42:22.520 --> 0:42:26.480 which is where people usually find it. According to London's 0:42:26.560 --> 0:42:31.080 Natural History Museum, humans have used and valued rare ambergries 0:42:31.080 --> 0:42:34.560 for at least a thousand years, though its origin remained 0:42:34.640 --> 0:42:37.680 unknown until large scale whaling began in the eighteen hundreds. 0:42:37.920 --> 0:42:41.640 It's sometimes called floating gold or treasure of the sea. 0:42:42.600 --> 0:42:45.800 Or its other common name, as you pointed out, is 0:42:45.880 --> 0:42:51.880 whale vomit, which is somewhat less appealing straightforward. Early civilizations 0:42:52.000 --> 0:42:54.719 used ambergries for all kinds of applications, but it was 0:42:54.800 --> 0:42:58.560 highly prized as an aphrodisiac. Throughout the past few centuries, 0:42:58.800 --> 0:43:02.680 It's remained valuable because it contains and breen. I think 0:43:02.680 --> 0:43:04.960 that's how I'm both pronounced that which is added to 0:43:05.120 --> 0:43:08.279 perfume to make the scent lasts longer. In the last 0:43:08.280 --> 0:43:11.160 few decades, chemists have come up with with much cheaper 0:43:11.200 --> 0:43:16.520 synthetic alternatives, but super high end perfumes still used naturally 0:43:16.560 --> 0:43:20.880 occurring ambigras, so it remains incredibly valuable. High quality ambergris 0:43:20.920 --> 0:43:25.200 can sell for ten thousand dollars a pound, and an 0:43:25.280 --> 0:43:30.680 eight pound piece is considered a big find. But last 0:43:30.680 --> 0:43:35.280 February a group of Yemeni fishermen looked into a serious 0:43:35.360 --> 0:43:38.400 chunk of this stuff. I got a preface this by 0:43:38.400 --> 0:43:42.520 saying life is a commercial fisherman and Yemen there's never 0:43:42.560 --> 0:43:49.560 been like what we would consider kush comfortable or easy thing. No, 0:43:50.120 --> 0:43:52.520 these guys take take really small vessels out in the 0:43:52.560 --> 0:43:55.160 Gulf of Aiden, which is this water with the connects 0:43:55.160 --> 0:43:57.600 the Red Sea in the Arabian Sea and on like 0:43:57.640 --> 0:44:01.160 a particularly great outing. Like if every thing goes right, 0:44:01.760 --> 0:44:04.200 they're out for a few days and they come back 0:44:04.239 --> 0:44:06.440 to market with a full boat and everything goes perfectly. 0:44:07.480 --> 0:44:10.680 A Yemeni fisherman might earn the equivalent of fifty bucks 0:44:11.840 --> 0:44:16.600 each time, like when they really school right. But since 0:44:16.640 --> 0:44:20.200 civil war broke out in that already hard life has 0:44:20.239 --> 0:44:23.600 become like nearly impossible. Two thirds of the thirty million 0:44:23.600 --> 0:44:27.920 residents are relying on humanitarian aid right now, and and 0:44:27.960 --> 0:44:30.839 it's it's it's really tough for fisherman because many parts 0:44:30.880 --> 0:44:33.600 of the Yemeni coast are war zones, so fishing is 0:44:33.600 --> 0:44:36.759 prohibited in certain places, and and even unrestricted areas can 0:44:36.800 --> 0:44:39.600 just erupt in conflict like it's a bad deal. So 0:44:39.960 --> 0:44:42.640 the fisherman who found this ambergris in the story are 0:44:42.719 --> 0:44:46.799 from the village of al Qaisa. I believe an area 0:44:47.120 --> 0:44:50.799 okay an area in the Southern Aidan province, and that 0:44:50.960 --> 0:44:53.560 that zone like this is a board context. That zone 0:44:53.560 --> 0:44:58.040 they're they're in has less fighting and fewer restrictions. And 0:44:58.200 --> 0:45:00.719 on the day that they struck whale goal, they just 0:45:00.760 --> 0:45:03.040 happened to have this other guy on board with them 0:45:03.120 --> 0:45:06.120 who's from a village further north, and this guy had 0:45:06.200 --> 0:45:09.520 fled the war to to a more a safer part, 0:45:09.640 --> 0:45:11.160 to to earn a living. He was he was also 0:45:11.160 --> 0:45:13.280 a fisherman, but he's like, I can't fish my homeland, 0:45:13.480 --> 0:45:15.920 so I come south. He hopped on these guys boats. 0:45:15.920 --> 0:45:17.880 They went out and they're on their way to the 0:45:17.920 --> 0:45:21.240 fishing grounds and they pass a large dead sperm whale 0:45:21.400 --> 0:45:23.399 that had been floating around in the area for some time. 0:45:23.719 --> 0:45:26.800 One of the local fishermen told the Mideast I quote, 0:45:26.960 --> 0:45:29.600 we had passed by that same dead fish more than once, 0:45:29.960 --> 0:45:32.279 and we didn't give it any attention, as the sea 0:45:32.360 --> 0:45:37.760 is full of dead fish. But on this particular trip, 0:45:37.840 --> 0:45:41.080 they had that dude from the northern village with them, 0:45:41.120 --> 0:45:44.200 and he recognized that that was a sperm whale, and 0:45:44.200 --> 0:45:47.239 he like he knew about the ambergris, so he told 0:45:47.320 --> 0:45:49.560 him like, hold on, guys, we got forget about the fishing. 0:45:49.800 --> 0:45:53.279 We got taken this whale. And I could imagine the 0:45:53.320 --> 0:45:55.359 conversation that went on when they're like, you want us 0:45:55.400 --> 0:45:57.719 to do what He's like, no, no no, no, we gotta 0:45:57.719 --> 0:46:00.080 take in this whale. Carcass are you getting to the 0:46:00.160 --> 0:46:02.640 legality of this, because like, can you do that? I 0:46:02.640 --> 0:46:05.600 mean over here, what's like you cannot mess with a 0:46:05.680 --> 0:46:13.840 dead marine mammal. Okay, they're not concerned about that problems 0:46:14.239 --> 0:46:17.600 like a global law. I don't know, no, I there 0:46:17.600 --> 0:46:19.719 it is actually leval what they did. I tug you 0:46:19.760 --> 0:46:21.840 to that. It's it's legit. They're not they're not breaking 0:46:21.840 --> 0:46:24.200 any laws. Um. So they had to get a bunch 0:46:24.200 --> 0:46:26.680 of other boats to drag this thing in. And again 0:46:26.880 --> 0:46:29.480 this is guy's that outsiders convincing all these fishermen like, hey, 0:46:29.520 --> 0:46:31.319 stop doing what you're doing. You know it's gonna make 0:46:31.320 --> 0:46:33.600 you money. Trust me. We dragged this whale carcass and 0:46:33.680 --> 0:46:38.759 it's gonna be great. And then ultimately they got the 0:46:38.760 --> 0:46:42.359 whole village involved. Over over one fishermen helped drag and 0:46:42.400 --> 0:46:46.080 dismember this just like disgustingly rotten beast up on the beach, 0:46:46.640 --> 0:46:50.920 which again you're putting a lot on these guys, like 0:46:51.320 --> 0:46:54.399 now now now start hacking this thing up. Yeah, how 0:46:54.440 --> 0:46:56.360 did this dude? Like, isn't it also a gamble? Like 0:46:57.000 --> 0:46:59.799 did he know? How do you know? There's it's it's 0:46:59.800 --> 0:47:02.480 like in an oyster you could eat ten million oysters 0:47:02.480 --> 0:47:04.839 and not find a pearl, like you. Only five per 0:47:04.880 --> 0:47:08.120 cent of whale carcasses have this in