Speaker 1: You know here it Bent. We love the children. I
Speaker 1: just really hope none we're listening to that because I
Speaker 1: brought it. You you could have a goddamn monthly stick
Speaker 1: on the shower. You make point first, Apple went in,
Speaker 1: bought all the flies, bought a fly box to put
Speaker 1: him in, went out to the river. Immediately lost the
Speaker 1: fly box and it was one of the cool ones
Speaker 1: with like it was like the aluminum and glass with
Speaker 1: like the windows and ship. Just find someone to get
Speaker 1: out on the mistletoe. Oh my, lady, make it happen.
Speaker 1: Good morning to januarate anglers, and welcome to Bent the
Speaker 1: Fishing Podcast that Jess wants to say. She falls in
Speaker 1: a well as go cross, she gets kicked by the
Speaker 1: mule and go back to normal. I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: Joe Surmelli and I'm hating Samac and I have no
Speaker 1: idea what that was. Okay, you have to at least
Speaker 1: know what it's from. I saw the title of it,
Speaker 1: Like I know it's from that, But like I've adding
Speaker 1: to the pantheon of movies that Hayden has not seen.
Speaker 1: That is, uh, you've never seen The Christmas Vacation. To
Speaker 1: have seen the Oh my God, I've never seen any
Speaker 1: of like, I've never I know, there's like family vacation
Speaker 1: and I've never I've never seen him. All right, all right,
Speaker 1: you might hear something about that anyway, What that was
Speaker 1: I opted out of Clark gris On saying folks, folks,
Speaker 1: marry Christmas at the last second while putting this together.
Speaker 1: And I opted into that because I felt like it,
Speaker 1: because it's a better line, that's all. Is it the
Speaker 1: anals or the animals? I think it's either way. It's
Speaker 1: like tomato tomato. I'm sure. I'm sure listeners are gonna
Speaker 1: let me know. Um, I mean, like you know, and
Speaker 1: that's even if they're listening today anyway, because it's Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1: So I guess it kind of gives us a license
Speaker 1: to sort of say whatever we want without a bunch
Speaker 1: of constants. Yeah, I think we can be a little
Speaker 1: weirder than normal. Um. And you know what, since Ben started,
Speaker 1: I swear to God, every major holiday has fallen on
Speaker 1: a Friday, like without fail, Like join us next week
Speaker 1: for the Yeah, join us next week for the New
Speaker 1: Year's Eve show, like give me a break, you know. Uh,
Speaker 1: But you know, despite that, we always have a good
Speaker 1: time with holidays. I mean, if nothing else, it makes
Speaker 1: coming up with a theme incredibly easy. So that's always
Speaker 1: kind of nice. It is kind of nice. Like the
Speaker 1: obvious thing for me to do right now is to
Speaker 1: ask you, uh, these hotday scripts do right themselves? What
Speaker 1: what would be leaving on your tree this year? Joe
Speaker 1: I asked for a new set of drift boat oars,
Speaker 1: which Santa set. He said, that's no problem, but the
Speaker 1: LVC has working at cataract Ores, like I guess we'll
Speaker 1: say embedded at cataract Ores. They're a little backed up,
Speaker 1: So strong chance my oars won't end up under the
Speaker 1: tree tomorrow morning. Like more like Santa might have to
Speaker 1: swing by with other just before springs shadd season kicks in.
Speaker 1: But how about you, what are you getting this year? Um?
Speaker 1: I asked Santa Claus for a used truck topper. Um, well,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna make like Santa source materials
Speaker 1: and like the Times of COVID because like that's not cool.
Speaker 1: It's like it's it's a little greedy. Um. And I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what, Santa, I'm formerly offering to go have
Speaker 1: these with you if you could find a used one
Speaker 1: in like the two grand range. Um, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: what one better. I'll go look on craigslist and save
Speaker 1: the always the trouble and uh yeah, very low, very
Speaker 1: low lift gift this year. That is so nice, man,
Speaker 1: what a guy helping sand out like that? You know,
Speaker 1: thinking about it, I I bet out there somewhere is
Speaker 1: a Jerry the canoe salesman for truck toppers. I'll bet
Speaker 1: you he exists. Yeah, probably, but instead of like a
Speaker 1: cup of tea, you know, like pound natty ice and
Speaker 1: a shot of yeager and uh and hang out with
Speaker 1: them around like the burn barrel. You know, that could
Speaker 1: be more interesting than the real Jerry. But dude, at
Speaker 1: least doing that it would add an element of excitement
Speaker 1: to receiving you know that gift. Um, I always felt
Speaker 1: kind of sad, you know, like as you get older,
Speaker 1: it's it's a little bit said. Yes, it's a little said,
Speaker 1: because you know what you're getting, right, Like, you get
Speaker 1: what you need, you get less junk, and you get
Speaker 1: what you need. But the magic of sort of losing
Speaker 1: sleep over whether or not something you ask for will
Speaker 1: or will not be under the tree is gone. Um, Like,
Speaker 1: oh man, so many specific presents come to mind for me.
Speaker 1: But a big one was the micro machines race in
Speaker 1: a case. The micro machine man here with the perfect crue.
Speaker 1: Micro man want to come in first place? Got the
Speaker 1: electric micro machines racing a case. Open the case to
Speaker 1: start the race, clucking into play. It set up that way.
Speaker 1: He great, your micro machines road great and stick the
Speaker 1: track of both the world race past the barking like
Speaker 1: Superstar Jerry at the point you're talking to carry away
Speaker 1: the fun. Check out the carazing example, screw cars on
Speaker 1: the micro machines around micro Machines racing the case and
Speaker 1: bower Row competition race sts. He sold separately with two
Speaker 1: road race and vehicles, power packs and controllers from Galube.
Speaker 1: And I got it, but it kind of sucked, like
Speaker 1: the cars didn't really stay on the track. It was
Speaker 1: not that easy to pack back up into the case.
Speaker 1: But I was still thrilled to have it, you know,
Speaker 1: it was like it was a big one. Yeah. See,
Speaker 1: Like I don't remember specific toys like that. It was
Speaker 1: more whatever like I was obsessed with at the time,
Speaker 1: like fishing or you know, hunting or where have you. Um,
Speaker 1: But I was like when I was a kid, kid
Speaker 1: I was really into Pokemon cards. Like um you were.
