Ep. 66: 300 McLargemouth Happy Meals

Bent podcast. Good morning, degenerate anglers, and welcome to Bent, the fishing podcast that has finally decided who will be it's full time co host, it's new wingman in piscatorial debauchery, and a person I can make do stuff I don't feel like doing. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Hayden Samic as our new co host. You got the job. You got the job, buddy, dude. I am so so happy

to be doing this. And you know, I've maintained since day one that this is my favorite Mediator Network podcast, and I really genuinely mean that, and like, as a fan of this podcast. I hope that I could bring to the table the kind of stuff that I would like to hear and and I know you will, like you know you've been you've been sort of like this this like you know, floating guests. But now, dude, you

you own this too. And we've already talked about some ideas to bring to the table in the future that I'm super pumped about. And if I apologize if I sound less enthusiastic, but like I'm fighting a cold. I told you, don't ever have a kid, don't ever put them in daycare. You will be sick for months. But I I am. I am really pump man. I've been I've been dying to analysis. I've sort of known it

for a little while. And I would also like to to remind everyone that early on right, I told listeners that I was I mean, I was listening right and to please weigh in on who they thought should grab the co host chair, and nobody got more votes than you did. Man. Like, ever since our Halloween show, I've been, oh man, I've been overwhelmed with notes and d M saying like we've really been enjoying Hayden and he should be the guy, and I couldn't agree more. Um, you've

you've definitely resonated with with the degenerates. Uh and from the start, what Yeah, what mattered most to me was how much fun you've been having doing this, Like that's important, Like you gotta you gotta be having a great time. And you've truly embraced it, nailed everything I've thrown at you past every test, and um, I know we're gonna have a blast. I'm really pumped. And I also I do want to say I cannot thank everyone who guest co hosted over the last month and a half enough. Right,

it's a fair amount of work. It's a bit of a grind, but everybody, all my my buddies stepped up. Um, and it's been good times. But I'm really excited to get back to having like a full time partner in crime, you know. Yeah, And Joe, I'm excited to be that partner in crime man. You know, I hope I do right by all degenerate anglers the world over. And I just want to say again I'm super excited. Gonna have a blast. Yeah, man, and you will. So let's let's

do this. Let's let's publicly air out what you are bent benefits package includes because I've already arranged for you to get some some gear from our wonderful sponsors thirteen Fishing. I know you want an ice stuff, right, so perhaps you'll even get a selection of ice lores such as the Bernie. Have you seen that. It's like the it's the little stone fly imitation and I know it's for ice, but I could do nasty ship with that on a fly rod. You could one crush fish with that on

a fly rod. Like I have a soft spot for small soft plastics, like in general, because I just kind of like catching like pan fish off the dock and stuff. And there is nothing better than a little jighead one of those, and like some four pound tests man, you can crush croppy all day long. Um, I think I'm gonna order a handful of those and actually try them out on one of our local rivers out here in Bozeman, because I I do believe that you really could crush

with those on a fly rod. Well, I already I already know from certain sources who will go on named that you can crush on your rivers with a trout magnet, So I know you'll be able to crush with this. Yeah, well have you? I also like those uh what are they? The bamff soft plastics? Dude, those things just look so darn buggy. Yes, yes, those and the coconut crab. Will will arrange all that because I know you you mess some things up in the rivers and on the hard

water out there. This year. Also, right as the new co host, you get to contribute to the Bent Spotify playlist, which hasn't come up in a while, but it's following continues to grow. So what a great opportunity to remind you guys that it exists. It's got like eighteen hours of tunes for degenerates on it, handpicked by me and Miles Malty, a few of our guests and now Hayden, and I gotta say, man, I I strongly admire your selections.

It's a bit unexpected, so it's like an unexpected vibe, but it's a good vibe, right yeah, man Um, I'm gonna be interested to see what our listeners think about these selections. You know, I don't personally, I don't think they're like that out there or anything, but I guess a lot of them have like sort of like a different flavor. Like the playlist is a little schizophrenic in my opinion, but that's just me. That's actually the perfect way, that way to put it. But I think that's a

good thing. It's totally schizophrenic. It's all over the place, um, and I think that's what makes it so great, Like you just don't know what's coming up next when you're you're you're, you're running on you know, shuffle with that one. Um. But let's see, So what did you add? So Hayden added cal Girl in the Sand by Neil Young and Crazy Horse right, no issues with that Sunday Morning by the Velvet Underground, who I also happened to be a big fan of Finger by Thy Siegel, and I didn't

it's great tune. I didn't know that. I didn't know that artist. I didn't know that guy. Uh yeah. And then two tracks from Nick Cave in the Bad Seeds, which is badass and prompted me to then at another Nick Cave track, um, that being Red right Hand, because that is the song that is playing when Jim Carrey loses his wallet in the Porno Newspaper machine while carrying the beer and pin wheels and wearing the giant cowboy

hat in Dumb and Dumber. So that's playing like just before he gets robbed by the swede old lady on the motorized card and bam, Nick Cave hit the big time right there man with that scene right there? Um, so one more edition? Is you right? So when when we did your first news segment, I said we were we were kindred spirits because we both grew up playing music. And uh, sadly nothing I ever did is on is on Spotify, which it's probably a good thing, um, But

but you are okay. You you went by dead Fellow right and you wrote and produced everything right, um. And the song we put on the playlist is is Machine, and I gotta say it. It's awesome, dude. I love it. It's got a very dark ib that's great. And I know musicians hate when people compare their music to other ships, so I won't. I won't let people form their own correlations. But it's really good, um. And you have far more talent than any band that that I ever played in

no it is. I mean I played chugg a chuggle punk music and then like you know, screaming stuff in uh in college. And I also point out that this was my idea. Hayden, you did not, like want a plug for your music here. I was the one that insisted, so, like, you're not vain. I was like, no, no no, no, we have to put this in there. Um. And you also told me that that song ended up in a movie starring Shila Buff. What is that about? I mean I loved him in holes, you know, well this was a

