00:00:01 Speaker 1: He's just like pulled the snakehead like it's pistol his hip, like it's not even a good fish hold. He's got like the Khaki's on, you know, like Jacob State Farm. And I mean literally, he might have taken a photo of Jim Carrey and Dumb and Dumber to the cut and Corral and said, hey, give me one of those, and I just had to burst this bubble and be like that three isn't going to cut. Oh contrary, Jordan's son, your boy, Lance is extremely forficient with his desert and eagle long whip. Good morning, degenerate anglers, and welcome to Bent. The fishing podcast that counts the number of flies stuck in your baseball cap has its formulating early opinions of you. I'm Joe Surmelli, I'm Miles Nulty, and we are we are pretty judge of people's fishing clothes. But I sense that you have a particular angle you're trying to get to with this this flies in the that thing. Yes, because yes we are judging, and yes I do here. So here's where I got this from, right, And buddy of mine sent me a meme, and I hate memes, but the one just said who's better. And it's a split photo, right, And on one side you've got a tight shot of someone wearing a fishing vest, and on the other side you've got a crop shot of a ball cap on a dude's head, and it is literally covered in flies. The whole thing is just like covered in flies. And it just got me thinking about how many times I've I've pretty much seen that dude, like at the fly show, like just walking around in a in a hat covered in bugs. And I've known a lot of people that stick special flies, flies that caught some memorable fish in their hat. And I think that's that's swell. When it's like an atoms or two, I mean, like that's that's fine. But I question, what is the message that you're trying to convey let's say, a Baker's dozen or more in your hat. I mean, so if we're gonna look at this, I think we have to talk about the outside significance that hats in general play in the social hierarchy of fishing. Right. And you've given this more thought than I am. Even this a lot of thought, right, Like I actually wrote a whole piece about this for the Drake magazine years ago, and since he teamed me up, I'm gonna read one of the closing paragraphs that I had in that piece. Fishermen wear stained lids as badges of pride and evidence of status. The tourists or recent arrival probably has a few pheasant tails and hoppers buried on top of the brim. The industry guy always has a clean one, prominently displaying corporate affiliation. But the best hats feel like oilcloth and looked like the extensions of the face they shade. And that was beautiful. Man. I used to get paid to write stuff back in the day, and I think, yeah, me too, And I think that's spot on. Uh. And you don't realize, now that you mentioned it, how much hats say about you. And and furthermore, like how much the thirty pieces of flair you add to them? Says when I see a dude write like a camo had at a gas station in Virginia or Ohio, and he's got the you know, the gold hook, the class of the clip, the fish hook clip, I mean. And that's that's why I think we gotta, we gotta move this out from the fly thing. I think it's a bigger conversation, right, because all anglers like, the hat matters no matter where you are. Totally, I'm not knocking fishing hats. I don't think I own a hat that is not somehow fishing affiliated the record, But but like when I see the dude with the camo and the and the clip, I'm like, yep, he knows where the catfish are. Sure, I want to I want to hang out with you. But when I see the young gun in a hat covered with flies, my gut is like sort of like simmer down a little bit tiger, you know what I mean, which is arguably it's hypocritical because while I've never worn a hat with flies stuck in it, like misfit bugs and wounded soldiers are stuck all over like the passenger side of my truck. It's annoying, Like if you sit in the passenger side, you can't you can't see what's coming because there's like rabbit strips and ship in your face. That's a totally I think that's a good parallel. I think that's a good place to go, right because you either you can learn a lot about someone by looking at at the lures or flies or whatever they got stuck in their hat or their truck roofs um and look for me personally on this one. It's about functionality, laziness, and just pure disorganization because because I might stick a fly or or a small lure, depending on where I'm at, in my hat to let it dry out before I put away, Like I'm in the middle of fishing, I want to change out. You don't want to put the wet lure or fly back in the box, right, so I'll just I'll just pop it up there. I'll you know, throw a laser worm or or a small plug on my hat or in the in the visor or the roof of the truck. Right like when I'm breaking down at the end of the day, I can see using whatever drying patches are available in hats and truck interiors of trucks both work that way. Function Yes, it's all for me. It's again functionality and disorganization. And I always have the full intention of putting them back where they belong of later, I just don't get around to doing it. The flies on the hat, they always come off because either they're they're gonna annoy me. I'll I'll stick myself or I'll catch them somewhere. They're they're not gonna stay, not because I'm worried about what it says, just because they're going to irritate me. But the stuff that's in my truck cab, I mean, it's been there for years or I don't know how long, a decade maybe, and simply because I just haven't gotten around to doing something with it. There's no statement that I'm personally trying to make. But if the if the cab of your truck looks like the pegboard and Larry Dahlberg's basement, or or or the free hat you're wearing has three hundred dollars worth the perfectly good flies rotting on it, I do feel like that's an intentional statement, like you're trying to prove something. Yes, and you sparked something here because my truck is well over ten years old now and it looks as you've described. But I'm already saying, as soon as I get a new truck, I'm not letting this happen anymore. I'm sticking no flies in the visor. You say that now, but again, you're gonna do it just out of pure laziness. It's gonna happen. Or I will buy an official thing to put on the visor to stick flies in. You gotta know that route to I don't know. I don't know. Look, I agree that like if you if your hat said so much about you though, and maybe my my special visor thing says something, then then you have to ask, like what does a rod vault say? Because I know what I think it says, which prompted me to take mine off my truck. But I'm gonna let you go first. I told I bought a rod Vault when they first came out, whatever that was, Like, I spent money. I purchased one because they are useful when you're guiding every day, which is what I was doing back then. But that same rod vault has been sitting in my garage since at least two thousand twelve, which is right around the time they turned into annoying status symbols out here where I live, not to mention billboards announcing to everybody who sees your truck, like there's expensive ship in here. If you want to break in, break into this point. Yeah. And I think I think all this comes down to just age and experience and confidence within the cultural pecking order, right Like when you're young and you're trying to prove yourself. You gotta you like you gotta make noise, like you gotta crow and announced, like I'm here and I belong. And as you get older, I mean, you know who the you are and you don't seek validation in the same right like I don't. I don't need everybody around me to know. Like as I drive by it, I bet that guy fishes. I don't need that. You could not be more correct. I think we are seeing seeing eye to eye. Hear because when those vaults first came out, I couldn't get my hands on one fast enough and I wasn't guiding for anything, all right, And I actually I started with I'm not gonna name it, but the vault competitor. That was a box, not a tube, you remember those, And it literally rusted off the roof of the truck like I could poke my finger through it. And then I switched to a vault, but I didn't actually like it because a lot of my salt water rails didn't fit, and in no time I just completely stopped using it. It was more effort to get the rods in the vault than just throw a tube on the back seat. And when you're guiding, I get it. You don't want to break rods down and rebuild them every single day, and used the same rod every day, so exacting exactly. But at some point, and I guess this is the a thing, I realized how impractical this was for a recreational guy, because I store my rods in the garage in their tubes, and then when I'm going fishing, I take them out and build them so I can put them on the roof, and then when I come home, I disassembled them put them back in their tubes for storage in the garage. And the vault is just creating a very unnecessary step right in the middle. Right. But you could not tell this to twenty year old me plus And then I started seeing them on the roof of too many cars, like at these dinky nothing