00:00:02 Speaker 1: Do gingers have souls at this one. I'm a fishing vesta that every time he hits the water, the cool kids beat the piss out of him. If you hate and fixed legos, don't ever go there like that will be your personal health. Can find my scissors anywhere, man will Merry Christmas, degenerate anglers from me Joe Surmelie and me Miles Nulty, and welcome to the bent Christmas Spectacular that we sincerely hope none of you are listening to today on actual Christmas, we truly hope you are spending actual Christmas Day with family and friends, pounding egg nog and stacking up those Amazon gift for seats you can buy the new rod that you really wanted for Christmas. Genuine question, how does your family fixed egg like? What go to tradition? This is important, It's plain, Jane, But you asked, so now I have to give a shout out to Halo Farms at Trenton, New Jersey staple because there's no better pre made eggnog on the planet than Halo Farms. If I could ship you some without its spoiling, I would, But that said, not like chilled chilled Halo knog springs the nutmeg, and I traditionally go Maker's mark. I like bourbon over rum. However, if you want to make an extra sweet and GIRLI go a little crown Robe vanilla. You don't. You don't do the you don't do the warm meg nug thing. I thought that was like what what people did out east. That's not that's not what you do. No, I don't. My family never has, and I know that's the thing. We just never did that. I personally like it chilled, and I'd be afraid I'd overwarm it and just end up with pancakes, you know what I mean. So since you brought it up, I'm really not a fan of any hot or warm alcoholic beverages like hot Toddies. And you don't do the hotti No, it's I've had them. I don't know. Like alcohol is not. It's not supposed to be hot to me. I don't like it. See I I can't go with you on the hot Toddy, but I'm with you on the eggnog. Eggnog. I'm like, I'm totally with you on And I think I always thought it was because I grew up in a warm climate, right like one of those places that you dog on because it doesn't have seasonally appropriate weather for Christmas, therefore it really doesn't have Christmas. But that's the whole other thing. I'm not I'm not touching that, but dude, when it's eighty degrees outside, warm eggnog is gross. Yeah, I would imagine it is. You already think it's not something you want to consume, but imagine when it's like when you're sweaty and someone's like, here, I have a hot cup eggnogg. But my family had this super special eggnog drink that they always used to make and and so I don't know where it came from, but it was very very specific. You would in a blender, you would combine eggnog, eggnog, ice cream, crushed ice, spiced rum, and brandy and you blend it all up into like this North Pole Carnival cruise boat drink and then and then a little little little bit of nut make for garnish, and uh, dude, it's so good. And that for all of you out there who live in in hot climates and still do have real Christmas like and you want to feel jolly, highly recommend doing that. If you can find the eggnog ice cream because that's that's key and it's kind of hard to find. So there's my holiday tip. Damn dude. You know, I got a lot of places around here, including Halo Farms and Trent Trent, New Jersey staple and make a delicious eggnog ice cream as well. If we could be sponsored by them, I'd be okay with it. I would drink the ship out of what you just described and so good, not kidding, I already know at some point my wife's gonna listen to this and go, Oh, that drink Myles was talking about sounds delicious. Yeah, we should make those. And we're big, we're big Peny Colota fans here, so I can get down on this. I like that. Yeah, do that seriously, like honestly, do that, And I want to hear how it comes out. And if you guys try it, which I hope you do, let me know how it goes for you. Anyway, we hope that all of you out there are off doing whatever Christmas e things bring you joy, unless you know you don't celebrate Christmas for religious or other reasons, in which case we hope you're out taking advantage of the fact that all the fishing spots are virtually empty either way, though, good chance that by the time you listen to this show, Christmas will be over and this will just be an annoying out of season episode that you have to sit through. And you're welcome for all that, oh man, but we have to press on because it's Friday, and doesn't that it's Friday, man, that's the show. And before we get to all the auditory gifts that we've wrapped for you, quick reminder that this podcast is fueled by Black Rifle Coffee and thank God for that because when my children come tearing into my room at five am Christmas morning, I'm gonna need that before I can even look at them. Basically, so go to Black Rifle Coffee dot com backslash meetator to get your hands on some and use the promo code meat Eater at checkout to take off your order in there, whether you meant to or not. Joe, you brought up this interesting point right, So we're in the strange like pre post Christmas time warp because we're recording this right now before Christmas. Yes, and and this episode will release on Christmas Day, yes it will. But we don't expect anyone to actually listen to it until after Christmas. We do not, yes, so, so what everyone's hearing are the voices of past Miles and Joe talking about events that future Miles and Joe are going to experience, intended for an audience where that future has already passed. The only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing. That's us dude. Oh yeah, yeah, and that's all right. Just don't overthink it. I mean, it's it's a fishing podcast. Christmas ship god say, but if you want to go that heavy root. Right now, Present Joe is probably losing a ship because his kid has decided to put the stickers on her Barbie Camper van herself instead of waiting for President Joe to do that for her. There are tears. President Joe is yelling, what's present Miles likely up to? At this point, Present Miles is probably wishing he could irish up his coffee because his son has gone into full on Toddler dictator mode, demanding presence and refusing breakfast is what I'm guessing. And and then I'm getting annoyed and starting to lose it. And then my brilliant wife steps in and says, why don't we all just go take a walk, and we get outside, and she's much smarter than me, and everything works out fine. That's my guess. Ah see, now that's that's pretty close, except that we won't take a walk. Everybody will just go to their separate rooms and be like, you go take your ship and go to your room. Daddy's going in the garage for a little while. Anyway, in the spirit of the season and this show, um, we have pulled together a whole series of holiday greetings from some of our favorite regular contributors here on Ben and we'll be sprinkling those throughout, just like shitty candied fruit nuggets an ant Linda's concrete fruitcake. After all, I mean, we want to be surrounded by our friends for Christmas in this digital world where created too, So yeah we do. And kicking it off for us one of our more i might even say, our most esteemed guests, Yeah totally. You probably know him as a famous actor, but we just know him as the proprietor of the finest bait shopping Upstate New York. Here's ray leo to himself. Hey, how you doing this? Is ray at Rayliota's Bait and Tackle and Pulaska New York Wish and Use Merry Christmas shops open today from ten to seven and today only, everything in stock is half price. We've also got free canalis made by Karen and a big pot of pasta lajol made by my mother in law. So come on by. I'm just with you today. It's Christmas putty stupid. First, I just want to thank Ray because he actually called us. He called us asking if he could give a holiday greeting on our show exclusively, which is huge for us, you know. And I also got to say, um, you can just feel the compassion oozing from from every word that man speaks. And you know, I'm realizing that they were going to keep that streak going because in our next segment, we're interviewing Captain and Lake Erie fishing wizard Ross Robertson, a guy who's about as empathetic as a