00:00:02 Speaker 1: They're not solid like a striper and not like you can't like give him a punch and send him back. That's an old law and it's almost as unvalid as the New Jersey State large mouth record. When they got the fish close enough to see it roll in their head laps, doctor's young daughter blurted out, holy shit, this is the dumbest, just the most pokey thing ever, maybe even on part with the Penis Lord. Good morning, degenerate anglers. Welcome to Bent the Fishing podcast that ranks Captain Ron, Backdraft and Nothing but Trouble among the greatest movies ever made, though not necessarily in that order. I'm Joe Surmellie A. Miles Nulty. That's it's a solid list. I'm gonna add pulp Fiction, The Big Lebowski, and Gross point Blank to that list. Gross point blank really, absolutely dude, such an underrated film, such a good film. So so. John Cusack plays a hit man in the middle of an identity crisis who goes to his tenure high school reunions. It's brilliant writing, it's great acting. It's just very very dark humor, which I always appreciate. And it just happens to be the theme of this week's show. You know, all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and you know they'll make themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. And what am I going to say? I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork? How have you been? Aren't you excited? I gotta admit, dude, Like I remember the movie, and I remember thinking it was kind of funny. Like I I remember I enjoyed the movie when I saw it, But it's it's not one that that I thought was so memorable, like I quoted it with my friends forever. It's no Freddie got fingered in terms of quotables, you know what I mean. I mean, I disagree, but I think it's true of you and most people. Frankly, like I'm the only weird over my group of friends from that that era that was always quoting. I was like the lone guy who would dropped the quote center be like what, But you're all wrong because it is straight up brilliant filmmaking. Listen, I'm gonna I'll give it to you, and I anticipate that you're going to try to convince me I'm wrong Throughout this episode. I was the old goal of this episode, welcome to convince you that you're wrong by all means do Yeah, And we're not gonna be able to get into this, but I think this is this is an argument that will appeal to you. I mean, just the soundtrack alone includes almost every good song from the late eighties, dude, we're talking about, like the specials, Faith, No More, Mellie Mel The score. The score for that film was actually written and recorded by Joe Strummer, who was the former lead singer of the Clash. Yes, Yes, it is a It is a great musical film. It's a tremendous selling point like that right there. But see, I don't remember that. It's been so long since I've seen it. I don't. I cannot say I remember the soundtrack. I do vaguely recall, though, tell me if I'm wrong. Like Ackroyd pretty much played the same character. He didn't Tommy Boy, I didn't he have like kind of the same thing going on. There's there's there are some similarities there. I can see that. I can see that. I do not know exactly how you're going to tie this all the fishing, though, I'm I'm on the Journey with You. I'm excited. The movie has absolutely nothing to do with fishing, but I'm confident in myself here. I think I think there are elements to it that that that that we can draw from. We've done this before, like we've drawn things out of but we've squeezed, especially out of out of pop culture stones. So I'm I'm I'm confident that we can do this right because this movie is partially about coming to terms with the fact that you can never go back in time. But that doesn't mean that you should try to erase or forget the past, right, And we on the show, we talked about older lures or baits or flies or materials that might not be the hot new thing but still catch the hell out of fish. You can't go back to the days when those lures were new and and the fish hadn't seen him before, but that doesn't mean that you like ignore them or turn your back on them. And I realized that my example there is not as dramatic as say, I don't know, saving your long lost girlfriend's father from being executed by dan Ackroyd and professing your love to her after you murder a dude in cold blood right in front of her eyes. But you know, I think the overall lesson here is still applicable, Debbie, I mean, love, I know we can make this relationship work. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's it's it's a it's a giant stretch, yes, but I do see your angle. I mean, the movie is pretty heavy on the that you can never go home theme. So I'm understanding where my living room was, and it's not here because my house is gone and it's an Altomart you can never go home again open, but I guess you can shop there. And even though it's all about him going home, I think that's totally applicable In fishing. It seems like most people are either complaining right about how things aren't as good as they used to be or or glorifying the past as better than it actually was. Or they assume anything or anyone that predates YouTube has nothing useful to offer. So for the for the record, both of those assumptions are are bullshit. As far as I'm concerned, the past probably wasn't as good as you remember, and and the new ship isn't really all that superior, honestly, well put, I completely agree with you. Uh and That sets me a nice because we're starting things off this week with a guy who understands the past, embraces the present, and we'll also be continuing to catch the hell out of fish in the future. Back again to play our trivia game. We've got Mr Mike I Connelly. You gotta be highly skilled for these shows. You understand that if you're well burst there, you're very smart man. All right, today play in trivia. We are very excited to welcome back the one and only Mike, Ike and Elly. How goes it, Mike? How you doing? We're good, We're good. Uh, pumped to see again. We as always appreciate your time and so you you've been here before and you've done our covering water segment where we rapid fire questions you and you really have no time to think about your answers, which was a good time. We enjoyed that. Uh, and now we're going to kind of go the opposite way. It's traditional bar style trivia, so no time limits, but more in depth questions. Um. And I gotta tell you, man, we we worked really hard on questions for this. Yeah. We kicked it back and forth trying to trying to stump you and come up with the right thing. And you know, we we get so far down the line of approving a question and somebody be like, of course, Mike's gonna know that. It's freaking Mike. I can Elli. We have to try harder. He's gonna know. I'm really curious though, with one of these questions. I'm very curious to see. Yeah, if you have this nugget of knowledge rattling around in the bring, we'll see how we did. So we've got two questions for you. And while it definitely would be fun to stump you, you might sail right through these. And our effort was for not um. So if you're ready to play, are you ready to play? I'm ready guys. By the way, I just want to clear up, you can't win anything like, there's no you just lose your dignity. That's all. That's all that's offer here. I'm just as excited either way. So all right, here we go. So here we go. All right? First question, what was the skirt on the first rubber skirted bass jig made from? Was it a thinly sliced rubber bands be elastic threads unraveled from a woman's girdle see a rubber grass skirt that came off a souvenir hula dancer or d shredded latex surgical gloves. Wow, that's You've actually stumped me right from the first question. Yes, yes, they're all very interesting. I don't I don't know. I'm this is honestly, I guess. I'm gonna say some of the original uh old jig skirts that I remember seeing we're we're living rubber, they were more of a rubber type of material. So I'm gonna go a but it's a total guess, and that's a good guess. That's a good guest. Thinly sliced rubber bands, but it's actually be elastic threads unraveled from a woman's girdle. And of course that's that's that's Bob Karnes prototype the first rubber bass jigs, and that's what he used. And of course he's the man behind Archie Jigs, which every bass angler on the planet knows. Archie Jiggs arguably the father of modern bass jigs, and they're still around today. But according to our research, the first one woman's girdle. Wow, that's very interesting. That's very very interesting. I can tell you that there is a time and a place for that style material. Even today, even in two thousand twenty, with technology and new materials, when that water temperature gets cold and the fishings to off, that old style material is still really the deal. So knowing this, I'm hopping on eBay right now, I'm trying to find some of that, some girdles, some girdles from the from the sixties. We've we've we've thrown out the history of of girdles in lure design in the past because the classic fly, the girdle bug, got its legs from all right, So we'll move on to question too. We'll have a little more fun with this one. You're a Jersey guy like me, so this time I'm going to test your knowledge of New Jersey state laws. Dumb, dumb, dumb state laws. Though you know how you know every state has dumb, weird laws that are still on the books from medieval times. It's like a big thing on the internet. Well, I did a little reading. New Jersey