stocker streams around here, and I'm like, I need to take this down. Grown up me says, this is just hurting my gas milet its creating air resistance, and I am not getting the most out of this this vehicle. That is absolutely fact, dude. And and I will say it's hard to these days anymore. It's hard to find a vehicle without a rod vault on it out here, I mean, and it's not just trucks and guide rigs anymore. Now, they're riding around on beamers and outies. And I'm not I'm not saying it, but but that does remind me that we're talking about this, Like, I'm glad you brought this up, because I really should sell the rod vault that has now been sitting unused in my garage for the better part of a decade. And I should probably sell someone who drives a more expensive vehicle than I do. I was gonna say it sounds like you'll flip it quick to get around and put it on Craigslist. Yeah, yeah, I mean, like, maybe I should consider the character in this week's Smooth Moves, because it's a strong chance that this particular person wants a rod vault on the roof of his Audie. Joining us to tell the story about this is our good friend, Captain Abbey Schuster of Kisman Outfitters on Martha's Vineyard, which bear in mind, is a small island completely surrounded by saltwater and some of the finest saltwater fishing in the world, meaning the Steamies and the Goddard sedges on your hat aren't particularly useful. Why joining us today for smooth moves? Um, we have Captain Abbey Schuster of Massachusetts. Abbey, how are you great? How are you? We're good, We're good. We're having a good time now. You not only are you? Are you a captain and guide of the salty variety in Martha's Vineyard. You also um own a shop out there because outfit. So you know, we've had a lot of captains and guides on smooth moves. We've also had some shop managers and things to get sort of the shop bullshit side. Um, but I think you're the first person that could speak to both, like your smooth move could go from the water to the counter. Yeah, you see a lot. That's a really nice way of putting that. And I know the shop hasn't been opened that long, but I'm guessing already in sort of your first season you've seen plenty. So I'm gonna give you the floor for for a smooth move story here, and you can go either way. You can go, you can go water or on land. Surprise us, well, they kind of go hand in hand because a lot of the times we guide people on the they'll kind of the shop, then we'll guide them, right. A common question that it's very confused. There are trout on our designer. Let me clarify that. But yeah, there are trout, but it's not like a trout fisher, Like you don't come to our designer to trap fish really like you would a lot of other places. I'm intrigued by this. I had no idea the brook trout. Yeah, but there there's no moving water on the vineyard in little streams. My mind just got blown. Martha's vineyard more often night. It's cool. I mean, there's like pretty lush, plush, pretty secret. They're very small, but it's cool to catch. Surprising to get murdered tonight. It's been fun. But a lot of people are super shocked. They come in. They're like, well, where are the rivers and where are the ponds? Like why would you ever own a fly visioning store on an island, Like, well, actually there's a whole another side of five fishing ain't called the salt. And so this one guy in particular who ends up being a great guy, but he came to the shop a badge talked to me my brother, asking like tons of questions you know, he's new into this great probably spent like a total of like five days of my life talking to him about the trip. And he gets the boat six thirty in the morning, so excited, shows up in waiters, which, like I don't usually recommend for the boat because you know, it's a little dangerous, yeah right, and it's like rough out you don't so already I like knew there was something up, but you know, you can't really judge anyone. That's what I've learned. Guy everyone. And he shows up and he legitimately thought we were true fishing, like he had his truck flies, he had his three weight, he had every anything, so proud, and I just had to burst his bubble and be like that threely isn't gonna cut him. Like it took hours Arender a cover from the shock it was. I mean, it was like, I just don't know how he didn't pick up on it. So I have so much to say, but I'm going to start with this. The way I'd have played that had I been the guy, would have just been to take him out to the rips and look at his flies and pick out an atoms or some such and be like, no, you gotta mend it more. Just let him throw the three weight out there. That's one thing, okay, But so all right, So I we just learned something. I had no idea there were any trout on the vineyard. You're telling me that a lot of people on Martha's Vineyard assumed that you cater to a trout fishery. And like, yeah, like we don't guide anything, like there's no guiding trout on right right? Right? Yes? Oh yeah, So before before we leave, I got to back up to the guy in question, At what point did he realize you weren't trout fishing? Like? Were you already we were leaving the duck? And how did that go? Was he like, wait a minute, are there trout out in the ocean? I just didn't catch I don't get it either. I mean he didn't he didn't get teleported to the island. I assume he flew and or took a boat there. It's like all surrounded by saltwater and ship too. Demands are our ponds and streams here sort of but like you're on a boat. Yeah, second question, did he catch any fish? Yes? And did that blow his mind? Yes? And they are so mean and I could understand like the teeth aspect, and you know, I think he's I think if if he couldn't comprehend the teeth, how did he do with theft grain line. I'm certain that you probably gave him actually better, but you know he got it after a lot of delicate nice Oh god, you just have to get it out there. No more nice casting. There you go. Everybody who's now going to clamor to Martha's Vineyard to go trout fishing, they know who to look up. They can look happy and take care of all your Martha's when your trout fishing needs. You might catch a striper, a big gass blue fish, but you'll go, you'll go trout fishing. You know what's weird, though, I really do want to catch a Martha's vineyrd trout now. And I'm sure, I'm sure it's not overly exciting. It's probably not even good fishing, really, but I'm so into catching I guess like the wrong things in the right places. That makes sense. Like you told me not too long ago that there are a small mouth bass in Hawaii, which I could Yeah, I was just validating an email we got from a listener, and yeah, there are, uh, and it's not like you're not talking about a lake erie type experience. Yeah. I could take you out to catch a small mouth, peacock, bass, and a bone fish all in the same day. See Yeah, and that fascinates me. And the other thing, I really enjoy his targeting species kind of like within cultures that view them differently. Like as an example, where Abbey and I live, a lot of people believe, um, a false albacore is only cool if you catch it on a fly, you know what I mean, Like that's a coveted fly target and you'll kill yourself up here to get that shot at one. But some of the most fun I ever had fly fishing with him was in Florida because down there nobody cares about them. And the captain was just like, yeah, we'll get them all chummed up. And you've always go ahead and throw whatever you want at him, you know what I mean. We did. We've done this together. We were on that that media trip years ago in the Indian River Lagoon. I don't remember, man, whenever that was. That was like another lifetime ago. But yes, just like that, if I remember correctly, this snook bite was ship and the captains were all bummed, and I was. I was having a blast getting my arms pulled out of my sockets by Abbey's all day long. That was everything I love about albe fishing minus the pressure. And I enjoy that pressure, you know, when you're hearing your Montak or North Jersey like that. It's the pressure is fun of getting on these schools. But sometimes it's just more fun to stop fronting and just catch a shipload of fish, you know what I mean? Stop fronting, Stop front and stop front. You're always from so much front. And I actually know someone who would probably agree with you and and use that same unfortunate terminology. And I believe all his intentions are probably to help unite the fly and conventional worlds. Sh it's likely to end up blurrier than ever before. Who's that your boy? Lance V Is that you're talking about? Yeah, it has been a minute since we've heard from him, but I want to say give me. I feel like I say this every time we hear from Give him a chance, though, because I I get gets such a thrill out of continuing to monitor the love and hate mail we get about Lance. And uh, I was recently actually struck by a comment from a listener in a Facebook for him that effectively said, if you guys would just stop and listen to Land as he speaks the truth and the land, to the boats, to the like, to the sea, up the net, but the boy lands. What's up, pot