00:00:00 Speaker 1: Over the back of the bathroom door. Really was this giant mirror carp mountain it was? And my wife was like, please don't make a seen. All right, I'll go with the purple cross bug smart man. Maybe they only show up with three beers but inevitably drink ten. Yeah, yes, Mary, New Year, Degenerate Anglers, and welcome to Bend the Fishing podcast that's still on your couch at one pm on New Year's Day. And while you could tolerate us the night before when you had five Yeager bombs in you, you really need us just to go the calm now. I'm Joe Surmellium Miles Nulty, and I've been that guy, and I just gotta say I am so glad that we worked that reference into this show. Can I just tell you how happy that one makes me? Anyway, the way I see it, either no one is listening today and hopefully everyone will catch up later, or it's possible that you're all just sit around doing nothing on Year's Day and so maybe you're tuning in. Yeah, I'm I'm hoping for the latter, because um well, I think we're all excited for to be over kind of close without saying, I gotta tell you, I always have found New Year's Day to be really depressing. Like even in the era of when I partied hard the night before, I hated New Year's Day and it was It's like the only day of the year when I was okay with just being in pj's and couch tripping all day. It's the only one. I totally feel you on that, but maybe not for the same reason. So so give me a little elaborate, elaborate on your your your feelings here. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. It's like the holidays are over, you know, you have to go back to work or back to school. And most of all, I think it's just that like now it's winter and not festive Christmas lights e winter. Like now it's just cold, dark winter, you know. Yeah, they're the celebratory part of winters over now it's just waiting for rating exactly. I get. I get that, I get the New Year's Day hangover, both in the literal and the figurative sense. But the Year's Eve is the biggest holiday of the year where I grew up like it. It blows the everything else side of the water, right. Lots of Asian cultural influence in Hawaii, right, So shifting of the calendar is a really big deal. Forget about the fact that they celebrate technically a different New Years. It doesn't matter. It's all been sort of melded into this Americanized version of New Year's celebration. It's great, um before they change the laws for very sound environmental reasons. Like when I was a kid, people would hang firecracker strings from the street lights that were so long they almost touched the ground. Yeah, Like it was crazy, And and they you light them off it at midnight to scare away evil spirits and bring prosperity for the New Year. And everybody does it, and you'd wake up New Year's Day and the leftover red paper from the actually the millions of spent firecrackers would be ankle deep. It would be like red snow in the streets. Yeah. Crazy, And like if the trade winds were calm on New Year's Eve, this thick fog of just pure smoke would hang in the air all night and every Yeah, everyone would wake up the next morning feeling like ship, whether they partied or not, just from the like the phosphorus and whatever other toxic ship was in that smoke and then and then you if you add a crippling hangover on top of that, it was just like the worst thing ever. So I can I can relate to couching it all New Year's Day and just eating leftovers and watching college football, because I definitely did plenty of that. Yeah well yeah, but I mean that sounds like it used to be so much fun, Like like twentysomething year old me would have been all about that, you know what I mean? Though? Nowadays fun? Yeah? Now I just run out in my bathroom and slippers, light one mortar, go to bed, you know. And on Fourth of July, because I'm now a responsible homeowner, I'm the dude outside with the garden hose, you know, waiting for the roof to catch on fire, asking myself like who am I? What have I become? You know, it's terrible. You're saying, like the days of bottle rocket fights are over now. I'm like, let's make sure this is a clear space looking all directions rather than just like put one down a PVC tube and just close your eyes and aim like this Roman candle and you better run. Yeah, yeah, exactly, But I do I do miss the days of partying, you know, younger days, stumbling around your parents house in the morning, just like looking for vomit. You're in the feces and closets, laundry hamper is just like open and opening joys before like you know, just make sure and then uh, you know, remember it's like around eleven am, you're trying to talk yourself and you're just chugging one can of Budweiser, like and you can just stomach that one can, you know, you'll feel better. That was where the days you were up by eleven back then. Sometimes one I'm with you, though, dude, I don't think I've seen midnight on New Year's even in like half a decade, to be honest. And that's I mean, I can't believe I'm saying this because I used to live for that. But I also remember absolutely loving red Beers for I mean, we'll call it breakfast, but it was lunch to take the edge off. And you know what, that's actually a perfect segue into into that's my bar. We're gonna go there. Uh that's my bar segment We've got for you this week, where we feature a bar that someone wrote in to tell us about this one highlights the debate that Joe and I have about red beers and some potentially exquisite crispy, greasy fried food which has been known to soak up the remaining spirits slashed around in the old Gut region. Oh yeah, the Wendy's Baconator has saved me so many times, dude, best God damn bar tender from tim buck to to Portland, Maine. The Portland argument for that matter. Today's That's My bar comes to us from James suk Up, and I hope I said that, right. I feel like I say that every time we read one of these guys got where last names he lives in eastern Nebraska, And tell you the truth, we don't really get a lot of shoutouts from Nebraska, right. I mean nothing against Nebraska, but fair to say it's not the first state that comes to mind for many when you think fishy states. Agree with that. My oldest and closest fishing buddy is a Nebraskan. But that's kind of the only connection I had to it. If like I'm I'm racking my brain and I know there's good fishing, but that can say so I've I've only ever fished there once, and that was at Lake McConaughey Big Mac, which is I think arguably Nebraska's most famous lake for walleyes. And while the people were awesome, made some great friends beautiful lake, the fishing was not good when I was there, and then um my motel almost got hit by a tornado. So so you haven't been back now, I you know, I haven't because it was the whole like you know, golf ball, hail and the sirens thing wigged me out like it was real deal. Um anyway, look, I got the Italian last name right, But there there's a lot of check in Polish blood coursing through these Surmilli vans. So I like James's nomination even more okay because of that, And he writes, I grew up in Nebraska. It isn't the fishiest state in the Union, but there are some decent holes out there, regardless of the fishing opportunities. I nominate Check Lindon in Prague, Nebraska, which I'm betting there's a lot of Czechoslovakians in Prague, Nebraska would be my I hope, So yeah, I I yeah, exactly, he says, I'll walk of Life are welcome here from your cow farmer to your bean farmer. And I gotta say, James, are those the only walks of life? Because that doesn't really cover that wide of a swath. You know what I mean? I like, but farm whatever you want. All farmers welcome here. So James continues, this is the type of place where you wear your work jeans in for lunch and then switch to your new wranglers for the Friday night fish fry. What type of fish do they fry? Carp? Of course? Would you like two pieces or three pieces? Aside from the excellent cuisine, it is the only place I have ever been to with a decent carp mount on the wall. That's saying something because you don't see many of them, and they're usually pretty rough. So I've got I've got something on that, but I'll let you finish and the okay, he says. While they can get well over forty pounds in Nebraska, they have dedicated wall space to