WEBVTT - Ep. 34: Discount Poles At The Flying J 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.200 Screw the trout. I'm gonna put a handful of him 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:11.039 on my cream and weet what I want as the 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:14.680 only buffa hat I've never seen. Nobody cast a rod 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:17.400 as bad as you. They'll keep your phone dry, but 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:23.560 nobody will be able to hear you. Good morning, degenerate anglers, 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.240 and welcome to Bent the Fishing podcast. Where we call 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.560 it a scene. I call it disaster down here. The 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:33.519 kids grow up faster. I'm Joseph Mellie, a mild and uh. 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:36.800 And to everyone who caught that song, reference round of 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:39.000 applause and a round of drinks on me if I 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.599 had at the bar. Yes, I'm assuming I'm gonna say 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:45.320 not many people did catch it, but that's okay. We'll explain. 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:47.080 We'll explain. That was a tip of the hat to 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:51.800 the band Operation Ivy, who inspired our new band theme music. 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:54.120 And we want to know what you guys think. Do 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.480 you think we love it? Yeah, we love it. I 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.920 think it's fantastic. I would listen to that song anytime. 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:04.000 But yes, it's weird man, the way that like are 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.240 the timing of our song change happened because there was 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:09.720 that there was that whole subject of the discussion that 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.680 came up in social media recently and and so like, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.880 just so you guys known, because you're not all following this. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.399 Somebody and I can't remember who was. Some listener asked 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:21.319 if if he's the only one that rocks out to 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:24.480 the Bent theme song in the car, And we're really 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:28.240 happy that people like it. But the truth is, like 0:01:28.240 --> 0:01:30.280 when we were putting this show together initially, when we 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:34.240 first started, we just had to grab something that sort 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:36.480 of fit on the stock music website. It wasn't what 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:38.400 we had in mind, but like, that'll work and we 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.440 didn't hate it, but it was it was just not 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:42.840 exactly what we had in mind. So we've been we've 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.640 been talking about an itching to try and get something 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:49.920 written uniquely for us, and we finally got it done. 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:52.200 So that's the new song. Things that media or tend 0:01:52.200 --> 0:01:54.320 to like come together real fast and literally it was like, 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:56.200 we need a song. Are you cool with this? Do 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:57.760 you like this? Like? Yeah, I like it too, and 0:01:57.760 --> 0:01:59.840 we just went with it. So yeah, that's that's where 0:01:59.880 --> 0:02:02.960 they original theme came from. Um, but the studio band 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:05.640 we worked with for the new theme is actually from Philly, 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:07.800 represent East Side, and we got to give a shout 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.880 out to Hayden Samic, who works behind the scenes with 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:13.160 Phil on our show. He's the one that set up 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.200 the band orchestrated the whole thing, and we had a 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:18.480 meeting with him and we were like, yeah, just make 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:27.359 it sound kind of like this. Yeah, and I think 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.960 they nailed it. Oh, they totally nailed it. It was 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.440 like I said, I would listen to that song anytime. 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.320 And we're pumped because, I mean, the truth is that 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.360 you already know this, but Joe and I are huge 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:42.840 Op Ivy fans, And for those who were unfamiliar, Operation 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:45.560 Ivy is a historically significant band of the punk scene. 0:02:45.840 --> 0:02:48.480 They just kind of they just kind of appeared in 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:52.680 the late nineties, made one badass album, and then vanished. 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.000 It was just like boom, here it is Mike Drop 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:58.560 and they're out. But their their legacy, Like for a 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:02.560 band that only had one album, their legacy has endured amazingly. 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.079 Like I'm guessing some of you have heard of Rancid. Well, 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:11.120 Tim Armstrong, the legendary frontman, was the guitarist in Operation Ivy, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.440 and Matt Freeman, Rancid's bass player and also one of 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.440 the best bass players ever, was also an ap ivy. Yeah, yeah, 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:20.280 that's right. And while those two dudes went on to 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.200 be like punk hall of fame people like they got 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.679 a punk rock hall of Fame status op Ivyes frontman 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:31.960 Jesse Michael's Jes went on to become a lunatic. That's 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:35.160 that's harsh, but seriously, that's not wrong. You're not wrong. 