Liquors, It's me. The Internet's most winning is fishing influencer celebrity Lance Fee. The other day, when I was ripping face when boy Brandon p and contemplating how awesome I am, I realized it's been a while since I checked in. But those losers over at the Meat Beater Fishing podcast. Turns out I've been getting a lot of questions. Unfortunately, most of them are pretty stupid and we better answered by your high school guys counselor who now serves tat shows at Sonic Hash had tots and life lessons, but have no fear eternally devoted fans. I got you. I'm somehow managed to fish one decent question out of the biker bar toilet buffet that Joe and Miles handed me. This comes from Jordan's c who writes, I've known four different guys by the name of Lance in my life, each one more of a deuced than the last. I thought my current supervisor, Lance was the king of all douches until I listened to the Google squad fan girl that is Lance Fee. Yet I'm still interested to know what does this all knowing fish god, sparkly boat driving instat fella think about flipping Monster Largemouth on the fly. Great question. Jordan's first off a clarification. The only thing sparkly about me is my eyes, at least according to your girlfriend. My free nitro Z seventeen, however, doesn't sparkle at all. That's because Monster Energy and Big Willi's Furniture store paid more Benjamin's than you. Make it a month to wrap my ship in Matt black Fire. To ensure that statement is accurate, I confirm your wages with your supervisor, Lanch, who was so tax sharp and visionary I'm considering hiring him as my junior merchandising assistant hashtag corporate ladder. Anyhow you might assume, I think fly fishing is only for kimbucha drinking yupsters who waste their trust funds on pointless crap like hiking boots and books. Oh contrair, Jordan's son, your boy Lance is extremely proficient with his desert eagle long whip. I consider it the ultimate tool for asserting dominance. I like to walk right into a gaggle of snooze sucking flat brammers with avocado eoli in their beers while they're trying to get their meat tugged. I'll fish right behind them with a megabass vision one tin on a destroyer P five, just when they think their loops can't get any more flaccid as a result of the free clinic I'm putting on. Just when Jasper and Cody is about to throw one of his soft doctor squash hands and my axe body washed face, I switched over to the fly rot and give them the advanced clinic hashtag. Oh you didn't want this one. You see, Jordan's fly fishing was invented so dipshits could act like they're better, smarter, and more skillful anglers than anyone who doesn't fly fish. I'm simple ease, you can fly fishing first intended purpose, but I go the extra mile so people understand catching one nice fish on the fly is actually a super weak victory because there are forty other fish in that hole that didn't eat your mob fly. It's like what I think I heard Mother Teresa or maybe laid Jason on a cartoon once. It's not about how much you do, but how much love you put into what you do that counts. Yeah, the truth is I can't stand lands. Whoever, whoever re upped his contract needs to be beat with an ugly stick. And I'm looking at you, Sirmellie. I think I think you were probably responsible for that, and I'm also hoping to metaphorically beat you with an ugly stick in this week's fish News. Fish News that escalated quickly. Okay, so we need to kick off here real quick with a shout out to Mr Wyatt Carol, the winner of our first ever Bent contest. Phil. How about a little celebratory sound effects surprise us? Thank you Phil. Anyway, you guys may recall that we ran a contest that ended last Friday, and uh, all we asked was that you guys tag photos on the Instagram with Degenerate Angler and Bent Podcast. And normally if something with those tags catches our attention, it would just earn you stickers. But for one week, your use of that tag offered a shot at some sick sick bro hand poured soft plastic swim baits and a hard swim bait painted up however you wanted from our bud Brant Hashmoto of hashmoto concepts and why itt w what why came through? Man? That was and you know he had some pretty stiff competition. I will admit, yes, But I think there's a lesson here for for anybody who's following along and maybe thinking about future contests, and that is that you and I are storytellers. That's what we are, that's what we do, that's what we care about, and we are like we're suckers for a good yarn far more than we are for straight hero shots. That's just that's not gonna get it done with us, for sure, for sure. And that's not to say that like the right photo can't take it, but why it's photo at first glance might not have grabbed you, but you you have to combine it with this story. That's that's what got us here. There's there's some subtlety there. I mean, it caught your intention at first because you're like, what is that dude wearing? Clearly we like to make fun of people's apparel, So there's that but and you know, to that end, this this totally could have been in our awkward moments in angling second. You see you see why he's just like holding the snakehead like it's pistol his hip, like it's not even a good fish. Yeah, but he's he's got like the Khaki's on, you know, like Jake from State Farm. And and he's got this fully pressed Aloha shirt. And turns out the shot was taken after one of White's first days when he was student teaching. I'm gonna give I'm gonna give props to all the teachers out there and say that you deserve time to unlind on the water after dealing with all that you deal with with the Yeah, and there's one thing about this we didn't even notice when we picked why it's photo the shirt is actually a Pokemon print, so I didn't see it right away. Yeah, why it nailed him in. He was appealing to you with the snakehead, he hit me with the teacher angle, and then he was also courting Phil with the Pokemon loved nailed the trifecta, he did. And furthermore, he said he had no pliers or multi tool that day, so he couldn't get the hook out of the fish. If you catch snakeheads, they got a real hard mouth, so when you hit him, good like, it's in there. So he didn't know what to do, so he just threw the fish on the floor of his car with its still attached to his line to the end of the rod and just took care of it at home. And I'm gonna assume there were some fish tacos happening that evening. Anyway, you can see why it's photo on my or miles Instagram pages we posted him up last week. They are still there. Thanks again to Brent for supplying the goods for this contest, and rats to Wyatt who tells me why it says he's leaning towards a pumpkin seed pattern on his lore and may even incorporate the Bent logo. So how about that. I'm sure we can license it to him for a small fortune or just do it. It's okay, do it. I got. I got one more quick but very important update before we get to news this week. Are really good friend and colleague Ryan Callahan has just launched season two of his show Cow in the Field. If you don't already know cal he should. He's the director of Conservation here at Meteator. He hosts are Hunting and Fishing Conservation podcast, Cal's Weekend Review, which we're both big fans of. He's also one of the best outdoorsmen I know and just he's genuinely an all around good dude, good lots of fun. It's not an act, it really is. So anyway, Season two of Cal's video series just launched on the Mediator YouTube channel. Go watch it for the first episode. This week he's trapping grizzly bears with Idaho Fishing Game, and next week you can watch him roping invasive rainbow trout on the South Fork and Snake River. Good stuff. Check it out. Anyway, Without further ado, it is time for news and and quick reminder, this is a competition. Neither Joe or I know what the other is bringing to the table, and at the end of it are well well quoifed and uh and smart smart engineer Phil is gonna hop in and declare who is the winner and who is the saddest of sad losers. Speaking of said losers, I'm still a little bit bummed about last week Phil, I mean, really he won with Pokemon I was gonna say, we don't know what the other guy's bringing in the table, but we I know how to win. And Phil, now you you throw a pikachui. There you got it. I will find a way to bring pokemons into every news. Uh. Joe gets to lead off this week, and and I'm just hoping it does not involve Japanese cartoon characters. Joe take it away. No it does not. Uh. And I'm starting out this week with the story from for the Wind dot Com, which I love. You take the science journals, I will take for the win. But this is pretty cool and we're heading off to the Golf Coast for this one headline. Angler makes rare catch of prehistoric fish while surf fishing. Okay, and I read a fishing guide from Michigan. Was surfishing on an Alabama beach when he hooked something big that puzzled onlookers about its identity. Even the angler was baffled, thinking a shark was at the end of his line. Instead, when David A. Rose finally pulled the fish close to shore at Orange Beach after a forty minute battle, he and others discovered