00:00:01 Speaker 1: If you don't want to look like a complete and total gaper, take off the plastic shrink wrap from your rod handles before you fish with them. When you see the fish and are ready to make your final presentation, don't jump up and down in the air. If one of my boys in Louisiana threw a coin some gumbo, I'd be like, Oh, that looks delicious, spicy pecanti. In a very roundabout way, small mouths share some of their taxonomic history with one of the greatest black exploitation films in history. Good morning, degenerate anglers. Welcome to Bent the Fishing Podcast. It's still even after all these years are doing it gets a case of the bubble guts when it sees a v weig trailing the surface, beata stud red fish cruising a flat, a wide headed trout sipping in the seam, or a pop culture reference. Only a small amount of weirdos like us actually get. I'm Joe Surmellie, Miles Nulty and uh and to everyone out there listening, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a ship like straight up, i am not the smoothest, the smoothest guy on the water or anywhere. Really, but I'm I'm especially prone to losing my ship when it comes to site fishing. That is true, That's totally understandable though, right Yeah, But I feel like I'm not supposed to say that. Like I feel like, you know, as fishing industry professionals, we're supposed to pretend that we're like these super hardcore, badass fish slayers. Don't might give my name and my game, but I'm not. I'm I'm I'm certainly no Rudy ray Moren for those of you who caught that reference. More to come later in the show. Uh. Straight up though, straight up when it comes to site fishing, big fish, I still com I totally get the yips, Dude, I still get them. It still happened, yeah, man, I mean so do I. But I've I've found it like my level of choke directly correlates to the number of shots. Right. It's like a math problem. Okay, so take the the average of shots times how many days do I have to enjoy this fishery, and then you get like the square root of how badly I'll ship the bed, you know, And then if you add in the variable of there's a video camera and this is important. The bed shooting percentage rate increases by pie. You know, yeah, yeah, I know that that. I think I think your math works out there. Yeah, But like dude, I mean, I think to have some real talk on this. For me, they are a particular problem with species, right, the ones that some of the ones that are supposed to be really hard. I don't have problem Like Florida permit, no problem. Not not that they're easy fish, not the easy fish, but I I don't choke and I have a good track record of presenting well to them and catching them. I don't know why. I know people with permit tattoos that haven't hooked one yet, Like they have the tattoo of the permit and haven't hooked on. Maybe that's the problem there. You go to put the cart before the horse there exactly. But like dude, Hawaii bone fish one example total Achilles heal for me and and for people who don't know out that fishery why does have bone fish And they're quite large as bone fish goes, and they get a ton of pressure not just from recreational anglers, but like people trying to kill them and like homeless people trying to net them, like they live a life of pure terror, so they're always neurotic. And and they come up into these very shallow sand flats to feed on shrimp and crabs when the tides are right, and you can stock them on foot, and it's all site fishing, Like you can see the fish, you can see their backs, you can see their their tails and their dorsal fins, and you watch them feeding. And so when you screwed up, you have no one to blame but yourself. And and I'm not exaggerating when I said I've had days where I blew fifty shots in a row, like fifty opportunities at feeding fish in one single tide without even getting one fish to eat. And like I get I get done with a session like that, and I'm like to have I wasted my life? Like what where did I go wrong? Like I've spent all these years fishing, and I still suck this bad at it, But it gets to me, dude, Hawaii bones definitely on the bucket list. I know a lot of people who who have gone to chase that dream, but I've I've never been there, right, so I can't really speak to that. All my boning has been done in the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, and like that's a prime example to me of my math equation. You're you're never really or usually, i should say, in bone fish places for a day, Like you don't just end up in Biminy or Avoca for a day. So you've got time. So even if they're like, if you have one tough day, assuming you don't have like you know, awful weather for your entire trip, strong chance you're gonna get at least one good day out of it. But in in recent memory, if I'm being totally honest, my last bout of total site fishing suck was actually with you. You took me to a spring creek in Montana last winter, and it was it was one of those deals where it's like, Okay, it's big brown right there, he's in eight inches of water. You're gonna sneak around this way and mind your shadow and nail the drift with with a nymph and a ten foot leader on the first cast, Like that's not it's not happening that. I can't handle that. And I didn't handle that. I caught nothing that day. I remember you catching at least one fish that day. You're being very nice, but I lost one because when you walked away and I took the nymph off and put a giant wooly bugger on, I'm like, you're gonna You're gonna eat, and it did and I snapped it off and that was it. Maybe I'm giving you my more credit my memory, I don't know, but to be fair like that, that is a that is that creeks tough, and I had home field advantage. I've fished there. But but then so like another another example of of me blowing it on particular species, like last summer, we were filming doss boat in Minnesota, right and and when we're working on the buffalo episode. For those of you saw the cal and I were in. We would target buffalo in the morning and then the wind would come up in the buffalo disappear, so we had the rest of the day to fish for other species. And I of course would end up muskie fishing, even though it was middle of the day midsummer, because I have a problem. So I was on one of those like giant defiant swim baits that that Oliver and I loves and has turned me onto. And the lake we're on is crystal clear like ten ft of visibility, so I can see the bait the whole time. I'm watching it, and I'm tracking it, and I'm working along this weed edge and I can see it. And then there's this big, like three foot long flash, which, to be clear, if I'm being honest, that's not a big muskie, but still a three ft fagh. That's a big flash. It gets your heart rate up. And and I see this fish coming. It's all that up. It's charged the lure. It's not a follower. This fish is serious. It wants to eat, and I just have to just keep doing what I'm doing, and it's gonna eat. And I see it and I stop, Like the the cardinal rule that everybody knows in muskie fishing, the one thing you never do is stop your lure. And I know that, like I'm fully aware of that. I have told that to other people, but that's exactly what I did. And you know, of course, the fish is like, I'm not interested in that left and I told really, blew it gone done, no more shots. I've done that. I have done that very same thing with muskies several times because it's such a hard thing. And then you finally see one, it like takes your breath away and you gave at it. You become a gaper to use your nickname. I'll tell you what I have. I have never actually caught a muskie in a figure eight in my life because I've botched pretty much all my figure eight opportunities and just z when I should have zag because I got one, but it was like two, so I didn't really get like the hard pumping, you know, that's not that's neither here nor there. The point is that as soon as you see it, like now that I'm seeing it, I will screw it up right. So I've never got one in the eight. The handful of muskies I've caught eight way out and like you know, three turns of Laura and hammered it like a blue fish fifty ft out and those are great. I like those muski you know. But then, like think about it, what makes site fishing goofs even more likely? Because when you have somebody watching you, which is fairly common if you're in a I had a trip, you're out of town, like good chance, somebody's breathing down your neck, and then because then you it's it's instant Monday morning quarterbacking and that's the ship. It's like, oh man, you know you should have stopped and if you had stopped it, oh man, I would have kept that flood moving. Or my favorite, this is my favorite one. Right, oh man, if you