Oh, you went to the Amazon for peacocks, my grandpa goes there for PEJAK, parts of your 80 down SHANTÉ to a private mountlake. That's right, you fly cannot be found inexcusable.

That would be like the world's most psychedelic, tapin. Good morning, degenerate anglers, welcome to Bant here with your hot ice fishing tip of the week. Always clear your ice tip top guide with your fat frozen fingers or teeth. I'm Joe Somali.

I'm Miles Nulty. And that is terrible advice. Do not repeat. Do not listen to Joe. I have snapped a lot of or at least I've slept at least a couple of tips trying to do that before I like.

I finally came to what should have been a previously obvious realization right then and and wait for this because it's almost as brilliant as yours.

I'm dying. Come on.

So even in even in winter when it's very cold, the temperature of liquid water remains above freezing.

And if you're fish in open water, you always have access to that. Right? So you can just you just dunk your ice choke rod, tip in the water for a minute or two and maybe move it around.

In my experience, that usually clears the ice right off, or at least at the very least, it softens it up enough that you can get it off without snapping off your brittle, frozen graphite. That's my tip for those of you out there.

You ever just stick the whole tip in your mouth and, like, exhale so your hot breath melts it up. But I don't like to stick really cold chunks of graphite in my mouth either, so I don't think I've ever done that.

I'm sure that works. I'm sure that one is another way of doing it.

I don't doubt it. Well, it does.

It does. It does. But you know what I do more often, I just opt right out of fishing when it's so cold. I know I'm going to have to be dealing with that shit every two minutes. Yeah. To clarify, though, right. It doesn't bother me when ice fishing because that's just part of the game. Sure. You would never ice fish. Yeah. Well yeah but I do though but it's a little odd.

It's like right there you don't have to like, you know it's not an effort. Right. Yeah but open water fishing below freezing these days. I'm good. Like I stopped that a long time ago for the most part. And you can judge me for that by all means. I'm OK with that.

You know, I am I'm currently judging you as always, I figure. Yeah. But like, it's not so much a judgment thing, man. It's like I don't I don't have that. Some of us a lot of us, I'd say don't have that luxury. If I didn't if I didn't ever go open water fishing when it was below freezing, I'd get to fish like two months a year like the it's a weird winter this year, but mostly winter goes usually winter just goes on forever out here.

So, you know, that said, I was saying I judge you, but I have a threshold.

Like, there's a line there's a line of where the physical discomfort outweighs my desire to fish. So I have a particular it's not a hard fast no like on the mercury, but there's a level of discomfort with the conditions where I'm like unless I'm in a heated CHEC, I'm probably good, but it's not freezing.

Like I fish when it's Blowering for sure. Right now. I feel you on that for me. It depends. I've ice fish, some brutal conditions where without the shark there was just no way you could even do it. And that was mostly because of wind. Right? Like the wind chill was so terrible.

But if I had my preference, I enjoy ice fishing much more outside of the shark.

Oh, yeah. You know, it's claustrophobic in there, dude. Yeah. I don't know.

I just like the mobility. Go drill hole over here. You try to throw the throw the pigskin around, you know. Yeah. But with your boys.

But now that I think about it, the last time I broke my no fly fishing below freezing policy was actually with you. And I recall the high that day being in the mid teens. But you were still pretty gung ho about it.

Yes, I remember correctly the disappearing Chicken Day. Yeah.

That we got the ah chicken lunch mysteriously disappeared. And we we don't we don't have time to get into the whole thing.

But just like the shortest version, we bought fried chicken. We lost it in the truck, we bought it, we walked out of the story that we fished. We came back for lunch. The chicken was gone. And to this day we have no idea where. And there was nobody else out there but us who's gone.

Chicken was gone. Anyways, I'm working on a script for, like, you know, cold case files on that.

They haven't bought it yet, but I got my chicken.

Then we can still smell the chicken in the truck. Yeah, you can see several of the delicious chicken with still a truck.

I forgot. I can't figure that one out. Yeah, it was cold that day. It was definitely very, very cold that day.

But it was like it was one of those deals where it was a it was a go now or don't go at all because you were just in town for a short little window. Yeah.

And that was the day we had and and like to be clear, at that time, we didn't know each other as well. So there was a little bit of that bravado thing going on.

We were both like, well, I can handle it. You can like you can go, let's go. I can go.

I can fish by oh, you know, there was some posturing for sure. And I'm not going to be the guy that pulls out of a fishing trip in Montana because it's too cold. But I'm also not going to complain too loud when it's miserable out and someone else says, hey, it's cold out.

Why don't we head to the bar? Because I'm probably thinking the same thing. I just don't want to be the one to say it. You know, they'll I'll I'll tell you what.

Between the warm. Water in that Spring Creek we were fishing, keeping the guides from icing too bad and that that, quote, dry cold you guys have out there for as cold as the mercury was, it really wasn't that intolerable of a day.

I remember being pretty comfortable, actually, the whole dry cold.

I mean, I know you put the dry cold in air quotes, but it's not just like Chamber of Commerce fiction. That's that is a real thing. And and I don't I can't fully explain it.

But it's true. It's less cold without the humidity. It really is. And and I don't do as much as I used to, but I used to like winter fishing, used to be some of my favorite. I've had River River fishing in addition to ice fishing. Just some fantastic days, like all the fish are caked up in the deep holes. And if they're on the feed, it can be stupid.

And that said, I've definitely also had winter fishing days where the highlight happened at the bar after when like you pull the plug and you're warm finally and you're having a beer and you look at your buddy, you're like, dude, we should have done this three hours ago. This is way better than what we're doing. Yeah.

Or another option is you have that convo the night before when you're still debating tomorrow's conditions. You know, like, I don't know, man.

I want to get out of the house, but it looks like total brutal shit. And like you land on lunch and an afternoon at the bar and just cut the fishing part right out. I've done that too. We'll just take that part out and just. Yeah, sleep later and go right to the bar.

So it works either way. Sometimes there's the middle ground right where you meet at the river or the access wherever you decide on and you start to gear up. Yeah.

And then you just look at each other, go like, should we know, should we go to the bar some too many times.

Too many times that's happened.

But it is right now the end of February, which which in my opinion is the worst fishing month of the year. I just agree. Just don't like February, man. Yep. And I can almost taste the glory of March. I realize early March is still technically February, but but marches when it changes. Right. March is when it gets good. We're not there yet. No, not yet. You're still in the February part. So for this episode, it's our last hurrah of trying to just deal with the winter.

And we're going to kick it off with an ice fishing report, which seems appropriate.