it was a golf sturgeon. It was a rare catch of the prehistoric fish, which is listed as threatened. This is never in my wildest dreams what I have imagined landing such a rare species, ever, Rose told for the Wind. While I knew there were a n A drums sturgeon along the Northwest coast, it never even crossed my mind that there were this species swimming about the Gulf of Mexico. So a couple of things here. Thing one, The range of the golf sturgeon has has shrunk immensely historically. Yes, it's it's crazy. Historically the sturgeon ran all the rivers that dumped into the Gulf from Florida across the Texas, but everything from from dams to contaminants to over fishing has reduced their range to just a couple of river systems basically between the Florida Panhandle and the east side of the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana. So very rare to just see one, let alone catch one thing too. I've known Dave Rose for years, and when I read this, I was like, David A. Rose, Holy sh it, man, I know that guy. I know him. Dave is a writer that I worked with for a very very long time. Um, and we even ended up on a few media trips together back in the day. In fact, he helped me spool some reels on an Arkansas trout trip we were on and that was like two thousand nine, and it turns out he caught the sturgeon on some of the freebee line we acquired on that trip. Oh man, I so I did see I have been. I saw this story. I'm glad I didn't pick it up because you clearly have the end with it. But you know the dude. I know the dude. So I heard I I saw the headline, but I didn't dive into it till it was closer to news time and I read it. I was like, David Rose, what so I called him up right? So what this for the wind story doesn't tell you is that Dave is admittedly not salty, right. He's a Northern Michigan guy. He's an ason sweetwater and on frozen sweetwater. But when I spoke to him, he was like, yeah, man, like, you know, I don't do salt, Like I'm an idiot and salt water right, So that makes it more fun. So the real thing Dave said when he first saw this fish was what the is that? And then this isn't the story, Dave says. An onlooker and I both glanced at each other with a puzzled look and said out loud in unison, a sturgeon. But Dave told me the alllookers said what the hell is that thing? Followed by sturgeon? So those are the real quotes that that did not make for the way, And yeah, yeah, I mean it's Orange Beach. I love it down there, but like, come on, man, it's Orange Beach, like you know, vacation land. So Dave caught this thing on a freaking Pompano rig bated with shrimp. Yes, and if you don't know anything about Pompano, they're small and relatively small mouth, right, So we're not we're not talking about big hooks here, but seeing how rare golf sturgeon arm and how very very federally protected they are. What I wanted to know, um was if Dave was worried, And yes he was. And he says, even though he knew nothing about this, like he knew the rarity of it. He figured that out and he's like, my priority was keeping that thing's head in the water. You know what I mean, Like, he did not want to make a big scene out of it, and of course they got I mean just a couple two or three quick snaps, and they sent the fish off. And he was worried about the well being of the fish so much that he didn't even really properly measure it, which he says, in hindsight, he should have um even if it was just like you know, cutting a piece of mono and measuring at at home. Later he didn't have a tape or anything. He wasn't expecting this, But later he looked up the record in According to Dave, the record on the books for golf sturgeon weighed eighty four pounds, and he and others estimate his fish measured over six feet and weighed in the neighborhood of a hundred and thirty pounds. Now, I don't know, nor does he if, like an I g F a release record is even feasible because you're not supposed to knowingly target and mess with the sturgeon. But I mean, just like for posterity's sake, an official measurement, you know, would have been cool. Like theoretically Dave might have caught the biggest hook and line golf sturgeon ever. I mean, yeah, but Dave strikes me the type of guy at one who wouldn't care that much about it, and two would understand that the only reason there isn't a record for that is because by the time I g f A was doing records, those fish were decimated. Like, oh yeah, yeah, it's a hollow record. If he were to do totally no, Dave's no, he's absolutely not chasing that. In fact, and this is this is why I love Dave. He told me his favorite thing about this, because I remember, is it dude from northern Michigan down their own vacation, right, he's down there in his shorts catching catching some rays, right, No, no, no pokemons. But he said his favorite thing about this and all this attention is that, and he's right. It's like the quintessential fishing story, like you just put bait on a hook and you cast it out and you just absolutely never know what's gonna eat, even when you think you do. So he I mean, he's down there on vacation, doesn't do much saltwater fishing, and he's like, all I wanted was to catch a pompano and I still haven't caught one, so like he still has never caught a pomana. So I was, I was so blown away. Yeah, I was like florid when I saw it was Dave so cool. Story that is beyond once in a lifetime, you know, it really is. And clearly David is our kind of people. And uh and and my next story is is also about our kind of people doing a very different way. And before we get to the actual story I want to talk about, I'm gonna start out with a shout out to to a listener of ours, Jared la privost I believe his name. A few weeks back, Jared sent an email titled Phishing and Fluid Mechanics, which made sense because he was responding to a philistine segment I did about wild thoughts from wild places, right and and in that boat David Qualman, I talked about David Qualman's ability to make even fluid mechanics interesting because he's such a good writer. Well, that resonated with Jared, who sent who sent the email? And on that email he attached a paper he had written in his junior year of college for a fluid mechanics course, and that paper studied drag force on crank baits and yeah him yeah in the abstract. In the abstract to it, he wrote, although drag force isn't as common as the force of gravity, it is still very present in everyday life, especially when you are an angler. Fisherman experienced drag forces not only when they drive their boats, but every time they cast their rod. And I'm just giving props right now to Jared for turning an engineering assignment into an excuse to go fishing, right, because that's what that was, and it was he did a great job. I hope he got a good grade on the paper, but I I can see through what he's doing there. He's like, how do I how do I turn this into a into an excuse to go fishing? For for credit? I did a report once on a dude who owned a fly shop, which meant, like to do all the research, I just went and sat in the fly shop the ship. But the guy like, come on, and I guess I gotta give props to you on this too. But I want to call out Jared because he's he figured out much earlier in life than than myself that that science and math are applicable to really cool ship. Right If I had been. If I've been smart enough to approach science classes as opportunities to better understand principles of fishing, you know, I might have tried to calculate something other than the minimum quantity of work necessary to achieve a passing grade, you know what I mean? Like that, that was really the only equation I was working on. By the time I figured out science was not just applicable but central to the things I love to do, like fishing. I was just I was way too old to start a new career bad like that. That ship is sailed. Yeah, but the actual subject of of my first story is not. The story comes from the Fondelack Reporter, but it has nothing to do with Sturgeon saying that because we've been getting Fonderlack and Sturgeon really hard. Jared Ott is an eighteen year old senior at Fondolac Stem Academy. Now Jared's from Wisconsin, so you know he's dunked a few worms in his day once once or twice, and in fact, that's exactly what he was doing while brainstorming his senior project. The assignment was to come up with a solution to a real world problem. So Jared went to local lake to fish crawlers. While like noodling on on the big assignment, because what else are you gonna do it? He started getting frustrated because the fish were short striking and stealing all his bait, and boom that right then is when inspiration hit. Jared decided that he was going to design a fish hook that would make it more difficult for fish to remove the worm without getting pinned. When his school got shut down due to COVID, Jared had time to solder together a bunch of different designs and beta test them. In other words, Jared spent much of the COVID lockdown telling his parents he was working on school project while going fishing. So again, well done, Jared, super smart kid. The file design that he came up with looks like