just had a couple more feet between the fish and the boat, he'd eate that, you know, so like you ever have that one a couple more feets anyway, good site fisherman keep level heads and uh, our friend and guy, Alvin Didoze certainly keeps his head level. He's a very even keel guy. He is. He's very met, he's very on the level. He's mellow. Yeah. He's also no stranger to site fishing. So we brought him back for our Smooth Moves segment where we call up guides, outfitters, captains and sometimes even shop jockeys, anyone who makes a living helping other people catch fish. Really and we asked him to tell us ridiculous or hilarious or idiotic stories about things that clients do. And wouldn't you know it, Alvin has a story that we'll get more of your Monday morning sidecasting quarterbacks saying well played, bro, good job. One of my favorite smooth moves that I witnessed quite often on the boat on the skiff fishing for tailing red fish in shallow water, very skittish fish, and it's one of those kind of games where you gotta go to from zero to a hundred at the blink of an eye. So we're cruising around, we're looking for fish, looking for fish. No fish, no fish, no fish, no fish. All a sudden, there's a fish sixty ft one o'clock. Okay, hang on, we're gonna little get a little bit closer. We're get a little bit closer. Okay, you're good. Good, put a cast out there. And then the move is the body pump, where okay, we're trying to sneak up on this fish in like eight inches of water. They can feel every vibration for him a mile away, and all we gotta do is ease up on them. In the skiff, I'm pushing it as quietly as I can, trying not to spook him. And right before my client makes the cast, he's got to do a little hop the body pump when you kind of jump up in the air a little bit and then come down. Don't ever take your feet off the ground. It's just like a little like compression move. And it's awesome because what happens is it sends the pressure wave through the hull of the boat all the way up to the fish, and before the fly even hits the water, the fish is gone and I'm looking for another fish. So yeah, the body pump class. You see this happen all the time, Alvin, Like a lot of people sort of subconsciously do the body pump. Yeah, yeah, it's it's a weird thing. I mean, I don't do it, but it's just because I've seeing it happens so many times. It's burned into my mind. Like when you see the fish and are ready to make your final presentation, don't jump up and down in the air. I've never I've never thought about it. But now I'm thinking back, and I'm like, oh god, I probably do the body pump. Like I probably do that. There's some variations on the body pump, you know, like the two step or the three step, you know, the pat pat pat, or the double the little the little like tap dance of excitement. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's just a variation. Let me just think about it, you know, Um, is that. I'm just curious, you know, double tap, triple tap, two step. It's a move with a lot of names, but they all have the name result spooked fish. Oh yeah, I've done that. I've I've body pumped probably two steps. I don't I don't know, I've probably three steps. I think that probably that might have been what cost me. Uh this tarpan that I blew it on after I flew all the way to Cuba to catch one. And that's the worst, right like that is the absolute worst, when you screw up on a destination fishing trip all the way overseas in a middle seat to get over here U. And for me, that's when the self loathing comes out. If I'm gonna be again from this is an honesty day for me. Like I if I blow it on a nice trout somewhere close to home, I can I can shake that off. I can forget about that one. I'm on. I'm onto the next one. There there'll be another one. It's fine. I can do this tomorrow. But on the road, like, I've not just let myself down now, I've let a guide down to and having been a guy like I know your guys gonna say, oh, don't worry about it, We'll find another one, right, because that's what guys do that their professionals as a job. But but that guy actually thinks, God, this guy sucks. Yeah, and like, yeah, the guide takes your failure personally and then pretty much hates you. That's just the truth. That's how it goes. And I know it. Yeah, And no matter what, look, whether you're with a guide or by yourself. Right, I've found over the years in in sightcasting scenarios, at least for me personally, like you have to nail the first one or two shots. Like if you execute and get those first one or two, it's it just sets you up for success. It's fine, everything else is great. Then like that gets the confidence way up and I tend to be more on it for the entire rest of the day. But the more you screw up early on, the more you miss on those first couple of shots, I think, the more likely it is you'll keep screwing up. Right, And then that's that's that's why you gotta keep your cool from the outset. You channel your inner Andre three thousand. I don't think I have an inner, Andrea. I think I have more like an inner rivers Cuomo, And this feels like a good time for us to bring in this week's awkward moments in angling. Seems like a good time for that. Let's do that. But it's a picture a la block. Who are we slapping on the awkward moments in angland chopping block this week? The chopping block in which the blood of our last victim, Alex Reid is still trying in the wood grain. The answer would be the answer, Hey, man, come on, I like it. I like it. I'm not I'm not giving you a hard time, Okay, all right, Well, the answer would be Mr John, I'm gonna say Brower, but it could be Brewer because there's elements of his name that could go brow or brew So one of those two do you have? You have an opinion on that. I'm going with Brewer, just because I like the idea of him being you know, but that's all John, No matter who you are, your John Brewer for the rest of this um. Anyway, John sent us his photo along with these opening lines. In the email, he says, here's a pick from a few years ago that is objectively pretty silly, but I'm still slightly proud of okay, which is a slightly weird and the way I see it, um, it's inclusion here on this segment, John will either make you more proud of it or possibly less because you've given us so much to talk about with this image, and we we've kind of had a habit of starting like with the attire or these the scenario in awkward moments, and we sort of like end up coming around to the fish at some point. But this time we're going to start with the fish because initially I couldn't find the fish. Wait, there's a fish. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Yes, there's a fish. Of course there's a fish. We know there's a fish. But before we talk about that fish, I just want to say, Man, I loved this photo. It's a good one so much. It's a good one. If I were described as photo, it would be just like pure unfiltered, unpolished, no ego, no bullshit, fishing joy. Right when I see this photo, that's what I see. I've seen someone who is like transcended all the bs about taking a photo. Was just like, oh my god, I'm having the greatest day fishing. Was like it's he's like it's still pretty positive, still pretty positive. He's just like in this photo, he just he radiates everything that is good about fishing, you know, setting aside the fact that in order to find the actual fish in the picture, I had to do that like squint and refocus, that that we all developed with the Magic I three D picture books were kids. I was definitely getting there, you and I did, and some of our younger listeners would be like, what's up, what's a magic guy? Um? But there there is in fact fish. Um. It's an extremely tiny trout okay. And while John didn't specify the species, I'm thinking can micro cutty. It's a mountainous setting, could could be a micro Brookie like a main setting. It's really it's hard to call okay um. But according to John it was worthy of photo documentation because it was his first wild fish and by that I assume he means his first wild trout caught on the fly. And you know what, like Bravo, there's nothing wrong with that. Props for that judgment, no judgment. And my money is on Cutty not Brookie, just from what I can see. But it's hard to tell, uh. And it's it's not only hard to do because the fish is like really truly. I mean, if you guys look at this, you'll see like tiny tiny, But also because whoever took this photo was standing like ten ft away, which is you know, good depth of field. The background is gorgeous, but it's it's not so good if you're if you've got like a macro subject that you're trying to capture. Also, we got to talk about the hold in this or like whatever that is. I