gator snatching puppies from the retirement community. Oh it was a reference. Didn't you see the viral video the dude pulling his puppy out of that gator's jaws. It's it's current events. I thought it was. It was very heartwarming. Yeah, And besides, you know Ross knows that I'll only bust his balls out of love. He and I have a long history and a fish together many times. But there is still much I don't know about Ross. All those questions and more we answered in a Rapid Fire interview segment Covering Water. I'm going in. I can hold it all right today in front of the firing squad on covering Water, our news segment, Please welcome my dear old friend, Captain Ross Robertson. What's going on, buddy, I've already jumped ship here and I'm not I'm friend, not acquaintance, moving up the world. I normally I'm just guess guest guests. Guy. We picked up in the parking lot at the ramp, Ross Robertson. I gotta say, nobody can see you, but I love it. You have the full orange beard going right now. That's very festive for this time of year. It looks warm, your face looks warm. Ginger close. That's that's the whole game anyway. Anyway, So to reiterate how covering water works, this is where we um rapid Fire a bunch of of essentially useless information about a notable fishing personality at you, guys, And and the way the game is played here is, um, we're gonna put two minutes on the clock and Miles and I are gonna go back and forth and rapid fire questions at you, and we want to answer as many of them as we can within that two minutes. So you can't think too long about them, and you can't pontificate on them. You just gotta kind of just go. You just got whatever pops into your head as the answer for association, free association, Yes, a poodle, a noodle, a doodle, whatever, from as as as basically two minutes and ALUs your career correct, let's go correct. And but then what we'll do is is you take the biggest career ending answer and we'll give you one minute on the clock at the end to expand and elaborate on that answer. To beg for forgiveness, I got and beg for forgiveness exactly. So, uh, if you're clear on the rules, we can we can get going here. Miles, I'll hit the first question and we'll roll from there. Ross Are you ready to play? No, but let's go any home, Okay. Two minutes starts now, four loco or vodka Red Bull Vodka Red Bull for sure? Crawler hard? Is fishing brilliant or boring? To? Did you about to get whooped? Right now? It's brilliant? You moving on? Where's Christmas gift you ever got? Probably something a big ball? Nothing from Joe Strommelly okay? Which is more delicious? Walleye or perch? Perch? Actually okay? Best walleye fishery in the country outside the Great Lakes some Canadian lake that I can't even think of because we're on time. Of that name. One thing most ice anglers do wrong don't move enough. Most critical electronic on your boat. Um my son, our GPS, my homing bird for sure? Greatest angler of all time? Huh probably Alander. I thought he was gonna go Ross Robertson. Species you've never caught but hope to someday. Uh, God you that should be the simplest one. Taking too long? Billfish? Yeah, guy go Miles. Gobi's invasive problem species are great bait fish, great bait fish, yummy, m Okay. You can spend eight hours in a pop up with any celebrity. Who is it? Anybody but josephm Elly, um or it's gotta be some hot chick. I mean, like paym Anderson in the nineties. Let's go I love that you got the time that we'll talk about it later. Good good on you for the nineties. They'll go ahead. Do gingers have souls? Not this one spring or fall wall eyes? If you could only pick one spring. What's the most annoying thing that clients do? Breathe? Man? And you know, like the time were actually stopped on the last question there, and like if there was a career end or you got it in just at the buzzer, dude, like right just right there. So I'm gonna I'm gonna put a minute, I'm gonna put a minute back. I'm gonna put a minute back on the clock here that starts now. And you can expand or elaborate on any one of your answers. I mean, obviously the client breathing thing, because I'm good venturing to take somewhere of those you know, no, I mean, you know, guiding is probably uh and I know Miles knows this. It's a very rewarding but very challenging thing. And a lot of times people won't allow you to help them, and a lot of people don't they know, you know, what needs to happen because you're playing chess and they're playing checkers. And sometimes people just being there like I mean, they just they don't listen to anything you're saying from from from step one, and it puts you behind. By the time they realize that, you know, the day is over or the opportunity has been missed. You know, maybe it's that you've spoken to fish, or you haven't switched, or or the bite has changed, the bite is over with and the good guide clients are the ones that have open minds and will actually listen to what you're saying. And most people are not that way. They try to think. And you know, a lot of the guys that I have are successful people. They own their own business and they're trying to outthink me when they just should just be paying attention to what's going on and helping allowing me to help them, because that's ultimately what makes a successful day. I've been there, done that. I'm doing it for them, not for me. That was like a minute ten and I'll give it to you. That was pretty That was pretty tight on the mat. I let you go a couple of extra seconds but that was fun, and we we have confirmed that you do not have a soul, which I've I've known for almost over a decade at this point. Anyway, thank you for taking part in covering What are my friends have? But I don't talk to you before then? Haven't married Christmas? Happy New Year? Thank you. I feel like I've only lost ten percent of my fan base. Wow, Al Lindner, you are batting a thousand in this segment so far as reduced angler of all time. That's uh, that's that's high praise right there. Kudos do you, sir? Now number you wrote in after the first Covering Water we did to tell us that you dug the segment, so we're gonna keep it going. If you have someone in mind you'd like to hear peppered with questions both inane and illuminating, tell us if we think it's a good idea, we'll try to get on the show, and we'll also give you credit for sending us the idea. I do know one person who will not be on Covering Water, and that's our resident West Coast steel head expert, Skatchet Johnson. It's not that we don't think Skatchet would make for a good interview. It's it's more a format problem, Like he's not really like a quick on his feet kind of thinker, works his way through deep questions the same way he swings runs slowly and methodically. We also, I feel I couldn't really grill him on on West Coast Steelhead right now because I get the impression he hasn't caught one in a while. You never know he has, It's been kind of slow. He did, however, manage to record a Christmas greeting for all of you. This is your old steel hidden buddy Scatchet Johnson out of here in Oregon, wishing you a green Christmas, Happy holidays. I was gonna tie up a dozen winners, hope to swing on the lower clack and see if the fish you're feeling festive, But I can't find my scissors anywhere. Man, Oh, well, what's hope the fish are an old dead next year. I can almost taste the piney tang and wood smoke of a Pacific Northwest steelhead camp when I hear Scatchet's voice. Man, it's evocative. So there's a lot going on there, but it's not as evocative as the book that I'm going to cover in this week's Freaking Philistines, which also just happens to be set on a Pacific Northwest Steelhead River. Yeah, this is one of those books that I know I should read. In fact, I've been meaning to read it for over a decade now, but I think the guilt over not having read it already just makes it harder for me to make myself pick up a copy. You know what I mean, I do. I totally get that that that guilt just kind of creates a block. But I'm not judging. I'm just saying, you really should read the book, like I think you will appreciate it when you do, and it's that good. I love that book. I know, I know, I know. Maybe