Ep. 40: Gerry Wants a State-Record Blue Trout

can buy a canoe somewhere else. I'm not the only guy in America selling canoes. Good morning, degenerate Anglers, and welcome to Bent the Fishing Podcast. It's feeling confused because it's no longer sure if saying it stroke it on the water yesterday is a good or bad thing. I'm Joe Surmelie, I'm Miles Nulty, and I feel like we're I feel like we're about to dig into a core issue that's facing the fishing community. Yeah, this is d I think we're doing doing good things, doing good service

for context. This all stems from a conversation Joe and I had recently when I went out and visited him on that that right coast out there, and some confusion ensued over the use of the verb to stroke in relation to fishing success. The words seems to have opposite meetings on our respective sides of the continent, right, that's right. Indeed it does, because in the conversation you you told me that out west, stroking it on the water meant

you absolutely crushed it. You just hammered the fish. And when you said that, it forced me I actually had to check myself. I questioned my own longstanding use of the term, because I have always used it negatively, like stroked it to me means you had a really shitty day, like you caught absolutely nothing. The joke, the joke, of course, being that instead of catching fish, you are just out there like wax in the carrot, you know, flog flog in the bishop, instead of getting getting real ship done

on the water. That's aition I knew, and I think I think in in further talking this out, I think I've seen the semantic difference in terms of where it breaks down. But we'll get there before we do though, I'm pretty sure you you like you went on a deep dive? You did? You did? You did science on this? What what did you do? I did? I actually I conducted a little text survey among my buddies and the results we're kind of interesting. This for like a science fair.

I would win for this, um stroke hypothesis. Yeah, anyway, all I did, I just simply blast texted the question. When you hear an angler say we stroked it yesterday, what do they mean? So of the fifteen people pulled, which is not a lot of people, right, we're not small samples small sample size exactly, but you know time is of the essence. Okay, Um, I think they were more of it, Peter, Yeah, they just didn't answer me. Right,

This is not going in a science journal anyway. Um. Of the fifth teen people pulled, eight of them said that it means you blanked, you skunked, scratched, zeroed. That is the definition. I know. Interestingly though, right, Um, these were all people that fish the Northeast saltwater scene specifically,

so they were all Northeast salty guys. That fascinating point makes sense, it is, It is fascinating, and I I am actually truthfully kind of on the edge of my seat to hear the rest of the But before we do that, I gotta I gotta jump in and uh may I suggest that the rod and reel from our good friends at thirteen Fishing might help you East Coasters stroke it less and us West guys stroke them a

lot harder and more often. Yes, you can. You can suggest that all you want, as you guys now know, bent is brought to you by the cool people at thirteen Fishing. In Yes, we have both been fishing a ton of their stuff this season. Um, and it's extremely kick ass, very well made. And I gotta say, whether you I don't stroke it good or stroke it bad, you will. You will look good stroking it because thirteen is not afraid to make reels and rods with some

flair and pizzazz like I've been. I've been snakehead fishing with their bright green inception sz um beginning of this season, in the end of last um and that bait cast. If nothing else, I'm never going to lose it, like You'll never set it down in big brush and have to hunt for it. It's right, it might even glow in the dark, So good stuff. It's true. Yeah, I'm just how many times did you just say stroke it

in one paragraph? You know, by the end if someone were to count the strokes in this episode by the end, you know, and then time it with a Pink Floyd record. No, so trippy, bro. But anyway, anyway, anyway, I want to hear about the remaining seven inches in your poll. Tell me about the polls. Okay, so sick. Out of those remaining seven people had never even heard the term used by anglers. This was completely far into them. Two of them, interestingly, were local to me, and the others were from the

Midwest or the South, which includes Florida. But here's the fun part. Here's here. This is science, right, guy, I think sociology. There you go, So you got you're smarter. Um. Despite never hearing anyone utter the phrase stroked it as it relates to fishing, they all guessed that it would have a negative connotation. All right, I think I think your your samples are are skewed considering that it's just your friends. But what's give me the last one? There's

one more. And the remaining person was guide Marty Ye, who guides on the Upper Della, where he's a good friend of mine. He's been on this show. Uh. He was the only one in the very small sample of folks that said, stroke it means you nailed it, you crushed right. But Marty, But Marty, this is here we go again. Marty also spent lots of time in the rockies in Alaska, which means you know, he's hung out with you. Positive stroke with us with people. Yeah, And

the last thing I'll add, because I enjoyed it. My buddy Jimmy Banano made it a point to clarify that stroke it means you blank, but stroked them means you hammered them. Though I've never even heard I've never heard Jimmy use either of those terms. I've never heard anyone in my circles say we stroked them. It's always we stroked it, and it always means today sucked now. And that's like, that is the critical point of difference. That the them is the thing that defines the difference in

these two phrases from different parts of country. See, I've never heard anyone in my circle say they stroked it. But when someone says, oh, we stroked him, it means they absolutely wailed on the fact like that is that is the the highest. If you're gonna describe your day in terms that you know, it's it's next levels. Dude, we stroked him. That that was you got it done.

So like when I heard you, like when we were it happened because we were driving around and you were calling friends for a fishing report, and I was sitting next to you and you're on your cell phone and I heard you talking about stroking it and the phrase felt a little awkward, but I thought, you know, I assumed it was the same thing as stroking them, when

in actuality, it was a complete opposite. I'm glad you brought up the context so that people just don't think we were just talking about stroking it in general for hours while you were here. Make you bloody, Mary, We'll go sit on on the veranda and talk about stroking it. Yeah, it was, it was a little it was. It was a little confusing. But I feel like through this this uh, this sociological deep dive and and regional questioning, I think we really solved the problem to day. Joe. I you

know me too. I feel we've done work today, We've contributed, We've made you all better, smarter, people. I'm very proud of us, But let's move on from stroking our own egos to stroking our fan base because we've got a regional fishing report that we're excited about. This one, we haven't done one well. Difference as as the majority of listeners have caught onto at least, I think our regional reports give us license to to just do some satire and some fiction, to have a little fun. However, this

week's report is a legit. Its report is a loose term here. It's more of a commentary. But uh, you guys might recall a news piece that Joe covered not long ago on on the West Virginia gold Rush. Yeah. Yeah, we talked about how West Virginia stocks just these insane numbers of genetically modified golden trout pretty much more than any other state, and listener Zack Smith felt it was his duty as a West Virginia native to clarify why West Virginia is so nuts so for bright orange freak

