Good news for those of you who like fishing and meat eater, which is hopefully all of you are original fishing series is back. Season two of Doszpot or as Steve likes to call it, Doszpot is now live on the Eater YouTube channel.

Season two brings with it a new boat. They're not really a new boat, another old beat up boat that we found. And we head to Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. Follow along to see some of your favorite people return, as well as get to know some new faces, including mine. And, Miles, we guarantee you some good fish, along with a few bad ideas and a hell of a great time.

New episodes launch every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time until we run out of them. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss out on this show or any of the other great stuff we have coming this fall.

Hey, we know your fishy people here at Bend, but we're betting quite a few of you are also pumped that hunting season is here and so are new episodes of The Meat Eater on Netflix, Meat Eater, season nine. Part one is officially live for your viewing pleasure.

The new season has some bad ass adventures, Steven. The crew had to Colorado, Texas and Wyoming, three states where the possibilities are nearly endless. So check it out and please do let us know what you think of the new season. We always love hearing from you.

Even the fishermen head over to Netflix to check out season nine, Part one. And don't worry, more episodes are coming. So they tell us Season nine, Part two will arrive in early twenty twenty one. And we will fill you in on those launch details as we get closer.

The leg brace was being used as a different kind of brace, right, and they were like waiters down around ankles and that sort of thing going on. It's like getting insulted by Mr. Rogers because God didn't give you a brain doesn't mean you're not special and unique. I made some poor footwear choices, but you shouldn't bring snake boots.

So you will now be able to stream those UFC fight reruns of Dog the Bounty Hunter and PornHub from anywhere on the property. Good morning, degenerate anglers, welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast, a recent study found is best consume while sitting in a lawn chair.

I'm Joe Somali Miles Nulty. And before we get to the actual show, I just want to say that I fucking love fishing in October.

How Rocktober. It's so good.

But unlike you, I especially love camping and fishing in October because like everybody's gone, it's quiet. There's like little frost on everything in the morning. The fishing is usually good, but even if it isn't, there's still enough like chilled to the air that you can justify pulling out a flask because you're not drinking. No, no, no. You're just staying warm. You're being responsible. Right. And I also I also recently discovered coffee bags from black rival coffee, which I had never known about before.

It's like a tea bag, except you don't have to be British or over the age of 70 to enjoy one.

And they're perfect for making a hot cup of coffee. You know, when you're waiting at camp for the sunrise or the fish to bite or or you just need like a quick warm up and a recharge.

They're awesome. And I had never known about them coffee bags.

Their sweet British were over the age of 70. Yeah. Yeah. So in case you guys missed it, the best podcast is one hundred percent fueled by Black Reifel Coffee. And as Miles suggested, camping is not really my jam, though those will come in handy the next time I'm staying in a motel with rooms that can be rented by the hour of the week.

I would I'll take that over at ten. So that's usually where I end up when I'm on the road. And I'd rather not. I try to avoid the expired coffee packets sitting next to the tiny lime crusted coffee pot by the hair dryer.

Bad? No, I'm talking about so yeah, I know them well. So. So if you like good coffee like we do, head over to Black Reifel Coffee Dotcom backslash meat eater and sign up for their monthly coffee delivery service. So if you ever oversleep and rush to that next meeting, you can always just pop a bag in your mouth and brew internally bitter while you're there.

Over at Black Reifel Coffee, enter the discount code meat eater at checkout and they will take twenty percent off your first order, which is a pretty good deal. And you know, we're on the subject of coffee here, Joe. I got a little fun fact for you. Should you know that Canada drinks more coffee per capita than almost any other country in the world? OK, true, Canadians average more than one hundred and fifty two litres per person per year, which the Internet told me works out to about forty gallons, which, you know, seems like a lot.

And that puts them third in the world behind the Netherlands and Finland. For all the big coffee chains and ubiquitous hipster cafes that feed our addictions to legal uppers and free Wi-Fi, we Americans barely crack the top ten. We only come in at number nine. The Indians got us beat.

This doesn't surprise me at all because there's a Tim Hortons every thirty five meters in Canada. This is not shocking. And guess what? Canada, Tim Hortons is overrated. You ever you ever been to a Tim Hortons?

I have. I have a little disappointed they think, because you get your Canadian bacon egg and cheese sandwich on a real ceramic dish. It's like classier than Dunkin Donuts.

And it's not me I prefer. I prefer my sandwich served without a smile.

And more importantly, I like to drink my coffee when it's handed to me because Tim Horton's holding temperature. I swear to God, man, it's like four thousand degrees Celsius.

So if I'm in Canada, I get one in the morning and hope I'm ready for a pick me up at lunch because that's when it's drinkable, you know, but they're not going to get sued over the hot coffee thing like they will over here. Yeah, that's.

Yeah, yeah. They're not so Sue happy that is a plus. But we like to joke around and have a little fun with our neighbors to the north.

But you, you know, you have to admit, in all seriousness, all of our guide friends and lodge owner buddies up there, they're having a really rough go of it this year, you know, and may well continue to have a rough go as as ice fishing season approaches, because as we all know, the border between the U.S. and Canada is still closed due to the covid.

So we can't visit, which is a bummer because I love fishing in Canada. And it's also means, you know, these guys are experiencing some financial hardship, you know, because we can't go.

So for this week's regional fishing report, we thought we'd, you know, check in with our buddy and lodge owner, Mitch McFly, all the way out on Spooner's Lake in Alberta, just to sort of see, you know, how he's been holding up through this whole thing.

Hi there, folks, Mitch McFly here with your weekly fashion report from Pickerel Point Large on Albertus Pristine Spooner's Lake. Before I get into the fishing, though, we sure do hope you and your family are staying healthy and happy in these hectic times, particularly our valued guests from the States. We've missed your friendly faces this season. It just hasn't been the same around here without seeing 15 dirty and mostly broken down coolers stacked outside the doors of our quaint cottages or getting those morning calls in the office asking for someone to please bring over a plunger.

Anyways, quick bit of housekeeping. Some of our repeat guests may remember August are a long time boat mechanic. We've unfortunately had to lay all glass off for the season because wouldn't you know it, we didn't have a single large boat blower right past the shallow water marker buoys and ran up on the rocks at Dobsons Cove. Without the constant inflow of props to refurbish and lower units to restore, we just couldn't keep us busy, so we sent him home.

He does a good sport about it, though, and happy to spend a little bit more time on his true passion carving. Small wooden bears and moose hope to have a bilum for sale in the gift shop next season. OK then. I am happy to announce that the walleye bite has been better than I have seen it in probably twenty years. Some folks around here say it's due to the lack of fishing pressure, but I think it's because the local anglers go a little slower.

We tend to favor a more methodical approach instead of that fast, erratic, circular trolling pattern. I know most of you boys from the states rely on. It's like I always tell you fellas, the hours of 11:00 a.m. to four thirty PM are not exactly what I'd call prime time, but you can still find at least a few polite fish to bite in the middle of the day. You know, they are Canadian a surprisingly I've got quite a few forty inch pike right off the docks this year.