We are we haven't had a report in a while. Yeah, I will say, based on the amount of Lincoln aviators I saw parked up at Lake, PACOM, North Jersey, a few weekends ago, I think it's safe to assume most of you have seen the Matthew McConaughey Lincoln commercial where he uses his rig like Ashanti. I seen that. So.

Oh, have I ever the first time I saw that commercial when that came out, we were in Minnesota filming the Ferhat Eyes tour, and we saw it while we were watching a football game one evening and mocking and making fun of that commercial just became the running joke among the crew. For the rest of that, she was just what we did because it's it's worthy.

Well well, my friend, joke's on you because it turns out McConaughey is actually in ice fishing like that whole commercial was his idea.

And it was all based off his own personal hard water philosophy.

Even more shocking than that, he agreed to do an ice fishing report for us.

That kind of explains the whole commercial sort of anyway.

All right, all right, all right. Well, after that dark, silky and mashers she creates takes her to like me. I cannot be rushed at first brown tip about 100 yards from the shore. You know, you've seen my station commercial. Oh, you have an. Go watch our. Anyways, all the money I made from that I use to fund drum circles for underprivileged children in Guam and Austin, and now that I see a fish and report baby, you know, fish and reports rely on the concepts of space and time which are rather than human constructs.

We are just energetic waves, her rippling through matter in an ever expanding universe. We're all dead and have yet to be born. I've already called the 50 pound lake trout that's currently swimming in Canadian Cheal Lake, where I live in a luxury. Here they are. You are lives right as I are here. OK, here's a nice version of that. Drive your eighty thousand dollar fish and shanté to a private high mountain like eight one single tip with one single for for travel hook.

Walk back to your navigator, slowly doodle in a notepad, look through your Bonos at the precise moment the flag draped and casually stroll over to known that their faces are already out there, their fish is already fully there. That fish is already now, now, now eat maybe. See, that's a real sacred are fish and people, you know, catch fish, sharks and light. You catch fish with your mind and want you to understand that.

You can I finish anywhere and at. Ice fishing in Tahiti right now. That's the sound between my ears, I. Also today, so does that sound to Haiti? I just hope that the Lincoln, like I hope that commercial did well enough that Lincoln lets him make a sequel where where he actually is, maybe ice fishing from Tahiti. I think that would go well. I would watch that. I still wouldn't buy an aviator, but I might I might keep cable.

If they get that, I might watch that.

I wouldn't buy one either, though. If somebody, like, gave me a free navigator should take that.

I think it's just about any free car. Yeah. You know, good point. I take a freakier right now if somebody wanted to give it to me anyway.

Look, I am very grateful to to Matthew for coming on our show, but I'm not actually sure I want to fish with McConaughey. I used to think that would be cool to fish with him. Like I thought it would be a real trip. Right.

But then I don't know if you saw this, but I saw him do a guest spot on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and he was a complete wet blanket like the dude.

Yeah.

The dude said like four words and just looked totally disengaged the whole time when the fat come from.

Thanks for using me. Now, real quick not to your. That was it, that was I know we montage that, but that was pretty much all he said in a few quick seconds on the show. So imagine him at the bar, right. If delicious enchiladas and Guy Fiete couldn't fire him up, I doubt me in my stories could either. So I've lost that dream.

I've let it go. Oh, man. He's like a guide's worst nightmare. The client. You cannot get excited about anything. That said, though, I don't think you should you should sell yourself short on that one, do you? You don't have guy his hair. But I'd like to I think you I think you might have better stories. I actually I would give you the leg up in that one.

Nice Segway. Thank you for that. Good stories. Leads us right into our next segment this week.

Our very own Miles Nulty is going to suggest a book is going to suggest a book that sounds completely up his alley, lots of science stuff, science stuff like when you guys write in and say, what's in all the science stuff?

This is this here. Here we go.

It's time for freaking Philistines, where we tell you about books that don't suck and try to convince you that scrolling feeds and skimming comment threads is not a substitute for actual reading.

What's Folkston?

It's a guy who doesn't care about books or interesting films and things that I'm the first in this week's book satisfies almost everything I look for in a Philistines pick. It's literary without being too pretentious, complex, but still approachable and fun under the radar, but not hard to find. The one drawback, it's it's pretty late on actual fishing rods and reels only make an appearance in the first essay, which amounts to exactly twenty six pages, but. Even though the following two hundred and forty one pages drift away from the specific pursuit of angling, they're still clearly written by one of us, an angler, someone constantly immersed in the quest to better understand the intricacies of life below the surface.

Wild Thoughts from Wild Places is a collection of essays that gets lumped into the genre of science writing, which is kind of unfortunate to some. Science writing connotes boring, lifeless prose, a bunch of words that squeeze all the fun from going outside and turn it into homework. This book is not that the author David Quammen describes what he does as working in that great gray zone between newspaper reporting and fiction, engaged every day and trying to make facts, not just talk, but Yodle.

Quammen doesn't just make those facts Yotel, he assembles them into bangin songs, celebrating nuances and complexities of the natural world from fluid dynamics and tumbling rivers to population genetics and urban pigeons to the properties of snow and how it binds together. Carmen's research on all these topics is sound, he digs into the history, reads the primary research interviews and embeds himself with the people doing that research whenever possible and make sure he actually understands what he's talking about. But that's not what makes me love this book.

Quammen tells you the stories that make you care. For example, in the essay Vortex, he tells a story about kayaking a high water river near his house with friends. They've made it through most of the technical whitewater and are just kind of cruising to the takeout when this happens. We paddled downstream toward evening, toward our park tandas with Yakima Rack's and our towels and street clothes for late dinners and wives and children. The water was still steep and heavy, but not quite so riveting as above.

And now along hereabouts, there was perhaps a slight lapse of attention for yours truly.

Probably I had started thinking about certain vexatious issues of ecological politics or maybe about barbecued chicken. Sandy and Mike and Derek took a sensible line just right of center, and I must have stared vacantly at their backs while I strayed to the left. A flat rock big as a driveway slab had been engulfed beneath the high water, which set up a ravenous hole just behind it. I fell into this thing, it swallowed me like I was Jonah instantly, I was upside down.

The water swamped me and snatched me from all directions. I had one breath of air, gasped in as I'd gone over and good for 15 or 20 seconds. That, to my best recollection, is when I begin wondering seriously about the subject of fluid dynamics. Now, fluid dynamics for those of you listening who are like me and don't already know, turns out to be one of the most complicated branches of physics. And it's not the sort of subject that I would engage in for fun, or at least that's what I used to think.

