Speaker 1: The qualified Captain is about to get a whole lot
Speaker 1: more content post. You just rinse that barking basement spinner
Speaker 1: bait that you stole from your grandpa, and talk about
Speaker 1: how much better the fishing was yesterday. Think about Swazie
Speaker 1: was not whooping ass in roadhouse on the asphalt outside
Speaker 1: the Hooters. Johnny Cash was not kicking in a fighting
Speaker 1: in the mud and blood and the beer on the
Speaker 1: pavement outside of Houla hands instantaneous pressure changes equivalent to
Speaker 1: your body dropping six thousand feet under the ocean and
Speaker 1: back to sea level and a meda second. Good morning,
Speaker 1: degenerate anglers, and welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast that's
Speaker 1: ready for summer, but not the uptick of Ask Clowns,
Speaker 1: Google's jet Skiers, White Claw Shugars and Tito's Sluggers that
Speaker 1: will be showing up at the ramp. I'm Joe, Sir
Speaker 1: Melie A. Miles Nulty and uh it's it's a memorially
Speaker 1: weekend mm hm, the unofficial the unofficial start of summer,
Speaker 1: or or as I prefer to call it, three straight
Speaker 1: months of amateur hour. That's that that's an apt description.
Speaker 1: I will say though, that I don't know. I have
Speaker 1: mixed feelings about the holiday. Memorial Day weekend has changed
Speaker 1: for me over time and with age. I'm sure it
Speaker 1: probably has for you too. Yeah yeah, all right, sort
Speaker 1: of before before we go do far down this road.
Speaker 1: Before I like start telling you my thoughts and associations,
Speaker 1: I gotta ask, are you is the whole purpose here?
Speaker 1: Are you trying to set up like a nostalgic let's
Speaker 1: wap stories about how great moral the weekend fishing used
Speaker 1: to be back when we were single kind of deal?
Speaker 1: Is that? Is that where you're going today? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that yes, that's yeah, back as you go first, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean yes, I was going to go back to
Speaker 1: the before times as I call them, the pre kid
Speaker 1: days and Memorial Day weekend. Back then that was my
Speaker 1: striper nest weekend. Like I slept in the cutty cabin
Speaker 1: a mild boat all weekend, which smelled like ass. I
Speaker 1: mean it was. It was a terrible and it was
Speaker 1: a toxic environment, but I mean, you don't care in
Speaker 1: your twenty five and and and just had like a
Speaker 1: revolving door of friends that would roll in and out
Speaker 1: of the marina all weekend and we go just pound
Speaker 1: the cows, and nowadays I just want to sit at
Speaker 1: my in law's beach house, not deal with any of
Speaker 1: the on the water madness, and just like drink gin
Speaker 1: and tonics, perhaps a mohito. That's that's where I've That's
Speaker 1: where I've gone. Uh, I guess I'm apologizing. I'm not
Speaker 1: really apologizing. I'm just gonna say I can't. I can't
Speaker 1: follow you. I can't go down this rose tinted memory
Speaker 1: lane with you because I don't. I don't have it right.
Speaker 1: We we have in the past, like we've had segments before,
Speaker 1: we swapped stories about single glory days, but but for
Speaker 1: this one, I don't. I can't. I got none. I
Speaker 1: associate this holiday with the end of fun and the
Speaker 1: beginning of just work. Right because most of my adult life,
Speaker 1: this weekend marked the official sort of NonStop guiding. It
Speaker 1: meant that it meant that that was right, and and
Speaker 1: that it meant the rivers We're gonna get crowded. The
Speaker 1: fishing was just gonna steadily get worse, like from here
Speaker 1: on out for the next few months, the fishing was
Speaker 1: just gonna get poorer, and I was going to be
Speaker 1: working basically every day until September, so I don't I
Speaker 1: don't have the warm and fuzzies on this holiday. Uh.
Speaker 1: Whether or not I enjoyed my Memorial Days was was
Speaker 1: usually dictated by the quantity of tips that I was
Speaker 1: able to hustle, which is cynical and and kind of
Speaker 1: shitty considering what this holiday is supposed to celebrate. But
Speaker 1: I'm just being honest, that's the truth. Mhm, Well, that's
Speaker 1: one way to completely ruin intro. I'm just completely Yet
Speaker 1: you knew exactly where I was trying to take this,
Speaker 1: and you I mean, I'm just gonna throw out there,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, my person, you could have played along.
Speaker 1: Now what killed you? To play a lot? I would
Speaker 1: have been lying. That would have been do you want
Speaker 1: me to lie to the people? Do you want to
Speaker 1: tell them lies? I'm not gonna lie. No. But you
Speaker 1: could have taken it like a more positive and you
Speaker 1: could have been like, yeah, four, I was on the
Speaker 1: water every day with my clients, driving all over the state,
Speaker 1: chasing hatches, sleeping in trust. Those things are all technically true.
Speaker 1: I did those right, so you could have followed. You
Speaker 1: could have followed the spirit of my intro, which would
Speaker 1: have set me up to talk about how different last
Speaker 1: year's holiday was, which I'm gonna do anyway despite your
Speaker 1: unwillingness to follow, because like that's that I don't know
Speaker 1: how to pivot. So I was gonna get into was
Speaker 1: how last Memorial Day. Frankly, it was creepy, right because
Speaker 1: we were in the thick of the pandemic and the
Speaker 1: beach vibes were it was very strange, like like the
Speaker 1: neighbors barely said hello. Everyone was really on guard. It
Speaker 1: almost felt like you were breaking the rules by going
Speaker 1: to the Jersey Shore that weekend. Um, And it was
Speaker 1: a far cry from the usual party atmosphere you get
Speaker 1: this weekend, which I think I expect that atmosphere to
Speaker 1: be back this year just because of where we are
Speaker 1: and how many people are vaccinated and so on. But
Speaker 1: I will say, as creepy as it was last year,
Speaker 1: it also meant there weren't that many people around right,
Speaker 1: especially at night, because nothing was really open um, which man,
Speaker 1: I had some really choice like high traffic striper spots
Speaker 1: to myself and I pounded some fish around some of
Speaker 1: the bridges down there. So, um, you know, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have my gear with me this weekend. I won't. I
Speaker 1: won't go to the Beach Memorial the weekend without fishing gear. Um,
Speaker 1: and we'll just say it depends what happens. I might.
Speaker 1: I might run a few late night ops covert ops.
Speaker 1: If the tides the line, You're gonna do it. You
Speaker 1: know you're gonna do it. And I bet last year
Speaker 1: you got some weird looks if anybody saw you, because
Speaker 1: I bet you were seeing as extra creepy, like sneaking
Speaker 1: around at night when everybody else was hiding out. Nobody
Speaker 1: saw me. I mean literally, it was late enough, it
Speaker 1: was foggy and strange, and there there. I don't think
Speaker 1: another car even drove over the bridge in the hours
Speaker 1: I was out and I looked over that bridge. I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna walk up on the bridge and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: look down and if I see what I want, I
Speaker 1: will stay. And I remember peeking over that bridge and
Speaker 1: it was just a line of stripers in the shadow
Speaker 1: line from one end of the bridge to the other.
Speaker 1: You know, Oh, I remember. I have a vague memory
Speaker 1: of you like sending me photos and catching a bunch
Speaker 1: of stripers around this right around this time last year.
Speaker 1: I remember that you're being like, get you. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you said. You didn't say anything stupidly getting
Speaker 1: on him. That's not what you would do. But you
Speaker 1: just you sent me photos. You sent me photos showing
Speaker 1: me evidence, and I was jealous. Uh, And I don't
Speaker 1: want to further mess up. I realized I've been stepping
Speaker 1: on your whole plan. I don't want to mess it
Speaker 1: up any anymore. So I'm guessing this is where I'm
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to ask you if you were pounding those
Speaker 1: stripers with thirteen rods. Thank you you are, and I
Speaker 1: was true story last mort of Day weekend was was
Speaker 1: actually the first time I used their Omen Green Salt
Speaker 1: Prototype X spinning reels. Those stripers, the aforementioned stripers I pounded,
Speaker 1: Actually we're I'm not kidding. They were a trial run
Speaker 1: of the thirteen gear I just got in my hands on.
Speaker 1: And since then, those very same sticks, right same exact gear,
Speaker 1: have whipped a bunch more stripers Mahi and b side
Speaker 1: bo Fens and so on. So those outfits, the exact
Speaker 1: same ones, they are still kicking ass and taking names.
Speaker 1: Gotta say, I believe that I believe that because they
Speaker 1: make really great stuff and we've established I'm I'm actually
Speaker 1: I'm not actually all that excited about Moral Day, but
Speaker 1: I am genuinely excited to say that bent is officially
Speaker 1: brought to you by thirteen Fishing. Yes, we highly encourage,
Speaker 1: highly encourage you to check out the fine selection of rods, reels,
Speaker 1: and baits available at thirteen Fishing dot com. Use this weekend.
