00:00:06 Speaker 1: Did not freshen up my tetan shot. And it's been three years my jaw has not locked, so I think by now I'm fine. He pulls like he is trying to like pull a young girl out of a well, and the sinker hits the bottom of my boat, and it sounded like a shotgun go off. So when Amazon drones start delivering groceries and spying through your windows, their wings might look a whole lot like fish fins. And this little baitcaster just disintegrated, and I just blurted out, wow, how about this in piece of ship. Good morning, degenerate anglers. Welcome to Bent the Fishing podcast that definitely told the inappropriate joke at dinner in front of your socially conservative and easily offended uncle. I'm Joe Surmelli Les guilty uh, and I'm I'm consistently shocked at how easy it is to offend people these days. Like there was a time, and I'm not talking like way back in the day. I'm talking about time not long ago, when if I was making someone uncomfortable or offending someone, I was probably doing it on purpose. But early two thousands issues. But now, man, now everyone's so angry and mistrustful of everyone else. That we're like all listening to each other differently. I think. I think it's a different way of listening. Instead of listening to understand what another person is saying, we're listening to see if we can pick out clues about which side of the cultural divide the other person sits on, and if we hear, if we hear evidence that they're one of them, one of whoever we consider the bad people, then we we appose the whole interaction differently, like as if there are enemy we we just we start dissecting their speech for anything that we can latch onto in order to paint them in the most negative like possible and hopefully ruin their lives forever. Yeah yeah, I mean the innocent and an accidental social faux pa. It's just it just kind of no longer exists, right, Like we're like we're all constantly under arrest and anything you can say, uh will be held against you in a court of public opinion. And just so we all understand each other, right, I'm not talking about like overt hate speech, for for God's sakes, you know what I mean? Our comments like that intentionally demean or dehumanize anybody that that ship has never been cool. I'm talking about just honest and innocent slips of the tongue, like those times when your mouth moves before your brain can edit for context, um or what used to be called sticking your foot in your mouth, right, which I mean for if we're being honest based on on response, we've gotten to a few select pests segments on this show. Um, we've we've put our foot in our mouths here on Bend a few times, absolutely absolutely, and we have at least tried to own in a tone for those publicly when we do them. And and as someone who who speaks to a lot of people, you know, in a big format for at least part of my living, this is something I think about a lot because it's kind of always there on your mind, you know. But anyway, we're we're not We're not actually going to spend the remainder of the show dissecting how or why our culture has become so pitched against itself that one ill shaped phrase can lead to social unrest. No, no, we're not. There are plenty of other podcasts that you can turn to for that, Because this is a phishing show damn it, and at least in most cases, right, phishing boats remain relative safe spaces, places where you can just let down your guard a little and be yourself, even if that means saying something just monumentally stupid. Um. Yeah, you know, on most fishing boats doing so just it will result in ball busting. And I believe in the power of ball busting among buddies. That is what. It's one of the things I do well, just good natured ridicule. It's it's how I show affection. Right. If I don't make fun of you from time to time, I probably don't like you. And people don't get that very concept anymore, you know what I mean? Like men, I I make fun of you because I love you. And if I don't make fun of you, it's because I just don't care about you enough exactly. You are not you are not worth me coming up with some really good freaking material, you know, And you're not worth me trying to change your mind or your way of thinking by giving you a hard time. And you may have noticed, Joe and I like you and I we pitch each other ship because we respect and like each other. Right, And I would say I would move on that. I'd just say a solid thirty to forty percent of my interactions with my wife, the person whom I love and adore more than anyone else on the planet, involve us giving each other a hard time. That's what we do. And similarly, the absolute best days of fishing are the ones where you're free to be an idiot and get called out on it by your buddies. I don't mind being wrong, and I don't mind being told I'm wrong or being made fun of for being wrong, so long is there's someone there to lovingly but mercilessly set me straight. Yeah, I mean I'm an idiot on a daily basis, and I put my foot in my mouth daily. I did, And I can think of a million stories of the kind of jovial like ball busting that that you're talking about, and like, that's what makes fishing so great though, ironically, like, I think my worst defense is actually a much more literal foot in mouth, right, And I like, it's just what comes to mind first, because it's you know, put your foot in your mouth is our loose them. I mean, the worst defense I can think of. I was on a trip in Key West years ago with a huge group of writers. You've been on some of these, there's just a ton of people there and you don't really know all of them, right, And because you like, these are your colleagues in the sort of rarefied air, and you don't want to screw that up, you don't. But it's also like that guy's been here for five days and I'm not sure what he does or who he works for, but he's here. Um So anyway, so anyway, I end I ended up on a boat that was going pothole and for Barracuda's Big Ones, right, which is insanely fun, something I haven't done in years. Super fun. Um And as as those trips tend to go, there's often a rotten real sponsor. So the dude I was paired with that morning, right, I had seen him he was at dinner, but we hadn't spoken, so he just introduced himself, told me his name, we shook hands. I had no idea who he was. And the first kuda I hooked just smoked the reel I was using, I mean, just took a ripping run almost to the to the end of the line, right, and then the real just locked up and there was no turning it right. And this was the company's new hot ship in shore series that was supposed to be super tough, and this little baitcaster just disintegrated and I just blurted out, Wow, how about this piece of ship. Yeah, the dude was the guy who designed it. He was the designer of the real and I had no clue. And the captain was like, dude, and he awkwardly, This poor guy, he just awkwardly spent the rest of that day explaining to me why that one must have been a lemon bed for both of you. Yeah, it was something not exactly the kind of thing you're talking about, but I just like it was an opportunity to tell that story. I think that's a good example of the foot in the mouth. Though you were justified in that case, and he's wrong. I'm I'm gonna wager, though, that you are not going to publicly tell what company them. Now. I'm not going to tell you which it was. I'll tell you which it wasn't thought fishing. No such problems with those reels for me yet. A matter of fact, I just posted a shot kind of why I don't understand why so many people liked it that I'm glad they did. But I posted a shot on Instagram of my my neon green inception SZ just all gunked up right with two seasons worth of just duck weed and mung from snakehead fishing. And I haven't had a problem with that real yet. I haven't cleaned it. It's still doing its thing despite just like the layers of caked on goop no there, I'd say, they're like, they're like the time X of fishing reels. It takes licking and keeps on picking. And our friends over at thirteen Fishing appreciate all of you listeners out there is so much. This is big. They are offering you an exclusive forty percent discount on your next order just for bad listeners. This is not a five percent like we give you. Just use the code bent forty, check out yes and and score yourself a sweet deal. It's a really sweet deal. We love deals. You love deals. And I know someone else who appreciates a sweet deal. That would be Joe's good buddy. And while I angler extraordinaire Ross Robertson, he's exceptionally skilled when it comes to inserting his lower extremities into his orifice. I realized we just heard from him in a tackle Hacks not too long ago. But this smooth move, it just fit our the SEMs so perfectly that we'll all have to suffer through him again. Why, hey, guests, who's here today? Captain Ross Robertson? While I anger extraordinaire, dear dear friend of mine? Guess who's back? And guess where he is? He's sitting directly across from me. You want to know why? Because we are in Ohio