I've had a little more time to do some fishing in the evenings because there aren't the thirty to forty crushed Bud Light cans strewn about the property that need rounding up for proper disposal. In one of the many, many conveniently placed recycling bins we have on site. If I have a diamond spoon has been producing really well for me and I found it quite relaxing and therapeutic to just cast in real well. I listen to the call of the loons, which aren't completely drowned out by Kid Rock in that chicken fried song blasting from the picnic tables over at the boathouse.

I'd also like to mention that on the bright side, we've been able to spend time improving our operation and beautiful facilities. Based on your feedback, we've loaded up on Mrs Butterworth and will only serve what you folks refer to as that maple sap shit upon request. All of our bagged lunches will now include three packets of mayonnaise instead of the usual one. And most importantly, we've upgraded our Wi-Fi. So you will now be able to stream those UFC fight reruns of Dog the Bounty Hunter and PornHub from anywhere on the property.

Anything we can do to make your stay here more comfortable? We just can't wait to have you folks back. We pray that you can return to the serene beauty of Elberta by twenty twenty three or twenty twenty four at the very latest. Thanks and God bless. Canadians are so good at polite insults. It's like an art form up there and, you know, the Japanese have kabuki. The French have impressionistic painting. Americans have monster truck rallies.

And the Canadians can tell you you're an asshole without you even knowing.

Now, you're you're right. It's like getting insulted by Mr. Rogers.

Just because God didn't give you a brain doesn't mean you're not special and unique. Yeah.

And no, I cannot tell the story on this show. Remind me to tell you later about an epic anti Canadian rant I heard delivered on a boat by a Floridian. Of course, of course. Didn't know the guy he was ranting to was from Canada. Right.

And it was nasty. And the poor guy's follow up in polite Canadian fashion was simply, I'm actually Canadian.

And he just left it at that. And both dudes walked away stunned.

And the rest of the lake trout fishing was really friggin awkward anyway.

I mean, did you know where I'm from? We come out of the womb insulting the doctor out here.

Yeah. And which is it's interesting. When I was the time that I spent out East, I've always amazed at how much the insults can jack up and jack up and jack up and like nothing comes of it, because where I grew up in Hawaii, like, we rarely get to the insult stage before people are already getting punched in the face.

Oh, yeah, we're all here. We're all like like Hawaii.

It's like, oh, hey, what's up? What's up? And you're already getting punched like it's just over.

I got to I think I think Canadians have the right idea and that we could we all learn a little something from them. But, you know, since we're on the subject of insults and insulting people, I feel like it's time for for us to switch over to this week's smooth moves. Indeed it is.

And this is a special one for me personally. I actually recorded this a couple months back when I was on my annual upper Delaware River mousing trip with some of my favorite fishing buddies up there.

And I've I've been going up there every year just to fish at night for about six years now. And when I'm there, I always meet up with my good friend and the owner of Whitetail Country Fly Shop, Joe Demilitarise. And Joe has a hot, sticky, steamy story for us this week.

So why why did you do like this week on Smooth Moves?

I'm very happy to be sitting here with my my my old friend, my dear friend Joe Demilitarise, who I would consider the grand poobah of the Upper Delaware.

Would you agree with that? Oh, no.

OK, well, I'm saying you're the godfather of this turf. I'm actually sitting in Joe's Guide Shack up here on the river, so it's nice to do an on location with you is one of my favorite places. And remind us for how many years guiding you have set.

Three decades. Three decades.

And now you told me before we started this that you actually blocked out a lot of things that would have probably made good, smooth moves.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. I mean, there's there is a slew of I can go on for hours if I start really like let them come back to my brain. But you know, some of the things you just never want to make sure you don't remember them.

OK, but you do have one on the tip of the brain for for today. Yes. Well, I'll give you the yeah. I'll give you the like the most bizarre one. OK, ok. OK, so the night's pitch black coming out at is like kind of remote ish makeshift boat launch. We got to kind of walk a few hundred yards to go get your vehicle. So, you know, let the anchor out.

Got a newlywed couple, kind of not kind of like a senior citizen, newlywed couple. You know, they weren't like young kids. They're like sixty. She was like maybe forty, but he was in his 60s retired guy and he was in the back. She's in the front, gets a spot and pull out, put the anchor down. I said, just hang tight. I'm going to be a little while, going to walk up, come back and just don't get out of the boat because just stay there.

Right.

So I go get my truck. I'm driving back down through the woods and my boat's gone. But I left a light for him too, because it's really dark. And I had a little like Dinky like I just walked into this take out with you. All right. You know exactly where there's no light and it's a good hike up to where the truck. So, yeah, come back on. My truck is like no boat. And I looked down river and just on a last bend, as far down as I could see, the little light starting to vanish going down the river.

I'm like, oh crap. So mean. This was a long time ago.

So I run down a bag, I grab a flashlight ahead of my truck, I run down bank at this light going and I catch up to the boat. They're totally oblivious. I'm yelling. They don't even hear me right. And they're totally oblivious because he had gotten out of the back of the boat, went up to the bow. Oh.

So it shifted the weight and the anchor shifted the weight and lifted the anchor. I didn't have, like, a lot of scope out. I mean, that wasn't supposed to happen, right, like stay on the boat and if it starts floating away, you think you'd notice. But there was a big preoccupation that was happening that they didn't notice they were floating away the whole time.

And that's because it's like the leg brace was being used as a different kind of brace. Right. So and there were like waves down around ankles and that sort of thing going on.

And they were totally oblivious. She was absolutely mortified. He actually didn't even, like, think it was a big deal. Right. So, OK, wait.

All right. So they're bang.

And I'll just say, yeah, that's exactly what they're doing. How far out were they still close to the bank or did they like way out in the middle?

Well, it's not like really the river wide. It's not really deep. Maybe. I know. Maybe 50 yards out. 40 yards out. OK, you know, and so I go out and this happened like I was in probably my late 30s, early 40s when this happened.

I mean, today I would just like, well, there goes the boat.

I'll just go get my truck and meet him at the next take out, you know, but but, you know, so I grabbed the boat and I drag it all the way back up river.

You know, the guy is like, well, I'll get out and help you. I'm like, no, I'll just stay there. Don't move.

But when you wait it out and walked up on the boat, were they still like like mid mid coitus?

No, because when I hit him with this big, like, flashlight I had in a truck and that got that got her attention. Right. And she was like, e you know, and like kind of cut everything off.

So did you guys talk about it? Kinda.

Sorta. Not really. I don't remember telling the truth because now I had a hump the boat back up choreopoem on it, you know, it's like, oh, this really stinks. And and I really kind of feel sorry for her.

She was mortified. She really was really, really embarrassed and. He wasn't, you know, which was kind of like really odd, so I could tell that was making her more embarrassed, you know, he kind of felt bad for her, but, yeah, it was kind of kind of odd.