Speaker 1: You may have been as enthralled by the micro machine commercials,
Speaker 1: is I was about these kinds of commercials to be
Speaker 1: the old man Pokemon master draggy. I think I am
Speaker 1: the Bookemon game. You'll do awesome activities, wipes and meet
Speaker 1: new friends. A speak in your journey could become a
Speaker 1: Pokemon methods right there. See wow, Mancie, I had no idea, like,
Speaker 1: have you and Phil bonded over this? Because I don't
Speaker 1: think he could ever fire you. Isn't that some kind
Speaker 1: of Pokemon warrior code? I I this is all news
Speaker 1: to me. I think, other than working in Meteor, this
Speaker 1: might be the only thing that Phil and I have
Speaker 1: ever had in common. Um, although you know, and my
Speaker 1: my Pokemon days are a little bit behind me. But
Speaker 1: I remember being a kid and they were like ten
Speaker 1: packs of Pokemon cards in my stocking one year, and
Speaker 1: I went just like ape shit because it was never
Speaker 1: like that. I wasn't from Like, it wasn't like when
Speaker 1: I wanted something as a kid, I just got it
Speaker 1: in spades, you know, if I if I begged enough
Speaker 1: for it, like he got one pack of Pokemon cards. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but you know, and every now and again it was
Speaker 1: a special thing. Um, but he on Pokemon cards. Here's
Speaker 1: something that's gonna dry Phil just in nuts when I
Speaker 1: when Phil, this is for you man. When I was
Speaker 1: in first grade, so I traded a holographic first edition
Speaker 1: Chancey for two just regular as Pika Choose because the
Speaker 1: show had led me to believe that Pikachu was the
Speaker 1: best thing that there could possibly be. So you know
Speaker 1: what that means. And I'm sure you're greating your teeth
Speaker 1: right now. Um, he's gonna call you into his office
Speaker 1: like with a little like buzz, like, Hayden can kind
Speaker 1: of my office? Please? Thanks? He was like, what the um?
Speaker 1: But thinking back on like a president, that really blew
Speaker 1: my mind was I got a Crossman pellet gun. There
Speaker 1: was a full on campaign involved. Did I snuck bb
Speaker 1: gun onto my list every year? And I never actually
Speaker 1: got one from Santa But my my grandfather used to
Speaker 1: snap up everyone he saw at flea market, so I
Speaker 1: had a whole arsenal at his place. Anyway, we certainly
Speaker 1: hope you find what you want under the tree tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Perhaps there will even be a few goodies from our sponsors.
Speaker 1: Thirteen fishing. Um, if you were really good, like really
Speaker 1: really good, maybe you'll even find the Black Betty Freefall
Speaker 1: Carbon tenth Anniversary Trick Shop Edition ice reel. Have you
Speaker 1: seen that one? I know you have, Dude, I ache
Speaker 1: for one of those, Man, I ache for one of those.
Speaker 1: It's like this, like brilliant gold. It shines like a
Speaker 1: thousand sons. It's like the Excalibur of the ice fishing world.
Speaker 1: That exactly. It kicks so much, ass man. Yeah, it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very bold. It's either excalibur like the real O
Speaker 1: d B would use. Um, but despite it being a
Speaker 1: bold statement piece, it's also highly functional. I probably should
Speaker 1: have asked Santa for one. You know, it's never too late,
Speaker 1: man Um. You might get a chance in a very
Speaker 1: special edition of our Upid Fire Q and a segment
Speaker 1: covering water. I'm going in. I can hold it all right.
Speaker 1: So now, Joe, a couple of weeks ago, I set
Speaker 1: up kind of a cool interview about the issues on
Speaker 1: the Madison River and we both thought it went like
Speaker 1: we both thought it went really well. Death I mean
Speaker 1: kind of cool. I'm just kidding. It was great. It
Speaker 1: was great. Okay, Well for this installment of covering water.
Speaker 1: I've kind of set up something a little extra special,
Speaker 1: and I'm oh, I'm really excited. Today we're joined by
Speaker 1: a very remote guest all the way from the North Pole.
Speaker 1: That's right, boys and girls, we're here with the one
Speaker 1: and only Santa Claus. What's you're okay? Man? I'm fine.
Speaker 1: Merry Christmas? Oh right? Um? Like I said, we're here
Speaker 1: with Santa and Joe. You said a certain someone might
Speaker 1: want to say hi. Yeah, I was gonna. I was
Speaker 1: gonna ask can my three year old say hi? Real quick?
Speaker 1: Is that? Okay? That perfect? His name is? I know
Speaker 1: what his name is? Right? Okay? Great? Hey, but come
Speaker 1: me here for one second. If somebody I want you
Speaker 1: to meet. Look who it is, Jamie? Who's that? Santa
Speaker 1: rights so sleepy, he's real tired for making all the toys.
Speaker 1: But kids know Santa's got a buzz on erge, what
Speaker 1: a buzz? Actually? But what can you go downstairs? Why
Speaker 1: don't you go downstairs for a little while? Okay, thanks buddy?
Speaker 1: Come on, man, really, you guys just want to take
Speaker 1: it from the top real quick. Yeah. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys noticed, but it's Christmas Eve. Let's just
Speaker 1: do the interview. Okay, so Hayden brought you in because
Speaker 1: it turns out you're you're quite the avid angler. Now.
Speaker 1: I know you're normally the one who asks this, but Santa,
Speaker 1: what do you want for Christmas? Man? Well, Nick wants
Speaker 1: is a trip to St. Bart's and some time off.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, as soon as I get
Speaker 1: done dropping off all this ship tonight, old Sandy Claus
Speaker 1: is going to take a well deserved trip for some
Speaker 1: billfits just me and Brandy. I mean, this is Claus.
