00:00:06 Speaker 1: Which may may have led to the officer informare a listener that he himself was just listening to the Bent podcast in his patrol car. She did a big hard whip down with a rod and spun the hopper up, and I turned around and he had it pinned like a hitler must have in his upper lip. And then, um, we're gonna do a sale bin that. That brings to mind one of my favorite hip hop songs, Pistol Grip Pump, which is on my lap at all times. Cops listen to this good morning to generate anglers, and welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast that really hates golf but has a hard time denying the similarities between it and angling. I'm Joe, Sir Melie, and I'm hating samac and I'm failing to like see the connection beyond people like feeling the need to wear various like logo wear in order to in like flex on the folks around him. That's a You're not wrong, that's that's correct. Uh yeah, but I'm you know, I'm leaning into the analogy a bit today because, um, of a few listener messages that I've gotten recently, one of which we're actually gonna touch on in the bent helpline later, but but the gist of them is this, Right, people often want to know what is the one rod and reel you need to do everything? And my my answer is always, um, you can have one rod and reel that will do a lot, but not everything. And that's sort of part of the golf tie in. Right. Conversely, whenever somebody looks in my garage at all my rods and says, like, what the hell do you need that many rods for, my answer is because you don't play team holes of golf with with nothing but a driver, right, you could, but are you going to be as effective? No, you're not. Yeah, but you don't do them all in one day. I get what you're saying, but I also like sympathize with the mindset of a beginner because you have to start somewhere, and like, if there's like one thing that you ought not to do when you get into a hobby is just like blow your entire budget for like next four years on a bunch of stuff that like you're gonna use one time or whatever. Like I remember when I first started out, man, I bought like a seven weight steel head rod, ended up using it a lot, But like there was absolutely like a scenario before I could drive and I had that rod where it was like time to break out the steel head rod that I could have just rented from the shop. You're right, you're right, right, and and and I think that that is true, like everybody does have to start somewhere. But I think the broader thing I'm trying to say here is is as you grow as a fisherman, it's important to develop sort of like a sense of of like the system and the weights and measures that that that at play here to really be effective. And and for like a lot of non devout anglers, like dabblers, I think there's a sense that I just need a rod in reel some tenttown tests and I'm good, And you are good if you're okay always staying in the parameters that year right, Like you know, I look at it like, you know, if you just want to stay at the driving range that's where you're happiest, then cool, it's all it's all good, you know what I mean. Yeah, So I I get that like fishing and pocket water is like putting or like I don't know that you need the right club to be effective there. Yeah. Another I hate this metaphor so much it's funny because I hate golf anyway. Um. But another analogy I can draw though, is the idea of like a golf bag. And I'm not a crazy large amounth fisherman, but I have been lucky enough to fish with a few large amounth pros over the years. And those guys are straight up, man, they are golfing on the water right. They have all their clubs laid out and they chip here and put there and drive here. And I have adopted that method hardcore. It's like my one takeaway from fishing with some pro bass guys. It is extremely rare for me to go out fishing and only carry one rod. Three is more like it, because I want to have a Senko or whatever on one, and a poper on this one, a jerk bait on on this one, and they might all have different lines and leaders and actions, but for the sake of efficiency in covering water, I don't want to retie three times at one hole, you know what I mean? Like, I just want to cover it and move along. Yeah, I mean, like I get that out of a boat. But isn't that like a total pain in the ask to carry three rods. I mean, well, I'm phrasing like a question. What I mean is it's a total pain in the ask to carry three rods. It can be, right, not usually, like you said, on a boat, no issue at all, dude. Like i go out of my my little drift boat and I've got like thirteen rods jammed down the sides. Um And for most bank fishing, if you're just working a bank, it's not that big a deal either. But the only time I'll have one rod usually is if I'm waiting and I know I'll be in the water most of the time, like summer smally waiting, I put the bare essentials in one chest pack or hip pack or whatever and wade with one rod because I will be in the stream most of the time. Otherwise, I don't find it that that inconvenient. Yeah, I mean, like that's more my style. In fact, what I do a lot when I'm like trout fishing is I'll have one rod that's not exactly what I want for everything, right, But then I'll have like a couple of reels with like different spools on them, right, So I'll go out and I'll if I wanted to like trout fish, I'm eurim thing right, I'll have my like euro set up, but in my in my bag, I'll have like a wait forward floating all spooled up so that way, if it's too windy I want to fish an indicator, I can move over to that. Or if I see a little dry fly action it's not perfect for it, but it's like good enough. Um, but this all goes to, Uh, this is leading me to the point that not all of us can afford an arsenal of rods Joe. Not all of us are, at least of all you, I understand. I'm just look, look all I'm doing here. I'm just passing along an approach, right, It's just something to think about, That's all. I do. Believe that efficiency and maximum time with a line in the water catches the most fish, right, regardless of species, regardless of what you're doing. Um, I think you know efficiency and keeping lines in like you, you should train yourself to maximize that also, regardless of your budget. Our sponsor thirteen Fishing at least has a lure anyone can afford for pretty much any species. Well. Um, but I'll also point out that as far as like high quality, budget friendly like outfits like that's also something that thirteen fishing is good for. So you bought up wet waiting Smalley's that's something I want to do more of. What, um, what would your ideal outfit look like? For that ideal outfit for that, that's what's in my pack. Well, okay, so I'm not gonna go through the entire pack, but I do I will whittle that down. We're just talking, folks. That's that's where the general to my small fac right. Yeah, uh from thirteen the first and foremost for that, the whipper snapper that is like the smallest jerk bait that they make, um perfect for moving water, and the model that dives three to five feet is might go to. This would also come in very handy for trout. Of course. It's one of those baits like you barely touch the line, like you just barely snap it and it darts all over the place. And in terms of an outfit like anything in that like six and a half to I don't know, you know, maybe seven foot um light or ultra light range for summertime