00:00:06 Speaker 1: We have rivers here where there's just signs that are like do not wait, bottom littered with pipe bombs. I just want to shout out they will always be great legs, steelhead to me, migratory rainbow snobs. Don't at me. He's got that rod, he's got my flower boxes. You're not fishing. People only use this in Alaska for trout. That's a bunch of pretentious indie movie bullshit. What do you think? This is an episode of freaking Philistines. That being said, it's on Netflix and you should check it out. Good morning to generate anglers, and welcome to Ben the fishing podcast that sounds so much better than a kick in the face with a golf shoe. Thanks to today's guest co host you know him, you love him, Ladies and gentlemen, are legendary audio engineer Phil Taylor is here. What Wow, I'm just as surprised as I'm sure the listeners are. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you think about it, right, who else knows this podcast as intimately as you? So? Like Philly, Like you're the natural, You're the natural, like go to for guest co host number one, and I hope, I hope you piped in some roaring crowd sound effects for yourself because I think you deserve it. Um. Anyway, it's super good to have you here. Can I get you anything? Glass of water, subway tunahogi, a pack of bubble buts from our sponsors thirteen fishing maybe Okay, I want to go back to the tunahogy, but first I have to ask bubble buts. Can you please elaborate? I I will, I will. So these are extra girthy, shaky lures covered in donkey sauce. And if I I can, I know a guy, so I can get you a pack of them if you want them. Um. But it's funny because we hear you weekly weighing in on fish News. But this is the opportunity for myself and the listeners to really get to know you better. Like, dude, I have zero idea what your fishing history is. Do you fish? Have you? Have you ever fished? I don't know, you know, I'm not really sure either. I can. I can tell you though, that before I got a job at Meat Eater, which is a you know, a brand, a media brand that you know has a lot to do with hunting and fishing. Little bit a little bit um, I had caught one fish in my life one, Um, what was? What was that? I honestly could not tell you. I was on scenic Lake tac Lack in Washington State. UM, hit me up if you if I've got any Lake tac Lack uh regulars out there. But yeah, I have no idea what the fish was caught it. I was too gross out to touch it, So Phil, I wouldn't have said that. But I wouldn't have said that were you a little child or was this like not that long ago? It was about how about thirteen? Is that? Is that a little child? That's now? But that's right on the edge of I don't know how I feel about you being afraid to touch the fish. Um, I'm gonna look up Lake tackle Lac and I'm gonna figure out what it was. I'll come back to you with options and maybe from it'll jog your memory and you'll be like, it was that one Because I've never heard of it and I have no idea what's in there. Somebody will write in and let me know. But let me ask you this. Since you've been editing Bent for over a year now, has like any of the bullshit we've spewed made you want to go chase something you haven't before, Like, has any of this piqued your interest beyond our coverage of Pokemon lures? Uh, It's definitely piqued my interest. I honestly had no idea how deep this world went, right, I mean, like yeah, but like ads with anything, of course, it goes as deep as you wanted to go. And honestly, you guys go so deep that I get lost immediately, Like Miles. Miles made a joke a few weeks ago about how I'm sure Phil doesn't even listen to what we're talking about. He just kind of he's busy doing something else. You're about to tell me that was accurate, and you don't. I'd say that's about sixty eight percent accurate. So as least year, you're honest. That's why we love as as with most things. Uh. In regarding the podcast that I work on at this company, I'm I'm pretty lost. I bet I would love like kind of a surface level education or fishing trip one of these days from you, Joe. I don't know if that if we can make that happen. We have, we have talked about it for a while, where like we would start you off blue gill fishing and record that and like work it up and then eventually, like the big payoff was you'd flat here and I'd take you like bluefin fishing or something. I love it. I don't know, I don't know where we are in the budget now, and now I'm kind of like scrambling to put this show together, so I might have to get back burnered for a little. It's at the bottom of the list I got. It was something that was talked about. Though. It frightens me a little that you say you get that lost, because we kind of strive to be like pretty like not too deep divy so that fisherman of all ILKs can listen to us. Well, here's something Joe, I've I've told you this before. I've told like almost everyone who works at Meat Eater and anyone I can people on on the bus, I'll stop them and be like, hey, if you listened to Ben. Um, even though I don't know a lot about fishing, and now, since I was thirteen, I've caught about six or seven fish in my life, so you know, I wouldn't call myself an expert, but um, but like, even though I don't know a lot about fishing. I love listening to this show every week. It's it's it's the show I look forward to the most. I love that. I love that. It's great. It's part and I know that it's part of the reason why you're here. And I know you're not a hard wrangler, and that's okay, um, but we need more about you. You are like a traveler though, correct you get around. You were recently at the Minnesota State Fair. If I'm not mistaken, you put up a short expose on Instagram documenting foods on a stick. Yes, the Minnesota State Fair. It's the the epicenter of culture in the United States. I mean, I've done some traveling. I've I've been to Europe once. That was fun a lot of I'm a Pacific Northwest native, so I've spent some time in British Columbia, Canada. Uh, it's some some East Coast dabbling, but not not a whole lot of time spent there. So I'd love to get out there more. But it's pretty average, pretty average traveler. Fair enough. How about Old Mexico? You ever spent any time in Old Mexico? San Diego is the closest I been to Old Mexico. I've seen it from from a distance, but I can't so the wait. So you spend time in San Diego and did not go to Tijuana. No, is this you setting yourself up for a great Tijuana story or No, I've never been there either. But I've never been there either, But I think that's I thought that was the thing you do. Whatever the Tijuana story would be, whether it was yours or mind, we probably shouldn't tell it here because that's what happens in Tijuana. Um. But anyway, today's Smooth Move segment actually takes place both north and south of the border, and I'm excited about it. Um. Not only is this a great story, but most of you, at least I hope I haven't forgotten about the get bent experience. So a few months ago we dropped a contest giving you guys a chance to submit stories, and the winner got to join us for a Smooth Move segment. UM, And we certainly didn't forget about it, and we noted this. It's just that you guys sent so many great stories it took us forever to pare it down into clare winner. But today's the day, Phil, And it's actually it's just a great day for phills everywhere because you're here and it's a Phil in our story. So how about about that? Yes, absolutely, about Dr Phil. We checked on him. Is he doing No? No, no, no, we'll check on him next time. I'm just wondering any other films we can bring it here if any, if any come to mind, we'll We'll throw a man. But for the first time ever, a loyal Bent listener's voice shall be heard here, joining us all the way from ben Brook, Texas. Here's the Get Bent Experienced Grand Prize winner Phil van Horn. Why why did you? Oh my god? I am joined today on Smooth Moves by listener Phil van Horne. And this is a special deal. I have to I have to offer you congrats man, because you are the first fan in Bent history that has been