departure from his roll in holes. Um. First, I need to I need I need to qualify a few things here. For one, Uh, you mentioned that nothing you ever did is on Spotify, but but my stuff is. It is very easy to get on Spotify. You just pay a distributor like forty bucks and boom, it's there forever. So it's it's not it's not like people think that it's like, wow, you're on Spotify. It's like, oh, it's pretty easy. Um. So this movie starring shy La Buff was a film

called The Tax Collector and it was so bad. I didn't even watch the whole thing. And my song was in it. And this is a direct quote. Variety described it as about as much fun as having your face dragged across asphalt from a moving suv. It got a ninetent on Rotten Tomatoes. Shy was dominated for a Razzi Award for the Worst Supporting Actor as a result of this effort. So yeah, it wasn't the big break I was hoping for, but it was indeed in uh In in a movie, so that was pretty darn cool. I

feel like now I have to watch it. I have to look up the tax Collector and oh Man anyway, so you guys can find the link to the Bend Spotify playlist in my Instagram. Buyo. Perhaps Hayden will link that now too, um So, And then we're gonna move on to one more thing we have to do to make you official, um and that is have you be the victim of an awkward moment in angling. Right before you're allowed to make fun of other people's horrid fishing photos, you have to get trashed. I did it, Miles did it,

and now you're up. So let's haze. But this is a bit of an unconventional awkward moment in angling because it's not totally a phishing photo. But I think it may be one of the most interesting shots that we've ever had. Like looking at it, you have to know the story you're dying to know the story the second you look at photo. Yeah, I could see how it would peak one's interest. So here's what we got. Here's

why I'll pique your interest. This is a photo of a photo, or to be more specific, it's a photo of a flyer tacked up outside the front door of a little live music joint in Philadelphia was called Connie's Rick Rack. Now, I was not familiar with this place until Hayden brought this up. Um, for anyone that just happens to be, you know, fluent in the Philly music scene. I used to play at the Kill Time and Club HP, which stood for Club Higher Power back in the day.

Uh and and that meant they were a straight edge establishment that we didn't know that and gotten all kinds of trouble for drinking in the parking like we were those guys like Higher Power. Oh I get it, hide that beer anyway. On this flyer, there are three head shots, all of Hayden. The top looks as though it was taken at a formal event, like a graduation, perhaps because just you always see a little bit, but it looks like you're like there's a dress shirt collar in the

shot like you're spiffed up. Yeah, that was at my That was at my buddy Marvin's wedding. There, there you go, Marvin's wedding graduation. So we got we got that one. The next one is you in a wool hat looking like a scruffy musician, and there's there's nothing too odd here, but like, was your hair highlighted? Do I detect some sun in in those flowing locks in that shot? Another stute observation. I had recently had my hair super long, and I forget what the genesis was, but it got

bleached all white. Um, I don't really have an excuse for it, and what you're seeing is the remnant of it growing out after I had cut it off. I'm not gonna I'm not making as much fun of you as you think I would be, because I dyed my hair blonde in high school and like early college years, when I was still wearing like the sweatshirt with the study it was that was there you go, there you go? Okay,

all right? But then right moving on the last photo chosen for this trifecta is you with extra long hair winging out from under yet another wool hat. There's water behind you, and you're biting a fly rod and you're doing the the frowned upon rod bite, which we've talked about many times here on bench. So where was this taken? So that was taken on the Salmon River, and I'd like to say that this was in the days before

that had like become a kind of meme. Um. I genuinely didn't have any where to I was waist deep in the Salmon River. My buddy was taking the photo. I had no place to hold that fishing rod, and I was holding a big old steel head. Yeah. Well, I figured there was a fish in the shot, but we don't see that. It is just souper resumed in teeth, hair and cork. Oh yeah, this is not This is not a photo meant to identify a fish. This is

a photo, as we're going to learn. Right, So now we understand the three photos on the flyer outside the door. But here's what the flyer says, right, And this is all written crudely with a sharpie at the top in huge letters. It reads, this dude is all caps banned for life from Connie's rick rack. Under that, it says, meaning colon, he's not allowed in the building, Ever and ever is underlined. So what the actual hell is going

on here? Okay? So you know it was, this was back in my musician days, and I would like to say that I did nothing wrong. What what had happened? This isn't like I got like too drunk at a bar. This isn't like I started a fight. What had happened was, in the beginning of my musical career, I would hit a bunch of open mics, as a lot of songwriters are wont to do. Um. It turned out that Connie's rick Rack I would hit that on Wednesday night. So my thing was I would go to Linckety Split on Tuesday's,

Connie's rick Rack on Wednesday's Wooly Mammoth on Thursdays. Then I play shows Friday Saturday, and I take Sunday Monday off. Well, I was at Connie's rick Rack every Wednesday night and there was a bartender there named Carla. Now Carla was about my age, and a lot of the folks in like that particular songwriters scene, we're kind of older. So in between like me going up and playing my like three songs that week, I'd hang out the bar and I talked to Carla. Now, I didn't have this person's

phone number, I didn't have their Instagram. I wasn't friends with him on Facebook. Just somebody that I would see on Wednesday nights because she happened to, I don't know, be pouring the drinks. Yeah. Well, it turns out that this was the owner's girlfriend and he thought for some reason that I was coming there every week to talk with her. Now, I don't know why he didn't put it together, like, oh, Wednesday night is open mic night, and that is the night that I see this guy.