him, and usually 0:47:08.120 --> 0:47:11.880 it's just a small amount. So he had to be 0:47:11.920 --> 0:47:14.839 a very compelling dude. And it worked out because they 0:47:14.840 --> 0:47:16.920 found a chunk of amber grease in that whale that 0:47:16.960 --> 0:47:21.920 weighed two hundred and eighty pounds. Oh my god. And 0:47:21.960 --> 0:47:24.480 so then they all had to like rally together and 0:47:24.520 --> 0:47:28.680 take turns guarding that foul smelling awfulness until they were 0:47:28.719 --> 0:47:31.680 able to like find someone to sell it to. And 0:47:31.719 --> 0:47:34.760 they sold it to a broker from the United Arab 0:47:34.800 --> 0:47:38.360 Emirates for the equivalent of one point five million dollars, 0:47:39.160 --> 0:47:42.200 which they then distributed throughout the community. So like most 0:47:42.280 --> 0:47:45.399 families got twelve thousand bucks, which is enough for a 0:47:45.440 --> 0:47:47.719 young fisherman to marry and build a house or to 0:47:47.760 --> 0:47:49.879 purchase his own boat, which is like a total game 0:47:49.960 --> 0:47:54.120 changer for these folks. And they distributed like the whole 0:47:54.160 --> 0:47:56.640 it was a village of a thousand families. They distributed out. 0:47:56.880 --> 0:47:59.760 Everybody got what they needed. They bought medicines for folks. 0:47:59.800 --> 0:48:02.439 Like was a really great story of not just hey, 0:48:02.520 --> 0:48:04.440 we found this thing and we pirated it and we 0:48:04.480 --> 0:48:06.800 have a couple of people got rich, Like they really 0:48:06.920 --> 0:48:09.440 used it to distribute funds throughout the community, and this 0:48:09.480 --> 0:48:12.440 whole fishing village is now better off for it. And 0:48:12.480 --> 0:48:15.160 it's just it's a rare bit of good news coming 0:48:15.160 --> 0:48:17.560 out a part of the world that doesn't have a 0:48:17.560 --> 0:48:20.640 lot of good news these days. And it came in 0:48:20.680 --> 0:48:23.920 the form of whale vomit I did. I gotta say, man, 0:48:23.960 --> 0:48:25.840 Like I feel like this is this is prompting me 0:48:25.880 --> 0:48:27.600 to do more research, because there's so much more I 0:48:27.640 --> 0:48:29.920 want to know, like how often does this wash up? 0:48:29.960 --> 0:48:31.880 Where does it wash up most often? Like can I 0:48:31.920 --> 0:48:34.400 find this Fourth of July weekend at like my in 0:48:34.480 --> 0:48:37.160 law's beach house, Like the most commonplace to find is 0:48:37.200 --> 0:48:41.360 the Bahamas? And I also wonder Amber Greece, k belize 0:48:41.600 --> 0:48:44.200 is that name? Because like it used to wash up 0:48:44.239 --> 0:48:46.600 there more or something, or at least it washed up 0:48:46.640 --> 0:48:50.040 there once. Yeah, But then my next question would be 0:48:50.080 --> 0:48:52.320 if I if I do on fourth of July weekend, 0:48:52.560 --> 0:48:55.560 like stumble on this right, Like who the hell do 0:48:55.600 --> 0:48:59.560 you call? Like now I gotta unload two pounds Amber Greece, 0:48:59.640 --> 0:49:02.640 Like we call the fish market, Like what who do 0:49:02.719 --> 0:49:06.919 you call? That ship on Facebook, you know what I mean, 0:49:08.400 --> 0:49:13.560 Facebook market Place. If that comes up, it's definitely gonna 0:49:13.560 --> 0:49:17.040 be a sale ban. I'm just saying, right, Yeah, but dude, 0:49:17.080 --> 0:49:18.880 I know I think that's I think that's really fascinating. 0:49:18.880 --> 0:49:21.359 I also had no idea that anybody was still used 0:49:21.360 --> 0:49:23.600 not in cosmetics and perfume, Like that's got to be 0:49:23.640 --> 0:49:25.800 some super high end stuff because you think about it, 0:49:25.800 --> 0:49:28.480 it's sustainable. You don't actually have to I knew historically 0:49:28.560 --> 0:49:31.719 we used whale blubber for cosmetics and oil lamps, and 0:49:31.760 --> 0:49:34.560 that's why we killed like almost every whale. But the 0:49:34.560 --> 0:49:37.680 whale doesn't have to die to get this stuff. So yeah, man, 0:49:37.719 --> 0:49:39.960 I could see, especially in like the boutique world we 0:49:40.000 --> 0:49:43.120 live in, there's got to be some perfume makers whatever 0:49:43.160 --> 0:49:47.240 they're called, that are just like, man, you must smell, 0:49:47.360 --> 0:49:49.799 you must smell real good. So we'll move on from 0:49:51.520 --> 0:49:58.600 fecal matter. Is she smelled a marine? Yeah, it's a 0:49:58.640 --> 0:50:01.200 great selling point there. I'm gonna stay I'm gonna stay 0:50:01.200 --> 0:50:03.919 on dead fish here. Uh, not not a big one, 0:50:04.040 --> 0:50:06.200 but a lot of them. And this is a short 0:50:06.239 --> 0:50:08.920 story that's just gonna I think lead to some some 0:50:08.920 --> 0:50:12.240 some conversation here. It also lets me stay in crime. 0:50:12.400 --> 0:50:14.400 I'm doing the crime thing today. I'm like the c 0:50:14.640 --> 0:50:17.800 S I to catch predator, America's most wanted for anglers today. 0:50:18.040 --> 0:50:21.080 So we already got some bitch that had the audacity 0:50:21.080 --> 0:50:23.600 to jump in the bass pro tank. Uh, let's move 0:50:23.600 --> 0:50:26.920 on to catch criminal. Um. Anyway, this is a this 0:50:27.000 --> 0:50:30.840 is a short but poignant story. Um. And this comes 0:50:30.840 --> 0:50:34.319 from Arizona's a Z family dot com headline. Police make 0:50:34.400 --> 0:50:39.320 arrest after one thousand pounds of fish were dumped in Phoenix, 0:50:40.320 --> 0:50:42.160 and it's it's such a short story. I'm just gonna 0:50:42.200 --> 0:50:43.960 I'm just gonna burn through it. Police have arrested a 0:50:44.000 --> 0:50:46.560 suspect in connection to one thousand pounds of fish that 0:50:46.600 --> 0:50:49.880 were found dumped along a Phoenix road on Tuesday. Police 0:50:49.880 --> 0:50:53.760 sergeant and Justice said detectives were able to develop probable 0:50:53.800 --> 0:50:57.120 calls to arrest forty two year old Russell Omar Howard Thursday. 0:50:57.640 --> 0:50:59.759 It started when police were called to the area of 0:50:59.760 --> 0:51:02.320 fifth teenth Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road for reports of 0:51:02.360 --> 0:51:05.239 illegal dumping. When officers arrived, they found a large pile 0:51:05.280 --> 0:51:08.640 of trash, including several dead fish. Arizona Game and Fish 0:51:08.760 --> 0:51:12.320 confirmed to Arizona family that at least one thousand pounds 0:51:12.320 --> 0:51:16.040 of carp and gizzard, chad boxes and trash from a 0:51:16.080 --> 0:51:19.640 spear fishing tournament at Lake Pleasant over the weekend. We're 0:51:19.719 --> 0:51:23.279 dumped in the area of Fifteenth Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road, 0:51:23.400 --> 0:51:26.440 and this dude now faces one count of criminal littering, 0:51:26.600 --> 0:51:30.600 which is a Class six felony. So I did a 0:51:30.640 --> 0:51:33.040 little research in the Lake Pleasant spear fishing. Didn't know 0:51:33.080 --> 0:51:34.719 anything about it. And this is a big deal there, 0:51:34.719 --> 0:51:38.280 Like it's a um you know, fairly big tourist destination. 