The buddy with the regulator, who obviously had more money than I did at that age, kid to pay for my chicken sandwich. At the end of the day. I get a phone call about ten o'clock that night. He said, you got Google Maps. He said, yeah, sure, and he says pull it up. He says, you see that line, and immediately my heart sell up. One day, some red actor a full K and a W D forty square temple. You know, I kind of feel bad for that kide. I sort of want to invest in Lizard Liquors. Good
mornings generate anglers. And welcome to Ben the Fishing podcast that would love to be your co angler but conveniently forgets its wallet when it's time to throw down half of the tournament entry fee. I'm Joe Surmelie, and I'm hating Sam Mack and Joe. I'll be your co angler anytime, But you already you already know that I basically have zero money to throw, but I'll split it six with
you if we win. Hey, there, you deal is a deal. Yeah, actually, you say, I already know that we the collective we listening already knows that we've been pretty vocal about your lack of funds uh lately. But here's the thing, right, people gonna think meat Eater isn't paying me, Well, that is not the case. Again, I just like to point out I'm very irresponsible with gear purchases. I wouldn't do that to you anyway. I would never ask a poor
person to throw in money for a fishing tournament. Reason being that there was a time when I was a very very poor person and I did that. I threw down and I regretted it deeply. Right because at six am, you're sure you're gonna walk away significantly richer, like you own that decision. You are fired up. But when the day is over and you just got your ass completely beat, you're dwelling on that money hard like you're upset. You know,
I'll tell you what I can relate it to. Man, I know for certain that the ride to Atlantic City is oftentimes significantly different than the ride back. Not to be morbid, but like we I was just in Niagara Falls and they got all those casinos on the Canadian side. Now, like, boy, that's a bad place to have a casino, like fifteen steps away from Niagara Falls. So you know, we both know, I don't tournament fish, But I haven't really heard you talk about it very much, do you. Yeah? No, no, no,
not really. In fact, just once in my life did I fish a tournament where there was money on the line. I fished a really fun bragging rights fly tournament years ago. That's a great time. That's just beers and bullshit. But I bought into an offshore at Turney one time, many years ago, and I was I don't know, twenty two or twenty three. So I threw in five hundred bucks, which at the time, like that was half my annual salary, you know what I'm saying, Um, But I didn't care,
like I felt like a badass. Like we went to the captain's meeting. We had a plan, we're breaking the inlet and my buddies regulator, but it was it was just miserable out there, like people, there were guys on the boat pukin. You know, one of those days you had hang on for dear life. And we never touched a fish, which meant the buddy with the regulator, who obviously had more money than I did at that age, like he had to pay for my chicken sandwich at the end of the day. I had to. I had
to basically beg for dinner and it wasn't fun. Anybody. Yeah, that's like some add some serious salt in the in the old wound there. I mean to be honest, dude, I've never this is just like personal hang up, but I've never really understood like the allure of like competitive fishing. Like you know, I've thought about it here and there. You know, I was supposed to ender a bass tournament one time with my dad, but you know, yeah, yeah,
it's it's not my thing either though. I mean, I understand it perfectly, right, It's just that it doesn't do anything for me. I fished to chill with friends, relax and and have a good time. Um, immediately, we only fish for food, man, yea, or or to supplement your the elk in your freezer whatever. Um like that day that I like that day that I fished that off shore attorney, Um, you know, had it been a fun run, right, we have never even opted to go out that day
in those conditions. You know, you're so like you're you're putting yourself out there. It's already miserable and now there's money on the line, and to be totally honest Um, just shooting fishing videos adds a similar element of stress, Like you're not entirely fishing just to catch fish anymore. You're there to make a video, and when it's not working out, it can be really stressful. Um, but I'm
getting paid for that no matter what. Right. So even charter captains, if you think about it, you can have ship days and and still get paid. But if you're a professional tournament angler, it's another level. And while I know I could never do it, while it's not my thing, I have the utmost respect for the guys that can do that. Oh yeah, man, you know, I I totally respect somebody who can like consistently go and do that.
Like I Yeah, I'm not sure if I could handle the pressure or not, But I think it's fair to say that, like fans of competitive fishing, like bass fishing in particular, don't fully grass what kind of pressure that is. I agree, Yeah, you tend to equate what you can do on like the weekend. Like even if you're like a pretty dialed hardcore angler who's like, you know, you got your home lake dialed in, you're catching five pounders, you're catching you know, the occasional six seven eight pounder
here and there. Uh, it's easy to equate that to what the pros do on some level, but it's really not like analogous. No, It's like, yeah, man, you might be like the best basketball player in your pickup league, but but like you get smoked in like a professional platform. You know, their pro athletes and I don't know, man, they just think differently. Yeah. No, And and now granted, right, a lot of the top level bass pros have other
sources of income. It's not like like the top tier guys need to win to survive, but the root of what they do is still competitive fishing. Everything else comes from their ability to fish competitively. Yeah, a couple of losses, man, and like you know, your sponsorships start to dry up. Sure, exactly something on the line exactly now, Whether you're a fan of pro bass fishing or not, Um, I think you're going to enjoy a very special smooth moves we've
cooked up um just for you. For the psychological aspect of it, it's kind of like like drawing the curtain back and exposing the less glamorous side of the sport. Yeah, man, um, I'm excited about this. Too, is like a means of
a little introductory uh, you know, preface. We recently got to talk to elite pros Brandon Paul Nick and Carl Jocobson and and they were recently in Montana to record the Mediator Podcast and we got to talk in a little bit afterwards, and they were gracious enough to like stick around to sit down with us for Smooth Moves double feature. Uh, and you guys really want to hear this one because it includes one of the most well
known smooth moves in all of fishing his street. Why all right, So we're here with bass Master, Elite anglers Brandon Politick and uh, Carl Jakobson and Joe. We're doing like a little bit of a deviation on smooth moves. Do you care to explain? Yeah? I will. At first, I gotta say I'm honored to have to have you guys here, and I think it's it's only fair to
the Bent listener to explain how you're here. You are in Bozeman for the big show, the Mediator Podcast, And we were like, hey, wait one second before you guys leave, just real quick, can we have you on Bent? So I know you've already. It was the reverse of that, you know. Yeah, but no, I am. I am super pumped that you guys are taking a little bit of extra time for us. UM and I have not met either of you guys personally though, Brandon I am, I'm I'm buddies with Oliver and I and we were just
fishing and talking about you. I I don't know if I should name it right, but at a very specific damn in Virginia? Does that does that ring about it? Yeah? You guys are discussing, you're discussing that event and that took place. And while we were discussing that, and I was catching very very small stripers, Um, Oliver pulled like a six and a half pounder right out from under me at that place. So yeah, because that was after the tournament, right, oh yeah, this was this was way
after the tournament. This was late September. But um, he was like, yeah, this is the spot where Brandon just destroyed right here. Um. And Carl, I mean, I think we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that you are the the first Australian to qualify for the Elite Series?