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:37.320 The dude went off the deep end. And even if 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:40.840 you have no interest whatsoever in his music, do yourself 0:03:40.920 --> 0:03:43.920 a favor and look up the Jesse Michael's Thrash Metal 0:03:43.960 --> 0:03:47.520 blog on YouTube, because because I can't help myself, here's 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.160 a little clip montage. What I like doing is lying 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.600 in a bathtub, taking a ship and calling it self 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:03.560 spa treatment. Now record, I'm like, piss on my severed head. 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:11.360 I'm not kidding, Okay, I like funk I I will 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:13.240 admit even being an operation. I have a fan. I 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:15.760 had no idea that existed until you were like, hey, dude, 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:20.240 have you seen this? Like, no, who's seen that? I 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:23.560 think it's just proof that like that, to me is 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:26.040 proof of what's wrong with with the whole punk scene, 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.400 because that's what happens to like a true punk when 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:32.440 they grow up, not nothing good if you're like really 0:04:32.480 --> 0:04:36.280 like a true punk, like you shouldn't survive into your 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:40.359 thirties because because you wind up there and that's fair. Yeah, 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:42.800 that's hard. Like I was never a real punk because 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:44.800 like that didn't happen to me. And I think, like 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.720 when I listened to those or I watched those, I 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:50.840 think I think Michael's is both clinically depressed and completely 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.480 straight edge. But if he wasn't, I'd suggest he could 0:04:54.480 --> 0:04:58.680 probably use a drink like, hey man, it's a whiskey 0:04:58.720 --> 0:05:02.679 and talk about it. I don't know, but on that subject, 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.360 I think we need to move off of punk rock 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.880 and uh and and think more about drinking. And let's 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.400 let's get into that's my bar. Yeah, let's do that, 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:12.240 and everyone will be shocked to hear um probably that 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.320 we're headed back to Wisconsin. And I always knew, yeah, 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:17.400 I always need the state punched above their weight when 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.200 it came to fishing and drinking. But until we started 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:22.039 doing this show, I had no idea the extent to 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:26.400 which Scotty's dominate the fishing bar scene. Fishing bars are 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.919 like a goddamn institution there, uh for those of you 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:33.120 who are who are not super enthralled by like our 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.400 eighties punk conversation. How about what we're gonna We'll stick 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:38.400 to that era, but let's switch it up. We'll switch 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:40.480 up the details. Perhaps you were more in the pac 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:45.760 Man frogger, nutthugger shorts and sweat bands, best God Damn 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:51.039 bartender from Tim buck To to Portland, Maine, the Portland argument. 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:55.040 For that matter, you'll remember that the goal of our 0:05:55.160 --> 0:05:58.200 That's My Bar segment is to pay respect to those 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:05.480 most important cultural institutions great fishing bars, respect, mad respect, 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:08.719 and we we will we will never achieve our goal 0:06:08.720 --> 0:06:12.840 of properly documenting all the great watery watering holes worldwide 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:15.400 without your help. You are critical in this, and you 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.560 know you've got a favorite fishing bar or ten. Perhaps 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:22.679 take some time and pay homage to those hallowed places 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:26.520 and send us what you come up with. Please, Yes, 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:28.919 we we we we get some good ones. This week's 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:33.400 submission comes from Mike Whittlinger, and and he wrote something 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.719 so compelling. We're not even gonna mess with it, like 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:39.920 we're not even going to interfere. We can't know, We're 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:43.839 just we're just gonna read Mike's owed to his favorite 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.279 childhood fishing place. It's it's that good where it stands alone, 0:06:47.320 --> 0:06:50.520 and that's rare. I gotta say props to Mike and 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.280 uh and we begin. Being from Wisconsin, the bar talk 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:56.760 makes me want to both wet a line and my whistle. 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.440 I'd like to recommend one of my favorite scannie bars 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.320 of all times. It might just be more of a 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:05.000 memory than a real place at this point, but I'll 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.440 submit it here for your reading pleasure. I started fishing 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.920 around age two. My parents would take me to Pioneer 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.480 Lake in northern Wisconsin. Directly across from the boat launch 0:07:15.480 --> 0:07:19.160 area was the coolest bar I could ever imagine. After 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:22.080 long days of fishing, evening hours were generally spend at 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:28.480 the bar. Enter Maple View Resort a ka Oshitsky's Polish retreat. 