rainbow trout. And Zach actually got his first shout out on this show a long time ago. Some of you may remember he sent us an article that he wrote about chummy for trout um. But after this after the after the audio's act. Don't be shocked if we make him our our full time appellation correspondent. Hey, Fellers, this is just y'all's favorite trout trummer, Zach from West by God, Virginia. So you are recently touched upon a topic that's hotter

here than the Taco bell fire sauce. They using my microwab golden trout, and that's the West Virginia gold rush, all right. Now, First, and they explained why we've always stalked a higher proportion of goldie's in the other states. And no, it ain't because we're a bunch of inbred genetic deficiencies who enjoy fishing for other inbred genetic deficiencies. I mean, that would just be a quaintie dick. It's actually because of our affinity to the color gold, not

the mineral. We ain't got golden into our hills, were sure as hell got cold. I mean, the two may rhyme, but that's about the limit to their relationship. So the best way to explain our affinity to the color, let's use a religious analogy to flesh this out. So in West Virginia, God is w vs football coach and Jesus

is our w V basketball coach. So God, Jesus and all the other disciples will they wear blue and gold uniforms now they out come with the game on Saturday will impact what you're saying in your head on your knees in church on Sunday. Thus, the color gold holds a special place in our hearts. And let me tell you this, once our d n R figures out a way to pread blue trial, West Virginia will truly have exceeded our slogan of almost head, because at that time

I'm gonna petition to have our slogan changed too. You know that song by Apple of the Dog say Hello to Heaven. That's right now. The funny thing about that is that there are actually blue trout like I remember I wrote about them years ago, and I'm pretty sure it's a genetic mutation that naturally occurs in hatchery trout,

which seems like an oxy moron. I'd i'd have to go re research, but I think, um, it's like the hatcheries can create all the golden trout, they want all the orange ones, but they can't create the blue trout on demand. That just kind of happens naturally, but only the truck trout, and and I've seen it written about most occurring in Pennsylvania hatcheries. So Zach will have to get a merry, merry band of coal miners together and hop the border and go on a rogue stocking mission.

I guess that would that would really close the loop. And you're you're, you're right on the blue trout thing. It's a it's a random mutation that occurs in about point zero zero zero zero seven hatchery rainbow, so very rare. And and as you're saying, at least in Pennsylvania, they try to remove all the blue mutants from the stock before they plant the fish, like they don't want those getting into the trucks and out into the streams. And I don't know the reason behind that, but I know

they don't. They don't want them getting out in the wild. But your chances of catching one are very rare. So that piece was a great fallow up too to the news story. Ran how about we uh, how about we stick with theme here, Let's do a follow up to a sale bin we did not too long ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're just we're just taking deep dives on previous segments here, but this one is a gem. This is so freaking good,

this is amazing. I hope that all of you remember the ad we covered from craig List, written by Jerry Jared with the g Who's selling? Who's selling? Used canoe? And uh, we've learned there's more to the Jerry saga. There's a lot here we kind of dug in thanks to some help. And if you need either a used canoe or a cup of tea, you gotta go can But Jerry, why did you put the hand to pay You don't know what I'm getting. Man, you didn't have

to be so hurtful with me, so angry. So a few weeks back, we did a sale bin about Jerry and he was the guy selling a canoe with no photo but a very compelling, if poorly copy edited Craigslist ad, and uh, Jerry gave us the idea for our Billy Wants a Shotgun stickers, which are coming soon. I can I can promise you that many of you expressed interest in this sticker, as we knew you would, Billy Wants Shotgun. Uh. After airing that segment, we got this email that, uh, well,

I'll just dig into it here. It came from a guy named Bryan Adams, whose name we're trying really hard not to make fun of right now. But you must really love his music. Huh yeah, he's He's he's pretty, He's pretty good. I guess your gut am right, he is. I'm sorry, Brian can not help myself anyway. Bryan Adams rode into inform us that Jerry's post was not a

random one off drunken lark like we thought it was. No, no, no, It turns out Jerry runs a regular satirical canoe sale operation out of his house and uh and best of all, Brian has actually met Jerry. And here here's what what Brian wrote us. He said, you missed the mark on Jerry slightly. He has been running ads for use canoes for well over a year, started pre COVID. He actually buys and sells quite a few of them, gets beat up ones for cheap hammers the dents out, and makes

a few bucks. I know because I traded one with him last spring and made the swap at a Trent And gas station. So he actually does sell canoes and a lot of them, but is just looking for conversation you nailed that part. Yeah. Well, so Unfortunately Brian didn't elaborate on his exchange with Jerry. I know station, and I gotta say, right, this is like I grew up

in Trenton, My childhood home was in Trenton. This is my turf, and I gotta say, um that that's probably like the most benign handoff that's ever happened at a Trenton gas station because I've spent some time, you know, at Trenton liquor stores before I was of age, and like, you know, so it is what it is, um, But I I can't imagine wanting to spend more than two minutes at a Trenton gas station. And I can't help but wonder how long Brian Adams got stuck there, Like

what did they talk about? That's sadly we don't know. Uh. Brian didn't include those details, but he did send us links to a few more posts that Jerry has put up over the years. Yes, yes he did, and we thank him very much that we edited some of those together so that you can better understand and and further appreciate the unstable genius of Jerry the Craigslist canoe guy, and before you read these, I got worried because I was like, man, Billy wants a shotgun was real good?

What if the stickers are being made and there's a better Jerry one liner in here? But I'm still pretty sold on Billy wants to show. I don't think I don't think there's a better one liner. But I'm glad we have more to to build on the lower of Jerry. All right, So so here we go, without further ado, some some of Jerry's greatest hits. Last year, I had a bunch of canoes laying around. Yes, I do have

a mental problem involving canoes. So I ran these strange ads and tried to make them funny and invited everyone to have a cup of tea in my backyard. Well, I ended up selling a lot of canoes, and I met so many fine people. I sell Coleman's, Grumman's Old Towns, and all manner of fiberglass canoes. I try to keep them around three hundred bucks. If you see an aluminum canoe on Craigslist for six d I will have the same canoe for three. If you don't like my ads,

