They're not solid, like a stripper will not like you can't, like, give them a punch and send them back. That's an old law and it's almost as invalid as the New Jersey state largemouth record. When they got the fish close enough to see a roll in their headlights, doctors, young daughter blurted out, holy shit, this is the dumbest, just most hokey thing ever. Maybe even on par with a penis, Lord. Good morning, degenerate anglers.

Welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast that ranks Captain Ron Backdraft and nothing but trouble among the greatest movie ever made, though not necessarily in that order. I'm Joe Somali, a mild nolting. That's a solid list.

I'm going to add Pulp Fiction. Good. The Big Lebowski and Gross point blank to that list.

Gross point blank. Oh, yeah. Really?

Absolutely, dude. Such an underrated film. Such a good film. So. So John Cusack plays a hit man. Yeah. In the middle of an identity crisis.

Goes to his 10 year high school reunion. It's brilliant writing. It's great acting, very, very dark humor, which I always appreciate. And it just happens to be the theme of this week's show.

And they all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs. And, you know, they've made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do and what am I going to say. I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How have you been?

Aren't you excited? I got to admit. Did I? I remember the movie and I remember thinking it was kind of funny. I remember I enjoyed the movie when I saw it. But it's it's not one that that I thought was so memorable that I quoted it with my friends forever. It's no Freddy got fingered in terms of quotables, you know what I mean?

I mean, I disagree. But that is true of you. And most people, frankly, like I'm the only weirdo for my group of friends from that that era that was always quoted. I was like the lone guy who would drop the call and be like, what?

But you're all wrong because it is straight up brilliant filmmaking, really.

Listen, I'm an I'll give it to you, and I anticipate that you're going to try to convince me I'm wrong throughout this episode and I will get my goal of this episode.

I welcome to convince you that Iran, by all means, do. Yeah. And we're not going to be able to get into this.

But I think this is there's an argument that will appeal to you. I mean, just the soundtrack alone includes almost every good song from the late 80s. Dude, we're talking about like the specials Faith No More Melly.

Mel, the score the score for that film was actually written and recorded by Joe Strummer, who was a former lead singer of The Clash. Yes, that yes, it is is a great musical film.

It's a tremendous selling point like that right there. But see, I don't remember that it's been so long since I've seen it. I don't I cannot say I remember the soundtrack. I do vaguely recall, though, tell me if I'm wrong.

Like Akroyd pretty much played the same character. He didn't. Tommy Boy. I didn't have a kind of the same thing going on. There are some similarities there. I can see that. I could see that.

I do not know exactly how you're going to tie this all to fishing, though. I'm on the journey with you. I'm excited.

The movie has absolutely nothing to do with fishing, but I'm confident in myself here. I think I think there are elements to it that that that we can draw from. We've done this before.

Like we've drawn things out. We have we've squeezed fishing out of out of pop culture stones.

So I'm I'm confident that we can do this because this movie is partially about coming to terms with the fact that you can never go back in time. But that doesn't mean that you should try to erase or forget the past. Right. And we on the show, we talk about older lures or baits or flies or materials that might not be the hot new thing, but still catch the hell out of fish.

You can't go back to the days when those lures were new and the fish hadn't seen them before. But that doesn't mean that you, like, ignore them or turn your back on them.

And I realized that my example there is not as dramatic as, say, I don't know, saving your long lost girlfriend's father from being executed by Dan Aykroyd and professing your love to her after you murdered dude in cold blood right in front of her eyes. But, you know, I think the overall lesson here is still applicable.

Debbie, I'm in love with you. I know we can make this relationship work.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's it's it's a it's a giant stretch. Yes, but I do see your angle. I mean, the movie's pretty heavy on the You Can Never Go Home theme.

So I'm not standing where my letter was and it's not here because the house is gone and it's an ultimate.

You can never go home again open. But I guess you can shop there.

And even though it's all about him going home, I think that's totally applicable in fishing. It seems like most people are either complaining right about how things aren't as good as they used to be or or glorifying the past as better than it actually was.

Or they assume anything or anyone that predates YouTube has nothing useful to offer.

So for for the record, both of those assumptions are bullshit. As far as I'm concerned, the past probably wasn't as good as you remember.

And the new shit isn't really all that superior, honestly.

Well, but I completely agree with you.

And that sets me up nicely because we're starting things off this week with a guy who understands the past, embraces the present, and will also be continuing to get the hell out of fish in the future.

Back again to play our trivia game. We've got Mr. Mike I.

Kanelli, you've got to be highly skilled for these shows. You understand it? Yes, I do understand you. Well, first, there you. Very smart man. Yes, I am right today playing trivia.

We are very excited to welcome back the one and only Mike. Ellie, how goes it?

Mike, how are you doing? We're good. We're good to see you again.

We, as always, appreciate your time. And so you've been here before and you've done our Covering Water segment where we rapid fire questions at you and you really have no time to think about your answers, which was a good time. We enjoyed that. And now we're going to kind of go the opposite way.

It's traditional bar style trivia. So no time limits, but more in-depth questions.

And I got to tell you, man, we worked really hard on questions for this song with this one.

Yeah. We get it back and forth, trying to trying to stump you and come up with the right thing. And, you know, we get so far down the line of approving a question. Can somebody be like, Mike's going to know that frigging Mike Kanelli.

We have to try harder. He's going to know. I'm really curious, though, with one of these questions.

I'm very curious to see. Yeah. If you have this nugget of knowledge rattling around in your brain, OK, we'll see how he did.

So we've got two questions for you. And while it definitely would be fun to stump you, you might sail right through these and our effort was for naught.

So if you're ready to play, are you ready to play? I'm ready, guys. By the way, I just want to clear up. You can't win anything like there's no.

Yeah, they're up for grabs, OK? You just lose your dignity. That's all. That's all that's on offer here.

OK, I'm just as excited either way. So. Ah, all right.

Here we go. So here we go. All right, first question. What was the skirt on the first rubber skirted best jig made from? Was it a thinly sliced rubber bands? B elastic threads unraveled from a woman's girdle, c, a rubber grass skirt that came off a souvenir hula dancer, or D, shredded latex surgical gloves.

Wow, that's a you've actually stumbly right from the first question. Yes, yes, yes. They're all very interesting. I know. I don't know. I'm this is honestly I guess I'm going to say some of the original old jig's skirts that I remember seeing were were living rubber. They were more of a rubber type of material. So I'm going to go a but it's a total guess and that's a good guess.

That's a good yes. Thinly sliced rubber bands, but it's actually be elastic threads unraveled from a woman's girdle because that's that's that's Bob Kanza prototype, the first rubber bags and that's what he used.

And of course, he's the man behind Aki Jig's, which every bad angler on the planet, Nozaki Jig's, arguably the father of modern bags, and they're still around today.

But according to our research, the first one woman's girdle.

Wow, that's very interesting. That's very, very interesting. I can tell you that there is a time and a place for that style material even today, even in 2020, with technology and new materials. When that water temperature gets cold and the fishing's tough, that old style material is still really the deal. So knowing this, I'm hopping on eBay right now.

I'm trying to find some girdles, some girls from from the 60s.

We've thrown out the history of girdles in Leuer Design in the past because the classic fly the girdle bug got its legs sort rubber legs for sale.

Same it. So we'll move on to question two, we'll have a little more fun with this one, you're a Jersey guy like me. So this time I'm going to test your knowledge of New Jersey state laws.

Dum dum dum state laws, though. You know how you know, every state has dumb, weird laws that are still on the books from medieval times or it's a big thing on the Internet. Yeah, well, I did a little reading.