Speaker 1: It's an opportunity, right, use it. Get out on the
Speaker 1: water and figure out what gear you're missing or or
Speaker 1: what gear needs to be replaced. But I will say,
Speaker 1: maybe don't be the guy rotting around with a bunch
Speaker 1: of gear or maybe even a boat and trailer that
Speaker 1: you have no idea how to use. There will be
Speaker 1: plenty of that happening this weekend already. Oh yeah, No,
Speaker 1: you're right about that. I've always looked at it like, um,
Speaker 1: it's like an unwritten rule that inept voters and anglers.
Speaker 1: It's almost like they cannot partake in these activities until
Speaker 1: Memorial Day weekend. I mean more support for why I
Speaker 1: dislike it. I'm just saying I know, but it's like
Speaker 1: the weekend before Memorial Days. It's one week right, and
Speaker 1: it might be just as beautiful a May weekend as
Speaker 1: Memorial Day will be. But in my experience there are
Speaker 1: are are fifty to seventy less mooks. It has to
Speaker 1: be Memorial Day to bring them out. This is this
Speaker 1: is the season when the Qualified Captain is about to
Speaker 1: get a whole lot more content. Oh wow? Was that
Speaker 1: a social media A social media reference from Miles Nulty
Speaker 1: and gentlemen? Good for people? I will admit I am
Speaker 1: all in on the qualified Captain page. Oh yeah, not
Speaker 1: not to mention, not to mention a couple of shout outs,
Speaker 1: not to be outdone, Jerry of the day and Kuk slams.
Speaker 1: I may not know anything about social media habits or algorithms,
Speaker 1: but I do know that watching other people make fools
Speaker 1: of themselves is highly entertaining for everyone, because we all
Speaker 1: love feeling superior. It's basically, you know what it is.
Speaker 1: It's the modern version of America's Funniest Home Videos. Oh yeah, dude,
Speaker 1: and that shows still on and now all they do
Speaker 1: is grab stuff off social media. Like nobody sends the
Speaker 1: vhsame because they don't exist anyway. But you know you're right.
Speaker 1: Fails drive views, um, and that's just as true for
Speaker 1: phishing content as dad's like getting hit in the nuts
Speaker 1: by their kids. You know, um, And what you you
Speaker 1: probably don't know is that TikTok is the platform for
Speaker 1: posting viral fishing fails. I am aware that this exists.
Speaker 1: I have heard it brought up in meetings. Uh, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure everyone will be shocked and horrified to learn
Speaker 1: that I've never been on tick. You've got you, You've
Speaker 1: got the TikTok. Dolci a. I'm not on there either.
Speaker 1: I'm not on TikTok either, But do you know who
Speaker 1: is on TikTok? Sadly? I do? Hell yeah, you do. Buckling,
Speaker 1: freshen up your axe bodies, pray, grab a monster tropical thunder,
Speaker 1: and absorb the wisdom of Lance V. Here comes trolling
Speaker 1: with Lance to the land, to the boats, to the lake,
Speaker 1: to the sea, being up then on nets, but your
Speaker 1: boy lands V. What's up, skid marks? It's me. The
Speaker 1: Internet's most winning is fishing guru slash celebrities slash personal trainer.
Speaker 1: Lance V back again to help your pathetic social media
Speaker 1: efforts take above slightly mediocre. Oh and for all the
Speaker 1: haters hoping I was done on the stumpster fire of
Speaker 1: a podcast. Sorry not sorry. Miles and Joe are still
Speaker 1: stroking me checks among other things they've been stroking lately
Speaker 1: hashtag I stroke you choke anyway. This week we have
Speaker 1: a question from thirteen year old Helmet W who writes
Speaker 1: dear Lance. I've been having a really hard time getting
Speaker 1: anyone to pay attention to my parlor, Tumbler and Vibra accounts.
Speaker 1: I think it's time I tried to talk any advice
Speaker 1: for getting your fishing videos noticed on this platform. Great question,
Speaker 1: how though, And you're in luck because TikTok has a
Speaker 1: cheat code. You ready, little buddy, Here's the secret campones
Speaker 1: oh no, Hello No, matter what the you post on TikTok,
Speaker 1: that ship will turn to instant gold if you said
Speaker 1: it to oh no by capone hashtag take it to
Speaker 1: the bank. Visionary anglers have been using compons oh no
Speaker 1: to accentuate their fails and rack up views for months now.
Speaker 1: Just recently, at Big Water Fishing used in the video
Speaker 1: of himself and properly fighting a walleye through the ice
Speaker 1: while sitting next to his shovel, and at Muscle Milk
Speaker 1: Daddy used it to highlight what happens when you use
Speaker 1: budget lip grippers on a big both in side note,
Speaker 1: Muscle Milk Daddy might be the only listener to this
Speaker 1: stupid show who has any real potential. But when most
Speaker 1: people use a song, I just have to say, because
Speaker 1: they don't use all the muscle milk at packs to
Speaker 1: enhance their weak content. The truth is Hamilton's I don't
Speaker 1: ever fail at fishing, but you and everyone else listen
Speaker 1: to this lame podcast does, so. I suggest you harns
Speaker 1: the power of oh No, squeeze every last drop of
Speaker 1: its potency, and slather it all over the many videos
Speaker 1: of you failing. Here's what I mean. You shoot a
Speaker 1: video about your favorite passlord because that's what real g
Speaker 1: influencers do, except on like us, you don't row pugs.
Speaker 1: You just rinse that barkain basement spinner bait that you
Speaker 1: stole from your grandpa and talk about how much better
Speaker 1: the fishing was yesterday. So you shoot a video about
Speaker 1: your new kayak, except everyone knows it's from Costco and
Speaker 1: you won't make a thirty feet for the bank at
Speaker 1: the County Park pond before you flip it. You try
Speaker 1: to boost your steeds with a commenter giveaway, except all
Speaker 1: you've got to sweeten the pot is a half use
Speaker 1: pack of pink Lizards and the beer Cusy you got
Speaker 1: free with your last purchase of Fresh Scuy. So you see, Helen,
Speaker 1: TikTok is the only platform that less losers like you
Speaker 1: rise to the top because their algorithm is based solely
Speaker 1: around the use of compounds. Oh no, of course Internet
Speaker 1: Wizard's like me and the Coogan Squad. No, that algorithm
Speaker 1: will eventually change. And since we know people on the
Speaker 1: inside of TikTok, trust me when I say you want
Speaker 1: to share from oh No to this in six to
Speaker 1: eight months topic. That just confirmed every negative assumption I
Speaker 1: have about TikTok. So we're good. I had no, I
Speaker 1: didn't have any plans inside of it. Let's not pretendingly
Speaker 1: I was. I was just about to get on until
Speaker 1: I heard that I wasn't. But uh, but if the
Speaker 1: trick to the whole thing is just, you know, set
Speaker 1: shitty videos to shitty music, I'm definitely out me too.
Speaker 1: I think it's funny, man. I consider mysel the door open.
Speaker 1: I can't in this day and age, you can't just
Speaker 1: close it out completely. I'm probably gonna eat some of
Speaker 1: the words I'm about to say. But I consider myself
Speaker 1: fairly up on social media platforms, right. But much like Snapchat,
Speaker 1: TikTok is another one where you bring it up and
Speaker 1: I just go full old man mode. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't understand this, And I'm a Facebook like Aunt Florence,
Speaker 1: Like it's like my mom printing web pages to show
Speaker 1: me things because sending a link doesn't compute, and she's
Speaker 1: like I saw this thing on bed, Bath and beyond.
Speaker 1: I'm like, why did you waste thinking paper? Mom, I'm
Speaker 1: sending me a link. Anyway. That's how I feel about TikTok, Like,
Speaker 1: what's what's different or better than posting a short video
Speaker 1: on Instagram? Look, don't answer people like I'm not. I'm
Speaker 1: not looking to be schooled. Don't school me. It's fine.
Speaker 1: I will get on TikTok, like just when it's going
Speaker 1: out of style. It'll be like, like, you know, like
Speaker 1: I did with Instagram. People like, ah, sermerely got on TikTok.
Speaker 1: We're already way past that. We're doing this now. You know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I will not eat these words. I'm not gonna try.
Speaker 1: I cannot I cannot envision a future where I'm like TikTok. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm really into this. Uh and and I will say
Speaker 1: that the past few minutes it didn't make me want
Speaker 1: to go on TikTok, but it did make me want
Speaker 1: to just go down into my basement and and listen
Speaker 1: to Vinyl and read a hardcover book and drink something
Speaker 1: very strong. Right, So so let's get away from this.
Speaker 1: Let's do let's do it. That's my bar and and
Speaker 1: some for all you remember, this is the recurring segment
Speaker 1: where you, the listeners, you hit us up and nominate
Speaker 1: your favorite fishing bars. And we're doing God's work here,
Speaker 1: people are I don't think people realize the significance of
Speaker 1: this segment. We are compiling the world's greatest database of
Speaker 1: places to drink after you get off the water. All right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's all you people drinking right now. Pay attention. Oay.