Is that right? Yep? That's it? Yep. And I'm pumped her here because and I can't fully explain this, but believe it or not, VENT has a lot of Australian listeners, which I don't fully get because I think the fishing down there is cooler than here, Like I want to, I'd rather be there catching a murray cod. But i'd bet a bunch when we're gonna tune in. So, as Hayden mentioned, smooth moves is normally where we have guides and captains come on and tell the story about something
ridiculous or funny that a client did. But seeing that you guys fish for living, your tournament anglers, you're on the road trailering boats all over, I figured we we gotta get a smooth move from each of you. So hey, and I don't think we care who goes first, right, it doesn't matter that gives That gives a disadvantage to somebody because it gives the other one more time to think. I mean, I can go because I'm in hands down. I have probably like for me, I have one very
significant bone head move. And I won't go into all the details because we're gonna trying to keep it shorter, right, but this is will data back two thousand thirteen. I am in a very tough position in my career where I've had a little bit of success, but still haven't really fully broke out onto the tournament scene. Right I've qualified for the Elite Series, I'm way down in the points, not going to make our championship. And at that time,
we had win in your end. So if you won a bass Master Lead Series event, you would qualify for the bass Master Classic, which is our championship. And I was way down the points, had to win an event. We have three events left. Come into one of the final events, I figure out a phenomenal smallmouth pattern on the Mississippi River. Mhm. The tricky part with the Mississippi River is it's winding, it's full of islands, and it's a bordering water between Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sure date back
even further. I don't know what the exact date was, but there was a law passed in Wisconsin that said you're not allowed to coal of fish. Once you put it in the live will, you're not allowed to release a fish. So when you put it in the live will, you're done. That's it. You catch your five for the tournament and you move on Minnesota, their state laws say it on bordering waters. They just accept the most restrictive law.
So they accepted Wisconsin's law of not coaling. But our tournament organization had a permit to be able to coal in Wisconsin waters, but because it wasn't a state law, Minnesota still said no coaling. So there's the ground rules for what is about to happen. This is if you're
in the bass circles. This is a pretty famous smooth move if you've if you have followed bass fishing, or maybe if you're just a Minnesota slash Wisconsin resident, then you might have heard this because some laws got changed. Uh So I'm, you know, way down the point. It's gotta win. Figure out this amazing pattern. I go out Day one, plan goes, you know, perfectly, flawlessly. I'm leading
the event. Day one, got a pretty sizeable lead and away eighteen a half pounds on the Mississippi River, which is a really big bag for there that time of year. And Day two comes along and I'm catching all my fish in the morning, we get a thunderstorm, we get a delay. I roll out there worried that the that bite window had passed, and I get out there, and because of the cloud cover, everything just continued to work out. It was like I was meant to win that event. Right.
So I'm I'm fishing this area in what I assume is Wisconsin, and I'm really have two main areas. There's the main river channel and I'm fishing the main river channel. Majority of the Mississippi River, the boundary between state lines or county lines is the main river channel, you know, the majority of that. That's how most rivers and lakes and stuff are in the country. Well, I assumed I was in Wisconsin. I moved in Minnesota to my other spot.
I catch five bass. Knowing that I cannot catch another one in coal, I decided to leave it. I'll come back to it on day three, Right, Like, why pressure that area if I can't coal? Like, don't burn those fish. So I moved back to the other side, the Wisconsin side of the main river channel. I catch one more bass. I let go my smallest one, and I cold. Because in Wisconsin we could call all is fine and dandy.
I go back. I weigh in. I have got an even bigger bag than I have the first day, and I've got a six pound lead going into day three. So everything is setting up for me to win this event, qualify for the Classic, and win a hundred thousand dollars. Great. Two days left a piece of cake, Like I got a six pound lead. I don't even have a Yeah, I don't have to catch him as good as I did the last two days. I can kind of just
slide by under the radar. And I get a phone call about ten o'clock that night from our tournament director from the organization, and he says, where are you fishing in this area? And I said yes. He goes, did you cool in this area? And I said yes, I called one time. Uh, when I came back from Minnesota. He said, you got Google Maps, you know, on hand. I said yeah, sure, and he says, pull it up. So I pulled up go to the area that we're talking about, and he says, you see that state that
you see that line? And immediately my heart sunk. He like, he like, really, they kind of walked you onto it, man. Yeah, well, I think just because he wanted to see, like because they I don't know exactly how it got reported, right, but from the way I understood it is that I believe another angler or someone saw me fishing in this area and said, hey, I believe he's fishing in Minnesota.