a miniature jay hook attached about halfway up the shank of a standard bait hook. So picture you know your standard bait worm jig head hook, and then about halfway up the shank there's a little mini jay hook soldered right there. And according to according to Jared, the design quote secures the worm better so the fish can't take it as easily and have to fight harder, which means getting more of a tug on the line. And I gott admit I don't actually understan end that quote very well, Like the issue that we're trying to solve was not feeling the strike, but keeping the worm on the hook. And and and then I look at the photos. I'll be straight, I'm not totally sold on this product, but just I have fished him. I've just looked at the pictures. And Jared seems like a pretty smart guy, and he claims that the worm keeper hook has performed very well and extensive testing both for him and a bunch of his fishy buddies who he gave him to. In fact, he's so confident in this design he has already patented it kids a team. He's already got his own fishing hook. That's smart of course, Like dude, you got a patent everything just in case nowadays, right, Like I I get that, I have, I have some questions here, Okay, I'll be done. Secondly, not surprisingly, Jerry got himself a scholarship to Michigan Tech, where he plans to study mechanical engineering. He also told the fond Lack Reporter that he hopes to license his hook to tackle manufacturers in the near future, but so far none have ponied up for the rights. If if anybody listening wants to reach out to Jared and see about buying some of these direct you can find him. You can shoot him an email at that's O T. T Phishing Hooks at gmail dot com. And if you do and you buy some, let us know how they work, because I'm again I'm skeptical looking at the photo, but I'm curious. Had the promo code bent for zero some? Uh? So? Okay, did he get the scholarship because of these hooks? No? Like it was like crazy start engineering car. So all right. So I'm picturing like a J style bait holder hook, like standard bait holder hook, and then up to shanks soldered. Now is it back to back or are the points on the same side of the hook? The points are fully lined up? Okay, And that's like a little egg hook kind of soldered to the shank of a bigger J hook. But it's not an egg hook. It's it's a it looks like a mini J hook attached to the main J hook. Okay, that's it doesn't have to be an egg hook. I I get it. I'm picturing this in my head. I was wondering if they were opposing, like the one on the back the point went one way, because here's the thing, right and again I feel like there's pieces that I'm missing, But there I feel like we're talking about two separate things here. This hook, I'm certain keeps a worm on the hook better. That's just like there's two points, there's two hooks. You're pinning it on two hooks. But short striking, at least in my experience, whether it's a bluegial or whatever happens because the fish are smart enough or wary enough to only pick at whatever part of the worm is wiggling and overhanging the hook. So while this this may stop them from pulling it off, it can't make them commit to just hoover in the whole worm down. So I'm a little unsure of how it equates two more fish pinned worm on the hooks more secure. But if the little some bitches are just nibbling at the end of the worm and they're not vacuuming it, what what I am? That's that's where I'm a little I'm with you, and maybe maybe that is the genius of this is just it's a little a little tougher to steal the bait. But that doesn't mean like if you got those those little dinkers or the wary fish that aren't taking it in. I don't think this is solving that problem. Yeah, exactly, I don't know. I mean, look, I wish them the best. I also think it's one of those things there are so many fishing products, like Lord knows what we see, and we just saw one that was sent to us. We won't go into it, but like it comes out and it seems like this thing that is going to be embraced by all fishermen. But really, if you're not dunking nightcrawlers and and whole nightcrawlers at that right, not breaking off little pieces like you normally do, like this is not serving that many people. Yeah, okay, but again, if this were I will say this, if the if some fishing tackle company we're sending me a press release about this, I wouldn't look twice. The reason this is a cool story is because Jared is an eighteen year old kid who was on COVID sabbatical and came up with this as his senior project. And that is why I like this story. I don't think it's going to set the fishing world on fire. No, And you know what, you inadvertently, you just you just brought up a sort of a roundabout point that is or can be a big problem with fishing tackle in general. This could be the smartest thing in the world, right, and this kid put a lot of time into it, and bravo to that. If you can get a VMC or a Gamma Katsu to go in on this, you're made. But this is also the kind of thing that can be picked up by the as seen on t V P and then right away all your hard work is now skewed into This is a gimmick, like it matters. So there are so many fishing products I've seen, and I'm sure you've seen where you're like, if that was Rapileus selling that to me and not this company, it would be the greatest thing in the world. I think that's fair. I think I think you're exactly right. And they're they're cautionary tales literally one the roadside of fishing history that we could point to for that. I mean, I I always think of it like, you know, the banjo Minnow and the Flying Loure like we like to make fun of them because there are these as seen on TV products. If Striking dropped the Flying Lure, it would it would have just been a whole different connotations. So if I wish him the best man, and I hope that if he licenses this out like he does it with the right company, who will will will will make it work for him? What I mean, I hope it works. I do too. I'll go from making better connections with worms to making love connections. About that I like it. There you go. Then this is not a weighty story, though it is going to help I don't know, maybe some of our young single listeners maybe. And frankly, the information here is also it's stuff that I think you and I could have given um just from personal harder and experience. But everything these days has to be picked apart as it relates to social media. Right. So this story is from the tab dot com, which is a UK based site that describes itself as a site covering youth culture and student culture run by journalists who like being first. Okay, and the journalist that wrote the story, I'm covering the journalists that wrote the story I'm covering here is Katie Thacker, and Katie is apparently extremely perplexed by why men feel using phishing pictures as their profile photo on Tinder is a smart thing to do, right, and she knows, She writes, right, I have many many men questions for the men of our world. Why must you leave the toilet seat up? Now? Remember this from the UK? So I love this one though it made me laugh. Why do you insist on spreading your legs as far open as possible on public transport? And then I started thinking about it, and I'm like, dude, yeah, like dudes right in the subway? Why are you always like s s on the subway? About that? When I was when I was in New York, they were like banners above the subway seating that said, like, dude, stop the spread. That was before COVID, so it didn't have the same connotation of like, you know, full on spread ego. Oh yeah, I never thought about it. I never thought about it until I read this. And so she goes on, why do you feel the need? Demand's playing my literal degree to me. But honestly, not a single one of these is more pressing than why on Earth men feel the need to include pictures of them holding a fish in their tender profile picture. Could you really not have just gone for that picture of you in a bar or in your mates garden? God even a Snapchat filter at this point? Right, So she says, fueled by confused and semi discussed and a desire to answer the pressing questions, I swiped right for every boy with a fish pick I could possibly find and ask them why. Here's what they had to say for themselves. And spoiler alert, in true male fashion, these are like the shittiest answers ever, Like they are pretty much the shittiest, most unsatisfying answer. So I there's a ton of them, because like, she really went for it and like interviewed a ton of these dudes. SA, I'll breakdown just a couple. She started out with Joe, who looks like the lead singer of Blur Circle ninety four holding a carp right, And remember Katie is just kicking off the messaging with the same question, why did you choose that photo for your profile? And this guy starts out what an interesting question, then follows up with because I like to fish and I think it's a decent photo, And then When she pressed him further, asking if he thinks he's the star of the photo or the fish, he comes back with, I think the fish gives the photo an agenda, Like what the hell does what does that even mean? What's the