And I never did see him again. So I don't know if they stayed married or not or whatever. I don't really worry about it.

Well, God bless him. What a story for later, though. That dude still telling that story.

Yeah, I don't know. Probably. I think I told my wife the story, too, and tried to get her up in the front of the boat one night.

She was like, well, that's a new one on me.

And like I've heard a client sneaking off for a little alone time. Yeah, I've had that. And I've heard of anchors slipping and guys losing their boats. I've seen that. But I have never heard of clients copulating so hard that they actually pull the anchor down. That's a new one for me.

When you're in the mood, you're in the mood momos, momos. That's a word we like to use around here for people that execute those kinds of screw ups momos.

Yeah, we don't we don't use that one out here. I know. We have learned that all of you out there listen to a podcast, at least a lot of you are big fans of, shall we call them derogatory words for you guys?

You guys love insults and that's why we love you, because you're all just about insulting people. It's great. So we're bringing it up.

We're bringing up that that theme back at least for one more week. And here in the Mountain West, we have our own derogatory word for people from elsewhere. And I'm going to define that for you. In this week's weekly word. Webster's Dictionary defines fish as.

This week's word is Gapper. A while back, Joe gave you the definition for up here, which is what people in northwest Pennsylvania call city folk from Philly who come up here for the weekend to fish. Well, the east doesn't have a lock on derogatory terms for tourists. One Mountain West slur for Flatlanders is Gapper, as in someone so dumbstruck by the scale of topography and beauty they're seeing, they just stand there with their mouth agape, usually stopping traffic, holding up a lift line or blocking a boat ramp.

This term comes from Saeki culture, but has been thoroughly adopted into the fishing season. When I first moved out to Montana nearly 20 years ago now, I was a complete gapper. I was so constantly in of everything around me that I spent a good 30 percent of my time in a mouth breathing trance. I was such a paper that I had no idea what that word meant. So when people called me a gapper, I didn't know enough to realize they were making fun of me.

He doesn't even know I was officially christened with the nickname Dapper on a backcountry fishing trip with my good friend Matt Dalley. We'd spent most of the day hiking deep into a box canyon, and when we finally got to a riverside campsite, the pool in front of us was boiling with rising trout. Some of the biggest I had ever seen that point in my life.

While Dalí said about doing what a seasoned fisherman would do, you know, calmly assembling his rod, building his leader and tying on the appropriate fly, I just stood there dumbfounded, staring at this horde of trout, sipping mayflies off the surface. Once Daschle had finished rigging, slipped into his waders and laced up his boots, he passed behind me and half yelled Cape, Cape, Cape, Cape on his way to the pool.

That broke my reverie. And when he immediately hooked a fish, I started scrambling to put together my own gear to solidify my status as a gapper. I hurried through the rigging and tied a few let's call him questionable knots.

When I finally did start fishing, I somehow hooked the biggest fish in the pool, which broke me off on the first run when my blood knot failed. The nickname followed me even after I stopped gaping my way through every Montana season, and I eventually just had to embrace it.

To this day, every once in a while when I'm floating a local river or riding on a local ski hill, I'll hear someone yell out, Kaper, I'll stop and look around trying to figure out if an acquaintance from the distant past is just recognize me or there's some random kook in the near vicinity eliciting wrath from a local.

So we don't have those kinds of papers out here in the Northeast, though, on the radio, like from old school during traffic reports, if there's an accident on the highway, sometimes they will note that there's a gap or delay, let's call it that.

It's called a gap or delay paper delay on I-95 south at Academi Road. So we don't rubbernecking.

It's gaping. Yeah. So we just gave it other people's misery and bloodshed because they're just there are no mountains, you know.

But regardless, you realize that the tens of people listening to this podcast are now going to resurrect that nickname for you right now, officially sealed your fate to forever be known as Gapper.

That's all right. I'm sorry, Gapper. I can handle it's better than being a loser, which is what one of us is going to be at the end of this next segment. It's time for Fish News.

That escalated quickly before we get into the meat of Fish News, I want to let you guys know about the fishing community actually doing some good in the world. For once, my buddy Josh Mills harnesses the evil of Instagram and leverages it away from the dark side. Josh is running an online auction to help out communities that have been devastated by the big fires out west called flies for fire relief. It's a it's a really unique fundraiser. It's completely social media based.

All the money goes to go fund me pages set up to help individuals and communities who've been hammered by the fires.

And I can personally vouch for this as legit. This isn't one of those IRS voicemail scams that I keep getting threatening me with jail time if I don't call them back and give my Social Security number.

Yeah, what a great concept to use social media for something that's actually useful. But they're auctioning off rods, reels, waiters, boots, guided fishing trips. There's even a first light camo pattern. Lampson flywheel up for auction. And I mean, I work at Meat Eater and I don't even have one of those. So, you know, me neither.

And I'm actually going to be throwing down a dozen custom master splinter mouse flies that I'll be whipping up on the vise. So follow at Mills Fly or follow the hashtag flies for fire relief so you don't miss it when my mouses pop up for grabs.

And so far the campaign has already raised more than forty thousand dollars and they are still going, which is amazing anyway.

Now on to the Real Fish News, which you all remember is a competition where Miles and I scour the deepest, darkest crevices of the Internet looking for the most interesting nuggets of fish or fishing related news.

Neither of us has any idea what the other is about to say.

And at the end of it all, if you guys have been following along, our esteemed audio engineer Phil decides who wins and who hangs his head in shame. Lately, that's been me. Miles has been on a hot streak, so I'm nervous and my confidence is shaken, especially because you get to lead off this week.

So you should be nervous, Jo. You should, because I'm starting out this week right about where I left off last week, which worked out well for me.

OK, I'm going to I'm going to revisit the invasive carp files last week. You just love a carp man. You just sued the. I do. I actually do. I love and hate them. And that's all wrapped up into into this package here. Last week, I schooled everyone about the dangers of feral goldfish.

Goldfish are carp and carp in their various forms are arguably the most destructive aquatic invasive species in North America.

Well, this week, the state of Wisconsin issued its first arrest for the illegal sale of Asian carp. But before I get into the details of all that, I feel like I got to provide a little bit of context. Some of you will know that. Some of you won't. But it's important. Asian carp is a catch all term that refers to several different carp species, including bighead silver and grass carp. These fish were brought here from China in the 60s and 70s for a whole bunch of different reasons.

But as so often happens in these situations, they escaped and they invaded local waters and they've been spreading ever since. They're now in 28 states and still going. Yeah, you've probably seen footage of the thousands of silver carp flying out of the water when boats pass by and people, like, hit them with clubs and arrows and all that, that that's been pretty well, pretty well covered. And most of that comes from places like the Illinois River that have been just totally overrun by these fish.