a fifteen pound fish. So if you find your self in eastern Nebraska and are wore out from farm pond hopping all day for blue gill and croppy, head over to the checkling in for a cold red beer. He says, that's tomato, juice and beer, and I got something on that, some fried carp and possibly live Polkem music if you are lucky, and a couple of things. Man. So for I love the sound of the place, right and while I'm sold right, So you and I have talked on this show about eating Asian carp. I actually ate it at your house and it was very good. Of course, James is talking common carp and I've only ever seen this on TV. You know these places where they score the fish and like deep fry the hell out of them. And even though the idea of eating common car whigs me out a bit, I've always wanted to try it in a place like this that like that's their thing and like they do it right. So I'd be down just for that, and then Polkem music, I'm in. I mean, I grew up listening to Jan Livan and the Polka Kings because my grandmother like blared that ship like it was Anthrax, you know what I mean, the Pennsylvanie. Yeah, Polka like little Man over at her house, you know. Um, I just think of planes, trains and automobiles, yes, yes, yes, And dude, just the whole Eastern euro thing, like even though we're talking check in Polish right now, Like I love a good German beer house, even if if it's the fake tourist trap one like in Vegas. You know, the group's always like you guys want to go to Nobu, and I'm like, no, let's going to that halfbrow joint with the leader who is in an ass paddling, Like that's a good time. You know you're gonna have fun there, and if you spend as much there as you do it Nobu, you'll be real hungover the next day exactly. So I also know for a fact that that the polls and the checks are super fun to drink with. This is my family. And finally, the red beer really hit me. And that was the thing with my great aunts and uncles, right, And I love that. And it's so weird because I'm a bloody Mary connoisseur. I cannot get enough. Right, But the tomato juice and beer, I know that's kind of a European slash Midwestern thing. You spent a lot of time in Wisconsin. I've tried it. For some reason, I don't like it. But if I'm not mistaken, which is fitting New Year's Day. That's also a big hangover cure, is it not. Oh? Yeah, And I love a red beer. I'm more in on the chilata side of things, the Mexican version. I love a good schilata, but I'll take a straight red beer any day. I have no problem with that. Yeah, I love the idea. I don't know why I can't get into it, though, We'll work on that. Bloodies are good. I'm more of a caesar guy. I actually once did a tour of little dive bars in Montana looking for the best caesar in the state, and I do think I found it. But I want to get back to the carp thing because I love carp fishing, and Nebraska has a great cart fishing I know. And just real quick side note I used to work for I got it for a fly shop out here called the River's Edge, and you know, you'd you'd you'd meet your day and it's like all trouty and and high class and blah blah blah blah. Over the back of of the bathroom door really was this giant mirror carp mount and a beautiful one. And I've always loved that because it was like such a trout, snobby place, but the they had the big gass, really nice mirror carp mount and it just it just hit the vibrate. It was a great shop to work for, So shout out to those guys. Yeah and did. And as many people know, like I, I kind of sort of collect vintage skin mounts and I'd love to have a carp I've only ever seen one and it was like literally disintegrating. So but if I ever saw a good one, oh, I would proudly buy that. So anyway, this place, man James, thank you for the nomination. We'll get some some bent stickers headed your way. I'd love to see that fifteen pound carp mountain dance of Polca with someone. I do have to say that while you sold the bar beautifully, you didn't really sell Nebraska as a fishy state. So it may take us a bit to get there, but um, we'll let you know if we're heading out that way. And don't forget. If you have a bar you want to nominate for this segment, send it to us at bent at the mediator dot com. So in case you're you're sitting around all MOPI today like Joe and you just cannot stand to force yourself to watch another season of Survivor on Netflix. Maybe, just maybe you should up a book. How about that? I just I just caught a waft of mahogany and whiskey, which means I smell some Hemingway coming on. And if I'm if I'm right, I've been waiting for this because ever since I made fun of Hemingway a few episodes ago and you didn't have the time to thrash me like I've been, I've been waiting for this. But no matter where we're going here, I'd like to remind you I was not making fun of Ernest Hemingway, just people who are overly obsessed with Hemingway, and I was not going all Hemingway cult obsessive. Just to also clear that up, I can I can name several outdoor writers who I'd prefer to read and who were less terrible humans than Hemingway was. But just because you tied me up for a couple of weeks, I'm going to suggest a Hemingway book for all of you in this week's Freaking Philistines, which is the segment where we encourage all of you to put down your screens for a minute and actually read a good book. And I'm going to guess that this probably isn't the Hemingway book that any of you expected. What's a filistine. It's a guy who doesn't care about books or interesting films and things. But unforceding. Since Joe brought up the subject of Hemingway a few episodes ago, I decided we should dive a little deeper into one of Papa's works. If you're at all familiar with Hemingway, you're probably expecting me to talk about Old Man in the Sea. That's Hemingway's Pulletzer Prize winning story of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who sets out in a diminutive skiff attempts to land a massive marlin on hand line and may or may not be an allegory for Christ. But no, I'm not going to be that obvious. Besides, some teacher probably already forced that one on you at some point. The next clear choice would be Big, Too Hearted River, in which Hemingway's recurrent and somewhat autobiographical character Nick Adams, freshly home from the First World War, attempts to soothe his many wounds, both physical and psychological by escaping into the northern Michigan woods and waters, spending a couple of days camping and trout fishing. But I'm not going to do that one either. Instead, I'm going to scratch the surface of a less famous work by the great writer. But my personal favorite Islands in the Stream. No, not that, all due respect to Dolly and Kenny, but that song has absolutely nothing to do with the book of the same name. I'll start by admitting that Islands in the Stream is not a fishing book, but features a couple truly fantastic fishing scenes, and one the novel's protagonist, Thomas Hudson, is trolling for billfish with his sons David, Andrew and Tom Jr. His cook Eddie, and his close friend Roger. Here's a taste. Thomas Hudson saw a huge boil in the water but could not see the fish. David had the rod butt in the gimbal and was looking up at the clothes pin on the outrigger line. Thomas Hudson saw the line fall from the outrigger in a long, slow loop that tightened as it hit the water, and now was racing out at a slant slicing the water as it went. Hit him, Dave him hard. Eddie called from the companion, Way hit him, Dave, for God's sake, hit him. Andrew begged shut up. David said, I'm handling him. He hadn't struck yet, and the line was steadily going out at that angle. The rod bowed the boy, holding him back on it. As the line moved out, Thomas Hudson had throttled the motors down so they were barely turning over. Oh, for God's sake, hit him. Andrew pleaded, or let me hit him. David just held back on the rod and watch the line moving out at the same steady angle. He had loosened the drag. He's a broadbill, Papa, he said, without looking up. I saw his sword when he took it. I think you ought to hit him now. Roger was standing with the boy. Now he had the back out of the chair and he was buckling the harness on the reel. Hit him now, Dave, and really hit him. Do you think he's had it long enough? David asked, You don't think he's just carrying in