at present, in your and your like little domain here filming an episode of dost Boat season three, and we're all we're all staying. The whole crew is staying together in this really bizarre house. So I thought, why not? Why not set up the mics, Joe, This is a cross between poor Man's real world and a bad frat house. That's what I feel. It's a huge house that sleeps like four hundred, but I don't know. It feels like it's like multiple houses sort of glue together. What they what they give us in beds, they take away in ceiling height, it's it's very a lot of angles, low ceilings. That door I'm looking at, there's a shower in here that no human taller than five feet could stand upright. That's that's the child shower. This door here, whoever the carpenter, if he did an amazing job making a triangle door. We're not here to talk about the house, though. We're here because it's always more fun to talk to you one on one. The look on your face, yeah, exactly, because you wear the smooth moves king like you live to like you know, you live to ship talk people. I don't it's that ship talk as much. But if you stand at Walmart, okay for like ten years, you're gonna see some stuff. Well, if you guide, you know, I've guided on over four thousand days, you're going to get a job at Walmart now. I'm gonna probably have, especially after after this, after this breaks, oh boy. But no, seriously, you're going to see some stuff like things happen in a boat. Man. People tell you things they don't normally tell you. I mean, I've got I've got a lot of stuff. Some of them we can't really talk about, but some of them, you know. I because I don't want to call anybody out individually, but this one here, But didn't you also tell me that You've had clients who've heard bent and smooth moves and been like, can you tell them the story of what happened to us? Yea true story, And I'm like no, because I feel like they're trying to force it all of a sudden, now we're doing things. I'm like, no, shenanigans have to happen exactly. I don't tell you went on smooth moves. Your actions tell you what. I'm just curious, like, what do you get? People say, remember that time I stuck my hook of my finger, you should do the bent thing. Yeah. That's the one thing about you know, when I started this, it was all about fishing, and now the media and socials and people want to be insta stuff, and you go, it's just different. You know. People are like, hey, can I be like literally get in my boat. And it's not like, hey, we can get a big ten pounder today. Ross, It's like, hey, am I gonna make your insta feed today. I'm like, it's part of the business. It's part of your business. But still at some point when you're a hardcore, like I'm a salty like fishing, wenot like saltwater. But you know what I'm saying I'm I'm a grizzled working on my crow's feet, getting gray hair because of situations like I'm about to tell you, well, I think the last time we had you on for smooth Moves, that was when the drunk guy choked out a toy poodle in a parking lot. So let's say what I lay it on me? Man, what do you got this time? This one, we're going to entitle hypocrisy. Okay, so some people may get offended on this, but this has nothing to do with anyone's profession. But I'm just I feel like I have to bring it up because it's a little hypocrisy, you know. All Right, So I have a guy who I've known someone in his family forever, calls me and says, hey, I have a UM, I don't know exactly what the proper term would be. Let's call him a priest, okay, because wait, wait wait yeah, yeah, yeah, So he's somebody that's kind of like a priest or. You're making a joke, and he is a you know, depending on what your religion is, because I'm gonna keep this very vague, a pastor. Maybe if you're in a different religion, it doesn't matter any rate. Guy calls me and says, hey, man, I've got this guy and he's my he's my pastor or whatever again irrelevant, And he says he's got me through some stuff in life and he's just you know, he's always kind of gone above beyond, and you know, we I want to take the guy fishing, like he hasn't done the fishing things nice, so you know, be moving around. This guy just hasn't you know, he hasn't gotten to do the fishing that he used to write. So he said, hey, I want to take a trip for him. I'm like cool, And again to me, it doesn't matter, right, but it's always good to get good people in the boat. You know, at this point in my career, have the only thing dons like I kind of week that out pretty quick if I can. So I want to be the biggest a hole in the boat, you know what I mean? Yeah I do, Yeah, yeah, yeah that it didn't happen to us boat. But anyhow, So here's the deal. This guy. We're out here and I explained to him it's not a prime time, but I got a deep bite go on, and I've been catching some pretty good fish. But it's it's a little bit of a grinder. I said, So you guys want to just go for the little eaters or do we want to try to get some picture takers. But the picture takers are going to be like, you gotta pay attention, we gotta listen. This is a different deal there. Basically we're controlled fishing. Bottom. Of course, I rarely ever ever have anybody go let's go fish for the little ones. But I'm like, hey, we're going, you know, like twenty miles this way or ten miles that way, Like we're not doing both, So you've got to make a commitment. We want the big ones. Okay, perfect. I don't like fishing for a little fish either, so but I know it's gonna be a lot more work for me. So we get out there, and I realized real quick, like, hey, these guys wanna have fun, but to make this to execute, they're not really listening real good. So you start with like, hey, guys, you know, and you kind of keep amping it up, and uh, the guy says to me at one point, because we lose a couple of fish, and I mumble under my breath like because again, you know, I when we lose a fish. I want everybody have fun being serious, But if you're fishing with a captain or because I fish with guides, you know, I go down saltwater and I fish with a child, Like if that captain when we lose like a trophy fish, was it like, oh, well, I'm kind of like this guy. I'm a guy, right, I mean, now you don't have to sort of a tissy fit. I get it. But yet, if you don't give a ship at that point, like you have to make your point known that like you worked hard, like I just put you on them. It's hard, Like you're not. This is like trophy deer hunting. You're not. We're not going to have class deer coming because you're eating mountain dewing donuts And like, dude, I yeah, we'll get the next one. Yeah. Like and when I hear that we'll get the next one, I want to choke slash somebody. Just don't say anything. So like these guys are losing a bunch of fish to your little few f bombs out under my breath, like because because again we lost a few fish that I'm like, man, I know those were great, those were good fish, right, I just just what I do. I know it, and I uh. He starts, he'saying, you know, I really wish you'd clean up your mouth. And I tell me, you know what, You're right, I said, you're you aren't wrong. I said, you know what, I said, I do a lot of things wrong. I said, you know, and you're you're not wrong. I said, but you know what here, I said, that's the worst case scenario thing I do. I said, I'll try to clean up for you. But I say to him, so what do you do for a living? I'm a pastor? And I'm like, oh right, So now I'm starting to understand things. Well, yes, not not that you have to be a pastor. You know, you could be a school teacher. I mean, it doesn't matter what you do. Work in a factory, doesn't matter. Nevertheless, just trust people that don't curse. I'm with you, Okay. I didn't want to, don't I'd have to be. But so yeah, long story short. This guy gets on the second fish like and it goes and I'm not gonna lie to you. I would never say this, of course, until that's a much time has passed. I know immediately this is the one. This is either a sheep head, a catfish, or a giant wall you know, me and you have had this in person. And this guy is just going guerrilla mode. You know, I'm always joking with you to slow down reeling. I mean, he's got Bill Dance on his mind. I mean he's whipping that rod left right. I mean, like you just thought we were bumping around stumps, even though we're in the middle of nowhere water, right. So we get close and now this fish dude is straight up and down. Well it gets up a little farther Joe, and it looks like an Orco whale, and I see the white belly and I'm like, dude, walle dude, I'm telling you, straight up, thirty plus centure if it's an inch giant, I physically have to reach over and grab the rod and reel about three ft up because this dude is trying to just reef right, like she's trying to rip the rod up like like a stand up tuna deal like. And I'm like, I'm like, but there's no time to really talk, you know what I mean. This this is like trying to tell somebody to stop at a stop, like you just you gotta kind of roll with at some point, no more directions. He's