00:00:06 Speaker 1: Thick ass wuthering heights in Jane are not dog like. I got stockers to catch. I ain't got time for that. It looks like you try to catch somebody's ship zoo with a hat exactly, remember, yeah, yeah, with the zebra stripes. Yeah yeah, yeah, of course, real quick if you're the listener already crafting an email in your head telling us what your interpretation of the old man in the sea has stopped. Yeah, good morning to generate anglers, and welcome to Bent, the Fishing podcast that swears to God, if you reel that barrel swivel into the tip guide one more time, it will not take you out for froyo. When we get back to the dot, I'm Joe Surmeli and I'm Hayden Samac and uh and doesn't like that they what do you call the f g eliminate that issue like an instentirety. Yes, technically, yes, there's several mainline the leaders places out there these days that, if tied correctly, will allow you to reel the knot all the way up onto your reel. But I brought up the swivels in the tip top guide because here's the thing, um, I think people have actually gotten so used to line to line connections, especially newer anglers, that if they do end up using a rig with a barrel swivel like it, it just simply does not compute. Right, Like I learned to fish with the barrow swivel connecting my leader to the mainline. And you know what, like two palamar knots against the quality swivel is a damned strong connection. Some may even argue stronger than any line in line connection. And I never, I never, or very rarely, only by mistake, ever reeled my swivel into my tiptop. I was just like cognizant of it and knew not to do that. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that it's because beginners are like used to line to line. That's probably a large assumption, that is fairly big. But I mean, like, really, a swivel in is uh not great? No, no, no, no no, I mean it is the easiest way to cracker chip the insert your tiptop guide. Which is why though getting back to beginners for just one sec, you will rarely see a charter captain rig his rods with barrel swivels for his leader. For that reason, because I've been out there and all day long, it's just click tink, click, and one can only uh, you know, say, don't reel the swivel into the tip top guide. So many times, um, I've experienced that on on my boats. Uh and every time you hear it, like you just you just WinCE. Um. And I don't know, to me, it's just not that difficult to remember. Yeah, yeah, I mean i'd agree with that. But have you ever gotten any sort of like legitimate damage because of somebody really or because you or somebody barring your gear? Really? Yeah? No, totally. Um. I I lent a surf rod to somebody one time, right, and the next time I used it every third cast like my ship is just flying off. I'm just like sending storm shads off into the distance. Um. And it takes a second so you finally figure out, like ship, there's a hip in the tip top guide. And I guarantee it's because that dude was reeling his swivel in. Um. So here here's a hot tip, right, And something I don't do often, but if if I'm going to be fishing in the dark on the surfer sake, going like popping for tune, it's something that really matters. When I'm packing up my rods, I run a Q tip around the inside of each guide, and if there's a chip or a crack, it usually phrase the Q tip Because to go back to that night on the beach, like I mean, I had no I had to go home, Like I didn't bring to nine ft surf rods. I just brought one to go fish for the night. So the night was kind of shot, you know. Yeah, yeah, but like I feel like I feel like it's got to be like some sort of like mcgiver fixed to that. Yeah, but see, not a great one in my opinion. Like, if you have duct tape, you can try wrapping a tiny strip around the guide, but it doesn't cast the same and the braid will eventually cut through the tape. Um and those insertain materials are they're so slick that even like super like trying to fill it with super glimics and stick all that. Well, right, Um, the best thing you you could do maybe would just be to knock the entire insert out and and and fix the whole guide later with the wire frame. Yeah, just fish with a wire frame. Uh. And people will likely write in with other ideas, but I'm talking about quick fixes on the scene. Right. If you can afford to kill the time and the hardware stories open, UH, you might have better ideas. But I'm talking about midnight, all alone on the beach. Um. So this is also why it pays to have a good local rod guy. Shout out to mine Rick Szakorski of rat Sticks. That dude has fixed so many chipped guides for me. Anyway, you must have mcgeivered something out there fishing or not. What have you mgeivered? Yeah? Well, so I was like elk hunting UH in September last year, and I needed to get water out of this like little trickle. But it was like super shallow. It was just like this little spring coming out of this like little seep and it was all muddy. So if I like try to like scoop my water bottle in it, like I get all sorts of yeah, pine needles and ship and um. So what I did was there were like some reads next to UH, next to the water. So I I clipped one of these reads with my knife. It was totally hollow in the middle. I built up like a couple of rocks and like some mud around one end of the read. Uh let the water build up behind it to the point that it went through the read and over this little ledge. So now you had like a little spickett coming out of this spring. And I used I let that run clear, and I used that to fill up the water bottle. So that's something I'm scared. I believe that there is an exhibit in the Natural History Museum of ancient people's doing exactly that. So that is that is very good. Anyway, Listen, if you've got a rod that's just too beat up, let's say, to be worth any kind of costly repairs, how about a new one, perhaps from our sponsors thirteen Fishing. Um, I don't know what it's been like at there. Why I kind of do, because I mean pictures they we'll talk about in a minute. I dude, it was it highs in the seventies here last weekend, record temps, so uh. I took the old oman pan fish and trout rods over the local croppyhole, thinking they'd be all woke up, but not yet. So I got a few good ones ago, but the water temps haven't really caught up to the air. But I was using the seven foot ultra light model, which is fairly slow and um and whippy. But these fish weren't like ripping the float under. It was a very subtle bite. So that flex and softness, um really helped set the hook on these fish that kind of like barely had these baits in their mouths. So it worked out. The uh you know, those thirteen rods are so sensitive that me and my buddy Corey, we were we were doing our last like uh like overnight urbit trip for the Yeah, I saw what she did. It's cool, tell us tell us about it. Well, I'll tell you about what I think you're talking about, but I'll tell you something that was less cool, but nevertheless a testament to the sensitivity of a thirteen fishing rod. I was using one of those, a medium action even widow maker dead stick, and we were chunking like while we were going to bed in like the in like the shels or whatever, and we're just kind of like talking and watching our rods, and mine just started to go like this. Listeners, you can't see it, but I'm like very subtly lifting and lowering my extended index finger. Here it looks it looks like a swordfish bite on a deep drop rod. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very subtly, and you know, I'd go, I'd pop the rod out of the dead stick holder, like real carefully, so it was not to disturb the bourb but that was surely about to get stung. I'd set the hook and then nothing. And this happened like five or six times. It was maddening, and I'm like, dude, I can see the bite, but I don't know what's going on. And I thought about it for a second, and I remember somebody telling me that there were crawfish in the lake that would set off their tip ups. What I was watching was a crawfish crawling onto my bait twenty ft down with a medium action rod. Now tell me that that's not like a very sensitive ice ory, very sensitive. And then you go set and he just whooped backwards and he's gone. And we found this out by dropping a camera down the hole and literally just seeing the bottom littered with crawfish just crawled. Dud. I'd drill another hole and put a trap down. Cold water, crawfish boil, you bet as soon as ice off, that's what's going that's what's going down. And and we ended up we caught more than crawfish. On that trip, we caught a tagged bourbon. Yeah who tagged that? That was interesting? Like, who's tagging? Yeah? I don't know. I know that Corey submitted the tag to f w P the other day, so we will I will report back on on what came about that. Anyway, we've already shared a couple of good tips here, that being always have a camera so you can see if you're you're being attacked by cross or Joe stupid, you know. Guide. So let's carry the teaching over. We've got an awkward moment in angling for you that captures a teaching moment that, um, it doesn't look to be going particularly well. What did you take a picture? A life? So today's photo comes to us from Bent listener Rev. Crimson. Now I don't know if that's his real name. Uh though if it is, that's totally badass. He may he may be a real reverend, like an actual man of the Lord, in which case forgive us for some of the things we may be about to say. Or perhaps it's just a symbolic reverend title similar to Rev. Run Run DMC. I think it's probably that. Yeah, either way, this is a great photo. Especially if you're a dad. Now I am not a dad, but this is still a great photo because there is a father son moment being captured here. And whereas you probably identify with Rev the dad, Joe, I could put myself in the in the sun's position just like, just like a little bit more easily, it's slightly more recent. That's fair. That's fair. Okay, So let's set this up right. Uh. In the foreground of the shot is Rev's son. He didn't provide his name, that's okay, Okay. Now he's a teenager, right, he's not a little little fellow. Uh. And he's wearing a tank top and some some broken in jeans with a kind of cloth belt that used to come standard on a pair of cargo shorts from Pacific Sunwear. Okay. Uh. He's wearing a leather necklace. And while the charm at the end of it is obscured, right, I'm thinking I'm willing to bet just just looking at it, it it is a giant one of those giant tribal bone hooks, right, which is which I assume people wear as a true statement of angling prowess, which will make all this funnier in just a minute, yeah, so the kids got this like wild grown out hair is young is young teenagers are sometimes to do. And he's got a flat brim hat on backwards, but he hasn't tucked the hair under it, so it's like one of those things where it looks like, yeah, you know that look right, Like it's hard to describe, and it's like it looks like you try to catch somebody's ship zoo with a hat and now all you can see is just like the tough to fur under it. Anyhow. Yeah, he's also wearing frameless like Oakley style, and I guarantee either gas station beat or sunglasses. And he's he's looking down at his hands. Yeah yeah, I still insist on referring to those style of glasses as ken Griffe junior glasses. Anyway. Yeah, so he's looking in his hands and he's fiddling with fishing line. Um. The expression on his face is totally blank. Not much going on there. Uh So now we can move on to the rev. Rev is the primary focus of my roaths because I don't believe in U. If say about revs, so I under stand that I couldn't, so I didn't want want to lay into him too hard you know. Okay, So Rev is standing behind him and he's doing the open trout vest over a tank top thing. Right. His arms are are sternly crossed across his his chest. Um, he's wearing a pair of old school Vietnam Eric Chamo pants covered up with hip boots. Let's talk about hip boots for a second. By and large, you just don't see them in fishing the way you used to write, like, I started out as a kid with hip boots, but nowadays I feel like the kids go straight to chess waiters, just because so many companies make little kid chess waiters. Right, did you start with hip boots when he first started waiting? Well, you know, I I like hit boots a lot. And here's why if you're kind of doing like a like we've talked about how I have an affinity for blue lining brook Trout, and yeah, that's kind of a waste to wear chess waiters for a blue So I get that. In case you guys like don't remember, a blue line for brook Trout is like or just any trout for that matter, is finding just a small blue line on a topo map and just going in and exploring and hoping that there were some fish there more or less. Um, So I wear them for that because you can wear your hiking boots in pack those hip waiters in just super easy and a lot of times you don't need them. But it's good because a lot of those streams are like you know, they have like a you know, maybe like a real muddy bank where it's like two and a half foot of mud, and even if you were in wellies, which you didn't want to hike into in the first place, or actually less convenient to carry than a lot of these breathable like frog TG style hit boots, um, you going past them and you'd be, yeah, I see, I see, I see. I just in my observation, I see more application in hunting these days because I started out with hip boots and inevitably would go in over them like it was just not enough coverage, like it was just a disaster anyway. So Rev has that totally old school like definitely like a or Ohio or West Virginia trout fisherman look, and I diget his arms are also like covered in tats and I can't make all of them out, but I know one is a is a big old rose and h Rev has kind of a high and tight military haircut. He's rocking some dark oval kind of ninety weren't really that man. What they look like is their transition lenses, I think, is what's going on? You know, you're right, they are transition lenses. But they have that oval like oblong kind of shape about. Yeah. And he as a killer like what do he called? Like the James Hetfield man Chew chew? He has a killer fu man Chew. Now most most critically though, Rev's head is cocked to the side, looking upon his son with a look of complete disdain and frustration. Looks like he's in the middle of saying something too. He is, he is, but here's why here's Rev, Rev writes with his photo. The photo is of me and my son. I have, for the twentieth time that day, tried to explain how to tie a simple clinch knot, so that ties the disdain in the photo together. It's funny. That's gonna kind of mess up one of my burns, but go ahead, so anyway, he says, anyway always makes me laugh when I see it. As a side note, my son has since