on the show. Well, I appreciate, I'm honored. You said in your email when I when I alerted you to the wind, that you were speechless, which is rare. Oh yeah, no, I mean I couldn't believe it at first. I thought you were calling about my car warranty, you know, expired, and you're trying to offer this up on the email and I was like, listen, not scheme here. So now now sometimes it's not a scheme, and this time it wasn't, and I already know you got your your your mediator fishing schwag. I had to laugh because I was like, what size shirt? And you were like large or extra large? And then I got to follow up email that was like, actually, my wife reminded me that I am an extra large and to stop kidding myself. Yeah, which I feel you, I feel you on that. But um yeah, man, So we got a ton of entries, so pretty big deal to be weeded out as the grand prize winner. But this is one hell of a story. Um so take it from the top, man, lay it, lay it on us, all right. Well, wife and I got married twenty five years ago, twenty one to be exact, and so twenty years ago we started going down to Mexico to visit or family and Lake Amastab which is a huge lake, you know, great bass fishing. So we it's right there so to pass the time. I mean, it's a hundred degrees during the day, sitting around house and you know power rangers of the Spanish dub over it gets old. After a while, so I finished. I figured out, you know, our talker cousin into going fishing. And her cousin had all the lives. He was living in Mexico, going back and forth working and at that time he lived in Del Rio. So he goes, hey, we'll go in the evenings, no problem. So we went bass fishing. I just started doing it. My wife taught me to fly fishing, because she she's willing to try anything. So I was like, hey, let's go and h Her cousin at the time was working on this trip that we had and he wasn't able to go with me, but he had shown me back roads and which way to go across the border. So there's two main entrances back into the US. So you got a toll bridge, the International to seventy seven. You can sit there for hours, and I mean you're just taking a beating there. So you can take this back road route number two, and it goes right over the damn. I mean, you're dry having over the real grand looking down at Amnistad and you just wave at the border guards as you go by. So I was like, you know, I'll take that route. I can drive ninety miles an hour. There's nothing out there. I mean there's old movie sets and there's a like a good Year race track where they test tires. I've been down to this part of the world, not Amistad. I've been to Falcon now, so I know i know what you're talking about. Yeah, it's it's different. Yeah yeah, two lane blacktop. Nothing out there, so you know, get run over by a dump truck, that's your own fault, you know that kind of thing. So, so we're gonna be out here three days in a row. I said, Hey, you know what, I'll I've always only fished conventional there, and if you talk to anybody there, it's always like hey, green pumpkin, green pumpkin, screen pump Then I'm like, you gotta try something different, right, I was like, I'm just gonna go fly fishing this time. I'm not gonna take conventional gear. Mix it up. So the first day I went to the main border checkpoint at to seventy seven. It wasn't too bad, no traffic speak of, So I crossed the border. Get on where I'm gonna fish. The water level is always thirty with this lake, so fly fish, I mean, you got no, there's nothing to your back cast because you're standing limestone, catch a couple of fish top water. I'm like, hey, not a bad day, can't be upset. So I come back the back way and I'm coming over that damn on the smaller road. You came back on the smaller So I came back on that route and wave at the border guards. No questions asked, pass on through. Now I'm back home. I'm eating tacos by noon, so I'm like, this is amazing, breaks my heart. Day two, I get going the same route, get over the damn, wave at the opposing boat, at each opposing teammate border guards here, you know, to and from. So get on the lake in it's windy. I can't cast. I mean, there's nothing happen. So I head back. I catched some SpongeBob in Spanish and I get everything that I planned on. So Dave's three comes, and I mean it. I got there. I went the back way, crossover, wave back, I get over their star fishing. I'm you know, I'm about an hour after sunrise. I'm in the same thirty minutes. I'm catching left and right top water streamers. Everything's working. All of a sudden, the clowns leave blue bird skies and the fish disappeared. They swam back where they came from. So I said, all right, well, I'll pack this up and get back a little bit earlier. So I head back across the damn We're gonna go back that back way, the easy way. So I head back. I wave and promptly. I mean, as soon as I waved and started driving by, I get a hand on my hood and he says out the no posse, stop, no go, no passing here. It's like, great, where is this gonna cost me? So he points over to the side of the guard shack. They started asking me what are you doing? Where have you been? Why are you going to? Well all the time, I'll see you every day. So this is three days in a row, now right, three days in a row, an American and a Dodge DURINGO you know with the Texas plate. You know, I'm just cruising on in and uh, I mean, he's blaming me. He's what are you doing. I'm I'm fishing. He goes, no, you're not. What are you doing? You're you come back and forth this way? Are you smuggling? You know? You running drugs? People? What are we doing You're you don't You're not from here, and you keep coming this route. This is a kind of a local route. Are you fluent in Spanish? By the way, I speaking of conversational Spanish, my whole with my one, you know, to understand, right, Yeah, I mean I'm holding the conversation with Spanish. So we're I mean, I'm sitting there in the car and he he tells me step on out. So I get escorted into the building where I find me a nice five by five holding cell baby blue. It's beautiful, no air conditioner, a little graded you know, a little raided door. Well, I realized that's a you know, that's my first time on this side of it. I was at that time, I was a I was a copyer in Texas. And so he sees my wallet. You know, he's already, you know, he's suspicious more now. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna swit this out. And uh, he just keeps asking me, what are you doing? What are you doing? Why are why are we here? He said, Man, I'm I'm out fishing. That's all I'm doing. He goes, You're not fishing, You're coming through her every day and I'm like, man, what do you where are we going with this? And I was like, hey, just check the back of my car. Fishing poles in the back. My wet boots are back there. Everything is in the back of my car. Sorry, I'm surprised. Man. He walked right back there, came back. He's got that rod, he's got my fly box, and he's got my book. You know, He's like, boots are wet. Ain't worried about it. He goes, you're not fishing. No one, No one fishes with this. I said, what man? I was completely offended. I'm like, I've never been accused of not fishing in my life. So the inspector he's he's really adamant about this. You're not fishing. People only use this in Alaska for trout. I'm blown away. I mean, I'm like, yeah, no, I get that here. When people ask me, hey, where do you go fish, I'm like, in water. I mean, I've never not fished in water. But I try not to be a jackass all the time, and you know, give up explanation. But so I'm like, all right, you know, I'm just trying to figure out how I'm getting out of this. I was like, hey, you find any contraband anything in my car? And he's just like, no, I don't have a computer with me, you know. So it's like no, not smuggling anything. So I was like, all right, like what do you want? You know, what, what do you mean to do? He goes, use it? Show me. I'm like, show you what do you been to show? You know? I mean we're going to climb down this hill. I mean, the the river's two feet lowe me. What are we gonna