0:51:38.360 --> 0:51:40.600 It's it's very clear, at least from the videos I've seen, 0:51:40.640 --> 0:51:41.880 and it seems a lot of people go there to 0:51:41.920 --> 0:51:45.080 spearfish for strypers, serious dudes. And I was trying to 0:51:45.120 --> 0:51:47.920 find information on this specific tournament to see if it 0:51:48.000 --> 0:51:51.279 was judged by total weight or what. Um I didn't 0:51:51.280 --> 0:51:54.200 really find much, but regardless, this is very similar, in 0:51:54.239 --> 0:51:57.360 my opinion to the Sebago Lake trout story we covered, 0:51:57.640 --> 0:52:01.279 um you know, in that this act, like this ship 0:52:01.760 --> 0:52:05.680 gives an entire faction of anglers a bad name. And 0:52:05.680 --> 0:52:07.800 in the case of Spega, it was ice fisherman looking 0:52:08.000 --> 0:52:10.560 kind of like pigs basically for for leaving all these 0:52:10.600 --> 0:52:13.840 dead fish on the ice, and I think this, like 0:52:13.880 --> 0:52:16.120 what happened here in Phoenix, this is something that not 0:52:16.239 --> 0:52:21.399 only tarnishes the spear fishing community, but bow fisherman for sure. 0:52:21.560 --> 0:52:23.040 And for the record, I don't know if I don't 0:52:23.040 --> 0:52:24.640 know if I've ever said this on this show, but 0:52:25.080 --> 0:52:28.040 I actually I really enjoy bow fishing, and it's it's 0:52:28.080 --> 0:52:30.799 not something that I do often, but I find it 0:52:30.880 --> 0:52:33.319 extremely fun. And I can also say that I've never 0:52:33.400 --> 0:52:35.319 been in a position where I had to figure out 0:52:35.320 --> 0:52:37.479 what to do with the forty five carpie shot because 0:52:37.520 --> 0:52:42.000 I can't shoot whereth the ship Like I just I'm 0:52:42.080 --> 0:52:45.799 really and and as I'm as I'm doing it, I'm 0:52:45.840 --> 0:52:48.640 like aim low and then I know all the things 0:52:49.600 --> 0:52:52.800 this somehow at the last second, it just doesn't touch 0:52:52.840 --> 0:52:55.719 the fish. So this is not a personal issue that 0:52:55.760 --> 0:52:59.840 I have, um but you know, what happens to piles 0:52:59.840 --> 0:53:01.800 of common carp whether they were shot with a spire 0:53:01.880 --> 0:53:04.160 arrow is is one of those things that I think 0:53:04.160 --> 0:53:06.279 people in general sort of turn a blind eye to. 0:53:06.360 --> 0:53:08.480 It's like everyone knows the vast majority of the time 0:53:08.560 --> 0:53:12.040 those fish are probably gonna be wasted, like not many 0:53:12.080 --> 0:53:16.040 people are finding plates for a hundred pounds of fried 0:53:16.200 --> 0:53:19.839 common carp meat. Um. But what keeps people from going 0:53:20.200 --> 0:53:24.640 overly ballistic about the sport is simply not seeing it, 0:53:24.800 --> 0:53:27.600 you know. And um, you know, one of the guys 0:53:27.600 --> 0:53:29.799 I used to shoot with, he swore that he had 0:53:29.840 --> 0:53:32.120 people eager to take his fish to eat. And again, 0:53:33.040 --> 0:53:35.280 up here on the river, you're not having a hundred 0:53:35.320 --> 0:53:37.360 fish night like you would in Texas or where you know. 0:53:37.480 --> 0:53:40.480 It's it's just not you don't shoot that many fish. Um. 0:53:40.520 --> 0:53:42.440 And another buddy of mine, he said he had the 0:53:42.440 --> 0:53:45.600 best racket going because he trade the carp with commercial 0:53:45.640 --> 0:53:49.359 lobster guys for lobsters, because apparently carp make like exceptional 0:53:49.880 --> 0:53:55.759 trap bait. But yeah, exactly, the lobster guys say that 0:53:56.040 --> 0:54:01.160 man common carp is terrific lobster bait for their traps. Um. 0:54:01.239 --> 0:54:02.920 But I mean, look, I never saw any of that 0:54:03.040 --> 0:54:04.959 in my own eyes. I trusted that was the case 0:54:05.000 --> 0:54:07.480 because these were buddies of mine, and that made me 0:54:07.800 --> 0:54:10.560 sleep a little easier after my one or two boat 0:54:10.560 --> 0:54:12.080 trips a season. And I don't want to make it 0:54:12.080 --> 0:54:14.239 sound like I was overly upset about taking a few 0:54:14.280 --> 0:54:16.839 carp out of the river. But I mean, you know, 0:54:16.920 --> 0:54:19.480 I'm a rodding real guy first that that mostly catches 0:54:19.480 --> 0:54:21.960 and releases, which is why I would never bow fish 0:54:22.040 --> 0:54:24.279 like twice a week all summer. Like it's it's too 0:54:24.360 --> 0:54:26.080 much like a trip here and there. Every once in 0:54:26.120 --> 0:54:29.120 a while, I can get behind that um. But you know, 0:54:29.239 --> 0:54:31.279 those fish could have ended up in a dumpster, which, 0:54:31.360 --> 0:54:34.680 while that might upset some people too, it's far better 0:54:34.719 --> 0:54:36.560 than dumping the fish on the side of the road 0:54:36.600 --> 0:54:38.399 because less chance for people to see it. And it's 0:54:38.480 --> 0:54:41.400 it's dumb moves like this that ruined ship for the 0:54:41.480 --> 0:54:43.839 responsible guys, or at least, I should say, the guys 0:54:43.880 --> 0:54:46.520 with enough sense to recognize that if you're going to 0:54:46.640 --> 0:54:48.840 waste a bunch of carp and shad like you waste 0:54:48.840 --> 0:54:52.440 them away from prying eyes. And I hate to say it, 0:54:52.480 --> 0:54:54.600 I hope the dude gets hit with the charges like 0:54:54.640 --> 0:54:58.400 that's a that's a that's a ship move. Yeah, yeah. 0:54:58.440 --> 0:55:01.000 The dumping is is a is a. Really, there's no question, 0:55:01.040 --> 0:55:03.720 that's not even a gray area. That's just that's just terrible. 0:55:04.600 --> 0:55:09.520 But the the issue of what to do with rough fish, 0:55:09.719 --> 0:55:12.799 then you both fish and I gotta I gotta step back. 0:55:12.840 --> 0:55:16.800 Common carp, I get gizzard shed Are those non native? 0:55:16.800 --> 0:55:19.080 Are those invasive? Are those an issue in the body 0:55:19.080 --> 0:55:22.359 of water that we're talking about here that I don't know, 0:55:22.520 --> 0:55:25.120 I would think not. I mean, man, gizzard chatter kind 0:55:25.160 --> 0:55:28.839 of everywhere. Yeah, So, I mean, like I can see 0:55:28.880 --> 0:55:33.120 that I get the justification common carp invasive fish problematic. 