And just so you guys understand, we're talking about these fish can consume 40 percent of their bodyweight per day in aquatic nutrients and in some waterways. Asian carp now make up more than 90 percent of the total biomass.

Yeah, and they just push everything else out. Yeah. I mean, it's insane.

The amount of like 90 percent of the bio, not 90 percent of the fish, 90 percent of all the biomass. Everything that lives in a waterway are now Asian carp. It's mind blowing.

Yeah. And I'll just I'll just throw in there like you used to see a lot of those videos, the jumping carp and the bow fisherman and stuff. And just because you don't see that many anymore, it's not because they've gone away.

Like you say, they are just pushing further and further, you know, up.

It's just growing. It's it's crazy. Yeah.

So all this is just to say that these fish are a huge problem. And like you were saying, go fisheries managers and other people have been fighting their asses off to keep these fish from reaching the Great Lakes because everyone feels like that's that's the major tipping point. If they get there, the Great Lakes are just going to crash and then that's what we're all trying to stop.

So for that reason, it is illegal to transport any Asian carp in Wisconsin unless they have been gutted or had their gill plates severed.

Those stipulations were enacted because these fish.

And live for like a surprisingly long amount of time out of the water, I read some I read different numbers, but but over a day seems to be the consensus.

Yeah, there's crazy there's very similar rules out here for Snakehead.

Same thing. You can transport them if it's like got its head cut off because they can breathe air and yet same kind of deal. Yeah.

And I mean with what that means is like a fish might appear dead and it's been riding in a truck for hours, but theoretically it might still be capable of surviving if it were to somehow get out and escape into a waterway.

All right. So back to this arrest.

Ping Lee is a wholesale fish dealer from Platteville, Wisconsin, who now faces four misdemeanor counts of possessing illegal fish. Apparently, Mr. Lee has been transporting Asian carp from central Illinois to fish markets in Chicago and Madison, sometimes as much as 20, 500 pounds at a time. For at least the past three years, Wisconsin DNR has been working on a sting to catch this guy since twenty eighteen, using undercover agents, covert surveillance and GPS trackers. Suffice to say, Wisconsin is not messing around with the Asian carp thing.

And and I applaud those efforts. But I have to say I'm honestly conflicted about this story.

I know I know where you're going. And I feel the same way because.

Because, like. All right. One of the tools for dealing with the Asian carp infestation is through commercial harvest. Gill netters are now making a pretty good living in many places like Illinois and Tennessee, catching and selling tons and tons and tons of these invasive carp. Ryan Callahan did a great little segment about this on the Meat Eater YouTube channel that you should definitely check out. And Cal actually brought some of the footage from that episode over to my house one night for dinner.

And Joe, you were there? I was there.

I ate. And I thought it was delicious. I was shocked at how good it was.

Like it was it was truly delicious. It was not just tolerable. It was like really, really good eating fish. Yeah. It's the kind of fish that you could feed to people who say they don't really like fish. And then you could watch them after they take that first bite and they go, oh, that's actually good.

Yeah. And isn't that because a lot of these fish, they filter feed versus common carp that grub the bottom. So people think carp have that much taste, but that's not the way that these fish feed. It was a super mild, super mild.

It wasn't like, oh my God, the flavor of this fish is phenomenal, but it's just a very sort of baseline good white meat fish.

Exactly. Totally palatable. And so my point in all this is that large scale harvest is one of the very few viable tools we have for trying to control these invasive fish.

So that's something that I think we want to encourage, not discourage. And harvest only works if it's connected to an effective distribution network. And so that's why this Wisconsin arrest gives me some pause. Yeah, I mean, it seems like like Mr Lee was clearly in violation of the law. I'm not arguing that his fish had their viscera and gill plates intact, but he wasn't transporting live fish.

It's not like he was smuggling carp into Wisconsin to start a fish farm. He was selling thousands and thousands of pounds of Asian carp for meat. That's just it. If he's if he has that much demand, he's selling that much fish, then good, then get out there and kill more to keep up with that demand. I mean, yeah, the law is the law.

You know, I feel like the sting operation, like, couldn't we have gone to him and said, like, we love what you're doing here, can you just make sure that you remove all the gill plates and, like, just do it the right way?

Yeah. And there may be some things that I don't know about the story, but that's exactly how I feel. And it really seems from everything I could read and I read a bunch of news stories on this, it seems like Wisconsin DNR is trying to throw the book at this guy, and I think that might be a mistake.

Like, I think if we're going to curb the populations of these fish through commercial gill netting, we need fish sellers that are willing to transport them. And and I'm worried that this case might make people think twice about getting into the curb, selling business, and then you can harvest all you want.

But if you don't have a market, they don't go anywhere. I agree completely.

And it kind of harkens back to some stories from I forget if it was the 90s, but there was a similar problem out here on the East Coast with the salmon fisheries. Guys would go over, snag their limit, catch their limit, fill these trucks and run them to sell them in New York City. And the way they stung them was they put Blacklight die in the salmon eggs and then went down to New York City and black lit in the sushi restaurants.

And that's how they figured it out.

But that's a that's a a recreational fishery that's bringing a lot of money to town. I understand the sting and the undercover on that, but I couldn't agree more. Man, like, if you have people that are making a living, kill him.

Thousands of pounds of these fish just I kind of disagree with the level of book throwing here, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. So that was I'm torn. Like I said, the guy's clearly, clearly broke the law, not arguing that, but I feel like these are the kind of actions we kind of want to support, not dissuade.

And and arresting him seems to have the opposite impact if he's selling that many putting him out of business for this like ruining to the point where he can't operate, that alone leaves how many more Asian carp in the system, potentially just for potentially his suppliers.

So. Well, hey, by all means.

Right. And let us know what you think, because we're told on that one. And we'd love to hear from you guys. This is this is perfect for me because, you know, Asian carp, it's like all Asian carp. You know, a good Asian carp is a dead carp over here. And we look at carp very differently in the U.S. than they do across the pond in the U.K. So I don't know if this is going to hurt my win this week, but I do have a bit of an obituary here, sadly.

And this comes to us from the UK's Sun. And I was stunned and wept when I read this headline that says Not carping on angling world in mourning as Britain's biggest common carp dies age 25.

And I said to myself, God, please tell me they're not talking about Takar because I've been following talk of the carp since his MySpace days, tell you the truth.

But alas, my worst fears were realized from the story. The Angouleme world is mourning the death of Britain's biggest known common carp. The whopper, known as Takar, was aged about twenty five and weighed 65 pounds, two ounces at its heaviest. He died from natural causes in his lake at the Avenue Fishery in Shropshire, and anglers traveled from far and wide for the chance to catch Takar and Takase owner Rob Hayles said there were numerous lucky enough anglers to catch him in the past, and it has been amazing to follow the magnificent journey of his growth.