waiting, you know, ten pound braid, something like that travel light, one little spool of eight pound floral leader, and it looks like he's packing out and elk with all the ship he has in his bag. Now it's you would think that, And there was a time in my life when that was true. Miles and I talked about that a long time ago. How like you're seventeen and you have more you know what it's like? Four fly two is poking out of your backpack and like one spinning rod in your belt and one in your hands. Now not anymore. I do like I do like your small mouth set up recommendations, and I will be uh. I I never sent out that email to thirteen that I promised I was going to send out last week, So oh man, I'll have to be uh. I'll have to be tacking that onto my order. Good good anyway, So let's we'll do this. Well, let's switch off conventional must haves for a minute, um and talk about flying must have, particularly if you tie your own bugs. I've always got bucktail on hand. Rabbit strips, those are a must, right, But if you ever tied with raccoon? Um? Have I ever died with raccoon? Um? You know? No, the clothes I've ever gotten to tying with raccoon? Is I used to tie with a dubbing from I think like an Australian possum. Okay, I'm sure that they're they're similar. Probably both only come out at night. Anyway, if you need some raccoon and guide. If you need some, perhaps our friend and guide Bart Land where it can help and he'll tell you where his supply came from in this week's Smooth Move segment. Why Why So, I'm very excited today for our Smooth Moves guests. Some of you might remember Tim landword of of Tight Lines uh Fly Fishing company out there in in Wisconsin. Um, he's not here, even though he's he's done several segments and and co hosted the show. We have we have his cousin to start by introducing. So we have his cousin Land Where. And I'm going to give you bart a few seconds to explain why you are the better land where? Why are you the better land where than Tim Land? Work? Well? Smarter for sure, okay, obviously better looking. I can vouch for that. You are a good looking man. Yeah. On a fishy level, I might be a little bit fisher than him. I'm not sure better keg stand you were Tim land work. He's got a problem. Okay, all right, we won't we and dragging? Kidding? Of course I got to hang out with bart um the same time I hung out with him, and we were filming dost Boat season two up on the man Nominee River. Um, and you know we we I said, we had Tim on and he's always been like, man, you gotta call bart because if you need smooth moves like, he's got some up stories. I think that's exactly how he put it. So, um yeah, man, Just so I know how long Tim has been goting, how long you've been goting? How long have you been in the game? Uh the year twenty one? I think twenty one years? Okay, all right, So I'm just gonna give you the floor man. And and I've drank with both. I've drank with you in a garage, which was fun. It was like the one eight on the video shoot. We drank too much and then couldn't like we didn't. We were not as functional the next day as we should have been. Um, but I'm gonna give you the floor. Dude, hit it hit us with a smooth move. The w t f moment from twenty one years guiding that sticks out the most, All right, sticks out the most. I've got a lot of stories, but I'm trying to think of on that would be a little different. Yeah, And the one I came up with was a trip I took god Is, probably ten years ago with a couple who were an older couple from Chicago, very urban people love the idea of the outdoors, love the idea of nature, and they wanted to see that just didn't really experience it much or know anything about. They didn't know as much about it as it really is. Right, So they come up for the day and they want to see the most beautiful part of the river and they want to see all this great stuff and catch fish. So I set it up. We have a perfect where where is this Wisconsin? So I took him to a spot on the river that is not developed at all. There's no cabins. It dials up, you guys. It's a perfect like seventy eight degree day, no wind, perfect smallmouth weather, little humid. So we start off and everything is. They're enjoying the hell out of it. We've got perfect weather, we've got happy fish. We see a deer early. You know, everything's great, We're having the best time, and I'm literally looking for anything Flora fun and related I can show them to give him a piece of the great Northern experience. Right, is that because you questioned whether they'd actually be able to catch the fish? Yeah, you have that, And and they weren't stellar, but they were hard workers and we were having a great time and the super nice people and everything was Remember Caddy Shack, Remember the old Caddy shack that go golfing and everything is the greatest. And that's a peach hun and the husband life. That's who they reminded me of, right, because everything she did he would compliment her, and vice versa and ad nauseam. Right, but we're still having a great time. It's a lot nicer than the alter. So I'm enjoyed by samm Gladys. Right. So like midway through the morning, I'm a quarter of the way into the float and there's no one around. It's perfect day. And I started hearing a dog barking. So there's some bends coming in the river, and I figure we're gonna make a bend and we're gonna have someone with a canoe and their dog, or they're on the river hanging out. So we're talking, oh, somebody must be up here. We make this bend and I'm here in the barking intensifying, I can't see a dog, so I'm kind of now they're fishing. I'm watching river right and the river has come down. It's early August, mid August maybe, and the root wads on the base of the trees are kind of all exposed on the river bank, and all of a sudden, I see the back end of a dog that's hung up in this root ball and barking its head off. So you're trying to figure out what the hell is going on right now. So I'm thinking, all right, something's wrong with this dog. Is he called as he hung up? Is he in distress? They're asking me questions that I can't answer, So I'm like, all right, guys, check it out. We're gonna reel up and we're gonna roll over and see what's going on. And they go cool. So they reel up their stuff, and I start kind of pushing rolling over to this dog and as I'm approaching, he's just intensely barking under this tree, and I'm starting to question whether or not he's stuck. As we get over there, I'm close. Now he's not stuck. He's underneath this blowdown, and another dog appears on the bank. The second dog is a home with a big whip antenna on his neck. Well in Wisconsin, late July and early August, the bear hunters, they run their dogs. But what they found and we're interested in, was about to happen right in front of us. At about twenty I can't get away from it, and the one dog and the other dog dive in and they come out with a raccoon and proceed to eviscerated from us. So this is a two minute not even this is probably forty seconds, but it feels like an hour and a half. It's blood hair, snarling, squealing, screaming, and they stop. One of them looks over at me and starts where I can his tail kind of comes up, smells the boat. The other one's happy as a clam. Meanwhile, there's a raccoon in its death throws rolling in the shallows, and every time it comes up it's making noise and going back up is dying. And at this moment, what