Turns out someone like myself who has spent thousands of hours of my life staring at moving water and trying to decipher what a particular current seem or swirl might do to, say, a drifting fishing line or a raft loaded with people in gear has thought a great deal about fluid dynamics. But until Kwasman contextualized it for me in the form of a story, I didn't know how much I cared. And once I realized that I cared, I was more than willing to follow along with him as he traced the study of Waters movement back to Leonardo da Vinci and explained how understanding the ways that liquid passes through space not only informs our perspectives on rivers and oceans, but how our own blood circulates through our bodies.

Anyone who's read scientific journals knows that they're stripped of fleshy narratives. All the personal motives that compel researchers to invest their short lives in the topics they study are intentionally omitted from the conclusions they publish. This gives published research the detached relevancy of objective tone. But it also smothers the context that makes us care about these things in the first place. Objectivity, Kwasman once told me, is a false God. False or not, it is the degree to which modern science nods.

I'm not saying that's right or wrong, but I am saying that it leaves science in need of good PR people. Writers like Kwasman. I'll leave you with one last passage that is at least partially fishing related. I can remember the first child I ever got as an adult and precisely what the poor little fish represented to me at that moment, it represented a dinner and be a new beginning with a new sense of self in a new place. The matter of dinner was important since I was a genuinely hungry young man living out of my road weary Volkswagen bus with a meager supply of groceries.

But the matter of selfhood in place, the matter of reinventing identity was paramount. My hands trembled wildly as I took that fish off the hook, a rainbow, all of seven or eight inches long, caught on a black net pattern size 12, tied cheaply of poor materials somewhere in the Orient and picked up by me at herders when I had passed through South Dakota.

I killed the little trout before it could slip through my fingers and heartbreakingly disappear. Montana was the only place on earth, as I thought of it, farthest in Miles and spirit from Oxford University, yet where you could still get by with the English language and the sun didn't disappear below the horizon for days in a row during wintertime. And the prevailing notion of a fish dinner was not lutefisk. I had literally never set foot within the boundaries of the state.

I had no friends there, no friends of friends, no contacts of any sort, which was fine. I looked at a map and I saw jagged blue lines denoting mountain rivers. All I knew was that in Montana there would be more trout. Trout were the indicator species for the place and life I was seeking. Do you actually know that, right, man, since he's a Bozeman guy? I don't. I wish I did. I have interviewed him.

I've seen him speak a few times. But I. I would be lying if I said I know him. I'm just totally a fan like God. I've actually run into him on the streets just like walking his dog and tried not to be the I was like Mr. Cuomo so much.

I think you're just trying to be like, hey, how's it going? David, good to see you.

But he's he's just one of those people that I respect immensely and have followed his career like he left outside magazine quite a long time ago. And then he wrote a bunch of different books on on interesting topics. And then he became a staff writer at National Geographic. And you see, he's still doing a bunch of interesting books. I got to say, though, none of his other work even mentions fishing at all. Right. And I I know just from some of the conversations we have that he's not really into fishing.

Right.

But I still think his work is is worth reading. And if you have the time, if you're into it, I think you should read it. I think he's one of the best science writers alive and probably high up in the conversation of all time science writers.

He just he takes super deep research and he makes it both accessible and interesting and approachable to a general audience. So that's my that's my plug for Kwasman right there.

I, I don't mean to laugh, but that what you just said were how you how you cap that that just sounds so familiar because I'm pretty sure that's what you try and do most weeks in our Competitive Journalism segment. It's time for Fish News, Bishnu.

That escalated quickly. All right, before we get started here with news, I do have one very quick shout out. It's rare that I don't I feel like any more. But this one this is almost going to be like FM radio style because zap to shout out to listener Mark Fenton.

And this is a this is a self-serving shout out, but I don't I don't really care.

I got a nice note from him that he and the boys in the welding department at New Jersey's famed Viking yachts tune in every Friday and really enjoy the show. And I just wanted to say thanks.

And also, if you fellows have like a I don't know, like a spare 46 or so just sitting around, we are actively looking for a bent boat.

And I told Mark, every time I drive by the Viking facility, the Viking compound, I said to myself, yep, never going to own a boat from there. But listen, boys, talk to the boss. This would be an incredible opportunity for Viking yachts. And if not if not, I'll just take a Viking hat so I can tell people I own a Viking. OK, so we need the leadership.

We need a mother shark. Exactly.

We'll just take it all around the high seas to bend down the road. So that's my shout out. OK, thank you for listening, boys. We do appreciate it. And we've got a lot of news to get through here again this week. So let's get going here. Reminded this is a competition. Miles and I are unaware genuinely this week, unaware of what the other guy is bringing to the table. And then when it's all said and done, our audio engineer, the David Blaine of audio engineering, Phil, will declare a news winner.

And I believe you have the floor. You open us up this week. So I at it and he does close up magic.

It's really impressive.

Does he really feel this close up magic? Oh, damn it. All right. This is this is actually stuff I've been following for quite some time, but there's been a recent development, so I think it's time to catch everybody up.

This one focuses on the province of Alberta. It's a little little little context here. Provinces function in similar ways to states in the US in the sense that they are smaller regional governments under the umbrella of a larger federal system. You don't need a whole Canadian civics lesson for this to make sense. You just need to understand that Alberta is a province in Canada and has some independent jurisdiction over the management of its resources. OK, so southwestern Alberta is particularly well-loved by hunters, anglers and outdoor people.

It's where you'll find some of the more famous areas of the Canadian Rockies like BAMF and Jasper. Hmm.

Just like the rocky south of the border, this mountainous region and adjacent foothills and prairies create spectacular fish and game habitat. From an angling perspective, we're talking about rivers like the Bowl, Livingstone, the North and south Saskatchewan, the old man, and like tons and tons of others. In addition to its wilderness and natural beauty, Alberta is also known for abundant energy resources. Though these days you usually hear about oil, specifically the Alberta tar sands and the Keystone pipeline.

Modern industry in southwest Alberta was originally built on coal. A Blackfoot name for this area roughly translates to place of the black rocks, right thing like callsigns, one of the first major towns there, Lethbridge used to be called coal banks.

Between 1875 and 1975, there were over 2000 coal mining projects in the area, but the following year brought a shift in Alberta's relationship to coal mining.

In 1976, the provincial government unveiled a new coal policy that read No development will be permitted unless the government is satisfied that it may proceed without irreparable harm to the environment. Details the balls are kind of complicated, but but basically the government looked at the wilderness resources they had and decided under significant pressure from citizens who like to hunt fish and enjoy unspoiled places to enact strict protections over the mountainous wilderness regions and then, like some lesser protections for the eastern prairies.

It just so happens that the high value metallurgical coal is located in the mountains and that choice coal is primarily used to make steel, not generate power. The flatland deposits are lower quality and have mostly been used to generate electricity for Alberta. But Alberta recently pledged to phase out coal fired electricity by 2030, which has left that coal even even less valuable than it already.