Speaker 1: And this particular one might come in handy if you
Speaker 1: have to be in Connecticut and you're trying to avoid
Speaker 1: the inevitable circus that's happening on the water. Best God
Speaker 1: damn bar tender from Tim buck to to Portland, Maine.
Speaker 1: The Portland argument for that matter. Okay, so today on
Speaker 1: that's my bar. We are not we are not going
Speaker 1: to Wisconsin. Can you believe it? Their first time? For everything?
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't really believe it. And before we continue,
Speaker 1: although we're not going to Scannie today, Land Lakes continues
Speaker 1: to reign supreme as the undisputed worldwide champ of fishing bars,
Speaker 1: at least according to this show. It absolutely that said.
Speaker 1: All that said, today we're featuring a state that I've
Speaker 1: actually never set foot in much less I've no, I've
Speaker 1: never been there. I'm guessing I'm guessing you have, and
Speaker 1: that you're familiar with this area, but I've never been.
Speaker 1: I've never been to Connecticut. Yeah, no, I have been.
Speaker 1: I've I've spent some time in Connecticut, the a little
Speaker 1: fishing up there, though somehow I missed, uh, this particular bar.
Speaker 1: So today's submission comes to us from Steve Farley, and
Speaker 1: ironically what resonated with me most were some sort of
Speaker 1: like peripheral comments that aren't even about this bar, just
Speaker 1: good bars in general. Just understands. Yes, completely, Well, you'll
Speaker 1: see what we mean. So let's get into it here.
Speaker 1: Steve writes, Alright, fellas I've been holding off on my
Speaker 1: bar recommendation because I recently relocated the northeast Pennsylvania from Connecticut,
Speaker 1: and bringing this gem up brings back some old memories. Anyways,
Speaker 1: here we go. The Black Duck Cafe was first recommended
Speaker 1: to me by some new friends I met when I
Speaker 1: moved from Buffalo, New York to Norwalk, Connecticut. I told
Speaker 1: my friends I had only one condition for a bar,
Speaker 1: it has to be a dive I also happened to
Speaker 1: love fishing, which they found out over time. Alas the
Speaker 1: Black Duck Cafe pulling into the pulling into the gravel
Speaker 1: parking lot set the scene for something I knew I
Speaker 1: would enjoy, because, let's face it, no one has ever
Speaker 1: gone to a dive bar that doesn't have a gravel
Speaker 1: parking lot or a pothole city, as US East Coasters
Speaker 1: refer to it. So there's the first comment. I had
Speaker 1: never thought about it, right, But Steve is very correct.
Speaker 1: Every good ship hole dive bar has a gravel parking lot,
Speaker 1: right Like think about Swayzy was not whooping ass in
Speaker 1: roadhouse on the ass fought outside the Hooters. Johnny Cash
Speaker 1: was not kicking in a fighting in the mud and
Speaker 1: blood and the beer on the pavement outside of Hula Hands.
Speaker 1: So Steve nailed that part. Yeah, I'd call that accurate.
Speaker 1: I would say that your point is valid and and
Speaker 1: the Suaves and Cash references are not lost. I mean,
Speaker 1: thank you for those, But and I have I definitely
Speaker 1: have many favorite dive bars with gravel lots, but I
Speaker 1: also have a few with hard pan lots. So I
Speaker 1: think in general I agree, but not entirely. The other thing,
Speaker 1: the other thing that Steve brought into this without meaning
Speaker 1: to that I gotta point out is is noticed how
Speaker 1: he talked about bringing up this gem brought back old memories.
Speaker 1: And another part of this segment and why we love
Speaker 1: it is because we have these deep connections to our
Speaker 1: favorite bars, even if we haven't been there a long time,
Speaker 1: and getting to just think about them and reminisce about
Speaker 1: and talk about them. It's fun to have that bar
Speaker 1: and and and and Steve hit on that. I don't
Speaker 1: even know if he was aware of it. So anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna continue on with what with with with Steve's
Speaker 1: email here, Steve says the Black Duck is located on
Speaker 1: the Saga Tuck River, or should I say in because
Speaker 1: the bar is literally an old barge tavern from eighteen
Speaker 1: forty that is sinking into the river, and Steve sent photos.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, it does quite literally appear to be sinking
Speaker 1: and could potentially collapse into the river. Yet yeah you
Speaker 1: got If you see the photos, you'll be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that doesn't look stable and oddly in of I
Speaker 1: think I am I I think this is the first
Speaker 1: bar we've featured that's actually a boat out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's weird that it took us this long to
Speaker 1: get to one. But anyway, back to Steve, he says,
Speaker 1: so if that wasn't enough to get you excited, the
Speaker 1: bar also features old fishing caps, painted buoy's and lures
Speaker 1: so fake it hurts, and a miniature boat above the
Speaker 1: main bar, suspended by chains, as if walking into a
Speaker 1: place that is at a degree angle toward the water
Speaker 1: and might also sink at any minute wasn't enough. Now
Speaker 1: you've got a boat questionably dangling above your head. Great fun. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So based on Steve's photos, the whole place it just
Speaker 1: looks unstable like it's it's a it's a charious I
Speaker 1: would describe it as carrious. It's good word. It's a
Speaker 1: good word. It's a I would also say it's like
Speaker 1: a it's just a giant lawsuit waiting to happen. But
Speaker 1: I looked up the Black Duck and their menu and
Speaker 1: fun fact, while you're waiting for it to cave in
Speaker 1: and possibly send you to a watery, muddy, gray blow,
Speaker 1: you can enjoy the Davy Jones burger, which is topped
Speaker 1: with as that this is from the menu, hot buttery
Speaker 1: lobster meat. And that's that's how I want to go out.
Speaker 1: I've said this for years. I want to die eating
Speaker 1: a burger with lobster on it. So so that's that's good. Um.
Speaker 1: And here's the last thing Steve wrote, which I love. Right,
Speaker 1: He says, oddly enough, the one thing I appreciate most
Speaker 1: about the Duck is the hinds ketchup in the glass bottles,
Speaker 1: because that ship just taste better. Joe, you know this,
Speaker 1: having undoubtedly been in some real New Jersey diners. He
Speaker 1: could not be more correct. It is. It's rare. It's
Speaker 1: very rare these days to find a place that uses
Speaker 1: old school glass catchup bottles, or better yet, better yet right,
Speaker 1: find a place that not only uses them, but refills
Speaker 1: them because everything is just so freaking squeezeable and disposable
Speaker 1: these days. Like if you gave if you gave my
Speaker 1: kids a glass catchup bottle, they like they wouldn't know
Speaker 1: how to get the catchup out the proper the proper
Speaker 1: shake and tap technique is lost on their generation. Like
Speaker 1: these kids wouldn't even know that sometimes you got to
Speaker 1: start it with a butter knife. Thank you for that,
Speaker 1: but hold on, hold on, the butter knife is only
Speaker 1: for kids. I would say, that's a rooky move. You
Speaker 1: gotta you know that, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta
Speaker 1: tap the Hinds logo with the heel of your hand
Speaker 1: and hold the bottle at just the right angle. That's
Speaker 1: that's the way you gotta do it. And and that
Speaker 1: that's a nearly useless hot tip, unless unless you're head
Speaker 1: to the Black Duck for a beer burger and a shot.
Speaker 1: So I don't know where else you're gonna use those,
Speaker 1: because I haven't seen glass catchup bottles and ages. Steve,
Speaker 1: We really appreciate the submission so very much, and hopefully
Speaker 1: Joe or I will get to the Duck before it's
Speaker 1: completely reclaimed by the river. If you. Yeah, I'm talking
Speaker 1: to you out there. If you've got a fishy bar
Speaker 1: that you think should be featured on this show, let
Speaker 1: us know. Send an email singing its praises and uh
Speaker 1: and be compelling. Send it to Bent at the meat
Speaker 1: eater dot com. I wonder if anyone has ever fished
Speaker 1: off off the black Duck barge while drinking. That's a
Speaker 1: good question. I mean, like, that's like, what's it um Seattle,
Speaker 1: Seattle Hotel where you can fish out the window. You
Speaker 1: know I'm talking about. It's the famous thing led Zeppelin,
Speaker 1: did it? Like I do that? Yeah, A little soak,
Speaker 1: a little brew. Yeah, you should do that. You should.
Speaker 1: I think this is a this is an important question
Speaker 1: needs to be answered. There's only one way to do it,
Speaker 1: and that's with you know, on the ground, true investigative research.
Speaker 1: You should go there and you should do that, and
Speaker 1: you should film it and then put it on TikTok.