what if you had to imitate this noise. What would it be. I'm not doing that, come on, because think are a really nasty, bad noise. So I'm just watching what's unfolding in front of me, and I'm like, okay, dogs and they bounce away, they're gone, and here's this raccoon dying yet the water's got blood in it. And then I realized I got people with me, and I look up and they are pale, speechless. The wife's mouth is a gape, obviously, and I don't even what the hell do you say to him? And I go, uh, for lunch, that's what you know, you guys, ready for a sandwich. So I'm like, well, um, that's the reality of nature. Some ship you say, you don't know what to say a right? So as I started to bite my oars in to pull off the bank and leave the situation, the woman goes, is that another one? And I look up on the bank. There was like four little rulings that were with mom and they must all been in there, and the dogs killed them all. It was awful and I'm not messing around you, guys. It was like lunchtime right there. Lunch brots right here, guys, let's go out of sand much the reality of nature, folks, Well, it is the reality of nature, except that the dogs weren't really like wild It wasn't like wild animal. Well it was kind of manufactured, you know. So how so did they eat their lunch or just have like one bite or just sort of poke around the tuna sandwich or it was the rest of the day it was quiet. People were have been concerned with what they'd experienced. And I'll tell you I do have the backup end of that stories. Right out of lunch, we came out and we got going again, and the weather's nice, and that raccoon is dead along behind us, and the fishing actually got pretty damn good. Right, Yeah, things were hungry. So we were fishing hopper patterns, first of all, mouth and they were crushing, and the lady was in the front of the boat and she could not hook fish. And her husband, who was so flattering to her all day, it became an annoyance to her because he was, oh, you get him next time, and he kept hooking up. And at one point, and I don't know if it was because the raccoon had a little miffed and upset and everything, but she had a fish come up after about the tenth miss fish, and she did a big hard whip down with a rod and spun the hopper up and I heard him squirrel behind me, and I turned around and he had it pinned like a Hitler mustache in his upper lip. So I just turned around before he could do anything. He said, don't wait, and I just put my hand in his face and took it out right away. Wow, man, that was a two. That was a two fur right there. Yeah. Do you know what he reminds me? A man? Like One of the many times I've ever seen like dog led destruction like that was it was like early spring, and uh, we were doing like some like yard work around my house and my mother is in like this like front garden that we have. There's like me, my dad. You know, we're like in bad because my brother and my mom they were in front. Comes around all exide, you know, the dogs running around, and she comes out, come, look, come, look, there are baby rabbits. By the time we got there in her absence, the dog went right over and just destroyed the entire net. Had similar things happen, and also like do you know, like if a baby rabbit is sick or something I think like the mom will actually eat it to get rid of it. I did not know that. Like I've had baby rabbits in the yard, and like there'd be like one all of a sudden one day, like one's not there and it's just like eaten in half, but like nibbles, tiny nibbles. It was the rabbits. Rabbits. You might want to qualify that one a little. This ship just got all really weird, ben listeners, do mother rabbits eat their babies if one of them is sick? And like can't? I don't. I don't know anyway, did those people come back? They happen back? Good? Do they do? They? Are they on guard now for the nature? Do they still love the nature as much as they thought they did? I think they understand nature a little bit more so. How do you like that one? Meat eaters this role? That's what that was? Anyway? Huge thanks to Bart for sharing that one. He's just out there hammering small jaws and scaring old people for life. So well, in case you haven't had enough carnage, sit back and listen to Joe and I tear each other to pieces in the Virtual Raptor Paddock. We like to call fish news fish news. That escalated quickly. So here's a little fun shout out caveat being. We're gonna exclude names and states as a matter of protection, which and this is the first on Ben, but it's all gonna make sense because we need not call anyone out for fear of judgment nor getting anyone in trouble. And I would like to point out that I I whatever Joe was about to like drop on y'all. I'm not proving to it now. This came through Instagram, but I got I got this note from a listener on Instagram who told me he may or may not have gotten pulled over recently on his way home from a fishing trip, and he may or may not have have recently partaken uh in the consumption of we'll say CBD products if you catch what's swirling around in my bond water. And since we're not talking about the gummies here, there may or may not have been a noticeable odor in his vehicle which the officer that pulled him over smelled. Anyway, the officer may or may not have noticed the fishing gear in the car, which may or may not have quickly morphed the convo from CBD products to local fishing, which may may have led to the officer in form are a listener that he himself was just listening to the Bent podcast in his patrol car. Cops listen to this, maybe this could be a hypothetical situation. All of this may have led to our dear listener getting off the hook. So what he asked me to do was shout out the officer by name, which I will not. Like, No, that isn't going to happen. I'm not even saying he really exists. But if he does, officer, you're cool, and it just goes to show you, um Bent fishing or like PBA cards sometimes. So that story, I I enjoyed that story. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. That's hilarious. I can't believe like police officers listened to this show like that is just like one. I don't know why. I mean, I guess it makes as much sense as anybody fish, dude. I know it would be like, you know, like I would be equally surprised if like a doctor or like a a fireman, or like just just somebody. But you know, it seems like once you have like a I don't know. There's just something about a police officer listening to this that just seems like I think. I think it's because the whole degenerate angler thing, because like cops are supposed to be like very generate, well put, well put anyway, listen, no judgment for either party. Uh. If this hypothetical officer is listening and wanted to, I don't know, send some p BA cards since you've kind of been shouted out, that would be cool anyway. Uh, yeah, I won't hold out hope for that. So let's ufore we move on, let's knock out conservation minutes real quick here. Um, here's what I got. Okay, Cross Louisiana scientists are finding non lethal ways to collect information about spotted and alligator gar tro Yeah, to assess the overall health of floodplains and habitats. The guard provides samples for isotope analysis. However, historically collecting those has been lethal teams who relied on muscled issue and stomach contents. Interesting. Man, Interesting. I'm about to talk later