has a bunch of them. And according to those archaic laws, which of the following, is it illegal for New Jersey men to do during fishing season? A knit b get married? See plant tomatoes or d feud with a neighboring farm. It's funny when when you said I know these answers, I thought, maybe you know I'm a pretty not this one. But I thought you'd get the jake, not this one. Like I'm I'm a fishing you know, I like fishing. I'm a buff of the sport and information. But now I'm just this is another one that's stumping me. I'm gonna have to go d what was the fourth one? I'm going to feud with a neighboring farm the record, I would have chosen that one as well. Sounds sounds like has the most legality to it, you know, well, yeah no, but the answer is a knit, so yeah, right. So there's there's a lot of speculation online whether this is still on the books, though it was on our books and check this out. The best reason anyone could come up with, um was that it was illegal for men to knit during fishing season on the Island of Sark which is one of the Channel islands that the Island of Jersey belongs to. And that's because the islands were apparently known for their famous woolen jumpers, which were a source of income. But if the men were knitting during fishing season, they weren't out fishing, which was the island's bigger source of income. And when the Jersey Island people re established themselves and what we now know is dirty Jersey, this law came along with them. Wow, how about that one? I had particular question for the record, like I helped with the first one, but this one's news to me too. I got nothing here. This is very interesting and so weird. That's an old law and it's almost as unvalid as the new Jersey state large mouth record. It's ten thirteen Robert Eastley, which he snagged a Manico Sampans off the bed, so it should be a race anyway. But well, there's also a Jersey law in the book that says it's illegal to wear a bulletproof vessell committing a murder. That was another one that I file backwards, very backwards, very much. So well, you know what, I'm happy about the jig one I like, I stumped. I stumped Mike I Cannelli on an old bass fishing luwer question. So, um, you might not have one today, But like we said, there was nothing to win anyway, but we certainly appreciate you coming by to play, man, I appreciate it. They were fun questions and you might hear those same questions on IKE Live because they're so good. I'm stealing them and asking our guests still over there now. Until we started working on the show and doing this research, man, I had no idea how influential girdles were and luer design. I was totally unaware. Neither did I I had. I had no clue. I had no clue. Yeah, I actually remember, like I remember those old school rubber legs and skirts they used to be able to find that were the super fine thin elastic bands. Yeah, they and they look they do. They look just like what pops out of the waistband and your underwear, your sweatpants when they're like they give up on life and it's just done right. It's those same bands of elastic and those ones don't hold up as long as the silicone stuff, but I think they do have more wiggle. Yeah. See, I like natural rubber myself more than the silicone versions. You know what I mean. Burn, I'm not I'm not. I'm not gonna take that. I know. I see what you're doing there, and I'm not gonna let you manipulate me that way. Uh. That also does set me up for the sail bin you put together this week. Oh yeah, it absolutely does. I see the silicone connection clearly, but but not totally sure how it fits your your gross, point blank theme. Don't overthink it, man, it's not that deep. It's not deep at all. Actually, the film, like we said, is a super dark comedy. There's a lot of murder and gore and blood, but it's still a comedy. And the sail bin you dug up from the crypt this week, I'd say it clearly fits that dark comedy. Mold, Why did you put the hand to pay? You don't know what I'm getting? Man? What you didn't have to be so hurtful with me so angry? Today's sale bin item was sent our direction by listener Billy Warren and ge we can't thank him enough, and Miles and I had two very different gut reactions to it. Okay, now you sir, you're you're taking it at face value. But for me, this has triggered my inner clarice starling Okay, and it feeds right into my my obsession with like the Hunt Hunt Killer documentaries. You know, forensic science and profiling psychopaths. That's what I do on the weekends. I'm in a club. Um, the fishing thing is all fake. Yeah. Anyway, regarding this saleban item, I am convinced there is more than meets the eye. As far as I am concerned, there's more than meets the eye. Okay, there isn't there is not. But I agreed that we should do this sale bin because I think I think it would be fun to listen to you build your weird paranoid case. And and like I said, it fits nicely with the dark comedy theme that we put together for this episode, So I'm happy to have it. But I think you're totally wrong. Yeah yeah, until you see, until you find out what's in the box, you know what I'm saying. Uh, And I actually think you you agree to do this because there's a part of you that doesn't want to be wrong. You don't want to be the naysayer that overlooks puzzle piece number one in a in a sick drama, I'm confident. While unfollowed after the show airs, Okay, anyway, listen up. This one's for the all the dare I say, Internet sleuths out there. So this this post comes from Facebook marketplace in Wisconsin, and the title is very simply fingerlures, exclamation point fingerlures, fingerlure. Okay. The finger lures are fifteen dollars a piece. And in the photo, and mind you, because this is a clue, this is part of it. Mind you, there's only one photo available, just one there not ten photos to scroll through like other Facebook marketplace, but one photo, okay, And in it we see three severed human fingers that have been through wired and turned into killer inline spinners. That was bad. That was bad, almost as bad as the lures. The lures are terrible, Like, I don't you're not painting how crappy these lures are. If you, if you kind of start from the back and move to the front, you got one trouble hook on these, and and between the three examples and the photos, only two of the troubles even seemed to match, So it's just like a mix and match spare parts assembly. Then there's like a few colored beads and a willow leaf spinner blade that's resting right on top of the fat severed end of the finger. And I don't even think that thing will turn I don't. I don't think it'll turn in. I don't think this lower would have any action. Continue. The wire then continues through the finger, out the tip to another series of beads, and then and then the line tie. I. So essentially you've got a law urge and frankly shitty looking spinner with a human finger or a fake human finger, I should say, skewered in the middle of it. I I would like to call this an overpriced gimmick lure to catch suckers. That's how I would describe it. Okay, so we've described it, but now I'm gonna because this is where it gets dark, right, All the description of the item says is silicone rubbers, severed finger fishing tackle. That's a tongue twister that five times fast. But that's it. That's all it says. And you're probably thinking, right, this is the dumbest, just most hokey thing ever, maybe even on par with a penis lure. That's exactly what I'm thinking. Yes, okay, uh, And you're thinking some momo just bought a bag of severed fingers at the pop up Halloween store and made some novelty lures. Because no, because he did not, I say native is in the photo these three lawyers are hanging from a piece of cardboard, right, And if if you really inspect them as I have closely, right, first, they look too real. They just they look too real. There is no out of the package faux finger I've ever seen that looks this realistic. So even even as to say, like the skin looks like it's the right level of moist you know what I mean, Like you know how a lot of fake stuff looks dried out and like it's too pink, like perfect skin tone, like a perfect level of moisture. Okay, And the amount of blood and tissue damage varies on each finger. But most telling of all, if you study the nails and the wrinkles and the knuckles, they're not uniform. They are completely unique and different. Okay. If these were storeball novelty fingers, even if the paint jobs varied slightly the finger, it's that they'd be carbon copies of each other. And they're not. That's the problem. Yeah, But just just because you you traffic in subpar fake fingers doesn't mean that they're the only options that ext this out there for people who want them. There are professionals in this world who make realistic fake gore for a living. I'm assuming you've heard of this industry called film and television. Maybe I read something on wiki about yeah, and so like, how do you know this person didn't make the molds of the fingers and and I don't know, maybe molded fingers of other family member. I don't know. I don't know, But that that is not that is not convinced evidence for me. Just because they don't look like the crappy fake fingers sold by the dozen at your annual Halloween pop up doesn't prove that the online fishing community is now dealing with its first serial killer. Like, I do not buy it. I do not believe it. Yeah, and I am aware of this film and television industry which you speak And yes, right, there's