0:55:34.400 --> 0:55:39.160 I I struggle with the just the wanton waste of 0:55:39.800 --> 0:55:43.160 native fish species and rough fish. It's it's something that 0:55:43.200 --> 0:55:46.160 I actually I don't have a problem with both fishing 0:55:46.160 --> 0:55:48.759 and all, and I also enjoy it, but I don't 0:55:48.800 --> 0:55:51.360 do it very often, partially because I'm like, man, I 0:55:51.520 --> 0:55:55.279 shoot a couple of carp the hell? I mean, you 0:55:55.440 --> 0:55:59.080 put one in the garden or whatever, in a buddies garden, because, 0:55:59.200 --> 0:56:01.160 as we've already talked on the show, I've never successfully 0:56:01.200 --> 0:56:03.719 done that. But what do you do after that? Like, 0:56:03.840 --> 0:56:07.080 I don't necessarily want to eat them, and I don't 0:56:07.080 --> 0:56:08.879 want to have to figure out what to do with them. 0:56:09.239 --> 0:56:13.359 I recognize that it's is it legal to throw them 0:56:13.360 --> 0:56:15.319 away in a dumpster? I don't actually know the answer 0:56:15.320 --> 0:56:17.640 to that question. I don't I don't know it either. 0:56:17.719 --> 0:56:20.200 I mean, that's probably a state by state thing I 0:56:20.640 --> 0:56:22.120 truly don't know. But what I can tell you about 0:56:22.120 --> 0:56:24.879 the gizzard Chad, at least from some of my experience here, 0:56:24.880 --> 0:56:28.279 it's like I know a lot of bow fishermen that 0:56:29.080 --> 0:56:32.440 it's like, can I shoot that? Can I legally shoot that? Yes? 0:56:32.680 --> 0:56:34.719 Then I'll fire at it, you know what I'm saying, 0:56:34.760 --> 0:56:37.400 And like gizzard Chad, it's like, oh, that is okay 0:56:37.440 --> 0:56:40.480 for me to shoot at, So I will shoot at it. 0:56:40.920 --> 0:56:44.839 Like I never really shot at a ton of gizzard Chad, 0:56:44.920 --> 0:56:46.360 Like I just that's not what I was out there for. 0:56:46.440 --> 0:56:48.400 Like you're trying to whack a couple of carp and 0:56:48.600 --> 0:56:51.440 it is what it is. But the question of why 0:56:51.520 --> 0:56:54.520 would you do that? Because you can? Because I just 0:56:54.600 --> 0:56:56.440 know there are bow guys who are like that, Like 0:56:56.480 --> 0:56:59.439 everything that comes into the lights, like can I shoot that? Well, yeah, 0:56:59.520 --> 0:57:03.279 boom like and it's hit and this is and I 0:57:03.320 --> 0:57:04.560 know I hit this all the time. But this is 0:57:04.560 --> 0:57:07.120 where it brings me back to the big mouth buffalo thing, 0:57:07.200 --> 0:57:09.920 which we all know. I'm fully obsessed with big mouth buffalo, 0:57:09.960 --> 0:57:14.160 admit it. And I'm not excited about them being such 0:57:14.200 --> 0:57:18.040 a popular target for both fishers because I want them 0:57:18.080 --> 0:57:19.920 to be around for other reasons, because they're part of 0:57:19.960 --> 0:57:22.160 the ecosystem, and because I want to catch them. In 0:57:22.200 --> 0:57:24.680 other ways, I get harvesting a few them because I 0:57:24.680 --> 0:57:26.760 know they're delicious and great. If that's what you're doing, 0:57:27.040 --> 0:57:31.240 do it. It's legal. But I I struggle with the 0:57:31.920 --> 0:57:34.760 just the going out and just killing a bunch of fish. 0:57:34.800 --> 0:57:37.880 To kill a bunch of fish, particularly if they're native 0:57:37.880 --> 0:57:41.560 fish like suckers that are part of the ecosystem like that, 0:57:41.560 --> 0:57:45.080 that doesn't sit well with me. I can't condone that. Well, 0:57:45.120 --> 0:57:47.280 this is this is totally op ed. We're certainly not 0:57:47.320 --> 0:57:49.760 coming to a conclusion on this, But just to to 0:57:49.880 --> 0:57:52.800 point out that, I mean that dude's kind of a 0:57:52.880 --> 0:57:54.960 jerk for dumping all those fish there. And no matter 0:57:54.960 --> 0:57:56.840 where you stand on both fishing, I mean, you can't 0:57:57.640 --> 0:57:59.880 that that is exactly the kind of thing that gets 0:58:00.040 --> 0:58:03.600 hackles up in. This makes us look it makes us 0:58:03.640 --> 0:58:05.760 look bad. So I'm sure you know, hey, you know 0:58:05.800 --> 0:58:07.560 how to find us bend at the mediator dot com 0:58:07.600 --> 0:58:09.920 way in let us know what you think. We're gonna 0:58:10.000 --> 0:58:12.680 let Phil. We're gonna see what Phil thinks of us 0:58:12.720 --> 0:58:15.160 and our stories this week. Um, and then As soon 0:58:15.200 --> 0:58:18.160 as we're done doing that, believe it or not, I 0:58:18.160 --> 0:58:19.960 am getting us back on the striper scene with a 0:58:19.960 --> 0:58:23.840 freak in Philistine. I read a book. Joe read a book, 0:58:25.120 --> 0:58:31.800 so stay dude for that. It was educational, it was informative, 0:58:31.840 --> 0:58:35.160 it was entertaining. Miles, let's shower you in some amba. 0:58:35.160 --> 0:58:39.440 Grise you're the winner this week by referencing both the 0:58:39.520 --> 0:58:43.280 Konami Code and Fallout Boy. Yes, Joe, I got that reference. 0:58:43.280 --> 0:58:45.480 It seems like you guys are trying to both pander 0:58:45.520 --> 0:58:48.880 too and mock me at the same time. I feel 0:58:48.880 --> 0:58:51.680 like Carrie. If you guys end up crowning me prom 0:58:51.760 --> 0:58:53.720 queen next week, I swear to God, I will not 0:58:53.800 --> 0:58:56.280 even wait for that pigs blood. I will you up. 0:58:58.680 --> 0:59:01.320 What's to Fhilistine A guy who doesn't care about books 0:59:01.400 --> 0:59:08.760 or interesting films and things, But when David de Benedetto 0:59:08.880 --> 0:59:11.120 is on the run hit bookstore shelves in the early 0:59:11.160 --> 0:59:14.360 two thousand's, my soul was crushed. And at the time, 0:59:14.400 --> 0:59:17.120 I was in college, often fighting to stay awakened class 0:59:17.120 --> 0:59:19.920 because I'd been surf fishing all night, or skipping it 0:59:20.080 --> 0:59:23.040 entirely to catch the right tide on some North Jersey Jetty. 0:59:23.120 --> 0:59:25.280 I was also scheming about how I get my break 0:59:25.320 --> 0:59:27.600 in the outdoor journalism game, and one night it hit me, 0:59:28.120 --> 0:59:30.280 how cool would it be to follow the entire stripe 0:59:30.280 --> 0:59:33.400 bass migration up and down the East Coast and document it. 0:59:33.760 --> 0:59:36.360 It had never been done before, that is, until the 0:59:36.440 --> 0:59:38.720 Benedetto did it and wrote an entire book about it. 0:59:39.080 --> 0:59:40.960 I got over it pretty quickly, though, and I even 0:59:40.960 --> 0:59:43.640 wrote to Benedetto an emailed telling him how jealous I was, 0:59:43.680 --> 0:59:46.480 but also how much I loved the book, because, in 0:59:46.520 --> 0:59:49.360 my opinion, despite there being several other great books about 0:59:49.360 --> 0:59:52.680 the stripers scene out there, none came close to capturing 0:59:52.680 --> 0:59:56.400 the entirety of it so beautifully. Growing up in the nineties, 0:59:56.400 --> 0:59:58.760 stripe bass were almost non existent to me. They were 0:59:59.080 --> 1:00:02.720 mythic on a tinable, and their rebound coincided with that 1:00:02.800 --> 1:00:04.680 point in my life when you're just old enough to 1:00:04.720 --> 1:00:06.480 do whatever the hell you want, and also when you 1:00:06.560 --> 1:00:09.640 had very little responsibility. And I was already in love 1:00:09.680 --> 1:00:12.640 with chasing stripers, but On the Run made me feel 1:00:12.640 --> 1:00:15.480 like I was part of something so much bigger. On 1:00:15.520 --> 1:00:18.360 the Run kicks off in Maine on Labor Day weekend 1:00:18.400 --> 1:00:21.640 two thousand one, just prior to the attacks on September eleven, 1:00:21.800 --> 1:00:24.280 and it ends in late November on the outer banks 1:00:24.320 --> 1:00:27.560 of North Carolina. But what happens in between has less 1:00:27.600 --> 1:00:29.840 to do with fish and much more to do with people. 