don't even know if we can call it a hold. So John's got his fly routed his right hand end, and I got in sort a quick tip here if if you don't want to look like a complete and total geper all of you out there, take off the plastic shrink wrap from your rod handles before you fish with them. This is like a basic thing that we should all know. And if you don't know, hey maybe no one's told you, but now you have no excuse take it off before you fish. Anyway, that's a that's a pet peeve of mine, like, like I see that, and I've had people saying, like why do that to keep the cork nice? Like no, I have to take that off. Take it off, just the cork feels good in your hands. Plastic feels terrible anyway. So he's got a shrink raptor rod in his right hand, and then he's like he's also holding his leader in that hand, but then further down the leader with his is his other hand. He's like way up in the air holding further down the leader, and I just don't get it. He's like way above his head holding that leader from which the fish is dangling, and I don't understand. I can't see why any one would hold their fish that way. Yeah, Like, yeah, he's got his one hand extended way up and and this this tiny dangler is hanging right in front of the screaming yellow life jack at the John's wearing. So basically, if you're just like doing a quick glance, it looks like John was, I don't know, like photographed in the middle of doing the Y M c A while holding a flyer on because you can't see the fish like you have to hunt for Unfortunately, though, right the fish is kind of the least of John's offenses. Okay, because perched a top, John's like Napoleon dynamite hair. Okay, it is some cross between a cowboy hat and like a crocodile dundee hat. Right, it appears to be hand Yeah, it's crocodile dundee. It appears to be made of felt. It is extremely mint green. It's so minty. Uh. It has a band that could possibly be made of like amber beads featuring Dino d na um. And he's even got the chin strap there since tightly under his chin, like he's all in on the hat. Like the hat is secure. The hat is not coming off in a hurricane. Um. And the hat and the strap it frames his face nicely. And that's a face that's wearing Ken Griffy Jr. Sunglasses. Wow, that was That was a menagerie of reference points you just gave there. You don't even know where to go, so many directions I'll go with, I'll go baseball. That was. That was a Griffy reference, a Griffy Junior reference, which it's very rare you get to sneak one of those in. So that was good. I like that. And and uh, you're right on, dude. Those shades do look a lot like like like the Griffy shades that he was so famous for. They've got that same Uh, I don't know, inverted trapezoid thing. And yeah, the glasses are quite sporty, but I gotta say John does not look particularly athletic in the rest of his countenance in this photo. Dude's kind of like a hot mess out there. Again, lots of joy, but not really all that I'll put together. You got like joy because his both his pants are rolled up, but one pant legs rolled up higher than the other significantly. And he's got like his his his his fishing shirt wide open, and one side's hanging down further than the other. And and then his life jacket is also wide open. It's like straps falling everywhere, which again not real good for fly fishing to have straps and things to catch your line hanging everywhere. Despite all of those, however, perhaps the least sporty thing in this photo is the watercraft that has parked on the beach next John. I would actually, I would actually argue that the vessel he's used to catch this fish makes to catch more significant, because I wouldn't want to fish out of it. No I do, dude. I want to say I fished out of worse, but I'm actually not sure. Uh, it's like you gotta you guys gotta it's it's like a two person inflatable canoe kayak hybrid that I'm gonna say came from Walmart. And there's there's nothing wrong with inflatable Walmart boats. But they they've got limitations, right. They're not like your best fishing vessels. They don't have any gear storage, and they're very very easily punctured by sharp objects like I don't know, hooks for example. Uh. Also, how the hell do you cast out of that thing? Yeah, there's because there's he's not standing up in that or if he has got maybe that's why he's wearing a life jacket. You know, it's a warm day and he just figures I'm gonna spill. But like, you can't understand when we say inflatable, we mean all parts. It's not like inflatable with a hard frame like this seats like there's no part of the boat that's not filled with air. No, it's a rubber raft canoe kayak thing. Stability for for me, for a man of my stature is like a huge factor. And I've been I've been on several watercraft that were built better than this, and I still got the jitters like I recall a time that me and another fella through giant swim baits on musky rods out of a rickety ten foot John boat for a few days. But I think that probably most of us have been on boats like this right where it's like everything is going to be fine as long as nobody moves. It's like no sub movement, or like if I go this way, you go that way and we don't have to be in sync. It's it's yeah, yeah, or just go really really slow and that's all fine. Again. This is the kind of watercraft that is perfectly fine if you're booze cruising, right, But fly casting requires motion and mobility and movement, and I don't think John's gonna send this this rig off any sweet jumps. That's That's what I'm guessing. Way to rein that one back in we'd love to see a video though, if you ever decided to shoot the shoots in that sled though, John, Oh, good one, good one. I'd also like to add that John concluded his email by calling this fish a turning point and angling for him, which is cool, but then he goes in ruins the sentiment by adding that he hasn't picked up a flyer out again since this day. That truly, to me, that's the bummer of all of this, of the whole thing, because again, despite all the ship we've been talking, the main attribute to this photo that I want everyone to take away is the joy of John, like he is having a sublime life moment here. Yeah. And I know we might attrashed you, but you were. You were happy and and happiness matters in this day and age with my friend. Um. Yes, John, please pick that fly right back up again. You should. Um. Hopefully we've also just created a turning point in your head gear choices. If we had Bent hats, i'd send you one, but we don't, so you're gonna have to settle for stickers. John. We do appreciate you sending the photos so we could have some fun with it. And remember, if you want to be subjected to this madness, send your awkward fishing photos to Bent at the meat eater dot com. Remember, you guys can now see John's photo on me and Miles instagrams. That's Joe dot Smellie one three eight and water Miles. That's that's they're basking and all its glory on the interview. Yeah, poor guy, poor guy. But in fairness it's critical. I think that you learned the basics of macro photography for tiny fish, which makes me wonder, like if maybe John doesn't have Instagram, because if you know what you're doing, even a little bit, like you can take a shot of a four inch mud mineau and make people think you're the ship. You know what I mean? If you do it his way, you just just end up on bent and get trampled over a hat. I really hope that was like his favorite hat. I wonder, I wonder if John's an archaeologist. I like, maybe that's his archaeologist hat, or like maybe the hat that's been handed down through his archaeologist generations of fans. I don't know. I'm making up a store that that would make us real jerks if we were like making fun of his lineage. Anyway, speaking of getting trampled, let's head down river in an inflatable flamingo toward the waterfall of uncertainty and see who swan dives over that drop like a pro in Fish News, Fish New that escalated quickly. All right, this this week, I have a shout out. I want to start with, if you've followed this show since the very beginning. You might remember that our first ever end of the line segment covered the beetle spin, and in that I wind and complained that Johnson stopped making the magnum size at some point, and recently, yeah, you remember me complaining about that. So recently I got this photo from from listener Chris Lawler, and there is holding up a brand new in the box magnum sized beetle spin at his local tackle shop, and I was like, what did you find that? Yeah, And so at first I chucked it up to a regional oddity because Chris lives in Canada. So I was thinking, maybe Johnson decided to only market the larger sized beetle spins up north. But that just doesn't make any sense. So so now I figure I'm wrong. I gotta do a little more digging, thinking new old stock, right, I would be like, oh, it's new old stock. I knew something was up. I'm like the old stock, or like but what what? What the hell is going on? So I went back into internet whole and it turns out you can still get the half ound sized beetle spins here in the US. You just have to really look for them specifically. Okay, if you search the Internet for Johnson original beetle spin, which is what I did when I was right in the end of line segment, you will not find anything larger than a quarter ounce. If, however, you google half ounce beetle spins, you will discover something different. Long story short, it seems like the super sized beetle spins somewhere got rebranded as salt water lures and separated out from the original beatle spins, and so now they only come with gold blades and are only available and a handful of colors. But they do still exist. So I just want to say thanks to Chris for sending me down that deep, deep hole and also sending me a couple and uh and forcing me to figure out the mystery. Thanks Chris, based on on what you just said, only gold and certain colors, what they're push and him for what trout and redfish? Right? Trout and redfish? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well that's good news. Um, you and twelve other freshwater fisherman is super excited right now, all right, I got I got just one baby shout out quick one uh to listener Anthony, it's either marchant or Marchant. Okay, it's one of the two. Rarely do we get a name where I'm like, oh, it's just Smith, so that's okay. Um. But he wrote in following up to our little convo about good luck charms and and pre fishing rituals and things like that, and I just thought this was fun and I'm gonna steal something from him, he wrote, after the pre fish dump, but before the morning cigarette, when we are gathering our gear, I will look over at my brother Alex or my buddy Nick and go, you boys ready to get skunked, or you boys ready to wash some loures. We do this to lower expectations and not get worried about catching any fish. I have never heard somebody say you ready to wash some loures. Nope, And I am stealing that, Anthony. That's a good one. I'm taking it. So that's it. That's my shout out. Wash. I washed a lot of loures. You'll probably be washing some magnum beetlespins pretty soon. Good stuff, good stuff, alright, on too news. As a friendly reminder, this is a competition, Miles, and I do not know what stories the other guy is bringing at the table. At the end of it, as always are, our audio engineer, Phil the Ayatollah of Rock and Roller, will judge us and declare winner. And right after that we're gonna do a little trivia with our friend Mandy Yorick. You are up man, you have the the you get to start today, all right. Uh So for my first story, I'm gonna I'm gonna be sticking with that that that Canada theme I brought up my shout at and I'm also gonna be piggybacking a little bit off of what Sam Lungeren covered last week when he was on here talking about is he still Is he still alive? Before we go last I heard, I heard, I have not received any It did a couple days ago. He's not dead and I don't think I don't think any of badsab to him yet. So um, you guys, remember he was talking about concerns over Olympic Peninsula steel head potentially getting listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act and how that would impact fishing for them and the whole culture of steel heading out there. Right, So we're gonna move from the northwest to the even farther northeast and talk about a similar situation playing out on the East coast of Canada. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is considering listing certain Atlantic salmon populations under the Species At Risk Act or SARAH, which is the Canadian equivalent of the E s A. If it goes through, this listing would apply to salmon populations in over a hundred thirty rivers in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Okay, so let's start with with some basic facts about Atlantic salmon populations in Canada. Much like the ste letting the OP, they're not doing so hot. They've dropped from about nine hundred thousand mature fish returning in about one hundred thousand, and that's approximately four thousand fish below the estimated minimum to maintain a viable population. Also, much like the steelhead in the OP, the reason for these continuing declines are numerous and they're not easily fixed. So the Canadian Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife has recommended a threatened or endangered listing, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans or DFO, is currently considering. That might sound like a good idea, right The fisher in terrible shape. Give them the highest level of protection available. Let's save these bastards. But salmon conservation groups disagree. The Margarite Salmon Foundation, St. Mary's River Association, Nova Scotia Salmon Association, and Atlantic Salmon Federation are voicing strong opposition to the listing and spearheading a campaign to pressure the Canadian government to stay away from this move. Again, I'm gonna feel familiar that you've heard these arguments before. Yeah, listing these populations could put an end to recreational fishing, which would alienate the primary advocates that the fish currently have. We all know anglers put more time, effort, and money into saving the fish they love than anyone else, including you know, the pea people and the conservation groups. Right, so taking away our ability to fish for them could functionally cut off all that major support. And you know, even better than I do, the kind of money that Atlantic standon fishermen dropped like big, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll have several things to say so but I'm not done. But like that, that's that is one group of anglers who spends money, right and so yeah, So advocates also worried that the closing these rivers would put additional pressure on the rivers that are still in good shape. Right. These are all arguments we've heard elsewhere, but some of their concerns did feel unique to me and seem to go even further. According to the Guysborough Journal, which is a regional newspaper Nova Scotia, a SARAH listing does not compel DFO or other government agencies to do anything about the actual threats a species might face, such as resource extraction, agriculture, and unregulated fishing. In a statement on their website, People for Salmon Atlantic Salmon Federation states SARAH would take people off the water, threatening a long tradition of shared stewardship. Yet experience shows that serious threats like open netpen salmon aquaculture would be left alone. Dear Dr Green, a board member for the St. Mary's River Association, claims, when a species is listed under SARAH, there is a general prohibition against harming and harassing that species. This has been known to impact critical research, recovery and restoration efforts. So it's possible that sting these fish could not only like prohibit fishing for them, and not actually help the major issues or stop the major issues that are threatening these populations, but could also limit the ability of researchers and conservation groups to study and manage these fish and fisheries, as doing so might fall into the category of harassing protected wildlife. I do have to say the Department of Fisheries and Oceans is still considering this issue, and they have stated publicly that even if they do list these populations as endangered, they may still allow recreational fishing and other research and conservation activities. So all of this is to say, Canadian listeners, and we know there are some of you out there, if you care about salmon, this is a good time to write an email to your Minister of Parliament and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and tell them what you think. Remind them that fishing is conservation, that that anglers can and should be conservationists and stewards of the resource. Their decision on this listing is expected later than this year, and they're they're taking public comments, So I think now is the time to no matter how this goes down, get your voices heard so it doesn't go in the way that all of these groups are worried it might go yeah, yeah, no, And I totally agree with that, and I will say I am certainly no expert by any means on Atlantic salmon. I fished for them in in in the Canadian Maritimes once. I thought it was awesome. Um, But it's one of those species that that me and a lot of other East Coasters in general, like you're intrigued by. Like I have friends we've talked about doing Atlantic