Speaker 1: You're gonna chase some bone fish while you're down there,
Speaker 1: you know, I I hear it right there. I tried
Speaker 1: the whole fly fishing for bone fish thing. That one
Speaker 1: of those snot nosed twenty year old Instagram influencers womby
Speaker 1: guys completely turned me off to that ship. Yeah well yeah,
Speaker 1: that can that could be tough, um, but I guess
Speaker 1: it's a good reminder for our listeners. Always make sure
Speaker 1: you're booking it a really reputable guy, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? You know, their kids had the audacity to
Speaker 1: tell me that if I had a Helios three like him,
Speaker 1: maybe I'd be able to get out ten more feet
Speaker 1: of line and actually make a shot. Mother. The only
Speaker 1: reason you have a human three is because I brought
Speaker 1: it to you. You couldn't afford a gut damn monthly
Speaker 1: stick on the shower you make pulling tourists around the apicle. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can see how that that might be. Um. And
Speaker 1: you know what else, all of you stop asking for
Speaker 1: fancy ass setups for Christmas? Do you know how many
Speaker 1: cease of assist orders I get from Saint Croix? Do
Speaker 1: you know how many elves I've lost a graphite dustin
Speaker 1: resent fumes? Do you know how many times I had
Speaker 1: to take comfinitely time slay ride to avoid osha a lot? Okay,
Speaker 1: stop it, Um, Maybe maybe we should just move on here. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's just let's just all take a breath while I
Speaker 1: explain exactly how covering water works. So this is our
Speaker 1: rapid fire Q and a segment of ben. Okay, And
Speaker 1: what Hayden and I are gonna do is gonna put
Speaker 1: two minutes on the clock and we are just gonna
Speaker 1: pepper you with questions. And the whole idea here is
Speaker 1: that you don't really have any time to answer. You
Speaker 1: can't think too hard. You just have to kind of
Speaker 1: answer as quickly as you can. And what we'll do
Speaker 1: at the end of this we promise um is to
Speaker 1: give you one minute to expand or explain more about
Speaker 1: whatever you think was the most damning answer. And and
Speaker 1: based on how this has gone so far, I I
Speaker 1: would I would expect that there's going to be some
Speaker 1: damning answers. So does that all sound good? Sannah? I'm okay, perfectly.
Speaker 1: We put two minutes on the clock here, Heyden, you're
Speaker 1: gonna ask first, right, all right, let's see how this
Speaker 1: goes and begin milk or cookies? What species of fish
Speaker 1: is on your bucket list? How is that? How's that possible? Look?
Speaker 1: I live in a magic group where all things are possible,
Speaker 1: you idiot. But the permit is in all your years
Speaker 1: of doing this, which lure has ended up in stockings
Speaker 1: more than any other? I mean, it was a dirty
Speaker 1: devil spoon for almost eighty years until some beside make
Speaker 1: a crank bait that looks like a Budweiser kid. All right, uh,
Speaker 1: favorite reindeer. I don't know yet. What what do you
Speaker 1: mean you don't know yet? CWD man. We got a
Speaker 1: new crew this year. They all got in c W.
Speaker 1: D and died. No, it turns out was just blitz
Speaker 1: and I had to test them all though. Whatever freezer
Speaker 1: spul Holy shit, everyone is so consumed with clean energy,
Speaker 1: yet you still rely heavily on cole Can you tell
Speaker 1: us why you're kidding? Right? Really, that's your ethics question,
Speaker 1: not the hundreds of years of forced the elephant labor. Look,
Speaker 1: I got an endless supply of call up there. Okay,
Speaker 1: you switch and putting hyper allergenic crystals or some ship
Speaker 1: in the stockings of the kids that were asking Paul,
Speaker 1: you're the cost of goods grows up? All right? Uh,
Speaker 1: where's the one place you've always wanted to visit? Are
Speaker 1: you fighting with me? I am literally going everywhere tonight.
Speaker 1: What what your favorite fish eat? That's easy. I'm also
Speaker 1: a big fan of Mah Dolphin like Flipper Dolphin. Yes,
Speaker 1: Santa hates dolphins. Everybody, My man, who's the naughtiest angler
Speaker 1: on your list this year? Ginger kids? You pay all
Speaker 1: around with Ross robertson. What's your favorite lure of all time? Cricket?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, we're running out of time here, best
Speaker 1: gift you've ever got? Well, there's one of your Jack
Speaker 1: Frost and the heat and miser got together and got
Speaker 1: me this huge cake. Right they lift in the middle
Speaker 1: of the workshop. Now I'm about to cut into it
Speaker 1: and boom, Candy pops out. And I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: Jolly Ranchers. I'm talking about Candy, one of the North
Speaker 1: Pole dancers. Off alright, everyone, Uh, Santa Claus, Joe, you
Speaker 1: want to wrap this up? And yeah, Santa, I, I I
Speaker 1: know you're busy and I think you have to get going.
Speaker 1: But fair is fair. You are supposed to have one
Speaker 1: minute to expand on on any one of your answers.
Speaker 1: Maybe you want to tell us a little bit more. Well,
Speaker 1: let me just tell you a little bit more about Candy.
Speaker 1: You know here it bent. We love the children. I
Speaker 1: just really hope none we're listening to that, because you'll, dude,
Speaker 1: you'll have three hundred kids at the mall next Christmas
Speaker 1: asking Santa for Budweiser, crank baits and Michigan crickets. You
Speaker 1: know what I mean. We might have We might have
Speaker 1: done a disservice to the youth there. Yeah, in case. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, some listeners are extraordinarily ethical folks and have
Speaker 1: never surrounded themselves with this type of company. A Michigan
Speaker 1: cricket is a gigantic like weighted treble hook. It's like
Speaker 1: an egg sink refused onto a treble hook, and it's
Speaker 1: used to uh to snag fish. Now you can do
Speaker 1: that like legally for like paddlefish, but most us of
Speaker 1: the time you hear it talked about. It's in the
Speaker 1: Great Lake salmon scene. Yeah, that's right, no offense Michigan.
Speaker 1: But I did once I did want to see a
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania conservation officer pull about fifteen of those out of
Speaker 1: his glove box and he'd collected them along Elk and
Speaker 1: Walnut Creek in just a couple of days, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like, I was like, I can't believe
Speaker 1: it's that many. Pretty crazy, um, But you know what,
Speaker 1: Speaking of snagging, let's see who snagged the better fishing
Speaker 1: related story in this week's fish News. Fish News that
Speaker 1: escalated quickly. Alright, so real quick question for you, have
Speaker 1: you ever gotten allure or some flies for Christmas? Right?
Speaker 1: And then you stare at them all winter because you
Speaker 1: know it's winter so you can't run out to use
Speaker 1: the new hula popper. And then the first time you
Speaker 1: ever get them out of the water, you lose them, Well,
Speaker 1: let me tell you a story. Man. I know you
Speaker 1: love my long winded stories. Uh. I do something more uh.
Speaker 1: Kind of analogous to that is the Edison Show. You
Speaker 1: know you can go there and you get a whole
Speaker 1: bunch of flies for like show. Yeah yeah, yeah yeah. Man.
Speaker 1: Well I just got sick of being burned on not
Speaker 1: having super small flies. So I went there one time
Speaker 1: with like two bucks in my pocket. I was like, look,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get all the midges. I'm gonna get all
Speaker 1: like the little tiny baits. I'm gonna get all that
Speaker 1: ship just taking care of right now. Went in, but
Speaker 1: all the flies. Bought a fly box to put him in,
Speaker 1: went out to the river, immediately lost the fly box.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you lost the entire bod, entire thing.