absconded with my new thirteen fishing rod. Hey, there you go somewhere with your boy lance V. Something about hashtag Google squad, hashtag chunk bait not hate. Um. Now, I I understand it's hard to get the full visual, but Dad's know this look of what the you actually doing right now, and it's been captured here perfectly. Like I said, I i've i'm i'm personally yet well, no, that's not sure. I'd give that look to folks all the time, but not in a fatherly sort of way. But I I and I have it on the receiving end of it many times myself. Yeah, and Red looks like a no bullshit kind of guy, frankly, major dad energy, as you wrote in your response to him. Um, it also looks like like you said, that Rev is mid sentence and I can only imagine the words being uttered. So now the boy is also in a high pressure situation as he tries to tie eight years. Only he could eat that chicken sandwich. Very impressive. Mike Fitzgiven's son is a nuclear physicist and my shun kind, so I'm very curious about the roast this week. I was gonna ask if you're focusing on Rev, but you already said on Rev uh my, my new favorite part of awkward moments. Are you ready? We will put ten seconds on the clock and go. Dude looks like he doesn't know if he's more disappointed than the son's not tying or his outfit. Dude looks like a fisherman character in Apocalypse Now. Dude looks like Dude looks like the love child of Bob the Garbage Man and Mike i Canelli. Oh my god, you'll see it when you see the photo. Dude looks like he's halfway through a rant about how not strength is bogus and that big fishing just wants you to tie complicated not so you spend more time tying and less time fishing in an effort to save fish as part of their secret green agenda. Wow, that was masterful. Was that the last one? That's the last one. I spent some time on that. That was masterful. That was masterful. Oh my god, that was really good. Um wow, you like you like took the spit out of my mouth. That was so good. Anyway, Rev, thanks so much for sending that one in. I'm sorry. If the boy is going the way the Google squad, that's just too bad. Tie him up, Rev and make him watch Roland Martin DVDs for a few hours. You'll get him back. Um. Hey, if you've got a good shot of yourself about to open up a can of whoop bass on your child while fishing, do please send it along to Bent at the Meat Eater dot com. So that was a little different. I enjoyed that one. That's for all the dad's um and moms right out there. They get it. And if you don't have kids yet, despite how you you may feel, now, believe me, the day will come that no matter how much you love your kids, you will find yourself, um asking them if they are stupid, Like that's gonna happen you just are you stupid? It just happens naturally. So so why I appreciate that photo from Rev so much? Man that that realization comes to some quicker than others. Just ask my dad anyway. I've been asking myself if I'm stupid all week long after hearing from you guys about the Trojan Brook Trout story I covered last week. So find out if I'm competent and qualified or not. In this week's installment of fish News, fish News that escalated quickly alright, so correction time. This happens on occasion. Maybe this is less of a correction than just a clarification, but the masses have spoken and I shall respond. Uh. Last week I covered the story of the Trojan brook trout, and while discussing how brookies found their way out west, I said that the Mississippi River acted as a natural barrier. In other words, you have all these native brookies in states east of the Mississippi, right Uh. And while they could conceivably reach the Mississippi, the chances of them populating the western side of the country that way are are pretty slim for a bunch of different reasons. Temperatures, predators, all that stuff. Right. Um, well, everyone, everyone jumped up and said, whoa buddy, there are native brook trout in the driftless area of Wisconsin and Minnesota and Iowa, and uh guess what, they live on the west side of the Mississippi. So you're wrong. Um, And okay, apologies Driftless area anglers. You are correct. But where I failed was to specify that the Mississippi River, when referring to to all the states east of it, which have a lot more wild brookies than than the Driftless, right, you guys have your own strain up there. Um. The point the article was making that I pulled from was that brookies were populated in the west by people bringing them from the east, where you know. Once again, um, there are a lot more Brookies than just in the Driftless. So yes, there are brookies west of the Mississippi and the Driftless, but even there, the Mississippi is still kind of a barrier, like the Brookies and the Driftless would have to have, you know, gone through generations of travel hell to populate waters all the way out west. So basically, I'm saying I apologize for forgetting our friends in the Driftless in that little trout country surrounded by walleye and muskie country. Um, it was just a little out of context, But I fished in your waters. I love them dearly, and I apologize. You do have wild brookies, native brooks. Yeah. I like the guy that pointed out that you had talked about catching tiger trout in the Driftless and was like, dude, do the math in reverse. Yeah, yeah, you know that's I I. Yeah, I just recently did say that, like the Driftless is one of the few places that has um wild native tiger trout, which would require brook trout. Again, I'm sorry, okay, I'm sorry, it will. I think I have a slight correction of my own on that same story. Somebody brought to my attention that I I I miss represented wild versus native trout, or like I I like slipped and I said wild when I meant yeah, come on, people, get over come on. That happens all the time. Native is something that has been here always. Wild is something that was introduced and has since developed, like a sustaining population. So there's there's my correction. Joe. We're both we are we are both now correct, we are coming correct. Okay, anyway, enough on that quick. Thanks to everyone that tuned into Hayden's Tuesday Night tie deal last week on Instagram. Um, I had a bunch of fun chatting with you guys while tying up the old master splinter. Now, so everyone knows you're aiming to host that every Tuesday night on your Instagram. Correct, I am a man um so real quick this week, like this past week, from the point that you were listening to it, now go back in time three days that being Tuesday, we did not do a We did not do a tie week, and that's because I'm trying to get the whole thing sort of under my fingers, trying to find some cool folks to come on and teach us how to tie fly. Yeah, to that end, I'd like because a few people reached out to me, I am down to jump in there when I can, but just to clarify, I can't necessaries. Yeah, there's an ass to be wiped at that hour on most Tuesdays. Okay, yeah, anyway, So yeah, the bent uh tie along Tuesday series that is going to be taking off soon on the old Instagram. If you follow me at Hayden Underscore SAMAC, you will be tuned into when that's going down. Basically, we're gonna have somebody cool come on and show me how to tie a fly, and by proxy, you how to tie a fly. We'll tie one with a tutorial, and then we'll tie another one while we're just kind of bullshit, and I'll what's our show with the chicken wings hot ones? Kind of like yeah, and