agenda? Like, I don't know. If we're trying to be like smart there, okay, then then I don't know. Then we have another Joe, And apparently there's a lot of guys named Joe on Tinder that like use fish photos. That's just a side note. So this Joe is mean mugging with the well's catfish and he looks like he's in sync in the nineties with the spiky hair, and um, Katie says, pretty much all his photos included fish, and he just said, well, I'm always fishing, and I don't have a lot of photos without fish, so I can relate. I can relate. Most pictures of me have fish in them, but be I'm also not trying to date people on Tinder, so I could see how this would not work on Tinder, because if you're always fishing and have no photos without fish, like the ladies might assume you have no time for them and or no friends. So that's like another knock against too many fishing pictures. Uh, nineteen year old Euan posing with the carpet. This is so sweet and personally relatable. He explained to her that fishing is just a hobby for him right now, but he took a fisheries management course in school and is hoping to turn fishing into a career. And boy, this takes me back because like, my first nationally published article happened when I was still in college, and I remember bringing that magazine The Clash, and I was like, I was so proud. I was like the story I wrote about a scrape bash and don't want a sportsman guys look, And like all the girls in my journalism classes were like, wow, cool, so you and good on you for the career goals, but like, don't play up your future in fishing as a selling point for your datability. You could trust me on that. And uh, finally, my personal favorite dude named Ashley is posing with a big carp tells Katie, well, I recently lost a lot of weight at the only recent pictures I have of myself our fish photos. But then comes back to her and he's like, how come all your pictures you're posing with wine, and she's like, you know what, he's got a good point, and maybe I need a new hobby. So just a little expos like we always joked about like that, like this, this has come up elsewhere, but I feel like she actually took the journalistic deep dive, and it's like I'm going to swipe right and I am going to ask all these dudes um, and none of them had particularly satisfying answer. I mean, I disagree. I think I think that that honest answer of well, I don't really take pictures of myself except when I have when I catch a fish. I think that's totally legit and I can relate to that. So it may not be satisfying. It may not answer some like deep existential questions she wants to understand about dating particular men, but it is honest, no, no, no, and it is honest. I just have to look at it like like, you know, we're not out there looking, we're not on Tinder, right, so I have to look at it from a perspective like if you're on Tinder trying to meet girls, and I guess I don't know about you, but I've also had some friends who at some point since I've known that. We're like, dude, I met this girl, she fishes her ass off, this is awesome, and then ever works out, Like they think that they want that, but then like it doesn't work out. So it's like, if you're going for somebody to fish with, maybe, but if that's not your m oh, I don't know. Man, It's like nothing but fish pictures on Tinder. Look, I'm not an expert on this. I'm not gonna pretend to be here, but I will say one thing like this, and I'm dating myself because uh, I didn't ever do much online dating. There was like a half a second where I was on match dot com and it resulted in the worst dates of my entire life. So I quickly got off of it. But I had a friend who who did something similar, but it was very thoughtful and very intentional. Every picture he put up was of him with a fish or with something he'd hunted, and I was like, dude, is that really like smart strategy? And and he was very honest. He's like, look, this is a huge part of my life. I love to hunt and fish. I want to be honest about this, and I want to find I don't I don't care if, if whoever I end up dating. I don't care if that woman wants to participate in these with me or not. But I want I don't want to false advertise. This is who I am and this is what I do. And it just kind of cuts through some of the bs and weeds out folks who are going to be an way by that. I get you. That's the strategy too, That's strategy too. So I my last story, here's the only connection I can find. We both we both went with some maybe some low hanging fruit this week, and and and I've been I've been getting pretty serious for a while. And I'll get back to serious stories, I'm sure next week. But I felt like everybody needed a break from all the bummers that I keep talking about. So this one, this one, this one is kind of a science story, but it don't don't don't have high hopes. So a while back we we talked about long fin Damselfish and how they developed relationships with certain shrimp to help their algae gardens. Remember that one, and and that that particular case works out well for all the parties involved. The shrimp get protection, the fish get gardens that are well fertilized by the shrimp poop. That's called a symbiotic relationship. And sometime after we ran that story, I was looking up other symbiotic aquatic relationships and I stumbled on a story about sea cucumbers and star pearl fish which claimed that these two different organisms have a symbiotic relationship as well. But the details struck me as odd. I do not have a delicate way of putting this all Just people unt star pearl fish seek out crevices in which to live, and they are known to favor the anuses of c cucumbers. Of course, according to National Geographic a pearl fish will find a sea cucumber bum by smell and then dive in head first, quote, propelling itself by violent strokes of the tail. Now, the c cucumber does have the musculature to close down its anus, but only for so long because sea cucumbers breathe through their butts. So the pearl fish, if it gets thwarted, just has to wait it out and then wriggle on in. And And despite how that sounds to us, anthropomorphizing biologists once believe this relationship to be mutually agreeable, and they had a couple of reasons for things and that. First, it seems like pearl fish may have evolved to coexist with cucumbers. The inside of a sea cucumber maybe like a safe, protected hole to hide in, but it's not hospitable. Sea cucumbers produce sapping in, a toxin that kills most aquatic creatures, which is why other fish don't exploit the same gap, shall we say. In fact, see cucumbers would succumb to their own internal poisons if they didn't also produce a kind of anti venom. Pearl Fish, on the other hand, just produce mucus, lots and lots of mucus, six to ten times more mucus through their skin than the average fish, and this mucostal membrane acts as a barrier against the sapping in and also provides a natural lubricant. Another reason biologists once thought that cucumbers must be benefiting from hosting the pearl fish is that they have the capacity to expel them. Sea cucumbers can spit out their their respiratory trees a ka. Their lungs a k a. The crevices where pearl fish hide when they're threatened, and then grow new ones like they're capable of coughing up their lungs and grow new ones if they have to, but they don't do this when infiltrated by pearl fish, right, So for those reasons, it seems like there's got to be something in this for the sea cucumbers. Relatively new research, however, has found this is not they mutually agreed upon relationship. In in many cases it's it's what's known as a commensalist relationship, meaning that just the pearl fish is getting something out of this. But you know, at least the c cu cumber gonna like puts up with it. Parl fish gets something of it. But many I feel, really you're making me feel really sad. It gets worse, It gets worse. One specific type of pearl fish goes full on parasitic and actually has been known to consume the sea cucumbers, going adds from within. Moreover, in certain circumstances, the cucumber innards can get pretty crowded. Pearl Fish are generally territorial and solitary, so in most cases, just one pearl fish will reside in a sea cucumber at any given time, but in rare cases, perhaps when sea cucumbers are scarce or for spawning reasons, multiple pearl fish will cohabitate inside a single cucumber. One researcher found fifteen pearl fish inside a cucumber and was quoted as saying, if indeed the fifteen fish entered for sexual reasons, one cannot help but think of the orgy that must have taken place inside the sea cucumber. And biologist quote and that my friend concludes today's segment on Things you Never wanted to know about sea cucumbers. Yeah, I can't. I mean, I have so many jokes but they're also inappropriate that I can't. I can't. There's children listening to this show. What is a pearl fish? Look, I don't know what that is. It looks like a little money eel, like candeer, like the candaroo catfish, kind of like the cantyo. Yes, so if you got those two together, you'd have a terrible time from just all all all orifices. Yeah, I