New Jersey has a bunch of them. And according to those archaic laws, which of the following is it illegal for New Jersey men to do during fishing season? Oh, OK. Is it A, nit B, get married, C, plant tomatoes or D, feud with a neighboring farm? It's funny when you said, I know these answers, I thought maybe, you know, I'm a pretty not this one. I thought, you get the joke, not this one.

Like, I'm not fishing.

You know, I like fishing. I'm a buff of the sport and information. But now I'm just this is another one that's dumping me. I'm going to have to go D.

Well, what was the fourth one? I'm going to be feud with a neighboring farm. For the record, I would arm I would have chosen that one as well.

Just sounds. Yeah. Sounds like has the most legality to it you know.

Well yeah. No but the answer is a nit watchout. So. Yeah. Right. So there's, there's a lot of speculation online whether this is still on the books though. It was on our books. And check this out. The best reason anyone could come up with was that it was illegal for men to knit during fishing season on the island of Sark, which is one of the Channel Islands that the island of Jersey belongs to. And that's because the islands were apparently known for their famous woolen jumpers, which are a source of income.

But if the men were knitting during fishing season, they weren't out fishing, which was the island's bigger source of income. And when the Jersey Island people reestablished themselves in what we now know is dirty jersey, this law came along with them.

Wow. How about that one? I had nothing to do with information.

The question for the record, like I help with the first one, but this one is news to me, too. I got nothing here. This is very interesting and so weird.

That's an old law and it's almost as invalid as the New Jersey State largemouth record. It's ten thirteen Robert Easily, which he snagged Manukau San Ponza off the bed. So it should be a race anyway.

But well, there's also a Jersey law on the book that says it's illegal to wear a bulletproof vest while committing a murder. That was another one that I file it backwards, very backwards.

Makes it very much so. Well, you know what? I'm happy about the big one. I like I stumped I stumped Mike I. Kanelli on an old bass fishing lure question. So you might not have won today. Well, like we said, there was nothing to win anyway. But we certainly appreciate you coming by to play, man.

I appreciate it. They were fun questions and you might hear those same questions on IRC live because they're so good. I'm stealing them and asking our guests over there now.

Until we started working on the show and doing this research meant I had no idea how influential girdles were and were designed, I was totally unaware.

Neither did I.

I had no clue. I had no clue. Yeah. I actually remember like I remember those old school rubber legs and skirts that used to be fine that were the superfine yeth in elastic bands.

Yeah, yeah.

And they look they do. They look just like what pops out of the waistband in your underwear, your sweatpants when they're like they give up on life and it's just done right.

It's the same bands of elastic and those ones don't hold up as long as the silicone stuff. But I think they do have more wiggle. Yeah.

See I like natural rubber myself more than the silicone versions, you know what I mean. Burn.

I'm not I'm not I'm not going to take that. I know. I see what you're doing there and I'm not going to let you manipulate me that way.

That also does set me up for the sale bin you put together this week.

Oh, yeah, it absolutely does. I see the silicone connection clearly, but but not totally sure how it fits your your gross point blank theme.

Oh, don't overthink it, man. It's not that deep. It's duct tape at all. Actually, the film, like we said, is a super dark comedy. There's a lot of murder and gore and blood, but it's still a comedy. And the Selborne you dug up from the crypt this week, I'd say it clearly fits that dark comedy mold.

Oh, why did you put the head of hair? You know what I'm getting that. What you you didn't have to be so hurtful with me. So angry.

Today's Selborne item was sent after action by listener Billy Warren. And gee, we can't thank him enough. And Miles and I had two very different gut reactions to it.

Yeah, OK. Now you, sir, you're you're taking it at face value. But for me, this has triggered my inner Clarice Starling, OK?

And it feeds right into my my obsession with, like the Hunt Hunter killer documentaries, you know, forensic science and profiling psychopaths. That's what I do on the weekends.

I'm going to club the fishing thing is all fake anyway. Seidel's Yeah.

Anyway, regarding this seven item, I am convinced there is more than meets the eye. As far as I am concerned, there's more than meets the eye.

OK, they're say I'm Doodler isn't doing I there is not. But I agreed that we should do the Selborne because I think, I think it'd be fun to listen to you build your weird paranoid case. And, and like I said, it fits nicely with the dark comedy theme that we put together for this episode. So I'm happy to have it. But I think you're totally wrong.

Yeah. Yeah. Until you see to find out what's in the box right now. What I'm saying and I, I actually think you agree to do this because there's a part of you that doesn't want to be wrong.

You don't want to be the naysayer that overlooks puzzle piece number one in a scene, a sick drama I am confident will unfold after the show airs.

OK, anyway, listen up.

This one's for the all the, dare I say, Internet sleuths out there.

So this this post comes from Facebook marketplace in Wisconsin.

And the title is very simply finger laws, exclamation point finger laws, finger laws, failer. OK, the finger laws are fifteen dollars apiece.

And in the photo and mind you, because this is a clue, this is part of it, mind you, there's only one photo available, just one.

There's not ten photos to scroll through like other Facebook marketplace, but one photo, OK, and in it we see three severed human fingers that have been through wired and turned into killer inline spinners.

Oh, that was bad. That was bad.

I was as bad as these losers. The losers are terrible. Like, I know you're not painting how crappy these lures are. If you if you kind of start from the back and move to the front, you got one treble hook on these.

And and between the three examples in the photos, only two of the troubles even seem to match. So let's just mix and match spare parts assembly. Then there's like a few colored beads and a will leave spinner blade that's resting right on top of the fat severed end of the finger. And I don't even think that thing will turn.

I don't think it turn in the way that I don't think this law would have any action. No continue.

The wire then continues through the finger, out the tip to another series of beads. And then and then the line dies.

So essentially, you've got a large and frankly, shitty looking spinner with a human finger or a fake human finger, I should say, skewered in the middle of it.

I would like to call this an overpriced gimmick lure to catch suckers. That's how I would describe it.

OK, so we've described it, but now I'm going to because this is where it gets dark. Right. All the description of the item says is silicone rubber severed finger fishing tackle.

That's a tongue twister. Five times fast, but that's it, that's all it says and you're probably thinking, right, this is the dumbest, just most hokey thing ever, maybe even on par with a penis law.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Yes.

OK, and you're thinking some Momoh just bought a bag of severed fingers at the pop up Halloween store and made some novelty laws.

Because you didn't know? Because he did not. I say nativists in the photo. These three laws are hanging from a piece of cardboard.

Right. And if you really inspect them, as I have closely.

Right, first they look too real. They just they look too real.

There is no out of the package faux finger I've ever seen that looks this realistic. So even even as to say like the skin looks like it's the right level of moist, you know what I mean? Like, you know how a lot of fake stuff looks dried out and like it's too pink, like perfect skin tone, like a perfect level of moisture. And the amount of blood and tissue damage varies on each finger. But most telling of all, if you study the nails and the wrinkles and the knuckles, they're not uniform.

They are completely unique and different if these were store bought novelty fingers, even if the paint jobs varied slightly, the fingers that they'd be carbon copies of each other and they're not. That's the problem. Yeah, yeah.

But isn't that just because you do traffic in subpar fake fingers doesn't mean that they're the only options that exist out there for people who want them.

There are professionals in this world who make realistic fake Gore for a living. I'm assuming you've heard of of this industry called film and television.

Maybe I read something on Wiki about it. Yeah. Yeah.

And so, like, how do you know? This person didn't make the molds of the fingers and I don't know, maybe molded fingers of other family members, I don't know. I don't know. But that that is not that is not convincing evidence for me.

Just because they don't look like the crappy fake fingers sold by the dozen at your annual Halloween pop up doesn't prove that the online fishing community is now dealing with its first serial killer.