I don't care. You can buy a canoe somewhere else. I'm not the only guy in America selling canoes, so we'll go on here. I had a guy bitch and moan at me for pretending to be clever, and I was told I should just post a picture. I don't know how to post a picture. I will be sixty shortly. The guy who wrote me and bitched me out is obviously a douse, light, a shush, laugh, a buzz kill, and to kill joy, probably sexually frustrated in Wonder's whoy. Nobody likes him. I know why I have to fifteen

foot smoker canoes. I like that name. I imagine myself headed down a Class five set of rapids in Colorado or possibly Tanzania. To the right, a waterfall in certain Death. To the left, just a Titanic set of rapids, or was it the other way around. Remember I'm almost sixty and forget a lot of stuff. So to stimulate those neurons, I calmly whip out my zippo and my soft pack of camels and light up a cigy while battling five

foot waves in whirlpools. Life jacket, you asked, those are for young children, and we will we will just say whimps, and I'm a smoker in a smoker get it, ha, These smokers are fine canoes. One is painted green and the other just aluminum. Come buy one and hit the rapids while having a hot tea. I am Jerry. Come out chat while you buy a canoe and go enjoy America. Oh god, they're so good. We're gonna We're gonna do

a couple others really quick. I can't help myself. The context The title for this next one was glad, I'm not a soda can canoe. Okay, so here's how this one's gonna go. Originally this ad was glad, I'm not a beer can canoe. Some self righteous bastard must not have liked the word beer and flagged my ad. What insert your personal expletive. No one forces you to like the ad, so just move on and do whatever the hell it is you do with your life. Loser, Now

to the ad. Imagine you were a piece of aluminum or even some box side, or would you rather be a soda can or a canoe? Soda cans crushed up and thrown in landfills, or recycled into more soda cans, or made into seven thirty seven maxes. Canoes can live forever, pleasing their owners and becoming much loved family members for generations. Okay, last one, I'm gonna do one more. That's the one. What an outstanding weekend. Several people came out, bought canoes,

and went out and had fun. They took control of their lives and told their partners to either hop in a canoe and have fun, or go hide in a corner and make sad weeping noises back to the canoe. It is an older old town. That should indicate to you that this canoe is made of tough, hard light fiberglass. It is red in all caps. It's about thirteen feet and four inches. Many people I have found like the

short canoes, easily handled, stored, and thrown about. The guys look for the thirteen foot canoes and think they are like twenty ft long. Something about the male perception of length. Ah, if you take it over Niagara Falls, you probably will die. I assume no liability for such behavior. So swing on by by it, have a blast in nature, feel the joy, and send me a picture of your first outing. I will give you a cup of tea to go. H oh, jerry. If you're out there and you're listening. You put the

craft in online, use watercraft sales. I will drink a hot toddy to you, sir. Yeah. I second that. Maybe this, maybe this eventually leads to Jerry on the show. I don't I don't know, but a big, a big thank you to Brian Adams for alerting us to the depth of Jerry's catalog. This is for you, Brian. It's true everything do it fun the best thing to come from that for me. Where the terms douse light and shush laugh? I love it. I'm gonna start using them, yeah, you know.

I mean, hey man, you're such a shush laugh douse light? Over here? Where? Who says that? Where is it? What is that? I think I think you're kind of undermine the purpose of those, like when you drop in front of them, they're like, dounse light is one of those insults that sounds dirty but isn't, Like that's the whole point of it, Like, oh, that dude's a douse light. It sounds like you're saying something you shouldn't, but you're

not that. I like those. I'm a fan of that, and uh, I think I would like to work those into my vernacular as well. Uh, and hopefully you won't be calling me either a doubts letter shows laugh after I completely destroy you in the weekly competition that we call fish News. Fish news that escalated quickly. All right, before we hit news, just a couple of things we got to cover first. I have some very sad news

to report. You might remember that in the the inaugural installment of our That's My Bar segment, I shouted out the sipp and dip in Great Falls, Montana and the iconic and venerable piano Pat who brought so much joy to drinkers and parties for over fifty years. I'm sad to say Pat died earlier this week, and in a rare if there's if there's an upside to this, which I mean she She died peacefully, all reports indicate with

her family, so that's great. But if there's an upside in a rare showing of bipartisan agreement, every single major politician in the state of Montana, both Republican and Democrat, paid tribute to her, every single one. Uh. And I'd say, like achieving that nearly impossible feet just shows how universally

beloved she was here in Montana. Uh, and how much we all love drinking in bars, so please just how about how about everybody right now take a minute and uh and join us in raising a drink to Pat. I when I heard about this, I was personally sad because I will never get to experience this. Like since this first came up, I was like, one day after the COVID's whenever it may be, like, I will get out there and I want to go to this bar.

I want to go to a lot of the bars we've covered, but that one has always stuck with me. People have even suggested since then, they're like, you need to have piano pat on. What a bunch of people would would do with her on this show? We considered it. So it's sad. It's sad. It's sad. Um So sorry sorry to have to pass that news on, but it seemed important to let everybody know. Uh. I also need to make a correction on a story I reported last week.

I erroneously claimed that the two and forty pound lake sturgeon caught by US Fish and Wildlife sampling crew was brought in on Rod and Reel. I think that was magical, thinking I was being overly positive. I don't know, I will, I have to say to you. When I read that story, it was kind of vague, like I interpreted it that way too. They had a whole thing about fighting the fish and bringing it in, and I just made an assumption that they were doing it on rod and reel.

But uh, listener, Jason Kitechuck or Kitchuck, I'm not sure, who's a former employee of the Detroit office of the U. S. Fish Wildlife Service. Very politely, thank you, Jason, very politely informed me that the fish was actually caught on a set line. So Joe and my dream of going and being part of a sampling crew that's catching these fish on rod and reel, that's probably not ever gonna happen.

So another another dream doused dashed at the head of this No doubts remember doust like dolls l shush laugh, Yes, correct. Oh well, so that's what we got up top and moving on to fish news. Just a little reminder, this is a competition. Joe and I do not know which stories the other person is bringing to the table, and we are competing for the admiration, the love and the attention of our audio engineer, Phil who at the end will crown one of us the Grand Champ winner for

the week. Uh, and I think it's you this week. You got to lead off? It is It is my It is my lead off. Um, So we'll get right down to it. This has got to be one of the most interesting poaching stories I've ever come across because it has a It has a different twist than like the usual, you know, like bunch of ship heads losing their licenses and being racked with fines they most likely won't ever pay anyway, like when they hit the guys at the bridge here in Jersey. That's typically what happens.