They didn't know whether I had cold in that area or not, right, So I think they were trying to understand and like what had happened so that they knew how to proceed with, like what laws were broken or whatever. Right, I mean, like technically I didn't break any I guess, but I did based on the tournament rules. And so, I mean, instantly right when he said that, I realized what that line was, and that line was the state line.
And for whatever reason, it comes out of the dam um from Pool seven, runs down into Pool eight for maybe a mile mile and a half and then decides to divert from the main river channel and goes across an island down into this back channel for about another mile and then back out to the main river channel. And that's and then the rest of the border is the main river channel for as long as I can,
you know, think of I'm sorry. So it goes into this like inlet and like cuts down into the inlet and then comes back out exactly so goes there's a back channel, and it comes straight out of the main river channel. Right. It runs through pool seven. I believe the entire main river channels. The border comes down, goes through the dam, runs another mile mile and a half and then makes a forty five degree angle across land to the back channel for another mile down the back channel,
and then back to the main river channel. And I was a hundred feet, you know, give or take just south of that place where it makes that forty five degree angle, and you know, terminent director like has to do what they have to do. They zero my weight for that day, and that cost me a hundred thousand dollars, cost me making the classic um you know, cost me
the hardware of the trophy. And that was a tough one, you know, and because when it all came down to it, it was my own mistake, right, Like I didn't do the homework to see where that state line was. I just assumed that the you know border that water or
that border line was the main river channel. Yeah. I mean obviously that could that cost you a lot, but I think it's also just a great example, and you see things like that happened all the time in hunting and fishing, where it's an honest mistake, like you weren't doing anything certainly devious. But I remember when this happened.
I was at fielding stream at the time, and while I'm sure privately you were fuming and like just losing it, you were so praised for publicly just accepting that like it happened and you owned it, and that That's what I remember the most is how people said you took that and sort of just said it happened and it is what it is. But I'm sure, like you know,
and residents like, yeah, it was really bad. It still was my bank account because I can still use that hundred thousand dollars, And but I mean a lot of good did come from it, and I mean I learned a valuable lesson of any time we're in that situation double triple checking. And then that law actually got rewritten so that that doesn't happen now, because even in Wisconsin, that law wasn't um specifically written for tournament anglers or
bass fishermen at all. It was written for salmon anglers from a long, long time ago, and it was just never revisited because that situation never occurred. And so now no, it's uh, they created an up waring change. Well you know what I mean, you could either have like you know, and it's very it's like super easy for me to say this, like having being totally removed from that experience.
But on one hand, like you could have some additional prize money attached to like a successful career, or you could have like a legacy of like honesty attached to your career, and you know, if it's more valuable. Yeah, you know, I also have to say, uh, that that is that is the most costly smooth move we've ever had on here. I've had a lot of things breaking stuff on guides, but I don't think any of it cost anybody a hundred grands. So, uh, Carl, I've been
watching you that whole time. Have you have you been thinking like you're like, I'm not watching you, Like have you lost my key? Story? Like that's a hard one to follow, man. Yeah, that's a tough one because that's about as rough as it gets as a as a pro angler. I've done, you know, a little similar things like just recently let a fish guy that should have
been it was a fifteen inch limit. It was a fourteen inch limit, and I was letting them go and it was actually legal fish and it cost me you know, three grand you know, in an open But story wise, I think just I was thinking about like when on that third day of Santi Cooper when I went through all like stuff and prop to get back and then oh my gosh, that was the biggest bonehead smooth move. Yeah it last year Brandon and I went back and forward at Santi Cooper and the bass Master Elites, and
like I was leading day one, he was second. Day two, he's leading on second and so like it was just awesome with like camp next to each other. We're both like fishing kind of similar areas. We're both just cracking them, and we'd figured out the pat and it was like one of the funnest tournaments ever. But we both knew like one of us is going to win this the way it was figuring out. So day three roles in, Brandon's back in the lead, and um, I go on
fish areas. I think I got one or two good ones, and I run way back up in this creek that's like super dangerous. There's just stumps everywhere. You can't um, you can't run it. You have two idle in the whole time you're idling, you're just running over logs, the boats just up and down. Santi is famous for that, isn't. Yeah, it's like one of the most like a prop killer. Yeah, it takes, it takes. It takes lower units off every day. It's bad. And so I go all the way back
into this area. Stuff's not working out. I catch like my third one, and the weather and whatever was lining up. It was tough fishing anyway, so I knew just like catching four or five, I think I caught my fourth and so I'm like, I need one more fish for my fifth, and like I'm going to still be in the hunt going into the final day to have a shot to the wind. So it's all coming down to the wire. I've had, Like didn't I have battery issues or something? Battery ram flat for a couple of hours,
like all of this stuff. It was like one after the other. After that, I was just like everything that could go wrong was going wrong. But I battled through. Now I got my fourth fish and I've had the timing down perfect to leave this creek. I knew what would take to get back. So I'm telling my cameraman e k who's sort of famous in bass Master. Everyone's had him fish with him. He's just well known and I've put him through hell and back in some boat rides,
like he's been with me at chess Peak Bay. He's had blood off, skin off all of his knuckles from hanging on. He's like he's got stories with me where he's like not not me again. And so like I'm trying to look after e K and I'm like, man, we're gonna leave, like with seconds to go, and he's like, oh, not again, this sort of thing. So I see this point of grass and I'm like, we've got to go.
I'm almost out of time. I could add five minutes to go, and I put my foot down to try and I was getting impatient trying to get to thing. So I'm starting to run and the engine bang just slams this log and I'm like, I'm not on pad. It just drops off and I just run to the front, put my trollermotor down and start fishing. And I don't even check the engine. I'm just like I don't even care, like I need my fifth to stay in it. And I flip into this mat again, don't I set the hook?