I do not buy it. I do not believe it.

Yeah, and I am aware of this film and television industry which you speak and. Yes, right. There's there's no doubt there are very talented folks that can make some damn fine severed fingers and limbs and all that stuff.

Right? Yes. But what are the odds?

This dude in Wisconsin is one of them. And furthermore, I know people. Like artists and shit, right, if you have the skill to create something that perfect, okay, a exhibit A in a court of law. Why are you then turning them into really shitty lawyers? Why would you make something so beautiful, like if that's your gig and turn them into shitty lawyers?

Like if you have the skill to make a realistic finger, you're probably the kind of person that would also do a much better job of incorporating them into a law, even if it's a fake and you knew nothing about fishing.

If you have that level of talent, you would research that.

I mean, it took it took someone 30 seconds to create these topics, not the finger, but like once they had to turn into a law 30 seconds.

All right. OK. And be exhibit B, if you have that kind of talent, you're using it to make 15 bucks on the Internet.

None of that adds up.

None of that adds up, which is why I'm saying Wisconsin police put out the goddamn APB right now, dig in the recent missing persons because them fingers is fresh. I don't care what you say. Them fingers is fresh and we hear it bent. We're fully prepared to cooperate however you need it.

Oh, no, you're not implicated in your crazy ass conspiracy. I don't want anything to do with it. And. Actually, what I think the fact that they're coming to Wisconsin supports my argument, I, I will admit I don't know how this cheesehead came to be in possession of such high quality, fake severed fingers. I'm not maybe they didn't make themselves your argument. They're solid. Maybe they bought an estate sale from some Hollywood special effects expert.

I don't know.

But if you live in Wisconsin and you have a surplus of fake fingers, what else are you going to do with them except turn them into pich lures like that or just freak everyone out of the Lions Club?

Brat, you don't have many options, some valid points there.

You are still wrong.

Have you have have you ever seen the documentary series Don't with cats. I have never seen that. I haven't no.

It started off with an Internet video that could have very easily been brushed off as fake and led to a years long manhunt that ended up involving like Interpol and shit.

Anyway, Billy, thanks. Thanks again for sending this one.

I hope you're OK.

I hope you like this doesn't translate down to to your suffering and you out there. If you find any human body parts being trafficked on your favorite fishing classified forum, please send that link to Bente at the Meat Eater Dot Dotcom. We're also accepting leads, theories and anonymous tips at the same email address.

Before we move on from this, there's one more thing that I feel like I forgot to mention that said you've got to bring up shoot. We can solve this whole thing for 15 bucks plus shipping. Do just notar one. No, no, we cannot. Have you never seen a horror movie? We cannot do that because I ain't given my personal info to that psycho.

That's how you end up becoming a finger law, you know what I mean?

Like in the past. In the past, we've reached out to select sellers. But I, I refrained on this one because I better uses the short hairs for like crappy jigs and shit in the long ones for musky flies. So you go you go ahead and buy one.

I buy, I give up, I'm done, I give up. And you know what, maybe I'm wrong. And maybe, maybe the dude's not a psycho at all. Maybe maybe there's a much bigger market for four finger lures than we think. You're a psychopath.

No, no, no. Psychopath kills for no reason. I kill for money.

And if that turns out to be the case, we can promise that we will cover it in a future.

Vishnu's Bishnu. That escalated quickly, I got a little housekeeping, I got a shout out today for listener Ryan, it's either little or little, I'm not sure which, but I'm going to go with little happens.

A lot around here could go either way. Well, yeah. I'm going to butcher another name today for sure.

So, everybody deal that. You might remember that a few weeks ago, Joe, you did a story about the woman who turned her pet koi into soup after they all died. Oh, yeah, sure.

You remember that one? I think about it daily. Yes. Were they delicious?

Yeah. So Ryan sent us an email titled Coye for Barsa Forage, in which he said, although Coy may be expensive in Japan, they are not in Texas. And and so I looked around. It is he is 100 percent correct about that dude.

It turns out Texas Parks and Wildlife raises 70 million Kois a year in their hatcheries that they feed to captive largemouth brood stock.

Yeah, that's what they raise to feed their brood stock. And according to the Texas Parks Wildlife website, COYE are easy to raise, grow fast and lack the sharp dorsal spines, making them easy for Bass to eat.

So that's why they do the Coy's because Bass can just gulp them down and then won't have any spine issues. And Ryan also wrote us, quote, There is some real fun to be had skipping Coie side arm to cross a hatchery pond and watching a 10 pound bass jump out of the water to destroy it. He he also included a video of himself tossing a handful of koi into the bird brood stock bass pond so we could get the full effect. Check out the check out the Instagram's to see what that looks like because it's pretty fun.

We'll throw we'll throw that up. But I'm glad you dug a little deeper because when this first came in, I watched it. And for a second I'm like, I did not understand what was going on.

Like, there's just no, you have to you have to have context. But all I can think, like now that we know this is what if you're the person in Dallas with the beautiful koi pond out back and like you're the sucker going to PetSmart and paying two hundred dollars a koi? I'd be going there and it'd be like, I just get a scoop.

Like, you've got 40 million of them, just like steamiest you look it up.

I just want some koi. I know, I know. They don't cost you guys anything.

I know. And it's also weird because like you can't fish, can't buy goldfish and use them as bait anywhere, like they wouldn't want to get out. But then like seeing them all in that race, just feeding these giant bass is cool as shit and I super cool. Yeah. I didn't take enough time to figure out how they started, like how cool he became, the thing that they started raising as a source.

But somewhere along the line someone had to go like, damn these make good fast food, let's just raise them. Yeah, but I don't know how that happened. I bet there's a good origin story there. Yeah.

And if you, if you happen to know. Right. And you need a scoop he can probably hook it up. I Yeah.

No Ryan, thank you for that. It was an awesome video. We will share it. I don't have any shout outs this week so we can we can get on to the news here. As a reminder, though, this is a competition, Miles, and I do not know which stories the other guy is bringing. As we proved last week, because we we had the same story we crossed. This is going to happen on occasion. So we'll see what happens now.

And at the end of all this, our audio engineer Phil gets to judge us and pick a winner. And I'm going to go out on a limb and say one of my stories this week, just based on what I know about Phil and his hobbies and things, it's going to appeal to him and I'm going to win. I'm just just feeling confident.

But, yeah, I am. But you do have the lead off. So that's an advantage in this game. And the floor is yours.

I didn't pick my stories for Phil this week for sure. I picked them based on my own interests and and to try and avoid crossing over with you again. And I've been I've been going north of the border a bunch lately. Yeah. And and that so far has worked for me. And I haven't done crosswords any. So I'm going back.

I'm back. Well, you've kind of claim can if I see something I'm like, oh shit.

Canada Miles is already there and it's not like I'm just stuck on Canada. But I got to say, there's just so much fish news trickling down from north of the border right now.

I can't help myself. I got to talk about it.

Unfortunately, the news that I got coming out of British Columbia this week isn't really all that great, at least at least not if you're an outspoken advocate for public access like I am. All right. So so back story on this. Back in 2003, a guy named Stan Crunchie cranky, I don't know, column KRAKI.

He bought the Douglas Lake Ranch, which is the largest private cattle operation in Canada. Craigie Coraki, whatever, he is not Canadian. He's an American and one of the richest people in the world, he owns the L.A. Rams, the Colorado Avalanche Arsenal Football Club, and and he's married to an Waltin, one of the signs of the Wal-Mart fortune. So that gives you a sense of the kind of guy he is.