So this one, this one though, this comes from the Florida Keys, and I found the story on the website of the Miami Herald and for starters. The culprit's name is Henry dan Zig. No, how lucky is that? How blessed must he feel on a daily basis? I mean Glenn Danzig. His his real last name is Ann Zwini, so they're not related because he added the Danzig later. This guy's real birth name is Henry Danzig, which is completely irrelevant to the rest of the story, but I'm

a Danzig fan, so anyway, here's what happened, right. Danzig is a hardcore I'm gonna do it every I know I know, I'm gonna try to get through it. Danzig is a hardcore, lifelong angler that lives in Tavern here, and according to the story, he fished so much that he actually kept a fridge in his yard that he would stock with fresh filets, and anyone in the area, uh in need of a meal could always pop by and grab some of Danzig's catch of the day for

your charge. He was also known on occasion to cook inexpensive fish dishes made from the fish he caught at a small diner in the area that he co owns. But it turns out that as generous as Danzig was with his haul, he spent a lot of time fishing in Bohemian waters, and he got busted by the coast Guard last May for bringing back five pounds of reef fish from the Castle Bank in the Bahamas. Now that's

not all at once, mind you. That's sort of like the grand tally that the coast he's estimate, uh, since they sort of caught onto what he was doing the day he got boarded. Danzig and his son and three friends had a hundred and sixty seven reef fish of various species on board, but he didn't have a license to fish in Bohamian waters according to the documents on board.

And as I understand this, if he had just been giving the fish away, it sounds like he'd have only had to deal with not having the proper Bahamian license. But because he was occasionally selling it in his restaurant for commercial gains, it means a charge of a legal commercial fishing kind of sticks like he sort of violated the Lacy Act, which bands trafficking in a legal fish and wildlife right now, according to his lawyer, Dan Gelbert,

as as he got busted, Danzig fest up. Delbert says, you know, he gives most of his fish away to neighbors, local organizations, businesses, and friends. But but Danzig knew they had him on the sale thing. And and here's what he had to say. Quote from the piece, he says, I was fishing where I shouldn't have been. We are all stewards of our beautiful waterways and I should have known better. Now, according to his lawyer, he fully cooperated with authorities and immediately asked what he could do to

make this right. So here's what he did. He struck a plea agreement with the U. S. Attorney General's Office. Now Danzig might sound like a diner owning fish head keys bum, but he's actually a Morgan Stanley financial advisor. So he was like, hey, how's about I buy the Royal Bahamian Defense Force a brand new thirty ft contender tournament with twin Yamaha to fifty four strokes is an apology, and the Royal Bahamian Defense Forces were like, sure, okay, So he bought them a boat that will help them

catch more poachers. That is the specific purpose of this go fast boat is to help the Bahamian authorities catch more poachers like Danzig. Now, to afford that boat, he had to sell his own boat, which was a thirty nine ft contender called Bodacious. That boat was, of course, involved in his own crime, so guess it's it's like part of his sort of wiping the slate clean and

starting over. And Danzig also won't be serving any jail time because of his quote extensive record of service to his community, which included fundraisers and giving jobs to young people at his restaurant. Okay, Apparently several Tavernier residents showed up to his sentencing and they were all like, yeah, he's he's a real good dude. Gives me fishing stuff, good guy, don't throw him in jail, and that that kind of work. So, uh, I don't quite know how

I feel about this. To be honest, it doesn't sound like he's screwed up once, you know what I mean. Like, it sounds like, over the long course of time, he was routinely running to Bohemian waters and bringing back loads of fish without a license. So I'm torn between you know, he's a good guy that made a bad mistake and good on him for righting his wrongs, or he actually knew dan well what he was doing and just happens to be lucky enough to sort of buy his way

out of it. I don't really know which one it is, but I have never heard a case like that be be rectified by dude going, let me buy you a three thousand dollar book. Call it good. Okay, Yeah, I'm I can feel like my own perception of this is like a swinging pendulum, because on the one hand, I'm like serial poacher, he knows what he's doing, it's the serial thing. It's not like he went out there and like one day he was like, oh my god, I didn't know I was supposed to be here, but I've

never been here before. Courton the Coast Guard makes it sound like they had proof that he was routinely running into behavian waters with no license, so like he knew what he was doing and he was he knew it was across crossing the line literally in figuratively. But I also wish that the response of every poacher was akin to this one. Well sure to like, it's not the we all we all do wrong. I don't, I don't

care who you are. We we all sin and and cause other people's arm and cross the line from time to time. But it's it's how you respond to that that really matters. And I think that, uh, this is a shining example of responding. Possibly the other The other place my mind goes, though, is that this guy has the means to do that. He's not poaching fish because he's real hungry, right, and and not everybody has the ability to just be like, look here's a boat. Yeah,

and look we've talked on this show before. I have some captain buddies down there that you know, when they were running, especially during the COVID pandemic, Like if they had extra fish, they would throw on Facebook, like we have some extra Kingmac, we have whatever if anybody in town needs fish. So it seems like for everything this this dan Zig dude is done. There's like a tiny counter argument, like I commend you for having a fridge where locals can come get fresh fish for free. Absolutely

also pointed out contactless delivery during the pandemic. It's like you don't even have to talk to dan Zig. Dan Zigg is inside doing Danzig things. You can just show up and grab you some yellow tail snapper. But like that much of it, like you're you're catching, like you're supplying an awful lot of people. It sounds like like that's that's a lot of fish. Why don't need five hundred pounds of fish that you're mostly giving away? This as a very complicated character. I would like to I

would like to interview him. I would, I really would. I would love to be able to sit down and just kind of pick Danzig's brain. We'll pick Glenn Danzig against Henry dan Zigg in a in a point counterpoint on fish poaching. I like it, So can you arrange that Danzig? Did you get on the Danzig Show? Danzig episode? So yeah, it's there's more to the story. We won't figure it all out today, but it's like just had me going, oh good for him? Oh yeah, yeah, No.