do? And he showed me. He's like handed it to me. I'm like, oh, he has been a cast. He's me prove my freedom, you know. So I'm like, all right, oh, your game symbol a rod let some uh you know, let some leader. And I'm like, how am I gonna up on the bridge right? You're like yeah, I'm all the day. I am two ft above the water, you know, staring, and I'm like, I can make a break for it, you know, run back fifty ft political asylum, I can die hard or whatever. You know. I advised that. I was like, well, then I lose my car and I mean he's got my boots back there, so what's more important? At this point? So I'm like, all right, I could jump to her feet to the river fifty ft to the water on the other side. I'm like, all cast. So I let some lead out and I sit there and I just start false casting, and I mean, I'm the most important cast I've ever made before. This was for a tailing redfish. You know which one is more important? This one? So I can go home or you know, a fish. I'm I'm letting this thing and I'm throwing the tightest loops I'll let it out. I'm casting and it just unfurls and it just rolls at lants perfectly on that concrete. And I'm like, I'm surprise myself, you know, at this point. Yeah, So I look over at him. I'm like, you know, what do you think. You know, I'm a little little free lesson. I didn't charge him or anything, you know. So he kind of he kind of gives me that that reassuring nod, like, yeah, you're you're good. So I'm walking back to the truck. I'm like, he points to the back of the car. I got the back open, throwing it in. He goes. He points and goes, uh, yeah, I do, thank you. He goes no, that's my shutter Box six pack. And I went, well, thanks. I mean, I'm like, yeah, compared to other things that people I know have had to give away, just give up in Mexico, a six pack of Shiner, no big deal. And I'm you know what, I had to import it. I mean, I guess that's my smuggling run for that day. So I'm like, all right, fair enough, you know, you take my take my beer. But then I'm like, hey, it was my fly box on my wallet, you know, let me have that back. He has been my fly box. Back, takes my wallet, takes a twenty dollar bill out of it and told me it's for your inspection. I said, oh, hey, no thanks. You know, I figured, hey, so I lost my taco money and I and my beer all the fatal swoop. But I'm like, hey, I'm free. But it's the most important cast you've ever made. Yeah, I mean it was freedom loops, you know, just it's just freedom loops. Yeah. So did you go back the rest of the trip or was that your last time across? That was my last day across at that point, you know, for that trip. So I was like, I'm done, you know, if I need to go back. I'll go back to the the U. S side. And it's a little you know with traffic and cars and witnesses and everything else. But no, that was that was it for this trip. And I was just that that was about all she wrote. There you go, man, Well look we I think, I said, we got a ton of great stories for the Get Bent experience, but casting for your freedom on a bridge in Mexico especially resonated with me because, like I said, I run into some ship in Mexico to um, that's the winner, man, that's the winner. Hey, I appreciate it. Man. The last time I've ever won anything was I got a phone call one time saying, hey, you've won his chance for the tickets for the Playboy Halloween Linger party back in And I'm sitting there on the on this phone and I in the in the hallway, you know, quarter wrapped around me, trying to figu out what's going on. He goes, hey, let me get your information. I'm like, many three reservations and plane ticket. I'm like, this is great, give out my day to birth and he goes, I'm sorry, you're only nineteen, went well, yeah, sorry you got uh thanks for playing hung up. I'm like, you know what, this wind was almost as good film. I'm I mean, twenty three years on the making, I finally want to go. I mean this beats Halloween, Lingerie, Playboy Mansion. Wow. Um, First of all, that sounds terrifying. Um, but it also sounds like it could be the great premise to a Coen Brothers movie. Yeah, dude, right on. And the part I'm still stuck on is freedom Loops. I guessn't that what you plan to call your company when you start your own audio production? Is this? One day you have freedom Loops by Phil. It's kind of like Fashions by deb you know, you know, loops loops are already a great audio that's a great audio word. Um, there's actually yeah, there's actually there's an audio editing software called Fruity Loops. Um. I'm not sure if there's been any sort of like trademark lawsuit happening there with with the serial brand, but um, I'll have to check on that before I start Freedom Loops. I have to ask this, and I'm gonna date myself. Do you know what techno e J is? No clue? Okay, that's probably you're you're younger than me. That was like a techno thing I hadn't like, I don't know, freshman year of high schoo where you just made no on your PC. Anyway, enough about that, UM, i'd I'd love to hear you've got after I've already said too much, and I might somewhere I don't know. Um, but I can relate to Phil's story because I've actually been the guy in the back office at a Mexican airport paying taxes that are only payable in cash on camera equipment that I'm bringing in to create media that promotes tourism, you know, to your country. So whatever, and the arm the arm guards were not necessary. And the best part was this was a trip with pure fishing, big big Fishing brand. And as the guards are escorting me to the back of my bud who put the trip together, screaming, get me a receipt, I'll pay for this, I'm like, dude, I'm not gonna this is gonna give me a receipt for the sixty dollars I just shelled out to buy everybody here lunch. Like, there's no real taxes, this is all fake. But you say I've never been in Mexico, so you've never had to deal with any of that. Yeah, I was gonna say, I mean, you're you guys, You and the other fill are really selling me on Mexico. I gotta I gotta say so. Well, I enjoyed having phill on very much. And here's the deal, right, so, uh some of the runner up stories were so good. Don't be shocked if I hit up a few more of you to lay them down. And if I do, you will also get the same meat Eator fishing swag pack um that Phil got. Honestly, I would really love to hear all of your voices heard on Bent more often. So I'm gonna resurrect an idea for a new segment. We had this idea a while ago. It just never came to fruition. Oh is this the segment where you guys play rapple with Fishing on Nintendo? We over your techno music. No it's not. No, it's not that one. But man, see, I forgot your privy to all our shenanigans, like you know the inner workings as well as I do. Uh. No, we kicked around a segment we were gonna call Nibbles and SIPs, and I've revamped it slightly, and here's how it's gonna go. Uh. If you want to be heard on Bent right, email a voice memo to Bent at the meat Eator dot com. That's preferred, but I'll take voice memos via d M two and you could say whatever you want. Ask a question, tell me I suck, tell me I don't suck. Give your opinion about a recent show segment. Um, give me your rambling, possibly drunk version of your own. That's my bar, or tackle hack or end of the line, surprise me. And if your sweet sultry voice ends up on Nibbles and SIPs, I'll swag you out and phil am I asking for it here? Like is this a bad idea? Should I not? Is this okay? What do you think we could workshop the name a little bit? I think I think it's a video called Nibbles and SIPs at my friend's house in high school that I won't go into details here about that's it. But no, I'm not going to revamp the name. But it's funny. That's where you heard Nibbles and SIPs. I heard it from one of my six year old daughters. Like weird anime like cut C shows nibbles and SIPs was like tea time, and I was like, nibbles and SIPs, that's very fishy. I'm gonna use it. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, so I'm not I'm not changing it because I like it both ways. Whatever you're talking about, text me later because with a link, because I want to see it. But I don't know. I don't know all think about that though, but I'm pretty stuck on nibbles and SIPs. And it was actually listener Anthony Marshaun who gave me this idea not long ago. I I did a new his piece about the giant sturgeon caught by retired hockey goalie Pete Peters. Do you remember this because I believe I lost news that week. Does that ring a bell? It does ring a bell. The story rings a bell. I don't remember which winner I declared, but it sounds like it sounds like you do remember, and it's really it's really, it's really sticking in your cross. I do. I do because I said that Peters once won the Vezina Trophy and man did I hear it from like six people, most of which were Canadians probably rocking hockey here. But Anthony sent me this voice memo. It's not called the Visma, Joe, It's called the Vesna. Get it right. First of all, I didn't say vezma or vesna, which is apparently correct. I said Vezina because it is spelled vezina. V easy. I n A like, dude, would you have guessed that the eye was silent? Absolutely not. No, I'm I'm on team Joe. Here on And that's how That's how language works, that's how words work, so exactly. And you know what, but this is a fishing podcast, not the penalty box or whatever you can ee eaters and knucklepuckers listen to. I will take my lips when I mess up fish it. But hockey stuff I do not care. But technically that was our first nibbles and SIPs segment. So Anthony is gonna get swagged out simply for giving me a hard time with a voice TM. See how easy that was. Um, but we are. We are going to have to come up with a good jingle though for next time. Oh yeah, I can't wait. I love throwing those together. I have I have some ideas that might come from Reno one fan. I never watched one, but I know that the whole crew was or most of them were a part of the state, which I did, and I've tried. I've tried to pull some state stuff for this show. There's very little of it on the YouTube's though, Like it's like buried in the in like in the annals of history. There's just not a lot of state clips out there. Um. Anyway, in the meantime, I'm gonna have to come up with current events sure to crush the new opponent stepping into the octagon that is fish News. Fish News escalated quickly, So kids News, how's that gonna work now? Well, for starters, we're gonna run two stories instead of four, mostly because Phil has told me our news gets quote long in the tooth sometimes and he's really tired of having to pay attention for that long. But also I realized, to preserve the sanctity of fish News, I need a dependable weekly co anchor just for this segment. So join me and welcoming my colleague Hayden Samic to this dog fight. How are you, man? How are you feeling? Hey, dude, I'm feeling good. Man. You sound like you're feeling good. I am man. I'm soaked to be doing this, you know, I love I love the Bend podcast. Man, I think we're gonna have a good time. Man. Thanks, we are, we are, We absolutely are. But for the listeners wondering why Hayden, basically I just call it h Q and was like, hey, do you guys have any of those millennials kicking around, like, you know the kind you can just keep keeping work on two and they're too afraid to say no, And they're just like, yeah, absolutely, take Hayden. So I find your microaggressions super offensive and I am going to be talking to hr immediately as you should have a kombucha settled down. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Of course I'm kidding. Hayden. He's my boy, and he's one of the audio engineers I work with often. But I asked Hayden to be my news wingman for several reasons. Um, we actually have a lot in common, right Like for starters, Um, we grew up in the same hood. You're living in Bozeman now therefore longing for good pizza. But you're from p a man from Pennsylvania. You're an East Sider like me, and we stick together. We We also fished a lot of the same waters out here on the East Coast. Yeah man, you know everything from Great Lakes Steele's to the U Dare Yeah man, yeah man, those little small stream Brookies dude, and uh you know, yeah, I moved west whatever, but I just want to shout out they will always be great legs Steelhead to me. I don't care what anybody says. Migratory rainbow snobs don't at me. Yeah, don't. Also, yeah man, the pizza here sucks. I know, It's okay. Well, well we'll talk about that probably often, the pizza triangle. But we're also kind of kindred spirits and that we um. I think we both grew up splitting our time between fishing and music, right, Like you, you played in a bunch of bands, And when I was a kid, I always had to ask myself like, was it is this a fishing birthday or music birthday? You know what I mean? Right? It's like do I need a new fly real or that sweet sweet grunge pedal. That's how it always was. I know that deal. Well, my friend, you know, do I want to replace the three hackle capes my doggate last month? Or do I want that lame solid state crate amp that fifteen year old me didn't know was complete trash. I know that's It's like I got a Fender Squire in a pig nose rocking, you know what I mean. So yeah, speaking of music, I'm gonna jump in for a second because a while back I shouted you out on Instagram. You helped coordinate the new Bent theme song. You orchestrated that with the band, and I gave you a shout out for helping and you were like, dude, everybody thinks I wrote the song and performed the song. Can you please shout out the correct people? And I failed? So this is your chance to tell all the Bent listeners who is really responsible for the Bent theme song? Sure? That was that was mostly coordinated by this dude, Logan Roth and my other buddy, Will Brown. And they have a production, you know, music production studio out of Philadelphia called Treacle Mind Recording. And then they're they're great musicians, dude. They put everything together. Man, Will is amazing, amazing, liked. We We've got so many compliments on that. But I hope you feel better now now that it's better late than next. They have been officially shouted out, um, but most portly right. While your primary gig is on the audio side of things here at Meat Eater, Um, you've also been doing a lot of great writing for our website, right, great, great stuff. So I'm confident you can hang. In fact, I know you can, um. And you even had Miles blessing for this spot before he left. Yeah. Man, as a Bent fan from day one, I remember listening to the first episode and knowing that this was something special and that's in yeah yeah, and that's no small part due to our mutual friend, the irreplicable Mr Miles Nulty. Uh. You know that dude has been such a big part of the whole Mediator fishing department for like kind of ever. And uh, I mean everything from das Boat you know, to this podcast to ship ton More has his fingerprints all over it. Uh. You know you and your listeners already know this, But Miles is one of the smartest, wittiest, fishiest dudes I've ever met, and I'm totally humble to take over his role on this small segment here. Man. Yeah, you know I'm not. I'm no Miles Nulty, but I hope you'll be happy with what I bring to the table. And to that end, I intend to. Here's the thing, though, I don't need you to be Miles. I don't want you to bet though though question right, did your deep voice help you score this gig? It did not hurt. I will just say that. So anyway, Yes, this is still a competition, so no pressure brow. But Hayden and I still don't know which news story the other guy is bringing to the table. Fill our engineer will still be declaring a news victor. But now that we're only bringing one story a piece of the table, it's like we got to really bring the heat, you know what I mean. Like with with fewer stories, Phil is gonna have to maybe judge on style delivery. The whole works. Um, and I'm gonna give you the honor, my friend, of leading off your first news so hit me. The floor is yours. So Joe, being the upstanding citizen and conservationist you are, I'm sure you've done your fair share of river river