I look, I don't. I again, like, there's so many things that come to mind that I cannot, I can, I will not, but I will say, despite how awkward and ikey that is, and how truly like I just while you were saying it, I was thinking about like a poor c cucumber and hearing that that arms of an Angel song they play over the Sad Dogs commercial, you know what I mean, Like when they're trying to like and it already doesn't have much going on, Like it's already a c cucumber, you know what I mean, It's already like a pretty kind of miserable existence, you know what I mean? So like, man, that's that's terrible. That is terrible. Um, So we'll see, we'll see. Phil feel free to if you want to add to the c cucumber but whole relationship. Maybe your jokes would be more appropriate. I don't know, but we'll we'll end feeling terrible for c cucumbers. We'll hear from Phil and then we'll uh, we'll make you guys feel terrible for one of our listeners in Awkward Moments in Angling Miles. You seemed almost ashamed to be sharing that last story, but you shouldn't be, because you were the winner this week, and as someone who used to sling tacos at Sonic for a living, I have a message for Lance V. Hey Lance, go cherry lime made with your fry sauce and put it in pearl fish mucus. That felt good? Well, did you take a picture? A life? Back? All right on the block? In awkward moments, we've got Mr Pavelo McGlave And before we even get into this stellar photo, I've got two notes right off the bat here. One I'm calling it the most awkward photo that we've had yet the move had I'm calling it the most And we have had some very funny, very awkward photos, but in my opinion, this one transcends them, because in no way do you need to be an angler to find this shot awkward? Right Like, any human being on the planet would look at this and go, oh, that's awkward as hell. Doesn't matter if you fish or not, which is ironic because it's also the first photo we've ever used that does not contain a fish, nor was it even taken on the water. Yeah, it's not a grip and grin right Like, the whole idea of this segment was to make fun of grip and grins, which which might leave you and and kind of leaves me wondering how the hell this photo even qualifies. But let's just say that this photo proves beyond any shadow of a Doubt's passion for angling has been a defining characteristic since he was very, very young, and then he was willing to publicly assert his love of fishing, no matter the social repercussions that might come. Who cares, because you see Pavel sent us his fifth grade school photo. You remember fifth grade because I hide you. Those were some heavy years where you're just you're just starting to figure out that that social pecking order, and you know, we were all starting to learn, like who who was a bully and who was getting bullied? And when I'm looking at this photo, I'm I'm pretty sure I know that Pavel was intimately familiar. Shall we stay with bullying? Yeah, I'd have to agree. And I know this because I would have been the asshole that bullied him. Okay, However, in fairness, I got mine later. Because here's a fun tip. Kids, When you go to high school in suburban New Jersey and it's time for archery and Jim, do not bring your own bow. Just use the garbage bows provided by the gym teacher, because nobody, and I do mean nobody will be talking about how cool you and your matthews are at lunch Okay, So in fifth grade, I probably would have have bullied Pavelo a little bit, but I got mine later by showing my aftdoor enthusiasm. See, I would have I would have liked had solidarity with Babo, but I wouldn't have said it out loud because I wouldn't want you to beat me up. Fair Okay, anyway, let's let's get into this photo. And we're gonna start with the background here because it's very nineties, and in fact, it harkens me back to my kindergarten class photo in which I'm sitting on a carousel horse right, with a pastel color drop cloth behind me, and I'm crying. It's a classic family photo. I'm very upset. Um. And then I remember, I don't know if you if you did this right, but in my elementary school, um, while every kid was shot on a plane background, you had to specify what the background would look like in the hard copies and you could get like prisms and geometric patterns and john but my my mom, my mom was always like, hell, no, you will get the soft blue, right we did. We didn't have any of that where I went to school. It was soft blue and that was it. Yeah, no, we had we had, we had choices, okay, but the backdrop and and of Pavel's school photo, it's it's like nothing I've ever seen. Oh no, man, Like I think it's I think it's loosely based on Jurassic Park. Like that's what I see when I look at this, Like the actual the actual background has a jungle theme going on. There's the dense ferns and and some purple flowers and I got I hope that it's what you described, right. I hope this is one of many shitty digital background options that the kids could pick from, because it's bad. I hope everybody didn't have to have that one. Yeah, it's like, you know, you know what it looks like. It looks like the predator's body when he has his cloaking device activate it, Like the jungle is about to come alive and take Pavel. That's a totally no. Poor Pavel is about to get taken by by the predator for sure. And there he is, right, little little Pavelo, and he's leaning against an extremely fake boulder with some some fake flora scattered on it, and makes me think, that's what I think when I look at this that all the kids had to be shot on the same background, right, because because those props seems so specific to that background. And I guess that, like, you know, if mom and dad hated the jungle theme, then it was kind of like tough ship. But that seems weird. Well yeah, no, but in some cases, like like the unicorn in kindergarten, I had no choice. You were sitting on the unicorn. So if your parents hated you want a unicorn, tough shit like that's and that's what I think. Whatever it was, but but see that's what I thought. But Pavel he says no, because I followed up and he told me at his school you could choose your background. So this was his choice, which makes it cooler. Right, So he shows the background and shows the back, correct, because I guess they sort of had like little movie set options for your photo. And as you just noted, they also had prop choices, which explains why Pavel has a spinning rod slung over his shoulder. Okay, right, so again we're in the jungle with some boulders and ferns and a fishing rod, and I got a reward points simply for the fact that a fishing rod was even offered absolutely prop there, but I also gotta I gotta deduct a few of those points because there's no line on the reel. No, no, it's but it's still great. Okay. It does leave me wondering two things. First, what were the other prop options? Right? Like, I'm there? Imagine there was a baseball bat and a football and maybe like a super cheesy skateboard. But what did Pavelo decide against in order to land on the lineless fishing rod? And the second thing, I'm wondering, did any other kids at all pick the fishing rod? Was pavel the only one? I would love to know that because I wondered that too. That's a bold and possibly stupid choice. Again, think back to fifth grade. Fifth graders aren't the innocent angels that their parents want to imagine them being. Fifth graders are assholes. That's why South Park is brilliant, Like, that's the whole point of that show. Even money, I'm I'm I'm putting up even money that says he earned himself at least one new nickname and a black eye over this photo. But Paul didn't care, Like, look at that, dude, he doesn't care he's owning it. He's like, this is who I am, this is what I'm about. And if I'm being honest, he was gonna catch up beating with or without the fishing rod brom. It was gonna haveppen ahead. He might he might have defended himself with the fishing ride after the photo was released. Um yeah, so beyond the fishing ride, he's wearing corduroy overalls with a white polo shirt and and that's there's not much to rip on there. Okay, fine, but man, his haircut is straight up Lloyd Christmas. And I mean literally, he might have taken a photo of Jim Carrey and dumb and dumber to the cut and corral and said, hey, give me one of those. I mean, it's fun, but it's it's even worse. It's not just as the Lloyd haircut. It's like that, but worse because it looks like he just got back from a family vacation in Mexico or Panama or something, because he's got the two pieces of braided hair capped off with rasta beads. Yes, really, the hair beads are so glorious. They're so glorious, right, and he did he told us he just came back from Mexico, and you know, he came back to class like I was just in ma. Yeah, I got Rosta beads in my You don't have that, okay, and they're they're so fantastic it's barely worth mentioning the friendship bracelet with a tag that's way too long, so like on his wrist, on the fake rock that you'd see in the aquarium store. It's like a normal friendship slit with a whole other friendship bracelet dangling from it. Anyway, Yeah, and