where I guess my lead off. I'm going to talk about a non leafal uh science based fishing thing thing right anyway, Sorry, so I didn't, no, no, no. So now these research teams from Austin, Texas and Nickel State University have devised a way to gather the same info with just small fin clips, which means more healthy gar to eat your carp chunks or um for someone to just shoot in the head with an arrow and collect zero data. Either way, more guard for everybody. So for my conservation minutes, um, we are going to talk about not live fish, but dead fish. A fish kill in Mobile, Alabama has been reported. Is it mobile or mobile? I've heard it said both ways. I say, is my leg I always mobile? But then somebody from there is gonna be like it's mobile, you know, like you can't win, you can't win people us Well, the red drum are stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again anyway. In Mobile, Alabama, a large fish kill was reported. A video shot by charter boat captain Blake Crap Mike Mikailski Milk I'm gonna go with Mikaelski showed hundreds of dead red drum along a tideline in the mouth of Mobile Bay, heading towards Sand Island Lighthouse. UH though an immediate cause is not clear, scientists aren't particularly worried about long term impacts, as the incident seems to be relatively isolated. The source of the kill is not clear, as a likely cause had already dissipated by the time scientists got to the scene. Um, this fish kill is unique in that most of the time, fish kills are only detected as fish wish up on shore. This one, however, was discovered in open water. Anyhow, if you have any information on this, go ahead and uh talk to uh some fascinating Alabama I know they. I know they recently had a nasty cold swing down there, but I don't think it was long enough like the one last year in Texas to to do that. So who knows. Anyway, Alright, minutes have been conserved now for the blood baths. Remember this is a competition. Hayden and I do not know which main story the other fellows bringing to the table. At the end, our audio engineer Phil, we'll take a fin clip from each of us to determine which guy spent more than ten minutes looking for his story. Uh, as you've already pointed out, it's your lead man, So what do you got? Okay, So today on Fish News, I'm going to talk about something I'm totally qualified to share my thoughts and report on neuroscience. Oh good, Yeah, anyway, this comes to us from interesting engineering dot Com, as well as a press release from USC and that's University of Southern California. To that, researchers at USC have for the first time observed memories forming in a living animal. And guess what kind of animal that was? Joe, h it was? I know because I almost grabbed this. It's like a zebra h sounds a fish. You're not supposed to, like tell him the whole why. I just told him it's a zebra fish. That's what they always do. It's for the banner, Joe. Anyway, Yeah, it was a fish, because this is a fishing podcast and this is fish news, and as Joe pointed out, as a zebra fish. Anyway, Yeah, scientists capture the first ever snapshot at for memory being formed in a living animal by harassing larval zebrafish with laser beams. But before you get to that, let's talk about zebrafish as model organisms. Uy, tank fish. I'll tell you that they're very boring and they fade. The stripes fade. It's like then it's just like a minnow, you know. Yeah, Well, anyway, a model organism, not to be just totally derailed by Joe's feelings on zebra fish's tank. Fish UH is a non human species study to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Zebrafish happen to make particularly good model organisms. I think that's like my fifth particularly in this UH episode of fish News. Anyway, being that they're you know, the zebra fish is easily modifiable, they develop outside the womb, which is useful in observing that stage of organism development, and they breed more prolifically than like mice, for example, So there's a lot of them in there, you know. Anyway. Uh. The other thing about them is they're basically see through, which makes them particularly that's number six, useful for making observations of their on their vascular and nervous systems. Oh, this is great. This particular story is rooted in the ladder. Dude, I was writing horribly this week, Okay, onto harassing GMO zebrafish with laser beams, scientists at USC you wanted to learn and about the ways memories were formed and what physiological changes occurred during that process. What they did was they exposed a twelve day old zebrafish to a light source, which is a fancy way of saying they turned on a light. Then they heated the little zebra fish up with an infrared laser, which the little fish found uncomfortable, at which point they would try to swim away to avoid the laser. The scientists trained the fish for five hours until the fish had learned that when the light comes on, the laser beam is closed behind it. Eventually, the fish would shake their little tails when the light came on, meaning they knew the laser beam was coming, meaning that they learned, meaning that they developed a memory. Uh uh okay uh. This was documented importantly with a special way of imaging their brains. A problem with this kind of like micro imaging. I don't know what the real term is, obviously, like my my comment about this being something I'm well versed into the top of news was made in jest, but anyway, the problem with this type of imagery is that the scientists would often kill the fish with the photons used to generate it um. Using a special microscope, they were able to observe live fish, which was previously impossible. You you pretty much had like one before or after. Right, it was like here's the fish and was alive, here's the fish being dead. Um. Now you can have like a like a a linear before and after progression. And actually thinking about it, probably what you had was you had fish that were exposed to this thing, and we're not exposed to this thing, and like not being the same fish. One live fish, one dead fish, and you try to parse the difference anyhow. Uh. Using that special microscope and looking at living zebra fish and their little fish brain, scientists discovered something interesting that instead of a synaps is being strengthened during the making of the memory, what actually happened is that some synapsis is, some synapsi snaps and snapsis. As a some disappeared while others were generated elsewhere in the brain, leaving scientists to a completely new understanding of how a memory is formed. For the last forty years, and this is a quote, for the last forty years, the common wisdom was that you learned by changing the strength of synapsis is snapses but it's just synapses. I know, man, I know, it's just a tough word. Man, sit down and let me finish the new story. But that's not what we found in this case, said Carl Kesselman, a computer scientist at us cry USCRBY. I don't know either, Uh, thanks Joe. Anyhow, scientists think this research could mean big progression in uh, in the understanding of things like PTSD and why uh and why those unpleasant associative memories seem so strong? So yeah, yeah, I mean it's a very cool study and it's very cool technology, but I think I'm gonna I have no choice but to strip it down to a more like fishing base level. I think, um, what, Well, what this proves, right is that fish have