dude and I I really did have fun. I will jump in when I can, maybe not to tie along, but just to like heckle and say in an ship. Um, but no, that's good. That was a really good time. Uh. Let's see, let's not forget our conservation minutes before we get into the meat of news. It's a new thing we're doing. Here's what I got. The state of Massachusetts recently announced that motorist can now purchase license plates to give back to striped bass conservation. Uh. If you want one, you'll have to spend forty dollars every two years, on top of the fee that comes with just having a regular plate. Quote from the story reads, the purchase of these specialty license plates will enhance efforts to conserve and restore stripe bass, river herring, and other marine fisheries that are vital to the Commonwealth's coastal ecology, economy, and culture. The plate features a striper chasing l wife herring, painted by artist Jane BEYONDI. Uh so we know, Bob the garbage man is out because those ain't bunka and uh A giant sebio Mattics member may have been more appealing to the anglers in that state, since them only fish the cape cod canal boom. I had to do it. I'm going to hear about it. But there you go. I'm not really sure the context, but I'm that's all right. Onto my conservation min in here. I got to uh one being a follow up to your conservation minute from last week. That being that, um, the Goliath Grouper season is is going to be a thing in Florida and you can buy a tag. It was passed. So there's that. Um now my more elaborate minute. On March first, New Mexico officially declared landowner efforts to restrict public access to rivers and creeks is unconstitutional. Landowners were taking advantage of New Mexico's designation of waterways is being unnavigable. Uh So, if you don't know, in much of the West, this designation is like navigable versus non navigable. Is what separates water you can legally access by like waiting or boating or whatever, from water that you cannot. And people love to debate navigable versus non navigable. It's a thing in every state. It's crazy. Yeah yeah. So um, as it turned out like there was a single lawyer in New Mexico was processing a bunch of applications on behalf of landowners to designate their creeks and rivers running through their property is non navigable, allowing the landowners to block them with like barbed wire, chain link whatever. The problem was that the certification of a non navigable waterway was more of a paid for designation rather than in natural certification process. So it's not like somebody was like, yep, that's like a thing. It's like this lawyer was literally just putting in these applications and like the state was going, yep, sure it sounds good. Um. So anyway, basically you could pay to privatize water whether or not it was actually navigable or not navigable. Um. You know, it's worth noting that there are lots of rivers in New Mexico that are, you know, fluctuate insanely in flows. So even like something that would be designated navigable could go all but dry during like the summer months, then come back up and it's still navigable even though for a while it was non navigable. If that's confusing, I think that that's that was the genesis for this legislation. Anyhow, Um, that just got trashed and good riddance. If you'd like to read more about it, You can check it out on the meat eater dot com in an article by Maggie Hudlow, who I'm actually gonna be referencing later on in fish News UH titled New Mexico's Supreme Court restores public stream access laws. There we go, all right, moving along. Remember, UH news is a competition. We do not know which feature story the other fella is bringing to the table. At the end, a winner will be declared by our trojan audio engineer, Phil Uh. And it is your lead this week, man, So what you got? All right? So this week on fish News, we're taking a ride down to Georgia. That's for you. For me, it's across and down to Georgia to talk about one of your favorite fish, Joe the shad. Yes. Before we get there, though, I'd be interested to know what started your infatuation with the shad Um. Is it just that they like fight hard? Or do you like that they taste like shit? Or is it something to do in the spring. So it's it's sort of all the above. Don't taste like shoot the yeah, I don't want to yeah yeah right. Um. Really, the bigger answer is just tradition, I mean, growing up around here, like that's something everybody did, Like it was a big deal that my dad and his friends would go to the Delaware Water Gap every year to do it. And I remember, you know, like you're a little kid, you're not allowed to go, you're not tall enough for waiters, and then finally you get brought in. So it's something I just grew up with as a spring happening here. Um, but it's also it's also the kickoff to spring fishing. Two good spring fishing here. And they do fight damn hard, you know, light nice light tackle. Yeah, do they jump. That's why we call them Jersey tarpin. Yeah. Now you and I had uh, I forget what context we were talking about it in, but you had mentioned, oh I remember. Folks, if you have not seen Joe's B side on on shad in the Delaware, you you ought to go check that out. He gets deep into the history of it, including how basically the folks at Valley Forge were relegated to shad based eating for a long stretch of time and we can basically owe our independence to eating the fish that nobody wants to eat. Yes, and when you finished watching that B side, read The Founding Fish by John McPhee. It'll tell you more than the B side. It's a very good book. Yeah. Anyway, So on that note, last week, angler Timmy Woods um timm Yeah, yeah, and his and his two pounds ten ounce fish beat the record for Georgia's biggest ever hickory shad, overtaking the previous record held by Christian Blake Jones of a two pound three ounce hickory shad caught in. Timmy's fish was also just four ounces shot of the world record hickory shad, coming in at two pounds fourteen ounces. Prior to that, the record had been a one pound, fifteen ounces hickory shad caught in a record that stood for nearly thirty years. If you didn't do that math over to yourself, Um, Joe, Now, I know that a lot of the a lot of the shad that you catch, or maybe all the shad that you catch, I'm not too familiar with the shad fishery where you're at, but or shad fishers in general for that matter. Um, you catch American chad, and I'm curious what your experience might be with hickory shad. Right. Well, I actually I actually catch both and it's It's interesting though where where I live on the Delaware River, we have a much much higher percentage of the big American shad, right, so they're the biggest shad that run in the country. But I will pick off a couple of hickories a season occasionally. Now. Subsequently, if you go just a little bit further south to Philadelphia to the School River, you have them. You catch way more hickory shad. What is what is that fishery like, man in the School Is it worth doing? Um? Yes, it's a very good fishery, but I mean there's n damns on it. I mean, these fish can only go so far out of the Delaware before they hit the famous dam behind the Art Museum in Philly. And yes there are fish ladders, but everybody's shad fishing below the damn. That's the story of a lot of East Coast rivers when I was When I was living there, man, I always wanted to go and catch the shad, but