Right, right. Right, right. So now fast forward.

In 2019, the United Conservative Party won the majority of the provincial elections and soon after, records show that the Coal Association of Canada began lobbying hard to amend the 1976 coal policy in May of 2020, the government very quietly rescinded that 44 year old policy without any public comment or input.

All right.

So practically this means, yeah, over thirty seven million acres of previously protected land would now allow Leigh Sales for open pit mines. We're talking about this type of mine. It's also some sometimes known strip mining or mountaintop removal mining. Yeah, and it has kind of a poor track record when it comes to environmental impact, especially when it comes to water and fish and fisheries. Right. You can just look at the other side of the continental divide in British Columbia, where the same coal deposits are being actively mined on that west side of the Canadian Rockies.

Selenium, a coal mining byproduct, is messing up the famous and exceptional watershed, the Elk River and its tributaries. The negative effects of selenium on ecosystems are very well documented in places like West Virginia and California, where the chemical completely decimated fish populations and aquatic ecosystems. So long story short, this type of mining is bad news for people who like to fish. Thing is, not everybody values fish and fishing to the same extent that I do or that you do, right?

Sure. Many folks in the province welcomed the policy shift, hoping that a new mine would bring a much needed economic boost. The pandemic has hit lots of economies on the chin, but Alberta's in particular. There are two primary economic drivers. Tourism and oil both bottomed out in 2020. We all we all know how travel is going right now. And then also at one point last year, oil was trading in negative figures. Right. So the province is scrambling to find ways to get money coming in again.

But then some other Albertans have been, shall we say, less enthusiastic about this policy change, which spurred, quote, unprecedented civil protests, according to a local paper.

And we're not just talking about like conservationists and anglers and hippie types, the hunting and ranching communities have also rallied against this change. Even the popular Lethbridge based country singer Corb Lund publicly condemned the whole thing. Opposition pressure grew steadily throughout twenty twenty, and in December of last year, the Alberta government issued a very, very public statement canceling 11 of the coal leases they had opened up, which was a really nice PR move. And they made a point of noting in all their press releases that they made this decision in response to public outcry.

There's just one problem. The 11 leases they canceled made up about 4400 acres.

So less than half of one percent of the area they opened up when they initially rescinded the coal policy.

Thanks. So, you know. Yeah, yeah. It made good press.

I wouldn't call it meaningful. And it didn't succeed in quelling the general unrest from local opposition. One of the primary groups leading that opposition is the Alberta chapter of backcountry hunters and anglers who are co signatories of a lawsuit that seeks to fully reinstate the previously held environmental protections and claims that the current government violated the law when they made the unilateral change.

The final decision on that lawsuit is still pending, but in the wake of last month's trial, the Alberta government put out another very public announcement claiming that they had heard the opposition loud and clear and were reinstating the 1976 coal policy.

Now, that all sounds well and good yet again. The devil's in the details here. During the nine months that the coal policy was undone, Australian mining companies were granted six new leases, meaning that just over one point two million acres of land along the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies is now open to coal mining. Though the Alberta government did reinstate their preexisting policy, they did not rescind the leases that they had granted in that nine month period.

Wait a minute. Exactly, I'm trying to I'm trying to compute all that so so like they took away the protections for nine months and during those nine months, they were giving out leases.

Yeah, I got one. So what's happened is like, hey, we're going to go back to the way it was. But the people we said yes to when before that they can still do their thing.

Right. And so from all the coverage I read on this issue, which is a lot, it seems like the government of Alberta is prioritizing the desires of the coal lobby and Australian coal companies over their fish wildlife and, you know, most importantly, their citizens, while trying their damnedest to play damage control when talking to the press, the reinstatement, the coal policy was a step in the right direction. I'm giving them credit there. But the fisheries in this part of Canada, they're still in trouble.

They're still in jeopardy from what's been enacted. I want to close up by by encouraging all of our listeners north of the border, especially those in Alberta, to read up on the situation and pay attention, like do your own homework. Don't just take my word for it. If you're so inclined, contact the appropriate MVP's and also consider joining the Alberta chapter of because they're the ones who are working really, really hard to represent the interests of everyone who likes to fish and hunt and play outside in the mountains of southwestern Alberta.

And they're the ones who are helping to bring this lawsuit forward. So I would talk to those folks because they're doing they're doing really good work. And this one, this this really does threaten some great fisheries.

So just to clarify one thing, so they rescinded that that decision. So like the government is essentially saying, we'll take it back to how it was when the protections were in place. But what like moving forward?

So, like going forward, we won't sell any more leases. But these standards are already in for now.

For now, the yes, the leases that they gave out in those nine months are standing and roads are being built. Test drilling is going on in places where it didn't happen before. And those are moving ahead. Also right now, that original policy is back in place, but the government is crafting a new policy and no one knows what that's going to be yet. So there's a lot that's still up in the air with how how this is going to play out moving forward and and look, I get it like there is there's some real there are some real issues economically going on in that area.

But everything I read, I didn't have time to cover all this because it's a really deep dove.

But it's a it's a very short sighted move. And it doesn't look like these coal resources are actually going to bring as much money into the local economy as is being promised. Not for very long.

Yeah, it's a super detailed story. And I'm not as fluent in all the details as you are. But that's sort of my takeaway is that, you know, it is a very short term gain. And then I don't know, man, history kind of shows that if you don't fully backpedal and, like, make the whole thing go away, like once you let a little bit in, you tend to be on the track to have it keep going that way, especially if they get their economic their the money flowing.

Yeah, exactly. They get the boost. It's going to be very hard to go back without that being gone.

So I'm sure we'll we'll have follow up on that one down the road because that's I hope I get the follow up at some point and say like, hey, the the long dead succeeded in the whole thing's dead.

We'll see where it goes. Yeah. Well, speaking of dead dead stuff, my first story this week is not it's not a whole lot more uplifting.

And you know me like I go. If it involves Deon Sanders or fishing with Doritos, I'm automatically in. But I'm I'm going to end at the Spencer gifts. I can't start there. I got to go to Hudson News. And I don't think any person living in the U.S. has missed the coverage of the polar vortex that plummeted much of the country into a deep freeze. You lived it. We kind of skated it a little bit out here in Jersey, but it was cold.

You got the cold.

It's been it was cold there for a while. Yeah, real cold. It was extremely cold. Cold. But, you know, our poor friends in Texas were suffering through this from ongoing power outages, lack of potable water and so on.

And, you know, the thing is, while these brutal temps and weather have made people in a huge part of the country suffer, if you look at it from a fishing perspective, meaning how much does this period of extreme cold matter to anglers?