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:35.120 That's being mostly Polish. That's great. Well, that was sort 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:38.400 of their name. They sold T shirts that read Oshitskys, 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:42.000 but I think their surname was actually O Sicky. Of course, 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.880 I had the Oshitsky's T shirt and as a preteen, 0:07:44.960 --> 0:07:50.360 wore it proudly every chance I got. Picture the early eighties, 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:55.520 nut hugger shorts, sweatbands, back when Dad's had hair and 0:07:55.600 --> 0:07:58.920 lots of it. All The photos from the fish cleaning station, 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:00.960 which is with in a stone throw of the bar, 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:07.200 of course, seemed to contain sons, father's marl borrows, blats, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.960 and plenty of forty plus in species for the wall 0:08:11.040 --> 0:08:14.360 or table. To a six year old fishing freak kid 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:19.200 like me, it was the ultimate bar. Every wall held fish, 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.640 huge glass encase musky mounts in various wheaty or woody habitats, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:29.000 monster walleye, four pound perch fish as far as my 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.520 eyes could see, and I swear every one of those 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.640 mounts were world records. From my youthful yet extensive experience, 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:38.880 those muskies most certainly wayed a hundred pounds each, and 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.880 the wall eyes at least half that. To top it off, 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.240 at the end of that beautiful fish rainbow held the 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:48.439 world's best cherry cokes, always with extra grenadine, and two 0:08:49.240 --> 0:08:53.400 real Marischino cherries if you ask nicely. They also had 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:58.280 pac Man Frogger, other video games of pool table or two, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.200 and hummingbird feeders. Out side the massive windows overlooking the 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.360 picturesque lake side. These windows were artfully sprinkled with a 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:10.160 handful of fake bullet hole stickers. The veracity of the 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:12.720 holes in question and how they got there left my 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.440 six year old self in a constant state of wonder. 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.440 The video games didn't fascinate me nearly as much as fishing, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.040 and whenever I could pull a buddy away from plinking 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:24.560 quarters to go fishing from the resort dock, that's what 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:29.880 we do. The most memorable night was late dark, breezy, 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.320 freezing cold, with a constant drizzle, and we were just 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.240 hammering fish on the end of the dock, two kids 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.920 roughly six and eight years old, supervised in quotes. He 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.960 put that in quote, supervised through that legendary bar window 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:49.600 from a dry, warm, alcohol laden short distance away. Drenched 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.400 and chattering, we were lip ripping fourteen inch perch left 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:55.760 and right from the end of that bar dock. No 0:09:56.000 --> 0:10:00.400 ship or no ship skis should I say? Writing this 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:02.280 has reminded me that I really need to make it 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:04.920 back there and pay my respects either to a bar 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:10.679 well done or a memory well embellished, hopefully both. That 0:10:10.800 --> 0:10:16.120 was pure poetry. I mean, that was like poetic perfection. Mike, 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:18.880 let us know how it goes when you finally do 0:10:19.080 --> 0:10:22.360 make that pilgrimage back and I hope it's exactly as 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:24.920 you remembered it, and do his favor. Send photos, and 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.400 all of you out there listening take a cue from 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.079 Mike and send us your bar nominations. If they're half 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:33.120 as good as that one, they will probably get our attention. 0:10:35.400 --> 0:10:37.560 I've never been to that bar, but I feel like 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:41.520 I have. Yeah, much like Mike, I accompanied my pops 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:44.880 to many a Wisconsin drinking establishment after days on the water, 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:47.360 and and that story, like that email that he sent, 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.360 it just got me thinking about those days, which then 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:53.480 got me thinking about what we used to call our 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:55.840 fishing equipment when I was a kid. Yeah, you've been 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:57.600 thinking about this a lot. In fact, Miles is going 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:02.000 to delve into a touchy subject among anglers in today's 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:10.160 weekly Word. Webster's Dictionary defines fish as I once worked 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.559 with a guy who proudly identified as a North Carolina redneck. 