I never did. Yeah, well, hickories are a lot of fun. Um, they don't grow as big as the Americans. Interesting though, they are a much more aggressive shad. Right. So, whereas American shad, you have to set your your darts and your spoons out so they run into them and then they bite them. Hickory shad, unlike Americans, also bite in salt water, so you catch them in the rivers. But then there's also runs in the fall along the entire Jersey Coast around a lot of the inlets where you can cast spoons like you're casting for blue fish or or throw flies, and like you will see hickory shad blowing up bait fish. American chad don't do that, so they're smaller, but they're scrappy um and just a little further south to me, you see a lot more that we have a much better run of Americans here. There you go, folks. In difference between American and hickory shad via Joe Surmeli back to the back to the article here. So the article that I like lifted this story from was by Newsweek, and uh, the first thing I want to get into is how damn click baity the article title is. It's borderline inexcusable. Man. Uh, it has to be the most click baity way you could possibly uh frame a shad? How well, how else are you gonna make people care about a hickory shad. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, sure, but I mean like sure shad spend most of their time in the salt right and only migrate to spawn. But to frame that as as the article titled itself, record breaking fish normally found in Atlantic Ocean caught in Georgia River is just like, what was this doing here? Oh well, I mean that dude, that's honest to god, That's what drew me to thing. I was like, oh my god, what they do like catch like a red fish like way up somewhere, and it's an andronymous fish. Man, that's like calling a record steelhead, record breaking fish normally found in Pacific Ocean caught in a Washington River. I mean, not that we're doing that anymore, but it doesn't it just doesn't make any I thought that was funny, and it's very funny. It's an a nadrumous fish, though not androminous. I think that's from a sci fi movie, just like you know, an idiot. All right, Well, you know we all have those words man that we just can't get around. And like, for whatever reason, my brain sees that and goes andronymous. I know, it's an ADRUMUS. Anyway, I'm moving on. Let's talk about records. Lately. It seems like all sorts of records have been broken, and this extends across the US. So, as we mentioned in Georgia, the record had not been beaten for thirty years, got beat, and then got beat again within like another year or so. Um. And this has been happening everywhere. For example, in one alone, Idaho certified eighteen new record breaking fish. In the same year, Montana broke seven records in North Carolina. As similar pattern as we're seeing with the Georgia Hickory chad occurred last year when the state record for channel cats was broken twice in the same year. Prior to that, the North Carolina channel cat record had stood for over half a century. As our very own, wildly talented colleague Maggie Hill, who I referenced in the minutes there, recently reported the mean mouth that's a hybrid smallmouth large mouth world record was bro looking for the third time in a single year in Texas. So what's up with all the record breaking? Man um Experts have varying theories. Some include climate change induced warming, prolonging growing seasons for fish, resulting in obviously more growth. I wrote that like an idiot. Another theory is that angler awareness of potential state records has increased in our digital age, and you keep going, but I'm going with that one. I think that's likely with information on state records available at angler's fingertips no matter where they are. And another theory is that COVID just got a lot more people actively fishing, whether that's first timers or fishermen with more time on their hands. All of these theories make sense, and it makes you wonder how long the trend will continue. Now, Joe, I know you had something to say about the state records in a digital age. Yeah, well it's a snappy title, man, Spencer. You can have that and and and COVID is accurate, right, there are more people out fishing, but yeah, straight up, man, like, I think there are more people that get off on like posting their record, channel cat or chat like. They are just more people that are looking to achieve those goals, whereas I don't know, dude, I might have caught the world record Hickory Chad nineteen times in my life, but I don't care, Like I wouldn't even be thinking I wouldn't even look that up. And I think that's how people used to operate. So for a state record to fall or something, first and foremost, you had to look at that thing and have a sense of like, holy sh it, this is so big. I need to check what the world record is. If I ever told you my channel cat story, I might have even told it on the podcast, Like long story, short man. I I caught this huge channel cat that I thought was I don't know, probably mid twenties something like that, like pounds, and I asked my buddy, I said, hey, look up with the state record channel cat is, or I think I I mess this up. I said, look up what the state record cat is. And my buddy, who was not as super experienced fisherman, gave me the flathead catfish record, not the channel cat record, and I was like, I was like, oh, dude, not even in contention through the thing back. Turns out that the channel cat record was obviously significantly less. I think it's like pounds something like that, and I don't think it would have been a state record. I'm not saying like, oh, I definitely threw back up state record fish, but like, at least it might have been in contention, right, But do you lose sleep over that not having that title? No? No, no no, no no. But I'm saying like that, you know again pointing to like the digital age thing, like I was able to reference. That's right, it's exactly right. Was incredibly easy to call that information up, no doubt, way to go, Jack. But there are just certain but there are just certain things, shad being one of them that like I don't know, I wouldn't even who can't like who it's a HiT's no disrespect to Timmy, but like it's a Hickory shad Man. Yeah, I mean, well you know it's like you know, it's an extension to like lying class records and like you know, like sicklid records. If I'm going to go through the effort of state recording something, I want people to see it and go, oh damn, you know what I mean, Like you know, so it's hey, we've talked about record chase, something that folks really care about, like snakeheads. Yes that was sarcastic. Please enter your password. You have one unheard message is Carl. So we're sending out another drone operator with another drone, So if you could please keep an eye on your back cast. Drones were great, mere terrible and thanks man. End of message, Delete priss seven save deleted. Alright, so let's move over from the downplaying of Phish records to the downplaying of fishing in general. A couple of people sent this along. It's a weird one, but it's just too ridiculous not to share, okay, and it comes from the u K's Guardian headline. University Warrens woke students that Ernest Hemingway's classic novel Old Man in the Sea contains graphic scenes of fishing now long ago, like just wait, do you just wait? Now long ago they think about death in the