1:00:30.320 --> 1:00:34.120 De Benedetto spent time with all the most notable characters 1:00:34.160 --> 1:00:36.880 in every faction of the striper scene, and plenty of 1:00:36.960 --> 1:00:40.200 less notable people fighting to preserve these fish or fighting 1:00:40.200 --> 1:00:42.880 to make a living catching them. Every new person he 1:00:42.960 --> 1:00:46.520 encounters presents a new perspective and new adventure. De Benedetto 1:00:46.640 --> 1:00:50.760 famously opens the book Terrified as he skishes with Paul Melanik, 1:00:51.120 --> 1:00:53.920 a Montalk local that swims out and drifts hundreds of 1:00:53.960 --> 1:00:57.400 yards offshore while dangling live eels. He gets to witness 1:00:57.520 --> 1:01:01.680 legendary surfcaster Tony Stetsko almost come to blows with another 1:01:01.720 --> 1:01:04.280 angler on the beach that crowded him, and he sits 1:01:04.320 --> 1:01:07.000 down with former world record holder Alan mc reynolds and 1:01:07.120 --> 1:01:09.480 learns that catching such a coveted fish may have been 1:01:09.480 --> 1:01:12.560 more cursed than blessing. And in one of my favorite scenes, 1:01:12.880 --> 1:01:14.920 he rubs elbows in a Rhode Island bar with a 1:01:14.960 --> 1:01:18.840 group of guys. I idolized as a teen surfcaster. He's 1:01:18.880 --> 1:01:21.600 brought to this bar after diving with well known spear 1:01:21.600 --> 1:01:25.440 fisherman and underwater videographer Mike lap Two. Here's a taste. 1:01:26.160 --> 1:01:28.880 When we arrived, lap two spotted a few trucks in 1:01:28.880 --> 1:01:31.360 the parking lot with fishing rods locked on their roofs. 1:01:32.000 --> 1:01:34.680 Looks like the gangs here, he said. Inside where the 1:01:34.720 --> 1:01:37.120 yuppy day course seemed more suitable to a gathering of 1:01:37.120 --> 1:01:40.040 sailing skippers, lap two told the hostess, we're with a 1:01:40.080 --> 1:01:43.920 group that smells like fish. At the table, everyone went 1:01:43.960 --> 1:01:47.200 by their handles from the site stripers Online. The group 1:01:47.240 --> 1:01:52.240 consisted of crafty Angler, Tattoo, d Z, and hab There 1:01:52.280 --> 1:01:54.920 was also a fellow iron Mike, who didn't belong to 1:01:54.960 --> 1:01:58.440 stripers Online. According to lap two, these guys were among 1:01:58.560 --> 1:02:02.720 Rhode Island's most hard horse striper. Fisherman Habrek, who was 1:02:02.760 --> 1:02:06.080 built like a linebacker and sported a thick handlebar mustache, 1:02:06.160 --> 1:02:08.880 was the center of attention. When I sat down, he 1:02:08.920 --> 1:02:11.360 pulled out a lower box full of varying sized needle 1:02:11.440 --> 1:02:14.080 fish long plugs that range in size from the width 1:02:14.080 --> 1:02:16.800 of a broomstick to that of a pencil. Iron Mike 1:02:16.840 --> 1:02:20.680 and Tattoo started rubbing their hands together. Most sharpies feel 1:02:20.680 --> 1:02:23.000 habrecs needle fish have no equal when it comes to 1:02:23.040 --> 1:02:26.360 seducing big bass. When stocks run low at tackle shops, 1:02:26.400 --> 1:02:29.880 anglers will often call Habrec pleading for a personal shipment. 1:02:30.240 --> 1:02:32.720 You won't believe the things guys will be for these plugs. 1:02:33.240 --> 1:02:35.800 I had to stop giving out my number, he told me. 1:02:36.640 --> 1:02:39.240 When Habric opened the box, Tattoo snatched up a sharp 1:02:39.240 --> 1:02:41.400 troose needle fish and ran it under his nose like 1:02:41.440 --> 1:02:44.960 a fine cigar. Oh this is real nice, he said. 1:02:45.480 --> 1:02:48.440 Cries of plug Ho went up around the table. Plug 1:02:48.480 --> 1:02:50.400 Ho is a term of derision for any member of 1:02:50.560 --> 1:02:52.880 s O L who displays loose morals. The quest for 1:02:53.000 --> 1:02:56.320 hard to come by. Plug. Everyone at the table was 1:02:56.440 --> 1:02:58.720 jazz for the fall run. It was proving to be 1:02:58.760 --> 1:03:01.600 the best in recent memory. The bait had stayed close 1:03:01.600 --> 1:03:03.480 to shore for the past few weeks, and day long 1:03:03.520 --> 1:03:06.080 blitzes were common. When I told the guys that the 1:03:06.080 --> 1:03:08.400 fishermen on the islands and Vineyard Sound were having a 1:03:08.440 --> 1:03:11.720 meek year, there was little sympathy. Iron Mike, a spark 1:03:11.760 --> 1:03:13.960 plug of a fellow who got louder with each beer 1:03:14.000 --> 1:03:17.440 and seemed to somehow work in every sentence. Had landed 1:03:17.440 --> 1:03:19.640 a fifty one pounder on a HAB's needle fish just 1:03:19.720 --> 1:03:22.320 a few days prior. It can be boom or bust 1:03:22.320 --> 1:03:24.880 in the fall, and we're booming this year, he said. 1:03:25.080 --> 1:03:27.200 I asked the group about the sharing of information on 1:03:27.240 --> 1:03:29.560 the internet. Many fishermen I had met on my trip 1:03:29.600 --> 1:03:32.640 aboard the idea of posting secret strategies and drops on 1:03:32.680 --> 1:03:37.120 fishing websites. This gang was no different. General information was fine, 1:03:37.160 --> 1:03:39.439 but posting a report with the exact location of where 1:03:39.440 --> 1:03:42.240 you whacked the fish was a deadly sin. We all 1:03:42.280 --> 1:03:44.840 had to pay our dues. Why should some lurker who 1:03:44.880 --> 1:03:47.200 doesn't know squat have the privilege of being told where 1:03:47.200 --> 1:03:49.800 to go and what to use. The learning process is 1:03:49.840 --> 1:03:53.040 part of the sports, said Tattoo. Some members had even 1:03:53.040 --> 1:03:56.800 devised a code for exchanging information. The following day, Tattoo 1:03:56.840 --> 1:03:59.840 sent me an example. It read, the pattern is open. 1:04:00.040 --> 1:04:03.200 You're cleared for twinkies. It was twenty times before puke. 1:04:03.800 --> 1:04:07.960 Pink was the color of the sky. In nine seven times, 1:04:08.000 --> 1:04:11.520 I like pink. I like to swim. Metal twelve was 1:04:11.560 --> 1:04:16.400 a good year. Pukers like steel six times. Di Benedetto 1:04:16.440 --> 1:04:19.360 didn't have a crystal ball, but he unknowingly captured what 1:04:19.440 --> 1:04:22.760 I'd consider the last years of true purity in the 1:04:22.800 --> 1:04:26.400 stripers scene. Message Boards were a thing, but this was 1:04:26.480 --> 1:04:29.439 long before Facebook and Instagram. You still had to put 1:04:29.480 --> 1:04:32.280 in your time, maybe lean on a mentor get in 1:04:32.320 --> 1:04:35.040 with the right crowd. You needed more than a photo 1:04:35.200 --> 1:04:37.680 to be considered the man, or to earn a reputation 1:04:37.720 --> 1:04:41.840 as a sharpie. Everybody in their uncle wasn't a custom lawmaker. 