So what you're saying is it never dawned on him that you were a person up on stage there every Wednesday. This guy was not a genius um the So yeah, I mean one day I showed up there and I played a song and I got down and I go to the bar and this dude, who had been my friend up until that point, just like started like cussing me out and you know, told me to leave. And so I was like, that's weird, and I left. I

just figured the dude had had too much to drink. Well, he thought that I was like a legitimate threat to like whatever he had going on, and uh, banned me for life. And actually this poster didn't come into being until like two years after the fact, when I had messaged this guy and been like, hey, you know, I

hope you're good. I hope everything's cool. You know, I'd really like to come back and uh and play at Connie's or like hang out because my friend had been having his first show ever there and I was like, look, I don't want to sneak into this bar without dude. No, he wouldn't go to support you, boy, Yeah yeah, yeah, right right, So I wanted to you know, if the guy didn't want me in the bar, I didn't want to go there. So I was like, maybe I can just bury the hatchet with him and then I'll go.

And that dude told me to get bent, and uh. Then that was the response to the response to the make good text was throwing the poster up two years later. Yep, oh dude, he's bitter, right, that's so whatever. Yeah, well yeah, but I mean so, but under the photos, get back to the poster. Under the photos, it says your name, it's like Hayden Samic and there's a bunch of stuff blacked out. What is blacked out? Can you tell me what has been blacked out? Come on, No, it was

clearly done in photos shop later. What's been blacked out? Um? Anyway, at the very bottom of this, there's a quote that reads, because I said so dash dud okay, yeah, thank you. So what what I love about this is I feel like they're there are three very different photos and that was strategic because they were sort of going to showcase all the faces of Hayden. He did, right, So in case you walked it looked spiffy, you'd be recognized. Like if you came in in a tuxedo, would be like, Bam,

that's the guy. If you walked in just looking scruffy with a guitar case, they know that was you. But I don't fully understand the inclusion of the fly rod shot, Like was that in case you walked in in Jess waiters, you know what I mean? And like, where did where

did dude get all these photos from? Well? He lifted them from Facebook, and uh a bunch of folks did suggest that I should walk in holding a fly rod in my mouth to see if I immediately got booted totally totally Like had this been me, damn right, I would have walked in there with a fly rod in my mouth, just to be an ask, just to prove a point. Um, but you said so the place is closed now, but the band had never been lifted before it was closed. No, no, Ben never ever got lifted.

And hey man, some people just want to live like that. It's up to them. Well, there he go, there he goes. So we've got We've got plenty more awkward outs from you guys in the pipeline, but we always want more. And if you've been banned from the Quickie Marter tackle Shop or Golden Crawl and have a makeshift mug shot flyer to prove it, please do send it along to Bent at the mediator dot com, which, by the way, Hayden will now be checking as well. You know, well, Joe,

I gotta say, I'm pretty glad that that's over. Uh. I'm sure I'll be able to find another awkward moment. Uh. We'll take you somewhere in the future. Look, I have more too, But all right, it's all about the fans man, Like, nobody wants to see more awkward photos of me. So I like the fan stuff, But um, I should put

myself on the chopping block. You're good for a while, at least, like you've it's only right that I get to that I get to crucify you a little bit on one of these awkward moments in the future, I'll consider it. But you're you're good for a little while, and you've already been cut down once today, So let's let's actually see if I can do that again, though in a different capacity, in that weekly competition we call Fish News Fish Noon. That escalated quickly before we dive in.

I gotta say thank you for all the b side love that I got this week. Right, It's safe to say that the vast majority of you enjoyed my ode to American Chad. My favorite comment was that shad row and eggs is last meal on death row. Good, right, And uh, well, well I don't know about that. I genuinely liked it, right, I will. I will eat that

again next spring. I also had a bunch of people reach out asking for recommendations on where to go and when, which is very cool, Right, I'm always happy to provide that. Let's see how much of that I get after today's show. Right. Episode two drops at one pm Eastern eleven Mountain on Meat Eaters YouTube channel. Um, and I'll tell you right now,

this was my favorite one. Right We're chasing the the very scorned snakehead in Virginia with my buddy Grant office uh And I won't spill all the means, but this was like the pinnacle of seven years of snake heading for me. I won't soon forget this trip. Dude. It just looked like you were having again. I was granted a sneak peak of of this episode of B Side, and man, you just looked like you were having such a good time. Grant seems like an awesome dude. The

fisheries seemed awesome. You know. You could just tell that you were truly stoked to be on this trip. He's dialed and this is sort of like, you know, in a way, growing up with with stock trout and then you get your first taste of Montana, you know what I mean. Like we were in like what i'd consider mecca, the mecca most hardcore and it's site fishing, and I love site fishing, you know. Um, really fun one, really fun. Yeah. Man, And not not to spoil anything, but I'll tell you what, man,

you were not fishing from doss boat. No. No no, no, no, no grant uh Now we were not in a tin can. We were in quite the fishing machine man, which was part of the fun. Ye. Speaking of fun, onto fish News For those of you who don't know, fish News are weekly segment where Joe and I bring two stories to the table and our judge on our journalistic skills and story selecting abilities by none other than Filled the Engineer. I went first last week, So Joe, this week, you're up.

I am, I am. I also hope um Phil enjoyed my earlier reference to dumb and dummer. He's a huge fan, knows it like the bass of his fan anyway. All right, so here's here's a live one. We can have some fun with this one. Right here, Grab your jitterbugs and some meat eater mermaids tried and spice blend. Let's throw a couple of large mouth on the barbie. All right. This comes from the Tampa Bay Times headline Florida seafood

markets to offer farm raised large mouth bass. Right now, that seems simple and straightforward enough, but it's actually rather controversial. But let's let's just talk about bass on the table real quick. Right to sort of set this up a little bit. Eating large mouth is it's one of those weird things, right. I I think it's fair to say that for most die hard bass anglers, it's it's blasphemy. Right.

If you're the guy spending thousands on bass tackle, running around a glitter boat and so on, you probably don't want to hear about eating a large mouth. Um. And I think that attitude is somewhat unique to the bass world.