not listening anyhow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And before I tell only fire that, I just want to let you know, like this guy had told me like three times, like, hey man, you know this is how you need to live your life. You know this is you know you don't curse and you know you need to be this guy and everything. And so I'm kind of joshing a little bit because again he's a client, but I'm Josh and you're not listening to me, so I'm not listening to you. And so now we're at the point that the sinker is in the rod tip. And when I say in the drawd tip, he waned the sinker into the rod tip. But I've got like a seven ft leader and this thing is seven ft straight down. I can't quite get it yet, and I'm telling him to just stop. Really he's still trying to rewind the sinker into the rod tip. And now you just play as you know, you play him out like at some point they just kind of come up. I'm laing to happen, and the fish makes a little run. It can't get out like it wants to go. So I reach over and I'm trying to break the sinker out of the rod tip and he's like, what are you doing? What you're doing? And I'm like almost had him. I'm like, dude, this fish is like, this fish is not ready to go, and it's a giant. So I keep pulling line out and given this thing just he's green. And so now this fish is under the boat and I can't net it till it's like right there. So all of a sudden, he goes forget this, I got it, grabs that rod like three ft up and dude pulls. He pulls like he is trying to like pull a young girl out of a well that has been in it for like drowning. God, and the sinker hits the bottom of my boat, dude, and it sounded like a shotgun go off, and right there at the bottom of the boat, I'm gonna guess ten feet. I watched this thing swim away like I love seeing him swim away like that. You know, I love your Instagram pictures like touch it, Like there's something like the like a saltwater guy touched the leader. You know, Oh, let him go because I don't keep those, but you want to get a picture you want him to get a picture. You know, it's the biggest fish. While I was like, that's an accomplishment. As all of this is happening, he realizes that the fish is gone. He takes the rod over his fucking knee and breaks it into and says mother, and he just starts screaming, you sign a bitch, mother? What the and just going off. Me and the other guy are just standing there looking at him, like what just happened? And I just looked at the guy and I was like, hypocrisy much And He's like he was, dude, he was out of his mind. And then he like stopped and looked at me like he realized what he did. And he's like, oh my god, I'll buy the rod. And I go, oh, oh yeah you yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks thanks for confirming I'm blocking your car in the parking lot. And I'm like, I'm like, you know, I said, all of a sudden, that one f bomb when we lost the other fish, I feel like this is worth two or three more, dude. It was. It was. It wasn't funny, but it was funny because obviously I want to get that fishing. I don't care if the guy is a great guy or a jackass. Like to see that happen, it's heartbreaking, but it just goes to show, you know, like you can't do whatever you want and get a fish in. I mean, I know you know that. But a lot of people that are our guide clients, just like hey Man Ross always catches him like we'll get them in. It's like, you still got to do the fundamentals. If you throw one over your head playing basketball, you're not gonna make it in the hoop, you know what I mean. You gotta do the simple things to get it in. And he didn't understand. Okay, I gotta tell this one. He set me up too well because I have a very similar guiding story. I had this. I had this group of guys who would book a multi day trip with me every year, and and the core, like the core crew consisted of four gentlemen, but then they would usually bring another two to four friends to round out the party that would rotate. And yeah, exactly exactly the ones you don't know, yep. Now, I gotta say these are solid, reputable Southern gentlemen, and they fished with me a lot. They would do different kinds of trips each year. They would often have one or two family trips where they brought spouses and children, and those were pretty tame. They're like buttoned up, you know, But on the annual guys trip, the tone was just more irreverent. The beer, wine, and whiskey usually started flowing around ten am or so, and nobody ever got visibly drunk or obnoxious. It was fun and there was there was plenty of colorful language tossed around. So I'm guiding the first day of one of these guys trips and one of the anglers in my boat is a regular, a guy i've guided for over a decade. The other was a new member of the party, someone I've never met before. But I figured if he ran with this crowd, he had to be just a good, laid back dude, right, sure. Yeah. So we're flowing the Upper Madison and we're catching fish and everybody's having a good time, and I've got my my self editor set to guys trip mode, you know, so I'm definitely dropping f bombs here and there when I feel they urged to. And finally, just before lunch, I asked the guy who I don't know, like, oh, what is it that you do for work. And he turns to me and says, I'm a pastor. Oh, I'm actually the pastor at the church that all these guys attend. Oh God literally literally. So at that moment, like I start doing a mental tally of all the things I've said so far on the boat, like trying to go back, like, oh man, what have I said? And I haven't made any blatantly blasphemous statements, I'm pretty sure, but I've definitely been cursing consistently. So I sort of pause, and then I say to the guy pastor, I'm I'm sorry if I offended you with my foul language. I'll keep things cleaner from here on out. And the guy the guy looked at me with what I can only describe as a shit eating grin on his face and just said, what the are you talking about? Yes, yes, yes, beauty, beauty. You know, as you might imagine, the whole boat broke out laughter, and I'm pretty sure some beers were cracked soon thereafter, And it was it was a good reminder that context matters. Right on the boat floating down a beautiful trout stream on vacation with a casual sense of ease, and goodwills, permitting the air and conversation that can drop anyone's defenses. Yeah, the guy is a pastor, that's his job, but that's not all he is. And and that day, in that moment, he was just part of a group of friends having a good time. I love this guy, right, Like this is my kind of pastor. Like this sounds like a good church. Like if there was a Jesus Christ Church of latter day, go your self, asshole, I might actually attend and maybe end up in purgatory instead of going straight to hell, but not before I kick the hell out of you in this week's fish News. Fish News escalated quickly. Alright, So I gotta say congrats to you, my friend. Good on you, Good on you for that deep dive into the line pol hook removal method a couple of weeks back, because we have gotten quite a few notes from listeners that really appreciated that, right, And that's that's super cool because if we've even given you, like just a little tiny bit more confidence to do that, or made you slightly less scared of getting jab that's a win. Right, So I gotta say, man, that was that was your episode? And then you nailed that, but we also we also got some funny and informative notes about this. I was surprised, I will have bit. I was surprised the amount of feedback we got on that. Yeah, we we did, we did, and we don't certainly don't have time to mention them all. But there's a there's a couple here I've pulled that I just have to shout out. Okay, so I'm gonna butcher this name. And dude, I'm sorry, but all the way from Australia, Yan Kuka, I think kucha kuka something. You know who you are. Nobody else We've never had another yan Okay, uh, thank you Yan, he wrote in And it turns out he's an emergency room doctor in Australia. He says, despite all the techniques available, the line pole is still the main one he uses on patients because it is the least trem mattic. And and this is interesting, this I'd like to know more about. He says. He's used it on hooks, like all the way up to heavy gauge shark stuff. That was the thing that caught how that works. I believe him because he's an er doc. I'm not, but he just tells his nurse like, can you get me the cable? Can you give me then? For because we had a few people right in they were like why not braid. I'm like, let me tell you why and they're like, oh, I get it right, but a shark hook man, Like, what do you like? I don't know. You hook it up to the pickup truck or something. I don't know. But hey man, he's a doctor and they're good. So there you go. It's e er doctor approved the method. Um. He also um. He also backed me up on using pig skin like on a pork belly to practice, and he actually said pig skin can be slightly tougher than human skin, so if you can do it on pig skin, you'll have no problem