Ep. 41: Supreme Bobber Fishing

the only fishing podcast we're aware of. It probably admits at giggles like the pills very dough boy when it's Bobber goes under Joe sur Melly, I like that a Miles Nulty and uh. And today we're going to celebrate those buoyant bits that bob above the surface tension. Yes, now, look you you've heard us argue on this show before about lots of just an ange ship, most recently that the crocs are the worst foot wherever abjectly false. And you know what I had. I had a lot of

reach out about that. A lot of people are on your side, some aren't, but many are. Okay, I'll be anyway. Um you and Oliver and I can be uncomfortable together. That's fine. I don't care. Oh man, Anyway, what else have we argued about? How about regionally specific fishing phrases including stroking it, stroking them, I believe is what you're You might say now it is stroking it and corked. But on this particular topic, it turns out that Myles and I are in total agreement. Right we both proudly

fish bombers. We do. That is true. We we completely agree with that, and we recognize the bobbers go by a variety of different names depending on where you live and how you fish. If you're a British carp lover their floats, if you're a fly angler. There strike indicators, which is a term I've always kind of hated for reasons. One, it just seems like an unnecessarily longer way of saying bobber or float like it's fewer, fewer syllables is better,

And two it's actually inaccurate. It's not true because most of the time it's a drift indicator. It only becomes a strike indicator when a fish takes your fly, which is like one tiny, little minute percentage of the the times you're fishing, it's a drift indicator. If you've got to be an indicator. I see what you're saying. I've always

looked at it kind of like this. Right. If it's if it's a tiny piece of yarn that you're legitimately using to detect the bite of, like a spring creek fish barely taking a zebra midge, I'll let you call it a strike indicator if you feel better. But if it's the size of a freaking ping pong ball, right, and let's be honest, thing of a bobber's note the word bober in the name. Okay uh, And that's what that's what I see most often. It's it's a bomber.

It's a bomber. It's a bomber. But not only do they have many names, but bobber's come in many designs and can be made of various materials. You've got your classic red and white plastic bobber with a push button line clip. And for the record, let me just add, if you're over ten, you should probably up your game to a more effective and versatile bomber appropriate for the fishing situation. If you're man, if you're a growing ass, man without children fishing with you and the red and

white Bobbers, your bobber of choice. I don't trust you, Okay, I just feel like you're being intentionally obtuse. There's so many better options out there. Something's not right, uh, And there are so many options, right, Balsa or foam stick floats which are my personal favorite, slip bobbers, cigar floats. What else you got? Pencil floats, spring slips, popping corks, casting bubbles, dink floats, quill bobbers, yarnies, pinch on, even full on party balloons. If you're a shark and tuna guy,

you know um and all of them have specific fishing applications. Yes, yes, and this is this is why we need the celebration of bobbers. They'll just get lumped in with that one tiny little clip on, which we agree is kind of lame. But we're gonna talk more about the iconic red and white clip on round bobber and why it sucks later in the show, But for now, I want to focus

on the stigma against bobbera fishing. As we have talked about in the past, the many different factions of the fishing community love to find points of disagreement, But it seems like almost everyone except for the eurocarp scene, the center pin, steelhead and salmon guys, and certain inshore gulf fisheries, they all hate on bobbers. Everybody else hates the Bobbers. That's fair. It's it's like the one thing that unifies the hardcore fly fishing purists and the crazy bass heads.

Bobbers are for little kids or people who know nothing about fishing, and that's just not true. Joe and I completely disagree with that that we do. But listen, before we get into our spirited, defensive bobbers, let's remind everyone out there that, no matter where you stand on the pro or anti bober debate, thirteen fishing has got you covered with exceptional gear for just about every fishing situation. Indeed,

they do. I lately have been finding that the lightweight Defies Silver seven foot makes an excellent choice for drifting trout magnets or other lightweights UH may or may not be UH magnets are other lightweight river presentations under a sensitive float that that particular rod. It's it's soft enough two delicately cast the small rigs, but still got enough backbone to turn a big brown and heavy current. I'm a fan. I've played with those rods. I love those

rods for drifting trout mags too. But I've sent out a shiner three under a dollar ninety nine eagle claw slip float with rods in their open black line and whooped the messive pickerel and perch and bass. So it's all it's all bobber friendly, it is. Go go over to thirteen fishing dot com. That's the number, thirteen one three fishing dot com to gurope for all your pro

or anti bobber fishing missions. Yes, yes, so, as we were saying, much like the point I recently made about chunking, right, bobber fishing can be as simple or as technical as you want to make it. And you just mentioned center pinning earlier. Um, And that's one area I'm very curious about but not fluent in. Someday I want to learn that. I feel like it should be part of my my skill set. Um. But I have buddies that that do it,

that center pinning. Listening to them talk about their floats like Almo makes me more intimidated, you know, I mean, like they come in all different shapes and weights. I think it's measured by grams. And then the shot pattern like the level of technicality that goes into that level,

because that all has to harmonize. The flight, the shot pattern all has to harmonize to to achieve the right drift depending on water and and uh, your your rig and what you're fishing for, and it's it's definitely technical bobber fishing. It is. It is, and we I feel like we could spend another whole show. We might have to do a center pin show because but I don't. We're not gonna go there, because it's a it's a

valid point. I also want to address a little bit further the holier than They'll fly folks who pretend that a fish caught beneath a strike indicator is somehow less worthy than one cought on a floating dry fly or a strip streamer or a tightline swing. This is this is a pet peeve of mine. I've I have actually written a whole articles about this, uh and had them published. If your definition of nymph fishing just involves floating down the river in a boat and like flinging a boba

rig out and mindlessly mending. Then yeah, I can see the argument this is a less technical way of fly fishing, and maybe less I don't know, hallowed whatever, But that to me just shows that you don't have enough creativity to understand how nimp fishing can be done. I want to see those same people set up and actually have to work a hole or a run. I vehemently contend the trying to get a natural drift with subsurface flies is harder than fishing a dry fly. You can see

your dry fly. You know exactly what it's doing. You know if it's dragging, no, it's off. You can see if a fish comes up and eats it, rejects it. Fishing flies well under the surface means that you you've got to better understand current and flow and and and I'm sorry, but get out of here if you think hucking streamers and striven them back is more difficult or technical than trying to compensate for different current speeds at the surface of the water column in the bottom. Absolutely not.

The same goes for tight lens wing. Most of the folks I hear hating on indicator fishing just suck at it and they want an excuse. Well, look, you know I hate namphing, right, I've expressed this, but that's only because I just don't personally enjoy doing it. I have never said it was because it's easy, right, Like hell, yes, being a productive nymph for take skill, I mean you know less. So if you're if you're, you're a nymphing.