memories. And we all kind of knew that, right, but I mean, there it is right in front of you. I mean, this study literally watched a memory form in tiny fish. So like everybody gets hung up on conditioning and pressure and it's like, oh, we're all chasing these things with these ted little brains and yeah, but I mean there's sort of proof in the pudding that, um, you know, fish are are are smarter than we think. And what I looked at this story briefly. I didn't grab it, thank god, because we would have crossed over. But um, what came to mind was literally just this past weekend, I took my son out fishing for a little while, and there was this pond that I found in this park where I was looking for mushrooms last spring. Did not know it existed, right, And I just kind of like tucked it away in the back of my mind. And it's a cheesy little pond with benches and stuff around it, and I just rolled in there with like a bunch of worms and and bobbers for him and dude. When I walked up to that water and looked in, I was like, oh my god, there are like thousands of the biggest dinner plate bluegills I have ever seen in my life swimming around these shallows, and this is going to be an absolute slaughter. And every single bit of worm that went in that water, they would rush it, stare at it, and turn around and swim away. Bluegills we're talking about here, which tells me these fish get the living ship pounded out of them, like they are too exposed. And too many people roll up to this tiny little park pond and like, yeah, like to get one to eat, I had to like take the bobber off and like fly cast with two pound tests and like make sure the hook was hidden. And it was completely no fun for my son because he just wants to catch the bomber and have it go under. But point being like those fish have learned something and retain something, So if nothing else, this story proves that fish do have memories of the bubblegum pink Sanko. You insist on throwing and don't understand why it doesn't work anymore. Please enter your password. You have one unheard message. Hey Joe, Hey Hayden, just figured i'd give you a call. I've got a little bone to pick with you two, and I'm actually speaking for Set as well. We do not catch, just just time to drink a little wall eye here. We're catching mainly giants. Like last year in Fort pac Man we caught when I was purt near twelve pounds. Anyways, screw you guys, Wally are great. End of message, delete press seven save deleted. We actually have um man. There's a lot of common threads between our stories today, UH, mostly that they are dealing with uh small fish and technology that neither you or I truly understand. But I'm gonna go with anyway because I found this interesting. Um. I think we all pretty much know what radio tagging or acoustic tagging is. Uh. It's pretty common in fisheries research these days, but much of it is focused on larger Well, okay for those of us that doesn't need a quick version. You implant a a tag that emits a signal on either the inside or outside of a fish, and that that transmits data about where the fish swims and how deep it dives and all that good stuff back to a satellite or whatever, and then we collect the data on our lapity topities. Uh. Most notably, you can you can, actually anybody can hop online and track great white sharks all over the world that have been tagged. Um, do it every time I go swimming. Yeah right, yeah, yeah, you look first exactly. Uh. I remember a long time ago we reported on how there was a sports book being created where you could like bet on where the sharks would pop up. Anyway, forget about the great whites, and we're gonna talk about little itty bitty salmon. A team from the Pacific Northwest National laboratory has developed acoustic tags smaller than a grain of rice, which is pretty impressive, and they've been implanting them in juvenile chinook salmon throughout the Pacific Northwest. I love like grain of rice as a standard unit of measuring. Yeah, but very expensive Bosmati ship you get in whole foods. I mean it's a long grain alright, Seroni is delicious anyway. Uh, So there's a very specific purpose for this um. And then similar to the research in your story, right, this can be useful all over the world. It's not, it's not focused just on this one thing. But the Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System collects the data from these tags to study how juvenile salmon running back down stream to the ocean modify their behavior as they approach a dam, and then how they navigate through those dams. So praer the story from op b dot org. Uh. Juvenile salmon generally have four options where they encounter or damn. Right, they can use the specially designed juvenile Fish Bypass system in place on dams throughout the Pacific Northwest. They can run the gauntlet and go right through the turbines. They can plummet over the spill way or go over the less harsh surface spill way, and that last one there, as I understand, it means that the water is spilling, if this makes sense, at the same surface level as the water behind it versus the regular spill way, where the fish would sort of have to like fall down a few flights of stairs and then get spit out the other side. It's like jumping off a cliff or falling down an escalator and then falling off a slightly shorter cliff. So those are kind of the difference. It's like one shot or a little torture on the way. Anyway, It goes without saying that the information on how the majority of these fish are getting through the dam is valuable. As the story points out, collecting this kind of data to prove, you know, or disprove different hypothesis without acoustic tags would take a very long time to be very costly. They note that these tags can be implanted in baby salmon very quickly with little stress, in most cases, with just one or two suitures. So as the fish approached the damn, scientists collect information on um where the fish are swimming, how long it takes them to pass through the dam, which route they're following, and if they survive. So I'm curious any guests from you on on which of those options the fish take most of the time through the dam, whether it be the built in salmon bypass, the uh steep fall, or the short tumultuous fall or right through the turbines UM six to seventy maybe of like the young salmon pass over the tops of damns through surface spills. What did you just google that? Because that's like the next thing that I'm going to say. You just cheat it somehow because you're a dick. Yes, that's for ruining my guests earlier, Joe. So far, the studies have found the young salmon pass over the tops through the surface spills, meaning the spillway that's spilling from the same level as the water behind it. UM. So the direct dive off the cliff instead of falling down some stairs first is the main way. And while that sounds harsh, the acoustic tags are also proving that most of those salmon survived that drop, they are doing well on the other side. So if you think about this UM, that means in this case less than half of the fish are using the special bypass hamster mays put in place for them to use, which I suppose begs the question of of do you actually need those or do you just top spill more? Um, there's no answer right now, but these are the kinds of questions the study hopes to answer and apply to damns the world over for all different species of