ripping them hooks out your uncle. Okay, so pigskin there, you go, get yourself some big skin. Yeah, exactly. We all need that anyway. Um. So, while I did not get a last name, guide Sean from Flying Fish Outdoors said, great job on the description, Miles, but you guys forgot to talk after care. He's done. He's done this with clients a lot and just says, hey, I always carry I had dine um, and we will take the mulligan on that. That is a good that is a good point. And of course, if you're if your TETNAS shots aren't up to day, you should get one after you get stuck, which I will sadly admit I am lax about. Like I told that Tuna Loure story did not freshen up my tetanas shot. And it's been three years. My jaw has not locked so I think by now, But don't do what I do. Do it, don't don't listen to me. That was a PostScript I missed on the uncle story. He did get a TETNA shot at the r I imagine if you go to the hospital, that's just like part of it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So anyway, Hope and those jaw isn't locked up because he's going to be judging our news stories this week yet again, because yet again, this is a competition, Miles, and I do not know which stories the other guys bringing to the table. It is your lead this week, so have at it. It is And you know, I could talk about how the Columbia River is seeing the lowest return of summer steelhead in recorded history, and the numerous groups who are calling on Oregon and Washington to cancel the fall steelhead fishing season this year. But if you're a Western steelhead angler, you already know about that, and if you're not, you probably don't care. I for one, will not be fishing any of the Columbia system this year, and that's just frankly depressing as hell. And I don't feel like being depressed today, Joe, So I'm not going to talk about that. Instead. Instead, I'm going to talk about a different native fish that's been many years on the dangered list and was just recently declared recovered, the snail darter. I love a good snail darter, So to your point that what you're getting at there, I think snail darters are are They're nowhere near as glamorous as steel head, nor are they all that popular with anglers unless they're into the whole micro fishing thing. But damn it, I wanted a happy story, So we are talking snail darters all right, night on me. In case you've never heard of snail darter, they look like, well, they kind of look like Gobi's. They're not, but that's like the best way I can describe them. They're about three inches long with modeled green and brown camouflage on their backs. There in the perch family. Like all darters and and snail darters are only native to the Tennessee River drainage. Their primary food source is wait for it, freshwater snails, you know which. My thoughts on they got the name. Look, there are at least two hundred and fifteen recognized darter species living in the creeks, rivers, and streams of the US. The only reason this particular one rings a bell with anybody is because it was at the center of one of the very first Endangered Species Act controversies. Snail darters were identified in nineteen seventy three, the same year that the Endangered Species Act was passed by Congress. They were found by a researcher who was investigating the potential impacts of the Teleco damn, which was in the process of being built on the Little Tennessee River. In snail darters were listed as endangered, which posed a potential problem for the dam. Its creation would destroy much of the snail darters remaining habitat, which was theoretically prohibited under the National Environmental Protection Act. This was one of the first significant tests of America's newly codified commitment to environmental protection. The dam had been in various stages of planning since ninety six. In the late sixties, the project game momentum and funding. The idea behind this dam was to create a reservoir that would bring economic stimulus in the form of recreation to an area that was stagnant and mostly destitute. Teleco is not a hydroelectric dam. It's only there to create a lake, to increase property values and make kind of a seemingly unpleasant valley into a more attractive place for homeowners in vases, some more water, skis and whatnot exactly, and and lakefront property. It was an expensive project based on the hopes that it would magically transform this area into a quote recreation wonderland. By the time the Snail Darter was listed under the essay, the dam was already seventy percent completed, the money had been appropriated, and the promise of economic vitality for the area felt imminent. Both the House and the Senate strongly opposed stopping the dam, and for the first time, though definitely not the last, the legislative branch of the government confronted the real tension between economic development and protecting native habitat. In nineteen seventy six, a law student at the University of Tennessee brought a citizen case against the Tennessee Valley Authority, claiming that the construction of the dam violated the s A and seeking an adjunction to halt the Damns construction. The case was batted around various lower courts. Just about every judge who heard the case recognized that the Damn represented a real threat to the snail darter, but stopped short of shutting down the dam. In seven, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals did finally issue the injunction, and the Damn construction came to a screeching halt when it was finished. This tiny little fish that nobody knew about and frankly very few people cared about, and to derail a public works project that had been planned for over four decades just before completion. The case then became the first Supreme Court challenge to the Endangered Species Act. The Tennessee Valley Authority argued that the government had already spent a hundred million dollars on the project, and that an exception to the essay should be made in this case. Lawyers for the t v A also pointed out that Congress had continued to appropriate money for the project after learning that it would harm the lowly snail darter, and argued that in doing so, Congress had implicitly repealed the Endangered Species Act completely. Had the Supreme Court agreed with the defense in this case, the e s A would have been gutted and gone in But that's not what happened. The Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the legality of the injunction and the validity of the essay. But the fight over economic development and the preservation of intact ecosystems that were still in the middle of today. It was just getting started just because of this case. In seventy eight, Congress amended the es A and brought quote some flexibility into the Endangered Species Act. They also created an Endangered Species Committee, which still exists today, sometimes referred to as the God Committee, and gave that committee the power to push through projects that violated the e s A if their broader economic value was sufficient to justify the costs. When that committee looked at Teleco, Damn in the unanimously denied an exemption, but not because of the snail darter, purely on economic factors. Turns out Teleco DAMN was gonna cost over seven million dollars a year to maintain and was expected to only generate about six million annually in economic stimulus. It would also put forty million dollars worth of agricultural land underwater. Boom and a story right, Damn's on economic policy and environmental policy that just happened overlap. Everybody wins no, that that's not what happened at all. Later that year, Senate and congressional representatives from Tennessee attached the rider to a national appropriations bill mandating the completion of Teleco Dam and later that year the reservoir began to fill. All sounds bad, but as I told you in the lead of this story, it's not because the snail darter gets happy. Ending the fish were transplanted to various tributaries of the Tennessee River from which they had been previously extirpated. The t v A also worked really closely with state management agencies to improve river flows and oxygen nation levels across multiple dams on the whole Tennessee River system. In order to improve habitat in the main Stem, and a week ago the fish were declared recovered. These fish, yeah right. These fish may be small, and we as anglers may not care about them, but they represent a watershed moment in the values of our nation. The congressional battle over Teleco Damn was the first time that the words environmental extremist were uttered on the floor of the House. It was the first time Americans had to confront the very, very significant opposition between development and the fish, wildlife, and ecosystems we claim to care about. Now. I started the whole story by saying I wouldn't talk about the state of Columbia River steelhead, but I changed my mind. We need to learn from our past, and even though I think the snail darter is a cautionary tale in many ways, it's also ultimately a success