But we'll save that flashpoint for another show. But we're actually kicking off this show with someone who actually feels a deep and secretive shame about his own bomber fishing. As you'll hear, he asked us not to out him as a dirty, dirty bobber bouncer. But I ignored that because sunlight is the greatest antiseptic. Something like that. Uh. Back again to offer his unique take on smooth Moves, the segment where people in the fishing industry tell us

ridiculous stories about things that clients do or say. Is my good friend Pat Cook, manager of white Tail Country fly Shop on the Upper Delaware River. Why so, I am sitting once again in the official guide check of Cross Current Guide Service on the Upper Delaware River. I've recorded here before, but we have a new guest here. Sitting sitting with me is my buddy Pat Cook. How you doing, Pat, Pretty good? Good? Good? Now you are

you are the manager of white Tail Country fly Shop. Correct, correct, okay, And we've had you one before to tell some shop stories. But this is different today because we're not in the shop. We actually we did a thing today. We did a thing today that we have never done before. We fished together today. I wouldn't call it fishing. I was gonna say it was not good. The company was good, the fishing it left a bit to be desired. No Nara area n area fish was found right, And you bob

er balled all day. I mean you just you were like pulling out all the stops. I don't ever tell anyone that ever again. Okay, I might erase that. I don't know, we'll see, but yeah, you know, Um, it was it was. It was pretty much, um twenty mile gust in the face all day, I mean, steady, steady fifteen. I'd say lack luster would be an overstatement. Yeah, but

that's okay because we had a good time. And um, we're hanging out here now and we're drinking beers, and um, you had hinted a while back that that whenever I was ready, you had some some fresh shop stories to share. So you know, we talked to guides and captains on smooth moves all the time. But it's fun to always hear the perspective of the guy behind the counter. I always said, you're the unsung hero. So what do you What do you got fresh for us? Give us, give

us a good one. Okay. So um, this is I say, August. We'll call it the slow season, which I enjoy because I'll get into the shop in the morning and I can actually drink my coffee. You know, a lot of times I'll get there and there's already a car waiting for me, which is understandable. Now you get to the river, you're ready to fish. Eager people have an agenda. Going to the fly shop is one of them. Whether or not I'm ready for that, it's not up to me.

But that's that's okay, that's what we're there for. Anyway, from the fly shop, there's a view of the road that passes by, so I can see everyone that's coming to fly. A long driveway, so you can see that, see the riff raft coming. I can see that blinker turn on. There's nowhere else saying go. You can't make it right you can only go left, I know if they're coming. So I see this car coming down the road and it's got a flat tire, and I'm like,

go straight, just go, just go, man. I see that blanker, come on, you know that morning? Actually, so I drink half calf coffee. I don't like to get all jazzed up because you know, I like to I like the enthusiasm level. It's like we need to stop. No, no, we don't need to stuff. I would enthusiasm level. That's where I like to be average. Like any higher than that, I might get too fired up and say something I don't mean. Guy pulls in the parking lot and I'm

expecting him to change the tire. Sure I just use your parking lot to get back on tracks, right, yeah, brand new super through out back, gets out of the car, comes into the fly shop. I'm like, maybe he needs assistance. He comes in, standard question, what are they hitting on? He went right to that. No, no, no mention of the tell, acknowledgement of the tire. Okay, And I'm like, okay, well, peasant tale nim for work. Great size eighteen to twenty

sulfurs around small olives eighteen to twenty covers it. Okay, great, He goes over and grabs the flies, comes back pace for him, goes out to the car. So I run outside to do the right thing. You're gonna let him know. I'm gonna let him know. So I run outside. I'm like, hey, you got a flat tire. He says, oh I do? He said, yeah, you do, driver's side left. He gets out, so oh yeah. They say, well you got a spare

and he's like, yeah, I think so. So I grow around in the back and I opened up his hatchback and it's filled with camping gear. Okay, And I said, you got a bunch of camping gear down here. He say, oh yeah. I took the tire out so I could fit more stuff in the car. So I say, okay, cool, you've got enough stuff in here to drive down to Tara del fuegoing back. In the meantime, you need to get a spare tire. I know a place over in Hancock they can take care of this for you. He said,

well how about this. Do you have a spare that I can borrow? I say, well, that's my board ranger over there. And as you can see, the tires are a different side for starters number two. My spirits rusted on the frame and it's not coming off. So he says, okay, well how about this. I'm gonna go fish for a little bit, do you I'll give you the money. Do you mind driving over and grabbing the tire for me? I said, I'm sorry, I can't do that. I gotta watch the shop. So he says okay, so he just go.

He goes fishing, and I was hoping at this point that I could just wipe my hands clean of this situation altimate. It didn't happen that way. So it comes back an hour later and he says, hey, what was the name of the tire place? I said, that's uh, what's being auto? Um? I can give you the number if you need it, and he said, no, that's all right, I'll just drive over there. I was like, okay, you're gonna bend the rim out. You know, it's gonna cost

you a little bit more. He's like, oh, that's all right. I'm gonna stop at one one bridge and fish a little bit on the way, so I'll take a break. So I see the car he's exiting the shop parking lot, car stops, goes into park, gets out, comes back in and say, hey, can I borrow your truck? So I said, um, I don't feel comfortable letting you drive my truck. What I can do as I can call them and I can have a tow truck come over. And he's like, well, if the truck truck comes over, then I gotta wait

for it. I was hoping that I could just borrow your truck. I'll go fish bridge for a little bit. This is not real, I swear to got real. I mean this is this is a true story. Keep going. So he's like, well, I was hoping I could borrow your truck and I could fish one ninety one bridge for a little bit and then I'll go grab the tire and I'll come back and then we can fix it. And in my head at this point, I'm like, there's no longer a Wei. You've drained the tank of WE,

You've dredged the bottom of WE. There is only I And I will call my friend and he will come get your car and change the tire for you, and you can can into your day of fishing. And is that? And is that? Is that? What happened? To the best of my recollection, that's just my story. I'm gonna stick to it. So once again, like this is why I love you, dude, because like there it's it's I have I have compared you to Stephen Wright on past shows, and like they're like, there's no punchline. This is just

to real life. Like this is just real life. Well, when you work in a fly shop, number one, people are indoors, right, so they react similar to the way they work if they came to your house. There's they have a certain level of etiquette to them, and you have to too in responding to that. So it's kind

of subdued in a way. Sure, like where if this was happening in a truck stop in middle of nowhere, there'd probably be words exchanged and you'd be like, you're out of your mind, what are you even doing here? You could die? But because it's a fly shop, you know, you're like, okay, Well, number one on Michael is that you catch fish. So I'm gonna sit here and let you basically choke me and throw me on the ground and take my truck as long as you get to

catch fish. And I appreciate the subtle response that most people don't understand is sarcasm because I saw it firsthand today. We were floating down the river today and we floated past a gentleman who was waiting, and he asked us if we caught anything, and we said no, And then you asked him and he said, well, I just got started. And your response was perfect, Like who says like that?