His ranch consists of 270, 1000 acres of private land and access and grazing rights to over a million acres of crown lands, which are roughly the Canadian equivalent of BLM lands here in the States. They're federally owned public land that can be leased out for grazing or other purposes.

Some of those crown lands around his ranch are landlocked, meaning they're they're completely contained within his little private property universe. And included in there are Stoney and mini lakes. These are relatively small lakes with really big rainbows in them. Prior to Crunchie purchasing the ranch, Angler's had access to these lakes, they were allowed to go and fishermen had been doing so for decades.

But after he bought the property, he put up a bunch of fences and no trespassing signs and got the Royal Canadian Mounted Police involved and started harassing, intimidating anglers and, you know, telling me was going to arrest them, all that stuff. And now he charges Rhod fees for private access to the lakes on his ranch.

OK, OK, I'm with you. So in 2013, the Niccola Valley Rod and Game Club brought a case against the ranch arguing that the public had historic access and easement to the lakes through a public domain road that crosses the private property. And it goes straight to these lakes, which are, again, the lakes are on public land and the historic public road cuts right to them.

In twenty eighteen B.C. Supreme Court Justice Joel Groves ruled in favor of public access, the judge in that case, Groves, came down hard on both the landowners and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for doing all that intimidation and denying access to public resources.

Yeah, the ruling was hailed as a major win for public lands advocates in B.C. who claim that this is happening all over the province, like private landowners coming in and blocking access to to resources that have been traditionally available to everybody. But then in November of last year, Crunchie appealed the ruling and last week an appeals court judge overruled the twenty eighteen decision. The judge agreed with Crankcase team who assert that the public road doesn't quite touch the historic high water mark of the lake, even though it does touch the actual high watermark of the lake.

The ranch's legal team argued that the judge should rule based on government survey maps from 1880, which do show the road stopping short of hitting Lake Shore. But the lake has gotten bigger, and aerial surveys show that the road has touched the Lake Shore since at least 1948. Hmm. For reasons that I don't fully understand, the judge completely sided with the landowner on this one and delivered a major setback to the Niccola Rodden Game Club and public land advocates all over British Columbia now.

Not only did that Niccola Valley Rodden Gain Club lose their appeal and therefore lose this access battle they've been fighting for nearly a decade and access to these lakes that they loved fish, but the outcome puts them in serious financial trouble as well.

Had they won, the province would likely have shouldered at least some of the burden of their legal costs. And so were acting as proxy for the provincial attorney general fighting a court battle on behalf of the public. But since they lost, they are now on the hook for their legal fees, which are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Not only that, they also have to pay for the billionaire Crunchie legal fees also. Right, and we're talking about like a local fishing and hunting club dude is a Canadian thing that can happen here, too.

If you're if you're if you're in the wrong, if you lose, you can be on the hook for someone else's legal fees in certain cases. I don't know the ins and outs, but I know that does happen in certain certain situations here.

And like this is this is a local fishing and hunting club, dude. Like, they they earn money through bake sales and raffles and like wild the chili cook off things like this is not a big organization and this decision could cripple them.

Right. They have the option to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, where they won the provincial Supreme Court. They lost in the Canadian appeals court. They can go one step higher to the Supreme Court of Canada. But they have no way to fund that appeal because right now they're on the hook for a ton of money that they don't have. Yeah, yeah.

So if they were to be able to fund it and get the Supreme Court and win. Then they'd be in good shape, but they don't have that kind of money and the person that they're up against has unlimited resources and can just continue to fight these battles against them. It's a war of attrition. And and this case resonates with so much of the privatization of public land and resources that we're seeing here in the states, right. It's actually very similar to to a landowner here in Montana who for years has been fighting to change the stream access land in this state because I like it and has unlimited pockets.

It's very similar to that. So the whole thing really strikes a personal nerve with me and like. Just pisses me off, man, and as an American, there's not a lot I can do to influence British Colombian politics, but I can tell you one thing. I will be donating money to the Niccola Rodden Game Club. I'm certain that I'd be able to cover the legal fees and get that kind of money, but I will be donating. And I you know, if this is something you care about, I would advocate all of us should chip in a little bit here and there.

But I'd also say to the Canadian listers, like, you got to get on board with this issue, especially if you're in B.C. and talk to your local representatives about supporting what are called right to Rome laws that would restore access to isolated public lands and stop this shit from continuing to happen up there because it's just gross. Yeah, just it just really makes me mad.

I just I just want to ask something just for clarification. So the land that the lake is on is still technically public land, right? Yes.

But yet you needed to pay a rod fee through this club to fish it. So can any public access to it.

Like you wouldn't have to pay a fee if you got dropped from a plane.

Gotcha. OK. And were there. Right. I understand.

So but so this this club then has been operating what. And wouldn't they have to have worked with Cranky in order to maintain there. I'm just missing how they.

Well they don't have access so they korecki bought the place in 2003 and that's when and soon thereafter started locking up what this club had had access to and their membership forever. And they were just a local entity who stepped in was like, this is bullshit, we got to fight this.

So they're the ones who brought the case against this guy who came in and changed the way that he enforce the rules, but with the ultimate win for this club, then make it accessible to anyone.

Like if they if they get their way, OK, yeah. Well, they would restore public access. I mean, anybody makes it more noble in that sense, because if you if you if you're the guy with the club water and you can get a rod fee to do that, but you're willing to fight that to essentially then lose that, would you not?

Yeah, no, they're not a club in that sense. They're not. They're they're Rodden and Game Club, but they don't they're not accessing private water. They're just like the local hangout and resource for hunters and anglers in the area. Gotcha. Gotcha.

This was public water that everybody was fishing until Crunchie came in and locked it up, bought the whole place, locked it up and said, you can't fish here anymore.

Well, I mean, I appreciate that fight, but that is some dilly of a pickle to to get that far.

Now now to have one and then have it turned around on is just that's a bitter pill.

I know. But I mean, that's that's money, man. That is that is what that is. I mean, you know, you see it with all with all kinds of wins, like you brought up Montana. You guys are still as long as you as long as you access the river right. At a public place and stay below the relative high water mark, you can go where you want. Right? Correct. But like you're not welcomed with open arms when you go wherever you want.

No, you will allow certain landowners will make you uncomfortable. They can't do anything about it.

Right. Right. Well, see where that goes, man. I think the donation is helpful.

And I don't know. I'm sure they'll be federally spitting in the wind there.

It's more symbolic. Yes, but I'm going to give them money just because I believe in what they're trying to do.

I'm with that. But I also think that people don't realize, you know, you don't think about how often that kind of stuff happens where I'm not I'm not plugging it.

But like Audax Hunt, like, when you when you get that and you look at those those maps as opposed to just like going around on Google Maps and seeing what's what, it's amazing when you see what's landlocked all over the place. Like, there are so many places I've seen. I was just at one the other day where, like, it's all state land except for right here.

That's weird, you know what I mean?

And oh yeah, with without that technology and without that ability, you wouldn't I would have had no idea. And dude came down and shot me or had me arrested or whatever and I would have been like, what are you talking about. This is a wildlife management area.

But no, like that one hundred yards of riverbank was not.

So I mean, between private land, it's landlocked and state land that's landlocked. There is a ton of land out there that technically every single one of us can be on. But you ain't getting to it now. Most of it nobody needs to be on. There's no lake or stream or river there. But that is incredibly common. Yep.

So with that, I will say if you if you if you want to avoid this, when we're all living on the moon, act fast and buy buy your plots of land now because you go to Canada.

I'm going. I'm so glad you're covered this story, Ben, because this was on my short list and it's a good one.