I'll make it a new Year's resolution anyway. This week on Freak and Philistines, the segment where we tell all of you ingrads to put down your screens and read a goddamn book once in a while, Miles is going to tell you about the classic David James Duncan novel The river Y. What's a fasting? It's a guy who doesn't care about books. Are interesting films and things, but I'm fasting movie adaptations of books are almost always inferior, with certain exceptions. The Godfather, Fight Club, High Fidelity, and The Princess Bride come to mind, but by and large we all know Hollywood screws up our favorite author's visions. As far as fishing books go, The River Wy might offer the most egregious offense. I say might because I've never actually seen the movie. I haven't seen it because I refused to watch a complex, thoughtful, and hilarious book turned into a cheesy rom com starting the backup quarterback from Friday Night Lights. Sitting aside my casting skepticism, The original author, David James Duncan, disavowed said movie and tried to get his name removed from the project after seeing it. That's never a good sign, and in this case, it's a genuine tragedy, because The River Wy is probably my favorite fishing book ever. We meet the protagonist, Gus Orviston, just after he's barely managed to graduate from high school, squeaking by with a two point three g p A and taking an extra year to get there. Gus may not be a traditional scholar, but he is a fishing prodigy, and he's about to finally achieve his dream. He's moving out of his parents house to a cabin next to a river, where he will live out his ideal schedule, which, once adjusted for thorny necessities like sleep, food, and minimal work, allows him to fish fourteen and a half hours a day, seven days a week, and that works out to about four thousand angling hours per year. Gus quickly learns a somewhat familiar lesson in this genre of fiction, getting exactly what you want can lead to disappointment. From there, Gus embarks on a pretty standard coming of age novel journey. Since fishing all the time doesn't actually make him happy, he has to figure out what will, and we watch young Gusts stumble his way into wisdom, friendships, and of course, romance. I can see why Hollywood would want to turn this book into Sleep List in Seattle With Fishing, the basic plot, when stripped of Duncan's wit, insight, and brilliantly strange characters, isn't all that compelling, But the book itself is rich, thoughtful, funny, and and unexpected. On every page, it captures the experience of an awkward and overly analytical teenager with a phishing obsession. It's layered with Duncan's deep knowledge of religious and philosophical traditions from around the world, but he employs that knowledge to progress the story, so it never feels like he's just showing off. Finally, the book and its characters capture all the many ways that fishing is a great metaphor for the diversity of the American experience, from high minded fly fishing literary snobs like Gus's father, who he calls h twoo, to down home as salt of the earth, baits soaking rednecks like Gus's mother, who he calls Ma. For example, here are a few passages from a chapter called Being Educated and Getting brung Up. When people are kids, their parents teach them all sorts of stuff, some of it true and useful, some of it absurd hogwash example of the former, don't crap your pants example of the latter, Columbus discovered America. This is why puberty happens. The purpose of puberty is to shoot an innocent and gullible child full of nasty glandular secretions that manifest in the mind. Is confusion in the innards, as horny nous upon the skin, as pimples and on the tongue is a cock sure venomous disbelief in every piece of information, true or false, gleaned from one's parents since infancy. H two O was of the opinion that a parent's most sacred duty was the education of his children. MA adhered to a more primitive philosophy, holding the child will educate himself and that a parent's job is to simply get him brung up. But education as provided by H two proved to consist of no end of fine words and no beginning of practical instruction except in fly fishing, while getting brung up, as overseen by MA, proved to consist of no fine words at all, yet nearly everything my brother and I can do with our bodies and hands as a result of something Ma taught us when it came to getting us brung up full of know how, good food, spunken savvy. There was never a better than Mam as for matters such as what is the meaning of life? For how to seek it? Or where or why? She farted out such cornpone cantankerous opinions that we were forced to plug our noses, bail out of the nest, and start looking for answers ourselves. If you haven't already, go read The River Why, And even if you have, it's probably time to read it again. I personally give copies of this book to every teenager I know who's even a little bit interested in fishing. I just don't tell them. There's also a movie version. And hey, if that felt just a little too elevated and culture, don't worry. Here's Atlantic City z own striper surf legend, Bob the Garbage Man wishing all of you's a merry Christmas. Let's destroyed for chunking expert Bob the Garbage Man Briton and a new wish you use a merry Christmas and a happy Chaanica or whatever. I hope you all get golf clubs or roller skates or new mobile homes in Ohio, anything to keep us. God bless you and your family and your other family from your first marriage. Ah. Yes, balance has been restored to the show. We went from a book that covers much of the world's religious and philosophical traditions and explores the meaning of life through the actor fishing, to Bob g imploring all of you to buy golf clubs. We truly do contain multitudes, and in that vein, it is an outtime for us to cover the multitudes of fishing stories that broke around the globe this week. Let's jingle our way over to fish news. Fish news that escalated quickly. Okay, So since it's Christmas, we're gonna keep news light, cheery, festive, and at least accurate this week. Okay, however, this is still a competition despite the holidays. Miles and I do not know which stories the other guy is wrapping up and putting under the tree. And at the end of it, our merry audio engineer Phil will be rewarding one of us with a victory Nerf bow and arrow, and the loser will get a value pack of tube socks. Oh now, I'm totally gonna win this one. I should have come up with better stories. Okay, Who's I can't remember? Are you leading him? Who's who's got Who's up first? I'm leading this week? And listen, no matter what, you can never have enough new socks. I can't. So I mean, it's not a total loss, you know what I'm saying. If you don't get the NERF bow and arrow. Yeah, those were always just like the I have a bad association with socks for Christmas. Those are always the gift. You're like, oh, but I was hoping for a well I I had. It was actually the boyfriend, longtime boyfriend of my great aunt would be like the creeper that would give you like packs of underwear, like Spiderman underwear. But when you're a little kid, you know, you open things in front of the whole family and it's like, what did you get? And you're like, you creepy asshole. He was kind of creepy and it always pissed me off off anyway, Okay, so enough about that. Okay, so I do get to lead off, um, and here we go Christmas news starting now from Fox news dot com, headline three hundred Santa's go fishing on North Carolina Lake benefiting toys for tots and setting a world record. Isn't that jolly? And this was a one day event sponsored by Ugly Stick and held on Lake Norman. And there were nearly fifteen thousand dollars worth of new toys donated during the tournament. So good on you, ugly Stick. That is that is super sweet. So now so this this story, uh it says that a record has now been set for the largest fishing tournament contested by anglers dressed as Santa Claus. But it does not say if we're talking like Guinness book, or whether this is confirmed or it's just based on an assumption that three d Santas have never fished in one place before. You know, Um, I'm not entirely sure, though I believe that it is a record, and