his mouth and swimming with it. I think you'd better hit him before he spits it out. David braced his feet, tighten the drag well down with his right hand and struck back hard against the great weight. He struck again and again, bending the rod like a bow. The line moved out steadily. He had made no impression on the fish. Hit him again. Dave Rogers said, really, put it into him. David struck again with all his strength, and the line started zizzing out. The rod bent so that he could hardly hold it. Oh God, he said, devoutly. I think I've got it into him. He's up on your drag. Roger told him. Turn with him, Tom, and watch the line. Turn with him and watch the line. Thomas Hudson repeated, you all right, Dave, I'm wonderful, Papa. Dave said, Oh God, if I can catch this fish. David's fight with that giant swordfish goes on for more than thirty pages, all of it traced out in the sparse but potent prose that made Hemingway famous, or that Hemingway made famous, depending on your perspective. It really is one of the best fish fight scenes ever written. And I'm not going to tell you anymore about it, because you should damn well read it for yourself, but the other four hundred pages of the book are also worth your time. Islands in the Stream is one of those stories that I keep coming back to rereading at different intervals of my life, And every time I read it, I find fresh insight, not because the book has changed, but because I have. And each time I bring a new version of myself to the story, I uncover a different aspect that I couldn't hear until I had the necessary experience to decode it. The basic plot follows Thomas Hudson, a successful painter, through three distinct snapshots of his life. The first, where all the fishing happens, takes place on Bimini Island in the Bahamas. There we find Thomas in a steady but tenuous rhythm of days, working diligently, raising his sons to be strong men, and trying to protect his friend Roger, a novelist, from self destructive impulses. The second takes place in Cuba, where we find Thomas a different and perhaps diminished man, beaten down by his own ego, poor choices, and other unfortunate events. The third happens almost entirely at sea, as Thomas tries to change down a group of German soldiers who captured a local turtle boat after their U boat was destroyed. Through it all, the only real constant is the stoic inner turmoil of a man who feels too much, expresses too little, and consumes copious quantities of hard liquor. Islands in the Stream was published in almost two decades after Hemingway died. His children and publisher cobbled the manuscript together from bits and pieces they found in a safe in Havana after his suicide. But you probably wouldn't guess that if you didn't already know. I don't notice the scenes where the different parts have been stitched together. The book feels cohesive, or at least as cohesive as any Hemingway work ever does. Hemingway's other posthumous books, in my opinion, should have been buried with him. But this one is the exception. Even if you hated every single minute of English class I think you'll find something to love in this book. Beyond the great fishing scenes, there are some solid bar fights, some very impressive feats of drinking, and some of the minus descriptions of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream. Ever, penned as soon as I finished renewing all my fishing licenses online today, which is a New Year's Day tradition to mine, I'm gonna order that book on tape. That's bullshit. That is bullshit. All right, Look, come on, dude, I don't have it. I have no beef with audio books. But Hemingway, it's not We're not talking about Karl Hyason like that one. You can listen to an audiobook, but like half the point of Hemyway is appreciating and rereading particular sentences. Do not be that guy. Don't do it. Look at you getting all fired up, Miles, he firing up over some literature. I'm just busting your chops. You'd settle down, channel that aggression into current events, because it's time for you and I to actually battle it out in fish news. Fish news that escalated quickly for my housekeeping this week, I want to do a quick follow up on a story that Joe covered U. I don't know what, like a month ago together, I don't remember anymore. Yeah, I don't know, but but you were. You were talking about issues with California and other states announcing trout stocking schedules and and then this week I literally came across this news article in a in a California newspaper. It was titled this is how to find out where when c DFW stocks California waters with fish? And then that article, that article went on to to state that catchable size planted trout quote are planted to be caught more or less immediately by anglers. And then and then further on it explained that fingerling plants, so the smaller not catchable size ones fingering plants and high mountain streams are not announced on the fish planting schedule, and that those fish quote aren't planted to be caught immediately. Rather, the intention is that they grow and acclimate for a season or two and become much like wildfish by the time and angler encounters them. So you guys were like, the the issue there was that all the fish were being caught right away and none of them were recreating the the experience of like a fake wild fish. But California seems to be saying they're doing both. So I just want to throw that out there and see what you thought. Well, I mean, I think in the lake setting. First of all, I do not disagree with the statement that any planet, trout are are planted to be caught more or less immediately by Like immediately is a strong word, you know what I mean. Like the whole point out here was to supplement these streams for an entire spring season, you know what I mean, So there would be trout fishing out here. Um, so that's weird. But again, I'm not that into the Stoker Lake culture. But then what they're talking about with the high Mountain stuff, well, yeah, like that's of course, why would you announce that. I mean, it sounds to me like those fish actually have the ability to be around for a very long time if if you let them. So you know where I fish, I can't really do that. I mean, you could put them in there and not tell anybody. They're not gonna make it passed July one anyway. So there's like a happy medium in there somewhere, I think, if that makes sense. But m yeah, I just thought i'd bring that up because it was a new wrinkle of the story. I found it interesting. I like it. I like it. A lot of people have been saying that they have now adopted truck trout because they've heard me say that. I thought that was a common term. I thought everybody knew what truck trout man. But I've heard that term before. I definitely have. I would not have been confused by that term. It makes me think of an ambulance chaser. Anyway, I'm going to go in a way different direction. Yeah, So I got a little bit of of housekeeping here before we get to the news. UM reminder that while we're on it, it is now, and I think that's we could not possibly bring you better news. We could. We could probably quit right there with news because that's that's the best we're gonna get. Um. I do have to shout out listener Ethan Barker though. A few weeks ago, I did a news story on odd Bates and asked you guys to shoot us a note about the weirdest bait you've ever put on a hook, and Ethan sent us a novella Okay, Key Takeaways. His favorite snack is carrots and hummus. At one point in his life, he'd eat an entire bag of carrots and tub of hummas daily, and during a particularly rock 'em sock 'em tailwater trout float one winner in his home of state of Wyoming, he writes, I used my goofy buck teeth to nibble a carrot, you know, about a six millimeter ball, which is pretty brilliant. If he's on the stream that I'm pretty sure he's on. But he even goes goes on to say, as soon as the rig got to depth, the pink bobber hesitated and with a brisk upwards strike of a six weight we had on a very large rainbow. As we lifted the fish for a quick gripping grin, the rainbow was stricken by seasickness and vomited up a charcuterie selection of scuds, may flies, a sculpin, and yes, one chunk of Kroger organic baby carrot. It is organic. That's what got him, which is great. And uh. He concludes