Speaker 1: It was one of the cool ones with like it
Speaker 1: was like the aluminum and glass with like the windows
Speaker 1: and ship the little flip the switch English switch stream
Speaker 1: style stuff jacket ye switchblade and stream same thing. I
Speaker 1: don't have a specific lore or fly story, but it
Speaker 1: happened to me um in another in another capacity with
Speaker 1: a remote control boat, like I got one of those
Speaker 1: for Christmas. Neither of these are actually related to the question. No,
Speaker 1: I started with the question They're not really it at all.
Speaker 1: But I was told by my dad not to touch
Speaker 1: it until spring, and he would take me out and
Speaker 1: show me how to use it. Did I listen? No?
Speaker 1: And I sunk it. No. It was a really sweet
Speaker 1: like chriscraft sport fisher and it went around you hit
Speaker 1: an iceberg. No, it literally, I ship you not. It
Speaker 1: just went around in one circle. The bow dipped and
Speaker 1: it literally just drove itself underwater. And then I watched
Speaker 1: it underwater, still driving, spiraled down. It was a bad
Speaker 1: deal anyway. Here's why I started. What is why I
Speaker 1: brought up lost lures because if you happen to need
Speaker 1: a break from your family over the holidays, just quick
Speaker 1: note that the final episode of the Canadian Angle with
Speaker 1: j Siemens drops today on meat Eater's YouTube channel. And
Speaker 1: here's what he does. He don's full Scooba gear, He
Speaker 1: goes diving on Lake of the Woods for lost lures,
Speaker 1: refurbishes them, and then uses your misfortune to score himself
Speaker 1: an epic muskie to close it, like you you gotta
Speaker 1: see it right, And I thought the whole premise was
Speaker 1: extremely clever the way he did that. Yeah, man, that
Speaker 1: that's a that's badass, man. I grew up fishing lake
Speaker 1: wall in paw Pack a bunch. And let's say it's
Speaker 1: a hydroelectric dam. Is like, you know the reason for
Speaker 1: this lake being here, so the water level changes like constantly.
Speaker 1: And where I lived, there was this shoal that went
Speaker 1: straight out along this weed bed, and every summer around,
Speaker 1: like you know, August is when they would drop the
Speaker 1: lake the lowest you could go out on that shoal.
Speaker 1: In addition to picking up like pretty fresh props, I
Speaker 1: mean some of them were dinged up. Occasionally you can
Speaker 1: find like a nice clean prop. You would find all
Speaker 1: sorts of lures and cool crank baits and ship just
Speaker 1: going all the way. People that's their hobby, man, Like
Speaker 1: that's just what they barely fish to just pick up lures.
Speaker 1: But anyway, I thought that was really neat. You should
Speaker 1: watch that. Let's get on with the news here. We're
Speaker 1: gonna try and keep it light and perhaps Festivus. I
Speaker 1: don't know I've gone Festivus, but I don't know where
Speaker 1: you've gone. Because this is a competition and we don't
Speaker 1: know which story the other dude grabbed and at the end,
Speaker 1: jolly old sat Philip of the audious Engineericus Mountains will
Speaker 1: declare a winner and it is your lead this week,
Speaker 1: my man, So have at it. Oh right, man. So
Speaker 1: you know it's not super festive. It's not festive. It's
Speaker 1: not festivus, is it? No? No, unless you can consider,
Speaker 1: like you know, the destruction of one of the most
Speaker 1: important fisheries in the world a festive occasion. That what
Speaker 1: fishery are we talking about? All right? So, so recently
Speaker 1: it was recommended that there be a four fifth reduction
Speaker 1: on the cod catch in one of the two primary
Speaker 1: New England cod fisheries. Can you can blame the Italians
Speaker 1: seven fishes back a lot, man, it's pretty much all
Speaker 1: the Italian's fault. Yeah, man, so uh, darn Italians. I'm
Speaker 1: very Italian. Please don't at me. On on December tenth,
Speaker 1: the New England Fishery Management Council decided on a quota
Speaker 1: of five hundred and forty thousand pounds um. And this
Speaker 1: is of you know, Atlantic cod, down from a previous
Speaker 1: quota of two point four million pounds. So again, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: four fifth reduction. The reduction would be for the George's Bank,
Speaker 1: Um the other primary Atlantic cod fishery that way, the
Speaker 1: Gulf of Maine will see the quota, Uh, stay you
Speaker 1: know stable from last year. I believe it's five hundred
Speaker 1: and ninety thousand pounds. Now. Look, reductions like this in
Speaker 1: the economic short term suck. But this kind of management
Speaker 1: really is essential for long term conservation goals. Uh. And
Speaker 1: to contextualize that, we can look back on a little
Speaker 1: history of New England's cod fishery to understand why. And Joe,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pass this to you in a second. It's
Speaker 1: quite a history. Like yeah, it's yeah, so everybody likes cod.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a white, firm, flaky fish. It's good
Speaker 1: to eat, it's not fishing. Everybody likes it, man, the
Speaker 1: same reason everybody likes Yeah, the same reason everybody likes
Speaker 1: you know. But which is like always been kind of
Speaker 1: like a funny thing to me. It's like upper echelon
Speaker 1: of edible fishes. They're defining like characteristic people be like,
Speaker 1: it's not fishy at all. Man, you're right. But see,
Speaker 1: I can't I can't rip on that too much because
Speaker 1: we've said, I've said a bunch of times on the show.
Speaker 1: I think you have to like you and I are
Speaker 1: not fans of overly fishy fish. No man, no man.
Speaker 1: There's a reason that when I get like sushi and
Speaker 1: it's like a sushi like chef's assortment or like you know,
Speaker 1: dinner where it's like, you know, ten pieces or whatever,
Speaker 1: I'm always like, hey, can you substitute the mackerel for like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I need to say anything else, please assort the mackerel
Speaker 1: off of the sushi platter than yah. Yeah. Um so.
Speaker 1: But this was a resource that was hugely important. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's been important in the context of history. In fact,
Speaker 1: the dude who wrote the book Salt has that book cod.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, there's a lot of meat on that bone. Um.
Speaker 1: But it was. It was a hugely valuable resource for
Speaker 1: not only in the indigenous folks of America, but for
Speaker 1: early settlers as well. Now fast forward to the twenty
Speaker 1: century and super efficient commercial processing, you know, on boats,
Speaker 1: coupled with more efficient fishing techniques, the fishery became over fished.