I find three is more cheerful than the standing record of three hundred Satan's jet ski fishing on lake meat in Las Vegas. So did you actually find that? Now? Sorry, I was so excited because I was gonna go find that way moving on, Satan Santa, change you letters on. That's what I did there. Anyway, despite all those santa Is conjuring up smiles and glee, a good portion of them could not use their Santa magic to conjure up a pattern. Apparently, um anglers Scott Hamrick and Roger Hoover took home the title of top Santa and five thousand dollars with a fifteen point seven pound bag. Now, I checked with a source friend of ours, Clinton Bartlett Turney guy friend of yours, you know, Clinton, He's a friend of the show, and um, he lives down around that way, and he says, that's a good bag, not a great bag. In fact, Clint says, and I quote, seven bags over twelve pounds is not good even for the winter time. So despite all this, Santa's cranking and warming boats and the attorney wade in zero bass. But hey, you know what, this one wasn't about winning everybody the big money. Yeah, everybody wins. It was for an amazing cause. Okay, it looked like a ton of fun. Um and if there was a Santa tournament here I might enter. It looks like a good time. So yeah, big win for toys for tots. I like this story. I love that story. I'm curious, Joe, have you ever had any jobs that required you to dress up like Santa Claus. No, I've never had a job that required me to dress up as anything, in particular, because I have I actually have Santa. Oh. I mean, I wasn't like the mall Santa would come on, kids, let's sit on my lap. But uh, I used to work at Big Sky Resort here in Montana as a snowboard and I've stayed I've stayed in a Penthouse there, believe it or not much nicer than anywhere I got to stay. I can tell you as as a lowly employee there. But yeah, for Christmas, I had to dress up in a Santa suit and take pictures with kids on the slopes. It's true story. And dude, you're so tall and lanky. I had a fake gut that I put in, and the whole I mean, it was the whole deal. But my favorite part about that whole thing is like after I got off of that shift, you know, I had to be on like the green magic carpet run for the kids to take pictures where all the kids were. But then when I got released from my shift, I got to ride all the way back down and of course i'd like dropped off the side of the mountain into the trees. And as I was going over the top, I could hear this kid yelling at his dad from up on the chair. Lived like Daddy, Daddy, look at Santa, He's gonna die. It was my favorite part about that, all right, shattering the dreams of the youngest. Uh, my first story has nothing at all to do with Christmas, but I don't really care. I like it. It's light and fun. It's a light and fun story for me any way. Uh okay, this this one is such a good example of how journalists spin scientific papers to get like clicky headlines that people just consume. Right, so so check it out. A few weeks ago, the journal Nature Communications published this paper titled Domestication via the commensal pathway in a fish invertebrate mutualism. Alright, so that paper, no idea what that means. That paper got spun into the following news headlines Farmer fish becomes first animal found domesticating another species and algae farming fish domesticate shrimp to improve their farms, and this fish is the first of its kind domesticate other animals. The last one is the only one I understood. I didn't even under I didn't even really fully grasped this spun fake headlines, but you might have clicked on alright, So here's what's going on. Damsel fish, which are a type of reef fish, have long been known to tend their own little algae farms on the reefs where they live. They basically just cultivate and defend a little patch of algae, and that's what makes up a big part of their diet, so not really farming, but they call them farms, right. So these researchers from Australia, they recently discovered that long fin damselfish take the whole thing a step further. The researchers noticed that long fin damselfish farms have lots of these, uh, these really specific tiny shrimp called micid hanging around, and they observed that the mice had shrimp didn't seem to mind being close to the damselfish, even though they avoided all other kinds of fishes, and that the damselfish that had a lot of shrimp chilling out on their algae plots tended to get better crops, so to speak. And it turns out that micid shrimp feces makes dynamite algae fertilizer. After extensive observation, the researchers concluded the damselfish and miceid shrimp have evolved into a relationship that seems a lot like domestication. Mice and shrimp are actually attracted to the smell of long fin damselfish and we'll seek them out. Damselfish are highly protective of their farms and they chase away any critters that come near except mice and shrimp. So the shrimp get protection from other predators by the damselfish, and the damselfish get fertilizer from the crops from the shrimp pooping. It's one of those like cool science stories that mainstream media just loves to grab because it makes animals seem more human. But I am personally just wary of anthropomorphism in general. This seems to be an example of people wanting to ascribe human traits to fish. So I don't believe that the fish are intentionally cultivating and domesticating these shrimp. I don't buy it. I think now, I think the shrimp are getting protection, the fish are getting more food, and they've both just learned to tolerate in each other and be like cool, you can hang out. But here's my question. I'm run this out to all the real biologists out there because I know we have something that Listen, how is this different from all the symbiotic relationships that we already know exist between aquatic species, Like, how is this such a big deal? We know clown fish hang out with C. N M and E s because they both get mutual protection from predators. We know that certain type of rass operate what we call cleaning stations in the reef, where larger reef fish will show up and let the rest eat all the parasites and dead tissue off. How is this different? I don't get it. Like I read the paper, and the paper seems to be claiming that this is a totally different system, But I don't get how it's different. So I'm actually asking, please, someone who gets this better than I do, send an email and explain this. If I get a solid answer, I will do a follow up and and and admit that I'm wrong. But I don't personally see how this is any different. It's a cool headline, though, it's a fine headline, But I look at something like this and it's like, man, somebody you know observed this and put put some effort into documenting it and writing a paper and all this stuff for a piece of information that that at the end of the day, I'm just like neat, that's neat, Like you know what I mean, Like this doesn't forward progress or like it's just like figure that out. So I mean, maybe maybe maybe this will somehow lead to more respect for damselfish, because if there's one thing I know about damselfish having grown up with saltwater aquariums in the house. Okay, you know how like you can't do saltwater and just throw ship in there. You gotta wait for the bacteria to set up and salted it right. And the sacrificial lambs are the damselfish. The damselfish are the cheapest saltwater fish in the aquarium store that you throw in to make sure your ship's right before you throw that fifty bucks away on the blue tang. That's what I know of damsel fish. So maybe they're Maybe somebody be like, wow, they are way too smart to be the toilet flushers for saltwater aquariums worldwide. If this really is an example of like domestication in in in another in a fish species, I get why it's a big deal. I just again, I just don't understand how it fits, how it's different than just basic symbiosis. I'm missing something here. I don't really see it in either. And frankly, like, um, comparing this to you're talking about the cleaner rass is, I think that's a much more interesting symbiotic relationship. Frankly, you know, like what they do for for fish than than this. But you know who am I? This one has an extra step right, because they're not it's not directly the shrimp and the fish. There's the alergae involved, so there's a third party. I get it. It's a little more complicated, but still I'm not sold. We'll take it here from throwaway damsel fish in your tank to to fish that everybody wants uh for for the long haul, maybe even for the wall ah. And this one comes from for the wind dot com headline in rare feet angler land two near record muskies on the same day. And this is a pretty short story. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna run through it here real quick. When Benjamin Knutson's fishing rod bent double recently on Minnesota's Malacs Lake, I knew right away. He said this was the one I was hunting for. It was her, and that muskie measured fifty six point five inches and weighed an estimated fifty one pounds, which is an exceptional catch, as the story points out, for this large but shallow lake. But while that could have justified calling it today, Knutson two hours later landed another muskie that measured fifty three point to five inches and weighed an estimated fifty four pounds based on the length girth measurement formula, and both muskies were released and fell just short of the record in the state's catch and release land category, which is fifty seven point four inches. Also, the second muskie, if Knutson's weight estimate was accurate, would have tied a Minnesota weight record that has stood since nineteen fifty seven. That fish has actually come up on this show several times before, and that fish measured fifty six. So for all the musky fans out there wondering what the skinny is, both of those fish fell to the famed Bulldog, And if you're familiar with that soft plastic it weighs a ton and I find them utterly painful to throw. But they catch biggins. Man, it is a legendary Lord. It's basically nothing but a gigantic mr Twister, and they catch some some big muskies. And you know, all I can think of here is how this makes other musky anglers feel like to tie it to the season. It's like when all you want your yeah, yeah, it's like, well, well yeah, it's the holidays, man, You piste off about something. But It's like when all you want in your life is the micro Machines aircraft carrier, and every chance you get for months you drop hints about wanting the micro Machines aircraft carrier. Then on Christmas more and you get no aircraft carrier, but the next door gets the aircraft carrier and the micro Machine see seven air Cargo play set, and you just have to settle for the dollar store army trucks, which is my analogy for Northern Pike. So anyway, but I can't. I cannot even imagine Ben, what Santa can bring you that will be better than that. So huge congrats on that set. You're you're you were taking such a high road on this, SURMELI like, yes, you as the guy who just has such a chip on the shoulder up musky Like I'm slightly boiling in jealousy over this, and you're like, oh no, I'm real, real happy for him. No I am, because because I've let it go miles like I don't expect in my life to ever catch a fifty pound musky. Like I'm okay with that. I don't expect to catch that fish. I don't deserve it. I've said this about myself. I don't. I don't deserve it. I'm not devoted enough to the to the musky pursuit to deserve that fish. It feels like a justification for failure. But I'll that you have it. I'll let you have that and and feel better about yourself. And I think that that sets me up nicely, because a lot of us seem to have been justifying a particular act that we've done for much of our lives. And I'm gonna talk about that one. This is this is my Christmas news story. All right. I did find all right, all right? For much of my life. And I don't know about you, but for much of my life, I've been told that Christmas trees made great fish habitat right. Ah, Yeah, man, I love it. I love where we're going. Yeah, you just you just love it. You just sink your old unwanted Christmas trees, the bottle of lake and the croppy, the blue gill, the bass, everything you want. She's gonna flock there. You'll have your own. I mean, it's gonna be like your personal secret hotspot. It's gonna be stacked with fish. Right. This is sometimes framed as almost like a civic duty for fishermen, like, you're a bad angler if you molch that tree, or God forbid you burn it. But I'm gonna im gonna throw a side note here. Old Christmas trees make the best bonfires. Forget about palettes. Try a giant pile of dried out pine trees, complete with needles. I promise you will never see another bonfire like it. Again, It's amazing. It's illegal to burn anything here like leaves and stuff, so we like we just drag ours to the curb and they pick them up like the track. Yep. But I'm telling you right now, check out that that pine tree fire fire. But I'm not supposed to say that. I'm not supposed to talk about what a great bonfire you can make with your old trees because according to conventional wisdom and the Internet, you have to drop your trees in a local lake. This is like lake fishing gospel, and and for much of my life I just accepted it. Even if I didn't do it personally, I believed like I carried guilt because I wasn't as good of an angler. So my goal for this Christmas news story is to figure out exactly how beneficial Christmas trees actually are when comes to lake habitat, I'm biting my tongue. I want to jump in, but I'm biting my tongue. Let me get through it here, this is your day. A few years ago, a friend of mine was telling me how they don't allow people to sing Christmas trees into their neighborhood lake anymore because he claimed the acidity from all the pine trees was throwing off the pH balance. And I didn't question him at the time because we were just shooting ship. But then I was researching this story and I figured, well, I should check that avenue out. I dug around online and I couldn't find anything about pine trees affecting the pH of lake water. So I then called a few people who know way more about this stuff than I do, and they hadn't heard about this issue either. So it seems like it would take what I from what I can gather from other people's more expert assessments than mine. Seems like it would take an unreasonable amount of trees to throw off the pH balance of a lake, like as long as you're not filling the lake with trees, which would pose so many other problems. On the acidity. I think this is a non issue. In fact, dozens of states collect old Christmas trees and turn them into massive underwater reefs. In certain cases, we're talking about tens of thousands of trees, all tied together and sunk to the bottom. The trees create structure for aquatic organisms and fish, and then they break down in further feed the system. My home state, from what I can tell, doesn't do this, but I found many of that do. So if you're looking for something to do with your old tree and you don't feel like burning it, check with your local fisheries management agency to see if they accept tree donations. But then this led me to yet another question. Do Christmas trees actually make quality fish habitat? Like? Are they good? And the answer, from what I can tell is yes and no. The reason that so many people in states drop Christmas trees the bottom of lakes has a lot more to do with their availability than their quality. Pine trees have a couple of things working against them as fish holding structure. First, they deteriorate really pretty fast and will only provide good cover for a couple of years at best before they disintegrate. Second, their branches are too close together for big fish to want to use them as ambush cover. I found one study from the Berkeley Research Center in Nebraska referenced numerous times that claimed fish gravitate two limb gaps just big enough for them to fit in between. And Christmas trees have super tight limbs, so they work well as a place for bait fish to hide from larger predators, but not so well as a place for you know, big fish to hang out. Hardwood, with their more widely spaced branches, make far superior cover for most of the fish species that we target, and they last a lot longer. So bottom line, I only there's anything wrong with tossing your