cleanups. I have. I've done it. I've done a clean up a time or two. Yes, and sometimes you find some pretty crazy ship. I mean, I wouldn't say I found anything overly crazy during an actual clean up, but I mean I've found some some pretty crazy ship in rivers. But still, I see where you're going here. Okay, how about a pipe bomb? No, No, I haven't done. I've never I don't know if I would have recognized that if I did. But to my knowledge, I've yet to find a pipe bomb. So yeah, well today, and I hate myself for making this fun. We're starting off fish news with a bang. Okay, it's fine, I'll let it fly, all right, all right. As reported September eight by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Montana f w P search and Rescue divers recently found a pipe bomb at a Jefferson River fishing access shooty and sat hillbillies. Okay, all right, I see how that's. I gotta be honest, like you're you're from out here, so I know that's a big deal there. You We have rivers here where there's just signs that are like do not wait, bottom littered with pipe bombs. But I'm still listening, like you still he still he still got me, all right, yeah, man. Basically, search and Rescue was doing some sort of training when divers came across an object quote having the look of a pipe bomb with a fuse at the Williams Bridge fishing access. Okay, the fuse makes it. If it had a fuse, I would know what I was looking at. It's like comical a little bit, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's stereotypically think of as a pipe bomb, little pipe Anyhow, they closed down the access, called in some explosive ordinance technicians from the Maelstrom Air Force Base and blew the suspected explosive device up. Uh. The origins remain unknown, and it's assumed it was probably just you know, some amateur fish hating bomb enthusiasts. I guess because because Sheriff Dan Springer did not seem overly concerned. He's quoted as saying, and I love this quote. It could be an innocuous thing. Given the placement of where we found it. It does not appear to have any target value or anything. But if someone does have some information, that would be great to know. That would be great. Okay, I mean it's a little more wild West out there. I mean, that's a dangerous thing, right, But I don't know. Does that surprise you that he's like that, that lack of chill about it. Yeah, I feel like that's kind of a little bit of a lax approach to it. That's sort of like when you're at Walmart or something and if somebody with the red Nissan your car alarm is going off, like that would be great to know. Yeah, yeah, I love that, you know, just your everyday innocuous pipe bomb. I actually fished off the Jeff not too long ago with my buddy Corey from work, and we agreed it was one of the weirdest, most confusing days fishing we've ever had. I mean, the bugs were everywhere, everywhere, and we couldn't even get like a single riser. I mean, you know, we all if theories about like what put the trout down right, barometric pressure, sunlight, whatever. I never would have thought maybe pipe bombs. I've never fished the Jeff, but it's like one of those bucket list rivers for me, and I will not claim to be any sort of expert on that river. I've heard of it more as a streamer river than a bug river, definitely, But what I've heard from everybody is like it giveth and take it away. It's one of those places where it's just lights out if you know how to time it, and then there's just nothing there. If you haven't timed it correctly. But I love those kind of places, and a lot of times we have rivers out here. You're familiar with the Lehigh, right, I'm a huge fan. It's the same thing. It's one of those places where if you know when to go and what you're doing, you're gonna see some ship go down. But similarly, I'm sure that the pipe bombs in the lower Lehigh through Allentown and Bethlehem, p A. Are innumerable, you know what I mean. You're probably probably snag five of them per trip with a heavy sink tip. You just don't know it, you know what I mean. I I got some family in Allentown. Let me tell you that it's definitely land of the pipe bomb. Yes, right, exactly exactly alright. So anyway, the pipe bomb was disposed of, everybody got out of there with all their fingers, and the fishing access was reopened. Of the incident, f w P Warden Captain Adam Pankratz said it made for a good reminder to use caution and carefully inspect items we would normally think of as litter before picking them up. Uh, you know, whether or not you pick it up. I'm not sure you should get close enough to carefully inspect anything you think could be, you know, a bomb. But I get what he means. Yeah, you know, from this point on, during all my future river cleanups, I'll be keeping an eye out for use needles, broken glass, rusty barbed wire, and now apparently pipe bombs. Yeah what a world. Well, but you know what you you you bring up a valid point though about the river cleanups. Right, everybody jumps on a river clean up. I mean they are happening all the time, and it is just the kind of thing, maybe not from the center of the river, depending on the river. But you you pull that out of the mud somewhere, you have no idea what you're looking at. I mean, that's pretty scary. Joking about pipe bombs aside, So, I mean, I've never found anything particularly odd during a dedicated river clean up. Um, A lot a lot of children's bicycles and those those razor scooters. That's the thing around here. I find a lot of razor scooters for some reason here in the market for you use one of those. Um, but I did, I did pull it. I pulled a pistol out of the Delaware once years ago, fully loaded um off the bottom and I ended up taking it to the police, thinking, you know it's used in a crime or something. You do the right thing. And I certainly don't know the backstory. But um, buddy of mine, who just knows more about guns than I do, is like man, that's a really specific, very expensive pistol designed just for concealed carry. So it certainly could have been stolen and chucked. But he's like man, better odds with that one that you know, somebody was showing his buddy while they were out there striper fish in one spring at high water, and in the water it went um. I mean it had been in there for a long time. It was pretty trusted out. But I mean the pipe bomb thing is even scarier if you think about it. Now with the whole magnet fishing culture, which I also dabble in, right, we we don't. We don't touch on it too much in this show because even though it has fishing in the title magnet fishing, it's not fishing. Okay they're not. They're not angling for fish. Um. But yeah, that was a COVID hobby I got into for I found a bunch of AMMO and stuff doing that too one time. It was weird, But I think the bottom line here is definitely, um, you know, be careful what you pick up when you're when you're saving the local trout stream. Yeah, I mean I've never found anything like that. Uh yeah, I did find a fossilized bison tooth kind of recently doing a river clean up. I found one of them my first time in Montana in high school. Just randomly found it on the Gallatin. Yeah, yeah, I found it on the East Gallaton. Anyhow, that said, I was doing a river clean up for work, uh, you know the other day, and I did find a packet of condoms and a bunch of glow sticks, which was spans of picture. Oh yeah, and see if there's two types of p pull out there, man, those that throw bangers on rivers and those that throw bangers in there. I guess you know glow sticks though, right, Like glow sticks? Is that? What is that what your kids are doing these days? Just like having like an impromptu river rave, crank up the screw licks and uh and go after it. Well there you go, so trying to think it had to transition to that. Um, I guess be careful what you're looking for and watch out for the glow sticks if you happen to be doing any any cleanups on any river systems or ponds up in Maine. How's that for a transition? You like that transitions matter in this game. By the way, you didn't have to come up with