I boat flip it. It's like a three and a half pounder I throw it in. I'm like, yeah, your stuff, Ek, We've got to go, and like we're going to be late. So he's like getting his stuff and I start the engine and I put my foot down and the prop is fully bent so like it won't even get on pad. The whole engine da da just shakes, won't even get on pad. So ek like we're done. And I'm like we're in this like swamp so you can't get out
of the boat. And I'm like, hell nos. I jumped back, trim the engine up, I get the tools out, I take my spare prop off. I'm leaning over the back like k has got my feet and I'm like in the water and I'm like I'm just taking this prop off and like the split pin won't come out. I get it out. I get the thing off, the props jammed, I wedge it, the prop comes off. I put it back. I put the new prop on, like screw the nut down, and I had the other plate was underneath it so
the nut wouldn't go over the thread. So I've unthreaded at taking the prop off, got that little winch bit back and you know, times like ticking, like if every minute you're late is one pound, and then after fifteen minutes, you got your whole catch disqualified. So I'm like, I'm thinking I'm done. And so but I've got an idol out of this entire creek, and then through this stump field that's just like the most dangerous thing you'll ever go through, Like you no way you can run it.
And and I'd had one track that I idled it and I never hit anything, and so I was always taken that. But every now and again you would just hit something. And so I get the I get the prop off, I screw the nutdown, and like I'm trying to put the split pin in and the split pin won't go, and I just throw it in the boat and I'm just like we've got no time. I jumped down. I jump on pad and Ek looks at me, like are you going to ride on pad? And I'm like we've got to I'm like, well, I'm going to be late.
So I'm on pad. I'm like, hold on because we're gonna like slam a log. So I'm just one running on pad. And then we come through this stunt field where there's both gripped and it's just waiting on the whole lower unit to go, and I come out the other side, nothing going, and I go flat out, wom fine. I'm looking at the time. I'm like, I'm like looking at it and I'm trying to figure out the timing. And I come to the this bridge and we jump got off pad and we've got the main lake to go.
It's like a big main lake and it's probably how many miles from the bridge to close to and it's wide. It's just this big, open flat lake and it's known for getting super rough. So I drop off Pad and I'm going under the bridge and I look and I'm working it out, and I go, we're gonna make it in any case, Like yeah, We're like high five and fist bumping and we're like talking cloud nine and I coming under the bridge and the boat's going up and down and I like getting I'm like, oh man, it's
a bit rough. And I get the boat on pad and it's like the lake is the roughest that I've ever seen, like a lake in my life. Like Clark when Lett said that, and he's been fishing for thirty forty years, that it was the worst boat ride he's ever had in his life. And so I start running and like these are ginormous waves just coming down the lake, and they got worse and worse and worse, and I just kept my foot down. I was jumping too waves
at a time. It was I was spearing waves and it was blowing rods from underneath my rod strapped down into the console. There was just baits and lewis everywhere. It was like one of the worst probably fifteen. It was eighteen minutes I had to go. So it was the worst seventeen minutes seconds of my life because I came around the corner and e K told me I turned into um Lieutenant dan off Forest. Come, you know when he's on the front of waters. Come And he's like,
is that all you got? I came around the corner and I was just screaming. When we come around, I jumped off pad and I made it in with five seconds to go, and then piped rand and I was in first and he was in second going into the final day. But just that and like we landed and like I looked like I've seen a ghost. E K looked like he just never wanted to fish again. And I had rods everywhere. There was Lewis e k was stuck to the seat because Lewis were like in his
pants and in the seat. He couldn't stand up because Lewis had calmed down and his fate was stuck to the ground as he filmed with you again since he actually has but he's forgiven me. That was on Santee Kopa and then that's Brandon one and I come second. Right in the video show, he was gonna say, if
listeners are interested, h b MP fishing. Uh, you guys put together like kind of like a day in the life sort of doc about that tournament, right, Yeah, we I've filmed every Elite Series event for the last five years, so that event is one of them that is on there, and it's actually probably my favorite one just because of like all the off the water stuff, like that camaraderie, right of like the black rifle, coffee chuck. That's a whole another story of how amped up I was when
I got up there. But just the fact that like you're competing at the highest level with one of your best friends, you know, like you're competing against each other, but at the same time, like we're camped right next to each other eating dinner at night together like that. It made it just such a cool event. And that's one of my favorite videos, dude. I mean these these
were both legendary stories. I think the overriding message though, like, um, you know, there there's so many bass fishermen out there that want to do what you guys do. They idolize you, they think they can do that, they want to pursue that. But it's funny listening to these stories. It's like a miscalculation for the average guy might be a ticket maybe, you know, a banged up prop for the average guy
might just be a ruined ay. I feel like the things you're talking about here are the things that those guys might not consider. Where these these things that would not have that much significance to a guy who just enjoys bass fishing, like that can be the difference between
serious money for you guys. And I can't imagine what that pressure is like in those situations changing yeah yeah, yeah, but yet we still make smooth move and and thank you so much for for taking the time and coming on and uh, I think it's one of my favorite smooth moves ever. Joe, me too, Me too. I appreciate you guys taking the extra time. Man, we cannot thank Brandon and Carl enough for chatting with us. They are extremely cool dudes, and we're we're honored to have them. Um.
We hope you guys enjoyed that that little extended play there. Uh. And you know what us we're honored to have. Uh. Thirteen Fishing is our sponsor. Damn skippy, And I know it's cold season for a lot of you, but there is still time to ask Santa for an inception or inception sc bait caster from thirteen. I'm talking to you bass fans. What's the difference between those two? Uh? The s C is screaming shar Truss. The other is gray.