Speaker 1: And I mean, you know a lot more about that
Speaker 1: particular history than I do. Yeah, I mean I've I've
Speaker 1: done some cod fishing out of Montauk back in the day. Um,
Speaker 1: and Barber just caught a surprise cod. Well, I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, so, yeah, Eric, what would you say? His
Speaker 1: last name was Garber, Curber, leave it in, leave it
Speaker 1: in Curber. I'm gonna go, is this erring after we
Speaker 1: go fishing with him? I don't know, Maybe so bad?
Speaker 1: It's okay? Uh yeah, man, Eric Cerber, my boy Eric,
Speaker 1: he recently it was it was a very big cod
Speaker 1: for Jersey and it was very close in shore. Because
Speaker 1: he was talking, he wasn't like way off shore. But
Speaker 1: I've done some of this out of mom talk. Um.
Speaker 1: There was a time when the Jersey boats were advertising
Speaker 1: cod trips again, but it was kind of bullshit. Like
Speaker 1: basically what that meant was, we'll take you out to
Speaker 1: the lying grounds and probably two or three codd will
Speaker 1: end up on somebody's line, you know, but to say
Speaker 1: we're going out to target them and we could spend
Speaker 1: hours on this. But the bottom line is, like cod
Speaker 1: was such an important fish throughout the Northeast recreationally for
Speaker 1: so many years. I mean, the party boats made their money,
Speaker 1: the recreational captains. I remember reading articles in the archives
Speaker 1: the field and stream like in the dead of winter
Speaker 1: when the stripers were all gone. Dudes on cape cod
Speaker 1: to go out there and surf fish for pound cod
Speaker 1: like in the waves on cape cod. Um. And I've
Speaker 1: had some good cod fishing. But the consensus that you
Speaker 1: talked to any old heads, it's like this is nothing
Speaker 1: crap like this. You know. It's like if you want
Speaker 1: to if your dream was to catch a forty pound cod,
Speaker 1: that is extremely hard to do anymore, you know, right right.
Speaker 1: So so back in the day, like in ninth We're
Speaker 1: gonna go to nineteen seventy six real quick. In nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies six, the Magnuson Act, And this is what contributed
Speaker 1: to a lot of like the pressure and a lot
Speaker 1: of like the commercial over fishing. In nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: the Magnuson Act. UH. It prohibited foreign operations from fishing
Speaker 1: within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States. UH
Speaker 1: the easy right, and the easy includes all fisheries within
Speaker 1: two hundred miles of the U. S. Coast. Now you
Speaker 1: would think that that would do you know, that would
Speaker 1: alleviate the pressure. Well, yes, and no, I mean sure
Speaker 1: from like foreign commercial fleets eliminated all that pressure unilaterally. UM.
Speaker 1: But because folks got so excited about like the lack
Speaker 1: of you know, international competition, the U S Fleet expanded
Speaker 1: in the pressure on the resource within that two hundred
Speaker 1: mile like buffer zone intensified. Yeah, it's it's a it's
Speaker 1: a very like you're it's so back in the day.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a thing called the cod or has
Speaker 1: been raging forever. But yeah, back in the day, like
Speaker 1: you'd have Russian boats on Georgia's bank, like from you know,
Speaker 1: it was insane, but you're right, that's exactly what happened.
Speaker 1: They got all them out, and everybody's like, well now,
Speaker 1: my mid my, my mind, my mind. And it was
Speaker 1: such an economic driver that that's exactly what happened. We
Speaker 1: we overfished them, We got them out and overfished in ourselves,
Speaker 1: you know. Right. So since then, or maybe not since then,
Speaker 1: but you know, within the wake of that act um
Speaker 1: in the last forty years or so, the decline UH
Speaker 1: intake has been sort of like precipitous. To contextualize that,
Speaker 1: in the nineteen eighties, right, annual catches typically topped a
Speaker 1: hundred million pounds of common and then after a crashing,
Speaker 1: you know, the nineties, not not so much. Um. Now,
Speaker 1: there is a lot of these conservation stories. Man, they're
Speaker 1: like so doom and gloom that I feel like it
Speaker 1: gets people unenthusiastic about good changes that are being made,
Speaker 1: even if they're difficult changes. Right. Some people like the
Speaker 1: react and is oh, well, like I'll never go do
Speaker 1: that because it's just so messed up. Some people throw
Speaker 1: their hands up and say, well, if it's this messed
Speaker 1: up already, why not make hay and while the sun
Speaker 1: shines yaum. But there is good news uh per noah um.
Speaker 1: In the Gulf of Maine fishery, a tenuere rebuilding plan
Speaker 1: has been implemented for this stock and the stock is
Speaker 1: targeted to rebuild by twenty four golf main, as I
Speaker 1: understand it, they have the best thing going, Like, that's
Speaker 1: the best cod fishery in the Northeast right now is
Speaker 1: in the Gulf Main. Yeah, and this has been the
Speaker 1: second you know, this is the second rebuilding plan for
Speaker 1: this stock. So, I mean it's something that you know,
Speaker 1: folks have had their eye on and they've been trying
Speaker 1: to you know, perpetuate the resource now with continued careful management.
Speaker 1: Back to what we're talking about, which is this you
Speaker 1: know four five quota slash on George's bank. The George's
Speaker 1: bank stock is scheduled to rebuild by So a lot
Speaker 1: of these like management programs people have like the idea
Speaker 1: of like, okay, we'll implement these cuts that like is
Speaker 1: no there are no fun for anybody, and then we'll
Speaker 1: see what happens. You know, it's important to remember that,
Speaker 1: you know, similar to like, uh, you know, the other
Speaker 1: week we covered you know, the macinaw in the Flathead Lake. YEP.
Speaker 1: There are defined conservation goals attached to these plans, and
Speaker 1: when these plans are successful and that goal is met,
Speaker 1: you got something a lot better than that resource that
Speaker 1: wasn't doing so well before these plans were implemented. So,
Speaker 1: you know, take your medicine and weal come out with
Speaker 1: a better thing. Um. You know. Another interesting like kind
Speaker 1: of thing to note is kind of how we consume
Speaker 1: fish in the effect that it has on fisheries. UM.
Speaker 1: For instance, speaking of like you know, to keep it
Speaker 1: on cod, a shift to the more stable and economical
Speaker 1: polock has taken a lot of pressure off the cod fisheries. Uh.