It's not going to affect, you know, many places long run. But Texas is one exception to that, particularly along the coast. Now, I've spent a lot of time fishing down on the Texas coast, one of my favorite places. But yeah, it's awesome. It's you have to bear in mind, though, is that what makes it so great is the coast wide network of these shallow bays and estuaries that grow arguably the biggest sea trout in the U.S. and they've got red fish and all kinds of other stuff.

But Texas is big trout country. And what happens is when these temps drop so drastically, so quickly, the fish in these shallow systems, they don't have time to make a big move like offshore into the Gulf.

And the result is, you know, can be massive fish kills and tech. The Texas coast is sadly seeing some of that. Now, Texas Parks and Wildlife has already gotten reports of some level of fish kill in five of the major bays systems. They're seeing loads of dead sea trout redfish, among other things, washed up on the beaches and huge rescue effort on sea turtles down there, too, because they're endangered. So they have all these stun stun turtles.

And I'll tell you what, man, I got a lot of buddies down there and a few of them reached out just prior to that freeze. And they were like, dude, pray for us. And they're saying that because while there's a lot of chatter wrapped up in the news about how this polar vortex deal is an effect of global warming.

Right.

It is fair to to say that this kind of deep freeze in south Texas is not unprecedented like it has happened before, most notably in 1983 and 1989.

And one of my buddies I fished down there with Darren Jones, he remembers the 83 freeze vividly, which created one of the worst fish kills in U.S. history.

And according to him, it ultimately took like four years for the whole trout fishery to really start recovering from that. Now, he had told me ahead of this freeze, certain areas on the coast, at least, they had done things like shut down barge traffic in the Intercoastal Waterway to give fish some kind of deep water refuge to hide out in. And then Texas Parks and Wildlife closed all saltwater fishing on.

This was Monday, February 15th, through Tuesday, February 16th. And they did this so that anglers and it's like hard to believe that people would even think this way.

What they do, they did it so that anglers wouldn't swarm these deep water holding areas and pound these fish that were barely hanging on like you'd get in a situation. Yeah, that was part of it.

I mean, part of it is so that, you know, just give the fish a break during this freeze. Yeah, but hands down. Another motivation is like it's like, yo, we know all the trout are going to be right here because of this freeze.

So part of that shutdown was to stop people from going to these holes where these in this shallow system where people know these fish are going to congregate and just beaten the shit out of them.

Right. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Yeah. So that's that is part of the motivation there.

And you would think, right, that all Texas anglers would just. Rally behind that, but then I ended up finding this story out of Corpus Christi about all these peer anglers that were hurrying out right before the freeze to, like, get their last licks in.

And they were saying that, you know, they can't wait for this closure to live so they can get right back out there.

And what's going to be interesting is sort of how the Texas angling community at large accepts what many are speculating could be some pretty drastic regulation changes because of this freeze. In fact, our colleague Maggie Kudlow recently covered what's going on in Texas for the meat eater Dotcom in a story titled Texas Freeze Kills Thousands of Fish along Gulf Coast. And she did a really great job. And in that piece, she actually quotes a few captains.

And what these guys are saying is, listen, even though this fishing ban will be lifted by now, I'm pretty sure it already is.

It might be smart to, like, not even go ripping around the bays in our boats at all for a while, you know, just to give the fish a chance to get over that trauma. You know, don't stress them more than they've already been. And per Maggie's story, there's some talk, I don't know how serious of dropping the trout limit to zero and banning all tournaments for the rest of the year. And. Yeah, and one so one final note on this.

Right.

It's being hinted at that while this recent freeze is definitely hurting fish and wildlife populations along the South Texas coast, a lot of officials are anticipating that this won't be quite as bad as 83 and 89, especially with, you know, temps have already come back up.

And I also read that the cooling of the bays this time, it happened a little bit more slowly than in those past cold snaps. So, I mean, I'm I'm hoping for the best, but we got to wait it out. And as a recreational guy, I think I know you, too. If it was a no kill season, I'd fully embrace that. It would make sense to me, like, yo, if not killing trout, the rest of this season helps this population.

I mean, but, you know, getting back to the economy, you do have to remember people go to Texas for trout and there are lodges up and down that entire coast that have already been hurt by covid and now this.

So it's a massive double whammy. And to be clear, nobody has made a call on regulations yet. It's just being speculated and talked about that that could be an option depending on like sort of the final assessment of how hard this freeze hurt the bass system down there.

That's a tough one. I mean, there are a lot of people who make their living off of. Being able to guide for harvesting those trout like that's that's what they're their clients are there to do. Yeah. And and I feel for those folks. I really do.

And but you also have to balance the long term health of the fishery and understand that the hammering on them right now might mean you don't get to catch them or have a sustainable fishery in the long term. Yeah.

And what's what I think is even tougher is even if you if you take the kill regulations out, like, let's just let's just say that, you know, either nothing changes or, you know, they put the kill regulations in.

You know, freezes like this have happened in Florida where we saw, you know, piles and piles of dead snow and stuff.

The big difference, even if you're not going down there to keep trout, you're just going to catch and release and catch the trophy trout down there. If the population gets hurt now, it's making that very difficult. That's going to hurt business, too.

And unlike Florida, there's really not a ton of Plan B in Texas like you're going there to fish skinny water based systems for trout and reds.

If those two things aren't an option, most guys don't have the boats or aren't in the right area. And it just be like, well, we'll zip off and catch snapper or whatever is right. Like, that's what you go there for.

There's there's not a lot of Plan B. So regardless of the regulations, even if this is just knock back the trout fishing for a year, that sucks. And that's a tough situation for the people to make their money doing it.

It is. And I do genuinely feel for friends of mine who make their living out there and fishing down there and but yeah.

Ah, I'll say our hearts go out, certainly thoughts and prayers, but our hearts go out to everybody down there who's there is no winning in this. There's no good answer. It's all shitty. No.

It's all just going to take time to, to assess you know. So we'll see where we land.

Whether you're sitting in a tree, stand climbing western mountains, winter trout fishing or hitting the hard water, hunters and cold weather anglers know that there are right and wrong fabrics for the outdoors.

Wool has been a staple for centuries, but traditional wool clothing was super scratchy and weighed a ton.

First light built their reputation, modernizing this traditional fabric. Using premium merino, they created high performance based layers that were soft on the skin as cotton, but retained all of wool's best qualities. I personally used to have a whole drawer full of synthetic based layers and sensors. But now if I'm going to do just about anything outside, I'm wearing first light merino no matter the season or the activity.

Unlike many synthetics, Merino is odor resistant and won't hold in your stink. It's also dead quiet, retains warmth when wet and doesn't feel as clammy even when soaked. So if you, you know, make a wrong step in a creek, you're not staring down the barrel of hypothermia.