there's no doubt they're very talented folks that can make some damn fine severed fingers and limbs and all that stuff. Right, Yes, but what are the odds this dude in Wisconsin is one of them? Okay? And furthermore, I know people like artists and ship right, if you have the skill to create something that perfect, Okay, a exhibit A in a court of law. Why are you then turning them into really shitty lures? Why would you make something so beautiful like if if that's your gig, and turn them in the shitty lures? Like if you have the skill to make a realistic finger, you're probably the kind of person that would also do a much better job of incorporating them into a lure, even if it's a fake and you knew nothing about fishing. If you have that level of talent, you would research that. I mean, it took it took someone thirty seconds to create these tops, not the finger, but like once they had to turn into a lure thirty seconds. All right, okay, and be exhibit B. If you have that kind of talent, you're using it to make fifteen bucks on the internet. None of that adds up. None of that adds up, Which is why I'm saying, Wisconsin police put out the goddamn a p V right now, dig into recent missing persons because them fingers is fresh. I don't care what you say. Then fingers is fresh, and we hear it, Ben, We're fully prepared to cooperate wherever you needed. Do not implicate me in your crazy as conspiracies. I don't want anything to do with it, and actually know what I think. The fact that they're coming out of Wisconsin supports my argument. I will admit I don't know how this cheesehead came to be in possession of such high quality fake severed fingers. I'm not Maybe they didn't make themselves. Your your argument there is solid. Maybe they bought in the state sale from some Hollywood special effects experts. I don't know. But if you live in Wisconsin and you have a surplus of fake fingers, what else are you going to do with them except turn them into pike lureds like it's that, or just freak everyone out at the Lions Club brought sale. You don't have many options. Some valid points there, you are still wrong, Like have you have you? Have you ever seen the documentary series Don't with Cats? Have you ever seen that? I haven't? No Ah. It started off with an Internet video that could have very easily been brushed off his fake and lead to a years long man hunt that ended up involving like inner poll and ship. Anyway, Billy, thanks thanks again for sending this one. I hope you're okay. I hope you like this doesn't translate down to to your suffering um and you out there. If you find any human body parts being trafficked on your favorite fishing classified forum, please send that link to Bent at the mediator dot com. We're also accepting leads, theories, and anonymous tips at the same email address. Before we move on from this, there's one more thing that I feel like I forgot to mention that sudden we gotta bring up. Shoot. We can solve this whole thing for fifteen bucks plus shipping. Dude, just motor one. No, no, we cannot. Have you never seen a horror movie? We cannot do that because I ain't given my personal info to that psycho. That's how you end up becoming a finger lore, you know what I mean. Like in the past, in the past, we've reached out to select sellers, but I refrained on this one because I bet he uses the short hairs for like croppy jigs and ship and the long ones for musky flies. So you ad buy you one. I give up. I'm done. I give up. And maybe you know what, Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe maybe the dude's not a psycle at all. Maybe maybe there's a much bigger market for for finger lures than we think you're a psychopath. No, no, no psychopath kills for no reason. I killed for money. And if that turns out to be the case, we can promise that we will cover it in a future fish News. Fish News. That escalated quickly. I got, I got a little housekeeping. I gotta shout out today for listener. Ryan. It's either little or little. I'm not sure which, but I'm gonna go with little. Could go either way. Yeah, I'm gonna butcher another name today for sure. So just everybody deal with it. You might remember that a few weeks ago, Joe, you did a story about the woman who turned her pet coi into soup after they all died. Do you remember that one? I think about it daily. Yes? Were they delicious? So Ryan sent us an email titled Coi for bass Forage, in which he said, although COI maybe expensive in Japan, they are not in Texas and uh and so I looked around and he's he's correct about that, dude. It turns out Texas Parks and Wildlife raises seventy million coi a year in their hatcheries that they feed to captive large mouth broodstock. Yeah, that's what they raise to feed their broodstock, and according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife website, coi are easy to raise, grow fast and lack the sharp dorsal spines, making them easy for bass to eat. So that's why they do the ki is because bass can just go up them down and they won't have any spine issues. Uh and and Ryan also wrote us quote, there's some real fun to be had skipping koi side armed across a hatchery pond and watching a ten pound bass jump out of the water to destroy it. Yeah. He also included a video of himself tossing a handful of coin into the brood brood stock bass poond so we could get the full effect. Check out the check out the instagrams to see what that looks like. Because it's it's pretty fun. We'll throw that, We'll throw that up. But I'm glad you dug a little deeper because when when this first came in, I watched it and for a second, I'm like, I I did not understand what was going on, Like there's just context. But all I could think, like now that we know this is what if you're the person in Dallas with the beautiful KOI pond out back and like you're the sucker going to pet Smart and paying two of KOI. I'd be going there and just be like I just get a scoop, Like you've got forty million of them, just like steak. I just want some KOI. I know, I know. They don't cost you guys anything. I know. And it's also weird because like you can't fish, you can't buy goldfish and use them as bait anywhere, Like they wouldn't want this coy to get out. But then like seeing them all in that race just feeding these giant bass as cool as shit, and I was super cool. Yeah, I didn't take enough time to figure out how they started, like how coy became the thing that they started raising as as a food source. But somewhere long line, someone had to go like, damn, these make good bass food, let's just raise them. Yeah, but I don't know how that happened. I bet there's a good origin story there. Yeah. And if you if you happen to know Ryan you need a scoop, he can probably hook it up. Um I yeah, no, Ryan, thank you for that. It was an awesome video. We will share it. I don't have any shout outs this week so we can we can get onto the news here. As a reminder, though, uh, this is a competition, Miles and I do not know which stories the other guy is bringing, as we proved last week because we we we had the same story just gonna happen on occasion. So we'll see what happens now. And uh, at the end of all this, our audio engineer, Phil gets to judge us and pick a winner. And I'm gonna go out on a limb and say one of my stories this week, just based on what I know about Phil and his hobbies and things, it's gonna appeal to him, and I'm going to win. I'm just just feeling confident. But you, yeah, I am. But you do have the lead off, so that's an advantage in this game. And the floor is yours. I didn't pick my stories for Phil this week, for sure. I picked them based on my own interests and and to try and avoid crossing over with you again. And uh, I've been I've been going north of the border a bunch lately, and and that so far has worked for me, and and I haven't gone cross ways. So I'm going back. I'm going back you've kind of claimed Canada. If I see something, I'm like, oh ship Canada. Miles is already there, and it's not like I'm just stuck on Canada. But I gotta say, there's just so much fish news trickling down from north of the border right now. I can't help myself. I gotta talk about it. Um. Unfortunately, the news that I got coming out of British Columbia this week isn't isn't really all that great at least at least not if you're an outspoken advocate for public access like I am. Alright, so, so backstory on this. Back in two thousand three, a guy named Stan Cronkey Cranky, I don't know, call him Cronkey. He bought the Douglas Lake Ranch, which is the largest private cattle operation in Canada. Craigy Crokey whatever. He is not Canadian. He's an American and one of the richest people in the world. He owns the l A Rams Colorado Avalanche Arsenal football club and and he's married to Anne Walton, one of the signs of the Walmart fortune. So that gives you a sense of of of the kind of guy he is. His ranch consists of two hundred and seventy one acres of private land and access in grazing rights to over a million acres of crown lands, which are roughly the Canadian equivalent of BLM lands here in the States. They're they're federally owned public land that can be leased out for grazing or other purposes. Some of those crown lands around his ranch are landlocked, meaning they're they're completely contained within his little private property universe. And included in there are Stony and Mini lakes. These are relatively small lakes with really big rainbows in them. Prior to Cronkey purchasing