It was so brilliant. It was one word perfect. And that's why we love you, and that's why we're gonna keep having you on and we appreciate you being here yet again anytime. Oh Pat, Mrs Calling, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't I'm not hating on what he does, but I'm sure he's a great store manager at all. Uh yeah, the dude should be doing stand up somewhere. Oh yeah, yeah,

you know he should. He absolutely should. There's great stuff about how he prepares his coffee that had me rolling, But like the segment was already getting along and I'm like, we have to lose the Pats coffee preparation regiment, Like we just don't have the room. Um. I also learned that when recording with Pad, it's best to get four or five beers in him first, so I'll know that for next time. UM, I'm just glad dude's not trying to create a semi serious, semi humorous fishing podcast or

we might be looking for any jobs. So don't get any ideas. Uh, you know, I hear you, but I don't. I don't know that he has the instincts to track down the hard hitting, groundbreaking, life changing stories that we come up with in fish News Fish News. That escalated quickly, So Miles and I did a thing. And full credit goes to Miles, full credit goes to you, because this

is absolutely your idea. Um. But but we now have a public bent podcast Spotify playlist, and I gotta te I gotta say, this was so fun to put together. And I think both of us like we got lost in it. And I realized, if you're creating this like lost enough to annoy both of our wives. Yeah, my wife's like, are you even listening to me? I'm like, no, I'm not listening to you. I think I like, like, nothing paints a picture of who you are and like

what you're about better than a huge Spotify playlist. Um, and man, we're all over the map with this one. And it's it's bear in mind, it's only me and Miles contributing to this, so it's it's just this perfect reflection and combination of our taste and we share a lot of them. But then we also wander away from each other at times within the playlist, which makes it. Yeah, that rounds it out, It gives it some depth. It was if we were all picking the same songs that

will be boring and the original. Originally, when I first came up with this idea, it was like, oh, let's make it a bent play list, so it was gonna be all punk. But then then Joe, you made you made a very strong case that we should use this as as a broader dumping ground for all of our eclectic musical tastes. So I decided, all right, I'll broaden it out. Besides just the punk and sky, I threw and sprinkled in some reggae because I know that's not

something you've really gotten into. And then and then I threw in some hip hop to round things out a little bit. Though we have agreed to veto terms that this is important to me anyway, either one of us can veto any song at any time, and I am. I was listening to it yesterday on repeating this one song came up. So I'm saying, I'm considering flexing that option on some of your eighties pop additions, but for

the moment I have allowed. I'm allowing them to stand if they annoyed me too much, though some of them might go away. Just that's okay, it's your call. I'd never do that to you. I'd never studied your musical taste and creativity. But yeah, I stuck some things in there because I want you guys to listen and be grooving and then just be like, where did this? What?

Why is this here? That's the fun okay, Um, But look, if I'm being honest, right, there's truly there's nothing you've added that I questioned, like I like it all, even the Yeah, dude, I got no problem with reggae. I'm I'm planning on finding some new music, because then isn't there a study that like, once you hit thirty, you stop finding new music, like you just stuck with what your listen. So I see this. I see your picks as an opportunity for me to find new things that

I like. But I, on the other hand, like I went all in. I combed the archive okay, And there there is representation of all the phases of my life on that plane. Like there's seventh grade Jinko jeans wearing Joe, there's high school punk Joe. Including I even stuck in a few bands that nobody has ever heard of, but my band in high school used to play with them like they'd be the headliners while we were opening, so it's like total nostalgia. Um. And then there's the college years,

post hardcore metal Joe. It's we're all over the place. Yeah. No. I put in at least one local band that I used to go see in high school just because I think they're great, but no one's ever heard of him. Uh, there's a whole But there's there's a bunch of audies. I don't know where last night checked. I think we're

sitting at fourteen hours. So there's there's plenty to listen to, and some of it's really just Some of it's there to make you laugh, some of it's there to make you wonder, what what the hell did I just listen to? And some of it hopefully will get you to discover some new bands or some new genres you hadn't been in do before. That's what we hope anyway. Yes, yes, and so let us know what you guys think, let us know what we missed, suggest stuff you know how

to reach us. Maybe we'll even down the road, add some fan fails and shout you out as in this addition to the to the playlist courtesy of you um so search for the band podcast playlist on Spotify and for some reason you can't find it. There's a link in my Instagram link tree profile thing. You can find it there. But rock out with us please and as my bud uh my. But Neil Angling has already said he's like, yo, this is a super dank playlist, which really that's a good kids are saying anyway, So I

thought that out of the way. Let's move on the news. As always right, this is a competition, Miles and I do not know what stories the other dude is bringing to the table, and at the end, our main man fill the engineer will declare winner. But before I passed the mike to you, I would just like to let Phil know that just for him, I added Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World to the Bent playlist because that's

actually a good song. I like that song. Okay, so that should lure you in Phil But then if you stick around, we'll have you, you know, crimp and studs to your sweater vest in no time. Anyway, Miles, what do you got? What you got for news? But all right, well, my obsession with finding stories to combat the idiocy of c spears continues. Oh here we go. I can I cannot say how long this is gonna go on, but I can say I'm not done yet. I just can't.

I'm not over it. Uh, And I should I should say that I got the idea for this segment from an article published in the magazine Scientific American earlier this week. So that's where this comes from. Do you remember how you covered a story a while back about the rampant mislabeling of fish. Yes, yeah, so yeah, it was the quiz, the UK quiz can you identify these fish? Yes? I'm

building off of that and and to recap. Research suggests that about a third of the fish we buy at markets and restaurants is fraudulently mislabeled, and and the fraud is particularly acute with certain popular fish. So eighties seven percent of the filets being sold as snapper are not snapper there probably telapia, maybe sea brim or rock fish. Uh. The spicy tuna roll you you bought it at the gas station the other day, fifty seven percent chance that

wasn't tuna, About a quarter. The halibit you buy is actually tile fish, and the grouper in cod you buy are actually catfish. The f d A and various watchdog agencies have been working to crack down on this problem, but it's it's it's nearly imposed able to look at a piece of fish and definitively determine if it's mislabeled. Uh. And if we can't even be sure what kind of fish were buying, how do we have any confidence in

the origin of our fish? Right If if you're one of those people who who look carefully at the fish you buy because you don't want to support over fishing or destructive catch methods or slavery, this would seem to suggest that c spiracy may indeed be correct. The only way we can avoid contributing to those unsavory practices is to quit eating seafood altogether, or you know, catch it yourself.

There is, however, another potential solution. If the the FDA and those other agencies just had some kind of readily available, easy to use quick technology to i D fish meat. They could theoretically curb a lout of this problem before it hits consumers. And, as is so often the case, when we humans encounter problems, we come up with solutions. Problem solving is it's kind of our thing. It's kind of we do. Enter. University of Texas graduate student Abby

get I'm gonna mess this up, Get Maton. I think I'm gonna say it a lot, so sorry, Abbey, abbe get Maton. I think get Maton was introduced to a tool called the mass spec pen when she first started doing her graduate study in chemistry. The mass spec pen is is it actually a pen at all? But it's this little handheld one thing that kind of looks like a pen, and doctors use it to detect tumors. Get Maton hypothesized that if the pen could correctly identify human tissue,

it might work for other animals as well. According to the research she just published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. She was right. I'm just gonna quote the description of what she did straight from the Scientific American article because they did it better. Than I could anyway. So so here's the quote. Get Maton touched the pen's tip two samples of fish she had bought at the

grocery store. The pen released a droplet of solvent onto the sample surface and then sucked it back into the pen, through the tube and into the mass spectrometer. Inside the machine, each sample is automatically dissolved in the solvent and then vaporized, turning its chemical components into ions. The ions were beamed through a magnetic field, which bent their path so that each one shot in a new direction based on its mass and electrical charge before landing on a detector plate.