I love the complexity of this when it's not a simple good guy bad guys seeing well done, Bahama is good on you enjoy that conder with twin to fifty yamahas go catch some poachers. Um. I think that the bridge between that story and my next one is unsustainable harvest of fish and finding ways clean simple bridge, make

that to make that work? Uh? And this one that I'm gonna talk about, Dude, I've been so stuck on the c Spiracy thing, like I can't get it out of my head, and how annoyed I am about it, and I just keep finding myself like in my mind arguing with the makers of c Spiracy all the time, which is pointless and dumb because they're wrong. But have you watched it multiple times? No, just the ones. I don't want to do it again. I just want to

be watching it over and over. It's an ongoing dialogue in my head with people who don't know eggs ist and me telling them why they're wrong and creating problematic propaganda. But I'm gonna talk about another example of science disagreeing with that c spiracy propaganda. A study recently published in the journal Marine Policy suggests a potentially effective solution for maintaining sustainable fish stocks in marine ecosystems, even in areas

that are being unsustainably fished. And just to be clear, no, the answer is not ending all fish harvest and to stop eating fish. That's not the answer. In fact, this research seems to suggest that implementing strict protections in a limited part of an area can produce significant positive impacts

on the fish population across the whole area. Researchers in Kenya wanted to figure out which management tools could provide the greatest benefit to their fair stocks, so they looked at these two distinct areas where different regulations on commercial

fishermen were being aggressively enforced. In one area, they had fishing gear restrictions, including a ban on fine meshed nets and another gear that's considered destructive, and another area, the gear went totally unrestricted, but thirty percent of the fishing grounds were set aside as a no take marine protected area where fishermen were not allowed to harvest any life

at all. And the results of this were stark. Fish populations in the area with the protected zone rose by forty two huge jump, and individual catch rates for for the individual fishermen fishing there increased twenty five times faster than in the area with gear restrictions. So that's that's those are staggering, I can say like that, that's huge. According to the researchers, no take protected areas were quote far more effective at sustaining stocks of fish than restricting

destructive gear. And here's how it worked. The different regulations were implemented in two different counties, which from what I can gather is that the terminology that Kenya uses to divide up their fishing zones. Researchers monitored a half dozen boat landing sites in each county, recording fish catches at each and and here's the really unique aspect that makes

these findings particularly valuable. The team monitored these fisheries and regulations for twenty four years before publishing the results, making this the longest ever longitudinal study of detailed fish catches for an inshore marine area. No kidding, that's wow. Twenty four years years, take that ship at Spiracy, read some online articles, and spend six months flying around the country

the world. The time and resources required to conduct multidecade studies like this have previously impeded testing the long term effectiveness of no take marine protected areas. Right like m p as have been a hot topic for a while, but no one's ever had the ability to study them for this long. Most research on mp as has been based on much shorter duration studies or on simulation models. Interestingly, the findings of this research actually support what those simulations

have suggested. According to the studies lead author Dr Tim Clanahan, quote, the not take area in Mombassa occupied thirty percent of the studied fishing grounds. Fortuitously, this is the target for protection being proposed for the oceans, which is rarely tested and based on the results of simulation models. The empirical support for the models and the conservation proposal is reassuring.

Adds to the evidence that no take protected areas of sufficient coverage may compensate for the lost fishing grounds, particularly when fisheries are not sustainably fished. So This is just one study in one particular area, but it seems like

a pretty damn comprehensive and compelling one. It seems to suggest that if we can find a way to successfully protect thirty percent of the world's oceans for at least a couple of decades, the resulting increased productivity in the other seventy percent of the fisheries will more than make up for what we lose in fishing areas. And I'm not like, I'm not being all Pollyanna. I'm not saying that would be easy. Like the feasibility of trying to do that and enforce it is huge. Yeah, And that's

what pops into my head. It's like, okay, great plan. Now, like if you just take one fishery, like bluefin in the US, it's like, how do you decide who gets stuck with thet of protected area, you know, off their coasts? I mean, like figuring out which areas need that protection has got to be mess. It's it's it's it's a mess. There, there's there's no question. And and but the thing is like,

at least this offers some hope. Yeah, right, and this is this is what we need more of in my opinion, we we need informed research that says like, hey, we can deal with these massive problems if we can find ways to implement the changes, and and I find that far more productive and inspiring and effective than I don't know, say, emotional and fear based media screaming that the oceans in the planet are doomed and it's all your fault because you ate sushi last night like that. That's not going

to guess where we need to be. It's it's movements like this and say, hey, we suggest that if we can find a way to set aside, there's hope. That's what gets people going. That's what gets ship done, not not scaring the pants off of everyone and tell them

that they're evil. I wish more people would would hear this and get behind this, as opposed to the headlines that the sspiracy kid is making now demanding that the president just like shut down all seafood something like that, like just demanding demanding we're just walking away from science altogether. It's just who cares? Who cares what science? To say? I feel that I'm right, yeah, well, very very uplifting, and the twenty four years is sticking with me, like

that's like, that's hard to mess with. Twenty years to me seems like such a such the right amount of time. Again, I always go back to snakeheads, but twenty years ago they were going to destroy the entire East Coast. Twenty years is a long time, and now look how that's come around. So like, if you have that much data that many years to decades worth, that's much much harder to argue with population dynamics change slowly. You've got to have a time scale to really look at that in

a way that makes any sense exactly. You did talk about gear are restrictions though, So I'm gonna transition into self imposed gear restrictions, things I say you should not be using. I like the thing we're moving into Joe's personal opinion on gear here, All right, what do you got? We are? And sometimes I feel like I'm beating a dead horse by ragging on technologically advanced lawyers. But it's it's like kind of become it's kind of become my beat.

Like the loyal listeners of Bent have come to expect that I will keep them apprized of horseshittery coming down the pike in Laura gimmickry, so I'm doing it's this is my duty. Not long ago, I did that story about the hackers hacking into the smart heater and the Casino fish tank. Remember that, and you made fun of me a little bit because it had so little to do with fishing, though it was worth it for fills. Nod to Ocean's eleven alone. Okay, that that was the

best fill response we've ever had. Anyway, when when I did that report, I said, everything keeps getting smarter and smarter. So we've talked about animated lures and robotic lures on this show. But the Model zero from Japanese company wait for it, smart lure, it's not just a clever name, has leveled the game up. Okay, you're animated lure is now in Nokia. It is already obsolete, and this is

the iPhone thirties. So I will spare us the pr speak in the beginning of this article on New Atlas dot com about how the biggest problem facing anglers everywhere is keeping track of which strategies work. Okay, we don't, we've heard that before. We'll just we'll cut to the chase. The Model zero is a pretty big jerk. Bait style lure, and it looks very similar to a like a Yourssouri crystal minnow if you guys can picture that, if you

know what that looks like. On the back, however, is this weird hinge metal maybe plastic metallic fin that I assume is supposed to kick back and forth like a tail, But to me, it's so awkward. It looks like it would get in the way of the fish getting the rear hook. And of course, the Model zero is super smart. Here's what it does. It monitors the depth it reached