That's right, kids. Cotton kills and unlike Grampa's red check and you can wear first light lightweight merino in hot temperatures.

Just think about it. A sheep can't take off its fleece, so wool evolved for extreme heat and frigid cold.

Right?

You are so head over to first light dotcom backslash wool to learn more about first light industry leading merino apparel. And don't forget, when you grab your new bass layers on first light dotcom, you'll have the option to donate a dollar to conservation groups that are out there on the front lines protecting our wildlife, wild places and our hunting and fishing heritage.

I'm going to run with that, I'm going to take your dead fish angle can parlay that into. Into what? I'm going to talk about it for the second story. I'm going to dip into the nearly bottomless pool of invasive species stories out of Florida.

Who from this, it seems like there might be a new one, but I don't really think so.

But anyway, I know and I'm excited where I'm going to have an Arab primer was recently found washed up dead on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. Erythema are Amazonian fish that can grow up to 10 feet long and over 400 pounds.

I found conflicting information that some people say they're the largest freshwater fish. Some people say they're among the largest freshwater fish.

But he's figured out either way, they're enormous. They're just huge.

And either way, it costs a lot less to fly to Florida than it does to the Amazon. The catch, though, so.

Yeah, and and to your point, do they're kind of the kind of the newest exotic destination sport fish anglers only really started targeting them for sport, what, like five years ago?

Yes.

Seven. Oh, you went to the Amazon for peacocks. You're not going down every time I lame my grandpa goes there for peacock bass.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all of a sudden, literally, just within the last few years, everybody I know now has dreams of going to Guyana one day and night fishing for these three hundred pound monsters. Yeah, just a few years ago, no one even knew they existed. And if you want to know more about all that, I personally recommend the short film Jungle Fish. You can get it for free on the YouTube show.

Check it out anyway. Cool as these fish are. And as much as I want to fish for them, that's not we're talking about here because they're not supposed to be swimming around in Florida rivers. Right. You can imagine the amount of damage that they might do if they invaded an ecosystem where they don't belong. First, how big and voracious as they are. Yeah, but a Cape Coral resident recently stumbled on a five and a half foot long specimen washed up dead on the banks.

Kloser Hachey.

And, you know, for some that's concerning, right? Because the question is, where did it come from? Most likely this is a case of someone dumping an unwanted pet in that pet continued to grow. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, they did a risk assessment because they saw lots of people dump invasive stuff all over Florida and they have these as as tank fish. Right.

So if all of Miami like. That's all. That's all they are. That's that's where it all came from. Yeah.

And FWC is hip to that. So they did a risk assessment like a decade ago, which concluded that Florida waters are too cold to support Air PAMA. So that's why this is such a big deal. FWC came out 10 years ago, was like, they can't live here, don't worry. And then this big giant mature one washed up dead. Yeah.

And there's some folks saying, like, well, with the general warming trend of the past 10 years, maybe maybe it's happening.

Right. And and that's why this story popped up in a bunch of different sources.

Like you'd heard about it. I'd heard about it. And and I got to say, some of them were just just the worst click bait headlines. And I don't wanna get too far off, but the worst one I saw was citizens of Florida.

Meet your new river monster overlords like Gee, Thanks, Orlando Weekly. Those guys deserve a Pulitzer. And the angle that almost all those stories took was that, like, what if this was a wild fish and what if they're reproducing? And man, I got to say, like, I don't buy it. I don't think that's what happened. I think I think this fish was released. It grew up and died. It's still something the people like, you know, don't dump the fish.

We all know that, blah, blah, blah, blah. But there's one angle of this story that no one seems to be talking about, and that's what I want to talk about.

If you look at the photos of the dead fish, you can clearly see a hook. In its lower jaw. Oh, really? Oh, someone's got a story to tell, right? Exactly. No one talked about it. But if you look go look at the photos. There is a hook, a busted off fishing hook in the lower jaw. That fish, someone hooked and fought an arrow in the Caloosahatchee. Imagine that.

Oh, do you just M. Night Shyamalan, this whole news piece and just took us in a totally different direction.

The new angle we we want the exclusive. You come to us. Exactly. Exactly. You want stickers? We got them. Imagine how shocked that Angler was because you know this. I know Arab Haymer jumpers. So there's a good chance that whoever hooked that fish saw it. Yeah.

And they and they took it for tapin I was going to say they saw it and thought it was a tapin because I have to imagine right. Like that happen to you or me. I'd be telling the world like you're going to tell me I'm crazy.

But I jumped off our apartment today down by Cape Coral.

OK, dude, I get OK, maybe Thoros Durbin, but that would be like the world's most psychedelic tapin. Right. Think about they've got all those red accents and crazy colors all over their scales. I don't know how you could use that for a turban. That thing jumps in and either either that person was just way too high and they're like, nah, man, I couldn't have just seen what I thought I just saw or they had no idea what they were looking at.

I don't know what it was, but I just wish whoever it battled that fish would come forward and tell their story, because that's the person I want to hear from on this.

I would love it. I would love it. I know, but I'm going with the latter. Somebody hooked it and either it didn't jump or they didn't see it or just had absolutely no idea what they were looking at. But anybody who thinks that's a wild fish. Wow. Meaning what?

It swam on up from the Amazon, like went out the mouth of the Amazon. No, no, no, no, no.

Like like like wild is they're naturally reproducing. They're not not native, not wild isn't got their own. Like someone dumped them in and and they are successfully reproducing. I don't buy it. You can't.

No you can't. You can't necessarily rule it out. But until somebody else catches another one or nets another one like you have to go with that.

It's a water to get air breathers. They don't hide very well. Exactly. They have to come to the surface to breathe.

So you see them. Exactly. But I am very intrigued by the hook.

I imagine in the I imagine in a tank like like like like a Tony Montana is kind of house, you know what I'm saying?

Totally. But somebody's going to have a big ass tank or that thing was in there for a very, very long time. Growing in the canal way.

Yeah. Oh man. Anyway, OK, how about this. So if you were to be that guy to land that fish, you would establish some serious dominance. You would it would be Damara dominance establish in fishing. Right. So we talked some serious shop.

Now I got to have a little fun and I'm going to make the assumption that everyone listening right now, no matter how humble you are, OK, all of you enjoy establishing your dominance on the water from time to time.

Right. Like you might not you might not gloat about it. Right.

But on those days when you're just like putting on a clinic and crushing your boys, you love it.

And no matter how you react, you can go full asshole mode or you can do the like. I'm going to stop fishing and get you dialed, you know what I mean? Like Brown. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's like the nice that's kind of the ultimate form of damage.