the ranch, anglers had access to these lakes. They were allowed to go and fish them and had been doing so for decades. But after he bought the property, he put up a bunch of fences and no trespassing signs uh and and got the Royal Canadian mount of Police involved and started harassing, intimidating anglers. And you know, tell him he was gonna arrest them all that stuff, And now he charges rod fees for private access to the lakes on his ranch. Okay, I'm with you. So in the Nicola Valley, Rod and Game club brought a case against the ranch, arguing that the public had historic access and easement to the lakes through a public domain road that crosses the private property and it goes straight to these lakes, which are again the lakes are on public land and the historic public road cuts right to him. In two thousand eighteen, BC Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves ruled in favor of public access. The judge in that case, Groves came down hard on both the landowners and the Royal Canadian amount of Police for doing all that intimidation and denying access to public resources. The ruling was hailed as a major win for public lands advocates in BC, who claimed that this is happening all over the province, like private landoers coming in and blocking access to two resources that have been traditionally available to everybody. But then in November of last year, Cronkey appealed the ruling, and last week an appeals court judge overruled decision. The judge agreed with Cronkey's team who assert that the public road doesn't quite touch the historic high water mark of the lake, even though it does touch the actual high water mark of the lake. The ranches legal team argued that the judge should rule based on government survey maps from eighteen eighty which do show the road stopping short of hitting the lake shore, but the lake has gotten bigger and aerial surveys showed that the road has touched the lake shore since at least nineteen For reasons that I don't fully understand, the judge completely sided with the landowner on this one and delivered a major setback to the Nicola Rodd and Game Club and public land advocates all over British Columbia. Now, not only did that Nicola Valley Rod and Game Club lose their appeal and therefore lose this access battle that they've been fighting for nearly a decade and access to these lakes that they loved fish, but the outcome puts them in serious financial trouble as well. Had they won, the province would likely have shouldered at least some of the burden of their legal costs, and so we're acting as proxy for the Provincial Attorney General fighting a court battle on behalf the public. But since they lost, they are now on the hook for their legal fees, which are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars not only that, they also have to pay for the billionaire cronkeys legal fees also, right, and we're talking about like a local fishing and hunting club, dude, These that can happen here too. If you're if you're if you're in the wrong, if you lose, you can be on the hook for someone else's legal fees in certain cases. I don't know the ins and outs, but I know that does happen in certain certain situations here. And like this is this is just a local fishing and hunting club, dude. Like they earn money through bake sales and raffles and like Wild Team chili cookoff things like this is not a big organization and this decision could cripple them. Right, They have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, where they won the provincial Supreme Court. They lost in the Canadian Appeals Court. They can go one step higher to the Supreme Court of Nada. But they have no way to fund that appeal because right now they're on the hook for a ton of money that they don't have. So if they were to be able to fund it and get the Supreme Court and win, then they'd be in good shape, but they don't have that kind of money, and the person that they're up against has unlimited resources and can just continue to fight these battles against them. It's a war of attrition and uh. And this kise resonates with so much of the privatization of public land and resources that we're seeing here in the States right. It's actually very similar to to a landowner here in Montana who for years has been fighting to change the stream access lawn in this state because he didn't like it and has unlimited pockets. It's very similar to that. So the whole thing really strikes a personal nerve with me and like it just pisses me off. Man. And as an American, there's not a lot I can do to influence British columb in politics, but I can tell you one thing. I will be donating money to the Nicola Rod and Game Club. I'm certainly not gonna be able to cover the legal fees. I ain't got that kind of money, but I will be donating. And you know, if this is something you care about, I would advocate all of us should ship in a little bit here and there. But I'd also said to the Canadian lists like, you gotta get on board with this issue, especially if you're in BC and and talk to your local representatives about supporting what are called right to Rome laws that would restore access to isolated public lands and stop this ship from continuing to happen up there, because it's it's just gross. Just it just really makes me mad. I just I just want to ask something, just for for clarifications. So the land that the lake is on, it's still technically public land, right, yes, but yet you needed to pay a rod fee through this club to fish it. So can anybody public access to it? Like you wouldn't have to pay a fee if you got dropped from a plane. Got yeah, okay, we're there, right, I understand so. But but so this this club then has been operating what and conjunct. Wouldn't they have to have worked with Cranky in order to maintain their I'm just missing how they do. So they Craigy bought the place in two thousand three, and that's when and soon there after started locking up what this club had had access to and their membership forever, and they were just a local entity stepped in was like this is bullshit. We gotta fight this. So they're the ones who brought the case against this guy who came in and changed the way that he enforced the rules. But with the ultimate win for this club, then make it accessible to anyone, like if they if they get their way, okay, well that would restore public access. I mean then even makes it more noble in that sense, because I like you if you if you're the guy with the club water and you can get a rod fee to do that, but you're willing to fight that too, essentially, then lose that, would you not? You know, they're they're not a club in that sense. They're not there there they're rotten and game club, but they don't they're not accessing private water. They're just like the local hangout and resource for hunters and anglers in the area. This was public water that everybody was fishing until Cronkey came in and locked it up, bought the whole place, locked it up and said you can't fish here anymore. Well, I mean, I appreciate that fight, but that is what has some delity of a pickle. To get to get that car now now, to have one and then have it turned around on you is just God, that's a bitter pill. I know, but I mean that's that's money, man, That is that is what that is. I mean, you know you see it with all with all kinds of winds like you brought up Montana. You guys are still as long as you as long as you access the river right at a public place and stay below the relative high water mark, you can go where you want right correct, But like you're not welcome with open arms when you go wherever you want. No, no, you will, you will certain landowners will make you uncomfortable. What they can't do anything about it, right right? Well see where that goes, man. I think that the donation is helpful, and uh, I don't know. I'm sure they will be probably spitting in the wind there. It's it's more symbolic than emails. But I'm gonna I'm gonna give them money just because I believe in what they're trying to do. I'm with that. But I also think that people don't realize, you know, you don't think about how often that kind of stuff happens. Whereas and I'm not I'm not plugging it, but like um Audix hunt, like when you when you get that and you you look at those those maps as opposed to just like going around on Google Maps and seeing what's what, Like it's amazing when you see what's landlocked all over the place, Like there are so many places I've seen. I was just at one the other day where like it's all state land except for right here. That's weird, you know what I mean? And with without that technology and without that ability, you wouldn't. I would have had no idea and dude could have come down and shot me or had me arrested or whatever, and I would have been like, what are you talking about? This is a while life management area. But no, like that one hundred yards of river bank was not. So. I mean between private land that's landlocked and state land that's landlocked, there is a ton of land out there that technically every single one of us can be on, but you ain't getting to it. Not grant most of it, nobody needs to be on. There's no lake or stream or river there. But that is incredibly common. Um So with that, I will say, if you, if you, if you want to avoid this when we're all living on the moon, act fast and by by your plots of land. Now because you you go to Canada, I'm going to story man because this this was on my short list and it's a