That's it. No, No, I'm kidding. The SC also has uh like juiced up spool bearings and what they call ocean armor to make it a bit more salt friendly. Um, the SC has a little more tech in it. But they are both badass reels. I have tortured my SC. Uh just just tortured the thing. Great real you know.
Speaking of torture, it is now time to torture our listeners with whatever shitty story Joe dug up for this week's edition of fish News, fish News that escalated quickly, so we were lucky enough to get a few high level pro anglers on the show today. Um, but I hope you guys aren't forgetting about another pro angler buddy of ours, Ja Siemens. And of course Jay isn't. He's not attorney pro, but he's a pro in my eyes.
And the third installment of his new series, The Canadian Angle drops today on Mediata's YouTube channel, and he's actually teaming up with may Amigo, Oliver and I and doing a little small jaw fishing. And I recommend that you watch that. Yeah, I love that dude, And uh, you know, while we're on it, if you missed last week's episode, go back to check that out. To be super good man, you and I have been talking about my dream trip would be like remote Wallye. There's not a ton of
pressure in a bunch of eater size fish. Well that's exactly what Jay goes out and does. He gets dropped off by a float plane on on like a remote shield lake and he camps out with like minimal gear and just like rails on Walleye from from like a doss boat. Like he even mentioned he's like This is like doss Boat Season two. At first he has to check to make sure it floats. But I know, I know that's kind of your dream. That's why I knew you would dig that. Um there were some big pike
in that lake too. It's all, it's all very cool stuff. And JA just has cool friends, right, Like I can't get most of my friends to invite me out offshore fishing for a day. And like he's got a pilot buddy with a float plane that will just drop him off in remote places. So like that's how you do it good. We can take my float plane out any time. Man. Uh, I'm joking, of course, but like I've wonder stop it, you just knock it off. Man. I do wonder though,
like what that dynamics? Like? Do you chip in in the same way that you might for boat gas, oh, for plaining fuel? You mean, I have no idea. I don't have friends that fly. I don't know. We should ask you how that works. Uh. Speaking of how things work, there is one thing I can summit succinctly for you, and that's how fish news works. You like that, do? Yeah? Um?
Now we had a special report last week, but now things are back to normal, Joe, and I do not know which news story the other guys bringing to the table, and at the end are smart and clever Audio engineer Phil will pass judgment and declare a winner your lead this week, man, Yeah it is you know me. I love fun, but I wouldn't really call this story I have here today fun. But it's an important story, perhaps one of the most important fish related stories happening in
the country. Um. And it's actually a follow up, right, so, way back in July, we covered the story when the Army Corps of Engineers released the draft proposal that would set the course of Florida's water management for the next ten years. Right, um. And and the news within that news was that the Army Corps, Yes, was that the Army Corps set up a direct email for the public to write in. And um. When we hit that on bent, we asked you guys to please do just that, right.
It was kind of like the general public's one chance to be heard with a direct line to the Army Corps regarding you know, years of water mismanagement. Now, we haven't the time to rehash every detail of what's been going on in Florida for well over a decade. But here's the quick gist, just to give it context. Right, I feel like we have to do this very quickly.
Lake Okachobee collects freshwater in the center of the state. Historically, before the meddling hand of man, that water flowed back out and drained to the south, right, and all that fresh water is what fed the Everglades, providing nutrients, necessary area for aquatic vegetation, growth, fish, crustaceans, you name it, right, it was. It was the main artery for the glades.
The majority of Lacos water has since been diverted to the east and west, predominantly to support agricultural interest, mainly sugar and the huge corporations that grow sugarcane in the region. What and everybody just refers to them as big sugar, right, that's the enemy. Um And of course they have deep pockets political ties, and they get their way. The byproduct of them getting their way is that the Everglades have
been starved. If you talk to anyone that that grew up fishing the Everglades, they'll tell you they are a shell of what they once were in terms of health and biodiversity. Meanwhile, uh, freshwater that's that's being polluted and influenced right by the agricultural industries. It's being pushed east and west instead of south, creating all sorts of salinity issues, toxic algae blooms, just to name a couple of the problems in the St. Lucy River and the Kloosa Hatchie River.
So basically, back in July, the Army war was kind of saying, Okay, we're ready to refigure this whole deal, and we want to hear from you, and whatever plan got put in place, it was pretty much what Florida would just have to live with for the next decade. So in mid November, the Army Corps finally announced their Optimized Lake Schedule Model run for the future Lake Oka Chobe System Operating Manual. They've shortened all that to l o SM and it's very confusing. The Army Corps is
not good at like truncated abbreviations. It's always like bt F y six eight one two nine at B anyway. I'm getting all this information, of course, from the website of Captains for Clean Water, who have been instrumental in this fight, right, huge incredible work they've done. So here's a quote from the piece regarding the new Optimized Lake Schedule Model run. It was a huge decision in the l o SM process because the selected model run will
serve as the framework for the final operational plan. By the line, it looks significantly better than the current operational plan, which has plagued our coastal estuaries with harmful discharges and starve the Everglades for the past dozen years, and that goes on. Technically, this still doesn't mark the end of the process. For the next year, the core will and this is a quote I guess from the Army Corps wrapped the words around the numbers, turning the scientific model
they've selected into a usable operations manual. However, with this selection, the course is mostly set for how the plan will be written and what it will mean for the distribution of water in South Florida. So Captains for Clean Water. To to break it down for us lay people, they sort of compare the whole thing to a goose being cooked in an oven. They say, quote The dish will continue to develop for some time, but all the ingredients
have already been selected and set in the oven. From now until the final operations manual is released, in late or early there is very little opportunity to be designed into the process that would result in significant changes to the way the final plan will distribute water. Right, So, I mean take that for what it's worth. Right, They can still mental and change and tweak, but the the root of the recipe is should not be changing. UM.