afternoon, or for whom the bell tolls. I'm going I'm going to tell you, maybe not very specifically, but close now long ago. I expressed my feelings about Ernest Hemingway on this show, but today those feelings are neither here nor there, right, I will have you know. However, Old Man in the Sea is I think the only required summer high school reading I actually read. The rest were all cliffs notes, and yes, of course it was because it was about fishing. But also it is extremely short, right, is it? It? Is a very short book. Thick ass wuthering heights in Jane are naw dog like I got stockers to catch get time for that right. I was in Advanced English, even though I didn't read the books. Anyway, great, anyway, I was an English major and didn't read the books. You can't even pronounce a nadromus, So that means what happened in Finnegans wake me and nobody else can tell you. So look, I do think though, on the off chance you're not familiar with the story, here's the super cliff notes like crazy cliff notes, what's fasting? It's a guy who doesn't care about books or interesting films and things that an old man heads out to sea to fish. He catches a giant marlin. It's too big to fit in his little rowboats, so he ties it along the side, but then spends the next few days trying to get back to shore as he fends off sharks trying to eat his marlin, and returns, as I recall, with nothing but the head and the tail. So some say this is the story is a metaphor for life. Others say it's a metaphor for Christianity. But it is a classic, right lover hate hemingway, It's a classic. But at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Scotland, the metaphor is apparently too violent, too disturbing for some readers. Um, and I guess. So as not to overwhelm the school counselors or whatever, the university put a content warning on the book, alerting students that it contain quote graphic fishing scenes. Okay, before we get to that, real quick, if you're the listener already crafting an email in your head telling us what your interpretation of the old Man in the Sea is, stop, yeah, send that to Miles Nulty at anyway. Okay, so you brought up what do they think about this, that or the other thing? This is not the first book that the university has added the content warning too. And here's the thing. This, this determination, these warnings are are being figured out by like their historical and literal society, right, So it's not like one guy. Um. Others include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, which the content warning says contains violent murder and cruelty, as well as Romeo and Juliet, which contains quote uh, scenes of stabbing poison and suicide. So that graphic content warning just kind of ruins the entire book if you hadn't read it. You know what I'm saying, Like like you just told me everything that's gonna happen, like you figure out in the beginning of Well, clearly I know exactly what's gonna happen. Anyway. A spokesman for the university said they are doing this so students can make informed choices. Um, And that's great, except I bet most of the choices they make are not to take the old man in the sea out of the library and stay in their dorms, like watching horrible pranks going wrong on TikTok and like people getting blown up on the news. Right, so like we're gonna worry about old man and see. Um. And I'm sorry, but but there's a part like this reeks to me a little bit of like that one kid, Like that one kid that got all offended by something and complained because he thought Frankenstein was gonna be like the lovable goofball he was in Monster Squad. You know what I mean. It was like terribly wrong. Um. Anyway, what are other very smart people saying about the move to add graphic content warnings to classic literature. They're saying that it is extremely dumb. Mary Dearborn, the author of Ernest Hemingway at Biography, said this is nonsense. Oh, I bet you she doesn't have any I bet you she doesn't have any skin in the game. Probably not, She says, this is nonsense. It blows my mind to think students might be encouraged to steer clear of the book. The world is a violent place and it is counterproductive to pretend otherwise. Much of the violence in this story is rooted in the natural world. And she's right, it's it's it is the law of nature. Now here's the here' you're gonna see trigger warnings outside of yellow ste So here's the best part. Jeremy Black, emeritus professor of history at the University of Exeter, added, this is particularly stupid given the dependency of the economy of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland on industries such as commercial fishing and farming. So like, that's kind of the clincher. Like one of the biggest industries in this part of Scotland is freaking commercial fishing. In Santiago, the main character of the book was a commercial fisherman, so not to get off I'm trying not to get off on a ran here, because boy could I. But I'll just tell you, like, this is what bothers me most. And it's not the specific incident or the graphic content warning on one book, but I think it speaks a little bit to the vulnerability of outdoors pursuits in the public eye in general. Right, Like if one organization can decide fishing is worthy of a graphic content warning, is it reasonable to assume And I'm I'm asking this, I'm not stating things like, but is it reasonable to assume that in time like fishing, books or videos could just be labeled to something graphic? You know what I mean? Like if you scoff at that, has it not already happened in hunting? You know? If enough people speak up and say that's wrong, and I don't want to see that suddenly a pastime enjoyed Bible a lot of people can be contained on YouTube or Facebook, you know what I mean. I just want to close by saying I don't think that's going to happen with fishing. I don't think so. But putting the graphic warning on old Man in the sea means that enough people within what you'd assumes an organization of smart people signed off and said, yes, I agree with this decision. We collectively agree there should be a graphic warning about the fishing in a classic Hemingway book. I think it's something to think about. Well, you know they're in like why. I don't know, man, I don't have anything smart to say about this. I wish I did. Dude, did you read The Old Man in the Sea? Yeah? Sure, did? I think that? Um, all right, here's where I think. Take your time if you need to do. We can pause for a second, cut it if you want a noodle on it. No, no, I got it. I think that. Um. I think a lot of time there are things that we are exposed to in life that we don't have the tools to deal with, um, a shocking death, some sort of trauma. I also think that literature is a safe space to be exposed to those traumas in like a nonconsequential wealth put and and at least help you develop the tools you need to navigate things you're gonna come up in life. For instance, when I was a when I was a kid in fifth grade, we read a book called The K. Have you ever read that one? I'm not familiar with that one. Now. It's like it's a like a it's like a little like novella kind of deal. It's like, I I forget if it's like one of those well known books or I mean, I'm sure it's well known. Anyway. The K is about a a little privileged kid who who's I think it's like the boat that his family is on sinks and he's left with this dude I think Timothy