his note by saying, do not feel obligated to share the story, but if you do, don't tell people it was wyoming. I'll get shot. Whoops. You kind of gave us no choice, though, Ethan, like you kind of set us up for that. Um. Hopefully we didn't just make you kick off with misery. You know what I mean. Everyone's looking for your vaccine, Ethan's looking for body armor anyway, let's get on with the news now. Remember this is a competition, Miles, and I don't know which story the other dude wrangled up. And at the end of this, our audio engineer and general man about town Phil, we'll have to pull himself away from the new PS five I hope he got for Christmas, because I know he wanted one to declare the first news winner of the year. And it is your turn to lead off today, sir. All right, well, uh, right or wrong? It could be a poor decision on my part, but I'm gonna stick with the the questionable New Year's resolution theme touched on earlier, and I'm gonna try and keep this going throughout the whole news segment. It's going to be a stretch, but we'll see if I can pull it off. So this first story covers a New Year's resolution that I should probably consider adopting, and that would be to act more like an octopus, at least in some ways. It turns out that, like you and me, octopuses have fishing buddies, but perhaps unlike you and me, they don't put up with any ship from those partners. Right, we all have certain fishing buddies who just don't contribute to the mission, or show up on time or exactly, or bring the lunch they were supposed to bring. Maybe they're always late, yes, maybe they never have the right gear. Maybe they only show up with three beers but inevitably drink ten. Maybe they conveniently have to leave just as soon as you start cleaning up. Or maybe you've been floating rivers together for more than a decade now and they still haven't learned how to row a damn boat. You know who you are now. To be clear, contributions come in many forms. I have great fishing friends who never have the right gear or enough of it, but they always feel the cooler and pay for gap. I have other friends who are dead broke and couldn't catch a fish in a hatchery pond, but they're so damn entertaining that I'll fish with them anytime just for the quality of the company. Like it doesn't matter. My point is that a good fishing buddy has to contribute in some way. Sometimes, though, you realize you've been fishing with someone for years and they're not adding anything to your fishing days, and that's the point where you should channel your inner octopus. Okay, scientists have known since the eighties that octopuses will team up with various different types of fishes to form hunting parties. So they they'll get together and they'll target a section of reef and work in tandem to flush out all the prey hiding there. So the goat fish and other bottom feeders will surround and guard the sea floor perimeter. The semi benthic predators like groupers will be patrolling the water column above the reef, and then the octopuses will get in there and they'll dig through the coral itself, flushing out prey from the holes and the crevices and other spots they can hide. And each of these animals has a role to play, and if one of them doesn't do their job right, they all suffer. A recently published study shows that octopuses are the ring leaders of these operations, which isn't surprising given their superior intellect compared with fish. It also shows that octopus don't tolerate lazy or greedy partners. The paper states quote conflicts between partners can arise over the level of investment or distribution of payoffs. Thus, in this complex social network of interactions, partner control mechanisms might emerge in order to prevent exploitation and ensure collaboration. And partner control mechanisms might now be my favorite euphemism for punching someone in the face, because that's exactly what the researchers observed the octopus is doing. If a certain fish didn't do its job right or maybe decided to hang back and pick off the flesh prey instead of actively working to patrol its area, the ringleader octopus would seek it out and punch it in the face with a tentacle. The paper goes on, here we report a series of events where different octopus individuals engage in active displacement of partner fish during collaborative hunting. To this end, the octopus performs a swift, explosive motion with one arm directed at a specific fish partner, which we refer to as punching. One of the authors of the study, Edwards Sampio, wrote on Twitter quote, this was probably the most fun I had writing a paper ever, And if you read it, that's that's pretty clear from the paper. It's one of those rare fisheries papers that a lay person can actually read it understand. Plus it's only eight pages long. But for those of you who are like eight pages, come on, I could watch like fifty TikTok videos in time of reading date pages. Don't worry. You can see clips of the octopus pugilists online and I will say that that's also highly entertaining. So while I do not recommend punching any of your fishing buddy in the face the next time they eat all your jerky, or maybe steal the last drunk and disorderly you have that actually swims right and then pitch it into the trees in the first cast, you might come up with other less violent partner control mechanisms. I just have to jump right in and say that you had said sometimes we have those fishing partners we fish with for years before finally understanding that, like we shouldn't be fishing with them, and there I don't do that. My my partner control mechanism is like I just don't answer your MS anymore, and that's the way to do it. I'm not advocating for the face punching. Um. I have had a habit in the past. It's just like continuing to fish with people who I should have stopped fishing with years ago. And I'm trying to get better at that. So that's that's kind of like sort of similar stories. Now a couple of weeks in a row with like this symbiotic relationship thing. You're really into that lately, you know, I get on these kicks, man, I don't know, I don't know something the certain things That story just jumped out of me because I saw a video of an octopus punching a fish in the face and I was like, all right, I gotta I gotta talk about that. So to underst stand this, right, it all works in harmony, and like the octopus kicked the stuff out to the other fish sort of in the system, right in different places. Theoretically, if everybody's doing their job, they're all getting food kicked to them, right, because because the octopus are gonna be pushing shrimp and small fish and stuff, and then they're gonna run into the goat fish and they're gonna go back to the octopus, right, and then to the grouper you're saying exactly, And they're all working together. So like the goat fish and the grouper and the octopuses are all working collaboratively to get all the food out of a little chunk of coral. Well, that's fascinating. I expect a apology from from whoever put Finding Nemo together because that's not it was not all harmony. That's not the way. That's not the way that it worked. Um, everything else in that was so accurate. But but that's that's like a great mile science drop, right it was. It was. Yeah, I like that. So, whether you're a person that wants to catch more fish or an octopus where you have the guy doesn't pull his weight, maybe maybe what he needs is uh, the the subject of of my first story here, which is gonna go completely off of science to tabloid journalism. So it is a new year, So how about a forecast about what could be the hottest lure of one. Right, if shark Tank shark Kevin O'Leary has his way, you'll all be investing in the animated lure this year and making him even richer. Uh. In the latest round of Shark Tank investors throwing money at hokey fish and garbage, O'Leary through three and twenty five thousand clams right at the Animated Lore Company. And if you're unfamiliar with this, and I doubt many of you are. It's exactly what it sounds like. It's a jointed, hardbait you cast out under a bobber, and thanks to its little internal motor and propeller on its nose, it swims in circles below the float, darting and rolling and pausing, just like a real live struggling bait fish. Now have you seen