one today, but I did, and that's a poor one, which tips the hat in your favor with Phil. Yes, So people ask me all the time, what's still on your bucket list? It's a fairly it's fairly common question. And um, two of those things would be giant wild brook trout like up in Labrador, Quebec. That's something I've never gotten to do. I've never got up there. Um, an Arctic char now bull trout used to be on that list, and I've scratched that one, though not thoroughly, you know what I mean. Like I've never been on a dedicated bully trip. It was incidental, which to me sort of counts but not really. Um, But I guess based on on on this list, it seems like I have a thing for chars, which maybe I do. Do you know what do you charge? Where are you on that you do much char fishing? Uh? You know? Char? I think are, for my money, probably the most beautiful salmonids that they're are, you know, I think they also live in some of the most beautiful places. So when COVID hit initially, I spent a ton of time, you know, just Blue Line and Brooke Trout up in northeastern p A. And then those little things just totally have my heart, you know what I mean. Sure, yeah, I dide, I I get that. I mean, I I It's been a while since I've done that. My problem is that, um like after a few I'm like, okay, like it's hard to hold my attention with it all day long. But I appreciate them so much, and there's a there's a lot of that in that part of the world that people don't know about. Don't give away your spots, but I know that's one thing you have wired, is that that Northeast p A y. So anyway, so I've also I've kind of like always roped Arctic char in with she fish, which was another bucket list catch, and I got that one. But for both those and the chars, most people assume you have to check pretty damn far north to get after them. Um And that's true if you sort of want the real deal migratory giant char experience, which I do. But if you're one of those folks that just wants to check the list, just wants to say I got one, you could technically check arctic char off in Maine, which I don't think many people realize. Do you know that? Okay, So, Maine is the only state in the contiguous Lower forty eight that has a native population of arctic char. Furthermore, according to the story I'm pulling from in the Banger Daily News, these are the rarest salmonids east of the Rocky Mountains. Now, historically they were referred to as blueback trout, which i'd heard of that I've heard that term. But according to this piece by Bob Mallard, while I guess the locals still call him that, he seems to suggest that's gonna get phased out and they're just gonna start calling them arctic char because that's what they are. So the average char in Maine, um it's it's gonna measure a foot or less and the state record is only So these are not the giants you see uber rich people mean mumming with in Greenland. These are like the everyman's accessible char you know. Um Anyway, so these these main char there the southernmost native population in the world, and you'd think that would mean that they'd be treated with care. But this story, uh, sadly is really focused on how little Maine is doing to protect these fish. UM. Now, Mallard great writer, he takes a deep dive into the specifics, but I'm just gonna run through the cliff notes version here just that sort of hit some bullet points. So we all understand. There used to be nineteen bodies of what are in the state that supported these char There are now twelve, um, all of which are ponds, many interconnected by running water. Eleven of those waters still have a daily harvest limit between one and five fish, and then Mallard rights length limits are often inadequate, as one water has an eighteen inch limit, ten have slot limits of ten to twelve inches, with one fish over slot allowed, and six waters have a six inch limit, the lowest length limit allowed for salmonids under main law. And that one struck me right, I'm curious, see what you think because you're you're a Brookie guy. Because in my opinion or the way I see it, unless you're in a survival situation or you're camping and the only way you're eating tonight is to take what you can get. Who's keeping a six inch t? Like, no matter how you cook that fish, the little brookies or whatever, isn't that shriveling up to nothing? And I'm not judging? Like is that a thing? Like? Do you do you like catch those little guys and eat them. I've heard people say it's the best trout your lever eat is a tiny little brookie? Is that true? I've never had one, you know. I I wouldn't mess with a six inch brookie. I'd say, my my, I'd take I'd take a seven and a half, though, in a heart I would betman. Man, my favorite meal ever, dude, is like, you know, picking some morrel's on a stream bank, catching a couple of brookie and working that up man, bonus points if you can find some ramps. You know, that's like a northeast kind of thing. Uh, you know, I I could see it, maybe not six inches, but particularly if you're slot limit's like what one? Right? Yeah? I don't know, man, what are you gonna do with that? What are you doing? That's like a fish stick. But all those things you just mentioned, though Morrel's followed by trout, followed by ramps. Good for you. I'm happy to find time to do one of those, and then I have to go home and do something with my kids. So if you can hit all those in one shot, God bless stay gold Cony boy. Anyway, Mallard adds at least ten Arctic char waters allow the use of bait, which by most estimates, almost with a thirty to thirty five percent incidental mortality rate. He says there have also been instances where the state accidentally stocked invasive, non native landlocked salmon over native Arctic char. Other ponds have been infested with non native smell, which the state stocks to feed the non native salmon, right, I mean, come on, so it main also stocks non native lake trout, and according to Mallard's research, there have been reports over the years of anglers catching char and waters the state claims doesn't have them, and when one's caught, they'll say, wow, that's just a random one that went over the damn from this pond that does have them. So here's the thing. I grabbed the story because, frankly, if you break this all down it. To me, it speaks to the hypocrisy that you see in fishing all the time. And the bottom line is that money drives everything, including what swims where you live. Right, So to relate it to snakeheads, because it's just easy. Alone snake pops up in New Yorker, Massachusetts, everyone flips ship right there, suddenly worried about their bass and crop eas, which aren't native either. Rest assured some native darter or sucker or whatever took a hit or went away at some point in history because bass or walleyes or whatever, we're stocked there. Yet here is a known remaining population of rare native fish, and nobody's freaking out about it. Why is that? What? Do I truly believe lake trout and landlocked salmon, cell tackle and licenses mains char do not. It's as simple as that. Um. In fact, not long ago, I covered another story from Bob Mallard and he said, you know, Main's governor is putting millions into state hatcheries. Why not put millions into your native chars, study them, protect them, because that doesn't make anyone any money. You know, if snakehead anglers suddenly bought more tackle than bass anglers the snakehead tour suddenly got bigger than the bass tour, they'd be okay, um, So it all it all comes back to money, man, you know what I mean? Yeah, And then there are so many fisheries where angler interest is both a a gift and a curse, and I think that, uh, a lot of times they see the cash opportunity and they end up sort of mismanaging a fishery sure because they think that, well, if we're getting all this money into fishing, then then it must be a good But the reality is a lot of times a misallocation of that money towards maybe a more attractive recreational opportunity really just kind of the native fish. Well, what what gets me about this story, right, is that you know, you