Speaker 1: To contextualize that McDonald's fish filet was cod now pollock.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. Well, maybe I was not aware that McDonald's
Speaker 1: filet of fish was ever truly caught. I thought it
Speaker 1: was cod from Alaska, but that's neither here nor there. Um.
Speaker 1: You know. The funny thing is I haven't had a
Speaker 1: piece of cod in probably ten years, and the last
Speaker 1: time I ate it, I caught it. Because if I
Speaker 1: see it in a fish market, it's usually too expensive,
Speaker 1: and if I see it on a menu, I just
Speaker 1: don't ever believe that it's cod because I know so
Speaker 1: much about the cod fishery. I'm like, really, this is
Speaker 1: twenty bucks a pound in the fish market, but I
Speaker 1: can have the all I can eat cod fish and chips.
Speaker 1: I doubt it. But the truth is there's nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with pollock. It always gets downplayed like that's not as good.
Speaker 1: Pollock is delicious, and there's a lot more of them,
Speaker 1: you know. Do you know what the fish filet was
Speaker 1: even before cod? This is the second switch? Do you
Speaker 1: know what the fish filet was made with? Originally? I don't,
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna take a wild stab dog fish. No. No,
Speaker 1: The first thing that the McDonald's fish filet was made
Speaker 1: of was actually hell of it. Oh oh, and then
Speaker 1: they got Yeah, that makes a lot of Well, here's
Speaker 1: one final note on on cod. You know, everybody's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, fresh cod. There's nothing like fresh cod.
Speaker 1: You ask anybody who's ever caught a cod. Ever, it
Speaker 1: is extremely rare to catch one that is not riddled
Speaker 1: with worms. Almost every cod is full of worms. Now
Speaker 1: they're big worms, and you can there's a method to
Speaker 1: get them out. They'll crawl right out. But still, I'll
Speaker 1: never forget the first time I ever went cod fish
Speaker 1: and put them in a brine. I actually wrap them
Speaker 1: in a paper towel, and a lot of times they'll
Speaker 1: just come out on their own in the fridge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's a there's a few different ways. But I
Speaker 1: remember I caught a pile of it off Mont Talk.
Speaker 1: My my wife, who was just my girlfriend at the time,
Speaker 1: was living in New York City, and I brought all
Speaker 1: this cod to her apartment and the girl should live
Speaker 1: with I was like, I am making you ladies fresh CODs.
Speaker 1: Tonight busted out the flats and it was just like
Speaker 1: freaking orange worms everywhere, and it was a total turn off.
Speaker 1: It doesn't bother me, but a lot of people, if
Speaker 1: they knew like even if you buy fancy cod, that
Speaker 1: ship had worms in it before it got to you, guarantee.
Speaker 1: Speaking of unexpected and surprisingly brightly colored, man, I know
Speaker 1: you've seen this a bunch of I'm sort of familiar
Speaker 1: with it, but I don't understand the nuances of it.
Speaker 1: Every now and again you will see an electric blue
Speaker 1: cod down to the color of the filet. Do you
Speaker 1: know what? But you know I've seen that. I don't
Speaker 1: know what causes it though, I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: if it's diet or what. But I mean, I imagine
Speaker 1: that pigmentation has to be somewhat similar to like how
Speaker 1: don't ling mouths on the West Coast like during certain phases.
Speaker 1: I don't, I don't. I'm I'm making ship up. I
Speaker 1: don't know why that happens. But I have seen that before.
Speaker 1: There's also bright blue lobsters. That's a real prize thing
Speaker 1: up there, See, listeners, we don't know everything. We don't.
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna I thought I was gonna
Speaker 1: tee you up and you're gonna hit it out of
Speaker 1: the park, man, I was, I thought, I don't. I
Speaker 1: don't know anything about a blue cod. Man, I don't
Speaker 1: know that's what that ship is whacked. How about let's
Speaker 1: you know, let's let's say I'm gonna get a little
Speaker 1: more festive and I'm I'm gonna, I'm gonna this is
Speaker 1: a little more uplifting, I guess, um, and just just
Speaker 1: a little more festive in general. And um, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to uh kick it back to Santa Claus here.
Speaker 1: So I know, we just talked to Santa and he
Speaker 1: had told us he wanted to go bill fishing somewhere.
Speaker 1: But but he must not have gotten the memo yet
Speaker 1: because it's apparently already been determined where he'll be fishing
Speaker 1: on December. And here's how it was determined. Berkeley Fishing
Speaker 1: teamed up with Santa for quite the contest, and here's
Speaker 1: the gist in Santa's own voice, via Berkeley's website. I
Speaker 1: love to fish. I've been fishing all around the world,
Speaker 1: and this year I thought I'd try to find someplace
Speaker 1: new and exciting. So I asked my friends at Berkeley
Speaker 1: Fishing if they could help me find the location that
Speaker 1: is the best fishing spot, and they said that they
Speaker 1: would love to do that. Santa sounds different in that
Speaker 1: it doesn't sound like he's like kindler, gentler, more cohering,
Speaker 1: you know. Anyway, Yeah, let you let you exactly um anyway. Naturally,
Speaker 1: I'm always intrigued when like the best fishing towns or
Speaker 1: trout towns or striper towns or whatever are ranked, right,
Speaker 1: and this style of clickbait journalism is it's like rampant.
Speaker 1: Now you can find a list of the of the
Speaker 1: five best cities for anything these days, like five best
Speaker 1: cities for people who love socks, best places to later
Speaker 1: if you hate pet stores, you know whatever. Anyways, what
Speaker 1: Berkeley did was that they put out a call for
Speaker 1: town submissions. That was step one, and they told me
Speaker 1: they received more than forty town nominations from they whittled yeah, yeah, yes,
Speaker 1: but still forty okay um. From those, they whittled down
Speaker 1: the list to the following five locations where Santa could
Speaker 1: end up. So these were the choices. Heartwell, Georgia, which
Speaker 1: is home of Heartwell Lake and that's a pretty epic
Speaker 1: bass fishery Huntsville, Alabama. That's also some killer bass fishing
Speaker 1: and crappy fishing down there. Springfield, Illinois and which honestly,
Speaker 1: nothing is jumping out at me regarding famed fisheries in Springfield.
Speaker 1: But that's okay because, as we'll learn, um, these towns
Speaker 1: weren't just chosen based on having a big time local fishery.
Speaker 1: There were other reasons for the decision. Other choices last
Speaker 1: to Long Beach, California, which is on the coast just
Speaker 1: south of l A. And finally Panama City Beach, Florida.