It's like, hold on, let me help you. Let me slide your indicator up a little bit and just watch what I'm doing here, OK? It doesn't matter. You're loving it. Right? So this is a little story that comes from New York's Times Herald Record.

And it's about twenty four year old Hayden Carnel, who recently finished the annual King of the Ice tournament on White Lake. Now, mind you, hundreds of people fished this tournament, right?

So the tournament started at six a.m. in the first fifteen minutes before the sun even comes up, Carnel sticks an eight point two pound walleye and he and his buds are using flashlights to land it because it is still completely dark. So let's pause there and now pretend you and your buddies have just arrived to compete for the king of the ICE title.

OK, and as you're dragging your sled out in the morning, dark little do you know Carnel is walking his walli to weigh in.

Right.

And he was the first to weigh a fish and as he noted in the story, was doing so while the vast majority of other anglers were just starting to set up.

OK, so now furthermore, furthermore, Carnel and his buddies, as I understand the story, they plan to go ice fishing that day, but only decided that morning to enter the tournament.

So they got up and they were like, hey, we should enter this and swung by the local fire station at 5:00 a.m. that morning to register.

And by 615 fifteen, it caught the winning fish, hundreds of anglers.

Yet this this Wally dominated the event and he was crowned the thirty six annual king of the ice. And like that, that is a Lance V power move, right?

Some serious flexing right there right now. Further still, still further, further, furthermore, again, Colonel and his friends, apparently they fish a lot of open water tournaments, but they were all canceled this year due to covid. So this was the first ICE tournament ever.

And he says and he says, I think we'll be back. We're hooked.

Yeah, you think and there's this great photo in the piece of Carnel holding up this walli behind hundreds of croppies and perch and trout that were also weighed in.

And like his wall, I could have have eaten pretty much any of them.

So I was just tickled by this whole thing. Like that is the ultimate totally Fleck's and Dominants establishment right there.

Good on you, kid.

What I wish, though, is that because you're never going to top that, I wish you had just done a mike drop and been like this and now retire as the king and will never fish another ice tournament again because within an hour I proved my dominance like you're never going to get there again just to drop that mike and walk away, dude.

Now we're waiting and pack your shit with your boys and go home and drink. Just leave. Exactly. Has been done. I think. I think. I think I think I got this ice tournament thing is just too easy.

I think a mistake to open water tournaments. You guys could have that good for him.

I don't think anybody's ever entered a fishing tournament where they didn't see it going down that way, you know what I mean? Yeah. So we had to we had to close a little fun. Heyden, good for you. We'll see which one of these pieces Phil had the most fun with or was most gripped by this week. And as soon as we're done hearing from him, we're going to get a tackle hack that will also help you establish more dominance in the tapin scene from none other than Mr.

Dave Mangum.

This has been one of the closest weeks so far, but they don't pay me unless I pick a winner, so I'm going to go with Miles Alti.

Congratulations. That last ice fishing story kind of reminded me of the story of this podcast. Steven Rinella came up to you guys and said, hey, you guys want to start a podcast? And you said, what's a podcast? And now two out of two moms surveyed said it's the best podcast they've ever heard. So congratulations.

It's all downhill from here. I'm getting calls from inside the city, like the president today on tackle hacks, we are joined by Dave Mangum, world renowned tapin guide among he guides for all sorts of things.

You do many, many things. And suffice to say, Dave's got some experience on the water. And I'm sure that you could provide us with some excellent tips on fighting what's arguably one of the the nastiest, biggest, meanest inshore fish out there that people tend to screw up a lot. But you're also well connected to the fly world. Do a lot of fly designing the dragon tail.

Yes, thank you. To light and with so many of us are so thankful for that in particular, because, you know, if have to tie a game changer anymore.

I don't know what the tip is, but you're going to actually take us to maybe the off season a little bit to the vice for your tackle. Heck, instead of on the water. Yeah.

You know, the the tip or tackle hack that I'm I'm going to tell you about is it actually has to do with TARP and flies. So it would be kind of a tarp tapin season one and the summer. But the Talkalakh that I'm going to tell you about has to do with like a bunny fly. So like a rabbit Taylor Bunny Fly is probably the most commonly used fly for for tapin. And a lot of times guys tie in mono loop and that Monáe loop is called a Starzl or that's an old school name of it to keep that money from.

Well, I've never heard that before. That's what that's called. That Monáe Loop is called a Starzl. Yeah.

Yeah. That was because in the beginning they didn't use Monáe loops. They use the the center piece of a feather to instead of the motto. Right. So that's yeah. They call it a Starzl but OK, you know, tying it flat on the hook. So it just kind of is a loop back. There is one of the ways and one of the other ways is to drive it through the center of the rabbit strip. Right. Well, that's a really good way and an improved way, but there's a better way to do it even than that.

So even if you drive it through the center of the you know, you poke a hole in the rabbit strip, your rabbit can still slip down the lower side of that Zamana. So you tie an overhead knot in your Monáe. So first you put some bread on your hook, then you tie in one end of your Sonangol. And I like to burn that the end of that off. So it makes a little nub so that never come up with a cauterize or OK, then your overhand that's already in this piece of Monáe Loop.

Right. So then you tie your rabbit on, kind of check out your spacing Puckle through the rabbit and stick the other end of the mono so they'll the with the knot is sitting underneath the rabbit and that got that rabbit tail actually sits down on the knot. Then you lash down the other piece that you poked through the rabbit. So anyway, this just accomplishes the rabbit, it keeps it from ever being will slip down the bottom side of that monáe and it's almost impossible fowl that fly.

So a failed fly is a completely useless fly. So when it lands there in front of the target of its vald, it's so that's that's my taggle tip for the day.

That's a solid one. Man like you only get one shot at those fish. Yeah.

And if you if you tie like, I understand that completely. And I think that definitely has. I mean, I know some guys that put that loop in there, even for bigger trout flies with bunny tails and things like that. So if you tie a long rabbit tail in anything like flies, like bunnies, I always put a loop in a pink bunny.

Yeah, but but make sure to put a knot in it. Very simple tip. But yeah, that goes a long way, especially like you say, with a tarp in any fish where like the first shot is what counts.

That's right. A fly cannot be found. Inexcusable. I'm going to do that. I'm definitely still in that one for sure. Thank you. Oh, I wish our time flies for spring friendship right now. Oh, it's all you want, if only frankly, I wish I had a reason to stockpile flies for any trip right now, salt or fresh.

And it's not that I don't have trips on the horizon, but I like I tied a shitload of flies last winter, you know, like when my kids weren't home every day for months on end and stuff back in the before times before the germs. And then I didn't I didn't really go anywhere in twenty twenty. So I kind of have plenty. It's kind of like a little leg up. Didn't lose very many. No I did not know you know I sadly.