during every retrieve. It's exact movement patterns like speed, amount of pauses, etcetera, water temperature and the amount of sunlight penetrating the water at whatever depth it was running at. After the retrieve, simply hold the Model zero next to your phone and it transferred all that data into an archive in the smart lorder app. Furthermore, and this is the best part, it has a GPS function and instantly creates a map showing the tracks of everywhere it's been

so and we've all been here. If you're like, wait, did I already cast under that tree? You just fire up your phone, fire up the app, and you'll know and be like I did, I already put one under that tree. I say, this takes more time just throwing an extra cast up under that tree. Or look at pulling out your phone and looking at your map and being like, oh, I did already. Like this is what I'm saying, right Like, this is why this this stuff

is so stupid. Um, And I gotta tell you there's there's a video in the article with just a couple of seconds of underwater footage, and I'm here to tell you the Model Zero it swims like ass like it's not good, Like it does not have good action, like it seems to me like they very strategically did not give you a lot of underwater clips of it moving

because I don't think it moves very well. The company's slogan, by the way, which I I'm sure was lost in Japanese to English translation, is for anglers who love the discoveries at fishing is the company's slogan. UM. You can also share your data with all the other fraction of a percent of people who are using the Model zero in your area. But my favorite part of the article was was this of warning right direct quote. While this

is an interesting concept. It should of course be noted that anglers regularly lose lures when larger fish snapped the line, or when the lures get snagged on underwater objects, to which I say, why don't you make it smart enough to avoid underwater objects? Smart guy, Okay, and then it goes on. Additionally, because the technology is specific to the Model zero lure, users can't gather data on the performance of lures made by other manufacturers. No ship, I mean

that's like the no kid. You don't say um now if you want one, which you don't, because this is a muskie striper's size lure. It's a giant lure, and it has to be as these things usually start out. It has to be big because you're fitting like a motherboard and chips and all kinds of stuff inside the lure. But if you did want one, you can purchase one right now on Kickstarter hundred and forty bucks for one Model zero leveling up smart Lord's right there. Wow uh

oh yeah. This thing sounds essentially worthless and stupid. But my concern here is, as we know, technology continues to improve and get smaller and more efficient, and what if every rattle trap you buy in the future. Don't see it. Don't see it because because I because I am convinced, right and I will, I will die on this hill.

I am convinced that all these things will only ever really cater to like people who peripherally fish, or like this gimmicky stuff, or or get sold on the idea that this is going to take them from a zero at fishing to a hero. Whereas real died in the wool.

Anglers are never going to jump on this. What about the tournament scene, because tournament angling dictates what's cool and popular and fishing, and tournament anglers will adopt any technology that I think gives them a leg up because there's money on the line, right, But I think we're a long way away from this being accepted as standards in practice in fishing, and in the meantime, I don't see tournaments allowing this kind of thing, not right now anyway.

M hm, you know No, I hope you're right. I hope I hope that doesn't doesn't happen, and I hope you continue to stay on this beat. I enjoy this beat very much like we don't tell these stories if I see them, because I'm like, oh, Joe's got that. I know, we do what we do a lot of gimmick bashing on here and and I enjoy it very much. But again, like to your point, like we look at a lot of this stuff, like the zombade we've brought

that up. I don't know any serious hardcore offshore captains who hurried up to buy that, and that's been around for a while. So that's how I feel about this stuff, like it's it's it's not really being made for people who seriously fish, at least not yet. I think that's and that's that last piece that that concerns me. But I shouldn't be because, like you said, it's not happening now, so why worry about something that may or made a

hype in the future. Good. So that's I mean, you're you're you're reporting on the collection of data in a way that I think is is potentially problematic. My final story is also about the collection of data and fish, but in a way that I think is just fantastic. I might have a new favorite fishing state, even though I've never ever fished there. I also I also might have a new fishing hero, even though I've never even

met the guy. But I'll explain it all. You just came out here, so it's obviously not New Jersey and you've met me, so clearly I'm not your hero. No, this is not an homage to why you're my hero. Sorry, I just recently learned about the Virginia game fish tagging program. Are you familiar with this? I'm not all You're in for a treat. Frequent listeners to this show will know how.

Like Joe likes gimmicks, I love citizen science and and the role that that anglers can play in monitoring managing fisheries. I think that's so cool because I mean, it's the two things we look for at the market. I got for gimmicks and you're looking for citizens season Scie. Does anyone anyone? But for as much as I love it, And we've talked about some programs in the past, very few states effectively leverage, in my opinion, the potential value of their anglers, and and it seems like maybe none

do it as well as Virginia. So back in the nineteen eighties, leadership from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, and the Virginia saltwater Fishing tournament started kicking around the idea of developing a program that would involve sport anglers and tagging and monitoring red

fish populations. Fast forward along ways in the Virginia Game Fish Tagging Program officially began with the scope of mission that was ended up being far beyond just keeping an eye on local red fish. The program trains and equips a group of about a hundred experienced anglers as volunteer fish taggers. The anglers tag all the target species that they catch and releasing Virginia waters and maintain meticulous records of the fish, like the size of the fish and

the tag numbers. This group of dedicated anglers submitted nearly three hundred and fifty thousand tag records. The program also supports significant community outreach to build awareness among all the states marine fishers and encourage them to report any tag fish that they catch, so anyone who catches and calls in a tag fish can get like a little reward

in the form of free hats and T shirts. Twenty nineteen, the program received over thirty five thousand recapture reports, proving once again that that we fishermen have an illogical love of free hat shirts and other cheap crap, and that we really like feeling like we're part of a community. The program gathers a huge amount of data every year about local fisheries that costs researchers very little, like comparatively compared to what they have to spend to gather that

volume of information. I think they're spending nothing. Revenue from fishing license sales and I'm matching grant from the Virginia Marine Institute of Marine Sciences pay for all the tags, education and outreach materials, data management, and of course this

suite of free giveaway crap. The program also produces annual reports based on the information that that they collect and and those are available to the general public, so so anglers can see they can actually see how their personal efforts contribute to keeping track of their local fish populations. And I read a bunch of these reports and I found them just fascinating. It's if you geek out on this stuff like I do, you should check them out.

I think it's pretty clear, like I've I've definitely made this clear. I love everything about this program, and I wish this model were adapted and adopted all over the country. But one of the unique and I think very smart aspects of this program is the fitch on which they focus. Since two thousand, the program has collected data on redfish, black drum, speckled trout, flounder, kobea, black sea bass, sheepshead, spadefish,

taw tog, and gray trigger fish. And that's it. You'll notice that the marquee inshore saltwater species of Virginia straight bass not there. Straight bass populations are already heavily monitored by a variety of local and federal agencies. And and the same could be said for like bluefin tuna. Right.