By noting each ion's position on the plate, the system could identify which chemicals and how many of each were in the samples. So that sounded like some some serious star trek stuff. I don't totally understand it, but that's the basic description of how it works. Yep. Other scientists have already learned the chemical profiles of most fish species. Get Mayton and her team just had to program the mass speckpen to identify which chemical signatures were connected to

which fish. They then touched the pen to a filet, and fifty seconds later, the screen told them halibut or sakai, salmon or telapia. The team thinks that with more work they can further refine the pen to not only determine what type of fish it is, but other important information like if it was farm raised or wild caught, and where exactly the fish came from. The technology has a long way to go before it could be mass marketed, but it has the potential to be highly effective and

relatively cheap. Aside from the the initial investment in the equipment, each test just requires one disposable tip and a couple of drops of common solving. Plus the test does not harm the fish in anyway that that filet remains perfectly good and safe to consume. If this does become widely accepted, we could have a much clearer picture about where all our seafood comes from, which would allow retailers and consumers to make informed decisions, which could crack down on all

these issues that we keep talking about. So once again, heavy handed, monolithic, reactionary responses to our fisheries management problems are not the only way, not even the best. Yeah, we do need to better manage our marine fisheries, but we are developing the tools to do this and to maintain a viable seafood industry. We're not there yet. We

got work to do. But research like this and and the longitudinal study I talked about last week suggests that look, if we're willing to implement like a bunch of different incremental changes, we can get there. All hope is not lost, despite what people might have you think. But in the meantime, you know, maybe maybe lay off the gas station sushi Joe, because it's probably not which to think it is. So I read this and we almost crossed over. I almost did this story within me being me, I knocked it

out for dumb celebrity news. So I'm glad. I'm glad you did it because it's an important story. Um, although I I when I read it, I wasn't thinking of it in the in the sea spiracy vein as much as you, But more so, all the off sushi restaurants around me are shipping their pants because if this is available at Best Buy in five years, like that could be really problematic, Like you know what I mean, like go to the sushi place and be like that is not snapper. I don't think it's gonna be like a

consumer product. I don't think they're gonna be selling these mass spect pens at best Buy. I think it's gonna happen a little to to use a bad analogy higher up food chain, right, you know what I'm saying. But I'm still gonna try and call in the favor like that, like you know what I mean, like like use the powers of the mediator to be like, look, we're gonna do it. Can we review the like I need one

of those pens? Um? Yeah, dude, no great, great story and um I mean, man, talk about technology coming a long way, because, like you said, the cool thing about it is you cannot not only can you do it in fifteen seconds, but you there's no waste, You destroy nothing nothing doing this. So how this doesn't get implemented over time to to be available everywhere in this industry? I mean, how how we don't harness this. I don't

see that happening. I think this could be one of the coolest advances in terms of managing these fisheries that we've had yet. I mean, you you manage fisheries at the economic side, and if we can be able to trace these things back and allow retailers consumers to make informed decisions. I think that there are enough folks who are invested in that to make sure that we can we can change the way that we consume. And without the money, the industry falls apart. Right, The industry will

change its practices in response to those economic forces. That's how it's going to happen. Yeah, and there's the broad look at that in terms of the economics. At the same time, on a personal level, like, I think that's pretty cool that it's gonna be harder for somebody to dupe me with butterfish. I mean, dude, just like taking that out of the equation, making it that much harder because this is rampant. I mean, this story was all about that. Like it is. I don't think we can

stress enough. You know, people probably listen to this and the other story with the quiz and they're like, well, yeah, that happens somewhere, but not a Joe's Shrimp shack where I go. It might it's it's happening like once it's breaded man, you know, you know what you don't know? You know, once you got a little panco on there, you don't know. So you know, it's easy to have all the faith in the world and like your joint or where you get fish, but this is very common

and it's tied to economics. It is cheaper. Not only are these things more sustainable, it is cheaper to get tilapia than it is a snapper. And like dude, it's a business. You do what's good for business. And if you can do people with tilapia and charge red snapper prices. Unfortunately, there's a lot of places that are going to go that route because they are there to make money. So that is illegal. Right now, we should say you're not allowed to do that, but without the ability to test it,

it's just happening. So I mean, you know, I guess, I guess you could say. One of the negatives is if if it's so easy to to do this, I d you're gonna force people into buying the real stuff, which could drive up seafood prices, because now, if dude's got to sell you real tuna, you're gonna pay for you know, you're gonna pay for real tuna. But I would rather know and have be eating something authentic, you know, exactly. So um, this this actually ties very nicely to my

first story. Some some similar themes here we're gonna talk snakeheads, which is a favorite subject of mine, and they they've just made headlines in a big way out here. And things have been pretty quiet on the snakehead front for a while. But um, this story is both confirming fears and perhaps exciting a handful of snake obsessed weirdos such

as myself. I don't know, but this comes from penn Live dot com and it turns out that just this spring, workers at the Conna Wingo damn, which is the first major damn on the Susquehanna River closest to its mouth, have removed a whopping one thousand pounds of snakeheads from the fish ladders. Right, it's a lot. It's a lot of snakeheads. It's a lot of snakes. It's a lot. You need a lot of frogs to handle thousand pounds

of snakes. Uh so Um. This is so concerning that that Maryland State and federal Resource agencies asked Excelon, the company that operates the dam, to completely shut down the fish ladder on the eastern side of the river for the year, and the ladder on the west side of the dam consists of a series of gates and channels of water that are actually designed to attract fish into a tank like hopper that is then lifted into the

air to a sorting table where biologists manually sort the fish. So, of course the idea of these ladders, as with all adders, is to let the right species go through species here would be shad herring um that these ladders are supposed to help support. I did not know this. Once they're in the sorting table, they're then put into trucks with

portable tanks to be moved further upriver. So it's yeah, it's this huge operation and the invasives, of course are weeded out, which also includes blue and flathead catfish as well as the snakeheads. So folks in that area have been concerned for a long time that snakes will invade the Susquehanna, and based on those halls, clearly plenty of trying. The snakeheads want to be in the Susquehanna very badly. They went in, and I know there's some in that river.