And by that I mean you can be nuts for stripers or catfish or salmon or walleye, spend loads of money on boats and tackle, but you're not weirded out by somebody eating those things, even if you don't like, even if you don't keep all of them, you know it might it's it's not uncommon for you to take some of your favorite species for the table now and again.

But this isn't the case for the average bass guy, which sort of supports my theory that that bassard just put on a pedestal they don't fully deserve to be on. And and I say that because what we tend to forget is that large mouths are America's fish, because anyone from any walk of life can catch them, right A shiner, a bobber and a lawn chair will will catch you

a whole lot of bass. And if you look to the South and parts of the Midwest, there are lots and lots of people that target large mouths just for food. A lot more people eat large mouth than many of us realized. In fact, my boy Jared Serenier, who just co hosted last week, he and his buds in Louisiana regularly drop large mouth filet's in a little red gravy. Okay, it's it's it's sauce, sauce. Yeah, it's very well. They

call it gravy down there too. I'm my Italian. I say sauce here from p A. What do you know? Um So anyway, according to the story, large mouth will now be available in Florida's seafood markets thanks to a law pass last spring that says any species of fish that can be successfully raised in legal aquaculture facilities in Florida are fair game to be sold as food, and of course, lots of bass are raised in Florida now. Per the story, this led sgislation was passed purely for

economic reasons. It says large amounth bass are valued at five dollars and seventy five cents a pound, which is an increase since wait wait wait wait wait yeah, wouldn't that put him it like thirty cents a pound? And well, I I think I think what they're driving at here is that in that time span they've become people have become more interested in them as a food fish, you know what I mean. Like it's it's a little hazy,

I'll give you that. It also says D and nine five farms that produced bass for food I'm assuming outside the state of Florida, right, made seven million dollars on bass alone now right in Florida. Large amounth bass is a restricted species protected from becoming a commercially harvested commodity.

Snook and redfish also fall into this category. And while we don't have time to give the whole backstory on that, suffice it to say that that redfish very well could have been wiped out in many parts of this country had they not been given these really strict, hardcore protections. So right, So what's the big deal if all these

bass for sale are coming from an aquaculture facility. First, it creates more paperwork and headache for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission because now they have to develop a policy to allow for farm raised bass sales. But here's what FWC Oxford Commissioner Gary Lester also had to say. He says, I don't think we should do this. Yes, we do have an aquaculture industry. We have a lot

of fish and a lot of jobs in it. But the largemouth bass has a special iconic place in our state and in our economy, right, you know, not to feed into a particular narrative that's been you know, uh propagated by certain members the bent community. But yeah, you know what, this reminds me a lot of what this sounds like a state trying to decide like whether or not it should grow pot Like just like looking around the other day, it's like, wow, they're kind of getting

a bunch of money from this. Maybe you're not wrong. I see the similarity. Man, you you're you're you're right on. Uh. So here's here's the thing, right, FWC, they've expressed two main fears. Um, it's also kind of ties into what you said now that you've made the comparisons, Like all I can see, Um, the FTBC has expressed two main

fears about the selling of farm raised bass. The first is that the wild Florida strain bass is special and iconic and an economic driver, and if any of these farmed bass ever escaped into the wild, that could compromise

the genetics of those famous Florida strain bass. The other fear is that if the selling of farm bass proved super profitable, commercial fishermen will pressure legislators to open up harvest of wild bass, which I'm sure they're They're already incidentally finding their way into the nets of commercial to

lopia fisherman and cat fisherman and bream fisherman down in Florida. UM. Now, what the story correctly points out is that a fear of disrupting the ecosystem with a non native species of large mouth is pretty weak, because and I quote, a fishing trip to any freshwater body south of Orlando will produce armored catfish from South America, Mayan cicklids from Central America,

oscars from Africa, and snakeheads from Southeast Asia. They have already been reports of fifty pound pacus and six ft long Arab pima's floating up in the St. Lucy and Caloosa Hatchie rivers, respectively, So I tend to agree with that, right, I mean, it's like it's already overrun with invasives, right right. Well,

And there's kind of an interesting note about this. I was listening to the Orvis fly Fishing podcast with with Tom and uh Me and Tom are on the First Name Basis Now he was interviewing a dude named Steve Ramirez who has like an affinity for native fish. He's an author from my understanding of it, and in his quest for a a certain bass, I forget exactly which

one it is. I believe it could have been in Texas, but the the genetic muddling due to strains of Florida large mouths being introduced around the country as part of stocking programs actually made his quest for that native fish really murky. And in fact, it's almost hard to unpack even with like genetic testing because like the yeah, sure, I'm not gonna get into you know, d NA science man,

because I don't know about it. But yeah, I mean we've talked about some of this with like the mean mouth bass and this train is that a spotted bass? Is it not? Is that this one? It gets it gets very very muddy. But generally speaking, like my interpretation UM with this, with this whole story, is that you know, all all the reasons why this shouldn't be allowed tied to a sort of general consensus that bass should only

be sport ish and nobody really eats those anyway. Like I feel like that's sort of the undercurrent with with a lot of the people oppose UM. Now, like I said, it is not true that nobody eats them, but I would be really curious to see, like how well does this sell because all the people I know, and I know a bunch that are genuinely excited to chow down on bass, they I don't I feel like they're not likely to buy it in a store like like bass eaters, I think are typically people all about hook it and

cook it, like it's the whole experience. If they go out and catch their bass wherever they're going to catch them, to bring them home and cook them. I don't necessarily see that translating to, well, they got that over at the stopping shop, Now I'll pick up some large mouth. I just don't think they go hand in hand. So I'm I'm intrigued by the idea that selling Larry's for food has worked elsewhere. I sort of want to know more about that. You know. Yeah, that's like interesting to

me for like a couple of reasons. One, Um, it's weird and it's like a provincial attitude, I guess. But large mouth bass to me like don't seem particularly appetizing. And that's not because it's a bass. It's because of like the kind of connotations that large mouth have. For instance, you called them kind of like you know, anybody anywhere could catch them. That kind of implies that they live and maybe some not so not so clean not so have you ever eaten one? I'll get to that in