see similar things with a lot of the smaller cutthroat species and the desert and things like that, but if you look at where they are, it's not a high population density area. So it's almost easier to look the other way because it's like you're saving a trout that nobody can touch, or very few people are going to get to where they are to do that. Then you have this here in Maine. It's like this is really accessible ship, Like there's a lot of people that fish there, which would seem like it would be more impetus to pay atten into this than even some of the lesser species out there. It's just like how you said many they're dropping a bunch of stockers basically in there, and dropping a bunch of feed for the stockers in there, and it's like, all right, well you got a new recreational fish or you're you're continuing an artificial recreational fishery, but like at what cost to like the natural integrity of what's supposed to be there. Well, and that's and that's the problem all over is And that's also a question you and I are not going to answer right now. Um, maybe Phili surprise us and he'll answer it. Instead of declaring a victor today, he will have all the answers to that. Um, it's got to say, did you did a great job today? I think this is gonna be fun. I want everybody to find Hayden on the Instagram and give him a shout out. This was a big deal and this was this was very fun to do. You were going to hear from him week over week here in news um, so, now now you get to be judged by Phil. It's Phil. Phil technically your boss. He's not your boss, is he? Yeah? I have a feeling I'm not learning this and Joe, we will see how you fare and then guess what how about this ship? As soon as we're done hearing from Phil, Phil is going to do a freaking finn clips. Phil is going to teach you something about a species you did not know. I cannot wait, partially because I'm just trying to be nice to the new guy, but also because it's hard to beat a bomb at a fishing access site on the Jefferson Hayden. You're the winner. M I wonder who could have left the bomb there? Do we know if anyone who enjoys fishing like a known fishing personality who disappeared from somewhere that they've been seen, often without much notice, and fled to a foreign country. No, you don't think. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, over eighty percent of the Earth's oceans are unexplored and unmapped. Now I don't know about you, but I find that both incredibly thrilling and terrifying. It's one thing to look up past the Milky Way into the vast infinity of space during the first semester at your state university and wonder where did we all come from? Man, we'll never know what's out there. But the next time you're on a transoceanic flight, you can look down out of the window into the sea and think practically the same thing. The first written records of the massive cephalopod we've come to call the giant squid go back as far as Aristotle and Pliny the Elder. They described the calamari with a head as big as a cask. Throughout the nineteenth century, strandings as they referred to where the carcass of a giant squid would wash ashore started to become more common. We would come to realize that there is so much more beneath the surface than we could ever know. The first photographs of the giant squid and its natural habitat didn't exist until two thousand four. Yeah, fewer than twenty years ago, and there was no video record until two thousand six. We think they can grow up to thirteen meters long, but we're not sure. We think the average lifespan is about five years, but that's just a guess. We think they generally dwell between three hundred and a thousand meters below the ocean, but only because we study the feeding patterns of their predators. Regular listeners of this here show will be familiar with a segment titled Freaking Philistines. The intro audio from that segment is pulled from a two thousand five movie directed by Noah Bomboch titled The Squid in the Whale, the title referring to the diorama at the Museum of Natural History in New York that depicts a sperm whale locked in deadly battle with a giant squid. The scene terrified one of the characters in the movie when he was a child, so he projects all the anxiety and anger he carries for his dad onto the squid in the whale and blah blah, blah blah, it's a bunch of pretentious indie movie bullshit. What do you think this is an episode of Freaking Philistines. That being said, it's on Netflix and you should check it out. I'm sure you've heard that old horror movie one oh one trick. The monster is scarier. If you don't see it, it can be whatever you want it to be. Thirteen meter long tentacled beasts living five below the sea that we had almost no photographic evidence of until two thousand four fits this bill pretty well, don't you think so much so that if you saw something like this one thousand years ago, you might be inclined to make of it whatever you wanted to. Several years ago, at a family reunion that I would have jumped into moving traffic to get out of attending, I saw a man standing by the beer coolers whom I had not met before. His long black hair was sticking to his forehead, and his beard was almost more gray than black. His eyes looked somewhat glazed over, but he looked friendly looking back. It might have been his fourth I p a giving him that welcoming look, but I was keeping up with his pace, and I approached Phil Taylor. He said, oh hey, I replied, very much, taken aback, I'm sorry? What was your name again? It's fine, kid, he said, we haven't met, so don't worry. You don't have to pretend to know me. I like this guy already. How do you know who I am? Well, it says Phil tya on your name tag, and there are a whole lot of tailors here. Just kind of put two and two together, I laughed, getting uncomfortable again. What do you do You ever been to Storm's End, he said, finally looking up. I stuttered, can't say I have, And to be honest, I had no idea where Storm's End was. Main somewhere in Canada, he continued. We had seven ships all crewed up. The terry On had sent us there to raid and mop up. It was left on the docks from a recent shipment the Barathians had brought in from Mere Simple done at a thousand times before. Half their fleet was up north doing god knows what past kings landing, and it was ours for the taking. We took three days out and we're heading round south. I was the only man on that ship not drunk that night, and if you can believe it, I felt like it had been dark for days. The sun had to be coming soon. That's when we heard it, a roar from beneath the waves, so deep and loud it rattled the nails in the frame of the ship. Then drinking songs went silent. The men in their salt wives all came above deck. After a minute of silence, the fear in our faces began to fade, and spar pushed out the loudest far any of us had ever heard. So that's what that sound was, Far wind yelled, everyone laughed. They all laughed. The next thing I saw was spars body being thrown so hard against the deck it's split into It was chaos. The ship rocks so fiercely I was nearly thrown overboard until I grabbed a rope so that my skin was torn from my palms. I pulled myself back onto the deck and looked over into the sea. Its arms burst out of the water from every direction, like sides through wheat, and cut through the ship just the same. Those who saw as I did cease their laughing, but had no time to scream, for the arms had already pulled them under. I thought about running below deck, but knew it was likely underwater already. Instead, I ran to the bow, jumping over body parts and splintered wood, as the tentacles are making quick work of the middle of the ship, rising fifty into the air and crashing into the deck, smashing everything that came between. It was then that two more arms emerged from the water, twice as long as any before, from both sides of what end of the ship. They did not fall, but slowly embraced the old boat and squeezed, squeezed until the boat split into and I was thrown from the bow as if it were a tribute. The