So this program, it's so smart. They intentionally focus on fish that are available to people fishing both from shore and boats, and that don't get primary intention from from fisheries researchers already, which allows it to do a great job filling an information gap and using anglers to do it. I could think of so many things this should be adopted for local We've just talked about this. Yes, everybody's all over the stripers. Where's the weak fish, where's the

blue fish? There's not enough time or money for the agencies to be on that the same way they are with the stripers. So a program like this could help exactly exactly. So there's the whole overview of the program, which clearly I think is fantastic and I knew you would love it. Perhaps even more fantastic is the guy who catches tags and releases more fish than anyone else. Ed Shepherd of Yorktown, Virginia. Yeah, this dude, This dude, my hero. He's fitted between two and ten thousand fish

with tags every single year since two thousand seven. His lifetime total now sits above eighty three thousand fish. You cannot have a program like this without an edge Shepherd, Like he has to exist like everybody in the office

collecting this data. Like you can like almost like picture meeting Ed on the beach or in the bay, and it's like, yeah, that dude over there, he's out here tagging short flounder every single day like every he has for whatever is happening in his life, whether he's retired or whatever it may be, Like he's just made he has just made this his life's work. And so even more impressive, he catches all every single one of his

fish from public fishing piers, every one for him. He's not He's not only targeting the most pressured fish, he's also catching fish with the highest percentage of recapture right because he's fishing in the places where the most people fish, so there's a good chance that the fish he tags gets caught again. So not only is he putting out the most data, he's putting out the most valuable data. True hero, real American hero right here is people suggest

they're like, how do you catch more fish? I'm like, have the kind of time that Ed has to just be out there that often. And that's that's the thing. Like they give out awards every year to the top five fish taggers, and and they have, you know, the photos of everybody holding their troovies, and Ed's always there like DS and everyone and and the only consistency I can see is pretty much everybody in any of those

photos is a retired dude. And I have a new life goal, Like, straight up, when I retire, I want to be Ed of wherever I'm living. I want to be like the guy who just goes fishing all the time in the name of science. That's what I want to do. That's who I want to be. Well, you know, dude, we've we've ragged and I've heard about it. We've ragged on like the citation angling stuff, like you know how you catch this fish fish state dude, Like this is way more noble, Like I don't want to care about

your citation pickroll. Like if you've tagged hundred whatever for this year, that is helping your state manager species. That's way cooler than your damn state citation award. I don't care about the sitation. I care about your tag records. Yeah, citations, tancara cross what else? Don't what else? Don't I like every Wally We don't like Wally eyes anyway. Last point, last point. Anybody who's out there listening that lives in

Virginia you want to get involve. The program recruits and trains new volunteers every December about fish handling and proper tag insertions, so you can you can get on this. And if you fish around Virginia Point and you catch any tagged fish, just please report it because that's what makes all this work. You can you can find all the information you want about any of the stuff, including the reports, just online. Just go to m r C dot Virginia dot gov and they'll get you lined out

with everything you need. There you go. Well, Phil has plenty of data to sift through this week to declare a winner. And as soon as we're done hearing from Phil, we're gonna we're gonna keep up with the local regional slang thing that we we've already got going in this episode, we're gonna move into the weekly Word and hopefully when you're in Virginia you will catch a fish that does this, that does the weekly Word to your rod. Because I am the kind of sucker who would fall for the

model zero. I have fallen for Joe Sairmelli this week. Joe, you're the winner. Wow. This week we had Brian Adams, we had Danzig. I just want to keep this train rolling. Maybe next week we'll get George Clooney the Competition bass Angler, or Madonna the Fishing Guide from Louisiana. I feel for you, guys, but it could be much worse. I know of a journalist named Jeffrey Epstein who I think is on the verge of either legally changing his name or just walking

into the ocean. Webster's Dictionary defines fish as sticking with the theme. In this week, when I was fishing with Joe recently, I tied into some stout American chad that had my trustee thirteen fishing fates steelhead rod folded completely over in heavy current. I looked at Joe and said something to the effect of, hell, yeah, we're getting corked.

Instead of embracing the celebratory sentiment of what he knew I was trying to communicate, Joe instead decided that moment, right in the middle of me trying to land a hefty row shad, was a good time to start a semantic debate. Corked, He asked, who says corked? Nobody says that I was too busy landing a fish to properly argue with him. But I have since wondered where the phrase came from. Did I make it up? Is it

just unique to my group of fishing buddies. I don't have a definitive answer, certainly not the answer I was hoping for, which would be solid proof that corked is a legitimate and widely used fishing term and Joe just doesn't know what he's talking about. But I do have a theory about where the term came from and how it made its way into my personal lexicon. First off, where I live. Corked is a slang expression for getting

one's rod completely folded over by a big fish. It may not be ubiquitous and certainly isn't common among people over forty, but it is well used. I cannot, however, find any evidence of its adoption in the broader angling community, at least not in that context. Best I can tell, corked is shorthand for bent to the cork, which is a widely accepted phrase in fishing to describe when a fishing rod flexes all the way to the handle, which

is traditionally made of cork. This phrase is common enough that the now defunct magazine American Angler named their newsletter bent to the cork. So at least I can validate the longer form version of court. But the story doesn't end there, because corked is a well documented slang term in the fishing community out west with a completely different meaning. Have you ever been corked off? I have, and I've

had words with other anglers and guides over it. Corked off or corked describes when another angler or boat breaches fishing etiquette by cutting you off. Say you're working your way down a shoreline or a run and another angler boat jumps in ahead of you, Well, you just got corked off, also known as low holding. In this context. The term court comes from the commercial salmon fishing scene in Alaska. We've all seen how competitive and cut their

recreational fishing can get. Will picture what that could be like when tens of thousands of dollars are on the line. Just like in weekend fishing, commercial fishing has accepted etiquette, and setting your nets right in front of someone else has already established nets to intercept the fish before them is considered a major breach of code. Traditionally, floats on gillnets were made of cork, and dropping your nets ahead of someone else's came to be known as corking them

off or corking them, as is often the case. Commercial fishing vernacular trickled down to the recreational scene, and getting corked off came to describe a similar behavior in any fishing situation. My theory is this, somewhere along the line, bent to the cork and corked off became intertwined in some fish addled brain, or maybe just got mixed up