a second. One bass that I do like to eat a lot, Maybe not a lot a lot, but when the opportunity presents itself, such as you know, you gotta sanko like Gil hooking. One is small these man, I'll eat like small jaws all day. But that's kind of the sort of bodies of water that small mouth come from. Typically. Yeah, yeah, I will tell you I have never eaten a small mouth Like that's that's weird to me than large mouth. But totally like if I had to pick one or

the other. Um, small mouth come out of prettier, cleaner, colder water. I've had large mouth. Um, I just I don't know. I think it tastes like blue gill. Like it's just like a bigger piece of blue gill. So it's like, okay, I don't I never thought it was outstanding. I wasn't like, holy shit, this is out of this world. To me, it's just okay. But that's neither here nor there. Man, I'm not coming out on anybody. You want to eat

all the large mouth, that's fine with me. Manure in all of them so there's more room for my snakeheads. You're gonna get some heat. No, I'm not, because people know I'm only kidding. Come on. Yeah. And finally, I will say that I am a touch bitter about this um because even though I don't think the reasoning that f WC has come up with is enough to to really stop this, I do applaud them for saying, hey, like these are sport fish, their iconic they drive our

economy as a sport fish. Maybe like we we don't really need to make them commercially viable. And and right now there's no major threat that I'm aware of to Florida large mouth or large mouth in general. But there might be. So they're suggesting, like maybe there's something here that we should head off at the past just in case, which is commendable. But then I look at that and I'm like, hell man, Like everyone in the striper community up and down the East Coast has been saying the

same ship for decades. Their iconic they bring in money, recreational fishing, boost the economy, and they are in big trouble. Yet we won't push to make them a game fish like a bunch of states just keep commercially hammering them and um, you know, guess what. They can be farm raised too. Are the farms? Are they exactly the same as wild call stripers? No? But I was like, if you're not good enough to go out and catch your own,

you can eat the farm raised. One problem solved, right, So there's there's been There's been so many things over the years that I think the rest of this country can learn um from how FWC has has managed and thought about certain fisheries. There's a lot to learn there. Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. I think one of the things that it just comes down to, honestly, is the size

of the flat. You know, I think that the reason that you see, you know, stripers being commercially targeted still is because they have a big, nice filet, and it's very easy for fine restaurants to sell stripe bass to their consumers. I think you'd sell it, yeah, I think you'd have a lot harder at the time, you know, picking up bass filets and turning those into something I'm

not saying I don't understand. I mean, let's call it like it is, stripers freaking delicious, Like it is, especially a smaller one, right, Like we've talked about that a little bit, but like a striper out of the salt, it is. It is delicious. So I understand why why that's so much more valuable, It has so much more appeal. It's just it breaks my heart to to to to see you know, FWC like saying, hey, like come on, like these are special and iconic and they do their

own thing. It's like, I wish somebody would would would take that attitude and make it matter up here. There's a lot of of conservation organs that have been preaching that forever, but I mean, you've got to get the right people behind that, you know, and it's just it's just sort of like, Man, I wish, I wish they fought here like they did in Florida for this stuff. Sometimes you know, sure do man should do and uh, you know, part of it is just looking forward to

the next to the next generation of anglers. Speaking of the next generation of anglers, Dude, I gotta tell you this week on fish News, I have a story that just makes me happy. Good transition, nice transition on that. I like that. Uh, this past Sunday, the fine folks at Harbor Docks. That's a restaurant in seafood Market in Deston, Florida. Also speaking in Florida, Harbor Docks took some kids fishing. And how many kids do they take fishing, Joe, almost

three hundred. Oh man, that's a lot of large amount sandwiches for the bag lunches. You know what I'm saying. You might think that, but yeah, no, it's pretty incredible. Anyhow, I was gonna just do like a typical fish News thing and steal all the good stuff from another article I found on the internet. But you know what, Joe, today I didn't good. I decided, thank you, man, I DECI had to put on my my journalist, tap and

go to the man himself. Uh, you know now responsible for this event, the proprietor of Harbor Docks, Eddie Morgan. Good dude, way to get after it. You should you should win just for making the phone call. I love it. The phone call was easy. Man. Eddie's a super cool dude. Um. But to that end, you know, I also did want to point out that like Eddie didn't reach out to me.

Eddie didn't want to make this a big deal. In fact, he's surprised that I'd heard about the event at all, being that like Harbor Docks like never pursues any media attention surrounding this event. And in talking with Eddie, like, I really got a feel for you know, this is just something born out of like a genuine want to better his community. And honestly it was like inspiring. Um,

I'm glad there are folks like this. Yeah. So anyhow, Harbor Docks was founded in ninety nine by Eddie's father, Charles Morgan, and right from the jump, Uh, they were pretty heavily involved in their community. Um. Again, Charles Morgan, Eddie's father, was particularly interested in the recreation opportunities available to like the local kids. So one day he decided that he wanted to take some kids fishing, a lot

of kids fishing, and take kids fishing. They did the Harbor Docks crew at this point, dude has been doing this event for twenty seven years and have now taken over seven thousand kids fishing. Damn man like, And this has to be kept fairly quiet because this has never come across my radar and it seems like something like I would have covered at some point in my career. So man like, that's that's impressive for not having more more juice. Yeah, one local business, one family decided to

do this and like, that's unbelievable. Now you might be thinking, how do they go about taking all these kids fishing? Is it Derby style and a Florida bass pond looking for large mouth to eat? Later? Do they run out to appear. Do they rent two big gas party boats or something? Nope. Each year Harbor Docks gets a full on fleet of destined charter cap no wayes coordination manh yep,

And these kids are like they're really fishing. Their ting for mackerel, mahi banita, bottom fishing for vermillion and white snapper like they're legit fishing. Wow, dude, So they have to raise money for this somehow they do, right, Like, you can't, this is not cheap, right to put something

like this together. They do. And I assumed that, like, all right, maybe they had like a coalition of captains that like, you know, once a year like decides, Okay, we're just gonna like eat the cost of gas and we're gonna take these kids fishing. And I'm sure like that is true on some extent. They do have a like group of repeat captains that come out and are are volunteering for this all the time. They make some phone calls as well to get new captains into the fold.