Taga was introduced to the fishery in 2008 when he weighed more than twenty pounds and he was named Takar after part of his tail was bitten off by an otter. And I don't know. I don't know why. Maybe Tark is an old British word for Bitten by Otter. Anyway, heartbroken anglers took to social media to pay tribute. Gary Roberts posted so sad all repeat Takar. What an incredible carp. A legend. Luke Edwards, who caught Takar when he weighed just under 53 pounds, said made me a very, very happy angler and many more are IPE Tarka.

Er, Cranston said. This is so sad. Unbelievable, stunning fish. To lose any fish is upsetting, but the jewel in the crown must hit everyone who's caught it and admired it.

And I actually have a good friend, Nigel Polson, over in the UK.

The guy is utterly devoted to Paillot Carp fishing and I gave him a call just to see how he was feeling about this tragic news. And here's what he said.

No, let me help you. Let me stop you.

Is driving me mental when you it so clearly he was just too distraught to talk about it. I hope he really caught them on a bad day.

Like you said, you were friends. I don't know. I don't think that's true. Is really upset right now.

I should have given it a few days lagman. I'll say this. No disrespect to British carpers, OK? Because carping is serious business over there, right?

It generates big dollars. And I love carp too. I think you do too. I've spent a lot of time lobbying, particularly on the fly, and I admire the passion of these guys that camp out all weekend under a tarp like waiting for a named fish to eat a boil and make up a large screen. Bivy. Yeah, bivy.

But I just have to say and like, pardon me, I'm happy. Like, that's not my best or only option for fresh. Water, fishing, you know what I'm saying, it makes me like want to say, don't ever take for granted your land access, public lands, ability to hike miles a stream and hop guardrails, you know, drop your boat into hundreds of lakes.

Yes. You know, yes. And I mean, I'm guilty of going on tangents about how they're like too many people out here now ruining spots. But it could be worse. You know, you can feel that same frustration at a lake. You're paying hard earned money to fish, trying to catch a carp so fat it can barely swim.

So it's like, you know, that's what you got.

I think it's I think it's very difficult to judge European carp fishing by American standards. And we run the risk of being those obnoxious American assholes who are looking down our noses and being like, oh, those stupid Brits and their coarse fishing.

I don't want to be that guy. And I don't. But I I'm fascinated by the carp fishing scene, kind of the same way that I'm fascinated by the tournament bass angling scene here. It's not something I want to do. But again, sociologically, God, it's interesting to me.

I couldn't agree more. And again, I'm we're only having some fun here. I've actually done the Eurocup thing. I had a really got yeah. He got very into it here in the States and he had all the stuff, all the. But no, no bivy. We had no tents but all the bite alarms, you know, he would show up and bait the swim and all that stuff and caught some, some giant carp doing that. But I almost you know, I almost feel bad because these guys are so it on these lakes where these fish are just pounded and pounded and pounded.

And I've heard European guys say that usually they don't fight very well. Right.

Because they've been caught a bunch of times, played that game. Yeah, right. And then you come to the States and they catch a wild river carp or something here. And it's like, holy shit, you know, they fight these wild fish here, fight so much more. So, you know, it's almost surprising that we're not like destiny travel destination No. One for this because you can go wherever the hell you want.

There's carp everywhere there, probably a lot dumber than the carp over there, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it just it just also is emblematic of the different attitudes there in here about carp right here.

People go out and whack as many carp you possibly can and kill them. And they're seen as a nuisance. We hate them over there. One carp dies and it makes national news. Right. They're so revered. And I think that's I think that's a pretty good way of kind of framing how our different culture, fishing cultures, look at carp right there, what the story said.

And I didn't jot this down, so I hope I'm not wrong, but I believe that it said that as big as Takar was, it couldn't become a record fish because common carp are not native there either. They only count the mere carp in record standing.

Well, no Carper native there, I don't want we're going to get into a hole there, let's not let's not go too far down that hole.

But I mean, you did sort of team you up there for my next story, Joe, because we're we're we're we're not on the happiest of news today.

And I'm not I'm going to kind of stick with not the happiest of news. I'm also going to stick, at least from my angle here, with the angle of commercial fishing among the commercial fishing theme this week.

OK? And honestly, man, I'm trying to find a sliver of hope in all the news we read about crashing Marine stocks.

Mm hmm. And so the not great but one of the many issues that marine fisheries face is illegal, unregulated catch international harvest regulations are like super, super complicated and contentious.

And I am not going to dive into all that here because we don't have time. But just to quickly and vastly oversimplify, a U.N. treaty does exist between 66 countries and the European Union regulating marine harvest at theoretically sustainable levels. Unfortunately, lots of fleets continue to operate illegally policing those fleets across global oceans. It's not feasible. There's there's too much water out there. Like we can't police all the oceans. Sure. So one of the other ideas for curbing this destruction is to find ways of preventing the illegal fish from getting to the markets.

Right. If the illicit fishermen can't sell their catch, they won't keep fishing illegally. Makes sense.

Yeah, right. But monitoring all the boats coming into international ports is also like a Herculean task. So the folks at Pew Charitable Trusts just developed a new interactive tool to help port authorities and seafood buyers determine where illegal seafood is most likely to enter the markets. The tool uses data from automatic information systems, which those electronic things that are on all boats now, and it focuses on the top 99 global ports that receive the highest level of traffic from foreign vessels.

But the thing is like there's a good news thing.

But the thing is, this is just a tool that ports and seafood buyers can use if they choose to. The existence of this technology needed to know there's no obligation, it is just came out right. Just having this tool doesn't do anything to curb or dissuade illegal seafood trade, which currently brings in over 23 billion dollars a year. Like you're fighting a lot of money there. I believe it.

Yeah. And in order for this to actually have any impact, the ports and the fish wholesalers need to use this information. They've got to actually turn away illegal vessels or refuse to buy their catch. And whether or not that happens, you know, it remains to be seen. My take is that this is a step in the right direction. It's not a solution. But I appreciate that this tool exists and I hope people will start to implement some policies around it.

But for my part, I just try to know as much about the origins of the fish I eat as possible, preferably I or somebody I know catches it. Any fish I buy at a store is probably contributing to the problem, even if the packaging says wild card. But that said, still better than farmed fish.

So, you know, all I can do and I mean we could books have been written on the wikiwiki. You can get so lost in this debate and all the different different angles.

And it is a great tool and it is a step in the right direction.

But if you if you step back and look at commercial fishing as a whole, it just it it just reeks of like a mafia operation to me.

It always has. And that's what's so hard to penetrate. Like if you're not getting your fish for your restaurants from a reputable source. But the price is right.

It's like getting that many people to do the right thing. It's really feels feels impossible, feels like almost impossible. I'm not willing to go impossible.

But I will say it's hard. And I like to when when I can think better of people maybe having access to this tool. Some some of the bigger seafood buyers and wholesalers and some of the bigger ports will. We'll use it. We'll see. I want to be I want to be positive today, Joe. That's where I want to.

Yeah, well, I mean, the technology has to exist for anybody to use it at all. So so we will see. And I think, you know, I think there are a lot of operations out there that really do care about sustainable and care about wild caught. But, you know, I guess it all depends on the volume and what you need.