salmon trips for years. We never actually get around to doing it. But I'm I'm just intrigued by these fish. And you you brought up, you know, spending money. Um. The one thing that that I think is different here or strange. Again, I'm not that familiar with the totality of the West Coast steel scene either, but it just seems a little different to me because I almost feel like, if you really want to experience Atlantic salmon fishing in Canada, good Atlantic salmon fishing, you have to be willing to pay a shipload of money to do it, like you you cannot just you can't just go up there and fish. It doesn't work that way. So, I mean, part of the reason why I've I've never I've never gotten there, like I've always wanted to do um, the rest of Gooche. There's a few rivers up there that I've always wanted to do, but you're not exactly getting media invites, and I don't have that kind of coin. So this is interesting to me that these fish are are that they're attributing any hurt really towards over recreational fishing, because from my view, and again this is my ignorance, it seems like in the overall scheme of things, there's so few people doing it because it is such an elite thing to do that that really this is harming in the overall scheme of things, a very small amount of anglers. It's not like saying, well, you can't nobody can trout fish uh in in Montana, It's like tons of people do that. The Atlantic salmon thinks seems like such a small group of very rich people that do it, you know. I mean, I think that's true for travel anglers. I think that the local cultures of those places are still very much tied to Atlantic salmon fishing. And those aren't those aren't huge communities, but the people who live there, man, that's in their blood. It's what they do, it's what they've always done, and I'm the same boat man. I've always wanted to fish at lang Sam, and I've never done it because the same deal right now. No one's offering up media trips to go at like salmon fishing because they don't have to and I can't afford it, So I've never done Uh. But I do think one thing to point out this is this legislation, this, this potential listing is not aimed at angling. That would just be a consequence of it. They're talking about listening to them just because they're in really bad shape, and the angling groups are jumping on that and saying whoa, whoa, we'll hold on. If you do that, you're gonna push us out. And I think that's gonna have unintended consequences that you don't want. So I don't see this as like the big bad government trying to attack anglers. I think there's an opportunity where anglers need to step in and say like, hey, we're on your side, We're part of the solution here, let's work together. No, and I completely understand that. I think I know they're not targeting anglers. I just if you look at these two stories side by side, the Steelhead and the Olympic and and and the salmon totally understand. I have friends up there who live up there, and yeah, they spend a lot of time Atlantic salmon fishing. They're lucky enough to live where the waters in their backyard have wild freaking Atlantic salmon, which I think would just be the bomb. I can't even imagine that, um, But it's it's a harder fight, I think, to to bring that awareness to on our side of the border, because it is such a small group people that are going to do that. Like, I want to see this work out, because I still have that dream and I don't want to get off on it. But I I fished the mirror machee one time and we did very well. But we also did it in the spring during black salmon season, and I was ignorant and didn't really understand the difference between the two. So while it was cool and it was super fun, I've never had that bright silver eating a bomber experience, you know, Like I haven't had that yet, and I hope to do it. I'll just say that I don't want to have to go to Russia to have that experience, which you kind of do right now, exactly but it's also I will say, it's also a bummer, um, just to hear that. It's so problematic because so many states in the US have tried to re establish their runs, and in the back of your head it's always like, man, they're faced with so many issues. I don't know if I'm ever going to see that in my lifetime. But you know, hey, if I I can always go to Canada, if I really want to, I can always go to Canada. And now to hear that ship like that might be off the table too, not good, Like that's that's not good. So, um, I hope that. I hope that works out because I will get there someday. Uh. In the meantime, I have a feel good story. Yeah, this is a much more feel good story than that. Uh. And it's winters, so I just generally don't feel good, you know. So this is like a ray of sunshine in my cold, bleak existence. Uh. And several listeners actually sent this my way, and it comes to us from USA today headline angler hooks giant Lake trout while on the phone with surgeon. Okay, so uh this happened also in Canada. We're very Canadian today. I just realized there's just nothing good going on in the States. Now that I think about it, my second story is not in the US either, Do something, people make some news, help us out here. Uh So this happened in Canada, British Columbia, um and not long ago. Fifty seven year old Murray Zelt had to have emergency surgery to remove an obstruction in his intestines and that went well. He recovered nicely, but naturally after surgery, you make a follow up appointment right with your doctor. And now Murray lives in the town of one hundred mile House, Okay, and the closest big town I guess with legit medical facilities is cam Loops, where we get all those famous rainbow trout, you know, the Camloops fish. But that's roughly two and a half hours away from where Mary lives. Well, the morning that he was supposed to head to that the doctor's office, he gets a call that, due to newly tightened restrictions because of the COVIDS, they wanted to switch his follow up to a phone call instead of in person. So Murray says, hell, I'm up early. I got up mad early to drive to cam Loops. Now I don't have to go to cam Loops. I'm as well go ice fishing at nearby Horse Lake. And I really don't think he had to think about this too hard because just two days earlier he had caught his personal best lake trout through the ice on Horse Lake and that was a nice fourteen pounder, good fish. Right, So Mary heads to Horse drills a bunch of holes and gets after it. Uh. And he jigs for a couple of hours with nothing, no, no, zero bites, and then his surgeon calls and Mury begins his post surgery follow up. Um, and the doctor had all good news, said everything is great, you look good, and then as oh, by the way, you're free to resume outdoor activities now. So the irony and that right out of the gate, right, But as those words came out of his surgeon's mouth, Murray's jig gets slammed. So what does he do? Right? He puts the surgeon on speaker phone naturally, and his surgeon is is apparently an avid angler, and they enjoyed the fight together via cell signal. Okay with his surgeon post follow up. So so he immediately had to admit, I'm sorry interrupt, but immediately had a been like I'm allowed to. Yeah, he was like she's sitting on He's like, I'm sitting on a frozen lake right now. So I just got wrecked. Check this out with the clearance. Here's the kicker, right, here's the kicker, the laker that he hooked while on the phone with the surgeon, Wade twenty seven pounds, shattering Murray's other PB by thirteen whole. Damn isn't that great? Isn't that? Isn't that nice? And most impressive to me is um the quality of the cell reception on horse Laking because I looked it up on a map and y'all are out there, Like I would have just assumed that was you know, like, please God let this text go through country. So you know, I I think it's a wonderful story. And I also give the surgeon credit, like this is a guy who's probably very busy and very official, but like he hung around on the phone to listen to the lake traffic get caught. That was probably the highlight of his day, Let's be honest. He's like, yeah, there's someone dying in the next room, but I gotta hear how this ends. We'll get to the we'll get to the gall stones later. What do you got what? Yeah, so congrats to marry. Mary looks like a character in his photos. He's like he's the way he's smiling with his with his fur hat on. He looks like somebody in grumpy old men who would be really fun to hang out with, Like I like, I feel like Murray would be a good time to to jig lakers with. I like anyone who fishes in a fur hat. I'll admit that you started this story out by describing how you your cold bleak winter existence. I believe I believe those are the words you use very