story. If we can find the will to protect and even rehabilitate snail darters fish with essentially zero advocates, we damn sure ought to be able to do the same for steelhead, one of North America's most iconic fish. Doing so is going to require sacrifices. That's just the the fact it will. It's going to require sacrifice from industry, from power generators, from agriculture, from homeowners, and from anglers. Collective sacrifice is the only way we get big ship done. But we are capable, I believe of both sacrifice and achievement. So let's kind of let's get this going. Let's move from the snail darters to the steel head. Let's get something going. Guys. I would very much like to agree that we all have that in this, but I just I can't. I can't help but keep going back to the fact in this one that it was ultimately squashed because the state wasn't going to make enough money off the recreation, right. I mean, it's like it's still the main driver, and like there was something you said that you know, they they they sort of proposed this as a recreational wonder land. I think if we could just anytime somebody says we should do this because it will be a recreational wonder land, that should be the thing that stops us from doing it, because I feel like this story has happened out like look at the Sultan Sea, like as an example, California, you know what I mean, one day Sinatras they're having in mind tie next thing. You know, it's a barren waste land. So like a lot of these things, I just don't think work out anyway. Um. I mean, I'm happy. I'm happy for the for the fish, and you would think it would be easier for fish we care more about because you can also measure the economic impact of steelhead and what money they bring in. So I told that story, I mean one like, I did really want to go with something positive, but I feel like it's I think it's really emblematic of a lot of the fights that we run into. And the fact that it was the first Supreme Court challenge to the ESA is worthy of noting. And it was over this fish, right, and look in the end, the damn one out right, the Congressional pork one. But we still found a way collectively, through many, many years and a lot of money to bring these fish back. So I'm not I'm not saying that the way that it was handled with the snail dre like, let's use that as a blueprint for bring back steelhead. That's not the point I'm trying to make. What I'm trying to make is if we can pull it off with those fish in those circumstances, come on, there's gotta be a way that we can balance all the different needs to keep Steelhead coming back. You're right, and it is out there somewhere, and you've done a story here on sort of a resurrection, something something coming back. I'm gonna I'm gonna use that to transition into my first story. Though. It's so funny because you kick this off with like sort of a fake out story and I'm not even lying right there that I was actually going to use this story with this headline. This is a real one from this week newest worry. Experts say friendly dolphin in Cornwall could kill people or be killed. But me and my anti dolphin league have already proven you so wrong that I passed. I'm like, why drive this point home any further. Okay, I don't need to hear any more about the dolphin hate, but I'm still gonna turn it on your turf a little bit here because it was you, not me, that already informed are adience about David DeLong. Does that name ring a bell? It does so. DeLong was credited as the first guy in the country to create a plastic worm, and you talked about him right in the end of the line segment about cream worms, which sort of overshadowed DeLong, like they kind of stole his thing a little bit. Well, according to this story on Ohio's w k y C dot com, the DeLong Lower Company is reopening after being closed for a decade and the new owners are setting up shop just outside of Akron, Ohio, where DeLong got its start. Now this is significant because right after World War Two, a lot of people don't know this Acron, of all places, was actually a huge hub of tackle manufacturing. Right. Not only not only did DeLong set up shop there after pouring that first rubber worm, kind of getting it right there in Acron was also home to Flugger back in those days, Arbi gassed Um as well as as as the Cream family and there Orm operation, which again kind of had a better marketing strategy then DeLong. But what many people may not even realize is that the long lures lasted for a very long time. In fact, early in my career, I remember getting my hands on some DeLong eels right that I think a lot of people didn't even realize they made. That had like a little niche thing going here in the striper scene. Um, they are making again. I saw it on their website, a five inch killer Sandy l It's k I L R sandyal and man. Back in the day, that was one hell of a surfcasting teaser for the fall when the bass were on sand els Um. And yet I've been out of those four years, Like I saw that and almost forgot they existed. I was like, oh my god, the killer eel. So I'm excited. Right. So it's shut down ten years ago, but new owners, Steven Ziegler and Aaron Futrelle, bought the business back in May, and while they fully understand the risk in this, they're hopeful that they can make a go of it. And that's a very historical company. And here's why I think they have a shot. You know how vintage is very in right now, right everybody loves vintage, and how sometimes you know something that that's old has the tendency to become new again. Well, in fishing, we're always looking for the latest and greatest and coolest and most modern. But if you look on Delong's website, they're keeping it really o g. Most of what they make is pre rigged, and pre riggedlors have caught piles of fish for decades, but nobody really uses them anymore. That's that's not an in thing at all. Similar to the cream worm, same deal. Um. So what you have though, you have this cool vintage appeal, But now they're made with a little bit more modern plastic than the old stuff. Right there, they're cranking out more modern colors. Um. And you know, generations of anglers have already proven that you can catch the hell out of fish on a lot of this old school pre rig stuff. So not only are they making all kinds of of pre rigged bass worms, they've got some salty stuff and some pretty neat pan fish slash ice offerings, really cool pre rigged tiny old school stuff including uh and and maybe somebody else makes this and I don't know about it, but I've never seen it. They're making soft plastic fish eyeballs for places where you can't use a real fish, I like on the ice for panfish. Um. And I'll tell you what I dude, I'm grabbing some of this stuff because I think it's retro and cool, and nobody out there can say, like, yeah, but that stuff doesn't work. It's been working since nineteen So I I really I love the resurrection angle there. I really hope these guys can make a go with DeLong um again. It's like what's old is new? This is actually this has been around, but if you go look at some of this stuff, it's very different compared to what's out there now, and we want different. So I think it's got some legs. You know. No, that's that's really interesting, And I agree with you. I think this. You know, it depends on how the businesses managed and marketed and handle, but I think this could absolutely work. I would I would say that tackle manufacturing happens to be a growth industry right now. Uh so the guys timed it pretty well. Yeah, But they're even making stuff like that that you just don't see anymore. Like remember when we were kids, you'd buy a rubber frog that would come pre rigged on the hook with the wire flipped down weed guards that they're making trailers frogs with those hooks already in them. But they were terrible. They were lifeless, right, They had that pre rigging thing, but those old ones were just molded plastic that didn't move, So you're just dragging a lifeless frog around. That's the thing where I think that the new owners recognize, like, how do we mix what worked old school and what people recognize remember and and sort of upgrade that. So I don't remember off the top of my head, but they're called but they're making they're making frogs with the old school rigged weedless hook but now they've got some legs that look like they're gonna move. And it's pretty cool, wacky colors and all kinds of stuff. It's worth at least checking out. I think it's cool. You were talking about an old technology and fish, and I'm gonna talk about a new technology easy. I went really long on my first story, so I'm keeping this one short. And for those of you been listening for a while, you might remember around a year ago, I was on this kick about bioengineering, specifically how fish could help engineers design all kinds of new technology, from cloaking devices to super armored, two more efficient battleships, predators suits totally, and I moved away from those kinds of stories because I felt like people might be getting tired