I'm going to the moon and I missed we didn't cross over and cross over so worried. I was like, if he's going to have anyone, it's going to be this one shout. No, though, to listener Derek Arneson, he actually sent this to me before I even saw it in the news, I got a little tip off from him. So thanks for that. And it wasn't that long ago when we talked about robot fish building our future homes on Mars.

That was that was our story. But but now the moon the moon is apparently campaigning, saying, wait a second, don't go to Mars, come to the moon.

You know, I mean, it's like it's like it's like baby steps. It's like Acapulco tourism, like trying to talk you out of going to Mazatlan, you know, I mean, like, they're both beautiful and scary and you're not really sure which one is safer anyway.

So this story comes to us from the website of Harki magazine headlined The Plan to Rear Fish on the Moon. Now, this is a long story, so I'm going to try and break her down. But what's happening here is French researchers are trying to figure out if it would be possible to grow fish on the moon.

And they want to do this to feed residents of the future moon village, which is apparently something the European Space Agency is trying to establish.

And I don't know anything about that. But like I said, like now I'm nervous. Should I be buying a plot now? Like, will it be too late? Like, right now I just like, you know, when you fly over development, like, there's just driveways mapped out where the home will be.

That's I think that's that's probably as far as they've gotten, if even that far. Anyway, Cyril Sybilla is the dude in charge of all this and he's hoping that it will offer an alternative to dried food for the people who will eventually live on in Moon Village. And he also says it's possible that a lunar fish farm could actually use water that's already on the moon to to thrive.

So, like, they'll be able I don't know if it's like an aquaculture deal, but apparently they're going to use water on the moon. So, so far, no fish eggs have been launched into space, but they are conducting simulations again, just on eggs, not not mature fish to see which species would be most likely to survive the journey. So basically what that means is they're taking fish eggs and they're shaking the shit out of them. They're just they're just, you know, just shaking them like like the same way they'd get shook during liftoff on a rocket, OK?

And to whittle down their choices, what they look for were fish that had modest oxygen requirements, low carbon dioxide output, a short hatching time and resistance to charge particles, which matters because according to this, like you're exposed to a fair amount of radiation during space travel. Right. So after the testing, we monitor these eggs to see which have the best hatch rates after all this this this vigorous testing and shaking. And the two finalists are European sea bass and a fish called a meager.

I think that's how you say that, OK, you're making me feel better because I had never heard of that fish. Do you heard of that fish? Nope. I had not heard of the fish. I researched the fish.

I want to tell you something about fish, but at first reading like what is a meager me, I never heard of it mean it could be me.

Aggrey could be doing this. News is I have more to come. It's going to be chock full of like could be this could be that. I don't know but I'm just going to say meager. That's, that's how I'm reading it anyway.

Sybilla believes these two species might have done the best in testing because they are naturally exposed to strong currents and waves in their environments and frequently experienced collisions with hard surfaces. So while you listeners might not know what those species are, I found this fascinating because what they are are the European versions of striped bass and sea trout like a Europe. Oh, no way. Yes, a European sea bass, which is also just sometimes referred to as a European bass, which is something I've always wanted to catch.

I've always wanted to catch one. I tried to con an old Ed into sending me long story. He said, no, you're not going over there to do that.

But anyway, they look almost identical to stripers, but they have no stripes. So like picture a striper with no stripes.

That's a European sea bass. And they live on the jagged, rocky coast of Britain and France and Spain in strikingly similar conditions to those around, like the famed Montauk Rocks and Block Island. So that was interesting. That speaks to the hardiness of striped bass. They don't get as big like I think like a twenty pounders huge, but they don't get fifty pounders, at least not anymore. But same deal, man, casting around the rocks over there, same same habitat.

Now the meager surprised me though, because that's a croaker. And I always think of sea trout and weak fish over here and so on as being pretty fragile. So I would have to do I'd have to do more research on the meager.

But if you've ever lifted, I know you have lifted a sea trout out of the water. They're not solid like a striper.

They're not like you can't, like, give them a punch and send them back. They're like they're like mushy.

I mean, they and I don't feel like they're taller. It's not that I give. A punch, I'm just saying, just saying damn, but I feel like components in you, I know you. I just don't feel like as we've recently seen, like in Texas, like with sea trout, I don't feel like their tolerance for temp changes or probably radiation or getting banged around would would be the same. But what do I know? The media might be different.

I do wonder, though, if one hundred years from now will be on the American side of the moon in spooks and doctors like acting like we're the shit, you know, I mean, and just like making fun of them, dabbling their little red guilt teasers on the other side of the moon for their European past. That doesn't strike me.

So when I read this, I was like, this is amazing. And when do I get to go fishing on the moon? Yeah, exhaustedly, by the time I got through, it was like a brother. Not in my lifetime yet.

I, I'm like, oh, this is actually like a giant fantasy. And none of this is happening any time soon. But I will say final thought. You need like, dude, you got to come over here and study some snakeheads and some Asian Karp's because you could literally drop them into whatever water is already on the moon. Like just open the space station door and drop them in there and they're good. They'll be fine. They they will reproduce.

I promise. We promise.

Good snakeheads crawling through like you'll you'll see little lines on the moon through the moon dust. It'll just be snakeheads cruising around from lake to lake. Yeah. What's up. There you go. Fish on the moon. I'm going to go from from really, really far flung, like the most far flung fish you could imagine to to at least for me, a really close to home fish. The most coveted fishing record in my home state of Montana stood for fifty five.

Oh, yeah, bring it on.

I knew this was coming back in 1966. E.H. Bacon, who was known as PECC. Landed a twenty nine pound brown trout from Wade Lake, which is near the Madison River, and I got to say, Wade is still damn good fishing lake, but it hasn't put out a monster fish since the 70s. Right. It just it's changed.

Yeah. And I've heard more than one person. A lot of people actually lament that the days of truly big fish in Montana are over and so that that brown trout record would likely stand forever the last week.

Proved them all wrong? Yup, yup, because that record was broken when Robbie doctor landed a thirty seven inch, thirty two pound, six ounce brown beast of a fender gargantua.

You want to see photos of this thing and you do. You've got to go check out the article that Sam Lundgren wrote about it on the media dot com. It's it's a hell of a fish. It really is.

But I also really like the story behind it. I think there's a great story to go along with.

Great fish, which doesn't always happen since the record was was last set in 1966.

Montana's turned into. You know, arguably the prime destination for tourists, trout fishing in the country, few people hands a thousand. Yeah, a few. A couple of people show up. Tens of thousands of people come here every year to to fish. And and they spend huge sums of money to chase big trout.

And we got some private lakes and ponds and some private creeks.

And we've got all these these these these guides, thousands of them, who take paying clients out on public waters all season. And I'm not dogging on on the fishing industry here that that relies on tourists. I'm really not because I worked on it for a long time. And it's a big part of our economy. There's nothing wrong with that at all. But I got to say, it makes me really happy to report that the new record, Brown, was not caught by a traveling angler, not by someone who spent a ton of money to come out here and do it, but by just a local dude, just a dude.

That's easy to do just to do so. Robbie Doctor, he works as a lineman for Sun River Electric.

And he's like we said, he's a dude about our age, loves the fish.

And he and his 13 year old daughter, Sierra, get out on the water together every Wednesday after he finishes work.

According to the doctor, his daughter is a stud who catches big fish and kills big deer.

So that's, quote, last Wednesday, they went out for their usual evening session.

Around seven thirty doctor was fishing a brown trout cast master spoon on four pound test when his line stopped with what he described as just nasty, heavy weight. When they got the fish close enough to see it roll in their headlamps, doctors, young daughter blurted out Holy shit, which surprised her father because according to him, she told us doctor took the net from Sierra and relieved her of the serious pressure of capturing a fish like that for her dad. I appreciate that he did.