wind was knocked out of me. As I landed in the water, I flailed until I saw what remained if a mass twenty behind me, and I swam to it, held on and passed out. When I awoke, the sun was up. I screamed before I was even awake, as if the monster were still attacking. There was no echo and no response. I floated on that mass for the remains of the day. When a merchant ship passed just before sundown. The crew pulled me aboard, and that's when I noticed my right foot was so purple and mangled I would not walk with it again. They brought me to Old Town, where the masters were able to remove it, sparing my leg. In my life. And now I need another beer. The bearded man leaned down to the cooler, pulled out another can, and turned to face the sound, now turning bright orange with the setting of the sun. As soon as I came to my senses. I two turned and looked at the rest of my extended family. What the am I the only one who heard this ship? My brain was scrambling to think of a follow up question when I realized I never asked the man his name. When I turned back to do so, he was gone. We will the unknown into being, and if it spreads far enough, it becomes iconic, a canvas for anyone and everyone to paint with their own conceptions of reality, their hopes, their fears. Before the bearded man reached down for his last beer, he told me a lion maybe fierce enough on land, but at sea the Kraken rules supreme. Or maybe I just read that in a book somewhere. Wow. Yeah, So I'm I'm not sure what I really learned about the new species there, but I'm suddenly now in the mood to watch either cabin Boy or Highlander. I just can't decide that was a very fill tailor finclips if I ever heard one well done, but there was, I'm gonna guess because I didn't watch there's some Game of Thrones references in there, right right? Oh yeah, um, yeah, yeah, you you're calling it a very finn tailor, Finnlips. I think I think you mean that more is a compliment than an insult. I'd say it's probably like a sixty forty split there. I'll take the compliment though. Thanks you. You also just called yourself Finn Taylor, which do not cut that out, because that's just what I'm going to refer to you as now from now on. Anyway, So why I think nobody is allowed to fish it storms in until they lift their COVID restrictions. I do think we can go to Mexico pretty sure. We've already been there once in this show today, so why not end there too. I'm gonna close it out with an end of the line with a lesson about bass lors. I picked up just a hairy east of Mositlan and have carried with me to Larry Ponds across the US. Well, that's not loud enough. This is going to be a roundabout way of getting to a very simple end of the line suggestion. But this story has always reson aided with me. I never forgot it, and it perfectly sums up my thoughts on many things in fishing. It also happened on the same aforementioned trip where I ended up kind of held at gunpoint in the Mexican airport. Back in two thousand nine, I got invited to fish the famed Lake El Salto in the Mexican state of Sinaloa. Now I've mentioned that I'm not much of a large mouth guy, but a chance to fish El Salto, which at the time had a reputation as one of the world's leading giant fish factories, wasn't something I was going to pass up. This is where you went looking to score a double digit bass without working too hard, and I was a guest of Pure Fishing. Now Pure Fishing owned Abu, Garcia, and Berkeley, just to name a few brands under their umbrella, but they had just recently acquired Sabelle Patrick Sabille, who started his namesake Lure Company, was a lure making revolutionary. He created several truly genius baits like the Magic Swimmer, the Stick Shad, and the Vibrato. But Sabiel was also one of those types that insisted every classic lure you knew in love could be improved upon. He kind of fixed some things that weren't really broken, many of which didn't hang around nearly as long as the Magic swimmer, stick, shad and vibrato. Sabelle himself was not on this trip to Mexico, but all the hardbeats supplied for us to use on this trip happened to be Sabielle lures. At the time, a very good friend of mine was working for Pure Fishing, an older, wiser fella and a real Southern gentleman. Sabiel lures were so new to the company that my old buddy hadn't fished with many, or perhaps any at all, before coming on this trip to Al Salto. On our second day, we ended up on a boat together and our guide took us to a flooded stump field. Most of the guides there speak little English, but they can get the necessities across spinner baits. Signor was all he had to say. So he dug into our courtesy bags phill of Sabia lures and found Sabielle pro chads bitter baits. I mean, they looked like spinner baits, but the devil was in the details. Instead of a normal blade, they had some funky, odd fish shaped blade. It actually looked like the side profile of a crank bait on the same post as the blade. There was this little tassel made from rubber legs. The arm was also chocked full of weird angles, and the hook was deeply scooped and curved, more like a circle hook. But it's all we had. And hey, I'm here with the guy that works for Sabiel, so all good. I noticed right away that the blades weren't turning consistently, and my buddy, he was noticing this too. He was also noticing how that little tassel sometimes got in the way of the blade. We were both noticing that the Lord had a tendency to come in on its side now and again. Now I just sort of slow rolled with the punches and kept my mouth shut, but I could tell by his silence my man was getting frustrated. Then he gets bit and the fish doesn't connect. Silence, He gets thumped again, no connection, silence. After about the fifth time, this man, who had never once heard raise his voice, take the Lord's name in vain or drop an F bomb, screamed, Oh my god, what I wouldn't give for a three dollar war eagle spinner bait right now? That night, after dinner, he pulled me aside, kind of in the shadows, away from the rest of the other writers and guests and people from his company and their sabill hats and shirts, and like a drug deal going down, he looked around and slipped one Plaine White and one sharp Truce War Eagle spinner bait in my hand. All he said was make sure they don't end up in any photos. Okay, now I'm about some Sabee Magic swimmer swim baits. In fact, they're so cool I might do an end of the line just on them. They've produced stripers and mahi and small mouths when nothing else got touched. But I was then and am now a believer that cheap, generic plane Jane spinner bates have stood the test of time for a reason. It's never been broke, so we don't need to fix it. And I still gravitate to the ones hanging on the pegs naked without the clamshell packaging in Walmart and bass Pro. And no, I do not need tungsten blades. So that's it for this week. Remember, nobody in Mexico will ever steer your fly fishing gear because they don't believe it's effective for catching fish. Canadian people need to figure out that I is a vow and it does, in fact make a sound. You're gonna lose all your spinner baits anyway, So by the cheap ones. And if anyone has a spot to fill on that crack and charter you book with your drunk uncles. Phil's got two hundred bucks and a vintage e glue cooler and he is ready to go. Yeah, And also send your voice memos for nibbles and SIPs in Yeah, they're gonna be fun to edit. Um. Also keep those sabbing items, bar nominations, awkward photos, news clips, and whatever the hell else you want us to consider for use on this show. Coming to Bent at the meat Eater dot com. And if you post any foods on a stick, tag them Degenerate Angler or Bent Podcast Joe who told me to say that, yes, because we love foods on a stick. I also love and appreciate Mr Phil Taylor for being my first guest co host. Should I have him do it again, let me know big thanks again to Hayden Samak for jumping aboard the news train. He'll be back next week and until then, remember keep your freedom loops tight and your wallet in your front pocket.