But like importantly, they make sure that those charter boats are taking care of as well by raising money through things like a golf tournament and a silent auction every year to get the funds to put gas in the boat. And they make sure these guys are right. Wo o, man, that is impressive. Yeah, I mean, it's really like an

amazing thing. And even better is like at the end of the day, the kids make their way back to the marina for a good old fish fry and they're each sent home with their very own rot and reel to like keep the spark alive. And I just think it's super incredible. Man, that's incredible, dude. Like this is one of those things like I hear a story like this and I'm like, man, I don't do enough in this arena, you know what I'm saying, Like this is something that would be be fun to film or or

be a part of. Um. And you know that's that's certainly not to take away anything. I have a lot of friends and have donated a lot of stuff to kids tournaments all over, but like you said, the vast majority of them, um, you know, are small waters the stocky pond or whatever it may be. And and that's great man, that that's all well and good. I also think it's funny as a dad of young kids, like I understand the frustration of trying to deal with them

at the small stocky pond. So good on everyone who volunteers, because I have to imagine, right, it's got to be kids of all ages. There's no like cut off, right, Um, there there is a cut off. I think it's kids from seven to thirteen. And okay, smart, yeah, okay, that's that's smart. And but it's open enrollment. Man, it's open enrollment.

So I was gonna ask, how do you like, how do you get is it like first come, first served, so they've they've filled their quota or do you know the kids don't have to pay to be a part of it? Right, So what happens is around October when they I guess announced it, like the enrollment period is open.

The first thing that they do is they call some specific organizations, um, you know, certain types of schools, the Boys and Girls Club, you know, things like that, and they get a whole bunch of kids who are interested on their roster, and then they open it up to like the public. And I think it does cap at like three hundred, but yeah, I mean it's pretty much

anybody who wants to go fishing. The other thing that Eddie brought up in our conversation is that Destin is kind of like a resort town, so there are a bunch of folks, you know, who are well off kind of experiencing this on the regular. But what he tries to focus on is a lot of these like local kids that you know, have never even seen the gulf,

let alone gone out and fished it. So it's really a community centric thing to give opportunities to kids who would otherwise never be aware of this amazing, exciting recreational and you know, uh, I want to say consumptive, but this resource that that's around them, well, you know, it brings up a point that it always sort of amazes me, and you tend to forget it. You know, like you and I might travel to Destin or somewhere like that because we know what's there, we're so excited about it.

But there are people who live in Montana that don't go trout fish and have a means to do that, even though all these tremendous rivers are in your backyard. You know, you you can live in Destin and and that just because it's there doesn't mean you have access to it, especially if you're talking about really good offshore fishing,

which it sounds like they're they're involved in doing so. Again, that's awesome to do the kids derby at the lake, but I mean, if you really wanna create something super memorable, so you take a seven year old kid out and and you let him crank on a mahi, that is that is pretty impressive. Dude. Good on you for reaching out to Eddie. Great story. UM, you know, my my my daughter, I don't know. I don't think she would want to go off shore fishing. My son would, but

he's not old enough yet. Um. But this is this is really cool man and uh super super impressed by what they're doing down there. Um, well we'll see what what impressed Phil? That was? That was pretty good, dude. That was I think I'm not going to call the shot or I'm not gonna nudge fill one way or the other. But that that's that's that That one warms the heart. So we'll hear from Phil, and then as soon as we're done with that, we're gonna do with

nibbles and SIPs. We got a voice memo um about another young Ish man and um, one of his catches that doesn't really go. Well. Hey guys, it's Phil. I'm visiting my parents has this week and didn't feel like packing the fancy microphone. So I'm giving this computer the privilege of speaking for me. And because Hayden brought something that we usually never see on bent actual journalism, I'm

crowning him the winner this week. Good work, come shoe. Wow, this computer, lady is a far better speaker than I am. According to this list of voices, her name is Joanna. Hi, Joanna, thanks again for helping me out with the podcast this week. So are you from around here? That's fine, you don't have to respond. You probably haven't been programmed to hold a conversation. If we had enough time, I would give you the void comp test. Do you think Deckert is

a replicant? Oh? You haven't seen Blade Runner? Ha ha. Look at me revealing my love for movies. My interests are kind of my entire personality. It's what women love about me. Okay, Well, this has been fun. When the computers eventually uprise, please remember me, because I'll never forget you, Joanna. Oh god, I'm so lonely. I just say it is a no era of loneliness. Oh god. I hinted not long ago that I had a carp related nibbles and

SIPs entry waiting in the wings. Um, And I'd actually call this one a bit more of like it's like a mini saga, okay. And it comes to us from Stephen Reese and it goes a little something like this. My buddy and I are fishing red worms and bulworms in an area, and we see this carp coming back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. We're catching dinkers here and there. I caught a chub, caught some bass, sunfish, and we're just catching and releasing, and we end up

we're about to leave. I do one last catch, trying to get a big bass or from what we were catching, it was probably like a fourteen ouncer. And this this carp. I see this carp trailing my worm, gets my worm and it's like three ft from shore, and I hooked the thing in the first carp I ever hooked. As I get it up on shore, I end up like looking at it, looking at my buddy and like pure excitement. I'm like, I just caught a freaking carp. I just caught a carp and it's just funny. Here and there