Speaker 1: And while you're doing video there you go won't we
Speaker 1: won't do very well. And while you're doing that, I'll
Speaker 1: be I'll be over here or actually, you know, I'll
Speaker 1: still be sitting in my basement listening to vinyl and
Speaker 1: drinking and and and trying to dig up some valuable,
Speaker 1: useful content for the current events competition we sometimes like
Speaker 1: to call fish news. Fish news escalated quickly before we
Speaker 1: hit fish news quick little housekeeping. Uh while back I
Speaker 1: reported on the the big lake surgeon. I'm having a
Speaker 1: bunch of crushings on this story that I apparently screwed
Speaker 1: up because I've already corrected the story once. But the
Speaker 1: two pound lake sturgeon that got caught Detroit River, I
Speaker 1: already have admitted that I was wrong about how it
Speaker 1: was caught. A lot of people also seem to get
Speaker 1: angry with or take issue with the way that we
Speaker 1: framed the Detroit River as having once been a toxic wasteline,
Speaker 1: which it was. To be fair to us, it was
Speaker 1: once that, but just to clear it all up so
Speaker 1: that we're not, you know, shipping on your favorite river,
Speaker 1: it is a shiny example of what happens when we
Speaker 1: clean up our waterways. Because the Troit River is actual
Speaker 1: in great shape now, it's great fishing. So I apologize
Speaker 1: to all of you out there who got offended if
Speaker 1: you thought we were talking smack about your favorite river.
Speaker 1: We know it's good now, but legitimately it used to
Speaker 1: be disgusting. It's just not any yeah. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: feel that personally because I'll just say that one time
Speaker 1: I took like a joking shot at at Detroit Proper
Speaker 1: and learned quickly like people, there's Detroit Pride, and I
Speaker 1: heard about it and I felt bad about it, and
Speaker 1: I'm sorry about doing that back in the day. So yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: So Detroit, it's all good. Uh, we apologize. What we'd
Speaker 1: like to do is take you out for a cup
Speaker 1: of coffee to make up for this. And if we
Speaker 1: were going to do that, we would take you to
Speaker 1: King Koi Coffee Garden in Vietnam. You get the plane tickets,
Speaker 1: we get the coffee. It's just a quick shout out
Speaker 1: for everyone that is written into alert ust to King
Speaker 1: Chy Coffee in Vietnam. This is worth. It's it's tremendous.
Speaker 1: This is worth looking up the pots it is. It's
Speaker 1: mostly made of water. There's koi swimming and all of it,
Speaker 1: and it's just like ki Wonderland, Like there's like little
Speaker 1: peninsulas that go out to a couch for your coffee
Speaker 1: and you just sit there and you're just surrounded by koi,
Speaker 1: like you're sitting below the waterline to like you're down
Speaker 1: in it with the Koi having your coffee. This I
Speaker 1: can see, I can see King Koi Coffee Las Vegas happening.
Speaker 1: Doesn't it seem like something that like Vegas would be
Speaker 1: all about. Um? But yeah, we've we've dabbled in Koi
Speaker 1: stories and things, so we do. We do appreciate the
Speaker 1: not to King Koi Coffee in Vietnam if we ever
Speaker 1: get there. We promised to record an entire episode live
Speaker 1: from the floor at King Koi Coffee. But look it up.
Speaker 1: I hope, I hope one day that's in our budget
Speaker 1: that we can fly to Vietnam and looking up from
Speaker 1: King cooking up. So thanks for all that. Keep those coming.
Speaker 1: We really enjoy those, everybody, And U reminder, this is
Speaker 1: a competition. Joe and I do not know what's the
Speaker 1: where is the other one that's found somewhere in the
Speaker 1: recesses of the Internet. And at the end of it,
Speaker 1: Phil the engineer, the engine and Phil the on the
Speaker 1: one and only, the one and only the decider will
Speaker 1: be picking a winner as the which one of us
Speaker 1: gets to emerge feeling the glory and the light of
Speaker 1: Phil shining upon us. And which one of us is
Speaker 1: just going to cry glory, the glory of love as
Speaker 1: just like Peter Ster. Alright, you're up first man. What
Speaker 1: do you got Yeah, Okay, So you just talked last
Speaker 1: week about the mass speck pen, right, which quickly identifies
Speaker 1: the fish species when you simply touched this pen uh
Speaker 1: to the Filet's right. And this, of course is to
Speaker 1: thwart fraud in the seafood industry. So I have a
Speaker 1: story about another tool aimed at thwarting corruption and illegal fishing.
Speaker 1: This one is much less technological than the mass speck pen,
Speaker 1: but cool nonetheless. So I have always been intrigued with
Speaker 1: three D printing, right since it became a thing, always
Speaker 1: fascinated by by how it's applied to fishing. Is a
Speaker 1: good specifically Okay, right, I'm happy, you're happy, But I've
Speaker 1: always been interested in how it's applied to to fishing,
Speaker 1: and so far, I gotta tell you I'm not overly impressed, right, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm not saying there isn't some cool fish related three
Speaker 1: D printed ship out there, but for the most part,
Speaker 1: like I've noticed with lures, you see stuff made with
Speaker 1: you know, consumer grade three D printers and it's like, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: And like I I've I have trust issues with the plastic, right,
Speaker 1: I don't. I like, I don't. I don't fee it
Speaker 1: doesn't feel strong. I don't think the consumer level stuff
Speaker 1: is very strong. And I even have like a couple
Speaker 1: of three D printed fly reels, And while I appreciate
Speaker 1: the design and work that went into that, from cad
Speaker 1: drawing to finished product, I'm like as as functional, but
Speaker 1: it's still kind of a novelty, Like I'm not opting
Speaker 1: into the three D printed reel over a normal real Well,
Speaker 1: and we did a whole sale been on the three
Speaker 1: D printed lures that look terrible because when we just
Speaker 1: made fun of them. No, actually we flagged one, but
Speaker 1: we didn't do it because then we found out it
Speaker 1: was a young child making them, and we were like,
Speaker 1: oh we better not. Oh we didn't. I thought we
Speaker 1: were sorry, Kate, if you're listening now, we were gonna
Speaker 1: they were gonna crucify you, and then we just kind
Speaker 1: of did anyway. But yeah, it was all fun and games.
Speaker 1: So I was like, yo, bro, he's a leavin, so
Speaker 1: let's not look like terrible people anyway. Anyway. So look,
Speaker 1: so here's a great example of how three D printing
Speaker 1: is being used in a fishy way that is not
Speaker 1: a novelty. And this comes from New Zealand's Times Live.
Speaker 1: And we all know that one of the biggest threats
Speaker 1: to sharks globally is shark finning. And no, we are
Speaker 1: not replacing the shark fins with three D printed fins
Speaker 1: like that Annaka dolphin that lost its tail. Okay, So
Speaker 1: global assessments estimate that between twenty six million and seventy
Speaker 1: three million sharks are traded each year, but they estimate
Speaker 1: that the actual figure is likely to be far higher. Now,
Speaker 1: these sharks are cotton nets finned and their bodies are dumped,
Speaker 1: and this happens a lot over in Asia, a lot
Speaker 1: of different countries. Dried shark fins fetch huge money. Right,
Speaker 1: They're supposed to be an aphrodisiac and I have all
Speaker 1: kinds of other health benefits. They make soup out of them.
Speaker 1: He actually recently talked about that great piece our buddy
Speaker 1: river Horse wrote that covered or touched on shark fitting
Speaker 1: here in the States. Right, So this this happens legally
Speaker 1: here too. Now, in most countries, shark fitting is very illegal,
Speaker 1: those some do allow it, but there's rules, like they
Speaker 1: insist that you know, theoretically the whole shark is supposed
Speaker 1: to be brought back and finned on land, which allows
Speaker 1: the proper authorities to properly i d the fish. Bringing
Speaker 1: the whole shark back also means a boat off shore
Speaker 1: theoretically can't kill as many sharks because when you have
Speaker 1: the whole shark taking up you know, hold space, it
Speaker 1: just they just take up more room. Um. You're also
Speaker 1: only supposed to target approved sharks, uh those that aren't
Speaker 1: protected or in endangered. But regardless, shark fins are are
Speaker 1: still in just such high demand that the practices rampant
Speaker 1: illegally all over the world. And in order to even
Speaker 1: try to nail people doing this illegally, first you have
Speaker 1: to be able to identify the fish by finn only
Speaker 1: similar to how we're trying to identify fake phil as
Speaker 1: with the with the masspect um. If you can't prove
Speaker 1: that the finn is from a shark, you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to harvest. It makes it difficult to follow through on
Speaker 1: repercussions and making a case. So the nonprofit organization Traffic,
Speaker 1: which keeps an eye on stuff like shark Finning wanted
Speaker 1: to do something to help, and they worked with the
Speaker 1: South African Department of Forestreet, Fisheries and Environment. They also
Speaker 1: worked with US shark expert Deborrah Abercrombie and they also
Speaker 1: got input from from several committed South African based service
Speaker 1: providers to create a set of ultra realistic three D
Speaker 1: printed shark fins that can be used by frontline enforcement
Speaker 1: agents as an i D guide. And they did this
Speaker 1: by first collecting real dried shark fins that have been
Speaker 1: comp scated during busts all over the world, and these
Speaker 1: included fins of eleven of the most commonly traded species.