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:17.920 We'll call him Chris. Let me be clear, Chris was 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.079 neither dumb nor uneducated. He was the kind of person 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.000 who could frame up a wall, repair a hull, and 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.160 rebuild a Chevy short block with the same set of 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:28.920 rudimentary tools. He never once met a vehicle he couldn't pilot, 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.120 from sport fishers to yachts, to jet boats to super 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:36.160 cubs to G four's. If it swam, crawled, flapped, or ran, 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:40.280 he could find it, catch it, and kill it. I 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:42.959 can't say I always liked Chris. His skills were only 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:46.480 overshadowed by his ego, but he earned my respect. When 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:48.920 no one else was around, we'd sometimes share beers in 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:53.319 a quiet conversation. In those moments, his drawls seemed to dissipate, 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.400 and he'd admit to a love of books and language 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.200 when anyone else was an earshot. Though he mispernoun its 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.600 words and mangled grammatical phrasings, his language became intentionally crude 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.920 and exactingly imprecise. I actually once heard him yell at 0:12:08.920 --> 0:12:12.000 a client I never seen nobody cast a rod as 0:12:12.040 --> 0:12:15.480 bad as you, and that exchange hit on the one 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.240 semantic line in the sand that he could not stand 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:22.760 here violated. If anyone called a fishing rod a pole 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:25.440 in his presence, he would set upon them as if 0:12:25.480 --> 0:12:28.080 they had just insulted the good name of his maternal grandmother, 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.160 which is apparently a big thing in the South. More 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.040 than once I overheard him exclaim, you grow beans on 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:38.120 poles to fish with rods. Here in the US, the 0:12:38.240 --> 0:12:41.640 terms rod and pole are sometimes used interchangeably, and as 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:46.600 far as official American Dictionary definitions are concerned, their equivalent. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.160 But few topics inspire as much polarization and fishing culture 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:54.000 as the rod versus pole debate. What you call that 0:12:54.080 --> 0:12:57.280 long cylindrical thing used to deliver bait and wrangle fish 0:12:57.360 --> 0:12:59.880 says a lot about how you identify as an angler. 0:13:00.520 --> 0:13:06.120 Such semantic sensitivity might seem unnecessarily divisive. Who gives a 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:08.360 ship what you call the thing you fish with? We 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.560 argue enough about fishing style or species. Do we really 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:15.320 need another point of contention? Well? No, but like it 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.280 or not, Fishing is what linguists referred to as a 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.959 discourse community or an insulated network of people who come 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.160 together around a shared set of goals, and we judge 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:28.760 who is in and who is out based on the 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.720 language they use. When I was a kid, we had poles. 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.240 My dad had poles. My uncle's always had the best polls. 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:38.280 I was usually saving up my money for a new pole. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.400 In fact, the first nice pole ever bought myself was 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:44.880 branded the Berkeley power pole. Back before hydraulic shallow water 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:48.320 anchors were a thing. But when I get older and 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.040 more serious about fishing, I started reading fishing books and 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.360 magazines and hanging around tackle shops, and I noticed that 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:59.079 the real sticks they didn't use poles, they used rods. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:02.600 As I started working my way into the fishing industry, 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.360 I figured out the calling a rod a pole at 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:08.040 the boat ramp was kind of like calling a deck 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:12.480 aboard at the skate park. In his classic novella, Norman 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:16.119 McLean wrote, always it was to be called a rod 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.920 if someone called it a pole, my father looked at 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:22.040 him as a sergeant in the United States Marines would 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:24.480 look at a recruit who had just called a rifle 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:28.320 a gun. And though McLean was describing a scene from 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:32.440 the thirties, the same attitude holds in contemporary angling circles. 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.120 A quick search through online fishing forums will produce a 0:14:36.160 --> 0:14:40.040 slew of comments like I cringe when I hear someone 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.440 referred to a fly rod, spinning rod, or casting rod 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:48.080 as a pole or fishing rod is what fishermen use. 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:52.000 A fishing pole is what rednecks and country bumpkins use. 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.360 In that last quote, you can hear that the two 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.680 different terms also carry a connotation of social class and standing. 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.400 The language policing comes off as obnoxious and snooty. Rods 0:15:05.400 --> 0:15:09.760 and poles are completely separate tools, and their differences have 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:14.680 absolutely nothing to do with superiority or class warfare. The 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:18.000 distinction between the two comes from our angling obsessed buddies 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.800 across the pond. In England, if it's got guides and 0:15:21.960 --> 0:15:25.880 a reel, it's a rod, But if it's a long 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:29.200 stick with a line attached to the end, it's a pole. 