So definitely a scenario where this is not over. But this is by far the largest battle one in this war, and UM seems to point at least to an improved future for the Everglades. Now, the current operational plan right yeah, was devised in two thousand eight, and it it favored the interests of Big Sugar and UM, I mean captains were clean water, it says themselves like it was written at the time without enough widespread public involvement or concerns.
So now this time around, thanks in part maybe to some of you guys listening that wrote in UM, science and public concern are factored into the new plan. And there's here's another quote from the story. This selected model is predicted to significantly reduce harmful dish arches to both the east and west coast, as well as send over
three times more water south to the Everglades. Um. It will also considerably improve minimum beneficial flows to the Kloosa Hatchie River estuary during the dry season, which is important to maintaining salinity levels in the estuary. So oh yeah, it's all it's all good things, right. Um. The next steps in the process will essentially be as putting the meat on the bones is how the article puts it.
The core will now finalize the operational guidance that will accompany this selected model, and right the water control bland based on this model, creating a usable manual. So you know, to break it down, what's the bottom line here, right, so much damage has been done. Will the Everglades ever get the full flush of water back? No, Like it would be very unlikely because these agricultural industries are not
going away. But even three times what's running down there would be a huge wind compared to what's been going on. So um, I'm sure that the partying it captains for clean water was strong after this drop and that that's a that's a big congrats for everybody involved and those
guys in particular. So when it comes to the Everglades in particular, man, there is like I want to say, like very rarely good news, but a lot of the stuff to get excited about is like few and far, you know, it's not or it's confined to small places like well this this cool thing is still happening over here. We've still got a good thing going here. But if you if you, if you zoom out and look at it, um you and I will probably will will never experience
what the Everglades were in the seventies or eighty. You know, it's well, you know, I have hope for all sorts of solutions to a lot of our problems going forward. I think that the Internet's ability to like bring these issues the attention they deserve from the public is going to make a lot of conservate national change is more viable in like the coming years, and I think a lot of uh, I think a lot of the problems
are going to find themselves. You know, I believe in technology for a lot of this stuff, and I genuinely believe we're like there is a brighter future. So we just saw that last week with the special report on the Madison right. One of the one of the takeaways was like you can hate on on social media all you want. Look how quickly that got that many people
amassed to go down there and help. Um, you know, do we know for certain how much of that public input that was asked for moves a huge When we first reported this, it was a huge social media campaign that captains for clean whatever spearheading. They were like basically like, holy shit, here is a direct line that somebody at the Army Corps is supposed to be reading, like now this is your chance, Like this is your public meeting, Like do it now? And do we really know how
much that influence what's going on here right now? We don't. We don't have the numbers on that, but would like to think that that was a contributing factor to to revising all of this. You know, so, Um, I think you're right, it's an it's another win. This would have been much more difficult with out the technology making it easy for us to weigh in. Yeah. And I think that's how a lot of these problems were like kind
of born in the first place. Man. The bottom line is, if you care enough about something, have the belief that you can like affect change in you know, whatever way you're able to. Because I think we're getting to a point where like that is a reality. Yeah, And it's it's been affected here. We don't know what the ultimate effect looks like, but this is great news for Florida and a and a huge win. Let's see one point five. What's one point five times twenty three? One point five
times twenty three. I just wrote those two numbers down, as if I can do that fast enough. I don't know, dude, I don't do math. I think it's about what like thirty four thirty four and change to the power of eight. Let's talk because we both talked about how we suck at math. That's why we right, Let's talk about an approximately thirty four and a half inch win in the way of twenty three tiny little loach fish. I think ben listeners are gonna like this one. I'm happy to
report that recently scientists have found batman batman. Okay, so actually that's not entirely true. What they did find, however, be pretty cool though, was the What they did find was the batman river loach, a fish feared to be extinct until recently. Now, before we get started here, man, I'm sure that it's pronounced like botman or something, but because it's funnier, I'm going to keep rolling with bad man. What country is this in Turkey? Yes, I don't know
what a Turkish accent? Right, it's probably Bottman. Yeah, that's offensive. Anyhow, how about just Batman? Um? I don't have anything just that man, nothing residential. He lives in a layer. This rediscovery was part of an ongoing effort by the folks over at SHOAL. SHOAL is a conservation organization focused on the preservation of fresh water fishes. And it's something that really kind of desperately is like, it's something that's desperately needed.
Since nine there's been an eight percent decline in populations of monitor fresh water species, according tos made by the World Wildlife Fund for Nature Now, the Batman river loach is a fish that finds itself on Shoal's list of ten most Wanted fishes. Ten most wanted fishes. What's that? What? So? How's that list devised? So? The SHOAL organization has this program called the Search for the Lost Issues. I'm gonna
read you some ship from their website real quick. Um. The abstract is all around the world, freshwater fish face multiple stressors that have caused populations to plummet, and for all kinds of reasons once discovered species have fallen off our radar. These lost fishes are species that have gone unseen for years, even decades, and our feared to be possibly extinct. In order to save these species, we first need to find them. Um. So that's kind of the
that's kind of the juice. So I most wanted they mean like we want to find these the most, like we would love to see these again. Is that? What is that? What that means? I thought it meant like most coveted, like their most popular in pet stores or snaked snaked snaked it snaked. I can show you where they are they're not. Yeah, that's easy. I heard you could. So anyway that I'm just gonna run down because it's like kind of fun. Uh, the ten most wanted lost
species are. Yeah. What's interesting too is all these fish are pretty darn small. A lot of them were like like sickly size. But uh, the animite barb, the batman river loach, the duck build bunty bunt in bun bunting, the duck billed bunting, the spinach pipe fish, the Mesopotamian barble, the the sire dar. It's a shovel nose sturgeon, the titty coca r s ts, the hat of the k fish, the Tassi sicklid, and the fat catfish, which was the fat catfish. That's what it's called, just the fat catfish
or f u f f okay. Yeah. So anyway, that's their like list of ten fish. And you know, the idea has stated in their mission is that if they can find these fish, they can start to like understand the ecology of them and you know, hopefully make strides in the conservation of these species. So now back to the Batman river loach. The Batman River loach makes its home in tributaries of Turkeys, Batman and Ambar rivers. It's
a small fish, an ambar nice nice. It's a small fish growing to a maximum size around an inch and a half that has last been seen in four so it's been a little bit almost fifty years. That's a long time. Yeah. Based on an article by the Guardian, it appears that the find was made by doctors. I don't know why I do this to myself. Are you gonna, oh man, you're gonna do I do? I do? I detect a name reading a name listing? Coming up here, dude, this is a this is gonna be a name butchering man. Um.