Speaker 1: So the next phase of the contest was that they
Speaker 1: asked people to vote on one of those five location
Speaker 1: on Santa Arsanta definitely would have gone to Panama City. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a that's a party town, right, it's
Speaker 1: party town. Um. And and so you vote and Santa
Speaker 1: will will roll into whichever town wins on December. Um.
Speaker 1: And it turns out here is where Santa is actually going.
Speaker 1: Long Beach, California scored the most votes, which doesn't totally
Speaker 1: rule out bill Fish for old st Nick Like it's
Speaker 1: it's a long run, but Swordfish qualifies, right, he can
Speaker 1: fly can fly his slay over to Catalina with the
Speaker 1: eight wide and dance with a broad bill. Um. Anyway, there,
Speaker 1: there's there's more to the picture than just Santa showing
Speaker 1: up to Fish. As I mentioned, there's um more than
Speaker 1: than just the fishery involved in these locations. So Berkeley
Speaker 1: is donating up to twenty five thousand dollars to the
Speaker 1: winning community and that can be used for anything fishing
Speaker 1: related that they want. So um. The locations were also
Speaker 1: very much tied to community needs. That money can be
Speaker 1: used for conservation right or to promote fishing in the area.
Speaker 1: So um, it's all for killer calls a matter of fact.
Speaker 1: On the website, they explained that these specific organizations that
Speaker 1: would benefit in each location, and here's what it said.
Speaker 1: For Long Beach, a vote for Long Beach, California will
Speaker 1: help El Dorado Regional Park purchase specific items related to
Speaker 1: fishing and conservation education about the lake and wilderness. Additionally,
Speaker 1: prize money will be used to help purchase items to
Speaker 1: help preserve wildlife throughout the park. So that's pretty damn cool.
Speaker 1: Man Like, that's just all around cool um cool contest.
Speaker 1: Sana is also showing up with mountains and mountains of
Speaker 1: tackle in gear Um and Berkeley. If he's late or something,
Speaker 1: obviously we have a direct line to him as well,
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll give him a kick
Speaker 1: in the rs if need be. But I thought that
Speaker 1: was great. That's a really cool contest. Yeah, man, I
Speaker 1: mean so many of these events are not only do
Speaker 1: they they kind of like highlight you know, certain fisheries
Speaker 1: and like are they're sure they're good for content, right,
Speaker 1: like you know you're gonna go out there and you're
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna have a good time fishing or whatever.
Speaker 1: But I really love it when they tie in like
Speaker 1: all that conservation and bring attention to like a region
Speaker 1: that you might not think of as as somewhere that
Speaker 1: there is like some significant like fishing to be you know,
Speaker 1: either improved from a public image standpoint or from a
Speaker 1: constitution standpoint exactly exactly. And I think that's what's so
Speaker 1: so cool about what they've done here. Initially you look
Speaker 1: at that list and you're like, oh, I understand this spot,
Speaker 1: understand this spot. Wait why here? But then if you
Speaker 1: really read further into the specific reason that those five
Speaker 1: were chosen, they're all very good reasons that would have
Speaker 1: benefited um a lot of local anglers. So props for that.
Speaker 1: And now I guess we'll we'll kick it over to
Speaker 1: Phil for his Christmas Eve judgment. Hey Phil, what's what's
Speaker 1: Santa bringing you? We'd love to know. And then as
Speaker 1: soon as Phil finishes explaining it to all of us
Speaker 1: non gamers, we've got a lovely, heartwarming Hallmark Channel ready
Speaker 1: Christmas message from our dear friend river Horse. So for
Speaker 1: Christmas this year, I asked Santa for an uplifting and
Speaker 1: topical fish news story, and only one of you brought
Speaker 1: that to me this week. Joseph Mellie, you're the winner.
Speaker 1: And Hayden, I'm not too upset with you for trading
Speaker 1: your holographic chancy for those two common Pikachu cards. You
Speaker 1: know why because I was the guy that made that
Speaker 1: trade with you all those years ago. Great a sucker,
Speaker 1: Thanks for patting my kids college savings account. Merry Christmas. Hey, Now,
Speaker 1: this is river Horse with some sagely wisdom coming to
Speaker 1: you from the far North Arctic Circle in Swedish lap Plan,
Speaker 1: where all of the reindeer on this earth originated from.
Speaker 1: I'm on a little winter adventure with this mid try.
Speaker 1: Is it cold, you ask, my lord, Let's just say
Speaker 1: this place is set to chill. Speaking of all things chill,
Speaker 1: perhaps this holiday season finds you cut up in this
Speaker 1: sometimes bizarre Gonzo and beautiful hurricane of extended family hooplah
Speaker 1: with all the loosens of making a living to navigate,
Speaker 1: which for something can be a wee bit overwhelming. Oh
Speaker 1: you just be it, no mine, Just calm your soul.
Speaker 1: Late at night, after everyone else falls asleep, you just
Speaker 1: quietly slip on out the back door, take a deep breath,
Speaker 1: look up at the shimmering stars, and remember how lucky
Speaker 1: we are to be here. There are millions of miles
Speaker 1: of rivers, lakes and oceans with fish out there waiting
Speaker 1: for you. As for me, I'm about to put a
Speaker 1: kettle of snow water over this birch wood fire and
Speaker 1: brew up some hot chocolate. Always say yes to whip
Speaker 1: cream on top. Baby. Then I'll curl up on this
Speaker 1: forest floor of pine needles in a sub zero down
Speaker 1: sleeping bag and dream away of ten pound bass, all
Speaker 1: lips and hips. Here's to you, my brothers and sisters.