this at I cast? You remember seeing this that I could do. I remember being very judgmental of it. Okay, so yeah, I was gonna say, like, not to be the dick. But but that was like one of those walk by shaking my head booths, you know what I mean. Like there there used to be a few at every one of the industry shows, and this was a few years ago when I first saw them there and at the time, um as I recall, they're they're pretty limited, like in size and pattern, like they just kind of dropped this on the world. Well, fast forward to today and the animated Lore has six different sizes and loads and loads of colors, some of which they classify as classic colors, some premium colors, the pricest models, those being the premium Salt Water. We'll set you back nine bucks a bait um, And if you just want to get into this anime game, just sort of wet the whistle. The classic Mini will cost you. So there's your price ranges still cheaper than a than a horse skin swim bait saying that is true, that is true, I'll give you that much. And I will admit, man like, at least in the videos on the Animated Lore site, that the things look pretty damn good. They look they look pretty realistic. They don't just sort of swim in a circle, they change direction and they look good. However, um, if you watch some some YouTube reviews, you know, by other people not associated with the company, there you will hear some naysayers say either they didn't swim correctly, or if you bend that tiny little plastic propeller ever so slightly, they're just done. And as a man who has been given several mini helicopters as stocking stuffers over the years, I can attest to the fragility of those little propellers, like I've never had one last more than Christmas Day, you know what I mean. I love the idea of it, but they just don't last. Um. But I want to do like a psychological evaluation on the people who are all about these, because it's like even the Alabama rigs oulots are like, I can't. I just couldn't. I couldn't go there, you know. Um. And for the record, I'm certainly not saying it won't get eight if it's swimming properly, because there's plenty of video of the animated lure sticking giant bass granite, mostly in what looked like gated community ponds. But still it is. It is what it is. But I just find this fascinating because to me, this isn't really a lure per se. You agree with that because you don't work it right. It's it's fake live bait, is what it is. But it's also fake live bait that's far far more expensive than a bucket of real live bait. And I suppose one could argue that it's it's more convenient than live bait, barring that whole pesky USB charging time. And apparently some run forty five minutes, others can run for two hours. But you have one of them, right, unless like you just buy crazy amounts. But let's assume you buy one. It's like one pick roll and that's done. Like if you let that premium saltwater big Eye scad model swim around over a Florida keys reef for five minutes, it's done like a kuda will make that go by by real fast. Yet the animated Lord looks so realistic that it worries me slightly and hear me out because I look at like the mighty Bite fish caller. And when that first came out, I wasn't saying to myself, like, g in thirty years, every boat will come standard with one of those, you know what I mean, but definitely not yeah, right, but the animated Lord, I'm not sure. So I just question, especially with this investment, right, is it destined to fade away like the others? And in some cases what I would say, we're better quote gimmicks than this, like the Flying Lord. We love to make fun of those, But if you break it down, that was actually a really smart design that I always thought if it hadn't been as seen on TV deal it could have had stay power. Right, I've caught a ton of fish on those Or is this like the first step towards where fishing tackle in general is going, like the first step towards creating the terminator technology that will ultimately destroy us, because if I mean, you've got reels with computer chips in them now. So every time one of these things pop up, I start questioning, like, is this the step, you know, because this one's getting a lot of hype, a lot of money, and a lot of hype behind this. I don't think this is the one now. I don't think this is I might eat my words on this in in five or ten years and and it will all be out there for people to judge me on. But I don't think this is the one that pushes us over the edge into like full on robot fishing forever. Okay, I just don't think we're there yet, that's fair. But and and we're not going to spend too much time one because we could do a whole show on it. But in the shortest version, do you ever think that we are are headed there? Yeah? I remember seeing a story years ago that like talked about the future. I forget what magazine it was in, And basically they had like a dude dressed up like a power ranger with a thing on his wrist that would like, you know, just talk to the lor you just control it with where your arm moved and then you know, like, I don't know, I mean, do you think that we that can happen. I don't think it's gonna get there. I think people like the experience of feeling a fish through a rod and line is never gonna go away like that. That is what people desire. That is a big part of the draw fishing. I don't think that goes away. But I do think that we're going to continue to get more and more mechanized around that basic set of tools. Okay, And do you have a particular piece of like a prediction on a particular piece of gear that you can see getting all checked out, because I don't. I don't have one in the pipeline here. I'm just like spouting off right now. I think probably like the reels for sure. And I think eventually we're going to have the camera technology is gonna get better and better to the point where you're casting the camera and you're seeing things and it's not gonna suck the way it does now. I think that's where it's going to go over the top eventually. Oh yeah, you just reminded me. I'm still waiting on my media sample of that that lower with the camera in it. That's an iodcast every year. But they're like, oh no, no, no no, still prototype. I'm like, when, when when do I see it? I want to see the King Mackerel snip the thing off in real time anyway, and and when that happens, I'll be watching your your your channels, your Instagram just to laugh at you, believe it or not, dude. I also dug into the tabloids this week from my second story. We were playing in the same pool um. But again I'm sticking with the resolution theme, and it feels like every year around now we hear about famous people resolving to eat healthier, and we have to hear all the details of what they're going to do, as if we care or whether it's Atkins or Keto or Paleo or I don't know, I don't know. I don't keep up with any of that. But one of the dietary resolutions that famous or semi famous people have been announcing for a while is to eat less animal protein and more fish protein. I came across the story on the website Page six, which, in case you don't know, is a trashy online British tabloid. Uh that may have has been stars thinking twice about that resolution this year. The first line of the story goes, Victoria Beckham is keeping it real r E E L after tests found a dangerously high level of toxic mercury in her system. There's so much wrong with that sentence. I could spend No, that's not sporty spice, isn't it? That would be posh spice. But anyway, beyond the terrible, beyond the terrible pun which doesn't even actually make sense, there's like that scared tactic use of the word toxic, Like non toxic mercury does not exist in the human body. You don't need to say toxic anyway. Victoria Beckham a k A. Posh Spice of the Spice Girls and wife of soccer star David Beckham, was apparently treating herself to a lavish health spot treatment in Germany when they found levels of mercury in her blood that were quote off the scale. Turns out that for years she's been living on a diet that consists primarily of tuna and swordfish, both known vectors for mercury contamination. But don't worry. That same SPA performed a liver cleans and she now feels quote brilliant and lean and fit as ever. Thank my god. What kind of spy is drawing blood? What