good one. I'm going to the Moon, and uh, we didn't cross over and cross over, so I was worried. I was like, if he's gonna have anyone, it's gonna be this one. Uh. Shout out though to listener Derek Arnisson. He actually sent this to me before I even saw it in the news. I got a little tip off from him. So thanks for that. And it wasn't that long ago when we talked about robot fish building our future homes on Mars, that was that was your story. Um. But but now that the moon, the Moon is apparently campaigning saying wait a second, don't go to Mars, come to the Moon, you know right. It's like it's like it's like acapol stuff. It's like Acapolco tourism, like trying to talk you out of going to Mazitlan. You know, like they're both beautiful and scary and you're not really sure which one is safer. Anyway. So this story comes to us from the website of Hakai magazine, headline the plan to rear fish on the Moon. Now this is a long story, so I'm gonna try and break her down. But what's happening here is French researchers are trying to figure out if it would be possible to grow fish on the Moon, and they want to do this to feed residents of the future Moon Village, which is apparently something the European Space Agency is trying to establish. And I don't know anything about that, but like I said, like now I'm nervous should I be buying a plot now? Like will it be too late? Like right now? I just like you know, when you fly over development, like there's just driveways mapped out like where the will be. Like that's I think that's that's probably as far as they've gotten, if even that far. Um anyway, Uh, Cyril Shabilla is the dude to charge of all this, and he's hoping that it will offer an alternative to dried food for the people who will eventually live on in Moon village. And uh he also says it's possible that a lunar fish farm could actually use water that's already on the Moon to to thrive, so like they'll be able. I don't know if it's like an aquaculture deal, but apparently they're gonna use water on the Moon. So so far, no fish eggs have been launched into space, but they are conducting simulations again just on eggs, not not mature fish, to see which species would be most likely to survive the journey. So basically what that means is they're taking fish eggs and they're shaking the ship out of them. They're just there shaking them like like the same way they'd get shook during liftoff on a rocket. Okay, and to whittle down their choices. What they look for, we're fish that had modest oxygen requirements, low carbon dioxide output, a short hatching time, and resistance to charge particles, which matters because according to this like you're exposed to a fair amount of radiation during space travel. Right. So after the testing they monitor these eggs to see which have the best hatch rates. After all this this this vigorous testing and shaking, and the two finalists are European c bass and a fish called a meager. I think that's how you say that. Okay, you're making me feel better because I had never heard of that fish. Did you heard of that fish? Nope? I had not heard of the fish. I researched the fish. I'm gonna tell you something about the fish. But at first reading like, what is a meager meg? Yeah, it could be me a gray could be there's dude, this news is I have more to come. It's gonna be chock full of like could be this could be that, don't know, but I'm just gonna say meager. Uh that's what. That's how I'm reading it. Anyway. Shabilla believes these two species might have done the best in testing because they are naturally exposed to strong currents and waves in their environments and frequently experienced collisions with hard surfaces. So while you listeners might not know what those species are, I found this fascinating because what they are are the European versions of striped bass and sea trout, like a European Yes, a European sea bass, which is also just sometimes referred to as a European bass um, which is something I've always wanted to catch. I've always wanted to catch one. I tried to con an old editor into sending me long story. He said, no, you're not going over there to do that. But anyway, Uh, they look almost identical to stripers, but they have no stripes. So like picture a striper with no stripes. That's a European sea bass um. And they live on the jagged, rocky coast of Britain and France and Spain in strikingly similar conditions to those around like the famed Montalk rocks and and Block Island um. So I that was interestingly that speaks to the heartiness of striped bass. They don't get as big like I think, like a twenty pounders huge, Like they don't get fifty pounders at least not anymore. But same deal man casting around the rocks over there, uh, same same habitat. Now the meager surprised me though, because that's a croaker um. And I always think of sea trout and weak fish over here and so on as being pretty fragile, So I would have to do I'd have to do more research on on the meager. But if you've ever lifted, I know, you have, like lifted a sea trout out of the water, Like they're not solid like a striper, You're not like you can't like give him a punch and send them back. They're like they're like mushy, you know what I mean. Like and I don't feel like they're tolerant. Not that I give them a punch, I'm just saying, just saying, damn, but I feel like, uh composed. I I just don't feel like as we've recently seemed like in Texas, like with sea trout, I don't feel like they're tolerance for tempt changes or probably radiation or getting banged around would would be the same. But what do I know? The meager might be different. Um. I do wonder though, if one hundred years from now, like we'll be on the American side of the moon throwing spooks and darters, like acting like where the ship you know what I mean, and just like making fun of them dabbling their little red guilt teasers on the other side of the moon for their European bass that don't get the big When I read this, I was like, this is amazing, and when do I get to go fishing on the Moon. By the time I got through it, I was like, probably not in my lifetime. Yeah, So I'm like, oh, this is actually like a giant fantasy and none of this is happening anytime soon. But I will say final thoughts, Cyril, you need to like you gotta come over here and study some snake heads and some Asian carps, because you could literally drop them in to whatever water is already on the Moon, Like just open the space station door and drop them in there, and they'll be fine. They will reproduce. I promise, we promise snakeheads crawling through like you'll you'll see little lines on the moon through the moon dust will just be snakeheads cruising around from lake to lake. Yeah, there you go, fish on the Moon. I'm gonna go from from really really far flung, like the most far flung fish you could imagine too, to at least for me, really close to home fish. Uh. The most coveted fishing record in my home state of Montana stood for fifty five. Oh yeah, bring it on. I knew this was coming back. In nineteen sixty six, E. H. Bacon, who was known as Peck, landed a twenty nine pound brown trout from Wade Lake, which is near the Madison River. And I guess a wait is still damn good fishing lake. But it hasn't put out a monster fish since the seventies, Right, It's just it's changed. And I've heard more than one person, a lot of people actually lament that the days of truly big fish in Montana are over and and so that that brown shout record would likely stand forever. The last week proved them all wrong. Yep, yep, because that record was broken when Robbie Doctor landed a thirty seven inch thirty two pounds, six ounce brown It's if you want to see photos of this thing, and and you do, you gotta go check out the article that Sam Longren wrote about it on the media dot com. It's it's a hell of a fish, it really is. But uh, I also really like the story behind it, Like I think there's a great story to go along with the gray fish, which doesn't always happen. Since the record was was last set in nineteen sixty six, Montana's turned into arguably the prime destination for tourists trout fishing in the country. A couple of people, tens of thousands people come here every year to fish, and and they spend huge sums of money to chase big trout. And and we got some private lakes and ponds and some private creeks, and we got all these these these these guides, thousands of them, who take paying clients out on public waters all season. And I'm not dogging on on the fishing industry here that that relies on tourists. I'm really not because I worked in it for a long time and it's a big part of our economy. There's nothing wrong with that at all. But I gotta say it makes me really happy to report that the new record brown was not caught by a traveling angler, not by someone who spent a ton of the money to come out here and do it, but by just a local dude. That's just the dude. So Robbie Doctor, he works as alignment for sun River Electric, and he's, like we said, he's a dude about her edge. He loves to fish, and he and his thirteen year old daughter, Sierra, get out on the water together every Wednesday after he finished his work. According to Doctor, his daughter is a stud who catches big fish and kills big deer. So that's quote. Last Wednesday, they went out for their usual evening session around seven thirty. Doctor was fishing a brown trout cast master spoon on four pound test when his line stopped with what he described as just nasty