That was like now. Now I got this. So he managed to land it all by himself on that four pound test, which is really impressive. Yeah. And I wouldn't say if anyone was going to break the record, Montana Brown drought, this is I could not have scripted a better way for it to happen than that right there total. I could not have come up with a better way. Totally. Now, lots of other outlets, including our website, have outed the name of the waterway where this fish was caught.

But I cannot bring myself to do that. I'm not judging others for doing it. But I personally, just like I can't say it, I fish that spot off and on for a very long time. And the truth is there aren't all that many fish there, but there are some really big ones, though I will be completely transparent and say I never thought it had a fish that big in it.

I knew there big fish in there, but I didn't think it was like I feel like a lot of people that catch fish like that are like I never would have thought that was in there.

No, it's the kind of place we're like, yeah, if you're going to run New Ten Pounder, it might happen there. But a 30 pounder. Yeah. No. Yeah, no. Yeah. And and you know, the place it's gotten some some publicity over the years, like kind of words got out a little bit and but now with the new record being out there, I just I'm not going back because I expect it's going to just like totally overrun and there just aren't enough fish in that spot to drill for the number of people who are in which system, which, let's be honest, is stupid and short sighted.

That's like some like you think you're going to go catch a bigger one tomorrow, like.

I never got I mean, yeah, it's it's just what's going to happen, and it makes me a little bit sad, but what doesn't make me sad is the story because I am seriously happy for Robbie and Sierra.

That's that's how that should have happened. And I'm glad it did. I also have to say.

Is a terrible that I love that it was caught on a cast M.. No, not at all. I think that that's so anti Montana and I just love it.

I just love it. I think it's terrific.

Could not have happened better, you know, because I'm not I'm not going to I'm not going to I'm not going to like be specific because I don't I'm not trying to make anybody feel bad. But like there have been instances with big records where, like the dude who gets it makes it known that like it's his life work to catch this record, you know what I mean?

Like, yeah. Yeah. And then for some reason when it happens, I don't know. I'm just not that excited, you know what I mean? Like, it's just not that exciting. And how many times have we just talked about how just generally speaking, we're not into records like, you know, you report on them when they happen.

But like this is like. This is this is the dream record scenario, just complete humble, like not like just take your kid fishing.

Like, I almost feel like that dude deserves it more than some dude who makes it his life work to find that fish.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, deserve is a tough word, but I'm happier that it went that way than the other way because I don't think my issues so much with records is record chasing. Right. That just doesn't do it for me. So when record chasers get the record, of course.

But when when when Robbie Doctor gets a dig at his daughter Zarafshan on a Wednesday night, I'm like, hell, yeah, that's amazing.

Oh, man. Like, how how old is that fish? You probably know the trought biology better than I do, I'm assuming I don't mean rarely live beyond a decade, right? I know that much. I'd be curious to get that fish age and find out how old it really is. Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, he said the other one wasn't going to fall. Is that ever going to fall in Montana? I mean, like that, you know. I don't know, man, I don't know. I wouldn't say it won't, but I wouldn't bet money on it happening anytime soon. Yeah, but stories like that also like another thing that they're very good for is like putting that in your head. It's like, man, you really don't know what's out there, you know what I'm saying?

No, no. I underestimated the magic of fishing. Anywhere we go, it's like you think you know what lives in there and you just you don't you don't, you know.

So Taskmaster took that one. I'm going to suggest maybe a couple other lawyers here. I'd be real impressed with somebody. It a record anything on that was not a great transition.

But that's that's what it's what I got. And we got it. Got it. Got you there. We got to keep things moving here.

So when you and I were kids and people listening to I'm sure like some, we had snoopy bobbers, you know. I mean, did you have a Snoopy? But no, I just don't know.

But I remember. Oh, you didn't actually have one.

I was just straight red and white man. I had the standard bobbers. I didn't have any of the fancy bobbers. I would be all right. So. All right.

So some of us maybe had Snoopy barbers are like a ninja turtle, right. And real. And like maybe even later in life, you had one of those Coors Light shaped crank baits. You remember those, right?

Or like lining kugels. But yes, I remember that saying, OK, same do ya. Like your dad gifted you the Joe Camel or after he smoked enough Carton's to earn it, you know what I mean?

But I think to what what what I'm driving at here though is that I think with all these like brand or character driven pieces of tackle that we have here in America, I think most of it just we look at those as they're either a novelty or it's for the kids.

Right. Like if a My Little Pony ride gets your little girl excited to get on the water rock and roll. Right. And what isn't what is not really happened in the U.S. and I hope it never does. Is this weird sort of crossing over of fishing tackle with, like super trendy or pop culture driven brands that have absolutely nothing to do with fishing? But this is actually happening quite a bit lately in Japan. And it seems like owning fishing stuff, whether you use it or not, whether you fish or not.

There's enough desire for that, that it's becoming a big enough business, that crossovers are appealing to tackle manufacturers that you would think like wouldn't have any reason to do this or be bothered to even entertain the idea. Now, here's an example, right? So recently, Diwata teamed up with a company called VAP, which is a shortened version of Bathing EHP, according to my research.

And like all they are is a clothing and housewares company in Japan, and their bread and butter is like t shirts and throw pillows and drink where, you know, it's like I say, it's like a Japanese version of Urban Outfitters. You know, something I don't know, which is we all know is just a one stop shop for hipsters that I kind of want to garden, like maybe want to try a skateboard. They're not sure, like want to purchase cassette tapes without risking getting tetanus at the flea market like I used to.

Anyway, Diwata and this is like Dila Dila collaborated with Babe on a custom zillion bait. Kastor They called the fishing EP which sold for forty thousand yen, which is almost 400 dollars U.S. and they all sold out. So if Babe had some no name real make or make a bunch of rels, fine.

But this is Dila and this is happening with many other well-known tackle makers over there creating Lur lines for fashion brands and stuff like that that are like joint sold on the on the fashion. But yeah, it's weird.

So anyway, the latest collab which popped up in my news feed is from duo laws and any serious bass heads listening will recognize that duo's reales line. They have Spiderbait swim bates', jerk bass, you name it. And it's all very available in the US and even on several of our big online tackle sites. I don't know. You ever heard a duo Laws?

Yeah, but know I've never fished them. Yeah, I have. I fished a few. I've gotten my hands on a few and it's, I mean it's top shelf stuff. Bad ass laws from Japan. Well duo might be the luckiest of the collaborator's because it appears they have scored the Pokémon license.

Oh no. Yes, right. And according to the website, height duo is making two Pokémon top waters. And, you know, some of you have right now, like which ones?

Tell us which ones. Which ones? I was the money I my birthday. Right. But anyway, so naturally you've got Pikachu and he or she I don't really know what sex Pikachu is.

No, it's modeled after the jitterbug and has a removable tail with an extra stinger treble on the back so you can opt out of his little lightning bolt tail and have three trebles on your jitterbugging instead of the traditional two.

And then they've also done Kiunga choreography that don't look at me.

I know I'm looking at somebody how mommy doesn't even know how to say, you know, I got that on the boat down there. I don't know. I don't either. And that one is a crawler style top water, you know.

Yeah, yeah. So with a little wings and and anyway, look, like I said. These are not like novelties completely, though, because these are really well-made laws, right, with really good components like design, like finely crafted by a company that is known for finely crafted laws.

And these are not like the two ninety nine Coruscant. So if you if you couldn't get your hands on them, which spoiler alert you cannot, the first run is way, way, way sold out. So if you were thinking party favors you're shit out of luck.

Not happening but you'd be spending twenty three bucks for the Pikachu and 46 for the choreography, which is significantly more money than just like what a duo really jerk bait will cost you on tackle warehouse.