old Christmas tree in a lake, but don't expect like you're creating some kind of a magical big fish paradise, right. That's not gonna happen. More likely, your holiday cast off will just become rearing habitat for baby fish, which is valuable but not quite what we've been told. And finally, my last point, please remember trees float, so you can't just go chucking your tree into the water and like walk away and think you've done well. If you want this to work, you actually need to weigh it down pretty significantly and preferably do so with biodegradable sandbags. So it's gonna say we recommend a car battery just lead, pure lead. Ah man, No, this is I'm glad you brought this one up, and I've learned a little bit here. But I will tell you see, i've heard the same thing about the acidity. Now maybe you've maybe you've debunked that. Frankly, they used to do this all the time growing up where I lived right Mercer County Lake Rose Daylight. They'd be signs bring your Christmas trees on this date. But as far as I know, they shut that down years ago. They don't dump any trees in any lakes around here anymore. Now I can't tell you why that is. I don't know if there was a specific study, but this has come up in circles, you know, shooting the breeze with with guys over the years. I have never heard anybody say that they've had good fishing on dump Christmas trees. And i've heard the I've heard the acid thing a bunch of times, that they're they're too acidic, um that they disintegrate to the point they disintegrate so fast it's it's it's almost not even worth it. So I don't know that we've come up with a definitive answer here. I'm just sort of rehashing the things that I've heard sort of you know, speculated. But I feel like that was a big thing when I was a kid and a teenager, and it's it's gone away, and sort of the consensus is now like just not not worth the effort, doesn't doesn't really do enough. I think that's true. And the pH thing was one I was really thinking I was going to get a bunch of new information on and debunk this whole thing, and I couldn't find anything that And that's what's most fascinating about this one to me is because I've heard that so much people. People say it like it's law, like oh, there have been studies at the university. But then you looked and well, okay, now, now I don't know is that is that a myth? But I have heard that before, so I have too. But I haven't seen a sign or a call online to bring your trees in a very long time. It's still happening that I can say. It may not be happy now by you, it's not happening out by me. But there are a lot of places that are still doing that and collecting them for these really big, large scale reef projects that that and Christmas trees are just what's available. So I think that's why they use them, because they can get them for free and they're there. Um, So some places are definitely still doing it. But the takeaway really is it's not a great panacea for fish. But I also don't think it's like I think it's a problem necessarily, but now I don't think you're doing a great thing by dropping your your Christmas tree down there. Wow. I know Phil is going to have a problem deciding who who the Christmas Victor is because I feel like we both did a good job keeping it lighthearted. Um, Phil, you know who's been naughty who's been nice? And as soon as we're done hearing from Phil, uh, we're gonna kick it over to the sale bin to talk about another material that hypothetically could make some some pretty good bottom structure if you had enough of it, which you might if you purchased this item. Wow, it's the end of the year already, man. I think after a year, the last thing we need is something else to argue about, and we already have so much of that around the holidays? Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? I don't know what's the deal with parents in these Christmas movies where Santa obviously exists in this universe? Did they not have Santa visiting their house every year? If Santa was visiting their house every year, where did they think all these presents came from? Who the cares? It's the holiday season and I am crowning both of you winners of the episode. Thanks for a great year, guys, see you next year. But if you really need a winner, it's Miles. Why did you put the head to pay? You don't know what I'm getting back? What you didn't have to be so hurtful with me so angry. This week's sale bin item comes to us from the Craigslist page of Satellite Beach, Florida, and it's not what you think. There's actually got tipped off by my buddy Dave Graham. Shout out to him for us sending this along. And look, I know we digg on Florida from time to time on this show. This is not going to be one of those legitimately, So this is not going to be one of those Florida Man type cheap shot setups where we, you know, we find a guys selling a wheelbarrow with an outboard attached as a boat and we make fun of it. Uh, this one is definitely unique, Okay, probably the most unique one, I think that that we've seen yet so far. The title of the listing reads wanting to trade exclamation point twenty one hundred pounds of Lego pieces for a decent fishing boat and then lists of dollar figure and apparently this this is all about, like all worth about twelve thousand bucks. Yeah, Like, there's really not much room here for description because the post is it's exactly what it sounds like. That's what it is. And and I don't know about for you, Joe, but for me, the photos are not making this seem like an attractive opportunity. Just piles and piles of tight shots of Lego. Yeah, it's just Lego piles. And if you're even even just a hint o c D, this is your nightmare, just straight up Nightmaresh. I liked Legos as a kid. I was, I was definitely into them, but I really hated when the sets got mixed up, and because it would always just turn into these these cauldrons of chaos. You know, you were that kid g I Joe guns had to go with the correct g I Joes. I liked it. I liked having my sets as sets separately. I got really anxious when they all just get mixed together, because like, there you are, you're trying to build your car or whatever, right and and you know you need that one set of wheels, and they're in there somewhere, but you can't find them in this kaleidoscopic massive like angle pieces and braces and medieval turrets. And then there's always the random, like yellow, weird disembodied heads floating around of the Lego guys. Well, the photos that we're looking at here are like that, but just times a thousand. It's it's just like on steroids. I don't think I got his nuts about it as you, but I was a huge Lego kid. I love the Lego boats that floated, remember the holes that were solid. But I liked a set like I wanted to build that set and then keep it made. I didn't take them apart and make them ago. So I'm I'm the same. Yeah, kind of on the same page there, so I'm with that. Uh. Now the post does go on it says, we have twenty one pounds of clean mixed Lego pieces of all types that are surplus two our needs, which and this just begs the question, how many Legos do you have? If these twenty one hundred pounds are surplus to your needs, what exactly are your Lego needs? And the only thing I can think is that, like, are you uh an owner of one of the the Lego Land establishments which I have been to with my children, And dude, if you hate mixed legos, don't ever go there, like that will be your personal hell side note uh, for that very reason, Lego Land was kind of a bad idea before COVID. Now they might be done, Like there's just not enough hand sanitizing spray sanitizer on the planet. Anyway, they just dip the whole thing and bleach at the end, exactly, just burn it, burn the whole Lego Land down. Well. Anyway, The post goes on to say, this type of product sells every day on eBay. What type of product? Pounds of legos on eBay for anywhere from eight to fifteen dollars a pound, Like, I did not know legos were dealt with like beef, you know what I mean? Like, so, uh, it says if you sell them at an average of ten dollars a pound, there you go, it's worth of legos. Excuse me, I can't do so clearly? Right? Have you researched? I did not? Really? Is that