Speaker 1: I will see you along the path in I believe
Speaker 1: in you. You got this, And remember you don't always
Speaker 1: have to find the catch up a lifetime. Just find
Speaker 1: someone and get on under the mistletoe, and oh, my lordy,
Speaker 1: make it happen. River Hoards is genuinely the only dude
Speaker 1: I know who can go from like an uplifting holiday
Speaker 1: message to like straight up sensual in the span of
Speaker 1: three words. No, dude, I know, and that's that's why
Speaker 1: we love the guy. Like you come away from that
Speaker 1: like did I even hang mistiletoe? Because I need to
Speaker 1: get on that ship right now. Anyway, before we sign off,
Speaker 1: We've got an end of the line that I'm particularly
Speaker 1: excited about. Okay, So last Christmas, I did one on
Speaker 1: the Panther Martin spinner and talked about how I used
Speaker 1: to get them every Christmas from my uncle. And I
Speaker 1: ended that by saying the story I was telling about
Speaker 1: the panther and how near and dear it was to
Speaker 1: my heart could easily be told similarly by someone else
Speaker 1: that grew up throwing an entirely different brand of spinner,
Speaker 1: And wouldn't you know it, our own Hayden Samak is
Speaker 1: that different someone? Well, that's not loud enough. My earliest
Speaker 1: memories are mostly fishing small streams with my dad and
Speaker 1: my brother and my grandpa. We might have been fishing
Speaker 1: for you know, Sonny's stockers or small news, but one
Speaker 1: thing remained constant at the end of our lines always
Speaker 1: a Swiss swing. Now, a Swiss swing is an inline
Speaker 1: spinner with a brass bead body in silver, gold or
Speaker 1: copper color, blade and bossed with scales and the words
Speaker 1: Swiss swing. My brother and I grew up fishing them
Speaker 1: almost exclusively. I assumed everyone knew what a Swiss swing was,
Speaker 1: and I carry that assumption with me right up to
Speaker 1: the point that I sat down to write this long
Speaker 1: story short. I couldn't find any information on the spinner.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find out who manufactured him, let alone how
Speaker 1: they were developed. It became clear that if I wanted
Speaker 1: to know more about this spinner, I was going to
Speaker 1: have to look somewhere else. So I started researching a
Speaker 1: similar but apparently more well known spinner called the Cpie
Speaker 1: Swing in the Pantheon of great spinners, the Cpece Swing
Speaker 1: is a cult classic, but oddly not much information exists
Speaker 1: on the history of this spinner either. So I went
Speaker 1: down yet another rabbit hole, which took me all the
Speaker 1: way to the advent of inline spinner itself. It was
Speaker 1: French engineer Andre Milnar who developed and patented the first
Speaker 1: in line spinners. Eventually, a guy named Todd Sheldon started
Speaker 1: selling them in the US, and in ye bought Millner's
Speaker 1: company outright. That company was and is still known as Maps.
Speaker 1: Now this is not a story about maps, but Maps specifically.
Speaker 1: The Maps Shimmy might have played an important role in
Speaker 1: the development of the CP Swing. If we look at
Speaker 1: Milnar's original patent for the Maps Shimmy next to an
Speaker 1: image of the Cpiece Swing, you will notice that the
Speaker 1: Cpece Swing bears a striking resemblance to Milnar's drawings. As
Speaker 1: I've said before, a history of the Cpece Swing is
Speaker 1: hard to come by, and this might be the reason
Speaker 1: for that. Comparing the two, I think it would be
Speaker 1: fair to assume that the Cpece Swing was in fact
Speaker 1: a knockoff of Milnar's original design for the METS Shimmy.
Speaker 1: The fact that genuine CP swings are advertised as made
Speaker 1: in France also points to this as a possibility. Perhaps
Speaker 1: this is why a detailed history of the popular lure
Speaker 1: is so hard to come by. The CP Swing is
Speaker 1: probably a knockoff of an early map, and to that end,
Speaker 1: we're nearly done unpacking a very unofficial and speculative history
Speaker 1: of the Swiss Swing. Now I want to add one
Speaker 1: thing in here. I noticed that in the forums and
Speaker 1: online classifieds I was researching, many folks discussing and advertising
Speaker 1: Swiss swings are based in the Northeast, and the majority
Speaker 1: are located in my home state of Pennsylvania. This could
Speaker 1: be the final piece of the puzzle. Listeners, together we
Speaker 1: may have solved the mystery of why I know these
Speaker 1: inline spinners as Swiss Swings. It seems one of the
Speaker 1: talismans of my childhood is in fact a regional knockoff
Speaker 1: of a knockoff made in some factory somewhere by someone,
Speaker 1: though no one can tell you exactly who. Again, I
Speaker 1: amt all of this is wildly speculative. If you know
Speaker 1: something I don't write me. I'd be glad to hear
Speaker 1: from someone who knows better than I. But to be
Speaker 1: honest with you, the lack of definitive origin has quickly
Speaker 1: become one of my favorite things about this familiar little spinner,
Speaker 1: because in trying to uncover that origin, I've found the
Speaker 1: story of the Swiss swing is written entirely by those
Speaker 1: who use it. I want to end with something else
Speaker 1: I discovered in my research a surprising and shared sentimentality
Speaker 1: of the Swiss Swing. Folks wrote, oh Man that spinner
Speaker 1: caught an absolute ton of Smalley's for Dad and I
Speaker 1: in Cayuga, that back in the day, it's the only
Speaker 1: spinner we used on trout, and they killed him. There
Speaker 1: were dozens of anecdotes just like this, penned by all
Speaker 1: sorts of fishermen, and most of them framed a little
Speaker 1: spinner as a treasured part of their past. It seems
Speaker 1: that I'm not alone in my fondness and nostalgia for
Speaker 1: the Swiss Swing, and that speaks to a paradox I've
Speaker 1: noticed within these more sentimental aspects of fishing, there are
Speaker 1: certain things that fishermen will experience that are at once
Speaker 1: deeply personal and somehow ubiquitous. Perhaps that's why, as fisherman,
Speaker 1: we're able to meet a stranger on a river bank
Speaker 1: and within minutes know them. Did you grow up fishing
Speaker 1: a lure no one else seems to know about? Shoot
Speaker 1: us a note at Bent at the Meat eater dot
Speaker 1: com and tell us what personal favorite was at the
Speaker 1: end of your line. So that's it for the Christmas
Speaker 1: Eve version of Bent. We hope all of you have
Speaker 1: a wonderful time with your friends and family, full of
Speaker 1: holiday cheer, copious amounts of eggnog, and plenty of glazed
Speaker 1: ham My friends. You know I got hammered once on eggnog,
Speaker 1: and I really really don't recommend it. If you thought
Speaker 1: a white Russian hangover is grossy, the whole a mother thing.
Speaker 1: Yeahs are slightly thicker than the Russian. Slightly, it's heavy.
Speaker 1: It's more of a simping drink, I've come to learn.
Speaker 1: But what I do recommend is sending a bar nomination,
Speaker 1: awkward photo, sale, bin item, newspiece, or question to Bent
Speaker 1: at the meat eat dot com. You know I can
Speaker 1: speak for Joe I say this we love hearing from
Speaker 1: you guys. Yeah, I can also speak for myself to
Speaker 1: and say we sure we surely do. Also keep using
Speaker 1: those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on the gram
Speaker 1: perhaps tag a fishy something Santa left you, and from
Speaker 1: the bottom of our degenerate hearts, wells books, books, Merry Christmas.