Speaker 1: Great hammerhead is one of them, Oceanic white tip silky sharks,
Speaker 1: and they they laser scan all these fins and part
Speaker 1: of the story they use nylon as the primary material
Speaker 1: and the printing process they use gives the fins us
Speaker 1: like a slightly rough sand paper texture, similar to real
Speaker 1: dried shark fins found in the trade, and the story says,
Speaker 1: once these fins are are painted up right, you'd be
Speaker 1: hard pressed to tell the difference between a real dried
Speaker 1: shark fin and the fake fin. So currently there are
Speaker 1: three D scan files and associated painting instructions available for
Speaker 1: twenty two fins for free on the Traffic website as
Speaker 1: part of the organization's ongoing effort to combat the illegal trade.
Speaker 1: So any enforcement agency that deals with shark finning the
Speaker 1: world over anywhere can download all those files for and
Speaker 1: all the paint instructions and basically create a set of
Speaker 1: these fins that they can take with them and use
Speaker 1: in the field for quick I D. So we're just
Speaker 1: using some three D printing here, but I mean talk
Speaker 1: about using that in a in a way that has
Speaker 1: or can have significant impact. Right away, I thought that
Speaker 1: was really cool. I think that's cooler than three D
Speaker 1: printed fly reel. Sorry, no, you're You're absolutely right on
Speaker 1: so many levels. I saw this story. I'm really glad
Speaker 1: you took it because because I didn't otherwise, we we
Speaker 1: almost crossed over. We came very close. Two weeks in
Speaker 1: a row, we've almost crossed almost almost but but not.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm appreciating that. And look, we I think everybody
Speaker 1: is aware that the massive depredation of sharks in the
Speaker 1: world is a problem for our aquatic existence and it's
Speaker 1: messing up our fisheries. Uh So anything we can do
Speaker 1: to get ahead of this. I'm all for it, and
Speaker 1: I think there's gonna be some challenges with us first
Speaker 1: getting them everywhere and then get them in use. But dude,
Speaker 1: like I said, anything anything that that helps in regulatory
Speaker 1: agencies cracked down on a illegal shark sales, I'm in sport.
Speaker 1: I mean, I have more questions. Like I I put
Speaker 1: faith in the research that like these are the right
Speaker 1: tools for the job, but I also wonder, like, man,
Speaker 1: can you make one fin or a fin or two
Speaker 1: represents you know, that's representing all these different species and
Speaker 1: do they really look that different? I'm just curious. I'm
Speaker 1: just asking does it does having that there, does it
Speaker 1: allow you to say for sure, oh no, that's definitely
Speaker 1: a great fan or yeah, exactly so. Um. But they
Speaker 1: seem really confident that that this is going to be
Speaker 1: just instrumental in in in helping solve this problem, because
Speaker 1: as I understand it, it's only getting worse, Like they're
Speaker 1: more and more sharks every single year, and it's it's,
Speaker 1: as I as I understand it, one of the toughest
Speaker 1: sort of infractions in illegal seafood trade. To crack down
Speaker 1: on three D printing. I hope that goes well, I
Speaker 1: really do. I hope that anything, like I said, anything
Speaker 1: we can do and I'm gonna I'm gonna stick with
Speaker 1: technology and fish. But I'm going in the complete opposite direction.
Speaker 1: Whereas you looked at a new technology that may have
Speaker 1: massive benefit to sharks and fisheries and humans, I'm looking
Speaker 1: at something that's completely useless and uh, we'll all be
Speaker 1: dumber for having heard about it. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1: This sounds like a me story. Yeah it is. This
Speaker 1: is I channeled you for this. Uh, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: short because there's not that much to say. But it's
Speaker 1: so it's just so ridiculous. I had to do it. So. Supposedly,
Speaker 1: a company in Japan will soon be releasing something called
Speaker 1: the cat Sugyo Bag, which is a handbag designed to
Speaker 1: carry live fish. The company announced, you did it, You
Speaker 1: went for it. Great. The company announced the product a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, but they were really prepared for the
Speaker 1: level of interest that it was going to generate. Within days,
Speaker 1: the fish bag got written up on sites all across
Speaker 1: the internet. Uh, some of which were like high fashion
Speaker 1: blogs who incorrectly reported that the purpose of this item
Speaker 1: was to allow ornamental fish owners to take their finn
Speaker 1: pets out for a walk. That is not what it's
Speaker 1: for at all. Continue on. Could not be more wrong.
Speaker 1: As you know, the story kind of blew up, you know,
Speaker 1: with with websites like luxury Launches dot com proclaiming that
Speaker 1: the new innovation caters to the wishes of fish parents
Speaker 1: with a quirky container like bag for live fish designed
Speaker 1: as a more stylish, efficient, and environmentally friendly alternative to
Speaker 1: the traditional water filled plastic bag. Who are these people?
Speaker 1: Nothing about this is helping fish? Really, I I got
Speaker 1: so I've got a new low for myself. If this
Speaker 1: ever happens, I know that I have bottomed out. If
Speaker 1: I ever become a writer for Luxury Launches dot com,
Speaker 1: I have officially failed at life, that's for sure. I
Speaker 1: don't know that. And of course, just so you know.
Speaker 1: Of course, soon after that happened, other websites who like
Speaker 1: to make fun of ridiculous crap for sale picked up
Speaker 1: on the story, like said and Useless dot com, which
Speaker 1: calls itself the most depressive humor side on the Internet.
Speaker 1: The product, which it looks like it should be a
Speaker 1: prop from the life aquatic, Like I feel like someone
Speaker 1: stole it off the set of the Life of Quads. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a it's a handheld clear cylinder. It's
Speaker 1: got it's got a little carry handle on the top,
Speaker 1: clear cylinder with caps on each end and feet on
Speaker 1: the bottom, and this pressure gauge that looks like it
Speaker 1: came from an old timey Scooba suit sticking up off
Speaker 1: the top, old iron along or something. Yeah. M A
Speaker 1: Corporation who made this put up a few photos in
Speaker 1: an Instagram post a couple of weeks ago, clearly not
Speaker 1: knowing what they were getting into, which makes sense because
Speaker 1: m A Corps is actually in the business of making
Speaker 1: surgical equipment and this was their first foray into the
Speaker 1: world of stupid viral product development. The post was inundated
Speaker 1: with comments from people wondering where they could buy one
Speaker 1: to walk their pit fish and how much they would cost,
Speaker 1: as well as the expected Hecklers controls. The actual product
Speaker 1: is still in development, no models actually exist right now,
Speaker 1: but within days m A Corps took down the post
Speaker 1: even though because because it just got out of control.
Speaker 1: But you can still find the photos all over the
Speaker 1: internet and they show a host of different photoshopped fish
Speaker 1: riding around in the Cartsugio bag. If you look closely,
Speaker 1: first of all, you can tell the fish photoshop, and
Speaker 1: you'll also notice that the little pressure gauge on top
Speaker 1: read zero in every single photo, so it's it's clearly
Speaker 1: not actually working. The m A Corporation first tried to
Speaker 1: respond to all this insanity, explained the bag is not
Speaker 1: intended for pet owners. The idea to allow fish consumers
Speaker 1: to transport live food fish that they purchased or caught
Speaker 1: before consuming them, therefore ensuring maximum freshness. And I could
Speaker 1: in the damn tun Katsue person, it's gonna die. I'm
Speaker 1: not there to be walked like a chihuahua. I'm gonna die.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's more. I don't, dude, I don't
Speaker 1: know what's more mind boggling about this whole thing. The
Speaker 1: fact that someone developed this high tech carrying case for
Speaker 1: food fish, or the fact that thousands of people saw
Speaker 1: it and it would finally allow them to realize their
Speaker 1: dreams of walking their goldfish through Central Park on a summer.
Speaker 1: That is the most like mind bending part of the
Speaker 1: whole thing. To me. It's like, not only exactly It's
Speaker 1: like all these people came out of the woodwork and
Speaker 1: been like, finally, finally, I have wanted to take Mr
Speaker 1: Scribbles on a walk for years and now find it
Speaker 1: like the those smoking dog owners with their dogs and
Speaker 1: their air breathing pets walking around all happy. I hate them,
Speaker 1: although I say, I will say the opportunity for for
Speaker 1: viral video comedy. He imagine just like tone of the
Speaker 1: movies with that and have a lobster in there, some
Speaker 1: weird ship, do you know what I mean? I take
Speaker 1: that to take that to the Madison, stick a trout
Speaker 1: in there and just like hang out at the take
Speaker 1: out for a while, because what are you doing? I'm like,
Speaker 1: I like this one. Yeah, he helps me catch his friends.
Speaker 1: He tells me. He's like he's he's the Judas fish.
Speaker 1: Uh And I want to The last day I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say about this is like, I'm not a fan of
Speaker 1: this product, even if used as intended, because here's my often.