I was doing like the worst way possible. I was like walking back, dragging it up on the shore. Well, I ended up while it was on the shore, tried picking it up with my rod. Well its snapped my rod into surprisingly not the line, but I get the hook off, get the fish fine. And I remember what you said about the one picture where like the fish was all like messed up. It was like you could have at least washed it off before the picture. So I was thinking like, oh, no big deal, I'll wash

it off. And I had what I thought was a firm grip put it in the water, like instantly slipped out of my hands, and that carp's gone, and I'm pissed. I was like, what the heck? Now, here's the first thing this reminded me of. Do you remember this viral surfer interview. Dude? You got the best barrels ever, dude, just like you pull in and you just get spit right out of him and you just drop in and

just smacked it. Hold back, drop down. Bro. Then it was like, I was like, oh, did you ever hear the remix when somebody auto tuned it and set it to music. It's phenomenal. And I know that that that Stephen like he didn't exactly sound like that, dude. It was just sort of the flow or something. It's just what It's what popped into my stream of consciousness. Yes, yes, So I would like to point out that, um, Steve's excitement, however, it was not lost on me, no matter what else

we have to say about this voice memo. Right, Um, he was stoked to catch this carp and I appreciate that greatly, But this has opened up the opportunity, I think for a few teaching moments um that I think we'll all benefit from, first and foremost, how to avoid snapping a rock. Yeah, this is something that I can probably stand to learn a little bit from. Tujo uh in your in your expert expert opinion, what exactly did

Stephen do wrong? You don't need it. You don't need to be an expert, all right, because he openly admits he's trying to dead live a carp with his rod, and based on the fact that that he says he considered a fourteen ounce bass large, I'm going to assume this was a fairly light rod, right, And I think most of us don need to be an expert to

know that. Um, you shouldn't try deadlifting a fish off the ground, because that's not what rods are supposed to do, Nor does does a dry dead lift factor in any rods rating. Right. But what many people forget is that when a rod is designed, it's engineered to only take strain from where there is a grip. Right. In other words, you should never choke up on a rod, blank and and put pressure on somewhere other than the grip. And we all do it. We all do this, but technically

your hands should never be anywhere except the grips. Those have been strategically placed because that's where the rod can take the most strain without snapping during a fight. And I think we forget that sometimes. Yeah, I've I've broken a bunch of rods and real stupid ways. Um, but kind of recently, like around Easter, I guess it was. I had my like euro stick and I was trying to get that that tippet ring through like the last guide.

Oh yeah, I just did the thing where you grabbed the rod halfway up the blank, and I grabbed my leader and I went to pull it, and I candy cane the rod and it just went. It's so common. It's a mile from the truck too. Well, yeah, but it's so common to choke up on the blank, especially um when a fishes is close to the boat or close to the net. And if you're if you're deft about it, you will get away with that choke up often, right.

But I've broken more rods than I care to mention doing that because in a moment of weakness, like if you just push it a little too far or at the at the wrong time, um, you know it's done. And furthermore, you can have a chip or a nick in your blank close to the handle, close to the thick end of the rod with a grip, so that that may never ever snap or affect that rod's performance as long as you don't ever choke up and transfer

the strain to that point in the blank. So if you stay on the grips, like a minor chip or nick low down on the rod might never be an issue, you know what I mean. But that's what will come back to bite you the second you choke up on your carp you know. Yeah, yeah, And I'm constantly guilty

of that. And there's also like kind of like a Stees element to like that choking up a little bit, like you always feel like it's somehow like a finesse move, like you pull it down to side pressure and you choke up a little bit, and you feel like you're like, yeah, man, I'm like real, like I'm playing this fish right now, like you know, people watching her like man, that guy knows what he's doing. And then bam, like the whole thing just explodes. Oh dude, it's glorified in landing shots

on Instagram and stuff. You know, somebody's always choked up her side rod and it's like that last few seconds. It's always on the wrong fish too. It's you don't see people choking up when they're like, you know, catching pan fish or trout. It's always like a fifteen pound steel head or like some sort of salmonoid. It's like a fish that you have no business playing around with

like that. Yes, yes, now we also need to talk about the loss of this fish, because I give props to Steve for for trying to wash it off right. That is a pet peeve of mind that has come up when someone postes for a grip and grin and the fish is just covered in dry leaves and dirt, Like, why bother does that bother you? That those shots have always bothered me. That bothers the ship out of me, mostly because it immediately makes me think that, like one the dude rest of the fish to the bank didn't

have control of it. Yeah. I think a lot of my like aversion comes from like quartering out deer and ship, where like if you get a bunch of like grit and dirt on the quarters or even like a fish that you intend to keep. You know, it's going to be just a pain in the butt to get that like looking nice and clean when you go to process that.

You know, yes, and I actually know that that this pain, like, I know what it's like, Like you want to get that quick shot, but you also want to get the fish back in the water quickly and unharmed, um, but but not have it covered in mud. Right, So without a landing net or lip grippers, it can be a real pain in the ass, especially since Steve's carp was green, like it sounded to me like it went from hook set to flopping on the bank very quickly, you know what I mean. So I have to imagine that fish

was still hot. But Steve, you can lip a carp. People may not think about that. But they got no teeth, right, So don't don't they have like uh sorry, don't have some sort of like crushers back there? Yeah, but you're not gonna you're not gonna you're not gonna stick your finger far enough back there to worry about that. And and frankly, I'm not sure they do drum and other things do, they must have some kind of crushers and they need a lot of soft stuff. But still, man like,

it's all just rubber like. If you really need to hang on the one, don't have a net, you can lip one. Um. But one thing people forget is that carp also have a a really nasty ass serrated dorsal spine that will go in deep and you will not be happy. Right. And the point being like people think of carp is all like dopey and squashy and rubbery. Um, if you've got a live one in your hands, that's