is his name, and Timothy is a blackfellow. And this is at a point in time where like racial like tensions are like high in society, right, So, like in a lot of ways as a fifth grader, that was like one of my first exposures to like a a long explication of like the ideas of like racism, and like, you know, it's you understand what I totally do. I totally do that. That was so good. I may have to get filled to put from the arms of the Angel under under what you just did again. I'm just God, don't do it and just let me like I'm letting you anyway, So what is the whole point of kids read books at different stages throughout their life, like that's part, that's part. So I will say that that, you know, twenty something years later, I'm still trying to figure out what the Catcher in the Rye was about. Like I just don't really get it, and I don't want to get off on it. But that was one it was like, Oh, Joey, it just kills me. Man, it just kills me that you don't know that. It's like all this hype, like next year we get to read Catcher in the Rye. I'm like, I don't get it. Anyway, We'll see what what Phil got this week. This should be a good one from Phil based on these two choices of story. And then after him, let's keep it salty. You. I'm gonna do an end of the line on a jig that you actually might be able to catch a Marlin on um or if not, at least a big s tuna. You know, it's been a while and I'm feeling generous today, so I think I'm gonna give the wind to Hayden this week. Congrats. I know we're over halfway through the show and things like this generally go up at the top of something, but I thought I'd go ahead an issue a trigger warning for Bent, you know, just in case there are any discerning listeners out there who could use it. Okay, here we go warning. The Bent podcast contains graphic depictions of two white guys talking behind microphones and engaging in self congratulatory mental masturbation for about sixty minutes, give or take. Also, occasionally a guy named Bob the garbage Man will show up, and Uh, at that point, I don't even know what to warn you about. You're on your own. All bets are off. Well, that's not loud enough. I was twenty two years old, fresh out of college and working at Saltwater Sportsman magazine the first time I ever heard the words butterfly jig spoken. This was two thousand five, and our editor, Dave di Benedetto had just returned from a trip to the Gulf with Shimano where he got a first hand lesson about the jig Shamano claimed would revolutionize saltwater fishing. Now I was intrigued, of course, but not overly so. Why Because at that age I was still glued to striper fishing in the surf. That's what I knew, and more importantly, that's what I could afford, and I hadn't been around long enough to make friends and contacts with boats that could take you off shore locally and actually use a butterfly jig. But I clearly remember Dave being impressed with its performance. It was also the first time American saltwater anglers were introduced to the idea of a system, a marketing strategy Shimano would continue for years to come. So you couldn't just buy the butterfly jig and send it down on your favorite ugly stick paired with the Mitchell three hundred. For the jig to work properly, they said it needed to be paired with their rods and reels specifically designed for butterfly jigging. At the time I scoffed the idea to fish Laura, I had to spend hundreds more on your rod and reel. And I wasn't the only one that felt this way, nor was I the only one that questioned the productivity of this whole deal. Yes, Dave had caught some red snappers and groupers, as I recall, but as a giant blue fin tuna or yellow fin tuna really gonna eat that little chunk of metal, and if it does, with that little chunk of metal be able to hang on long enough to land it. If you take the design it face value, you can see why an offshore angler may have been skeptical back in the day. Butterfly jigs are thin profile, heavy jigs, some wider and some extremely thin. Whereas the metal jigs we were familiar with prior to two thousand five featured a single or treble hook dangling at the bottom, butterfly jigs came with assist hooks, something US anglers were not familiar with at all. Assist hooks are heavy gage single hooks tied or crimp to each end of a very heavy piece of braided line or dacron, which is then looped onto a solid steel ring. There are several configurations of assist hooks, but regardless of the style, that ring they're tied to is attached to the heavy duty split ring on the top of the jig, not the bottom, dangling freely as the jig does its thing. Now, that thing is sort of a walk the dog action like you'd see from a top water spook, only it's achieved in a completely vertical orientation by pumping and reeling simultaneously at a fast pace, thus giving birth to the now very common term high speed jigging. What was a revolutionary concept here had been common in Japan for more than a decade before butterflies hit tackle shop shells. It's no secret that many of the lures and tackle pieces we use routinely today were developed by the Japanese first. But in many ways, the butterfly jig had as much to do with catching more fish as it did simple efficiency. The Japanese love their fish right, and they want as many in the boat as possible, as fast as possible. Now, if you think about a traditional metal jake like a Hopkins or a cast Master, your line is connected directly to one end of the loure and the hook is connected to the bottom of the loure. Any pressure you put on the line is pulling directly against the heavy metal, and as the lore flops around during the fight, the way to the lord itself can in fact dislodge the hook. The Japanese figured out that assist hooks provide a better connection from the rod directly to the hook instead of the loure, thus reducing fish laws. They also figured out that by reducing the weight of their rods and reels while simultaneously making them stronger. They could actually put more heat on the fish and land them much faster. To do that, of course, to make that kind of tackle, you end up creating much more expensive rods and reels, which is why back in two thousand five so many people said, yeah, okay, Shimano whatever. Fast forward to today, and high speed jigging is a part of the vernacular of salty anglers on every coast in the United States. Matter of fact, it's so yesterday's news that now Shimano is leading the charge in the other direction with slow pitch jigging, because if you think fast was cool, wait, un do you see what happens when you pump the brakes. But anyway, that's a whole other end of the line segment. These days, high speed butterfly jigs are produced by hundreds of companies and price ranges to fit almost any budget. Light jigging rods that have the backbone to beat big tuna are found in every tackle shop from variety of makers to almost fit any budget as well. Since first here about butterfly jigs way back when I was the saltwater sports been intern I've gotten used them a lot for everything from golf snappers, two keys, amberjacks to Jersey tuna, but I don't think I'll ever forget my first connection with one. It was during a Bluefin run a few years later, after Butterflies hit the scene, and the buddy whose boat I was on and who had a lot more money than me at the time, was the kind of guy that liked to stock his sled with the latest and greatest. So