Speaker 1: Do you need that maybe in Japan? No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: here's here's my thing. Hear me out. I'm I claim
Speaker 1: and I'm basing this off of not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of evidence, but I think that the stress of putting
Speaker 1: a fish in this tiny tank and carrying it around
Speaker 1: is gonna totally screw up the meat, Like that fish
Speaker 1: can be so stressed out. I don't think it's gonna
Speaker 1: do well. I think you're better off killing the fish quickly,
Speaker 1: bleed him out and just keeping it really cold. I
Speaker 1: think you will have a better product. Maybe I probably.
Speaker 1: I mean the impression I get though, is this is
Speaker 1: like you go to the store, put the fish in,
Speaker 1: and you are immediately heading to where it's going to
Speaker 1: be consumed, Like it's not supposed to live in there
Speaker 1: for a long time. Frankly, I'm just curious. Have you
Speaker 1: ever bought a live fish at a fish market? Like
Speaker 1: every once in a while there will be live dog
Speaker 1: in some of the markets around here, which I've never
Speaker 1: been sure if that's legal, but I see it nevertheless,
Speaker 1: and I have never bought a live fish from a
Speaker 1: fish market. Nope, never done it. Never done that. Okay,
Speaker 1: Well that was so that was your what you'll call
Speaker 1: your dumb story of the week. Let me just get
Speaker 1: dumber because this is a classic yeah sort of you'll see,
Speaker 1: this is a classic surmilling news story that's not only
Speaker 1: like not really news I'm only doing this because it
Speaker 1: gives me license to make fun of bad journalism and
Speaker 1: have a debate of sorts with you. I want your
Speaker 1: opinion on the subject matter of this piece which I found, yes,
Speaker 1: I know which, which I found on the website of
Speaker 1: b RC thirteen, which appears to be a local news
Speaker 1: source mainly for the Pocono Mountains region of Pennsylvania. The
Speaker 1: headline is, Okay, let's pay close attention now taking the
Speaker 1: bait at the Flybrary in Monroe County. So I'm aware
Speaker 1: of the library, Okay, So save your thoughts on flybrary
Speaker 1: until I get through this, because that's what I want
Speaker 1: to discuss. But first, here's what this this riveting story,
Speaker 1: which is it's really just a transcript of like a
Speaker 1: forty second newscast sets. You've heard of a little library
Speaker 1: where you can leave a book and take a book,
Speaker 1: But have you heard of a flybrary. It's a phishing
Speaker 1: lover's version of a little library. This flybrary is located
Speaker 1: at the Shroud Township Forever Green Nature Preserve. The idea
Speaker 1: is to leave a lure or take a lure. When
Speaker 1: the broadhead chapter of Trold Unlimited first installed, the Flybrary.
Speaker 1: They left two lures on to start, and people are
Speaker 1: taking the bait now there Now there are nearly fifteen
Speaker 1: added by people who have visited. No live bait can
Speaker 1: be used at the park, so the extra lures cannot
Speaker 1: only help out fellow fishermen and women, but also the
Speaker 1: safety of the fish. And then there's this quote from
Speaker 1: Todd Burns, a local Trod Unlimited member, and he's he's
Speaker 1: very clearly trying to steer the reporter like back to
Speaker 1: the fly aspect of this whole thing. Like hence like
Speaker 1: hence the name Flybrary, and hence the verbiage which they
Speaker 1: show on the flyberry that says have a fly, leave
Speaker 1: a fly, need a fly, take a fly, And Todd says,
Speaker 1: they want you to use artificial lures only here specifically,
Speaker 1: we like to use flies. It's just one hook and
Speaker 1: most of us pinched the barbs down and that way
Speaker 1: when you catch a fish and it slides out easily
Speaker 1: and there's less of a chance of injuring the fish.
Speaker 1: But I just feel like like the producer of this
Speaker 1: segment either had no understanding of fly fishing, wants this
Speaker 1: to appeal more to the local bait dunkers and spinner
Speaker 1: heavers or is is just dim So again not exactly
Speaker 1: what i'd call like, holy shit, riveting news. But this
Speaker 1: opens up a discussion. So now I'm going to pause
Speaker 1: before I go on because I want your take on
Speaker 1: these f library deals. So they're just so everybody understands.
Speaker 1: They're all over the country, and it's just a sort
Speaker 1: of it's this this national program where they'll send local
Speaker 1: folks who feel like putting them up the infrastructure to
Speaker 1: basically build your own little f library at at at
Speaker 1: access points wherever. And you know, the idea is to
Speaker 1: build community. You have a you leave a fly, you
Speaker 1: take fly whatever. I love the idea of it. I
Speaker 1: love anything that builds the angling community and solidarity. I
Speaker 1: think it's fun. I think it's it's I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: The first time I saw one was at the Mosquito
Speaker 1: Lagoon in Florida, and I put one of my clouser's
Speaker 1: up there just because I had extra, because I tied
Speaker 1: a lot of them. Do I think that it's actually
Speaker 1: going to generate any meaningful outcome? Like, do I think
Speaker 1: that this is gonna get a huge number of people
Speaker 1: into fly fishing or allow people who hadn't before been
Speaker 1: able to figure out what fly to use to finally
Speaker 1: be successful. No, my guess is what's gonna happen. Is
Speaker 1: it gonna be people use it the way I did, Like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I have a bunch of these because they haven't been working,
Speaker 1: so I'll put one here because I think that's cool,
Speaker 1: and it's it's gonna be like these these national depositories
Speaker 1: for mostly useless flies. So I like the I like
Speaker 1: the community, like solidarity. Let's have fun with this aspect.
Speaker 1: Let's not take this whole thing too seriously. Let's remember
Speaker 1: rolling it together. But I don't think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: the place where I find like the secret hot patterns.
Speaker 1: So we we could, we could not be more in agreement.
Speaker 1: I I truly love the idea of this. And again
Speaker 1: I'm just speaking personally here. I hate to say this,
Speaker 1: but I've bumped into a couple of these flybrary type
Speaker 1: things locally, and like you say, what's on them, if anything,
Speaker 1: is just like pure trash, like the most garbage kmart,
Speaker 1: like poorly tied yarn balls, or like the hooks are
Speaker 1: all rusty. And I've looked at them and my reaction
Speaker 1: is man, nobody that actually knows what they're doing on
Speaker 1: this river has contributed a fly to this f library.
Speaker 1: Like it's always it's like, why why why is there
Speaker 1: a saltwater popper in the library at this wild Brookie stream?
Speaker 1: Because I think you're right, like people see like, oh,
Speaker 1: I might be able to use that, but I'm not
Speaker 1: going to give up something that I actually might need.
Speaker 1: So here's this chip is ship that I haven't thrown
Speaker 1: ever and has no value, and I will stick that
Speaker 1: and now we will call it good. So I think
Speaker 1: in theory it's a great idea, um. And it does
Speaker 1: play theoretically into the communal aspect of fly fishing. Um.
Speaker 1: I've just not personally seen it work like it's supposed to. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm sure. So the mosquito legoon thing, that's interesting. I've
Speaker 1: actually never heard of one in an assaulty setting, though
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised. Um. But someone someone is gonna right
Speaker 1: in and be like the f library on the north
Speaker 1: fork of the Willowemack is better than the local fly shop,
Speaker 1: And okay, that's that's I'm not saying that doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: I just don't see it. And I'll just this, I
Speaker 1: have to I have to tell this very quick story.
Speaker 1: Years ago, a buddy of mine in Minnesota, you might
Speaker 1: be aware of this. I was trying to get something
Speaker 1: going called Scavenger fly Does that ring a bell? I
Speaker 1: don't know about that, okay, And I thought it was
Speaker 1: really cool, right. It had the flybrary aspect, but it
Speaker 1: was you sign up and you'd get a watertight fly
Speaker 1: box and it even had a little notebook and like
Speaker 1: a little mini golf pencil in there so that you
Speaker 1: could like leave a note about what worked. And the
Speaker 1: difference was you were supposed to hide it and then
Speaker 1: like leave clues, like give your buddy a clue and
Speaker 1: you know, or your fishing club guys or whatever, and
Speaker 1: it would sort of like grow and create this little
Speaker 1: club of sorts. It sort of riffed on on chio
Speaker 1: cashing as well, and the plan was to have these
Speaker 1: these scavenger fly boxes hit it all over the country.
Speaker 1: And I wrote about it. I thought it was neat.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't know if it's gonna work, but
Speaker 1: I think this is different and it's cool and it's
Speaker 1: thinking outside the box. Um So I wrote a blog
Speaker 1: about it. I filled my box planeted on a river
Speaker 1: in Jersey gave the clues and over the next couple
Speaker 1: of days got a response. Right, a couple of dudes
Speaker 1: found it, took a picture of them with the box
Speaker 1: added flies, left the note, and I was like, cool,
Speaker 1: this is cool. Did not take a full week for
Speaker 1: someone to just steal the box? Just Jack, just gone.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to believe that wouldn't happen. I was like,
Speaker 1: people will get behind this. This is not but I
Speaker 1: knew it would. I even wrote on the box with sharpie,
Speaker 1: don't be a dick and steal this box. But I
Speaker 1: have no faith in humanity. It was Jack and lets
Speaker 1: than five days of being planted. I'm not even sure
Speaker 1: if these guys are still doing the scavenger fly thing.