1:04:42.320 --> 1:04:45.440 John Haberac made lawyers that caught fish, not fisherman, and 1:04:45.440 --> 1:04:48.200 would probably be piste off about how much people will 1:04:48.240 --> 1:04:50.680 spend on one of his plugs these days as a 1:04:50.680 --> 1:04:55.440 collector's item. Now hab is sadly gone, so as Tony Stetsko, 1:04:55.880 --> 1:04:58.720 and so is Al mc reynolds. But saddest of all 1:04:59.040 --> 1:05:01.600 is that the run de Benedetto followed has gone to 1:05:02.360 --> 1:05:05.800 Nobody catches stripers in the outer Banks anymore. Striper numbers 1:05:05.800 --> 1:05:08.920 are on the decline, and the textbook route they once 1:05:09.000 --> 1:05:13.000 followed has been altered by everything from beach replenishment to 1:05:13.120 --> 1:05:16.640 over fishing, to global warming and beyond. But I owe 1:05:16.640 --> 1:05:19.800 this book for a lot more than solidifying my love 1:05:19.920 --> 1:05:22.920 of striper fishing, because not long after it was published, 1:05:23.120 --> 1:05:26.080 De Benedetto became the editor in chief of Saltwater Sportsman, 1:05:26.120 --> 1:05:28.600 which had recently moved to New York City, and through 1:05:28.600 --> 1:05:32.400 a few lucky connections, I got to interview for an internship. 1:05:32.680 --> 1:05:34.720 And when I met Dave, he said, aren't you the 1:05:34.760 --> 1:05:37.560 guy that emailed me about my book? And he gave 1:05:37.600 --> 1:05:40.840 me my first full time magazine job ever in two 1:05:40.880 --> 1:05:44.440 thousand five, And here I am now still on my 1:05:44.520 --> 1:05:49.960 own run in the craziness that is the fishing industry. 1:05:51.720 --> 1:05:57.640 All right. First off, everyone, everyone, Joe tackled a philistine segment. 1:05:57.840 --> 1:05:59.720 Phil Can we get a round of blows for Joe 1:05:59.760 --> 1:06:05.360 on that own blues? Thank you? I am hooked on 1:06:05.440 --> 1:06:09.280 fish and on phonics this week. So it turns out 1:06:09.360 --> 1:06:11.440 you don't just write books, do you know how to 1:06:11.440 --> 1:06:18.680 read them too? Thank you? Uh. Also, you managed to 1:06:18.760 --> 1:06:21.000 hit a classic book that I've never read, though it's 1:06:21.000 --> 1:06:23.360 been it's been recommended to me more than once. Uh, 1:06:23.400 --> 1:06:24.880 And so I need to get on that. It sounds 1:06:24.920 --> 1:06:27.840 like it sounds like it's It actually does a very 1:06:27.960 --> 1:06:31.200 very good job of capturing the entirety of of the 1:06:31.240 --> 1:06:33.080 fishing culture that we're talking about, and that's not easy 1:06:33.160 --> 1:06:37.040 to do. I personally very much enjoyed the Pete McDonald 1:06:37.080 --> 1:06:40.360 and Tosh Brown book The Blitz, which profiled the scene 1:06:40.360 --> 1:06:42.480 in a similar way, at a different time period and 1:06:42.600 --> 1:06:45.800 in a more visual format. But I think I'm going 1:06:45.840 --> 1:06:48.960 to enjoy that that longer form narrative even better. Yeah, 1:06:49.000 --> 1:06:51.280 you will, you you would love this book. And the 1:06:51.320 --> 1:06:54.240 first time I read that book, um, and it had 1:06:54.240 --> 1:06:57.000 a pretty profound impact on me. And little did I 1:06:57.040 --> 1:07:00.040 know that within just a couple of years I to 1:07:00.120 --> 1:07:03.160 be working for David Benedetto at Saltwater Sportsman and would 1:07:03.280 --> 1:07:06.960 end up meeting, uh, you know, or corresponding with so 1:07:07.000 --> 1:07:09.240 many people in that book. So in a way, it's 1:07:09.240 --> 1:07:11.640 like a part of my surf fishing roots. Dude, This 1:07:11.640 --> 1:07:14.040 whole this whole episode is like a little window into 1:07:14.160 --> 1:07:18.439 Joe's origin story, right it is it is and and 1:07:18.480 --> 1:07:20.120 as well as being a peek into one of the 1:07:20.120 --> 1:07:24.200 biggest and most engaged fishing subcultures in the country, it's 1:07:24.240 --> 1:07:25.800 just I mean, it's huge, right if you look at 1:07:25.840 --> 1:07:30.960 the numbers, Striper fishing is massive, but it's so localized, right, 1:07:31.040 --> 1:07:33.840 and and so a lot of us, myself included, even 1:07:33.880 --> 1:07:36.600 hard wranglers, have no personal frame of reference with this, 1:07:36.680 --> 1:07:39.640 but we're aware of it, and at least for me, 1:07:39.680 --> 1:07:44.320 like even though I don't have that direct experience, I 1:07:44.400 --> 1:07:46.920 get it, like I understand what's going on because it's 1:07:46.920 --> 1:07:49.720 still fishing, right, because like so exactly at one point 1:07:50.120 --> 1:07:51.800 when when you and Bill what's what we're talking and 1:07:51.840 --> 1:07:54.080 I was just sort of sitting there listening to being like, oh, 1:07:54.120 --> 1:07:58.200 this is amazing, we had to stop the interview, just 1:07:58.240 --> 1:08:01.000 like like mid interview, just it off so YouTube could 1:08:01.040 --> 1:08:05.040 geek out over who had the rarest custom wooden striper plugs. Yeah, 1:08:05.160 --> 1:08:07.400 we literally both got up for a second. We're like 1:08:07.440 --> 1:08:10.720 oh yeah, and like got up to grab some Hammo 1:08:11.040 --> 1:08:15.320 to have a plugs showdown over zoom. Right. He threw 1:08:15.360 --> 1:08:17.280 down first though, He's like look what I got. I'm like, 1:08:17.280 --> 1:08:21.200 oh yeah, as he would say, oh yeah mom. So 1:08:21.400 --> 1:08:25.240 I presented a metal lips surface swimmer made by Twisted, 1:08:25.520 --> 1:08:27.840 which I could go on and on about it, but 1:08:28.000 --> 1:08:29.640 just suffice to say I've been offered a lot of 1:08:29.680 --> 1:08:32.120 money for it because it's a rare one, and none 1:08:32.160 --> 1:08:34.240 of it, like you guys were going deep and none 1:08:34.240 --> 1:08:36.120 of the specifics of any of those baits or the 1:08:36.120 --> 1:08:39.640 bait makers or the particular like paint jobs. None of 1:08:39.680 --> 1:08:41.479 that made any sense to me, Like it meant nothing 1:08:41.479 --> 1:08:44.160 to me. I got what was going on. I understood like, oh, 1:08:44.240 --> 1:08:46.360 this is a pecking order thing, who's got the weirdest, 1:08:46.360 --> 1:08:53.160 coolest bait. But but I definitely, even though I didn't 1:08:53.200 --> 1:08:57.240 know those exact names or why they were special, very 1:08:57.280 --> 1:09:01.559 much recognized the style of the lures. Right the individual 1:09:01.640 --> 1:09:05.200 exact lures themselves, no idea, but I can see the 1:09:05.240 --> 1:09:08.520 style like I see the DNA of where those came from. 1:09:08.560 --> 1:09:11.920 And that's where we're going to as we close out 1:09:11.920 --> 1:09:14.320 the show because because in this week's end the Line segment, 1:09:14.479 --> 1:09:18.040 we're gonna talk about how so many lures considered classics 1:09:18.040 --> 1:09:21.439 and the striper scene actually have Midwest ingenuity to thank 1:09:21.479 --> 1:09:31.800 for their design. Well, that's not loud enough, Burt. The 1:09:31.840 --> 1:09:35.439 Creek Chub Pikey Minnow might be the most iconic vintage 1:09:35.520 --> 1:09:40.200 lure ever produced. With its scooped out nose, uniquely taper tail, 1:09:40.280 --> 1:09:44.160 and of course patented step down metal lip, the Pikey 1:09:44.160 --> 1:09:47.000 Minnow pops into most of our heads when we imagine 1:09:47.280 --> 1:09:51.080 old fishing lures. Before Repolic came to dominate the plug scene, 1:09:51.520 --> 1:09:54.639 there was Creek Chub. So the Pikey was Creek Chubb's 1:09:54.680 --> 1:09:58.240 biggest selling lure and most recognizable design. It wasn't the first. 