fish. Damn, that's a good news story, Joe, Damn, is it not? M hm? You know what, like my favorite but oft unheralded version of of fish transportation is what is that? I'm a fan of the salmon cannon. Man, you ever see that the salmon cannon? Yeah, I've seen the salmon cannon. Salmon cannon is pretty good. I mean, if you guys don't know what like the salmon cannon is. Basically it's like I don't know, actually like the actual like prevalence of biologists transporting salmon in that way. But it's basically like they load it's like a man gun. They just swim in And no, that's not quite like that. The funnier the biologist load these uh you know, these salmon up into what appears to be like flexible piping, and like they kind of go through this vacuum system. And they even like have videos of these things being backlet where you can see like just this perfect silhouette of a salmon like snaking through this like large rubber pipe. Anyhow, it takes them from one spot, puts them in another spot. And I don't know if you have you ever seen like those videos of that being slight spliced to like somebody getting hit in the hitting the side of the head with an Asian carp. Oh, yeah, yeah, it's it's it's it's TikTok just got all over that. You know, the technology out there to move salmon. I appreciate it very much, whether it be the salmon cannon or like building better damns if that's really a thing. And but it's like, man, we can get all these people together to do that, Like, can can Pennsylvania get enough volunteers to float stock instead of just dumping them off the bridge? Like can we just get like a couple like retired kids to just float stocks and trouts so they're in the hole. I remember when I was a kid. Anyway, Um, Phil and I the science guy. He's got some picks this week. Zebra fish that think or um grains of rice Serrouni stuffed in juvenile Salmon. We're gonna we're gonna hear from Phil. We're gonna get his judgment and then um, we're gonna do a sale bin. That that brings to mind one of my favorite hip hop songs, Pistol Grip Pump, which is on my lap at all times. Joe. This week on The Winner, that's right, Phil is h Phills down working in Texas. So I'm editing the podcast this week and there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it. 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? All right? This week in the sale Bin, we uh we have a doozy and you know you know what else? Man? I I believe this is actually the first ever sale band that I'm leading off made could surely remember, might be yeah? Anyhow, This one was submitted by listen ner Derek, and we're not going to use his last name here because I don't want the guy who posted the listing he submitted like like tracking him down. Well, if you're yeah, and if you're wondering why that would even be a thing. Just hang on, hang tight, because you're gonna you're gonna find out. We're gonna get there in a second. So this is either criminal or the Listers easily the most degenerate angler of the degenerate anglers. And this is very little to do with the items being sold and more with the items that happened to be in the picture attached to the listing. Yeah, yeah, like you said, right, this is either a degenerate fly tire or a degenerate who robbed a fly tire at gunpoint and is now trying to flip based stash um of stolen materials. The broader point here is sometimes it's not even the thing, it's the surroundings in the photo anyway, why at gunpoint you ask, Well, we're gonna get to that, but first, let's let's just tell him about the rest of the photo before we get to those juicy bits. Okay, So the photo is like, I don't even know how this was staged. First off, it's a photo fly time material, that's what the dude is selling. And it's kind of spread out on a bed, but not just any bed, like a dirty mattress with a single stained fitted sheet on it. The mattress is on the floor, like you remember that Joe, You remember that like gross stoner buddy in college who would trash all around his room and just got that just had that grosty mattress on the floor. Yeah. Yeah, it's that guy exactly exactly. And man, yeah, it has all the hallmarks of stonerism because if you look around the peripheries of the photo, um, you've got like all the usual suspects. Okay, is dirty laundry. It is an extremely dirty floor, like if you walked on it barefoot, like it would be disgusting. Um, there's outside furniture inside that's always a big one. Yeah you know what I mean, Like if the Walmart lawn chair is also the TV chair you know, um, big gulp, big gulp on the nightstand. Hey guys, oh, big gulps. Huh one of the never and I would say it's it's full of like cigarette ash, except for the fact that there's like an ash tray on the decrepit old coffee table there, right, yeah, and you know there was mountain dew in that anyway, Yes, we got the ashtray on the old coffee table. Snack Rappers the whole deal. Um. I mean it's your stoner buddy Dave's house, who always had enough money to like, you know, just fund his hobbies, but no full vocation, you know what his hobbies. Yeah, except it's even worse than that, because when your buddy in college might have just been stoned out of his mind. Uh, this guy seems to be just regular out of his mind or perhaps criminally out of his mind. And Joe, why do we think that, man? Because because right there in frame and by the way, we're gonna post this on Instagram, but this this was totally cropable, Like this didn't have to happen. You could have cropped in on the materials for sale. Um, but I don't know why he didn't just crop this all together. Anyway, Right there in the frame is what appears to be like a straight up fucking sawed off shotgun, like legit as sawed off shotgun that looks like rusty and weathered. It's weird, dude. I know you can buy like pistol grip pumps that have enough barrel length to be legal, but uh, in my semi expert opinion, is someone who has messed around with like a lot of shotguns in my life. This is not that. In the words of UFC President Dana White, that's illegal. Yeah, indeed it is. I'm gonna back you up on that. Uh. Look, the listing isn't really that remarkable outside from the excellent photos. It just says fly tying twelve hundred dollars. I mean that's kind of remarkable because it's just a bunch of threatened ship willing to sell separately priced and gootiable uh used like new, which is which is actually good because there's no way what he's selling is worth first of all. Uh, mostly everything is inside an old school three tiered plane oh tackle box, So it's it's not like a ton of stuff. This is not like you're buying like lefty craze tying materials, you know what I mean. Yeah, And like you said, it's mostly thread and wired. To be fair, it's a it's a pretty legit selection of thread and wire. But it also looks ancient. So like the used like new tag is dubious at best. Uh. Maybe this is a good time to remind folks that replace your tying thread like semi regularly, Otherwise you're going to have some shitty experiences with with flies coming undone there. That is true. That is that is a good tip right there. You know what I was thinking? You know what? This also looks like This looks like a scene like this looks like a photo that could have been taken in like Buffalo Bill's house, Like if there was a death's head moth on the bed next to the flying materials, like it would have been right out of silence of the lamp. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is where somebody goes get murdered anyway. It's It's also not like they're like like hackle capes or whatever. It's mostly just that thread, some bucket, pretty threat, the guys selling threat some Zonker strips, like all inexpensive items. So we know it'ss But how much do you think you'd be willing to pay for all that fly goodness? Man? Uh? How much? I don't know, fifty bucks? Because this seems like the kind of guy Like if I, like, if I like bumped into this dude to saw this and he was trying to like sound, I'd be like, I'll give you bucks, and I don't. Is it weird to say he'd he'd probably take it. It doesn't make the photo like he would take He would take it. He needs forty bucks and he needs it. You would have to pay me more than this was worth to even go there and get this stuff, Like this isn't Jerry with a cup of tea, right, Yeah. And I think a lot of people are either scared off by the price tag or the implications of what might happen should you get there and try to negotiate, which explain I think maybe that's why he's in there. I think that's why the shotguns in there. He's trying to dissuade negotiation. This it could be. I mean, regardless, it's sketchy, and like that's why it's been there for three months. Well again, not to pass judgment, but like if you knew where this guy live, I just keep an eye on the curb because this seems like the kind of thing that like eventually he just chuck out there, you know what I mean. So it's sketchy. It's sketch um, you know. And I've been known to drive like hours for a bargain and meet up with like some folks I don't really know too well if there was like a good deal on some gear, but even I would shy away from this like price notwithstanding. Yeah, and it would be it would be a hard pass for me too. I don't know, like i've I've I've had some dabblings and used fly material. I've never bought them. But there's been a few times when like a friend of the family, like you know, somebody passes away and they tied a little or something. It's like do you want this stuff? And you know, yeah, you end up with all these hackles and caps and stuff that like you look at them and they turned to dust, you know what I mean. Like, So I don't, I don't. I haven't really dabbled that much there anyway, Derek, uh last name excluded. Thanks for sending us in And if you come across a similar listing or something else you'd like us to highlight on the sale bin, go ahead and uh email us a link at bent at the mediator dot com. And if you're in p A and decide that this particular bargain might be for you, make sure to text me or hated with your location. Uh, you know if you're meeting this guy, and uh, what time we should call the cops if we haven't heard from you that sale bin reminded me of a contender from many moons ago that we never ran, honestly because I just couldn't think of enough to say about it to cover an entire segment. But a listener sent it in. Um and it was a guy, you know, Caroline as I believe, selling a bait canon. You know what that is? You ever seen one of those? Dude? Yeah? I love those things, man, particularly because like when I was a when I was a kid, we used to build like PVC potato cannons all the time. Oh yeah yeah yeah, and this is just one of those with like legit utility. Yeah. So this guy, this was not a homemade job or this was like the expensive, you know, aluminum bait canon. Um so. And it was a very short description. It's just like bait cannon five bucks or whatever. But there was only one photo of the bait cannon on his lawn. But his giant dog, which I think was a boxer, is taking a huge steamy shit right next to the bait cannon that is for sale. Like this giant curling turd is falling out of the dog's ass like within inches of the item, and it's just like take another photo, man, Like digital photography is free. Like you can't say that you didn't notice that. You know, it's funny because we sit here and we analyze all this ship. But the truth is, I just don't think people care. I don't. They really don't. I'm certain the guy who took the photo for today's sale Ben never gave the surrounding of thought cared then or will care now if he here's this no, which which he won't. But you know what, we we hear uh you, we hear you and your questions bent listeners. So to take this episode full circle to the start, where we touched on the existence of a perfect being or bait casting rod, let's chat about whether such a thing exists in the fly world. In today's installment of the bent Helpline, what are you laughing at, Marktini? You're not an idiot, You're not a gamblooning hell boy. You're a fisherman. What's your emergency? All right? So, this week on the bent Helpline, we are hearing from Ryan Glarno a k A. Crayola munches on a great handle, Great handle, Love to know more Kariola munchies on the Instagram? He asks, been fishing all my life, but never fly fished. What would be the best way to start? Now? I got some thoughts on this job, But why don't you? No, no, no, you go first, go ahead? What are your so? Um? I have? I guess I've been in this position more recently than you beginner fly rod first off? Right, Like, don't go out buying like a crazy nine rod because like that's what you think you need to be good a rod or just even like you know, a more upper echelon rod has its place. But I don't know about you, Joe, but like I don't feel like that's something that I was really able to appreciate until I was like far enough along in my like fly fishing trajector. That's exactly right. That's like getting your your learners permit when you're sixteen and somebody putting you in like a BMW sports car, Like you don't know how to drive the Corolla yet? So are you really going to appreciate the difference? Um? And I agree with everything you just said. People ask me all the time, you know similar, like I'm I want to start or set up? What what brand do you recommend? And truth be told, my answer is always figure out what your price range is for the rod and real combo, and then pick the one that you like aesthetically, because really, I think if you're looking at fly rod in real combos in in similar price ranges, I mean I haven't fished them all, so I can't like say, well this one is better, and is there really a terrible fly rod anymore? And in any in any price range, especially if you don't know the difference, if you don't know how to cast yet at all, you will learn just fine on whether it's an Echo orvis what whatever sort of budget lower end brand you can afford. And if you stick with it, like you said, someday, if you pony up for the nine job or then you'll be like, oh now, I see, But there's no point in jumping to that. Yeah. Um, you know if you want a specific like combo that I like a lot, uh, And I this doesn't interfere with thirteen. I don't think they don't make fly rods, and not at all the orbs clear Water combo. I think it's great because it comes with your line, it comes with your real uh, it comes with your rod. I think it even comes with some leader material. But I remember I had gotten a girlfriend one of those at a at one point in time, man and I fished that thing for a while and it was great. It's like, you know, even somebody who knows something about it, Man, I thought that was totally sufficient. So yeah, I mean I've said I've said this before and