But it's true, I have been a slacker when it comes to flight time for the past few winters because I used to be, that used to be one of my winter rituals, especially when I was guiding like I had to I had to restock those boxes. And for years I actually had a weekly fly tying night from like December through May where a bunch of friends we all get together.

We'd sit around my buddy Rob's dining room table and we drink a lot of beer and we'd bullshit and we'd tie flies. It was kind of like a poker night, right? That was what I would describe to you, like a poker. Except no one loses. It's got the same feel, but but no one comes up. You're like, oh, god, I can't pay rent. This month.

We all we all definitely woke up most days for work the next day with a hangover. But no one was broke and hung over right at the door and came out. Yeah.

At the very least, you came out, you had you had a few more flies and you had the night before and you had a good. Yeah. So I was like that.

You know, I so many people have told me I should start a tieing night locally and not I'm not even talking about just the friends thing. Like, you know, how a lot of people do this at breweries and stuff like that.

And I've thought about it and I could I could pull it off or wow, I should say I can pull it off once we can all go to a bar again without restrictions. Right. Not so much. Oh, that is that. But I think they're super cool. And but the handful of times I've actually participated in one of those, I type very few buttons.

I just drink and shoot the shit because tieing for me it's like more of a quiet unwinding activity at home. Not I mean, like the kids are in bed and like it's going to sit quietly with beer and knock out a few bugs.

Whereas if I'm going to a bar, I just want to hang out like I don't I don't want to have a task while I'm there. I just want to.

But I do see the appeal of these things. I think that I get that it's it's not the most productive time. Like when you're by yourself and focused, you do more. But what it does for me is it motivates me to sit down and to actually tie flies, which is where I struggle, which is what I have not been doing for the last couple of years. So, I mean, I think I think it's more a question of whatever it is that gets you spinning bugs, whether whether you're, like surrounded by drunkards at some dude's table or you're hiding in a closet from your kids or whatever you got to do to make yourself sit down at the vice.

And Joe is now going to give us a behind the scenes take on a on a relatively new fly pattern that we should all consider getting motivated to die before it gets warm. It's time for this week's end of the line.

It's not loud enough, but. Everything's bigger in Texas, at least that's what they say, though it doesn't apply at all to the lunch money streamer to put it in Texas barbecue terms, if a double deceiver was a whole brisket and a regular deceiver was a brisket sandwich, the lunch money would be a single burnt end, just one.

But unless you're a vegetarian or something, who's passing up a single, smoky, charred, delicious burn end?

Nobody. This tiny mynor was designed by full time commercial tailleur Matt Bennett of Fly Geek Custom Flies, who lives just outside of Austin now. Whereas many great streamer patterns have been developed around famed trout and musky fisheries. Further north, the lunch money was born on the bass rivers of Texas Hill Country.

But see, here's the thing.

These aren't forgiving rivers like you'll find in other parts of the country where you can get away with, say, chucking a big, loud bug and ripping it back until you piss off fish. Many of Bennett's home waters, like the L.A. River, run ultra ultra clear, making delicate presentations the key to success.

Couple that with the fact that most of the forage fish in those hill country rivers top out at three inches.

And you can see why the big meat is best reserved for the smokehouse around these parts.

Several years ago, Umpqua picked up the lunch money and I ended up getting my hands on a whole box of them in Shad Pattern shortly after they debuted. The design is pretty simple.

Small dumbell eyes provide some drop weight and the hook rides point up like a Clouse or Mineau. The short tail and collar are made of rabbit strip. The head is laser dubh and tucked into the middle of all of that are four rubber legs. Now, looking at it, you might say, well, why didn't I think of that? Well, because you didn't. Matt Bennett did.

He's a better fly designer than you. And while it may look simple, it's also pretty genius because Bennett compacted all those elements onto a little size six hook fact. The whole package together is about the size of a quarter in your palm.

And if you tie, you know, that's not easy because you have to be strict and sparse with your materials if you want that little nugget to wiggle just right.

And man, does the lunch money dance.

When I first got those lunch monies, I was kind of myth about him, but I did thankfully stick a few in my streamer boxes. I was really thankful.

A couple months later on one of the crystal clear branches of the Shenandoah in West Virginia, because my normal Khadra of smally streamers were getting half hearted chases and it was driving me insane, OK? And I finally scaled back my leader and put on one of them tiny white lunch money.

And those small jars ate it every time.

And then not long after that, during a brown trout mission in the Driftless region of Iowa, I went looking for, quote, the one on the big meat only to pound water for zero eats in two days. And there was one exactly one of those lunch money in my box. And just for the sake of changing it up, I tied it on and I caught six pounds to 19 inches in an hour.

For me, the lunch money is not necessarily replacing old standbys, but it's proven it's worth time and time again with finicky or wary fish.

And that is, after all, what Bennett designed it for. Even making it right hook up has a purpose because you can let this fly, drop and flutter with less risk of the point snagging the bottom when it touches down.

I'm rarely without some lunch money these days, and it's fair to say this pattern has definitely generated some buzz across multiple fisheries. But what I also see is people tying lunch money on bigger hooks. They often scale them up, which it's all well and good.

But in my opinion, it's those size six Morsal proportions that make the lunch money so damned lethal. Like you wouldn't ask Mini Cooper to build your car on a Yukon frame, would you?

Like you couldn't fit a Doberman sized teacup Yorkie in your Fendi bag.

So trust me on this. Whether you tie or buy some lunch, muñiz let the little things be little because sometimes the little things will get bigger shit done.

But just about firms up are depths of the winter episode, if you are cleaning out the freezer ahead of spring, you just sifted through the back story on the worst and perhaps only ice fishing commercial ever filmed.

Probably the last two, a book by a guy who writes so well that I can forgive him for quitting fishing.

A tip on how to keep your tail wagging in the face of hungry, tapin, and a fly that a class bully might beat you up and steal.

Thanks again to Matthew McConaughey for coming on. And hey, if you need Matthew McConaughey for something like a recording, we suggest you look up at Para Duniya on Instagram. As always, hit us up and let us know how you're surviving the cruelest months. Send us some bar nominations, sailboard items.

Maybe use winter as an excuse to dig through your old photo albums and find awkward fishing pics for us to make fun of. Send all of that stuff to Bent at the Meat Eater Dotcom.

Use the hashtags Degenerate Angler and Bent podcast.

If you're wasting some time on social media, either because you're in a pop up sitting over a slow bite or because you're stuck at home, not fishing because it's cold.

Yeah, and we'll talk to you again in March when the weather will still probably suck and you won't start catching fish until the last few days right before.