spy are you going to? A really expensive one? But wait, there's more. Strangely, in the same week, another British nineties pop star, Robbie Williams of the half a hit wonder band Take That Announced exactly, announced that he had recently nearly died from you may see where I'm going here mercury poisoning because of his all fish diet. He could only afford the telap He's not possible. If you look this guy up, he's He's huge in the Britain, just didn't make it cross the pond. Apparently Robbie has been eating expensive and high in the food chain fish two to three times a day for decades. Good news for all of us, though, unless you're an insanely wealthy form of rock star, you can't afford tuna and swordfish multiple times a month, much less daily. But I got more because this was a big week for Mercury news, even beyond the British tabloids. First, a commission here in my home state of Montana just came out with a revised warning about the Clark Fork River advising people against eating any fish from that system due to elevated levels of mercury and other toxins. So heads up to my people out in Missoula. And last, but certainly not least, a recent study found mercury levels in the deepest parts of the ocean the Abysso and hado polagic zones are starting to increase. They hypothesize this is coming from mercury laden fish near the surface. When those fish die, the remains sink, and some of those remains make it all the way to the abyss in the form of slowly sinking detritus known as marine snow. Mercury that was once in the stratosphere is now reaching the deepest depths of the oceans thanks to polagic fish that are the primary vehicle for that transmission. Okay, it was just a crazy week for mercury headlines and I wanted to cover off on all those. But despite all of that, I think I gotta reiterate that fish aren't bad for you now, as long as you're smart about what you eat and in what quantities. Don't stack your freezer with high mercury fish like raisin, tuna, and bill fish and sharks and barremundy and orange roughie or whatever they're calling it now, and definitely don't go on an all pelagic fish diet. Check with your state Fish and Game Commission about consumption advisories for the places you like to catch and eat fish. If you follow those simple guidelines, you will be fine and you will not have to go to a German health spa to get your blood drawn and your liver cleansed like a good old Posh spice there. Yeah, this is why scientists invented to lapia for this very reason. So there are nineties pop stars would not end up in this kind of peril. Oh, I can't go with you. There was not true. I know, I know, I'm kidding you know this is it is it awful for a part of me to be like good. I'm glad that happened, because nobody like even if I had that much tuna in swordfish, hey, I would get sick of eating it every night. I mean, that's just like you can't eat filamon every night or lobster every night right now. You and I wouldn't know if we could or couldn't, because we never will. But like a piece of swordfish or tuna is such a treat that just to think of it, like can tuna or just something so mundane that you would just eat it every day? Good, I'm glad stop eating that, Like you know, I I can't even imagine um quick to obviously like I just have to. I know this is not about the mercury. But I once ordered a seafood Bullyo base at a Jersey shore restaurant. Like we were sitting on the deck on the bay, like I could smell the salt, and they said the fish of the day was in the Bullyo base and I did not question it. I said, chef's choice where at a seafood restaurant and it was it was tilapia. And my wife was like, please don't make a scene. Like that's how upset I was. She was like, can I just enjoy my meal? Please don't make a scene anyway, Tilapia, you can eat all that you want. Eat all the telapia, push Bie and use them. I think they're gross. Robbie, whoever, Um, you also have to say, how amazing is that like to have mercury levels that how much of that ship do you have to eat? For it to actually get to the point where it's like, damn your mercy, all out of whack likedfish. That is nuts. Okay, all right, how am I gonna do this? I will go from rich people eating too much offshore fish to people who weren't rich getting getting kind of rich off of flea market finds. Kind of sort of is that weird? That was an awful trans terrible trans but real, real bad. Um. We'll file this in the financial department news too. This is from m live dot com. You're gonna like this though. Headline fish decoy, carved by Michigan artist in nineteen forty sells for record price at auction. And since you know I'm a vintage tackle geek, this is like right at my alley. Um. Now, in case you don't know what fish decoys are some of you out there, this is a carved fish, painted and used in pike spearing, which is still a very big deal in the Midwest and Upper Midwest. Instead of drilling a small hole, miles, you've done this right, so correct me if I if I have it wrong. You carve out a giant rectangle and you're usually in pretty shallow water, and you do this in a shanny, so it's nice and dark, so you can see down into the water. And you send these decoys down on lines and they attract pike, they come over for a look see, and then you just drill them in the head with a pitchfork. Is basically how it works. Um, And I've I've never done it. I've always wanted to try it. It looks, it looks like a ton of fun. But while there are modern commercially made decoys, they were traditionally hand carved and if I'm not mistaken right, the shape, the fin structure, it can vary to sort of change the action, like some will spiral down when you let him go down in a circle, some will glide away and dart away. And there's a lot of art and craft that goes into them. But they've also become folk card people who never intend to use them by them as decorations. I think, like I think pure One was selling them for a time. Anyway, from the story. Here, a fish decoy crafted by a Michigan artist sold for a world record price this week. Created by noted carver and folk artists Oscar Peterson of Cadillac, the fifteen inch long pike with glass eyes sold for forty two thousand, five hundred dollars, a world record. Yeah man, yeah, a world record for a fish decoy at auction. According to the auction firm Guyette and Deeterer, Inc. The decoy was made around ninety and is in pristine conditions. Into this, a total of twenty four fish decoys were offered in the sale, with a cumulative estimate of fifty five to eighty two thousand dollars. However, they exceeded expectations by achieving a total of one hundred and eighteen thousand, five hundred dollars for the lot. More than doubled, more than doubled. So I had to do a little digging, right, because I was so curious. So I did a little digging on Oscar Peterson and found some info actually on the website of Antiques Road Show, which I'll admit I'm a fan of. I love it. I get sucked in when there's a marathon on. I like it. Okay, um it's good like wearing slippers and drinking a warm drink watching my stories. Um. So I actually found the transcript from from an episode featuring some other Peterson decoys, and I learned that the father of the gent who brought these inn forra appraisal got them from Oscar Peterson, and they were well used. His dad was a farmer. He ice fished all winner in Michigan, and when he passed away, his son kept right on using them. But they were, um all still in pretty good shape. And to be clear, I don't think the ones on Antique Road Show are the same ones in the auction, right, but this is just useful backstory on who Peterson was. And according to the appraiser, Peterson made loads and loads of decoys and would sell just as many, if not more, to tourists than actual ice fishermen. So there you go, right, they have souvenir appeal. The appraiser also said, this is a quote. The thing that's cool about his stuff is that he did make a lot of them, but he didn't lose that enthusiasm for the way that he carved them or the way that he decorated them. And I always look for the way he turned the mouth. And the one thing you really got to watch out for these days, there's a lot of reproductions and out and out fakes. So um, even in slightly beat up condition. On Antiques Road Show, they ones this guy