of them. But it's been a while, so I'm gonna I'm gonna bring one back. The same researcher who did the study on incorporating carp scale design into body armor. Remember that one so same guy recently published a paper looking into the engineering intricacies of fish fins, which I hadn't thought about, but makes sense. That's why they have that job and not me. Researchers have long known that fish fins are incredibly effective and efficient, allowing fish to navigate and maneuver underwater quickly, precisely, and with minimal energy expenditure, but they didn't understand the specific mechanisms that make fins such fine instruments. The details of this get a little walky even for me, but the short of it is that their structures combine rigidity and flexibility. Makes sense, Yeah, yeah. Fins are made up of any number of rays right, what some people call spines, with fleshy webbing in between those rays, and fish can manipulate the individual rays within the same fin independently, given them very precise control m h. Each ray in a fin is made up of multiple segments of hard material that stack on top of much softer collagen, making them the perfect balance between bouncy and stiff. According to Francois bart a lot. I could get off on a joke with that comment, I know. According to lead Authrough the study quote, until recently the function of those segments hadn't been clear, so he dug in to figure out what exactly those segments do. He told Science Daily, all of the segments essentially create these tiny hinges along the ray or the spine. When you try to compress or pull on those bony layers, they have a very high stiffness. This is critical for the raid to resist and produce hydrodynamic forces that push on water. But if you try to bend individual bony layers, they're very compliant, and that part is critical for the rays to deform easily from the base muscles. Barth. The Latin team have successfully recreated as as complicated all that sounds to me, I I just the way I picture it is like tons of tiny little hinges within the ray, Like they are a bunch of really stiff small pieces connected with collagen stack up into a ray. That's how I pictured in my head. I I'm with you. It's it's heavy and interesting. What are we making out of it? What are we making out of well? So the team have successfully recreated fin structures that incorporate all those hinges with a three d printer, so they're actually recreating them in plastic. The kind of work. So they're moving along, and the hope is that this technology will inform both aircraft and submersible designs. So like, take a second, imagine a drone with wings that have the dynamic capacity for subtle adjustment like a fish is fin right, So it's like a design like that. It is probably a long way out, but it could completely transform aviation. So when Amazon drones start delivering groceries and spying through your windows, their wings might look just a whole lot like fish fins. Bring that up all this to talk about the Amazon. I couldn't help myself, I know, I know, Well it's it's a drone. I might not crash too so far that's uh, that hasn't existed. Hard to do. I think that's fascinating. Man. We've had a lot of good ones. Remember the shark skin on the bottom of boats to make the more efficient in the water. So at least this is going to aviation and submersible technology like not you know, I don't know a swift or sweeper that like we'll get under your couch without you bending over or anything like that. You know, well I would too with fish fin technology. UM. Always fascinated by these man. You know, there's been a lot of things that we claim we can borrow from fish to make our lives better. I wonder, like, thirty years from now, how like how much will this will be just common? You know what I mean, between the armor and the fins, Like, how much of this are we really going to see? Remember the one we did on on the potentially biodegradable plastic made out of fish carcasses. Yes, that would be great. I'd love to see that. Yeah. Yeah, Well, no matter no matter how smart the people are coming up with all these things we can we can we can do with fish carcasses and whatnot. Um, I I still don't think they're going to impress Peter very much. And I would I would like to say before I begin this, uh this last story, that I go out of my way to like really never give any press to Peter, but today I have to. And I'm sorry because this is just too much fun and and and too much us. I think we'll have a little bit of a good time here. So we've taken some pretty deep dives on the show about birds wrapped in fishing, line right, And what we ultimately agree on is that you you need to be a steward out there. I think most of you people listening are, and while certain things are going to happen that we can't easily fix a remedy, we make the effort to not leave mono lying around or you know, get that lore or fly out of a tree if possible, and so on. Nobody, including us, wants to see birds wrapped up in fishing line. Okay, well, last week Peter thought, hey, you know, Labor Day weekend long weekend is fast approaching. Families might be thinking about using that long weekend to fish, so we best hustle up and put out some fresh anti fishing propaganda and change some minds. But this time, rather than go with the your dad's a murderer cruelty to fish angle that I actually don't think worked very well for them over the years, now it's birds getting wrapped in fishing line that is now the main reason you should never, ever, not ever once go fishing. And basically now they're saying, well, if you fish, clearly you also give zero shits about the health of birds in our environment. So wait, because the punch lines still coming. So they released a video of PETA team in full PETA uniform responding to a call that looks like it's a Pea T shirt. Okay, can you It was like like a furry costume was picturing like a furry convention, so so much better. It's really just a Pea T shirt and hat. Alright, alright, trying to be a little dramatic, you know. So they're in the full PETA uniform responding to a call about a blue heron hanging from a tree via discarded fishing line, and of course, as you can imagine, it's very sad music. They went back to the Sarah McLaughlin deal. It's very downer. And in the story it says quote while they were able to paddle to the scene and free the heron, the badly injured bird died on the way to emergency veterinary care, and countless other animals endure similar fates as a result of discarded fishing tackle. Now I watched this video and they did not paddle all the way to the bird. The opening scenes are the crew in said PETA uniforms loading their kayak onto a small center console boat that is brimming with rigged fishing rods, which suggests to me that they leaned on some local angler or charter captain to get them and their kayak to the entangled heron. Now, isn't Here's what I'm saying, right, whoever owns that boat, whoever that guy is, I don't fault him. Right, Like if someone said to me, like I was coming into the dock and they were like, hey, dude, there's a burden trouble we want to save it. Can you give us a lift? I'd say, yeah, sure, you know what I mean, Like, no problem, Like again, all four saving birds don't want to see bad things happen to birds. But is it just me? Or is the hypocrisy a little strong there? You know what I mean? Like the organization comes down so fiercely on anglers. I would just assume they wouldn't even give someone who fishes the time him of day, you know what I mean? Now, Like maybe one rod, fine, Peter can look the other way. A guy with one rod might just be like a little bit horrible. But but this happened in Virginia, and I I know some Virginia boys. I got some Virginia friends. And most of the time when you've got six fairly heavy rods rigged and ready on the bow, like you're angling to put some reds or flounder or cats or croakers in the damn cooler. And according to Peter in their own story, by their own words, such people quote hook gentle animals through their sensitive amounts, watch them slowly suffocate, and sometimes even gut them while they're still alive. Okay, they used to pull the hog out and they used to eat it, your hypocrites, ohyah. So so maybe the average non angler wouldn't have caught that, but I did. I saw it, Peter, And shame on you, Like that's not right, Like we can't be that hard. If we're so awful, why would you even dared get on a boat with six rigged fishing rods with maybe popping quicks and knocker rigs on them, you know, so very I mean, the thing about Peter is that they don't. They have never trafficed in the logic. And I think I think I think the people at high Up and Peter would admit that. I think they'd be like, no, no no, no appeals to logic or not. What we do. We appeal to emotion. That's what we do, sure, and that's why the you know, most of our membership is made up of children between eight and fourteen. I mean, that's who they're targeting to be like, your parents are terrible, don't do