I know people that have caught them, but so far they're not nearly as established as they are in other rivers. And the bright side, uh is that even if they do get through Conna Wingo, they've just got a ton

more damns. The Susky is damned pretty far up And on a personal note, the irony in this for me is that, as a guy that's spent a lot of time snaking, uh, you know, people are worried that an infestation there will hurt small mouth populations, since that's kind of what the Susquehannas is really known for, you know,

it's smallmouth fishing. Um. But as far as I'm concerned, all the giant flatheads that have already worked their way pretty far upriver, they're gonna kill all the small jaws long before a snakehead population like this is happening now already. I mean, and these are not like a bunch of little ones. Giant flatheads everywhere they eat swim baits like they're everywhere. So I I commend, you know, like the effort to keep these invasives from getting further up river

at Conawingo. Um. But again there's already some problems that are very very well established. So final note which I found cool. Uh, not only are the damn operators extremely committed to doing their part, uh, you know, in this manual labor to keep these fish from getting up river. Right to date, more than a thousand pounds of snakeheads captured in the ladder um. Because this has been going

on for several years. They got a thousand pounds this spring, but over the last few years they've been they've been collecting them, over a thousand pounds have already been processed and given to local food banks. So the damn folks have partnered with a local seafood wholesaler who carts all those snakes away and cleans them, and lucky you people who happen to use those food banks. Because I've said a million times I would take a snakehead fil a

over a walleye file at any day. So I think the end takeaway is that, you know, obviously snakehead numbers are increasing, they're not going away, because I mean, a thousand pounds of fish in one springs a lot of fish. There's there's no doubt. But again, still proving that that increase has has devastated any particular fishery or ecosystem is difficult. You know, that's not as cut and dry, But clearly these numbers are going up. So I just said, man

that's that's a ton of snakes. It is, all right. So here's my question. They've, assuming they've had these mitigation procedures available to them for a long time, they've been able to shut off that eastern ladder and divert everything to the western ladder where they can sort it. You probably the answer to this, But why didn't they do that with the catfish? So I and this is my

basic understanding the snakeheads. You know, they're in the Potomac River, They're in a lot of the rivers in Virginia and Maryland, and one would assume that those fish are are breeding and migrating up the northern Chesapeake Bay and trying to get up the Susquehanna River. The consensus around here this goes for the Schukol River in Philadelphia as well as

the Susquehanna, Maryland Pennsylvania. They all had pretty robust channel cats stocking regiments, right because it's popular fish, so that they've always supplemented channel cats. At some point down the line, which happens from some hatchery, a couple of little baby flatheads end up in there. You don't know it. Because the blue cats are invasive in the Potomac, which is would be the next major river south of the Susquehanna,

So they're trying to keep them out too. But it's not like these flatheads were naturally somewhere and then came up there. Those were they were stocked inadvertent sort that's sort of the consensus of what happened. And I mean, I've been there, dude, I've fished for them. You fished for them. They are mean. I mean, a thirty pound flathead will swallow a three pounds small mouth. He doesn't

even exist. And it's a it's a real concern. I have buddies who fish out there all fall, and they're catching just as many flatheads throwing jigs and stuff for small mouths as they are a small mouths. So I don't think that the overall snakehead worry will ever go away. I think a lot more people understand it now and are less tense about it. But it's this big shocking headline of one thousand pounds of snakehead. In reality, I wouldn't worry about them as much as the flatheads that

are already up there. You know, it's a branding problem. I think it is like a flathead doesn't sound nearly as scary as a snakehead. I think it's true. That's the issue. Personally, it's true. But you know, yeah, I mean I don't, I wish, I I don't know enough to come in definitively one way or the other. I would say probably the native fish don't need any more competitors when they're already having to deal with the flatheads,

would be. That would be I'm not saying this one way or the other on snakehead, but they probably don't need any more competition. I do not have a great segue other than this is going to talk about No, it's not I got nothing. I got nothing. I'm I'm all I'm doing is I'm gonna talk about weird objects found in or on fish. That's what I'm gonna do. Uh. And first, this is a shorty, but this was pretty

widely reported. A charter captain on Lake Michigan was cleaning one of his clients Lake Trout earlier this week and found a lego and its stomach, and he was quoted as saying, like, I'm gonna try and figure out how to read legos, which I don't think is gonna be any more effective than a spoon. But you know, it's kind of a cute story and a good or minder. You know, fish eat all kinds of random stuff, and we probably shouldn't pitch anything in the water we don't

want going into fish. I figured, I figured the trout stepped on the lego. It doesn't have hands, so when I do that, I pick it up and throw it. It was so pissed it just ate it out of anger. I think that's exactly what happened. But that story, like the listening that the whole thing. It reminded me of another incident from twenty nineteen that has always stuck with me. Do you remember the story about the angler who caught a steel head in Lake Michigan, right near Chicago that

had a wedding ring zip tied to its caudle? Do you remember that one. I don't remember the zip tied to its caudle specifically, but man, over the years you're just covering fish news, there's been the wedding ring on the Marlins bill, like wedding ring. There's a bunch of wedding rings stuff. We're on a wedding ring kick, so just hold on to that. But this one. That one from a couple of years ago stuck to me because what happened some fishing guide in Michigan. They gotten divorced

because because he was a fishing guide. And the guy does he claimed it was because his wife hated how much he fished, and that ended their marriage, and that's not an uncommon story with fishing guides, like vouch for that. Uh. And and the guy he thought the ring was cursed and he wanted to get rid of it. And alright, fine, I can follow you that for But what I can't understand is that he decided to zip tie this tainted band to a steelhead and then release the fish. Which

that's just a dick move. Yes, Like, it's not the fishes fault. You got divorced that fish. That the fish doesn't want to wear that dude symbol of marital failure either, and it's sure as hell doesn't want a plastic zip tie cutting in his body. Anyway. Seven weeks later, the fish was caught again and someone else ended up with the ring. Something kind of similar again, we're on the wedding ring. Thing kind of similar happened recently about a

week ago. A woman named Susan Pryor was snorkeling near her home on Norfolk Island. And Norfolk is a South Pacific island between New Zealand and New Caledonia and it's technically an austra In province. Prior spotted a sand mullet wearing something around its body that looked distinctly out of place.

So sand mullet feed by rooting their snouts around in the sand, hence the name, and and Prior has seen them in the past get caught up in other stuff like plastic soda rings and and hairtized right because they're they're just rooting around the sand and they can easily turn something over and swim through and get stuck. But this one looked different, and so she caught up to the fish when she was snorkeling and actually snapped several pictures.