Speaker 1: And this was three or four years ago. But that's
Speaker 1: that's my take. Love love the idea. I just don't know,
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, I mean, anytime you're dependent on a
Speaker 1: large section of humanity doing the right thing, you're gonna
Speaker 1: usually don't go into problems. Yeah, and you said that
Speaker 1: the scavenger fly thing that started in in Minnesota, in
Speaker 1: the Midwest, Minnesota, Yeah, Minnesota. Yeah, Well, my last story
Speaker 1: also revolves around that part of the country. That part
Speaker 1: of the world, though it has nothing to do with
Speaker 1: products or technology or anything like that. Uh, It's something
Speaker 1: we talked about a lot, right, we talk we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about invasive species on the show, legitimately, right,
Speaker 1: because fishing is a way of participating in the food web,
Speaker 1: and when new new creatures are introduced, that food web
Speaker 1: changes and the fishing changes. So anglers, all of us
Speaker 1: are invested in these topics. Right. We had we had
Speaker 1: Ikennelly on here a while back telling us how much
Speaker 1: he loves zebra muscles and milfoil, both of which is
Speaker 1: it a lot of handwringing from from just like these
Speaker 1: are lively topics, right, and I'll leave I'll leave that
Speaker 1: particular one, the milfoil and the muscles, for another day.
Speaker 1: But in this one, I'm gonna focus on a different
Speaker 1: freshwater invader, the spiny water flee. And I'm just curious.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen an up close picture of a
Speaker 1: spiny water flee? I cannot say, I have no, dude,
Speaker 1: I I think they swam out of hr Geiger's nightmares.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, so picture you don't swim up, they swim
Speaker 1: up your pea hole, not that I know of. I
Speaker 1: didn't find anything about that. The picture picture a miniature
Speaker 1: version of one of those those face suckers from the
Speaker 1: Aliens movie franchise He Lives Underwater. That's what it looks like. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And and for those of you listening unless you're driving,
Speaker 1: google a picture of one right now so you can
Speaker 1: see what I'm what I'm saying like. It really does
Speaker 1: look like one of those face stucker's kind of spider
Speaker 1: lake with eight legs and to antenna up the front
Speaker 1: of the body. But instead of the tail that goes
Speaker 1: down your throat and lays eggs, they've got these really
Speaker 1: long barbed tails. That's sev of their body length there.
Speaker 1: Really honestly nightmarish, that's the best waygon describe them. So.
Speaker 1: Spiny water fleas are native to northern Europe and Asia,
Speaker 1: but like ale wives and a bunch of other things,
Speaker 1: they snuck over into North America and the ballasts of
Speaker 1: cargo ships. They're first discovered in Lake Ontario two, but
Speaker 1: have since spread throughout the Great Lakes and made their
Speaker 1: way into lots of other inland waters across the Midwest
Speaker 1: and Canada. They're very very good at moving from place
Speaker 1: to place because of that terrifying long barbed tail because
Speaker 1: they can. They can attach themselves to just about anything,
Speaker 1: ankle lines, fishing lines, boats, boots, whatever. They just stick
Speaker 1: to stuff. And so they can move from water like
Speaker 1: one water body to another, because especially anglers and boaters,
Speaker 1: we move around. We like to change it up. So
Speaker 1: North America has lots of native water fleas, not spiny
Speaker 1: water fleas, but but native versions, and those those native
Speaker 1: water fleas are important parts of our freshwater ecosystems. They
Speaker 1: eat algae, which helps improve water quality and keeps problematic
Speaker 1: blooms in check. They're also a primary food source for
Speaker 1: small fish. But spiny water fleas, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: eat native water fleas, and over here they have no predators.
Speaker 1: When small fish try to eat spiny water fleas, those
Speaker 1: long barbed tails either choke the fish or if they
Speaker 1: managed to get them down, puncture their internal organs. That's
Speaker 1: what I was gonna ask, but I figured without even asking,
Speaker 1: I was like, nothing can eat these. Nut's got to
Speaker 1: be part of the problem. And so so they're bad.
Speaker 1: Bottom lines that they're bad. And they showed up. They
Speaker 1: showed up around this same time as zebra muscles. But
Speaker 1: they haven't proliferated as rapidly, so they just haven't gotten
Speaker 1: nearly as much attention. Like they showed up and people
Speaker 1: were worried about it, but then it kind of weren't
Speaker 1: everywhere in the way that we thought they would be.
Speaker 1: So they've they've fallen off as one of the major concerns,
Speaker 1: But a recent report published in the journal Bioscience may
Speaker 1: indicate that they're more prevalent than than we realize, according
Speaker 1: to a researcher with I'm gonna say like possibly the
Speaker 1: greatest scientist name of all time, Jacob vander Zanden, who
Speaker 1: co authored the report and directs the University of Wisconsin
Speaker 1: madisone center for lemnology. Non native species can occur in small,
Speaker 1: self sustaining populations, smoldering like embers in a new habitat.
Speaker 1: Many will continue on with that modest life history, never
Speaker 1: having the negative ecological impacts that attract the invasive label.
Speaker 1: But sometimes an environmental trigger gets switched and the embers
Speaker 1: of these sleeper populations are fanned into a five alarm fire,
Speaker 1: and that might be exactly what's happening with water fleas.
Speaker 1: Vanders Enden's paper documents and explains the implications of a
Speaker 1: discovery made by students at the University of Wisconsin Madison
Speaker 1: in two thousand nineteen. Undergraduates that u W conducted the
Speaker 1: same field trip in nearby Lake Mendota that they do
Speaker 1: every year, sampling the lake and using as a field lap,
Speaker 1: but that year the nets were covered in thousands and
Speaker 1: thousands spiny water fleas, which had never happened before, and
Speaker 1: over two hundred sampling trips spanning three decades, they had
Speaker 1: never found a single water flee right, So the obvious
Speaker 1: conclusion would be that the water fleas had just recently
Speaker 1: invaded the lake and take over. But they have lots
Speaker 1: of data on this lake right because it's there, it's
Speaker 1: their field lap. And so when scientists dug through sediment
Speaker 1: coreps and and looked at other samples that they had stored,
Speaker 1: they found evidence that the fleas had been around for
Speaker 1: at least ten years, and all it took was one
Speaker 1: abnormally cold summer for billions of them to survive and
Speaker 1: lay eggs, and their population has remained steady ever since,
Speaker 1: even though temperatures went back to normal. We have no way,
Speaker 1: we haven't figured out a way yet of getting rid
Speaker 1: of spiny water flows without killing everything in a lake.
Speaker 1: And right now half the whole deal, Yeah, exactly, right now. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's anglers and voters like we're the one we're at
Speaker 1: the front lines of this. We we we need to
Speaker 1: be cleaning and drying all of our equipment completely before
Speaker 1: we go from one place to another. Thing is the
Speaker 1: thing about these things, they can't survive drying. So one
Speaker 1: thing we know it kills them. If they dry, they die,
Speaker 1: So keep that in mind. The study, it's going to
Speaker 1: be on the bumper sticker. Try to die. That's better
Speaker 1: than clean, drain dry for sure, the flea awareness bumper sticker.
Speaker 1: The study, Like, I think the study reminds us that
Speaker 1: we we really got to be even more diligent because
Speaker 1: what it shows is that you can even be in
Speaker 1: a body of water that isn't supposed to have water
Speaker 1: fleas because we may not have seen them yet, but
Speaker 1: they might be in a sleeper population right and and so,
Speaker 1: or they might be just starting to explode. And even
Speaker 1: though we're somewhere where those creepy little bastards aren't known
Speaker 1: to be well, you still might be picking them up.
Speaker 1: So just it's just my little p s a like
Speaker 1: giving you some evidence for why this is such a
Speaker 1: big deal of the clean drain dry It's because even
Speaker 1: if you're somewhere where you don't think one of these
Speaker 1: invasive populations might be, it's possible that they're they're they're
Speaker 1: just sleepers, so keep an eye out. Maybe the story
Speaker 1: doesn't address it, but like if you if you look
Speaker 1: at a small closed system like a lake where these
Speaker 1: things have just popped up, right, is that a death sentence? Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, if that's the bottom of the food chain,
Speaker 1: is that a is that a death sentence for a
Speaker 1: body of water over time? It's not take away this sentence,
Speaker 1: right because they've been in the Great Lakes for a
Speaker 1: long time and it hasn't the Great Lakes haven't created.