I don't. I don't even think it's worth it other than the comedic value. But now you have to, so go right ahead. I would like to say that I deeply respect these people, and I value their fines, and I value their dedication to conservation, and I am truly, truly sorry. Um, this has not been a widely you know, I didn't hear this. I'm reading it. I know doctors count kun yet Kaya okay and moon ever oral Oral. It's Oral, moon Ever Oral okay, both professors at the
risk up taiep or Dogan University. Yeah, we'll just call that the uh you okay? Great? Get back to the loaches. So not only did these research find a batman river loach, they actually found twenty three of them, hence the math at the beginning this between the two tributaries, which is great news. Yeah. Um. That said, the conservation of this species is still in obvious peril. Um. The trouble with such a rare and threatened fish is that a lot
of their ecology remains unknown. Right, so it's harder to identify potential threats, which makes it harder to kind of perceive and proceed in their work. And that's the whole reason that you know they're going to such lengths to like identify these species they're strongholds and uh and potential threats because then they can identify, like how much of
a risk certain invasive species posed to their continuation. So to that end, in this case, researchers and conservationists are focusing on more obvious threats like pollution and dams and ships. So anyway, that's what's up with Batman. Batman? Yeah, Batman story. But Man, so I you know, I I had a loach. I had several loaches in my tanks growing up. Maybe it was the tiger loach or the clown loach or
something like that. Um, they're cool fish. But I also, I think we both understand that we're not really talking
about something people go out and target here. But we run these stories because even though the fishing question might not be something that we we chase as anglers, I don't know that there's always bigger implications to what you see here, right, Like a lot of these stories we used for fish News, it's less about like the thing itself and more about the story in a broader context in this case, that that would be the conservation of
freshwater species, regardless of the species. You know, a lot of folks don't get why we give about like twenty three inch and a half long fish in Turkey. It's because conservation is a slippery slope, and once we start defining like what animals are and are not worthy of saving su uh. You know, everybody has a different interpretation of that. There are plenty of people, plenty of folks who don't see the value in the thing, Like, uh, what was the deal with like Trump and the minnow
in in California? Do you remember this? I should know, but I don't remember anything about a California minnow. We've covered a lot of minnows and loaches and things on here, So maybe I think there was like some sort of minnow they like kind of got involved in like an economic project, and part of it couldn't We had one not too long ago that like because of some small species.
I forget if it was a gobi or like it ultimately ended up shutting down an entire reservoir, like they like they didn't damn a reservoir or something like that. But I think this might be that story that wasn't California, but maybe I don't know. Again, all the all the micro micro fisherman like, so anyway, so say you let that slide, well, eventually you're going to get to the point where, you know, people don't understand why why steel
head in the Pacific Northwest are worth saving. You know, obviously they're like quite a few steps between those two examples, but like, that's the way this works. Our buddy Clay Newcombe likes to talk about guarding the gate and reference to the idea that non science based bear hunting restrictions are the first step in anti hunters getting what they want.
This is kind of similar in the way that apathy and conservation of a certain species, uh, you know sort of so what species will catch up the species that are more universally cared about, So this is sort of the fresh water fish conservation guarding the gate. That's why I care about these kind of things, and that's why I think that other folks should care about them too.
Oh dude, I totally think these stories about these sort of oddball species are are always worth including here or at least time to time, because they do they do paint a bigger picture, um, and the connective tissue for
exactly what you're talking about, is there. So we'll move off of the tiny loach and I'll just say, since we we had Brandon and Carl on the show kind of doing the bass pro thing, um, I thought, you know, it's been a it's been a good long while since we checked in with our resident bass pro Rants Stimpkins. So we're gonna hear from Phil um see see what captured his heart, the the loach or the revitalization of
the entire Everglades. I don't know. I don't want to jump to conclusions on that, So we'll see who took the win this week and then find out how life's been going for young Rants. Sorry, Joe, the Wind's going to Hayden this week. I just found it so interesting that they found the Batman fish by taking its parents out and do an alley and murdering them. If they ever wanted to find the spider Man Fish, they could just take its uncle out into the street and murder
him and the iron Man Fish. Just make it a child star, give it a really bad stint on SNL, a bunch of cocaine, wait for its have to fall apart, and it will eventually come crawling back to become the highest paid fish in all of fish to Hollywood. Yeah, I'm getting inspired just thinking about it. Hey, y'all, professional bas angler Ranch Stimpkins here, calling in real quick, just to thank everybody for the love and support they showed
me this tournament season. I can't talk too long because my break here at the Mattress Firm is only twenty minutes and I'm the only fellow that got work in the loading dock. That's all right, I figured by next season, the other body strength I'm gaining will help me add at least a thousand more casts a day. They'll be calling me the Tungsten Terminator next season, you'll see. Anyway, I've had a few low loads this year, no doubt.