1:09:58.720 --> 1:10:01.200 The Wiggler, designed way back in nineteen o six by 1:10:01.200 --> 1:10:03.880 three Fishing Buddies from Garrett, Indiana, was the first lure 1:10:03.920 --> 1:10:07.160 to incorporate a diving lip or a mouthpiece as they 1:10:07.160 --> 1:10:10.880 originally called it. This was the first timond recorded history 1:10:10.880 --> 1:10:14.920 that an inanimate object personified the wiggle of a frightened 1:10:14.920 --> 1:10:19.759 bait fish, a minor miracle of spontaneous generation. Modern anglers 1:10:19.800 --> 1:10:24.000 hardly even notice. From nineteen sixteen to the mid nineteen sixties, 1:10:24.240 --> 1:10:27.160 Creek Chub and the pike he min Oh dominated freshwater 1:10:27.240 --> 1:10:30.639 fish and fishing and set a standard for lure quality 1:10:30.960 --> 1:10:35.280 never again seen in production lures. The company only used 1:10:35.320 --> 1:10:39.240 white cedar wood for the bodies. Each lure was hand 1:10:39.280 --> 1:10:42.400 painted with at least seven and sometimes up to fourteen 1:10:42.439 --> 1:10:47.200 coats of paint. They devised a proprietary netting through which 1:10:47.240 --> 1:10:50.280 they could apply that paint to create a realistic scale 1:10:50.280 --> 1:10:54.280 pattern on each bait. The steel trouble hooks were imported 1:10:54.600 --> 1:11:00.200 from Norway. That insistence on quality ultimately became their undoing is. 1:11:00.360 --> 1:11:04.240 Once plastic hit the market, Creek Chub simply couldn't compete, 1:11:04.720 --> 1:11:09.160 and in the company went out of business. Entire books 1:11:09.160 --> 1:11:11.040 have been written about the history of this company this lure, 1:11:11.120 --> 1:11:13.519 so I'm not going to belabor all the specifics, but 1:11:13.600 --> 1:11:18.680 I think contemporary anglers forget how groundbreaking this lure was. 1:11:19.040 --> 1:11:22.439 Because of their popularity, Creek Shub naturally found their baits 1:11:22.479 --> 1:11:25.559 attached to some of the most controversial big fish dust 1:11:25.600 --> 1:11:29.400 ups of all time. First, the holy grail of American 1:11:29.400 --> 1:11:33.599 fishing records, George Perry's twenty two pound, four ounce large 1:11:33.600 --> 1:11:36.600 mouth that stood as the all tackle bass record for 1:11:36.600 --> 1:11:40.479 almost ninety years, was caught on a creek shub. Only 1:11:40.680 --> 1:11:43.880 no one's totally sure which Creek Chub, since Perry's story 1:11:44.000 --> 1:11:47.040 changed throughout life. It wasn't a pikey minnow, we don't think, 1:11:47.280 --> 1:11:50.960 but no one's totally sure. The pikey minnow is at 1:11:51.000 --> 1:11:54.080 the center of a different and only slightly less heated 1:11:54.280 --> 1:11:58.559 record fish controversy, the world record muskie. The standing record 1:11:58.720 --> 1:12:02.520 weighed sixty pounds eleven ounces and was caught in ninety 1:12:02.640 --> 1:12:06.040 nine by Louis Spray from the Chippewa Flowage in Wisconsin, 1:12:06.680 --> 1:12:10.280 but from nineteen sixty nine to two the record was 1:12:10.320 --> 1:12:13.599 actually held by Art Lawton, who claims who have caught 1:12:13.600 --> 1:12:16.680 a muskie four ounces heavier from the St. Lawrence River 1:12:16.720 --> 1:12:20.840 in New York on a pikey minnow. In the I 1:12:20.960 --> 1:12:24.320 g f A declared Lawton's record fraudulent, stating that modern 1:12:24.360 --> 1:12:26.800 scrutiny of available evidence showed it to be smaller than 1:12:26.840 --> 1:12:30.240 its certified weight and length. I would love to digress 1:12:30.280 --> 1:12:33.559 into the churning operatic drama that surrounds these two muskie 1:12:33.560 --> 1:12:36.200 record chasers in their fish, which includes no shortage of 1:12:36.240 --> 1:12:40.559 outlaw buffoonery and alcohol fuel transgressions on basic decency. But 1:12:40.640 --> 1:12:43.120 we're not here to talk about the muskie record. We're 1:12:43.160 --> 1:12:47.200 talking about the pikey minnow, and regardless of any bs around, 1:12:47.280 --> 1:12:50.800 particular records and fragile egos, this bait may have caught 1:12:50.880 --> 1:12:54.800 more big fresh water fish than any other By the 1:12:54.840 --> 1:12:59.000 time Rappola even crossed the pond. Pikey minnows were allegedly 1:12:59.040 --> 1:13:02.760 responsible for a twenty pound large mouth in four, a 1:13:02.880 --> 1:13:06.799 thirty six pound pike in n seven and eighteen pound 1:13:06.800 --> 1:13:10.400 walleye in nineteen thirty three, an eleven pound small mouth 1:13:10.439 --> 1:13:13.880 in nineteen forty one, and another eleven pounds spotted bass 1:13:14.439 --> 1:13:19.559 in nineteen That's plenty enough to solidify its place in 1:13:19.600 --> 1:13:23.000 fishing history. That was very good. But I'm going to 1:13:23.120 --> 1:13:25.559 step in now and add a pinch of salt to 1:13:25.680 --> 1:13:29.200 your pikey history because this is our Stripers show, and 1:13:29.240 --> 1:13:31.720 there's more to this story. So everything that you just 1:13:31.720 --> 1:13:34.599 said is accurate, and the pikey has certainly solidified its 1:13:34.600 --> 1:13:38.559 place in freshwater fishing history. Prior to World War Two, 1:13:39.040 --> 1:13:41.160 the stripers surf casting scene as we know it now 1:13:41.240 --> 1:13:43.679 didn't really exist, and if you wanted to catch them, 1:13:43.840 --> 1:13:46.960 you soaked bait. In fact, lobster tail was a common 1:13:47.000 --> 1:13:50.320 offering because lobsters are actually considered something only poor people 1:13:50.360 --> 1:13:53.360 eight back in the day. Now, there were also some 1:13:53.520 --> 1:13:56.040 metal lures and tin lures being slung around. But when 1:13:56.040 --> 1:13:58.519 the boys came home from war, surf casting, like many 1:13:58.560 --> 1:14:02.479 other scenes, boomed. Those surfcasters figured out quickly that those 1:14:02.560 --> 1:14:05.760 muskie and pike sized pikey minnows were equally appealing to 1:14:05.800 --> 1:14:08.719 stripe bass. And because