accurate? Did you research this? I was not familiar with like contraband black market lego prices before this, So I did have to do something. That's why we love you? What do we? When I got I cross reference, I checked Amazon and checked eBay, I checked Etsy, and actually, from what I could tell, this is legitimate information, like legos are comparable in price to what you would pay for like wholesale salmon filet's. They're right in that eight fift a pound. Yes, really, so if you just take a pound of mixed up Legos, that's worth eight to fifteen bucks, just grando mixed legos, not a set anything, just mixed. Yeah. And so like I'm trying to figure out the backstore on this, because we do write it seems like this person at some point realized that extreme legoing is not the optimal hobby. If you live in coastal Florida, so you know in the sun Ghion State's perennial recreation cage match. I'm gonna say this, this person shows wisely because they picked fishing over golf, correct, But they don't want to take the time or effort to separate package and sell their literal metric ton of assorted legos, which are potentially worth over twenty grand, so they're just offer it up a straight boat trade. Like I gotta say, man, look creative as this is. I don't think this person, though, is going to make a successful angler. Anyone who keeps tossing legos in a box with no rhyme, reason or organization until they cross the two thousand pound threshold, he's gonna struggle with tackle storage, with tackle boxes and and and every boat owner knows you gotta be a little O. C D too captain and maintain a vessel um. You know, when when this person does get a boat, if this works out, I'm picturing a very seized up engine in the near future. But this one was a lot of fun. We we we love getting links from you guys for the sale being Keep those coming to bent at the Meat Eater Dot com and if one of you out there is like send me that like dred pounds of legos, I'm in hit us up. We'll get it squared away. All you gotta do is take us fishing before we move along. Miles mentioning of black market contraband in that sale bean segment reminded me that we've got a message of good holiday cheer from our favorite under the table, South Louisiana captain down the road, Darren, whose last name we bleeped again. We have to beleeve it all time because he's still done warrants out in St. Bernard Parish. Here's our buddy downing. What up, y'all? It's down road Darren in South Louisiana. Me and my partner Joey Campo want to wish y'all a merry Christmas. We're in the duck line right now and we're freezing our cohone. He's off. Hopefully Santa Claus brings some warm weather when he gets his ass down here this year. And Santa, if you listen, if you can do anything to get the Saints back to the Super Bowl this year, I promise I'll stop doing my side hustle selling boot leg Coast to sunglasses to the drunk frat boys on Bourbon Street. All right later there might want to be careful there. Those saints are those saints are looking pretty good and uh and from what I hear from you, anyway, that side hustle he's got is pretty lucrative. Oh, I wouldn't worry about that. I give that promise is zero percent chance of lasting beyond the season. It's not like he swore to God on his excel Lady Shantell. That would be an actual blood oath. Dude, I have so much to learn about South Louisiana culture. And since since we are on the subject of people that I just don't understand, I think it's about time to grinch up this episode. Yeah, it is, because you guys didn't think we were gonna get through this show without hearing from our very own internet fishing expert Lance V. Did you? Of course you didn't. So without further Ado, let's throw some some audio coal in Miles ear Stockings with his least favorite bit, trolling with Lance the segment all you boys and girls love to hate and hate to love the land, to the boats, to the like, to the sea, getting up the n on Net, but John Boyd, Lad Police, Nabby Dot stocking stuffers. It's me, jolly old Lance Fee here to slather you with Christmas cheer and internet fishing awesome sauce. I know you're busy googling instructions to that go pro max Santa brought you. But just so you know, YouTube can't teach you how to make a viral TikTok fishing dance. Only I can do that hashtag messaia. Remember, Christmas isn't about family or goofy socks or fat guys stuck a Chimneys. Christmas like life is a competition, So listen up because this question from listener Kyles really captures the spear of the season. Kyle writes, Dear Lance, if you were on fire in front of me and I had to piste up bad that my bladder might bus I don't think I would pistol on you to put you out, but I could use some of your advice. I need to viable lady Christmas present for my little nephew Crispin. His parents collect toe bags and celebrate me this Monday's so I know they only bought him lame educational stuff. You know, like books and toys made of wood. What can I buy him that will make him love me more than his real parents? Great question, Kyle, This one really touches me. Hashtag children are a future hashtag little Angels, Kyle, If you truly want to be the cool uncle, you'll buy a little Crispin, a PS five, and a copy of Ultimate Fishing Simulator to then you'll download the secret patch that lets him play has his favorite fishing superstar. Me problem is, unless you're showering and doubling to Cheddar or have deep connections to the Russian Dark Web like I do, no way you're getting those. My guess is you're lucky to scrape up enough Elveta for a bowler, mac and cheese. So here's the list of ball of gift ideas for all the broadcast uncles and aunts out there who didn't quite manage to get that box in the mail before Christmas but still want to be cooler than your siblings in the eyes of their spawn. None Bert, you know, a subscription to YouTube Premium. PLoP those kids in front of the screens and let the little tykes binge all their Internet fishing heroes without having to sit through annoying ads. I mean, bro, did you watch the fur head Eyes tore It was like six infomercials for manly boutique soap, which is an oxy moron. And yes, I did have to look that word up to use it in a sentence. Hashtag vocabalarian, hashtag educator, new merrow two, potty fisher, toilet fishing game, Google it and thank me later. I guarantee you'll pick one up for yourself as well. Number three areno a Monster Energy Monthly Sampler subscription. Does this mean that little Crispin will stop asking his parents to pick up a case of Monster Energy Assault every time they go to the store. Of course not. He'll still need his daily sweet and salty power boost, but the monthly Sampler allows him to try out all of Monster energies new lab tested formulas without sacrificing his routine. Hashtag discipline, and last, but certainly best, a fishing vest. Now. I know you're waiting for a sarcastic comment something like if you wear a fishing vest you probably still have an active Facebook account. But I'm dead serious. If Little Christmas parents are as lame and bait as you say, he probably needs itself and up. But I'm a fishing vest so that every time he hits the water, the cool kids beat the piss out of him. It's basically like getting him a fight club membership hashtag first rule of Fishing. So there you go, Kyle. I hope you hit my advice and savage Little Crispins new Year, since this Christmas has probably already been ruined by artisanal coloring books and patagony sweaters. That was exactly what I expected. But I do hope. I do hope that Little Crispin gets that toilet fishing set. I'm gonna be honest. I actually bought one from my kid under the guys that like, oh it's a potty training tool and then and not a present to myself. I hope both of you enjoy that, and I do not want to know how it all comes out. I'd buy one for my kids, but I gotta tell you, they have so many cheap play fishing sets, which I'm very proud of, but none of them could be pieced back together in their original form if your life depended on it. Like they're all just are they all intermingled there in all different time zones, like there's some outside there's some in this bathroom. You know, they're just