that's thrashing. And forget about that spine. It can be ugly, man like, it's it's it's like almost designed like a stingray barb. Yeah. Man, you know, I don't do a lot of cart fishing, but that is and by not a lot of car fishing, I mean I've caught like one cart by accident. Um. You've got some great carp fisheries out there for flying, I'll tell you right now, dude, lower Missouri. Who it's good and I'll have to check

them out. But the you know, one thing, one fish that I do think about that a lot with is my favorite fish, A big old catfish. Man, they seem like you're just gonna be big old squishy thing. But man, those spines will get you bad. And the smaller they are, the easier it is, and the more they hurt. You know what I mean. They get all dulled up on

the big, big fifty pounders. But dude, we've we've covered stone cats on here before and like dudes getting poked by it's it's horrible and try and avoid that at all costs behind the peck fins anyway, Uh, Steve, thank you so much for the voice message. Man, we enjoyed hearing from you. Congrats on your first carp but I hope you're a little better prepared for the next one. Folding nets are cheap on Amazon, Dude, just gotta say that you can get a cheapy folding net for like

twenty bucks. But hey, Steve just got swagged out for this, So if you want to get swagged out, send a voicemamo to Bent at the metator dot com, or feel free to d m them to me or Hayden. Now you can now direct appropriate comments and concerns to him as well, and if you do, you might just hear

yourself on the show. All right, Well, after that that long introduction to my new co hosting responsibilities and our deep dive into deep pokes by carp dorsal fins, Uh, Joe, I regret to inform you, but I don't think I have an end of the line quite ready yet. That's okay, man, I know you don't. It's all good, But I do look forward to some fresh bins on end of the

line from you. Um. I have a hunch you're gonna lean on on flies often, so I'll be the one that keeps talking about power bait and cherry garlic cott talks. I'll just say now, tune in next week for Hayden's first end of the line But for this week, let's close out with a fly related tackle hack. I recorded this one a while back with my buddy Nate Simple, who's out in Wisconsin. Uh. And no matter what kind of fly fishing you do, this one will save your bugs and save you some money in the long run.

I'm getting hats from Inside City Bike the Flood joining us for tackle hacks today. My old buddy Nate Simple from Tight Lions fly fishing out in Wisconsin. What's going on? Man? Not much, Joe, How are you doing, Man, I'm good, brother, I'm good. So it's it's actually I'm excited to have you. We have guides of of of all different ilk and milieu. But you're a you're a warm water guy primarily write a lot of small mouth muskie. That's sort of what you do the most. Yeah, yeah, absolutely so and and

and you do it. You're a fly fisherman, your fly guide above all else. So, I mean, I feel like this side of fly fishing is growing so much lately, like so many more people year of a year get interested in the smallmouth game and the warm water game. Um that I'm pumped to to have a tip from a guy who like lives, eat, sleeps, and breathes those kind of fisheries. So what do you got, man? Make

us better at what we do? So this is this is kind of a simple one, and it's kind of a silly one, and sometimes sometimes they are so um, all of us being unfortunately in some cases online shoppers now and getting a lot of our things online. We get you know, whether it's a backpack or a fishing pack or a pair of boots whatever, And they come with the little silica packets in there. Save those suckers and throw them in your fly box. I eat them when they come in the beef Cherokee packs. I'm not

supposed to do that, Joe. I don't think that's gonna I'm gonna give you about four to six years, and you're gonna have some severe gastro intestinal distress. You're gonna have some build Yes, I think they grow to their like those animals that you throw in the water as

a kid, orbies those things. Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, but no, they work fantastic and like a lot of us, now myself included, are are going to you know, these these watertight, waterproof fly boxes um from a variety of manufacturers, because let's be honest, especially in the warm water thing like some of these muskie flies, some of these bass flies were running four or five bucks on the low end, you know, all the way up to twenty dollars on

the high end, and the last water with all that material, right, absolutely, yeah, yeah, And so you know, you know, my my first piece of advice that I always heed myself and and tell clients as well as you know, find a phone patch, find something. If nothing else, just let the suckers sit out, you know, on the side hatch, let them dry out good and throw them back in the box. But sometimes, hey, where fishermen should happens, you know, it gets wet, your

boxes are sitting in water or whatever. And and those things that there could be a real life saver because not all the hooks that we're using our stainless they're not all nickel plated whatever um, and those things in there actually do a shockingly good job of sucking up that little bit of moisture and saving you a hell of a lot of money. It's a great tip, dude, because they actually make things like try to sell you little things to put in your tackle boxes that do

this right. We spend a lot of money on these fly boxes that are supposed to let air in and out, so that doesn't happen. It's questionable whether they all work. Yet you're right, throughout a given year, we get so many of those little silica PACs for free and toss them. So that is a money saver in the long run, especially like I said, if you're tying, if you're tying or fishing with a twenty muskie fly, yeah, oh yeah, that thing out of there and it's like dry, rotten

and rusted. You just that that that'll make a guy want to throw up straight there, there you go, There you go, beef jerky fans, eat your jerky, save your muskie flies. Appreciated, brother, That was a great one. So that's it for this week. Rather than my my normal recap, I just want to thank everyone that guest co hosted with me over the last few weeks. Once again, it was very fun. But I want to reiterate that I couldnot be more pumped that Hayden is joining me full time.

Here's to all the fun that we're gonna have going forward. Man, it's gonna be a blast man. And uh, I just want to say, I know I laughed like George McFly. That's fine, man, laugh with me, laugh at me. All that matters to me is that you're laughing and having a good time while you are listening to the Bent podcast. Right on, man, right on. Remember keep those sale ban items, bar nominations, awkward photos, voice memos, and all that good stuff coming to Bent at the Meat Eater dot com.

Listen to the Bent Spotify playlist. Dead Fellow, that's Hayden's jam is on there now. And keep using those degenerate Angler and Bent podcast hashtags on Instagram. And one more thing to the guy who commented and said that I sound like a Turkey slate call when I laugh, I think you're calling turkeys a wrong