heavy weight. When they got the fish close enough to see it roll in their head, lamps. Doctor's young daughter blurted out, holy sh it, which surprised her father because, according to him, she don't cuss. Doctor took the net from Sierra and relieved her of the serious pressure of capturing a fish like that. For her dad, I appreciate that he did. That was like, no, no, I got this. So he managed to land it all by himself on that four pound test, which is really impressive. And I'm just gonna say, if anyone's gonna break the record Montana brown trout, this is I could not have scripted a better way for it to happen than that right there. Total. I could not have come up with a better way totally. Now, lots of other outlets, including our website, have outed the name of the waterway where this fish was caught, but I cannot bring myself to do that. I'm not judging others for doing it, but I personally just like I can't say it. I fished that spot off and on for very long time, and the truth is there aren't all that many fish there, but there are some really big ones. Though I will be completely transparent every listening say, I never thought it had to fish that big in it. I knew they were a big fish in there, but I didn't think it was. Like I feel like a lot of people that catch fish like that are like, oh, I never would have thought that was in there. It's a kind of place where like, yeah, if you're gonna run a new a ten pounder, it might happen there, but a thirty pounder yeah no, yeah, no, yeah, And and you know the place. It's gotten some some publicity over the years, like kind of words gotten out on a little bit, and but now with the new record being caught there, I just I'm not going back because I expect it's going to just like totally overrun and there just aren't enough fish in that spot too for the number of people who are gonna be chasing them, which, let's be honest, it's stupid and shortsighted. That's like some like you think you're gonna go catch a bigger one tomorrow, like I I never got Yeah, it's it's it's just what's gonna happen. And it makes me a little bit sad. But what doesn't make me sad is this story because I'm I'm seriously happy for Robbie and Sierra. That's that's how that should have happened, and I'm glad it did. I also have to say, is it terrible that I love that it was caught on a cast Master? No, not at all, Like I think that that's so anti Montana and I just love it. I just love it. I think it's terrific. Could not have happened better, you know, because I'm not I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna and I'm not gonna like be specific because I don't I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad. But like there have been instances with big records where like the dude who gets it makes it known that like it's his life work to catch this record, you know what I mean, Like yeah, and then for some reason when it happens, I don't know, I'm just not that excited, you know what I mean, Like it's just not that exciting. And we how many times have we just talked about how just generally speaking, we're not into records, like you know, you report on them when they happen, but like this is like this is this is the like the dream record scenario, just complete humble, like no, like just take your kid fishing. Like I almost feel like that dude deserves it more than some dude who's like makes it his life work to find that fish. Oh absolutely, I mean deserves a tough word. But I'm happier that it went that way than the other way because I don't think my issues so much with records as record chasing. That just doesn't do it for me. So when record chasers get the record, I'm like, man, of course, But when when when Robbie Doctor gets a ticket his daughter's air fishing on a Wednesday, And I'm like, hell, yeah, that's amazing, man, Like, how how old is that fish? You probably know the trout biology better than I do. I'm assuming I don't mean rarely live beyond a decade. I know that much. I'd be curious to get that fish age and find out how old it really is. Yeah. Yeah, Well he said the other one wasn't gonna fall. Is that ever gonna fall in Montana? I mean like that, you know, I don't know, man, I don't know. I wouldn't say it won't, but I wouldn't bet money on it happening anytime soon. Yeah. But stories like that also, like another thing that they're very good for is like putting that in your head. It's like, man, you really don't know what's out there, you know what I'm saying. No, the magic of fishing anywhere we go. It's like you think you know what lives in there, and you just you don't. You don't, you don't. So Castmaster took that one. I'm gonna suggest maybe a couple other lawyers here. I'd be real impressed if somebody called a record anything on. That was not a great transition. But that's that's what it's what I got. We gotta go, We gotta keep things moving here. Uh So, when you and I were kids and people listening to I'm sure like something we had snoopy bobbers, you know what I mean? Did you have a snoopy bober snoopy bobber? But I remember you didn't actually have one. I was just straight red and white man. I had the standard bobbers. I didn't have I didn't have the fancy bobbers. All right. So all right, so some of us maybe had snoopy bobbers or like a ninja turtle rod and reel and like maybe even later in life, you had one of those cores light shape crank baits, you know, remember those, right or like, but yes, I remember that saying okay, same deal. Are like your dad gifted you the Joe camel lore after he smoked enough cartons to earn it, you know what I mean? But I think what what what I'm driving at here though, is that I think with all these like brand or character driven pieces of tackle um that we have here in America, I think most of its just we look at those as they're either a novelty or it's for the kids, right, like if if my little pony rod gets your little girl excited to get on the water, rock and roll? Right? And what is what has not really happened in the U S and I hope it never does. Is this weird sort of crossing over of fishing tackle with like super trendy or pop culture driven brands that have absolutely nothing to do with fishing. But this is actually happening quite a bit lately um in Japan, and it seems like owning fishing stuff whether you use it or not, whether you fish or not, there's enough uh desire for that that it's becoming a big enough business that crossovers are appealing to tackle manufacturers that you would think like wouldn't have any reason to do this or or be bothered to even entertain the idea. Now as an example, right, So recently, Diawa teamed up with a company called Bape, which is a shortened version of bathing Ape according to my research, And like all they are is like a clothing and housewares company in Japan, and their bread and butter is like T shirts and throw pillows and drink wear. You know, it's like a it's like it's like a Japanese version of urban outfitters, you know, something like I don't know if you know, like which is we all know it's just a one stop shop for hipsters that like kind of want a garden, like maybe want to try a skateboard they're not sure, like want to purchase cassette tapes without risking getting tetanus at the flea market like I used to. Anyway, di Wa and this is like Diwa Diala collaborated uh with Bape on a custom zillion bait caster they called the Fishing Ape, which sold for forty thousand yen which is almost four US, and they all sold out. So if Babe had some no name real maker, make a bunch of reels flying. But this is Diawa and this is happening with many other well known tackle makers over there creating um lore lines for fashion brands and stuff like that that are like joint sold on the on the fashion but yeah, it's weird. Um So anyway, the latest collab which popped up in my news feed is from Duo Lures, and any serious bass heads listening will recognize that, uh Duo's realis line. They have spy baits, swim baits, jerk baits, you name it, and it's all very available in the US and even on several of our big online tackle sites. Um, I don't. I don't you ever heard of Duo loures? Yeah, but I don't. I've never fished them. Yeah I I have. I fished a few, I've got my hands on a few, and it's I mean, it's top shell stuff like badass loures from Japan. Well, Duo might be the luckiest of the collaborators because it appears they have scored the Pokemon license. Oh no, yes, right, And according to the website hype Beasts, Duo is making two Pokemon top waters and like you know, some of you have right now are like which ones? Tell us which ones? Which ones? Why's the do you got for my birthday? Right? But anyway, uh so, naturally you've got Pikachu and he or she I don't really know what sex Pikachu is is modeled after the Jitterbug and has a removable tail with an extra stinger trouble on the back, so you can opt out of his little lightning bolt tail and have three troubles on your Jitterbug and instead of the triditional two. And then they've also done kyogrew kyogre. Don't look at me, I know I'm looking at somebody how Mommy doesn't even know how to say k you know, I don't know. I don't either. And and that one is a crawler style top water you know, you know, so with a little wings and and and and anyway, look like I said, these are not like novelties completely though, because these are really well made lords with really good components, like designed like finally crafted by a company that is known for finally crafted lures. And