had some appraise for thirty Pop and that was a few years ago. So there's a nearly hundred and twenty thousand dollar jackpot on ice decoys for someone out there. And I gotta tell you, I said, I collect vintage gear, and even out here on the East Coast, I see I see spearing decoys frequently, but I I never buy them because they don't speak to me right, as they say, like pike spearing ice fishing in general, They're just not part of the culture here. Like I buy the ship out of vintage striper lures every chance I get, but I always passed these up. And this has got me thinking. Right, However, what this story ultimately tells me is that these decoys, this transcends tackle and becomes art. And clearly there's like a similar scene to say, like you know, buying paintings, where you have to know exactly what you've got, be well versed in the history and all the different makers. Um, and you know, the odds of me snagging one at the Columbus flea market for five bucks and flipping it for five k probably pretty slim, you know. Plus I take it you don't ever really know which ones were just made to be kind of kitchy art pieces and which were legitimately made for the ice use, and I'd suspect those are the ones that are the most valuable. So I thought that was cool. Though. No, I think you hit this one really well with the folk art thing, and I think that I think for a very long time, like more than a generation, those decoys have been more folk art than practical use because dark house spearing has really fallen off since the Depression. It's just not I mean, I know, yeah, I thought I thought a bunch of people still did it. I mean, I know it's still done. Certainly there are people who still do it, but I think I think those people, many of them, would agree that it's sort of a dying tradition. For a number of reasons. Um, this was something we If any of you watched the fur Had Ice Tour, you saw a fair amount of spearing, and we covered it for exactly this reason. It's it's a really interesting, kind of antiquated way of trying to procure fish through the ice. But you know, there is no catching release when you put a giant barbed trident through a fish, You're done. Um. A lot of the people who are doing it now they still use decoys, but they're not using those spears anymore. They're using they just send an anim mad just animated lures and but it it is we we We met and interviewed a woman in Fondelac, Wisconsin, Mary LuSE Schneider, who was one of the most interesting people I've ever been lucky enough to spend some time with. She's a carver, Her art is beautiful. It's it very much is a cultural pastime in in northern parts of North America, and it's the sort of thing that's passed on from generation generation. I think it is going away. There are far fewer carvers than there used to be, which is why you're getting what you found in the story, right, That's why these are valuable. They're there, they have a historic significance now, so great story man, that was That was awesome. I think fish carving, like the decoy art, is fascinating, partially because you can have the most elaborate decoy in the world down there, and and the thing that the fish are gonna come to is like a golf ball on a stream. They don't give a ship. Yeah, I know that's why I I think I'd be more fascinated doing it to to play with different decoys and see like what actually gets those fish wrapped up and what doesn't. But you know again, tackle Nerd, Vintage tackle Nerd had to do it. Find it fascinating. Uh, Phil, you can go vintage tackle here? Um what other ways can we go? Punching oct that's gonna win, that's probably gonna win. Um, a lot of choices here for Phil to to declare a first winner of the new year. And as soon as we are done hearing from Phil, We're going to kick it over to trivia and kind of dive into art in in fly tying valuable flies created in central Pennsylvania and how that links to fast food. The octopus almost got me, but for schooling me about a world that I know nothing about. Joe, you're the winner this week. Well we really need to do is get these octopuses thrown into the UFC Octopus in the octagon. I mean, come on, the pay per view event practically rights itself. You've gotta be highly skilled for these shows. You understand that under are you well versed? They are you? Very smart? Man? All right, playing trivia today, my longtime friend, the man behind Wild East Outfitters out here in eastern Pennsylvania, Nick Raft, is what's going on, man? Not much? Are you doing good? Good? Are you excited to play trivia today? Are you feeling mentally prepared for what's to come? Maybe a little nervous? Actually, fair and fair enough. You've been just scrolling through Wikipedia memorizing random facts. That's just hoping you hit on the right topic. Uh so, you and I haven't fishing together a lot of years, and one of the places that we have done that several times is h Latorte Spring Run in central Pennsylvania. Miles. Are you familiar with Latorte Spring Run? Not in a personal sense, but I know I know it. I've seen photos and red articles and seen videos of it, but I've never fished it. Right, It's you're better off for not being personally acquainted with it, because it is just it just makes me absolutely pull my hair out. It is a very famous limestone rich in fly fishing history. Greats like Charlie Fox and Ernest schweibert Um did a lot of great things there. But um, it just drives me to madness. It's like ten ft across and choked full of weeds. And I've never caught anything out of there, even its supposed to be browns. And there I did watch Nick almost break his ankle there once, falling in a sinkhole. Um. But anyway, I thought, I thought it's great. Just everybody. Everybody jump on a plane. Actually, the first time I ever got there, I was like, this is it? This is this piss trickle? Is latwort spring run? But anyway, since we have a common shared history there, we're gonna go to the Latworte route for question uh number one. So, Nick, because I'm sure you are aware, one of the famous people to fish Latorte, famous fly tire by the name of Ed Shank, who just passed away last April, and he's developed quite a few fly patterns. So I'm gonna test your knowledge of your home area here Pennsylvania and ask you which of the following is not an Ed Shank pattern? Is it a the Latorte hopper, be the shank white minnow, see the Littorte cricket, or d the shank purple cress bug? Uh? One of those is not an edge shank pattern? And because I mean isn't all you fish ed shank patterns? I don't think I fish any of them. Um, Holy cow, I'm gonna go with a you're gonna say that the Latorte hopper is not a fly developed by Ed Shank? All right, I'll go with the purple crest bug, smart man, because that's the correct I was to say. It's the most obvious one that I can't let you choke that badly on our show. But yes, the shank purple crest bug is the one I made up. And all the rest are famous shank patterns, and the common theme with all of them is that they are super sparse, because that's what you need on ten foot streams. That make me want to shoot myself when fishing them. It's no fun. Um. But but okay, I'm gonna give you that one, even though I kind of nudged you in the right direction. Um. So question number two, here we go. Uh. If if I were fishing at the mouth of the world famous Latorte spring run right, it's confluenced with the Conna de Gwinnett. Right, you you're familiar with this spot. We fished it together several times. If I were suddenly struck by hunger, which is the following would be the shortest walk from that exact spot. A Arby's, be the Iron Skillet, C McDonald's, or D correctly subs and pizza. Mm hmm. Don't act like you don't know the answer to this question. I don't know that one correct armies Arby's. It's in all its scenic beauty and heritage history. If you were fishing the confluence and we're hungry, you could walk to a freaking Arby's on the world famous Litwarts Spring Run. I'm proud of you. That's kind of two for two. That might be my favorite trivia question we've had that was so wonderfully not fish related at all. Well, I I appreciate you playing today, Nick, and uh, I guess next time I see you and we fish Arby's on me? Alright? Sounds good? Sound good? Alright? Perfect awesome. So after hearing that, I'm sure