You can see these online showing this bone white mullet with a gold wedding band just behind its head. Norfolk Island is small, It's got like two thousand residents and and the word had gone around the community the previous Christmas that a tourist had lost his wedding ring while swimming. Prior sanding photos of of the bedazzled fish to the man who lost his ring, and he confirmed the mullet is now wearing his nuptial band. Now here's the interesting

part for me. Anyway, mullet or notorious difficult to catch on Roden rail. We've talked about that. Oh, it's possible, but it's really difficult. Work at it. You're gonna work at it, right So the idea of trying to target one specific individual mullet to catch with with bait, that that to me just max of futility. That ain't gonna happen. A lot of people who harvest mullet catch them with

throw nets and and that seems slightly more doable. But you're you're still talking about trying to catch one mullet, that mullet right there, Yeah, exactly, which is just it's crazy, but still prior. This woman is determined. So she's organizing this group of locals to go out and like snorkle around and try and find that fish and then get them to corral that fish over toward fishermen with throw nets and catch it. You'll be shocked to hear that

so far the efforts have not paid off. But it's not because it's already been pooped out by a trivoli or something. By that the there there is the rings owners offering a reward, so maybe they've got the incentive. Maybe maybe that'll happen. I don't know. If it does, will update you, but I'm not. I think this is the last we're ever going to see that ring personally,

probably ever lose your wedding ring while fishing. I did, like I did a thing where I remember I got my ring sized and I was like so nervous because I was about to get married that I was just like rushing and couldn't believe I was ring shopping for myself. It was like just like too much to bear. And I put the size on. I'm like, yeah, this is the right size. But then I got the ring which was like titanium carbide, unsizeable and it was way too big.

But rather than make a thing because my wife was already stressed out about other wedding stuff, I was like, it's fine, it's totally fine. Fine. I was like, I'm gonna lose it. And I lost it and I found it in a riffle. Like I went back and I found it in a riffle in a small mouth stream, and then I got a different ring. The ring I wear now is is a cheaper ring that won't come off. But it's not my actual wedding man. So that is that is my ring story. But I hope they get

the mullet um. You know that that would mean that would be neat. But I wouldn't hold out hope for for that. Anyway. She had had a tiny spear gun, it would have been done. Um. Anyway, I'm trying to think she's a crusader though she's trying to save the fish. That's she doesn't care about the range. She's like, the poor fish has weighted down. She don't want to spread that fish. Oh, the fish is fine, it's fine. Anyway. I'm trying to think of a good transition here. I

don't have it. So I'll just back pedal and say that I was gonna do that that really um, you know, thoughtful piece that you did on on on the pen that tells you what kind of fish you have. But I I trumped that because I hate to say it, but the Fonds is in trouble again. Ah, yes, yes, I saw this one. The Funds. I don't gotta do nothing. Yeah, So Henry Winkler, who of course played the funds on Happy Days, has angered the masses with a shameful, horrible,

stomach turning photo on Twitter. Get this of him holding a nice cutthroat trout, and then to pour salt in the wound of this atrocity, he had the gall to caption the photo. I can't even express the beauty everywhere on our planet. How dare you, fawns, how dare you enjoy fly fishing and smile ear to ear with a gorgeous trout? So to backfill just a bit, I'm sure some of you know that Henry Winkler is an extremely avid fly fisherman. He's written has he written a book

about it? Do I have that? That's That's why this this why I don't get why this is a story exactly we're gonna get to this. Couplished an entire book called I Never Met Him. I think it was like I never met an idiot on the river something like that. Yes, so he's he's written a book, he's written about fly fish, and he's been interviewed about it at nausea. Um. Okay, but here's something I did not know. I only learned this after reading this story on pop culture dot com.

Apparently the Funds has a ton of new fans, right, and these are young people, you know, like millennials and junk that, while perhaps are there un familiar with his screen work or his his history, have just gravitated to his Twitter account. Now I don't know, yeah, I don't

know what Henry's appeal is to the next generation. Frankly, right, he's seventy year old dude worth according to this like forty mill which allows him to just really live the dream these days and just fish and do nature stuff and enjoy himself. But when he recently posted this grip and grin, you saw this, it was like met with this insane outrage, just like off the charts and negativity, which I don't fully understand because again, it's sure as hell not like this is the first time the Fonds

has been seen holding a fish on the internet. So no, I'm pretty sure that there's a grip and grin on the cover of his book exactly, and furthermore, just from a fishing perspective, in my opinion, this is like the most benign, respectful grip and grin you could ask for. Like, so, Henry is on. He's on a small mountain stream beaming over this catch. The fly is still in the trout's mouth and he's supporting it appropriately. His hands appear to

be wet, and he also might be kneeling. I'm not sure, but even if I'm wrong, when you see, if you agree, when you look at enough fishing photos, like you can tell the difference between stage shots where like someone played with the fish or posed or moved around to get like this perfect awesome fish shot versus like a quick snap before release. And this reads like just snap this real quick so I can put this fish back, Yes, and and and what I'd say that the look on

his face supports that because he's genuine back. Yeah. Yeah. So it reads to me like a very respectful gripping grant. Yet he's just a small sampling of the comments that Fonzie received on Twitter. I hope you put that beautiful fish back in the beautiful water to continue to live a beautiful, peaceful life. Take a photo, don't rip an animal out of its natural environment with a hook through its face. You can feel something. Honestly, fishing is weird, man.

I would agree with your caption, but showing off a poor dead fish sure doesn't jive with the message I bet you the fish which she went anywhere, But they're for your beauty and nature fixed now. Of course, many people came to the Funds defense in his Twitter feeds, stressing that he's a big time catching release guy and like he's been fishing a long time, to which someone responded, catching releases almost as bad. It's stressing that little being,

and of course the being part went just everybody. There were so many replies to that, my favorite being you just killed ten thousand dust mites by sitting down murder. That's their favorite one. So maybe maybe you have. But like I've never interviewed Henry, we've never crossed paths, but everything I've ever heard from people that have have spent time with him, he's like he is the sweetest guy,

a staunch conservationist, and a hell of an angler. And I'm also I'm all for, as are you the occasional debate about catching release best practices and stuff among anglers with an understanding of the sport and the fish. These comments are just coming from people just appalled with zero understanding of fishing. And I'd just like to say sorry, Funds right as a man that went out of his way to pose with the bronze Fons statue of you

in Milwaukee. Okay, I feel bad for you. If if Milwaukee wasn't such a fishy town, I'd worry they try and take the statue down now. But let's just leave the Funds alone. Just shut up and let the man fish. Please everywhere, right go everywhere? Right turny is there. It's like having gumlanting your shoe. I got two things I want to say about this before before we close it out. Number one, I can I think I actually have some secondhand support for what you say about him being a

good dude. I had a bunch of friends who guided at a lodge. I almost guided there myself here in Montana where he was a regular, and a bunch of people I know and friends of mine guided him and said nothing but good things. And I can tell you what as a guide, you learned pretty quickly the people in your boat, if they're good people are not. You can't hide all day on on the water of thing is.

I feel a little bad for for Mr Winkler being pigeonholed as the Fonds because he's gone on to do so many other great things in his more contemporary career. Not he was a coach, He was a coach water boy. But have you seen Barry? The show's brilliant and he is brilliant in it, like I would like, I think we should all celebrate him for his more contemporary work.