this. They're they're they're just plucking those emotional heartstrings without having to do the messy work of making it makes sense. And they're very good at that they are. And it's funny because this this video was was only a couple of days old when I watched it, and you know, I'm just just commenting on what I see with my own eyes. The view count on this one was very low. They were like twelve comments, and it was all people that were just like, oh my god, praise you for this content, for the herring. I mean, if if if we want to you just fall it off. In the last decade, they kind of I think so like there was nobody even there bothering to troll them. And like, if you're, by the way, if you're one of those people out there that are like you just live to troll ship, You're welcome because I just gave you the AMMO. I'm not doing it, but by all means, get on the video and be like how about them six fishing rods with the knocker rigs, you know what I mean? And one could also say that herron in the eyes of many anglers, is just like one step above cormorant, you know what I mean. Like I mean, if you're trying to save the fish, yeah, you might want to whack. Just let that heron go. Just get out there and take out some cormorants and it will all be good. Uh, we'll see who who Phil has mercy on this week. Gave him a lot to think about there. As soon as we're done, we're gonna jump right into fin clips. Um. If you didn't think you knew anything about the snail darter, let's see what you know about gold eye Joe Surmill for your eagle eyed Peter video viewing this week, you have been crowned the winner by me, just as an eagle. Don't get cotton some fishing line. Also, when you were sharing your story about DeLong Lures, a beloved company shuttered for decades only to reopen again. When some passers by spot smoke rising from the chimneys, it reminded me of something else, a similar story. Come with me and you'll be in a world of your imagination. You don't think that maybe David DeLong will hide five golden bass lures in bait shops around the world, invite these five lucky winners to the factory. Just think about it. There will be a chocolate river filled with muskie, the snasberries taste like salt water, and one lucky winner will be taken up to his great glass catamaran into the sky, where they'll be given the keys to DeLong Lowers and let their wildest dreams come true. Just make sure you don't get tempted to steal their ideas and sell them off to Heart or Venom or some other lure company that I just googled or else. Well, you lose good day, sir. Pictured the scene late summer in southwest Montana, fingers wrapped around or handles in the middle of a drift boat floating into that blurry geographic edge where craggy peaks and vertical creeks give way to the meandering grasslands of the prairie. I'm in my third season as a fishing guide, salty enough to have earned intimacy on a respectable number of river miles, but green enough to still find myself in unknown territory when I get sucked into the gravitational pull of multi boat trips. This was one of those trips. The outfitter I was working for called the play lower Yellowstone. This is back in the day when anything below Big Timber felt as remote as come Chotka, and we were well below Big Timber. Despite the fact that I had to follow the caravan to find the put in and stay within range of the other boats to make sure I didn't miss the take out, everything had gone surprisingly well. The clients rod stayed bent most of the day, and the gentleman in the back, who would later go on to fish dozens of days with me, even managed a two foot brown trout on a size sixteen dry fly. I was feeling heroic, but at six pm we were still drifting pitching grasshoppers along brushy banks beside overgrazed fields, and I had no idea where we were. For me, the fish had fallen back on the priority list. We had already caught plenty, and I was more concerned with making sure we didn't end up floating to billings. The clients cast their flies to the edge of a big back eddy behind a rip rap point I hardly noticed the aggressive slash on the surface, but yelled out set instinctively. The client in the front lifted his rod, and the strangest thing happened there in the golden light of the late afternoon, against the backdrop of sun bleached grasses, the fish broke from the water and shook its head. I thought I was hallucinating, because I knew damn well there are no baby turpin in the yellow Stone River. But if forced to identify that fish off one distant jump, that's probably what I would have gassed. Once we scooped it into the net and I got a good long look at the deep bodied, silver scaled specimen with its massive, jaundiced eyes, I had even less idea what I was looking at. The client asked, what is that? It's a Missouri river shed. I responded, hoping that the confidence in my voice would smother any follow up questions. Maybe the client, being from South Carolina, knew little about the native species of the Rockies and the plains, or maybe he was just polite enough not to want to make me look like a jackass in my own boat. Either way, he acted satisfied with my answer. We released the fish and hit the take out ramp just at dark over Beers. Later that night, I told one of the other guides about the mystery fish. Well, that was a gold eye, he explained. You catch those in the lower river, where the white fish end the gold eye begin. Hia don alisoids can be found all over North America, from the Quebec Ontario border to the Canadian Rockies, from central Montana to Louisiana, and throughout the Missouri and Mississippi river systems. I wasn't that far off in my creative renaming of this fish. The word alisoidas the Latin name for the species, actually means shed like. They look remarkably similar to shad, but they are not at all related. I was not the first person to have difficulty classifying these fish. Either. Gold eye and their cousins moon i are not closely related to any other living fishes. Though their ancestors go back at least thirty four million years in the fossil record, they're the only ones left in their genus and order. Taxonomists and biologists have struggled to figure out where these somewhat generic, silvery looking fish fit into the evolutionary puzzle for a long time. And they still don't really know. Up until recently, these fish were thought to be related to African knife fish, though that hypothesis seems to have been recently discounted. Gold eye are generally found in large rivers like the Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, and read. They prefer to hang out in eddies and backwaters adjacent to the main flow. As with so many fish that don't have strong commercial or recreational value, much about these fish remains kind of mysterious. Despite their wide distribution and relatively high abundance, no one has ever observed gold eye spawning. We know they spawned sometime between late winter and spring, depending on the latitude, and that some populations make spawning migrations of a hundred miles or so. Most sources claim that their broadcast spawners, but one paper hypothesizes that males cut their anal fins to the vents of females, and that both the male and female release their game meats into the male's cup fin, which sounds at least a little more intimate and satisfying than broadcast spawning. Those fertilized eggs are coated in oil, which makes them semi buoyant, meaning the eggs don't sink, they suspend and drift just below the surface. While this is common in marine fishes, it's almost unheard of for freshwater species. After drifting for about two weeks, the eggs hatch into larvae that continue to hang out on the surface, suspended vertically looking skyward. Whereas most smaller freshwater fish grow and reproduce quickly as an evolutionary strategy, gold eye take their time. Males don't reach sexual maturity for six to nine years, and for females it can take up to a decade. Even though these fish rarely exceed twenty inches in length, they can live up to thirty years. Gold Eye got their name from their oversized and distinctive yellow orange eyeballs, which are one of the few characteristics that set them apart from moon i. Unlike moone i, gold eye are better able to see and feed in turbid water, and are therefore more likely to be found in flows that lack clarity than their moony relatives. Though woefully unsung, these fisher tailor made for light tackle fishing. First off, they eat anything, and I mean truly anything they can get ahold of, While the majority of their diet consists of aquatic and terrestrial insects. They also eat plenty of bait fish. Earlier this summer, my buddy Rick Mattne, who's been on the show before, called to inform me that his clients had caught no less than a dozen gold eye on mouse flies that day. You can fish for them just about any way you want. Dry flies, nymphs, streamers, spinners, spoons, small jerk baits, worms, crickets, minnows, you name it. If you get it in front of a gold eye, it'll probably get lunched. They