Pablo, this is classic, and we cannot tell you how happy we are that you sent it. But this is my takeaway. Okay. I think it's so rock star that you opted for the jungle motif and grab the fishing rod and your mom or dad let this fly. Okay, bravo, Because if I had been in this situation, just like left to my own fifth grade devices to choose my own school photo adventure. As soon as my mom got these, she would have been like a serious I can't put this ship in Grammy's Christmas card. When it retakes, you're signing up for retakes. That's what would happen. Nope. When you bawl up like Pavel, there are no retakes. Remember, if you'd like to be voluntarily tortured on this show like pabl uh, send your awkward photos to Ben at the meat eator dot com. Because these are kind of the highlights of our existence. Okay, true, you know it's true. Yeah, nothing gives us more joy than being handed a photo and given license to essentially craft our own version of the story behind it. Yes, because we are all about giving you the backstory, which is what we do every week in our end of the line segment where we profile a particular lure, bait, or fly. This week, Miles is going to tell you about one that blends two of those categories together and in doing so, makes the old new again. Well it's not loud enough. If you mentioned the pistol peat in the fly shop, good chance no one will know what you're talking about. If someone does, they'll either pretend they don't or shoot you a look reminiscent of that time you ripped a loud fart in church. The widely available pistol pets are strangely absent in the fly scene. They're ignored or ridiculed a joke at best, at worst a effirmation of an art form and insult to delicate sensibilities. Calling the pistol pea fly pattern isn't exactly accurate. They're more of a style, a product line of classic wet flies like wooly buggers, woody worms, and renegades, with small propeller blades added right behind the eye of the hook. The flies themselves are totally unremarkable. They're cheap, crappy, third world country tide flies, but the added hardware sets them apart. Pistol Pizza distributed by a company called High Country Flies out of southern Colorado. Story goes that Chris Fieria was a fishy kid who liked to tie flies. He discovered that putting propeller blades turned his mediocre flies into fish catching machines. Being an entrepreneurial lad, he started his own little cottage industry, selling them around his hometown of Trinidad, Colorado. He kept that up as a way to make some extra cash all the way through college in High Country Flies Incorporated. Began large scale production of various pistol piets in Mexico and established national distribution. Though I've never once seen a pistol peat in a fly fishing shop anywhere in the country. You can find their trout kits and bass pro shops, Stick Sporting Goods, Walmart, and just about every big tackle store in the country. Most of those kits include a half dozen different propeller flies and three clear plastic casting bubbles so that they can be effectively used with a spinning rot. That pretty well explains what happened to this fly. See. Purists love to argue about what counts as a fly. Some people will only use flies made of natural materials. Others will only use floating flies they tied themselves. The parameters of purity are blurry and subjective, but a large segment of the fly fishing scene claim anything with a propeller or a spinning blade or a diving lip isn't a fly, it's a lure. And those same folks will point to the pistol pete as a relatively new and disgraceful bastardization of the glorious history of American fly fishing. But here's the thing. They're wrong, because if you actually look into the early days of American fly fishing the nineteen twenties through the nineteen fifties, fly lures were common. Back then, fly rods weren't the floppy, graphite levers of judgment and division we know today. Fly rods were tools for delivering small, lightly weighted presentations. Up until the late fifties, many of the major tackle companies made miniature spinners, plugs, crank baits, poppers, gurglers, and wigglers, all expressly designed for use on fly tackle. Sometime around nineteen sixty these lures disappeared. I'm speculating here, but my best guess for why that happened has to do with fishing rod technology. Conventional rods in the early twentieth century you were far different than what we have today. Most were made of steel and topped with level wine reels. They weren't capable of accurately and effectively casting the small light lures that are sometimes necessary for fooling spooky river trout. In those days, fly rods were the only practical option for fishing small and delicate After World War Two, fiber glass rods and spinning reels emerged as the dominant gear of choice for medium to light fishing situations. Fiberglass rods are far lighter and more sensitive than steel and have infinitely more flex which allows them to cast lighter lures. I theorized that the market for fly lures died around this same time because fly rods became unnecessary for everything but the lightest insect imitations. Right around this same time, fly fishing started splintering off into its own subculture. Once fly rods weren't strictly necessary a situationally effective fishing tools, using one became a statement, which then led into them becoming identifiers of a sort of weirdo counterculture in the seventies and eighties, and then after a river runs through it came out symbols of elitism, purity, and status in the nineties and early two thousands. And that brings us back to the pistol peat, which hit the national market right around the time Brad Pitt's hat went floating across movie theater screens. It was a bad time to try and market fly lures to the fly industry, which was asserting itself as totally separate from and morally superior to conventional tackle. The thousands of independent fly shops popping up around the country refused to carry anything as low brow as bait or lures in order to serve their rapidly growing self important high dollar niche. Pistol peats caught the hell out of fish, but no way hardcore fly anglers were going to publicly endorse or use their products at that time, So High Country Flies made a smart pivot and started marketing their wares to spin fishermen, who continue to catch the hell out of fish on their crappy flies with bow propellers. They're probably the only fly company on the planet willing to suggest tipping their wares with corn if you're getting short strikes. But twenty one century, fly culture has moved on. Fly design has gone away from natural materials and delicate patterns. The contemporary fly scene is younger and less beholden to the norms and mores of the previous generation. Modern fly tires are racing each other to make flies that act more and more like lures. Most of the major fly companies now have at least one fly with the spinner blade. You can get flies that swim like jointed jerk baits, flies the gurgle like jitterbugs. The fact is that fly lures are hot again, even though no one's calling him that. Pistol peats, however, are not part of that new wave of cool flies, and I think there are two reasons. First, as I've mentioned, pistol piazza are not particularly interesting from a fly tying perspective. They're low quality old batterns that just have some hardware attached. They work, but they're just not that interesting. Second, High Country flies through their lot in with the conventional crowd thirty years ago, and even though modern fly design is getting closer and closer to gear fishing, the fly scene still clings to some sense of differentiation from a superiority to the gear scene. Don't cry for High Country, though, considering their distribution in every major sporting goods chain in America, I think they made the better business choice. So that's it for this week. If your mission was to glean nothing but style tips from this episode, you've learned that, under no circumstances should young boys put rasta beads in their hair on family vacation. Your skills make you look cooler than how you transport or fly rods, and if you've got enough dry flies on your hat to get you through an entire season, maybe you should use them and try accessorizing by I don't know clipping hemos to your shirt every time you leave the house. Instead, you've heard the fashion tips here first, remember to keep those sale bind items, bar nominations, memes that you have no idea would ever become theme of entire episode, and whatever else you want us to see her here coming to Bent at the mediator dot com. Yes, we love hearing from each and every one of you, and we love seeing those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on the Instagram. Using them, remember, is the fastest way to get yourself a little sticker selection from us. It is. And uh, if you're looking for a rod vault stick them on, I might have one that I'd be willing to trade for. Vintage beanbag chair, a copy of Young Einstein on laser disc, and also a laser disc player,

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