I for one believe that. And finally, Winkler, Mr Winkler, Henry, if I may, if you're listening, you're welcome on the show anytime, and we'll take the fision anytime you want to go any time. I gotta say I pulled a couple of of of of Fonzi quotes there, but in finding those, I got lost in a Happy Day's rabbit hole, and I'm like, this is actually really funny, Like I should go back and watch more Happy Days. I never

paid that much attention. So we'll feel we'll see if Phil wants to go see Spiracy, if he wants to go Happy Days. A lot of choices here for Phil. And then as soon as we're done hearing from Phil this week, we're going to do a sale bin that a lot of you guys have been asking for. Ten card people, this one's for you, Joe. It is always important to get an occasional reminder to steer clear of

the comment section. So thank you for that story. But I have to give the window Miles this week for giving us a little sneak peek on what to look for in next year's sky Mall catalog. Guys, the Spotify playlist is awesome. What a great idea. Good job on that, Joe. I think you wanted me to come for the Jimmy World and stay for the Bad Brains, which was very thoughtful, but I actually ended up coming for the Psychedelic Furs

and staying for Peter Satara. So jokes on you, or more so Miles, it sounds like, why did you put the hand to pay? You don't know what I'm getting? Man, what you didn't have to be so hurtful with me, so angry. So we've we've just chimed this in as a sail bin. We're gonna call this a sail bin. It's really not a sale. Mean though, as some of you guys know, Miles was recently um out here on the East Coast at my house. And even though this is you're gonna hear this later, he's here right now. Look,

he's at my kitchen table. No, this is this is a time warp because I'm sitting here at the kids were three feet apart, and it's been like we hadn't seen each other in person in a year. We've had some fun out here. You guys will see all that fun later. But we're like we we'd be we'd be stupid not to not to lay something down while we're in the same room. So my kids are at school, it's quiet here. The house is in relatively nice order because you're a house guest, so we've cleaned for you,

which was unnecessary but appreciate it. And we figured, since we're just sitting here shooting ship, um, let's let's talk about ten carra because we we've made fun a ten car a time where two and and, as you pointed out, a lot of people writing in and go, hey, it's stop making fun of me in my ten car rode. It goes one of two ways we get we get to to polarized responses. It's either hey, man, like, why are you gonna be so hard on ten car It's it's fun and I agree. We've said this, we have

admitted this publicly. Ten Carra is fun. It's the culture around ten Carra that we find so ripe for ridicule, right, And that's because something has just happened recently, which a lot of you guys have tuned us into this. Just this proves our points so freaking well. For all of you out there were like, come on, man, quit it on. No, right now we have proof that the whole culture and scene of Tinkara sucks. What what did we find? What? What?

What is this? So? Just a couple of days ago, Uh, this this fashion clothing brand called Supreme the skate scene. I feel like they might have been skate posers, but I think mostly they're just like urban fashion. I think whatever is like urban fashion. They slapped their label on.

And here's the funny thing about this story, because we did the news thing not too long ago about the Pokemon lures and how in Japan it's like a big deal for these fashion brands and things to have fishing products, and we were like, I hope that doesn't start happening here and ship wouldn't you know it? Well? I mean, god,

so what's it's? It's it's similar because as it's Supreme, the American fashion company and a Japanese company called South to West eight, and together they have made a whole line of fashion accessories to go along with a ten carra rod, and it's it's truly awful. I'm Supreme now has a tan car a rod, but then they've created

this whole other line of wearables around the tan car rod. Essentially, so like you, you'd buy the tan car rod and then like to fit the whole bill, you'd buy all this other ship to where while your ten car fishing. So I think I need to quote some of the things that I've been reading about this. Here here's one. While fully functional, it's not the type of gear you'd

expect to see at the river. And indeed, because of Supreme's customer base, many if not most, of the people who purchase will have no intentions of fishing in it. This sort of cause playing is an unprecedented in fashion. Just look at the populative car heart outside of blue collar workers, and fishing should never be compared to cause play. Everything about that to me is wrong. And this just this undermines all of these efforts that we have to

genuinely bring people into fishing and participate in sport. This ship isn't helping it's fishing is not cause play. It's not a fetish that you do like there, there's there. It should not turn into like a furry convention in Vegas. That's not fishing. I have a problem. According to one one fly fishing forum, here's another quote, I guarantee not a single fish will be caught with one of these. If you are, you are releasing a fishing product and

a fishing line. And the response from the fishing community is I guarantee not a single fish will be caught. There is a fundamental issue, agreed. The wheels have fallen off the goddamn bus. So you were reading one a little while ago. It was like a review. I've read a couple of reviews and there are words in here I don't understand. Give us a sample. Where is this coming from? Again? This is coming from input, which is I think like a fashion blog. I'm not. I'm not

totally sure. The intro Goes Supreme is going fairly niche for its latest collaboration, partnering with the Japanese fishing brand South to West eight. The outcome is some of the steaziest gear you've ever seen, But in this era of fashion is immersion into GORP. You don't need to know how to cast. This doesn't even make sense. You don't need to know how to cast a real R E A L to embrace the look. Now, what steazy mean? Is that what the kids are saying? What is that?

I think the kids were saying that like fifteen years ago. I don't believe I've ever heard it. I mean, it's like your swag man, your swagger. You and you looked up gorp, so don't actually maybe do look up gor bun urban dictionary, but we can't say what comes up when you look up German dictionary. And that's not what they meant. So GORP, as I've always known, is another an acronym for trail mix. You didn't know this, so trail mix. But apparently in the fashion scene there's a

new and I had to look this up. There's a new term in the fashion scene called GORP core. Here's here's the definition. Gorp Corps, named after the cloak wheel term for trail mix is a style focused around utilitarian, functional outdoors inspired gears. So just like that. Other articles comparing this new collaboration with Supreme to how Carhart is making the the blue collar cool I think that all.

I think it's like a new version into I want to look like I do stuff outdoors without doing stuff outdoors while still being fashionable, all of which does not make sense to me. It just doesn't. Well, So the rod is I mean, the rod is just a tin car odd. But the clothing, like, if you look at the picture of this attire, what comes to mind is like, who's that rapper that's always in the news, like six

nine or something. He was in jail. He's got the rainbow hair, and he would wear this, He would wear this. It definitely looks like six nine would be all about this. I have trouble describing it, to be perfectly honest with you, This stuff is is just some of the strangest thing. One is like a it's like a mosquito netting shirt but that's tied eyed and goes all the way over

your whole face. But there's there's a there's a promotional image here where the dude's got his entire face covered by this tide eyed mosquito netting clothing, but he's wearing shorts. See and see there that does there's a problem. Yeah, yeah, I think my takeaway I think for the people who are like, stop making fun of me ten Car. It's like, well, we already kind of have something like a little bit to make fun of in that culture, but now, like, look,

how do you feel about this? Like now they've taken this thing that you love and given this opportunity to like now now it's even cheesier, and now it's your tactic that it's been adopted by the non fish people for the fishing cause play. Okay, they're not making cause play, you know, slick bibbs and uh, you know, trolling reels. They went right after ten Car. I would hope the true like people who actually like to tin car fish hate this the most. That's that would be my expectation.