much. So, yeah, that is my story. Is is about our collective cold bleak winter existence and somebody who's trying to maybe make it a little less bleak. It's it's a little short. I don't have a lot to say about this. I just think it's it's kind of cool and uh. It's about the use of de icing salt on roadways. If you, if any of you out there living in Arizona or Florida, someplace that doesn't have ice U there are states and cities in parts of the world where we get regular snowfall and uh, and that snowfall you just call it salt. It's not It's just salt. The people in Flagstaff are really hating us right now. But there are other in northern climbs. We get we get the snow and the ice, and it takes up on the roads and and makes for dangerous driving conditions right and and cities and and and states and towns will spread some combination of sodium, potassium and magnesium chlorides on the road ahead of, during and after snowstorms. These compounds lower the freezing point of water and make the snow and ice melt faster, and at least in theory, make the roads safer. Here in the US, we use a lot of this stuff, like two hundred million tons per year, which I didn't realize until I check this out, and I I used half it out on my driveway, you know what I mean. It might make traction on the roads better. But these these salt compounds also have drawbacks, as anyone who has ever lived in a state that used a lot of roads will tell you. They wreak havoc on the undercarriage your vehicle by causing rust and corrosion. You probably know about this I'm guessing is just gonna say I had just had my whole try reframed, and I'm sure the salt had something to do with it. Definitely, it definitely did. And it's not just bad on vehgles. It's really bad on vehicles, but it also damages roads and bridges and like messes up all kinds of infrastructure. So it's it's bad for things, and I'm speaking specifically of things like cars and roads and bridges and metal. It's great for not getting sued by ups like you don't want him to slip on your step, you know what I'm saying. I'm not I'm not negating the necessity of these things. I'm just I'm just pointing out that they have some drawbacks, and some of them are environmental because all the all the snow and the ice it melts, it turns into water, and the water carries the chemical compounds into streams and rivers and wetlands and lakes and oceans. Are you gonna be talking about your own state and this at all? We don't use it? You're not. That's why I was gonna ask. That's why I was gonna say, because Montana, like you guys, are a big no no on salt. We're we're a big note. I'm not. I decided I kind of admitted this out of that story because I don't thin anyone care that much. But yeah, we we avoid it for just this reason. No, I don't want bring it up because the last time I was out there and there was heavy snow and I was sliding all over the place walking around town. I'm like, why doesn't somebody salt this ship? They were like, oh, no, don't say that, we don't. There's no salt here. I'm like, what anyway, we love our trout too much, dude, we love our trout. No, it's a good thing. You're smarter for it. It's a good thing. So there's all the context and and this little fun little twist. Bentleister John Brewer, whose name should sound familiar since we just made fun of him fishing photo, sent us a story from the magazine Popular Science, and and that story is written by Monica Blazynski, who's a materials scientist working on alternatives to d icing salts. She's analyzing how how fish, insects, and plants deal with ice in an attempt to develop more benign anti freeze compounds one of the most promising potential sources fish blood. Species like the Antarctic toothfish create glycoproteins that keep their blood from freezing even in the coldest waters on Earth. Blazinski and her colleagues have now isolated a compound in those glycoproteins primarily responsible for their anti freeze characteristics. She writes, these small compounds lock into place with water molecules like a key in a lock to prevent ice from forming. And I'm sure that is a massive oversimplification for people like me, but I can kind of see it now. You can't just dump a bunch of fish blood on an icy road and have it do the same thing. It's salt like that that that won't work. The glycoproteins break down quickly in open air, and frankly, that's probably good news for the Antaric toothfish, because otherwise they might be in trouble. I already haven't seen one in years. I was wondering how they were doing where I used to catch them all the time. So instead of doing that, we're not just like slaughtering these fish and spreading their blood everywhere. Blazynski and her colleagues have discovered that polyvinyl alcohol, an inexpensive compound that's non toxic to humans and aquatic life, is surprisingly similar to the active anti freeze agent in fish blood. They're working to engineer slight changes to the chemical structure of p v A based on what they're they're learning from studying the fish to create a cheap, readily available d icing compound that will not rust your car or pollute your rivers. So there you go, Like, that's my favorite story for the day. Yeah, that's great. I saw this headline and at first I thought they were going to try and like figure out how to do this with fish blood, but basically they're learning from the fish blood how to synthesize this. Yes, yes, no, no actual fish blood. I'm all for that, I really am. And you know, we're we're joking about the salt out here. I feel like salting out here. It's one of those things that most people know, like it's it's really not good, but we're so in it, man, like we're so ingrained in it. It's it's just not going away, Like it's not You can buy salt for people who don't live in salt places where you need when you need the ship. You can buy salt anywhere, like as of Thanksgiving, Like you can go to the gas station they're selling bags of salt out in front of the seven eleven there bags of salt. You can go to the post office and they got salt. And like, it's so crazy here. If there's snow forecast for five days from now, they start salting the ship today, Like they'll be salt on the roads today. I I think I think this is great. I just I applaud Montana, And I'm sure there's other states where they like really took that to heart and we're like, we don't need to do this to get through our winter. Here, man, five days out, chance of flurries, get the trucks out there, salt that ship down. You could cure meat on the day on the damn street. Dude, don't like the kids just don't do it. Yeah, but no, I think I think that would be incredibly smart if we could figure out how to do that. And and it is no joke. Yeah, I mean, you know, the fish is one thing, Yes, that's obviously very important to us, but the truck stuff is no joke either. Man. I mean my frame just rotted straight through. So if you don't have to deal with that, good for you. Um well, I will incorporate fish blood in a sense into my next story, as well as probably a pinch or two of salt. Okay, because we bang bang on right there. We recently got an email from a listener that said, we don't dabble in fish cookery on this on this program as much as he would like. And I kind of disagree because apparently he missed my riveting expose of fermented sushi a few weeks ago. Where were you on that one, bud? But that's okay, it's all right. I'm gonna try and make up for it with this one. And this comes to us, of all places, from the South China Morning Post headline pet food Malaysian woman's koi soup raises eyebrows after she makes meal out of dead fish. And it's exactly good word play, right there, pet food, I got it, I got it. Say see, they're pretty smart, they're pretty smart. Good journalism. We're there. Um it's exactly what it sounds like. This is from the story just a little bit here. Japanese ki are typically thought of as expensive ornamental fish rather than food, so a Malaysian woman calls quite a stir on social media when she shared pictures of her dead Petki being turned into soup. Amanda omt you A first posted the photos on a Facebook group with more than two million members called cooking Fails of the Day. Al Right, so that's that's she's that's where she went. Okay, that's where she went. Okay. In her post at you included a photo of over a dozen of her dead pet Koi fish laying on the floor, which, according to her, all died of suffocation when her domestic helper forgot to turn off the water supply to the fish tank, resulting in low oxygen. Now I read that and reread that several times. And I'm not a fish tank nerd, but do you think they meant that the domestic helper forgot to turn on the water