That was I was going to ask if there's a markup for the there's a markup from all of this random like like a zillion real.

If you do the math, the baby's zillion real was almost a hundred bucks more than if you just went to Delaware and bought a zillion Bayt Kastor.

So all of this is is significantly marked up once it's co branded with this stuff. Right. And then like this this hype beast thing. There was also this weird link to Dewars secret back door project site. So it's this whole secret lur thing. And I thought that was bad enough with people just clamoring to get hard, you know, hard to get Japanese laws that they actually might fish.

But now. Right. So I just I find it all fascinating and weird, but I don't see it working here because if it's cheap, nobody wants it know. I mean, like nobody cares about the John Deere hula paper.

They'll just buy the color that they want if it's the same price.

And likewise, nobody is paying extra money for the Hollister branded Pendrell here.

So this is like a very uniquely Japanese thing. But I don't know. I just find it fascinating that, like, laws are now becoming, I don't know, just like a thing like a like a houseplant, like things that people want that have nothing to do with fishing.

Yeah, I can't I can't understand that this is a good example of why, like, I'm not a business whiz because if someone is going to be like, hey, I got an idea, I'd be like, no, that sounds like a terrible idea.

And clearly they're selling out in a different market very well. So shows what I don't know.

Yeah. And there's there's videos of these Pokémon laws, aside from the fact that they're Pokémon laws like moving through the water. I mean, they look like they will get chewed like that, like the friggin jitterbug Pikachu, like they looks fishy as shit, like it will get hammered. I'm sure it will.

But why would I pay the extra for the big two? I wouldn't.

You wouldn't. But there's another video and I can't understand it because it's in Japanese. But like the president of Duo looks very excited about this collaboration, which I understand because it's Pokemon, like you're going to sell like you thought the dude with the other thing with the babe is making money.

You're going to sell some Pokemon laws.

So good on them for working that one out for sure.

And that's the one I'm hoping to fill you in a Pokemon. I'm banking on it.

I don't know if I have to take that, by the way, and I am I am insulted on your behalf.

Moving on anyway, Phil, whether you're offended or you just you're just online right now trying to get one of those laws some way, even listening anymore.

I know. Just backorder. I know.

We'll see it. We'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll see what my fate is.

And after we hear from Phil, we're going to a little film clips and talk about a Buffalo soldier most of you guys probably have never heard of. Miles, thank you for sticking up for me, because Joe, I don't know what about me would make you think that I'm the kind of person who would know that a Pikachu is a species and therefore can be male or female, or that Chioggia is a legendary water Pokemon, first introduced in Gen3 and was the cover Pokemon for Pokemon Saphire on the Gameboy Advance.

But, you know, much like those nerds who play Pokemon, I'll do a little role playing here and pretend to be someone who is interested in any of that bull crap and say, Oh, Joe, you're the winner.

Thanks for letting me know about all these really cool lures. The hook, huh?

Well, let's see. Still out of Stock Tammet.

Sorry, Oida. Big mouth Buffalo are kind of a sleeper fish, even though they're found from southwestern Canada to Louisiana, can go more than 70 pounds and pulling a goddamn freight train that never really caught on as a sport fish.

If you have ever seen or heard of a big mouth, Buffalo's good chance you either mistook it for a common carp or someone told you as a carp, I'm going to let Steven Rinella set you straight on that buffalo. Ain't carp got that good? Because it's an important distinction. If you're in the camp of mis categorizing this fish, you're not alone.

Their Latin name is tubists Spinellis. Supernus means small carp.

So people have been mis naming this fish for a very long time. To be fair, they do look a little like common carp. They have large scales, broad shoulders, big rubbery lips and a generally similar profile. But Big Mouth Buffalo are actually the largest member of the sucker family. And unlike carp, they're very much native to North America. Being native, they're an important component of the ecosystems and food webs. Young buffalo are common prey for sport fish like bass, walleye, pike, and musky.

As they get bigger, they have fewer natural predators.

But the 123 pound world record flathead catfish caught in Kansas in 1998 had a 15 pound big mouth buffalo in its gut.

Strangely enough, that flathead was caught as bycatch by a crappy angler, which just validates the fact that catfish eat anything from 15 pound fish to minnows. Buffalo themselves are primarily filter feeders, meaning they don't usually target and attack prey. They kind of eat like humpback whales, swimming around, sucking in water and filtering out whatever food items they come up with, mostly insects and zooplankton. This is part of the reason they haven't caught on with anglers targeting fish that don't keenon on difficult.

More on that later. They are, however, sometimes called on crank baits, most often in the spring, too. People have shown any photographic evidence of big mouth. Buffalo landed with crank baits hooked in their mouths. I've also heard quite a few unconfirmed rumors from folks who claimed to catch them on cranks and other lures with some regularity.

But if you ask Alex Lachmann, one of the foremost buffalo biologists, about this, he'll tell you he's unsure.

Alex studied a fair number of buffalo and has never seen compelling evidence that Buffalo target and attack smaller fish since they swim around with their mouths open.

Much of the time, they might accidentally get impaled by a passing hook.

Or it's also possible that they might switch up their diets and seek out higher protein food options in certain situations. That's still an open question. One of many when it comes to Buffalo. See, even though there are native fish common across much of the U.S., buffalo have been ignored by almost everybody, including fisheries biologists. If you look them up, you can find academic resources right now that claim these fish live 10 to 15 years and exhibit spawning behavior similar to most other suckers.

But that's just not true. In twenty nineteen, Alec Lachmann, the biologist I mentioned earlier, radiocarbon dated the otoliths or ear bones from big mouth buffalo harvested by beau fishers from some lakes in his home state of Minnesota. The oldest fish he recorded was 112 before catching an arrow.

That fish had survived two world wars, the Great Depression, prohibition, the entire space program, 53 Super Bowls and the invention of the Internet.

Despite living through all that, the fish was in excellent condition, which really begs the question, how long can these fish live? No one knows.

Finding such an old fish was shocking. But equally shocking was what Lachmann didn't find in the Pelican Lakes and River system where he did his research. Lachmann discovered that almost 90 percent of the fish are 80 years or older. He found a few fish in their early 40s and none younger than that, which means the buffalo haven't been consistently reproducing there since the 30s and haven't reproduced at all since the late 70s. The reasons for this aren't yet defined, but right around that time, dams were going up and common carp were starting to proliferate.

The dams might have changed the hydrology of the area enough that Buffalo can't find the right spawning habitat and the carp might be crowding them out of their spawning grounds, at least for now. It's all still an open question. Lachmann has concluded that Buffalo employ a reproductive strategy called periodic recruitment, meaning that they live a really long time but only spawn when conditions are near optimal sturgeon. Do something similar. Lachmann and some colleagues published a paper that made kind of a stir and finally, finally got people talking about an interested in Buffalo, and that includes me.

I hardly even knew these fish existed before. Twenty nineteen. And ever since then, I've been frickin mesmerized by their creepy black doll eyes.

Ryan Callahan and I got so geeking out on these fish that we decided to do a whole Doszpot episode on them, which is how I ended up getting to know Alec, though I got to spend a few days fishing for Buffalo, I never completely sealed the deal.

These fish pull hard and every single one I stuck either broke me off or bent out my hooks.

In my mind, Buffalo could be the next obsession fish for anglers who love a challenge, their big, powerful and smart, you can sight fish for them. They will feed on the surface in the right conditions. They're like milk fish. Except you don't have to spend four days and 20 grand flying to the Seychelles to cast them. I also hear they make exceptional table fare and that barbecued buffalo ribs are a delicacy. Just make sure you're taking them from a population that's reproducing and don't kill the octogenarians.