I mean, losing my lower unit right out of the gate on Grand Lake during that little shotgun start incident didn't help nothing. So since I was limited to my trusty Seers Trolo motor for the rest of the season, I'm pretty proud of myself. I mean, I didn't finish in the money one time, but what I learned about fishing close to the ramp was invaluable. From my long game. Mostly I learned to be patient and just wait for the shore fishermen to clear out before I snuck in
there to back clean up. It was trying at times. Ship One day, some bread deck through a full can of w D forty and caught me square in the temple. I blacked out for a little while and ended up drifting all the way across the lake. But everything happens for a reason, my friend, and turns out that stump field I got hung up on was loaded with one pounders. Anyhow, I was also calling because I heard y'all had that
Brandon paling It guy on the show. I ain't certain if his Instagram account is down or what, but I've been tweeting at him for six months now with no reply. Hey Brandon, if you're listening, remember when we bumped into each other at that rest stop in Texas. He was running in to grab a mineral water or something, and I just happened to be in the middle of pumping chili onto my hot dog. I said hey, and I think he said hey back, but maybe that's just how
I'm remembering it. Anyway, I'd love to talk with you about some baits have been developing with my friend Kenny and his uncle Wes. We're calling them Wizard Liquors and they're gonna blow your mind. So please hit me up. You know, I kind of feel bad for that kid, like I sort of want to invest in Lizard Liquors, just like just to help him out. That's the fun is that you can't help but feel bad for him. But how are you gonna do that? You don't have
any money. It would be a modest investment if you if you really want to help rants, find him a job somewhere other than the Mattress firm. Are you Are you familiar with the mattress Firm conspiracy? I don't know what you're talking about. Okay. We're not going to dive into it in full here because it'll just eat up too much time, and I also don't want to get sued for defamation. But if you're just like killing time with work, right, look up Mattress Firm on whatever map
you use on your phone. Look it up. Joe told me to kill some time. Look it up and then note the number of them in your area, Okay, and then do some internet digging on the Mattress Firm conspiracy I'm genuinely excited to look this up later off the clock. You should be. It's fascinating and smart, and so is
the tackle hack we're gonna close with this week. Week we started out talking about high pressure tournament fishing, and if that's your jam, right, it's critical that every piece of tackle from the biggest of the tiniest harmonizes to make sure you capitalize when it counts. Now, maybe you're not attorney guy, but my good buddy and frequent guests, Conway Bowman, has a little hack that will help you be a little more efficient with high value toothy critters
on the line muskies as an example. I'm getting hacks coming from inside the city. Hike up flood with me today for tackle hacks, my buddy Conway Bowman from Southern California, Mako Shark Pioneer, among many other things. What's going on, brother, Good to see you again. Not much man, I'm excited to get a tackle hack from you because you do some you do some different stuff. I mean, you do you chase fish that not that many people chase um and you've done you fish for so many different things
like this. This tip could I don't really know where we're going here, So surprise me. What do you got for something big gamey? Perhaps, yeah, it's big gaming, but it's it can be applied to any sort of kind of toothy creator. So it's perfect when you use it a steel leader. And this is for a single strand stainless steel wire, not multiple strand. Okay, So with single strand stainless stel you have to make do a hay wire twist, which takes practice. And took that intuitive. It
took me a long time. So once you master the hay wire twist, okay, the the end that goes to your tip. It A lot of a lot of anglers will do an al Bright special to make that connection. And I did that for many, many years. But it's time consuming. You know, it takes a long time to do that. So what I do now is I use a light welded ring, so it's like a light welded tuna ring, not a split ring, right, a solid ring. Right.
So I'll put that on the end of that that haywire twist loop for quick connections, and it works great and it's been for me. It's better than a swivel because it's not his bulk. So you know, it's a little more streamlined. So the smallest welded ring you can get, so whether it's a twenty pound, thirty, forty whatever, and you would size that up to whatever you're targeting. So if you're doing muskie, if you're doing barracuda, or if you're doing makoes, like I'll use a forty pound welder ring.
But a forty pound welder ring is very small, and so you can make a very quick connection with whatever or not you use. So whether it's you know, like I use a San Diego jam not, or you can use I mean you can use that just you know, an improved clinch. So when you're using the wire, that's the tip I would advise people to do. Dude, that's a terrific tip, man. And it's funny because I never
thought about that. I know those loops exist. I don't have a ton of use for them except for like sometimes changing out like butterfly jigs and things like that. But you're right, they're super small, but they're super super strong. And if you do the all bright k not things, single strand tends to get kinked up after a while. Anyway, you end up just changing your leader because it gets kinked up from just fly fishing and casting and pulling
stuff over weeds. So that is a terrific tip, man, um leave it to the shark guy to come up with. There you go, man, appreciate it, dude. That's a great one. So that's all we got for you this week. If you're building a strategy for the next club, tourn him into the County Park pond. Remember the glory may not be fully captured if you've scared the ship out of
your onboard photographer. Nothing says you're a fan of a particular pro angler like chucking a can of w D forty at his head and even your most stinging fish loss likely did it cost you a Yeah, whatever your losses, you got over it a lot faster than Brandon Polinic anyway. Thanks again to him and Carl Jakobson for joining us this week, and thanks again to you for keeping those bar nominations. Seven items, awkward photos and your questions for our upcoming new Q and a segment coming to Bent
at the meat Eator dot com. And uh, finally, if you're aspiring Torny pro looking for sponsorship, what license the Bend logo for fourteen dollars and get you a smoking deal on a serious rolling mode