I'll reiterate it. In my opinion, Um, you can either cast a fly rod or you can't. There is no such thing as a fly rod that is going to really make your cast better. There's not. There's not. So even if you're the guy who's got rod in thirty years of experience, if somebody's like, hey, dude, your only option today is this orvis clear water, you will get by and cast just five. So I have done. It's this. It's it's the skill, not the not the tool. I'm you know. Yeah. Anyhow, Um, so that's like your rig. Next I would identify what sort of species you were going after primarily and number one by the rod. That's like conducive to that. Can I can? I can? I can I add a little caveat to that because what I also see people say, you know, because that's what I'll ask, well, what are you fishing for? And a lot of times you get well trout mostly but sometimes carp an occasionally small mouth and the thing the thing for people to remember, which has has shocked a few people. I'm like, you don't necessarily match your rotten reel to what you're fishing as much as the flies you have to throw to catch that thing. So, I mean, a nine ft five weight fly rod with floating line is is what you would call the basic middle of the road. Um, if you're gonna throw a bread fly thirty pound carp though, you might not want that one though, so you know, yeah, let me let me throw a caveat to that. Yeah, if you're going for like a trout centric approach or like a smaller scale fish approach, I would definitely say the nine ft five. If you thought you might primarily be going after like, uh, small mouth and you know fish like that, I would say bump up to a six, six or seven. But but I mean, that's that's the problem. You know that you have a five weight rod and it does, it does stuff that you wanted to do, and then it's like, oh, I'm gonna throw some hair bugs for some large mouth today. Now it's not gonna turn over it's not gonna it's and and it's it's not that you can't fight a ten pound large mouth on a five weight fly rod. You're gonna have a hell of a time delivering that fly. Because fly fishing is a system, the line, the rod, everything has to come together and and be in harmony to turn over, flip over, and present. The size of the fly based on how air resistant they are, how heavy they are. Um. But all that said, it's kind of getting in the weeds because I do believe anybody who wants to get into this should just forget the big fish dreams for a while and just get yourself a nine ft five weight and learn how to cast it. If you're catching pan fish and trout, learn that and then and then worry about it from there. That's my okay. So that's like your your your basic you know, line reel rod set up. And by the way, don't buy an expensive reel, particularly if you're like just going for like trout and bass is just a line holder. Man. If you're going for like steelhead, yeah, if like that for some reason, that's where you decide to dip your toe into fly fishing. You want some good drag then because it's gonna pull yeah. Um okay. So now like tactic wise or like general approach wise, um, I would say, like start in a high probability time of year and fish the same areas you would as if you were conventional fishing. And what I mean by that is like, if you have a lot of experience flipping I don't know, you know, just three in grubs underdocks right on your conventional setup, do the same ship. Just do it with do it with like a bunny leach or something. Well, let me jump in. Well here's what I would do. Go buy you go buy your nine foot five weight, put basically any fly that you have on it, whether it's a dryer or nymph, and go to the easiest bluegill pond you know of where all the kids go with with zero ship in the way of your back cast, like preferably of a pond in the middle of a wide open Nebraska field would be good. And even if you have graduated from that long ago, uh, catch a bunch of bluegills, because you take the mystery of fly selection right out of it. They'll eat any nymph for any dry or any tiny popper you put out there. And um, you're gonna learn how to set the hook with a fly rod. You're gonna learn how to fight a fish with a fly rod, because quite often too you don't ever touch the reel. You strip your fish in by hand. Um, and you're gonna learn how to present. You're gonna learn how to cast far. You're gonna learn how to cast close blue gills. Man like kind of go back to the beginning. Yeah, yeah, you know, and adopt the mindset of, like a true beginner, have your goal be to catch a fish. It doesn't matter what fish that is, it doesn't matter how big it is, and really try and learn from that. Um, you know, take notes on what works and like what doesn't, and above all else, don't put yourself in technical situations right away. Do stuff where like a good cast will be rewarded with like a blue guilt hitting your hitting your fly. Don't like, you know, try and catch a trophy brown trout. Yeah, and I think the way to step up and you kind of alluded to that with your flipping docks references. You know, once you get a little bit comfortable, um, you know, devote a day to going out. Don't bring your spinning rod, just take your fly rod, no matter what happens. And when you put yourself in positions where you've you've you've gear fished before. I mean really, every time I'm out with a fly rod, I'm thinking, you know, how do I present this like gear or vice versa. Like they're sort of interchangeable in a way. So if you look at the situation, go normally I would throw a panther Martin right here, and I would put it over there, and I'd move it this way. Just try to emulate that with what's in your fly box, whether it's a little zonker or a little muddler. Um. Again, it all goes back to like everybody thinks there's this huge disconnect between fly and gear, there's no disconnect at all. You're doing the same thing with different tools. No, and and just remember, man, you're learning. Have fun. You know you said you've been fishing your entire life. Man Um, the learning curve isn't going to be as steep as some folks might want you to believe. You know, just let it be what it is. Have a good time, man, you'll catch fish, and if you don't, right in again, we'll tell you how you're messing it up. Yes, it's gonna say, let us know how it goes. And we enjoy this segment a lot, So please keep all these great questions coming because we love answering them. And now you can send those two Bent at the meat eater dot com best of luck Crayola munches. So that's it for this week. Hey, please don't forget if you're selling a child's toy and gently use wheelchair or a set of encyclopedias on Craigslist, make sure you're sawed off shotgun isn't in the photo that you post to attract buyers to come to your home and look at your wares. Also, don't forget if you don't use those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags when you post your sawd off shot and drug paraphneia, we might not see it, and we very much want to see it. We do. We also want you to keep sitting those awkward moments, questions and all that jazz to Bent at the meat Eator dot com. And finally, we hope we have inspired you to taylor your rod and real arsenal to the unique waters where you fish so that you can finally bow and arrowcast that spinner to that impossible brook trout under the tree, giving you the confidence to say, if we learned how to put you d lst night