It's just seems like such a tangled web, you know? And then if you start looking at how this parlays into recreational fishing, it's a whole other rabbit hole.

You know, I've heard organizations talk about recreational fluke limits as an example, but then they'll say, well, we don't have a good way to monitor the guys dragging for them.

So it seems to me like until you have a good way to monitor that and know what they're doing with those fish, it's much harder to come down on the recreational guys.

Like I just thought the whole commercial scene that it's just so it's so twisted.

Yep. It's it's a hard one to balance out. And this is I mean, this is one tiny little story in a much bigger thing. Like you said, books have been written about it. But I'm hoping I'm hoping we get something potentially positive out of this tool anyway.

Well, let's we're going to we're going to keep moving on in a positive direction, even though I think this here's another story with a dead fish.

I mean, that just seems like we're just all we're all but dead fish today.

We're all about fish death in this in this news segment. But it's a feel good story even though there is death. And we actually first got tipped off to this one by listener Taylor Riggen. And there's a bunch of sources out there.

The one I'm pulling from here is from Inforum Dotcom. And the headline is Iowa Man Catches Near Record, Minnesota musky in unexpected place. So it goes a little something like this. It starts out the fish was so big. Brandon Graddick claims to have lost control of his bodily functions the first time he saw it. And here's a quote. It jumped one time when he jumped. I saw him comma. I in parentheses defecated. So we're going to assume he said shit to the journalists.

So when I saw my shit, I literally did, he says.

I really hope that's one of the misuse of Litoral. Like when people say literally, but I mean figuratively anyway.

Yeah, I'm with you. So the Iowa City, Iowa truck driver might have been exaggerating about his reaction to seeing his fish of a lifetime, but there is no need to exaggerate about the fish itself. Graddick landed a fifty two pound fifty seven inch musk along, and this was at the end of August from Straight Lake in Becker County near Osage, Minnesota. And he was there on vacation and this beast had a twenty five inch girth.

So that's that's a massive mass. Big, musky. But there's there's a lot of interesting things going on with this story. So he did keep the WOPR, which died while in possession. It appears to be the Minnesota record for a non release musky, and its measurements were within fractions of the state's catch and release Mark.

But here's here's where it starts to get interesting, right? There have never been any muskies stocked in Straight Lake, nor according to Minnesota DNR, have they ever gotten any INET studies in Straight Lake and what they say? Is that they believe that it jumped from a rearing pond located across the highway across 34 from the lake, so it jumped across anywhere.

I'm going to leave that. Go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think they're necessarily saying it jumped, but that's where they figure at some point it came from. So some other fun facts, right?

The fish hit a two and a half inch long buia crank bait that Graddick said he, quote, grabbed out of the bargain bin at Wal-Mart because that, kids, is how you catch a big Maskey.

And I'm not kidding. I feel like I feel like a broken record.

You want to catch your muskies, target bass and croppies like this dude on into the bargain bin.

That's so good. No, don't buy the 40 dollar muscular. Buy the two dollar bargain bin, lure bargain hunting all day.

But on a down note, however, because Graddick was using super light line in a lighter outfit, the fight lasted 30 minutes and it kind of whipped the fish, which.

Yeah, I mean, that's going to happen. Going to happen on. I mean, he also didn't have a big enough net, so landing must have been something he apparently squeezed it into like a little trout size net.

I would love to see that. Me too.

Though obviously he did land it because then the story says Graddick wanted to show his family the massive catch. So he called and told them to wait on the dock at the resort about a 15 minute boat ride away. The nearly five foot long fish didn't come close to fitting in his Livewell either. So Graddick just put the muskies head in the water and zip back to the dock, put that whole dog and pony show together and you've got a dead musky and while good on you for an amazing catch, as you can imagine, he's been catching some flak over that, though he says don't worry, I plan to skin mount it.

So there you go.

That as crazy as this whole thing is, this is the piece that really sticks with me. I can't speak for everywhere, but particularly out here, like in Pennsylvania where I live, there are so many creeks and warm water rivers and stuff that, you know, everybody thinks is just rock bass and smallmouth and pickrell and stuff.

But at certain times a year, because of other trips that come in, it's like if you know where you're going, like there's some big ass brown trout in this one in December that aren't actually supposed to be there. Like there's all sorts of little secret things like that out here. I don't know if it's the same in Montana, but that's what I think is so cool, you know, because it makes me wonder, did somebody else know there's some muskies in Straight Lake, you know?

And for years I've been like, no, there's not Dolphus here. No, there's not. You know, I mean, I think that's neat.

I do, too. I do, too. And, you know, it's one of those ones like I get why people are upset that poor fish handling the musky community in particular gets way, way too serious about that stuff.

So I'm sure I'm going to I'm not going away on that. But if you're talking about a place, it's not like we're talking about Morlocks or Lake St. Clair or Green Bay or one of those fisheries where musky hunters go to target their fish and they want to have them there. It wasn't even supposed to be there. So I think that that has to be part of the conversation when you're weighing all this, you know, it's not it's not an optimal example of how you should handle the fish.

But that happens sometimes it's fishing, you know, and it's it's it's a little hard to blame the dude, right.

Because the Minnesota record has stood since 1957 from Lake Winnebago.

So if that ends up taking it, man, how ironic is it in the land of 10000 lakes? It comes from the one that's not supposed to have that.

I mean, that's the irony in that is terrific. So maybe we'll maybe we'll have some follow up on this one, you know, see it, see if he gets qualified.

But, yeah, he ain't going to forget that one.

So. All right, Phil, you got you got a tough one this week, man. Do you want to go with the lighthearted, fun fish catching stories and fish dying stories? Are you going to go with, like, the serious fisheries ecological level stories? What do you what are you going to pick, buddy? We're all waiting with bated breath to find out.

Did Miles not bring in the most pressing fish stories this week? Yes, but did he bring in the most interesting fish stories this week?

Also, yes. Despite that, however, in memory of Takar, I am crowning Joe Somali the winner.

Joe, thank you for your tribute to two legendary sighs kings this week. This does not mean, however, I want Fish News to turn into an awards show in Memoriam Reel. People will expect us to get Celine Dion to sing Hallelujah over some black and white photos of dead fish. And we do not have Celine Dion in the budget.

Maybe Sarah McGlocklin. No.

Anyway, all this death and sadness, I could use a stiff drink, I don't know about you, but instead of instead of hitting me the local corner bar, which would be easy, let's let's head to Australia for this week's That's my bar best God damn bartender from Timbuktu to Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, for that matter.

This week on That's My Bar. We're taking a really long imaginary flight to a place I'm not sure I'll ever be able to actually afford to fish.

This may be as close as I ever get, but I must say it's cool to have a bar nomination from freakin Victoria, Australia.

Yeah, right. Yes.