most of you trout bumps are thinking the second I am vaccinated, I am so on a plane to look towards Spring Run in central Pennsylvania. Go ahead, I dare you, because it requires full on a game fishing, and I'm totally a C student sees get degrees on most other trout streams, and that's fine. But if you are headed out and you think you're gonna show those legacy Browns whose boss by skipping the size forty eight crest bug on a thirty eight ft eight X leader, Miles has just the dry fly for that guy that wants to force feed him with a slap in the face, and you're about to learn all about it in this week's end of the line. Well, that's not allowed enough, Burt. If I had the wager which dry fly caught most fish this century, i'd stacked my chips on the Chernobyl Aunt, or one of its variants. For those who don't know, the Chernobyl aunt is a jiggly, buoyant mass of foam and rubber. The original version, which is a couple of chunks of foam sandwich around a long shank hooked with some legs hanging off, doesn't look like much from a topsider's perspective, but from beneath the surface tension, it looks a whole lot like any number of large segmented insects a hopper, stone fly, cicada, cricket and whatever. But that profile is only part of the fly's appeal. While traditional drive lies are tied with feathers and fur materials that absorb water and cease to remain, you know, dry, The use of closed cell foam was something of a revelation. If you're kind of new to fly fishing or under the age of thirty, you probably take foam flies for granted. But even though just about every fly in the band at your local shop uses foam now, it's actually pretty new and it's widespread use can be traced back to the Chernobyl. The details about exactly when and how this fly came along and hazy, which is not surprising because those details are based on the oral histories of fishing guides standing around a fly shop parking lot and talking shipped to each other over thirty years ago. The following history of the fly may not be one true, but it's probably close. I think the chernobyl Ant wasn't the first fly to incorporate closed cell phone anyone else Remember the crappy little foam spiders tackle shops he's selling the eighties. I caught the hell out of blue gill on those things. Anyway, the chernobyl first made foam popular the specific iteration of closed cell foam used in fly design was originally invented by NASA in nineteen sixty six, and by nineteen seventy it had been developed into craft foam sheets. The first fly designer credited with using that foam is Larry Tullis. Rumor has it the Tullis started experimenting with foam flies in the late seventies, but it wasn't until four that he shared his knowledge with a few guides on the Green River in Utah. But then it took a few more years after that to really catch on. Pioneering guy to that era, Mark Forsland told the Salt Lake Tribune, fishing on the Green really slows down in August and September. I needed something to catch fish, so Fslin made a two inch long foam fly wrapped with black hack call, figuring you know, something might eat it. On a summer afternoon, after a fishless morning, Forsland asked Dick Peterson, one of his regular clients, to try out his new idea. According to Forsland, I told Dick that I had this really silly looking fly I wanted him to try as soon as it hit the water, This big brown came from six ft away and just hammered it. That afternoon, Peterson landed twenty seven fish on the fly and christened it the black Mamba. Word of the mamba's deadly effectiveness got around. A short time later, at least one and possibly as many as four different tires swapped out the hackle for rubber legs, giving the pattern even more profile and wiggle and getting rid of every single natural material. Thus the Chernobyl was born, except it wasn't called the Chernobyl yet. One of the people who started tying the rubber legged mambas was guide Alan Woolley. After a day on the water, some of the guys were hanging around the parking lot drinking beer when Mark Benyon asked Willie what the hell his clients were catching all those fish on Willy showed off the bug and said it doesn't need a fancy and it's just a damn aunt, to which Benyon responded, yeah, but it's a Chernobyl aunt. Chernobyl was, of course a reference to the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history that occurred in northern Ukraine. In fishing guides being suckers for dark humor, I could only imagine that laughter ensued, more beers were consumed, and the name officially stuck. Several other Green River guides have been credited with inventing the Chernobyl, including Denny Breer, Emmitt Heath, and Rainy Riding. Maybe they all invented it independently, maybe they borrowed from each other. I don't know one thing I know for certain, However, this fly is a product of the Green River, regardless of who actually invented it. The Chernobyl started making its way around the Mountain West, but its fame really took off when it was used to win the Jackson Hole One Fly, the most prestigious freshwater fishing competition in the world. By the turn of the twenty one century, the Chernobyl had become the most popular guide fly on every drift boat from New Mexico to Montana. And that's about the time that I was turned onto it gifted a fistful and a bar parking lot by a buddy who poured drinks at night and road clients during the day. I took that fistful rock scrambling through Yankee Jim Canyon on the Yellowstone River. The following late summer morning, the water was low, and it seemed like every exposed boulder held a fat cutthroat that just couldn't help but rise in that painful, slow motion crawl unique to cutties. Whenever Chernobyl floated past, it was stupid and I was an instant convert. A few years later, tyre Will dorn In subbed out the underbody foam for dubbing and added two big polypropylene wings that stick up like double yard indicators, creating the chubby Chernobyl. I was a full time guide by then, and for a few seasons we basically just fished chubbies in various sizes and colors from May through October. The chubby completely changed Western trout fishing because it's both an effective dry fly and a viable strike indicator. A big one will float a large, heavy nymph and be visible to all but the most near sighted anglers. The chubby is no longer the automatic fish magnet it once was, at least on high traffic rivers. Once the fish started seeing a couple of hundred chubbies a day, they wised up quick tip, though, try darkening the underside of the wings with a brown or black marker for those pressured fish. But even if chubbies aren't the magic elixsor they once were, I still carry several dozen in various sizes and colors in addition to the classic Chernoby lands. They still just work, and not only on trout. I've caught baths, sunfish, gold eye, and common carp and I have friends who have used them on everything from golden Doratto to channel cats. This is one of those bugs that you should always have in your box. Well that is all the time we have this week, And while we hope that you're out trying to catch your first fish in the air, just in case you're not, or perhaps you're incapable of doing so because you can't open your eyes, we gave you a book to read, Fly to sigh, and finally, finally a reason to visit Nebraska. Oh that's cold, cold way to start the new year for us here. Hey, look, we're we're really looking forward to hanging out with you guys one and we had a blast getting bent off the ground in and straight up we we couldn't keep it going without you. You know, you guys are important to us, so please keep those bar nominations awkward photos. Salban items and a million other things we want from you coming to Bent at the meat Eator dot com. And don't forget we love seeing those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on Instagram. They are the fastest way to our hearts and the fastest way to get stickers in your mailbox. And a little hot tip for you kids out there, don't forget to add just a little bit of water to your dad's a bottle of whild turkey so he doesn't know how much you actually drank of it last night. Also for your sanity, don't forget it's only seventy nine days until the first official day of Spring.

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