everywhere, so I don't I'm gonna skip that. I don't really need one of those. But anyway, speaking of piecing things back together, we're still thinking about our friend in Ladge owner Mitch McFly up in Canada, hoping things come around so he can kind of piece his business back together, you know, once these pesky COVID travel bands are lifted. Um. But you know, despite that hardship, the guy's just got such a positive attitude, you know what I mean, considering what he's facing, and uh, he was kind enough to send along this warm holiday message for all of you there, folks. Mitch McFly up here at beautiful Pickerel Point Lawe on Alberta's Pristine Spooner's Lake, wishing all our valued guests from the States as safe and a happy holiday. I'm sure many of you have got new ice augers and four thousand horsepower snow machines and stainless Deel beer cozys from Santa Claus. Too bad you still can bring them up here. Real shame at eight to ruin your holiday by telling you about a hold of monster Walleyes that we've been schooling right off the point or the forty seven inch pike that's been following them around. So instead I'll just say take care and God bless thanks Mitch. While I'm waiting to get back up there, I'll just be, you know, doing donuts with my new four thousand horsepower snow machine in front of the retirement home that's right across the creek from my house. They're gonna love me anyway. Uh, we're just about out a time in this way too long Christmas extravaganza. Yes, but before we go, Joe's got a holiday yarn that he's going to spin for all of you. So grab a blanket the settle in while Uncle Joe does his version of Twas the Night before Christmas only with trouble hooks, stock trout, and family fishing lore. It's time for end of the line. Well that's not loud enough, Burt scooch on up to the fire boys and girls. Pour yourself a fresh egg. Not because today your old pal Joe has a Christmas tail that will take us over the truck trout stock rivers of New Jersey through the mostly clear cut woods where shopping centers now exist, and to grandmother's bait and tackle shop will go to discuss what I believe is the greatest in line spinner of all time. I'm basing that somewhat on fact, but more so on a deep rooted family loyalty and a heaping helping of because I said so. It all started in France in the nineteen fifties, where savvy businessman Cecil ho Sr. And his wife Fritzie discovered the lore that would become the Panther Martin Spinner. To be honest, details of the exact order of events are conflicting and a bit cloudy, like that eggnog we're sipping. But to the best of my research, HOJJ, who was a mastermind at mail orders Sales, struck a deal to get these lures imported to his facility on Long Island in New York. It was there that they were packaged and sold as Panther Martin's, originally as a mail order catalog item, which as we all know, eventually blossomed into wholesale with every major retailer from Kmart to Walmart and beyond. J eventually moved manufacturing to Italy, and as I understand it, that's where Panther Martin's are still made today and for most of my life, perhaps like for much of yours. You know, they said made in Italy right on the package, so I just assumed it was the Italian stallions that invented the panther, But nay, they come from France, just like the maps. So yeah, the French really no cheese baggat's funny hats and inline trout spinners. These days, the Hog family still owns and operates Panther Martin and it's still import Jefferson New York, and their catalog features a wide variety of offerings. Side note, many of you boys and girls may be unaware that Panther Martin actually introduced the first soft plastic swim bait to the market in the form of their VV floor, which featured a modern style boottail, decades before that was the thing, but we'll save that for another fireside chat. Today we're just focusing on their classic tear drop body trout spinners and their classic brass body Spinners Deluxe Fly Edition with the rad or yellow feathers lashed to that treble hook. What makes a panther a panther, regardless of specific model, is that it's blade rotates freely around the post without needing a clasp to spin it. The result is a tighter spin, which many, myself included, believes creates a sharper vibration under water. One could also argue that since the blade isn't swinging around all lucy goosey on a clasp, panthers foul less often and start spinning instantly after they touched down. Both the tear drop and brass body bottles are heavier than others in the category, even though they remained small and compact, and in my opinion, they cast further and more accurately because of this. Never am I without tear drop Panthers with a silver blade and the yellow body with the red polka dots, the gold blade with the black body and the yellow polka dots, and some of those deluxe fly brass body models with those nice feather hotspots on the tail there for stained water. But here's really why these are my ringers on the trout stream. Every year since I was probably seven or eight, I got a few Panther Martins from my uncle for Christmas, only Panthers, never maps, never rooster tail, because he was a panther Martin guy. Though my grandmother sold the store when I was only three, there legitimately was a bait and tackle shop in the family for a very long time, and my uncle worked there, so did my mom, and my uncle earned somewhat of a reputation as a man to emulate on the area stocker streams. He was sort of a sharpie that all the locals knew, and according to my grandmother, people frequently came in the store and said, give me whatever. They all your son's catching all those trout on out there, And it was always a panther Martin that was slid across that glass countertop. To tell you the truth, those panthers just kind of accumulated for years because little kids don't always trust lures, right, Worms and power bait make more sense to a seven and eight year old. So I was probably twelve or so when I finally tied one of those panthers on, believe it or not, and I got whacked within minutes. And that was that. And now I had a healthy stash of panthers from all those past Christmas is and I was now a panther Martin man too, And I could argue that panthers catch more fish, but I know that's not entirely true. Rooster tails, maps and CP swings mess them up equally. Still. When the last mom and pop tackle shop in my area, which was very similar to my grandparents old store, sadly shut its doors for good last year, I bought all the remaining panthers off the pegboard, just about two hundred of them. They were equally as many rooster tails and maps hanging there, but I left them for the dude that can probably tell a similar story to this one about those lures. Straight up, that was the best closer this show has ever had. Dude, you appreciate that Buddy crushed it on that one. That was really really well done. I like that one so much. I'm not even gonna mess it up with a stupid joke recapping all the stuff that everyone just heard. I do hope that that you all had a safe and happy holiday, however you chose to spend it, and I just want to say thanks, thanks for spending some of your time with us. We really appreciate all of you that we do very much, and as always, drop us a line, send your awkward photos, bar nominations, sale ban items, and how about we'll throw in worse Christmas gifts to bent at the meat Eator dot com. And if you want to get the one and only Raliota on your podcast, go ahead and scope Paradinoia on Instagram. Also, remember we've got some cool Degenerate Angler stickers and meat Eator fishing stickers now okay, with your name on them. If we incorporate anything you send us into the show, you'll get some. We're all so following that Degenerate Angler hashtag on the Graham and if we like what we see, you might get a little sticker treat from us. Yeah, for sure, I want to see. I want to see what comes up there. Let us know how you spent the holidays, and if you manage to get out on the water, tell us how you did. Merry Christmas. Everyone will see you next year on New Year's Day to be exact, and you probably won't be listening then either,

Save this episode