these are not like the cores can so if you if you couldn get your hands on them, which spoiler alert you cannot. The first run is way way way sold out. So if you were thinking party favors your your ship out of luck, it's not happening. But you'd be spending twenty three bucks for the Pikachu and forty six for the Kyogeri, which is uh, significantly more money than just like what a Duo realis jerk bait will cost you on tackle warehouse. That was I was gonna ask if there's a markup for the there's a mark up from all of this, like the like the zillion reel. If you do the math that the Babe zillion reel was almost a hundred bucks more than if you just went to die and bought a zillion bait cast. So all of this is significantly marked up once it's co branded with this stuff, right, and then like this this hype beast thing. There was also this weird link to Duo's like secret backdoor project site. It's like it's this whole secret lure thing. And I thought that was bad enough with people just clamoring to get hard, you know, hard to get Japanese lures that they actually might fish. But now right, so I just I find it all fascinating and weird, but I I don't see it working here because if it's cheap, nobody wants it, you know. I mean, like nobody cares about the John Deer Hula popper. They'll just buy the color that they want if it's the same price. And likewise, nobody is paying extra money for the Hollister branded pen reel here. So this is like a very uniquely Japanese thing. Um. But I don't know, I just find it fascinating that like lures are now becoming i don't know, just like a thing like a like a house plant, like things that people want that have nothing to do with fishing. Yeah, I can't I can't understand that. This is a good example of why I like, I'm not a business whiz, because if somebody coming to like, uh no, that sounds like a terrible idea, and clearly they're selling out in a different market very well, So it shows what I don't know. Yeah, and there's dude, there's videos of these Pokemon lawyers aside from the pact that they're Pokemon lawers, like moving through the water. I mean they look like they will get chewed, like like the frigging jitterbug Pikachu. Like the looks fishy as ship like it will get hammered. I'm sure it will. But why would I pay the extra for the beak too? I wouldn't. You you wouldn't. But there's another video and I can't understand it because it's in Japanese. But like the president of Duo looks very excited about this collaboration, which I understand because it's Pokemon. Like you're gonna sell like you thought the dude with the other thing with the babe is making money. You're gonna sell some Pokemon lawders. So good on them for working that one out for sure. And that's the one I'm hoping. Phil, are you into Pokemon? I'm banking on it. I don't know, by the way, and I am. I am insulted on your behalf. Moving on anyway, Phil, whether you're offended or you just you're just online right now trying to get one of those lures some way. He's not even listening anymore. He's just it's just back ordering. I know. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see what happens. We'll see it. My fate is And after we hear from Phil, we're gonna do a little fin clips and talk about a buffalo soldier. Most of you guys probably have never heard of Miles. Thank you for sticking up for me, because Joe, I don't know what about me would make you think that I'm the kind of person who would know that a Pikachu is a species and therefore can be male or female, or that Kyoger is a legendary water Pokemon first introduced in jen threeng was the cover Pokemon for Pokemon Sapphire on the Game Boy Advance. But you know, much like those nerds who play Pokemon, I'll do a little role playing here and pretend to be someone who is interested in any of that bull crap and say, oh, Joe, you're the winner, thanks for letting me know about all these really cool lures. The uh let's see, still out of stock. Damn it? A big mouth buffalo or kind of a sleeper fish. Even though they're found from southwestern Canada to Louisiana, can go more than seventy pounds and pull like a goddamn freight train, they're never really caught on as a sport fish. If you have ever seen or heard of a big mouth buffalo is a good chance you either mistook it for a common carp or someone told you it was a carp. I'm gonna let Stephen Ronnella set you straight on that buffalo ain't carp. Got that good because it's an important distinction. If you're in the camp of miscategorizing this fish, you're not alone. Their Latin name is Atopis spernallis. Spernallis means small carp, so people have been misnaming this fish for a very long time. To be fair, they do look a little like a common carp. They have large scales, broad shoulders, big rubbery lips, and a generally similar profile. But big mouth buffalo are actually the largest member of the sucker family, and unlike carp they're very much native to North America. Being native, they're an important component of the ecosystems and food webs. Young buffalo or common prey for sport fish like bass, walleye, pike, and muskie. As they get bigger, they have fewer natural predators. But the one and twenty three pound world record flathead catfish Cotton, Kansas had a fifteen pound big mouth buffalo in its gut. Strangely enough, that flathead was caught as bycatched by a croppy angler, which just validates the fact that catfish eat anything from fifteen pound fish to minnows. Buffalo themselves are primarily filter feeders, meaning they don't usually target and attack prey. They kind of eat like humpback whales, swimming around, sucking in water and filtering out whatever food items they come up with, mostly insects and zooplankton. This is part of the reason they haven't caught on with anglers. Targeting fish that don't key in on prey is difficult. More on that later. They are, however, sometimes caught on crank baits, most often in the spring. Two people have shown me photographic evidence of big mouth buffalo landed with crank baits hooked in their mouths. I've also heard quite a few unconfirmed rumors from folks who claimed to catch them on cranks and other lures with some regularity. But if you ask Alec Lackman, one of the foremost buffalo biologists, about this, he'll tell you he's unsure. Alex studied a fair number of buffalo and has never seen compelling evidence that buffalo target and attack smaller fish. Since they swim around with their mouths open much of the time, they might accidentally get impaled by a passing hook. Or It's also possible that they might switch up their diets and seek out higher protein food options in certain situations. That's still an open question, one of many when it comes to buffalo. See. Even though they're a native fish common across much of the US, buffalo have been ignored by almost everybody, including fisheries biologists. If you look them up, you can find academic resources right now that claim these fish lived ten to fifteen years and exhibit spawning behavior similar to most other suckers. But that's just not true. In nineteen Alec Lackman, the biologist I mentioned earlier radio carbon dated the odalitz or earbones from big mouth buffalo harvested by bow fishers from some lakes in his home state of Minnesota. The oldest fish he recorded was one and twelve before catching an arrow. That fish had survived two World War Is, the Great Depression, Prohibition, the entire Space program, fifty three Super Bowls, and the invention of the Internet. Despite living through all that, the fish was an excellent condition, which really begs the question, how long can these fish live? No one knows. Finding such an old fish was shocking, but Equally shocking was what Lackman didn't find in the Pelican Lakes and River system where he did his research. Lackman discovered that almost nine of the fish are eighty years or older. He found a few fish in their early forties and none younger than that, which means the buffalo haven't been consistently reproducing there since the thirties, and haven't reproduced at all since the late seventies. The reasons for this aren't yet to find, but right around that time, damns were going up in common carp we're starting to proliferate. The damns might have changed the hydrology of the area enough that buffalo can't find the right spawning habitat, and the carp might be crowding them out of their spawning grounds. At least for now, it's all still an open question. Blackman has concluded that buffalo employ a reproductive strategy called periodic recruitment, meaning that they live a really long time but only spawn wind conditions are near optimal. Sturgeon do something similar. Lackman and some colleagues published a paper that made kind of a stir and finally finally got people talking about and interested in buffalo and that includes me. I hardly even knew these fish existed before, and ever since then, I've been freaking mesmerized by their creepy, lacked doll eyes. Ryan Callahan and I got so geeked out on these fish that we decided to do a whole doss bowed episode on them, which is how I ended up getting to know Alec. Though I got to spend a few days fishing for buffalo, I never completely sealed the deal. These fish pull hard, and every single one I stuck either broke me off or bent out my hooks. In my mind, buffalo could be the next obsession fish for anglers who love a challenge. They're big, powerful, and smart. You can sit fish for them. They will feed on the surface in the