We said we wanted to hear about bars all around the world. And listener Josh Carpenter delivered with this gem.

And Josh writes, When you talked about the best fishing bars in the world, I immediately thought of the B.M. River Hotel in East Gippsland area of Australia.

The entire township has a total of two stores, the Vem River Hotel and a tackle shop.

Why do I not live there?

Yeah, he says that's the kind of place it is. The Ben River Hotel comes with all the start up requisites for a fishing bar, 40 year old carpet, dusty skin mounts on every wall, a large stainless steel trough instead of urinals, a golden retriever that has worn a groove into the floor, laying next to the door and monochrome photos of two men standing next to a dead fish on the ground from the good old days. But if that's not enough.

OK, Josh, wait. There's more. There is more. I'm already sold. Ben, you had one golden retriever on the floor.

He says what makes the place really special, though, is that whenever fishing tournaments come through town, they will extend trading hours and employ extra local people to accommodate the anglers. They will cook bacon and egg rolls and make coffee at five a.m. and then serve booze as late as the anglers will keep buying it. They also cook a mean feed of greasy chicken parmesan cheese on a mountain of fries to fuel anglers. All of this, even though they are the only place you could possibly go within 60 miles.

And he says plenty of other bars on the tournament trail won't even keep the kitchen open. Ten minutes longer than normal. That's how you nominate a place, no doubt.

I mean, cue the applause. That's not only does that sound like an amazing place, but that guy did a fantastic job of describing it.

So, yeah, close to him as well. Josh from Australia, which brother and I love this.

And the most striking and educational thing for me is that I had no idea is the Aussies eat chicken parm.

Oh yeah. And everybody eats chicken parm. Come on, let's see.

Like, who would have thunk? Like, that's that's what I expect to hear from a nomination of a bar where, like, the party boats dock in Brooklyn and yeah, they got the fresh peppers, little guy bugel not Australia.

That should have been like kangaroo kebabs and deep fried yabbies or something.

Anyway, don't do not talk smack on kangaroo meat. It is delicious. And I'm not joking right now. I think Josh will probably back me up on this. Josh Kangaroo is delicious. Don't let anybody tell you different. Josh, you can.

You can right back in and back miles up on that. But I have a message for you, man. I looked this place up super cool. Dive bar, meat store, convenience store with a boat ramp. It's right in the bay. But dude, I have some bad news per the Bam website, the joints for sale, man.

So, Josh, if you have the financial means, maybe this is a sign that you need to purchase this joint and keep Bems cranking so Myles and I can come visit you and drink there someday.

Maybe we take up a collection, we turn it into bents. Yes, it's our it's our flagship headquarters outside of the US.

Let's get the stickers and T-shirts going before we start buying buying watering holes.

Anyway, we've been enjoying all your bar nominations, so please keep those coming. We appreciate your help so much. Keep firing them off to bent at the meat eater dotcom so we can keep this list growing and give your local hangs some love.

Be honest with you, man, I just want to know more about Australian fishing tournaments, right? You know, like we've covered the fact that neither one of us is big in the tournament fishing, at least not the way it's done here in the States.

But I got to imagine the Aussies do it up right down there, you know what I mean?

I would think so. Like I mean, they seem to have a lot of stuff, Dayal, when it comes to fishing, because they've they have so much good fishing and so many cool fish in Australia. But I have no idea, like, what's their tournament fish? What is it that they are tournaments?

I have no idea. Is it barramundi? Is it Murray Cod? Is it Australian bass? I don't know.

Josh, if you're still listening, fill us in. We are ignorant about your tournament targets down there, but we'd like learning stuff also. So we have a listener, at least one listener in Australia. So that's pretty cool.

That can equate to one couch. We could sleep on Australia if we needed to.

But yeah, Josh, let us know because, you know, the bar you mention is coastal. So if it's a saltwater tournament, it's even more interesting.

Like, what are you guys what are you guys what do you what do you have time, you know, and they do have very cool fish there. So I've heard I've never fished there myself because I have offensive ideas.

I have. Well, yeah, my I should clarify that, that my wife works for an Australian organisation so so she gets to go down there. Used to be able to go down there back when we could travel a lot. She smiles doesn't she.

She's she's all about those qualities Miles. She just rides in the pouch of the one time I did get the fish out there. I think I caught the world's smallest Murray cod. But those are super cool fish. And if you don't know about them, we'll cover them here at some point, because I've I've written about them before and I loved hanging out in Australia.

And just a quick tip for other Americans who may go there. I made some poor footwear choices, but you shouldn't bring snake boots. All the Aussies wear snake boots and running through the bush in shorts and flip flops in the middle of the night is a good way to die.

So pro tip for you.

I sense that there's a deeper back story there that I. I don't know.

There's it's a long story. We're going to tell that one no time short version is they have these thing called brown snakes. They will kill people very quickly. They got only avoided getting bitten through sheer luck and ignorance straight up like, hey, man.

However, whatever it takes to stay safe, sheer luck and ignorance at the same time.

Anyway, for all the fascinating and fun fish they have in Oz, and there are a lot of them, one fish that they don't have Arga. And if you're one of the outcast like me in the pro garfish camp, listen up, because this week's tackle hack comes from our good friend Alvin Dedeaux in Texas. And he's going to pass along a sweet little nugget for how you can catch more of them.

GA's I'm getting calls coming from inside the city.

I picked up Dad. Today's tackle hack comes to us from renowned fishing guide from all over the West, Alvin Dedeaux. Alvin, how are you, man?

I'm fantastic. How are you? I'm also fantastic.

Thank you. And you I mean, did you got it all over the place? You've done fresh, you've done salt, you've done rivers, you've done lakes. Like you just you do it all right. That's right. All water, man. So ask someone who is guided and fished just about every kind of fish in there is. We brought you here to give us one of your favorite tips on fish and give us your tackle, man. What do you got?

All right. I'm calling this one the garden catchment.

So it is an attachment that you can put on your hook, whether it's a fly or spinner, a plug, whatever, that will allow you to catch some ga ga are known for having very bony mouths and it's hard to get a hook in small hooks.

Big hooks doesn't really matter. But if you really want to give them what you need is attachment.

And the attachment is a piece of nylon rope maybe two inches long. You burn one in so it doesn't fray and then you take the other end and fray it out.

Now the important part is that you make a pretty good sized chunk of burned rock on one end because what you're going to do is poke your hook through that burn section of the rope and that'll keep it on there. So you don't have to tie it on. You don't have to make a fly. You don't have to make a lure with it on there. You just got a little piece of rope that's ready to stick on your hook when you want to get a GA in the way it works is gonna have barbed teeth.

So their teeth are designed to grab stuff and hold. They're not designed for cutting. So what happens when the guard grabs the yarn, the barbs and their teeth get tangled up? What you got to do is you got to let them take it for a little bit. So let them run with it for a little bit before you set the hook. Even though you're not really set the hook, you're just getting the line tight.