as you noted, they were made 1:14:08.760 --> 1:14:12.559 so well they could also stand up to them. There 1:14:12.600 --> 1:14:14.680 was so much demand for Pikeys on the coast that 1:14:14.720 --> 1:14:18.400 in nineteen fifty Creak Chub introduced the Striper Pikey, an 1:14:18.400 --> 1:14:21.719 even heavier duty version of the original than In nineteen 1:14:21.760 --> 1:14:25.760 fifty three, Creak Chub dropped the Surfster. It had this 1:14:25.920 --> 1:14:28.920 stepped lip similar to the Pikey, but a fatter, rounder, 1:14:29.280 --> 1:14:31.479 more tapered body than a Pikey, which was kind of 1:14:31.479 --> 1:14:34.719 more cigar shaped. It was the Surfster that would become 1:14:34.720 --> 1:14:38.400 the template for many similar plugs, including those Bill Wetzel 1:14:38.439 --> 1:14:40.880 and I were geeking out about on that Zoom call 1:14:40.960 --> 1:14:44.760 of ours. Metal lipped swimmers is the category of laura 1:14:44.800 --> 1:14:47.200 we're talking about, because they fly far in the surf. 1:14:47.520 --> 1:14:49.720 They're built to take a beating. They wobble and roll 1:14:49.760 --> 1:14:52.439 across the surface and create a really distinct v wake. 1:14:52.960 --> 1:14:55.000 While Creek Chub may have had a big chunk of 1:14:55.000 --> 1:14:57.200 the market for a time, like you said, by the 1:14:57.280 --> 1:15:00.280 late sixties, the Surfster and many of their other lines 1:15:00.280 --> 1:15:03.080 had been discontinued, and nobody was really throwing pikes in 1:15:03.120 --> 1:15:06.920 the surf at all anymore. Aside from plastic Lores dominating 1:15:06.920 --> 1:15:09.759 the market. By then, other brands of metal lips swimmer, 1:15:09.840 --> 1:15:13.240 notably Stand Gibbs Danny Swimmer, had sort of taken hold, 1:15:13.400 --> 1:15:17.200 partly at least I think, because they were made in Massachusetts, 1:15:17.240 --> 1:15:20.759 and striper fishermen were then and are now fiercely loyal 1:15:20.840 --> 1:15:24.400 to local plugmakers. Today, there are hundreds of small shop 1:15:24.479 --> 1:15:27.200 regional builders that turn metal lips swimmers, all of which 1:15:27.200 --> 1:15:29.479 share design elements with the pike and the surf stir. 1:15:29.840 --> 1:15:31.960 And while I know plenty of striper guys that proudly 1:15:31.960 --> 1:15:35.200 display vintage pikes on shelves, I don't know anybody that 1:15:35.280 --> 1:15:38.280 chucks them. So you mentioned that Creek Chubb went out 1:15:38.280 --> 1:15:41.640 of business in which is true, but the name was 1:15:41.680 --> 1:15:45.519 purchased by Prad Colure's shortly thereafter, and Creek Chubb does 1:15:45.560 --> 1:15:48.519 still exist today, though everything now is made out of plastic. 1:15:48.920 --> 1:15:51.240 Matter of fact, in the early two thousands, and what 1:15:51.320 --> 1:15:53.599 I assume was an attempt to capture the growing surf 1:15:53.640 --> 1:15:57.920 market as striper populations rebounded, prad Co did a saltwater 1:15:58.000 --> 1:16:01.120 pikey reissue, pumping out all the get sizes made of 1:16:01.120 --> 1:16:05.120 molded plastic and featuring trusted modern striper colors like yellow 1:16:05.120 --> 1:16:07.960 school Bus and blur Pool, and I remember getting a 1:16:08.000 --> 1:16:10.920 few samples and being super pumped about them, but to 1:16:10.960 --> 1:16:13.200 be honest, I don't think I ever threw them because 1:16:13.240 --> 1:16:15.679 when it came down to maximizing time on the beach, 1:16:15.920 --> 1:16:19.040 standing there in the surf, I trusted the beat up 1:16:19.080 --> 1:16:22.000 Gibbs and R. M Smith's and lefty swimmers already in 1:16:22.080 --> 1:16:24.719 my surf bag. And I think most striper guys felt 1:16:24.720 --> 1:16:27.799 the same way. And as fast as the reissued pikes appeared, 1:16:28.000 --> 1:16:36.640 they were gone from tackle shop shelves. So that's it 1:16:36.800 --> 1:16:39.280 for this week, and we hope you enjoyed our little 1:16:39.320 --> 1:16:41.800 foray into the striper scene. And I wouldn't be surprised 1:16:41.840 --> 1:16:44.960 if we pick another scene down the road and go 1:16:45.040 --> 1:16:47.720 all in again because this was fun. Yeah, yeah, we 1:16:47.800 --> 1:16:51.120 definitely will. I'm I'm I'm calling DIBs on on Telapia 1:16:53.160 --> 1:16:55.120 because we all know how much you got it, you 1:16:55.200 --> 1:16:57.679 got you got it? Yeah, I do, I do, you gotta. 1:16:57.760 --> 1:16:59.640 I feel like we're missing something though. I feel like 1:16:59.640 --> 1:17:02.679 there's an there's a very smoky elephant in the room 1:17:02.800 --> 1:17:06.720 that we need to talk about. How did our residents 1:17:06.840 --> 1:17:10.800 straper surf expert Bob the garbage Man not show up 1:17:10.800 --> 1:17:12.880 in this episode, Like, how did you not bring him in? 1:17:13.160 --> 1:17:15.160 This is a terrific question. I'll tell you what happened. 1:17:15.479 --> 1:17:18.280 I sent him an outline of the show topics and 1:17:18.320 --> 1:17:20.200 he looked it over and was like, I'm not interested 1:17:20.800 --> 1:17:22.400 as soon as he saw the things we're gonna be 1:17:22.400 --> 1:17:27.200 talking about. But he did leave this message for me, Yeah, 1:17:27.560 --> 1:17:30.559 telling Niles, I'll catch more strivers on them creek choves 1:17:30.560 --> 1:17:33.360 and asking or wherever the he lives anywhere out here 1:17:33.720 --> 1:17:36.479 and you'd learn more about strips from Curious George goes 1:17:36.560 --> 1:17:39.559 fishing and that directory of notable Mook's book you was 1:17:39.680 --> 1:17:44.120 talking about or whatever. There you go. I'm pretty sure 1:17:44.120 --> 1:17:47.040 I just lost whatever whatever street cred I may have 1:17:47.240 --> 1:17:51.080 once had with Bob. Hopefully we haven't lost any with 1:17:51.120 --> 1:17:53.240 all of you out there listening, but if we have, 1:17:54.000 --> 1:17:56.720 let's know, just send an email to Bent at the 1:17:56.720 --> 1:17:59.320 meat Eater dot com. It's also the perfect place to 1:17:59.320 --> 1:18:03.240 send us bar nomination sale ban items, awkward photos, news leads, 1:18:03.280 --> 1:18:05.720 and all that other good stuff we're looking forward to. Yes, 1:18:05.840 --> 1:18:09.040 and finally catch up on b side fishing on YouTube, 1:18:09.120 --> 1:18:11.920 damn it and tune into b Side next week to 1:18:11.960 --> 1:18:15.760 watch me hunt down the lowliest, most unappreciated member of 1:18:16.000 --> 1:18:18.599 the Esox family. Those who know me know exactly what 1:18:18.640 --> 1:18:21.120 that is. We've also always got eyes on those degenerate 1:18:21.120 --> 1:18:24.559 Angler and Bent podcast hashtags, and if anyone now has 1:18:24.600 --> 1:18:26.920 eyes on my rare twisted Swimmer with the Mahi Mahi 1:18:27.000 --> 1:18:29.160 paint job, of which like one or two were ever made, 1:18:29.280 --> 1:19:00.519 back off, because that ship's not for sale. Si