right conditions. They're like milk fish, except you don't have to spend four days and twenty grand flying to say shehells to cast to them. I also here they make exceptional table fair and that barbecue buffalo ribs or delicacy. Just make sure you're taking them from a population that's reproducing, and don't kill the octogenarians. Despite my failures, buffalo can be consistently taken on hook and line I got to know a guy in Minneapolis who catches them with a souped up ten car rod and chunks of inflated nightcrawler. It works, I saw it, but I'm convinced that there are other ways, And to me, that's probably the most intriguing thing about these fish. The playbook for them has yet to be written. They're an utterly common exotic sport fish except right now. They're classified as rough fish in most places, meaning they get very little management attention and often have no harvest limits. Buffalo are a favorite target of both fishers, who like just about everyone else, assume that their carp and that removing them in masses not just fun but beneficial to ecosystems. These fish need advocates, so please find out if you have them in your local waters, Learn the difference between a buffalo and a carp and test your skills on them, and if you figured out, give me a shout. I might just show up for a visit. All right, I'm going to ask the question that I know you're waiting for. What the hell did that segment have to do with this week's theme? How are you tying this one? I am so glad you asked Joe. I appreciate well gross point blank revolves around the main character trying to figure out his identity. Right, how are you? Yeah, I'm a pet psychiatrist. I sell countri charts, and I had I did a test market positive thinking, and I need a weekend men's group. We specialized ritual killings. Yeah. Yeah. And and then in the end, if he wants to save himself and get the girl and and and live the happily ever after thing, he has to reclaim his identity. So you're making an analogy with the fact that buffalo have been given this invasive carp identity and if we want to save them, what like, they need to go back to being what they actually are, native non invasive suckers. Nailed it, Yes, exactly. Huh listen, I'm gonna do is say anything theme next week full on Voyd Dobbler. Yes, I support that, And Diane Court will represent a hog Larry at the country club that you shouldn't be fishing. How's that? I appreciated that. And I don't know if more or less people will get those references, but there there's not a single person listening right now that won't know the lure you're about to cover in this week's end the line, because whether you love it or hate it, you just keep buying them fish. Well, that's not loud enough. Sanko's, Where do you stand? Are they a miracle lore or have they made it so easy for people to catch bass that they're at cheat or are you in the middle? Is it okay when you catch a big bass on a wacky rigg sinko but lame when someone else does it? Do you scoff at Sinko's while keeping a statue of them in your bag as an insurance policy? When you do catch a fish worthy of an insta post, are you keep in the sinko in its mouth and owning it? Are you gonna be vague and maybe throw up a hashtag Mega Bass? No matter where you stand, don't rush to judgment on what our bud Mike i Canelli refers to as the magic hot Dog recently Metator's fishing editor my buddy Sam Longer and penned a detailed piece for the meat Eater dot Com proposing that the Senko is in fact the greatest soft plastic ever created and per sam story, the Senko hit the market and Gary Yamamoto reportedly took inspiration from a big pen to create some of the earliest senko molds. At the time, there were other soft stick baits on the market, such as the Slugo, but Yamamoto played with the weight, density, buoyancy, and a slew of other details to create a loure that pretty much any angler of any skill level can use to catch big bass. The caveat is that it's not just the lure but how you rig it. It's effective rig Texas style or on a jighead, or Carolina style or weedless, but it's fair to say none of those methods activate the magic. Like wacky rigging to wacky rigging sanko, tie a small short shank hook on the end of your line and just run it right through the center of the bait there perpendicular to the body. That's it. There's no bullet weights or split shot or nails or specialty terminal tackle. Just simply cast that weightless sanko out and let it fall, and as it does, it will undulate and it will wobble, and if you don't get smoked on the drop, let the bait just sit on the bottom. Maybe even for like a full minute, because it's not uncommon for a fish to just suck it up while it's laying there lifeless. And if one doesn't slightly lift a rod and give it a very short hop and repeat this slow grind until eventually that lawer makes it back to the boat in a nutshell, that's wacky rigging. And for many reasons that are more speculation than fact, bass can rarely leave a wacky rigged sanko alone. And because it's productive minus a lot of effort on your part, it has helped coin the term do nothing bait in the bass fishing world. Interestingly, many people associate the invention of the sinko with the advent of wacky rigging, but that's not really accurate. Anglers have been casting plastic worms hooked through the middle since the original cream worm hit the market in but nobody was making a fuss about it or giving it any sort of label. Believe it or not, Many bass fishing historians trace the origin of the wacky rig craze to New Jersey and a lord called the Jersey rig. Jersey rigs were developed by Jeff Camarino, and they look shockingly similar to a Senko though a little shorter and stubby here Now today, packs of these baits are highly coveted on eBay and they maintain a cult following, with many cult members claiming they're far more effective than the Senko. In fact, in the right circles, if you say wacky rig, somebody will say, oh, you mean Jersey rig. Camerino never had a website, working only via mail order and accepting only checks, but the Jersey rig still caught on within bass circles because when hooked through the middle, they really shine on the highly pressured lakes throughout the Northeast. And Camarino was pumping out his Jersey rigs right around the time the Sanko debut. And that's not to suggest the Yamamoto ripped off the Jersey rig, because many companies developed similar lures, but rather that the marketing juice and ability to get product and so many more hands helped the Sinko corner the market and grab the spotlight. Now there's no shortage of Sinko imitators out there today, like Berkeley's, the General and the Strike king o Cho, just to name a few. And they're good. I've caught fish on them, but I've yet to find a stick bait that I would say matches the productivity and ability to draw a strike when nothing else seems to quite like the sinko. And I've also heard that the exact formula for a sinko is guarded like the recipe for coca cola. And I believe that because while it's easy to look at a sinko and call it dumb or call it simple, if you think of the tinkering that had to be done to make it so effective, it's actually an engineering marvel. Now, as for me, I mean, I love sanko's and I never bass fish without them, and they may not be what I tie on first, but when the bite I hope for isn't materializing, I can't tie one on fast enough. So am I cheating every time I do that? Would you discredit my personal best homewater smalley because I caught it on a wacky rig sinko, which by the way, I did In my opinion, that would be dumb because while we love to kick around this term do nothing lure, there is no lure that is truly do nothing and productive. Every single time. A wacky rig sinko may help a lot of people get luckier than they would have. But most of the time the lure isn't enough and it won't do you much good if you don't know exactly where to throw it, how aggressively or subtly it'll work, it exactly what kind of gear you should throw it on in different situations, and a whole bunch of other things that you really only learned through time on the water. And once they invent a lure that you can literally cast anywhere at any time, in any water and it catches fish every single time you send it out there, well, hell I quit Well, that brings us to the end of our John Cusack and Mini Driver reunions special But if cisk Niebert were giving out thumbs that didn't get turned into lures, this one would definitely get two pointed straight up for incorporating phishing's most closely guarded secret formula, the hottest new fish that may have been around longer than your grandparents, how I'm most likely going to die by serial killer, and antiquated laws about knitting. Oh Man as always Senior Bar nomination Saleman items, awkward fishing photos and CSI anonymous tips to bent at the meat Eater dot com. Remember to drop the Degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on your social posts. Maybe tag gross point blank and do yourself a favor. Go watch that movie this week. It is straight brilliant. Yeah. I have to agree that we'll see how many gross point tags there are, but Miles has convinced me. It's some sleep or gold. And for those of you gearing up for your ten year unions in a couple of months, here's some help full advice. Go see some old friends, have some punch. Visit with what's her name, that bee, that'd bean. Don't kill anybody for a few days, see what it feels like.