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.600 Here in the States, cane poles used to be common tools, 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:36.800 but very few people fish with them anymore. Just about 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:41.840 everybody I know uses rods with reels. Certain folks in 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.280 the UK who target especially spooky carp will tell you 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:49.000 that casting a line, even a lightly weighted one, makes 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:52.640 too much disturbance on the water. They proudly use poles, 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:56.320 some of them up to thirty ft long, to delicately 0:15:56.400 --> 0:16:00.280 dap their baits in front of finicky rubber lips. So, 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.200 if you want to get technical about it, that's the 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:08.760 difference between rods and poles. I use the term rod 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:12.200 to describe my fishing implements because it's accurate and it 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.000 avoids annoying rebuttals, but I don't actually care that much. 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:19.320 I will say that it's pretty damn funny to walk 0:16:19.320 --> 0:16:21.440 into a fly shop and ask where they keep their 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:23.480 fly poles, so long as you're not hoping to get 0:16:23.520 --> 0:16:27.760 good customer service. And speaking of the fly folks, tankara 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:30.800 became the hot new thing in certain fly fishing circles 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.600 about a decade ago. If you're not familiar, tin car 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.440 is a stripped down form of fly fishing without a reel. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.320 The fly line attaches directly to the tip of the 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:44.720 rod I mean pole, And to be honest, tankara would 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:47.720 actually be fun if not for the people who love it. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:50.160 Tin Carra seems to attract the most holier than the 0:16:50.360 --> 0:16:53.640 uputty folks I've ever met in fishing. They proselytize harder 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:57.120 than Jehovah's witnesses and Latter day Saints combined. But here's 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.600 the part that I love. Every tin car in enthusiast 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:05.800 I've ever met proudly refers to their equipment as rods, 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:12.440 but technically they're wrong. So all you tank car people 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.240 out there, I hate to break it to you, but 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:21.640 you fish with poles, well done, man, And this ring 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:23.400 is so true for me. Like when I was little, 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.560 my gramps always said, grab your fishing poles, that's what 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.000 they were. But now if someone refers to rod as 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.360 a pole, I instantly labeled them a google, like you're 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.800 a googan. Just maybe a little harsh, but at least, look, 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:39.080 you've clarified the terms, right like there is now clarification, 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.560 which means everyone that calls a rod a pole is 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:44.520 now officially wrong. Like that is wrong. It's no longer 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:50.000 tomato tomato, You're just wrong. So there you go, the 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.640 judginess of the fishing community about about the terminology right there. 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:56.040 Use it. That's what we're here for, is to educate 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:57.600 you guys. And now that we've gotten that out of 0:17:57.600 --> 0:17:59.960 the way, we can move on to clarifying what's how 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:03.359 opening in fishing's current events. It's time for fish news. 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:12.320 Fish news that escalated quickly. So that little story I 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.919 did about using golden rod golflies for trout bait, remember 0:18:15.960 --> 0:18:20.280 that last week that that resonated, right, I've gotten quite 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.680 a few notes about that, ranging from just like, hey, 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.200 my pap Paul taught me about this years ago, to 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:29.000 thanks for spilling the beans on my secret bait. You 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:33.880 jack Wagon. Um, I'm not. I'm not that surprised because 0:18:33.880 --> 0:18:35.400 I figured more people were going to be in tune 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.520 with that than me. I had no idea, But I 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:41.240 think my favorite came from Tom Nezick. He sent us 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:43.240 an email and he says it is good, right. He 0:18:43.240 --> 0:18:46.720 says it's um. His brother Steve isn't much of a 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.159 rotten real angler, but he's just generally big into the nature, 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.840 you know what I mean, and apparently foraging. And he 0:18:52.920 --> 0:18:55.760 sent along a video of his bro hunting down golden 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:58.560 rod gall lava to eat. And I watched this, and 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:03.080 I gotta say, he almost made it sound appetizing and delicious. 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:07.480 There's no almost. He made it sound incredibly appetizing and delicious. 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:09.760 I don't know if I believe him, but that's how 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:12.439 he made it sound. He describes them as having a 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:15.919 sugary taste similar to maple syrup mixed with banana, and 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.680 they crunch as if they contain crystallized sugar. And I said, hell, 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.240 I'm gonna put a handful of him my cream of wheat. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:24.880 You know what I'm saying. They should be right next 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:28.680 to the wet walnuts at Baskin Robbins but yeah, apparently 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.399 Golden Rod Golf good stuff. Tom, thanks for sending that. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.159 Um it was both amusing and informative. So that's what 0:19:34.160 --> 0:19:36.280 I got for shoutouts this week. I just got a 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:41.399 quick one. Uh. Andrew Peterson wrote in basically saying because 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.960 last week we talked about Toby's Tavern and our That's 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.520 My Bar segment and and he appreciated the shout out 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.439 for Toby's Tavern, but he doesn't think we gave it 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:53.240 enough credit as a fishing bar because it is located, 0:19:54.119 --> 0:19:59.680 he claims, within eyesight of some exceptional, exceptional pipe fishing water. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.360 So uh, apparently we we didn't. Again, I've never been 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:05.639 to Toby's Tavern, but now I have yet another reason 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.760 to go because he claims that the fishing there is 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:12.320 incredible in addition to the drinking. So you know, yet 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:15.480 another point in favor of Toby's Tavern as a fantastic 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:20.359 fishing bar. Toby's Tavern, pike and beers and um Lion 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:24.160 mounts having sex, good place. Okay, well, okay, so let's 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:26.080 move on to the real news. Now. Remember this is 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:28.639 a competition. As always, Miles and I do not know 0:20:28.720 --> 0:20:31.520 what stories the other guys bringing to the table, and 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.240 at the end of it, our official punk rock DJ 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.199 and audio engineer Phil will weigh in on who is 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:40.920 the news winner. I do not have the floor to open. 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:46.080 That goes to you, sir. It's true. I'm gonna sidebar 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:48.480 for a second, and I would love to know Phil's 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:52.960 favorite punk band. Oh, you've been called out. You just 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:57.360 called him out as the punk DJ, So I'm just curious. Well, 0:20:57.400 --> 0:20:59.560 that's true. Don't say m x p X or we 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:02.600 won't like you as much anymore. Sounds true, all right? 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.080 Getting into the goods here. This story is is a 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:11.400 follow up to an article that Spencer new Hearth published 0:21:11.440 --> 0:21:14.080 on the Mediator website a couple of years ago. Spencer 0:21:14.119 --> 0:21:16.680 does a fact checker series that you should check out 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:20.840 because he runs down myths and legends and and the 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:23.800 stories that you know, the culture of of of fishing 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:27.040 and hunting has a bunch of of of things that 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:29.360 we take as gospel and that we pass among each 0:21:29.359 --> 0:21:31.959 other that aren't necessarily true at all. Some of them 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.880 are some are complete bullshit. And so when when Spencer 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.400 was a kid, he asked his dad why they had 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:43.399 stocked so many damn bullheads in their family farm pond, 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:46.720 and his father's response was that they hadn't why why 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.560 would they do that, and he went on to tell 0:21:49.600 --> 0:21:54.119 Spencer that ducks were to blame in doing so. Spencer's 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.040 dad passed along a popular yarn that fish eggs stick 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.760 to duck feet and water foul spread those eggs far 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:05.320 and wide, and many years later, as an adult journalist, 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.920 Spencer decided he was going to dig into that theory 0:22:07.920 --> 0:22:11.640 because it seemed like it might be questionable. Yeah. I mean, 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:13.840 for the record, I've heard that my whole life. I've 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.919 heard that a million times. That's how fish places yeah 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:19.680 duck feet on on a yeah duck feet. So he 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:22.080 started doing some research and he quickly identified some some 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:26.320 some issues with this idea, including the fact that most 0:22:26.400 --> 0:22:30.600 fish eggs are just barely adhesive enough to to delicately 0:22:30.720 --> 0:22:34.919 bind to aquatic vegetation, which would make it kind of 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.760 hard for them to remain stuck to a duck's feet 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:42.159 during takeoff in flight yeah, like coming out of the 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:48.560 water at altitude yeah. And another like the chances of 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:52.840 fish eggs surviving a high speed water landing on a 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.360 duck's feet are pretty slim, right, So those are those 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:00.320 are two strikes against this and and to quote Spencer's article, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:07.360 he said, this duck transfer theory seems to unravel under scrutiny. However, 0:23:08.000 --> 0:23:12.159 a couple of listeners recently sent me a link to 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:16.879 a Smithsonian magazine article that might force Spencer to reconsider 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:20.879 his conclusions. Turns out, though the idea of waterfowl transporting 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:23.680