supply. Like, if you forgot to turn off the water supply, wouldn't your COI be overly oxygen eated? I would think think about that, doesn't You're right? That doesn't make it unless there's just some weird stuff in the No. I can't. I can't figure out how that, dude. Some some some tank people are gonna write and be like, oh you pH and I always keep my fine. I don't know, I just I just caught me off guard. That didn't seem right to me. It's irrelevant and the long run, um, anyway, this woman documented every single step of this process. So first it's it's more than a dozen deadki. Then there's the shot of all the beautiful koi hacked into a million pieces in a strainer, right, just like rough, it's a rough chop with a cleaver, right. And then you've got a pot full of ki simmering on the stove, and then the finished product, a steaming hot bowl of koi soup. Now here's the thing, right, They're just carp That's all they are right there. Yeah, they're very pretty carp And lots of people, Asians, especially eat carp. That's not weird. It's part of their culture. They eat carp all the time. But despite knowing this, the shot of the bowl, the finished bowl of soup makes me gag a little. And I attribute this gagging to two things. It's one, it's just the color of the fish. Like there's a very vibrant, still very vibrant, bright orange and white koi head in the middle of the bowl with those boiled out, glazed over eyeballs, and it's to me, it's just off putting. I'm sorry. In second, the broth looks like dirty dishwater like it looks to me like it would have no flavor other than that of your pellet fed ki. So I know the eating of carp is not weird, but I mean, you saw the pick. Does the soup look good to you? Does it look like good soup? So you set me these photos and uh no, it it doesn't look like the fish soup that I prefer to make. But you know what, I don't think you can judge, particularly a soup, just by how it looks. You eat with your eyes. First, man, come on, if one of my boys in Louisiana threw a coin in some gumbo, I'd be like, oh, that looks delicious, spicy pacanti. It's just like a bowl of starchy potato water with a giant ki head in the middle of it. Dude, I'm I'm saying I would reserve judgment. I would try it, and I would reserve judgment until trying it. And I don't have the highest hopes because, like you said, these are pellet fedki I don't think they're gonna be the most the tastiest to all the fishes, but I've been wrong before. Even if she made the soup out of regular carps, she bought up the fish market and posted it to to a cooking Facebook group, I'd still be like, well, that looks shitty, Like that doesn't The coy just takes to a whole other level. But the vibrant colors, I got to admit, dude, the vibrant colors in the super are are just a little strange. As you are off, it does it's it throws you off. So um. Anyway, some of the comments from the social media post are interesting, and remember this is on an Asian version of Facebook. This isn't our Facebook, so these were all translated in the story. But one person wrote, no way, they are too cute. Another jested that this was a dish for nobility, and my personal favorite, someone asked how they were because if they were good, they'd consider setting up a tank and rearing them just for eating purposes, like to have your own like like like like raising chickens. That'd be very expensive cheap. I don't know what coit costs over there, but they are they are not cheap, so um yeah, KOI soup. I mean it wasn't wasteful. I guess. I guess it's better than put them in a garbage back. And they surely would have clogged the toilet, especially one of those low pressure toilets. Like there's no way you're getting all them down. I fully support it. I fully supported you know you had the toy. They're dead, they're fresh. I might have tried, I might have gone with a different preparation, but I I the basic idea of what she was doing, I'm fully in favor of. I probably would have fried him, but I'm an American, so of course I'm gonna fry them. What the hell else am I gonna do? I'm not creative enough to think of other ways to prepare my fish. Uh? So, I love what she was doing. And I think she was trolling everybody, and I think that's kind of fun too. I think she was just like, look what I did. I ate my pets. How piste offer you people? Now? Now Phil has got to troll everything we just went through. What do you want to do this week? Phil? Do you wanna play hookey on your surgeon? Uh? And and go ice fishing. You want to spread some rock salt across the streets in Montana. Uh, cook some cook, some Koi soup, save some Atlantic salmon. Lots of options, and uh, we'll see what Phil comes back with. The winner of fish News this week is John Brewer. John, between your awkward fishing photo and contribution to fish News, you're practically a third co host this week. I hope Joe and Myles send you more stickers than you know what to do with. And I cannot wait to hear your end of the line segment. You gotta be highly skilled for these shows. You understand that? Are you well versed? There? You very smart man? All right? Today's trivia contestant is one of my absolute favorite Minnesotans of all time, Mandy Yuric. Hey, guys, how's it going good? So for those you out there who don't know Mandy, first of all, you should. But she's a She's a tournament angler, an ice fishing savant. I learned a lot from her, radio, TV host, phishing gear designer, former hunting guide, and uh, most importantly for this segment, a trained biologist. And I know I missed some stuff there, Mandy, because you do like everything. But thanks, thanks for thanks for coming on. No, this is awesome, Thanks for the invite. Yeah, of course, so you're ready to play. You're gonna do some trivia. I'm ready to play, all right. So, so, like we just nailed all those things you do put on your biologist had for this one, right, and and to start off with this isn't the actual trivia question. I'm just kind of checking you out here. Do you know off the top of your head the scientific name for smallmouth bass? No? And I should No, I wouldn't have either. And I'm gonna I'm gonna butcher the pronunciation, but I figured you'll probably help me with that. Is it? Is it microp terris or micropterus? Yes, she doesn't know either. That makes me feel better, all right, So I'm going with microp terraces Dolo mew right, that's her. That's your scientific name for the small mouth. And in a very roundabout way, smallmouth share some of their taxonomic history with one of the greatest black exploitation films in history, which is, of course Dolomite. Right, have you seen Dolomite? Mandy just jump in real quick and say I've heard this question, good, best of luck. Miles went so far out in last field I went, I went deep on this one. So the question for you today is this, how did smallmouth bass end up with a Dolomite inspired name? And one of the following three things is true. If you get this right, you win, and you'll get a great fame and absolutely no fortune at all. All right, So here we got a copy of Dolomite one. No, it'll be VHS or maybe beta max. I'm going beta max, all right, So is it a Rudy ray Moore, the creator and star of Dolomite, once did odd jobs in a fisheries lab that did research on smallmouth. He told one of the lead investigators that he should name smallmouth after Dolomite because quote, that's a badass fish and it needs a badass name. Second option B. In his youth, Rudy Raymore spent a lot of time in Detroit with his uncle Frankie. The two regularly fish that Detroit and Huron rivers. Young Rudy was kind of a science geek, so he memorized the Latin names of all the fish they caught. When Rudy invented his famous pimp character Dolomite. Decades later, he named it after his favorite fish, the smallmouth or see. In eighteen o two, a small mouth bass was sent to Paris from an unknown source in the US. The theologist to examine the specimen gave it the scientific name Dolomue, after one of his drinking buddies, a local mineralogist who he idolized because of Dolomu's reputation with the ladies. Subsequently, the rock Dolomite was also named after Dolomue, again probably due to the guy's reputation as a player. Because he didn't even discover that mineral. Carl Linneaz did, all right, So to recap to recap, because I know I just gave you a lot, I'm gonna I'm gonna just give you a short recap. Here is it a. The creator of the movie Dolomite also named the smallmouth bass b The creator of the movie Dolomite named his famous character after the smallmouth bass or see. Small mouth bass were named after a famous French ladies man whose reputation as a player was so good. He also got the mineral Dolomite name for him, even though he