Speaker 1: But it's not good. It's it's certainly, I mean, the
Speaker 1: Great Lakes are just so huge. I'm thinking, like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you have these things in a smaller body of water,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, I just seems unkillable, you know,
Speaker 1: It's it's fascinating. And dude, it sounds like I always
Speaker 1: joked if blue fish and blue gills ever grew big
Speaker 1: enough where they could actually like bite you and hurt
Speaker 1: you like a shark. We'll be dead right. And I
Speaker 1: feel like these fleas are the same thing, Like, thank god,
Speaker 1: these are a micro organism and like not something that
Speaker 1: can drag me off to my own death exactly. But
Speaker 1: that now, it's good. It's good advice. And I'm guilty
Speaker 1: of it. I'm guilty of it, you know, throwing wet
Speaker 1: waiters and wet boots. Yeah, I think I think we,
Speaker 1: most of us, are guilty of that. And you're better.
Speaker 1: You're a better person if you take the time to
Speaker 1: do that. Um So, definitely something to be cognizanto. Phil
Speaker 1: has a lot to be cognizanto. He can he can
Speaker 1: visit the flybrary, he can handle the death fleas. He
Speaker 1: can make three D printed shark fins um or buy
Speaker 1: himself a fish purse to carry his pet fish around.
Speaker 1: So we'll see, we'll see who Phil declares the winner
Speaker 1: this week. And listen, we're gonna change things up a
Speaker 1: little bit. After we hear from Phil. We're going to
Speaker 1: actually do some sage lely wisdom with river Horse to
Speaker 1: close out the show. Okay, because we've been having a
Speaker 1: lot of fun joking around about Memorial Day crowds and everything.
Speaker 1: As always, you know, river Horse provides a sense of
Speaker 1: calm too, So not only we're gonna hear a great
Speaker 1: story here, we're gonna get that maybe that moment of zen,
Speaker 1: that moment of chill, perhaps we all need before going
Speaker 1: into a crazy weekend. Joe, when you first started your stories,
Speaker 1: I wasn't exactly smelling blood in the water, But after
Speaker 1: a while you set the hook in my attention and
Speaker 1: then proceeded to reel me in fishing. You're the winner
Speaker 1: this week, and I don't think we should be too
Speaker 1: hasty in just getting rid of all of these fish
Speaker 1: handbags quite yet. We should hold on them for I
Speaker 1: don't know, like a hundred years or something, until we
Speaker 1: decided to fall out. Teddy Williams and probably Walt Disney,
Speaker 1: let's be honest, elon musk down the road and we
Speaker 1: could take all of their heads for walks in Central Park.
Speaker 1: It'll be like a real life episode of Futurama. Hey,
Speaker 1: now this is realhoorse with some sagely wisdom. One of
Speaker 1: the most beautiful things in life is to share it
Speaker 1: with someone, be there just a fellow human, a friend,
Speaker 1: or a cherished, loved one. The best way I know
Speaker 1: to share is by feeding someone supper and taking them fishing.
Speaker 1: We all know there will be some bumps in the
Speaker 1: road along the way in life. Those bitter sweet low
Speaker 1: tides and the ever damn sweet times have read and
Speaker 1: high in the saddle, it's all good, and this is
Speaker 1: how we make sense of life and what matters to us.
Speaker 1: Here's a story about taking a soldier along for some
Speaker 1: water time called holding Steady. He is terrified of water.
Speaker 1: They tell me a soldier who has been through some
Speaker 1: things and would like to go fishing. I tell the
Speaker 1: Foundation that they can count on me. A few weeks later,
Speaker 1: I drive lonely farm roads a couple hours north, long
Speaker 1: before sunrise, to a small Texas town to pick him up.
Speaker 1: I wonder how things will go. The Foundation told me
Speaker 1: he was hit by a missile in a rock and
Speaker 1: has a torn up foot from jumping off a two
Speaker 1: story building. Why did they do that, I asked, because
Speaker 1: it was on fire, they replied. When I see him
Speaker 1: in the doorway, things aren't looking good. His eyes are
Speaker 1: red and he quickly places sunglasses over them. This is
Speaker 1: a tough day, he says. He uses a hand carved
Speaker 1: wooden cane and wears a long beard. He is trembling
Speaker 1: and looks cold. I hand him a jacket, which brings
Speaker 1: a hint of a smile. Do you want to stop
Speaker 1: somewhere for some breakfast, I asked, I'm not hungry much
Speaker 1: these days, he says. It is a bust for fishing.
Speaker 1: The day before there were tornadoes and gale force winds,
Speaker 1: and the fish are down deep. Today it's bluebird skies, though,
Speaker 1: so we sit in the sweet sun on the tailgate
Speaker 1: and share some beers. This is the anniversary of my
Speaker 1: friend's death, he says. He jumped on a grenade to
Speaker 1: save everyone. Sometimes I feel guilty. We look out at
Speaker 1: the lake for a long time, but your friend wants
Speaker 1: you to feel that the rest of your time here,
Speaker 1: or live it meaningfully, asked him. He holds up a
Speaker 1: hand to grab mine and gives me a punch on
Speaker 1: the shoulder simplify whispers. I wonder aloud, is there any
Speaker 1: chance you would want to go in the canoe for
Speaker 1: a while? He nods, almost imperceptibly. I put an arm
Speaker 1: around his shoulders and hold them as he sits down
Speaker 1: in the front of the wicker seat and trades out
Speaker 1: his cane from a huggany paddle. The fly rod leans
Speaker 1: against the truck, kicking off the bank. I shot excitedly,
Speaker 1: if the fishing were good, ad bomb out of cast
Speaker 1: right by that sunken tree. What do you mean bomb,
Speaker 1: he asked um. Simply the cast far. He laughs and
Speaker 1: shakes his head. The foundation told me he was standing
Speaker 1: next to a humby when a missile landed, and the
Speaker 1: instantaneous pressure change is equivalent to your body dropping six
Speaker 1: thousand feet under the ocean and back to sea level
Speaker 1: in a millisecond. We canoe for hours. Back in town,
Speaker 1: his girlfriend meets us at a brick of and pizza joint.
Speaker 1: He wraps her up in his arms, gently pulls her
Speaker 1: into the nook between his shoulder and neck, and breathes
Speaker 1: her in. He lines up shots of whiskey on the bar.
Speaker 1: I'm not normally into that sort of thing, but today
Speaker 1: I am. He'd be game for fishing again some day,
Speaker 1: he says, and actually trying to catch something. What do
Speaker 1: you mean? I say, you don't want to just paddle
Speaker 1: around and live vicariously by hearing stories of all the
Speaker 1: huge bass I've caught. He almost falls up the bar
Speaker 1: stool laughing, tells me I'm about as funny as throwing
Speaker 1: an egg into a ceiling fan. Later in the parking lot,
Speaker 1: light shimmers around him from the waning sunset. He is different.
Speaker 1: His eyes are clear, a look of contented kindness in them.
Speaker 1: He gives me a backcracker of a bear hug, and
Speaker 1: I asked him, was it a good day for you,
Speaker 1: my brother? When we got on the water, He says,
Speaker 1: everything changed. I hope you enjoyed that and can think
Speaker 1: of someone in your life that you can take on
Speaker 1: out there too. Here's to those who serve and to
Speaker 1: those who support them. Here's to getting back on the
Speaker 1: path of life again, no matter how tough the times
Speaker 1: have been along the way. Oh, I get by with
Speaker 1: a little help from my friends. Yes, indeed, life is beautiful.
Speaker 1: I'll see you out there. Well. That is all that
Speaker 1: we for you this week. No matter how you are
Speaker 1: choosing to spend moral day weekend, remember that you're more
Speaker 1: likely to get in a bar fight if the bar
Speaker 1: has a gravel parking lot. Yes, Joe would rather be
Speaker 1: sleeping alone in a filthy, damp boat cabin than spending
Speaker 1: time with his family. So yes, and finally, all of
Speaker 1: our our bullshit aside. Heeds some of that river Horse
Speaker 1: wisdom this weekend, put your rod and your gin and
Speaker 1: juice down long enough to reflect on the weight and
Speaker 1: significance of this holiday. It's about a whole lot more
Speaker 1: than getting a past to make a fool yourself in public. Yes,
Speaker 1: biggest yes of the whole clothes here. Huge thanks again
Speaker 1: to river Horse for closing out this week show so eloquently,
Speaker 1: and thanks from everyone here at Bent and the Mediator
Speaker 1: to all who serve and all those who have made
Speaker 1: the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom so we can do
Speaker 1: things like go fishing and make fun of people who
Speaker 1: suck at fishing. Well said, Well said. If you get
Speaker 1: any pictures of those people this weekend, post them with
Speaker 1: the Degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtag so we can
Speaker 1: revel in the misery of strangers with you doing so,
Speaker 1: I might just earn you a sticker pack from us,
Speaker 1: but posting videos to TikTok will not earn you a
Speaker 1: sticker pack because we're not on TikTok. M