Despite my failures, Buffalo can be consistently taken on hook and line. I got to know a guy in Minneapolis who catches them with a souped up Tinka Rod and chunks of inflated nightcrawlers. It works. I saw it, but I'm convinced that there are other ways. And to me that's probably the most intriguing thing about these fish. The playbook for them has yet to be written. They're an utterly common, exotic sport fish, except right now they're classified as rough fish in most places, meaning they get very little management attention and often have no harvest limits.

Buffalo, or favorite target of both fishers who like just about everyone else, assume that they're carp and that removing them in mass is not just fun but beneficial to ecosystems. These fish need advocates, so please find out if you have them in your local waters. Learn the difference between a buffalo and a carp and test your skills on them. And if you figure it out, give me a shout. I might just show up for a visit.

All right.

I'm going to ask the question that I know you're waiting for. What the hell did that segment have to do with this week's theme? How are you tying this one?

I am so glad you asked, Joe.

I appreciate that. Well, Gross point blank revolves around the main character trying to figure out his identity.

Right. Hi, how are you? Here I am. I'm a pet psychiatrist. Yeah. Yeah. I sell couch cushions and I test market positive thinking. And I lead a weekend men's group. A specialized ritual killings.

Yeah. Yep.

And then in the end, if you want to save himself and get the girl and live the happily ever after thing, he has to reclaim his identity.

Hmm. So you're making an analogy with the fact that Buffalo have been given this invasive carp identity and if we want to save them. What, like they need to go back to being what they actually are, native, noninvasive suckers, nailed it. Yes, exactly. Huh.

Listen, I'm going to do is say anything theme next week full on Lloyd Dobler.

Yes, I supported that. And Diane Court will represent the hog, Larry, at the country club that you shouldn't be fishing.

How's that?

I appreciated that. And I don't know if more or less people will get those references, but there's not a single person listening right now that won't know the loser you're about to cover in this week's end of the line, because whether you love it or hate it, you just keep buying your.

It's not loud enough, but. Sancho's where do you stand? Are they a miracle or have they made it so easy for people to catch bass that they're a cheat, or are you in the middle?

Is it OK when you catch a big bass on a wacky Hrytsenko, but lame when someone else does it? Do you scoff at Sancho's while keeping a stash of them in your bag as an insurance policy? When you do catch a fish where the human insta post you keep in the sinco in its mouth and owning it? Are you going to be vague and maybe throw up a hashtag? Megabus, no matter where you stand, don't rush to judgment on what our but Michai Kanelli refers to as the magic hot dog recently meat eaters fishing Ed.

. My buddy Sam Ljunggren penned a detailed piece for the Meat Eater Dotcom proposing that the sinco is in fact the greatest soft plastic ever created and personam story.

The Sanco hit the market in 1996, and Gary Yamamoto reportedly took inspiration from a big pen to create some of the earliest Sinco molds. At the time, there were other soft stick baits on the market, such as the Sluggo. But Yamamoto played with the weight, density, buoyancy and a slew of other details to create a lure that pretty much any angler of any skill level can use to catch big bass. The caveat is that it's not just the lure, but how you rig it.

It's effective rigt Texas style or on a jughead or Carolina style or Wheelus.

But it's fair to say none of those methods activate the magic like wacky rearguing to wacky Régis Cincotti, a small Shawshank hook on the end of your line and just run it right through the center in the bait. They're perpendicular to the body. That's it.

There's no bullet weights or split shot or nails or specialty terminal tackle. Just simply cast that way.

It lutsenko out and let it fall and as it does, it will undulate and it will wobble. And if you don't get smoked on the drop, let the bait just sit on the bottom, maybe even for like a full minute, because it's not uncommon for a fish to just suck it up while it's laying there lifeless. And if one doesn't slightly lift the rod and give it a very short hop and repeat this slow grind until eventually that lure makes it back to the boat.

In a nutshell, that's wacky rigging. And for many reasons that are more speculation than fact, Bass can rarely leave a wacky rig Sanco alone. And because it's productive, minus a lot of effort on your part, it is helped coined the term do nothing bait in the bass fishing world. Interestingly, many people associate the invention of the sinco with the advent of wacky rigging, but that's not really accurate.

Anglers have been casting plastic worms hook through the middle since the original cream worm hit the market in 1949.

But nobody was making a fuss about it or giving it any sort of label. Believe it or not, many bass fishing historians trace the origin of the wacky rigt craze to New Jersey and a lure called the Jersey rigt. Jersey rigs were developed by Jeff Camerino, and they looked shockingly similar to a sinco, though a little shorter and studier. Now, today, Paxo, these boats are highly coveted on eBay, and they maintain a cult following, with many cult members claiming they're far more effective than the sinco.

In fact, in the right circles, if you say wacky rig, somebody will say, Oh, you mean Jersey.

Rick Camerino never had a Web site working only via mail order and accepting only checks.

But the Jersey rig still caught on within bass circles because when hooked through the middle, they really shined on the highly pressured lakes throughout the northeast.

And Camerino was pumping out his jersey rigs right around the time the sinco debuted. And that's not to suggest the Yamamoto ripped off the jersey rigt because many companies develop similar laws, but rather that the marketing jooste and ability to get product in so many more hands helped the sinco corner the market and grab the spotlight.

Now, there's no shortage of Sinco imitators out there today, like Berkeley's the general and the striking Okot, just to name a few. And they're good. I've caught fish on them, but I've yet to find a stick bait that I would say matches the productivity and ability to draw a strike when nothing else seems to quite like the sinco. And I've also heard that the exact formula for Sinco is guarded like the recipe for Coca-Cola. And I believe that because while it's easy to look at a sinco and call it Dume or call it simple, if you think of the tinkering that had to be done to make it so effective, it's actually an engineering marvel.

Now, as for me, I mean, I love Sancho's and I never barsa fish without them and they may not be what I taione first, but when the bite I hope for isn't materializing, I can't tie one on fast enough. So am I cheating every time I do that, would you discredit my personal best. Holmwood are small because I caught it on a wacky rig sinco which by the way I did. In my opinion that would be dumb because while we love to kick around this term, do nothing lur there is no law that is truly do nothing and productive every single time.

A wacky Hrytsenko may help a lot of people get luckier than they would have, but most of the time the law isn't enough.

And it won't do you much good if you don't know exactly where to throw it, how aggressively or subtly to work it, exactly what kind of gear you should throw it on in different situations and a whole bunch of other things that you really only learn through time on the water.

And once they invent a lure that you can literally cast anywhere at any time in any water and it catches fish every single time you send it out there. Well, hell, I quit. Well, that brings us to the end of our John Cusack and Minnie Driver reunion special.

But if Siskel and Ebert were giving out thumbs that didn't get turned into losers, this one would definitely get too pointed straight up for incorporating fishings most closely guarded secret formula, the hottest new fish that may have been around longer than your grandparents. How are most likely going to die by serial killer and antiquated laws about knitting?

Oh man. As always, send your VA nominations, sailboard items, awkward fishing photos and CSI Anonymous tips to bent at the Meat Eater dotcom.

Remember to drop the degenerate Angler and Bente podcast. Hashtags on your social posts be a tad gross. Point blank and do yourself a favor. Go watch that movie this week. It is straight. Brilliant.

Yeah, I have to agree that we'll see how many Growthpoint tags there are, but Miles has convinced me it's some sleeper gold.

And for those of you gearing up for your 10 year unions in a couple of months, here's some helpful advice.

Go see some old friends, have some punch visit with what's your name? Debbie. Debbie. Don't kill anybody for a few days. See what it feels like.