didn't discover it. I gotta go a ce man. That's an epic answer. I don't care if it's true or not. That thing's epics nails it for you. Because when I tried this questions, I was like, I don't remember anything you just said. I was just so excited to make a connection between dolomite and smallmouth bass that I couldn't let it go. Yeah, you went way off the rails with that one, just way off alright. But I feel like, I feel like I have to defend myself because I wanted to ask many a smallmouth question, right, because she's like a small mouth savant and she's a biologist, and so I was. I was. I was digging in there, and I learned the scientific name for small mouth. I learned that it shares the same root as dolomite, which was just too much for me to pass up. And then I learned the history of how both the mineral dolomite and the small mouth got their name from a French society scientists better known for his infidelity than his research. And I could not leave it alone. I realized that when when I went out like way out in left field, but I couldn't help myself. I'm sorry. I know, it's just all those things. It's just so you, it's just so Miles. Those things. Well, thankfully Mandy has been on the show before and even played trivia before, Otherwise she may never come back again after that. I I think Mandy learned something, That's what I think, and I I happen to know that she is the kind of person who appreciates learning. So I think I think Mandy will be back. I hope she'll be back, and she'll be back. We'll have her back. I'll get her back. If she soured on you, I'll get her back. Look if she's busy. If she's busy the next time we call her, that will just be one more thing for me to feel shameful about. On the Shame Wizard Shame. But, as you're about to hear an end of the line, Joe is currently feeling completely shameless, especially for a guy who supposedly saddled with Roman Catholic guilt. This week, in honor of the pending Valentine's Day, or as I like to call it, corporate Loveday, Joe is going to take a slight departure from our standard profile of like a single bait and instead dig into the backstory of an entire bait manufacturing company that definitely did not suffer the shackles of shame. That's not loud enough. Compacting everything Frank Johnson contributed to Fishing into a single end of the line segment would be almost possible. To say he was an innovator is an understatement. Engineering genius is very fitting. And while I never had the chance to spend time with Frank, who passed away in twenty six, I have rubbed elbos with a lot of people that did, and they've all got stories. While Frank was a brilliant, book smart man, he also knew how to have a good time, and in the case of our Valentine's linked story today, he knew how to translate a good time into a smart business move. Although Frank invented products like the aluminum interchangeable UNI butt system, which has pretty much become standard on all big game trolling rods, he is arguably best known as the man behind mold Craft Loures. Frank had gotten into the injection molding business in the early nineteen seventies and actually helped develop the tooling to create the first ever mass produced pacemaker. But after a few years, the stress of developing products like pacemakers and jet engine parts that could cost someone their life if you messed up kind of took its toll. And that's when Frank combined his engineering skills and his lifelong love of fishing to create the first soft injection molded one piece big game trolling lures, trademarking the term soft head to refer to his family of baits. Frank would end up developing lures like the wide Range, Bobby Brown, and Spooler, all of which are still in shops today and considered timeless classics in the offshore scene, having caught countless monster marlin sailfish in Wahoo the world over. But those aren't what got mold Craft off the ground. The first lure Frank ever produced was the Squirt Squid, available in four lengths and five colors. These semisoft molded squids would become game changers as teasers in both the recreational and tournament worlds, as well as for commercial captain's green stick fishing for giant bluefin tuna. Matter of fact, you watch Wicked Tuna outer Banks and you'll still see the original squirt squids skipping around behind those boats. Then one faithful day, shall we say, in the midnight teen seventies, Frank was shown a photo of a young lady having a really good time with one of his squirt squids, and she wasn't on a boat. If you catch my drift. Now, Frank could have just laughed this off, but instead, seeing he was a firm believer that sex does in fact sell, he retooled some of the squirt squid molds and began a for a into the adult novelties market, And just as he was in the fishing market, he was a pioneer in this market too. Playing off the popularity of the pet rock, Frank named his creation the pet Well you get it, I don't have to say it. In the Screw magazine awarded it the title of product of the Year. Now. I chatted with Frank's son, Frank Jr. Who runs mold Craft now, and he told me the pet rock with a C received this high honor because most adult toys at the time were made of latex, and if you happen to be a person that had an allergic reaction to latex, those toys weren't very fun. At all. Frank's product, on the other hand, was the first of its kind made of injection molded vinyl, which caused no allergic reactions. Hence they were fun for the whole family. Now. I heard a rumor from several people over the years that the toy side of the business got so huge Frank Johnson started a whole other company, that being Doc Johnson, which is still one of the biggest adult toy manufacturers in the world. I was even told that this very day, one side of the facility is pumping out candies for use in the cockpits of sport fishing boats, while the other side is churning out candies for the bedroom on the love boat. So is Frank Johnson actually Doc Johnson? Answer, He's not. Frank Jr. Debunked this rumor once and for all, though he did add, man, I wish we were Doc Johnson. Frank Jr. Explained that while their sex toys made the company money for a long time, they eventually had to kick that side of the biz out of the water bed because as years went on, the novelties market became flooded with cheaper products from China, and while Frank's products may have been better quality, the cost of goods made it impossible to compete for distribution. According to Frank Jr. However, all the molds are still ready to go at the manufacturing facility in Florida. He even said, if I ever need a couple of thousand, he's happy to run me a batch. I'm good on that. But when I got my first boat many years ago, I did buy dozens of mold Crafts junior hookers. They're actually the smallest trolling chugars the company makes. But my little single outboard beater wasn't exactly getting me far enough off shore to pull a squirt squid teaser or wide range or Bobby Brown for Marlin. Those tiny chuggars knocked the fire out of Benita, false albacore and chicken dolphin in my meager inshore range, though, and every once in a while I'd even get a schoolly bluefin to rise to that daisy chain of tiny hookers For a twenty two year old full of piss in vinegar in a third hand eighties six pursuit pretending to be tread Barda that was the most orgasmic feeling in the world. We're We're gonna get some emails about that one, especially from all you people who were piste off that we made fun of penis shaped lures. Well, yeah we are. And you know what, I'm not sorry because there's a difference here. Penis lords are and we're stupid and pointless. Okay, erotic toys, they're just a that's a celebration of human sexuality. There you go. If you want to complain about that distinction, you can vent your frustration and an email to Bent at the meat Eator dot com using the subject line girls, screw yourself Joe. Yes, yes, I will gladly read every single one of those. Also, uh, send awkward fishing photos, bar nominations, and sale in items um to that same email account and use those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags for the chance to get yourself some sticker packs. It is only February, but I am already looking forward to embarrassing myself with some site fishing next spring. I can't wait for that. I look forward to those those moments of scumulation. Before we go, I want to leave you with a question, and I'm serious about this. Does dark house spearing count as site fishing? M hm, I'm personally saying no. I'd say it counts a spearing, which naturally requires a good line of sight no matter what you're chucking at. But let's hear from you.

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