are most active at night and during low light periods, but can be caught any time of the day. Once hooked, most gold ie will give you at least one good jump. They like to put on a show. I've only heard two knocks against gold Eye. One they don't get real big. A fifteen injur is respectable, and a twenty inch or is a hog. But come on, I mean, that's true for most trout fisheries. The other complaint I've heard is that they lack stamina. They give you a couple of good runs, a jump too, and then give up. But to me, that's hardly a major problem. What do you expect from a fish that rarely cracks two pounds. Since that first day I had one coming to my net as bycatch, I have enjoyed many a fine evening fishing for gold eye. I generally target them in late summer when they're eager to come to the surface for grasshoppers, ants, and beetles. I've never eaten one personally, but I've heard they're similar to shed and herring. Good smoked, but not something you want to bother fling due to the bones and the oil. Speaking of their oily meat, I do happen to know that freshly caught gold I make dynamite cut bait for channel cats. I have never caught a moone i myself, but I hear that they are very similar. If you live anywhere near a large river between the Rockies and the Appalachians, chances are good one or both of these fish are swimming around close to home, and they're probably not seeing a lot of pressure. Next time you're in the mood to try something different, grab an ultra light rod or five weight and go prospects some slack water pockets, and remember, no matter what your eyes or your guide tell you, it's not a baby tarpet. So while I am familiar with moone I, I was actually pretty unaware of this fish. I gotta say most people are most people are we we we We've had a few listeners hit us up about given the moon I some love. But the truth is I've never personally caught a mooney, so I can't speak to them. I can't do that segment. But if there are anything like gold at which they are are, then I consider them totally badass. Yeah and and sadly, I can't do the moon I either because I I haven't caught one either. Right and this summer, yeah no, this summer I was. I was in their presence. However, while shooting a B side episode for this upcoming season, they were in the river. I was fishing, dude. I was fishing with Tyler Winner. He caught one, um and I even switched to like dry and wet flies, real small stuff, specifically looking to hook one for a little while. But the water was just it was crazy high. It's kind of a long story, you'll see it later, but the conditions just weren't great. So I spent some time trying. It just didn't happen. You know. Well, I think there's there's something in the future maybe should be considered about gold iron MOONI because they are underappreciated, really cool fish, particularly on a fly rod. But but on anything they Yeah. Anyway, on the subject of missed opportunities, Joe is about to tell you about his uh shall we say, rocky relationship, a particular fly pattern that lots of people swear are by, but me personally, I have yet to even tie one onto the end of my line. But perhaps after this I'll finally get on the bus. Well, that's not loud enough. The Drunken Disorderly streamer, often shortened to just the D and D, was created by Michigan based trout guide Tom Lynch, and the drunk came into existence about fifteen years ago, and one could even argue that this pattern marked the very first blatant attempt by a fly tire to recreate the action and presentation of a very specific conventional lure, in this case, the classic rapple of floater. Since then, fly anglers have largely embraced this premise, leaning on everything from synthetic paddle tails to plastic lips to make their streamers look more like lures, which is ironic, is it not. I've always thought so, because while tying flies that do lure things is okay, I guess just picking up a spinning rod and casting laure's that do lure things is not acceptable to many of these fly dudes. But I digress. I interviewed Tom Lynch about the D and D years ago, and what he told me is that he believed it was the erratic jack knifing that made a classic rapple is so effective. He believed that that quick kick to the side that revealed the laura's full profile and flash was the ultimate trigger. This explains the unique downward angled, wedge shaped head of a drunken disorderly, which is carved out of tightly packed deer hair. Tom will tell you straight up that that head is one modeled after a rappleas lip, and I will tell you that the first time I ever used the D and D, I hated the damn thing. Drunks are available in several sizes, but the O, G, D and D is approximately four inches long, jointed, sporting two hooks, packed with flash and rounded out by mallard feathers and rabbit strips strategically ashened to make the fly, keel, jackknife and pivot. The first D and D I ever owned was given to me by a guide buddy on the Upper Delaware River that all he said to me was these are really good man. A few months later I tied the fly on during a miserable float on the same river, after miles of moving zero fish on streamers, and said, you know what, this thing really sucks? Man. All I knew of it was that it was modeled after the rapilists. So I cast and stripped in long, steady pulls, assuming it would dig and wobble like a stick bait. But all it did was spin around awkwardly and really pissed me off. Of course, the problem here, however, it wasn't the fly. It was just my ignorance. I wouldn't get educated until the following winter, when I met my buddy and guide Nick Raftist on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. Tie on a drunk, he said, bullshit, I said, But then he explained a few things. He had been fishing his drunks on longer leaders, maybe seven ft instead of the usual four or five we both like for streamers. He was using a heavier sink tip, helping to create a belly between the fly and the end of the line faster on splashdown. I took his word for it, figuring I'll give this a mile before I switched to a different pattern. Nick also explained that it's all in the wrist. Don't overwork it, he said, short, fast wrist strips, and all of a sudden, I gotta tell you that drunk came to life kicking this way than that, spinning around on itself, diving down on one strip and rising up on the next, and within a quarter mile I had a brown come out and just freaking slam it. And I'd end up taking four more solid fish throughout the day, which is a high number for the time of year and the part of the river we were fishing on. Now, in the years since, I've caught hundreds more browns on a D and D. Matter of fact, I won't go streamer fishing without one. I have witnessed its magical ability to conjure up strikes when no other streamer has on way more than just one occasion, almost suggesting that when a drunk is doing its thing and really working properly, it makes trout so freaking mad. They just have to kill it, even if they're not really in the mood to chew. Like most gaudy streamers, the drunk kicks the most ass in slightly high, slightly stained water, but even in low clear water it has really earned its keep, and not just on trout but small mouths too. Yes, you could say I've grown to love fishing the drunk. Tying it. On the other hand, well not so much, because it's arguably one of the most difficult streamers to tie. Getting from the tail through the collar, that's a piece of cake. Anyone can do that. But screw up that head and it's over. It simply will not perform. It will not swim if that head is slightly off. And I've gotten to the point where if I nail the head on the first try in one out of four attempts, I'm pretty proud. But really, at the fly tying desk, I hate this fan fly Well, we are just about out of opportunities to say things that might get us fired or humiliated. But before we go, remember that priests, pastors, rabbis, ministers and moms, monks and other religious leaders might just leave their piety at the dock and turn into regular foul mouth anglers when they go fishing. Amen, our friends at their team fishing don't care how much of a degenerate you are and are offering you off your next purchase. Amen. Again, there are no tarpin shed or herring in the Mountain West, no matter what your idiot guide tells you. And Joe doesn't have to be drunken disorderly to admit he's wrong about the drunk and disorderly. No, I do not please send any and all stories of you putting your feet in your mouths, as well as any bar nominations, sabin items, awkward phishing photos, and phish news suggestions to Bent at the meat eater dot com and keep on tagging your posts with the Generate Angler and Bent podcast. And if you want to keep up with all the stupid things your fellow degenerates say and do on the socials, you might want to follow those hashtags as well. And finally, I'd just like to give a special thanks to my wife, who, though not an actual surgeon, has skillfully removed my toes from my tonsils more times than I can down