The teeth are tangled up and it works really well. Now, the thing about it is, especially if you want to. You've got to eat. It's a really good technique, but if you're trying to catch GA and release them.

Bring some gloves and some and some long those suppliers, because you're going to have to you're going to have to untangle the attachment from the guard's teeth if you want to return the guard to the water, if you want to keep the guard and eat it, you're all good. Whack them on the head and yank it out and throw them in the cooler.

So they always have a guard attachment with you so you can get you some guard. If this was this was an infomercial, I'd order twelve already, right?

Yeah, that's a Sunday. Sunday ga ga ga ga.

I just I just happened to be setting up a website that you go to w-w that guard text book Dot Net, because when you got the guard attachments you don't need no net.

I know that guard, that's kind of like a niche fish, but that is a solid bit of wisdom right there. If you're into those, it shouldn't be a niche fish.

I'm just saying more should should are so fun. And and that's a good tip. If particularly if you're a little curious about the guards and want to figure it out. I'm telling you, that's a good tip. I've seen Alvin use that successfully. And and if anybody out there watch season one of Dust Boat, you might recognize that little maneuver. This after after Jesse Griffith formed like Tenggara unspinnable and closer's, just like the hooked wooden stick. Alvin rigged up that GHA attachment and Jesse promptly got it done.

It worked. It worked.

A charm and it's a secret weapon. Secret weapon of all good angler's cheap ass nylon rope. It is not just for tying off that mynor bucket.

No, no, no. It is it is a tool of of many, many uses. We don't have time to list all the different things you should be doing with your ends of nylon rope because we are coming to the end. But before we go, Joe is going to tell you about a bait with possibly the coolest name of all time in this week's end of the line.

It's not loud enough, but. Nomad Design Tackle is an Australian based company that specializes in creating laws that will fall and stand up to big, bad blue water brawlers like tuna and giant travelling's now given that the Aussies have a testing ground with much cooler shit to test on, like those in dog-tooth tunas.

It's no wonder that Nomad's wares have infiltrated the U.S. market coveted by those like me, infatuated with casting, not trolling for bad ass pelagic species.

Nomad makes all kinds of cool stuff, but I'm going to go on record right now and say there is no offering finer than the paper they released in 2018 called the Chuck Norris.

And here's the thing, right? I have never fished a Chuck Norris. I don't even own a Chuck Norris.

I've held a Chuck Norris in my hand several times at various tackle shops. I've debated the Chuck Norris and each time I've decided I couldn't bring myself to drop thirty five smackers on a paper I don't really need. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that Chuck Norris isn't worth that kind of money. It's extremely well-made, tough as nails, and supposedly has design elements that allow it to throw a ton of water while being easier to work than other similar offshore poppers.

But the thing is, as much as I love throwing poppers at tuna and dolphin, I only get to do it a handful of times a season if I'm lucky.

And it's been my experience that when you're dealing with a school of hungry boiling tuna or a bull dolphin hovering under some flotsam, if they're fired up enough to eat a popper, it don't matter if it's a mad man. It's Thorngate, pop, pop, pop or bull pop, tuna rocket or tuna hunter.

And I have plenty of all of those, which essentially means I only want to buy a Chuck Norris because it's called the Chuck Norris. Which brings us to why I've included this law that I've never actually thrown. In end of the line, I distinctly recall walking up on the Nomad booth that I cast, which is the big tackle industry trade show back in twenty eighteen, seeing the sign, reading Chuck Norris and swooning as I remember, I had to brace myself on the table of a man selling beer cruises that had led lights in them and coolers that featured built in deep fat fryers.

It was and still remains the best goddamn lur name I've ever heard. It's worthy of owning and throwing.

Just so you can include the words Chuck Norris in your Instagram post. Think of the witty pop culture possibilities. Chuck Norris doesn't shower. He only takes bloodbaths when Chuck Norris does division.

There are no remainders, there is no theory of evolution, just a list of creatures Chuck Norris allows to live. And for those of you that travel to fish, keep Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands.

They are now the islands in your back pocket.

Don't worry, all you middle America listeners that have no use for a seven inch popper they can tackle a fish is big and heavy as your lawn tractor nomad also makes three point seventy five inch Chuck Norris models, which would probably catch some muskies or some some Hogge large mouths.

And that said, though, you know, for a time there was even an itty bitty two inch freshwater Chuck Norris that featured patterns like frog and crayfish.

But it appears to be discontinued, probably because y'all are doing just fine with your pop bars and hula poppers. But my papa came in contact with the coronavirus. Now the coronavirus is quarantining for two weeks, just doesn't have the same ring.

Well, that's it for this week, hopefully you now know how to tell when a Canadian is making fun of you, why you should never, ever leave a newlywed couple in your boat alone for more than 10 minutes, no matter how old they are and why Joe always carries a bag of nylon rope soaked in bacon grease in his front pocket. I do.

And if you have crafted any of your own bacon grease tricks, please tell us about them. E-mail us at Bent at the Meat Eater Dotcom. We always appreciate hearing from you guys, even if you're just writing in to tell us what we can do better. Absolutely.

And if you are digging the show, please let the world know. Give us some stars, leave us a review, or better yet, tell your friends we won't ask you for money like those NPR chumps. But we will continue asking for your help getting the word out because that's what allows us to have jobs.

Yeah, I mean, if you're assuming you can call this a job, it could be worse still.

We could be restocking the air purifiers at the Sharper Image over there. They're selling like hotcakes, I hear.

Anyway, The Sharper Image still exist.

Yeah, I think at least maybe anyway. And so next time, make sure your coffee is black rifle and make sure you check your hole for that Greenplum.

Hey, do you guys remember bonus tracks, hidden secret tracks at the end of a CD? Sometimes they'd be like track 4000 or you had to listen for like five minutes after the last song.

If you stuck around this long, you're about to get a bonus track because as it turns out, River Horse from our sagely Wisdom with River Horse segment in the last episode had not actually listen to our podcast before recording that. No. And apparently now he has a much better sense of what we're doing, know the whole thing.

River Horse came on because I called him and said, Hey, man, we'd like to get you on our podcast. But apparently he never did his due diligence and didn't know what he was contributing to. So after he actually listened to the show, he sent us this voice message that we are now going to play for you as a little bonus. Enjoy.

Oh, yes. Yes, and hell yes. What a fine, fine, super fine. Riff of a podcast is an honor to be on there with you. Now I see what kind of party it is. I'm going to pull out all the stops and the next one get ready for a throwdown, a full on fight on the playground, baby. Let's have a little chat show in my house. In you, my Lord. How come I can't be the Cherokee Viking lovechild of James Earl Jones and Fabio or perhaps the tree hugger Texas fly-Fishing hippie Morgan Freeman.

Hmm. No, I think about it in your reference. Makes me feel kind of prom night sexy. Oh, thanks again for having me along for that ride.

And I'm going to whisper sweet nothings in your ears and sing.