Like for me, as someone who's kind of outside of that scene and likes to poke fun at it, this is just grisp for the mill. It's just more gasoline I can throw into this fire that I think is funny. If I for those of you out there who are like, no, man, I love tin car and I think it's like the most pure, wonderful way of fishing, you should be incensed right now. You should be like willing to burned down the Supreme Store. If again, if I were you, that would be how I'd feel. Um there, I gotta throw

a couple more quotes in here. Fleece jackets the ultimate fodder for gorp devotes. I'm sorry. There's also a long sleeved t shirt if costume esque dressing is lesser thing, and the accessory front is represented by a mesh game bag and hats of the jungle bush and balaklava variety. Crucially Supreme in South to West Ate have also crafted a co Brandon tag car rod and we just hope they're good enough to put to use instead of being mounted on the walls of a bunch of dorks ikea

decorated apartments. And that, my friends, is what is destined to happen with all of these rods. And that's what's wrong with this idea. Well, you've already ben letting us know what you think. Keep doing that. This has been kind of sale, bin, but really just making fun of tin car in Joe's kitchen. And we're gonna go have another beer now. Okay, I got to amend us a little bit. We will not judge anyone for bobber fishing unless they do so with that gear. Holy shit, that's

straight up horrible. Wow, it is, and thanks again to all of you out there who found that before we did and send us links. I know we sometimes make up dumb stuff to poke fun at fishing culture, but even we couldn't come up with something that over the top satirical. Nope, but we could not have done that. That one is real. Sadly, yes, yes, but we're not going to close out this week's show that way. As promised, We're gonna circle back to the lowly bobber in this

week's end of the line segment. Well, that's not loud enough. My intention when I agreed to this end of the line segment was to trace the history of the iconic red and white push button bobber, mostly out of spite. As soon as we'll be easy, North Americans have crowned

the round bobber as are angling archetype. It's the universally accepted visual symbol for fishing, the profile that companies slap on all kinds of products to tap into the seemingly lucrative market of shit non fisherman buy for their friends and family who like to fish. It's on T shirts, hats, beer coozies, Christmas tree ornaments, throw pillows, coffee mugs, folding chairs, flasks, even face masks, and the whole thing is frankly annoying.

As we discussed earlier in the show round clip on, bobbers might be the least effective fishing float ever made. They're only attributes are that they're idiotically simple to use and relatively visible in the water. So the fact that they've become the visual representation of the act and culture of fishing, printed on all manner of stuff and then given to serious anglers really is insulting. Committed cyclists don't get shirts with pictures of training wheels on them at

every birthday. It's no wonder that bobber fishing gets such a bad rap among anglers of all types. It's it's this kind of albatross we all carry a regular reminder that the broader culture thinks we're complete idiots who tax our meager brain capacity trying to outwit creatures with problem solving skills. Again to Gerbils, But despite the red and white bobber's ubiquity, I couldn't find any backstory for it.

I have no idea who invented it, and no explanation for where, when, or how it became the ever present force that it is. And you know what, I don't really care because those things float. Fishing actually has a rich backstory. Over the past few centuries. Anglers have poured as much thought and innovation into floats is just about any other piece of gear ever invented. I'm sure that fishing cultures all over the world independently figured out the

advantage of adding something buoyant to the line. I mean, first, it keeps your bait suspended at a constant depth, and second it lets you know when a fish has taken it. So those are two pretty significant advantages that I'm guessing just about every fishing culture figured out. But just like so many traditions, the culture we have most readily available documentation for is that of Western Europe, so that's mostly

what I found. The online British Fishing Museum claims that anglers have been using floats since at least the fourth century a d. But they don't actually provide any evidence, and I didn't see that sided anywhere else. But just about every source I found agrees that the first printed reference to fishing floats game in four in the Treaties of Fishing with an Angle, which is often said it as the first text about fishing ever published in English.

It gives relatively detailed instructions on how to fashion corkflow and use bird feather quills as bobber stops. About a hundred years later, the quill bobber appeared in the Art of Angler, published in fifteen seventy seven by an unknown author. That book suggests pushing together to cut swan feather quills

to make a cylindrical float. A couple of centuries after that, international trade brought African porcupine quills to British anglers, which was a huge step up from trying to jam to cut swan feather quills together, which really seems like a pain in the ass. African porcupine quills are light, watertight, relatively straight, and hard as rhino horn. In fact, they're still used as floats. You can go buy some online

right now. Prior to the nineteenth century, anglers had to make their own floats and they were pretty much limited to basic egg shaped corks or quills. But through the mid eighteen hundreds, as recreational fishing grew in England, they became a commercially viable product, As is so often the case, commodification drove innovation. By the early twentieth century, hundreds if not thousands, of floats were available in various shapes, sizes,

and applications. Manufacturers started using different materials like balsa and aluminum and experimenting with unique designs like adding counterweights and creating section telescoping floats. Once plastic became available in the commercial market for fishing tackle exploded post World War Two, just about everyone was trying to build a better bomber. I actually dug into patents for fishing floats, and I found all kinds of crazy designs that haven't really caught on.

I'm just gonna share a few of these with you. I found ones that claimed to set the hook automatically. Ones that light up or send out radio signals when a fish takes the bait. Ones that hold the baited hook in a protected cup so that it won't fly off midcast, and then deposit the hook and the bait in the water upon landing. Ones with built in speakers that emit fish attracted sounds. Ones with propellers to hold

their position against tide and current. There's even a patent that tried to claim intellectual property ownership over quote a hollow body filled with trapped air. I happen to know from inside information that one didn't stand up one challenging court. But the point is, float fishing has inspired a vast catalog of creative genius. Floats represent one of the most elegant aspects of fishing, taking a dead simple concept and

elevating it through creativity, innovation, and craft. So set up that slip opera and rig that stick float with pride. For much of the continuum of phishing history, floats have been paragons of fishing innovation and effectiveness. Only recently, like within the past generation, has their public perception been corrupted. Not coincidentally, that change seems to have corresponded with the rise of the red and white bobber as the culturally accepted symbol of fishing. So once again, I blame the

round bobber. That thing that's all we have on this episode. But if you're sifting through the flotsam of discarded floats, bobbers, and balloons recently washed ashore, you'll discover that asking a phishing shop employee to borrow his car because you don't

have a spare tire is totally inappropriate. Bugnet camo is the absolute worst would be fashion trend since leisure suits, and that attaching a buoyant device to your leader doesn't necessarily mean you're a novice angler, but judging someone else for doing so definitely makes you an asshole. I could

not agree more with all those stating all those statements. Uh. Good news for those audio files out there who share our eflectic taste in music, We've started a Bent playlist on Spotify, so if you're if you're on Spotify, go check that out. Tell us which you think, what you like, what what you think we're missing? Just tell us about it?

Tell us about it. Also, hit us on the Gram with the hashtags Bent podcast and Degenerate Angler, and keep sending those salban items, bar nominations, phish news suggestions, and awkward fishing photos coming to Bent at the meat Eater dot com. Please do and also do yourself a favor this weekend. Go bobber fishing. Don't don't use the little red and white one, but go bobber fishing, especially if you think you're too good for it,