by some google. Either way, since we all love shorthand, and bent to the cork is kind of a mouthful, especially when you're in the heat of big fish battle. Corked became a term with multiple definitions, one positive and one negative. I use it both ways, and frankly never even recognized the conflict until Joe started pitching me ship in the middle of the Delaware River. Okay, so I have heard the phrase bent to the cork before, right, but not cork. That seems like such a West Coast

thing to me. Like it just sounds like it should be automatically followed by the word bro. No, that's fair, that's fair. I don't know. You've got me questioning it like i've when we when we talked about doing this for this segment, I was I hadn't thought about it much, and now you're making me self conscious about that particular particular exclamation. I might I might have to cut that from the repertoire. I don't know. We'll see, well, think

about it, think about it at time. Anyway. Let's let's cap off this week's show with a little trivia for a change. We'll skip end of the line for trivia here. And I actually recorded this with my good friend Joe Demo Daris of Cross Current Guide Service way back during last summer's mousing season. But you guys have actually seen Joe more recently in uh in b side fishing. Yes, yes, Joe D. And you hit the radioactive Passaic River chasing

after some some long toothye pike. Yes, in Joe D's clack a craft, which I gotta say, watching that on camera looked a hell of a lot room here then your boat, and I'm gonna I'm gonna out you here because Joe Cie here has like the mini Cooper of clackic crafts. I have I fished out of so many drift boats in my life, but I have never never been in one like yours until I came out to visit. I mean it, it's totally a clack It's it's a drift boat, yeah, only smaller. Yeah, yeah, I don't care.

I told you what I paid for it, and even you were like, oh my god, I would have bought that twice. I would have. I would have. It's just it's it's weird. It's different. It feels very narrow, like there's no room to stand. It's it's it's weird. It's great for one person. It's really when I never fished by myself in my drift boat, I I do. But anyway, if if any of you out there have ever wondered where drift boats as a general term, like where the term drift boats came from? This trivia is for you.

You gotta be highly skilled for these shows. You understand that, don't want the Are you well versed there? You're very smart man? All right? Playing trivia with us today, my good friend Joe Dimodaris of Cross Current Guide Service, Joe how Art thou I am good? I am? I am also good because I am at your place, the guide Shack on the Upper Delaware River doing a little on location session here while we're doing some mouse fishing. So um, we gotta get you down for trivia, man, um, Are

you good at trivia? No? No, you don't go to the bar and new trivia and that's I used to do that, and like, actually it's funny you mentioned that, like you know, probably forty years ago playing trivia pursuit at the bar and every time you lost, Oh yeah, that's fun. That's all school. They just have the cards on the table and I've been if you lost, you had to drink a shot. And I mean there was a lot of times like I just like I lost,

I couldn't play. After six questions, I was done. Well, there's absolutely nothing at stake here to lose or wins, so, um, you don't have to do any shots if you get these wrong. But I always try and tailor my trivia questions to the person playing. And I figured, you've got thirty years experience rowing drift boats and guiding. So here's

question number one. Okay. While many believe the idea for driftboats first came from crude logging skiffs in the early nineteen hundreds, history traces origins of the drift boat with many of the same features that they have the day, back to the nine twenties. Which of the following rivers is considered the birthplace of the modern drift boat? Would that be A the Rogue River, be the Mackenzie River,

see the Colorado River, or d the di Shoots River. Wow, I thought it was like Captain Ahab chasing wales around. Those were dories, it was. The driftboat is an offshoot of the dory. But what I'm saying is, at some point in history it was Okay, that is right. Modern drift boats were born in the Pacific Northwest, and it was the Mackenzie River where these specialized whitewater capable crafts originated,

and they were known as Mackenzie boats. And fun fact, designer Woody Hindman, because I did my research, was the guy who figured out that these boats would be much more efficient if they were pointed at each end. Sweet yeah, and would he probably, you know, had like two bucks

worth of material and trees he felled himself. And all these years later, you know, we'll pay twenty grand for one and then upgrade it with the LED lights and the built in US be charger world's most expensive rowboat exactly. But I do have one more for you. This one's a little bit more fun, uh, since we are up here mousing doing a little night mouse fishing. That's the

thing you and I enjoy doing together. Tell me which one of the following is not an actual mouse fly that is out there in the world tied on YouTube? I found all these, So which one of these is not an actual mouse pattern? Is it a the weaponized mouse? Be the cousin it mouse see Ichabod's art a mouse or d the oh, mickey, your so fine. One of

those is not an actual mouse pattern? All right, Now, this is really hard for me that you know, it's very difficult because I'm terrible at knowing names of patterns. I really am. My sneak at like guys talking. I knew this was going to be a harder question than the Mackenzie drift bos people people talk about, like, you know, the itchy ball fly, and I don't have a clue, you know, I just know like that looks yeah, officially

eat that thing. I'll use it. Right, Because you're a guide in practical when it comes to applying flies to I don't need to know the name of it, you know, I don't you know whatever? You know, even if dry fly, right, if it's if it's some kind of like you know, tweedledum olive, I don't need to know it's the name. It's there's a little green flight. That's what they're eating. Right, So we're good. But based on the names you listed, yeah, I'm gonna take a wild shot. You have to go

with d Oh, mickey, you're so fine? Is not a mouse pattern? Yeah? That's correct. WHOA, that's correct? Because people are so ate up with this mouse ship that it really I feel like it could have been. I'm surprised that it will be now, soby will tie that by next week after hearing this totally well, thanks for playing trivia and good on you. That was two for two. So that's it for this week. Remember if you're headed to Jerry's and you should be to pick up a canoe.

He is sixty and probably won't know how to take a selfie with a mouse fly called the Hey Mickey, You're so fine has not been patented, but would likely slay gold and blue trout in West Virginia and Bent to the cork and corked are not actually the same thing. Despite what us out West Brobras trying to say, keep those Salman items, bar nominations, awkward photos, news stories, and everything else coming. Please to Bent at the mediator dot com.

We always love hearing from you guys. Also, we love seeing those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on the Graham. Those are, in fact the fastest way to earn a sticker pack from us. Those packs may eventually include stickers that say shut up and fished douse light. If we're gonna stick with the Jerry making stickers. I don't know we're gonna we probably have to license that from Jerry

anyway until next week. Don't forget. No matter how you stroke it, at least you're stroking it in the open air, surrounded by nature, instead of in your parents basement on the couch that used to belong to your mo mom and peepop