when we came over a pile of marks, he handed me a butterfly rod and said drop it. Now. I've never used one before, so he said, just real fast and pump. At the same time, I was trying to say like this, but only got out like before. It felt like I had snagged the Titanic. It was one of the most impressive dead stop rod bending hits I'd ever felt, and it is a very addicting kind of hit. It's the brown trout crumpling the streamer on steroids. It's the bass annihilating the frog times ten. And if you've never experienced a high speed jig hit man, you really should. And I will now be putting high speed jigging on my list of things to do. You know, I I don't really think it's it's translated over to sweetwater at least not the exact SAMEE presentation. But you you could scale it down like I don't see why it wouldn't work for things like lakers and pike through the ice. The one thing about high speed is that it is designed for fish that are not messing around. I mean, they can't be like nippers, like they gotta be ready to just trash the thing. It's time to start prototyping up some micro butterfly jigs that could Yeah, there you go, that could be the next big thing. Man, Just scale it down anyway. Um, that was a great back story on a modern lure that has a stronghold in the saltwater scene. But we're going to discuss another one that has kind of taken over in the bast scene. Joining us on the bent Helpline today is none other than the aforementioned Mike I canelli to wait has made fun of way In on this bait and whether it's knocked another classic out of favor. What do you laughing at, Mark Deiny? You're not an idiot, You're not a damn loony. How Moore, you're a fisherman ever best what's your emergency? So joining us today for the ben helpline? How about this for help? How about Mike? I canelli to help with the bass fishing question? What are the odds? Right? So? Who who is the lucky listener? That is Kyle Alston who sent this question in? And I gotta admit I've been sitting on it because, like I told Mike, I could kind a weigh in on this, but not nearly as good as as he can. I don't think you know, I'm gonna offer quite as much perspective. So Mike, how you doing? Man? We all, as always we appreciate you being here doing great, great, cool cool. So I'm very curious to to get your take on this. It's a it's a simple question, maybe with a complex answer, and maybe you might disagree with it. So this is what Kyle writes He's as growing up, I swear all my dad would ever throw for bass was a spinner bait. Therefore I used to throw a lot of spinner baits too, he says. I try to stay up on modern bass tactics, and I feel like, for the most part, people just don't talk much about spinner baits anymore. Have they become obsolete? I still catch fish on them, but it seems like chatter baits get a lot more love. Yeah. Well, I'm gonna let you go first, because you know you're Mike. I can so I can tell you this, Kyle, that was a great question. It really is a good question. And um, fishing trends, fishing lores. It's a lot like fashion. I always like to convert it to fashion. My wife would be happy I'm saying this right now. Things come in and out of style a lot. Right if you look at fashion, Joe, come on, you remember where parachute pants? Don't you? Zoo Baz? Do you remember zoob Yeah with the zebra stripes. Yeah yeah, yeah, stuff is out. But whether we want admit it or not, it's gonna come back a style a little bit. Uh. Well, yeah, Hayden wears them. Now they come back. Hayden's got him on right now. That's but I really think the same is true for the spinner bait. You know, the spinner bait has definitely lost favor to other trending techniques. And I would say the chatter bait vibration jig for sure is something that has pushed the spinner bait out, But the spinner bait is so important to me, and I'm serious. It's always tied on one rod in my rod ocker at all times, and that that's I'm talking about, super dirty, muddy, water stained, crystal clear, fifty degree pre spawn to heat of the summer eighty degree water temperature. It's always tied on. And the one thing that a spinner bait does is it is the perfect lore for a combination of flash and vibration together. So you know, if we were just looking for vibration, chatter bait might be a better bait. If we were just looking for flash, a jerk bait or a spoon might be a better bait. But that spinner bait is the perfect combination of both of those attributes. And to me, it's the original Alabama ray right. It's when you look at that spinner bait, it looks like a little school of bait fish coming through the water. You add that to the safety pin design of a spinner bait and you could throw it anywhere. Just to give you a real quick example that a chatter bait. I love a chatter bait. Don't be throwing a chatter bait, no stumps and would because you're gonna be hung up with that john every five seconds. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah. But the spinner bait by design, right that wire is it the fleck tour to the bait, and it stops it from getting snagged on wood, rock, even grass. Um, it's a terrific bait. So my answer to that is, don't get rid of your spinner bait anytime soon. It's still a really good bait. The main thing I would say is the blades are the most important thing on a spinner bait. And if you want more vibration, you go to a Colorado. If you want more flash, you go to a willow. If you want something that sits right in the middle, you fish in Indiana style blade right on, right on, now'll see. I would also say, even though I know there's some very very well made spinner baits out there, chatter baits aren't cheap, but you can still get them like two job or spinner baits at the Walmart, you know what I mean. So like if if you if you lose a few of them, you don't really care. Um, dude, I I have, I have not much more to add to that other than I agreed with the question that I feel the same way like snakehead fishing and stuff. Everybody's got chatter baits, chatter baitch chatterbaitch chatter baits, and like nobody seems to be throwing a spinner bait anymore. But they're as they're definitely not obsolete, so that's the wrong way to to think of it. So just not fashionable. They're not fashionable at the moment, but they're still just as good. Well appreciate that. Mike um Kyle, you just got your question answered by Mike. I can elly. If you have a question that you want answered, keep firing them off to us at Bent at the Meat Eater dot com and maybe we can help you out. So that's it for this week. Big thanks again to Ike for dropping by with some knowledge and clarity about spinner bates. Also to every charter guide, you are welcome for the giant no reeling the swivel into the tip guide p s A yeah, and if you happen to have a shot of yourself just after losing a fish to a chip guide, please be sure to post it using the Degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags. Likewise, if you've got an awkward photo, send it to Bent at the Meat eatar dot com, along with any Saleman items, bar nominations, questions, or news clips you want us to read. That is right. And finally, kids, do Dad a favor and learn the clinch not he brought you into this world. It's the least you can do. You haven't gotten a job, clean the garage, or finished your first college, I say yet, so at least, given the satisfaction of knowing you can tie on a rooster tail